Percy Jackson: The God of Magic - chapter 163 - I did it my way! (Patreon)
Content
The day had come, and I still had many questions about myself, and what would I do, did I want to end the universe? Did I want to save Hestia? Did I want to fight against my father knowing that I would not win?
"I guess I'll know before I get to the temple," I muttered to myself, as I walked towards the temple on top of Azathoth, absorbing every detail around me, unlike the rest of this dark universe, the path to the altar was, strangely cozy, almost perfect, with my bare feet as it was part of the ritual I felt the floor of the tunnel. And I felt that it had a perfectly smooth texture, almost as if it had been polished. Walking forward, I kept taking in every detail of the long tunnel, as maybe it would give me some answers, or clues on how to fight my father but the deeper I went, the less mistakes I could feel, the place had no imperfections or clues.
Letting out a long sigh, I continued walking until I reached the source of light at the end of the long tunnel leading to the shrine, literally, and after walking for hours, I was disappointed to see that the great altar for the ceremony was nothing more than a gushing fountain of bubbling water. My disappointment was short-lived however, for as soon as I laid eyes on the fountain again, I felt an unimaginable power come out of it, a power which left me, my father and everyone in the shadows.
Taking a deep breath, I remembered Nyarlothotep's instructions, to enter the center of the altar, and wait for the other gods, with nothing else to do, I immersed myself in the iridescent water which vibrated with cosmic power, connected directly to Azathoth. As my feet entered the water, I felt the power of the sleeping god fluctuate through me, freely, like a river at dawn, "How strange.... "I murmured, looking at the water, feeling how I connected with Azathoth, feeling how the god slept peacefully, ignorant of what he had created in his long sleep, seconds after I entered the water, a podium rose from the ground, the podium had runes written on it in the ancient language, runes which I could not read, but for some reason I felt I knew what they said.
After what seemed like hours of waiting at the fountain, thinking what to do about the gate, about the world, about myself, about the entire cosmos, the shrine of Azathoth began to light up little by little, with the entrance of the gods, who had begun to arrive to the temple, including my father.
"Is this our door?" asked one of the strange gods, gesturing to me with a finger.
"Yes," replied my father with a smile.
"Oh... the one who will end the cosmos and give birth to a new era... how intriguing," Yog-Sothoth stated, a god that for some reason I could recognize, even though I had never seen him before, "The decision has not yet been made, but the outcome is the same regardless of his choice..."
"Shut your mouth," my father bellowed with a hint of anger, intriguing.
"There will be no violence in this place, Nyarlathotep!" commanded a strange monster, which for some reason I knew his name, the Darkness, "You know what we risk if we start something here..."
"I know," growled my father, his burning eyes revealing the contempt he felt for the creature. "So let's start..."
"Let's" I sighed.
“Channel the power of Azathoth by touching the runic podium,” Nyarlathotep commanded, “Then break the veil between worlds, focus on that… shatter the veil keeping us inside this plane of existence, inside Azathoth’s mind!”
Putting my hands where I had been instructed, I looked at Nyarlathotep and asked, “What if I don’t want to do this?”
“We both know you don’t have an option,” Nyarlathotep smiled confidently, “I can always make another gate, what’s another millennia of work…”
I looked at him, while wondering, why had I even asked that? What was pushing me to do this? “The way I see it, I do have an option,” I answered without even thinking, was this… out of pure hate to him? or was it because I actually wanted to save Hestia… or was it because I saw this act of rebellion as way to fight for my freedom.
“Interesting,” Nyarlathotep laughed, clapping his hands, getting a few odd stares for the present gods, “You know… when you merged with my power, I… expected my power to eat away your emotions, to make you someone worthy of being my son… but… in the end, it seems your emotions turned into a cancer, eating away my influence on you,”
Was that what was happening? Was the old Adam eating his way out of the prison I represented? Was my time in this reality limited since the moment of my birth? “I can’t really tell, I know that I hate you, I know that I hate all of this, but beyond that… I don’t know…” I looked at the runes around the fountain, and back at my father.
