Dazai POV
One thing I can say for certain about leaving the world of Greek mythology for that of demons was that the dreams in Yokohama were much more pleasant than the ones here. Back in Japan, outside of the gods' reach, the dreams there were just that, dreams. No matter how horrific and toturious they stood to be, they were predictable. They were nightmares built on everything that's happened to you, building on the theory that there was nothing worse that could be done to you than what you've already done to yourself.
But demigod dreams were never just dreams.
Here, dreams were visions that showed you unpredictable sights of occurrences happening far away, or omens of disasters soon to come. And while they were helpful, I'd much rather be the architect of such wreckage than on the receiving end.
As I slept, my sight was plagued with visions of a dark place atop a mountain that I've never seen before, but I could tell in some strange way that it wasn't anywhere close to us.
I was in some kind of open air pavilion a lot like that of the dining pavilion back at camp. It was open to the night air as columns of black stone and intricate statues of the old titans held the space together. Torchlight glowed lightly against the dark stone, casting tall shadows where the moonlight couldn't reach.
At the center of the dark room stood a giant dressed in Greek battle armor, a swirling mass crashing down on him from above as he struggled to hold it. I could tell without having known him just who this was-Atlas, the titan cursed to holding the sky so that it may never touch the earth again.
Two other giants stood near the cursed being, watching images in the flames between them as if it were an Iris Message. They were looking at the pictures as if what was in them was all but insignificant.
One giant was dressed in black armor that made him all but bleed into the darkness around him, the armor was studded with dots of silver, giving off the illusion of a night sky like that not much farther behind him.
The other was his complete opposite. Dressed in golden robes with piercing golden eyes similar to that of the titan lord of time. The giant's body seemed to glow with the harsh light of a much too close star. The giant wore a cruel expression as if the world around him was something to be destained.
"Quit an explosion," the night sky said, his voice much softer than I thought it would be, like the gentle lull of sleep, but with harsher edges to each word.
"It doesn't matter," the sun spoke back, his voice as harsh as the light coming from him. "The gods have answered the challenge. Soon they will be destroyed."
He spoke as if the prospect was an inevitability that no one could change, something set in stone since the beginning of time. And maybe to a giant that's how it would seem. In their eyes, there must be no way that demigods of all creatures could stand on even ground against a titan born of primordial beings.
The images in the fire flickered cruelly, images of storms rampaging across the earth, buildings crumbling down as if they were never made to stand at all, and mortals screaming in pure, unabridged terror could be seen in a hazy light.
The golden titan looked at the sights with a small hint of mirth in his sharp gaze, as if the sights there amused him. It was a look that I knew well, having worn it many times myself. But the difference between the two of us was simple: I may hate the city that I live in, but even I know better than to see it destroyed, especially if I wish to inhabit it.
"I will go east to marshal our forces there," the titan said, speaking as if it was the only acceptable conclusion. "Kiros, you shall remain here and guard Mount Othrys."
The other titan, Kiros, made a disgruntled noise as he complained about the assignment from the other, clearly discontent with being stuck having to play babysitter to a titan who couldn't give up his burden unless another was willing to take it. It really did seem like a foolish assignment, but I wasn't going to give the enemy forces any tips on how to hurt us more.
From beneath the loud sounds of a swirling sky, I could just barely hear the third titan screaming out to the golden titan and the Lord of constellations. The former general was ranting about how he was the greatest warrior that they had, how one of the others should take his burden so that he may fight. Honestly it sounded like a child's temper tantrum, a sentiment that the golden titan must have shared with me since he told the cursed titan to quiet.
"As for you," the glowing titan started, turning to the night sky titan, "Kiros, do your duty."
The titan's voice was harsh, cold and commanding enough to not need for it to be raised for the point to get across. Honestly, watching the trio the way that I was, I couldn't help but wonder if Atlas and the Lord of constellations had taken lessons in survival skills from me as they continued to question the already angered titan that obviously had a higher ranking than them.
"And if you need more warriors?" The titan dressed like the night sky asked, continuing despite the other's temperament. "Our nephew will not do you much good in a fight if it comes to that."
It was a decent question, something that all leaders must know before going into battle. If you don't have a way of getting reinforcements when they are needed, then the fight is all but lost from the beginning since in large scale wars, reinforcements are historically almost always called in at some point.
But the other titan only laughed as if the thought of needing more warriors was as foolish as letting the other titan out from beneath his curse.
