Disclaimer – I don't own PJO or Claymore… I'm just a fan.

Peace, above all others, is to be desired, but blood must sometimes be spilled to obtain it on equable and lasting term. ~ Andrew Jackson.

Percy POV:

I was in love with what I was seeing.

Just about a day ago, I had finally arrived at Doga, and the first thing I had done upon arriving was book a room in the local inn. Unlike the reception we had received in Strah, nobody had really even cared that there was a newcomer in town. Beyond the rocky mountain ranges, trade and travel between villages was common, and so, the villagers would have assumed that I was coming from Strah or even Mount Shire. Which wasn't an unusual event.

Anyway, I had slept straight for 20 hours after I had arrived in my room. What! I was powerful, not immortal! I still needed some rest! And I'd already gone 5 days without it before reaching Doga. Well, that's what the calendar said… I hadn't really counted the number of times the sun had risen and set as I was walking between the cities.

Strah had been a very small town, and it hadn't had a real inn – at least not one with respectable quality. The place there was run-down and broken from disuse. Nobody ever travelled TO Strah. Any person coming to the place was usually a merchant returning from the East, after having finished his trade deals in Doga. Even the people from the coastal towns who used the Mount Shire route were more likely to go on to the North-Western cities or come straight to Doga. Strah was located horribly out of the way, and as a result, it had almost no infrastructure to support tourism.

That, along with the fact that I needed to get away from the kid as fast as possible, had convinced me to continue moving instead of staying the night in Strah. So, I had been forced to travel for 2 whole days from there through plains and marshes, without any real rest. That completely justified why I needed 20 hours to sleep… any normal person would probably have died from strain if they had been subjected to five days of tireless walking without sleep. And that was without mentioning the bandit raids every 10 hours.

Ideally, travelling between the two towns should've taken ten days, but the endless supply of blood in my veins pushed me real hard. So, instead of sleeping in the nights, I had travelled on. Since I didn't have any luggage on me except my newly purchased clothes and cloak, and my spear, my travels were expedited once again. The only reasons behind me being unable to finish the journey in 24 hours, were that the terrain was marshy, and my boots kept getting stuck in the soft soil, and that bandits frequently attacked me, slowing me down in my tracks.

And, with my lack of experience with a spear, and my tendency to swing it like a sword, I would often find myself heavily delayed by these raids. Then, I would find myself staring at a huge pile of mutilated bandit corpses. And surprise, surprise… all of their weapons were broken before I could use them, or after I was done using them. Probably a result of my excessive brutality and strength.

But that was the main reason I was here, now. Like everything else in the city, the armory and weapon stores in Strah had been useless. The weapons were extremely standard, and while the blacksmiths took custom orders, they would deliver it in a time period of 10 to 20 days. And I didn't have that kind of time.

I needed a weapon that I could just pick up and use. I neither wanted nor needed to waste time on a custom-made weapon. As long as the weapon was practical, and useful, I would use it till it broke. Although, being beautiful was not a problem. If the weapon was good-looking, atop the previous points, then that was just a bonus. Brownie points for that… but I wasn't going to give up a useful weapon to get a good-looking one.

But there were some weapons that had both: sleek looks and practical uses. For example, there was this black triple dagger that I was currently holding. It was basically a normal dagger, except that it had three sword-like, dual-edged prongs instead of one. And they were arranged to form an equilateral triangle, atop a circular base (what would have been a quillion on a normal dagger), beyond which the handle lay. Due to the dagger's unnatural nature, the quillion (like a cross-guard; found between the prongs and the handle) was quite small, and it jutted out in a circular pattern by just a few millimeters.

The prongs themselves were shaped like very thin, and very needle-like swords, which had edges on both sides. They were made to look like identical swords down to the last extent… except for the fact that the third prong, which formed the uppermost tip of the equilateral triangle, was slightly longer than the other two, by approximately an inch. Apart from that, they all had the same looks. They were all shaped like parallel swords and were detailed down to the last millimeter. They even had miniature ricassos, fullers and ridges, which would greatly increase their durability and efficiency in combat.*

They had a greyish metallic luster to them, with gold and black lines running down the spines of the blades. For the two prongs that emerged from the bottom of the imaginary equilateral triangle, these stripes were made to oppose each other. On the flat sides of the blades that faced each other, a golden line ran along the spine, and a black line ran down the spine on the outside. However, the third prong that emerged from the circular base did not have a partner. Thus, it had both – the black and golden lines, running around it in patterns.

Overall, the weapon was a thing of beauty. And considering its shape and structure, it was meant to be a front-line weapon. If I could just reinforce the whole structure with the same metal that my spear was made of, then the dagger could become the ideal weapon against a sword-fighter… and while I didn't know much about my opponent, I knew that he was a swordsman to at least some extent. His first choice when faced with combat had been a sword. That, along with the fact that almost ALL bandits on this blasted continent used swords, convinced me that I needed the artifact of beauty.

Passing the multiple racks and shelves that were stacked with various kinds of weapons, I walked up to the man that sat behind the main counter at the end of the room. Carrying the knife by its black and gold leather grip, I placed it on the wooden surface of the full-length counter.

Before I could even open my mouth to ask about the dagger, the man spoke up, "That is one peculiar choice of weapon." I knew the question was designed to throw me in a loop, and even though I was a bit surprised by it, I had a response prepared, "Why so? It's a beautiful dagger, and practical for combat as well… who WOULDN'T want it?"

The ironsmith just raised an eyebrow and shook his head while saying, "You have quite keen eyes if you saw that dagger, and you must be really experienced in fighting if you understood its value…" I chuckled at his reply, before lying straight through my teeth, "I assure you, I'm just your ordinary warrior… I used to be a village guard for quite a few years in a region infested with bandits… that's how I learnt my way around weaponry… and this looks like the ideal weapon to use against those pesky sword-using bandits."

