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

At that moment, his thoughts raced towards the fact that he had just taken a life...

Should he feel something about it...?

As he looked up at the overcast sky and felt the raindrops falling on his face, Ikki couldn't help but wonder. This fact was bothering him.

Instead of feeling guilt or anything like that, his heart felt like the still water of a lake, calm and motionless; he couldn't care less about having killed someone, and that was what made him feel a bit concerned.

In fact, killing Hercules seemed so easy and so natural that he didn't stop to think for a second that this willingness to kill someone was not normal!

And to be honest, a small part of his heart even enjoyed doing it.

"I am a monster, am I?..." His worry mixed with various thoughts culminated in this single conclusion that made him feel a kind of inexplicable emotion...

I mean, he killed someone and felt nothing about it! Not a shred of remorse or guilt... Nothing.

And he didn't hesitate for a second to kill his enemy. This was something that terrified him more; was he so willing to go that far?

Where was his empathetic sense!? That which made him human...?

Not being able to feel anything about taking a life and even liking it... Stopping to think now, during the fight, he even had the feeling as if he were born to fight! Fighting and killing was in his blood. Pain was the ornament on his plate. All his desires and yearnings were satisfied in combat.

Ikki had to take a deep breath to calm himself.

He tried to ignore that inexplicable feeling in his chest and the thoughts about being a kind of "monster" in human skin before he started to walk and leave the crater that had been formed by the pressure he exerted to turn Hercules into minced meat.

The rain had already soaked his clothes and hair.

He looked at the gorge that looked like a massive spiderweb due to the cracks spread across its ground; the crater he had just emerged from would be its center. His eyes stopped on a piece of cloth about two kilometers away; it was the skin of the Nemean Lion that Hercules had carried with him since he killed it.

Taking a step, he vanished from where he was and appeared in front of the pelt, picking it up in his hands. He was somewhat surprised that such a thing hadn't even been scratched during their fight.

"My first spoils of war are a practically indestructible item due to its Invulnerability, how lucky!..." Ikki said with a small smile on his lips, something that hid the bitterness of thinking himself a monster. He quickly placed the pelt over his shoulder and looked up at the sky, contemplating how furious his father must be for him having killed Hercules.

He couldn't trust Zeus, there was his paranoia that everyone would want to take his throne, and the atrocities he would commit to prevent that. That's why, earlier, he made Hercules swear the oath that "Fate" itself approved; he wouldn't be stupid enough to punish or take revenge knowing that he would face a fate worse than death for doing so.

Ikki sneered disdainfully at the sky, mocking in his heart the impotence of the God who wanted to be all-powerful, before looking in a specific direction.

The place where he had been earlier with Percy, Annabeth, and Grover.

In his fight against Hercules, the two had ended up far from there; according to his calculations, coming from the direction he threw Zeus' son during his beatdown, they had crossed half the country. Well, that wasn't a problem for him, who could traverse that distance in seconds with his normal speed.

But before meeting up with his friends, he needed to find a good location to 'study' the Remains of the God of Strength.

With that in mind, he vanished from where he was like a ghost. After a second, his figure appeared in a poorly lit stone cave behind a waterfall from somewhere in the mountains behind Kyoto, Japan.

Why did he choose Japan? He simply loved its culture and doubted the Olympian Gods had much influence in that place.

The cave was the size of a basketball court. The sound of dripping water was the only thing breaking the silence of the place.

Ikki manipulated his presence and that of this place, making it nonexistent to the senses of other existences approaching within three hundred meters. Then, he sat cross-legged, closed his eyes, and focused on the idea he had...

Sending his consciousness deep into his body, he observed the drop of blood near his heart. He could feel that the energy contained within was enough to cause a supernova. Using his manipulation over his body, he pulled the droplet of blood into a gentle and floating position between his open hands above his lap as he proceeded with his actions.

His idea was very simple yet complex at the same time: to use the blood droplet as a sacrifice to achieve something miraculous.

In recent days, he had been studying a form of energy that emulated from his 'Source', the effect of this energy was the binding vow, sacrificing something to gain something better, like a miracle in exchange for something valuable. That was what he used to create the [Script of Death]; at least, it was part of the process of one of its four secret arts.

As it was the remains of a God, he wanted to achieve something specific at a divine level.

The energy he called [Feeling of Heaven] had only this kind of miraculous effect; it was not tangible like the rest of the energies, existing only for equivalent exchanges at a conceptual level. He literally wanted to sacrifice the existence of Hercules at a metaphysical level, meaning, since his older brother was a God, it would normally take centuries for him to rise again, but through his idea, he would be completely erased.

He took a deep breath, exhaling the air from his lungs, and inhaled deeply again before beginning the 'exchange' process, transforming his 'source' into the sensation of the sky, making a binding vow that committed the existence of Hercules. Slowly, the drop of blood in his hand began to vanish, being drawn into the 'sensation of the sky' that started to return what it wanted in exchange...

He wanted another 'existence' of equal value, someone who had studied magic their entire life and could provide him a foundation for knowing more about any magical system. Although he knew how to use a bit of magic through calculations, mana, and his understanding of the universe, he was still far from being a true mage. He added the 'inheritance' clause to the binding vow.