"Don't worry about him," the golden titan said in a voice much too harsh to be of any reassurance to anyone in the room. "Besides, the gods can barely handle our first little challenge. They have no idea how many others we have in store. Mark my words, in a few days time, Olympus will be in ruins, and we will meet here again to celebrate the dawn of the sixth age!"
The titan erupted into flames at the end of his hubristic speech, blazing like a bonfire with the bucket of gasoline tossed into it.
So it's not that he doesn't have reinforcements, they have plenty, but they're just using them strategically to play the board master in the twisted game that the titan lord of time has designed for us.
Jokes on them, I never lose a game.
The night titan grumbled as the scene shifted, pulling away from the two remaining titans to one of the tall Greek columns just outside the pavilion. Hidden in the shadows behind the column was a small teen quietly spying on the scene that I'd just seen only moments ago. The shadows seemed to curl protectively around the boy, licking at his skin like they wanted to pull him into them.
The teen looked at me, straight at me as if he knew that I was there, a grave expression coloring his face. "I have a plan, Jackson," the boy whispered, loud enough for me to hear, but quiet enough that the giants wouldn't know that he was there. "It's crazy, I'll be the first to admit that, but based on this, we don't have time for anything sane."
It sounded like the younger boy wanted to drag me along on some kind of suicide mission, something dangerous enough that he didn't believe that I would easily agree to go along with it as willingly as he needs me to. I could feel that there was some type of ulterior motive to whatever the other teen had in store for me, but at the root of it, his intentions were pure. Something that you rarely find so earnestly in the mafia where everyone is almost always blunt in saying that they were going to use you.
How interesting.
—-
"Percy?" a deep voice asked, speaking a name that I'd given up a long time ago, reminding me just where I was.
My head felt heavy like the doctor had been messing with the drugs again, though I knew it wasn't quite that since I could still seem to be able to move freely.
Forcing my eyes to open, I noticed how cool it was here, the unfamiliarity of the place that I'd woken up in, the only thing remarkably similar to what I've come to know was the darkness of the place, the way that sun seemed unable to reach here.
A large shadowy figure was standing beside me, of course I knew exactly who the other was just by glancing at the creature, but I also knew how strange it would seem if I so easily regained my bearings after waking up only moments ago.
The owner of the voice was a tall figure with a face that many would describe as misshapen if they didn't understand exactly what the other was. A rather large boy with what someone would call doe eyes if there were two of them, was staring at me with an emotion that I haven't seen directed at me in some time: concern.
"Tyson?" I asked, already knowing the answer. No one else who knows me would be caring or foolish enough to still look at me in such a way.
The cyclops that I call my brother immediately broke into something of my toothy grin as his features were overcome with a childlike glee. It was a warm expression, unlike the way that I'd worn the expression when I killed the GSS soldier only a few months ago.
The child made an excited noise, all but jumping up and down. He probably would have if he could've. "Your brain works!" The boy happily said as if there was a possibility that it wouldn't have.
I sat up, listening to the other's voice, the vibration of it as he spoke. I knew where we were, there were really only so many options that I could've come after the earlier events and since it was so cold and dark and Tyson was here, I was able to support my thesis with something a little bit more factual.
We watched as a gossamer sheet that'd just been covering my body floated away, weightless in the area around us as I sat up from a more eastern style bed made of carefully woven kelp. The room was something out of a fairytale, tirelessly decorated with various kinds of shells, glowing pearls much bigger than any that the Port Mafia has ever gotten our hands on floated lazily around the room, acting as a source of bioluminescent light.
I was in a place that I never thought that I would come to even before I left camp. A place that after leaving the states I never had any real desire to come to despite how much I had dreamed of visiting while still at camp.
"Daddy's palace," the cyclops said, seemingly tired of waiting for me to question where I was, that or he was just too excited to wait another moment.
I only nodded having already figured that much out for myself before, but I immediately regretted my action. My head started pounding more severely than most of the hangovers that I've had the moment that I moved it. I could see that my shirt was the one that I'd worn to the mission, the burn marks on it proof enough of that, this told me that I'd only been out for a couple of hours at most, that and the deep rooted ache in my body from where the scythe had cut me.
The thing that surprised me the most wasn't the underwater palace, or seeing the brother that left me to live here two years ago, it was what happened when I ran a hand carelessly through my hair. How easy it was to do just that.
The bandages aren't there.
In a silent flurry of panic I looked down at my arms, finding the rest of the bandages still on my left arm as I'd left them, though they looked a little worse for wear from the explosion. However the bandages from the elbow up were missing, likely cut off from the damage that the titan lord of time had done on the ship.
