31 [Genius]
Fate/Defiance
Chapter 30 [Genius]
By theMadlad
Beta: Shub-Niggurath, Old man of the mountain, Kira (The Court Jester)
Icarus was exhausted.
Everyday the lucrative memories of simply flying through the air without issue repeatedly came to his mind like a broken record.
Oh, how he missed not dealing with constant ambushes and just skipping all the bullshit trying to kill him!
But alas, it was not to be.
Although it was not entirely without respite.
With trials came tribulation, and with tribulation came improvement, and during his journey he was repeatedly confronted with his first and most likely fundamental issue.
Strength.
Icarus desperately swung his head to the side as a jab scraped his cheek, causing him to stumble back from the force that would have instantly smacked him into unconsciousness if it cleanly hit.
Then the cross came and his guard was destroyed as if it was made of wet paper.Even with the padded gloves, Icarus still felt stars appear in his eyes as his body hit the ground.
It hurt.
Pollux hit like a fucking truck and she was still holding back.
…But he asked for this.
"Power. It is a word synonymous with the Gods, simply take one look at those around you to glean at the truth of my words." Icarus remembered Chiron telling him, "…and if their muscles are not so obvious, then take a look at their faces instead."
And he remembered doing so.
With Heracles' bulging muscles that seemed so juxtaposed on his prepubescent body, or Pollux's noble features which hinted at an inhuman beauty simply waiting to blossom coming to mind.
Even Jason, who was not even a direct demi-god, had a supernatural charisma to him.
"Power can come in many forms, whether it be through strength or beauty, toppling a nation with a fist or a face is ultimately the same—and you will find that the Children of the Gods will be lacking in neither… for this is their inheritance."
Chiron then settled into a serious demeanor as he spoke to the attentive Icarus, "This is what you lack—it is what you must compensate for, as I am sure you already know. Where Heracles has strength, you must have technique. Where Jason has charisma, you must have wisdom. Where Castor and Pollux have coordination, you must have strategy."
Chiron then smiled, "But these words are not to disparage you, for you also have a trait uniquely of your own…" He then smirked as he brought up a finger to tap Icarus' heart, "…your genius—the ability to blur the lines of the possible and impossible with nothing but your mind and will, this Icarus, is your prerogative."
Chiron considered Icarus' genius as a blessing on par with a divine blessing, for it was something that allowed him to overcome any obstacle he had encountered so far. Just like how one glance at Heracles' muscles was all that was needed to be assured of his strength, one look at Icarus' bow was all that was needed to see his genius.
He may have lacked the divine strength to have a normal bow hold such a heavy draw weight, but the inquisitive application of his bow made such a strength irrelevant.
That was the unique power of a genius.
"Never forget that." Chiron finished with a smile directed towards his student.
Icarus took the words to heart.
But he hadn't come up with a way to apply it. Because he wasn't a genius, not truly. He was intelligent, sure, creative, yes… but a genius?
No.
He was simply more knowledgeable, and had the creativity to apply it. He was a fake, but he didn't mind. The only thing he could do was to keep working, keep improving, and keep training.
Until it became real.
He looked up towards Pollux, noticing the blood marking the crude padding on her gloves.
It took another moment for him to realize that it was his own.
Huh.
He had asked her to help train him in boxing, the foremost fighting style taught in Sparta. It would serve as a good foundation for when he would eventually learn Pankration, which he knew was a mixed martial art that included boxing. She seemed the most skilled in it, and he wanted to know how to fight properly.
He took off his wings, his gadgets, his inventions… everything. It was just him, and his fists.
…and he lost, every time.
It was disheartening. While technically his first real loss, he did his best to not let it get to him, although he knew it was in her favor as he had gotten rid of all his advantage, it still made the gap between him and the others clearer.
He hated losing, but that didn't mean he was afraid of failure. Failure was his stepping stone to improvement.
"…Finished?" Pollux asked with slight hesitance.
Icarus spit up a wad of blood from his mouth as his bruised face struggled to see, "…No, again." He stumbled to his feet as he stood with his arms hung limply in an attempt to protect his head.
Pollux kept her face neutral as she spoke with a tinge of concern, "Fix your guard."
Then he lost, again.
She was too fast for him to react, and too strong for him to protect himself from.
…Without his wings and gimmicks, could he even have a chance at winning?
He spent the rest of the day in recovery, while after the sunset he did the same as most of his nights, studying deep within Daedalus' notes, forming his own ideas to bridge the gap between him and those more blessed.
It was a long night as always.
But by no means a fruitless one.
————————-
It was about a week later that the camp was taking a break day just before their final push to Mt. Pelion, and Icarus took the opportunity to go straight to Chiron with a question poised on his lips, "How do I create a spell?"
Chiron looked momentarily surprised at his question, before smiling as a response left his lips, "While admittedly Magic is not my specialty, I can at least teach you this."
