The One Who is Free (Percy Jackson - Maki Zenin & SI-not-MC Chapter 8)

There was a very good reason why the gods wouldn't want a demigod to reach mature age, or worse, obtain immortality unless their loyalty and fealty is utterly secured to the gods.

Sure, gods do not want or wish to outright kill their demigods, especially if they are their own sons or daughters, but they will allow them to live a harsh life with very limited help, due to Ancient Laws that they have not and will not change. These Ancient Laws could be used by the demigods to have all the help and familial connection they want with their godly parent, if they knew about them, and not just vaguely alluded to them.

So sad that part of the Ancient Laws forbids the gods of outright telling their kids about them. Only hint at them if they particularly liked or loved their child. Fight Club rules basically.

The reason for this was because, in the past, when old heroes did know those laws, they naturally abused them. Then again, why wouldn't they, when the only examples they could emulate where the gods themselves.

Thus the only help one can expect from the gods is how much they are willing to give, or how much they love their child that they would go out of their way to reward them, or use any excuse to offer them aid.

But if you live long enough, and not blinded by the veil of awe and reverence toward the gods, what can you discover?

That for a demigod, power was very easy to obtain no matter how weak you were, or how thin your blood was.

First is magic. It is possible for anyone, mundane mortals, clear-sighted mortal or demigods to learn magic and how to use it with enough study. Divine Authorities from the Domain of one's Godly Parent is a whole higher level of magic, an intrinsic one to demigods.

But where does the magic spells and power come from?

Yes, anyone can learn any spell from any pantheon with enough time, but that magic comes from knowledge. Its versatile but will never compete in direct firepower with one of divine blood.

So what of magic that comes from blood? Divine Authorities can technically be classified as Higher Magics, ones that draw on the Domain held by the gods, that are connected to concepts embedded within the world.

For example, Zeus rules the metaphysical concepts of the Sky, Thunder, Lightning, Kingship, Honor and Justice. He can draw power directly from their concept, thus these concepts make up his Domains. Of those Domains he can allow his children access and from there, those demigods can use the power within their blood to control or manipulate powers from or related to the Domain they are granted access.

The key thing to understand here is that while a child of a god will automatically gain some power and ability related to their godly parent, even if they gain nothing but the bare minimum, there is a link to at least one concept that make up their godly parent's Domains.

Through training a demigod could improve that connect to the Domain their godly parent's gave them access to.

However, that doesn't mean a demigod's growth has a ceiling.

Age on its own strengthens that connection to the godly parent's Domain. What about blessings?

A godly parent can bless their child, allowing them access to further Domains. Which, okay cool, so if you have a son of Apollo who was only good with archery, given a blessing by Apollo, they can now use Photokinesis.

What about a god giving a blessing to a demigod that isn't related to them?

Like Ares giving a blessing to a son of Apollo? If they were good with the bow before, now they will seem like a machine gun raining arrows, where every single shot hits an enemy's vital points.

And the thing about blessings is, they stack. Specially if a demigod is given the same blessing by gods sharing a Domain. Like a son of Poseidon being given a blessing by their father to control water on top of what they could do. Then given a blessing by Triton for controlling water. Then given a blessing by Amphitrite for controlling water. All those powers multiply.

Then what if the same demigod was given a blessing for controlling the seas by gods of other pantheons? Njǫrd of the Aesir, Suijin of the Amatsukami, and so on and so forth.

The demigod isn't connected to the specific Domain of their godly parent, but to the concept of the Domain itself. A son of Poseidon doesn't control Greek waters or Greek seas. He controls water and the seas themselves by pulling on his connection to the Domain of the Sea itself. Those blessings of the same nature widen that connection again and again till theoretically a son of Poseidon could equal or even surpass their father in controlling the sea.

So what if those blessings were taken away? That widened connection would snap back to its original form. However just like a stretched cord, it will not return to the same shape or level. The memory of that power is integrated in the demigod's blood, and eventually with enough will and training, that level of strength could be reached again.

What about a demigod being given blessings to Domains that aren't related to their godly parent?

Here is where the advantage of being a demigod reels its head in.

