Percy glared at the entity for reading his mind, again, but he was too focused on continuing his train of thought to do anything more. So thoughts, so that meant he was collected human thoughts? What does that even....mean....no...it wasn't possible.
Percy looked at Chaos with wide eyes, "you....you are everything right? The beginning and the end, the Alpha and the Omega. Right?"
Chaos shook his head, "no. I'm not. When I said I was the Alpha and the Omega I meant not in terms of age, but in terms of power. When compared to me nothing on Earth is stronger, or weaker. I am all and everything humans believe in. You are starting to understand, yes?"
"A-a collection, you're a collection of human thoughts and ideas," Percy realized. A look of shock on his face as he slowly pieced together what he was being told.
"Yes," Chaos sipped his drink, "you know we talked about all those religions before but we never talked about a very popular one, buddhism. Did you know that it is actually a branch of Hinduism? It's true, very similar ideas and everything, Buddha himself was once a Hindu prince named Siddhartha, nice guy, kind of preachy though. Also had the same look of horror on his face you do when he met me."
"You met Buddha?" Percy asked in shock.
"Yes, it's a very popular story in the real world," Chaos said as he pushed the cup of coffee to the side, "one day Buddha was praying, he was in a deep meditative state unlike ever before. He didn't eat for days, he didn't move at all. He was stuck in a limbo within his own mind, until he realised he wasn't alone. Until he realised he was with me."
"Y-you didn't call him...did you?"
Chaos shook his head, "no, I didn't. He came here by his own power."
"How? How is that even possible?! He's just a human right?! He isn't a demigod or something?!"
Chaos shook his head, "no, you are right, he is just a human, but you of all people must realize humans are much stronger than the Gods they pray to in some ways."
Percy stayed silent as he pushed his cup of coffee away, "so...what happened?"
"Well he asked me a lot of questions, and I answered. I told him everything he wanted to know, and he left with a knowledge no other human before obtained. The truth. Well no other human except you that is. Until now."
Percy blinked, "wait if whatever he found out was really all that amazing then....why didn't he tell anyone?"
"Because if he knew if he did it would destroy the world as we all know it," Chaos explained, "like it almost did 2,000 years ago."
Percy's eyes went wide, "w-what did you say?"
"Didn't Argo tell you Percy? Didn't he tell you to ask, to search for what happened all that time ago? Why the world was almost destroyed?"
"I-I never thought to look. I was always so busy that I didn't-"
"No...I suppose you didn't. The reason the world was going to be destroyed Percy was because back then people knew, they knew the truth that Buddha realized. And it gave them power and you know what they say about power and corruption."
"What was the truth?" Percy feared to ask.
Chaos looked at him, and for a second Percy swore he saw every single galaxy on itself blink out of existence. Suddenly Chaos chuckled, "the Fates are knocking on the door. They are trying to stop me," the galaxies blinked again, "they really don't want me to tell you. Apparently you aren't ready for it."
Percy narrowed his eyes, "no...no for once I want to know. All this time I was happy just being able to protect the ones I love but now I need to know! Why did they pick me?! Why me out of all the people in the world?! What the hell happened 2,000 years ago?!"
Chaos nodded, "Buddha realized the truth. That God, the divine world and everything humans believe in...is a lie."
Percy blinked, "what the actual fuck are you talking about?"
Chaos chuckled, "well that's one reaction. Honestly I half expected you to blow up and start going crazy."
Percy leaned back on the booth and sighed, "look what are you talking about? I'm the son of a God. I have literally visited Olympus countless times. My best friend in the son of a God, my girlfriend is the daughter of a god, I have meet Gods! So how the hell are they real?!"
"Remember what I said?" Chaos spoke up in it's calm voice, "remember what conclusion we drew up? That I am the origin of all religions in the world? That they all in some way admit I created everything?"
"Yes but...." Percy's eyes went wide, "oh my...oh my God." Chaos created everything, chaos, the collected humans abstract opion system. A collection of human thoughts and ideas created....religion.
