DA : Chapter 158: Rampage II

Both gods looked at the goddess, seeing how the shock was finally setting in after everything that happened in the last several minutes. Seeing Calypso so shaken and knowing just how close they had been to being too late if not for Cloelia's active panic button cooled their tempers even as Annabeth shivered in disgust.

Too close, far too close.

...

Still Annabeth knew that Calypso need her husband now and as much as Leo tried to play tough and wanting to help her, she knew he needed his wife just as much just to assure himself she was okay.

"I need to go," Annabeth said softly before looking to Calypso. "You get her cleaned and packed to New Rome. This island is compromised and we don't know if more are on the way."

Leo looked like he wanted to argue with her. Maybe reason that she should wait for him to get Calypso safely to New Rome and then head out together but Annabeth knew his heart and mind would stay with his wife. Last she need was him distracted in a fight with a titan like Pallas, someone that even her mother had to hunt for decades, fighting on and off until she finally caught and defeated him a few years before the end of the first Titan War.

"I need to go and get my daughter," she continued before turning her back and leaving without another word, quickly making her way to the beach before flashing away with a clear location in mind.

Her world distorted for all of five seconds, shifting and contorting until she arrived in a new flash, her armored boots crunching on a thin layer of frost that covered the grounds. She didn't pay it much attention though as she immediately expanded her senses and searched for anything close. What she found didn't relax her at all.

She found at least two divine signatures with one being her daughters almost completely overshadowed by the imposing one that she assumed was Pallas himself. Aside from him almost two dozen signatures of monster and mortal origins came apparent, somewhat scattered around Pallas or outside and around the city leading to him. Her head swiveled in the direction and she came upon the sight of Olympus' throne room looming alone from a dark sky.

The entire mountain was eerily silent and cold as slow breezes drifted about. Thin layers of snow dotted about the deserted streets as frost covered windows. A part of her pitied the sight as she walked slowly in the direction of the throne room, her gaze passing over the statues erected in honor of the 'Golden Generation'.

She snorted at it, finding it rather ironic now and even a little tacky but she shook her head of those thoughts and continued on her way. With her godly sight she could already make out some guards along the steps and gates into the room. Three telechines, a cyclops, and four mortals dressed in mashes of militaristic black kevlars and such clothes or small segments of Celestial bronze.

Still, it was the weapons that concerned her more, spotting several assault rifles that she was sure had been fitted for divine metal rounds instead of lead along with the traditional weapons of the monsters.

But, seeing as they had failed to detect her yet due to the distance of her arrival, she made her move. She swiftly moved until she was hidden in the shadows of one building before focusing, an intense glow surrounding her hands for a few seconds before it faded to reveal her weapon.

In her hands was a rather large yet incredibly thin dagger nearly as long as her forearm with a jagged edge. Made of Celestial bronze and simple leather grip that seemed far too worn for the time she'd had it, and even with the blade being marred with what resembled blood stains, the blade positively radiated a sickening sense of bloodlust.

It was her symbol of power … and she hated it.

Just seeing the weapon made her remember the days of her anger and regret in her choice of forging her symbol of power and divine weapon.

You see, much like their own thrones their symbols of power could be influenced to mirror the god … or be forged in an effort for a god to take on an aspect. Thanks for having read so much from her mother's extensive files and documents, she learned some deeply sensitive secrets of not only gods but about the head bastard himself.

From what she gathered, gods did in fact have something akin to DNA and are essentially the most advanced organisms to ever exist.

Their power and abilities along with unique properties such as being able to breed with anything, to change their forms, and more importantly, to adapt either slowly or rapidly depending on the case allowed for constant change and to gain or lose new properties while negating the draw backs of inbreeding… mostly, cases like Ares begged to differ.

Upon discovering that, she made a more in depth look at old documents, older than even her own mother and written by one of the elder cyclops, that detailed the idea and creation of the three weapons of Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades. Their divine weapons were meant to amplify their natural ability as well as grant further abilities forged within the weapons themselves.

There she learned the distinction between natural symbols and as it was termed 'forced' symbols. As it were, natural symbols of power included their owning god in the forging process, usually with the god in question supplying their blood and focusing their divine energy into the weapon as it's forged.

Though incredulous at first, she read about how the weapons would naturally take a shape of their own which would then be further formed and perfected by the smith working on it though the general shape could be adjusted to the god's comfort such as a blade taking shape and then the smith fashioning it into a specific type of blade.

Then, as long as the god kept their mind relatively clear and didn't try to influence the weapon and the abilities they desired, the forged divine symbol would became a natural one.

What made natural divine symbols special was that they often times displayed significant more power than forced counterparts and unlike a forced symbol, only the owning god can use it effectively. Also was the fact that natural symbols could develop unique properties or abilities of their own that could only again be used by their owning god.

Forced symbols on the other hand had extremes, from weapons being radically reshaped to runes being welded in and retaining the properties even if no longer apparent.

Sure, the weapons were still powerful but on the flip side, could be used by other divine beings. That was why others could command lighting if they took Zeus' bolt. It was a forced symbol, meant to augment his own possibly low lighting affinity but in the end lacking the power or abilities he was meant to have.

It was only thanks to constant exposure that Zeus developed a high enough natural affinity to lightning that allowed for his children to inherit it. Even Poseidon's trident was hinted at having some tampering near the end, and by the small note Annabeth found at the end of the document, meant to further increase his already high water affinity.

Only Hades' helm was completely natural meaning only he knew the true extent of its abilities, something that Annabeth had no intention of finding out for herself. However, that brought her back to looking at her dagger … her natural symbol.

