NO POV

After a few more minutes, Percy mist traveled back to his hotel room to pick up the rest of his things. As he closed the door he looked at the room next door and could not help but to feel sad that he was all alone now. He regretted not saying goodbye to the children but he knew Apollo was going to find them a new home, he said it himself.

Percy knew the best way to move on was to get back to work, so he mist traveled a few miles from some monsters into some uninhabited area. It was just a small pack of eight hell-hounds, nothing he could not handle. Percy walked for a couple of miles before he found himself getting really tired. His weighted clothing was really taking a toll on his body and if he kept this up, by the time he reached the hell-hounds, he would pass out from exhaustion.

Percy thought of just taking it off but decided against it, since it would help with his endurance later on. For now Percy decided to take a break from his expedition. If I can't train my body I'll just have to train my mind and powers. He could have teleported himself right next to the hell-hounds and slaughtered them but he needed this. It would be part of his training.

Percy sat down and tried to concentrate on sensing all living things around him. Almost everything around him had some kind of life force, from the bugs on the ground to the wild animals that roamed the wilderness. Percy then realized even the earth itself had essence, even though it was not alive. I should have known the earth will be this strong, it is the embodiment of Gaea herself and her power … is just incredible.

Percy went back to clearing his mind, and trying to concentrate on his surroundings and things that mattered. Before this would have been impossible due to his ADHD but for some reason Athena's blessing had solved that problem. Sure, children of Athena were still hyperactive but focused on using their reservoirs of energy on learning and thinking, that was their special power.

Percy thought about what Malcolm had told him a few days ago and looked for the life force of the only two mortals he had killed. There was Erik the children beater and then there was Matt the embezzler. When Percy had took their lives, he noticed he got a bit stronger but not by much. They were relatively weak compared to him, specially the fat man, he had even less life force. I wonder if their life force is how fused their physical bodies are to life instead of the actual power inside them. It would explain why the earth has a strong life force, and how immortals like gods aren't pure energy.

Percy looked deep within himself and could not help but to realize Ethereal Reftate had trapped the souls of the men he thought he had killed. This does not make any sense, I killed them and their souls should be in the fields of punishment…

Suddenly, a deity flashed behind him and the temperature around Percy dropped like a rock. A horrible stench filled the air the god of the underworld himself approached the demigod that was in the body of an eight year old boy.

"Percy?" Hades looked confused as he had thought he flashed to Percy, a legendary demigod, not some eight year old boy.

"Uncle Hades, why do I have the honor of your visit?" Percy stood up and approached the god of the underworld, who towered over the demigod a few feet.

"Oh, I did not know you liked being a toddler on your free time Perseus. Regardless, I am here because you have a few things that belong to me. I would have brought it up at the meeting but this is a personal, or more like professional matter." Percy thought of anything he might have accidentally taken from Hades and realized the god must have been talking about the souls of the mortal men he had killed.

"Well uncle, I'm not actually a toddler and the reason I am this age is because Hestia suggested it. She thought it might be a good idea to make myself younger so they mark of Himeros has less to work with. As for what belongs to you, I'm assuming you are talking about the souls of a couple of mortals." Hades nodded and extended his hand in a expectant matter.

"You see uncle, I do not know what's going on myself. I thought when I killed the mortals their souls will go to the underworld. In fact, just a few seconds before you got here I realized they were trapped by the Ethereal Reftate, but if you give me a few minutes I could figure out what's going on..." Hades nodded and Percy got to work. He struggled for a few minutes before figuring out what he needed to do. He needed to ask for help from the person who knew more about souls than everyone else.

"Uhh, uncle? Why is it that when I absorbed their essence I also took their souls. I figured once I killed them their souls would go to the underworld to get judged." Hades just smiled and turned his back on Percy to look into the forest.

"Perseus, do you know the difference between dying and fading?" Percy got to answering the question the best he could.

"When you die your soul goes into the underworld to get judged. When you fade you are completely gone, no life and no soul to go into the afterlife." Hades nodded and took a deep breath.

