Arthur:
When I had woken up earlier in my cabin after a good night of sleep there had been a note sitting on my face. I figured it was either my mother or one of the campers deciding to be funny.
If only.
Fast forward 5 hours later, I found myself sitting inside an empty St. John the Divine's Cathedral, the largest in America.
I had to admit, while it wasn't exactly my style, there was beauty in the designs and architecture of this place. Annabeth would love it if she hasn't already visited.
Maybe that's how I could make it up to her for using Percy and her as a distraction for Ares.
For my green-eyed friend, I already delivered my apology gift earlier, as before I had left I had asked him for his mother's address. After that, I had drained about every ATM east of Brooklyn with my Lotus Card.
Sally Jackson was going to wake up with 2 million dollars in cash and a top-of-the-line laptop for her writing sitting on her kitchen table. That woman was an absolute saint in the books, she deserved it. Plus Percy wouldn't have to worry about her as much.
For Annabeth I could take her on a trip to every architectural wonder she's ever wanted to see. The poor girl was a year rounder in camp and had been there since she was like 7, she should be able to see all the sights she wanted.
With her brains and Percy and I's power, monsters wouldn't be too much of an issue. Depending on how long it took them to get the Fleece and rescue Grover, we might even have time left to take that trip before the summer was over.
Yeah, that sounded nice.
"You're quite different from your father, you know." A familiar voice said from next to me, despite the fact I had been the only person in here not even a second ago, "Richard was never able to sit still or shut up for the life of him. He was always moving or talking, always the life of the party. If he wasn't fighting, hunting, or partying with his friends and companions. He was off making a woman fall in love with him. All of his children are similar to him in those regards."
I glanced over to my side to simply confirm who it was. The blinding gold aura when I flicked on my magical sight for barely a second left no doubt that it was him.
"You, on the other hand, you're a quiet one for the most part. You only ever open your mouth to make a smartass comment or to get answers to your questions. Other than that you always seem to be stuck in that head of yours." Uriel continued to observe, "You're efficient in how you fight, incredibly tactical for the most part. You try to end it as fast as you can, Richard was a battle addict, he'd always let his opponents get an advantage or power up to make it more exciting."
He wasn't wrong. I never really saw a point in drawing a battle out, sure it could be fun sometimes considering my mother's genes when it came to hunting, but putting my life at risk didn't make much sense.
Plus the XP I got was generally solely based on how dangerous the creature was. Sure a quest might change that sometimes, but for the most part, it didn't matter if I battled a creature for an hour or killed it within 30 seconds. I still would receive the same amount of XP in the end.
"There's also the fact you're still a virgin. As the kids say these days, your father and most of your siblings have 'gotten more ass than a toilet seat' by the time they were teenagers." He added with a chuckle.
I raised an eyebrow, "Most?"
"Your sister Michelle is quite innocent as well."
Ah yes, my favorite and only sister.
"So question? My sisters are obviously supernatural right? Each one of them looks like their stereotypical species. Michelle has hair so blonde it looks gold and her eyes are incredibly blue, the black-haired one has violet eyes, and that red-headed cunt has literal blood red hair. Richard has none of those features and regular humans don't either. In the order, I named them: Angel, Fallen Angel, and Devil, correct?"
The archangel arched an eyebrow in response, "Is there a reason you only bothered using Michelle's name? Or are asking if your sisters are supernatural. You should know why already."
And here came the reveal.
"I have no memory of anything before that day at the airport when Richard was killed." I said with a shrug, it was technically the truth, "That day I remember Michelle being the only one of them who was kind to me and actually acted like a sister. So I made sure to remember her name. The other two? For all intents and purposes that was the first time, I met them. The black-haired one was silent and the redheaded one was like I said a cunt. Didn't bother to remember their names. Other than that I have no idea about basically anything of my past."
"Interesting." Uriel muttered, "No memory of basically the previous 12 years of your life. Did you receive any kind of head injury before that day?"