“Is this because of that whore?” Nyarlathotep sighed, “If her life means that much to you, then… you can have her, keep your pet… that is the best offer I can give you,” his tone was odd and needy… was that, desperation…? Was Nyarlathoted desperate? But why? It made no sense, he had the power to crush me with a thought, he had the time to create a new gate, the power to have a new more powerful and more obedient son, and yet… his tone and demeanor, felt desperate.
“No,” I answered, once again without thinking, at this point it was safe to assume I was operating on autopilot.
“Then… you will die,” Nyarlathotep growled, “Get out of the fountain… and face your doom,” this was new, seeing him lose his cool, seeing him like this was unexpected.
I looked at my father, and his eyes while glowing with unyielding hate and anger, they showed fear… why was he afraid? Why would a, curious I look at the other gods, and each and every single one of them seemed agitated, afraid, and angry… all of them except for Yog-Sothoth who simply observed me with mild interest, “No…” I said once again.
“Get the HELL out of there or I’ll--”
I looked at him and with a smile said, “Or you’ll what?”
“Leave the fountain,” Nyarlathotep growled, in a very low tone, “If you do I… will show you mercy,”
“You know… it’s funny, you seem… very adamant to me leaving this place, I wonder why… is it maybe because you can’t hurt me here?” There was no other explanation as to why gods whose powers towered above mine to be so against killing me for my hubris, so afraid to strike me down, which brought up the following question… Why were they so afraid of me? What reason could they have? “You are afraid of what can happen if I use the shrine for something else right?” I muttered in realization.
There was no other explanation, why else would such an unstoppable force be afraid of me?
“It is,” Yog-Sothoth answered, much to the anger of the other gods present, “If you wake our creator, we will all cease to exist, Nyarlathotep is terrified of that…outcome,”
“I was too prideful,” Nyarlathotep admitted, “I never thought you would rebel against me, nobody had done that ever before… but this changes nothing,”
“How so?” I asked him with curiosity.
“If you wake him up, you will cease to exist like all of us, or did you forget… you are also part of the great dream!” Nyarlathotep smiled, “So go ahead, do your worse,” he was good, very good, at hiding his desperation, I could see right through his attempt to dissuade me, but also I could feel the truth behind his statement.
Looking at him for a brief moment, I smiled, “I am ready… life has been nothing but a pain, you, Zeus… the war, my family… I hate you all,” no… not all, I don’t hate Hestia, I wanna be with her… I think I wanna… no, I can’t, “So… let’s all die, together,” with that I knelt at the fountain, and with all my power sent a pulse to wake the blind god up, it was time to end this nightmare, forever.
“You told me my son would be the one to end the cosmos as we knew it!” Nyarlathotep screamed at Yog who simply smiled.
“I did, and he did… he destroyed reality as we know it, what a wonderful way to go…” Yog-Sothoth muttered, closing his eyes.
Second after my pulse was received by the ancient being, I felt pain like never before, and this seemed to be something everyone was feeling, for even Nyarlathotep was screaming in pain. First I felt my outer power being consumed, leaving nothing but Adam.
"Thank god I get to die as the original me," I muttered, letting the agony wash over me, a chuckle escaped my lips as I started to sing with a broken voice as I looked at the gods disintegrating in front of me, "I've loved, I've laughed, and cried, and pranked….. I've had my fill of many things, my share of losing and winning, and now, as tears subside I find it all so amusing…." I continued my song, a last prank to close my curtain as blood came up with some of the words. "To think I did all that, and may I say, not in a shy way. Oh no, oh no, not me, I was a prankster to the heart!, and an emo for a while, but I did it my way!..." A tear ran down my face while I continued with difficulty, each passing second making the agony worse, but fuck it, it was my last moments, as me…. My last prank to go out like I started! "Yes, there were times, I'm sure you knew. When I bit off more than I could chew." I could feel by this point Azathoth waking up, his energy so large it was impossible to miss and a grin came to my lips as I closed my eyes and put my all into the last words. "But through it all, when there was doubt, I laughed it out! Because no matter how hard it was! I faced my enemies with a smile, and in adversity I stood tall, and… I did it my way!!!"
"Adam!!!" I heard the Nyarlathotep scream, and then, there was nothing.