[CHAPTER NOT EDITED THROUGH GRAMMARLY. WILL BE EDITED AT A LATER TIME.]
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"Somebody speaking."
'Somebody thinking.'
Disclaimer: I do not own PJ, MCU , or any other anime/novel/manga/fanfic that I may use.
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Chapter 3: The journey begins.
Deep beneath the waters of the Delta of Despair, Perseus began to stir with barely a minute passing since his body settled there.
His glowing sea green eyes blinked open and looked eerie in the black waters.
'Huh, so I can breathe in this water now? Nice to know.'
It seemed like he got a few extra benefits with being in the favor of these gods.
'Still, it's not the ocean.'
Being the son of the sea god, even one with broken memories, the ocean is always calling out to him, telling him to come home.
Perseus's shook his head and sat up to examine himself.
He was bigger than before.
'At least I think I am, when I have some time, I should really organize my memories.'
And the fact that he actually knew how to do that now was amazing!
It was like he really was living like a monkey before compared to how he thought now. Lethe's gift didn't make him an instant genius, it simply improved his mind all around and opened up many doors for him to grow in. He thought in ways he never would have before and methods of how to improve things were ingrained into his mind.
'That's a job for later, for now…'
Perseus looked up, his vision was improved to an incredible level and the water didn't impede his sight like it did before.
Looking past the surface, he could see Tartarus still in the same position, pressing down on Damasen with his fist while the giant was defending with his Drakon bone lance. The lance was showing many more cracks than it did when he last saw it.
The biggest change was Bob's position, the titan was on Tartarus's back, avoiding anything that could hit him while he was trying to use Riptide, which was still stuck in Tartarus's neck, to attempt to finish the job.
He was screaming in rage while doing it, but Perseus couldn't hear anything being spoken.
Understand the situation, Perseus made his move.
Since Tartarus was distracted and wasn't able to access his full senses in a humanoid body, Perseus commanded the waters to travel across the ground in tentacles moving with a snake's grace.
Damasen who was facing downward with his arms above him noticed them and his eyes widened but he seemed to understand something because he quickly hid his expression.
The water reached them and began circling Tartarus's feet without touching them.
Seeing the attack ready, Perseus smiled, and unknown feeling of excitement began to well up inside him. He may no longer be 'Percy Jackson', but some things were just in his blood.
'Is this what it feels like to hunt?'
With a smile growing on his lips, Perseus willed the water to move.
On the surface:
"HOW DARE YOU KILL MY FRIEND!" (Bob)
Bob's eyes were red with rage and despite the risk, he was attacking Tartarus with everything he had, trying to finish the job his friend had just sacrificed his life trying to do.
"Silence you annoying pest! He was an insect, you're only a bit better as a weak animal, nothing compared to my own children. Even this traitor about to be crushed at my feet still counts as my son, someone who could actually challenge me for a short time." (Tartarus)
Damasen watched on with a rage filled silence and he put everything he had into pushing back against his father. He took a wrong action and was suffering for it pinned under his father's fist, without his lance, he would have already died and had his essence absorbed, a fate much worse than death.
Due to his position, he was able to notice the silently approaching black water.
'Water? No way..! He still lives. I shall question him later but for now, I must keep his focus and wait for my moment to strike.'
Damasen was always incredibly intelligent. He wouldn't deny reality, there was only a few reasons why the waters of the Delta would be approaching them now and he was willing to bet on the most likely theory.
Quickly schooling his features, he began to give everything he had left and began to stand, directing his father's gaze higher off the ground.
With Tartarus cut off from sensing his domain, Bob shouting in his ear, and Damasen occupying the majority of his focus, Tartarus was none the wiser to one of the only things that could actually harm him in his CURRENT state slowly trapping him in a net.
And then it happened.
The black waters snapped like a snake and grabbed him from the hips down.
Tartarus only had a second to blink in surprise before they pulled with enough force to rip him from his feet and plant his whirlpool like face in the dirt.
"DIE FATHER!" (Damasen)
Seizing the moment, Damasen stabbed what was left of his spear directly through his face.
The whirlpool sucking effect that Tartarus used to attack and defend was no longer capable of being used.