"Nope." I shrugged, "Suddenly I found myself eating breakfast in a place I didn't recognize with people I didn't know. Besides, even if I did it wouldn't matter, I have a pretty powerful healing factor that can heal even lethal injuries."
Now you may be wondering why I was being so open with such a powerful and unknown being, especially when my mind was completely fortified so no one would ever find out by going into it.
Well, my reason was simple. I could fool my Greek's all I wanted, none of them knew me before arriving in this world.
But the biblical pantheon? I had no chance. At a minimum, 3 people would realize I had no memory of them, which would be pretty suspicious.
Not that I particularly wanted to deal with the Biblical side of things. I was happy enough to just rock out the Greek storyline and travel the world, but I doubted Cadius would be the end of what would come after me from them. So I needed to be a little prepped for this.
Thus by skirting the truth with Uriel and establishing a working relationship, I had a powerful figure to collaborate my story with.
"I don't suppose you could clue me into some of my past? Seemed like you knew my father." I asked.
Uriel grunted, "I worked with your father often, which meant I always got snippets about his children. From what he said about you, you were a pretty energetic and bubbly child. You went to school in the underworld with your sisters, I heard you were often bullied in your younger years considering you had little to no powers. Though you eventually made a group of friends that stood up for you. I hear you all often get into all sorts of adventures and trouble."
That solidified that this was the right option. Arthur did indeed have a whole history before me taking his place and there were now a whole lot more people from the Biblical pantheon that could pin that something would be off about me if I went to school with them.
Teachers, staff, friends, their families, other students, and anyone else a young Arthur had interacted with.
Something stood out though.
"Wait, if I went to school in the Underworld with my sisters. Then why were they leaving without me? Why was Michelle going to a school down there? And why the hell were they boarding a plane to get to Hell?"
"Lucifuge academy in American terms is K-12 and then the equivalent of one of your universities after that. In addition, it hosts students of every race in our pantheon. From Angels, Devils, Fallen, Vampires, Werewolves, and so on and so forth. They've been doing it for the last couple of centuries to foster better relations and maintain peace."
I gave a long internal sigh. I could practically feel the migraine coming on.
"That doesn't even begin to explain…"
"In addition." He powered on through my interruption, "While they do allow the lower classes to attend there, it traditionally was for those of the elite. As such one of the old traditions is for them to and pardon my French, host a giant fuck-fest on Earth where the students can party, fuck, get absolutely wasted on a concoction of exotic drugs and alcohol, and a whole bunch of other degenerate shit before the term starts. It's being held in Europe again this year in Italy."
I gave him a flat stare in return, "You're joking right?"
"I am not. I've been informed the tradition has been upheld even into the modern age with the academy's expanded attendance because it helps the students be a little less rowdy during the school year."
I conceded that point. I'm sure the poor faculty of that school drank heavily considering they not only had to deal with teenagers but supernatural teenagers. Anything to make their lives easier was probably accepted without thought.
Poor bastards.
"So I'm guessing my sisters were going to attend it and I was being held back because I was too young?"
"Partially right. Michelle along with most of the Angel kids usually stay away from it and try to stop the other tens of thousands of students from hurting mortals too much while partying. Your other two sisters, Ashley, and Jezzabell by the way, always attend."
"I already don't remember their names."
"You on the other hand were kept back simply because you didn't like to go. Children 10 and up are allowed to go considering every other species besides Angels are sinful by nature."
Good job old Arthur. He must've had a good head on his shoulders to avoid a massive drug-fueled kegger with a bunch of supernatural creatures.
And now I fully regretted asking about my past. I was expecting it to be more occult-like and mysterious, not DXD meets American Highschool/College TV show.
Definitely made an excellent decision to abandon that questline. Sorry about possibly killing you Richard, but your sacrifice was not in vain.
I had but one final question before I hopefully never had to bring this up again.
"My mother gave me a book talking about the factions of your pantheon. It had pages on my brother and father. The page about my father said he was a Nephilim, but it didn't say who their angelic parent was."
