Making a Video Game Company to Get My Waifu - Chapter 24 (Patreon)

As everyone went about in their own way to relax, prepare or both, I found a quiet moment to sit a alone for a while.

The plan for Atlas ultimately went for the goal of physically crippling him, rather than wearing him down. In hindsight, wearing down the Titan of Endurance was an obvious failing strategy. We went with making him literally unable to dodge the killing blows, to ensure we take him out definitively. Annabeth suggested multiple plans that in theory would be good, but were too complicated. Artemis and I somehow had the same idea of just applying the KISS principle.

Percy, Bianca, Thalia and I try and break Atlas bit by bit with Artemis, her Hunters and my mom serving to confuse and distract him.

With that done, everyone went about doing their own business till it was time to head off to kill the titan. I feel I might have to bring up my "trump card" idea, if they aren't ready by then.

Artemis was being a loner, just sitting by herself. I'd say she's meditating, but I don't think that's a Greek God thing. Or maybe she was. I think there was that one god who's a Buddhist. Some fucking how.

Grover was still next to Bessie, both watching Percy try and make vibrations occur through the water, that carry over into the ground, properly this time. Thalia was doing some weird jumping exercise, while Zoe was providing commentary, with Thalia throwing potshots back at the ancient Huntress.

Annabeth went to talk to Pasiphaë, inquiring about her potions and magic.

As for me, I let the Minotaur Archetype out into the Labyrinth. Since the Labyrinth and I were one, I could spawn him in any location in the Labyrinth, and from there he could release the flood of minotaurs. Some monsters were a bit more resilient than others.

Ladon was tough but beyond its breath, it wasn't all that much trouble to zerg rush it. It was going a bit crazy since the golden apple tree was stolen from right under its nose, well body really. But it can whine and scream all it wanted, it can get fucked. Eventually it will fall and be added to the Labyrinth.

The Hesperides were also around, tried to be a nuisance once with that whole "force people to dance" thing. A terror roar that one of my minotaur could do, had them down on their asses, trembling and unable to act like grounded kids. They were told to sit down and shut up, that eventually I'll talk to them, and if they become a problem, they'd face punishment from the new owner of this land. Me.

I blinked as I noticed a different monster giving my variants trouble. The Kampe was a bit of a pain in the ass. It was way more mobile than its body suggested. Huh, I guess while Ladon was technically more dangerous, it was too used to being stationary. Take away the advantage of the many heads, and its screwed. Kampe however seemed used to battle. Guess that comes from being the Jailer of Cyclopes and Hekatonkheires. She has to be strong enough to contain those beings.

Hmm, I might have to actually step in myself. I frowned. Although the power from taking in the essence of Kampe and Ladon should strengthen the Tower for maybe a few more hours on their own.

I halted that thought, noticing Bianca approaching me.

"...Hey." She said awakwardly, shuffling her feet a bit.

Welp, might as well talk about this now.

"Hey, kid." I smiled.

She gave annoyed frown at my response, but smiled afterwards and sat down next to me.

"So..." Bianca "casually" began. "How have you been?" She said looking up at me.

I stared back down. I met her eyes and just kept staring long enough for her to feel nervous.

"Um—"

"Bianca?"

"Y-Yeah?"

"We need to talk."

"Uh oh."

"How are you doing that?" Annabeth asked, upon seeing Pasiphaë looking potions into cards.

"It's a form of magic originating from Egypt, where it is possible to transform an object, or even the false image of a person into Mist, called a Mistform. From there, store them into these cards called Mistform Cards." Pasiphaë explained in a neutral tone.

"I see." Annabeth said and was quiet for a moment. "Could you teach me? It seems like a useful skill to have. Being able to summon needed items on demand."

"How good are you at using the Mist?" Pasiphaë asked with a bored look toward the girl. "Demigods of Athena usually do not purse the path of sorcery. Too chaotic and nearly without order and structure at all. It's an art, sure, but not really one that can last or be appreciated."

"I never thought of it like that. I mean, I met Circe once and she said I had talent for it." Annabeth answered.