Once upon a time she rationalized with herself, saying that the dagger mirrored her Guerilla domain since it was the only one of the two focused on combat. But that didn't numb the sting as she learned her dagger's abilities it carried and just what it reflected on her. Because the dagger almost seemed to mock her past with what it could do.

For one, when she intended to kill without being seen the dagger would cloak her much like her old hat and only make her visible again upon discovery. The second ability was literally tailor fit for back-stabbers.

If she managed to get close enough to an opponent without being noticed until making an attack, the first stab will always land and draw blood regardless of whether the target had the ability to dodge in time. The only difference would be whether the first stab lands in a lethal spot or not but in cases such as those with full armors or curses such as that of Achilles, the dagger will find the vulnerable point.

The allusion to her and what she'd done during the last war wasn't lost on her or just how much those last choices marked her. She may have been the golden standard for demigoddesses, cherished and respected warrior, and married to an Olympian but the dagger said more. That she was also one suited to the role of assassin, to hide in shadows and strike when it suited her best before disappearing.

A ruthless opportunist.

And so she hated that dagger since the first time she held it but she could never will herself to get rid of it even if she did hide it. None knew of its abilities though, not even her mother.

However the times to lament and regret about the past was over as she held the dagger in her hands, feeling the sadly familiar coldness and weight of the weapon in hand. Holding it in a reversed grip she swiftly moved from her hiding spot and clung to the shadows as she moved through a city she knew like the back of her hand. Making use of her own divine ability she scaled walls and leapt over roofs while landing with little more than silent taps.

Ambushing enemy strongholds and offing guards and sentries. Now this was a time where her main domain of Guerilla Warfare made her a veritable nightmare. Soon she was on top of two guards, overlooking them from a roof about three stories up. Both were mortal and dressed in Kevlar and dark fatigues with rifles, their gazes set on a passage before them that lead down into the hub of the city and close to the main road.

Intense grey eyes shifting between the two, she silently shifted her shield to hanging on her back much like a turtle shell before she stepped off the ledge. A three story fall was nothing to her but even then she built up plenty of momentum with the added weight of her armor. Sticking out one foot ahead of the other she landed with her heel right on the head of the first mortal.

He couldn't even utter a sound as his body gave under her and his skull met the ground the next moment with a wet crunch and pop from the pressure of her foot but she didn't care about that.

No, in that same time her second foot touched on the ground she spun and slashed, her arm nothing but a blur to the mortal that had barely turned to the sound of his ally being crushed, before moving on. As she walked up the passage she faintly heard the gurgling of the second mortal before a dull thud meaning he'd already chocked on his own blood.

She was swift in systematically dispatching any guards patrolling, snapping necks, slitting throats, stabbing hearts. Her eyes glowing with suppressed fury, her golden hair spilling out of her helm and drifting with the cold breezes as blood dripped off her dagger made her out to be the very angel of death.

Soon over a dozen corpses were left to rot in the alleyways and corners of Olympus along with generous amounts of monster dust but the wanton carnage did little to calm the anger within.

Every moment she wasted on these fools meant another moment her daughter could be in more danger and Annabeth wasn't betting that Pallas was the patient type. Gritting her teeth as she snuck up behind another one, an older demigod, possibly legacy this time dressed in a badly repaired Imperial gold breastplate over military garb, a rather large Celestial bronze sword held at his side with the point digging into the marble ground.

She would have wondered who it was, which descent was he, or why he was here serving a titan, and much more but that didn't matter at the time. All she cared about was that he'd been part of the party attacking her child and to her that was unforgivable. With an audible snarl she stepped up behind him, one arm wrapping around to cover his mouth and muffling his near shout of surprise before her right moved to plunge her dagger into his heart but she paused.

Why give him such a quick death? He was a demigod traitor and so many swift kills weren't doing anything to express just how she felt. Her thoughts though were broken as he struggled but it was pointless.

Her arms had been placed in a way that the crutch of her elbows pinned his upper arms to his sides while his elbows and forearms jostled around. Too bad he obviously couldn't move his blade without two hands judging by how his right arm tensed but only managed to wiggle the sword still partly dug into the ground. Not to mention that she was strong enough to casually crush stone and metals alike.

Wait … crush…

A malicious smile formed on her face as she held onto the struggling demigod as she adjusted her dagger hand to pointing the weapon away before she hugged him around the chest.

To an onlooker it would have seemed like an intimate embrace of lovers … save the obvious struggling of one party. Her hold firm she kept her smile as she started to squeeze … and squeeze.

Let it be known that she was a war goddess and as such, had the potential to be cruel and unforgiving like the aspect of war she personified, especially when angered.

So, she released that anger, hugging tighter and tighter as she listened to the demigod grunt and thrash in vain before the first popping came. More pops followed with cracks as his arms went limp, a scream muffled as she felt something wet trail over her fingers covering his mouth.

Then the sound of his shabby armor crumpling under her sheer strength, something she carefully monitored to make sure things went nice and slow…

Soon the sound of cracking as constant as screams and coughs were cut off even as she felt a near stream of warm liquid flowed through her fingers covering his mouth. Then, with one last tug of a squeeze he crumpled like a soda can, his armor and chest alike caving in with an even louder pop than anything previous before she finally let go.

The demigod didn't just slump to the ground upon release but fell on top of himself like a stack of cards, his entire chest cavity and spine having been crushed as blood pooled beneath them.

Annabeth gave one last dismissive snort at the disposed garbage before moving on, still not feeling sated in her growing bloodlust as her dagger glowed an ominous scarlet that was even starting to bleed through into her eyes.

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Don't forget to throw some power Stones, to keep the story going.

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