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Rage against the heavens: Chapter 14: What else but hope
🕑 Added 2025-02-28 04:01:55 +0000 UTCOne step forward, two steps back. That is how I felt.
One of the things I had done immediately after going back home was hiring people through some of my guards and new contacts I had made this last week and direct them to find the demigods corresponding to the golden dots on my map.
I had given them the appearance of Thalia, how she looked like with the hope that she would still be there in L.A but it wasn’t the case.
She was gone.
At least it could be said that I had found the identities of the other demigods in L.A.
I wasn’t truly sure how to approach them or even if I needed to approach them. After all The last thing I wanted was to fall on a demigod brainwashed by the Greek world behind the mist, who truly worshipped and believed in the Olympians no matter their faults, flaws, one who would take a look at my actions and inform one of the gods through a prayer or something else when I wasn’t yet ready, when I was not strong enough to deal with them for now.
It was for now though. With my timetable being reduced more and more with each charge, each time I invested them, maybe the confrontation would be sooner and only because I wished to be.
To be honest, the primary goal when I had spent my four charges had been to help Alabaster’s dad's health. I had been honest with the man when I had told him he was tired of sad endings.
Even more than that, I didn't want, I couldn’t accept to let the same thing or something similar to what went between Thalia and me happen before my eyes without doing anything.
The words, the sentence he had said to me resounded in my brain “You’re a good man.”
I felt a smile bloom on my face as he remembered his words yet I knew, I was sure that had I looked in a mirror, he would be a sad one instead of a joyous one.
I wasn’t sure, I didn't think that I could be called one, that I was a good man I mean. I wasn’t sure I was one, wasn’t sure that I had ever been one.
After all, had Thalia not been my niece, had I not been implicated in any kind of way, safe from anything that could happen, I was not sure that he would still have acted the same way.
Everything I was doing was in a way because of spite, because of my want of revenge, retribution against Zeus, because of pride. A good man, a truly good one would have done what I was doing, would have probably done better because it was simply the right thing to do.
At least the charges I had invested in Alchemy from the nasuverse were already in my opinion proving that my choice hadn’t been a waste at all.
I may have my necrodermis but it was still an armour, not truly something inherent to me like being naturally stronger or anything else. I had never been the type of person to put all my chances on the same horse. More than that, with what I planned to do in the future, my armour had been a good beginning but still a beginning.
Additionally, I had wanted to be able to make, do things that not only would in the long term be able to benefit humanity as a whole in the future but also that would make the ones closer to me safer.
I honestly could not help but fear, wonder what would happen if Zeus reappeared in my sister’s life, that worse he did and she refused him without having the strength to enact her wishes.
With the four charges I had invested in Alchemy from the nasuverse, I was the equivalent of a tinker in the same ballpark that bonesaw I can destroy the world with a tinkered plague if I wanted and Armmaster I can make almost anything even if it is from another tinker speciality if I can analyse it for a little bit.
It was also without mentioning my other specializations that synergized more than well with each other.
One of the first things I had intended, planned to do the moment I had some time away from the interrogations of my guards about which for the record was more than fair for them to ask was to slip out away without them noticing so that I could make magic circuits or at least an upgraded way better version of them.
What I meant by upgraded was more than a question of power. One of the things people didn't get, forgot about magical circuits was that they were kinda like the magical equivalent of data storage which makes modern magus like Rin unable to understand technology baffling.
The fact that magic circuits were able to transfer information was the reason how mages could make their heirs inherit their magical crest. It had been more than a decade but if he wasn’t wrong, the Gandr spell from Rin, the one she was fond of was inscribed in them.
In any case what, I had wanted to do was inscribe things in the magical circuits, not only the spells from my anti-divine and anti-monster stars kinda In a prepackaged way but things that would make a lot of things more easy, that would help me think more easily, more quickly that would help me think faster even without using thought acceleration or partition. It went without saying that using them after my modification would only make things more efficient.
One of the things I had understood quickly was how important a charge could be and more importantly, how being ignorant in a field could be disastrous and wasteful.
The paradox was that I didn't want to count on the stars in my mind for things I deemed not primordial but those things that were not primordial could also be important.
This is why I had used a spell akin to the structural analysis of Shirou that I had gotten from Alchemy speciality to scan everything non-living in a two-block zone around me and by everything I meant everything.