The man accepted the explanation, believing it to be true, which, in turn, caused my lips to twitch upwards. Lying was a skill that I had picked up passively while living around merchants and villagers who I really did not like. Most of those villagers were so fake… they would pretend to be something they weren't, and as soon as your back was turned, they would slip out the knives and get read to stab you in your back. Of course, there had been a few exceptions, but they were rare. All things considered, around 90% of the people on this planet were like that. And so, living around them had made me pick up some extra skills.

Of course, that was only considering my experience with the people I had met so far. And they had all been weak, in general. Instead of standing up themselves and fighting for their own problems, these village people had instead appointed others as their guards and forced them to protect the village. In a real bandit raid, none of those worthless villagers EVER stood up and fought for themselves, or for anyone or anything else.

No, it was always 'my life first.' As soon as the people saw bandits, they would grab their valuables instead of their swords. Then, they would all start running away from the danger instead of standing up and facing it. Everyone in the villages had been trained in combat, but it was almost always useless. I knew that from experience. A very terrible experience, to be exact.

Thinking of that made my smile turn down once more, and I forced himself back to the present. Now was not the time to dwell in the past. Right now, I had concerns to deal with, in the present itself. Then, there was also the problem about the future. But that would come later. Worrying about those two men: Dae and Rimuto, was not important, or profitable, right now. To meet them, I would have to go to them. Then, I would need to fight whatever they could throw at him. Then, and only then, would I be able to get whatever source of power they had.

But to do that, I would need to get there first. And I would also need to fight the opposition. To do that, I needed weapons. And to get those, I still had to engage the ironsmith in some small talk, while pretending like I care. And while I was doing that, I could also get some information about the weapons out of him. And it would be an ideal situation if he knew what metal my spear was made of… because, if he did, then I would be just one step away from getting that metal… which was just one step away from making indestructible weapons.

Also, if the man knew about the weapons, then he would also know who could use them to craft better weapons. Then, I could go to that person and get my spear, and whatever else I was going to buy now, upgraded. And upgrades meant opportunities. I could get that person to convert my weapons into one of those multi-function weapons that I had read about in mangas in my previous life.

Something like Kronos' scythe would be nice… a sword that changes into a scythe… that would allow me to accommodate two completely different fighting styles into one. And, if I could make up some good blueprints for the weapons, I could even make gun-weapon combinations, allowing for both: long and melee ranged combat.' I thought to myself, getting lost in the billions of ideas that popped up in my Athena-enhanced mind.

And, in my distracted state, I completely missed the blacksmith's next statement. Having heard something, I turned to him once again, and asked him to repeat himself, after apologizing for getting distracted and giving him a sheepish look. "Hehe… sorry… could you repeat that?"

-Line break-

I sat down tiredly on my bed, releasing a huge sigh of relief. I had asked around in all the blacksmith and ironsmith shops, and that had taken my whole day. And STILL, I had found just about NO information. After buying the three-pointed knife, I had asked the shop owner for information about my spear's origins, as I had planned, but had been unable to retrieve any useful information.

Since I couldn't exactly show the spear and its… functions to him, I had been forced to beat around the bush, and that had led me nowhere. According to that blacksmith, the strongest metal was titanium, and according to two other ironsmiths, the strongest metal was an alloy of iron. But I had enough experience fighting with weapons to know that both of those metals were destructible. The spear, on the other hand, was not so.

It was at times like these when I really got to look back upon my life and repent on how unfortunate I was. If only that stupid bandit hadn't tried to burn us both to hell, I could've asked him about the spear's origins. But no… he just had to go and kill himself. It was just unfair. The few times when I needed someone to live… they died, and the times when I wanted someone to die… they kept on living, challenging me to put them down personally.

Idly, I wondered how things would be back on Earth at this point of time… Chaos would probably have accomplished worldwide domination or something, and he would probably have destroyed Olympus by now. A brief thought entered my head, and I wondered what had happened to Gaia, now that Chaos had done what he had done. 'He probably revived her or something with those Creator powers of his…' I thought to myself with a sigh, 'Great, and that's one more enemy that I'll have to fight. HUH.'

Then, my focus shifted again, and I started to think about how I would get back to my own world, and what I would do from there on. 'The Fates probably have something in mind… or if they don't… maybe I can find a way to ask the gods of THIS planet to help?... That is, if they exist at all.' I thought. Unlike the gods of my planet, these gods had left no traces of themselves, or their existence, behind.

The only things I knew about the gods were their names and domains. Apart from that, there was no specific history, or mythology surrounding them. Sure, there were priests who preached the religion, but most of the country didn't even believe in it. Out of all the towns, only one was a strict believer in religion, and that was Rabona. It was called the 'golden city' for all its glamour and ideals, and for the gilded statues of the gods, but, even then, it was more of a tourist destination than a place for pilgrimage, or anything of the sort.

Most laymen just disregarded the existence of Gods entirely, claiming the theory to be ridiculous. Until a point in my new life, I had thought that way too, but then my old life's memories had returned to me, and my faith in immortals had been restored. Well… belief was a better word, since I had absolutely no faith in the Gods of Olympus, blessings or no blessings.

After all, the only reason my life had sucked so much, was that a bunch of arrogant immortals had huge egos. My entire life had been turned upside down, because my father and his siblings had been HORRIBLE rulers. Well, that and the fact that my grandparents (from the immortal side) … and THEIR parents, were straight up mental. Seriously, who EATS their children!? And who makes their own damn son slice up their own father!?

The sad part was… I wasn't even exaggerating. In comparison to his descendants, Chaos himself was a REASONABLE person. Gaia had made her youngest son slice up his father just because he didn't spend enough time with her, and then, that son's mind had become twisted because of that experience… which led to him EATING his children.