"AAHH!" (Tartarus)
However, even with half his neck attached, a Drakon spear impaling him through the center of his face, waters of despair effecting his legs, disintegrating, burning, mentally impairing, and failed attempts at memory wipes, he was still very much in the game.
That was why the water around his legs wasn't meant to simply trap him, but real him in like a fish on a hook.
Tartarus was dragged toward the Delta at immense speeds while his hands were digging trenches in the earth.
Realizing this was getting dangerous, Tartarus was preparing to dissolve his humanoid body and re-enter his main body, the pit itself, but a roaring sound grabbed his attention.
Bob, still in his rage filled state, ran like a madman possessed and punted Tartarus with every ounce of strength he had.
*snap*
His leg snapped like a twig, but he achieved his purpose.
Tartarus was punted off the earth and into the maws of a massive dragon made of black water.
"NOOOOO!" (Tartarus)
With a final bellow, the maws shut, and the dragon dove back into the water, bringing its prisoner to the bottom of the lake where Perseus was waiting.
Tartarus began to dissolve, his essence being washed away, his mind screaming in agony he never experienced before in his entire existence.
Perseus calmy looked on, he knew this was a fluke. Tartarus was inexperienced with a humanoid body, he put too much of himself into it and cut himself off from most of his power, he was the pit itself, not a human.
Still, his mistake was to Perseus's benefit.
Perseus approached the thrashing primordial god and grabbed hold of his blade, still buried in the god's neck.
The sword molded into his hand; it sang with joy at once more being in its wielders grasp.
With a violent jerk, the sword cleanly sliced through what was left of the head and truly ended the primordial god.
This wouldn't be the end. Tartarus was simply fall into a slumber to awaken later, but this was a victory for Perseus and his friends.
It would be many millennia before Tartarus woke up, time was on his side to complete his end of the deal.
With a satisfied smile, Perseus watched the god's body dissolve into golden dust and flow away.
Just then, a voice sounded in his mind.
"Well done my champion, you completed the first step. Go to your friends, familiarize yourself with your new abilities. If you require a challenge, come to one our waters and we shall give you a quest to test you.
And remember, speak with you titan friend about your life span.
Until next time my champion, continue to bring honor to both of our names." (Styx)
Perseus smiled as the voice cut off.
'She might seem commanding, but it feels like an overbearing mother. I think I'll enjoy being her champion. If I am recalling it correctly, most of the gods I met would be beings I would rather die than become the champion of. At least Styx doesn't order me around or seem like someone who would use me like a tool, she has honor.'
He shook his head and began rising, his friends were waiting for him.
'Would they still see me as a friend? I am no longer the one they knew.'
He would simply have to find out for himself.
Breaking through the surface of the water, Perseus breathed in the poisonous air of Tartarus and looked around, his first real sight after being reborn was to the hellish landscape of Tartarus. A place that everything in the Greek pantheon feared.
And yet, with it being his first sight, Perseus didn't truly mind it. Perhaps it was the increase in mental fortitude, but he was not bothered by his location.
""Percy!""
Turning his head, he noticed Damasen with Bob leaning against him waving from the bank of the Delta.
Perseus smiled and walked over the water to them.
It wasn't as easy as normal water, but he was still able to harden the water into a surface he could walk on.
He smiled at his friends and he approached them.
"Hey guys, glad to see you alive." (Perseus)
Damasen chuckled at that.
"I could say the same thing, what happened to you in there? You look and feel different and you survived the Delta! No one has ever done that before.
To fall into the Delta of Despair is to be erased, permanently." (Damasen)
Perseus was about to answer when a roar was heard from the distance. The three of them and the saber toothed cat, who shrunk back to a small cats size and was poking its head out of Bob's overalls, all looked to see monsters swarming towards them.
Everyone sighed at the sight, Tartarus may be slumbering but the rest of the monsters are ones directly commanded by him to kill us. They won't regain any clarity until they are killed and rebirthed as normal from the pit.
"I got this guys, you rest up." (Perseus)
They just nodded and didn't bother to argue. They were spent and without weapons while Perseus looked like he just came out of a spa, minus the rags he was wearing. He ignored the dirty looks he was getting from his bleeding and injured friends and took a deep breath.
