Just so all you thirsty MF's know, no pairings have been chosen for any of the characters yet. That won't be quite addressed until they're all older.
Maybe I'll hold a poll later on down the line to see where most of you are leaning.
Alexander:
When I had woken up earlier in my cabin after a good night of sleep there had been a note sitting on my face. I figured it was either my mother or one of the campers deciding to be funny.
If only.
Fast forward 5 hours later, I found myself sitting inside an empty St. John the Divine's Cathedral, the largest in America.
I had to admit, while it wasn't exactly my style, there was beauty in the designs and architecture of this place. Annabeth would love it if she hasn't already visited.
Maybe that's how I could make it up to her for using Percy and her as a distraction for Ares.
For my green-eyed friend, I already delivered my apology gift earlier, as before I had left I had asked him for his mother's address. After that, I had drained about every ATM east of Brooklyn with my Lotus Card.
Sally Jackson was going to wake up with 2 million dollars in cash and a top-of-the-line laptop for her writing sitting on her kitchen table. That woman was an absolute saint in the books, she deserved it. Plus Percy wouldn't have to worry about her as much.
For Annabeth I could take her on a trip to every architectural wonder she's ever wanted to see. The poor girl was a year rounder in camp and had been there since she was like 7, she should be able to see all the sights she wanted.
With her brains and Percy and I's power, monsters wouldn't be too much of an issue. Depending on how long it took them to get the Fleece and rescue Grover, we might even have time left to take that trip before the summer was over.
Yeah, that sounded nice.
"You're quite different from your father, you know." A familiar voice said from next to me, despite the fact I had been the only person in here not even a second ago, "Paul was never able to sit still or shut up for the life of him. He was always moving or talking, always the life of the party. If he wasn't fighting, hunting, or partying with his friends and companions. He was off making a woman fall in love with him. All of his children are similar to him in those regards."
I glanced over to my side to simply confirm who it was. The blinding gold aura when I flicked on my magical sight for barely a second left no doubt that it was him.
"You, on the other hand, you're a quiet one for the most part. You only ever open your mouth to make a smartass comment or to get answers to your questions. Other than that you always seem to be stuck in that head of yours." Uriel continued to observe, "You're efficient in how you fight, incredibly tactical for the most part. You try to end it as fast as you can, Paul was a battle addict, he'd always let his opponents get an advantage or power up to make it more exciting."
He wasn't wrong. I never really saw a point in drawing a battle out, sure it could be fun sometimes considering my mother's genes when it came to hunting, but putting my life at risk didn't make much sense.
Plus the XP I got was generally solely based on how dangerous the creature was. Sure a quest might change that sometimes, but for the most part, it didn't matter if I battled a creature for an hour or killed it within 30 seconds. I still would receive the same amount of XP in the end.
"There's also the fact you're still a virgin. As the kids say these days, your father and most of your siblings have 'gotten more ass than a toilet seat' by the time they were teenagers." He added with a chuckle.
I raised an eyebrow, "Most?"
"Your sister Michelle is quite innocent as well."
Ah yes, my favorite and only sister.
"So question? My sisters are obviously supernatural right? Each one of them looks like their stereotypical species. Michelle has hair so blonde it looks gold and her eyes are incredibly blue, the black-haired one has violet eyes, and that red-headed cunt has literal blood red hair. Paul has none of those features and regular humans don't either. In the order, I named them: Angel, Fallen Angel, and Devil, correct?"
The archangel arched an eyebrow in response, "Is there a reason you only bothered using Michelle's name? Or are asking if your sisters are supernatural. You should know why already."
And here came the reveal.
"I have no memory of anything before that day at the airport when Paul was killed." I said with a shrug, it was technically the truth, "That day I remember Michelle being the only one of them who was kind to me and actually acted like a sister. So I made sure to remember her name. The other two? For all intents and purposes that was the first time, I met them. The black-haired one was silent and the redheaded one was like I said a cunt. Didn't bother to remember their names. Other than that I have no idea about basically anything of my past."
"Interesting." Uriel muttered, "No memory of basically the previous 12 years of your life. Did you receive any kind of head injury before that day?"
"Nope." I shrugged, "Suddenly I found myself eating breakfast in a place I didn't recognize with people I didn't know. Besides, even if I did it wouldn't matter, I have a pretty powerful healing factor that can heal even lethal injuries."
Now you may be wondering why I was being so open with such a powerful and unknown being, especially when my mind was completely fortified so no one would ever find out by going into it.
Well, my reason was simple. I could fool my Greek's all I wanted, none of them knew me before arriving in this world.
But the biblical pantheon? I had no chance. At a minimum, 3 people would realize I had no memory of them, which would be pretty suspicious.
Not that I particularly wanted to deal with the Biblical side of things. I was happy enough to just rock out the Greek storyline and travel the world, but I doubted Cadius would be the end of what would come after me from them. So I needed to be a little prepped for this.
Thus by skirting the truth with Uriel and establishing a working relationship, I had a powerful figure to collaborate my story with.
"I don't suppose you could clue me into some of my past? Seemed like you knew my father." I asked.
Uriel grunted, "I worked with your father often, which meant I always got snippets about his children. From what he said about you, you were a pretty energetic and bubbly child. You went to school in the underworld with your sisters, I heard you were often bullied in your younger years considering you had little to no powers. Though you eventually made a group of friends that stood up for you. I hear you all often get into all sorts of adventures and trouble."
That solidified that this was the right option. Alexander did indeed have a whole history before me taking his place and there were now a whole lot more people from the Biblical pantheon that could pin that something would be off about me if I went to school with them.
Teachers, staff, friends, their families, other students, and anyone else a young Alexander had interacted with.
Something stood out though.