Then came Zeus, and even he wasn't too much better than his father. In fact, it was quite possible that Zeus was a WORSE ruler than Kronos. After all, the Rule of the Titans had been called, 'The Golden Age.' While Kronos had been paranoid enough to eat his children, Zeus had actually eaten the mother along with her children out of paranoia. Not much of an improvement in the 'humane actions' department.

It seemed that, for some inexplicable reason, the generations of immortals had gotten progressively worse than the last. Hercules and Dionysus were the finest examples of this statement. In comparison to my family's bloodlust, Chaos' wish to avenge his daughter was a completely normal wish. It was the same thing as when I wanted to kill him for killing my friends.

'Huh…. Wow, what a cycle we create… First, all of Greek mythology happens, which, obviously enough, pisses Kronos off to a royal extent. So, he attacks, and when we stop him and disperse his essence all across Tartarus, his mother is obviously enraged. So, she plots against us, and then, once again, we are forced to stop her or die. And when we kill her, her father gets pissed off…. I wonder if Chaos had a father too…' I thought to myself, in an inquisitive state, but it was quickly replaced with a much sadder thought, 'With my luck, he probably even had a grandfather… I swear, I can't keep doing this forever… I've already died once…'

Well, looks like I'd just have to hope that his parents: a) had already faded, or b) just didn't care. If either of those was true, then this cycle would end soon enough… maybe not tomorrow, maybe not the day after that… but, a hundred years from now… surely, right?

-Line break-

1 day later-

I had learnt something new… Travelling wasn't nearly as tiring when you didn't have a little 10-year-old with you.

For one thing, I could freely use my powers to move obstacles out of the way or avoid them entirely. For example, those marshes that were heavily slowing me down?... Yeah, now I could just fly over them without a care in the world. Although, it was indeed a bit irritating to have to constantly use the winds to push me forward, since it didn't let me concentrate on much else.

But, now that I was beyond the marshes, I could walk freely while concentrating on my other powers. Currently, I was walking through the eastern parts of Toulouse. I knew this because I knew that I had crossed Rabona – with all its huge walls – around three hours ago.

Up ahead, I could see the vast red swathes of dry, plateau land that made up the Eastern Lands. Frankly speaking, that was all that I knew of Sutafu, and it sort of… scared the Athena part of my brain. Since I had been born and bred in a city so far to the West, I had never got any reliable info on the East… because I wouldn't normally be needing it. Due to frequent bandit raids and harsh climatic differences between the four regions, most people just stuck to one region. Most of the people in my town had never even been beyond the mountains.

The only people who really travelled all across the map were traders. The West was known for its food production, and this food was exported all across the world. Thus, there were those traders who would travel to foreign markets to deliver the food and make their profits. Also, there were slave traders who would bring slaves to the West as a source of cheap labor. But apart from those dogs, nobody really even left their towns, unless they were going to see some really grand place such as Rabona.

-Line break-

7 days later-**

Third Person POV:

Percy saw his destination from literally 5 miles away. The place was HUGE, to put that very simply. There was a massive structure in front of him… it was clearly some organization's headquarters, since it was so big… it was a multi-storied facility that had to have more than 2 square miles of area on EACH floor. Yup, THAT'S how big it was.

Percy POV:

From the mountaintop where I was standing, I could see roughly 10-ish miles in each direction… except for the east. To my east, this gargantuan structure blocked my vision of anything beyond. The entire structure was basically a fortified town, when taken as one, but the thing that had really caught my attention was the massive citadel in the center.

It was shaped like a massive cylinder, tapering towards the top, with a single tower rising up to its left. It stood alone in the center of the whole village, surrounded by a huge, black wall, almost as if it was constantly challenging all the other smaller structures around it with its existence. Compared to the few other stand-alone structures in the town, this one structure was just amazing. It had its own personal defenses, and I could see some really, really small creatures moving around on each one of the balconies that projected out of the floors. Probably the human guards that had been employed to run… whatever the hell this was.

On this new planet, organizations weren't really a thing. There were individual retailers, and individual traders who supplied to the retailers. Occasionally, you would have a band of three or four traders working together, but since most merchants were EXTREMELY selfish and wanted all the profits for themselves, this was a very rare occurrence.

The only people who generally worked together in large groups were bandits. Their numbers could range from a party of just 2 to a full-fledged gang of 50 members. Apart from that, people only co-operated with each other if: a) they were forced to, b) they were really, REALLY desperate, or c) when they were facing off bandits. For option c, there were two possibilities… one was the common occurrence where the whole village collectively got up and panicked, and the other was demonstrated when merchants banded together with huntsmen and warriors to ensure their safety while travelling between two towns. And even that only happened because there was money involved at the end of the journey.

Thus, seeing a massive organization such as this one set my nerves on edge. I knew something was very, very wrong about this place, and my Athena-enhanced mind NEEDED to figure it out.

For starters, the whole place was shaped like a town. A heavily armored town with guards crawling all over the place, yes… but a town, nevertheless. There were residence-like structures built into the cliffs around the area, and it looked like the townsfolk stayed there. Which allowed them to make the town's center an operation's base of sorts. But there was some evidence that there had been houses in the central area as well… how fishy…

It was almost as if someone had built a town in the clearing, with all the houses and everything, before deciding to replace it with a gargantuan headquarters.

-Line break-

Even though the entire area was an open plain, it had been comically easy to get into the main building unnoticed. Or the central area anyway. The wall gates had been open, and so I had just walked right in with my hood up. It had been pathetically easy because literally every single man was wearing the same kind of black cloak, and most of them had their hoods on. For the first time ever, I found myself actually blending in with the crowd, and that thought made me laugh.