I crossed my arms gently, holding myself like a teething child. There weren't many scars there, but the ones that were there were still private enough that I didn't want anyone else to see them if I had a choice about it.
My brother looked at me with a more concerned look than he had before. I knew that I should ask about Beckendorf and the Princess Andromeda, that these questions were what the other was waiting to hear from me, but I didn't want to play the part of the caring demigod when I already knew the answers to all of these questions. I just wanted to get back to camp, back to the cabin and change the bandages lining my skin before more had a chance to fall off like the ones on my eye and arm.
The room shook violently as a distant blast sounded from outside of the room, the ocean lighting up a green so bright that it was a wonder everyone under the hadn't already gone blind a long time ago.
"What was that?" I asked, an idea of what it could be already forming in my head before the light had even faded.
The young cyclops's eye filled with concern as he looked down at me, clearly not liking the scene outside anymore than I was at the moment. "Daddy will explain," the child decided. "Come, he is blowing up monsters."
A part of me wondered what I'd done wrong in a previous life that talks of monsters and explosions and things of the such were a normal conversation no matter where I went, but the rest of for once wanted to remain ignorant.
-—
We swam from the room into a long corridor much older than the ones back at Port Mafia headquarters, but also much brighter and more welcoming despite the state that they were in. Everything around us was in the process of being destroyed, not from weathering and time, but an external, unnatural force wishing to tear the kingdom down. The scene was a lot like the one from the fire, bringing back much of the same sentiment that I had before.
I could tell that palace was a word used loosely among the Greek gods as Tyson and I swam over the rooftops, finally giving me a clear picture of the world that my father had never let me see before. The palace was as big as the city at the top of Mount Olympus, with a design just as intricate too, if not more than. Courtyards and gardens decorated the lands, sculptures of artistic feats that could not be accomplished on land accompanied each. Sea life darted around the grounds, bustling about in and out of rooms, each of them moving with purpose as a battle raged on in the distance.
It really was a place worth leaving camp for, a place that I'm sure that Tyson is happy living in even with whatever war there seemed to be plaguing what I was sure used to be a quiet place. Maybe when I was younger, I would've been jealous of the other son of Poseidon for getting to live here when I couldn't, but now I see that everything here would've been much too beautiful for the person I've become and even the boy that I was back then. The peace would have driven me crazy before long.
The main courtyard, the largest of all of them in the underwater city of sorts, was filled with the warriors of the sea, the merpeople. Their skin was a deep shade of blue that was probably helpful with various gorilla warfare tactics that their strategists have come up with over time. One swam past us in a rush to get to the courtyard, his eyes were a toxic green, the creature's teeth as big as those of the smaller sharks and just as sharp. It was a gruesome image, but one that I was almost put at ease by, much more used to images like these than the prettily decorated palace.
Down in the courtyard, some of the merpeople were tending to the wounded while others were sharpening their various swords and spears. Honestly I would've moved the wounded to another courtyard, or maybe just moved the impromptu armory that seemed to have formed among them so that if any of the wounded were to become I'll, they wouldn't infect the others around them. But this war wasn't my business to mess with, I had my own above the sea to deal with already.
I could see a seemingly endless array of battles raging on past the crumbling fortifications of the palace walls. Explosions shook the water around us as flashes of light continued on for miles and miles around us. Armies clashed furiously against each other, more and more from each side dying by the second.
I knew that any normal being would've been long dead by now for how far down we are, crushed by the pressure of the ocean or frozen by the cold long before they could make it down here. I also knew that if by some miracle that they did, no human would be able to see in the darkness, but I could because I was the son of Poseidon, someone less than human in every right.
"Have you been fighting?" I asked the other child of the sea god, my brother. I figured that I already knew the answer but there was no harm in asking instead of swimming along in such a heavy silence.
But the cyclops only pouted telling me all that I needed to know about how the other has been spending the past few months here beneath the sea. "I have been fixing weapons," the young cyclops mumbled, obviously finding no joy in the job that he'd been given. "Come," the other commanded glumly, "let's go find Daddy."
—-
We swam to a decently sized temple that was currently being used as a makeshift war room by the beings of the sea. Going in, I was sure that I wouldn't recognize the sea god that I called my father. I've only seen the deity twice since I was born, both memorable enough to ingrain the god's image into my mind. But I wasn't foolish enough to believe that gods who can look however they would want would look the same as I remembered them to be under circumstances like these. Gods draw their power from the realm that they rule. With the sea being as war torn as it is now, there was no way that the ruler of the sea would look as he had before I left.