A theory of magic related to demigods states that any magic spell, related to their godly parent, they can near instantly learn. And any magic spell related to the gods that represent their pantheon they can also learn with moderate difficulty depending on how removed it is from Domains they are familiar with. For the Greeks this would be the Olympians.

As mentioned Divine Authorities are Higher Magics.

If a demigod is given a blessing to any of the Olympians' Domains, those connections are now there to stay. Even taken, the abilities of those Domains and the level of power the demigod once had can be reached again with time and effort.

And for an immortal like Vincent all he had was time.

Once upon a time, Vincent had a blessing from each one of the twelve Olympians and other Greek gods.

Aerokinesis from Zeus.

Territory Barriers from Hera.

Hydrokinesis from Poseidon, not to mention earthquakes generation his Legacy.

Geokinesis from Demeter.

Telumkinesis from Ares, along with Pyrokinesis.

Memorization and accelerated thinking from Athena.

Photokinesis from Apollo.

Enhanced eyesight and tracking ability from Artemis.

Weapon Creation and maintenance from Hephaestus, along with Pyrokinesis.

Charmspeak and self Biokinesis from Aphrodite.

Enhanced Speed from Hermes.

Chlorokinesis and... Madness induction from Dionysis.

All these powers were reduced and limited as blessings as opposed to what children of the Olympians have naturally gained. However all those blessings stacking up, not just in versitility but depth made Vincent into a monster by the end of the second world war.

And all these blessings were taken away by Zeus' orders, when Vincent demanded that his reward for his long services to be left alone, and no longer being given quests or subject to the gods' whims. At that point in his life, after finally making it home after WWII, Vincent was so done with dealing with the gods he was ready to reached into his own soul and ripe those blessings out. Only Hestia's presence in that meeting calmed him, and stayed his hand.

Yet, even with those blessings gone, the pathway, the connection to those Godly Domains still stayed. He just needed to open and let his blood remember walking through them again.

And despite Zeus' order, Vincent still retained from blessings of the Greek Gods that favored him.

Poseidon still left Vincent with his Legacy.

His father still left his blessing over all his domains.

Hestia left Vincent with Pyrokinesis and food generation, and threshold creation for homes.

Persephone left him with Chlorokinesis, along with enhancing his Geokinesis, Umbrakinesis and Nercomancy.

These blessings were left with Vincent, letting him know that despite the animosity he had with the Olympians, he still held family among the Greek Pantheon.

When Vincent went on Quest for foreign gods, he would take no reward for a while, letting that god accumulate a debt toward Vincent, till he would cash in on that debt by requesting a blessing. If the god was vehemently against granting a permanent blessing, Vincent would asked to be granted that blessing for one year and a day. That always worked, since for gods a year was less than a blink of an eye.

In that time Vincent would train nothing but the powers of that blessing to understand the mechanics of the connection to the godly Domain, and by the time the year was up, it wouldn't take too much time to train and regain that power.

Vincent had done so multiple times with multiple gods, including the Big Three of the Shinto Pantheon.

Even if the actual blessing he currently has are only a handful, the depth and width of Vincent's connection to godly Domains of Hades are unseen with any demigod alive in this era.

Add in the Golden Apples of Hesperides' Garden and Vincent's power is even more terrifying. The Norse Golden Apples induces immortality through perpetual unkillability. As long as no fate is placed upon the person, they can be shot, cut to pieces, burned to atoms and in a few minutes, they will return back, right as rain.

The Greek Golden Apples however, grants immortality through exaltation. One's vitality and lifespan stretches to infinity, and the pool of their inner power grows exponentially. It is no wonder the gods strictly do not like demigods gaining immortality through this method.

However the downside to all immortalities is stagnation. Stagnation, if not of the mind and body, then of the soul. Eventually the immortal's strength and willpower will reach a plateau. The Ancient Laws will apply to them, and that will sap at their drive and will more and more, till they become like a gods, a painting, a story influenced and maintained by human belief.

Vincent Goodman has not reached that stage of immortality yet.

The Ladon rose with its long neck above ground, and started chewing, a blue-grey ominous glow between its teeth. The dragon paused after a moment, as it didn't taste flesh.

