I couldn't help but chuckle at Luke the penguin. With thick clothes and metallic helmet covering him, he slowly waddled towards me with a scowl.
"You did this purposely didn't you?" He asked but his voice was distorted through metal.
"I have no idea what you're talking about." I replied with a snicker, not even bothering to hide my amusement.
It felt good to goof around with my friend, and for a moment i could almost believe we were back to the old times.
Of course, I also knew it wouldn't last. I could see it in his eyes, the hesitance to indulge. As if something was holding him back, dragging him by the head and telling him to not enjoy his life.
We spent a few minutes getting ready for our next flight.
Well... Luke spent the time getting ready while I killed some monsters in plain open view of mortals, using mist and concealment to make keep our fight invisible.
I fnally got another level up after killing literal dozens of monsters. I probably slayed every monster in the city, all of whom were attracted to my smell like flies to honey.
After the level up, I sat at a good Lvl 487, but with the extra 30 points in physical stats through my wings, I had exactly 550 in speed.
And I was planned to use all of my speed for this last bit of journey. Theoretically, I knew exactly how fast and strong I'm supposed to be, I'd done some research afterall.
But there's always a difference between theory and practice, and I wanted to know exactly how fast of a being I've become now. And considering my fight with that sword warrior was happening in milliseconds, I was willing to bet myself to be insanely fast.
At 6 in the evening, we finally left Sacramento, and headed for San Francisco.
In an instant, I accelerated past my previous maximum flying speed, breaking through the barriers of sound in a large crackling boom. My previous speed, which I'd recorded in the battle against monsters when I was still a tier 4, was just around 5500 km, or 3500 miles per hour.
I went almost thrice as fast now, accelerating past 10,000 miles per hour, with waves of force leaving in my wake.
By the end of that one single second, I'd successfully broken past 12 thousand miles per hour, and while the wind wasn't hurting me, the sheer cold stabbed at my naked face with such intensity that I felt like mosquitoes were chewing my face up.
I knew it would never hurt me though, not just because I was the son of sky god, but also because my constitution was too ridiculous for this speed to hurt me.
Nonetheless, it was still quite irritating, especially the waves of force that I left as I sped through the atmosphere, creating slight disturbances in my flight path.
Even so, I kept speeding and speeding and speeding, until at last, I broke past 18,000 miles per hour. I was almost at my limits but there was a slight sway in the air. I Increased my speed even more, but another jerk in my flight path convinced me to slow down. I had a passanger with me who might not survive this speed if I lost control over the wind.
I desperately wanted to know my exact limit but Luke's presence complicated things.
My day was ruined and my disappointment was immeasurable.
Atleast Luke's terrified screams soothed the wounds on my soul. So I kept flying at an evil pace for a few more seconds before noticing the ridiculous increment in my divine energy consumption. I was burning up almost 10,000 divine energy per second to keep travelling at this speed.
We reached San Francisco in just 15 seconds flat, but I'd lost around 150,000 divine power in this time.
Though I felt it was worth it. Most of my fights never lasted more than a few seconds nowadays, so 150,000 for 15 seconds of top speed was...alright, in my book. I still had 300,000 divine power remaining afterall.
We landed on the roads of San Francisco soon after. With me shivering a little, and Luke babbling insanely.
"The world is spinning so fast, Kael. The moon...the moon is winking at me! Oh no, the stars are writing in the sky! Their diaries.. What to do..."
Sighing, I clutched his neck and dragged him along.
"We'll have to find a place to crash. Can't fight a dragon like this." I groaned to myself in despair.
Maybe mindcontrol some hotel manager? Or should I just create a house from scratch? A luxurious mansion with a swimming pool full of hot water...
Hmm... tempting. But too much work.
"Where are we going?" Luke murmured, finally out of his bout of insanity.
"Finding a place to sleep."
"No!" He jerked himself out of my grasp, an expression of fear on his face, before he shook his head in consternation. "I mean, we should just get this over with. This quest is a waste of time, let's just do it now and go back to camp."
I started at him carefully.
The boy wasn't looking too good, and I wondered when was the last time he slept.
Why did he fear sleeping so much? Did he get nightmares or something?...perhaps Thalia's nightmares? Or is it something more sinister...
"Luke." I stared him in the eye sternly. "Tell me the prophecy."
I was getting a little suspicious now; there was something afoot happening with Luke that I didn't know about. Though that was more because I just couldn't bring myself to care in the past.
The boy's face instantly paled at my words, and I knew I hit the mark. Something was wrong, and the prophecy must be the cause of it.
"I... I can't. I'm sorry."
"Look, whatever it is, I won't judge. I swear."
"You don't understand!" He screamed suddenly, and with such vehemence that I almost summoned the Stormbreaker.
He took a deep breath to control himself, and his shoulders slumped. "None of you do. Let's just get this over with. The garden of Hesperides is under mount Tamalpais, and i know the w–"
Suddenly we were approached by a man, interrupting our argument.