As to why I was here, it was quite easy to figure that one out. Dae and Rimuto, whoever they were, would definitely be found within this huge structure. If they had some kind of power that could kill a Creator, then they would definitely be heading this organization. Which would mean that they would be found in the most important buildings, since they would have the highest ranks.

And it was very easy to point out the most important building by simply looking around. The damn thing had a radius as big as the Empire State was tall. But I was zoning out again… I really needed to plan something out for how to find the two men.

I didn't even know whether it was safe to go up and ask someone. What if Dae and Rimuto had code names within the Organization, or what if Rimuto and Dae themselves were code names for real people… that would instantly give up my identity to anyone with half a mind. And even if I found them, what was I supposed to do with the guards? There were at least 400 of them present, all around the complex… from whatever I had seen, that is…

I had improved quite a lot since my last encounter with the bandits… since I had done practically nothing but practice and experiment with my powers whenever I was awake for the past 8 days, but I still felt unsure. Due to the enhancement the blessings of the gods gave me, I had got the hang of most of my blessings almost instantly, like what had happened with my wind powers.

Seriously, I felt like spending five whole years using water powers was just a waste of time and power. With Poseidon's blessing, I had been able to recreate that hurricane that I had made when fighting Hyperion all those years ago… without expending almost any energy at all. And that was after not using the power for like 20 years…

So, I was, indeed, seriously over-powered… but, on the other hand, 400 trained fighters… that was a bit excessive. The odds were too fair for my liking. It was always better when the balance was basically floored on my side. There were so many things that could go wrong in a normal battle and having 400 opponents only increased the chances of something like that happening.

My concepts about battle were very clear: The longer you fought, the more tired you got, and thus, the more likely you were to make a mistake. Now, that mistake could mean anything, from no consequences whatsoever, to instant death. But the important part was that the probability of messing up just kept on increasing, and that was a bit… scary.

Putting all my fears aside, and rearming myself with the optimistic thought that I would be able to handle anything fate threw in my way, I walked into the main building, and headed straight for the front desk with my stolen ID card. I was Percy Jackson… I was literally known for coming out of every problem alive – well, except for that one Chaos thing… I was still working on that – regardless of my terrible luck. And, like F.E. Smith had once said, "The world continues to offer glittering prizes to those who have stout hearts and sharp swords." So, it would be just fine if I winged it… although I did have a spear and not a sword…

What could go wrong?

-Line break-

I should really have known better than to jinx myself. I swear, I was like some sort of bad luck charm… like a magnet for trouble. A harbinger of pain and sorrows. Like some sort of cursed black cat.***

So, now, here I was. With everyone who was around me looking at me blankly. And then, they all drew their weapons and pointed them at me.

|Sigh| How was I supposed to know that these people had such evolved technology? Apparently, they had some sort of an eye scanner, and since my iris didn't match the identity card that I was holding, I was identified a trespasser. Well that, and a thief for stealing the card from whoever Alba was.

But seriously, how did people get such technology in such a backwards world? The best tech you could find outside this town was a standard door lock… and here, they had literally everything you could find in a sci-fi movie… fingerprint scanners on the doors, retina scans for identity checks, tin men, and et cetera.

The only thing left to complete the aesthetic would be guns… Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand great. Now, it's complete. WHY do I do this to myself? No, why does this HAPPEN to me? Like, why me? FFS, there are like a billion other people in the world, how is it always me who finds himself in pathetic situations like these?

So, now I have to fight trained swordsmen AND gunmen. And they didn't have bad guns, either. No, they couldn't have given me that simple courtesy. They all had military grade M27 IARs. And I didn't have a shield. Amazing. Just perfect.

The Fates couldn't have informed me that I would need a SERIOUS equipment upgrade if I wanted to get to those two men. Nope… 'why inform the kid? He'll find out himself in like 10 days, anyway.' That must've been the common sentiment. So, once more, I was stuck in a stupid situation. 'It's like Fortuna hates me more than Gaia did, gods damn it!' I thought to myself.

Sighing, I removed my spear from its holster on my back. Some of the men around me just snickered, and one of the gun-wielders at the far end of the room spoke up, "Is he seriously going to try fighting all of us off? Wow, kid, you have GOTTA be mad. You see this lovely thing over here… yeah, it's called a 'gun'" Well, I'm assuming that he said gun, since he said some Japanese word that I was unfamiliar with… which was normal, considering the fact that the residents of this land had never used the word before.**** Then, in a sarcastic and condescending tone, he asked me, "Don't you wanna see what it does?"

His cocky attitude was really starting to tick me off. And losing my cool would mess with my head and ruin everything. So, I decided to finish this off as quick as I could. Due to the compacted shape of the front lobby, the room was constricted. So, due to the lack of space around me, I could probably finish off ALL of these people with just one shot, before the cloaked men even got a chance to shoot.

So, I delved into my consciousness once more, and thought really hard about my connection to Hellreaver. I focused my thoughts on fire and the image of it flowing off of the spear tip. Then, I opened my eyes, and wove a smirk onto my face. Looking at the man who had spoken, I said in a voice full of childish mirth and humor, "Oh! Must be a cool weapon to have! But I bet it can't… do… THIS!"

And, as I was saying 'THIS,' I grabbed Hellreaver with both hands and started to spin. As soon as I began to turn, a massive column of flame erupted from my spear's tip. Then, I got to enjoy watching a panoramic view of multiple people getting grilled, as I spun around rapidly. Well, it wasn't anything to particularly enjoy… but you get the meaning…

The nauseating smell of burning plastic and flesh, along with the effects of spinning so fast for such a long duration did indeed take a toll on me, forcing me to heave and expel all the contents of my stomach onto the floor, through the wrong orifice.

'On the bright side, that one move took care of 80 out of the 400… only another 80% to go… If I can do 80, then 80% shouldn't be that much harder.' I thought to myself, as I picked myself up from the floor. On a sadder note, it also used up a ton of energy to channel the fire through the spear. But there was no time to repent now.

