Disclaimer – I don't own PJO or Claymore.

Alt title – Chapter 10 – The Villain

*While chuckling at how the two titles contradict each other and yet make perfect sense…*

You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain. – Aaron Eckhart/ Harvey Dent.

5 years later-

Third Person POV:

As the first rays of the morning sun hit the planet, everything was eerily silent. In that eerie silence of the dawn, a young boy sat on a cliff's edge watching the river's water cascading down in sheets from the cliff opposite to him. He had a serene smile on his face as he watched the scene from afar.

Looking at him, you would instantly understand that this was his favorite place to be. And the sentiment was understandable. At this time of the day, before the animals that inhabited the continent woke up, the beautiful scenery that one saw from here, as the first rays of the sun caused streaks of light to shine across the sky and the land, would put any and all at peace. Furthermore, the sight of a lovely waterfall cascading down rocks was only accentuated by the blissful silence that the boy was currently experiencing from this distance.

In his mind, this place was ideal. It had a perfect combination of all his favorite elements. Here, there was water, and here, there was silence. There was light, and there was darkness, and most of all, there was peace. It meant a lot to the boy. He wished he could just freeze time and sit here forever, wreathed in the pattern of shadows and light, surrounded by silence, but alas, his fate was not one to give.

Looking out over the lowlands where the river flowed after its descent from the rocky highlands, the boy let out a wistful, and yet peaceful sigh, his thoughts about the horror-filled world he lived in completely forgotten. Slowly, he stood up from where he had been sitting, and stretched. Then, he turned around in reluctance, and started to walk back to his house… of sorts.

-Line break-

Dae was gushing in happiness and excitement. Today was the day! Finally, their big experiments could begin. In anticipation of today, he had stayed up all night long, spurred on by around 40 or so cups of coffee. Now, he knew that overdosing on caffeine was not good, but he was too excited to care. Not that it meant that he was going to go and do something stupid… No, the accident with the awakened Asarakam and the acid had taught him well.

The resurfacing of those memories of pain caused him to calm down a little bit, before the caffeine's effect hit him once more, and he burst out of his dorm room at full speed. For once, however, he was not headed towards his own laboratory. He was going straight for the council's executive room, so that he could be early enough to discuss with two close associates before the meeting itself started. He was simply too impatient about this to be able to sit through an entire 3-hour meeting to get one topic resolved. He would much rather just get it done now.

Luckily enough, his other two associates were also early risers… well, one of them was, and the other practically never slept… so, it had the same overall effect. Therefore, if he got there early, he could finish the real discussion early, and they could all start the plans early! A marvelous idea, if you asked him. The only flaw in the plan was that he didn't know where the other two fools were.

He had arrived at the executive chamber, but it was, unfortunately, empty. And just as dark, dreary and eerie as always. "Damn, I really hate this place," he muttered to himself, "It's so… sad." It was true, though. Unlike his lively, bright-colored lab, the halls of the Organization's headquarters all looked lifeless. But that was the color scheme that Rimuto preferred. He liked the dark interior's of the offices as compared to the whitewashed walls of Dae's workplace.

And the sentiment was shared by every other member of the Organization. Even Dae had agreed with it at one time. He had actually been the one to suggest the dark scheme at first, but now, after the building's construction, he realized how dead it made the surroundings look. "Just a bit of color wouldn't kill, you know…" He said out loud, while thinking on how just a few streaks of purple or violet would add wonders to the color scheme.

Then, he whirled around on his heel as he heard the sound of chuckling behind him, and found a small boy leaning against the doorway. "Ah, Perseus, you're finally here!" Dae exclaimed to the boy. "Now, we just have to wait for Rimuto-san, and we can start finalizing the plan for our grand opening today!" Dae was excited… very excited, and heavily caffeinated to boot, which made him act like a child… more so than the child in front of him.

Perseus merely sighed, thinking of the work that lay ahead of him. Today would mark the day where the Organization would finally reveal themselves to the rest of the island continent and paint themselves in a morally upright and virtuous light. They would pretend to be a legal association who were mankind's saviors… their 'last hope' in their fight against the parasitic Yoma, even though they were anything but.

But the sad part – or rather, the tedious part – about today was that it all depended on him. HE was going to have to go out and sell the deception by cutting down an entire village's worth of Yoma. Still, that wasn't the part that annoyed Percy… what really made him want to object was the fact that he would have to do it IN UNIFORM. He was fine with all the fighting… he even enjoyed it, since it always ended up making him stronger, but uniform? Gods, no. ESPECIALLY not THAT uniform.

But he had no choice… as much as he wanted to avoid human interaction and wearing white, shiny armor, he had to do it. He was the only warrior present at the time who was capable of single-handedly slaughtering the Yoma, and he had been the one to give the idea of deceiving the public in the first place. And even then, the fact that he was the only one strong enough was his own fault.

Moreover, he was the one responsible for the creation of Yoma, too. And thus, the entire executive council, minus him, of course, had thought it quite appropriate that he should be the one to initiate the 'quest' against them. Well, they were right… it was appropriate… but that didn't mean he had to like it.

