Disclaimer: chapter one

Reviews:

LuisMStar: uhh, FGO Merlin would be way too OP for this... He could probably solve the entire Heroes of Olympus part of the equation by himself by keeping Gaia in an eternal slumber like he did with Tiamat.

The Shadows Mistress: yes, the fic is AU, if that's what you were asking.

kuramathetranscened: sorry, no loli's possesed by eldritch entities here.

Everpeach: if I do that, it would a fic in its own right. Like I explained above, Merlin from Fate is a bit too OP. Unless someone else explains why he can't do that, I am willing to listen.

And it seems the Harry-Merlin scene had mixed responses. Some of you agreed with what I thought, that is that Harry's reply should only come from experience, and some saying that he should have a reply ready. Well, I will try to make it better in the future scenes like those.

Chapter Six

Preparing for a quest was always a hard task. It required to plan for things you couldn't exactly foresee, such as the monsters you'd fight, or where you'll have to spend the night, and the amount of days you'll be away from Camp. Usually a prophecy can clear somethings up, but Harry had nothing to go on.

He only had a destination, which was some town or city in Massachusetts.

It excited him. This was a challenging task. Anything could happen. No amount of planning will ever be sufficient. With such little information available, any and every strategy that he could make would have to rely on assumptions. And even an idiot would tell you that a strategy made on assumptions will always fall apart.

That had made this all the more interesting. Harry cannot, and would not, go in pre-planned or prepared. It went against everything his Mother would have taught him, had she actually been around.

All strategizing would have to occur on the go.

He only had an idea of what to do if there was a curse or spell that would literally reject him when he would enter the area under its control. Even without knowing the exact spell or curse, Harry knew how to break it.

One school of thought was that magic was very conceptual. It was evident in spell creation. All transfiguration spells, for example, were simply the variations of a single spell: a spell that was created to change object A to object B. You wanted to change a needle to a matchstick? Same spell, different intent. You want to turn lead to gold? Once again, same spell, tweaked to the user's desire.

However, it could take a whole new level in other concepts.

Harry could use a spell that was designed to break other spells, such as the universal Finite Incantatem, and simply tweak it to affect whatever curse that was in his way. Given that it was designed with the concept of 'destroying other spells,' it should do its job.

Provided, of course, that such a curse existed in the first place.

The second assumption was that the curse was not put in place by a god.

That was a completely different matter. Even if one were to pour every single drop of magical energy in the whole wide world and use all sorts of curse breaking rituals, a god's curse would not break. Only the god that put the curse in place can take it back. Or if a more powerful god decided to break it.

It was one of the many mysteries of magic. The way gods manipulated reality was completely different, and yet quite the same, as to how humans did it. More often than not, only the scale differed. It could be seen as another method of solving the same math problem. And yet, the key difference lay in how to reverse the effects.

Reversing a human spell was much, much easier.

Reversing whatever a god did, however… that was more or less impossible for humans to do.

Harry sighed to himself as he waited at the Big House for his partners to show up. He had no need of packing light, given that everything he wanted to carry could easily be 'lightened' by magic. The only thing he didn't enchant was the Celestial Bronze sword that was strapped to his hips.

Celestial Bronze was notorious for its anti-magic properties. It could easily block any and every spell, and this helped immensely in taking down monsters. But, this also meant that it could not be enchanted, transfigured, charmed, et cetera. Even runes failed to do their job.

It was why Rowena always hated Celestial Bronze weapons that were runed, calling them a waste of time and energy to essentially have a weapon that (arguably) looked more badass because it had a few runes that did nothing.

Once again, gods straight up ignored this rule. There were some Celestial Bronze weapons that were enchanted to return to its user, some that could turn into mundane items, and so on. All of these enchantments were done by gods and/or non-humans, such as nature spirits.

It was almost as if the metal considered humans and magic wielded by humans unworthy of it, which would make sense given that it didn't even affect mortals. Harry had personally seen a Celestial Bronze arrow simply go through a mortal's chest (that mortal being a parent of a demigod who had come to drop of his child) and not do any physical damage. It did not even get lodged, or cause any entry and exit wounds. Just went through and through as if he wasn't even there.

Well, Mr. Gardiner did need a lot of therapy because of that incident after that, last Harry heard from Miranda.