"Ha!" Pasiphaë laughed. "Circe is an idiot who got dumped once or twice and decided all men are demons, and all women are superior lifeforms. A compliment from her isn't a trustworthy assessment, she'll say anything to enslave another woman to her island."

"The women there weren't the ones enslaved." Annabeth frowned, wondered back to Circe's words.

"Those are the ones who bought her rhetoric, or were smart enough to not openly disagree her. I assure you those who openly opposed her were 'sadly let go of for they were truly lost to the world of men, and need a fresh start free from it'." Pasiphaë quoted and Annabeth's face paled at those words, as Pasiphaë had changed her voice to that of Circe when she said them.

If I really had said 'no', would she have just killed me right away? She didn't seem like she'd want to but Pasiphaë is her sister. She would know her better, wouldn't she? Annabeth looked away, lost in thought.

"You haven't answered my question." Pasiphaë cut off Annabeth's spiraling thoughts.

"Um, right! About using the Mist. I guess... Not that well." Annabeth looked down.

"A child of Athena showing humility? Will wonders never ceases?" Pasiphaë chuckled and rolled her eyes.

"What's your problem with me?" Annabeth scowled, snapping back up at the sorceress's biting sarcasm.

"I've never had the best interactions with demigods like you or your siblings until recently." Pasiphaë's answer was curt. She was giving only the bare minimum of her reasoning, due to wanting to limit her interaction with Annabeth. She did this to stay polite and not break the xenia in place.

"Wasn't a son of Athena the one who helped you in your story? Daedalus spared you of dealing with what your curse caused." Annabeth said. "I mean, before he changed into a much better form."

Pasiphaë slowly turned her head to Annabeth with a raised eyebrow.

"Child, are you incapable of not making enemies for yourself?" Pasiphaë at this point was more curious than angry.

An effect of interacting with her son, she supposed. A better outcome than she had expected. Usually she didn't have the patience to deal with disrespectful demigods of Athena like this, without just turning them into a lizard or something.

"...Sorry, I didn't mean anything bad by it. I'm glad for the help Asterios gave us, and I like him better like this. It's just... I'm confused. So much is happening, and so much changed and I feel like I'm not able to keep up. So I'm trying to understand to get things back under control."

"And it is not my duty to relieve you of your fears or mental anguish, child." Pasiphaë deadpanned back. "Do not think I haven't noticed your disgruntlement, that my son and I have a close relationship with one another."

"I just don't understand, okay!?" Annabeth cried out. "I mean, you were cursed by Poseidon, you had the Minotaur, and he was a vicious monster that almost killed Percy two years ago, and would have killed his mom if Hades hadn't grabbed her. But then, he's best friends with Bianca and her brother. He protected them both, and then came to save us all. And then not only could he fight a titan, he can control the Labyrinth, make this tower and seems to know advanced physics, and you two seem happy around each other. It's like everything I know about history and the world stopped making sense."

Pasiphaë closed her eyes, took a breath to center herself, then looked at the distressed girl once more.

Asterios was right. Children in large dosages are annoying. ...Well, not him. Maybe it's just Athena's offspring that are this annoying. It would be nice to spend time being closer with my son, but he doesn't seem comfortable with that yet. That's fine, there's eternity for us to forge our bond as mother and son. 

Pasiphaë sighed.

"...I never hated Asterios. He was never a curse to me." Pasiphaë finally said. "And Daedalus was suppose to make the Labyrinth have an easy escape for my son, but that demigod's pride couldn't allow him to make such a 'flawed' invention." She snorted.

"Huh?" Annabeth said, eyes wide in shock at this information.

"But of course, all the books on history and mythology would conclude that I was horrified when I 'regained my mind'. Or that I agreed with Minos and also wanted my son imprisoned. I was the one punished, while Minos rewarded in death for being Zeus' child." Pasiphaë spat the words bitterly. Her eyes softened in memory, before she shook her head. "You are a child, Annabeth Chase." Pasiphaë said, and the look of age in her eyes, ones that had seen things beyond anything Annabeth could know or imagine, made the young daughter of Athena stop and listen this time. "Children your age are meant to be curious and learn about the world. But to assume that you already know everything there is to know about it, is your folly." She looked toward Asterios talking with Bianca with a content smile. "I used to think the same, yet even I have come to learn there are more possibilities in this world than I thought I knew.