Taking a deep breath in, he forced his body to grow, using his Yoki powers and his godly powers to increase his muscle mass all over. Within a span of 6 seconds, he aged from a 10-year-old boy, to a 16-year-old warrior. "You'll still have to lose that cloak and don the armor…" A new voice spoke from behind them, "Everyone who sees you should know that you represent the Organization…. Otherwise, this whole operation becomes pointless."

In a voice too deep and gruff to be fit for a child, Percy shot back his response with a child-like pout, "Yes, yes, I know. You don't have to rub it in, jeez!" At this, both Dae and Rimuto just chuckled. It was comical to see how the warrior who had nearly destroyed the whole Organization five years ago constantly acted like a kid, sometimes even going to the extent of becoming one. At least, that was the explanation that Rimuto gave to Percy when he asked them why they were laughing. 'Whoa, wait a second… that had been five years ago.'

The revelation hit all three of them at the same time. "Has it already been FIVE whole years since that day when we met? Where did the time go!?" Percy exclaimed out in shock and surprise. It wasn't even exaggerated… he still felt like it was yesterday when he had crept into Dae's lab to get the Asarakam meat. And the same went for the other two… after Percy's appearance, things in the Organization had changed completely, and every day was guaranteed to bring you something new. Since then, everything had been extremely hectic between the research work, the planning and the endless executive meetings, and so, none of the three had been able to count the number of days that had passed.

But it was true. It had been five years since that day. Exactly five years ago, a cloaked warrior had shown up at the gates of the Organization. Five years ago, he had shown the Organization just how weak and unprotected they were against powerful foes by utterly crushing them in combat. Five years ago, he had been nicked in his right palm while fighting off the Organization's men, and five years ago… he had carelessly picked up a slab of Asarakam flesh with that same hand, leading to the creation of the first ever Asarakam-demigod hybrid.

*FLASHBACK START*

Percy woke up from a pain-filled dream, feeling extremely hungry, with a massive headache. "WHAT in the world? What the hell happened here?" He asked aloud to the room he was in. His first thought was 'hangover,' but his mind shot that idea down very quickly, for some reason. His next thought was 'I want guts!' and his mind, surprisingly, hadn't shot that one down nearly as quick. So, he looked to his surroundings to better understand what was going on.

And by looking around at the whitewashed walls and circular desks around him, he forced his brain to remember everything from before he had been knocked out. And, as all the memories came rushing back to him, he couldn't help but feel that something was slightly… off with them.

It couldn't have been more than a few minutes back when he had been knocked out, or some guards or personnel would have come and found him lying there… but yet it felt like all his surroundings had been… shifted. The angle of all the tables and furniture in comparison to his eyes… felt wrong. It was almost as if… everything had gotten… smaller….

No wait… that wasn't it. His surroundings hadn't shrunk, he had grown… by multiple feet apparently. To confirm his theory, he raised his hand… and touched the ceiling of the absolutely massive laboratory. In shock, and mild horror, he slowly turned his head up to confirm that he was actually touching the ceiling… and found himself staring at a white, domed ceiling that belonged in an observatory…. And a pure black hand with four massive fingers…. and four massive talons.

And in the sense of shock that followed, he was unable to stop his madness and his hunger from taking over.

*FLASHBACK END*

It had been five whole years since the day when Percy had gained his new powers, and, even though he hadn't realized it, it had given him loads of time to perfect them. At the time, however, he had needed assistance in understanding more about Yoki and the Asarakam, which had led him to make the choice to join the Organization as he strived for perfection.

Well, he hadn't exactly joined. More like gone crazy and began to eat people until he stopped feeling hungry… before proceeding to threaten his way into an executive seat so that he could learn more about his powers, and make it easier to control them. Apparently, threatening people was very easy when you were a fifteen-meter tall monster with a thirst for human blood and guts.

Regardless, that had, in turn, led to their current situation. Once Percy had learnt to control his 'Yoki,' he was able to transform back into a human quite easily, irrespective of how Dae claimed it to be impossible because the 'Asarakam can never change back to their original state after awakening.' Weh-weh-weh… what a crybaby.

But Percy hadn't liked the guy's initial pessimistic attitude. So, he had proved the man wrong and showed him that anything was possible with 'the Slayer' around. And that was an entire other thing… the whole staff had taken to calling Percy as 'the Slayer' because of how he had introduced himself to them. And name-calling was the only way for the survivors of that day to vent their anger and frustration out on Percy, since he was superior to them in practically every field. Needless to say, Percy's stunt had stirred up a LOT of resentment in the Organization's workers and they felt the need to vent it out.

But back to the main points… and away from the bad thoughts and the negative emotions… once Percy had changed back into a human, the research went much faster due to his Athena-enhanced brain.

About a year after the Percy incident, Dae and had finally come to a conclusion that the awakened Asarakam's flesh was simply too powerful for the humans to handle, after Percy had told him and Rimuto about his life story. What!? It's not like they could go and blab or something! Apart from the fact that Percy would kill them if they did, nobody would believe stuff like that! 'Gods weren't real!'