Jumping over the flames, I walked over to the carcasses of the gunmen, in hopes that at least ONE of the long-range weapons had survived. And one had, luckily enough. Apparently, I did have good luck too… occasionally... yea… more like rarely but whatever. Picking up the Assault Rifle, I put my spear back on my back holster. The gun would definitely be more useful than a spear would to me, especially considering the fact that I knew almost nothing about using a spear. Moreover, Athena's blessing had somehow installed information on guns into my head, and not information on spear techniques, even though the spear was Athena's symbolic weapon.

'Oh wait, that's why I don't know about spears, isn't it? Athena didn't want a child of Poseidon to use her weapon of power.' I thought to myself, shaking my heads at the stupidity of the gods. 'They behave less like rulers and more like children, I swear… Even while she was blessing me, even though her daughter died and I was her only shot at revenge, she STILL couldn't stop spiting us children of Poseidon.'

Clearing my mind once again, I hid away in the far corner of the room, away from all the exits and entrances. Thus, nobody would be able to find me there because of those tall flames, and because nobody would look there at first glance. And when the room started filling up again, I could just shoot them all down while they were still looking around. Ah, the benefits of having an Assault Rifle.

Although, a sword would have been preferable. To be a bit more specific, a certain double-bladed, leaf-shaped xiphos that was perfectly weighted and exactly 3 feet long would have been 'preferable.' But, sadly as it was, Anaklusmos did not belong to me anymore. That was one of the many revelations that had hit me on my trip to this place. This was a new life, in a new body, with new parents. Now, I wasn't the son of Poseidon anymore… I was just the son of two dead humans, and that was it… even though my father's name had been Suijin, which was, coincidentally enough, the Shinto god of water.

I only retained my ex-old man's powers because of whatever nonsense the Fates had done while playing with my life's string. So, apart from my soul and my looks, nothing remained the same between my two lives. Since I was no longer a literal son of the sea, there was a high chance that I probably wouldn't even be able to wield Riptide anymore.

It just wouldn't feel the same in my hands, because my blood relation to the sea had been lost. And, even if I could still use it because of the soul thing, my fighting style had changed. That had been a natural consequence of facing different opponents. In my previous life, I had been used to fighting off young demigods and massive monsters, but neither of those could be found in this world.

So, my fighting style had been revamped to fend off older and stronger opponents. Bandits generally weren't young. They were either fit men in their late twenties, or fat, pudgy men in their mid or early thirties. Any older than that, and you would get dumped off a cliff because you stopped being useful in raids.

So, instead of fighting shorter, weaker kids, I was now fighting older, well-muscled men with only one clear goal: to kill me. Generally, the lack of conviction in my demigod opponents to kill me, alongside my own self-implanted restraints against injuring my fellow 'misguided' demigods, had diminished the quality of our fights, and made them irrelevant. So, the fact of the matter was… I was only used to fighting monsters, and not humans. Until arriving on this planet, I had never really been prepared to kill a fellow human or demigod, at least by my own free will.

However, on this godforsaken – and I meant that quite literally – planet, every warrior would fight straight to the death. It was a cruel world, and it shaped its residents in a cruel way. It had made me adapt away from my own nature, and my fighting style had adapted with me. Since I did not have Riptide with me on this planet, I had been using the classic longsword for the last 18 years. And I was proud to say that I was amazing with it. But apart from being skilled in single-handed combat, I had discovered that I was also ambidextrous. And that was often my most dangerous asset: dual-wielding.

But dual wielding didn't help AT ALL when you only had a knife and a spear. That was an impossible combo. Seriously, it was at times like these when I would take to EARNESTLY cursing the pathetic amount of technological advancement this world had gone through. Well, MOST of this world at least. It was very clear that my enemies had amazing technology, and thus, the ability to create amazing weapons.

The medieval-styled blacksmiths found in all other towns and places, however, were practically useless. They would take what felt like years to make a good, customized sword, and then, they'd never be able to replicate that quality in a non-custom order again. The only good thing that EVER came from a non-custom order was my dagger, Silencer. Literally, apart from that, there was absolutely no use for any pre-made weapons. All respectable fighters of like… EVER would only buy custom made swords, made to their specific liking. Which made me wonder… why did those blacksmiths even bother to fill up their shelves with stocked weapons? Were they really that bored and jobless?

Before my mind could spiral down another one of my long – and rather broken – thought chains, I heard a really loud bang that brought my focus back to my immediate surroundings. It would appear that the rest of the 320 guards had decided to wake up! What a cheery occasion!

Looking down at my weapon of choice, I opened the cartridge and ensured everything was in place, and that the magazine was attached properly. Well, I checked to see if it all LOOKED right… since I had never really used a gun before. While checking my gun, I found one of those slings that you find a machine gunner wearing. Shrugging, I slung the weapon around my shoulder, and held it like I had seen people do in movies.

And it took a great load off the weight from off my hands, allowing me to hold the gun with much more ease. Lifting it up to my face, I looked through the… eyepiece? Was it called that? 'No, wait, I think it's called a scope…. Maybe? Meh, who cares right now!' Anyway, looking through the 'scope', I held my gun aimed at the entrance to the main lobby of the room. Previously, I had noted that the only other exits were also in the same general direction and were located practically right next to the main entrance. So, I was quite safe if I just stayed here and waited for the people to come to me… nobody could sneak up on me here.

And, as soon as the next wave of guards started to come through the doors, I knew that camping there had been a good strategy. Evidently, nobody had been prepared to see raging fires and dead bodies in the lobby area. Moreover, nobody at all had been prepared to be shot straight in the face upon entry. They had probably thought that the situation was more under control, or that, if it wasn't, the attacker(s) wouldn't be able to wield a gun properly. "Welp, sucks to be you guys, doesn't it?" I spoke out loud to the many corpses that now littered the floor.