"We gods have our souls infused within our life force Perseus, life force being what you call essence. Whenever we have children or give out blessings, our children and champions inherit not only some of our powers but also some of our characteristics." Percy tried to take this in and apply what he just learns to his situation. So when I absorbed part of father, Athena, Hephaestus, Himeros and Nemesis I also took in a bit of their characteristics? Eventually Percy realized that's what made him more curious, more creative, more romantic and more sadistic recently.

"You play a dangerous game Perseus. I can see you are realizing that the four gods have changed you, some for the best, some for the worst." Percy knew that absorbing more godly essence will be dangerous and immediately swore to himself to never do it again. In addition, he will also think it through if another god offered him their blessing as it will also include part of their personality.

"Anyways, mortals have their life force and souls separated. Once they are killed their life force vanishes, after all they are dead, but their souls are called to the underworld." Percy put the pieces together and knew what Ethereal Reftate really did. It did not only destroy the life force from people, slowly killing even the healthiest, but it also took their souls. Not only does it harvest their mortal souls, it also collects them and once collected it keeps them trapped inside to never be judged. Percy thought back to the incident with Karen and felt even worse. If I had killed her she would have never gotten judged, she would have been trapped within the Ethereal Reftate forever…

"What about monsters uncle Hades? What exactly happens to their souls and life force when they die?" Hades scratched his beard and looked down to Percy.

"Monsters behave in a mixture of gods and mortals Perseus. Their essence and souls are divided like mortals but when they are killed their bodies turn to dust and they reform in the depths of Tartarus like gods and titans. What I'm trying to say is that when you kill them and take their life force, you won't have to worry about their personality being merged into yours, since their souls disappear and appear in Tartarus instantly like us the gods. Their souls remain intact and they regain their physical form in Tartatus like a battery, so its very hard to permanently kill them unless you damage them enough to destroy their soul. Us on the other hand, it takes us very long to reform, we don't receive help from Tartarus." Percy was relieved to hear this, last thing he wanted was to become a cesspool for the souls of all the monsters he killed.

Hades then manifested a chair for himself and sat down. He gestured Percy to continue and Percy realized what he had to do. He willed the souls to leave the Ethereal Reftate and saw the spirits of the two mortals go into the ground as they were called by the underworld. Hades turned to look at Hades gave him a reassuring nod.

"This souls will be judged fairly and the matter that they died will be taken into consideration. Rest assured that this two men will end up in the fields of punishment regardless, their souls were completely nonredeemable." Percy was glad they will be punished for eternity. He would have felt really stupid if he had saved them by giving them a painful death. Percy turned to look at Hades and gave him a short bow.

"Thank you uncle Hades. Even with Athena's blessing I do not know If I would have been able to figure out what was going on." Hades gave Percy a crooked grin and waved him off before flashing away.

After Hades was gone, Percy went back to meditating. Without the souls of the men he had killed their life essense was pure and could be integrated within himself. He assimilated the essence of the men with his and realized he gained some new information and got a tiny bit stronger. He learned a few skills that the men he killed knew but they weren't anything special, the only good one was how to lie expertly. Percy was not really interested in the rest of the skills and was happy he was not going to be killing mortals anytime soon, unless they were specially heinous.

Percy realized it was getting late and decided to get back to hunting the hell-hounds. Percy trailed behind the monsters and stopped a few hundred meters from them to take a break. He took out his backpack and ate a dried fruit bar and took a sip of nectar. He felt reinvigorated and realized he needed to create some more appropriate clothes for combat. He turned his casual clothes into some camouflage battle fatigues. Percy summoned his now over-sized escrimas on their holsters and gave them their power to absorb essence back. Percy smiled when he felt the coldness the escrimas radiated and cracked his knuckles signaling he was ready for the forthcoming battle.