'Let's test all this out. I have instincts and broken memories of using my abilities before, but I will learn and adapt better with experience.'
He called on the water and felt the familiar tug in his gut. It was harder than what he remembered from the ocean, but this wasn't ocean water, even with their blessing, it took tremendous focus to use the Delta's water.
The black water dragon reformed and roared its challenge while a strip of water encompassed his legs and shot him forward moving like a snake might look like from the waist down.
(AN: Example: Orochimaru with his lower half snake mode, the guy was fast enough to punch a 4 tailed – 2nd stage Naruto .)
*ROOAAR!*
Perseus and his water dragon charged.
Moving like a jet, he smashed straight through the front line of the attacking monsters, flipped over their heads, and stabbed Riptide through the juncture between the collar bone and neck to pierce their hearts.
Three monsters exploded in a shower of golden dust without knowing how they died.
'One sword isn't enough.'
Perseus formed another sword in his other hand made of water and hardened it as much as possible.
He spun in between two Dracaena, snake women, who tried to pincer attack him from above and below with stone axes, and slashed them both.
Riptide turned one to dust while the water sword launched the monster like a cannonball into others.
'Right, forgot the edge. On second thought, let's make the tip sharp and keep the blade blunt, it will be useful.'
Perseus began launching himself at anything that moved at high speeds. His water tail helped him accelerate across the ground at any angle while shooting thin streams out like a three hundred sixty degree gun.
Carnivorous sheep fell by the dozens, Flesh eating horses were cut down the center, Hellhounds were bashed like bowling balls into their brethren, everywhere Perseus moved, monsters died in droves.
He was a storm that couldn't be stopped, his blades moved with lethal accuracy without a single wasted movement.
Some attacks managed to hit him despite his offense, but they slid off without doing more than destroying his rags further.
'Unless I want to get used to being naked, I should tighten my defense in the future. As much as I'm enjoying the feeling of relying on the curse, it's not a good habit to simply allow attacks to hit since I know it won't hurt me.'
Perseus's improved mentality began studying and analyzing his movements as his instincts, skills, and muscle memory pushed him on. He was learning, adapting, and growing as the battle, no, as the massacre continued.
The monsters never relented; their minds were gone but the only thing waiting for them was Perseus.
His water dragon was wreaking havoc among their numbers, any it touched died and dissolved.
Meeting Perseus wasn't any better, you would die just as quickly.
His blades always hit in lethal spots, never aiming for the tough locations.
If he knew where to hit from memory, he would strike there. If he didn't know it, he would analyze and learn before aiming for it without fail every time.
A group of Pit Scorpions tried to surround him only for Perseus to spin in a full circle at high speeds and shoot out an arc of high pressured black water.
A cloud of golden dust was the result, but it took the rest of his water snake tail.
From there, he simply used his legs and continued the assault.
Giant crabs had their heads crushed, Giant Snakes had their heads cut off, a Minotaur had its horns ripped off and stabbed through the eye socket with it.
*RAWR!*
Perseus turned toward a dozen charging Laistrygonian Giants and smiled. A distant memory of a high speed deadly dodgeball game came to mind before he jumped hard enough to crack the earth and launched himself at the Giant in the lead.
A single swing of his blade took off its head despite the size difference.
He kept his cool despite being in the air and tossed Riptide up while summoning a second water blade and tossing both of them into the eyes of the two closest giants.
He learned from his past mistake and froze the tip of the blades to give them a deadly cutting edge.
Both giants went down holding their eyes in pain but not out of the fight.
'Note to self, get throwing knives made from monster killing materials.'
As useful as normal water is, it won't kill a monster unless it's a lethal shot.
Riptide was made from celestial bronze, one of the few known materials to kill monsters and hurt the divine with.
Imperial gold is favored by the Romans while children and beings of the underworld would use the rarer Stygian Iron, a metal that would absorb the essence of a monster and cause it to take longer to reform. Against the divine, it would weaken and slightly poison them. Even with the benefits, most wouldn't use it for only beings of the underworld felt comfortable holding them.