"Wait, if I went to school in the Underworld with my sisters. Then why were they leaving without me? Why was Michelle going to a school down there? And why the hell were they boarding a plane to get to Hell?"
"Lucifuge academy in American terms is K-12 and then the equivalent of one of your universities after that. In addition, it hosts students of every race in our pantheon. From Angels, Devils, Fallen, Vampires, Werewolves, and so on and so forth. They've been doing it for the last couple of centuries to foster better relations and maintain peace."
I gave a long internal sigh. I could practically feel the migraine coming on.
"That doesn't even begin to explain…"
"In addition." He powered on through my interruption, "While they do allow the lower classes to attend there, it traditionally was for those of the elite. As such one of the old traditions is for them to and pardon my French, host a giant fuck-fest on Earth where the students can party, fuck, get absolutely wasted on a concoction of exotic drugs and alcohol, and a whole bunch of other degenerate shit before the term starts. It's being held in Europe again this year in Italy."
I gave him a flat stare in return, "You're joking right?"
"I am not. I've been informed the tradition has been upheld even into the modern age with the academy's expanded attendance because it helps the students be a little less rowdy during the school year."
I conceded that point. I'm sure the poor faculty of that school drank heavily considering they not only had to deal with teenagers but supernatural teenagers. Anything to make their lives easier was probably accepted without thought.
Poor bastards.
"So I'm guessing my sisters were going to attend it and I was being held back because I was too young?"
"Partially right. Michelle along with most of the Angel kids usually stay away from it and try to stop the other tens of thousands of students from hurting mortals too much while partying. Your other two sisters, Ashley, and Jezzabell by the way, always attend."
"I already don't remember their names."
"You on the other hand were kept back simply because you didn't like to go. Children 10 and up are allowed to go considering every other species besides Angels are sinful by nature."
Good job old Alex. He must've had a good head on his shoulders to avoid a massive drug-fueled kegger with a bunch of supernatural creatures.
And now I fully regretted asking about my past. I was expecting it to be more occult-like and mysterious, not DXD meets American Highschool/College TV show.
Definitely made an excellent decision to abandon that questline. Sorry about possibly killing you Paul, but your sacrifice was not in vain.
I had but one final question before I hopefully never had to bring this up again.
"My mother gave me a book talking about the factions of your pantheon. It had pages on my brother and father. The page about my father said he was a Nephilim, but it didn't say who their angelic parent was."
Which meant I was at most about ¼ human. Maybe less depending on how dominant the divine traits were.
"Yes, your father's lineage has always been a secret that he kept close to his chest. As of now only a select few outsides of your siblings and some of his lovers know what he was."
"Including you?"
"Including me."
"I'm gonna take a guess and say you're not going to tell me."
Uriel shot me a wink, "Consider this your first lesson under my tutelage Alexander. Knowledge always comes at a price. I gave you knowledge of your past because you did me the favor of coming here to meet me. If you want more information, whether it be about your family or something I can teach you, you will have to earn it first."
Should've expected that, but I at least now had confirmation outside of the book on what exactly I was.
Kinda.
Hey, game. Do I get any cool powers or secret perks for finally figuring out my history?
!
No.
You were warned that denying crossroads quests have consequences.
The airport attack was one of them. This is another. Find out your exact lineage and maybe. Maybe. Options will be offered on how to earn new powers outside of the ones we have already given you.
Why was I even surprised?
It was literally denying me powers because I said no to avoiding its dumbass quests.
Fuck you too then game! Your ass is so getting a 1-star review.
"You seem pretty calm when faced with the option of learning more about your lineage Alexander. Most would be more excited."
I raised an unimpressed eyebrow at him, "My mother is literally a goddess, Zeus is my grandfather, and Hades himself is my great uncle. Being a descendant of some Angel doesn't really impress me. No offense."
In hindsight, it did make sense as to why this whole time I've only been able to access my Greek bloodline's powers and why the tutorial on magic said mine was locked to strictly Greek rules.
"Well now that we got that out of the way, here," Uriel instructed as he threw a thick file folder at me.
Catching it I gave it a once over, "The hell is this?"
"Your first assignment should you choose to accept my offer of an apprenticeship." He said, "Inside that folder is all the information you'll need on an incredibly large coven of Vampires I want you to take out. Consider this a trial run. If you impress I'll have more things I'll want you to handle later."
My eyes widened considerably.
This. This right here is what I wanted you dumb system!
Spare me the family drama or the dumb high school arc that teenagers went through.
Hunting down and slaying monsters? Now that's something I could do all day with a smile on my face.
"Wait didn't you say that Vampires were in attendance at this academy? Will I be breaking rules by killing them?"
Not that I particularly cared, a monster was a monster after all.
"There are monsters that are affiliated with certain pantheons such as Greek and Chinese Vampires, and then there are those that are not. The same is true with many monsters. The ones that live side by side with those in the underworld and go to school with your siblings are more civilized I suppose." He explained before that cold smile I saw in our last encounter surfaced, "The ones you will be hunting are unholy and savage beasts. The longer they exist the more humans they will harm."
Good enough for me.
Cracking open the file I began to go through its information, "What kind of numbers am I looking at?"
"At minimum? Dozens at least, perhaps closer to 100 depending on how many they've turned. The town they were in was fully populated and active not even a year ago. Most were probably fed on, but inevitably some were turned."
Oh.
I might need backup for this.
Luckily for me, I knew someone who wouldn't be needed for a quest for at least another week or so.
"Let me make an Iris call first."
!
New quest issued!
Quest type: Normal
You've been issued a job by an Arcangel! Go and slay some Vampires and rescue any humans that could possibly still be alive or are prisoners.
Rewards:
Colt barrel
What kind of reward was that?