Percy got closer to the monsters and called their attention by oozing his presense. The hell-hounds instantly rushed at him and began to swipe their paws and attempting to bite the small demigod. Percy was doing the best to fend off the attackers but the escrimas were kind of heavy, in fact they weigh 10 pounds each and the 50 pound this piece of reftate covering his skin was not helping either. Percy kept swinging the escrima sticks with so much force he pierced the blunt object through the stomach of one of the hell-hounds and quickly created himself another one. The injured hell-hound fell to the floor incapacitated and whimpered in agony as its essence was being absorbed by the weapon.

Percy then started doing the same with the other hell-hounds one by one. Soon all of the hell-hounds had a metal rod through the middle of their bodies and were slowly dying, except for the leader of the hell-hound pack. This last hell-hound was definitely the most skilled as he had evaded Percy for a long time and managed to hit him a few times. At this point Percy was out of breath, he had not taken any injury on the battle as the reftate protected him but Percy could not help but to feel defeated. He simply could not match the hell-hound leader with the armor weighing him down and his body was too physically tired. If he were to win he would have to win some other way.

While meditating, Percy had invented some dark and creative ways to use his powers and most of them were guaranteed to work. Percy thanked Nemesis, Hephaestus and Athena before putting away his left escrima on its holster. Without them he would have never thought of doing anything like this. The alpha hell-hound tilted his head in confusion but lunged at Percy with insane speed but before he could reach Percy he was frozen in place. The hell-hound started to panic but remembered to keep his cool.

Percy then started grinning like a madman. He slowly walked to the hell-hound and circled around him before deciding to talk to him to explain what he had done.

"You're probably curious as to what I did to you." The hell-hound tried to pay no attention to Percy but he could not resist. What have you done to me demigod? How is a child like you doing this? Percy had to smile as he heard the hell-hound communicate to him via thought. I didn't know hell hounds had telepathy, I wonder if Mrs. O'leary can also do this if I tell her to try.

"I am a son of Poseidon. I have complete control over water and unfortunately for you, water is a large part of your body." The hell-hound's eyes widened in horror, never in his many lives had he been afraid. He never knew children of Poseidon contained such ability.

"You see the other hell-hounds over there?" Percy pointed at the incapacitated hell-hounds on the floor that were dying."That is the fate that awaits you." In one swift motion Percy pushed the blunt escrima stick through the body on the hell-hound. Percy then let go of the water inside his body and heard the hell-hound fall to the floor to start whimpering like the rest.

Percy eventually felt annoyed by their whimpers and ordered the reftate escrima penetrating their bodies to expand abruptly. The hell-hounds immediately burst into dust and without prior warning, Percy's body started to absorb the essence of the hell-hounds. Soon Percy started to transform into a hell-hound himself and he was terrified. His clothes slowly disappeared and so everything else. Did Hades lie to me? Am I turning into a monster? What the Hades is going on!? After a few seconds Percy was no longer in the body of an eight year old boy, he was now a hell-hound.

Percy kept his cool and tried to turn back into a human with all his clothes and equipment. To his relief, once again his body obeyed and soon he was in his eight year old self. However this time he felt much stronger, he felt his endurance has skyrocketed and his sense of smell and sight were supreme. So in the same way that I learned the skills of the mortals I killed, I acquired the powers of the monsters once I absorbed their pure essence? It seems so... Percy then began to think of how much more powerful he could become by killing more and more monsters. Just then he felt more power enter his body, Percy realized it must the blessing of Nemesis rewarding him and making his stronger and he was very pleased.

Every time he killed a monster he would activate the domain of Nemesis and he would also become stronger by taking the monster's life force. Percy made it his new goal to try to kill as many as possible now that he was positive he had the means to do it. To him, killing monsters was no longer about personal vengeance for Clarisse, it was about avenging every single demigod that ever fell by the hands of a monster. With his new powers and ever enhancing abilities, no monster will ever be safe from him. A grinning Percy sheathed his escrima stick on its holster and began to look for more monsters to kill. Let the hunt begin...