-POV Apollo-
As I sip my ambrosia and peer down into the mortal world, a well known fact comes to the forefront of my mind for the millionth time these past couple years.
I'm literally the greatest dad ever.
My children have usually managed to make me proud in the case of pursuing their endeavors. Whether they be famous doctors, singers, or artists throughout all of history.
On the other hand, the amount of demigods I've sired that have gone the combat route is exceptionally rare; even more so for them to actually have the potential for it.
That being said, from what I've seen one of my younger sons, Noah, is without a doubt on the way to living up to the potential I know he has. Although the visions I witnessed during his birth are worrying, very much so. He holds the fate of existence in his hands, and whether he be the savior or destroyer of Olympus, this world will not survive without him. He cannot be allowed to die.
His growth methods may be unconventional, but they're necessary all the same.
I still haven't gathered the courage to inform father of these…developments I've uncovered. Knowing how he is makes me feel even better about it if I'm being honest.
Under most circumstances I would undoubtedly tell him immediately, but our future relies on everything going perfectly. (Even though perfection means that I have to die, which is absolute bullshit, but what's a glorious god like me to do?)
It's…difficult to wrap my head around the fact that I'll be dying within the next couple years. I don't want to go, and living for so long and seeing so much has only managed to reinforce that fact.
I've seen multiple pathways towards my fate, and the only thing that changes is how gruesome my death can be depending on the circumstances surrounding it.
5 years is all I've got, but even that can be narrowed down further depending on what happens. This is all so frustrating, but I cannot do anything to change what I've foreseen, so I will do my damn best to make sure that everything goes exactly how I want it to.
If I am to die soon, I shall make sure that my legacy lives on for ages more, even if it means confronting my fellow deities and making sure that they have no legacy of their own.
My light will never fade away.
All of this, how I die, if Olympus makes it through the next couple of years, and even the continued survival of earth, coincidentally rely on Noah's development. These new threats to Olympus seem to circle around him.
It's almost like my son's the main character or something.
Ha, as if. If anyone's to be the protagonist of a story, it's ME.
I am one of the strongest gods I know, and no matter what may happen, I'm sure that I'll be fine!
Now that I think about it, I should check in on little Noah. If my memory serves right(Gods don't get to forget things, perfect memory and all that), then he should be competing in that little capture the flag game they've got going on with Arty's hunters. This should be interesting.
Besides, it is time for me to issue that quest. Don't worry Arty, big bro's gonna save you!
-POV Noah-
Percy decided that right when the fight started was the moment to create a wall of water in front of him, Thalia, and the flag. Meanwhile, an arrow flew towards me from the tree up on the top right corner of my vision.
I activated my starburst energy on my arms and legs, grabbed it, threw it away, and twisted my body in what was its flight path before I used all of that built up momentum to block an overhead bow strike from another hunter.
Two of them advance towards me, but even then I make sure that I'm still aware of the other 9 hiding throughout the forest, the hatred in their hearts permeating throughout the atmosphere.
One of them is a smaller girl with more of a lithe swimmer build. From what I can see, she's focused more on agility and speed, which'll be easy to manage. Meanwhile the other one is slightly larger, but has an overall similar build.
You've got one shot Noah, do not miss your chance. Own the moment, and seize it.
I block an overhead bow strike from the larger girl with my palms while activating my starburst energy in my arms before condensing said energy in my hands and making it implode outward onto the girl. As she flew towards a tree and was knocked unconscious, I also activated the starburst energy in my legs and kicked out a devastating wave of energy towards the smaller girl, which ended up blasting her backwards into Percy's water wall.
...Did bro really leave the water just thin enough for them to witness my awesomeness?
"WATCH IT TWINKLE TOES!"
Thalia's angry voice does nothing to distract me from the smile I can see on her face that's just oozing smugness. Dang, she must really hate those hunters.
"SORRY THALIA!", I say with a grin on my face.
It's time to try out something I've been thinking about when testing out my powers. I try to create a tendril of light, and I actually end up succeeding. I then use that very same tendril to wrap around a hunter and throw her into two others, therefore eliminating 4 out of 11 hunters. My light tendril (which I'm going to need a name for, because I'm obviously gonna name all of my moves) then dissolves into motes of light that float off into the atmosphere.
There's 7 more hunters, and they're all still hiding. I want to end this quickly and prove myself to the camp. How do I flush them out in the least boring way?
Wait a minute, I don't need to! They don't even need to be near me. I can feel my excitement growing just thinking about what I'm gonna do.
I proceed to put my hands up in the finger gun position, and then point them to my sides. I then spin around while shooting out starburst energy as bullets out of my fingers, igniting the forest in a brilliant and beautiful light show.
