Cinema Reactions
Aphrodite smiles, relieved: "Finally! He can live!"
Hades shakes his head, his face dark: "Look closer. His skin has turned gray. He's not 'normal,' he's numbed. He killed his senses to stop suffering."
The Archbishop sighs in the darkness of the room: "The calm before extinction."
The Symphony of Goodbye: The Festival
The vision moves to an outdoor music festival. The atmosphere is festive. The host asks for a volunteer for the grand finale. Percy goes up on stage, carried by a confidence he has never had.
He sits down at an ethereal piano that he makes appear. He closes his eyes and begins to sing. The melody recalls Let It Go, but the lyrics are haunted by a millennial solitude. His voice is of such crystalline beauty that it seems to freeze the surrounding air.
"No more pain, no more secrets... Let the blood turn to ice and the shadow embrace me..."
While he sings, the camera shows the audience. People are smiling. They close their eyes, transported by the music. But as the finale approaches, we see trickles of blood slowly flowing from their ears and eyes. They are not suffering. They are dying in absolute ecstasy, their essence drained by Percy's music, who, without knowing it, has transformed his ritual into a life pump.
When Percy opens his eyes at the end of the song, the entire crowd is motionless. Thousands of corpses, smiles on their lips.
His eyes are no longer blue. They have become scarlet red. Definitive. Terrifying.
Cinema Reactions: Total Horror
Zeus screams in terror: "He killed them all! Without even realizing it! He is a scourge!"
Annabeth (if she were there, we would hear her cry, but here it is Athena who closes her eyes): "He wanted to be normal, and his soul responded by devouring everything around him to compensate for the void."
Nyx and Chaos are petrified. They now feel a magnetic attraction to the screen. That red... it is not hatred. It is their own color that woke up in him after he consumed those thousands of lives.
Poseidon almost vomits from grief: "My son is a mass murderer... by accident."
The Archbishop stands up and points to the sleeping Percy in the room.
— "That day, his soul understood that 'normality' was a lie. The ritual didn't last a few hours; it simply tore off the last lock holding back what he truly is."
He looks at the trembling Gods.
— "Ready for the rest? We are going to see how he brought that power back to the manor... and what he said to me upon arriving."
The screen shimmers one last time before the vision of the past fades, leaving a trail of sadness and dread throughout the room.
The Weight of Forgiveness and Goodbye
The image shows the silent fairground. Thousands of bodies lie on the ground, frozen in mortal ecstasy. In the center of this improvised cemetery, Percy is on his knees, his conductor's batons broken on the ground. He screams, but no sound comes out. His tears flow, red like his new eyes, staining his hands.
"What have I done?" he sobs. "I just wanted... to be normal."
The Archbishop then appears behind him. His face is impenetrable, but his eyes betray immense fatigue. With a simple wave of his hand, he deploys magic beyond comprehension: the festival, the bodies, the traces of the massacre... everything evaporates into a fold in time. For the rest of the world, this event never happened.
He brings a broken Percy back to the manor.
Ice in the Blood
Three hours later, the screen shows Percy's room. He is calm, with a deathly calm. He no longer tries to cry. He writes a note on the mahogany desk, his movements mechanical. He leaves the manor in silence, disappearing into the night.
The camera zooms in on the note left on the pillow:
"I'm sorry I came into the world. Thank you for putting up with me."
Cinema Reactions: Ice and Blood
Hestia literally collapses from her throne, her flames turning icy blue. "How... how can a child carry such self-hatred?"
Nyx and Chaos shudder violently. That note, that sentence, resonates in them like a blasphemy against their own existence. They feel an almost irresistible impulse to protect the sleeping Percy.
Poseidon is petrified. His own guilt eats at him from the inside. He realizes that every time he ignored Percy, he added a word to that farewell letter.
The Archbishop keeps his eyes fixed on Percy's floating body. His aura is darker than ever.
The Awakening in the Cave
The screen goes dark for a moment then lights up again on the present. Percy's deep sleep is over.
In the damp cave, the young man's eyes snap open. They are no longer blue; they are that definitive scarlet red that we know. He stands up, his limbs cracking under the effort. He knows what he must do. He must return to the Manor, face his mentor, face the only person who ever loved him unconditionally.
But as he prepares to leave, he stops. His new perception, sharpened by his primordial essence, detects energy signatures.
The Approach of the Shadows
On screen, we see silhouettes approaching the cave entrance. They are not Cronos's monsters. They are scouts, sent by the survivors of Olympus who have not yet understood that their "hero" had become their end.
Cinema Reactions
Athena analyzes the silhouettes on screen: "These are our hunters... They are making a monumental mistake. If they attack him now..."
Zeus grips his Lightning Bolt, a glimmer of fear and hope in his eyes. "If they can eliminate him while he is weakened..."
The Archbishop lets out a dry, joyless laugh. "Weakened? You have learned nothing, then?"
The Archbishop turns to the assembly:
— "The survivors think they can 'clean up' their mistake. But they will only find one thing in that cave: the answer to the question 'What is more dangerous than a monster?'"
The vision now shows Percy standing, his hands beginning to smoke with black and red energy. The scouts are a few meters away.
The screen crackles with a silvery glow, that of the moon, but a moon that seems to darken as the silhouettes approach the cave.
The Interrupted Hunt
At the cave entrance, Artemis's Huntresses advance with deadly precision. Thalia leads the march, her Aegis shield deployed, but her hands tremble slightly. Behind them, Artemis herself advances, her bow in hand, but her eyes betray deep hesitation. She saw the symphony on Olympus.
