The One Who is Free (Percy Jackson - Maki Zenin & SI-not-MC Chapter 10)
Dad gave me three Golden Apples, then stood back a bit away from me. He took off his watch and threw it into a fire nearby.
"Hades." He said and the watch disappeared, sacrificed.
"Was that watch... special?" I asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Nah, it was a normal watch. Bit expensive by mortal standards, but nothing noteworthy." Dad replied.
"Then why give it to grandpa?" I wondered.
"Me and your grandpa talked about what he'll do once you're done. The watch is basically giving him the excuse to act as needed." He explained.
"But if grandpa is helping me plucking the flower, then shouldn't the sacrifice be equivalent?"
"When you're actually a family, the Ancient Laws are less like iron-clad guidelines to follow, and more like something to pay lip service to." He said and took his Stygian Iron sword out. Thinking about it, it has the same undying flames engulfing it, like the fires of Circe's Island.
"Hehe, nepotism for the win." I said and dad held back a snort. Dad then turned his back to me, and summoned his armor. He was looking up at the sky and seemed to anticipate something. "Dad? Everything okay?"
"Focus on your task." He turned his head toward me. "Do exactly as I told you. The immortality part has been removed, but the important bits, the vitality is even stronger than before." Dad said. "One apple should be enough, and three are just in case but don't hesitate to use them all if need be."
"And what are you gonna do?" I heard distant thunder. Looking up, the sky seemed to darken with clouds slowly but surely.
"My job. Protecting you." I could feel the smile in this voice, and found myself smiling back. He focused back on the low rumbling sky. "I'll do my part, you do yours. Don't think about anything, or worry about anything but pulling out that flower. Eat the apples the absolute second you feel weak, okay?"
"Right." I nodded seriously.
I kneeled down in front of the flower. Placed two of the apples on the ground—not like some dirt would do anything to them—and held one in my hand.
Dad went up to the edge of the crater and stood there, watching the darkening rumbling skies.
I focused on my task as dad said. Pull the flower from the ground. That's all I have to do. Jump pluck up the moly.
If I messed up I could die. We talked about it. If I couldn't do it I'd just eat the apples and heal up everything.
...Except I don't think we'll get this chance again. The gods clearly now know dad's trying to change everything by riding me of my divinity and so freeing me from my prophecy. If he can do the same to Mai, then it would be completely broken.
Or maybe two other twins of Athena would deal with that shit.
I shook my head. Alright, it was go time.
I held the Golden Apple in one hand close to my mouth, and with my dominant hand I grabbed the flower.
My fingers curled around the moly's stem, closed, and then I felt like dying.
Vincent stared at the forming storm, feeling the Divinity behind it.
There was no mistaking that power and who wielded it.
"Out of curiosity," Vincent spoke in a low tone, but to the god's presence within the sky, he was heard all the same. "Is this because your wife nagged at you, even though I beat her challenge fair and square, without even using stealth or theft mind you, but fully facing Ladon head on?" The sky continued to rumble. "Or did the Fates directly order you?"
The sky was fully covered by the thunder clouds now, turning the bright day to the dark under the storm. Thunder roared in anger.
Vincent held his Braveheart, the undying flames burning and seething faster and harsher, echo's their wielder's will.
The Son of Hades felt ozone in the air, and from his sense in using lightning, he could feel the electrons focused on his daughter.
"So the prophecy will be completed regardless of her cooperation, right? Put her in a coma until the needed time, or... she doesn't even need to be awake for it?" Vincent said with bitterness.
The thunder rumbled, and lightning danced among the clouds, not yet firing but anticipating their lord's command.
"Right. I am beneath notice." Vincent nodded to himself. "Well, if you're going to fry my daughter and then kill me for whatever transgressions you all feel like making up, then you should have the decency to hear me out. Are you honorable enough listen to a father's last words, Zeus?"
I dropped the apple as I fell over. I slammed my hand down to keep my balance and ripped my hand away from the moly.
It was a few seconds, but it felt like years were taken away from my life.
I felt my divinity leave me. Sucked away and forcibly by the flower by latching onto my mortality.
The stability of my inner divinity was gone, but I also felt relieved. My divinity was noticeably smaller, but in being so it felt less suffocating. The fever was returning, but it didn't feel as bad.
I still have too much divinity in my mortal body, but it wouldn't kill me in the long run. It might even return to it's previous reserve with time, which well, would be bad for me.