Percy:
"-"
"-"
"You look like you got attacked by a swarm of pissed-off birds." Alex pointed out while trying to hide my smirk.
I glared harder through the magical video screen, "Your hilarious Alex. Also where the Hades are you? Tantalus has been looking for you all day!"
The Son of Artemis shrugged, "I'm in New York right now."
"Why in the Hades are you in New York?"
"I had a meeting with an Arcangel who wants me to slay a horde of Vampires."
I shot him a flat stare, waiting for him to crack a smile or tell me the punchline of the joke. All I received was a raised eyebrow in response.
A distant memory of him mentioning the Biblical god was real and his family was affiliated with that pantheon flashed through my mind.
By the gods, he wasn't joking.
"So, you wanna go hunt some fucking Vampires with me. It's going to be pretty badass." Alex goaded.
My head couldn't stop itself from nodding in agreement. It did sound pretty badass.
But also dangerous. He'd also be breaking a dozen new rules that the Camp had enacted, skipping the kitchen duty he'd been punished with unfairly, and missing out on tonight's bonfire.
"They also have human prisoners they've been feeding on and turning."
A fire suddenly ignited itself in my chest.
"When and where?"
"Meet me out by the road outside of the camp in about 8 hours. I got to stop by Olympus while I'm in the city and buy some magical ingredients from vendors up there." He explained.
I blinked in confusion, "What ingredients could you possibly need from Olympus?"
"Oh, you know. Just some Dwarven Alcohol, a couple of special mushrooms, and Ghouls Blood. That reminds me, after that, I need to go buy a car."
"You're 13," I said dryly. "Besides the fact, you don't even have a driver's license, can you even see over the wheel?"
"For one I know exactly how to drive. And two, I'll have you know I'm 5'4. Plenty of adult women and some men are as tall or shorter than me and can drive just fine."
He had a point. Alex and I were a couple inches over the average 13-year-old height. As were most Half-Bloods. Annabeth said it was because Demigods developed faster so we could reach our prime faster and be able to fight sooner.
Considering we also had inbuilt battle reflexes and ancient greek hardwired into our brains, I could easily believe it. There was also the fact he had seen a photo of Thalia, Luke, and Annabeth when they had been 14, 15, and 9.
Luke had already looked like the young adult he was when Percy had met him at 19 and Thalia had looked closer to the 16 or 17-year-olds at my schools.
"Whatever, just don't wreck whatever car you get."
With that, the Iris message blinked out of existence.
You know if you had asked me a year ago about who caused me the most headaches I would have answered Annabeth.
Funnily enough, that spot had easily been taken.
For the next several hours I prepped for vampire hunting. Making sure Riptide was freshly sharpened, the hidden deployable shield Tyson had gifted me this morning was in working order, and hiding some leather armor under my clothes and a thick jacket.
I even found an armored leather piece that was designed to fit around your neck. Should help stop any nasty bites from happening.
I made the decision not to tell Annabeth. Not only would she probably call both of us idiots, but Alex had asked me alone. So I figured he only wanted me along for the ride.
Hours went by before I decided it was time to go meet Alex.
It wasn't too difficult to get around the camp patrols, especially considering I knew the routes and they were looking for things trying to enter the camp, not leave it.
It must've been another hour or two that I waited by the road outside of camp. Honestly, I was surprised no monsters had tried anything yet.
My attention was drawn however as I heard the roar of an engine come speeding down the road. From around the bend, a jet black muscle car drifted past and came to a stop in front of me.
Of course, Alex was behind the wheel. He was giving me a shit-eating grin he had on half the time.
"Do I even want to know where you got this thing from?"
Alex gave a mock glare from behind a pair of aviators and slapped the dash, "This thing is a 1967 Chevy Impala. One of the coolest cars ever produced."
I rolled my eyes as I popped open the door and got in, "So where are we heading to?"
In response, Arc threw an information folder filed with papers at me.
"An abandoned town near Cape Vincent and Point Alexandria."
"That's near the Canadian border."
"Indeed it is. Settle in for the drive and read the files for the whole brief. There's some good information in there on what we can expect, from numbers to information and weaknesses on these species of vamps."
Cracking open the vanilla folder I gave a sigh, "These are going to be complete ones compared to their greek versions aren't they?"
"Yep." Alex said as he shifted the transmission and began driving, "There are plenty of snacks and drinks in the back seat if you get hungry and thirsty."
Leaning back into my seat I saw Alex turn the car's radio on and pop a cassette in.
As it started playing I hummed along.
I always did like Kansas.
Alexander:
"We're here," I said and pulled the car off the side of the road.
It was about a 6-hour drive to here and it was already starting to get dark. My affinities for Lightning and Air were also basically screaming at me that a storm was incoming.
This actually would work out pretty well.
"This is the middle of the forest." Percy laminated.
"I know, we'll approach the town on foot. If this is basically their home and they have anywhere near the numbers I was told about, I don't think we'll go unnoticed by just driving into town."
He accepted my answer and stretched the kinks out of his muscles, "So what's the plan?"
"Follow me to the trunk."
Getting out of the car we made our way to the back and I popped her open.
"Over the course of a year with my mother she had me fight and study monsters of both pantheons. As such I both created and bought things that would be useful when dealing with a variety of monsters."
After all, was no such thing as being over-prepared.
"If we didn't live in a world full of gods and monsters I'd call you paranoid," Percy muttered.
I snorted and fished out two pairs of knives, "One for me and one for you. Both these are made of celestial bronze, backups in case we get into tight spaces. Loop the sheath around your belt buckles for ease of access."
While he was doing as I instructed I grabbed the next pair of goodies I had gotten for Percy.