Which meant I was at most about ¼ human. Maybe less depending on how dominant the divine traits were.
"Yes, your father's lineage has always been a secret that he kept close to his chest. As of now only a select few outsides of your siblings and some of his lovers know what he was."
"Including you?"
"Including me."
"I'm gonna take a guess and say you're not going to tell me."
Uriel shot me a wink, "Consider this your first lesson under my tutelage Arthur. Knowledge always comes at a price. I gave you knowledge of your past because you did me the favor of coming here to meet me. If you want more information, whether it be about your family or something I can teach you, you will have to earn it first."
Should've expected that, but I at least now had confirmation outside of the book on what exactly I was.
Kinda.
Hey, game. Do I get any cool powers or secret perks for finally figuring out my history?
!
No.
You were warned that denying crossroads quests have consequences.
The airport attack was one of them. This is another. Find out your exact lineage and maybe. Maybe. Options will be offered on how to earn new powers outside of the ones we have already given you.
Why was I even surprised?
It was literally denying me powers because I said no to avoiding its dumbass quests.
Fuck you too then game! Your ass is so getting a 1-star review.
"You seem pretty calm when faced with the option of learning more about your lineage Arthur. Most would be more excited."
I raised an unimpressed eyebrow at him, "My mother is literally a goddess, Zeus is my grandfather, and Hades himself is my great uncle. Being a descendant of some Angel doesn't really impress me. No offense."
In hindsight, it did make sense as to why this whole time I've only been able to access my Greek bloodline's powers and why the tutorial on magic said mine was locked to strictly Greek rules.
"Well now that we got that out of the way, here," Uriel instructed as he threw a thick file folder at me.
Catching it I gave it a once over, "The hell is this?"
"Your first assignment should you choose to accept my offer of an apprenticeship." He said, "Inside that folder is all the information you'll need on an incredibly large coven of Vampires I want you to take out. Consider this a trial run. If you impress I'll have more things I'll want you to handle later."
My eyes widened considerably.
This. This right here is what I wanted you dumb system!
Spare me the family drama or the dumb high school arc that teenagers went through.
Hunting down and slaying monsters? Now that's something I could do all day with a smile on my face.
"Wait didn't you say that Vampires were in attendance at this academy? Will I be breaking rules by killing them?"
Not that I particularly cared, a monster was a monster after all.
"There are monsters that are affiliated with certain pantheons such as Greek and Chinese Vampires, and then there are those that are not. The same is true with many monsters. The ones that live side by side with those in the underworld and go to school with your siblings are more civilized I suppose." He explained before that cold smile I saw in our last encounter surfaced, "The ones you will be hunting are unholy and savage beasts. The longer they exist the more humans they will harm."
Good enough for me.
Cracking open the file I began to go through its information, "What kind of numbers am I looking at?"
"At minimum? Dozens at least, perhaps closer to 100 depending on how many they've turned. The town they were in was fully populated and active not even a year ago. Most were probably fed on, but inevitably some were turned."
Oh.
I might need backup for this.
Luckily for me, I knew someone who wouldn't be needed for a quest for at least another week or so.
"Let me make an Iris call first."
!
New quest issued!
Quest type: Normal
You've been issued a job by an Archangel! Go and slay some Vampires and rescue any humans that could possibly still be alive or are prisoners.
Rewards:
Colt barrel
What kind of reward was that?
Percy:
"-"
"-"
"You look like you got attacked by a swarm of pissed-off birds." Arthur pointed out while trying to hide my smirk.
I glared harder through the magical video screen, "Your hilarious Arthur. Also where the Hades are you? Tantalus has been looking for you all day!"
The Son of Artemis shrugged, "I'm in New York right now."
"Why in the Hades are you in New York?"
"I had a meeting with an Archangel who wants me to slay a horde of Vampires."
I shot him a flat stare, waiting for him to crack a smile or tell me the punchline of the joke. All I received was a raised eyebrow in response.
A distant memory of him mentioning the Biblical god was real and his family was affiliated with that pantheon flashed through my mind.