But still, back with the Organization's research work. The awakened Asarakam flesh was too powerful, and the non-awakened Asarakam flesh was just flat out useless. The awakened being's flesh had only been successful twice before, on Percy and another subject, but since Percy had EATEN the other subject, there was only one true success.

But that memory wasn't exactly one of the trio's favorites. The only reason Dae and Rimuto had got out alive from that situation was because they had got covered under mounds of rubble when Percy had blown himself up into mega-monster Percy. Well, that, and the fact that monster Percy had been too busy ripping apart bodies and feasting on guts to care to search under the rubble. For a minute and a half, Percy had become a mega-sized, heavily armored, and god-blessed monster that reminded both Dae and Rimuto of their days fighting at the front lines. And the reminiscence had terrified them. It had been so similar to what happened when one of the dragon kin went over their limits, and the sight was more than petrifying.

It had been practically every bit the same… except for the fact that Percy was bigger, stronger and scarier than most of the Asarakam that they had seen. For one thing, his body was so packed with Yoki that most of his upper torso appeared grey to almost black… with purple and gold veins running across the body, indicating his part-god and part-monster nature.

Then, there were the gargantuan reddish-brown wings on his back that were made up by cartilaginous flesh stretching across many bone-like protrusions that emerged from his back. The fact that they were dripping with golden and black fire didn't help ease anyone's mind either. There were also the three tails with bardiche-like blades at the end that emerged from his tailbone… and the two hands with four massive claws each… both of which Percy had used to rip people into shreds. All of that had naturally scared the two faction leaders…

The experience had been terrifyingly akin to the things they had seen and heard of when they had been mere foot soldiers, and they had hated it with every fiber of their being. So, naturally, they avoided talking or even thinking about it as best as they could.

So, when that had happened, and their research had failed, the executive council had been just a fraction of a millisecond away from ending the whole operation, when Dae and Percy had come up with an insane idea… diluting the Asarakam blood. Due to the way their previous experiments had gone, the duo had concluded that they needed a… middle-ground of sorts, something in between the two types of flesh. So, they had decided to mix the Awakened creature's blood with water and inject it into a human.

Yeah… that hadn't gone so well, considering the massive explosion that had followed. Luckily enough, the duo had had the sense to try their experiment outdoors… unluckily enough, that meant that a massive portion of a forest, along with everything else that was inside – including around 20 Organization members, had all gone ka-boom. Talk about high collateral damage.

However, there were two sides to every coin, and that included this one. The experiment with water had shown them the path forward. Eventually, Percy had created – completely by accident, mind you – the 'Yoma' – a parasite that was formed by the fusion of the stronger awakened Asarakam's flesh and blood with the weaker un-awakened Asarakam's flesh. The worm that was then created, would infect humans and possess them as a parasite, using their brain as a medium to command the muscles and hunt for human flesh, like an Asarakam would.

That one breakthrough in their research had caused the reason for today's meeting. It had also created an island-wide pandemic of 'Yoma,' but that was irrelevant as of now.

Today was the day when the organization would announce their presence to the people of the island, as a 'savior' of humanity. Percy had suggested that idea as well, the idea to deceive the public, since that would allow the Organization to legally continue with their work, without having to worry about the knowledge of their existence spreading.

So, now, Percy was going to be in charge of taking care of that. "You do remember the plan, yes?" Rimuto asked with a raised eyebrow. Sarcastically, Percy replied, "Oh no, I don't! It's already been over 10 minutes since we went over it the last time!" Dae just sniggered and added, "You mean hours… 10 hours, not minutes." "Yeah, whatever," came the reply.

Rimuto, however, had never been one for sarcasm, and he didn't care enough to bother identifying it within the other guy's tone. Sighing, he started to go over it all again with Percy, ignoring Percy's protests of "I already know," and "THAT WAS SARCASTIC, GODS DAMN IT!"

"You are to go to the nearest town –"

"Yes, I already KNOW!"

" – Karkh… I think, was the name, where –"

"Oh, come on, not agaaaaaaiiiinnnnnnnnn!"

" – you will have to kill all the Yoma, and –"

"Oh, shutttttttt upppppppp!"

" – proclaim our existence to the townsfolk."

"Yes, WE HAVE GONE OVER THIS AT LEAST TWENTY TIMES!"

"But the important part is that you must lie to them..."

"What if I say please… will you shut up then?"

"And tell them that –"

At this point, Percy just put his fingers in his ears and stated screaming 'la-la-la' like a little child would. But Rimuto kept pressing on, explaining how Percy would have to lie to the townsfolk and tell them that Yoma eat humans and take their body shape, and their memories, and how it was 'bad' to live or rest on soil where Yoma blood had been shed once upon a time, et cetera, et cetera…

Meanwhile, Dae, who had been watching from the sidelines, was just managing to hold his laughter in. Both of them were as stubborn as a mule, and neither would yield to the other, not for a long time at least.