Harry was brought out of his thoughts as the door to the House was opened and closed rather roughly. He watched in amusement as Lee Fletcher came out with a scowl.

"This is some bullshit! You're the most senior Counselor but I can't go?! And I was not even allowed to accompany the newbie!" Lee scowled harder.

Percy, Annabeth, and Grover had left for their quest earlier this morning, with Luke, Harry and Chiron sending them off. Curiously Luke had then immediately left for his cabin, not staying till Harry's own departure. Perhaps he was hurt that Harry didn't ask him, but Chiron had specifically told him not to ask senior Counselors.

Harry could understand the blonde son of Appollo's side of things. "Well, to be fair, had an actual god not given me this quest himself, I would not have been allowed to go either."

Lee's shoulders slumped. "I know. But what about the newbie? Almost your entire Cabin is going to be out! I could leave Mike incharge! He's been here for three years, that's gotta count! But nooo, we need you, Lee!"

Despite the fact that Lee could be a bit of a narcissist, he was Harry's second choice in this quest, had the other two declined. Blessed with an incredible eyesight, Lee's prowess with a bow was second to none, outmatching all of his predecessors; at least according to what Harry had seen from those that came before Lee.

Of course, Chiron declining Lee also meant that Harry was saved from a very awkward situation of telling Beckendorf not to come along. After the guy had enthusiastically agreed. And had crafted a special sword and war-axe just for the quest.

"Look at it this way. You are here, in Camp, surrounded by nymphs, dryads, and of course, daughters of gods and goddesses. Whereas we'll be out there, fighting every single moment just to stay alive," Harry said. "And you? You'll be here, keeping them company."

Second thing about Lee: he fancied himself a ladies' man. He wasn't one, but that was besides the point. The entire debacle about him, one of Silena's sisters and a daughter of Demeter proved the point.

"Hmm. Yes... With you away that only leaves Luke as competition! I like this idea!" Lee said. "I think I am gonna go and get to know a few of them better!"

Harry watched as Lee waved him goodbye. Lee wasn't one tot think things through. Had he somehow convinced Chiron to let him come with Harry, then the attention he would get with the fairer sex would be much, much more than whatever he was getting now when he would return.

A few moments after Lee left, both of Harry's partners showed up.

"Hey you two! Are you ready?" Harry waved at Charles Beckendorf, the second-in-command of Hephaestus Cabin. He was a large, muscular, dark-skinned boy who was about a year younger than Harry. He wore a bronze red bandana that covered his short dark hair. Most people who didn't actually know him were usually put off by his face, which looked like it was stuck in a permanent scowl, but he was one of the most nicest people Harry had met.

Behind him, was of course, the first person he asked. Silena. She was still scowling at him.

"Hey yourself, Harry," Beckendorf, as most (including himself) preferred calling him, smiled. "By the way, what did you do to Silena that she is so angry?"

Harry himself was confused at that. Sure, Silena had agreed to come with him, but she had gritted out her answer. Then she had stormed off. Then Clarisse had come after him and demanded a spar. Well, multiple spars, and had Harry not resorted to using magic, he was sure that something would be broken in his body.

Clarisse was extremely strong when she wanted to be.

Then Clarisse refused to tell him anything about it, telling him that he should "use that oversized brain to figure it out." and not to take her for granted or something like that before she stormed off herself. Not that Clarisse storming off is anything out of the ordinary.

"Don't bother, Beckendorf," Silena said, throwing Harry a cross look. "If he knew, then he would have apologized."

Of course, what was happening inside her mind was a completely different story.

'What am I doing?! I knew full well he's super dense! If anything I should explain him everything and clear this misunderstanding! But then he might get the wrong idea and think that I'm like my sisters who only think of dating, dating and nothing but dating! And that might turn him away! I don't want that! But I also want him to know that I do want to date him! Arrrgghhh! Why is this so confusing?!'

Unfortunately for Harry, this confused mindset of Silena was translated into internal anger, that she was taking out on him.

Her internal dilemma came to a halt when Chiron approached them.