Chiron could indeed use magic, but as a generalist, his abilities in it were not something he overly focused on.
"Magic Spells are created through the use of Divine Words, but how these words are chosen and in which ways they influence the world are determined by the caster." Chiron began explaining as he brought an arrow to his bow, "For a spell you must first have a foundation to build it upon, a definition for the world to follow. Whether that be a word pertaining to certain concepts such as a lightning storm—αστραπη χειμων," The arrow he had drawn back began to glow as lightning flashed to life at his fingertips, "Gods—Απολλων," The arrows were loosened from his bow with impossible accuracy, darting towards the treeline with a path that twirled through impossible angles before it headed back towards them, "Or even a legend, Αἰακός." A Magical Barrier appeared, with the faint glowing outline of a wall before it was impacted by the electric arrows which exploded on impact.[1][2][3]
The explosion's shock wave impacted the duo, tossing their hair as Icarus winced at the noise while Chiron remained unfazed.
"The world simply needs to know a guideline, the Divine Word used and everything tied to it, is that guideline. While the spell itself is determined by how you use that guideline." Chiron stated, "That guideline must be something acknowledged by the world, something ingrained in it. How far it can be stretched or altered is up to the caster's intent. Such as with my first words, lightning storm, another may have used those words to create their namesake, while I decided to use them to empower my archery—because that was my intent. Of course, there are ways to further define such intent, but that is something for another time."
Huh.
Icarus understood.
…and he had a wicked idea.
"Thank you teacher… it was most appreciated."
————————-
Asclepius did as he always did.
Research.
On.
Medicine.
With a heavy white coat shading his features from the sun, Asclepius huddled under the shadows of a tree as he performed yet another experiment.
The Human Body was something covered in mysteries, seeped in countless unknowns.
He wanted to uncover them all.
But not for curiosity's sake, no… it was for a reason more noble, yet equally selfish.
He finally finished preparing his next experiment.
At his side were four containers, in each container was a small animal lacking in metaphysical weight—mice.
Ideal for experimentation.
It was not too long ago that he had uncovered that the more clean an environment was, the greater the success of a surgery.
How fascinating.
Asclepius grinned.
It was only then that he noticed someone sitting next to him. It was that… Ikaris, Icharus?
The new kid.
Ah, Asclepius remembered him now.
Icarus.
Oh, how he lamented being unable to see Icarus' injuries after his confrontation with Heracles. There was simply so much to learn from it.
What a pity.
"Ho? Are you observing the effects caused by different environments on open wounds?" The boy asked, much to Asclepius' lack of attention.
…
Wait.
"…You understand what I'm doing?"
The boy smirked in response.
"Yeah." Icarus then pointed to the four containers, "You have four of the same animal, setting up a 'controlled' variable to the experiment, while changing the environment in order to observe the effects."
…
Asclepius was flabbergasted.
"H-how—No, w-what—!" He tried to articulate a response in his stunned state, but Icarus cut him off, taking control of the conversation without remorse.
"But then again, how is this experiment useful? A normal man would dismiss such an experiment as meaningless, after all, everyone knows ailments and disease originate from the famines released by Pandora." Icarus smirk widened as his eyes formed into slits, "…Unless, you disagree?"
Asclepius shook, he didn't even notice how he had subconsciously retreated his hands further into his sleeves as he paused. It took several minutes in which Icarus waited in silence before Asclepius eventually spoke, "…Not entirely."
Many would consider his words blasphemy.
Yet Icarus smiled.
"Disease, famine, sickness, they are all regarded as curses from the Gods… and perhaps some of them are. But all of them? Impossible!" Asclepius shouted, displaying the first signs of vitriol emotion hidden underneath his calm visage, "Superstition, belief, and magic being the root cause of sickness is not something I can adhere to!"
He then turned to Icarus with a sharp gaze, "The advancement of medicine is endless, and I seek to uncover all of its mysteries! Not through superstition and acceptance, but through naturalistic observation, enhanced by practical trial and error experience!" Asclepius sputtered with such passion that it had even caused Icarus to blank.
…
Then Icarus laughed, slapping Asclepius' back with joy as he did so, "And? I'm sure you know how belief shapes the world, how can you overcome the minds of men clouded by 'superstition?'"
Asclepius shrugged off Icarus' retort without hesitation as he turned back to his experiment, "…With facts. Enough factual evidence to drown their disbelief with reason alone. They won't be able to deny it… because it won't be a mystery, it will be an objective fact."
…This guy.
Icarus looked at Asclepius in a whole new light.
Out of all the people training under Chiron, of all the ones he had interacted with… Asclepius was the first to truly earn his respect.
It wasn't characters like Gilgamesh or Solomon that would end the Age of the Gods.
No, it was men like Asclepius.
Men who would destroy the world of mystery with the science of men.
