Percy Jackson - Beyond the Gods

The dinner was practically over, and the chatter of the campers was diminishing as they dispersed to their cabins or the campfire.

After saying goodbye to their friends, Percy and Ikki were engaged in light conversation as they walked toward the exit of the dining hall when Chiron, in his centaur form, approached with firm steps.

"Ikki," Chiron called, his voice carrying a soft seriousness. "Can you accompany me for a moment?"

Ikki exchanged a curious look with Percy before nodding. "Sure."

Chiron led Ikki to a more secluded corner, away from curious ears.

It had stopped snowing, but the dark clouds made the atmosphere gray, the only sources of light were torches hanging throughout Camp Half-Blood, and the silence around seemed to amplify the importance of the moment. The centaur stopped under an ancient tree, the gentle sound of leaves rustling in the wind filling the space between them.

"Ikki," Chiron began, his voice low and thoughtful. "I wanted to speak to you privately about tomorrow's game."

Ikki crossed his arms, his gaze fixed on the mentor with a raised eyebrow. Guessing what his mentor would ask him: "You want me to participate?"

Internally, he was surprised; it had been Chiron who had previously asked him not to participate in the games as it was somewhat unfair to the opposing team...

"Yes, I would like you to participate," Chiron said. He observed Ikki for a moment, feeling a pang of guilt asking Ikki to join the "Capture the Flag" game. He knew that the son of Zeus carried a heavy burden, and asking him to engage in something so mundane might seem insensitive. However, he believed it could be exactly what Ikki needed: a distraction, a chance to reconnect with the camp and the other campers in a lighter and less painful way.

"Ikki..." Chiron said, his voice carrying a gentle seriousness. "I know it may not seem like the right time to ask this. But I think it could be good for you. Not just for the campers, but for you to feel part of something again. The victory, well... is just an embellishment. What really matters is you being with them."

Ikki crossed his arms, his gaze fixed on the mentor. He pondered for a moment, feeling the weight of Chiron's words. He knew that his absence had been long and that the game could be an opportunity to reconnect with the camp and the friends he had left behind.

"I understand, Chiron..." Ikki said with a small smile. "It'll be good... to distract myself a little."

Chiron felt a gentle relief, knowing that Ikki had understood his intentions. Despite the initial guilt, he knew that Ikki's strength was extraordinary. With the son of Zeus on their side, he had little doubt they would win. But more important than the victory was what this participation meant for Ikki: a step towards healing, normalcy, and reconnecting with those who cared about him.

"Thank you, Ikki," Chiron said, squeezing his shoulder with a comforting gesture. "We're all rooting for you. Not just in the game, but in everything."

Ikki nodded and spoke softly: "I won't disappoint."

Chiron smiled, placing a reassuring hand on Ikki's shoulder before stepping away, leaving the young hero with his thoughts.

The son of Zeus watched the immortal centaur as he thought about his request. Previously during their conversation about his one-year disappearance, they hadn't even discussed Capture the Flag, so he was somewhat surprised by this, despite initially guessing Chiron's intentions...

He turned and started walking toward his cabin, meeting his best friend along the way. The two chatted briefly before each entered their cabin.

Ikki noticed that Thalia was already asleep. He sat cross-legged and began to meditate, seeking understanding of some laws and concepts. His current focus was Magic, but he was also trying to understand the Laws of Lightning and Wind, something that seemed to come more naturally to him. He should be grateful to his mother, who had broken the seal she had placed on him.

Thinking of her, his mood became a bit complicated. He still had many questions about what had happened that day, which haunted him even now...

He remembered every detail upon entering the house, the heavy air, the unsettling silence. And then, the box. A simple box in the middle of the room. He knew something was wrong even before opening it. His hands trembled as he lifted the lid, revealing what he feared: his mother's head, eyes closed, a semblance of forced peace. Beside it, a note. Luke. The name now burned in his mind like a curse.

What disturbed him the most was the constant doubt. He had teleported that day to meet Artemis but decided to fly back, feeling the wind, the sky, the freedom to rid himself of the dark feelings of a painful rejection.

But that decision cost him dearly. If he had teleported back, could he have arrived in time? Were they watching? Every second of delay was an opportunity for them to act.

Frustration boiled inside him. Why didn't he keep his senses expanded?

He could sense presences hundreds of thousands of kilometers away when he wanted, could cover the entire country with his senses and even a good part of the continent and beyond. Why that day, of all days, didn't he sense the impending danger? Was it his terrible habit of hiding his powers to avoid trouble? Every decision, every step, seemed to conspire against him that day. And now, he was stuck in this cycle of "what if?" What if he had done something different? What if he had been faster? More attentive?

But fate was a cruel enemy. That was it, wasn't it? Fate. A sequence of events that led him to the point where everything collapsed. He knew fighting it was like trying to grasp the wind, but the pain was incessant.