"I see that all of you are ready," Chiron commented as he saw them, all of them carrying backpacks and their weapons of choice. "You don't know exactly what to expect, as this is the first quest in the past three centuries wherein a prophecy wasn't issued. As much as it pains me to say this, but if there's no word from any of you within the next two weeks, you will be declared dead. Of course, that doesn't mean that you won't be welcome back if you do survive and have no means of contacting us, but that's besides the point. I wish you all the very best, and hope that all of you will return to us, unharmed."

The Centaur was greeted by three blank stares.

"Jeez, could you at least try and be positive?" Silena muttered.

Chiron gave her a sheepish look. "My apologies, child."

"Anyways, shall we be off?" Beckendorf asked.

The Camp had agreed to drop them off to Manhattan, where the three of them had taken a Amtrak to Boston.

The three of them were seated in an ICW vehicle (a SUV), which Harry hired by dropping his sister's name at the ICW office in Boston. Of course, they had to confirm with 'Anastasia Rivers', which was Rowena's name in the current era.

They had also received information that the ICW or the MACUSA had detected absolutely no abnormalities in the area. It was alarming to Harry, but no one could see anything wrong with the map when he told them about it. It wasn't until Rowena Floo-called them to confirm that Harry and his friends were on her instructions (a bare faced lie) and that she was sending them to investigate did they give the three demigods a driver and a car to take them to… wherever they wanted to go.

It was for this reason they could not use portkeys or apparition — it was not possible to apparate to a place you had no knowledge of. In this case, as the knowledge of the place itself had been deleted from everyone's minds, they had to travel by road.

At this point, they too, realized that they had absolutely no idea where Harry and his friends wanted to go, except it was only about 20 miles from their location.

"How did they not notice?" Silena asked. The interior of the SUV was expanded, allowing them all to sit in comfort. The driver seat was even sectioned off, allowing them privacy. She was facing Harry and Beckendorf.

"The Mist is keeping that under warps, I think." Harry answered.

"What do you think they'll see?" Beckendorf asked a question of his own.

"Unclear. Perhaps it is not a question of what they see, but what they perceive," Harry replied. "After all, I had to manipulate the Mist myself to make them think that the two of you were magicals. And the fact that we are armed with Celestial Bronze. You have no idea how much legal trouble we'd get into for carrying it."

The MACUSA had classified Celestial Bronze as a Class 2 restricted metal, because of its anti-magic properties. This meant private possession of it was allowed, but you could not carry it outside your home. Harry had no clue what they would do if they found out that the Camp had more than enough to arm an army, or if they found any non-magical demigod owning it.

"Wait, don't you mages have that… mind defence thing?" Silena asked. She had calmed down quite a bit from her previous anger on herself and Harry. Mostly because Harry and Beckendorf slept through the entire four hours of train ride, allowing her to gather herself.

Harry was certainly very happy that she was back to her normal self, not that he knew why she was angry at him in the first place. He wasn't going to bring it up, in the possibility that she might get angry again. And especially in the presence of Beckendorf. While he didn't know why she had lashed out, he certainly did know that they should have this talk in private.

"The Mist can bypass it," Harry answered. "I think it is because the Mist being a divine construct and Occilumency, or what you called the mind defence, being a human construct, the Mist wins that battle. Of course, that is just my personal theory, not backed by any evidence, so, yeah. Don't take it as fact."

Mist could even bypass Harry's own mental defences, and he had very powerful ones given that he was literally born from the mind of a goddess. Rowena refused to explain why this happened, so Harry had to formulate his own theories. Harry suspected that she didn't know herself. There were many things in the world that were unexplainable, after all.

The car stopped after about twenty five minutes. It was almost nighttime, and they would have to look for a place to stay the night.

"Huh? Why did we stop? This doesn't seem like our destination..." Beckendorf commented. Harry could see the truth in that: they were stopped in the middle of the road. Sure, they in a city, but the car was literally in the middle of the traffic.

And every other car had stopped as well.

It wasn't a traffic jam, exactly. There was no honking, no noise, nothing.

On a hunch, Harry got out of the car, with Silena and Beckendorf following him. The outside air was quite foggy, which the demigods immediately recognized as the Mist. It was quite thick here.

He walked around the car, and tapped on the dark tinted driver side window.

There was no answer.

He placed his hand on the window, turning the tint transparent.

"What the hell?!" Silena gasped.

The driver was stuck in time, as if he had been frozen still.

