Early the next morning Plethora woke up. He jumped out of bed and went to wake up his mom right away. "Come mom, let's get breakfast and go to Typhon!"
"Nooo five more minutes..." her sleepy voice replied.
~~~~~~
Returning after washing up a little Percy managed to get his mom out of bed and ready to go.
"Let's not eat breakfast, if he kind of plans what I expect him to plan then that's a better idea." She says as they leave the house. "If it's that it'll be rather intense..." Her words drift off as she pets the little prideling on her shoulders. "Maybe he can do something for us too right, little Lotta." A whisper came out of her, a whisper that Percy almost couldn't hear.
The walk was tense, long, filled with silence and filled with people even though the sun wasn't fully up yet.
Walking through the last few allays Percy's mother reminds Percy, "When we see him later let me do the talking. He's a slippery basterd that Typhon." On which Percy just nods. He feels excited and a little nervous.
"Molly, my girl!" An enthusiastic greeting comes from Typhon the moment the mother and son duo come around the corner.
"I'm not your girl old man." Percy's mother says with a little chill in her voice.
"You're still mad about..."
"Yes, I am." Molly, Percy's mom, cuts Typhon off, not even willing to hear what he has to say.
*sigh*"Okay, well, I understand." Typhon's shoulder fall after having said that, but right after they shoot back up. "But today is about your son! I promise that something like that can't happen now! I'll give my all to do that." that last sentence is especially serious.
Molly snorts, "If you would have given anything less I would have walked away right now. But I'll still ask you for one more thing."
"And what is that?" one eyebrow of Typhon shoots up.
"I want you to bind the two of us too." Molly says while patting Lotta on her head.
There's a surprised look on Typhon's face. "Are you sure? You'll probably lose quite a bit.." his words trail off.
"I am sure." Molly nods her head decisively.
"Okay, you'll be first then. Both of you can follow me." And like that all three of them walk through the door.
They arrive in the same room Plethora arrived in a day earlier. "Percy, move through here and familiarise yourself with your new companion. Don't worry, he can't hurt you in there, but you can't hurt him either." Typhon makes a portal appear,
Plethora steps through without looking back, he can see his mother and Typhon have a complicated history. Even Percy didn't know his mom's name, it has always been a bit of a taboo subject.
When Plethora walked through the portal he arrived in a identical room as he was before, but this time his mother and Typhon weren't present. Only the little imp.
The little imp hovers there in the air while flapping it's wings way less than he should to stay in the air. His red eyes look at Plethora with curiosity and his boney tail waves around slowly.
Demons have varying degrees of intelligence. But as imps are a lower kind they are at most equal to a young kid.
"Hey there little man." Plethora starts. He's not very good with kids.
The imp suddenly flies forward, holding his face only 10cm away from Plethora. But he doesn't flinch, this imp isn't that scary. "Haii, how arre you?"
Plethora is a little surprised that the imp talks back, in his own way, but still very clear. "I'm fine thanks, and you?" Plethora really isn't that good with kids.
"I am ffine tooo" The imp says while doing a pirouette in the air. "Who arre you? The only man I've seen is the big scary one. But you are small and funny looking!" He says while clapping his hands.
"Yeah, I am the one who wants to take you on an adventure, if you want to go with me of course."
The imp moved back a little before moving from left to right, as if walking back and forth to think. "What are we going to do on that adventure?"
A normal kid would've had sparkling eyes on the words of adventure, but this imp still needs to know more before saying anything. But it just so happens that the purpose of the adventure is exactly what any demon wants to do. "We're going to become the strongest!"
Now there's a sparkle in the imp's eyes. A primal need to become stronger. "Even stronger than the big scary man?"
"Way stronger!" Plethora says.
"And you'll be the leader?" The imp asks, stunning Plethora for a moment.
"Of course, I'm stronger and smarter." Plethora stated as a matter of fact.
The sparkle in the imp's eyes turned a little dangerous now. "Then let's fight."
The dagger on the tail shoots out from behind the imp and goes for Plethora's left eye, Plethora turns all blurry but the imp continues. It pierces right through the eye, but the feeling is off.