There was a mosaic in the middle of the temple floor that created an exact map of the palace grounds and the surroundings. It was spelled in some way, enchanted to move and adjust accordingly to how the sea did. Colored tiles shifted as armies moved, changing positions to keep up with the change in the tides of the war.
Standing around the colored mosaic were an assortment of warriors, well what could be called warriors for the most part if you were to throw appearances aside in some cases... one case.
One of the warriors was a merman with two tails instead of the seemingly standard one, his skin was a deep green similar to the color of my eyes, with black hair less unruly than my own, tied back in a long ponytail in something of a Japanese fashion. The merman looked young, though I knew that if he was the child of Posiedon, as his looks suggested, and another immortal being , then he could be any age that he wished.
Standing near him was a woman in Greek battle armor the same color as the merman's skin, with hair the same shade as his as well. She has strange little girls in her that closely resembled crab claws that were assembled in a fashion similar to that of a crown. She must be Poseidon's wife.
The last of the probable warriors, appearance wise anyways, was a dolphin of all things that was staring at the map like an analyst. Honestly I wouldn't be surprised if he was, dolphins are known to be the most intelligent creatures in the sea, possibly the most intelligent animals in the world. Though scientists are hesitant to give them such a title since so much of the jungles and the seas have yet to be explored.
Standing at the center of them all was the one warrior out of them all that didn't quite seem to fit the bill anymore. The man was old, looking to close in age with what the old boss had been before we'd killed him. His hair was completely gray, no streaks of color left inside of it, with a stark white beard to go along with it. The man had green eyes like mine and the merman's and was holding onto a staff as if it was the only thing allowing him to remain upright. The warrior was dressed in Greek armor like the others, but unlike them, his seemed to be weighing him down like a child wearing it for the first time. He didn't look like he was in any shape to get out of bed, let alone fight a war.
But I still recognized who he was, he just wasn't as I remembered him to be.
I watched as the man dismissed the dolphin, telling him to go send the legion of sharks to the western front. The dolphin gave a chattering noise as it swam away at the fastest speed that it could go.
"Father," I called, watching the way that the man's head snapped up in surprise. When he looked at me there was more warmth in the man's gaze than I've seen since I saw my mother, but there was something else there too.
"Percy," the god called out, a hint of distrust in the other's tone. I guess disappearing one day would do that, not that I really trusted adults all that much these days either.
I watched as the man took in my appearance, his eyes lingering just a moment too long on the exposed skin on my arm that was normally hidden by bandages. There looked to be too many questions to count swimming in the deity's eyes, but there was no time to really ask any of them, not with all of the wars commencing at once.
"You've grown," the man decided to say at last, seemingly at a loss for words.
I nodded, wanting this conversation to be over with as fast as possible. "Time does that," I told him, my tone about as warm as the ocean floor.
"I... I suppose it does," the sea god agreed before looking to his side. "This is my, er, wife, Amphitrite," he introduced, gesturing to the beautiful woman at his side.
The queen of the sea looked at me with a glare as warm as how I imagine the Arctic tundra would feel at night before crossing her arms like a pouting child. "I'm needed in battle," she said haughtily before swimming away.
Honestly, I didn't blame her. She is my father's immortal wife, someone that is stuck with the sea god for as long as they both live. Me, Tyson, and all of the other children of Posiedon are all bastard children born of vows. She had every right to hate me, to curse my existence.
That's fine, I wish I'd never been born too.
The sea cleared his throat in an awkward manner much to human for someone of his position. "Yes, well... and this is my other son, Triton."
I'd already figured as much, he mentioned in the book that I'd read on the way here and his appearance is much too similar to my own for there to not be some kind of famila bond. If I remember correctly he's-
"Your son and heir," the deity corrected, his twin tails swishing back and forth like an angered cat preparing to strike. Honestly I've always liked cats, but he was making me question that presence. He smiled at me, but there was no warmth there. Somehow this was easier than having to deal with Tyson, a brother that genuinely cares for me for whatever reason. It's much easier to deal with those that wish you harm than those that care for you, much more familiar too. "Hello, Perseus Jackson. Come to help at last?"
He was looking at me like I was some kind of lazy child that refused to help with the chores so he had to take care of them before mom got home.
And honestly heir? Heir to what? Poseidon is immortal for gods sake.
