Percy's POV
"Or should I say...werewolf? After all there were truthfully only three wolves known to time. Fenrir, Skoll and Hati, those hybrids that lay to mere human flesh that you call wolves, are not wolves." Veritas laughs, slowly spinning around Fenrir's body with a finger flowing through his fur. His eyes laid still as they sit on my figure, running up along my body with a look of disgust.
A faint whisper resonating from behind him as Veritas continues to speak, "Fenrir he has everything you ever wanted. His friends didn't give up on him, his lover didn't give up on him...but you? Here you are, lonely and left with nothing but two remnants of your children." The figure of white laughs, seemingly mocking me as they continue spinning around Fenrir. With each rotation his figure audibly shifts into a greater size, cracking and bursting his insides to reform them greater than before.
A pit in my stomach forming as my heart begins to sink in correlation to his growing size, "I don't get why it's my job to give you the comfort you need!" I blare out towards him.
"I have my chance to return to the world I once ruled, a throne made just for me. A singularity by birth, the first wolf, the first king...the first singularity chosen by Her." He grunts out, continuing to grow as the environment around us grows in a red and black haze.
"Her!?"
"She spoke to me as I was locked down by the chains...through dreams she voiced her intentions with deep authority. I was made for this world Percy! You were nothing but a human who happened to be born within a wolf bloodline!" He spits out in disgust, raising his foot and stomping with a shattering sound that forms that stone throne behind him. The walls of his room beginning to engulf the environment as his image of reality takes over.
I fall silent from the lack of reasoning I have. Staring down at the white flooring that flips to stone tile by tile. "Whatcha gonna do Percy? He'll swallow you whole if you sit there like a fish gasping for breath" Veritas laughs while sitting on the throne, crossing their legs and smiling with amusement.
An audible inhale bringing my attention back to Fenrir, "ANSWER ME PERCY! YOU WERE GIVEN A CHANCE BY THIS WORLD, AND YET HERE YOU ARE! COWERING BENEATH ME!? FOR WHAT REASON DO YOU GET TO LIVE WITHOUT FIGHTING!?" His piercing eyes igniting with flames as they stare right through me with a searing pain.
"I-I-don't...know" I wrap my hands around my throat as a scorching pain inflames it. A feeling of suffocation bringing me to my knees, slamming my hand to the ground and shattering it. Fragments of white glass sticking out from my skin, drip by drip my blood pours onto the plain flooring.
A deafening ring in my ears gradually blocking out the sounds of his roaring, Veritas' laughter and my own breaths feeling dull and pointless. A blurriness filling my vision as I stare around at the merging colours, planting my hand down one more time I see a new colour form from under it. Swaying my hand through it back and forth I claim a sense of serenity as it brings me a nostalgic feel. My blood serving as seeds to what seems to be...grass.
"You humans don't appreciate the life you've been given! The hardship of those that came before you, and for what!? Emotions to take over and wars to start!? What is humanity's free will if only to be trapped in an endless cycle of death and hate!?" I hear his voice echo back into my ears, his figure kicking Veritas off the throne and instead taking their place.
"Let me control those desires, let me take those choices from you! Let me wear the burdens of this god forsaken world!" He rests his hand on the throne, reaching towards me with the other. "Fight for your life this time, or let someone else decide your fate for you. That's what you've always done Percy. Hide, blackout and let another protect you. Pathetic." His hand begins to open up above me, slowly lowering itself onto my back. The grass from under my hand warming up alongside a tear dropping from my eyes as the apathetic emotion overwhelms me, growing into a circular pattern around me while my blood trails along it. The motion of always moving forward, trailing down a path formed by the terrain under me.
"Hmm" Vertias hums, glancing towards me...a pure white eye forming on one side of their face. "Have you noticed...?" The figure of white isn't smiling anymore, instead a look of curiosity as Fenrir's hand taps on the top of my head with a closing motion to his fingers.
The sensation of a pawprint sinks into my back "Percy..." His voice sounding comforting. "Recognise me, focus on me" I close my eyes as the claws begin to engulf me. "You know me", his blue eyes gleam from within my head.
A large grunt erupting from Fenrir's stomach, tensing up his fist even tighter around me. "YOU MAKE OTHERS FIGHT FOR YOU AGAIN!?" A force of being swung around sends me crashing between the walls of his fingers. The sound of tearing flesh fills the dark space of his hand, piece by piece until blood begins to fall from above me.
A crack between his grasp allowing me to extend my hand through, "FIGHT THIS TIME!" A husky voice calls out before grabbing hold of my arm, sinking it's teeth into me before forcibly removing me from Fenrir's hand. Tossing me through the air and back onto more grass filled land, the figure of grey lands next to me.