"There is one power humanity posses that no other creature in the universe has," Chaos continued, "one power that separated them from everything in creation. The power of belief. The power of hope. The power of thought. Humans survived because they believed they would, that belief soon grew in size and power. Eventually that power became strong enough to create life. And the most widely held beliefs at the time became real. The Gods became real. One day they were stories and the next they weren't.
"And 2,000 years ago people became aware of this power, they became aware that they held the key to create things that could destroy mountains with a thought and they used them, they used the Gods they worshiped to kill each other. They nearly destroyed the world, and so the Gods, every single pantheon in existence at the time came together and sealed away the divine world and the human's world. They set up rules for each of them to follow, the ancient rules, to ensure that humanity would never cause it's own destruction again."
Ping!
Quest completed!
Find about the real history of the —
"Oh not now," Chaos huffed flicking his arms to the side dismissing Percy's blue screen.
But Percy wasn't even paying attention. His face was pale, he couldn't believe what he was hearing. "H-how? How is that possible?! How could...how could this be real?! Am I not real?! Is my dad just a figment of my imagination?! What are you talking about?!"
"Ah, there's the freak out."
"Shut up! Shut the fuck up!" Percy stood up and threw their table out the large cafe window. He could feel his anger giving him strength, "how? How the fuck do you expect me to believe this?! How the fuck can humans have such a power and yet never discover it?!"
Chaos shrugged, "it's not easy to control, or understand. But with proper training anyone can do it. Well, maybe not anyone."
"Bullshit! Even if that was true then I would have at least heard about something like that! There would be whispers! There would be rumors! Someone somewhere would have mentioned it!"
"But they have mentioned it to you Percy," Chaos stood up straight reaching Percy's shoulders, "they have told you time and time again. In fact I believe you have personally dealt with this power before," Chaos reached out and touched Percy's shoulder. The demigod flinched in surprise, but watched as Chaos traced a finger from Percy's left shoulder to his right hip, "I believe you know it as Haki."
Ping!
Quest Completed!
Learn about Haki!
Rewards,
Haki!
"By the way just because it says you will get Haki doesn't mean you will just instantly learn it," Chaos explained sipping his coffee, "you still have to learn it."
Percy's eyes went wide. "N-no...haki can't...it can't rewrite reality, it can't-"
"It can," Chaos snapped his fingers bringing Percy and him back to the sky world from before, "tell me Percy, every time you saw it being used...who was the wielder?"
Percy thought of it, he remembered seeing Artemis use it to turn him into a deer. His father used to to clean a lake in central used it to....to survive his Death touch, a power that the Fates themselves back up via Percy's gaming powers. And Eracleous used it to cut into his flesh. Except Argo all of them were divine all of them....were divine.
"None of them were human, they were all created by haki, by faith, by will power. The haki of a divine will always be weaker than that of a human's. That's why they performed mere parlor tricks while Argo defined the Fates themselves when he survived your Death Touch. It's man's weapon against god, because it is the weapon that created the Gods in the first place."
"T-that isn't....Argo...why hasn't he killed me yet? If Haki is really as powerful as you say then shouldn't he be able to kill me just by thinking it?"
Chaos shook his head, "no. The will of one man is rarely enough to alter reality so badly. It would take hundred if not thousands of humans wishing for it to happen. And that too provided all those humans knew how to handle Haki like an expert."
"T-this isn't possible! What the hell! Am I real? Is Thalia? Is camp?! If the Gods aren't real then everything I fucking know is-is a-" Percy head started to spin as he held it in pain. He dropped down to his knees and fell back, panic and horror rushing over his thoughts.
Chaos sighed, "I guess it was a little too much to take in," the being sat down next to Percy, "and for the record....you are real. So is Thalia, nd Grover and Michael and everyone else in world that you live in."
"Even the Gods?"
"Especially the Gods."
"But you just said that they aren't real. That...that they were made...by man."
Chaos shrugged, "humans are born out of vaginas, Gods are born out of thought. What's the difference? They came into existence in different ways, doesn't make them any real. Haki makes things real Percy, it's not an illusion."
"Then....then what about all those stories? Of Rhea giving birth to Zeus and my father? Are they real?"