He should be more than that.

His heart ached with every thought, every memory. The image of his mother, the smile she always gave him, now a memory he clung to tightly, fearing that time might erase it too.

Shaking his head, he dismissed these thoughts as much as he could, and tried to meditate to understand the Laws and Concepts he aimed for. Despite separating the two by different definitions, they were practically the same thing.

But, if there was a difference, it would be that Laws encompassed a large domain while Concepts were more concrete and specific.

A concept is an idea or mental definition for anything concrete or abstract, like the concept of time or space, for example. Although the contemporary idea of "concept" pertains not to a real entity but an ideal entity, a representation mentally created by capturing elements to describe the reality of a body/object through reasoning, it is understood that the user is capable of maximizing the manifestation of these mentally created concepts upon reality, affecting the real entity through the manipulation of the ideal entity.

As for the Laws? There lies the complexity. There are many forms of Laws spread throughout Existence, each with its singularities and explicit role in building the whole.

Each has strength, but they are equally important. The fact that one has greater destructive power does not make the other insignificant, but shows that its role is not to cause destruction. As the "Big Bang" event happened, everything was based on it, it gave shape that feeds the Universal Laws, enabling the appearance of life, bringing movement to the dimensions.

Imagine such an event; it was like a line being formed by the creator, the Laws are the needle, and thus, the fabric of space and time is made.

Basically, Laws are small particles that exist in every drop of the ocean or grain of sand; understanding the functionality of each in the cosmic fabric gave the opportunity to manipulate its core, becoming capable of innumerable feats beyond human comprehension.

He was now trying to understand something so complicated.

In his mind, his sapphire eyes opened in the nonexistent darkness, illuminating the black void with the crystalline blue of the ocean. They stared around, absorbing information from every detail of the unknown place.

He was sitting and surrounded by eight stars that resembled blooming flowers and had six petals each, with an octagon enclosing them. But the stars, however, had no glow. They were empty, hollow, and dull, as if they had lost their purposes and now just waited patiently for the moment they would become bright lights in the cosmos and be extinguished from existence.

Everything was within his reach, but everything was infinite; time and space did not exist, dimensional measures did not apply to his current existence. He had long understood something about the nature of that conceptual world he was in. In particular, about the illogical structure of time in that timeless world.

For example, changes in that place did not occur with time. The subject simply changed on its own: he didn't know exactly what caused this phenomenon to happen. It probably had nothing to do with the concept of movement, but nothing would change just by standing still.

So, he ascended, as if climbing steps of a staircase while phenomena shone infinitely and finitely in the place...

The higher he climbed, the more incomprehensible things he encountered.

And then...

A wall appeared. A ceiling?

The space above him was filled with something Ikki couldn't even begin to comprehend. And so, his journey finally ended. He encountered the wall of absolute misunderstanding. Was this all humans were capable of? Then perhaps there was still hope... because there were things he didn't understand!

For if he did, everything would lose color.

This was the pinnacle of human conceptualization. He was already beginning to understand the characteristic problem of a superior being: boredom. However, even there, there was still hope. There were still unknown things.

And this was still a mortal level.

But that was already a level of transition, which brought Ikki, a mortal, closer to a higher level. But because there were things he didn't understand... he didn't plan to jump higher than that. He looked down the [Staircase] but couldn't find anything there. There was not even a "down." Since he no longer needed ground to sustain himself, he couldn't find it anymore.

He lost his human senses.

...Is it still possible to return...?

Then his mind cooled, he began to reason properly while observing the entire infinite staircase, he knew he would have to understand it all if he wanted to pass the ceiling, that was his mission, to understand, learn, and absorb all concepts and laws, knowing this, his observation captured what he wanted, and his existence descended to the first steps, at the beginning, in its infinitude, he wandered, instinctively he knew where to go, on the way, he passed by a meteorite-shaped rainbow lightning, he knew it was Lightning, something he had almost completed his understanding of one hundred percent, beside it a cosmic storm shattered the void, it was Wind, something he also almost had complete knowledge of, that wasn't what he wanted...

He gazed at a white mist that covered the infinitude, it was familiar, the concept of Magic that covered the whole theater of existence in a layer of mystery, it was complicated... He knew that, but he dove into the mist while contemplating its infinitude.

He moved forward, he could go back to the Law of Lightning and the Law of Wind, but he knew that even if he spent a long time trying to understand these two Laws, it would lead nowhere, even if only two percent was missing to complete his understanding, he felt he would spend eternity to glimpse what was missing, in his desperation he tried to seek new concepts and Laws, he needed to fill the "Conceptual Void" within him to form his Divinity, he had to become a God to bring his mother back...

He spent days, months, or years? He didn't know, but he continued diving deeper into the concept. Making his understanding of magic increasingly greater.