In my hands were a holster, a modified M 1911, and several rounds of special ammo.
Percy's eyes widened comically, "You're giving me a gun? Besides the obvious, what are bullets going to do against monsters?"
I slapped his shoulder and handed him the items, "Those bullets are specially made by yours truly. Half mortal metal, half celestial bronze. They work against both mortals and monsters."
"I neither know how to operate a gun or how to aim if you ever noticed me at archery class."
"Guns are much easier to use than archery. No need to judge power or the drop of the projectile in the short-range. Literally, just aim and pull the trigger. Besides, this is only just a last resort for you." I said.
Spending the next couple of minutes directing him on how to reload and operate the pistol, I pulled out the next gift from my pocket and handed them to him.
A pair of sunglasses with a slight bronze tint.
Percy took a look at them, "It's about to be night in case you didn't notice."
"Exactly. And considering I have natural night vision while you don't, I bought these straight from one of Heaphusts shops for you. They offer crystal clear night vision and will stick to your face until you want them to come off."
"Wicked." Percy said as he popped them on, "Also where's your gun at?"
With a wink, I reached into my inventory and pulled my baby out.
A completely modified and custom SCAR-L appeared in reality. She was chambered in 5.56 with my special rounds, had a flippable sight that could let me go from the red dot to a 3x, and for now had some of my prototype runes to make her more durable and get slightly faster bullet speeds.
She was still a work in progress obviously.
I had also procured two silencers for my baby and Percy's gun.
"You know what. I'm just going to ignore the fact you made a rifle appear out of nowhere."
"Oh yeah, I technically have an inventory space where I can store stuff. Kinda convenient." I said and slung my rifle around my shoulder, before pulling out the final thing we would need for tonight, "Here you go and bottoms up."
I tossed Percy one of two vials of black liquid I had made earlier this morning.
"What in the hades is this?" He asked as he inspected it.
"Black blood."
Surprisingly the potion from a certain monster hunter franchise existed here as well. Technically it had a different name here, as I had found when doing some research on Vampires and undead, but I felt like the name I already knew it by was far better.
"Judging by the name it can't possibly do anything well."
I wagged a finger at him, "And that's where you would be wrong my green-eyed friend. This stuff will make anything that tries to drink your blood have a very very bad day and will kill anything that gets injected into your bloodstream for the foreseeable future."
And yes I did test this stuff out on myself earlier. Technically these potions had a precedent for killing any non-empowered mortal both in this world and in Geralt's who drank them.
Luckily for both Percy and I, we were Demigods. Powerful Demigods at that. When I had tried it earlier I hadn't noticed any difference besides simply getting a notification from the system telling me that its effects had activated.
Ah, the perks of being half-human... well for Percy at least. As I learned today, I'm only a quarter human.
"Fine." Percy moaned as he unscrewed the cap and chugged the potion. He started gagging almost immediately, "Gods that tastes like garbage."
"Not wrong." I muttered and chugged mine as well.
!
You are now under the effects of the potion: Black Blood
"So you bring anything else? The files said they were weak to holy elements such as Holy Water, Sunlight, wooden stakes to the heart-"
"We won't need any of those things really." I shrugged, "Those are things mortals need to fight and weaken vampires. You and I on the other hand have Celestial Bronze weapons. Divine metal is deadly to any monster, no matter where you hit them, or what Pantheon they belong to. Besides I can shoot them with light anyway if I really need to and since they are weak to running water…"
Percy's eyes widened, "I can just blast them with it."
The town was by a lake and a heavy storm was about to roll in. Percy was going to have all the water he could ever want.
"Let's get going."
The wind was howling in my ears by the time we made our way to the edge of the forest and on top of a cliff, which gave us a great viewpoint over the town.
It had been about an hour since we left the car. During that time the storm had fully rolled in and had grown fierce. Rain poured down in sheets and huge bursts of lightning cracked the sky frequently.
Not that it bothered Percy or I.
Percy didn't get wet unless he wanted himself to do so and I could use Aerokinesis to make a small skin-like barrier around myself to stop the rain from reaching my clothes.
My mana regen was high enough to where I could keep it up as long as I wanted without going into a deficit.
From our vantage point, I could fully see the town. Some rows of suburbs to the east, a town square with plenty of business and town hall in the middle, a school to the North, and a decent-sized church to the south.
I noted to the west there was a large mansion that sat by a river that most likely fed into the Hudson Bay if I remembered right.
It was of note because the maps and satellite images Uriel had provided did not show a mansion of that size nor any structure at all there in the first place. That and there was something off about it. The entire area around it looked like it was completely surrounded by a dense unnatural fog that stretched well over a mile and all the plant life and trees didn't exactly look healthy.
"You see that right?"
"Yeah." Percy said, "Wasn't on the maps and that crap surrounding it can't be natural."
His eyes weren't near as powerful as mine, but between the Hephaestus sunglasses that were giving him night vision and his divine blood making him a superhuman anyway, it was still easy to spot for him.
"So either an Arcangel gave us faulty intel…"
"Or it's hidden by some kind of magic." Percy theorized.
"That, or it was built recently."
"Fair point."
Looking over the rest of the town again I noticed something wrong.
"There's not a single light on in sight."
"The files said vamps have night vision as well right? Not like they would need any, plus any locals that might still be alive wouldn't have them on anyway so they could hide."
Very true.
"Ight so here's the plan, considering the freaky gothic mansion is new we leave it for last and sweep the town first." I said.
It would allow us t-
"Good idea. Their leaders are probably in the mansion. If we kill everything in the town first we don't run the risk of getting mobbed by the others coming in as reinforcements once we go to their lair. Plus we can look for survivors first." Percy muttered.
