Percy Jackson: The God of Magic - chapter 152 (Patreon)
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The Requiem of The Lost - Part 2
“Let’s do this,” I had barely finished my sentence when Nocturne instantly charged at me, his approach aggressive. Seeing this I got into a defensive stance, which allowed me just in time to parry his second blow with my left hand. Struggling to break some distance between us, I blocked Nocturne’s next two blows as well, before attempting to counter with an magic explosion, which failed when Nocturne teleported behind me, avoiding the attack altogether, before kicking me once again into the ground, fortunately the corpses in the ground soften the… fortunately, god I need help.
Bracing in another stable defensive stance, I exhaled, this was not the time to focus on the sea of dead bodies. As I focused on my enemy, I noticed my opponent smile before he once again teleported, this time in front of me, continuing his assault, delivering a mix of attacks between physical and magical, that I parried but not without receiving damage.
“Void null,” I muttered, creating a small but effective explosion that threw Nocturne off balance, and gave me an opening to take the reins of this duel, at least for now.
With a full battle cry, I advanced forward delivering a bunch of attacks to my enemy, from massively destructive spells, to physical attacks with enough power to even double Ares himself to his knees, but Nocturne simply shrugged them off.
“Is that all?” Nocturne asked in a rather condescending tone, cracking his head in the process, “Allow me to show you, what you have been repressing all your life, your true potential, what you have denied yourself all along,” in the blink of an eye, Nocturne was back on the lead, delivering a barrage of powerful attacks, each chain of attacks, even stronger than the last. And little by little, I was quickly becoming overwhelmed by Nocturne’s raw force. This was bad, he was stronger than me…. I could feel it, this part of me, had no restraint, no care… nothing.
Each attack pushed me back a little further, how was I supposed to defeat myself, or rather a stronger version of myself, which in all honestly didn’t make any sense, how could there be a stronger version of myself, I was me… I was as strong as me, how can that me be stronger than me?.... It didn’t make… any… sense, because it wasn’t supposed to make any sense, Nocturne and I were the same person, just two sides of a coin, the coin’s value is the same, no matter what side, “I see it now,” I muttered stopping Nocturne with a blow to his face that disoriented him for a brief second, “You are not stronger than me, we are evenly matched, the one difference between us is you have no restraint, am I right?”
“I suppose it was to be expected,” Nocturne smiled, wiping some blood of his mouth with a rather impressed expression, “You are right, I am as strong as you… the difference is that I am not afraid of our power, I don’t cower before my might, you tremble in the sight of our power, me? I accept it, because power is all, the strong rules, and the weak survives,”
“Mmmm,” I hummed, “I mean… I suppose, if you want to be like Zeus, but those who rule only by power are destined to fail…”
“This doesn't change anything you know?” Nocturne chuckled, “You realizing we are equally matched… changes nothing, you still lack the decisiveness required to do what it has to be done,”
“Perhaps,” I nodded, “I mean… I never wanted this life for me? Ruling a Pantheon? Heck no, fighting a war, fuck no… dealing with my demonic father, FUCKING NO, all I wanted was to be free… then I met Hestia, and then I wanted to be free with her, but I never wanted any of this,” I sighed, “And I am sure, you don’t want this either,”
“We are the same person,” Nocturne laughed, “Good reasoning Sherlock, of course, I don’t want any of this… but unlike you, I see life as it is, no pathetic pranks or jokes to hide my undeniably massive baggage, I accept our suffering, I don’t avoid it!”
“Is that what I’ve been doing?” I asked, with a soft chuckle, “Avoiding our suffering? Well, perhaps you are right… at least in some aspects,”
“You’re afraid of saying it… but deep down, we would’ve like to die for good the first time we died… yes we were sick, and we wanted freedom from the shackles of our body... but… none of this… none of this madness was ever worth the little freedom we were given, this is worse than the life we had before....” Nocturne lamented.
“I think meeting Hestia, Odin, Hades, Persephone, Thor, Sun Wukong, Percy, Pennybeth, and the rest makes this whole ordeal already worth it,” I sighed, tears streaming down my face, “But yes, there are nights… where I wonder if all of this is worth it, then I remember Hestia, and well… you know,”
“You are a fool, and I guess that means so am I,” Nocturne bawled, “Why did it had to be us, all we wanted was to be free… why?”
“Murphy is my number one suspect,” I chuckled, trying to lighten up the mood.
“Hahaha, I suppose,” Nocturne snorted, “You do know… even if I… let you win, he will consume us, right?”
I looked at my other self and nodded, “I had a feeling,”
“He is… not a part of us, not entirely,” Nocturne clarified, “He is what makes us an outer god, he is more Nyarlathotep than Adam, and his power… I am not sure what will happen once it consumes us,”
“How about we face it together?” I offered Nocturne a hand, and he started laughing.
“So in the end, we solved this like Naruto did,” Nocturne snorted, “How pathetic is that?”
“Not as much as Boruto, but we don’t talk about that here,” I smiled, “Besides, if it works, why complain?”
“Truly pathetic,” Nocturne smiled, as his body started to dissipate into nothingness, “You realize this means you won’t be able to hide your emotions any longer right? I am represent everything you have bottle up since we woke up in this world,”
“We have Hestia,” I smiled, “She’s quite the antidepressant,”
“We are so stupid,” Nocturne muttered, leaving no trace of his existence behind.
“We are,” I nodded, noticing my own body was also dissipating. I see… nor me, nor Nocturne will remain, but the mix of the two… I wonder if that will be enough to face my realities.