Chapter 27 - En To The West and Hero Abmush (Patreon)

"So, do you still think my name is devoid of meaning?

My name is Yhwach.

The one who shall take everything from you."

- Yhwach Adnyeus to Mannimarco during the Siege of the Imperial City, Interregnum

***

The next day, Yhwach was walking through the nearby forests of the Camp Half-Blood as he was pondering over the things that he had seen [The Almighty], and he now knew the identity of the person who was the Betrayer in the Prophecy that Percy Jackson received from the Oracle.

Once he started pushing [The Almighty] to the limits, he was able to figure out the identity of the person he wanted to see. At the same time, there was another problem and something which was disturbing him equally.

This wasn't just some random betrayal, but it was orchestrated by someone from behind and someone very powerful who was able to shield Luke Castelllan from [The Almighty]... and that was rather a feat.

If he had to guess, then it was surely a work of the Titans. Despite the propaganda that Zeus was spouting constantly, they never really managed to completely eradicate the threat of the Titans to the Greek Pantheon, and the problem was still very much real.

Kronos was very powerful even among the Titans, and his power was no joke; it was clear that Kronos was more powerful than Zeus. Though the true extent of Kronos's power was something that was a big unknown to much of the world.

Yhwach knew that Kronos was plotting something and that it wasn't anything good. The Titans have been banished to Tartarus, but there was a joke... Hades, despite being the God of the Underworld, didn't have absolute control over the Underworld itself.

Large swaths of the Underworld belonged to the Primordials like Nyx, Erebus, and Tartarus, and they were rather content with giving the Titans a lot of freedom. In the end, the Primordials of the Greek Pantheon didn't care about Zeus and his kingship.

The Primordial Gods that still lived or were active had their own agendas, and it seemed that this agenda was going against that of Zeus being the king of Olympus. Ironically... it is rather funny at that, though Yhwahc was pondering what exactly they were plotting.

If he had to guess, Kronos wanted to put the Olympians against each other, so that they would be tremendously weakened from the civil war. Perhaps they would drag the other Pantheons and Factions into this mess, and it would result in the destruction of Olympus.

It seemed that in this case, Kronos most probably hated Olympus and everything that it represented. If he should have his way, he would let the entire Olympus burn, and in the current situation, it was better to build something new on the ruins of Olympus. 

"One problem after another..."

Yhwach muttered as he then retreated to his quarters that were assigned to him and went to sleep. Though he had to admit that perhaps the time that Kronos spent banished in the Tartarus had humbled the ancient Titan King.

The scheme that he managed to hatch was a very good one... using the disdain and hatred of the Demigods towards their Godly Parents and using one of them to steal the Master Bolt of Zeus and then pinning the fault on Poseidon.

Very smart...

If Yhwach wanted to create civil war between the Olympian Gods and ensure their destruction, he wouldn't do it otherwise. The Greek Gods were generally rather arrogant, even when compared to the other Pantheons and other Gods.

Zeus and Poseidon would for sure clash, and the theft of the Master Bolt was just a final nail in the coffin. Yhwach was sure that even if the Master Bolt wasn't stolen, then sooner or later, Zeus and Poseidon would start a catfight.

Mainly because Zeus was viewing his brother with heightened suspicion, and on the other side, Poseidon was viewing Zeus as a foolish and arrogant King. The Civil War between the Greeks was just a matter of time, especially considering their waning influence that was taking the place all over the world and in the Supernatural Side of the World.

Tomorrow, they would be departing Camp Half-Blood to the West and start searching for the reason for the Prophecy, and their first stop was to find the Turned God.

Yhwach knew that it wasn't Hades for a relatively simple reason.

Hades was much stronger than Zeus; he didn't have the need or anything else to scheme against Zeus, and if he really wanted to make a move against the God-King of Olympus, he would do it personally and just kill him.

***

Next Day, Camp Half-Blood

The next morning, Yhwach woke up rather early, because he had to meet with Valiana and decide their next steps. Valiana already knew that something was wrong when she had seen Yhwach, because they already knew each other too well.