I looked over to Percy in surprise. Book him at this point would have probably just gone in swinging like an idiot without Annabeth there to make a plan.
I was so proud.
"Can you use those special eyes of yours to see anything else?"
Nodding I flicked on my ability to see magical energy.
If they were inside houses I wouldn't be able to see them, as X-ray vision wasn't included in the package, unfortunately, but anything outside would be fair game. I had used it a bit when we had gone through the forest to make sure nothing was following us.
My vision focused and suddenly I could see all the energy in the area. From Percy's roaring sea-green next to me to everything within the realm of my vision. Which was a lot considering.
Besides the town looking quite dead and the creepy-ass mansion, nothing was really moving, besides a couple of small birds flying around the outside of the town.
Wait.
Birds didn't have jagged wings like that and they most definitely didn't have a black misty aura around them.
Jackpot.
Flicking my 3x scope up I took careful aim and breathed out. All while triggering lighting enhancement for only a few seconds.
Five small cracks echoed out.
Silencers could suppress the noise of a gun, but it was a myth that they could make it anywhere near as silent as they often did in movies.
But that was alright. Because with the wind, rain, and lightning being produced by the storm you would have had an easier time hearing someone shout at you from behind a jet engine.
Five bats that had been patrolling the perimeter suddenly turned into clouds of grey dust that were immediately swept away by the wind.
"We're clear for now. Keep an eye out for any more of our shapeshifting friends in the air."
Percy nodded and we were off.
As we exited the forest we both stuck to the shadows of buildings and houses the best we could. We both blended in well with our dark clothing. Percy with the black jacket that hid his armor underneath, and me with my recolored leather jacket that was so dark brown it was almost black.
Sorry mom, but as much as I liked the silver and white, it was terrible for stealth missions and the jacket was too good to leave behind.
If it was made of Nemean Lion, then it was probably bulletproof proof just like the pelt/cloak Percy would get later this year.
Within an hour we had swept the entire suburb district and found nothing. Every house, shed, and cellar had been checked.
Not a Vampire or human in sight.
Next, we hit the town square where the businesses were. That's where we found our first targets.
Two female Vampires were standing around talking about something under an awning by an alley the two of us were in. They heard neither of us as we slowly crept up behind them.
Good. My theory was right.
Initially, I was worried that these monsters would be able to smell us with their enhanced senses. Which was made worse by the fact that Percy and I were powerful Demigods. We had a stronger scent than most of the others did.
Either these ones couldn't because they weren't Greek monsters, or because my gambit had paid off and the heavy rain was hiding our scents.
Nudging Percy I took out my knife and gestured towards the back of the neck where it met the head, pointed to the one in front of him, and then held up three fingers.
He got the message as he pulled out his own.
My fingers counted down to zero and in a burst of speed, both Vampires were tackled to the ground and had our knives buried inside their skulls. I quickly rolled my over a bit to make sure it was dead.
Lifeless eyes stared back at me as they began as the body started to crumble into gray dust.
It was something interesting I had found out over my year of training.
Greek monsters faded into golden dust when killed. As they went to Tartarus to reform and come back eventually.
Other monsters didn't do that. Biblical and other non-affiliated ones for example just straight up died, no second chances available and it was a toss-up on whether their bodies turned to dust.
Though I did note they did it more when using a divine metal or strong magic.
Standing, I scanned around for anything else.
"Coast is clear. Let's sweep these buildings and the Town Hall like we did those houses."
It took longer to do so considering these buildings were larger than the houses we went through and it was a couple more hours until we were done. During which we encountered a handful of more Vampires and even some Thralls.
The school to the north was quicker as it was a single building and before long we were almost at the church to the south.
Zeus and Poseidon must've been mighty pissed off today because as we made our way towards the school and hospital the storm was still raging at full strength.
Checking my watch I noticed it was almost midnight.
"I still can't believe you raided all the money and jewels in the bank." Percy said as we approached the church.
"Already said I share with you and considering we haven't found any survivors, not like they'll be missing it."
We cased the perimeter first, checking to see if there were any other entrances besides the front.
There was one that more than likely led to some kind of cellar or basement.
"Maybe we can block it somehow so nothing can escape out the back. If there's anything in there they'll have to go through us in the front."
Another reason I wanted to make sure everything in the town was killed, besides the ones that Percy brought up, was because Vampires were like a plague. If even one escaped they could just disappear to somewhere else and turn others to rebuild their numbers.
The Son of Posideon nodded and slammed his fist into the ground.
Slowly and quietly stone rose from the ground and began covering the cellar door. Not even a minute later the entire thing was encased in multiple feet of stone.
Sheesh. His Geokinesis was far more advanced than I thought.
We made our way around the front and stopped in front of the door.
"Well, shall we?"
Percy and I at 13 were far stronger than even the strongest human male could ever hope to achieve, even if they used drugs and hormones to cheat.
Technically I guess we were also cheating since we both had divine blood, but that's just semantics.
So it was no surprise that when we both raised our legs to kick the door down, instead of simply opening, the thick wooden doors fractured and were blasted off their hinges.
There to greet us were a good dozen or so bloodsuckers who were looking incredibly surprised at the two of us and the doors which now littered the church in chunks.
"The fuck!?" A woman with short blonde hair cursed.
Unlike Greek vamps, most of the ones we encountered look almost completely human. Besides the slitted eyes and fangs of course.
It was a shame they all had to die, the blonde one was kinda cute.
"Out of the way, I got this one." Percy smirked as he thrusted his hand forward.
Incredibly for the first time in forever my danger sense actually pinged.
'Move to the left.'
Heading the warning I did so.
!
Skill leveled up!
Danger Sense Lvl (5): That little feeling you get in the back of your mind when someone or something wants you dead.