I wasn’t stupid to try to directly process the pieces of information with my brain. I was more than sure that whatever the stars of knowledge had done to my mind had made me able to process very easily many things I would not have been able to do in the process, process vast amounts of information the way most would never be able to but that didn't change that directly processing everything non-living whether it was the content of books, constructions, hospital equipment, streets, technological and mechanical stuff, all the atoms and molecules around would be risking, asking to end with my brain leaking from my nose.
I was like 90% sure that what Shirou did would have given normal random people strokes. With the magical knowledge I received due to my Alchemy, something told me, I was more than sure that someone who was not a magi, who was not a genius, who wasn’t a literal human incarnation of the sword with the ultimate defensive and healing Noble Phantasm in him even if it was not active would get a stroke at best.
You always hear the characters say that being a magus is walking with death but it is kinda hard to realize how true it is until you truly understand. Honestly, the mental triggers used by Magus to activate their circuits should have been enough to get that.
Anyway, the reason why I was not foaming at the mouth and having my melting brain leaking from my facial orifices was simply because I was not processing the data, I was not the one storing the Data, the magic circuits were the ones doing such.
In less than ten minutes, everything that I needed was stored in them. Usually, magical circuits were green and like the name said kinda in the form, shaped like circuits.
The ones I had made were not like this. Write him to think that usually, Alchemists who made magical circuits did it by using a fixed alchemical process.
Alchemy, as a Thaumaturgical System, was fundamentally concerned with the manipulation of matter, bodies, and souls. Unlike traditional magecraft, which operated on established rituals and formulas, alchemy focused on discovering new principles and applying them to transform reality. The creation of magic circuits—spiritual pathways within a body that allowed the conversion of life energy into magical energy was one of the most advanced and delicate processes within alchemy.
To successfully create magic circuits using alchemy, one needed to understand and manipulate three core elements: matter (the body), life (the essence of function), and the soul (the metaphysical root of magic circuits).
The process required not only the restructuring of biological tissues but also the harmonization of the body’s energy flow with the fundamental mysteries of thaumaturgy.
It was needed to understand the Nature of Magic Circuits, that Magic circuits were not physical organs like nerves or veins; that they were spiritual constructs that existed within the body, serving as conduits for magical energy that despite their intangible nature, still required an anchor in the physical world, typically tied to the nervous system or bone marrow. This is why creating them artificially was immensely difficult for non-seasoned alchemists. This is why to do so, one needed to have the same expertise it could be said that likes of the Einzbern ideally and the one of the Yggdmillenia at worst because it was imperative that the alchemist not only alter the body but also engrave spiritual structures into it.
Honestly, when you thought about it, Alchemy was a miracle in itself because seriously it may not be true magic but it allowed for the creation and integration of magic circuits the Transforming of matter at a molecular and spiritual level to integrate circuits within a living body, the reconstructing of the soul's framework to accept and sustain magic circuits and the synthesizing of prana-conductive materials that can serve as artificial circuits.
The thing was that I wasn't them. I had not only used my knowledge of Alchemy to make them but I had also used the knowledge I had received from the C’tan star in his mind.
It was easy to see that the circuits were unusual at first glance. They were after all of an obsidian colour.
I had used the c’tan star in my mind full of knowledge from Warhammer to create those circuits. They were different, better than Normal circuits just because of the way they had been created.
The fact that those circuits had also been modified, inscribed with spells and runes from my Alchemy, anti-divine and anti-monster stars in my mind to strengthen my body from the inside, to passively reinforce at any moment my bone, flesh and skin, to make my organs more efficient, to heal me stronger, better at any moment something faulty happened to me. I had made in such a way that u would be able to skip the part where I would have to modify myself to receive them without any problem. They would be the ones correcting and adjusting what needed to be obviously according to my specifications.
In other words, to kill me, someone more than having to deal with my armour would have to literally erase every speck of me, every molecule to make sure that I didn't come back and even if they did, they still would have to deal with my last resort.
The black circuits before me were the better in any way possible of the usual magic circuits and like I had said moments ago able to store data that was more than immensurable and wasn’t a human being, a person, their memory, their emotions their soul even data when it came to it thus, the last thing the circuits before me would do, my last resort would be to store my consciousness, everything that I was or a version of me at least. It was a bastardized function of the third magic, the heavens’ feel and it would have been more than difficult to realize without the other stars in my mind.