Realizing that, Dae just chose to back off and leave them to it, since he did not want to become the center of their attention at this point. While they were doing their best to annoy each other – and not him, they were just fine. Plus, all the noise they were making would wake up the rest of the council members, who lived within the main structure itself, and then, the council meeting could happen earlier. Which meant Percy's mission would happen earlier, and that meant that he could get back to his test subjects earlier.

Then, they would be able to do more research earlier, and Dae really wanted to know all the different possibilities that could emerge from creating a Yoma-human combination. So far, they had done it only once, and the hybrid had been quite useful… it was some boy who had stayed human, but had still retained Yoki powers… well, at least, for some time.

In an effort to test out the kid's abilities, they had paired him up with Percy in a one-on-one match during a period of time when the ex-demigod had been complaining about the lack of things to do… and it had been a one-sided demolition. Thirty seconds into the ring, and Percy had managed to punch a hole through the other guy's torso.

Then, while trying to save himself, the kid had gone rogue and awakened, creating the first ever 'Awakened being' that the world had ever seen. The term itself was, obviously, derived from 'Awakened' and 'human being,' meaning a human that had awakened. Unfortunately, the circumstances had proved that these Awakened beings had really, really short lifespans on average. Around 3 seconds at most.

The problems with that information could be that Percy had ripped the creature's head off almost as soon as it was done forming, and maybe the fact that there had only ever been one such being. So, saying 'average' wasn't exactly… accurate.

So, it was easy to see why Dae wanted to test out more… he needed to know, and this was going to be his chance. Rimuto had forbidden him from doing anything else until their stage was set to ensure that their existence remained hidden until today, but today was finally here, and so, the quicker tomorrow came, the better.

-Line break-

The leader of the Karkh village was just about ready to give up. He was pretty old, and that meant that he came from happier times. Times when their greatest problems came from outside their borders, times when they could still fight those problems off, or run away from them. But those times were over. 3 years ago, these monsters had shown up, and taken almost everything from him.

The common folk called them, "Yoma," and they were the most horrendous beasts that humanity had ever seen. They were huge, purple monsters that loved to feast on human flesh, or, more specifically, human guts. But the worst part about them wasn't that they were humungous, or that they were exceedingly strong, or that they could regenerate from any and all damage… It was their ability to shapeshift.

The monsters could disguise themselves as townsfolk, and infiltrate deep within the social hierarchy. His wife had been a victim of this… she had turned into one of those monsters herself, and he had been forced to run along with the rest of the village, while his son, along with the rest of the guards, fought off the beast. Nobody had ever seen those guards again, and so, it remained unknown what had happened to both: his wife, and the monster that had attempted to take her place.

Then, after that, the villagers and him had constantly been on the run, scurrying away from the monster before it could catch up. Until a year ago, when they had all finally settled down here, and set up a new village named Karkh. But now, the horrors of history were repeating themselves once again…

Over the course of the past ten days, ten different corpses had been found, and they had all had only ONE thing in common: a distinct lack of guts. Ten different bodies – the bodies of 2 young men, 3 children, 3 women and 2 of the town's elders, had been strewn all over the streets, and all of them had been mangled and torn. Their abdomen's had claw marks on them, and their guts were missing, indicating that the beasts had eaten them.

The Yoma had found them, and nobody could save them from the monsters. They were inside the town already, and they were eating their way out. Since an old man like him couldn't do anything at all in such a situation, wouldn't it just be better for him to leave this town and run away to one of the safer towns? He had always wanted to go to Rabona… and this could very well be his last chance to see the holy city.

But he couldn't just leave his people behind… they had looked up to him in their time of need and appointed him as their leader. They had put their trust in him and given him the power to make the choice FOR them. And there was only one way for him to show his gratitude. And that was to stay… So, he was conflicted on what to do. "If only miracles happened when you needed them."

-Line break-

Percy POV:

I was bored. And tired. And hungry.

I was bored of this useless, long walk that I had been ordered to take. It would've so much easier to just change into my awakened form and run the whole distance. Or they could've given me the jeep. At least the jeep. But no, they wanted to keep their technology a secret from the whole planet. So, I had to walk thirty miles to a south-eastern village.

I was tired of the people at the Organization, and tired of listening to them. I had joined them so as to better understand my own powers, and to be able to gain control over them, but I had accomplished that a LONG time ago. Now, both the people AND their research were boring and useless. Granted, I did have a few good… acquaintances within the Organization's structure, like Dae, Rimuto and Raga, who were three department heads, but the rest of the people there were simply pathetic.

I was tired of their endless ranting and name-calling, and tired of having to slap some sense into the losers. We shared a mutual feeling of hatred, and so, I was tired of having to see their faces. They hated me for killing their friends and, in rare cases, their family, whereas I loathed them for all the pointless work they made me do. Just because I had agreed to not kill them, they thought that they could do anything. So, I had to constantly beat the sense into them, and while it had started off being fun, now, it was just mind-numbingly boring extra work.