- Simple verbal cues are now sounded at random when a fatal strike is inbound.
I noticed the skill was starting to work more the higher it leveled up. I wish it would at least put that in the description. I thought it was broken the first year I had it.
My thoughts were cut off by the roar of water and I saw a huge funnel of water rush inside the doorway where I had been standing.
Looking up I saw thousands of gallons of rainwater that had been pouring down being condensed to a single point and then directed where Percy had pointed.
Moments later the blast of water shut off and Percy's let control of the rain above go.
Moving back into the doorway next to Percy I peeked inside the church. Everything was gone. The furniture, the vampires, and even the entire back of the church had been vaporized by the powerful stream of water.
Looking down I saw steaming puddles of goo that had been the Vampires.
"Well, I guess it was running water." I said.
"And I believe that I'm ahead now by at least 12." He said to me.
"7, I killed those 5 earlier with my rifle."
Percy gestured to the destruction in front of us, "Yet my way was way cooler."
"Bite me." I snarked.
"Maybe if I was the blonde vampire I would. Noticed she instantly had your attention. Gotta thing for blondes with sharp teeth Sparky?" Percy fired back and wiggled his eyebrows.
Tch.
"Fuck off." I muttered.
"You know I know a certain blonde that, despite what the rumors say, happens to not have a boyfriend."
I slapped him upside the head for that.
Knew I should've never told him that I had a thing for blondes while we were driving up here. But in return, I now knew Percy like redheads.
Soon I would return fire full force when Percy made a certain friend at a damn out west.
With the town officially cleared we began our trek towards the mansion.
"Sure you can't just rain a lighting bolt on the damn thing and set it on fire?" Percy asked as we began to see that creepy fog surrounding us.
This definitely isn't a normal fog. At moments I swear I could hear voices whispering behind me and shadows appear to move where there was nothing to cast them.
Plus my knockoff Sharingan eyes saw that it was radiating mass amounts of magic.
"I'd love to, but if there are any human prisoners inside there I'd fry them as well." I explained, "Same reason I don't just have you raise the lake and dump a tidal wave onto it."
"So the slow way it is?" Percy sighed.
"Well, I wouldn't say that." I responded, "After all, we no longer have to be quiet anymore."
"Now that's what I like to hear." He said as he fished Riptide out of his pockets and activated it.
Eventually, we made it far enough that we could fully see the large mansion up close in all its glory. Gothic architecture meshed with dark oak, stone, and if I wasn't mistaken, black marble?
Someone definitely had money to throw around.
Walking into the courtyard I admired the statues of bats and wolves as we stopped in the middle and faced the large wooden and metal doors that made up the entrance.
"Think of anyone's home?" Percy asked sarcastically.
Throwing him a glance I smirked right back, "Who knows. Think the doors are locked?"
"Possibly." He said, "Why don't you go and give it a good strong knock."
"My pleasure." I said as I allocated points that I had recently gained from leveling into my intelligence and wisdom stat. 30 was dumped into intelligence and 20 into wisdom.
It got a chuckle out of me that my MP was now almost larger than my Health Pool, yet I still had less than a third of what Percy had yesterday. Which also had gotten larger over the time we spent tonight as we leveled up.
Little fucking monster he was.
Cupping my hands together I concentrated almost all of the new 2000 extra mana into my hands and prepped to unleash the attack.
Lances of lighting arced around my arms and struck the ground as the energy violently tried to escape my control. Instead, it was formed into a spear of lighting in front of me.
"Thunderbolt."
The blast shot from my hands faster than either of us could track and smashed right into the door.
The boom and flash of light that followed almost made me blind and left a ringing in my ears as Percy and I nearly got sent back flying from the force.
"You think they know we're here now?" I asked.
The dust that had been kicked up from the blast was quickly swept away by the storm and showed where the door had once been.
All that remained were some burnt pieces of metal that hung loosely off the sides and a torrent of destruction that had once been the mansion's foyer. The destruction isn't limited to the inside either. The stone and marble outside that had been near the door were charred and cracked as well.
It was followed by a countless number of voices that started shouting in surprise and anger. I had probably shaken the whole mansion with that blast.
"I believe that's our cue." Percy said as marched forward.
Following him with my rifle in hand we stepped inside and I saw firsthand how much damage I did.
What was once a large and expensive decorated foyer was now charred and smoking all over. The lush red carpet was now almost recognizable and I had blasted through one of the two staircases in the middle to the point where I could see a couple of rooms behind it.
There was a rush of wind and suddenly the entire second floor overlooking the room we were in was filled with vampires.
Lots of them.
"WHO DARES!"
In the middle of all of them that stood closest to the top of the stairs was a pale woman with platinum blonde hair in a Victorian-style dress.
"You're staring Sparky." Percy snickered from my left, "We better hope Kronos doesn't shapeshift into a blonde woman or we're fucked."
I couldn't decide whether to be annoyed at him for not letting that go or so absolutely proud at the fact he had just dropped his first F-Bomb.
"Would you believe it if I said we had the wrong house?" I asked.
The woman bared her fangs at me with a hiss and turned to another Vampire at her side, "I'll inform my husband of this intrusion. Rip them apart and drain them of their blood in the meantime!"
I don't think so.
Once again I activated Lighting Enhancement for only a brief moment and the world slowed down around me. The ability was still pretty draining after all this time, even with the larger mana pool I now have compared to when I got it.
Which is why I had learned to instead use it in small bursts. Even a few seconds while sped up could give me a major advantage over most foes without having to drain tons of MP.
Those few seconds were all I needed to aim and pull the trigger.
The world sped back up while the woman's head snapped back and the ones behind her were sprayed with greymatter.
Silence rang throughout the room.
"Oops."
"Kill them both!"
