Divergent Path

How Do You Ask Out a Goddess?

Chapter 14: How Do You Ask Out a Goddess?

"Dead? She's a Titan. I thought gods, titans, and the rest couldn't die. Are you saying she faded? Or was she scattered and sent to Tartarus to reform?" Percy asked, rattled by Apollo's solemn statement.

The sun god shook his head sadly. Artemis looked at her twin in shock. She'd never heard anyone, let alone a god, describe a deity as 'dead.'

"Those other five that we fought, their souls were scattered. But they're alive. It may take them thousands of years in Tartarus after their brutal defeats, but they'll come back," Apollo began, his tone deadly serious as he processed what had happened.

"And fading is mostly a voluntary process for us. Such as when Helios and Selene bestowed their powers to my brother and I. They themselves faded, but a part of their soul lives on in us. The same goes for Pan and your satyr friend. In exceptionally rare cases, it could be possible to force a deity to fade but that is not what happened here," Artemis finished, addressing Percy.

"So what did happen, then?" Percy asked sorrowfully.

"He destroyed her soul," Apollo said with a stone face, "I could feel nothing when I touched her. It wasn't like a dead mortal body; it was like she hadn't ever been alive at all. I'd never even think that was possible."

Percy realized that this was a first for even the gods. Nobody had ever seen a dead deity before. They all realized, or very desperately hoped, that this must be a difficult process even for a primordial or else Erebus could've done the same to them before withdrawing. Nico arrived on the hill in silent understanding, kneeling next to the body as he muttered a prayer. Her body sunk into the ground to be buried. The group returned to camp after paying their respects for Mnemosyne's sacrifice.

(Line Break)

"... and I only JUST got done fixing them, man!"

The table erupted in laughter as Leo threw his hands in the air in frustration. He had finished complaining to his friends about the week it had taken to rebuild his dragons that were dented and melted by 'that glowing fire idiot.' Thalia clapped Percy on the back, causing him to almost spill his blue Cherry Coke.

"Speaking of 'glowing fire idiots', that new power of yours is really something, Perce," she said, making everyone chuckle.

"Yeah, dude. Way to steal my brand," Leo said, feigning annoyance. "Anyways, what are you going to call it?"

Percy laughed before he remembered he already knew the answer.

"Erebus called it the Hammer of Sol, and it's the third and final one of those powers from another universe. I asked Apollo about it before he left, but he told me hammers have nothing to do with him or Helios or Sol Invictus, Helios' Roman aspect. So I'm not really sure why it's called that but it sounds super cool," Percy said.

"Maybe the explanation is much simpler than we're thinking. What if this other universe's powers don't stem from a pantheon of gods with symbols, and it's just the way it is over there? Like that lightning fist you told us about, I doubt that has any connection to Zeus because he wouldn't want you to have it," It was Annabeth that spoke, and most of the table went quiet for a moment.

Everyone seated would've been lying if they said it hadn't been a little bit awkward watching Percy and Annabeth interact in the same group together again. They expected some amount of bad blood between them after everything that had happened. And they didn't want to take sides between their friends, because that would only lead to the entire group falling apart. They collectively let out a silent sigh of relief when Percy responded without missing a beat.