But even though this strategy was working, it had its flaws. For one, I would definitely run out of ammunition soon, because firing accurately was apparently REALLY hard. Most of my bullets were hitting non vital spots or missing entirely. Thus, the ratio was something like 7 or 8 bullets per kill, and I had only managed to salvage so many magazines from the corpses of the dead gun-wielders.

Recognizing the problem, I decided to solve it. Currently, there was nobody coming at me from any of the exits. That was probably because they had realized that their original strategy was futile and were now making an elaborate plan on how to deal with me. Well, I wasn't going to give them that chance.

I made a silent dash towards the nearest staircase door leading out of the lobby. Anyway, I would have been forced to go up to find my targets, so why not just do it now, and avoid extra trouble in the future? There was no reason not to, and so, I rushed up the stairs.*****

The next floor was absolutely empty, and that gave me the creeps. There was absolutely NO way everyone evacuated the place in 5 minutes! And they wouldn't have had anywhere to go except up! Also, where were the guards? When I had seen the place from afar, the black-cloaked men had been stationed on each and every floor. Something was very off about the whole thing.

Cautiously, I started to move forward, towards the room's exit on the other side. Upon reaching the staircase door, I turned around and checked the room again from that point of view. Upon finding nothing once more, I closed my eyes and brought my sixth sense into focus. Suddenly, an image of a white hemisphere appeared in my mind. Consciously, I forced my mind to push against the surface of the hemisphere, thereby enlarging it.

There was actually nobody at all on the entire floor. But there were somethings that caught my attention. While looking for hidden traps and things of the sort, I had found more rooms on the floor. Now, I had always known that there were more rooms because of the fact that the tower's diameter was impossibly huge, and because of the countless doors that were present, but I had always assumed them to be janitor's closets, restrooms and other such things.

But clearly, these rooms were nothing of the sort. The door to my immediate right led into some sort of a display chamber. At least that's what I understood from the image of multiple black cuboids placed on black tables that had formed in my mind. So, I decided to go and check the room out, because why not? If something was worth displaying, then it was certainly worth seeing!

Then, when I opened the door, I realized that reaching the second floor had been advantageous in at least some aspects. There were several display pieces in the circular hall, and inside one of the glass boxes was a sword. And it was one of the most elegant I had seen. It was a massive Scottish-styled great sword… a Claymore, set upon a beautifully crafted golden cross-guard. The grip of the hilt was covered in a fine, black leather, and the pommel tapered off with a golden body, giving the sword a marvelous color scheme… One that matched my dagger's color scheme with its three colors of choice: silver, black and gold.

What I really liked about this sword, though, was its beautiful shape. Usually, the blade of the sword would just directly emerge out of the hilt, causing most swords to look like the small letter 't'. However, this claymore was much different than the rest in that aspect. The hilt itself was quite thin, and out of it emerged the cross guard, like in a normal sword.

However, in this sword, the cross-guard, instead of sticking out at 90 degrees, like a quillion, formed a crescent moon structure, with notches placed strategically around the point where blade met hilt, to allow the hilt to absorb damage effectively, and to increase the weapon's beauty. Then, a sphere like ball emerged out of the center of the cross-guard, from where another thin pole emerged out, connecting to the massive blade of the sword, which tapered towards the end in a beautifully artistic manner. Overall, this was another perfect example of a very good weapon, one that had both art and practicality incorporated into it.

Smashing the glass in with the butt of my gun, I pulled out the heavy double-bladed sword. It was surprisingly easy to wield, and I really liked it, even though I would have to give up on dual wielding for the time being. Maybe if I got stronger, I'd be able to wield the massive sword with just one hand, leaving my other hand free for my dagger, or a gun, or maybe even another sword… all three of those would be nice combos. But all of that was based on the assumption that this claymore didn't break in the upcoming fight – or fights, you never truly know, and that I actually decided to keep it after today…

With that on my mind, I walked up to the staircase door leading upwards from that floor, and used my last bullet to shoot the lock open. Then, dropping my now useless gun, I started creeping up the stairs again, holding my claymore out in front of me.

Upon reaching the third floor, I gently pushed the entrance door inwards and threw in a shard of glass from the previous floor. It was shot into a few million shards within the time it took me to blink. "So, that's where you all went!" I remarked, letting my usual sarcastic, mocking tone take a hold on my voice.

And, upon receiving no reply, I opened the door fully, while holding the massive claymore in front of my body as an impromptu shield, revealing around a hundred or so men stationed at various places within the room. And all of them had their weapons trained on me.

Third Person POV:

To anyone watching the duel as it progressed, it would have been almost instantly clear how unfair it was. And to all the readers, it would have been instantly clear that the over-powered protagonist would be coming out on top.

As soon as the room door opened, the firing began. Every single guard stationed within the room who had a gun, was currently using it. And the noise emanating from the gunshots and their echoes was enough to make literally everyone who was present deaf.

But the sad part about the one-sided assault was that the noise was the only thing currently affecting the lone cloaked man that was kneeling at the doorway. All the bullets speeding towards him either lay directly in the path of one very big, and apparently indestructible claymore, or in nobody's path at all. Any bullet that wasn't blocked by his massive sword would alter slightly off its course and miss the man entirely. So, overall, the assault was just a waste of bullets, but the gunmen were too busy reloading and shooting to even notice that. Their job had been assigned, and it was to get rid of the nuisance-causing infiltrators at any cost. So, they were doing that. By expending all their bullets, they were ensuring that, no matter what their opponent – or opponents – did, he, she or they would stand no chance of getting out alive.

