Chapter 125: Chapter 122: Elementary my dear Percy
(Percy POV)
I aimed my hand at the floor and fired a web line, when the web hit the marble foundation it exploded into a patch of spider silk. The web was strong and hard but at the same time elastic and nearly unbreakable.
I threw a few more patches of web across the room, making sure the entire room was stable enough.
On the surface it may look like the entire room was held together by spiderweb (which was the case before I arrived) but underneath the foundation I had tree roots intertwined to form a second floor, just in case the marble foundation wouldn't hold.
But being able to shoot spider web was so awesome. I had no idea what Arachne was thinking when she made me the king of Spiders but it gave me some awesome perks. But being shooting spiderweb was not the only power I had received from Arachne, I could also spit poison.
Which sounded a bit useless to me and made me afraid I would poison myself by swallowing my own spit. Arachne had laughed and told me that I was immune for my own poison.
Also, I had to summon poison before I could do anything at all. As I found out, I could make poison that would kill someone slowly, make poison that would paralyze and a poison that would blind someone.
I could make a thousand more poisons but to me the power seemed to be kind of useless. Maybe I could drip my sword in poison but beyond that I couldn't see any practical usage of my new poison powers.
I had asked Chaos if I could swing around using web lines but apparently that was not possible since the G-Force would stretch out my body and kill me. But Chaos quickly fixed that by granting me super strength, enhancing my flexibility and reflexes.
Which was one of the few times Chaos had actually given me directly powers instead of making other people bless me.
I sighed and stared at the now empty lair of Arachne. She had taken the tapestries with her, now it was just empty...except for one big Athena statue.
The Athena Parthenos.
Arachne reluctantly agreed to give it back. At first, she wanted to throw it into Tartarus but after I talked with her about it she came to the conclusion that the statue had no worth for her anymore.
She agreed that I gave it back to Athena, but only because she liked me; or that's what she told me. Now she had gone shopping with Katie and Hazel in Rome (With my Lotus casino card).
For a second I was worried since Demigods tend to attract more monsters in the old lands. Then I realized that Arachne was with them and would scare every monster away before they could even touch the girls.
Which gave me all the time I needed to summon the Goddess of Wisdom, War and Crafts.
The problem was that Athena's mere presence would've made the entire room collapse. But with webs I added myself and the ice and roots underneath the foundation I was sure it would hold.
I closed my eyes and prayed to Athena, hoping to summon her.
I felt a powerful presence enter the room and I smiled. I opened my eyes and in front of me stood Athena in full Greek battle armor. Underneath her she wore flowing white robes. In one hand she held a mean looking spear and in the other she held a mean looking shield, which was literally a mean looking shield because it had the face of Medusa on it. She wore an imperial golden helmet,
Her grey eyes pierced through me like daggers and I almost flinched.
Athena gave me a questioning look, but then she glanced over what stood behind me. Her eyes widened and she dropped her shield and spear.
She teleported towards the statue and began ripping the web of it. It was like seeing a 4-year-old opening up his Christmas present.
She threw the silk over her shoulders, and clawed away through the layers of web. She looked a bit ridiculous doing it but this moment Athena couldn't care less.
"You need help?" I asked after a minute of watching Athena making no progress at all.
Athena turned to me and nodded.
I sighed and aimed my hands at the statue, the webbing around the statue caught fire and for a moment it looked like the statue was burning away. But I had adjusted the fire so it would only burn away the webbing around the statue.
The flames disappeared and Athena gasped again, now Athena Parthenos was revealed in her fully glory.
Athena absently murmured something while she touched the Nike angel with awe.
"So like it?" I asked when it became clear Athena wasn't going to answer my question.
She turned to me with a dazed smile, "You found it,"
"Yup?"
"How?" Athena asked, "I've been searching this statue for eons. My children had been seeking it for generations...the weaver...you…"
"So you like it?" I asked again.
"Yes," Athena said with admiration, "I really like it."
She turned to the statue, "How'd you found it?"
"The maze," I lied, "The maze brought me here." Okay, technically the maze brought me here.
Athena studied my eyes for a second, "You're a horrible liar."
I raised an eyebrow, "No I'm not."
"Anyway," Athena said, "Seeing the situation and the lack of a certain spider I assumed you lifted her curse?"
Now I was really surprised, "How'd you know?" At this point there was no reason to lie. She was the goddess of Wisdom after all. Maybe I should ask Apollo if he could make me a better liar since he was the God of truth.
Or Loki, maybe he could teach me the wonderful arts of deceiving and lying.
Athena glanced around the room, "The spiderweb was a dead give away. But since she isn't around I assumed she was either dead or you made a deal. Since you seemed to be unharmed and not you're not even sweating I assumed you lifted her curse. Like you did with Medusa."
My heart skipped a beat, I hadn't expected the goddess of Wisdom to be so...smart.