I looked at the two tailed man like he was one of mine, fixing him with a cold gaze that implied that even if he was older than me, I held his life in my hands. I watched the way that the other blinked at the look, clearly not expecting such a reaction from a demigod of all things.
"You seem to be handling that well enough on your own by the state that Father is in," I started, my voice as cold as the treatment that I've been given from the sea god's wife and child so far. "I mean it's just one titan isn't it, Oceanus right? I'm just a demigod and I'm supposed to kill the king of the titans. So one lowly titan that was a neutral player in the last war must be nothing for a deity like you."
As I spoke the expression of the gods in the room changed more and more from what they were when I first walked in. Triton was looking at me with an almost explosive anger that was only furthered by the fact that none of the statements that I'd just given could easily be refuted by either of the deities in the temple. Poseidon, however, was looking at me like he couldn't recognize me anymore.
"But if you really need help," I continued, caring about my own safety about as much as I ever did, "Tyson here would love to fight."
Triton looked to the other sea god as if to see if our Father would just let this stand, but the god was too busy staring at me as if he'd seen a ghost to really be of much help to either of us. I saw the sea messenger form a fist at his side, gripping so tight that blue blood started to leak out from his palm into the water surrounding him.
"I will see to the front lines, Father," he decided, seemingly thinking better of starting a brawl with the child of the Great Prophecy just days before it was supposed to come to completion.
He started to swim off, but I stopped him. "Hey Triton," I called out, watching as the god paused, not bothering to look back at me I didn't mind, whenever gods slipped into their true form, the light that they emitted could turn a mortal to dust before they had time to even look away, and what I was about to say was definitely going to piss the other off. "If I find that my name is still on your tongue, then I'll rip it out myself."
We were cold in the mafia, harsh, killing off any semblance of humanity that we had when dealing with those that would do us harm. We treated them as if they were less than nothing and made sure to put them in their place, killing those that would kill us if it was needed. And while I wasn't stupid enough to believe that I could kill a god, I would sure as Hades love to give it a try, Ares was proof enough of that.
More blood spilled out into the ocean from the younger gods hand as he swam away from the three of us to join the battle.
"Percy!" My father exclaimed once the other deity was out of earshot and he'd recovered from his initial shock. "I know that he was rude and I apologize for that, but he is still a god! What gave you the idea to talk to him like that?"
"He was making a power play, I made one of my own," I told the god, watching the spring of shock in the other's eyes at the way that I spoke. "Mine was just more effective it seems."
The god looked like he had enough questions to fill the sea, but neither of us had the time for them. I need to get back to camp, and he needs to get back to fighting if either of us want any chance in winning either of the wars occurring right now.
The god sighed heavily, seeming to understand that I already knew this as well as he did. "Tell me about your mission. Did you see Kronos?"
"We snuck onto the boat and planted the explosives in the engine room, but the monsters seemed to know that we were there faster than we'd expected them to find out. I left Beckendorf to plant the Greek Fire while I drew the monsters away, but when I got to the deck, Kronos was waiting for me," I explained, watching the calculative look in the other's eyes that seemed to mirror my own at most times. "Someone told them in advance of our plans. We managed to blow up the ship, but I doubt that did more than buy us a little time."
"Your right," the god agreed, "but even a little time can be the difference between winning and losing the war."
Of course I already knew that much, but since he obviously knew that I left camp, it would be difficult to explain just how I learned such a lesson.
"We're there demigods on the ship?" The deity asked, seeming to realize that I was done with the extent of my report.
I nodded. "There were." It was a short answer, but it was the only one that I could think to give the sea god.
A solemn expression was spread across the god's face, as if he was expecting some kind of angry outburst from me at the fact the there'd been demigods on the ship that we'd been sent to destroy, but had decided that my cold nature was some type of trauma response from killing another human.
"You shouldn't blame yourself for their deaths," my father said in a voice that I assume was supposed to be reassuring, it didn't really make a difference.
"I don't," I told the other sternly, catching the god and cyclops by surprise, "I blame Kronos."
He was a titan and they were children that weren't even intelligent enough to know what they'd gotten themselves into as I'd been when I joined the mafia.
I don't blame myself at all.
I blame the bastard that I'm going to kill.
"I know that this is frustrating," the god started, "but know that Beckendorf's sacrifice wasn't for nothing, it gave Olympus time to deal with the bigger threat heading for New York."
"Bigger threat?" I had a feeling as to what this threat would be if what it was last time the gods fought the titans like this was any indication, but I figured I should ask anyway. If Kronos was smart he would change the game plan after his failure last time around, I know that I would anyway.