Maybe this operation was a good opportunity for me to start looking for something else to do. Maybe… it was time to quit the Organization and start looking for ways to get off this planet and start searching for Chaos. And while I was looking for those things, it couldn't hurt to keep stealing from the Organization's more… powerful experiments. It sounded like a good plan, after all. Keep getting more powerful, while also searching for the person you really, REALLY want to kill. And maybe rip into shreds… and maybe boil… and maybe even torture… for an… extended period of time.

With some dark chuckles, I ordered my brain to stop getting sidetracked and focused back on the main point: my plans from here on out. 'Or… I could take up Dae's offer and go fight their war on the mainland… that way, I'd be facing more powerful opponents, and thus, I'd be able to steal more power from them.' I thought to myself, 'But that sounds like MORE pointless work. And if I go to the mainland, I'd never be able to figure out how to get off this stupid planet!'

Clearly, I was conflicted. I really, REALLY wanted to go to the mainland at least ONCE before I left this place for good… but I also wanted to catch a little break from constant fighting, and try to find the stupid gods of this planet so that I could get off of it. I wanted to meet my 'ancestors' of sorts at least once, and I really needed to see what technology they had on the mainland… and of course, it wouldn't hurt to steal the Yoki powers from the Asarakam either.

That was the best part about fighting as a person blessed by the Pit.** You got to keep that power. Being blessed by Tartarus meant that by extension, I was also blessed by Kratos, who was the God of Strength, and, once more by extension, of power. So, I had got lucky on a technicality, and now, I could steal power from anything and anyone that I fought, although it was always easier to steal power from someone with the same powers as me.

Even subconsciously, my body was drawing power from every source that it could find from around me, and since I was walking under the sun currently, my body was functioning as a glorified solar panel. Or well, a glorified, indestructible solar panel. Indestructible for anything on THIS planet at least. Which was exactly why I wasn't really afraid of going to fight this war. I had already fought in… 3?... before, and I already knew that I would come out of this one stronger than I had gone in.

But it wasn't as if this would be my last chance to go there, or to fight… I could always go later… and that was probably a good plan. Search now, fight and kill things later. After all, being strong was useless without a purpose, and since my purpose was to kill Chaos, being strong was useless if I couldn't escape this place.

Looking up once more, I finally caught the view of a village over the next ridge. It was only about a mile or so away, and I could smell the stench of Yoma blood all the way from here, and BOY, was it strong! But the total Yoki that I could sense from here was so miniscule that it wouldn't even get ranked on the Organization's datasheets. So, this mission was going to be even lesser than a cakewalk.

Anyway, the sun was at its peak, and so, I decided to hurry up. I would much rather be stuck in an underground cave than be under this blinding light and scorching heat. Well, I couldn't actually feel either of those, because of Apollo's blessing, but it didn't make me like the things AT ALL. After all, I had blessings from not one, but TWO major gods of darkness, and a Primordial of the domain. Naturally, I was inclined to hate Apollo's domain, and even though I had unlocked his blessing, I still liked to avert it.

That was the exact reason why dawn was my favorite time of the day. It had both the domains in it in perfect amounts, so that I could be sitting in the darkness while staring at the beauty of light. The combination was really calming to my mind, which was usually conflicted between its own opposite domains. And that was one of the downsides of being blessed by Olympus.

-Line break-

Judging by the position of the sun, it was just past half past twelve when I reached the town, and, naturally, my presence caused a commotion. If arriving at Strah during the time of bandits had caused a 15 minute interrogation, you could imagine just how much distrust these people would have in you if you arrived in an off-the road town in the peak of the afternoon, during the time of shape-shifting, deceptive monsters. And their suspicions were only raised by my apparel.

Yeah, silver, black and white was not a very common color scheme on this island continent. Armor wasn't exactly common either… and massive claymores definitely weren't regular apparel. Thus, when I walked in through the town gates, wearing spaulders on my shoulders and a plate buckle across my neck to hold them in place, with hooks, faulds, vambraces and chausses all over my body, the people were destined to panic. Luckily for everyone's sanity, and for their health, I did not care about these humans or their words.

Undeterred by their hushed whispers and loud, angry shouts, I spoke to the entire gathering as a whole, "I come from the Organization." Yup, that got them to shut up! They stopped talking the moment I started! After a short, but dramatic pause for effect, I continued, "We are here to help you… to help save humanity from these monsters… to help you all by killing the Yoma."

Aaaaaaaaaaaaand that got them started again. Everyone was now whispering to each other, probably because they wanted to have a laugh about how I – an 'inexperienced, fifteen-year-old boy,' wouldn't be able to kill the Yoma. Well, sadly for them, their thoughts held approximately the same amount of importance to me as their existence did. Absolutely none.

So, I moved on with my speech. The dramatic pauses that I was doing were quite… amusing, but I really wanted to hurry this whole thing up. "The Organization has warriors. Warriors like me, who can slay the Yoma for you…" Cue the next dramatic pause. And… moving on, "… BUT, everything comes with a price."