"Even if the Fates out right show you your future, it still isn't true until it had come to pass. Until you walk the path, take the action." Pasiphaë met Annabeth's widened eyes once more. "At the end of the day, there is no monster, god nor Fate that will outright take your hand and make you do an action you do not wish to do. You might be tricked, manipulated, confused or accidently thrown into it, but ultimately its your choice."

"H-How...?" Annabeth breath hitched.

"I was once worshiped as an oracular goddess because of my clairvoyant abilities. While I'm not one of the Oracles of the Fates, I could look into the future if I tried. Looking into the present or the past is a much simpler task." The sorceress mother of Asterios explained.

"Is that how he made a game that has glimpses of a possible future? Because he inherited some of your Sight?" Annabeth wondered. Pasiphaë gave her a pointed dry look. "I can't stop thinking about it, okay!?" Annabeth shouted. "Sorry." Before she quickly lowered her voice. "I just... If I stop trying to find the answer or clues found in your son's game. If I stop thinking about it and something bad happens when I could have seen it coming then its on me. But if I don't and..."

"And it turns out that nothing bad happens, then that means you cut off your relationship with your friends at camp, your mortal family, and even your friend who might have been growing into something more, on the wrong conclusion." Pasiphaë finished for her.

Annabeth flinched, almost looking like she was going to cry, before shaking her head, and a pitiful defiant look came to her face.

"It's not cut off, I... could still talk to them. It just won't be as much." Annabeth said, her voice showing how much she doesn't believe those words.

For a while Pasiphaë was quite, before something came to mind.

"Do you know that as an immortal I sometimes don't notice when a decade had pasted." Pasiphaë threw a non-sequitur.

"Huh?" Annabeth blinked in confusion.

"I once met this brilliant young girl, Helena Blavatsky. Had some pretty funny and interesting ideas about magic. We met a few times discussion theory on magic, religion and belief. However when I remembered to go visit her, a decade and a bit had went by, and she had passed away a few years earlier. I was pretty disheartened about the fact, but such was life for an immortal." Pasiphaë looked at Annabeth seeing so many brilliant young mend and women who were taken by time, before the sorceress noticed. "Do not take the bonds you have with mortals lightly, girl."

Annabeth trembled, gritting her teeth. She had been condemned, berated by gods and immortals alike, being told her choice was wrong over and over again. She wasn't sure how much more of this she can take before she exploded.

"Show me a disguise." Pasiphaë said out of the blue.

"Huh?" Annabeth was broken out of her thoughts.

"You asked about how to use a Mistform. Show me where you are in using the Mist, and we'll see where you can go from there. As a Hunter of Artemis, disguises, especially those of blending into the environment should come easy to you." Pasiphaë said.

"Yes!" Annabeth said, latching onto the new lesson.

"The thing you need to understand is, while magic is used through the mist and made easier to do so, it is ultimately a crutch. Like a magician's wand, but only us of divine blood can outright say its a crutch for us. For mortal magicians, they require extensive training to use it, or a wand to use the Mist to cast magic. Meaning a double layer their will has to go through to cast magic." Pasiphaë explained.

"So advanced magic is cast directly from one's will, without using a wand or the Mist as a foci or an aid?" Annabeth asked.

"If one reaches that level of skill, where only the highest of magician, or a Magic God can reach, then with the Mist, they are a terror to behold." Pasiphaë replied. She then tapped her finger on Annabeth and her still forming Mist disguise broke down.

"Hey!"

"Flimsy, and you don't have time to get this skill down in time. So instead you here's what you're going to do. Work on layering your disguise to look exactly like you, but a few centimeters left or right of you."

"Oh! So that when I get in close and an enemy attacks, they would be confused as I weaved between their strikes unharmed. I should add wounds and the like to the image when that happens, to make them lose their guard." Annabeth said with rising enthusiasm.