She was also aware that he was going to use his Clairvoyant Abilities to divine the future and uncover the truth of the prophecy that the Oracle of Delphi gave to the young Demigod of Poseidon.

"You look rather bad. It seems that yesterday's divination wasn't that good for you."

Valiana remarked as she looked at Yhwach. As was expected, Bikou was nowhere to be found as the Monkey Yokai was once again playing pranks on the other people within Camp Half-Blood.

It was rather amusing how much annoying his pranks were to the other people, and this time, as these pranks were not aimed at them, which was added value. His most common target was obviously Dionysus because the God of Wine had his power sealed, at least partially, and couldn't defend himself very well against the pranks.

And most importantly, he couldn't sense the pranks and places where various traps were placed by Bikou. 

"Yes and not... I managed to find out who the Betrayer Friend is from the prophecy, but the bad news is that he is being protected by Kronos, so the best thing that we could do for the time being is to observe from a distance."

Indeed, using [The Almighty] Yhwach managed to uncover a lot, but at the same time, there were still many variables that remained unknown, and he didn't like the unknowns. For him, the unknown was an enemy, because he couldn't prepare for the unknown at 100%.

"As you wish. You are the leader... also, when are we leaving?"

Valiana asked as she was rather eager to leave Camp Half-Blood, because she was very bored in this place. For her, Camp Half-Blood was nothing short of a prison, where a bunch of children were training, though they still remained pitifully weak, because they couldn't tap into the Divine Heritage of their Godly Parents.

"Soon... Chiron would select two people who would accompany Percy on the Quest. We cannot be chosen as the participants in the Quest as we are not members of the Greek Pantheon. Most probably, Chiron would send out Grover and Annabeth. Even though the satyr guarding is rather weak, Athena's daughter is very smart, and her knowledge would be very useful during the Quest."

Yhwach explained that he knew that there were always three people who were going on the Greek Pantheon's Quests. It couldn't be the members of the Sternritter, as they were not members of the Greek Pantheon, nor were they Demigods or supernatural beings.

"Ts... then let's spar, I didn't fight anyone for the past few days, and I think that I would go crazy from that..."

Unfortunately for Valiana's battle lust, Yhwach wasn't that keen on fighting right now, and he would have preferred to observe what was happening in the Camp or just wait until they were called.

Not to mention... most importantly, Camp Half-Blood is under the constant scrutiny and sight of the Olympians. So, fighting here would result in the Olympians finding out about their skills, power, and capabilities.

That would be a plainly stupid thing to do, as giving any kind of information to the Greeks was not the smartest idea.

"No sparring here... this entire place is under the scrutiny of the Olympians. They would be able to see anything and all that is happening in Camp Half-Blood, and that's the last thing that we want in our current situation."

He explained much to Valiana's disappointment, but in the end, she relented as she knew that giving the Olympians any kind of look at their capabilities was a foolish thing to do. As far as it was known, the relationship between the Hindu Pantheon and the Greek Pantheon was neutral to mildly disdainful at best.

There was no need to feed them with more and more information... Yhwach was already rather upset that they had some idea of his capabilities due to his earlier confrontation with the Grim Reapers, when they were escaping to Camp Half-Blood.

He was sure that Olympians would pay some attention to it, which was rather problematic as he wasn't keen on feeding his potential enemies with information. If everything went according to the plan, then sooner or later, Olympus would be destroyed by some other faction. 

Or they would be destroyed by the internal strife.

This also wouldn't be unusual.

***

Two Hours Later, Camp Half-Blood 

As Yhwach had expected, the other two people who would be going on Quest together with Percy were Annabeth and Grover. The daughter of Athena was almost too eager to leave the premises of Camp Half-Blood and participate in the adventure in the wider world, while the Satyr was still getting over the fact that he had partially failed as Guardian for Percy.

Nevertheless, Yhwach gathered Valiana and Bikou after he had sent Vritra away...

Even though he was aware that the news that Vritra was resurrected would spread across the supernatural world, but at least, for the time being, this information was unknown to the groups that were preying on them.

