Percy Jackson - The Record of The Journey of a Mortal Who Become a God

The night sky was dark, and there wasn't a single star visible. Dark clouds thundered, and occasional lightning illuminated the heavens...

Inside an apartment in the heart of the city, Ikki stared at the wall of his room as he pondered. After several days, he had managed to sit in his crib and was now sitting cross-legged with his arms crossed as well. His mother was already asleep, so he had the freedom to do whatever he wanted for the moment—he didn't have to pretend to be a normal baby.

A week had passed since his rebirth, and he had no choice but to accept the truth unfolding before him.

He had been reborn after his death. There was no other explanation. And it was impossible to explain it to others since he could barely form any words.

"And even if I told people after I turned five years old, no one would believe that I have 28 years of memories in my head."

They would simply dismiss it as a child's joke or a delusion.

If he were to mention detailed stories or secrets of the future, some people might believe him. However, the chances of being treated as a cursed child were extremely high. So, he decided that in the future, he would keep his reincarnation a secret he would take to the grave—literally.

Ikki let out a sigh, his eyes glowing faintly with frustration. Although his wish to see his mother again had been fulfilled, he hated his current situation. All he could do was drink milk from a bottle and sleep when the time came. And whenever he soiled his diapers, his mother would come to change them. It was an extremely embarrassing experience for him, a man with the mind of an adult.

He wanted to grow up already!

In this boredom, all he could do was think—and he might have been going a little crazy because of it—because he began to feel something inside his body, a kind of formless "energy." It was very cold and moved rapidly. Before completing a full circle within his body, it would vanish.

If he were to make an analogy, it felt as if an invisible thread flowed inside his body—mysterious and fantastical, like a dragon swimming in the clouds or a Kun Peng gliding through the waters. There was simply no logical explanation. He could only feel it within his body, which made him think he might at least be going mad.

Although he thought it was his mind playing tricks on him out of boredom, he felt it might be some "special energy" that could explain his reincarnation. After all, if parallel worlds and reincarnation existed, why couldn't magic, unique abilities, or even cultivation? It made sense that everything he once thought was fantasy could be real.

Calming his heart, he closed his eyes and tried to sense this invisible thread within his body. He wanted to confirm if it was real or not...

To his surprise, as soon as he closed his eyes and concentrated, it felt as though his consciousness had entered his body. He could pinpoint the exact location of the invisible thread he had been feeling for the past few days. As if aware of his attention, the small thread began to twitch and rush in a specific direction within his body.

As it moved through his body, the thread began to change. As it did, he could feel strange cold sensations emerging from his body, like droplets of water merging into the thread's flow within him, making it grow bigger and bigger. In the end, it was like a small stream flowing in a continuous cycle.

A tremor ran through his entire body, and it felt as if a layer of fog had been lifted from his mind.

A rumbling sound echoed throughout his body.

Suddenly, he felt more agile and lighter. Unlike before, the thread—no longer a thread—had not disappeared. It was still there, circulating throughout his body...

His originally fragile and uncontrollable baby body now felt manageable.

Ikki opened his eyes in surprise, his heart racing, for as the thread within his body circulated, information flowed into his mind. This thread was called the Primordial Chaos, also referred to as the "Source." Its origin or why he possessed it remained unclear, but everything would become evident as he understood an obscure record imprinted in his mind.

According to the information, it was a record of the first words heard at the dawn of eternity. By comprehending something so obscure, he could increase his "Source" and soul to limitless levels. In eternity, there were no limits, to begin with.

His "Source" could emulate any type of energy to be used for any skill or technique.

"I knew it couldn't just be in my head... If such a thing exists in this parallel world, I must assume it's not as normal as one might think..." he thought secretly in his heart.

Although he wanted to test more of his power, he felt sleepy. So, he decided to postpone the tests for another day and lay down in his crib.

It didn't take long for him to fall asleep.

... ...

Ten months had passed since his rebirth.

Time was moving slowly, one day at a time.

Ikki crawled across the apartment toward the middle of the living room, with two L-shaped sofas and a television at the opposite end. As he did so, he reflected on his months of learning since discovering that this world was not as simple as it seemed.