"You know about Medusa?" I asked with a small voice.
"Found out last month," Athena said, "A stone statue appearing out of nowhere in the middle of Boston Bacon street? In combination with a certain dead demigod with exceptional powers?"
Athena huffed and crossed her arms, "Wasn't that hard to figure out."
"So...are you mad at me?" I asked pouting.
Athena gave me a thoughtful look, "On the one hand you interfered with their punishment. On the other hand you brought me my statue."
She glanced between the statue and me. Athena sighed. "No, my happiness and joy outweigh the fact you released two of my worst enemies. In fact, I'm so happy right I could make the room explode with my happiness." A grin spread across Athena's face...which, I realized, I've never seen her doing before.
"Don't!" I almost yelled. Athena raised an eyebrow but didn't make the room explode.
"You know what," Athena said, "I think you deserve a reward."
"A reward?" I wondered, "What do you mean?"
"You brought back one of my greatest treasures. Of course, you deserve a reward."
I smiled. "If you would just leave Medusa and Arachne alone it would be good enough for me."
Athena scoffed, "That's all you want?"
"Yup."
"Fine," Athena said, "I wasn't going to bother them anyway. But I still think you need a better reward for your heroic deed."
'Oh boy,' Chaos said, 'I feel new powers coming up. You know what that means?'
'You scream in my ear?' I growled.
Chaos only
smirked.
"I'm going
to reward you with two gifts." Athena finally said with a wide grin. "Seeing
you got my blessing already I think it's only appropriate you get an
expansion."
"Expansion?" I wondered, "What kind of expansion?"
"See it as an DLC," Athena said, and she suddenly tapped my forehead.
"Boop." Athena joked, "And it's done."
She pulled her hand back while I only frowned, "Okay what did you just do?"
Athena smirked, "I expanded your brainpower. Considering I'm the goddess of Wisdom I thought it is only appropriate."
"Okay, what did you just do?" I stared at my hands, seeing if I could summon wisdom or something. Of course, nothing happened.
"Okay. I bite. What happened?"
Athena took my hand and suddenly I was no longer standing in the cave. Instead, I was floating in an endless black void.
'Mmm…feels like home.' Chaos casually said, not being surprised by the fact we just teleported to the…whatever this place is.
"We didn't teleport." Athena said, she was still holding my hand, and she had a smug smile on her face. "You thought that didn't you?"
I nodded, "Yeah. So we didn't teleport? Did you send us forward in time till the point there is nothing in existence?"
Athena chuckled, "No. We are still standing in Arachne's lair."
My eyes widened. "Say what?"
Athena gestured around her at the void, "We are inside your mind."
'It looks empty!' Lyssa laughed, 'Get it? Because you-'
'Shut up,' I groaned, 'The joke was not even original.'
"Why is so empty?" I asked Athena, trying to keep myself from looking dumb.
"Well, this inside your mind but not just your mind. This is your mind palace." Athena said proudly.
"Okay," I said, "Explain."
"Think about something important," Athena said, "Like the Olympian council."
I closed my eyes, was that even possible if you were already inside your own mind.
I thought about all the Olympians, then I opened my eyes and stared at the void. But it wasn't a void anymore. Instead, the blackness was now filled with words and images floating around in space.
I saw images the 12 Olympians float around me in a perfect sense. Words floated around the images, for example the words; Main love interest Daphne and Hyacinthus, Lester Papadopoulos, Weapons: Bow and arrow - Golden Lyre, Makes Haikus, four thousand, six hundred and nine years old and this was just a small grasp of the words that floated around Apollo's image. Thousands more of these floated around every single one of the Olympians.
Some of them were trivial facts, like Dionysus likes Diet Coke while Bacchus likes Pepsi.
But there were also things like, Artemis like turning boys into Jackalopes.
"What is this?" I asked with awe. I tried to touch one of the floating words and to my surprise it broke up into an entire sentence that explained why Artemis liked turning boys into Jackalopes. (Because she loves hunting them down and pigs, which man are according to Artemis, are not fun to hunt down)
"This is your mind palace," Athena said while she studied the words floating around us in the void, "Everything you ever remembered is stored here. This is the place where information arranges itself until it needs to be used."
"So all those words-"
"Are the things you heard and learned about the Olympians. The mind palace is like a quick access to this information. But I took the Olympians as an example. You can use this for anything and your mind will come up with as much information as possible."
"Wow," I muttered with awe, "Never knew I know some much about the Olympians."
Athena huffed, "People know a lot of stuff, but they tend to forget a lot or get lost in all the information. The mind palace bypasses the time and effort it takes and displays everything that's relevant to you within a second. You can relive every memory from a new point of view."
"That's so cool." I muttered. I touched the photo of Apollo and dragged it to Artemis' photo.
