Chapter 56: Dreams
"I can't sense you," Artemis commented with a slightly puzzled expression. She was looking at Percy as the latter sat with his son, Liu Yijun sitting on one of his knees, laughing in amusement as he jumped up and down.
"I thought that perhaps you could sense something, you were a goddess after all. And even if you became a mortal, you might have been left with a greater perception," Liu Erlong said with a bit of curiosity.
Artemis frowned and looked at her: "The gods of our planet are... different. I still don't understand how we were born to be able to manipulate or understand so many authorities. We were born as fourth-dimensional beings, but we have a body that serves as a vessel to contain that power... it's like we're from another race."
"That's not so far-fetched, you know. You, after all, were born from the titans, and they in turn were born from the primordials. I don't need something like a vessel body to hold my power or control it so that others don't die upon seeing me. Perhaps this is due to the evolution and understanding of my strength as a mortal into a god."
"Eh... it doesn't matter too much anymore," Artemis shrugged, downplaying the issue.
"Erlong... do you still have too much left?" Percy asked looking at his wife.
She shook her head slightly and said, "My current test is to collect all the spirit bones."
"I see," Percy nodded with a smile.
"By the way, Artemis. When you were a goddess, could you see the future?"
Artemis frowned as she thought.
"No… Well, on some occasions. I could tell about the past if I concentrated, but the future was something difficult to see. If that had been the case, then perhaps Atlas wouldn't have caught me. The present was different though, I could see it without a problem, although I was limited by other pantheons in the country, such as the Nordics. I couldn't trespass their domain."
"You can see the future?"
Percy nodded.
"That may be good…"
"From what I understand, the future is constantly changing, right?" Liu Erlong commented seriously. "Then anything could change it; don't focus too much on it, Percy."
"I know, Erlong. There's no need to tell me," Percy smiled, replying before pinching Liu Yijun's nose.
"Hey, if you can see the future, what's the point of fate?"
"Those old ladies have the ability to lead a person towards a goal," Percy frowned. "You can look at it this way: a thread of fate is made up of many other smaller threads, and each of them has a possible future, but with a similar ending. It's like that saying: different paths lead to the same castle. Old ladies can manipulate things a bit so that a person decides on one path more than another, but not the entirety of their life."
"Why do you think Talia was also a candidate for that prophecy? She could have been instead of me. In fact... there might have been a way for Zoe to be saved, but Talia would definitely have had to take her position if she wanted to be free from the prophecy."
"Oh..." Artemis sighed a little, still remembering Zoe. That was one of the few blows that truly affected her immortal life. Her lieutenant had been not only that, but also a friend in her travels and in life. Thousands of years was no small amount, so Artemis felt very bad about losing her. Hearing that she might have been saved if another decision was made, made her grit her teeth in a bit of anger and sadness.
"Let's not talk about these serious and complicated things," Liu Erlong let out a small sigh before smiling. She looked at her husband before asking, "Do you already have someone in mind to inherit your position in the future?"
"I have two actually. Zhuqing or Yijun. Although I would like my son to inherit my position. That way I would open communication between the future kingdom of gods that we will create and the one that currently exists and controls this plane."
"Eh... it's not a bad idea. Yijun would also have a safe place where he could stay without problems."
"Percy... did you ever think about what to do when you get back?", Artemis asked carefully, she knew that this was a delicate subject, not only for her, but for Percy as well. With the power that Percy had right now, he could face several gods together without problems. But there were only so many on Olympus. On top of that, there were the demigods, who while they didn't stand a chance against Percy, they still had what it took to create trouble. And they didn't know the current situation on Earth either. When Artemis left, things weren't good. The Earth had already started to show changes with all the disasters that the gods were causing.
"What do you think the current situation is?", Percy asked.
"Chaos has probably increased since I left. Normal mortals thought it was natural disasters, but Zeus was really angry at Hestia, and she, in turn, angry at Zeus. Two sides were forming and a war was about to begin."
Percy nodded, but looked behind his son, as if he was seeing something else.
"I underestimated Zeus a bit... The idiot did something that you guys considered a difficult thing to do..."
"..." Artemis stayed silent, waiting for Percy to continue.
"Zeus forced his other half to give in completely. Right now, Zeus and Jupiter are one. Therefore, the Romans are on his side. A good portion of Camp Half-Blood is with Hestia, but several others decided to follow their parents to Zeus' side."
"Your huntresses are with Athena. Apollo, Hephaestus, Poseidon, Hera, Ares, Dionysus, and Hades are with Zeus. I'm really surprised by Hades' decision, but they must have offered him something that encouraged him to choose his side."
"Aphrodite?" Artemis asked, curious to know the decision of the goddess of love. She knew that the goddess of love was one of the most capricious, but she hated war, which was surprising knowing that she slept with Ares.
"She..." Percy frowned with a slightly puzzled expression, "... Aphrodite joined forces with Hestia."
"Aphrodite hates war, but..."
"But it's rare to see her against Ares," Perseus finished.
On Earth, far away from the galaxy where Planet Douluo is located, Aphrodite felt a chill when she perceived a gaze, but she didn't know where she was being watched from. Likewise, other gods felt the same, a gaze upon them but they didn't understand how it was possible or who was watching them.
Elsewhere on Earth, a tall man in a black coat slept restlessly. His grey hair was disheveled as his eyes moved erratically beneath his eyelids. His body was still, frozen; it was as if he were dead. But everything about him seemed as if he had moved a lot, for a long time before stopping. Suddenly, sweat began to fill his face, chest, and back.
His expression changed from worried to one filled with horror as he looked at the images from his dream.
