"Dad?" Decker asked in surprise. And Pan just smiled.
"My son," Pan voice went into Decker's head, the love, the affection, it was enough to make Decker cry, "find me."
And with that final word the connection broke. Decker opened his eyes, he felt tears roll down his face. He looked up to the see the rhino dead before the cohort, it served as a barricade for the second cohort to fight behind.
Slowly the army of the titans began to die off, there were no more reinforcements coming to aide them. The Romans charged together once last time, the battle was third.
"Decker? What happened?" Bianca asked as she and Nico helped the son of Pan up to his feet.
"Are you okay? Should we get you to the healers?" Nico asked concerned.
"No, no I'm fine," Decker panted out, "I... think I saw my father." The children of Hades shared a look, this was definitely something they needed to talk about.
With Percy:
"I'm ready Percy!" annabeth called out.
"Right!" Percy nodded as he lowered his helmet visor and readied his sword and staff, "Michael! Fire the arrow! Clear a path for me!"
Michael nodded as he drew the flaming arrow his father had gifted him and aimed at Kronos, the servants battling him however kept getting in the way. "I can't get a clear shot!"
"Guys!" Percy cried out, "make some room!"
The servants heard him and jumped to the side. Kronos locked eyes with Percy and growled before he realised something else was coming his way. Michael released the arrow and it soared towards Kornos.
The titan of time grinned as he snapped his fingers causing the arrow to freeze, time had stopped around it, keeping it stationary. Kronos was about open his mouth to gloat when the arrow suddenly exploded knocking Kronos back on his ass.
"Now Annabeth!" Percy cried out.
Annabeth spoke the spell perfectly, not a word misspoken or a syllable mumbled. The more she spoke the brighter the book she held glowed. It grew in power before a ball of energy came shooting out, flying across the battlefield, hitting Kronos right in the chest.
The Titan of time got back on his feet and looked down at his chest to see what had hit him, "what the -"
BOOM!
Percy's super sonic punch hit him right in the solar plexus. Kronos stumbled back a good twenty feet allowing Access to ram a sword made of his platinum bones through his right shoulder.
"ARGH!" Kronos cried out, he clicked his fingers, trying to slow down time again, when he realised his powers weren't working.
'7 seconds remaining,' Percy thought to himself as he and Hyperion punched Kronos in the face sending him flying ass over head into the tunnel wall. He tried to get up but Eracleous pinned him to the ground with another blade.
'4 seconds remaining,' Percy shoved the power mimicker sphere into Kronos' chest and;
Ping!
Please select the power you wish to mimic:
Time control
Immortali—
Percy didn't bother reading the others, he didn't have time. Making a split second decision he pressed time control and activated the power of the mimicker sphere. The ball disappeared into dust that then fused with Percy's body.
Ping!
You have gained a new skill!
Time control (1/50)
Allows you to control time to various different lengths.
Cost— 500 MP per use
1% efficiency
'3 seconds remaining,' Percy raised an eyebrow at the new format of his skill, but he realised this was probably because of the update that CHAOS had given him. He dismissed the box and took out the second reward he got from his quest of finding out the real history of the divine, a level 10 skill disk. No prize for finding out what he did with it;
Ping!
You have used a skill disk on a skill to level it up 10 times!
Time control (10/50)
Allows you to control time to various different lengths.
Cost— 400 MP per use
15% efficiency
'Time's up,' Percy stepped back, just as Kronos sent out a pulse of time energy. Percy felt it wash over him, it was almost like water from the sea, a wave, a physical thing that he could hold. It was a sensation Percy had never felt before, but he couldn't waste time on it.
He didn't know what he was doing, so he let his instincts take over. He reached out with his mana and felt the jelly like time sphere he was frozen under. He looked down and saw Kronos getting to his feet, removing the blades sticking out of his body before turning to Percy with hate filled eyes.
'Please work, please work!' Percy begged as he pulled the jello away from around him. Kronos lifted his blade and brought it down over Percy, and seconds before it made contact and metallic clang rang out;
-400 MP!
Ting!
Waverider pushed back Kronos' blade, as the titan lost his balance falling on his behind. He looked up in shock to see a moving Percy Jackson smile down at him with his blade leveled at his throat.