That was something Icarus admired.
"Hey." Icarus gripped Asclepius' shoulder with a grin, tightening his hold enough to garner the boy's attention, "…You're my friend now."
…
"…Friend?" He shook his head, "My only friend is the advancement of medicine, I have no need for others."
"How about I teach you something that will help immensely in your experiments, and in exchange, you accept my friendship." Icarus offered as a bait.
Normally Asclepius would have refused, but seeing Icarus so easily analyze his experiment, he gave weight to the boy's offer.
"…Fine, but only if it helps."
Icarus smirked, "Heh, let me teach you a little something called… the scientific method."[4]
…
A few minutes later, Asclepius wholeheartedly accepted Icarus' friendship.
"Anyways, I wanted to ask you something." Icarus spoke with seriousness.
Seeing his first… friend so attentive, Asclepius couldn't help but wonder what it was.
"…Where does thought and intelligence come from? Is what controls the body the heart… or the brain?"
Asclepius' pondered the question seriously, and fortunately… he already had the answer.
"The heart."
Icarus didn't seem surprised, "Why so?"
Asclepius spoke of his prior experiments, "I had once wondered the same, but ultimately came to this conclusion during animal dissection. More primitive species could move and feel without the brain, and so I deduced that the brain was not responsible for movement or sensation." He held a sleeve to his chin as he continued, "It is also notable that Pneuma is converted into Vital Heat within the heart."
He then looked at Icarus with a clinical gaze plastered on his boyish face, "So, if I had to say… I would go with the heart. The brain seems to cool blood, and appears somewhat unnecessary, but of course, there could be something I'm missing and I would need more time and experimentation to uncover it." His usually stoic lips also gained a slight upturn, "…I'm sure the knowledge of evaluating a 'hypothesis' will be of great help."
"No need to thank me… that's what friends do, help each other." Icarus replied with a slight smile.
Then he left.
It was only after he arrived back to his makeshift tent that he let loose his grin.
It was a gamble, but one he was willing to risk.
The Brain.
In modern times it would be considered the most complex part of the human body, the seat of the mind, interpreter of the senses, initiator of body movement, and controller of behavior.
But here… it was something that cooled blood?
He knew that wasn't true. But if everyone believed the heart to be responsible for what the brain truly did… did that make his knowledge false?
He didn't think so.
It was a mystery.
…But not to Icarus.
Which brought him into a strange situation. Since he knew that the brain did what the heart supposedly did, but others believed the heart did what the brain did… there was a contradiction.
Were both wrong?
…Or, with the unique influence of the Age of the Gods juxtaposed with his own knowledge, could both be true?
He pulled up a book, one that he had from Daedalus about golems. It was a concept less akin to Golemancy from the future which worked on reproducing the mysteries of Adam's creation from dust by the Biblical God, and more like familiar creation.
Less of a golem… more of a puppet.
In it, his father had detailed parts of their creation, they were mostly mechanical machines with a voice and artificial spirit that held a small breath of 'life' created through quicksilver, or mercury, a material which held large amounts of Ether within.
But that wasn't what he was looking for.
No, it was something else more aligned to their uses as a familiar than an automaton. The ability to transfer consciousness and share perception between them and their creator.
After finding it, he noted it down and began to experiment, much like Asclepius was doing before him. What he wanted to do was not something he could foolhardily attempt, especially since it concerned both his heart, and his brain.
You know, only his two most important organs.
He intended to create a spell, one which shared the seat of the mind between both the heart and the mind—a type of Schrödinger's cat abusing the contradiction between this age's cardiocentric belief, and his own age's cephalocentric beliefs to share and expand his own intelligence.[5][6][7]
He experimented with animals, much like Asclepius, and even followed through with forming various hypotheses and tests.
Days went by, and then weeks went by.
Mt. Pelion was mere days away when he became confident enough to perform it on himself.
The main problem he came about when developing it wasn't sharing the perception, but having them share what he needed them to.
Some would share the senses and spasm from the overload invading their minds, others would attempt to replicate the generation of Vital Heat within the brain and implode into a glory mess.
He shivered when he thought about how it could happen to him. But finally he chose a concept to tie his spell to, a foundation to carve his Divine Words from.
It was one that worked perfectly for him, and he laughed at the irony of it.
The spell was complex, yet creative. It was the masterpiece of someone who thought outside the box completely.
Icarus took a deep breath, rousing the Vital Heat absorbed from the Pneuma in the air as he roused it from his heart, and into his brain.
Intelligence, in Greek Myth, was the gift of Prometheus who taught man the arts of civilisation, such as writing, mathematics, agriculture, medicine, and science.
He had thought of using Prometheus as the basis of signifying that it was Intelligence Icarus he wanted transferred and shared, but it was too broad, too risky.
