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Son of Hades (Percy Jackson) Chapter 238: Respect and Weakness
🕑 Added 2025-02-28 17:46:24 +0000 UTC[Third Person's PoV]
"It's kinda cute~," Thalia muttered as she held the small, shadowy wisp in her palm.
Bianca stared at it, poking its dark cheeks before asking, "What exactly does it do?"
"I'm so glad you asked!" Annabeth said, puffing out her chest proudly.
"Nox, deactivate energy-saving mode!" she commanded.
The tiny wisp flew from Thalia's hands and landed at the center of the magic circle where it was created. Darkness expanded, swirling around as Nox grew to his full size. Adjusting his two-piece outfit, he rolled up his sleeves and straightened his tie.
"What is it that you desire, Grand Creator?"
Annabeth immediately crossed her arms, frowning. "First off, stop calling me 'Grand Creator.' Call me Mom, Mommy, Mother—or Mama, if you so wish! Not some formal title!" she insisted, lifting her chin.
Nox dramatically pressed his eyes against his forearm, his form trembling. "To have the privilege of calling thee, my Creator, my Mother… I am unworthy! To think a being such as I was brought into existence by one so compassionate and noble—my heart overflows with gratitude!"
Annabeth smirked as she turned to the others, catching the looks they were giving her. "He gets his humor from his father."
Lucian's lips twitched as he pinched the bridge of his nose. "I'm still a virgin, and I already have to deal with this shit," he muttered under his breath.
Bianca patted Lucian’s back sympathetically.
"Alright, drop the act, Nox. We're going to be testing your abilities," Annabeth said.
Instantly, Nox’s demeanor shifted. His previous dramatic personality faded, replaced by a cold, calculating presence.
"As you wish," he responded, his tone devoid of emotion.
He examined his hands, clenching and unclenching them. "I, too, desire to understand the full extent of my potential."
His sudden change startled everyone—except Annabeth, who had anticipated this reaction when she forged his heart out of darkness.
"One of his main abilities..." Annabeth said, reaching for her dagger. Without hesitation, she flung it at Nox’s head at full strength.
The blade passed straight through him. A hole formed where his face should have been, but the darkness quickly condensed and reformed, restoring his original appearance.
"He's impervious to physical attacks," Annabeth announced, looking pleased.
Then she smirked. "Assassinate."
In an instant, the room was consumed by darkness. Every trace of light vanished into Nox’s form, leaving them all blinded. Even more unsettling, his presence disappeared entirely from their senses.
Yet Lucian remained unimpressed. He didn't need his vision or detect Nox's presence to know where he was, he turned his head slightly, his cold gaze fixed behind him.
Nox’s dark claws hovered inches from Lucian’s throat.
"You have five seconds before Annabeth’s work becomes a meaningless project," Lucian warned icily.
“And what could you possibly do, Father~” Nox teased, although he didn't possess a mouth or teeth if he did they would have been razor sharp as he smiled.
But Lucian didn’t flinch. Instead, he plunged his hand straight into Nox’s chest, grasping something within his shadowy form.
The air grew tense.
"As your father, let me teach you the first lesson about respect and arrogance," Lucian said, his crimson eyes glowing ominously. "Everyone has a weakness. You should be more protective of yours."
Nox froze. Lucian had his core—the heart of his very being—firmly in his grasp.
After a moment, Nox retracted his claws and took a step back, bowing slightly. "I apologize for my actions. I merely wished to test and understand the being known as 'Father.' I meant no disrespect."
Lucian scoffed, withdrawing his hand. "I'll let it slide—this time. Only because Annabeth ordered you."
Annabeth looked slightly apologetic. "As you can see, Nox’s primary function is assassination. It’s one of the main reasons I created him in the first place. Originally, I considered constructing elemental guardians—fire, water, earth, air—but I found that concept both basic and impractical. Instead, I focused on something more abstract: shadows."
She gestured toward Nox. "I got the idea from Lucian’s shadow soldiers. Nox will be both my guardian in the shadows and my warrior when I need something done."
Nox inclined his head. "I will ensure you are never dissatisfied with my service."
Annabeth nodded, then asked curiously, "Do you sense any additional abilities beyond your current understanding of darkness and shadow?"
Nox studied his hands before crouching down. Placing his palms on the ground, he focused. The stone beneath them began to blacken, turning brittle and lifeless. It wasn't just darkness—it was decay.
"My darkness is corrosive," Nox observed. "I can taint and corrupt anything I touch, should I so desire."
Nico turned to Lucian, intrigued. "Can you do that too?"
Lucian closed his eyes for a moment, then shook his head. "I’d bet there’s a lot he can do that I can’t."
“Huh?! Why is that? I thought the whole darkness and shadow thing was your shtick?” Thalia asked.
Lucian sighed. “One, I have too many powers and abilities to master, so I haven't explored the full potential of just one. While I can do a lot with darkness, Nox can likely do even more simply because he’s essentially an elemental spirit. For him, wielding darkness is instinctive—his core is made entirely of it. That means his proficiency is like someone who has trained for years.”
He gestured toward Nox. “Take what he did earlier. When he robbed us of our vision, he didn’t just shroud the area in darkness to blind us like I would have. Instead, he absorbed the surrounding light, making it disappear. I hadn’t thought of doing that before—it's a genius application of darkness.”
Nox looked pleased with the praise.
Lucian then asked, “What did you do with the light you absorbed?”
“I released it back, restoring your vision,” Nox answered, slightly confused about where Lucian was going with this.
Lucian smirked. “That’s another one of your limitations. You’re instinctively talented with darkness, but you don’t think beyond that. Have you considered storing that absorbed light and using it as a weapon? Like a blinding flash or a concentrated beam, potentially burning someone with the accumulated energy?”