I may be destructible even if it would be very hard to do but the same could not be said of my circuits and only one of them remaining would be enough for me to survive.
I had used, searched through the limits of the C’tan star due to the mastery of said god over space. I had in my mind to make sure that in the case I would die, my circuits would be teleported to a subject compatible A.K.A the Homunculi I planned on making with my DNA.
The plan was to graft the remaining circuits in case I died in consciousless homunculi made with Necrodermis and Nasuverse Alchemy.
I hadn’t begun with building the possible special homunculi to use in case anything went wrong but what I had begun was making normal homunculi.
Sure the guards chosen by the Huntingtons and the local government were good, I was sure that they were more than trained and competent but I knew that they were not perfect. More than that, with the thing I wanted to deal with, I needed someone at my side, someone I could completely trust, someone who would be able to deal with monsters, someone who would not register on the radars of Olympus easily, someone who could go find Thalia, make sure she was safe, hidden, protected until I was strong enough, ready enough, until I could be sure I would be evading the attention of the Olympians to speak, to get Thalia back home with me or at least to not care if I had their attention.
Before me floating in what looked like a medical tank was my first creation, hopefully, one of many successful ones in my battle against the Olympians.
Making the Homonculus had been easier than I had expected. Alchemy came with a lot of biological and biomedical knowledge. I guessed that when making Homonvuli, even with magic, sorry, magecraft, you needed to know a minimum at least about biology.
Normally even with the equivalent of a tinker rating of 7, it would have maybe taken me longer than half a week to make the homunculus well unless I used and harvested real biological parts.
It was a good thing that with adaptive material synthesis, I could almost build anything. The only thing I had needed was to create the parts I needed with adaptive material synthesis by following the knowledge he received from his Alchemy star, follow with a little bit of my D.N.A. and use Alchemy to assemble them.
Usually, homunculi always came with a flaw because they were in a way not intended, complete existence, because they were in a sense more magical circuits in the shape of humans than true humans.
Some homunculi had a bullshit amount of magical energy like Sieg and Illya, others were strong like breaking stone strong with my pinky like one of the maids of Illya.
Their flaws depended to be honest. It could be a frail body, a lack of intelligence, a lack of a long life, the impossibility to reproduce and it was truly wild when you thought about it. Nasuverse Alchemists worthy of the name could make creatures capable of reproducing with human beings.
What should have happened, even with my tinker rating in alchemy, even with the number of charges I had invested should be that there still should have been a big flaw in the floating homunculus before me. There would be if I was not a proud filthy cheater. Honestly, were you really a player if you were not ready to cheat to win?
The only thing I would say was that the C’tan no matter their sociopathic tendencies knew their stuff when it came to making new races or turning one into another, ask the Necrons if you don’t believe me, they would tell you the experience was metal as fuck, literally.
I was brought out of my thoughts by a feminine voice saying the following words “Congratulations, it's a girl.”
There was only one other person who would be allowed, be able to come here “You're so funny, sister. “
Beryl answered almost with a shrug in her voice by saying “One of us got to be.”
I turned to look at my sister. The last days had been good to her. The Beryl before me didn't look like the mess that had ended at my door some time ago. She looked more and more like she did before all of this, before Zeus, before Thalia and everything. There was purpose in her eyes now and I truly hoped it would stay this time, that something would not come and extinguish it. I wanted it to keep shining bright.
She dragged a chair and sat at my side. There were in her hands two boxes of what seemed like Takeout.
She gave me one.
I took it and opened it to find a really big burger like I would not be surprised if I was told that sorcery was involved in making it fit, stay inside the closed plastic box.
“Not McDonald's or any of the likes I guess,” I said to her before taking a bite.
Salad, meat seasoned to perfection and melted cheese and bread melted in my mouth. I would not lie. This honestly tasted like sin, the really good or bad kind depending on how you saw it, the kind of sin you would not stop repeating uncaring of the fact it could and absolutely would damn your soul.
“Definitely not McDonald,” I spoke again.
“of course it's not,” she said. “If it was, It would be as flat as those new types they want to make us think are beautiful and tasty. Bought it at a local family restaurant.”
“You made a good choice,” I told her after taking another good bite.