"I DEALT WITH YOU!" Fenrir spits out, crushing the throne beneath him into rubble. Standing back up and launching his fist towards us. The image of his perfect throne room beginning to shatter back into the pure white terrain.
"I'd never leave you Percy" Crest's wolfish smile filling part of the hole inside me, a warmth I haven't felt in a while.
"Interesting..." Veritas tilts their head, eyeing Fenrir's desperation as the attack gets repelled by the environment, causing him to stumble backwards.
"VERITAS!" He booms out in rage, a black aura beginning to swirl around him and fog up.
"That wasn't me, but perhaps this "human" has figured it out before you?" The figure forms another eye, holding their stomach and laughing at Fenrir's growing anger.
"Why are you here?" I weakly ask Crest
A confused head tilt responding to me as he stares into my eyes, "Did you not...call me here?" He comments.
"No!?" I think back to the moment of being held by Fenrir's fist, familiarity washing over me as my first time here fills my head with memories...staring over at Veritas I begin to realise something.
"YOU'RE HELPING THEM!" Fenrir spits out, the space around us beginning to phase in and out like static.
"Let me help you, oh perfect being." Veritas mocks the gargantuan wolf. "I am nothing more than the personification of the mirror itself...I show the truth...your truth." Veritas' voice starts to break, instead sounding more like two voices in one.
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"THE TRUTH IS THAT I OWN THIS WORLD!"
"Is it? Last I checked, you were sealed away by the Moon Goddess before you could rule...anything...?" They click their fingers, displaying golden gates within the sky opening up above us. The stars within the sky reflecting off of Fenrir's eyes as he stares with horror on his face.
"I CHOSE THE PATH I WAS LEAD DOWN! WAS THAT SO WRONG!?" He spits
"You call these humans worthless, controlled by their emotions and slaves to their fear. And yet you're the one who was fuelled by jealousy, you're the one who feared being alone...you're the one who acted with the will of a human." Veritas' amused look turns into a disappointed one, folding their arms and sitting on the floor.
"Now continue" They wave their hand towards us as Fenrir stares with a growing animosity, glaring daggers into my skin.
The scorching flames in my throat clearing up, my mind beginning to clear itself as the gates above us open up..."I can't beat you, and that's the truth we all know Fenrir" My words making the figure glee with confidence, "But, you. The being who opened the world, the wolf who made enemy upon enemy. The families you've stolen the life from...this world isn't yours to own anymore. This world has long strived from the path of needing the gods' influence." I stare around me, person by person I flicker through all my memories of the past lives Fenrir has lived. Their faces no longer riddled with fear or sadness. Instead they hold a determined look of anger and hatred towards the one who stole their children, loved ones and their very world from them.
He scrunches up his fist, running his molten blood down to the floor, "WHAT DID YOU DO TO DESERVE A PLACE? YOU AREN'T MORE THAN ME", The environment changes with each inundation of emotion "YOU AREN'T EQUAL TO ME! YOU'RE COMPLETELY INFERIOR TO ME PERCY!" His jaw bursts open, snapping with drool and blood. Splattering across the space, he growls with a deep intensity. Punching the image of a moon and turning it blood red, the giant figure of his two Lycan sons forming next to him. He closes his mouth upon watching the sight of Skoll making his way towards us.
The pitch black Lycan stands beside us, glaring back up towards his father. Fenrir whispers out unfitting to his monstrous appearance, "That...girl. Why was she blessed with the Singularity?" He stares towards Skoll, not with hate but instead with sadness.
The phrase confusing me but I don't bother to ask, instead gathering the people together. Humans and wolves alike forming beside them. The figure of Athena appearing beside me, Chris, Yue, Aeon, Yasmine, Thomas...Scarlet. Tears slowly forming down my face as I stare at their smiling appearances. Feeling a hand raise my own I glance at Adam's reassuring face, turning to face Fenrir.
A slow but booming clap resonates to the side of us, "A theatre of truth...a place where all truth and only the truth is displayed. The value of showing what you have to offer. Now through all your timeless living Fenrir...what do you have?" Veritas scans him up and down, disappointed once again.
The gates above us opening more until a light staircase forms downward. I stare at Veritas, receiving a nod from them I dart towards it.
"PERCY THIS IS NOT HOW THINGS END FOR ME!" Fenrir's distorted voice screams outward as I begin to climb the stairs, spiralling up through them. I watch as the hordes of people and wolves climb on top of him, jabbing at him and fighting with hope filled eyes. I stare downward at them as I climb, the people I called my friends staring back up to me and smiling with reassurance. The feeling in my stomach now completely whole I speed up.
"I...SAID...NO!" A shattering sound of glass from below me shakes the stairs, glancing down I watch as Fenrir's blood shot eyes focus on me. Digging his claws into the solid glass and throwing his body up towards me. His body cleaving through the people that block his way, "PERCY" he groans out.
