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

After this broken-humor presentation by Chiron, the group heard footsteps behind them. Looking back, they saw Luke running up the hill, carrying a pair of basketball shoes.

"Hey!..." he panted as he reached the group, relieved he said, "I'm glad I caught up with you..."

"I just wanted to wish you good luck," he said to Ikki and Percy after catching his breath, "and I thought... uh, maybe you could use this."

He handed the shoes to Ikki, which looked quite ordinary.

Luke said, "Maia!"

White bird wings sprouted from the heels, leaving Percy, who was beside Ikki, very surprised. The shoes flapped their wings and began to fly above their hands, before the wings folded and disappeared, causing the shoes to drop back into their hands again.

"Impressive!" Grover said.

Luke smiled. "They helped me a lot when I was on my mission. A gift from Dad. Of course, I don't wear them much these days..."

His expression turned sad by the end of his words.

"Thanks, Luke, they might come in handy..." Ikki calmly replied, the son of Hermes smiled gently and pleasantly at his words.

"Listen, Ikki and Percy..." Luke seemed awkward, he spoke with conviction:

"Everyone expects a lot from you. So, just... kill some monsters for me, okay?..."

Ikki and Luke exchanged a handshake. Soon after, Percy did the same with the son of Hermes, and Luke ruffled Grover's head between his horns and then gave Annabeth a big hug, who had a complicated expression.

After Luke left, Ikki asked her, "Anne, are you okay?..."

"Yeah, it's nothing..." said Athena's daughter, not wanting to delve into the subject.

It could be said that she used to have a bit of a crush on Luke, but now that feeling seemed to have faded. Only the sibling affection remained; another person had taken his place in her heart without her realizing it.

The person she had spent the most time with in recent days... Playing various strategic games, talking about various things, he was calm and very mature for his age, his mind was brilliant, he was like a dream prince to her.

Although she wouldn't easily admit it, she was starting to fall for Ikki. Something inevitable; sooner or later, you would fall for him. There wasn't a human woman, goddess, or women from a myriad of other races in existence who, after spending time with Ikki, didn't fall for him; eventually, it would happen.

Especially not a teenager like her, who was more easily influenced by someone.

"If you say so." Ikki shrugged, unaware of his friend's turbulent emotions.

Annabeth distractedly walked down to the other side of the hill, where a white SUV was waiting on the roadside. Argos followed her, shaking car keys.

Ikki looked at the shoes in his hands and said thoughtfully, "I know Luke's intentions were good and all, but I feel like these aren't for me..."

It was just a feeling that it wouldn't be good to wear those shoes, and besides, he didn't need them to fly.

In simple summary, the shoes were useless to him.

Percy looked confusedly at his friend before suggesting, "Why don't you give them to Grover?"

The mentioned satyr blinked in surprise.

"You want a magic gadget?" Ikki asked the satyr, following his friend's suggestion.

The satyr's eyes lit up. He pointed to himself. "Me?.."

"Yeah... Percy is the son of Poseidon; I don't think it's a good idea for him to wear those shoes."

Grover immediately agreed, and they strapped the shoes over Grover's false hooves, and the world's first flying goat-boy was ready for launch.

"Maia!" Grover shouted.

The satyr lifted off the ground quite well, but then tipped to the side, and his backpack dragged along the grass. The winged shoes were hopping up and down like tiny wild horses.

"Practice..." shouted Chiron, who was standing by watching the events unfold. "You just need practice!"

"Aaaaaa!"

Grover flew sideways down the hill like a crazed lawnmower, heading towards the van.

Before Percy could follow Grover, and Ikki could go to the van, Chiron stopped them and spoke with guilt and regret.

"I should have trained you better, Percy and Ikki. If only I had more time. Hercules, Jason... they all received more training..."

"It's okay. I just wanted..."

Percy didn't continue; what he was about to say would sound like a spoiled child. He wished his father had given him some cool magic thing to help with the mission, something as good as Luke's flying shoes or Annabeth's invisible cap.

"Where's my head at?" Chiron suddenly exclaimed. "I can't let you leave without this..."

He pulled a pen from his coat pocket and handed it to Percy. It was an ordinary disposable pen, black ink, removable cap. Probably a pen that would cost thirty cents.

"Wow," said the Son of Poseidon in a dry tone. "Thanks."

"Percy, this was a gift from your father. I kept it for years, not knowing you were the one I was waiting for. But the prophecy is now clear to me. You are the chosen one," explained Chiron, smiling slightly at the end of his words.

"Remove the cap..."

He requested.

And so Percy did, and the pen transformed into a sword. In half a second, he was holding a shining bronze sword with a double-edged blade, a handle wrapped in leather, and a flat guard riveted with gold pins.