“I bought it for the two of us once when we were still living with Mom and Dad,” She continued more softly. “Mom had made one of her disgusting mashed potatoes with lentils recipe and meat that looked barely cooked. I don’t know if you remember but we threw it in the toilet the moment we could. I waited until they didn't pay attention and left to go buy the burgers. You were younger and they were not a restaurant at that moment. I think that they were a street booth. Anyway, all of that is to say that you had liked it back then. I had hoped that you would still do so and you do so yeah I guess,” she spoke before taking another bite.
“I remember you know,” I told her. “Didn't think they would still be open. Yeah, I guess,” I said giving her a soft smile before taking another bite. I ignored the gaze of my sister to focus on my meal.
For a moment, I only focused on the meal before me. Before I knew it, I had finished it.
Already? I looked at my hands. I thought to the universe. Why had they betrayed me? It was not possible, not right for it to be finished so quickly.
An amused chuckle made me lift my gaze away from my hands to meet the one of Beryl.
Her gazed looked mid fond mid amused. She was presenting to him another box. I lifted an eyebrow in response.
“Something told me that you hadn’t eaten at all while I was not here so I bought at least five of those,” she spoke. “When I saw the way you were eating, I left to take another. The rest is in the fridge.”
“I don’t like that,” I told her in a way that sounded way too petulant for my taste while taking the box and opening it to reveal another burger.
‘Goodness, I come,’ I thought before taking another bite.
“So I was joking earlier, about your maybe daughter /robot/ Frankenstein creature even if she really looks as if she could be a sister or your child or even mine,” she whispered “But like, what happened while I wasn’t there? The guards were complaining you know. I heard them whisper that apparently someone was able to leave without any of them noticing.”
I told her between bites that “I'm eating. You first.”
“It's only fair I guess,” she said “Like I had told you, I went back to my home to order stuff and the likes, to see what I would take and come back with. I cleaned it because it truly was a mess and… I don't know, maybe Thalia would come back and I…I didn't want her to see what she usually did with me. I told the security that she was on a trip due to her paternal family and that she could possibly come at any moment, that if she did, they were to inform me and you immediately. I gave them your number so that they could. I also went through my mail and honestly even at the height of my career, I never had any so many letters and honestly I should be happy you know, the greatest companies, the greatest executives, actors and the like all of sudden coming from everywhere to have my attention, to almost beg for it,” she spat “and I'm grateful Alex, you gave me something I didn't deserve, something I fought for and failed to have those last years yet I can’t help but taste bitterness in my mouth. All those people, I had tried to talk to them, people I had considered friends, that I helped when no one else did, that I had been kind to. It should have mattered right? People I thought were my friend yet the moment they saw my career take a dive, they all left. When I tried talking to them, contacting them, they treated me like the plague and now I am supposed to forget, to forgive. I know it's hypocritical coming from me but still.”
“What have you decided in the end?” I asked her.
She answered me with a smile, a savage one “They were not there before and they are only there now because you are my brother. The good thing is this time, they are the ones to need me, not the inverse so fuck them. You said you had plans right? About us making, having our own movie company, right? I want to shine without any of them. I want to show their error. I want them to show them that no matter what may have happened, I'm still Beryl Fucking Grace. I want them to all look at me, Lance, his damned wife, those blasted executives and lickspittles, those fuckers and false friends and socialites. I want them to look at how well I am doing. I want my daughter wherever she is, wherever she will be to look at the screen and see something else other than her drunkard and pathetic failure of a parent so please Alex, I am so sorry but I am going to be selfish again, I am going to ask for your help again even though I am the last one who deserved it.”
I took a last bite of my burger before locking my gaze with hers. Identical pair of blue eyes met.
“It was always in the plan to help you you know,” I told her “but even if it wasn’t, spiting him would have been enough of a reason for me to help you.”
I gave a look at the clock to check on the time “It is 02:10 A.M right now. I was supposed to deal with Spielberg for a few days now. I think I have reported it enough. You'll come with me. We'll be leaving around 10 A.M”
“Thanks, Alex,” she said softly, voice full of gratitude, almost as if I was her messiah even though I was nothing but.
I didn't know why but this time, I was not able to look in her eyes “You’re welcome.”
I began speaking before it could become awkward “I guess it's time for me to tell you how my day went. The reason why I went outside was because I wanted to cast a spell, one that would allow me to see the presence of all the monsters and demigods in the city. Maybe the spell was not good enough or maybe it is exact but I only found on the map barely a dozen of demigods and hundreds of monsters.”