"Now, before we depart from Camp Half-Blood, there are a few rules that we need to set."

As they were preparing to leave Camp Half-Blood and head toward the west, most probably in search of Hades, which was annoying as heck, they needed a few rules to be set. They would be pursued not only by the forces of Hades, but also by those of Grigori and also by those of the Hero Faction.

What was worse, when it came to the Grigori, Yhwach knew through the usage of [The Almighty] that it was Satanael's faction within the Grigori. If Kokabiel was the warmonger of the Grigori, then Satanael was the madman of the Grigori, and it seemed that the mad Fallen Angel had set his sight on the Master Bolt of Zeus.

Fortunately, compared to Luke Castellan, where the Demigod son was protected by Kronos, Satanael didn't have any protections against the Clairvoyant capabilities of his and Yhwach could see most of the things that he had wanted to see.

The same case with the Hero Faction, even though, with the Hero Faction, his sight was a bit more obscured, which was primarily attributed to the fact that the Hero Faction was connected to Ophis.

Anything connected to the higher beings like Ophis was out of his reach, even with the strengthened capabilities of [The Almighty], though that wasn't really that much of a problem, because as far as he knew, the Hero Faction wasn't particularly powerful.

What was bothering him was Satanael...

When he used [The Almighty] on the Fallen Angels, he felt like it was too easy. Perhaps it was just his own paranoia speaking, but everything went too smoothly and he wasn't used to something like that.

Yhwach was facing problems on every single step.

So whhen he used [The Almighty] on the Fallen Angels and was able to see everything sound and clear, started soemthing in him. Not in regard to the other Fallen Angels that were within America and observing them, but primarily on Satanael, because he would have expected at least something.

Some reaction from using [The Almighty] on the Cadre of Grigori.

Yet there was nothing.

That led Yhwach to two possible conclusions.

The conclusion number 1. There was nothing wrong with the situation, and [The Almighty] basically worked as it should have.

The conclusion number 2. There was something wrong, and Satanael had the protection of an entity so powerful that it was able to fool even [The Almighty], and that was something that not even Ophis or Great Red were able to do.

Yes, they would be able to block the Clairvoyance of [The Almighty]. 

And rather easily at that.

But creating a version of something that they wanted for [The Almighty] to see?

That was something far-fetched even for the beings on that level. That would mean that they were able to intercept his attempts to use [The Almighty] in real time, fabricate the "movie" that they wanted the user of [The Almighty] to see, and insert it back into the skill.

He really hoped that he was just paranoid.

"Rule number 1. Always stick with me or Valiana. If neither of us is around, Percy and Grover would be under the sight of Annabeth."

The daughter of Athena literally beamed at hearing that they would be establishing some rules, and of the three of them, she was the oldest and most experienced. Not to mention, she was also the strongest and had experienced several Quests, according to what Yhwach had heard.

Meanwhile, Percy and Grover were grinning, but Yhwach was not budging even a bit, because he was paid by Poseidon for keeping his son alive.

"Rule number 2. When the fight starts, always choose targets according to your strength and don't rush into anything. This is not just an ordinary Quest, but this time, you would be facing the members of the different Pantheons and Factions that are eager to obtain the Master Bolt. Grigori and the Hero Faction would be the most problematic to deal with. When you see one of them, don't attack, retreat, and follow all of my or Valiana's commands."

Annabeth understood it more than the other two, because she had already participated in some Quests before and knew the dangers that were related to one. She knew that the Quests were dangerous for Demigods, and many could die during one.

At the same time, the danger of this concrete Quest was many times higher due to the presence of the other factions that were already preying on them. Yhwach wasn't taking any chances with this because he would already be focused on fighting enemies on all sides, and simultaneously, he needed to keep an eye on the Demigod.

"Rule number 3. If something happens that is not according to the plan, immediately notify me. Don't even think about solving something with my knowledge and don't do anything on your own, unless it is absolutely necessary or unless it's of no consequence."

Because he was technically speaking, he was overseeing two kinds; he didn't want them to play heroics or to do what they wanted. The last thing that he needed was to clean up after their mess that they may or may not create during the Quest.

