Downfall of Greece and Rome (Chapter 40)

Quote:   "Find your resolution, not someone else's."

Pontus's words hit me hard. At first, I found it to be almost a fantasy. That couldn't be true, it just...didn't make any sense in any way I could think of it. The Greek world was coming to an end...? That brought up more questions than it answered, and I wasn't very happy about it.

What about the Roman pantheon? What happens to them?

What happens to us?

Is everything just going to disappear?

"Pontus...how did you even find out about any of this? You're certain that this is actually going to happen?" I questioned the elderly deity, trying to find my own sense in this ocean of confusion.

"Look around you. Many minor gods and lesser beings have already faded, you just haven't noticed. Nobody does. They are mere backround figures, which we rarely ever see. Now that they are gone, it's exactly the same, except that they were apart of our foundation. Mother Gaea hinted to me about this day, but I never understood what she implied back then, all those years ago." Pontus sighed, his mind looming into the distant past.

"But...things can't just end...can it?" I tried to reason.

"You misinterperet what I mean. Think of it as being replaced in a sense. Bigger and brighter days are ahead, but I don't know what it entails. I am only certain that beings like me and others will not be there to witness it with our own eyes." Pontus said gloomily, digging his hand into the sand. 

He grabbed a handful of sand in his hand and crushed it.

"Why are you telling me this?" I asked, pacing around back and forth in a state of thoughtlessness.

"Because it wouldn't be fair if I didn't. You've met Lady Chaos, and she is fully aware of the situation as well, in fact, she probably knows more than I. It is because she will be the one to give the last stand, she is our divine creator, and when the time comes, she will give up her place as creator and that will be when our civilization crumbles." Pontus explained.

I don't recall talking to Chaos in a long time. The last time I saw her was hard to place exactly. Maybe something happened to her while I wasn't around her, or maybe she had known about this the entire time, and hadn't explained it to me out of resentment for herself.

"So...in conlusion, you are telling me that you are no longer after Olympus. It was Jack all along who planned this invasion, and the world may or may not end soon?" I said with a straight face, but I couldn't help but think about how upside-down the world had become.

"That's certainly one way to put it." Pontus replied, looking down at the sand.

"Shoot...what am I supposed to do now?" I said with a hand on my head, as this was much more than I expected in the first place.

I came here thinking I was going to scout out Pontus's palace, only to land right next to him. I expected a war to be coming, but it turns out it was all a fabrication. I thought things were bad enough, only to find out that the world I live in is going to end soon.

"Do as you like. Consider that this "collapse" will be soon. Not now, but it will come, and when it does, you will not even know that our world has ended. My clock is almost up, and over thousands of years of life, here is where I depart. You will not see me again, so I warn you to prepare for what is to come. It will not be a bad thing I suppose, this new world." Pontus lisped, a little too wispy for my liking.

"What do you mea-" I turned around to face him to ask what on Green Gaea he meant by that.

But he was gone, and the faint smell of salty mist filled the air.

...

"Of course...because why not?" I muttered under my breath.

It had been a while since I was this conflicted inside my own mind. What Pontus had told me gave me leverage over everyone I knew, this information would change our entire game to the rulebooks. Telling all of them would cause more panick than there already was, as there wasn't exactly a "good" way to say "oh umm, just so you know, we may all die tomorrow, k?".

I waited on the shoreline until I could come up with something I could do to get the best possible outcome. I can't just hide this truth from them all, because that's just asking for more problems. Telling them will cause an outburst, but perhaps that was for the best, as I would rather have them be aware of the situation and mad, rather than confused and gone.

"Why do I always get the tough jobs? I grumbled into the air, until a familiar feminine voice came up from behind me.

"Looks like you could use a hand right now." 

Behind me stood Lady Chaos, in her normal astral form. Her body was just an outline of a woman, but instead of skin, she had dark purple energy, with little white dots that looked a lot like stars all around her body. Her eyes had white swirls, like her form was the personification of time and space. Pretty trippy stuff to look at.

"Yeah, you could say that, I guess." I said with a palm under my chin as I sat down on the sand like Pontus had before me.

I was surprised truthfully, but I had a feeling I would have to talk with her sooner or later. Of course I hadn't expected her to jump out right next to me like a psychopath, but beggars can't be choosers.

"He's right. About all of it. The end is coming." Chaos announced with a saddened tone. The odd thing was, she wasn't upset in the sense that she realized she was going to fade, but in another way, as if she were disheartened by something else.

"That's...not very comforting." I groaned out loud.

"It's not supposed to be, I'm afraid." She said with her hands behind her back, with her cosmic pupils staring straight.

"Then what will happen to Olympus? The world? How will they operate without the gods? What about those Space Troopers that you have that helped us against Order?" I machine-gunned out. 

A world without gods...it almost seemed crazy at this point. I've lived so long under the idea that magic and beings are so connected to my daily life, that I almost can't imagine living without the constant threat of danger, monsters, and vengeful gods behind my back.

"It'll be fine. Some other Pantheon will get it covered for us. In many ways, I cannot explain this whole process very well, but think of it as a metamorphosis of some kind. Our world is simply changing, not being destroyed. In order for a caterpillar to become a butterfly, it must undergo many alterations in order to transform. That's what's happening to us right now." Chaos explained to me.

"And those guys you saw back on the moon with the guns, they're apart of a shared army. All Pantheons have them, and I, as well as many other all-powerful creators have access to our own sub-section of the army. When our world changes, they will serve another deity in another Pantheon." She added.