"W-who are you?" Kronos asked in horror, he had never seen anything like this before in his life, never had an opponent thrown off his powers.
"You know who I am," Percy waved his arm behind allowing his own time manipulation powers to spread out, canceling out Kronos' field of control. Hyperion and Aceous could move again. Percy narrowed his eyes at Kronos, "destroy him."
The Titan of time never stood a chance. He was a skilled fighter, but Percy matched him swing for swing. Hyperion and Eracleous turned the tide, striking at Kronos' back whenever they got the chance. And when the titan turned around to deal with them Percy would do his best to remove the golden fleece tied around his neck.
Kronos could barely keep himself together let alone launch a counter attack. Percy's fist met his face, breaking off a tooth from his perfect smile. Hyperion's scorching kick burnt a footprint into his gut and Aqueous tore off the golden armour around his right hand, leaving him defenseless.
The demigods gathered around the battlefield, none dared to step into the battle. They watched as Percy beat the living shit out of the titan, breaking him down piece by piece. The Romans quickly joined them, the entire titan army laid behind them, dead, destroyed. The children of the gods watched their champion fight, they they felt remued hope fill their hearts.
High up near the ceiling though one being wasn't pleased. Hypnos watched the battle with horror, his side was losing, and he was sure if he didn't do something right now the war would be lost.
So seeing no other option he did something he swore on the Styx he would never do. Hypnos gave himself up to the nightmares below, allowing himself to absorb the shadows of every being that died on the battlefield, making him grow bigger and bigger.
Morpheus felt a chill go up his spine, he tore himself away from the sight of Percy triumphing over Kronos and spotted Hypnos cover himself up in a cocoon of darkness. Immediately he realised what the fallen god was planning to do. And fear filled him.
"NO!" Morpheus yelled out as he took off into the sky, flying towards the pulsating cocoon of darkness and misery, 'I have to stop him!'
He readied his blade, prepared to kill his once lifelong friend, but he never got the chance.
A crack appeared in the cocoon, and Morpheus knew it was over.
RUMBLE!
Percy halted for a second, everyone felt the tunnel shake. They felt the world itself rumble as suddenly everything started to shift.
"Everybody run!" came Morpheus panicked cry as he flew towards the assembled demigods, "throw Kronos away and run!"
The tunnel walls began to crack open displaying the world of emptiness behind it. Percy knew what was behind those walls, and he was in no mode to see CHAOS once again. He instead grabbed Kronos' beaten and bloody form and ripped his half of the golden fleece from his neck.
He lifted him over head and threw him towards one of the cracks in the wall. Kronos went flying towards the darkness, but moments before he passed through a giant black hand came forward from the ceiling and grabbed him.
The demigods turned towards the origin of the hands. And slowly descending upon the tunnel grounds from the ceiling was a figure one can only described as every nightmare given life.
It was a blob of flesh bigger than a two story building, sticking out of it was parts of various creatures, an arm of a clown with the left wing of a bat. A octopus tentacle with burnt flesh surrounding the appendage. It had several hundred eyes around it's figure but none of it was human.
It was a monster, and Percy knew it's name;
Hypnos, The Nightmare
Lv— ?
"That's Hypnos," Percy spoke out making everyone break out of their stunned silence. They grew nervous seeing the monster, but to Percy it was just another opponent to fight through.
"Demigods!" Percy cried out, "don't break lines!" the demigods turned to him as he flew over them standing in the front lines with his servants flanking his sides, "this will not be the day we die! We will survive! And we will live!"
"YEAH!" the demigods cried out as once again they formed ranks, facing off against the monster before them.
The Nightmare roared from it's several months, it cried out as it belched out several shadow monsters that charged at the demigods. Percy readied his blade for a counter attack, but before the monsters even came a dome of pure light surrounded the demigods serving as a barrier to protect them from the shadows that didn't seem to be able to break through.
"What the Hades is going on?" Julia asked.
"Morpheus?" Percy asked as he looked up to see the god of dreams holding the barrier up against the shadow monsters.
"You cannot defeat this Percy," Morpheus' voice was calm, almost defeated, "this is where your role ends, and mine begins."
"Morpheus what are you doing?" Percy asked when suddenly the world itself shared to shake. Morpheus raised his hands causing the entire sphere of light to raise up into the air with all the demigods inside.