"What's going on here?" He asked, glancing at me before shooting a suspicious scowl towards luke. "Bullying younger boys now are we?"
Luke sputtered indignantly, and I stepped forward again, taking the lead. "He's my brother. We were just leaving."
With that I clutched Luke's arm and started dragging him.
"Now hold on for a second, kid." The man cut us off.
Not being in the mood, I quickly cast hypnosis magic on him. I felt a little bad, considering he was only trying to help, but we needed to get going.
"We can't fight like this, Luke. Don't be stupid." I said while checking my stats. "Plus, you can only approach the garden during sunset. We've lost our chance."
Mikael
Age: 10
Race: God/Angel/Devil Hybrid
Tier: 5
Level: 486
Divine Power: 323,000/468,000
Holy Power: 468,000/468,000
Demonic Power: 463,560/468,000
Stamina: 472,000/486,000
Health: 506,000/506,000
Stats
Strength: 496
Speed: 526
Dexterity: 516
Endurance: 486
Constitution: 506
Mental: 42
Spirit: 468
Points: 8
I had to admit, tier 5 beings were built different. Travelling a journey from long Island to san Francisco, over 3000 miles, in just a couple of hours was insane.
The fact that I could still fight any being on similar leve, and most likely whoop tier asses under a minute, was even more amazing. Just as amazing was the fact that a goodnight's sleep was all I needed to go back to my peak condition.
Now I just needed to find a good place to get that goodnight sleep.
"Where will we go then? Some fancy hotel where a monster could attack us? You probably didn't think of that did you? Of course not, the great Mikael doesn't need to take lowly monsters into his consideration."
"Luke, shut up for a second. You are irritating me." I snapped, and thankfully the boy quietened down immediately.
Suddenly an idea struck me, and i turned towards Luke who seemed to be sulking.
"Didn't Annabeth tell us that her family was shifting in San Francisco?" I asked him, though I knew I was correct. My memory never failed me.
"Yeah." He answered grudgingly before scowling again. "But I also remember her describing them as a couple of monsters. You don't actually think they'll help us, right?"
"Annabeth is a child, and probably exaggerated some things." I said, ignoring his weak defense for Annabeth. "I'm sure they'll help us if we ask nicely. I'm sure they'll help me atleast. I'm just too cute to refuse."
I dragged the sputtering boy along with me. One good thing about mental stat was that my memory got incredibly sharp. Anna lite only mentioned her father's new address in passing without any real care, but I could still remember it.
And so, off we went in search of the Chase family.
------------------------------------
The door to the Chase house opened for us, and a pretty asian woman with shades of red in her hair looked us up and down with confused and questioning eyes.
"Yes?" She asked.
I glanced at Luke but the traitorous bastard stepped back, forcing me to take the lead.
"We are looking for Fredrick Chase." I answered the now bemused woman.
"You are at the right spot. Now what do you want with him?"
"...We are Annabeth's friends and were hoping for some help."
"Annabeth?" The woman exclaimed in surprise. "Is she well? Did she come with you?"
"No, she did not. I don't think she would want to either." Luke butt in callously.
"Luke." I warned sternly, frowning at the boy till he glanced away.
The woman looked worried as she stared at us for a few seconds before nodding.
"You'd better come in please." She waved us inside before shouting back in the house. "Fred! Annabeth's friends are here!"
We entered the house, following after the woman.
"Be polite." I warned luke with a whisper and an elbow to the ribs.
The man that came down to greet us looked like an unkept scientist. Loose and unbottoned shirt, raised collars, and a history book in his hand was all I needed to know that Mr. Chase was an eccentric man.
"Why, hello there Annabeth's friends!" The man shot us a friendly smile but it quickly turned to a concerned frown. "Did Annabeth say when she will come back? Did...did something happen to her?"
"Oh no, she's completely fine, don't worry. We're here on a...a personal quest." I replied, giving the couple a charming smile.
'This had better fucking work.' I grimaced in my mind. I really wasn't looking forward to go hotel-hunting right now.
"Oh! where are my manners." The lady exclaimed softly. "This man here is Fredrick Chase, and I'm his wife and Annabeth's step mother, Natalie chase. May I have your names gentlemen?"
"...Luke." Came the blonde boy's cautious reply.
"And I'm Mikael Gabrielson. Nice to meet you."
"Please dears, sit and relax. Are you hungry?"
"No–"
"Yes. Yes we are, Ms. Chase. And thank you for your hospitality." I cut off Luke again,
I didn't like being overly polite to anyone, even my own father, but Luke was forcing me to be nice by being so openly hostile. It was a delicate balancing act and I was of a mind to... moderately injure Luke to shut him up.
"Follow we boys, i want to know everything about what Annabeth's been doing for the last two years." Mr. Chase announced, taking the stairs for the upper floor.
-----------------------------------
Ms. Chase joined us in the middle of my tale, with plates and bottles of sandwiches and sodas.
I'd stomped on Luke's foot to stop with his hostilities, and moved on to describe the war and what we've been doing for the past two years.