"I don't like the sound of all this. Does this mean...we're all going to die?" I trailed off.

"No, I would assume not. This evolution brings unpredictable results, so it's impossible to know exactly how things will turn out, but I am certain that plain death is not one of them. Tomorrow, you could awake with no powers of a demigod, beings like I and the Olympians will be erased and you will have no memory that any of us existed besides in history books." She sighed, not wavering in her feudal stance.

"So...we'll all forget everything that ever happened. All the demigods who have died, all the sacrifices, all our stories...gone?" I concluded, my gaze looking up to Chaos, who shifted away.

"It is just speculation. There's a perfectly good chance that you'll remember, but I am just giving you a heads-up for the worst case scenario. Honestly, you are correct in fearing what you have learned, but you cannot fathom what you don't know. Millennia of culture, prosperity, character, all coming to an end." She answered my question in a saddened tone.

"What if we don't want that? Isn't there some way that we can avoid this? Change our fates?" I reasoned.

"There is nothing to avoid. This is a force a nature coming to our home. There's nothing to fight. Fate is a strong word to use, but I am telling you, this is similar to a storm, or a hurricane. We cannot stop it, only find ways to seek solace in the universe's unknown desires." Chaos said squarely, and she practically told me that there was no hope.

I took a deep breath and sighed loudly. This day just kept getting more and more exciting, didn't it?

"When is this going to happen, exactly?" I eluded.

"Soon, I'd say. Could be anywhere between tomorrow, or in a week. Though, I am urging you to take it easy. Nobody is going to die, it is not a doomsday as Pontus had said it was. It is indeed a coming of a new era, but that isn't a bad thing necessarily." She said with sympathy in her voice.

"So...you expect me to just accept this? What am I going to tell the campers? The gods? What if they don't believe me? What if they panic and cause a riot?" I said, fearing the worst.

"If you would like, I can inform them. All at once. No trouble, but there will be a swift reaction. I can spread the word, but I leave it up to you to control the masses. I know that there are many unanswered questions, and this development is extremely distasteful to you, but you have to understand. I didn't expect nor want this. It's hard to believe that after all that had taken place over these, years, everything, it all didn't matter in the end." Chaos kicked the dirt with her feet, probably filled with pessimism. I almost felt bad for her, had she not been omnipotent.

At this point, my ears felt numb. Everything had been for nothing?

All those years in Tartarus, Gaea, Kronos, Pontus, all of that affected nothing at all? In the end, we would all end up in another world like a changed set of clothes being thrown out? I didn't even have time to be mad or angry, because I needed to think of a solution, and where to go forward from here on out. If I break apart now, everyone will pay for it.

"Okay. Do that. I'll handle the rest. So at minimum, I have about a day at least to expect this shift?" I said for clarification, but I was really downed at this point.

"Maybe. When this change comes, you won't expect it. You won't feel any change or difference. It'll just...happen to all of us." Chaos implored reluctantly.

She snapped her fingers, and I assumed that her job had been done. By now, all the campers, the gods, have all been told about this event in full detail. I wondered what it was like back at camp, and prayed to Zeus that it wasn't burned to the ground in an instant. Both the Roman and Greek Pantheons were coming to an end, and I wasn't sure how well this would sit with them all.

"Thank you, Lady Chaos." I said apologetically.

"Do not thank me. You have already enough to worry about. I am only sorry that I didn't know of this sooner..." Chaos cursed in the air.

"Can't blame you for that." I said half-heartedly.

"You may not, but I do. Now go. Find your friends and do what you must." She directed to me, pointing off into the distance.

Her words came off as very powerful, with it almost being synchronized with the waves, and the blurred winds that passed by my ears. The mid-day sun was still shining bright and strong, and it only made the news of the fall of Greece and Rome feel bittersweet.

"Yeah...I'll do that." I confirmed as I began to stand up, patting the sand that had clung to the bottom of my pants. Once I got on my feet, I stood away from Chaos as I prepared to warp back to camp to see what I could do.

"Perseus, this is the final time you will see me. Know that I am not dead, only alive in other forms. Before I depart, I must tell you that you truly are a great hero. I have lived many lifetimes, countless ones in fact, but I have never seen a soul quite as pure and compassionate as you. Very few even can compare to the sacrifices and hardships you have faced against, and you should take pride in that." Chaos said abruptly, and her illuminate eyes began to...change in ways I cannot explain. All I could tell was sorrow was prominent in her chaotic expression.

"Truly, a hero to surpass all others..." She whispered, and her body slowly began to dematerialize right in front of my eyes.

"Wh-what's happening to you?" I rushed towards her, reaching my hand out to her, but her body continued to rapidly deform, and her purple cosmic skin started to peel away like dust.

I realized that she had expected this, as she didn't move a muscle when I had tried to reach her. 

She had this funny expression on her face...like this was what she wanted for a long time, but now that it was actually happening, she couldn't believe it. I glimpsed into her eyes, and she stared back at me, as if signaling a last goodbye, and that she was sorry. After hanging out with her many other times, I could tell what she was thinking somewhat, even if she didn't clearly spell it out for me.

First, her legs dissipated into purple ashes that floated off into the air, then her arms left her, and her torso also started to break apart as well.

The last part of her to leave her was her head, and in a matter of seconds, the most powerful being to ever exist, disintegrated in front of my very own eyes.

Lady Chaos had faded.

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Author's Note:

The End is Nigh...