It looked down to see Vincent standing in front of the head that attacked him, in a posture that showed he had jumped back. In a blink of an eye, from the shadow of his hand, Braveheart flashed into palm, ready and waiting.

Maki who had been watching in the background didn't have time to shout for her dad's situation, before she saw he was alright and let out a sigh of relief.

"So be it." Vincent said.

Then the shadows erupted and enveloped him.

The Ladon head struck down like a whip.

Only for Braveheart to strike it back like an explosion, making the long neck be dragged through the earth and slam down into the ground.

The shadows receded and showed Vincent in his battle armor, sword in hand.

His armor was that was made of adamantine and enchanted with further durability and weightlessness. His helmet's face covering looked similar to a row of iron railroad nails. A face that couldn't be seen, wrapped in shadows. Shadows moving like fire flowed from the face opening of the helmet.

His cape oddly looked ragged and withered from many battles, unlike how clean his armor looked.

Finally Braveheart was wrapped in infernal fire as usual, except now it was more focused and concentrated around the blade than free flowing, with electricity mixed in with the flames. A Blessing of Thor that Vincent had gain long ago.

The earth began to rumble as four more colossal snake heads rose out of the ground, surrounding the Golden Apples tree.

There was no wait, there was no pause. The moment the dragon heads looked down and locked eyes on the demigod, both parties moved.

Vincent lunged and he was gone from sight. Ladon seemed to attack something unseen. Something too fast for it to catch.

Slashes of electric fire seem to come from any of Ladon's shadows. The shadow of their head cast on their own neck. The shadow they cast on the ground. The shadow the serpentine neck cast on each other as they move around. From any shadow Ladon created, a flaming blade slash or stab would appear.

Vincent then appeared next to the tree and grabbed an apple. He paused in confusion. No matter how much he pulled, regardless of his great strength, he couldn't pull the apple, any apple off the tree branch.

The Ladon heads grew impatient and angry as the couldn't catch their opponent. So they raised their head up, their mouth shined with an ominous green glow, then they roared. They breath out a stream of emerald lightning everywhere. Around themselves, on anything that moved, on their shadows on themselves as they and the tree were immune. The ground was carved right through from the lightning, and then what was touched by the breath attack started to rapidly decay like time and death was poured upon it.

Vincent appeared a bit away from the dragon as he stared at the destruction Ladon caused.

The dragon Ladon was a large monster, that is true. It hadn't even shown all one hundred heads yet. However, weren't the present ones too large?

More than that, it is suppose to have an decaying breath attack. Not lightning breath with entropic properties.

No, he was sure of it. The feeling of divine blessings is one Vincent was familiar with. And given the clashes he exchanged with the beast...

Five blessings. Zeus, Ares, Apollo. Vincent thought, before narrowing his eyes on where his blade met the dragon's scales. He focused on Ladon's injuries and while their wounds were healing up quickly, he also saw countless bronze mini hexagon plates cover up the dragon's scales. Divine armor on top on Ladon's near invulnerable skin. Hephaestus, huh. And I'm guessing the last blessing is from Hera.

Yeah, now that he focused on it, it did feel like her.

"Wow. I'm flattered. Really." Vincent smirked.

He understood why he couldn't remove the apples once he grabbed one earlier. Hera's blessing enchanted the tree so that as long as Ladon was awake, the apples couldn't be plucked from it without his permission. Likely only the Hesperides or Hera could do that.

Apollo's blessing was to heal itself and the tree.

Hephaestus' blessing was the self-repairing celestial bronze armor upon its skin. Ares' was the increased size, strength and speed. And Zeus' blessing with the lightning power added to the dragon's breath attack.

Genuinely, Vincent felt flattered that the gods intervened in his personal quest this much, treating him this seriously.

It also enraged him since they should have no idea of his quest, or at least what's his goal and how he's going about it. Thus someone (or someones) had to have advised or told them to do this.

Thus Vincent shifted his goal. Rather than focus on stealing the apples, he was going to defeat Ladon.

Fire, lightning and shadows burst and swirled around Vincent in a vortex of power.

Vincent moved.

The world went dark for an instant. Like reality had blinked.

