Prologue

"Hime," a heartbreaking whisper cut through the cacophony of noise from the tiresome battle. A battle that littered the field in nigh endless monster dust, blood, and corpses.

"I'm sorry, my love," came the choked response; just as quiet, yet heard by all.

The young man, of raven black hair tied haphazardly into a low ponytail, complete with a streak of silver on the left side and three bells braided into it; two in the bangs framing his chiseled face and the final where his hair was tied back. His eyes were sea green that reflected the seas themselves. The seas from which he was born.

But they had never looked so lost.

The young woman he stared down at and cradled as if she was made of glass was equally attractive with golden blonde hair and eyes of storm clouds. Had it not been for the blood, dirt, and sweat staining both of their faces and the carnage of warfare occurring around them, one would have thought it was a tender moment between lovers.

But the Fates were cruel mistresses. Thrice so in regards to the young man.

"It'll be alright, hime. I-I can-," the young man started to talk and moved to draw on the water to heal her, even if he knew it wasn't to be. She knew as well.

"It's alright, Seaweed Brain. My love, it's my time," she said, but stopped to hack up blood. The earthen spike she couldn't block or dodge had pierced straight through her rib cage and lung.

"I love you. Live on for me, Percy," she said and pulled him in for one last tender kiss all while tears were carving through the grime on their cheeks.

"I love you, Annabeth," Percy said as he felt the life leave her and with his forehead resting against hers, laid her gently on the ground before turning to the one who took her from him.

"Poor hero," cooed the manifestation of the Earth herself. "Not strong enough to save your beloved from me. Not strong enough to save Olympus. Not strong enough to-," she continued taunting.

Each word served to raise Percy's wrath further and further to new heights before he pictured his hime's face once more.

"Shut up," he stated coldly, interrupting the rant.

The Primordial Earth Mother stopped in her goading, but only for a moment before she cackled.

"Oh~. Is the little hero-," she began anew but was interrupted once more. This time not by words.

CRACK

Percy had disappeared from his spot next to his late lover and reappeared in the Primordial's face. His fist was encased in a clear white bubble that flew forward in a mere blink and impacted the immortal. Cracks began to form in the very air, warping the Earth Mother's face around his fist before she was rocketed away like a bullet back into her forces.

He had just hit her with the power of a magnitude 10 earthquake.

As expected, the immortal didn't stay down long, but when she stood once more, there was a trail of platinum ichor coming from her earthen nose before it healed. She began cackling once more.

"Foolish boy! I am Gaea! The very earth you walk on now! I cannot be beaten within my own domain!" She yelled and cackled some more, but was interrupted by a crushing amount of force emanating from the demigod. His skin adopted a dull bronze glow with a minute amount of steam curling off of his form.

But he wasn't done.

Water began to flow toward him, wrapping around and clinging his form like a second skin. Wind followed shortly after spinning rapidly around the water pushing the arrows from those foolish enough to fire them at him away without a thought. And finally, a lightning bolt struck down from the rapidly clouding skies and shrouded his form in the crackling energy. So potent was it that it made his hair spike up.

"I know," was all Percy said before he seemed to disappear and materialize in the immortal's face once more. His right foot became surrounded in a translucent sphere again as he kicked her viciously across the temple, staggering her. She seemingly had prepared for another attack, but a moment was all he needed.

He disappeared and reappeared once more, only at her feet and delivered numerous swift cuts to her legs, causing them to buckle and she began to fall. The Primordial was surprised, but not worried for as long as she remained in contact with the ground, she could not be beaten.

Unfortunately for her, Percy knew that as well.

While nary a blink of reprieve, Percy channeled the seismic energy of an earthquake once more; one that exceeded the magnitude of the Richter Scale, and launched a devastating rising kick to the immortal's body that served to both damage her internal organs, and launch her from the ground.

Gaea's eyes widened from the impact, but also because she was no longer touching her domain. It was then that she noticed the storm that had been laying in wait for that moment. A hurricane the likes of which the world, mortal and divine alike, had never seen spun into existence in the blink of an eye, rising further and further from the earth and in the eye of it, a Primordial and a demigod.

Before Gaea could even gather her bearings, she was assaulted on all sides by cutting winds, eroding water, sizzling lightning, and merciless blade slashes. Never in her entire immortal life had she been so overwhelmed and in so much pain.

Never in her immortal life had she felt so much fear.

She screamed at the relentless massacre that the demigod - a mere boy - was subjecting her to.

And a massacre it was. Pieces of the Earth Mother's body began to fall back to her domain, but they all dissolved into platinum dust before they ever reached the ground. She was going to die. She was going to fade.

The attacks relented briefly and the demigod appeared hovering in front of her, looking down on her as if she was an insect. When she looked into his glowing sea green eyes with no pupil or even sclera visible, she knew her fear was justified.

"Gaea. You have threatened not just Olympus, but the mortal's existence. You have killed too many of my friends; of my family. You have taken my hime. I sentence you to death," Percy intoned, but his voice was different. It echoed across the sky with power that no mortal should possess.

"W-Who are you?" Gaea questioned and it was like everything clicked into place for Percy.

"I am Perseus Apollyon, the Destroyer of Destroyers," he bellowed and the world seemed to shake in acknowledgement of him.

"Begone," Percy intoned and launched a massive two-handed downward slash at the Primordial followed immediately by an upward one. The hurricane surrounding them responded to his will hungrily and surged forward.

"Destroyer Secret Technique: World Splitter!"

The Earth Mother and everything behind her for over a mile had been split.

As Perseus Apollyon and the two halves of Gaea were falling back to the earth, one with the glow of his eyes receding, and the other slowly crumbling to dust of platinum, the Primordial used the remainder of her power.

"Curse you Perseus Apollyon! I curse you to forever walk the earth! Forever unchanging for as long as the earth remains!" she screamed as they fell, but the incoherent cries got quieter and quieter until she crumbled away completely and Perseus landed on the ground once more.

He did and said nothing for a moment, but Gaea's forces already began fleeing for their lives, terrified of the one who slew a Primordial.

Instead he walked silently with his eyes shadowed by his hair back to his hime. Again, as if she was made of glass, he cradled her body in his arms and stood once more, but made no effort to move.

Thalia, the Lieutenant of the Hunters of Artemis and his cousin, a young woman with the appearance of a punk teenager cautiously approached him and laid a careful hand on his shoulder.

"Percy?" she questioned quietly and turned him around gently and silently gasped at what she saw before schooling her features once more. It slowly started to drizzle, light but constant and radiated pure heartbreak.

It was perfectly in tune with her cousin.

For trailing silently down her cousin's face were steady tears.

"We need a shroud. For the daughter of Athena."

Prologue End