While thinking of these miscellaneous thoughts, Perseus never stopped moving. Riptide was caught in his hand and brought down in an arc to meet the war hammer of a Giant.
Using his skill with the blade, he tilted his sword and slid down the hammers shaft in a shower of sparks and stabbed his blade directly into the Giant's heart.
Within seconds of meeting their charge, four giants were taken down.
Even in their clouded mind filled rage, the others paused, and Perseus capitalized on it.
'A mindless rage is dangerous because its user will ignore all basic survival instincts and surroundings in a battle, but they would still pause if they have a hard time understanding the situation.'
It didn't take more than a couple minutes for the last Giant to fall.
'I'm not even out of breath! A little winded perhaps but this is so invigorating!'
The beating of his heart, the rhythm in which he moved, the song his blade sung, the roar of his foes, and the challenge of facing insurmountable odds and winning was urging him on.
His instincts as a fighter and hunter were enhanced. They were no longer held back by silly morals his old self imposed on himself. They were free and rampaged to their hearts content.
Faster and faster he moved and adapted, moving like a blur through the ranks of monsters.
Never once did he falter, never once did he truly stop, he was a storm that ripped apart everything in its path.
"PERCY!" (Damasen)
Finally, the call of his friend pierced through his battle filled haze and his hyperactive state receded.
Perseus looked up and his eyes widened.
He made it all the way to the shrine of Hermes from the Delta of Despair.
Looking back, he couldn't help feeling the shock.
Inches of golden dust peppered the earth everywhere he looked like a sandstorm had just passed through. There were occasional monsters that didn't turn into dust but lay there as corpses, but Perseus ignored them, he would ask his friends about it later.
"Holy shit." (Perseus)
'Did I just do that? I think I lost myself in my battle lust there.'
Looking down, he noticed his shirt was gone, his shoes had been melted by the acid of some monster, and his pants were pretty much ripped shorts.
He was left looking like a refined barbarian with only his shorts, his sword, and his long jet-black hair resting over his shoulders.
Seeing Damasen and Bob waving in the distance, he summoned the leftovers of black water and launched himself at an angle toward them.
He moved like an arrow released from its bow and landed a few feet away from his friends.
Perseus couldn't help but crack a smile at the sight of a Giant, A titan, and a small cat staring at him with open mouths.
*rumble*
Just then, he heard his stomach protest for sustenance and rubbed his hand behind hid with a chuckle.
"Why don't we get something to eat and talk about everything that happened?" (Perseus)
Damasen was the first to shut his mouth and dumbly nodded.
"Should we follow the river to my swamp? You could give us a ride." (Damasen)
Perseus shook his head at that.
"Sorry guys, Acheron is the only river I can't control right now. I might be able to make us a bridge to walk on, but I can't use the water as freely as I can the rest." (Perseus)
Damasen got his stuff together and waved it off.
"No matter, I'm sure there will be a quiet period for a few days thanks to all the monsters that have died today. We can walk while you explain what's going on." (Damasen)
Perseus and Bob nodded at that. Bob had just finished healing his leg. A snapped bone hurts, but it would only take a few minutes to heal for a titan with healing abilities.
And so, the three of them and Bob's cat journeyed back toward Damasen's swamp. A territory marked by Damasen's ability. As long as one was in his swamp, Damasen could obscure their path and presence even from the Giants, Titans, or Tartarus himself. It was a unique skill of his that was extremely valuable on foreign soil or well… in the pit beneath hell.
Perseus told them of what happened in the Delta, meeting the gods of the rivers, and being blessed by them. He also shared that the 'Percy Jackson' they knew had died.
Bob looked down in pain at that while Damasen was silent for a moment. Perseus was afraid they would treat him like a stranger. He may not be his old self, but he could really use a friend right now. And he had a great impression of these two from the memories he recovered.
It was Bob who broke the silence.
"Percy was my friend. He stayed behind for us, chose us over the fate of the world, he died fighting for us, I will honor his memory." (Bob)
Then he turned to me.