I saw a harshness, something that could be akin to hatred enter in the eyes of my sister as I said the word monster.
“I saw one of those golden dots,” I said to her. “A golden dot represents a demigod and a green dot a monster by the way.”
I opened my palm and over it materialized a hologram map of the city with golden and green dots “So like I said, one of the demigods was being cornered by three monsters and I didn't know if it could have been Thalia. Even if it wasn’t her, with what we saw a week ago, I don’t think I would have been able to do nothing so I rushed and dealt with the monsters.”
“Like a hero of old,” Beryl said her voice carrying a hint of a smile, approval in her tone.
I could not help the snort that came out “Nah, heroes in my opinion are overrated especially the older ones. Sure they save the day with all their incredible power but stories of man, imperfect, flawed doing the right thing even though it is hard, they hit differently in my opinion.”
“In any case, the name of the kid was Alabaster, a preschooler who probably jumped multiple grades because of how smart he is and honestly, something tells me he could easily do so until reaching college level. Alabaster was…interesting but he is a good kid, a good kid just like Thalia with things, circumstances he shouldn't have to deal with at all, things that hardened him but he is a good kid. I met his dad after bringing him back to his school and by the way, can you believe that the kid had to run for three miles?!”
A gasp that could only be called horrified came rightfully out of my sister like a preschooler having to run for more than three miles for his life was crazy “For Three miles because of monsters? I hope you made them suffer,” she told me and at her words, my mind flashed to what I did, I inflicted to the monster, to the reason why, because of the
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̶̛̯̙̳͖͕͛̑̂͂̄͂̏̃̄͊͘̚͜H̶̨̡̧̪̲̱̝̰͈̯̟̥̪͌͛̾͑̉̾̍̀͋̑̈́̏a̵̡̛̖͈̟̬͔͉̳̾̈́̒̋̏̆͝͠ͅĺ̴̢̪̖̹͍̖̦̭̗̂́̇́̈̃͒̍̂͜f̵͖͙̹͉̠̈́̔̓͑͝ ̴̨̜͐̋̿̓͗̚͜e̶̡̳͚͓̐̓̆̓̅̈́͆̐̍̈́a̴̡̛̞͖͈̫̳̰̓̍͂́̔̄̄̆͒͘ṯ̵̢͌̓̊̈̄̆̒̃̾́̋̕e̷̖͓̱̣̟͓̮͛̂̔͐̉̂̂́̕̚͜n̷̛̺̼̬̖͉̯̫̦̠̉̓́͑̍̉̃͊̎̂̂ ̶̰͆̒̂̒͜t̶̡͍̪̞͙̝̬̗͋͗͒͆̉̋ͅe̵̻͓͚̮̟̻͚͔͐͛̀̓̒̑̾̿͛̕̚r̴̛̟͛̑̅́̈̈́́̀̀̊̊̂͊r̶̰͍͉̻̭̱̠̄̆̌͐̈͆̓͗͝͝i̶̬̝̗̼͚̟̹̯̱̠͐̓͊̔f̴̰͖̦̖̗̞̜̤͓̬̋͐͐̋̊͋͒͠i̶̜̯͎̫̣̪̽̎́̔͝ȩ̶̱̼̞͍̩̈́̆́d̷̢̜͈̺̳̳̠͚̘͉͚͚̆̌̒͘ ̶̧͎͈̭̭̠͓̪̖̘̰͎͎͓̈l̵̡͓͍̼̤̞͙̬͎̙̣̹̠̒̐̿̑̑̕͘͠͝ͅơ̵̡̠̲̞̥̲̙̻̠̤̄̅͊̓͗̎͊͗̓͐͘ͅͅͅo̶̺̣̪̘̖͕̳̘̐̐̓̑͠͠k̴̨͈̠̳͖̾̍̂̈́̄͒̀̊̂͘̕͘͝ị̵̡̘͚͍̦̖̖̤̳̪͔̑̌̄̓̑̔̉̏͝͝n̷̢̺̙͔̼̜̝̫͐̓̒̅͆͊͘ͅg̸̡̢̤̺̫̮̝̭̃̔̓́̈́̍͗͐͐̽̍̕ ̵͉͖͈̣̬̖͕͛̔c̵̢̧̦̹͇̣̘͓̘͇̤̱̑̎̓͜ơ̴̦͍̺͕̙̹̹̺̦̖͉̪͓͕̏̓̑́̏́̒̔̌̄̚̕ṙ̴̢̡̮̪̯̗̮̳͙͍̹͈̽̋̃̓͛̚̚p̷̨͕̲̦͍͔̉̃͝͝s̸̛̟̦͈̟̻̱̫͙̘̻̈̓͜e̸̛̫̮̰͛̃́͌̂ ̵̛̜̫̯̺̫͔̗̠̥̰̺̟͊̎̍̾̍͊̔̇̚͜ŏ̷̞̫̠̬̥̫̪̅̉̋̇͒̓̋̚f̸̰̮͇̥̾̃̈́͜ ̵̖̂̿a̴̱̝̭̱̒̀̎̀̔̋͝͝͠͝ ̵͍͍͎̖̙͚̳̈͛̈́̈́̑̎̀̈͘c̵̢̧̟̜̮͙̝̘͖̯̭̓ͅͅh̵̼̘͖̤̦̝̬̭̤͌͋̇̐̍̇͋̾̍͌̂ͅį̶̮͉͔̠̹̰̝̌̿́̃͘͝l̸̟̗͉͓̪̳͖͌̅̇̀̑͊̇̎̓d̵̻̥̯̟̪͚̥̟͇̜͊̈́̽̔͛͌̔͌͗͊̒̐.̷̣͙͙̩͎͚͐͐̾̍͜
I dismissed the images as quickly as possible.“I'm not sure they unfortunately did,” I said to my sister. “If I was alone, it would have been easier to ensure they did but I had to focus on the kid and not scare him more than he probably did. In any case, as I said, I met his Dad and you should have seen how he treated me, as if I was a dangerous venomous predator playing with its prey in his case him which Is weird like he was calling me lord and stuff, treating me as if I was a god or something alike even though I am nothing but human. Can you believe that?”