The Ladon heads moved at lightning speed to intercept the demigod, but were startled with surprise and indecision because they didn't know where to attack.

One of the heads was cut, bisected completely. The action causing an explosion of force and wind from the suddenness of its effects.

The world blinked again. And another head fell. An injury dealt far too fast and too strong for all the dragon's defenses, durability and blessings to protected from the violent, overpowered slash of Vincent's sword.

The world blinked again and again and all seven heads fell.

The headless serpentine necks stayed up for a moment, then slowly fell hitting the ground hard enough to cause a minor tremor.

Vincent covered one of the Golden Apples with his shadows and tried to pull. It stayed in place.

He sighed, of course it wouldn't be that easy. He drew on his inner divine power, letting it buzz with anticipation and readied himself.

The ground rumbled, the earth shook and cracked.

And then the hill of the Golden Apple tree began to rise.

A mountain stood before Vincent. Ladon rose in its true body in full.

A large patch of land with the Golden Apple tree laid amidst the swarming pit of colossus serpent heads.

In order to protect the tree, Ladon let it grow atop his new body, intertwine its life force with his own. Vincent frowned. He now saw that slaying the dragon could possibility result in the death of the tree as well. Hera's new design obviously.

Overly petty and vindictive as one would expect from the Queen of Olympus.

"You just had to make this complicated, didn't you." Vincent said. Then again, with Ladon's new strength, Vincent might not need to worry about killing it when he uses his full might. "Very well then." He stabbed his sword in the ground. "Rise."

One word. A command upon to all his subjects within the whole of the garden and even outside of it.

A command by the Prince of the Underworld to the dead.

The ground groaned and cracked as bones broke out.

How many people died to the Ladon? How many demigods, heroes? Across the eons since the Hundred-Headed Dragon was tasked with guarding the tree against all thieves, how many would-be warriors, rogues, wisemen, all attempted reach for the Apple of Immortality, only to fall short, to fail?

There were enough.

One by one, skeletal frame rose up.

Even if enough time had passed that their bones were ashes, they still reformed into skeleton warriors.

All following the command and will of the Son of Hades. They were given a second chance, a second attempt. To complete their quest, to overturn their destiny, to slay the dragon.

"Attack." Vincent had no need to shout.

With a simple word, the army of the dead forged over millennia shouted and screamed as they charged upon the dragon, each one armed with their weapon of chose. Vincent made each and everyone, the weapon they desired of celestial bronze, by transforming the dirt.

Vincent stumbled in place as he took a moment to regain his bearings. Making tens of thousands of celestial bronze took a bit out of him.

The undead army ran at the Hundred-Headed Dragon without any thought or care for their selves. Only pure rage and hatred motivating them.

Blue-grey lightning filled the world as over 90 serpent heads were firing their breath attack at the army that surrounded them.

Ladon's body was more or less stationary, but its heads were zipping around at hypersonic speeds, either firing their entropic lightning at the skeletons, or extended its necks to dive in and crush the skeletons with its teeth.

Yet the skeletons kept on attacking.

Ladon started to swing his massive arms around, crushing huge swathe of the skeletons.

The undead started climbing the dragon's body. They stabbed, slashed and clawed at the dragon's body, already ripping away the skin layer armor of Hephaestus. They did not tire or were held back by pain, thus drew on more strength than they had in life.

Vincent was almost ready to join the fight again.

Ladon continued to attack, but the undead seemed to have no end—No.

After a point, it wasn't that their numbers didn't increase, but rather those it destoryed were reformed and went back to try and kill it again.

The dragon tried to focus on the more dangerous or the strongest of the undead heroes, yet the storm of arrows surrounding it like endless gnat blinded it. Made it difficult to focus on its targets. A lot of its eyes were constantly blinded, even as they healed.

Then Ladon felt skeletons succeed in cutting of one or two of its heads.

The dragons raised its head to the sky and roared, letting out lightning into the heavens as dark clouds started to cover the sky.

"No fucking way," Vincent blinked. "Zeus actually gave him permission to cause a storm?!"

Lightning began falling from the sky, targeting Ladon himself. The divine electricity washed away the skeletons on its body, like water washing away grime. The undead were burned into a crisp that not even ashes of their bones remained. There was nothing to revive. The lightning even began to heal the dragon as one of the heads began to reform.