Currently, his mother and he lived in Manhattan, New York. His mother owned an apartment building, which was her only stable source of income. She was a former actress in films, series, and soap operas who had retired to take care of him. It was just the two of them... Occasionally, some friends would visit, but strangely, he hadn't met any relatives yet.

It didn't take long to discover the reason. His mother had originally been an orphan who lost her parents in a plane crash. She went to an orphanage where she was raised until the age of twelve and passed through several foster families until she turned eighteen and was considered an adult. She studied and entered a theater college where, after graduation, she received a proposal to star in a film. She accepted and quickly became a rising star in the late 19th century...

It was then that she met his "father," fell in love, had him, and retired—all in sequence. She changed her appearance enough that people wouldn't recognize her, knowing her son would face difficulties if his mother were famous.

Fortunately, she also used a different name in her acting career, so unless someone investigated deeply, it was hard for anyone to recognize her...

When he discovered this, he realized how different his mother's story was from her past-life counterpart, where she had been a successful lawyer who died of cancer at 34 years old. It was this kind of information that made him sigh, blaming himself for considering her the same mother he had in his previous life when Sophia was precisely a parallel universe version of his mother.

It took him a while to accept this, and he was still trying to move on...

Setting aside this personal and emotional issue, he tried various ways to use his "Source." After countless failed attempts, he finally managed to use it as he desired. In his previous life, he had been an avid reader of Chinese stories where there was a process to achieve immortality and divinity called cultivation, so he copied the way cultivators used Qi to refine their bodies.

He transformed the energy of his Source into Qi and began to strengthen his body... Creating a technique similar to the ones he had read about, he called it [Genesis Book - Page of the Body] due to his idea of expanding this technique into something much broader in the future...

Although he hadn't started using this Technique yet, he was sure it was very powerful—his intuition told him so...

As for the [Nameless Mantra] he had learned on the day he awakened his "Source," he had yet to even scratch its surface. But he noticed that trying to comprehend it increased his Source energy, which was very good. If it had once been a small stream, now it was like a small river flowing through his body in an endless cycle.

He was pulled from his thoughts when he saw his mother in front of him. She picked him up in her arms, speaking tenderly, "Ikki, what are you doing, my little angel?"

Ikki looked at her and thought it was a good time to say his first words. He had been practicing during his free time, and although it was difficult to speak, it was still possible: "Mama..."

It was harder than he thought. He tried to say "Mommy," but it didn't come out right. Even so, it was worth it. His mother's expression was priceless; tears of emotion and a huge smile appeared on her face before she lifted him with a sparkle in her blue eyes.

"You said mommy, my little angel. Say it again for me, please..." She looked into his face and practically begged with her eyes. It was adorable...

"Mama..." Ikki said, giving his best smile. His mother melted before showering his cheeks with kisses. Although his adult soul was embarrassed, he still felt warmth flow through his heart—he had missed this in his past life...

"Kyaa... Mommy's little cutie!"

The rest of the day passed quickly, as always, with his mother pestering him to speak, and Ikki obeying. It served as practice for his developing vocal cords.

At night, he was placed back in the crib. His mother began telling a mythological story—a tradition she had started about a month ago.

The story?

Well, it was about Achilles...

Achilles was the son of Peleus, a Greek king of Phthia and the most pious man on the planet, and Thetis, a minor goddess and sea nymph (Nereid).

Zeus, the king of the gods, and Poseidon, the god of the sea, both fell in love with Thetis and became rivals for her hand in marriage.

However, they were warned of a prophecy that Thetis would have a son who would grow to be greater than his father. Concerned about this, Zeus made the goddess marry a mortal so that her son could not challenge his power.

In another version of the story, Thetis rejects Zeus's advances, which angers him, and he decrees that she will never marry a god. Either way, Thetis ends up marrying the mortal Peleus. She gives birth to Achilles, who, unlike her, is mortal. Fearing losing her son to time, she tries to make him immortal by dipping him into the River Styx (the river that crosses the Underworld) while holding him by the heel. The only part of his body untouched by the waters becomes his only point of weakness, hence the phrase "Achilles' heel."

Achilles grew up. While still a child, Thetis returned to the sea to live with the other Nereids.

