After our talk with Chiron, Uta and I both volunteered to go around and tell everyone about the capture the flag game against the hunters. It was tradition, after all.
As we told everyone about the Hunters and the Capture the Flag game, everyone seemed to get incredibly motivated... Apparently, many were angry at the Hunters 'holier than thou' attitude since they directly served Artemis. Which, in fairness, yes... The Hunters were all incredible assholes. Very sexist too.
Thalia had decided to go and get a few hours of sleep and then have lunch, so Uta and I were soon training together.
Uta was focusing on refining her Uta-Uta no Mi's combat abilities and using them together with her archery skills. While I was working on learning how to use a Scythe.
Scythes- or Sickles- weren't really used at weapons in Camp thanks to their affiliation with Kronos. If a Sickle were to be used, then it would only be purely for farming purposes by the Demeter or Dionysus kids.
It took some convincing on my part, and using some precious points for Gold Drachmas, but I was finally able to convince the Hephaestus kids to craft me a Celestial Bronze Scythe. They'd even managed to add an enchantment to turn it into a bracelet when I wasn't using it- though it had no 'automatic return' feature like Riptide, sadly.
As I trained, my thoughts were on the upcoming Capture the Flag game.
We had to win.
I had a gut feeling that winning this game was something necessary. In the original timeline, Zoe would get the Prophecy.
But did she get the Prophecy because it her final mission? Or did she get the Prophecy because she was the most fitting person to receive the Prophecy? After all, the Hunters had won the Capture the Flag game, led by Zoe.
If the Campers won the Capture the Flag game, led by Thalia, would Thalia the receive the quest instead?
Regardless, it was really my only hope for getting on the quest legitimately. Otherwise, I'd have to find a way to sneak onto the quest just like Percy did in the original- and I would really rather avoid that scenario if possible.
'Having a penis sure is seeming really inconvenient right now,' I thought to myself in amusement.
"I can fix that if you'd prefer, Master," Pandora purred into my ear.
'Damn it Pandora, no!' I snapped back. 'We talked about this! No gender changing spells and no futanari spells! Ever! I'm not into that shit!'
"I'm just teasing, calm down," she rolled her eyes in amusement. "All you have to do is win, right? You know what goes wrong during the game, so just make sure it doesn't happen!"
'So, defend the flag by myself with Uta?' I deadpanned before I paused. '... That actually isn't a bad idea.'
"She's been known to have them once in a blue moon," Tez chimed in.
"Hey!"
Both Tez and I smirked at Pandora's little pout... Really, Pandora was just a bit wound up because I got the World Quest before we were able to go on our date in the Spirit World. She really wanted to flaunt me in front of Mana and show that yes, she did have a boyfriend while the fan favourite of Yugi's deck was still single even years after his death.
I took a deep breath as I stopped swinging the Scythe around, my body covered in sweat as I took a moment to steady my breathing... I hoped I got some combat skills related to enhancing my physical capabilities. Thus far, I'd been going off of pure Demigod physiology to get stronger... But I wouldn't say no to something like a breathing style from Demon Slayer.
But sadly, just the 'Breathing' Ability itself cost 100,000 points. Not even mentioning specific styles... Sun Breathing alone was 250,000 points!
"Yuno," Uta spoke up, taking a deep breath of her own as she'd been singing while practising with her archery for quite a while.
"Yeah, Uta?" I responded, slowly sitting down and taking deep breaths.
"It's coming soon, isn't it?"
I glanced at her. "What do you mean?" I asked her.
"The mission," she responded.
"... Yeah," I nodded after a moment of silence. "We're nearing that six month deadline. There can be no question- a quest is going to be issued soon."
She just nodded. "I thought so," she admitted. "It just kind of hit me as it gets closer... Everything is going to be real soon. We're going to be fighting for real, not just sparring or training and... I'm nervous... I've only ever seen fights from the back before. It will be my first time truly getting into a fight."
"It's normal to be nervous, or scared," I told her. "I'm nervous too."
She looked at me in surprise. "Really? But you're so calm about it, I can't tell you're nervous at all!"
"Maybe because I've already accepted the possibility of death," I told her honestly... As a Dark Signer, I knew there was every chance I could die in a Duel... Moreover, dying against Goodwin, Iliaster, Z-ONE... It was all possible for me to be killed, I knew that. But...
"There's just no reason to be afraid," I told her. "I believe that if you die... Then you died doing all you could. If you work as hard as you can but you die, then it was just meant to be... And if you live, then you did all you could and came out the other side. Simple as that."
Uta remained silent for a moment before she chuckled softly and sighed. "God, you make it sound so easy sometimes..."
"It's always easier said than done," I admitted. "And truthfully, it doesn't make it any less scary. But... At the end of the day, if you've done everything in your power and it still wasn't enough... Then, what else can you do?"
She hummed and nodded. "Yeah... You're right."
She slowly sat down on the grass, crossing her legs as the two of us sat together in silence for a few moments. A slow sigh slipped past her lips as her shoulders sagged. "I just don't want to die... And I don't want anyone else to die either."
"And that's perfectly normal," I agreed with her. "After all, the purpose of life is to live it. Very few people truly want to die, all they really want is to live with others."
She sighed heavily. "... The purpose of life is to live it, huh..." She smiled. "It sounds so obvious when you say it out loud, but it's something so easily forgotten..."