The son of Poseidon felt this was the first weapon that truly seemed balanced in his hand. All the swords he had held before felt wrong, but this was like the perfect fit in his hands.

"The sword has a long and tragic history, which we don't need to discuss," Chiron said, imitating an enthusiastic historian with his work. "Its name is Anaklusmos..."

"Riptide..." Percy translated, surprised that ancient Greek came so easily.

Ikki looked at it; he wasn't a skilled smith, but he could tell it was a beautiful sword.

"Just use it for emergencies..." Chiron said, crossing his arms, "and only against monsters. No hero should harm mortals, only if it's absolutely necessary, of course, but this sword wouldn't harm them in any case..."

Percy looked at the cruelly sharp blade and became confused. "What do you mean, it wouldn't harm mortals? How can it not harm?.."

"The sword is made of celestial bronze. Forged by the Cyclopes, tempered in the heart of Mount Etna, cooled in the river Lethe. It's deadly to monsters, to any creature from the Underworld, as long as they don't kill you first. But the blade will pass through mortals like an illusion. They're not important enough to be killed by the blade. And I must warn you: as a demigod, you can be killed by both celestial and normal weapons. You're twice as vulnerable..."

"Good to know..." Percy nodded in understanding.

"Now replace the cap on the pen..."

Percy pushed the pen cap to the tip of the sword, and instantly Riptide transformed back into a pen again.

He then shoved it into his pocket, looking nervous; at school, he had a reputation for losing pens.

"There's no risk..." Chiron said, knowing the cause of his nervousness.

"Of what?..."

"Of losing the pen..." Chiron said, amused. "It's enchanted. It will always reappear in your pocket..."

"Try it..."

Percy was skeptical, but he threw the pen as far as he could down the hill and saw it disappear in the grass.

"Can take a few moments," said Chiron. "Now check your pocket..."

Percy put his hand in his pocket, and sure enough, the pen was there. He pulled it out and looked at it.

"Okay, this is really cool," admitted the Son of Poseidon with shining eyes. "But what if a mortal sees me pull out a sword?"

Chiron smiled and explained, "The Mist is a powerful thing, Percy..."

"You should read more, seaweed brain," Ikki said to the Son of Poseidon, who made a face.

"Well, about the Mist, let me see... Read the Iliad. Yes, that's a good book. It's full of references to this. Whenever divine or monstrous elements mix with the mortal world, they generate the Mist, which clouds humans' vision."

"We half-bloods see things exactly as they are, but mortals will interpret everything very differently. An example of this is that we see you pulling a sword, but mortals might see a baseball bat..."

Ikki explained, a little thoughtful, remembering his time in the camp library with Annabeth and his siblings, learning everything he could.

"Yes, that's basically it," Chiron said, nodding his head, not surprised at all by the boy whose father's identity was unknown knowing this; he was even more voracious for knowledge than the children of Athena.

And that was already an impressive thing.

Percy nodded and put the pen back in his pocket.

"Don't think I forgot about you, Ikki," Chiron said as he pulled a ring and a watch from his pocket and handed them to Ikki.

Ikki took them; he put the gold-coated ring with a black gem on his ring finger and the pure gold watch on his wrist while listening to the immortal centaur's explanation.

"The watch is a gift from one of the Gods of Olympus to help you on your journey. It is a perfect replica, no weaker than the shield; Rho Aias used by the Greek hero Ajax the Great during the Trojan War."

His words left both boys surprised. Chiron smiled and continued to explain the origins of the shield.

"This sacred shield is made of Celestial Bronze and covered with seven dense layers of leather, never having been surpassed in all its existence. It is described in the Iliad that even the sharpest spear in the world could pierce only to the seventh layer of Ajax's shield before stopping."

"And despite its virtually unbreakable defense, it is not heavy; it is an extremely lightweight shield and very easy to handle, a perfect combination for you, if you ask me..."

Finishing the explanation of its origins, he taught him how to activate his newest magical item.

"To activate its shield form, you just need to take a defensive stance, and to deactivate, you just need to look at the shield on your wrist as if you were checking a watch."

Ikki did what Chiron said, bringing his arm up as if to defend himself, and a shield appeared strapped to his wrist half a second later. The most striking thing about this shield is its appearance; the shield features an image of a seven-layer lotus flower on the front.

The shield was firmly attached to his arm; it felt very light, as if it were made of silk. But he could feel it had enormous defensive power. He turned his arm with the shield above his wrist still strapped, as if to check the time on a watch, and the shield transformed back into a simple watch on his wrist.

"Just like Percy's sword, it has also been enchanted to always stay on your wrist. Even if you throw it far away, it will magically return to you."