In his mother's absence, the hero spent his childhood on Mount Pelion, raised and trained by the wise centaur Chiron, who also taught Heracles and Jason.

There, he trained in various skills, from hunting to music. He excelled in all disciplines, and upon returning home, it was clear to everyone that greatness awaited him!

Back in Phthia, Achilles befriended Phoenix and Patroclus, two refugees whom Peleus took in during his absence. Both would have a huge influence on him, with the latter becoming his most beloved friend. They became best friends, essentially.

At this time, Achilles learned of a prophecy. Two, in fact...

One prophecy stated that the hero would die in Troy. Another prophecy said the Greeks would only win the war if Achilles fought alongside them.

Thus, while his mother tried to save him from his tragic fate by hiding him in the court of Lycomedes disguised as a girl, Odysseus set out to find him and summon him to the war.

There, Achilles had a romance with Deidamia, one of Lycomedes' daughters, fathering a son named Neoptolemus.

Odysseus discovered Achilles and tricked him into revealing his male identity to the court. Thus, he joined the troops in the expedition to Troy.

Achilles gathered an enormous army of Myrmidons, arriving in Troy with 50 ships. The battle was long and arduous, lasting an astonishing 9 years before anything significant happened. It was only in the 10th year that things got ugly.

First, Achilles had a dispute with the Greek king Agamemnon and refused to fight in his army. Agamemnon had taken Briseis, a Trojan woman who had become one of Achilles' spoils of war—and for whom Achilles also had affection.

Even refusing to fight, he allowed Patroclus to wear his armor and fight in his place. Tragically, the Trojan prince Hector killed Patroclus, mistaking him for Achilles.

Devastated, the warrior hunted down and killed Hector in an act of vengeance, in one of the saddest scenes in all of Western literature. But for him, it wasn't enough. After killing Hector, Achilles refused to hand over the body to the Trojans for funeral rites. Instead, he desecrated it by dragging it with his chariot in front of the city walls.

At the climax of the story, Hector's brother Paris shot an arrow (in many accounts said to be poisoned) directly at Achilles' weak spot, ending the life of this once-all-powerful hero.

Poisoned or not, the arrow was certainly guided by the god Apollo, as Paris was not a renowned archer. Apollo also sought revenge: years earlier, Achilles had killed one of his sons, Tenes, king of the island of Tenedos.

In Homer's Odyssey, after Odysseus descends into the Underworld, one of the shades he encounters is that of Achilles, who had apparently become a sort of minor ruler of the dead souls in his region.

Upon realizing this, Odysseus admires Achilles for being blessed in death as much as in life. "If I could choose," Achilles memorably replies, "I would rather be a hired hand in the house of a poor man, living above ground, than king of kings among the dead."

Although he had already read about Achilles, Ikki enjoyed how his mother narrated the story. She was an excellent storyteller...

After finishing the story, she left the room with the lights off and the mobile spinning above his crib. She seemed a little tired.

Ikki closed his eyes and focused on his body, calming his heart and slowly following his idea. The [Book of Genesis - Path of the Body] was used gradually. After months, he had decent control over his Source Energy, enough to transform it into Qi, and the rest was easy to accomplish. He just needed to incorporate this energy into his body's bones. This allowed every organ and even every cell in his body to be strengthened to their limits.

The original fragility would be discarded, and the body would reach its optimal state while granting infinite benefits, such as a longer lifespan.

However, this method was tied to one's own strength. If someone's Qi was stronger than their physical body, then this technique would use that Qi and incorporate it into the body to make it stronger. In the case where both the physical body and the Qi strength were balanced, it would be necessary to make a breakthrough to reach the next level. Only through this cycle could the entire body be continuously improved without limits.

Due to his large amount of Source Energy, he quickly refined his body at a speed a hundred times faster than he had imagined. He could clearly feel every artery and cell in his body becoming stronger. The Qi integrated into his body was like a giant health tonic that made his body feel alive as it absorbed it. His body was like a giant thirsty tiger that wanted more and more. At the same time, he felt a pleasurable sensation throughout his body and free of worries...

It was an addictive feeling...

That was how he spent the rest of the night, and the following nights as well, until it became an unchanging routine...