A shadow passed over the sea god's face, something like a long forgotten fear rising up within the deity. "You've had enough sorrow for one day," the god decided. "Ask Chiron when you get back to camp."
I wanted to tell the sea god that I've had enough sorrow for a lifetime before I was ever even introduced to the mythological world, let alone what's happened to me and because of me over the past two years, but I knew that he wouldn't budge in this. So I only nodded instead.
"Go back to camp and tell Chiron that it's time for you to hear the whole prophecy," the god instructed.
"Right."
My father blinked lightly, obviously expecting to have to give some kind of speech to make me leave and was shocked to see that this wasn't the case. When I was younger he would've been right, I would've argued with the god to be allowed to stay and fight, but I knew that my fight was above. It always has been and will be until the day comes that I'm finally allowed to be put in the ground.
I bit back a flinch as Tyson suddenly grabbed my hand, gripping onto it tightly, a little too tightly for my own comfort. "I will miss you my brother."
Our father watched us, seeming to gain another ten years to the forty that he'd already accumulated before I came down here. "Tyson, you have work to do as well. They need you down in the armory."
The cyclop only pouted more at the mention of having to return there. But agreed to go after giving a torn goodbye.
I waited for the young cyclop to be out of earshot before I spoke to the sea god again, knowing better than to get my little brother's hopes up for something that may not change.
"You should let him fight," I advised. "As far as I can see, you need almost every able body that you can get, you're only limiting yourself by forcing yourself to do something that he doesn't like."
There's a reason that we test our recruits in the mafia to see what they're best at. If they're already good at something, then will assign them a job that encourages that growth, but even we know that sometimes you have to throw that idea aside. If they don't like what they're doing, no matter how good the recruit is at it, they I'll do a shitty job of it. Sometimes you have to let them go somewhere where they want to flourish.
But the god didn't know my thoughts and only shook his head no. "It's bad enough that I have to send you into danger. Tyson is too young."
I looked my father in the eyes, seeing the sorrow there that you would think would have disappeared by now after watching countless of his own children die with the sands of time.
"I was a child too," I reminded the sea god.
I was a child when I joined the mafia.
I was a child when my mother died.
I was a child when I felt camp.
I was a child when I was first introduced to this world of mythological monsters.
I was a child when me and Mom were left alone with my step father and everything that he did just because he had the power and we didn't.
My feelings for the sea god weren't really as warm as they had once been.
The god's eyes flared, making me believe for a moment that my luck had run out with the sea gods today, but instead of striking me in some way like I thought he would, the god looked to the tile mosaic.
"Oceanus approaches," the sea god reported. "I must meet him in battle."
I wasn't scared for the god, I knew that he might get the shit beat out of him in the process, but if he'd been holding for a year then he could hold a little longer now.
My father quickly swam over to a desk that was in the far corner of the temple and pulled out a small white object for the drawer before closing it back. "I was going to give this to you last summer, but... anyways this is for your birthday, it should come in handy during the upcoming fight."
He handed me the small object. When I looked down, I saw that it was a sand dollar of all things. For once I had no idea what I was supposed to do with this, but I tucked it into one of my pockets anyways.
The entire sea grew dark around us like a storm was rolling in beneath the sea. The ocean grew colder with the newest appearance in the battle.
"I must go now. Good luck, my son," the god said beginning to swim away towards the commotion.
I nodded even though I knew that he couldn't see it and willed the water to take me far away to the surface above before the sea god took on his true form as he most certainly would have to before going down there.
When I looked down all I could see were wild flashes of green and blue as the two beings collided.
—-
Poseidon POV
I waited for my son to be far away before I took on my godly form, watching silently as he left, but even as I watched the boy with the same black hair and green eyes that he'd had the last time I saw him, the teen felt foreign to me.
The way that the demigod had spoken and acted was nothing like the kind boy that I'd been expecting to meet here today, the one that would've fought me relentlessly on my making him leave until I came up with enough reason for him to go than he had for himself to stay.
Instead he hadn't even tried to stay at all.
He'd spoken to Triton, a god, in such a way that I was honestly surprised that the god didn't try to kill him where the demigod stood, and then had acted as if he'd done nothing wrong.
Being immortal, I knew the damage that time could do to someone, but this wasn't just maturity gained over the past two years on his own. This was someone having taken the boy that he was before and turning him into something unrecognizable.
After the war is over, I'll find the bastard that did this, even if it means expanding the reach of the gods to do it.