"You are not Percy, but you also fought for us. You act different but there is kindness in your eyes. I will wait and see but for now, I will treat you as my friend and honor Percy's memory by assisting you." (Bob)
Perseus smiled at that.
"Thank you Bob, a friend is something I would hope for right now." (Perseus)
Bob smiled back and they both turned to Damasen.
He was looking at Perseus and eventually nodded.
"You are not Percy, but I will also honor my friend's memory. You are welcome in my home. There is much you will need to learn now that you are a resident of Tartarus." (Damasen)
Perseus breathed a sigh of relief at that.
"Thank you Damasen, I mean it." (Perseus)
He grunted in acknowledgment and they walked on in peaceful silence.
It was a long day for everyone involved and many things had happened. Some food and sleep were what they all needed before figuring out what to do next.
The trek back to Damasen's hut didn't take long without any monster to impede them. Like Perseus guessed, he was able to harden the surface of Acheron's water. There was a subtle feeling that if he attempted to use this water like he did was the rest, it wouldn't end well for him.
The swamp where Damasen and his eternal enemy, the Drakon live is located south west of the Delta of Despair. The soil in the swamp is variable, sometimes with thick mud, sometimes with pebbles and gravel, with large stones here and there. Multiple hawthorns grow throughout the swamp and the air smells of stagnant water. Multiple decadent-looking plants grow around the tar grounds and a thick yellow mist surrounds the site. In the center of the swamp is the Damasen Hut, created from Drakon parts.
And considering that Damasen is twenty feet tall, it was a fairly massive sized hut for Perseus's size.
Damasen kicked the door open and made his way inside with Bob and I following him.
The hut was homey filled with furs and skins for rugs and different skulls of beasts on the walls.
A giant-sized bed, table, chairs, and basic appliances were all around made of Drakon bone, a material as durable as Adamantine and covered in its leather, a material as soft as silk but hard as diamonds. Almost indestructible to mortal means and hard even among immortal materials but not the toughest out there. For example, the hide of the Nemean lion would be the toughest material in Greek myth.
Along with that, there were many other furs from different beasts as well as materials and plants from different areas. There was also a large fire pit in the center of the hut that Damasen was lighting up.
That actually brought up a question that was bothering him.
"Hey Damasen, why do some monsters leave corpses while most disappear into golden dust?" (Perseus)
"Hm? Ah, well you are aware that occasionally a monster will leave a spoil of war behind correct?" (Damasen)
Perseus nodded.
"I think I recall something like that, I killed a minotaur before, and it left behind its horn." (Perseus)
"Yes, just like that. Well you see, monsters are considered offshoots of gods (as many of them are descended from or related to them) or cursed beings that terrorize, fight, and often kill living beings. They are 'archetypes,' born from the chaos and barbarism that always exists in civilization. This means that they are purely abstract entities.
Monsters will merely reform in Tartarus and come back whenever their physical forms are destroyed. However, each time they are born, they receive and continue to gather energy as they live. The older they get, the higher their energy and the higher the chance of them dropping a spoil of war.
On average, a newly born monster will have around a five percent chance of dropping a spoil." (Damasen)
Perseus took a seat next to the fire that got started while bob was pulling out the Drakon Jerky which he was feeding to his cat named 'Little Bob'.
"What you may not know is that there is a little trick you can use on monsters. God's know this but they prefer to keep silent about it to look 'superior' to demigods and mortals.
When a monster is slain that meets the requirements, it's energy will pulse, and it will not immediately turn to golden dust. The trick works by using energy manipulation to connect with the monster's corpse. As soon as you do, a mental choice will be made available to you for a material or a body part.
What material and what body part are completely random. If no choice is made within sixty seconds, just as it always is for demigods, a choice is randomly made." (Damasen)
Damasen threw a pot over the fire while he was talking and gave Perseus a look.
With a nod, he began to summon real water from his own energy. It's a tiring ability but a pot, even giant sized, is fine since he is not in combat.
"What do you mean by energy manipulation?" (Perseus)
"Let's see, how should I put this? I should mention that my information is a few thousand years shy of being renewed but I doubt it changed much since ancient times.