He is what taught, not what learned—a teacher, not a student. Icarus wanted his spell to bolster his intelligence, his genius… his learning, not his teaching. It also didn't help that Prometheus was tied to the notion of unintended consequences.
Just like Icarus.
Regardless, the name Prometheus means, 'Forethought.'
His legend was stealing fire for man, and being punished for such transgression for all eternity.
This is what legend Icarus wanted to base his spell after. It was simply perfect.
Icarus brought a hand to his heart and spoke, "Προμηθεύς"
Prometheus.
"η φωτιά έκλεψε, και η φωτιά μοιράστηκε."
The Fire Stolen, and the Fire Shared.
"η θερμότητα έκλεψε, και η ζέστη μοιράστηκε."
The Heat Stolen, and the Heat Shared.
Icarus felt his heart burn, sweat dripped from his brow like a waterfall as he grit his teeth. He could feel the Vital Heat in his body, his blood, and his veins, burn him from the inside.
But he endured.
"το μυαλό κλεμμένο, και το μυαλό μοιράστηκε."
The Mind Stolen, and the Mind Shared.
He traced the finger hovering over his heart slowly up his body, feeling the burning Vital Heat travel along with it.
This was his spell which shared perception through invoking the name of Prometheus, using his legend of stealing fire to sympathetically control the Vital Heat within his body, Icarus uses the Vital Heat as a carrier or messenger.
It was like lighting a bonfire with another bonfire using a torch.
Finally his finger traced up to his brain, he could feel his blood boiling beneath his skull, his brain was thumping from the blood pressure but he could feel his blurry vision begin to abate as it cooled.
He now had one more Divine Word to invoke.
So far the spell had used Prometheus as a base, using his legend of stealing fire from the Gods and giving it to mankind to 'steal' the Vital Heat from his heart and bring it into his brain. Simple right?
No.
It is much deeper than just that.
This spell was crafted just for Icarus, by Icarus. Prometheus' name meaning 'Forethought' also came into play right from the beginning, as it was only due to Icarus' 'forethought' which knew the brain's purpose beyond this age that this spell could function.
This was further solidified due to the fire being stolen from the Gods. Only during the Age of the Gods was thought and intelligence believed to have originated from the heart, at least until the Age of Men, where it was known to have come from the brain. Using this forethought, Icarus was able to tie this concept into the spell.
Like the transition of fire from the divine to mortals, the spell incorporated the transference from the heart to the brain.
From the Age of the Gods, to the Age of Men.
But Vital Heat wasn't truly fire, and Icarus was out to share and combine his intelligence between the heart and the brain using contradictions, not simply transfer the Vital Heat between two places.
He needed to define what was being shared.
His intelligence.
This was what his final Divine Word was intended for.
This is what his final Divine Word, abused.
The heart was more than just considered the seat of the mind, no it was also considered to be what houses one's psyche.
The soul.
He needed a word that served as a foundation for what was transferred from his heart, to his brain. The word needed to be synonymous throughout the world enough to represent intelligence—genius.
It was ironic that there was a word that fit greater than any other, it was even more ironic how perfect it was for this spell.
Icarus held his finger to his head like a gun, and spoke the final Divine Word that would forever be ingrained within his boiling brain.
—Then he pulled the trigger.
"Ἴκαρος."
Icarus.
…and his reality shattered like glass.
==============
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Author's Notes
Happy Thanksgiving! Sorry for lateness, this chapter took a lot of research and God of War consumed me.
I hope you enjoyed it, I tried my best to make something pretty cool! You can thank Neoile/Verbessern for the Persona reference at the end lol.
Icarus is about to go even bigger brained.
Join the discord at, https://discord.gg/AMyqBN2
Glossary
[1] αστραπη χειμων
Greek phrase meaning, "Lightning Storm"
[2] Απολλων
The Greek word for the God of the Sun and Archery, Apollo
[3] Αἰακός
The Greek word for Aeacus, who was a mythological king of the island of Aegina in the Saronic Gulf. He was a son of Zeus and the nymph Aegina, and the father of the heroes Peleus and Telamon, also the grandfather of Achilles. According to legend, he was famous for his justice, and after he died he became one of the three judges in Hades alongside Minos and Rhadamanthos.
He was also known for assisting Poseidon and Apollo in building the walls of Troy.
[4] The Scientific Method
The process of objectively establishing facts through testing and experimentation. The basic process involves making an observation, forming a hypothesis, making a prediction, conducting an experiment and finally analyzing the results.
[5] Schrödinger's cat
A thought experiment that illustrates a paradox of quantum superposition. In the thought experiment, a hypothetical cat may be considered simultaneously both alive and dead as a result of its fate being linked to a random subatomic event that may or may not occur.
[6] Cardiocentric
The historical belief that the heart controls sensation, thought, and body movement.
[7] Cephalocentric
The historical belief that the brain controls sensation, thought, and body movement.
