8 - The One With The Mission
Ch. 8
Lord Aether's Palace, Percy's coronation as commander, after the incantation:
PERCY'S POV:
"Perseus Achilles Jackson, son of Poseidon, you are now proclaimed the Commander of The Council's Army, Right hand to the Council. If you serve the Council without dying for 400 years straight, then you will also become eligible for a position in the Primordial Council, as already your power is above almost every Council member and 400 years will give you the knowledge you require for that post." Lord Chaos announced.
Thereafter it was followed by some heavy partying and many congratulations. When the party was over and it was time to leave, Lord Chaos approached me, "Perseus. Congratulations."
"Thank you so much, sir." I bowed in gratitude.
"Perseus, you have fulfilled the prophecy, according to that there are two more things left in store for you. Controlling hellfire, for which you'll be training with your army's first in command. The second one is that you be made the commander of my Army. Currently, Omega is in that position, and he says he will retire in about two decades. I know you respect him so I hope you will not force him into early retirement, or worse; a degraded position."
"Of course not sir. I have absolutely no issues even if he never retires, I trust him and would willingly follow him anywhere."
"That's good to hear. Okay, I'll leave you to your celebrations now, and some quality time with my daughter" he winked. He was gone before I could argue or ask what he meant, but the celebrations that lasted the entire day were enough to clear the comment from my head.
500 years since Percy first left earth, 425 years since his coronation as commander :
PERCY'S POV
Slash, stab, roll, duck, repeat. That is what I was doing. And in about a few minutes, I was done. I had destroyed 10 automatons created by Lord Chaos set at the highest difficulty in precisely 5 minutes and 12 seconds, becoming the fastest in the army to do so. The second fastest is Skylar with 8.5 minutes, but she doesn't count since she's not a part of the army. The army's record is of 11 minutes, by ex-commander Omega. Everyone watching the training, which was most of Celestio planet ( This was a planned event and on all screens across Celestio ) and the Primordial Council. Whose member I very recently became. I could here applaud ringing through the entire arena. Attention isn't something that bothers me anymore. Lord chaos makes me display every skill I master; from the six styles of swordsmanship to wielding hellfire, to breaking records that he thinks I'm capable of -which appears to be never-ending. So exhausting. Post the 'record-breaking ceremony', as citizens here have begun to call it, I went to my commander quarters to get some rest. Little did I know that this rest would be my last for a very long time.
I was woken up by my first in command, Elmont ( Mordridge retired a while ago and I promoted his next in command, also my home planet's GI ).
"Sir, commander Stormbringer, Lord Chaos requires your immediate presence. He says its a Council meeting."
"Uhh...meeting at this hour? You gotta be kidding me El."
"I wish I was, but he says its an emergency meeting and your presence is of utmost importance."
"Okay. Tell him I'll be there in a few."
"Sure sir."
I got ready as fast as I could and left for the conference room. When I entered everyone was there, which was quite the shock since most of them, especially Aether and Skylar were frequent latecomers.
"Good morning ladies and gentlemen. And you have woken me up at 5 in the morning for..? "
Skylar rolled her eyes and said "For playing Pacman." but I knew Skylar enough to detect a hint of nervousness, even worry beneath that joking tone.
"Its a meeting to discuss the next mission of your army Percy." She added more seriously.
"Oh... okay. So... when and where? and how many of my assassins do I need to take with me? "
" Uhh... okay... I'll tell you bluntly, might as well get over with it. You are required to go to earth, and before you say anything I'll tell you all the details. An old enemy is rising, and he has targeted earth since he got many allies from there. These allies are unfortunately your old foes Gaea and Kronos. Kronos had risen a long time ago and had been secretly building an army under his new master according to our intel reports. They had been waiting for Gaea to wake from her slumber. Now the demigods are so unprepared for this attack that it will be a walk in the park for evil to succeed."
"That's all okay, you know a mission is a mission for me, I'll just wear my mask and go fight and come back. But don't think I didn't understand you were trying to breeze over the 'Kronos' master' part. Tell me. Who is it this time? Other titans? Some minor Gods?"
"It's actually pretty worse this time, even for you. I have told you about my brother end. What do you remember? "
"That he was your brother, but he was evil. You believed in creation for evolution while he created to destroy. So much that he wanted to destroy everything except Celestio and rebuild, just so he could destroy again. You couldn't allow that, so there was a huge war, with primordials choosing sides. Aether, Ouranos, Erebus, Chronos and Hemera sided with you. Erebus' wife Nyx, Chronos' wife Anake, Ouranos' wife Gaea, and Tartarus supported End. You won and cast them into the void, your father created a black prison from where no one can return. But Gaea wasn't sentenced to prison since she had sacrificed herself in the end so the battle could be won. It took her above a century to reform, and she was expelled from this Council, but never imprisoned."
"That... was much more detailed than I would have wanted, but yes, that's precisely what happened. And now the problem, Perseus, is that this being who claims to be Kronos' master is... End... "
There was a minute's silence while I let that sink in and the others were observing me. Then I said "This is gonna be a hell of a bloody fight. I'll need the whole Council's Army and a significant part of your army. The earth's army along with the GI, and 2 more on a voluntary basis. The Council's Army will come late. Send me with your army to train the campers. You warn the campers and the Gods."
"You rest assured of that. I will."
"And tell them Commander Stormbringer of the Choas Army and assassin hellfire, leader of the Council's army is not to be treated like trash, and neither is his army," I said to Lord Chaos.
"Definitely. oh, and you will be staying at camp half-blood obviously, so be careful with your identity. Put on your hood and mask constantly. Nobody knows your real name here, nobody ever called you that since Omega except in the Council, so no chance of a slip up from our side."
"Thank you, Lord Chaos. Now I'll go and prepare. We will leave in 2 days. " I bowed to Lord Chaos and exited the room.
What's past is past. A mission is a mission. Earth's safety is my job, and I'll do it no matter what it takes. That's why I was so calm when I got that mission. Anyways I've long since forgiven them and moved on...personal loyalty is still my fatal flaw after all.
With positive thoughts and curiosity burning, a bit of nervousness and a lot of excitement to see my old home, I went to sleep, waiting for the next few days to pass quickly.
(A/ N: PLEASE VOTE/COMMENT, CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM IS APPRECIATED.)