I took a deep breath. I already decided to cut away divinity and fate from me.
In my past life my Heavenly Restriction was my curse and later my salvation.
In this one, I willingly choose it and will make it my weapon.
I grabbed the apple I dropped. I put it in my mouth, bit down to hold it with my teeth—
I felt power overflow through me. I haven't even finished the bite yet.
My divinity broke the mold and stability holding it, starting to overwhelm me.
I grabbed the moly flower with both hands.
Vincent's words this time held Divine Authority. They were spoken with the intent to invoke the King of Olympus.
Thus in response the Lord of the Sky answered.
Lightning fell and struck the ground in front of Vincent. Not yet hitting him.
But the warning was given. Disrespect would be met with death for the prideful.
What is death to a son of Hades but retirement.
A statement was made by Zeus, and for now he would hold his hand. Vincent's death was decided now, so why not let him have his eulogy.
"Prefacing what I'm about to say, I swear on the River Styx these next words, of what's within my heart and my deepest wishes, are true." Vincent spoke and a new divine presence flashed in the air between him and Zeus, acknowledging this discourse.
Thunder growled loudly of Zeus' irritation. The feeling of ozone concentrated around Vincent. He felt the electrons signifying the god's target was him now.
Good, Vincent thought.
"Do you know? Could you even guess at what I truly wishes for, at the end of a life serving the gods? When there are finally no more prophecies for me, and no Quests heralded or demanded?" Vincent said to the rumbling thunder as the sky flashed with light. "A farm house. Two stores tall. Ten acres, but I could have settled for four.
"A wife and six kids. Three boys, three girls and a seventh on the way." Vincent outright ignored the Sky God as he smiled at the lost fantasy. "I could tend the fields easily. Spend time with my kids, to raise them and teach them about the world, while romancing my wife any chance I get." The thunder seemed to quieten for a moment, almost in respect for the demigod's final words. "And my friends could visit at any time.
"Heck, we would be even ready to throw a feast whenever we wanted with the abundance we would have." Vincent smiled one last time, and in a blink, he was looking at the sky with war-like resolution. "Yet. Even that modest wish was too much for you fuckers." Lightning and thunder returned, the heavens screams in rage at the disrespect. "My first love? I was too much of a coward to court her, and she fell in love with someone else. That? That was on me. It's my fault." Vincent chuckled before he glared again. "But then I had to watch her die saving me. My other friends risked their lives to save me from poison, and then the Sun and the Moon almost had it out for them for the rest of their lives. Oh sure Billy and Susan didn't die anything the Twins directly did, but they sure as hell had a lot of inconveniences in their lives until they died, except for moonless nights. Funny that.
"So much for crimes to be forgiven once punishment is dealt." Lightning began to fall across the island. The wind and rain began killing the grudge flames. "Yeah, yeah, I'm not rambling. Point is by the time I stood before you all after the second world war, after I have killed every half-brother I had and saved your sons and daughters, I stood alone with nothing. Is it really that surprising that I'd, as you said 'spit on your generous gifts', and instead wish to never see your fucking faces again? Surprisingly, after your demands, you actually followed through. You did leave me.
"Athena broke that agreement, yet despite the anger I feel toward her, I am grateful for her for one thing. For giving me my daughter, someone to remind me of Kiku so I would have closure, and someone to give me hope for the future." The wind howled stronger and stronger, as ozone filled the air. The fighting intent between both parties, immortal demigod and king of the gods was at all time high. "Yet you still couldn't let me have that. That last bit of elpis that made me live again, rather than be another stone in the rivers of time till I'm sanded away. You couldn't le me have that!" Vincent shouted at the heavens, tears falling down his enraged expression. "So no more, Zeus!
"No more will I just obey your decrees or prophecies, while forcing myself hope that everything work out. No more will I serve while navigating your gormless rules and rivalries desperately trying to find a solution where everyone lives. No more will I just accept what the world lays upon me. Today, I rebel!" Lightning stopped falling on the island as the winds and rain intensified. The lightning now danced in the sky ready to fall upon the Sky God's target. "From here on out, I don't care what becomes of Olympus. You're not my concern anymore. Fall, preserve, rise, doesn't matter to me.
"I will only fight for the sake of those I love. I will act to protect the people precious to me. So hear my words, Zeus! I CHALLENGE YOUR LIGHTNING!"
Pull! Pull!
I shouted in my mind, demanding my body follow my will.
I grabbed the moly with both hands and pulled.