"It seems Superman just became Captain America..." Percy joked with a slight smile.

Ikki merely rolled his eyes at his friend's words. One of the two's favorite things over the years was reading Marvel and DC comics from this world, which were identical to their past lives, so their conversations often revolved around that or other shared interests.

Chiron smiled at Percy's words to his friend. The friendship between these two is something rare to see these days; among insults and random chatter was a bond of brotherhood and concern that united them like family.

The centaur began to explain the other item he had given Ikki.

"As for the ring, it is a cursed sword that was stored in the attic by your father. It has a tragic history, and it is said that only a demigod who knows no defeat and never will can wield this blade."

"I have a feeling it was made for you. That's why I took it from the attic where it was gathering dust."

"You know the small gem? You just need to touch it, and the ring will transform into a sword."

Ikki followed what his former Latin teacher said and ran his finger over the gem on the ring. An instant later, a sword appeared in his hand.

He looked at the sheathed sword in his hand.

It was a work of art. The sword was slender, looking more decorative than practical, the hilt was mostly blue with hints of golden colors appearing on the grip and crossguard, unlike Eastern swords; this was a double-edged sword. The sheath was equally exquisite; it was mainly blue, with a red ruby and various details made of gold.

Percy also looked at its design in awe. Although he preferred his pen-sword, he couldn't help but think how nice it would be if it looked as beautiful as this one.

The sword felt light in his hands and was a perfect fit, as if it were the last piece of a puzzle. Ikki drew it, and the double-edged blade seemed to shine; several Greek words were engraved along the spine of the blade.

"Xífos Tis Níkis," Ikki read in ancient Greek.

"Sword of Victory?..." Percy said, translating.

Chiron smiled and spoke, "As I said, it fits Ikki very well, who until today has never experienced any defeat..."

The two boys had different reactions, but both had to agree with that.

Ikki sheathed the sword back and made it return to being a ring when he touched the gem of its sheath.

With the items given to both boys, all preparations for the mission had been completed.

"Chiron..." Percy asked after thinking for a moment, "When you say the gods are immortal... I mean, there was a time before them, right?"

"Four ages before them, in fact. The Age of Titans was the Fourth Age, sometimes called the Golden Age, which is undoubtedly a misnomer. This era, the era of Western civilization and the reign of Zeus, is the Fifth Age..."

"So what was it like... before the gods?" Percy asked curiously.

Chiron pursed his lips and explained what he knew without going into too much detail.

"Not even I am old enough to remember that, child, but I know it was a time of darkness and savagery for mortals. Cronos, the Lord of Titans, called his reign the Golden Age because men lived in innocence and were free from all knowledge. But that was mere propaganda. The Titan King cared nothing for his kind except to serve as appetizers or as a source of entertainment."

"It was only at the beginning of Lord Zeus's reign, when Prometheus, the good Titan, brought fire to humanity, that your kind began to evolve, and even then, Prometheus was stigmatized as a radical thinker. Zeus punished him severely, as you must remember. Of course, in the end, the gods became interested in humans, and Western civilization was born..."

"But now the gods can't die, right? I mean, as long as Western civilization is alive, they will be alive. So... even if we fail, nothing can happen that would ruin everything, right?..." Percy asked in one breath, his tone a bit uncertain.

Chiron gave a melancholic smile and spoke.

"No one knows how long the Age of the West will last, Percy. The gods are immortal, yes. But the Titans were also immortal. They still exist, locked in their various prisons, forced to endure endless pain and punishment, their power reduced but still very much alive. May the Fates not allow the gods to suffer such a curse, or let us return to the darkness and chaos of the past. All we can do, child, is follow our destiny..."

His words caused a momentary silence.

Ikki fiddled with his ring as he thought.

"Destiny, huh... Since the beginning of my journey, I've been going against it with all my might. I don't want to be at its mercy... My future is uncertain without a doubt, and all I can do is keep moving forward, even not knowing what awaits me at the end of this journey I chose so long ago..."

While his friend was having his own thoughts, Percy was so nervous he couldn't help but murmur.

"Our destiny... assuming we know what it is..."

"Relax," Chiron said, noticing Percy's nervousness and Ikki's deep thoughts.

"Keep your ideas in place. And remember, you two may be on the verge of preventing the greatest war in human history." His attempt to put the boys at ease fell flat.

He said, trying to lighten the mood.

"Relax," Percy said, twisting his lips, he said sarcastically, "I'm so relaxed..."

After Percy calmed down, the two boys descended the hill to set off on their mission.

When they reached the foot of the hill, they looked back. Under the pine that once was Thalia, Chiron was in full centaur form, holding his bow high in salute.

A typical farewell from summer camp.

Not that they were going on a practically suicidal mission to save the world...