Immediately more words popped up, Artemis is older than Apollo by one day, Artemis and Apollo continuously fight over things like countries, weapons and domains. Apollo is more powerful than Artemis with him being the sun god,
"That's cool."
"You connected information, now the mind palace searches as many connections between the two as possible." Athena explained.
I grinned and began to draw more lines between the images, words popped up with random information about their relations.
At some point I drew a line between Athena and Poseidon. An explosion of words followed: Rivalry over Attica, had a fight about it over Medusa, had a fight about it Coronis, Fought over Odysseys, Sick obsession with each other, Secret crush?
Athena blushed and swiped through the floating words. They shattered and dissolved into the black void. "That's enough mind palace for now." Athena said while avoiding my gaze.
The next second I was back inside Arachne's lair.
"That was so awesome," I exclaimed.
"Cool huh," Athena murmured while blushing, "I thought you would appreciate it."
"I do," I said, "This is so cool. Thank you."
Athena nodded, "now for my second gift."
"Wait, you got another gift?" I asked flabbergasted. I still felt a bit nauseous from my mind palace and I don't think I could handle another trip.
Athena chuckled, "No. This one is more practical."
She waved her hand and out of thin air a bow appeared. It was a bow made out of old looking wood and a golden string. That was literally all there was to the bow. If you would ask me it looked prehistoric.
"It's an old bow," Athena said with admiration. "It served his master for a good time. Now I think its time the bow gets a new master."
I nervously chuckled, "Well, good luck finding him."
Athena rolled her eyes, "This bow is now yours. It's my gift and you'll need it."
I blinked, "Wait a minute, you can't be serious. I suck at archery, even with Apollo's blessing I can't fire an arrow without hurting myself!"
"It's now yours," Athena said, "And you need to learn how to use it. Especially if you want to win the duel with Orion-"
"WHAT?"
'Hahaha,' Lyssa laughed, 'She has a point!'
"Orion," Athena said. "You need to take him down. I suggest you learn how to use this bow before you face him. Especially since this weapon is the only weapon that can send him back to Tartarus. Without the help of a god."
I blinked again, "Didn't you hear me? I suck at Archery."
Athena chuckled, "I know. But this bow is maybe closer to you than you realize. I think you'll learn how to use the bow one day."
"But it's so old," I complained, "I suspect it crumbles to dust the moment I fire an arrow with it."
"It won't," Athena promised, "This bow is probably the only bow you could wield because it uses your strongest ability."
"Bad luck?" I guessed.
Athena huffed, "you really don't realize the true power and origins of the bow, do you?"
I nodded, "Not to be disrespectful but-"
"Use your mind palace," Athena demanded.
I closed my eyes, and I was back in the void. In front of me floated the bow Athena had just given me. But now words floated around it which gave me more information.
Next to the grip some words appeared: Left handed bow.
By the golden string appeared: Athena's hair…magical?
And above the bow was written: Really old.
I told Athena what I saw, and she smiled, "Great. Now comes the question. Who's the original owner of the bow?"
I frowned but nonetheless tried to figure it out. As I thought about the original owner of the bow the words OLD appeared. I smirked, Now I knew it had to be someone from a myth or legend.
Just as I came to that conclusion a list of names appeared out of nowhere,
Ajax
Odysseus
Heracles
Orion
Paris
Atalanta
Philoctetes
I strategically began swapping away names from the list. Names I was 100% sure were not the original owner of the bow.
Paris was against Greece in the Trojan war so Athena would've never allowed him to wield a bow with her hair. Atalanta, Ajax, Orion and Philoctetes were all possible owners but none of them had any connections with Athena, so they were off the list too.
Which left only two names, Heracles and Odysseus.
I opened my eyes and turned to Athena, "It's Odysseus' bow, isn't it? I mean, he was your favorite mortal."
Athena beamed, "Bingo."
I glanced at the bow in my hand, "So does it have some cool powers?"
Athena shrugged, "That's your job to find out."
I silently promised myself never to use that bow, just, so I wouldn't hurt somebody unintentionally.
"Also," Athena said, and she snapped her finger, "I locked away Riptide until you learn how to wield the bow."
My eyes widened and I tried to yell a protest but the bow in my hand shrunk into a bronze pen. Riptide.
I uncapped Riptide and instead of transforming into a bronze sword it turned into a plain looking bow; Odyssey's bow.
I stared at Athena in shock, "You just turned my sword-"
"Don't worry," Athena said casually, "You can use Riptide once you mastered the bow. This is for your own good."
Athena grinned, "Well. It was great to see you Percy. Use my gifts wisely."
Before I could yell at her she flashed away, taking the Athena Parthenos with her.
"Dammit."
'Well, at least the arrow of Dodona has a new friend.' Lyssa said mockingly.
'And there's at least some good news,' Chaos smirked. 'NEW POWERS UNLOCKED!'
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