My energy was hot enough to burn through trees and leave a burning smell, but there's surprisingly no fire yet. I hope I didn't kill any hunters- I really don't want to get turned into an animal and hunted by Artemis for all eternity. My light show also just so happened to pierce through Percy's barrier, which I kind of forgot about in my excitement.
Maybe I should tone it down a bit.
"IF ONE MORE THING HITS THIS WALL I'M GOING TO COME OUT THERE AND STRIKE YOU DOWN!" "COME ON DUDE, I WAS ON THE EDGE OF DOZING OFF!"
You can probably guess who said what. One hint; Percy is laying down and there's lightning crackling around Thalia's eyes.
I screamed back quickly, "SORRY!", while ignoring what Percy had said before falling deep into thought.
This whole fight has been laughably easy. That being said, the only two left are the lieutenant and that Di Angelo girl. Bianca was her name, I think. Maybe I should've paid attention to her, because I have no clue what her skillset is, and I have no recollection of her parentage, and the same can actually be said for the lieutenant, now that I think about it.
They, unfortunately for them, decided to stay in the trees while the others were lurking on the ground. Now while I could've just aimed upwards, I don't want to end the fight that fast; there's still more fun to be had.
Although I'm about to beat their asses, I can say that both Bianca and Zoe are some lookers. Their bodies may not be the thickest, but they've got more of an otherworldly beauty to them than most girls I've seen. It's too bad that they're going to end up in the dirt, although I might just try and get to know one of them after this.
Oh, who am I kidding, they're hunters.
In the middle of my internal thoughts and banter with Thalia, I've also been dodging arrows from both girls. Although they must've been tired of it, because now Bianca's charging towards me. It seems as if Bianca's not following Zoe's lead.
She's the weaker link out of the two anyway, so I'm not worried.
I meet them head-on with a blast of starburst energy leaving my feat, propelling me towards them as I use my momentum to Superman punch Bianca in the stomach, but I grab her before she can be launched away and then slam her into the ground just to make sure that she's out.
Without the link this chain is officially broken, and while in most cases I would engage in a bit of banter with Miss Nightshade before beating her down, I really just want to get this over with.
…Or that's what I would be worried about, if it wasn't for the eerie ethereal green mist coming through the trees to my right and heading straight towards me.
This must be something special, because Percy's dropped his water barrier and both him and Thalia are now in combat stances, alert and ready. Zoe's eyes are locked on the strange silhouette in the mist, her expression stone cold, and I've just now noticed Annabeth standing directly to my left while looking the most shocked I've ever seen her.
"The oracle…she never leaves the attic. This isn't-what's going on here..?" Annabeth's whisper carried a hint of dread towards whatever the reasoning for the oracle's movement from "the attic" may be.
"So what's going on here? Am I the only one who's completely lost here?"
My question went ignored, but I have no time to be annoyed anyways, because now the "oracle", if you can call it that, is right in front of me. It literally a rotting corpse, with the only thing making it different is the fact that it's covered in jewelry and wearing a dress that seems like it was once beautiful. It's jaw's almost fallen off, It's skin's rotted and grey, and then there's the eyes. Those eyes alone might haunt me forever.
The visions I witnessed when my powers awoke…I can see them clearly in the eyes of this "oracle".
"Hello..?" I tried to add a small little wave afterwords to try and drown out the uncertainty in my tone.
I'm startled even more when the glorified mummy's mouth opens and even more of the mist pours out, but no matter what anyone may say, I did NOT jump.
The mist coalesced into the forms of three different people, and I must say that I'm kinda curious about what the criteria is for who I see. The first person I notice is…Tony Stark…? What in the world is he-actually, I'm just not going to question it. The second person that forms is Gwen, and the third is Arges.
Once again I have no time to think further on my situation, because the figures start speaking.
"Seven shall go west to the goddess in chains"
Tony Stark was the first to speak, and his words were worrying enough, but that wasn't the end.
"Three shall be lost in the land without rain"
Another incredibly horrifying line; this time from Gwen.
"The bane of Olympus shows the trail"
It's kind of funny that Arges is the one saying this, seeing as he's been the bane of my existence recently.
"By the sun's guiding light, campers and hunters combined prevail"
Gwen once again delivers a line of prophecy, and this might be a bit presumptuous of me, but this has to be the most misdirecting line of prophecy I've ever heard of, because the campers and hunters hate each other. Not to mention that this line is obviously about me. Hopefully they can get their s together during this quest though; I'd like for the world NOT to end, thank you very much.
"The titan's curse must one withstand"
Thanks Tony, I have no clue what that means, but I just know that it's going to be some bullshit of the highest order! Well, unless the titans curse is to have me spiritually attached to Sydney Sweeney, but just in case anyone's listening, I never thought that.
"And one shall perish by a parent's hand"
Well, you heard it from Arges folks. If my math is right, this prophecy is technically saying that 4 people are going to die.
We're cooked.