Vincent grabbed onto his well of divine power, and reached out into the sky. It was time to bring out the big guns. This fight can't be prolonged.

Ladon spread it's gigantic wings, jumped up into the sky and flew.

Vincent snorted at the image of the colossal dragon being in the sky. It looked like a fat lizard with many tiny heads. Such a mismatched image.

Then the demigod's eyes widened as he felt a new blessing take place in Ladon's being.

A feeling of speedy wings passed by Vincent.

"I'm sorry." The words weren't spoken, but conveyed by the god's presence before he disappeared.

Ladon blasted at Vincent with it's whole body as supersonic speed, in such a manner, that a creature of its size shouldn't have.

"I'm going to collect on the debt from this interference, Hermes." Vincent said. The god was long gone but, he heard him all the same.

Ladon crashed with it's body and claws onto Vincent.

Maki watching the whole thing from far away shouted for her dad. The nymphs said nothing, only standing before her to stop her from running toward the dragon, to keep her safe. They didn't try to sing and make her dance. She wasn't an enemy and there was no point.

The world darkened.

The shadow under Ladon spread out to cover the whole of the region.

The storm clouds dispersed as a greater power took over the sky and blocked out the sun.

A black moon covered the sun, and with it the world turned dark and all blessings of the sky turned null.

The ground under Ladon's claws started glowing with heat and fire. A figure exploded upward blasting away Ladon's arms.

A giant skeletal hand rose up and punched into the dragon's body throwing him off.

The Gashadokuro, a powerful youkai of the Shinto Pantheon. It had terrorized many cities in Japan, acting as a natural force to destroy peace and harmony in society. They were formed from the countless fallen soldiers that weren't given peace via funeral rites. Thus they coalesced to form one giant being of rage seeking vengeance, for their unjust deaths and forgotten memorials.

This Gashadokuro was formed from thousands of fallen soldiers over time. Vincent encountered it in one of his missions to the Shinto Gods, and simply took it over with his control over bones and the dead, and was allowed to keep it.

It had been strengthened by being in the demigod's presence, and actually managed to feel peace when held in Vincent's shadow. Thus upon being called upon, it attacked with ferocious rage at the being that disturbed it's slumber.

The Gashadokuro was as tall as Ladon. It would grab dozens Ladon's heads and ripped them off.

Ladon's head attacked Gashadokuro, biting into his bones, and holding him in place. Other heads blasted him with their blue-gray gas breath. The heads that did that looked confused, as they used their normal breath attack, not lightning.

To the entropic breath, nothing happened, for Gashadokuro was already dead. For the heads that bit into the bones, Gashadokuro's body was one that naturally negated physical damage, further empowered by Vincent's power. It withstood the dragon's teeth.

Ladon was an ancient dragon, born of the Mother and Father of Monsters. What was so-called immunity to physical harm to it. The dragon heads coated their teeth with their breath and bit down once more on the giant skeleton.

They bite down harder and harder, rejecting Gashadokuro's being and legend.

The bones cracked.

Gashadokuro absorbed the bones of the fallen heroes that rose once before, drawing them into himself. Taking their anger into itself, using their hatred to fuel itself and carry out their vengeance for them.

Skeletal arms began to form out of Gashadokuro's shoulders, giving him the look of an asura.

With this multiple arms, Gashadokuro punched and grabbed Ladon's heads to hurt, to kill, to rip more of them out.

A figure rose up from the blacked earth. A figure seemingly formed of shadow and fire.

Vincent stood back up, bringing forth his whole divinity. His blade shining like a new sun formed of burning rage.

A Transcendent Form, Vincent called it.

Short of a Divine Form, something he absolutely refused to reach, holding onto his humanity with all his might, using it as a container so that the divinity in his blood does not overtake his being.

He didn't have enough time, nor did he wish to use this for long.

Vincent jumped and blasted into the sky. He seemed to disappear into it.

The black moon had several points of fire start upon it. The points of fire started flying down to the earth.