Then, finally, someone spoke directly to me, "How can you claim to be able to kill those beasts? They are unnatural and vile creatures! They regenerate faster than any warrior could cut them down, and they are stronger than anything this world has seen! And you're just a fifteen-year-old BOY! Are you seriously telling me… that you are better than ALL the guards in this village!?" It was an elderly man – possibly in his 50s or so, which was practically ancient for this world, and he was speaking with venomous anger in his voice. And to me, both: his words, and the tone in which he said them, were ridiculous.

'Ok, now I'm having a really hard time holding it in… thanks for the laughs, dear old man.' I thought as I formulated the next response.

"Ah, you see, that is quite… incorrect. The Organization has found a way to… incorporate the powers of the Yoma… into the bodies and souls of its warriors. Thus, they have created a new race of creatures… us. We are part-human, part-Yoma… because we took on their flesh. We chose to become these monsters… so that we can slay the vile beasts and rid our world – our motherland – of this nuisance."

Diplomacy was key in this conversation, and so, I had to do my best to act diplomatic, even though my brain was thinking along the lines of, 'Yup, this single 3-minute dialogue easily beats any other convos I have EVER had! This is hilarious!' Then, he shot back a reply, and caused me to get serious again. He said, "But if what you claim is true… then how do we know that you won't turn into one of them at any time!" Meanwhile, my brain had started to move down quote lane again, 'Okay, so he is wise, then! It is true, wisdom is wasted on the old!'

Shifting back to the real-world conversation, I dismissed the old man's… stunningly accurate observation like Rimuto had told me to, "The method of fusion is tried and tested. Under NO circumstances can the warriors turn into the Yoma. The Organization is here to protect humanity. So, if humanity's saviors were to turn into humanity's destroyers, the Organization would not have allowed it." After all, lying was the only way to convince these humans that the Organization was all 'good.'

If the truth got out, it wouldn't just be bad for the Organization, it would also be bad for me. If the Organization's research got shut down, then both my immediate plans of action would fail. My route to the mainland would be destroyed – unless, of course, I actually went over the water on my own, and so would my chances of stealing power from future warriors. So, their failure meant mine too, and thus, I had to stick to the stupid plan.

So, just before the old man could open his mouth again, and say some rubbish ONCE MORE, I cut him off and spoke first, "Listen, people. The Organization is offering you a tried and tested way to get rid of the monsters in your town. All they're asking for… is a little money to recompensate for all their hard work and research. The question is: Are you willing to give it?"

'Man, persuading people is so easy.' I thought to myself with a smirk on my face, as the townsfolk started muttering and nodding their heads in my favor.

-Line break-

After I was done admiring my work, I pulled out my notepad from my pouch, along with a pen, and started ticking off the relevant items. Arrive at Karkh? – Check! Talk to the village head? – Check! Reveal the Organization's existence? – Check! Trick the people into believing that we are their saviors? – Also Check! Kill the Yoma and get the village to acknowledge it as the Organization's work? – Double check!

And, finally, at the end of the list: Lie about the Yoma's history and powers! – ALSO CHECK! And then, my excitement was ruined by someone hollering my moniker out. Putting the notepad and the pen back into the pouch, I sighed and looked up as the village head hobbled his way over to me. HE was probably going to ask me some more questions about the Yoma, and about the 'warriors' and the Organization, and about why they needed to move out of their town, et cetera.

Yea, you heard me right – I had politely told them to get the hell out of their own village because that's what the council had told me to do. The Organization had wanted to experiment and use the flesh of both: the humans in the village, as well as the dead Yoma's corpses, but they couldn't do that with the villagers watching the process, and they couldn't kill the villagers either, because the villagers would be the ones who would go out and spread the word about the 'saviors' of the human race.

So, all in all, the Organization needed the villagers to be alive and free, but at the same time, they needed to capture and experiment on them as well. And the only way to do that was…. To tell the villagers that Yoma were contagious! That way, they would move away from the places where Yoma blood was spilled, and also be ready to give up the relatives of the ex-infected people to the Organization! A brilliant plan, both in theory and in real life, considering the fact that it had worked.

However, there were still some nuances with it. For example, nobody on the council had bothered to prepare a script for the questions that these rather… stupid villagers would ask. And that was probably because nobody on the whole council, except Rimuto – who was, coincidentally, EXTREMELY lazy – actually cared about this operation. To them, it was the same thing if they terrorized the people of the island or deceived them. "As long as our research work is done, and we get a super-warrior that is ACTUALLY going to fight FOR us, the procedures do not matter," was the motto that most of the council had agreed on.

Sighing, I started to re-explain the whole Yoma are bad, and Organization is good concept to the not-quite-as-wise-as-I-had-initially-thought, old man. But, even as I did so, I couldn't help but notice the six men in black cloaks who were still standing at the village's borders.

-Line break-

As I watched the last of the carts roll out of the village, a sense of satisfaction settled into my head. My job was done. Now, I could leave this place… and the Organization… with nobody being none the wiser! 'Maybe, I should go to Rabona,' I thought to myself, 'After all, getting some help from the gods of this planet wouldn't be shabby at all… and Rabona would be the ideal place to find them!'

