Chapter III
...was carrying Annabeth in a half jog half sprint through the mansion of Night, trying to outrun the abyssal creatures he can sense hot on his heels.
Percy may have been faster than any mortal has a right to be, but his speed is nothing compared to the children of Night.
It was only a combination of desperation, a newly discovered echolocation, and the insane power boost he got from when he almost killed Akhlys that he is still alive.
Then there was the constant whispers that even now are trying their damned best to fray his mind. It was like he is back in the Cocytus, only a thousand times worse...
Percy come to a screeching halt... Right by a throne in a large chamber full of twinkling star light, on which sits a being he was pretty sure was chasing him a couple seconds ago.
"Welcome, to the ABYSS..." Nyx purred as she spread her wings, plunging everything into darkness.
Nora has been one of the many adventurers to frequent the dungeon. As a consequence, few knows it's tendencies more than her.
Nora had seen her fair share of inaccuracies in the dungeon, like a lone monster in the wrong floor, or a monster acting more intelligent than it should be, few and far between as these occurences are.
Still, nothing could've prepared her for a rampage by a herd of Minotaurs over 8 dozen strong, over a dozen floors out of place.
Rarely were they ever seen above floor 15, but here they are, more of them than she would have ever thought pssible, clamouring and trampling over eachother trying to reach her.
For a fleeting moment, Nora considered running. She can make it out before the Minotaurs reach her. But that will mean dumping whoever the idiot she's been lugging along for several hours and sacrificing him for her own life.
She shuts down that train of thought as soon as it surfaced. Her pride will never allow her to do that, not to talk of her honour.
So, against her rational thoughts, Nora pushed the van unconscious man behind her, stepped a few dozen meters towards the oncoming Minotaurs, keeping herself between the still unconscious man and the herd of monster. Taking a fighting stance, Nora pulled out 'Alecto', the ancestral sword she inherited from her father.
She had never faced this many monsters alone, at least not something at the level of a Minotaur. The most she can remember is maybe half the current numbers, and that was with other members of her Familia..
Tensing at the familiar thrum of adrenaline coursing through her, Nora charged. Nothing is going to stop her, for this is a good time to carve a name for herself...
It's time to stop being a nobody, it's Time!
(...)
The Minotaurs completely and utterly ignored her.
It was only after she turned the first and the second ones into minced beef that Nora realised they are completely ignoring her presence and aiming for her charge.
It was utterly insulting, being deemed less of a threat/of less impartance than an unconscious boy by what are nothing more than mindless beasts.
This instantly made Nora to see red, as the mounted anger and frustration unlocks one of her skills, Berserker's fury.
This particular skill is akin to a double edged sword, as even though it doubles her strength and speed, making her twice as deadly, it also has the side effect of sacrificing a large portion of her defense.But in times like now, when her targets are ignoring her, it was perfect.
She didn't know how many of them she killed, or for how long she massacred them. She was only brought back to her senses upon feeling a frigid weight on her shoulder and a sharp edge at her throat.
Nora looked down to see a pitch black blade resting on her shoulder. It feld too cold even through her armour, already spreading frost and numbing her arm. It felt..wrong.
Nora instinctively gulped and took a step back, which did nothing to relieve her of the alien weight, nor the instinctive terror that gripped her guts.
"Now, who are You?", "and where am I?". She let her eyes follow the length of the sword to the face of it's wielder.
"Can you...", Nora glanced warily at the sword, which is still giving her the chills.
The young man, for he couldn't have been much older than 20, glared at her, making her gulp again, but acquiesced.
Percy reminisced over the past few minutes, as he followed the girl, 'Nora', his mind corrected, through the streets of Orario.
She promised to take him to someone who can answer his questions better.
Still, to say he was stumped would be an understatement.
He woke up to the stench of the Minotaur, his immortal nemesis.
Only instead of a Minotaur, he was met with Minotaurs, Over a hundred of them.
Sure, they're smaller, small enough for the last one he fought in New York to crush underfoot without even noticing them.
They are also weaker and slower, embarrasingly so.
But they are all Minotaurs to him, and the only ever possible outcome between him and a Minotaur is the sword. He has suffered enough from them as it is.
Still, that isn't what left him breathless. No, that is saved for the fact that the gods willingly descended from heaven, binding their powers in the process, to live among mortals, raising families...err, Familias.
Sure, they may treat it like a game, and use the mortals like some chess pieces, but that is still more human than the gods of his home, with a few exceptions.
Then there was the issue of the blessed mortals. How they receive a god's blesding, go on adventures to get Exp points ang get stronger...it sounds more like a video game he might have played before all the baggage that was his life to him.
"We're here." Nora's voice brought him back to the present.
They are standing in front of a receptionist desk in the large marble building. 'The adventurer's guild', she called it.
On the other side of the desk sat a pointy eared girl. She has shoulder length brown hair, a pointy nose, and emeral green eyes.
'She's either an elf, or a halfbreed,' his mind supplied. Though the elves here look nothing like the Aeasir asdociated ones he is familiar with.
"...this is Aina, she should be able to answer your questions." Nora continued, oblivious to his wayward thoughts.
"Aina, mmm..." they looked at him expectantly.
Oh, right, he hadn't told her his name.
"Perseus", he supplied.
The two girls looked at him weirdly before shrugging. What was that about? Percy decided to file it for later.
""Okay..." Nora coughed to hide her embarrasment.
"Aina, Perseus"
"Perseus, Aina" She introduced properly.
"I will meet you here at dawn tomorrow", Nora said before hurrying out. Percy get the feeling that she's still afraid of him, or at least weary of his disappearing sword.
With nothing to distract him anymore, Percy turned to the bespectacled lady across from him.
"Now, how may I help you?", she intoned.
AN:
Never intended for this to take so long. And I deserve all the frustrations, but hopefully the next chapter won't take long.
On a personal note, I dropped my job, with a return contract mind you (the job market is too overcrowded as it is), in order to further my studies, which only contains online classes, so I should have some time to write.
Storywise, Nora is my first ever OC.
I left a lot about her unsaid bevause, depending on you, I may replace her with a Canon character. Your views in the comments section.
Fair warning, this story may not exactly follow canon completely (what's the point of a crossover if we're going to have a Canon rehash, eh?)
I'd also like to hear your ideas, as nothing is set in stone.
Also, remember to Review, Follow, and Favourite. Not necessarily in that Order.
DarkWraith out...