The Vampires began vaulting over the rails to reach the floor we were on and began to rush us.
"Showtime Percy."
Bullets sprayed from my gun into the oncoming horde and Percy activated his watch shield and stomped onto the ground.
Dozens of them fell to the divine bullets, others suddenly were impaled by massive spikes of stone that surged up from the floor.
There were still lots of them though and they were almost in melee range.
Slinging my rifle away I summoned Abyss Watcher from my inventory and activated a function I rarely used on it.
It's elemental channeling ability.
Yanking the humming feeling under my skin I channeled into the ancient blade. The runes flared brightly before pure light surged around and covered the entire blade.
Yes, I had just created a magical lightsaber and yes it was probably the coolest thing I had ever done.
The first enemy in range of me died from being bisected from the holy blade. The sword passing through it like hot butter.
The next two after that came at me and tried the old double team strategy to throw them off. For their trouble, the one on the left caught a light arrow through the head and the other one lost an arm before I spun around him and shattered his knee with a well-placed kick. Dropping him to the ground.
Abyss Watcher took his head clean off.
Channing even more power into the blade I spun around in a wide arc and unleashed a light wave.
Almost every monster near me was cut clean in half before they could react.
I finished just in time to turn around and see Percy scalp one of them with a quick swing of his blade.
The three Vampires that tried to rush him from behind barely got within a meter of him before 3 large spikes of earth were launched from the ground and impaled them into the walls.
Around my fellow Demigod, countless other bodies were lying at his feet. All were in various states of distraction or pierced straight through with water and stone.
One, in particular, had a small ice spear going through its head.
Oh my.
Percy saw where my eyes were drawn and offered a sheepish smile, "That was by accident. I always toyed around with the idea of being able to manipulate ice since it's another form of water, but I've never been able to do it. Well until now. It just kinda clicked."
I held back a snort. I don't care how many people bitched at me for having a stupid amount of powers. Because this kid was just as broken as me.
Fucking Hydrokinesis, Geokineis, and now Cryokinesis. He could eventually make hurricanes right? So what's next, Aerokinesis?
Bastard.
Gesturing towards the stairs I smiled, "After you good sir. I think we're going to have a pissed-off hubby Vampire waiting for us."
Rolling his eyes Percy walked towards the only remaining usable staircase with me following behind him.
The whole way I was expecting another Vamp to jump out and try to attack us. But it didn't happen, it was eerily quiet as we checked rooms, went up more stairs, and made our way deeper into the mansion.
I suppose we did kill a lot of them down there at the entrance and my blast probably did alert all of them with how powerful it was.
The more of the mansion we cleared, the more apparent it became that we weren't going to find any human survivors.
Sorry, we were too late guys.
We climbed what should be the final staircase inside of the estate and found ourselves staring down a windowed hallway that overlooked the lake and the rest of the outside ground. On the other end was another set of grand doors.
These ones had intricate designs that seemed to make up some kind of crest.
"Bossfight time?" Percy asked.
"Looks like it. Get ready."
We approached the doors and got ready to take them down.
"On three. Oh and Percy?"
"Yeah?" He shot me a glance.
"We've pretty much confirmed there are no humans left at all. If shit hits the fan in there, summon the biggest tidal wave and earthquake you can and level this place."
"Got it."
"1, 2, 3!"
Our legs lashed out and kicked the door with all of our might.
The door sill bowed inward and opened, but it was much heavily reinforced compared to the others as it stayed on its hinges.
"You know, you simply could have just opened the door." A dry voice called out from the other side of the room.
A rather regal and pale middle-aged man sat behind a desk in what seemed like a study.
It wouldn't have looked out of place at any other old-fashioned rich guy's home. Shelves, filled with books, rick oak furniture, stained glass windows, a fireplace, and even two scantily clad women with collars around their necks nuzzling his thighs.
Maybe that last bit was an exception, but I'm sure plenty of billionaires had done something like that at some point.
"Alex?" Percy asked.
I hit both women with a quick observe to see what was up with them.
"Thralls. Their minds are already long gone." I replied.
"Interesting scrying ability you have there my young friend." The man mused.
"Sure is." I said as I activated my lightning.
The world went still and seven shots rang out.
The first two buried themselves into the skulls of the two slave girls. Putting them quickly out of their misery. The other five flew right at the Vampire's chest and head.
Only instead of striking him dead, his hand blurred forward and caught the five meant for him.
Uh oh.
The Vampire hissed in pain and opened his fist, letting the bullets drop to the ground in a clatter.
At the same time, it allowed me to see that just touching the divine metal had terribly burnt his hand.
Deciding to hit him with an observe as well since he had obviously just displayed a feat the rest of his brethren hadn't, I bit back a curse as I read it.
I should have realized it earlier. The supernatural effects happening around the lair, the size of this horde, the grand display of wealth?
"Percy he's not a regular Vampire or even an Elder one, he's a Lord. Do the thing now." I said with urgency.
"Like right now?"
"Yes!"
He was a lower one according to his profile, but a Lord none the less and I really wasn't liking the question mark that was appearing as his level.
That and I had a scope on their abilities from my own book and Uriel's information.
Shape changing, the ability to turn into mist, regeneration, spider climb, invisibility, and a whole assortment of other shit I didn't want to deal with.
The Vampire Lord was still rubbing his burnt unhealing hand before angrily glancing at his now dead slaves, "You brats have no idea what kind of transgression you have co-"
Whatever he was trying to say was drowned out by what I could only describe as a roar. One thing was for sure though, it wasn't a roar anything living could produce.
The mansion itself began trembling and a sudden blast of pressure began blasting out all the windows in the room.
It was then I saw it.