Instead of agreeing like I had expected she would, Beryl said the following “You won’t like my next words but I can.”
I could have been bitch slapped and I would react with as much outrage “What do you mean by that? You more than everyone know I'm entirely human. You saw it yourself. You literally saw me growing up. You were the one who took care of me when I was sick because our parents never seemed to have time. You were the one to take care of me more than our parents!”
“I know Alex, I Know,” she spoke softly as if appeasing a violent beast and that realisation calmed in a way that other methods would have probably not been able to “yet it's like something is different about you. I don’t know how to explain it, to be frank. When I look at you, I still see my brother, the same appearance but it was as if there was something more, as if there was an air of…I don’t know, power? Otherness maybe around you. When I look into your eyes, I see my brother and I see at the same time something more. I don’t know why it is the case but maybe what you're doing, the miraculous Einstein stuff you're able to do is the cause of this.”
She used her hand as if to show the impromptu workshop around the two of us.
“Maybe it is changing you not that it is necessarily a bad thing because I still see my brother,” she said softly.
I took a first, second and third deep breaths to try to gather myself before pushing my hair that had fallen over my eyes back, my gaze directed for the moment at the ceiling above me.
I wondered out loud “Look at the abyss and the abyss look at you kind of deal right?” Of course, the capacity to do literal miracles, incredible things, inventions would not come and leave things exactly as they were. Thinking otherwise would be naive.
I had been naive.
Still, there was one thing I needed to know due to how my sister had spoken, as if it was something familiar. I turned my gaze toward my sister “Did I ever remind you of him?”I asked her.
Even without saying the name, both of us knew of who I was talking. The gaze of my sister was not fleeing as she looked at him, as she looked into my eyes and didn't back down.
“You never did Alex and you could never,” she said to me.
A sight escaped me.“At this rate, I am going to become smoking,” I whispered to myself but the following words of my sister showed that I hadn’t been as quiet as I wanted.
“I bet my soul you would not,” Beryl said.
“I hope you don’t make that kind of bet usually when you're betting because you're more than likely going to lose,” I told her.
“Nah, I’d win and do you know why?” she said looking at me as if she had already won. “One word, Thalia.”
With the word, with the name she uttered, any rebuttal I could have was squashed. There was nothing that I would allow myself to do that would remind Thalia of her life with Beryl and we both knew this.