But then, a noise behind me made me alert once more. Two of those black-cloaked men were still standing in the same place… They hadn't moved an inch since they had arrived, whereas their partners were nowhere to be seen. But that was okay, since I had a sixth sense greater than mere sight and hearing. Concentrating on my surroundings, I kept my eyes open to the scene before me, as I viewed the mental schematic I had drawn up in my mind.

Over the past five years, as I had unlocked more of the powers that the godly blessings had given me, and as I had practiced constantly with each of them, it had become much, MUCH easier to control my powers, and to use them all at once. With my newfound prowess at my skills, I was able to map out the lay of the land extremely easily.

Once upon a time, the maps that my mind would be able to make were solely dependent on the air all around me, but this wasn't the case anymore. Now, I was able to map out my surroundings by detecting the presence of air, water, fire, shadows and even the ground itself. I had got a whole plethora of powers from the gods, and since a lot of them shared domains, it had only strengthened by abilities in those domains. For example, both Hephaestus and Hestia shared control over fire, and since they had both blessed me, my powers with fire were as good as my powers with water, as ironic as that sounded.

Darkness and shadows were powers that I had got from Tartarus, Hades and Thanatos, whereas control over the land itself was a power that I had inherited from Hades only. Therefore, my prowess with darkness far out shadowed my prowess with land. 'Hehe, puns…' I thought to myself, laughing as I analyzed my situation.

Using my multi-layered mental map, I was able to quickly discern the positions of the other four Organization members. Well, three. One of them had entirely left the surrounding area. He had probably taken the money and gone back to the Organization, while the rest of these five stayed behind… for some reason.

I turned around to face the two cloaked mortals standing behind me and waited expectantly for the duo to start talking. Meanwhile, the fragments of my mind were taking bets on what they would say, and I was currently supporting the part that thought the men would say some bullshit about revenge on their dead comrades and how I should be put down for my sins.

'Wouldn't even be the first time,' I thought with an outwardly sigh, 'Unfortunately for these fools, it WILL be the last.' And that's when the first guy opened his mouth.

"Well, Slayer," he spat out with a LOT of venom in his voice, "It appears your mission is complete." I just nodded my head once in the affirmative, silently allowing him to continue, "Then you have fulfilled your purpose, have you not? Do you know what happens to a dog when it's no longer useful?" He asked out loud.

After a short, yet sinister chuckle, he answered his own damn question, "It gets PUT DOWN!" And with that shout, his comrades stepped out of their hidey holes. Just as I had sensed, they were surrounding me – One was behind me, and two were flanking me on either side. And they were all pointing their guns at me.

So much for hiding their advanced technology.

But this was gonna be so much fun!

Seriously, these human idiots in the Organization just did NOT learn. I had killed seventy guys with almost the same god damn equipment 5 YEARS AGO within the span of a few seconds. What the hell were 5 guys with light machine guns going to do to me? Their bullets couldn't even scratch me because of my Yoki-enhanced skin! That was tried and tested!

But since this guy had given such an amazing speech to prepare me for my death, the least I could do was humor him, right? 'Nah, chuck it… there's no point… I'm tired of this repetitive bullshit. Every time a new guy joins the Organization here on the island, he thinks he's some sort of god in comparison to everyone else, and they start plotting out ways to try and kill me for what I've done before, or for what I am. Like jeeeeez, do these people have no life!? They're all like that Max jerk from all those years ago…'

With that thought fueling my fire, I pulled out my claymore from its sheath on my back and held the thing in an icepick (reverse) grip, even though it should be physically impossible. Well… should be. But since I had godly blood in my arteries, Yoma flesh in my body, and adrenalin in my veins, any feat was plausible.

And then the gunfire started… and I got to watch the cloaked fools act as real team players. The idiots had been stupid enough to stand in front of each other, and that made my job infinitely easier. Using the air currents to manipulate the course of some of the bullets slightly, I was able to avoid them ALL by simply ducking. But that also meant bad luck for my opponents… because when projectiles flying at speeds near Mach 1 do not hit a target… they keep going until they hit one.

And that logic hadn't appeared to this group. The two men who were standing on my right and my left were unlucky enough to be very accurate in their shots. So, their bullets just went and shot the opposite guy's brains out. Meanwhile, the guy behind me was a TERRIBLE shot, seeing as his bullets missed both me and the two on the opposite end completely.

Turning around to face idiot number 3, I fired a bullet out of the shotgun barrel in my sword's handle and put a hole straight through the guy's head. "How ironic… to die at the hands of your very own technology, just like all your other little idiotic friends. Did you know that I killed most of those men with their own guns? Hilarious, if you ask me!" I said out loud, to antagonize the other two cloaked men standing behind me.

And the attempt was successful, if the bullets screaming towards me were any hint. Rolling out of the way, I turned to face the two, and saw that they were armed with guns as well. The only difference was that these two were armed with two handguns each.

"Well… smaller equipment for smaller people, huh!" I said, as I deflected a bullet using the blade of my sword. Then, I decided to unlock my inner Jedi, and enacted a scene straight out of a Star Wars movie. What Darth Vader had once done with a lightsaber, I now did with a massive Claymore that was around three times the size.