Their opponent, meanwhile, was kneeling on the ground just outside the circular room, with his sword planted in the marble floor right in front of his face, thereby protecting him from practically any harm at all. His eyes were closed, but his focus was still locked onto his surroundings. By closing his eyes and concentrating very hard on his task, he was able to use the temporary loss of one sense to boost his other senses and abilities.

With his heightened sense over the air around him, he was having almost little to no trouble keeping track of all the tiny, metallic projectiles heading towards his general location. Evading them, on the other hand, was a much trickier task. Luckily for him, his sword was helping a LOT.

Whenever he sensed a bullet heading towards him, he would have to track its trajectory, and then use his manipulation of the winds to shift it, if necessary. Most bullets would either miss him on their own, or hit his claymore and bounce off, making his job much easier than what it could have been. Even then, however, he would not have been able to do it if not for the fact that his ADHD had reinstated its presence along with Mr. Jackson when his memories had returned.

Soon enough though, the last bullet made an impact with the marble wall behind the swordsman. The guards were now all out of bullets, and he hadn't even started. He was QUITE mentally drained, but, luckily for him, his body didn't need to think to fight… it would do so from general muscle memory at this point. After all, he had devoted practically 15 years of his lives – yes, plural – just to fighting.

To their credit, the mediocre warriors did try. Sadly, trying does not mean achieving. Achieving means achieving. And they did not have the skill required for success. Percy was just as ruthless a warrior with a double-handed blade as he was with a single-handed one, and he ripped them apart like a whirlwind. Their weapons could do nothing to stop him. The difference in raw, physical power and skill level was so great that he would decimate his opponent in the same amount of time, whether they had melee weapons on them or not.

100 warriors? 200 seconds. That was it. Legs, hands, guts, heads and blood were sent flying everywhere. Percy ducked under a lateral sword swipe, while dragging his sword behind him. Then, he used the opportunity to trip the guy and make him fall on Percy's claymore's edge as it trailed across the floor. He fell, indeed, and he never got up afterwards. His neck hit perfectly on the blade's edge, and his brain function came to a perfect halt.

Yanking it free, Percy used his sword's extra weight to start spinning around madly. Since none of his opponents had long ranged weapons that worked anymore, that move was pretty much deadly. Due to the huge weight of the claymore, and due to Percy's initial momentum upon starting the spin, he bisected two people just below the ribcage in one move.

And then there was one left. And as usual, this one was trying to run. Sighing, Percy pulled out his spear and chucked it like a javelin… through the poor guard's head.

After dusting his jacket off, Percy pointed his hand out in the direction of his spear, and, using his connection with it, called it to him. Freed momentarily from the laws of physics, the spear tore itself out of the guard's head by literally ripping it apart. Then, it flew straight into Percy's hand. Holstering the spear on his back once more, Percy checked his new weapon for dents.

He had officially no hope for the poor claymore now, since he had used it like a shield against a whole barrage of bullets. Only its sturdy shape and structure would have prevented it from completely giving way and leaving him exposed to the spray. So, imagine his surprise when he saw that it was as undamaged as his spear had been after the first bandit raid.

Shocked into silence, Percy checked the entire surface of the blade once more, with wide eyes. Upon finding nothing, he picked it up and threw it across the room. Then he walked over there and checked the whole blade again. Still nothing. Then, he pinched himself. 'NOPE! Not a dream, but OUCH that hurt…'

So, apparently, he had a knack for finding indestructible weapons. First, he got the spear by meeting some random bandit in the mountains outside his hometown. Now, he had managed to pick up yet another invincible weapon in another game of chance. He had simply gone to the one sword he liked in the whole room… and that had turned out to be made of the same metal as his spear. What was next? His dagger was also the same? No way!

With a small laugh at his rapidly fluctuating luck, he started walking to the next floor… 'Seriously, it's like a dungeon in a game… what with the multiple floors and the constant fighting.'

-Linebreak-

Percy POV:

Floor after floor, I kept walking. After I had cleared the third floor, I had only encountered around 20 to 30 guards per level. And, instead of killing them, I had decided to take it a bit easier on the poor, and probably innocent men, and simply knocked them out. But that hadn't stopped bloodshed from happening. And this time, it had happened on both sides because of my excessive caution.

I had had to turn my sword to hit a guard with my pommel instead of the blade, and in the extra time that the move had taken, he had managed to cut a gash on my hand. That, in turn, had enraged me, and I had ended up hitting him with the blade anyway. But apart from that, the fights had been way more G rated for the next five floors.

And now, if my calculations were right, my enemy had finally run out of guards to throw at me. So now there was only the problem of finding the two men. A task that would have been severely simplified if the Fates had bothered to explain, but I guess we all gotta make do with what we have.

Thinking of that, I barged into the next room carelessly. Only to find a circular chamber with throne-like chairs arranged in a semi-circle around the room. But, like the second floor, it was empty. Shrugging, I moved on from the council room, and found a corridor. Walking down the corridor, I found a couple of empty executive suites, until I found one staircase.

The staircase led me to the next floor of the massive structure, and it opened out into a HUGE and VERY cluttered laboratory.

Seeing the outlines of four people at the other end of the lab, I decided to creep up there. For some reason, they were acting completely normal even though alarms were blazing in literally every hall and room. It was as if they just didn't care at all, and that was fortunate for me.

It looked as if they were engrossed in conversation, and that, along with the loud ringing of the alarms, had concealed my presence from them. So, for now, I could just focus on getting to them without being spotted. There were multiple worktables in the lab, and they were all arranged in some sort of maze pattern. Overall, the worktables together formed multiple concentric rings that all focused in at the point where the four men were standing, but the spaces within the worktables formed a shape identical to one of those circular garden mazes found in children's stories.

Sneaking along the outside of the third, and innermost ring of tables, I came to a point where I could clearly hear what the four were talking about. I got into a more comfortable position while crouching behind the table and began the eavesdropping session.