"Is everything sound and clear?"

Yhwach asked, and seeing that there were no questions asked and raised, they could finally depart from Camp Half-Blood. Valiana and Bikou were already eager for the clash, because it was only a matter of time until they were attacked by either the Hero Faction or the Fallen Angels of Grigori.

"Excellent. Now let's go."

With his command, everyone was ready to go.

Their first destination.

Main Temple of the Destruction in New York, from which they would be taking a teleportation portal across the entire United States, straight to Los Angeles, where the entrance to the Underworld was located.

Yhwach was satisfied with the plan, Valiana and Bikou knew how to follow commands, and the three Demigods of the Greek Pantheon were feeling rather conflicted about this entire ordeal for various reasons.

***

En Route to New York City, Northeastern Long Island, New York, Half an Hour Later

"How many factions are out here in the Supernatural World? And how can I get as strong as you or at least become much stronger? And why can't we teleport straight to Los Angeles if you can already cast the teleportation spells?"

Annabeth asked as they were now walking through the woods that surrounded Camp Half-Blood, to the extraction point, as she was speaking with Yhwach. Meanwhile, Valiana was silently walking, speaking with Albion in her mind, and Bikou was speaking with the duo of demigods of Poseidon and Satyr.

"For the last question... Considering the number of people that are hunting for our thief apparent, it is highly possible that someone would be able to intercept our teleportation and redirect the flow of space into a trap."

When Yhwach was speaking about this, it was something that he knew for sure would happen, as he had already foresaw it. When he was using [The Almighty], he foresaw an ambush from the side of the Hero Faction.

No matter what the means of transportation were, they would be ambushed by a bunch of human supremacists. Using the [The Almighty] allowed him to see the ambush... if they used a teleportation spell, one of the members of the Hero Faction with the Longinus and pre-prepared Magic would transport them to the trap.

If they didn't use any kind of teleportation, then they would be forced to ambush them "manually", which would deprive the Hero Faction of the home advantage and of the traps that they have prepared for them. 

"And for your other questions, you need to tap into your Divine Heritage as a Demigod. I guess that's something that isn't taught at the Camp, mostly due to the paranoia of your dear King."

Yhwach stated casually as the Demigods had one particular advantage. They bore the Divine Blood and inherited certain parts of the Divine Authority of their Divine Parent, and with enough training, they could cease this Divine Heritage and contiínue develoiping it.

Under the right circumstances and with enough luck, Demigods could even use this Divine Heritage to their advantage and ascend to the Godhood with it. The cases were rare, but at least when they started developing their Divine Heritage, they could reach higher than High-Class.

Many Demigods who managed to achieve this feat managed to at least reach the greater heights in the ladder of power and were not at the mercy of the Gods or more powerful beings in the supernatural world.

"They don't really teach us that at the Camp..."

He looked at the daughter of Athena, who almost pouted when she said that, but she was smart enough to realize the reason behind the decision. Most probably, the Olympians viewed their children with a certain degree of suspicion if they gained power.

Coupled with Zeus's paranoia...

"That's rather given... though, the Greek Pantheon is the only Pantheon in the world where the Gods are breeding with humans so much and creating swarms of Demigods. The Gods of the other Pantheons typically breed with different species and not with humans. So the other Pantheons don't need to handle such problems like the Greek Pantheon..."

Yhwach started speaking with Annabeth about this, as he wasn't really against sharing the method on how she could tap into her Divine Heritage. In fact, it would be rather entertaining, as it would create more chaos within the Greek Pantheons, and he knew that Olympians wouldn't be able to do anything about it. 

Just as he was about to say something more, he suddenly felt Magic around them.

And it was Human Magic.

Human Magic was always rather distinctive and could be easily recognized if one had already experienced it. 

"They are here. Everyone, get into the combat position."

Yhwach didn't really care about the Hero Faction, truth to be told. Most of them were totally worthless; only a few of them were notable, but even then, they could barely reach the Level 4 Ultimate-Class in terms of combat prowess.