"What's easily forgotten?" Thalia asked as she walked over.
Both of us looked over at her in surprise... The bags under her eyes showed that she either hadn't slept or had only gotten a little bit of sleep.
"Shouldn't you be asleep?" Uta asked her.
"I tried," she grunted. "Got maybe an hour. I..." She scowled. "It was my fucking Grandpa, you know. King of the Titan dickheads. He kept trying to tempt me. 'Join me for power, overthrow the gods,' blah, blah, blah... As if I need his offers of power, we all know power is just a matter of time for us."
I hadn't considered that... Kronos wouldn't find it so easy to recruit Thalia in this world.
Thalia's fatal flaw was a desire for power. But the problem with that? The chatroom provided us with power as it was already. Powerful abilities that could overturn a war were within our reach, so long as we worked hard.
Why would she accept an offer with conditions, when she could obtain power without them from the Chatroom?
"Let me guess, he also promised to return Annabeth to you?" I asked her.
"Got that right," she grunted as she readied her spear and began to attack one of the training dummies. "At the very least, that confirmed for me that she's alive. Which is enough, for now."
I nodded at her words as I got up and lifted my scythe, getting back to training. "While we're here, I got something to tell you- we need to win the capture the flag game. No ifs, ands, or buts about it."
She paused and looked at me, frowning. "I was going to try and win anyway... But, why specifically?"
"You know the deadline is coming up," I told her. "A quest is almost certainly going to be issued, and the true nature of our mission will be revealed... But who is going to lead the quest? If we lose, it will almost certainly be one of the Hunters."
"Zoe..." Thalia growled under her breath.
"Zoe then," I nodded. "But if she's chosen, maybe you and Uta both have a chance of getting on the quest... But me? I'm afraid my penis instantly disqualifies me from it in her eyes."
She frowned slowly. "That is a problem," she nodded. "The only people I'd trust to go on the quest are you, Uta, Penny, and Grover..." She paused. "Well, I'd trust Grover to at least pull through as needed, not sure I'd trust him to have my back in a fight..."
"But still, winning Capture the Flag..." She bit her lip. "From what I've heard, it's been around fifty games since the Camp has won against the Hunters..."
"It's not really a fair fight though," I told her. "They range from hundreds to thousands of years old, and have the Moon Goddess's blessing, on top of whatever other divine abilities they have if they're demigods. They've had years to learn how to plan, fight, and trick their way to victory."
Thalia stopped and looked at me. "... Are you telling me that the whole fight between campers and hunters is just Artemis doing a dick measuring contest with the other gods kids?" She asked incredulously.
"I mean..." I glanced away "I'm not saying it isn't..."
"... Is it too late for me to decide to go to your world?" She asked me. "I'll take card games over Godly bullshit anyway."
"You just haven't seen godly bullshit in card games yet," I retorted.
"... You're fucking joking."
I just smirked at her.
"Oh, my gods, you're not joking."
I couldn't help but chuckle before I shook my head. "Not important at the moment," I finally decided. "What is important is that we need to win the capture the flag game or else you'll be going on the quest without me unless I find some way to sneak on. And, while I could do that, gonna be a lot of effort on my part."
"What do you have in mind then?" She asked.
"Nice and simple- Uta and I defend the flag," I told her.
She looked at me as she stabbed the dummy through the chest. "Seriously? That's it?"
"That's it," I nodded. "Between my shadows and fire, and Uta's ability to use her songs to drag people into the Uta World- plus her archery abilities... Hell, she might not even be able to use that if she uses her Conqueror's Haki. Just those things alone should give us plenty of time to get their flag and win."
She hummed and rubbed her chin. "Admittedly, not the worst idea," she agreed. "But... how are we gonna decide who leads the rest between me and Penny?" Here, Thalia looked a bit uncomfortable... I knew that Thalia wasn't really keen on being a leader.
No, it was more accurate to say that Thalia was feeling the pressure of the Great Prophecy and knew that she had to lead, but she didn't want the burden of the Prophecy...
If I wasn't wrong, then I believed it was very likely that Thalia was going to World Travel. And for a girl who constantly fought, against monsters...
Fodland- Byleth's world- might be the best choice for her.
It would allow her to avoid the prophecy until she was seventeen- thus bypassing the age issue as she'd already have passed sixteen and thus not be eligible for the age requirement-
I brought my focus back to her question and hummed. "You could split it," I told Thalia. "Pincer attack against the flags. While the hunters are strong and tricky, we have something they don't- a numbers advantage. Even the Love Goddess's kids seemed to be getting pumped up to face them- makes sense, given their denial of love spits in the face of their godly parent. By attacking from two directions, they'll have to spread their forces thin and eventually..."
"They'll run out and have to either charge for our flag, or recall their forces to defend their own," Thalia finished with a wicked little grin. "I like it."
"You sure are one devious man, Yuno," Uta chimed in, giggling in amusement. "I'm used to tactics like these, I'm looking forward to seeing how the battle shapes up…"
"I'll talk about this with Penny and some others later," Thalia decided, grinning as her hand and spear both crackled with electricity. "Oh, I'm going to enjoy putting little miss Lieutenant in her fucking place…"
I just grinned… The upcoming capture the flag game was going to be fun~