"A stasis field. We just entered one," Harry commented. He turned to explain to his friends. "Basically time itself is frozen here. Well, time for all humans and human machines is my guess."

"Then why aren't we affected?" Beckendorf asked. "We're humans too!"

"Are we though? We're part human, part god. Whatever this stasis field is, it was carefully designed in a way that it would only affect humans. Fundamentally, we aren't human, but demigods."

"Same thing, right? I mean, every single medical test would prove that we're humans," Silena said.

"Not in the eyes of magic," Harry explained. "Simply put, the magical definition, or rather the concept that is human, is any living being born to two humans. I know, it's a circular definition. However, to magic, we aren't born to two humans, are we? We are born to a human and a god. That small distinction is more than sufficient for this spell to ignore us."

Before either could say anything else, they heard a soft swishing sound. They immediately jumped behind the car they were in, as three arrows lodged in the door of the other side.

"Time only froze for humans, right?" Beckendorf asked. "That must mean that the person shooting at is a monster! Or a demigod, I guess."

Harry and Silena had come to the same conclusion, but neither voiced it.

"We need to move," Harry said, as he summoned all of their gear to him and began to run into the city. Not wasting any time, Beckendorf and Silena followed, just as more arrows rained upon them.

"How many archers do they have?!" Silena questioned as she ran alongside Harry and Beckendorf, for once thanking Clarisse for her killer workout sessions.

"Just one," Harry replied. "The arrows aren't as quick as you might think! Its just a single archer!"

Harry held up his hand as they ran, a clear reflection forming on the palm. A simple transfiguration spell, which turned his palm into a mirror. He turned it around, to spot a lone archer on a nearby rooftop, readying his bow. Well, it was hard to determine whether it was a he or she, given that the archer wwas dressed in all black, and had their face covered by a mask.

'What? He's planning to shoot from that far off? A bow doesn't have that much range! Unless…'

Harry turned his palm back to normal, and with a quick hand gesture, signalled Beckendorf and Silena to turn left. They ducked into a nearby alleyway, just as a arrow embedded itself just behind Harry.

The arrow then dissipated into nothingness.

"What? Was that a trick of the Mist?" Silena asked as she noticed that as well.

Harry shook his head. "No. A conjured arrow. I should have noticed the first time. The bow was a red herring. The person shooting at us isn't an archer, but a mage who is using conjuration to shoot the arrows. Arrows don't exactly travel in a perfectly straight line, ignoring the wind as if it wasn't a factor."

"Doesn't look like he's shooting," Beckendorf said. "Either way, we should set up camp somewhere."

"He's not shooting because he doesn't have a line of sight. But as soon as he does, we'll become targets. None of us are long range fighters even," Harry muttered the last part. Stupid Chiron and not letting him take Lee! This mage archer would have been history!

"Okay, so we keep going. But… where?" Silena asked.

"To sustain a spell of this magnitude, they would need to draw power from the very planet," Harry said as they continued to move into the alley. "And to do that, they would need to be in an area where magic itself concentrates naturally, such as a ley line. Unfortunately, because all of my knowledge of this area, even if I had it to begin with, is lost because of the Fidelius, I have no clue where said ley line is."

They were almost out of the alley on the other side, and the archer must have predicted this, which Harry realized.

In preparation, he manipulated the Mist. Normally, this would be very taxing. However, the fact that Mist was thick here made it quite simple. Beckendorf and Silena watched in awe as three replicas of themselves walked out into the streets, and were immediately shot upon.

The replicas ran to the right.

After about a good ten minutes, Harry, Beckendorf and Silena went to the left instead. To their relief, the trick had worked.

Harry could feel some exhaustion set in. Not the physical kind, but rather the mental kind. The amount of magic he used wasn't the issue, the manipulation of the Mist was. Even someone like Rowena could not manipulate the Mist more than few times a day, and given that he created three copies of themselves from the Mist, it was a bit exhaustive. If the Mist wasn't as thick, then he would have fallen from the exhaustion it would have caused.

Either way, Harry really needed to figure out what was happening. This place left more questions than it answered.

The room was quite spacious for a hotel such as this. With just two beds and a couch with an attached bathroom, it had everything. Well, given the fact that everyone was placed under a stasis, no one in the hotel was going to object to Harry swiping a key from the front desk and taking it for themselves.