Only "danger", if it could be termed as such, was only Cao Cao, and even that was only due to the True Longinus. And he could deal with the True Longinus if it came to that, then the only minor hindrance would be the Dimension Lost and Annihilation Maker.

Dimension Lost has the ability to create a special mist that can block any attack, as well as being able to transport anything inside of it into an artificial space. The mist can also be used to reinforce dimensions, and the mist had the capabilities of negating Magic and other more obscure and auxiliary abilities that were rather troublesome to deal with.

Annihilation Maker grants its wielder the ability to create numerous creatures from their shadows, based on their imagination. As such, the more honed the user's imagination and productivity, the more powerful the creature, as well as being able to produce a greater variety of creatures. The user's creatures also come with abilities based off the type of creature is being made. The user is also able to modify what abilities these creatures have to an extent, using their imagination.

Among these are monsters focused on targeting an opponent's weaknesses, the Anti-Monsters, such as Devils, Angels, and Dragons. In theory, it's possible to create God-Slaying Monsters. The monsters are shown to be highly resistant to the abilities of the races they are created for

"Annabeth, go to Percy and together with Bikou remain with him. If something happens, that won't go according to the plan, Bikou is tasked to escape, you will tell a safe place where you could go and where we would regroup."

Yhwach stated that when he noticed the presence of the Hero Faction and that a mist suddenly started appearing around them, which was the trademark of the Dimension Lost. It was clear that they planned to trap with the Dimension Lost.

But he wouldn't give the Hero Faction the opportunity to unleash the Dimension Lost, and when he realized what they were doing, he immediately used the [Divine Authority of Destruction] as crimson energy burst out of his feet and obliterated every bit of the mist in their surroundings.

In a split second, the mist of Dimension Lost was obliterated by the [Divine Authority of Destruction] and dispersed. Yhwach even sensed that the bearer of the Dimension Lost got rather nasty backlash from the [Divine Authority of Destruction], destroying the mist.

Annabeth did what Yhwach ordered her to do, as she wasn't naive enough to think that she could make a difference in a fight of this kind of proportions. She knew from Valiana that the members of the Hero Faction, especially the Executive Members, were far more powerful than any Demigod ever was.

Primarily attributed to the effect of the Sacred Gears and the Longinuses that the Hero Faction possessed. And the Sacred Gears of the core members of the Hero Faction were rather powerful, especially the Longinuses.

Yhwach didn't wait for anything big as he congregated the [Divine Authority of Destruction] into the shape of the several spheres that he dropped on the areas where he had sensed the Magic Signatures of the Hero Faction, as they self-destructed into the violent explosion of purple-black energy.

In a split second, the entire area around them was obliterated to the ground, though Yhwach was able to sense that many members managed to survive the attack, mainly due to Sacred Gears.

This was also the first time that Yhwach was able to see some members of the Hero Faction that survived, because he could sense that with the [Divine Authority of Destruction], he had killed several tens of them.

Most of them were just ordinary humans, some were skilled Magicians, some had weaker Sacred Gears and were recruited into the Hero Faction. Though... now they were all dead due to the [Divine Authority of Destruction] that erased their very own existence from the world.

"Val, deal with the remnants. I will entertain the rest. Bikou, create the dome."

Valiana instantly disappeared from her position, as she went to slaughter the remaining members of the Hero Faction that were either dying or were rather far from the place where the [Divine Authority of Destruction] had been detonated.

Meanwhile, Bikou used his staff, which he slammed into the ground, and created the dome of pure energy around himself, demigods, and satyr. This dome was one of the defensive techniques that was created by Sun Wukong personally, and it was a very effective and powerful defensive technique.

"You can come... though I doubt it would make any difference for the weaking..."

Yhwach stated as he saw the leader of the Hero Faction.

Cao Cao.

Cao Cao was a handsome young man with short black hair and blue eyes. He wore a combination of a Chinese military uniform and ancient Chinese hanfu attire. Similar outfits were being worn by all other members of the Hero Faction. 

Surprisingly enough, from the members of the Hero Faction about whom they were aware, most of the Executive Members were present around him.