The shadows slowly fell down to the ground revealing the Dreamworld before them. It was being terraformed before their very eyes. The ground was wrapping, splitting down the center around Hypnos and Kronos.
The blob that was the god of sleep reached out with one of its several hands and created a tear in space and time. He threw Cronus into the portal, closing it behind him.
"No!" Percy roared as he slammed his fists into the light barrier, "we were so close!"
"It's alright Percy, you'll face him again," Morpheus assured him, "and then, you will finish this war. This won't be the last battle you will face, so don't give up your focus. You will need it."
GROWN!
The floor of the world started to crack open. Hypnos fell down into the shadowy depths underneath. Thousands upon thousands of shadowy arms came up and wrapped themselves around him. The deeper Hypnos feel, the bigger he grew. Until a moon sized sphere floated below their feet, it's surface covered with shadow monsters, cheering in victory.
Percy's eyes widened in horror, "what happening?"
"Hypnos has done something we both swore never to do. He has chosen a side," Morpheus rose the sphere of light upwards and away from the dark moon below them. "He has chosen to become the avatar of nightmares, become everything that humans hate. It has granted him untold power, but forced him into becoming...that."
"Can we stop him?" Thalia asked, "can we even try?"
"No," Morpheus shook his head, "he has become a force of nature itself...I can only halt his progress, before it gets out of hand."
"What are you saying Morpheus?" Percy asked as all turned to the winged god who slowly began to glow with a bright light.
"I'm saying to fight the Nightmare, someone has to become the dream," Morpheu raised his hand up into the sky and the ceiling started to wrap.
The world started to mash together, spinning like a ball, winding in on itself, creating a large sphere of light, mirroring the dark moon below. And then the white pods moved. They contained the sleeping forms over every man, woman and child on Earth and they floated around the sphere in which the demigods were in, forming several rings around them like the rings of Saturn.
As the pod continued to spin several threads started to crawl out of them like the roots of a tree. Some were gold, some were black, they intertied with each other, slowly going towards one of the realms, the dark moon of nightmares or the golden sun of dreams.
"You're changing the world," Annabeth quickly caught on, "the entire topography of the Dreamworld is changed."
"Indeed it is," Morpheus nodded as he lowered the sphere of light. The demigods now stood on the only solid surface in the entire realm, the platform was around 200 feet long with the white pods surrounding them. Beyond them and the two heavenly spheres was nothing, absolutely nothing.
Morpheus began to break apart, pieces of him disappeared into golden dust that traveled up towards the golden sun.
"Morpheus...you're breaking apart," Percy lowered his weapons removing his helmet.
"Yes...I am," Morpheus turned to Percy and looked into his eyes, "I have decided Percy Jackson...I have decided to place my hope on the dream of the demigod. Like you told me too. But...I realise that this dream cannot come true, unless there is someone to hold up the torch, unless there is someone for the demigods to rally behind."
Morpheus lifted a finger and pressed it up against Percy's temple. To the god's surprise he found a jewel stuck in Percy's forehead, the blue jewel glittering in the light. Morpheus smiled, "this is perfect."
Light flew from Morpheus' finger into Percy's forehead. Suddenly the demigod felt something way heavy on his brow. A golden laurel grew around Percy's head, the end of its two branches circling around Percy's gem.
Morpheus' arm disappeared leaving only his body behind. He floated up above the demigods allowing them all to see him.
"Percy Jackson, you fought for the dream," Morpheus voice became ethereal, it came from all around them, "would anyone here not follow this man?"
The demigods looked at each other and then at Morpheus, none spoke up.
Morpheus floating head and torso spoke, "I ask the same now to all the demigods who woke before the end of the battle," a shining mirror appeared before them all, displaying the faces of all the demigods that had been sent away to avoid death. All of who followed Percy's command throughout the battle. Who fought as his army, those that were willing to die for the cause he championed.
And the demigods in the mirror said nothing, not even Octavian could object after seeing the power and respect Percy commanded.
"Then let it be so," Morpheus was now nothing but a head, "Percy Jackson, I declare you the carrier of the dream of demigods, that one day they can live in peace. I declare you the holder of that peace. And I declare you, the King of all demigods."