By the gods, he wasn't joking.
"So, you wanna go hunt some fucking Vampires with me. It's going to be pretty badass." Arthur goaded.
My head couldn't stop itself from nodding in agreement. It did sound pretty badass.
But also dangerous. He'd also be breaking a dozen new rules that the Camp had enacted, skipping the kitchen duty he'd been punished with unfairly, and missing out on tonight's bonfire.
"They also have human prisoners they've been feeding on and turning."
A fire suddenly ignited itself in my chest.
"When and where?"
"Meet me out by the road outside of the camp in about 8 hours. I got to stop by Olympus while I'm in the city and buy some magical ingredients from vendors up there." He explained.
I blinked in confusion, "What ingredients could you possibly need from Olympus?"
"Oh, you know. Just some Dwarven Alcohol, a couple of special mushrooms, and Ghouls Blood. That reminds me, after that, I need to go buy a car."
"You're 13," I said dryly. "Besides the fact, you don't even have a driver's license, can you even see over the wheel?"
"For one I know exactly how to drive. And two, I'll have you know I'm 5'4. Plenty of adult women and some men are as tall or shorter than me and can drive just fine."
He had a point. Arthur and I were a couple inches over the average 13-year-old height. As were most Half-Bloods. Annabeth said it was because Demigods developed faster so we could reach our prime faster and be able to fight sooner.
Considering we also had inbuilt battle reflexes and ancient greek hardwired into our brains, I could easily believe it. There was also the fact he had seen a photo of Thalia, Luke, and Annabeth when they had been 14, 15, and 9.
Luke had already looked like the young adult he was when Percy had met him at 19 and Thalia had looked closer to the 16 or 17-year-olds at my schools.
"Whatever, just don't wreck whatever car you get."
With that, the Iris message blinked out of existence.
You know if you had asked me a year ago about who caused me the most headaches I would have answered Annabeth.
Funnily enough, that spot had easily been taken.
For the next several hours I prepped for vampire hunting. Making sure Riptide was freshly sharpened, the hidden deployable shield Tyson had gifted me this morning was in working order, and hiding some leather armor under my clothes and a thick jacket.
I even found an armored leather piece that was designed to fit around your neck. Should help stop any nasty bites from happening.
I made the decision not to tell Annabeth. Not only would she probably call both of us idiots, but Arthur had asked me alone. So I figured he only wanted me along for the ride.
Hours went by before I decided it was time to go meet Arthur.
It wasn't too difficult to get around the camp patrols, especially considering I knew the routes and they were looking for things trying to enter the camp, not leave it.
It must've been another hour or two that I waited by the road outside of camp. Honestly, I was surprised no monsters had tried anything yet.
My attention was drawn however as I heard the roar of an engine come speeding down the road. From around the bend, a jet black muscle car drifted past and came to a stop in front of me.
Of course, Arthur was behind the wheel. He was giving me a shit-eating grin he had on half the time.
"Do I even want to know where you got this thing from?"
Arthur gave a mock glare from behind a pair of aviators and slapped the dash, "This thing is a 1967 Chevy Impala. One of the coolest cars ever produced."
I rolled my eyes as I popped open the door and got in, "So where are we heading to?"
In response, he threw an information folder filed with papers at me.
"An abandoned town near Cape Vincent and Point Alexandria."
"That's near the Canadian border."
"Indeed it is. Settle in for the drive and read the files for the whole brief. There's some good information in there on what we can expect, from numbers to information and weaknesses on these species of vamps."
Cracking open the vanilla folder I gave a sigh, "These are going to be complete ones compared to their greek versions aren't they?"
"Yep." Arthur said as he shifted the transmission and began driving, "There are plenty of snacks and drinks in the back seat if you get hungry and thirsty."
Leaning back into my seat I saw Arthur turn the car's radio on and pop a cassette in.
As it started playing I hummed along.
I always did like Kansas.
Note - Belated Xmas wishes to all.
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