The 'existence' he chose was [Ard Meteor] from a manga he had read in his past life, the protagonist who was previously the Demon Lord Varvatos, who defeated the Evil Gods and united the world, and later chose to reincarnate due to the loneliness caused by his overwhelming power. Although it was 'fiction' in his memories, he knew it was real somewhere in the vast existence; the proof was that he was living in a world that was a series of books in his past life.

The memories of Varvatos flooded into his mind as his body slowly transformed, becoming superficially stronger through the 'magic' that had previously been complex and became simpler for him to understand. His 'source' seemed to naturally transform into 'mana,' just like his Qi; he could do this instantaneously at that point.

To his surprise, although Varvatos's power was at a divine level, he could still choose another 'existence' for the equivalent exchange to be completed. He assumed it was because Hercules was definitively erased from the universe; his remains and his concept were two, so he could choose another.

After thinking for a moment, he chose [Aleister Crowley], known as the greatest magician in history from one of the mangas he had read, someone who refused to become a God of Magic for his own reasons. The memories of his existence flowed into his mind incessantly, and his body also changed, becoming more inclined toward magic.

The drop of blood that was between his hands disappeared.

Ikki opened his eyes, which shone a dark red hue, subjugating the sapphire blue for a moment. Due to his intellect, the memories of these two great magicians were a goldmine for himself; his more than a thousand parallel thought processes were thrown into magical research while his main thought process focused on the present.

He smiled slightly and removed the Nemean Lion skin from his shoulders, activating the 'sensation of the sky,' exchanging it for an ability that matched the path of the sword he was following, something that worked to his surprise. He named it [Silver Arm], which simply had the effect of turning anything he touched with his right hand into an unbreakable sword capable of cutting anything.

If he encounters something he cannot completely cut on the first attempt, it will increase the power and lethality to a level that can surpass the hardness of the target. Moreover, it leaves so-called immortal wounds when it cuts something, making it very difficult to heal.

After getting used to the sensation this magical ability brought to his arm, he walked calmly out of the cave.

Upon exiting the cave, Ikki sighed and looked up at the sky where there was a sun in the middle of its blue canvas. According to the 15-hour time difference, it was already evening in the United States—that meant he had spent several hours in the cave, something that surprised him; he hadn't thought it would take so long.

He looked around; a valley from a forest where there was a small lake with a waterfall. Although he enjoyed the view, he knew he had to return as soon as possible to where his friends were; he thought about reaching them through "magic."

There are several academic definitions of the term magic; due to his current knowledge, he could cite almost all of them, pointing out their various inconsistencies and pondering which should be considered the most accurate.

Magic is often referred to as "the Art." This is no coincidence. Magic is perceived by many as an elite discipline that requires art and talent, and indeed very few possess the immense creative skills necessary to practice it. Those with magical talent can use it to create things of wonder and beauty—wonders without which the world would certainly be a much more miserable place. Therefore, those who call magic a beautiful blessing, brought to this world by the Conjunction of the Spheres, are, in a sense, correct.

Magic has also been called chaos incarnate: a primitive, dangerous, relentless, and destructive force. In the hands of the careless, it becomes a key that can open the forbidden door, behind which lies ruin and destruction. Therefore, those who say that magic is a curse born of chaos during the Conjunction of the Spheres that will condemn this world are also correct.

Finally, according to others, magic is science—this is, knowledge that can only be acquired through extensive study, discipline, and hard work. In this view, magic is progress. It is a process of constant advancement initiated during the Conjunction of the Spheres that brings development, eliminates the diseases of this world, provides answers to the questions that plague humanity, broadens minds, and introduces innovation. Therefore, it is also correct to say that magic is its own particular science.

In the end, magic is everything that has been said above. It is Art, Chaos, and Science: a blessing, a curse, and progress. It all depends on who invokes it and for what purpose.

Magic comes from nature. It is in the earth they tread on, in the fire burning in their hearts, in the air they breathe, and in the water that brings life and flows within humans. If you are endowed with a specific talent, all you need to do is reach out and grasp the magic around you.

While these academic definitions are the closest to the truth, the practice is another matter. Instead of calculations and mana as before, he learned of a broader mechanism from the memories of the two great magicians he had absorbed; imagination could be used as a trigger, making everything possible within the scope of magic.

Knowing this, using his compressions, intellect, and reference in the memories of the two great magicians, and after some minutes, he ended up creating a unique and personal magic: [Kansas Yog Law], which simply had the power to manipulate the space around him, allowing him to bend or expand the nearby space or move to another space or location. The true power of this magic is the ability to manipulate 'boundaries.'

It can be used to create entire dimensions, as well as manipulate the boundaries between fantasy and reality. Although for that, he still has a long way to go...

Creating a magical teleportation spell through his magic, where he connected two points in space and created a path, Ikki smiled eagerly to try it.

In an instant, his body became particles of dark red light and disappeared.

The aim was to teleport to the place where he had been with his friends before they separated earlier.

However, destiny had something else in mind...