The first guy spoke, in a deep, manly voice, "So, you've truly succeeded, then. I assume this means I owe you some money now… how much was it? 5000 bera?"

The second guy replied in a more gender-neutral voice, "Yes, yes. Five thousand bera. But do that later. Right now, TURN OFF THAT GOD DAMN ALARM! I can't focus on any research work with that stupid thing ringing at a hundred and fifty decibels all the time!"

The first guy sighed and barked out an order, "Raga, go and figure out what all the commotion is about, and get the alarm switched off… and seriously, if someone was playing with the fire alarm switch again, just throw them off a cliff! So annoying at times, you people are!"

The third guy, presumably Raga, responded with a curt, "Yes, sir," and rushed out the room and down the staircase to carry out his orders.

The first guy, who was apparently some sort of leader, turned back to the second man and asked, "So, has your subject shown any progress?"

The second guy, apparently the head of research, replied, "Yes, quite a lot, actually. He can heal from almost anything except that one, single stigma down the abdomen. Obviously, we are yet to test his fighting capacity out, but we won't be able to do that until he is ready to co-operate with us."

At this point, I took the risk and dared to take a peek at what was going on. With my head just above the table, I saw that two of the men were standing and talking in front of their third companion, who was being held to the wall with chains.

The two men who were engaged in conversation were both wearing black cloaks similar to all the other people that I had seen in the Organization, but the third man was just wearing torn trousers. His lack of clothing allowed me to see what the two men had been talking about: the man had a massive incision, stretching from the base of his throat all the way down his abdomen. And it was still spilling blood. It looked like the only thing keeping the man's organs inside his body were the multiple baseball-like stitches and sutures running down the cut.

Then, the silver haired man spoke, and I ducked out of sight to ensure that I was still hidden from their eyes. "Are you sure that the sutures are safe, Dae? What if the stitches rupture? Won't the implanted Asarakam flesh just fall out? That would be disastrous in combat!" He said.

'AH, So, this is Dae, then! Found you, you bastard! Now give me what I want, or die,' I thought to myself. But for now, sitting and listening would be easier. It was possible that these two would bring up the topic of the power-up thing on their own, and I wouldn't need to use force to get the information I needed. And then, when I had the info, I could knock out these people and make a run for it. The guards should all still be out of commission, and that would allow me to go and get whatever it was that I needed.

The man wo was supposedly Dae thought for a minute and replied, "No, I think they are quite safe, Rimuto-san. The flesh has infused itself with the man's flesh itself, and so it won't fall out. Plus, he has already gained the Yoki powers from the Asarakam flesh, so I doubt that removing it would do any harm. The only problem I see with this solution is that his guts will spill out if those stitches tear. And as impressive as his regeneration rate is, I doubt he can keep on regenerating new organs entirely for more than a few seconds."

'Ok, so the power is in the flesh? That's kind of… weird. And they fused it into his body? Ok, now that's just gross. Poor guy. But at least now I know what I need to get. But where will I find it? And what on heaven's Earth is an 'Asarakam'? Or a 'Yoki'?' I thought, with my main focus being on my next plan of action. It all depended on where I could find this 'Asarakam flesh.'

And then, my problem was solved by the two men, as Rimuto asked his companion, "What did you do with the rest of the flesh? Surely, you only used a little bit… right?" Dae responded in a casual manner, "Yup, that was the problem with the previous experiments. We were just using too much flesh… caused a power overload that ripped their bodies apart. And to answer your first question, it's still lying right there! Can't you see it!?"

Once again, I looked over the table to see where he was pointing, and sure enough, there was a massive slab of flesh lying there. And my massive, I mean it was indeed massive. It was about as big as my torso was, but it had clearly been cut out from something that was much bigger, since there were no bones at all to be seen in the massive chunk.

Eyes lighting up as a plan came to my mind, I jumped out from where I was hiding, surprising the only two awake people in the room. "Thank you for your co-operation." I told them, in a formal manner, before knocking them out with the pommel of my sword. 'Ooof, this one has already lost half a face, and I probably just deformed the other half…'

And with that thought of pity in my head, I leapt over their unmoving bodies and started to make my way across the room. With one last look at the sleeping form of the chained man, I picked up the meat.

But my plan failed right then and there. As soon as I lifted the flesh off the counter, arcing pain started to course through every vein in my body up from my right palm. And then, as I was forced to kneel due to the pain, my mind blacked out and promptly shattered as millions of tiny voices started to bombard my skull.

AN – *Just search up the parts of a sword and you will know what I'm saying… ricasso is the part on a sword near the hilt, where the blade is a bit thinner than it is in the rest of the sword… it's like a depression in the sword's blade near the hilt.

So, basically… the dagger has three miniature sword-like blades on it that are parallel to each other, but two of the blades are smaller and are situated on the same level. The third blade is longer, thicker and located above the other two…

Eventually, I'll make it a gun…. Coz hehe, why not…

**Yea, well, I was getting seriously tired of stalling the meet up… I originally planned chapter six to be the meet up, but then I changed it to seven because it would have been too soon after the intro into the new world… then I had to make it eight coz there was a huge action/feelings scene in seven… Then I had to deal with Isley… and there was a flashback scene… so this got pushed into chapter 9… and with that whole blacksmith shit…. Yea im tired of just increasing my writing's length…

***WOW, I could NOT have referenced it more… #BadLuckCharm, #Qrow

****Yea, I wasn't sure which word to use… and there were like fifty different words that google was telling me, and I didn't want to insult the language by using it incorrectly so….

*****Yes ppl, I am now crying. At this point, the chapter is already above 6.8k words, but like I promised in the last chapter, I'm gonna put the powering up thing here. So, yea, this chapter just increased MASSIVELY in word count…. Take it as a double update or somethin…