They had decided against camping out. The mage-archer could return any moment, and if he locates their camp, they were done for. Here, the hotel room had only three windows, and all had blinders on them. Harry even reinforced them to withstand everything short of a tank shell. The only other way in was the front door, which Harry once again reinforced.

The only issue was that there were two beds, that were barely separated by a small space between them.

Beckendorf suggested to draw straws to determine who would get to sleep on the couch. Harry and Silena were both a bit suspicious of the other boy when he immediately pulled the shortest straw.

But he didn't leave them any room for argument. Beckendorf promptly lay down on the couch and fell asleep.

Silena and Harry, with blushes on their faces, had no choice but to enter the beds. At least they were separate beds, was the thought running through their heads, with mixed relief and disappointment.

"So…" Silena whispered after she was quite certain that Beckendorf had fallen asleep. "… I'm sorry."

Harry turned in his bed, facing her. "For what?"

"For…" Silena took a deep breath. "Well... I should not have gotten angry at you for asking me on a quest like that."

'I hope he doesn't press it I hope he doesn't press it I hope he—'

"Well, no worries. But why did you get angry to begin with?"

'Fuck.'

"Uh-you know, my siblings, they, well, they thought that…" Silena mumbled. What was she going to say?! That she was hoping that Harry wanted to ask her out? And she got excited about it? And when he didn't, her excitement turned into anger that she directed at him?

"They thought that I was somehow taking you for granted or something?" Harry asked. In his mind that would make sense. Why else would Clarisse call him out on that? Obviously a few of her siblings must have wanted to spread rumors or something.

Silena had absolutely no clue why he reached that idea. But that didn't mean that she was going to let that opportunity slip by.

"Yes!" Silena said a bit loudly, and Beckendorf mumbled something in his sleep.

"Yes," Silena repeated in a whisper. "Exactly. And I got caught up in their lies and you know how that goes. So I'm sorry."

"No, no… I'm sorry if you ever feel that I take you for granted."

"You don't!" Silena said a bit loudly again. Beckendorf the sleep-mumbler returned. "I mean, I have never felt that way."

"Okay," Harry said as he smiled. "So, we cool?"

"Yes, Harry," Silena said. "We cool."

"Well at least I hope Clarisse gets the message before she decides to kick my ass when we return," Harry mumbled as he turned around in the bed. Mostly because he couldn't stop smiling because they were now back to normal, and he didn't want Silena to see that. It would be embarrassing.

"She… no, I will talk to her.." Silena replied in a confused tone.

'Note to self: don't complain about Harry to Clarisse.'

"Three of my former, no, three demigods have come here." said the mage who had fired upon Harry, Beckendorf and Silena. The mage spoke to a mural, featuring a diety that could be best described as a serpent with wings, along with another, smaller jaguar present in the same space as that of the serpent.

"I tried to kill them, but they managed to escape."

"Why? Why try and kill? Why not explain why we are doing our work?" said the voice from the painting. It was soft, smooth, and lacking any gender.

"Because they are sent by the same gods who ignored me and others like me," said the mage. "I'm sure that they would not sit down and have a talk."

"Ah yes, the usurpers and their slaves," said the voice. "However, did I not tell you how to end all of your nightmares? I'm sure that they too, are suffering from it. The world isn't kind to you or them. If you get them to join us, we would be all the more powerful."

"Except I know them. One is a son of Athena, the other a son of Hephaestus and the last a daughter of Aphrodite. They're quite… loyal to their parents."

"I see. Not to worry, my friend. But just try to make them understand. Who knows? They might just listen to us."

The mage nodded. "If that is what you wish, I will try. But I won't make any promises.

A/N: Sorry for the late chapter, but I was dealing with a few irl issues. Nothing too serious, but they were on a higher priority than this. Like taking a covid test because I had to travel. Luckily it was negative, but does not hurt to check.

Also, kudos if you figure out the 'god villain' of this quest. You know, the one from the painting.

And before I get complaints like 'Harry is to weak because he was mildly exhausted by Mist manipulation REEEE' let me tell you that I made Mist manipulation significantly harder because I also overpowered it. The first part of it's OP factor is in this very chapter, but I will explore more of this in the future chapters.

Hope you all enjoyed!