By constantly twirling the Claymore around and switching it from hand to hand to block and deflect individual bullets, I was able to use my legs and get closer to my opponents, whose shooting speed only increased as they panicked. Luckily for me, their panicking meant less work, since they were more prone to missing now than they were before. But nobody could miss at a point-blank range, and I knew that I was increasing my chances of getting shot by moving closer to my shooters. But since I knew the shot wouldn't hurt at all, I didn't exactly have a reason to worry. Or care, really.

I twirled the blade around four times in rapid succession and caught seven bullets while the others missed me entirely. Three were caught on the initial spin on my right, then 1 was caught on the next spin towards my left, and 3 were caught on the other two spins as I twirled the blade just above my head to protect my face from the projectiles.

And then, I was finally within striking distance. With the first guy's gun practically pointed in my face, I couldn't really do anything except run him through with my claymore, but that still got him to stop shooting. For the next two seconds, I just used his body as a shield to stop any of the bullets that the last guy shot at me, causing even more friendly fire to take place. The poor guy couldn't even cough out his blood in peace as his back was riddled full of holes until his friend's bullets ran out.

After that, I didn't give him the chance to reload again. After all, he had called me some disgraceful things, and so, I had the right to be pissed at the guy. Unsheathing my sword from Mr. Bullet-hole's body, I rotated my entire body with my sword held out at ninety degrees to my abdomen, effectively splicing the bodies of both men into two halves. My sword cut through skin, flesh, and bone with ease, due to all the upgrades I had given it over the course of the past five years.

And then, I looked down at the fearful face of the last man standing – Well, not really standing, now was he? – and laughed a good, hearty laugh. Calling him an idiot, I unloaded an entire round of my shotgun into the… half-human's face.

"Man, you have got to love this thing!" I said to myself as I held up my Claymore in pride. Soon after I had joined the Organization, I had met one of their blacksmiths and got him to upgrade my weapons for me. He had fine-tuned every weapon I had got and upgraded them all a notch. Now, all of them were practically indestructible! Apparently, they were made from some impossible-to-break magnesium alloy that made them invincible. And the weapons smith had been kind enough to make me a new model of my knife, Silencer from that alloy.

But that wasn't even the best part. As a kid, I had always wanted to use guns, but upon discovering my heritage, I had realized that I'd probably never be able to use one. Which is why the fact that all of my weapons now had gun parts attached – ones that I could use – seemed like the best part to me.

For example, my Claymore now had a single-barrel shotgun attached into the handle that shot out bullets from the bottom of the sword's pommel, Silencer had a minigun attached into its body that allowed bullets to shoot out from in between the three sword-like blades, and Hellreaver now had a sniper rifle built into its main body. And that allowed for a LOT of options in my fighting style.

The only drawback was the fact that I could run out of bullets quite soon, because I didn't have guns with lots of bullet slots in them. Due to the small size of the barrels in my weapons, I could only fit six bullets in my shotgun, 4 in my knife, and 10 in my spear. While more could have fit in the polearm, I had requested the smith to not touch the front end of the spear in an effort to ensure no damage to the magical fire-spewing tip. But still, twenty bullets could carry you a long way in battle, and I could always make more on my own by using my Hephaestus powers, in case I ever ran out of ammo.

Putting my messy thought chains aside, I flicked the blood off my sword and sheathed the massive claymore. Then, I looked up towards the West and took a step forward, with one destination in mind: The Holy City of Rabona. As the sun dipped below the far-off mountains, I began my journey West, and coincidentally, a new chapter of my life.

AN – *I basically tried to describe a picture of typhon I saw on the net… after making my own changes to it… I don't know if I really captured the essence of it… but still, credits to the creator of that picture... it's AMAZING.

Also, I just want to clear one thing up… Percy is AWAKENED already… because of the unusual way in which he took in the Asarakam flesh. That's why the Organization isn't using that method to create all the other experiments.

**Ha ha, big reveal! Yay! It was extremely obvious, so it shouldn't really come as a surprise. I mean, come on… I even put it in chapter 6. Seriously though, I am NOT sure if Kratos has powers like that or not, but for plot convenience, we will say he does. 'Cause Void has some really cool powers that every hero needs.

Also, YAY! Ten chapters done! And that's the history arc complete. Now we're all caught up! And we can finally start with the Claymore plot! And by that, I do not mean Clare… no way… she's still a HUNDRED AND FIFTY generations away. Next chapter will have Isley and his generation, and we'll all get to see how Percy's existence… or even presence, in some cases, causes a change in the overall plot of Claymore.

And, speaking of which… Percy's going to be saving Teresa… coz the entire Claymore storyline actually revolves around her and Clare more than it does around anything else… and I really don't want to kill her, 'cause she's a really good character. Also, I put her name in the character section in the story... So she's living, and Priscilla is going to die, even though that would be kinda copying from the plot of Leviathan.

Anyways, follow, fav and review!