"What... is this?" the man muttered as he looked at the sky. He no longer had any interest in what was happening on earth. No, that was a lie, but compared to heaven, the events on earth were minor.
There, above the countless battles on the ground, a hole opened up. The enormous, ominous clouds had spun uncontrollably as they opened up. The white glow was beautiful, but dangerous. And then… the feeling of death came; it was heavy, as if something fell on his shoulders, but it chilled his bones. As the feeling of death spread across the battlefield, screams of dragons and beasts of all kinds could be heard a few moments later.
And as he watched a figure slowly descend, he looked into its eyes.
Red… a red so bloody and frightening that it simply froze him. In the blink of an eye, his eyes opened as he saw its headless body.
"Ahhh!" a scream that shook the entire place he slept in broke out from his throat as he sat up with his entire body covered in sweat.
"I… have to warn…" the man tried to get up, but fell to the ground. His legs were shaking in fear as he remembered those red eyes in fear.
"I have to go..." he muttered as he carefully stood up before leaving his resting place.
Elsewhere, someone else was dreaming. Hestia was looking with a bit of confusion at the place where she was. As a Goddess, she almost never dreamed unless she wanted to, but now it had been a surprise. For the first time since millennia, she felt a bit tired due to the verbal fights against Zeus and those who were still loyal to him. Olympus was already completely broken up, there was just something missing; a trigger for everything to explode and things to get really chaotic.
Hestia had almost never left the planet, she had seen the stars and other planets. In fact, she had been to almost every planet in the solar system that the earth belonged to, but that was a long time ago.
But it was the first time she had a dream like this: seeing an asteroid burning a sacred fire. The asteroid seemed to be moving slowly, but it had actually completed several laps around the entire solar system as it burned fiercely, reaching a size as large as Jupiter. The asteroid wasn't too big, but because of the enormous flame, it reached its current size in his dream.
"Hahaha...", a slightly languid laugh sounded beside him. Surprised, he turned to see who it was. A tall man almost two meters tall with long black hair that fell down his back. He wore black robes with some red details on the edges. He had boots that seemed to be made of a black metal, but it still shined even in the dark space. His eyes were blood red and his skin was a bit paler than one would normally expect on a person. The final detail Hestia could notice, was a crown on the man's head; it seemed to be made of bones, but with a red color that actually made it look like it was made of red crystal.
"You have always been considered someone who hovered over others and watched them with care, love, and respect. Now, however..." the man paused and looked at Hestia for a few moments. She noticed a bit of coldness in those eyes, but there didn't seem to be any animosity or any feeling that could truly tell if he was an enemy or an ally.
"... Now you burn so hot that you're surpassing Jupiter."
"How can you be in my dream?" Hestia decided to ask. She didn't say anything about the man's words, but she carefully saved them so she could think about them in her own time. She knew that when a god had dreams, they weren't just any random thing. Even when someone like a dream god induced another god, he would have his reasons. But now she couldn't feel any influence from another god.
"What makes you think this is a dream?" the man didn't answer, but instead asked while raising an eyebrow as he looked at her.
"Well, it doesn't really matter," the man interrupted Hestia when she was about to answer. "What really matters is something else. You have rebelled against your brothers for the sake of humanity, the demigods, and other species on the planet. But are you really willing to kill for it?"
Hestia frowned. She knew that a war was about to begin, and she would be someone important in such an event. Her brothers wouldn't leave her alone if she just sat there giving orders or helped in other ways. She understood that, unlike other times, she would have to fight with all her might. But, even so, the fact of having to kill her family, still left a bad taste in her mouth.
She was like that, even having rebelled against her brother and King, despite having started a war, there was a little bit of hope in the bottom of her heart; hope that the others would realize their mistakes. But, as the days passed since Artemis was turned into a mortal, that hope has begun to extinguish while the idea of ending her family's ways increased. She also knew that she had to protect the innocents who have begun to get involved without them wanting to.
"I will...", Hestia said seriously. "This has to end once and for all. If things continue as they are, there will be nothing left for them to rule over and nothing left for us to protect."
"You can't," the man laughed lightly. The laugh wasn't mocking, but rather languid; there was no humor in it, it was almost empty.
"But I can help you."
"Help me?" Hestia frowned. The man beside her seemed familiar, but she couldn't come to a conclusion as to how she had met him or where.
"Yes..." he nodded. "I can't come to the Milky Way. At least, not for several more years. But, who would have thought that I could appear here. All because of you."
A slightly gratifying laugh mixed with a bit of anger was what Hestia heard as her body froze when a cold and horrible feeling invaded her body. Hestia's warm eyes slowly moved to the man's right hand, where there was now a large red sword that seemed to tremble slightly and emitted endless killing intent.
Hestia gulped as she saw the man's smile widen as he looked at Jupiter. Suddenly, the sword was lifted by his hand and slashed forward. Space shifted and bent under the force of the attack and a scarlet line appeared in front of them. Hestia watched in disbelief as a split appeared on the planet before it split into two halves.
Then, raging lightning bolts appeared throughout space before Hestia woke up to Athena shaking her.
"Athena?"
"You're finally awake, Hestia!"
Hestia looked at Athena's serious face and knew something had happened.
"What happened?"
"Zeus..." That brought Hestia out of all her tiredness and sleep. She got up from the bed where she had been sleeping.
"Did something happen to him?"
"No. More like, something happened to him. I don't know what really happened, but a scream of pain from Zeus filled Olympus a few moments ago. He was bleeding, Hestia. He had a large wound on his torso, traveling straight from the top of his head to his crotch. It was like someone had tried to split him in two."
Hestia's eyes looked at her niece in disbelief, remembering what had happened in her dream.
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