I could remember almost as if it was yesterday Thalia, how she had numerously complained to me about the smell of the bottles of alcohol and cigarettes of her mother.
“you're right, I would not,” I replied to Beryl who was probably thinking something similar to what I was thinking.
I continued to speak as if nothing happened. It was the better way to not make us linger on her absence “So as I said,” I continued “the man invited me to eat with his son. He's a mage too, not sure if I already said it.”
“A mage?” Beryl said incredulously as if I had told her a really bad joke trying to fuck with her “Of course, mages exist.” she chuckled.
“Monsters, gods, demigods, whatever marvel you're each time building they exist. Of course, magic would fucking exist.”
“Other pantheons exist too like the Norse, Egyptians and Hindu ones,” I told her like at this point, why not inform her?
She looked at me and I don’t know why but I felt a flicker of fear bloom inside for a second “What about Christianity?” I guess it should be expected that she would ask such. We may not be like believers or practitioners but the only thing our parents had moments they would never skip, forget to do with us was going to church. Our parents were Catholics in all sense of the term and I knew what I meant by that. My family in both my life had been such.
“Supposedly it is real too but with honestly multiple repacked other religions and myths, I don’t know much. I know that Thor challenged Jesus to a fight and the guy didn't show up. Take it as you want.”
She was looking at me as I had told her that the Easter bunny and the tooth fairy were real which with the nature of this world would not surprise me if it was indeed the case.
I watched as she took her head in her two hands “It sounds like a trashy but enjoyable to read book. Please tell me our lives aren’t a shitty book.”
She Honestly sounded unhinged. I purposefully and shamelessly chose to not answer to that. Better continue where I had stopped.
“So like I was saying, went to the guy’s house which in retrospect may have not been the most logical thing to do, I mean going into the house of an unknown mage. Even with my precautions and stuff, I know it still best to not tempt the devil.” That or in my case the moirai.
“Guy knows how to cook. It was a shame you were not here,” I said to her. “It's kinda surprising I was hungry again with how much I ate but like I said it wasn’t bad until the end.” The end of the sentence came softer than I expected it to be.
I continued speaking “He told me he wanted me to take care of his son, to take his son, that he was dying and I honestly hated it, hated this situation. He had promised his kid that he would always be there for him the same way I promised Thalia and I failed you know.”
She took one of my hands with hers “If anything,” she said softly “I am the one who failed, who failed both you and Thalia, a child raising a child. I abandoned you because I was stupid, because I thought I was doing the right thing even though I wasn’t. Please never say again that you failed her.”
If only it was that easy.
“It does not change that I failed Beryl,” I told her. “No one forced me to make this promise, no oneforced me to swear this to her. I chose to do so. It may not have been my fault, it may not be yours. We both know who it is definitely the fault of though. It does not change that whether I wished for it or not I broke my promise and it was like I was seeing it happening all over again like a bad movie you can’t stop watching so I did something, I made a miracle so that in a way, that promise I made to Thalia would be somewhere in someway be held on, respected, unbroken. When I came home, one of the first things I did was instruct some of the guards with promises of fat loads of cash to check by themselves and by hiring competent detectives where to find the demigods corresponding to the golden dots. I gave them Thalia's description. None of the demigods corresponded which means…”
Beryl finished my sentence “That she is not in L.A”.
I stood and moved toward the medical tank with the homunculus inside “This is honestly why of the greatest reasons why I created her, why I would create others like her. I can’t come close to Thalia even if we found her due to him. I am also too scared that if I am not in a way the one to do it, it will fail. If it was you, I am not sure it would be the best idea with your past with her and who knows what spiteful thing his wife would throw at you if you tried on your lonesome. Her main role would be to search through the entire United States, to search for Thalia, to inform me of where she is, to protect her the time I set up a hidden house, based away from the attention of the world behind the mist where she would be safe, where she would be content, where I would able to tell her sorry in person without risking anything going wrong.”
Beryl was now standing at my side to look at the homunculus floating in the medical tank “Have you thought about a name for her.”
“Elpida,” I said my words more whispers than anything else at this point. “Her name would be Elpida.”
“Why this name?” Beryl asked me.
“The name comes from the word Elpis which means hope,” I replied. “I may be able to do all those great things but without hope, what would be the point?”
