Chapter 42

I locked eyes with the white suited man in front of me. Despite the situation, my first instinct was not to take out my blade, instead my eyes stayed focused on the god.

"Perseus Jackson. A pleasure to finally meet you" he had said. I didn't like his tone.

"Please, have a seat." The god waved at one of the chairs to his right.

I scowled.

"Pseudea." I finally said with a snarl. "Don't use that tone with me."

The god shook his head. "Please, I prefer the name Noir. My patrons believe it to be a more suitable name."

I raised a brow. "Your patrons. I'm guessing that they're the same ones behind this "plan" I've been hearing about?"

The god nodded.

"I'd be willing to explain to you, demigod, if you were to sit down."

I had to stop myself from spitting at the god. I whipped out my blade and pointed it at the being. "I'm not here to talk to you bastard!"

I ran forward with my sword branded out in front of me.

"Hmm?" Said the god unbothered.

I didn't respond as I lunged forward and swiped my sword, the broken blade going directly for the gods chest.

Without much effort, the god took out his blade and stopped my attack.

"Percy..." the god extended his arm and launched me backwards towards the middle of the balcony.

"All of this is not needed. Listen to my words, and then we can fight." He said calmly.

I gave the god my best glare. "What is it, 'Noire', what do you want."

The god nodded. "I appreciate that." He said. "Please, sit down."

I stared at him for a second, wondering if he was stupid. Did he really expect me to simply let my guard down in his presence. I almost missed Phonoi, as at least he actually wanted to fight.

After the god said nothing for almost a minute, I finally relented. I sat down on the longest couch with my sword laid across my lap.

Noir seemed to like it as he too sat down, across from me with his sword put away.

"First, I must say. Letting you live, recruiting you, it was not my idea. If I was to have my way, you'd be dead right now, but that is not my decision to make." He said calmly.

"Hmph. After what I've gone through, that's hard to believe. You and your siblings have almost killed me countless times."

The god shook his head. "The actions of my brethren were not all under my orders. As you may know, the Androktasiai are not exactly always a unified force." He said.

"After I received the order to capture you alive, I requested them all to fall back so we could make further plans. This did not work as Riyu, Limos, Lethe, Ponos, Neikea, and Ate at the time disobeyed me, and pursued you separately.

If they were to listen, a lot of blood could've been spared, but yet, here we are."

I shifted a bit uncomfortably in my seat, but I didn't want the god to notice. The fact that Pseudea had gone out of his way to bring me here alive meant that what he had planned for me was probably worse then death.

"You keep talking about things like plans and orders, yet you haven't explained who exactly you work for. I though the Androktasiai were after me for revenge?"

"That may have been the case at first, but the people I work with had something else in mind. As for who they are, it would be foolish to tell you right now.

All I can say is that an ancient force is at work, one that will soon take over. The same force that nearly revived my brother Orcus, a year ago." He said. I immediately got chills, for some reason.

"And this force wants me for what reason?" I asked.

"Isn't it obvious? You have the stone of souls, a weapon stronger then even Zeus's lightning bolt, if used correctly. At first, the higher ups wanted to revive Orcus and have him wield the weapon, but after your display of power, they believe that you would be a better vessel."

I thought for a moment, and wondered what Pseudea would say if he knew I didn't technically have the stone right now. He'd probably kill me.

"So you expect me to join you?" I asked with disgust.

The god shrugged.

"I don't expect you to be on board as of right now at least, but I'm sure you'll find the idea to be more favorable then you may think. It's not my job to try and convince you though, only to bring you back." He said.

"My mutual, he's currently operating somewhere near Florida. We share equal authority, but he's quite liked in the eyes of our boss.

He will be the one to have a full talk with you. He's a very interesting man, I must say. You and him are quite similar, I have no doubt that once you talk with him, you'll be wanting to join us in no time."

I leaned back in my seat.

"You still don't want to tell me about this boss of yours, I see, but at least tell me more of this 'mutual'." I said.

The god smirked slightly. "Already hooked. No surprise as he is a demigod just like yourself."

I was honestly surprised. Whatever Noir was talking about, it was definitely more then merely "The Androktasiai". I didn't know what I was getting myself into, but I didn't focus too much on it.

"And you think talking to him will convince me to join you in whatever your planning? Even though I don't even know what exactly your goal is?"

"Our goal? It's simple really, to revive our master. Once that happens, everything else is trivial." He said mysteriously.

I was quiet for a moment. As soon as the god mentioned his master, the room grew chilly. Something was at play, something I didn't quite like. It took me a minute to reply.