"No. It's so that when someone somehow get close to you, despite you having a bow and arrow, you'd have one last ditch chance to survive."

"...Oh. Right."

The child of Athena was annoying and constantly testing Pasiphaë's patience with her bullheadedness (heh), but like Asterios said, she was ultimately a child. And its the duty of the adults to guide children.

Look at me, already acting motherly. Hehe. Are you watching, Asterios?

"Now, while incantations, or employing stories and myth related to certain events can help with magic spells, the most important thing is..."

Pasiphae kept instructing Annabeth for a while. The girl showing a pretty good ability to memorize, but that was nothing too impressive for a child of Athena.

They continued like that for a while until a commotion took their attention.

A Little While Earlier

"I can explain!"

"You know," I chuckled. "When I discovered that a certain scene that I had made sure was removed from the game, somehow found itself back in. And I found out, after it had already sold over a hundred thousand copies, that day I came close to discovering if it was possible for a monster to die of a heart attack."

"W...Were you...? Oh my gods, I'm so sorry!" Bianca cried out.

"Thankfully no." I gave a lop-sided amused smirk. "But it was one of those moments definitely stuck in my memories now, due to sheer fright. Matched only by, now that I'm calm enough to appreciate it, your father talking to me when he found out."

Bianca's eyes widened and her jaw dropped.

"Da... Dad knows?" In that voice of a kid that knew they fucked up, and really wished the adults in their lives didn't know a certain thing, that will most definitely be brought up later.

"Yeeeep!" I popped the 'p' for emphasis. "Really was pissed off, but we managed to work something out. I have to do three tasks for him, and he'll call things square."

"I'll talk to him and—" Bianca began.

"No!" I got another life changing fright just imaging that. "No, seriously. This is the best possible outcome, that could have came from this situation. You asking him to remove or lessen the punishment, or worse, you telling him that you were the one to put back that scene will likely make him so angry he'd explode. I'm not exactly being metaphorical either."

"But I'm the one who did it." She argued.

"Yeah, but I'm the one who let the game get published, and didn't check after everything. I'm the grown-up here, so I'm responsible." I said pointing to myself.

"I mean..." Bianca furrowed her brows in through. "Didn't you reform like a few months before we met in Westover? Doesn't that mean I'm the older one here? I should take responsibility." A thought came to her, and she grinned. "Maybe you should have been calling me 'Ms. Bianca' this whole time. I'm older used to being an older sister and—OUCH!" I flicked her forehead.

"Have you been reading or watching Japanese hentai or something lately?" I held back a snort.

"It's called being cultured! And it's not my fault the Aphrodite Cabin makes an insane amount of doujins, fan art or lemon fics, and keeps constantly inviting me over to read them." Bianca then remembered something and shuddered. "Let's not get even into the Aphrodite Cabin Vice Counselor. That Drew is something freaky. She's obsessed with either you or Percy, and all her drawings are about..." Seeing me me with a raised eyebrow, she adjusted what she was going to say. "Hentai of the Dark Side."

"Look at who finally watched Star Wars." I joked.

Bianca laughed at that.

We both fell into a comfortable silence for a bit, as Bianca leaned her head against my arm. I should dissaude her from this, but she's just a kid. Soon she'll grow up and grow out of this. ...I hope.

"Why did you do it?" I finally asked, just ripping the band-aid off.

Bianca straighten up, looking upfront with an introspective frown, as she tried to think on how to answer.

"Let's get this out of the way first." I began, making her look at me in confusion. "Were you bully or coercive into doing this in anyway?"

"What?" She blinked at that, as if the thought was alien to her. At seeing my skeptic look, she shook her head. "No. No one even knew I put it back in. I was never bullied, and heck, you think with who I am, some mortal kids could bully me?"

"Bullying isn't about physical strength, its about psychology." I shook my head. "Either way, at least that established that you did this because... you wanted to?" I said it like a question, but we both knew the answer.

"...Yeah." Bianca said, looking down with a small smile.