My grip, my strength, it felt like that of a toddler.
Had I even been this weak? In either life? Is this how normal people feel?
It was a downward spiral.
Pull at the flower, it sucks at my divinity through my life force to empower itself, thus depleting both.
I bite into the apple, eating a chunk, my divinity and life force replenish.
And the cycle repeats.
This will end soon.
And it will end in my failure or my death.
After everything my dad did, all he prepare for me, and all he trained me for, is this what all my strength was worth? My resolve?
I looked up and saw my dad, and far above him the lightning stopped flashing across the sky. It gathered at a single point and the clouds parted to show a single shining point of light, buzzing with so much power I felt my hair stand on end.
The static was so high everything around me was zapping with tiny electricity.
And dad stood bold in the face of that, ready to challenge it.
Challenge the Gods, the Heavens and the Fates.
For me.
And what I am doing?
I'm dying.
Dying to a. God. Damn. FLOWER!?
FUCK THAT!
I pushed through it.
Pushed through the fatigue. The deathlessness clawing at my soul.
Push through pain, the weakness and the titan blood that would eat the sun to devour my will to life.
I pushed through the despair made manifest and pull!
Atropos held her scissor over a single silver thread.
She let go of the two earlier from today. It seemed she didn't have to cut them after all.
But this one?
This thread she had been wanting to cut for a long, long time.
And now she got to have her wish. Not that anything denied Fate.
Atropos closed the fingers, and the scissor blades snapped shut on the thread of Vincent Goodman.
Vincent stared into the eye of destruction.
The symbol of the sky's wrath upon wish all lightning in the world was modeled or imitated.
The Master Bolt.
Zeus wasn't throwing a simply lightning bolt for this situation now.
His symbol of power in itself was challenge. It doesn't matter who did such an egregious or idiotic act.
Gods may not attack demigods directly unless challenged first. No one was insane enough to do that. It was a lesson to demigods as old as the ones adult teach children about not to put their hands in a fire.
A line that no demigod would ever, ever cross.
And Vincent looked the Greek King of the Gods right in his eyes, and directly walked over it.
Zeus' power was challenge, and thus he will respond with his full might.
The star of electricity and plasma charging up in the sky was gazing down upon Vincent.
It promised obliteration. It doesn't matter that Maki was no longer Zeus' target.
In a few moments Circe's Island will cease to be.
How would the prophecy of the Fire of Humanity be fulfilled? Let the Fates worry about that.
Vincent held back his blade ready to swing. He called upon all his divinity, to dragging bit of power from the Domains of Fire and Shadow. His infernal burned so darkly they seem to swallow any light.
The storm eye continued to buzz and shine brighter and brighter.
The Master Bolt was ready.
And sound left the world.
There was no clearer signal.
Vincent swung.
There was no instant in which Zeus fired his attack.
One moment there was a star made of divine lightning in the sky, the next there was a Bolt of pure concentrated celestial power colliding with Vincent's blade.
No, it was Vincent's blade that was almost late.
The echoing boom and light seemed to split the world.
There was only the Bolt and Vincent who stood against it, with Maki far behind him.
The world seemed to disappear in the light of the Master Bolt. Such was it's size and power.
Vincent was covered in sparks of electricity even while pushing back the Bolt.
His armor heated up. His fingers burned and he held one by willing his bones to follow his command.
His flame of darkness seemed to act as a torch in a wet storm. The fire barely holding on.
Yet through the fire and pain, Vincent Goodman held on.
He had a duty to save and this time, he would not fail.
My body felt cold. I was sweating. My veins were visible as my skin paled and seemed to drain of color and life.
My forehead was on the sandy ground. The apple in my mouth. I pushed against the earth to eat it, while trying to use both hands to pluck the damn flower.
It was glowing with power now. Power and life taken from me.
I took another bite of the apple and pulled. Color returned to me, in my body and in my eyes.
The flower's bottom stem seemed to break but not leave the ground.
The roots seemed to stretch forever. Weren't they suppose to be very short?
I pulled as the world lost sound.
I pulled as the world was only sound.
I pulled against the death of wasting without cure, as there was nothing in the world by light, my dad and his blazing blade of black flames, and the flower with the dirt it clung onto.
My divinity was no longer something that worried me. In fact should I stop now I don't think I'll ever have to worry about it anymore.
It felt like less than half. Is this what grandchildren of gods, the Legacies feel like?
I can just let go and rest.
I looked up.