Nox's eyes widened in astonishment. “I… I wouldn’t have thought of that. But with enough trial and error, I could probably do it.” He looked at Lucian with newfound respect.
Lucian tapped his chin thoughtfully. “You know, we could learn a lot from each other. I could benefit from your instinctive knowledge of darkness, and in return, I could train you in combat and strategy.”
“That… That doesn’t sound bad at all,” Nox admitted, his expression shifting into what could only be described as a pleased smile. “I would be honored.”
Lucian placed a hand on Annabeth’s head, giving her an approving nod. “Although I’m not thrilled about unexpectedly becoming a father without my consent, I like him. He’s useful, and I see a lot of potential in him. You did well, Annabeth.”
Annabeth blushed, scratching her cheek. “Thanks.”
“What element are you going to work on next?” Thalia asked curiously.
“Hm?” Annabeth blinked. “Oh, that. Well, tomorrow, I’ll start working on his sister.”
“My… sister?” Nox repeated in surprise. “Am… Am I already being replaced?!”
“See? His father’s humor,” Annabeth said with a chuckle. “And no, you’re not being replaced.”
“So you’re making an elemental of light?” Lucian asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Right on the first guess! I commissioned the Hephaestus cabin to forge multiple Celestial Bronze body parts, so I’m going to make as many as I can.” Annabeth grinned proudly.
“How many are you planning to create?” Nico asked curiously. “Are you building an army?”
Annabeth shook her head. “I’m only making four. Any more than that, and I’d have too many weaknesses.”
“Weaknesses?” Thalia frowned.
Annabeth nodded. “All of them are being created using my spiritual energy. If their core is destroyed, I’ll suffer a backlash. Four is the limit—I can take that many hits, but it would still leave me brain-dead if they were all destroyed. If I made five, my soul could shatter. So, four is the max.”
Thalia and Bianca looked horrified, about to protest, but Lucian intervened.
“I won’t argue with you,” he said, closing his eyes. “You’ve already resolved yourself to face the consequences.”
Annabeth giggled and wrapped her arms around Lucian’s waist. “I’m glad you understand. Besides, I know that if I do end up brain-dead, you’d find a way to fix me.” She grinned confidently.
Lucian scoffed. “That’s the only reason I’m not stopping you.”
Comments
Vilmer
I like the arson idea…
Nazarickk
Thanks for the chapter
Rogue_Eagle99
That or you can actually write a bit for the school life. Like a few monster attacks here and there. A few girls flirting with him just to be chased off by Thalia and Annabeth
Anderson Pereira
The difficult part is his mother accepting him missing school.
Rogue_Eagle99
Like he has baba yaga (forget new name) looking mortal and alive to help start their religion so why not make a new soldier or have an old one with decent intelligence go to school for him and have it let him know about anything important or interesting
Bryan Vargas
That makes more sense...
Rogue_Eagle99
I mean one of his shadow soldiers
Bryan Vargas
Not really since all the shadow clones are exactly like Lucian, meaning even if they sat down at the school for one day the end result would be the same, they would still choose to burn the school to the ground...
Rogue_Eagle99
Couldn’t he just be smart and send a shadow to school with the mist making it look like him. Preferably one that is at least intelligent
Bryan Vargas
NgL i haven't thought much about the school arc, having Luke approach her during the time is a good idea, I was just going make them go to the school for one day and my end of it have Lucian set it on fire so he would be able to school anymore
Rogue_Eagle99
God name is Pan the inspiration for the work Panic as he had a shout that would cause his enemies to flee for their lives
Cobalt
That definitely tracks, miasma is basically just corruption so it's definitely plausible
Bryan Vargas
Another thing i can add is that this miasma comes Tartarus, which Kronos gained after speeding thousands of years down there...
Anderson Pereira
Like, I'm not very creative, one more idea I thought of would be during the school arc Luke could approach Thalia about some regret or something similar and poison her by forcing the search for the fleece with some prophecy for guidance. Or it could just be a help mission for Gover, who, if I'm not mistaken, at the end of the first book goes in search of the God, whose name I forgot, and gets stuck with a cyclops.
Cobalt
I don't know if greek myth has something for evil driads but the miasma definitely would change them at their core, maybe not making them evil but definitely making then disliked by their fellow driads who weren't altered, like the dark energy hades kids give off type of thing
Bryan Vargas
Miasma is a good one, since instead of Poisoning it corrupts them making them evil or something of that nature
Cobalt
Only poison I can recall from greek myth that has been used is the one medea tried use on theseus, wolfsbane, but I have no clue how that could affect beings like dreads, if I had to guess what would maybe something with a death centric attribute like miasma
Bryan Vargas
It has to be a poison otherwise Lucian could just absorb the curses and eat them up.
Cobalt
I think giving Lucian a pre existing relationship with the driads will make their situation more impactful, but other than that there are sooo many poisons and curses in the Greek mythos and he'll other mythologies to choose from that could only be cured eith the fleece
Bryan Vargas
I'm really having a hard time figure out what to do here, I was just going to make it seem like Like poisons all the dryads or something making it like a whole war taking about dating down the enemies rations and food supply or something like that. If you have any idea I'm definitely willing to listen
Bryan Vargas
I really can't talk about his position but the whole romance thing is gonna be in the third book or rather the next volume
Rogue_Eagle99
That and what’s gonna happen with sea of monsters? The quest was to get the fleece to save the tree/barrier but without the tree being the barrier focal point idk how or if Luke will poison/damage it
Cobalt
Random question, but when do you see the zoe lucy romance arc starting chapter wise or book wise because I'm genuinely curious about the implications of that scenario or what Luciano position will be by that point