"It seems like you've got me misunderstood. No matter what you offer, I'll never join someone like you." I spat out.

The god only sighed. He got up from his seat, and I immediately tensed up. However, instead of turning on me, the god walked off towards the bar area.

He stepped behind the counter, and put his hand on the wall behind him.

After a moment of silence, it started to shimmer, revealing something truly surprising.

Slightly behind the wall was a small room with steal sides. I mentally flinched when I saw what was attached to the wall.

Hanging from the steel by his hands that were chained to the wall was none other then Orcus, in his biggest form, limply swinging back and forth in his constraints.

My eyes went wide.

"As you can see, Perseus, my master is capable of great things. Even now, he is capable of reviving Orcus from nothing."

The god snapped his fingers, and immediately Orcus's eyes snapped to life. With another snap, the chains holding him down disappeared, and the god dropped to the floor with a loud thud.

I immediately got up and raised my sword. I didn't know how I planned on fighting both of these gods at once, but I didn't have much time to think about it,

Noir shook his head, and snapped his fingers for the third time. "You misunderstand me demigod."

I watched in awe as Orcus to his side started to shrivel away, turning into nothing more then a small green ball of energy. After a second, the energy took the form of a ring equal in size.

"I told you before, I'm not here to kill you.

I, Noir, servant of Kronos, offer you this, Perseus Jackson, son of Thanatos."

I stared at the man with complete confusion, stuck in place. The shock of seeing Orcus revived was enough to put me out, but now that he was gone made everything even more confusing.

"What?"

The god seemed to notice my confusion after a moment of silence.

"This ring, Perseus, it will make you a god." He said, catching me off guard. "Well, it will give you the power of one, at least.

You see, instead of reviving Orcus to wield the stone, my master decided that you would be a better vessel. To show his sincerity, he went to the lengths of reviving Orcus, not as a vessel, but to give you even more power.

Take it as a welcoming gift. Accept, and you gain immortality and god like power, as well as unstoppable allies. The choice is clear, Perseus."

I didn't say anything for minutes as I thought.

Orcus, a god who had literally taken everything I had to defeat, was now brought back to life only a year after his "death". It should've taken decades for that to happen, yet Noir's boss had somehow changed that fact.

And now, that same boss was offering me the power of said god, something that would undoubtedly make me unstoppable. With that, I wouldn't even need the stone of souls.

To be honest, I contemplated the gods offer. It may have seemed messed up, but I didn't much care. After all, I wasn't supposed to be some hero. I was just me.

If I was to take the deal, I would no doubt be betraying Eris and Deimos, as well as Remleon and Zoe. A couple of weeks ago, I wouldn't much care for the ladder two, but now...

I had to admit, power was something I craved, and this was the ultimate chance to gain just that.

But, something in me snapped and I realized that there was no chance in hell that I could accept.

If I was to join Noir, I'd be joining the same people who killed my mother.

My eyes glazed over as I took in a deep breath.

"Have you come to a decision?" Asked the god eventually.

I didn't need to think before replying. "Go to hell."

...

Noir blinked a couple of times before nodding. I don't know what it was, but in that moment, something changed about him.

"You do realize, Percy, that I have essentially killed my own brother in order to persuade you?" He asked calmly.

I said nothing.

Noir nodded once more before sighing. "Under the high chance that you declined my offer, I was ordered to incapacitate you and bring you to my mutual." The god changed his stance.

"However, I can not do that due to one crucial factor.

My absolute hatred for you."

I said nothing, only gripping down hard on my blades handle, making my fingers go pale.

"I shall kill you here, and then claim you fought me to the death. I shall be punished, no doubt, but that is a small price to pay for my revenge."

I shifted my feet and raised my blade.

"It's time for you to finally die, demigod."

I had been told that many times throughout my life, even more so this past week, however, this time, I believed it more then ever.

Well, we're nearing the end of this story, and I don't really know how to feel about it. I'll give my thoughts on that later though.

And I say nearing the end, but really there are still like 3 more major things that are gonna happem before the end, so we still got some time.

But I wanna introduce something this chapter that I'll try to be consistent with.

And that thing is a fun fact that I'll try my best to add at the end of every chapter. I'll do my best to make them correlate with the chapter, but no promises. But let's start off with today's fun fact :)

Fun fact: Percy was left handed, but after losing his arm, he became ambidextrous:)

(Also, I'm posting some chapters on my other story, "The Betrayed", so go check that out. Even though it's a side project, by the end of both series, it will probably be "better" then Son of Thanatos. So yeah, go read that.)