Chaos nodded, "yes, they are. Have created me, I created the primordials, who created the titans who created the Gods. Even the Gods themselves never knew of this truth...that is until 2,000 years ago. They were actors who never realised they were acting. As like you even they were a bit...distraught, couldn't bring themselves up to do anything right. Hence the dark ages."
Percy opened his eyes, his head slowly clearing up. "And you....you're the power aren't you? The collection of human thoughts....haki given form."
"Yes. I am. When they first started to believe, when they first started to come together as one....I was born. I was born out of the beliefs of humans, and I became their God. I guess in a lot of ways I....I am the first servant of humankind."
Percy looked at the sky, the beautiful beautiful sky. For a moment he forgot what he had just learnt, he became numb to his fears and pain. He would give anything to just walk away without this knowledge, to have someone else deal with this bullshit. But no, it was him. It was always him. And it was about time he found out why.
"Why me."
Chaos sighed, "imagine every religion is a story. It has a beginning, where I come in a make everything. It has a middle, where the Gods rule. Tell me what comes next?"
Percy's eyes went wide, "an ending."
"Now tell me what would happen if people truly believed the world would end? What would happen?"
"If humans can still use Haki...then the world....it would end."
"Haki was sealed away, the knowledge removed. But before that was done the religions created already had an ending planned out. For the Greeks Kronos would rise again. For the Christians the devil would return along with Christ. For the Hindus the world would be destroyed and then restarted. For the Egyptians the great snake Apophis would destroy the Earth by swallowing the sun. For the Norse Ragnarok would arrive and for Buddhist....well they believe the Earth would be burnt alive by the sun, which is actually going to happen so....well never mind them."
Chaos turned to Percy, "now tell me Percy, what would happen if those stories came true? If those beliefs actually happened?"
Percy's eyes opened in horror, "the world...it would be destroyed."
"Completely and utterly destroyed. And the one's responsible for it happening would be humans, and they wouldn't even know."
"So that's why they recruited me? To stop Kronos?" Percy asked.
"No, no Kronos will be taken care of, Thalia will see to it. You have a bigger role to play. The Fates took a gamble with you. They gave you a power without potential, without limits. It can make you a god, and they did so because you won't just stop one doomsday...you'll stop them all."
Percy looked at Chaos, "you're crazy."
"No I'm not, my mother had me tested," Chaos chuckled.
"What?"
"It's from the Big Bang theory. What? You don't watch...or right, it's only 2007 for you, forgot. Anyway, no, I'm being serious."
"You want me to stop every single doomsday in the world?! Are you crazy?!"
"Someone has to Percy, they are all essentially ticking time bombs, someone has to defuse them."
"And why does that have to be me?!"
"I think I better let them tell you," Chaos snapped his fingers and suddenly three women stood before Percy, one old enough to be his mother, one his sister and the other around the age of twenty.
The oldest one snapped her head to Chaos, "you told him didn't you," she hissed.
Chaos nodded "yes, it had to be done."
"He wasn't ready!" the twenty year old, that Percy knew to be Clotho replied.
"He needed to be told," was Chaos' simple reply.
"And what if he does something stupid?!" the youngest asked.
"He won't."
"How do you know?!" they asked as one.
Chaos shrugged, "cause then the story would be really really boring. And nobody wants that."
"We hate you!" they yelled once again.
Chaos shrugged, "couldn't care less. Now tell him what he has to here and leave, I'm not done with him yet."
The Fates all glared at Chaos before they turned to Percy. Clotho looked sad, she always liked him the most, while the youngest, Lachesis, just looked irritated beyond belief. Atropos looked concerned and after giving each other a look Clothes stepped up and spoke.
"You have questions-"
"No, only one," Percy snapped, "why? Why me?"
Clotho sighed, she turned to her sister who shrugged. She looked back at Percy, "because we believed you were the only one who would use this power to our favour."
"Every religion has a hero, someone or something that's supposed to save the day and end the apocalypse," Lachesis spoke up, "but we don't trust them, how could we? The risk of what would happen if they failed was too high. We needed an insurance policy. We needed you."
"The power we gave you....it broke the rules," Atopos explained, "but it had to be done. We gave it to you because....because we needed someone we could control. Someone who was duty bound to those around him, who is loyal to a fault, who would never betray us."