"That's...wow." Mr. Chase rubbed his eyes slowly as I finished my epic tale. "The things you said...the things you described, deserves to be written in history books for all to see and learn from. A group of children fighting a war against the monsters. What a shame that it'll be forgotten sooner or later. If only I could save it somehow..."
"Please forgive Frederick, Mikael. His priorities are badly skewed." Mrs. Chase said with an exasperated sigh, before giving me a look of profound sadness. "I'm sorry you had to go through all that simply for existing. No child should lose as much as you have. Well, actually no one at all should lose so much in their life, but especially not a child."
Through all this, Luke kept quiet, munching on his sandwiches sullenly.
"So I understand what Annabeth did for the last two years, but do you know how she survived after running away?"
"Frederick!" Mrs. Chase bellowed, smacking her husband on the head. "Mind your words."
"What?" The poor man asked bewildered as he faced his wrathful wife. "I only wanted to know where she lived, what she ate...that type of stuff. I don't get what's wrong with that..."
Mrs. Chase simply shook her head before releasing a long-suffering sigh.
"Ah well... that I do not know. I only met her in long Island. She was there with Luke and Thalia." I replied absently, stuffing some juicy sandwitches down my gullet.
There was a moment of silence and I looked back up to see both the chase parents staring at Luke imploringly.
Uh oh.
"Why should I tell you anything? Why do you even care?" And Luke opened his uncontrollable trap to spew out his shit like an A grade asshole.
I sighed.
"Listen here young man—"
"No, you listen! You want to know how I found her? I found her in an abandoned factory, hiding under a fluted sheet of iron, hungry and tired. Probably hadn't slept for days either while wearing the same torn clothes. You know why she ran away? Because you didn't have a single blasted care for her! She was attacked and bitten by spiders for days and you thought that she was lying? I thought my parents were the biggest pieces of waste but atleast they didn't torture me by letting monsters attack me without a care in the world! And blaming a little girl for those monsters? Why didn't you just gave her away to the camp if you didn't want her! Why di—"
"Stop." I commanded, letting my divine authority warp around the room.
Everyone went silent. Everything stopping moving. Mrs. Chase's tear hung in air as gravity itself seemed to stop, Mr. Chase was paused in place just as he got up to march towards Luke, and Luke himself became a complete statue, his eyes wide and fearful.
It was only for a moment before things became normal again, and the tears started to follow the laws of gravity while Mr. Chase sat back down, and Luke learned to breathe again.
"Luke, go look for a hotel for us to stay tonight. We'll talk later."
Not daring to defy me, he left.
"I'm sorry for that, I didn't know he was so bitter about it. It seems coming here was a mistake. I apologize for this."
With that I stood up, reluctantly setting down the last piece of sandwich. It was a good sandwich; with fried chicken and parmesan cheese. Unfortunately, even I wasn't shameless enough to just pick it up and carry it out with me.
Sighing again, I made my way down the stairs.
"Wait! please!" Mrs. Chase called out, wiping away her tears.
"Mrs. Chase?"
"He...he was right and it wasn't your fault. So please don't leave on our account. I request that you spend the night here."
I looked at the woman uncomprehensingly. How could anyone forgive that kind of thing...in that moment i realised something.
Humans were some of the nastiest and yet, the most beautiful pieces of shits. If I were in her place, Luke would've been a blood mark on the floor while his friend would be kicked out of the house. Fortunately, Mrs. Chase was a better piece of shit than me, probably one of the beautiful ones.
[1 Wis]
Ooh, even the system likes pieces of shits!
"Are you sure?" I asked, just for assurance.
"Yes, I'm very sure. Also, bring your friend. No need to go out looking for hotels so late at night."
"Thank you. Really." I didn't bow (I'm a son of Zeus duh) but they were heartfelt words of gratitude.
I left the house in seach for Luke (and picked up my last chicken sandwich to eat) and found him not far from the house, staring down at a creek.
"Nice hotel you found here." I said sarcastically, waving at the creek while enjoying the smoky, juicy and meaty sandwich. Why can't they make this at camp?
He looked startled for a second before he turned to me. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have—"
I raised a hand to stop him from explaining himself. "I'm not your father Luke, I'm your friend."
Atleast, I used to be.
"But I could see how much you've changed in the recent days. Especially your temper. You need to control yourself, Luke. This is your quest, even if you aren't too interested in it. A loss of temper under the dragon could cost us both our lives."
He took my chastisement for what it was; an honest advice he'd do well to follow.
Ladon was a being even Hercules couldn't defeat. An unstable companion could hurt me more than the opponent. And if that actually happened, I will just fly away and leave the boy to his fate.
"Now come. Despite your earlier burst out, the Chase family is kind enough to let us stay the night."
"I am sorry, you know. I was projecting my own anger at my parents on them. They didn't deserve that."
"No, they didn't. You'll just have to apologise to them."
"Right. Of course. I'll do that."
"Good. Now c'mon."