A hand grabs the tail and pulls it down. Using the tail as a chain weapon where the imp's body is the weighted end. It slams in the floor stunning it.
"You can't win, I'm stronger and smarter. I even have more tricks than you." Plethora stands above the imp, the dangerous end of the tail still in his hand. "Follow me."
The imp comes out of his daze and looks at Plethora. "We're gonna have so much fun growing strong together leader! But if I outgrow you I'll become the leader okay?"
Plethora looks back, he isn't afraid of a challenge like that. "Deal. I'll just make sure you'll never catch up hehe."
At that moment Typhon walks in, his smile nowhere to be seen. "I see you two introduced yourselves. Now it's time to make things official, I'll help you guys, you'll grow together to become the strongest one, my life's work, my final work."
Another portal appears in front of Plethora, but this one is more forceful, he gets sucked in without any way to resist.
On the other side he finds himself bound on a bed, but this bed is vertical in stead of horizontal. Looking around himself he sees a massive three dimensional mystical formation around him, from the ground up different sized circles made from a script Plethora can't read above each other. Different parts of creatures, crystals, even weapons at specific places and a big basin of yellow liquid underneath him. He notices that he's slightly off centred and guesses that the imp is on the other side of the bed.
He can't talk as there is a piece mounted on his mouth that provides him with air that makes him feel overly energetic. The bed starts lowering slowly.
"I'm sorry I didn't explain anything about what's going on Percy, you'd have loved the theory... I think. But as someone with a different mission you should learn different things then I did. Now Plethora, go on your journey and tell Molly that I'm sorry!"
Plethora had no way to reply, strapped down with his mouth covered, slowly being submerged in a thick yellow liquid.
Typhon slowly walked underneath the tank and all the circles start lighting up, the items start orbiting around Plethora and the imp, a buzzing sound reverberates through the room and even into the liquid.
The buzzing slowly seems to turn into murmurs, murmurs that spur on thoughts that are hidden deep in one's subconscious. 'What is happening?' Percy thought to himself. 'I don't think that this is going to be anything good..' the thoughts start quite normal but are slowly turning darker and darker.
'I just walked into an elaborate trap, I don't know what he's planning, but I'm gonna end.' He almost gives up. 'I'm always dragged around, I have no influence on my faith. My dad decided that I'll become an armiger, that I'll go in the army, he decided that I'll leave the army, he decided I must go to the sect, that I'll leave my house and mother behind. My mother decided that I should trust the Typhon blindly, he even separated us before putting me here. My surroundings formed me in everything, have I ever taken my own choice?'
Just as Percy starts spiralling down further in his thoughts, in his helplessness, two, no three little spots of light appear in the darkness of his thoughts. A tiny dark green light is the furthest away, but right in the middle of where Percy is and the green light are two almost identical lights, colored like the sun, the warmest kind of sunlight Percy has ever seen or felt. Not the hottest or the brightest, but the warmest.
The two identical suns spiral around each other in a very close and fast ballet. The tiny green light and Percy spin around the two bigger lights. Equally distanced from each other, always close but never touching.
The beauty of this sight gave him the strength to break through the darkness, to neglect the murmurs in his ears.
'My road hasn't been chosen just by others. When Moeder gave me her mission it was I who chose to follow the route of cloning. It was I who decided to change from the tested path and took myriad phantom. It was I who decided to come here for a friend for my mother and a companion for myself. It was I who chose the imp over the starfish. And it was I who decided I can trust the opportunities my parents and this Typhon provided me. My faith isn't just decided by who are around me, it'll always be my choice to chose from the given options, or to choose something that wasn't an option at all!'
The black sea that was slowly drowning him exploded upwards, dispersing the droplets to become little floating islands in the sky, everything surrounding the four lights at the centre.
The darkness that almost drowned Plethora within was now embracing it like the sky looks over the land. The orbs of black water don't cover the entire sky though, there are tiny openings between them. These tiny openings appear as stars in the black night sky.
After seeing this beautiful inner sight of which he doesn't understands what it means yet he thinks 'I haven't known you for long Typhon but I'll be forever grateful for giving me the opportunity to see this truth.' After this, he passed out.