My father's back was so wide. He held back the storm for me.
My eyes narrowed into a glare.
Even if we die, at the very least.
At the very damn least I'll break fate for him!
I brought one hand up and punched the ground.
I growled as I pushed myself up, teeth biting through another piece as the apple fell from my mouth.
I sat up, till tugging with one hand. With the other I Will myself to move my arm.
I picked the almost eaten apple. I opened my mouth and devoured the whole thing, seed and stem.
I felt power invigorate me. Instantly arriving and instantly leaving me as the moly had grown healthier upon the diet of my life force and divinity.
I didn't care or fear anymore.
I grabbed a second apple, bite out of it, and pulled at the moly with my other hand.
My divinity was vanishingly small now.
The blazing fire and dimmed smaller and small till it was a match's flame.
I bite the Golden Apple and pulled.
With a snap, that ember of divinity died. Snuffed out.
No, wait. That sound of snapping was also literal. The roots began to break out of the ground.
One by one, the moly's roots broke, as more and more of the flower was freed of the earth.
I felt a decade leave me in the seconds I was still holding onto the flower.
Now that my divinity was gone, I was but a mortal. I only had my life force, thus that's all the flower was draining.
I bite into the apple to replenish my life and pull.
I ate again and again, feeling more of my strength return, more of my anger and resolve pushing me forward.
I was not going to die here. Dad was not going to die here.
We were going to survive. We are going to find Mai and to Hades with whatever god that stood in the way of me getting my family back!
Vincent growled and gritted his teeth as he held back the Bolt.
He had already done enough. More than any demigod ever had.
He held back the Master Bolt of Zeus. Even the King of the Gods was shocked by that. Yet he felt more power gather and increase in the Bolt.
Zeus was now putting his back into it, it seemed.
Vincent had to pull out all the stops. The reason he didn't until this moment wasn't because he thought he could manage with only fire and darkness, and the iron he wore and fought.
Rather he didn't have the chance. He had to focus everything into survive.
So now he grabbed everything.
He willed the bones and flesh of his body to continue his action. He will the iron of the armor to help move his body. Armor that was cooking him from the inside out, as it cracked and even broke in places.
He pulled at the sky and behind the storm, the sun was blocked once more by a black moon.
The world grew dark and Vincent pull at that darkness increasing it further and further, like the heart of a cave deep into the bowls of the earth where no light can reach.
Vincent pulled at the Domain of Fire, Domain of the Sun, Domain of the Deep and the Domain of Shadows.
The fires of Braveheart flicker and changed into from black and red to roaring orange. The darkness ate at the world and at the light of the Bolt. Withering it. Weakening it.
The sword heated up and now had a crack slowly moving and growing along its body. The cracks glow and half melting from the heat inside and inflicted upon the sword.
Vincent willed the metal of the sword to stay in its shape. Will the fire and melted iron to keep the Stygian iron staying together.
This blade, it became its current form, engulfed by everlasting fire made of hatred, when the last bone Vincent had was gone. It became a symbol of his broken faith when he had let rage finally overtake him, and define him on that day on Circe's Island.
Now, here again in the same place, it wasn't only hate and anger that moved him. He wasn't fighting for vengeance.
He was fighting for his family. For Maki and Mai who he will fight come hell or heaven, none would stop him.
And not even the Master Bolt!
So Vincent pulled at everything that he was, his divinity, his essence and put his heart in his blade.
The fire grew, pushing against the lightning as it took in all of Vincent's emotions and desires.
His hate, his love, his sorrow and all of his hope.
Braveheart enflamed pushed back and began to cut through the Master Bolt.
Vincent was finally gaining—
"I acknowledge your strength, Son of Hades, Vincent Goodman."
Vincent's eyes widened as the words of Zeus echoed in the world, and then the pain intensified as Lightning Bolt burned brighter.
The roots cracked and snapped, almost all of them breaking except one.
I bite into the apple crushing it with my teeth like an animal. The taste was heaven even while I was feeling hell.
The apple kept elevating my strength. There was no divinity in me for it to boost. There was no immortality for it to grant.
So it empower my humanity. I became more.
My body grew stronger. My vitality deepened and rose higher.
The two apples synchronized and their effects multiplied in my belly.
I could do this!
I could feel it. The same feeling when I fully awakened the Heaven Restriction. The same experience of the World when I opened myself to everything.
All the light, sound, pain and my heart thundered.