Divine Authority over the Moon was not something Vincent liked to use a lot. However due to having once had Artemis' Blessing, even if unrelated to the moon, acted as a sort of side gate to that Domain. By gaining the blessing of Tsukuyomi, that side gate became a full tunnel, and thus even after the god took back his blessing, the connection remained.

Vincent trained that connection as it could technically work into a link to the Sky Domain. And at that moment, even though Apollo and Artemis must have noticed what he's done, even if the effect is localized to the Hesperides Garden, they must be enraged over what he had done. Apollo can't act with the moon chariot blocking the sun, and Artemis can't act momentarily as the black moon was an artificial construct by Vincent.

The moment Artemis figures what's going on, and that her own chariot was still fine and untouched, she would override or even outright destroy the black moon.

But until then, Vincent could act as if he had control over the moon. And with his Geokinesis, even if the material he was working with isn't from the earth, he could still manipulate it to heat up and launch meteorites to his location.

Meteorites that over their journey changed shape and transformed into skyscraper sized swords.

The heads of Ladon that noticed the sparkling lights on the surface of the black moon, and glowing brighter and becoming bigger started to cry out in fear and panic, as the being understood that death was coming upon it. It tried to fly up, but Gashadokuro held it down in place.

Ladon dug deep into its being and pulled on the blessing of Zeus that was still there, forcibly bringing it out.

The serpentine heads roared and vaporized the giant skeleton with their collective lightning breath. Now they looked up to the sky focusing on the blasted demigod—

"Fall."

Charmspeak can allow the user to hypnotize or persuade others, be it mortals, demigods or monsters into doing their bidding. It can also induce an emotion in other, to make them sad or raise their morale.

Thus coupled with Hades' Domain of Phobikinesis, the ability to induce fear and dread, the Many-Headed Dragon was frozen in place, utterly stunned into inaction in terror of this demigod. No, of the Prince of the Underworld.

The falling meteor swords were far too close by the time the ancient dragon gathered enough of its wits to fire its entropic lightning breath from all its mouths.

And then the shadow that was the ground rose up, grabbed Ladon's limbs holding it in place, and completely covering the patch of earth on its back, tree and land. They would be safe from the incineration.

A dome of shadow started to form to protect the San Francisco state from sword meteorites.

The blades fell to the earth, with Vincent standing as a surfer upon the spearheading meteor sword of the divine attack.

The image of destruction lasted for but a moment to those watching the mythical fight before the shadow dome covered the battleground.

Points of light could be seen inside the shadow dome of the energy and fire trying to erupt outward, yet the shadow dome held.

Again and again the explosion within the dome kept going, looking like fire and light was fighting against the shadow to escape.

The shadow dome held.

After a long enough time there were no more flares of light within the shadow dome.

And then after a few more minutes of silence, as the battle ended, the black moon left.

The sun shined upon the world again, and the sky was clear.

Mountain swords were left embedded in the earth, with one sticking into the burned and charred, yet still alive, body of Ladon. The giant dragon was held in place by the sword like a sheeshkebab.

It was on death's door, only needing a push.

Vincent shadow travelled to Ladon's side, placing a hand upon it. The dragon began to heal, skin slowly reforming on it's body, yet it was not awake.

"This should be enough. You'll not die like this." Along with all the blessing he had that allowed him to learn Vitakinesis, due to his divine heritage over death, Vincent can simply command a being into not dying, thus allowing them the chance to heal and extend their life. "And now the prize."

The thick shadow that was covering the Golden Apple tree unwrapped to show the tree in pristine and safe condition.

"Let's see, how many of them there were again? About 70?"

Instantly dozens upon dozens of the apples were devoured by shadows and taken away.

In a blink of an eye, Vincent and Maki vanished.

A moment later a furious Artemis landed in the garden in search of who dared touch her realm.


In Camp Half-Blood the campers were treated to a very bizarre sight.

In the center of the camp near the hearth, there was a table with a giant basket filled to the prime with Golden Apples.

A skeleton stood next to the table with a sign.

"Garden of Hesperides Golden Apples. Each Demigod may take only one."

Dionysus couldn't do anything as these were someone's Spoils of War, and said person could do with them as he wished.

Also the God of Wine was too busy laughing his ass off to intervene in this situation.