Georg Faust, who was the descendant of Johann Georg Faust, the man who made a pact with the legendary Devil, Mephisto Pheles, and the sub-leader of the Hero Faction, and possessor of the Longinus: Dimension Lost.

He's a young man with black hair and spectacles. Like Cao Cao, he wore a combination of a Chinese military uniform and a mage-style robe over his uniform with a feathered cape. 

The other two that rather caught Yhwach's attention were only two.

Jeanne d'Arc, a former Holy Saint of the Catholic Church, was one of the top exorcists of the Church before her departure from the organization. She carried the spirit of the Maiden of Orleans, Joan of Arc.

She was a beautiful young foreign woman with blonde hair and sky blue eyes. Like the rest of the Hero Faction, her base consisted of the Chinese military uniform, but she was also entirely clad in armor, from the looks, it was made from Celestial Bronze. 

Jeanne d'Arc was also the one with the Sacred Gear, Blade Blacksmith, also known as Holy Sword Creation, was her Sacred Gear. The Blade Blacksmith has the ability to create an arsenal of numerous Holy Swords of different attributes and abilities. 

And the last one was rather interesting. 

Hercules, a descendant of Heracles. Not a Demigod per se, but one who was a descendant of Heracles from the line of Heracles when he was still only a mortal Demigod. It seemed that he had managed to inherit some of the Spiritual Blessings from the God of Strength.

Hercules was a two-meter-tall man with a well-built body, shoulder-length gray hair, and was clad in a very similar outfit to Jeanne, and he seems like an armored juggernaut. 

From the reports about the Hero Faction's Executive Members, Hercules is known to be arrogant, overconfident, brutal, stubborn, assertive, and pugnacious. Apparently, he loved battles and took great pride and confidence in his name and his skills. He also often had a tendency to look down upon his opponents.

'First to knock down the Mage and then the muscle. Cao Cao is rather dangerous to take head on directly... especially with the support around him, their coordination in the combat must be top notch.'

Yhwach thought as he looked at Cao Cao and noticed the murderous expression on his previously calm face. He could understand that, because the Hero Faction had brought a lot of their combat force with them to ambush them and obtain the Master Bolt, but approximately 50% of them fell like flies in Yhwach's casual attack.

And now, they were forced to watch how Valiana was killing the remaining ones that were either lucky to survive despite the injuries or the ones that were far from the center of the explosion.

Obviously, they were just humans with some Magic, training, or inferior Sacred Gears.

This wasn't the power that was required to combat someone like Valiana. 

Though among the Hero Faction, only Cao Cao and Georg could fight Valiana on equal grounds. 

"Dammed arrogant divine filth..."

Cao Cao spat out some blood because he himself was alive only due to the True Longinus that he managed to use to destroy the Destruction Energy.

Cao Cao's Sacred Gear and main weapon, which is the first and the strongest Longinus, was the same spear St. Longinus used to pierce Jesus Christ, bathing in his blood. It can piece Gods and Buddhas, shaving off their power and splitting powerful attacks, and holding the potential to destroy the world.

As the holiest relic, believers can be driven insane looking at it, and vaporize High-Class Devils in a split second, and could even cause serious injuries to Super Devils. True Longinus was also one of the components that Yhwach wanted to obtain for the crafting of his Divine Tool.

In the end, the True Longinus wasn't just ordinary Longinus. 

It was a personal weapon of Yawheh when he was still alive.

Before Yhwach reacted or anyone could do anything, Hercules took the matter into his own hands and appeared in front of Yhwach as he wanted to punch him with the Variant Detonation.

A Sacred Gear that builds up a glowing aura around the wielder's body that has the ability to explode at the same time its wielder physically attacks. It wasn't particularly powerful and with [The Almighty] Yhwach already foreseen such action, as he outstretched his right hand and summoned with a spear.

Everything happened too quickly for anyone to process, and the next thing that the members of the Hero Faction saw was the body of Hercules with a large hole in the place where the heart was supposed to be, dropping onto the ground.

"Let's dance."