“Hope huh? I like that.”
Comments
Duncan Cutler
Is this chapter 14 or 15? the numbers repeated. Or two halves of a chapter?
Kevin Valentin
Didn't imagine that he's planning on making a backup for himself in case he's killed reminds me of Mr.Sinister from Marvel and I'm kinda all for it
LothWolf
“Other pantheons exist too like the Norse, Egyptians and Hindu ones,” I told her like at this point, why not inform her” I wonder what would happen if any of the Egyptian gods tried to forcibly take the MC as a host because if they tried I don’t see it ending well for the god that tries
Cesar gonzalez
I think the MC is gonna eventually look ahead, as in the afterlife. Hopefully he’ll make an artificial after life where human souls go to because alternatively, when they die they’ll all go to the underworld. And that place sucks. Especially since Hades will find out what the MC is up to and will probably torture him and his loved ones for trying to defy the gods.
LothWolf
Thanks for the chapter 👍😁❤️
LothWolf
I hope that you start feeling better soon
LothWolf
Yeah the MC having The Third Magic Heavens Feel would very interesting along with how he would deal with his new found existence as a Ascendant Soul would be interesting to see how gods and primordials deal with the fact that a human is a Higher existence then them along with having better immortality
bone lord
Don't sweat loved the chapter and I liked what the guy above you said,great concept of an never ending threat that you can't fight against
Anthony Maxwell
Are all the Olympians really that bad. As honestly I feel like there were some decent Olympians that weren't completely awful like hephaestus or hestia.
Anthony Maxwell
(I felt a smile bloom on my face as he remembered his words yet I knew, I was sure that had I looked in a mirror, he would be a sad one instead of a joyous one.) error I felt a smile bloom on my face as I remembered his words yet I knew, I was sure that had I looked in a mirror, (he would be a sad one instead of a joyous one.) not sure what this end part was supposed to say it's kind of confusing 😵
Anthony Maxwell
(I had been honest with the man when I had told him he was tired of sad endings) error (I had been honest with the man when I had told him i was tired of sad endings)
Anthony Maxwell
(After all The last thing I wanted was to fall on a demigod brainwashed by the Greek world behind the mist, who truly worshipped and believed in the Olympians no matter their faults, flaws, one who would take a look at my actions and inform one of the gods through a prayer or something else when I wasn’t yet ready, when I was not strong enough to deal with them for now) hmm 🤔 how to say this you healed one of hectate's lovers that she couldn't deal with her magic. I feel like that act alone probably brought the attention of the gods on the MC or at least hectate. If she hasn't noticed yet she'll probably notice pretty soon . As they probably keep a pretty close eye on people they're intimate with and I'd be kind of weird if they didn't. As I said something about this in one of the last chapters and you kind of just brushed me off or ignored me or whatever. I wouldn't be surprised if they're already planning on how to approach the main character after they find him.
Mrmeme101
I hope you end up giving the mc heavens feel because that true magic could have interesting implications. Someone who has the the third magic interacts with the world in a similar way to a heroic spirit his body would basically be a remote controlled spirit body. Because as i understood it the "true self"/"soul" ascends to a higher plane outside reality somewhat like the throne of hero's or the root of akasha. It would mean he would never die and his soul, his true self would be out of reach from everyone in reality even gods and primordials it would mean he could never die or be captured if his body (spiritual servant like projection) is destroyed or if he is captured then he can simply decostruct and reconstruct his "body" somewhere else. The reason i said it has interesting implications is because I kinda like the idea of zeus killing/capturing him multiple times and having not idea how he's still around. It also would be interesting because he would be even more immortal/eternal than the gods ironically enough with would live truly forever and woul be a good set up for a bit of existential angst as with his soul/metaphysical self completely existing separate from the universe he could literally exist forever no longer bound to the universe which is pretty scary. Can you image what that woul be like knowing your life and existence is completely separated from everything and you can exist even if the universe it self doesn't. I kinda look at it like you completely break off from reality and exist almost as a new reality that only you are a part of a living sentient concept/idea removed from everthing. Pretty awesome and and terrifying.
allen 1996
This is half of the chapter that I originally planned to write. This is why the perk y’all voted isn’t there yet. Honestly, it should have been posted on Tuesday and I'm sorry because I promised but the pain is really being a bitch those last days. Sorry again