I pulled on leg up. I pushed the rest of the second Golden Apple into my mouth and devoured.
I grabbed the fucking flower with both hands and PULLED!
"I refuse any ending where dad and I don't win and find Mai today!" I roared at the world.
I pulled as apples exploded me with power, and the emptiness where my divinity had been was replaced by humanity.
Humanity that defied limits. Humanity that pushed against the impossible and the insurmountable and lived!
SNAP!
The flower was plucked.
The snapping sound of the last root breaking was somehow booming louder than even Zeus' thunder.
I feel on my back yet instantly found myself rolling and getting back up, picking the last Golden Apple without thought to eat it.
I saw my dad fighting against the bolt and acted on instinct.
"DAD!" I threw the apple at his shadow.
It sunk and disappeared the instant it touched it.
The weave held by the three sisters started heating up.
Vincent heard Maki's cry.
He felt the apple land on his shadow.
If Maki gave him the apple, he'll trust her judgement just as she trusted his.
The apple fell into the shadow and appeared in the shadow inside him mouth.
He crushed the Golden Apple with his teeth.
His power exploded.
Braveheart's flame equaled all of Zeus' might.
Vincent pulled out his trump card. He could finally use it.
The shadow covering the area they were in kept darkening. There was no longer a focus on weakening or eating the Master Bolt.
The world grew darker and darker till the only light with the Master Bolt and Braveheart.
Vincent gathered the rest of his power, put everything into this last final attack.
The fires of Braveheart became denser.
The flames grew smaller and smaller as the Lightning grew nearer and nearer.
Then the blade shined with a glow to match the Bolt.
As if the darkness acted as a magnifying glass, the beam Fire and Sun blasted out of the Stygian sword shot right to the heavens.
The Lightning of the Master Bolt didn't have time to stop it, or for Zeus to react.
And then Vincent dug even further into his soul and burned his own immortality.
An attack at the speed of light, the Sunfire beam cut right through the Lightning.
Vincent completed the blade swing and the sky parted, as storm clouds separated in wide halves.
Braveheart flew out of Vincent's hands from the force of the attack, landing blade into the ground.
Vincent's hands were stumps up to his forearms, that were blown of from the force of both the Master Bolt and his own Sunfire.
The Son of Hades had emerged victorious of his challenge to the King of Olympus.
The three Fate sister struggled to hold onto the weave as it heated up in their hands.
And in a single moment with a cracked the reverberated across the Greek World, they let go of the weave with a cry of pain, as it burned their hands.
The thread of a single girl, a demigod meant to burn to restore humanity's fire, vanished and disappear from the Fates' grasp forever.
In moments the sky filled up with thunder clouds again as Zeus prepared to cover his loss, and attacked again.
I moved.
I could feel it. The lightning that was coming wasn't as strong or heavy at the one my dad.
I grabbed the no-longer-on-fire Braveheart, jumped over my dad's kneeling form and swung.
BOOM!
I deflected a lightning bolt to the side.
BOOM!
I slashed another lightning bolt in half.
BOOM!
Again and again, lightning fell and I smashed it away.
Jumping, twisting, dancing. I laughed as I felt it.
Right now, right as this moment, I had the same strength as when I fought with Sukuna.
Another blast, and I slashed it in half.
Another bolt and I smashed it with the sword.
Another bolt and I deflected it, only to spin and slam the other one that jumped around and tried to get me at my back.
Again and again and again.
Lightning fell and I swung Braveheart.
I kept slashing at the lightning till the clouds dispersed and the skies cleared.
We did it! We were home free—
"VINCENT!"
Then the black moon cracked and broke to pieces as an angry goddess jumped through it, and in hypersonic speeds crashed at the edge of the island.
The wind blew me and my dad away. He slammed into one of the ruins, a large boulder of what might have once been a castles.
I flew far away.
Only to spin and the moment I landed and dashed forward, breaking the sound barrier as I ran back to my father's location.
I saw the Goddess of the Hunt stalk up to dad. She looked angry and aimed an arrow first at his face, before changing her mind and firing two arrows at his shoulders.
I don't know why Artemis did that. I know a bit of her history between her and dad, but I also know dad keeps a lot of stuff to heart. I don't know the full story.
But I do know one thing.
"I! Am!"
I threw Braveheart like a spear. It cut through the air with a sonic boom as it shattered one arrow.
I reached the distance between dad and Artemis and caught the second divine arrow.
"So fucking back!"
And crushed the arrow in my hand.