"Bianca." I said. She looked back up at me. "Why?"

"Because..." She looked aside, but didn't turn away. "I didn't know how to tell you that I liked you."

"Bianca, you're twelve and I'm literally centuries older than you." I argued.

"I'm pretty sure we establish I'm the old one robbing the cradle here." Bianca said, and I couldn't stop the snorting laugh that erupted from me.

I covered my mouth to muffle my laughs but they were audible all the same. Bianca laughing wasn't helping either.

"Also back in Ancient Greece, someone looking like me was the height of beauty, right?" She cheekily asked.

"This is serious." I managed to get the words out. "And no. A little older, and even then people who had relations with those your age, were either the same age, or weren't seen as normal. Unless its a marriage. Even then nothing would happen until the girl was older for safer carrying."

Bianca finished her laughing, got her breath back and addressed me.

"So I need to get my dad to marry us first."

"I'm serious, Bianca."

"So am I." She said with a firm look in her eyes. "You..." she pursed in her lips, looking away for a second to gather her thoughts before meeting my eyes again. "You were there for me. For Nico."

"I was there on a job." I argued.

"No. Alecto told me you went to my father first, to ask him to protect us." She argued back.

"Yeah, and if he had said no, then I'd have just left the two of you alone, while focusing on my game." I countered.

Bianca grinned like the cat that got the canary and shook her head.

"I don't believe that." She said with that tone of a kid that wouldn't accept a different argument, already having made up their mind, and thus thinking they won.

"You didn't know about me being the one approaching your dad at that point." I said.

"I don't care. Love doesn't care about rhyme or reason." Bianca said confidently.

"Love?" I raised an eyebrow at her confident words.

Bianca blushed at looked down.

"I... think... it will eventually be love. No! It's definitely love and I care about you." She said, as if drawing on some advise from an annoying brown noser from somewhere. "You were there." Bianca looked back up at me with a more calm look. "When everything felt too much and felt insane, you were there. And you made me feel safe. Things... didn't seem that awful anymore. I felt like I could be a ki—myself again." She quickly corrected, and I had to hold down a smirk as not to make her feel bad for the slip up. Best to let her say her piece before rejecting her. "So,,, yeah. I lo-ove you." Her voice hitched at that word, still not fully comfortable with saying it.

"Bianca it could just be love as an older brother." I said. She shook her head.

"Nope. It's definitely the romantic kind. So..." She gathered her resolve. "What's your answer?"

"...I don't think I'm the right person to accept your love, Bianca." I said, and it felt painful seeing that heartbroken look in her eyes. "There are many reasons why this won't work out, but mainly..." And right there, determination returned to her eyes.

"Who's 'Euryale'?" She asked softly.

"..." I blinked. Eyes widened in surprise at her asking that question. But then again, she did have access to all my notes, and I did work on Euryale's Servant sheet first and most extensively. I thought.

"You wrote a lot about her. She seemed important, more than the other characters or Servants. I looked her up, and found some Euryales, like Orion's mother, or an Amazonian. The one you wrote about was, one of Medusa's sisters yet nothing much is known about her. But the way you wrote about her, it was... and your reaction now..." She hinted but waited for me to answer.

"Euryale is the woman I love." I said definitively. I looked forward at nothing. "She's not in this world though."

"...She's Faded, isn't she?" Bianca said with a soft understanding voice, one of pity, yet... hope. I held back the feeling of irritation, she was just a kid with a crush.

"Yeah. Except..." I looked down, lips twisting into a slight frown. "I don't even know if its the same Euryale from my memories. I hoped that... if stories about her circulated again, then maybe... maybe I might see her again." I shook my head. "Although I know its a long shot all thing considered."

"...Your memories... not the same as this world...?" Smart girl. I looked back to her, and Bianca, someone who was exposed deep into the Nasu Lore from its conception, and its story ideas began putting the piece together. "You're...!" She looked at me with her eyes wide.

I held up a finger playfully to my lips.

Bianca looked down in deep thought, reevaluating things.