Behind the giant stained glass window that was now shattered, the storm had somehow grown incredibly more violent and a large wall of darkness was rapidly approaching us.
As it got closer I realized that the roar I heard was from a tidal wave made up of millions of gallons of water.
A glance out of the corner of my eyes with my magic sight showed me Percy's body was flaring violently with his unique green aura.
"So you don't get wet or hurt, you might want to grab onto me." He said through gritted teeth as veins bulged angrily in his temples and neck.
I compiled without hesitation.
The Vampire Lord looked at it stunned. I couldn't blame him, Greek Demigods were pretty rare all things considered. Children of the Big Three even more so. I doubt when he was building this mansion on the lakeside he thought about having to deal with a Son of Poseidon.
Not a moment sooner the wave crashed into the estate.
Despite the fact we were standing on what had to be the tenth floor, everything was suddenly just gone.
Wood, stone, and metal. It was all just sheared away as the millions of gallons of water ran through it. From underneath me I could see the rest of the mansion also being eaten away and crushed by the pressure.
Yet I felt none of it.
My hand being on Percy's shoulder was completely protecting me from everything.
Eventually, we began descending near the bottom, as there was now nothing left beneath us. I noted that the water was now flowing back the other way into the lake from where it had come from.
By the time our feet touched the newly cleared earth, the water was now just a steady stream about up to our waists as it continued to flow.
With how much water he pulled and the continuing storm it would probably stay like that for a couple of more hours.
The shoulder I was holding onto slumped and Percy fell underneath the water completely. I wasn't worried. He could breathe in it after all, but still, I reached down and brought his upper half above the surface.
"You alright big guy?" I asked.
An observe told me his MP was completely drained and was in the process of recovering, which was boosted a bit since he was in the water right now.
It also showed me the status effect Exhaustion X4 was currently applied to him. If I remembered D&D rules correctly, that was pretty bad.
Taking a ragged breath he wearily looked up at me with worryingly bloodshot eyes. If I hadn't known what he had just done I'd assume he just smoked a whole warehouse full of dope.
"Not dead yet." He croaked out.
"I can see that Percy." I said as I patted his head.
"N-no dumbass… bloodsuckers not dead. I felt him still alive through the water. Hurt but alive."
Oh.
My magic sight kicked in and a fair distance away I saw something struggling to get out of the water.
"I'll go finish him. You take a short rest underwater." I said as I let him go to drop back underneath.
"Yeah… that sounds nice." Percy muttered before falling back underneath.
Making my way over to the downed Vampire, I made a note not to use any Lightning attacks. Didn't want to accidentally fry Percy after all. He was normally resistant to lightning, but I didn't want to test it with him being out of juice.
As such a new magazine was slapped into my rifle.
By the time I made it over there, the Lord had just made it to the point of standing up. Which gave me a full view of how fucked up he was.
His entire body was steaming, burnt, and melting as if he had just taken an acid bath.
Running water did a funny thing to Vampires. Not only did it hurt them like acid as long as they stayed in it, but it also drained them of almost all their powers.
And we were still in that waist-high running water.
"You will pay for this boy. You have no idea what you have unleashed upon yourself! All my brethren and our allies will hear of this and hunt you down! Who do you think you are to so arrogantly think you can take on the Dark Lords themselves!"
For one, my fully reloaded SCAR disagreed with that.
And two, the Dark Lords? He said his brethren and their allies. Did that mean there was some kind of league of various monster species that had all allied together?
Because if so that sounded awesome.
"Names Alexander Arc."
His crimson eyes widened at the name.
"Oh by the lord I have forsaken not another one."
It was the last words he even said before 12 bullets slammed into his chest and forehead.
"Same bro. Same."
!
Normal Quest Completed!
Rewards:
Colt barrel
!
Leveled up x3.
I watched the body of the Vampire dissolve with satisfaction.
Not exactly the epic battle it could have been, but like Uriel had pointed out earlier, I wasn't a fan of those kinds of things. A quick and sudden defeat for an enemy I had outsmarted and caught by surprise was good enough for me.
I had a lot of questions, but first I wanted to see what was so special about this barrel.
I reached into my inventory where all my rewards were normally automatically stored after completing a quest and pulled the barrel out.
The first thing I noticed that caught me by surprise was just how old the barrel was. I was expecting something modern that was enhanced somehow or maybe a kind of rare prototype that was never released.
But instead, it was old, real old. This kind of barrel was originally made for ball rounds, which meant the early 1800's, but it had been modified to fire metallic cartridges from the way I could see inside the barrel.
On the outside of the barrel, a simple sentence was inscribed on it.
"Non timebo mala." I muttered in Latin, "Translation: I will fear no evil."
Something was itching at the corner of my mind, but I couldn't quite remember what it was. Guess it was time for an observe.
!
Barrel of The Colt: A 1836 Colt Paterson barrel. Part (1/6).
Wait.
The barrel almost dropped out of my hands as I stared at the message. There was no way this was what I thought it was.
!
New Quest Type Unlocked!
You now have access to Legendary Quests! These quests are rare and can only be activated by certain paths you may take. The requirements for completing these quests are much harder, longer, and dangerous compared to others. But the rewards are legendary in their own right.
!
Quest issued!
Quest Type: Legendary
In 1836 as Haley Comet passed above the Earth and the defenders of the Alamo were slaughtered in their final stand, a master Gunsmith and Hunter crafted a weapon to slay the greatest evils his world had to offer. The weapon he made that day was said to be able to kill anything with the 13 bullets he crafted alongside it.
This man's name was Samuel Colt.
This weapon, The Colt was thought lost to time, but now you have found the first piece.
Find the parts and assemble The Colt.
Parts: (1/6)
Rewards:
The Colt
Holy shit.