Divine energy is the highest form of energy minus a few unique cases and energy that primordial's can use. Gods and immortals can directly channel divine energy to cause numerous effects by bending reality. When I lived with mortals and demigods, they called the energy a step down from divine energy, magic.
The demigods I knew explained that because they were half mortal, they had a harder time channeling divine energy and if too much was used, they could kill themselves.
An example is you. Your water manipulation is fueled by divine energy. The reason it is so strong and comes naturally to you is because of your father, Poseidon. If you use your ability too much, you will get sapped of energy and it will begin taking from your lifeforce. Many demigods die this way.
But in the same way you can control water, you could also summon heavy winds and lightning to create a hurricane. The water would be easier for you and drain your energy over time while the lightning and wind would be incredibly stressful on you."
Damasen paused for a moment to add food to the pot while Perseus digested that information.
"Each god has a domain, a specialty they focus on. Primordial gods are beings who are born with a natural domain, gods of later generation however, they must choose a domain to specialize and grow in.
Another example is Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades. They were NOT born as the gods of the sky, ocean, and underworld, respectively. Once the titans were overthrown, they split up the territory and made their choice's. After that, they adapted and focused their divine energy on specifically their new domain and over the course of thousands of years, plus the addition of the power of faith from followers, they became closely tied to it.
Even if they were to die, their domain would still remain intact and functioning. The only difference is there is no god who claimed the domain and what power it entails.
It would be like a magician choosing fire magic and then spending thousands of years both gathering magical energy and studying the nature of fire to better integrate and understand it. The magician would be tuned to fire, his aura would be hot and destructive, and any fire magic would come naturally to him. Of course, you would need to be immortal as well as have personal access to divine energy to make any real achievement, but you should get the point." (Damasen)
Damasen took a minute to focus on the soup he was making before Perseus spoke up.
"Divine forms… is a god's divine form so dangerous because they are releasing all their energy?" (Perseus)
Damasen grunted.
"Yup, they usually contain their accumulated energy from thousands of years in a shell and when they need a boost in power or want to look 'all powerful', they can release it and explode out with power. It was actually a godly invention and one of two reasons the gods were able to overthrow the longer-lived titans the first time around. The second reason was special weapons but that were enchanted with the language of the old gods.
Demigods hold the potential to have a divine form, but I wouldn't recommend it. It closes you off from your specialization out of fear for affecting those around you. You need to learn how to be in balance with it, not cage it and use it like a tool.
Anyway, back to the main topic. Magic is used by mortals mostly and they have small reservoirs of magical energy that refill over time. Demigods can also use magic by converting their divine energy into magical energy. But as divine energy is much stronger and purer, the conversion ratio is not great, and many give up because of how frustrating it can be.
It's easier to use the talents you were born with, with divine energy. But if you want to do things like cast spells and manipulate the mist, you need to become efficient with the conversion rate. You might have an easier time with using the mist thanks to your affinity for water but using its various abilities will take time and practice.
And as this topic began with how monsters leave spoils behind and how to choose your option, you Perseus, would have to imagine using the mist to connect you to the corpse and the mental choice should be easy to make for material or food." (Damasen)
The soup was finished by then and Damasen poured out four bowls for everyone. It was a giant's size, but he didn't mind, with his new need for food, his appetite was crazy for his size.
The soup was made with Drakon meat and herbs, it was surprisingly tasty for monster meat.
"Hey Damasen, I thought most monster meat tasted bad?" (Perseus)
It was commonly known that if you were left with a spoil of war with a monster's body part, most demigods would toss it away or sacrifice it after stripping it of valuable material.
"Hm, well it took me a while, but I discovered a good recipe for Drakon meat. It attacks every day and usually leaves a spoil behind considering how powerful it is, so I've had thousands of years to improve the flavor. Most monster meat tastes bad on its own but with some experimenting, you can turn them into a delicacy." (Damasen)
Perseus nodded at that.
'Considering my new need for food, I should probably focus on that area.'
With the topics at an end, they all ate in pleasant silence accompanied by the fires crackling. Perseus ate as much as the others much to their surprise, but they didn't care.
With their stomachs full and their curiosities settled, they all laid down to finally rest.
After a very long day, it was a well-deserved rest.