Chapter Nine

It's been a week since the prophecy incident and I was being called for a task from a god.

It would be great if I got anything in return, but unfortunately, that wasn't the case. The gods expected the Demigods to be at their beck and call at the drop of a hat.

Putting on my helmet, I walked out of my Cabin. It was still night, the sun wasn't going to be up for six more hours.

Making my way to the big house, I pondered on the predicament. Gods didn't really pay attention to their children because of some self-imposed rules they called the ancient laws.

It wouldn't surprise me if some demigods turned on them, and truthfully, I didn't care. They were weak, The three strongest relied on their symbols of power, the god of war... was a disappointment, the goddess of marriage's marriage was in shambles she was trying to keep together with ducktape and the king of the gods was relying on his children to keep the power in the "Council".

Case in point, they were idiots, and that wasn't the worst of all, they were prideful idiots.

The sigh that left me was full of disappointment, hopefully, other pantheons were better... oh who was I kidding?

When the big house came into view, I spotted a man waiting next to Chiron, his arms on his waist, wearing a sleeveless shirt with jeans.

The blonde was smiling like he was enjoying everything waking me up in the middle of the night, knowing full well that I was busy training everybody the whole day.

"So! Are you ready to head out?"

I wasn't even there yet. Seriously, what was with this guy?

When I got closer I nodded rolling my shoulders. Apollo, the god of the sun, whose job was basically to bring the sun around, which really wasn't how the world worked, put a hand on my shoulder.

"Just so we're clear, your job is to protect two people."

I looked at him, making sure that he could hear, feel, and see my deadpan.

"Just so we're clear, you are not going to tell me where I can find these two people, what they look like, and how long this is going to take."

He nodded happily like he just accomplished something remarkable, but the only thing he managed was to make my respect for all the gods I fought in my past lives rise because they managed to not turn out like... This.

"Now, close your eyes please!"

I didn't, because these people's "true forms" were pathetic.

Light shined from his body and my surroundings shifted, I took my eyes off the god and looked around to see a forest. Another bright light came from my peripherals and I felt Apollo leave.

I took a deep breath, I was easily irritated when woken up, and irritation wasn't needed in battle.

Now, what was it that they hoped to achieve by waking me up in the middle of the night and sending me away on a "Task"?

I spread out my senses as I thought about it.

A few reasons popped up in my mind. The first was that they were planning to kill me and used the task as a front to send a powerful monster my way.

The second was the same as the first, but instead of killing me, they were planning on seeing the extent of my abilities, I might be teaching some chosen campers how to use their inherited divine abilities, but I haven't gone all out at all.

Or...

Two entities entered my sensing range, cutting off my thought process. They had more divinity in them than normal demigods, so a blessing? Might be, one felt like the sun with a little hint of... the moon?

... I felt the urge to run Apollo through with a spear.

I ignored the other presence, focusing on my senses on the single demigod that was quite a distance away.

Yes, that was Apollo's child, with the blessing of Artemis, the gods wanted me to die, which would take much more than turning me into an animal.

Enhancing my sense of smell, I sniffed the air, trying to find something that might be outside of my sensory range, I smelt a lot of things, grass, flowers, trees, and things that were irrelevant to the situation.

But what wasn't irrelevant was the smell of monsters. They didn't smell like anything in particular, they just smelled like... Monsters.

It was like the dragon smelled nothing like a blizzard, but specifically, a dragon and a hydra smelled not like a fish but just... Hydra.

I smelled hellhounds and something else. Frowning at the unfamiliar smell, I moved toward the two demigods, spreading my divinity into the shadows.

The black tendrils crawled up my legs, to my torso, down my arms and finally, they covered my face, not obstructing my view in the least.

I stepped into the shadow of the trees and I raised my hand to confirm that I did everything correctly. I watched as my hand blended into the darkness, slowly becoming invisible.

Dropping my limb, I crouched and jumped up to the tree branches.

If these two were members of the hunt, I doubt Artemis would be very pleased with me, even if I was on a task.

Following the two presences, I kept smelling the air, estimating the approximate location of the monsters.

All of this seemed weird. Apollo was a god of prophecy, if he saw something happening to his daughter, he could have used the oracle, warned his sister about what was going to happen, or asked one of his children...

I don't know the exact ways his prophecies work, but this might be something last-minute, a sudden burst of future vision that issuing a task would be far quicker and more efficient because gods could not interfere with quests directly.

The scent was getting closer to the two demigods, so I sped up. I knew what I had to do. I had to protect Apollo's daughter while avoiding Artemis.

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Shameless P-atre-on plug here: p-atreo-n-.com/-user?u=-79594910.

Just delete the "-" and it will work. If it doesn't then my name there is ItsaMeMario. Right now there are two chapters in advance but I will write more as soon as I am done with the upcoming Quiz, which is tomorrow, but the chapter twelve is almost complete so it will be posted soon.