Forcing my eyes to look away from him I speed up even more as Crest throws me on top of him, now holding onto his fur I make my way closer to the gates. "I REFUSE TO BE LEFT HERE!" He destroys the stair case, now just a hand away from reaching me.
"This was fun Percy! Let's do it again sometime..." Veritas floats towards me, their eyes now formed and shining at me with a colour of white.
"JUMP!" I scream to Crest when we reach the top platform, his paws gliding through the air as if swimming through the empty sky and climbing along the light. "I REFUSE" Fenrir screams once more, figure launching off the final platform and stretching as best he can.
-
Athena's POV
Our hands rested upon the mirror I feel the pattern on my back throbbing in pain but I ignore it. A chattering of the glass on the mirror causing us all to step away, "What's going on!?" Yasmine gets pulled behind Alex.
"EVERYONE STEP AWAY!" The Moon Goddess lifts herself up from the floor, guiding anyone close to get away from it. The glass cracking shard by shard and seeping through glistening light as it skips along the ground. Lifting itself from the floor and slamming itself back down over and over until creating a pit in the floor.
"PERCY!" I attempt to call to it, receiving no response we all wait as it floats into the air in front of us. The mirror begins to turn, speeding up with each rotation until it's form is inconceivable. Suddenly pausing it tilts to face up, and bursting through it a boy sliced with cuts and burns along his skin.
"ATHENA CATCH HIM!" Adam screams, pointing my attention to his figure that emerged. Sending what energy I have left to my hair and enveloping him in it. Gently guiding his body to the floor and between us all while we huddle to hold him.
"A-" He opens his reflective eyes as if holding back tears. Silenced by all of us squeezing him.
"Welcome back" Some of us cry out in unison.
The crackling of flames around us dying out as the sun begins to rise, the soft heat touching our skin and removing the icy breeze around us. "Now, my deal" The Moon Goddess impatiently stomps.
"Wait a fucking minute yeah!?" Chris steps towards her, blocking the view we have of her.
"A dea-WAIT!" Her voice shrieks with fear, the sound of shattering becoming clear to us we instinctively put Percy behind us.
"Chris what are you doing to her!?" Yue rushes to him, pulling his shoulder and showing us what his body was covering. The still floating mirror now busted open with grey furred arm reaching through it, "I WILL NOT DO THIS ALONE!" His voice thunders out, grabbing hold of the Moon Goddess' leg and slamming her into the floor a few times as Chris and Yue try to grab hold of her.
Her finger nails digging through his fur but not enough for him to let go, "FENRIR WAIT!" She tries to plead. All wasted as he slams her one more time, knocking her unconscious and dragging her body into the mirror. Slumping itself down back into the pit we cautiously make our way over, staring at the eye shaped cracks along it. The laughter of children emanating from it causing us all to shiver uncomfortably and step away from it.
"Oh my god!" A girl's voice cries out to us as she skips in our direction. Avoiding the remaining flames, blood and rough terrain.
"Nimue!?" Adam recognises her, encouraging her to come closer to us.
"I'm sorry, I tried to follow you guys but you just got so far ahead of me haha! I saw some of what was happening though!" She cheers out, stepping closer and widening her eyes after glancing at Percy's harmed form.
"Let's return to our village, we can all rest there! She worriedly tugs on Adam's arm to encourage him.
"Okay, let me hold him. Thank you Nimue" He smiles at her, lifting Percy's body and taking him to their village with everyone following.
I take a moment to glance back...staring at the location he died at...I can do something but it needs to be now. "Aren't you coming Athena?" Chris holds out his hand to me.
"I'll...catch up to you guys..."
"I'll come with you in that case!" He tries to come back for me
"No no please I'll just be a little while!" I run into the forest, pleading that he catch up with the others to which he luckily follows them.
-
Finding the portal that Persephone left us I step through, rushing with my feet slapping against the the cold stone I find the path of souls. Running past them I go into the palace into the living space of me and Chris. I frantically take apart the room in search of something I took as nothing more than a memento...now serving me more purpose. I grab the glowing flower, running back to the line of souls I see his emotionless face staring at me. Pulling his figure out of line I don't waste time to explain anything, instead pointing the Lotus shaped flower towards him and causing it to pull him inside. Budding up and returning to it's dormant state I smile that I made it in time, "I'm sorry...we couldn't make it before...I really am" I wipe a tear away, turning from the line and heading back to the palace.
A small shockwave catching me off guard, "You-" A whisper emanates from something...prioritizing the flower I ignore it for now and return to the bedroom, placing the flower down gently and running to catch back up to the others who should of made it back to that village by now.