Even if she was a determined 12 year old with a crush, surely she understands, from story tropes that I introduced her to, how important a lost love was. How big of a deal it is, that I'm going through so much trouble to—

"Welp, guess I can settle for the harem ending." Bianca nodded definitively to herself.

"What!?" It took everything in me not to shout.

"Yeah, I read enough stories about the Tsunoverse to see where things are going, and how to solve them. If she and I came to an agreement, then it all works out." She crossed her arms, looking proud and smirking at me.

"That is not how that works." I shook my head.

Fuck, fuck, fuck, shit. Hades is going to kill me.

"I love you." She said it then time without stuttering, cutting through any argument or rebuttal. "And I'm not going to just give up on that love. I'll fight for it, and I'm going to make you happy with me." She smiled all smug like. Adorable little brat.

"Bianca, listen to me. You are still young, you don't know if you'll grow to fall in love with someone else, or—"

"Nope." The smugness increased.

"You are mortal. One day you will—"

Bianca produced a Golden Apple from her shadow and help it up to me. I just stared at it gobsmacked, then back to Bianca who wiggled her eyebrows at me.

"I'll wait until I'm old enough before I eat it. Need to have the required space for..." She looked me down and up. "Everything."

Smack. 

I facepalmed.

"I swear to the gods, whomever is responsible for this..." I muttered under my breath.

"Aphrodite Cabin. Totally their fault. I'm innocent."

I gave her a deadpan stare.

"Hehe, but seriously." Bianca put the apple back in her shadow, and looked at me with a most sincere expression. "I love you and I'm not gonna give up on you. So expect me around for the long haul."

"...I..." I was at lost for words. Who the hell makes that kinda declaration at that age, and so firmly.

"If you really don't want me, then say it firmly. Really say that you'll never love me and I'll let it go." She smiled at me.

"..." I didn't know what to say or do.

I don't want to hurt her like that. And... yeah there is something attractive about her. Maybe my Ancient Greek sensibilities from my Minotaur and Asterios side, but I don't see anything wrong with Bianca looking attractive to me, since as a demigod she doesn't register as a normal human teen. However, her being cute or not doesn't change that my feeling to Euryale take precedence.

A harem was just something for the fictional stories, or the many fanfics written by horny authors.

I didn't want to be alone, that's my original motivation for all of this. Maybe this won't be bad, but I wasn't lying when I said I wasn't sure if this whole thing, of getting Euryale back would work or not.

And I don't want to look at Bianca as some back-up option if I failed. She deserves better than that.

So in the end...

"I..."

There was a rumble. A groan of stone being moved.

Everyone looked at where a door was forming on the wall of the Labyrinth.

I looked at what the Labyrinth was doing, and it was re-expanding as it normally was, trying to regain its previous size, while also drawing in monsters to slaughter and take their essence to strengthen itself.

The door that form look like a normal door you'd find in a house. A high quality one, but made of normal material.

A red haired girl in silk pajamas and a night cap, opened it with a yawn. She froze upon seeing us. Looking up and around seeing the Labyrinth. She looked back to see stairs behind her.

"This isn't the bathroom I came from." Said a very, very familiar redhead. "Wait." A slow smile started rising on her face. "Percy." She pointed at the confused Percy. "Annabelle." She pointed at the incredulous and flabbergasted Annabeth. "Byanka." She pointed at the slowly horrified Bianca. "And Asterios Alter!" She cried out as she pointed at me.

"I'm more the original than the Alter actually." I said reflexively.

"I FUCKING KNEW IT!" Shout Rachel Elizabeth Dare, double fist pump in the air. "FTK IS REAL, BABY! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

"Wow." Eris spoke in my mind.

It was one word. But its tone, it was said with such emotion that conveyed someone shocked. Shock that was so strong it leads to anger. Anger so strong it rolls right back to calm shock.

"Those three hags really wanted their plot point beats to play out that much? They had to ensure the kids meet the girl now, when it can easily be arranged for later? They really wanted it that much, that they put their thumbs on the small details. On my territory. Making it not chaotic?! Again, wow. ...Fuck'em."