Aiónios; The Lord of Time 🔧

Chapter 10: Percy

Third year, summer...

Percy was slashing the scythe through trees when a sudden feeling overcame him. A chill that seemed to run down his spine and fear that gripped his soul. He turned around and faced his scythe at the terrifying form of Death.

"Oh, hello Thanatos, you scared me", Percy said as he stabbed his scythe on the ground. The hooded figure with his crow like wings only nodded. Percy sighed, Thanatos wasn't this gloomy when Hazel, Frank, and I saved him from here...

As if reading his mind, Thanatos sighed, "forgive me, but if you remember I had a really bad experience when it comes to this place".

"Understandable", Percy said with a shrug.

"Are you here to kill me? Because I a... have a condition that makes it so I cannot die", Percy asked.

Thanatos cocked his head as he says, "yes, you do have the smell of immortality. But you also still have a strong scent of a demigod. Interesting".

He held out his hand and shadows started to condense until it became a black scythe. He smiled coldly (though it wasn't meant to be but this is freaking Death), and brandished his blade.

"If you want to practice with a scythe, how about having an actual scythe user as your opponent instead of the poor trees".

Percy smiled as he took up his stance as well. They stare eachother down for a few seconds, then the circle. They analyze eachother's stance, searching for any weaknesses, or a change of anykind that can indicate where the other will strike. Thanatos has years on Percy when it comes to using a scythe while Percy has even more years of knowledge coming from Kronos' memories.

Then, Thanatos stiffens, then launches at Percy. He brings his scythe above his head indicating that he'll do a vertical strike, so, Percy brought Kronos' scythe up.

*Kling!*

The sound was so loud that Percy wouldn't be surprised if the poor cashier at the Tesoro gas station heard it.

Percy pushed Thanatos back as he came in with a left side swipe while the god of death was still recovering. Thanatos, however, recognized the move and was able to quickly block the attack and pushes Percy back. Percy satggers slightly but recovers surprisingly fast.

Thanatos slashes right.

Percy ducks, rolls and slashes upwards with force.

Thanatos barely meets his scythe and sparks fly. Thanatos pulls up and slasges downwards, Percy backflips out of the vicinity and darts left. He is behind Thanatos in a matter of seconds and lunges as fast as a rattle snake. Within a blink of an eye, Thanatos whips around and meets his blade with a loud *ching!*

The both jump back and stare at eachother, assessing the other's weaknesses. Then, they became a blurr. Slashing, dodging, blocking, rolling, parrieing, etcetera.

Percy was a raging hurricane as Thanatos was a blazing whirlwind. The battle probably lasted for hours at least, but ended at a stalemate.

Both immortals panting as sweat caked their faces. Then Thanatos smiles and says, "hoîos eídōlon, like a phantom! I almost couldn't see you! I've never had such fun in... a long time!"

Death smiles wide then laughs. "Unfortunately, I haven't come to spar, though that was really fun. Oh! Don't give me that look, I haven't come to kill you either. Hades sent me to give you something-".

Thanatos waves his hand and a pile of dark clothing fell to the ground.

Percy walked over to the pile and picked up a black cloak made of a strange material. It was soft, but felt durable and strong.

"Shadow silk", Thanatos said, as if reading Percy's mind, "the best in the Underworld".

(A/N: made this up, thought it sounded cool)

Percy folded the cloak and gently set it to the side. He then started pulling out pieces of black leather armor. Well, it looked like leather and was light as leather but felt like metal. Percy glanced up as he raised an eyebrow.

"Hellhound leather armor dipped in stygian iron for extra protection. It's very rare to get a hide from those beasts due to them disappearing in dust and stuff. I was surprised that Hades wanted to make you an armor out of such a precious material. No offense of course", Thanatos says as a shadow of envie passed over his face. As quickly as it came, it was gone.

"Yah, I didn't think he liked me that much", Percy agreed, astonished by the gift. There were boots, knee guards (A/N: NO ARROWS IN THE KNEE!!!. {If anyone gets the reference I'll give them some cake 🍰}), gauntlets, elbow guards, and a chest piece that came all the way up to his neck. That, is a lot of hellhound leather..., Percy thought as he gently set the armor down as well. Then, there was some black clothing that seemed to also be made of the shadow silk. Percy had to refrain from rubbing on his face muttering, sooooo soft.

Then, last was the mask. It looked as though it where absorbing the light around it as shadows seemed to pool out. It was skull shaped, yet showed no mouth. It reminded Percy of the mask Death wore in Darksiders II. but instead of being bone white, this mask was as black as the void. It was erie staring at its pits where his eyes would be, imagining the golden eyes that stared back at himself every time he looked into his own reflection within those pits. He realized that with that mask, he could probably even make Tartarus run for his mommy.

Percy grabbed the mask and shuddered at how cold it was. Deffinatly stygian iron, he thought with a shudder as he flipped the mask around. He sighed with relief as he stroked the soft shadow silk that linned the inside of the mask.

"The armor is enchanted to never get dirty and to self repair so there is no need to maintain it. Same with the clothing, cloak, and mask. Hephaestus made the armor as Hades gathered the material and designed it himself-".

Explains the skull look, Percy tnought as he listened intentlyn

"- they wanted to help you along with Apollo and Artemis but no one knew where you where. I just took a wild guess, and I was correct... though I needed to actually really search for you. Poseidon had confidence that you'll find a place far from the gods. Looks like he was right", Thanatos said contentily. 

"The gods are still searching for you, I recommend laying low until Zeus calms down. Hades will keep you updated and I'm thinking Poseidon might- no, no. Zeus would be watching him like a hawk so it would be wise that he won't be told. That's all for me. Maybe we can spar again sometime?  That was fun!"

Percy nods, a small smile on his face, at least I know some gods still like me.

He knows that, despite the gods giving up on searching for him by the time he returns, if he returns, he will need an alias. A name that no one will suspect. He thought about many things, but what stuck pit was one word in Greek, a word that meant Eternal.

Aiónios, I like it...