She saw the blood obey that boy.
"Be careful!" orders Artemis in a low voice. "This is no longer the boy we knew."
But the young Huntresses, not having witnessed the Cronos massacre, are imbued with their usual superiority. "He's just a man, Mistress," one of them says as she nocks an arrow. "A traitor to capture."
The Night of Nightmares
Percy emerges from the darkness of the cave. He does not draw his sword. He simply raises a hand, and the air around the Huntresses becomes black, a viscous smoke that seeps into their lungs.
In a heartbeat, the Huntresses collapse one after another. They do not die, but their faces twist in mental agony. They are plunged into nights of eternal nightmares, reliving their worst fears on loop.
Only Thalia and Artemis remain standing, but paralyzed.
Percy looks at them with icy sadness.
— "Thalia... Artemis... I have nothing against you. But I'm not in the mood. I've understood quite well what you think of me now."
Before they can answer, he dissolves into a trail of darkness and ichor, leaving the Huntresses groaning on the ground.
Cinema Reactions
Artemis lowers her head, her fingers clenched on her bow. "I wanted to help him... but my fear spoke louder than my gratitude. He is right to flee from us."
Zeus growls: "He humiliates my Huntresses as if they were flies!"
The Archbishop smiles: "He was merciful. He could have turned their blood into lead. He chose to let them sleep."
The Return to the Threshold
The image changes. We are in front of the colossal doors of the Manor. Percy stands there, tiny against the immensity of the building. He remains motionless for five minutes. We can see the steam of his breath in the cold air. He hesitates. He fears the judgment of the only person who matters.
Suddenly, the doors pivot without a sound. The Archbishop is there, calm, holding a tray with two steaming cups of tea.
— "The tea will get cold, Percy. Come in."
The Tea of Truths
They are sitting in the music room, where it all began. Percy holds his cup, but his hands tremble. His scarlet red eyes stare at the dark liquid.
— Percy: "Why me? Why does everything I touch end up as ashes or blood?"
He looks up at his mentor, a heartbreaking plea in his gaze.
— Percy: "What am I, Master? Tell me the truth."
Cinema Reactions: Breathless
The entire cinema room freezes. This is the moment everyone was waiting for.
Nyx and Chaos lean forward, their essences vibrating in unison. They feel that the Archbishop's answer will change their existence forever.
Poseidon murmurs: "Tell him he is my son... tell him it's a mistake..."
The Archbishop in the room remains silent, observing his on-screen version.
On screen, the Archbishop sets down his cup. He looks at Percy with a tenderness bordering on reverence.
— "You are not a mistake of nature, Percy."
The Mirror of Origins
On screen, the Archbishop places his hands on Percy's shoulders.
— "You are the son of Poseidon, yes. Your blood is of the sea, but your soul... your soul was forged long before the oceans saw the light of day."
With a snap of his fingers, two objects appear in the center of the room:
A mirror with a frame of liquid silver
And
A large blank canvas.
The Call of the Mirror
Percy approaches the mirror. At first, he only sees his scarlet red eyes. But slowly, the image blurs. Two female silhouettes begin to appear behind his reflection, like protective shadows.
Percy (voice hesitant, blushing slightly):
"I see... two women. They are of a beauty that I cannot even begin to describe."
He points to the left silhouette (Nyx):
"This one... she looks like the deepest night, but a night that is not frightening. Her hair is like a veil of dark silk studded with diamonds. She exudes a cold elegance, but when I look at her, I feel... at peace. As if darkness were my home."
Then, he points to the right silhouette (Chaos):
"And she... she is indescribable. She changes all the time. One moment, she is the void, the next, she is an explosion of primordial colors. She has a gaze that seems to have seen the birth of time. She is... everything and nothing."
Cinema Reactions: The Breath of Infinity
Nyx has stood up, her robe of shadows stirring violently. Her eyes fix on the screen with a hunger and tenderness she has never felt in eons. "He sees me... not as a goddess of dread, but as his home."
Chaos lets out a laugh that sounds like a symphony of supernovas. She seems to vibrate with wild joy. "He perceived my essence without going mad. My little pillar... my echo."
Erebus and Tartarus exchange a look of pure shock. The idea that their mother and their sister share the same bond with a "mortal" defies all divine logic.
Poseidon is petrified. "My son... bound to the two most powerful forces in existence?"
Zeus stammers, fear choking him: "It's impossible..."
The Drawing of the Soul
The Archbishop smiles, a smile that is not without a touch of irony.
— "Place your hands on the canvas, Percy. Let your soul draw what your words cannot say."
Percy obeys. As soon as his palms touch the canvas, scarlet and black ink erupts from his fingers. The canvas fills itself, creating a work of art of absolute complexity: Percy at the center, and the two entities embracing him, their essences intertwining to form a universal protection seal.
The Archbishop (murmuring to himself):
"I suspected Nyx... but Chaos too? That's a surprise, even for me."
He turns to Percy, whose eyes now shine with terrifying understanding.
— "What the mirror showed you, Percy... those are your soulmates. You are the only anchor capable of stabilizing Night and the Void. That is why the world burns you: you are made for infinity, not for the earth."
Total Cinema Shock
The room explodes into a chaos of voices.
Hera shouts: "This is blasphemy! A demigod bound to the Creator herself?"
Athena tries to calculate the implications: "If Percy Jackson is their soulmate, then touching a single hair on his head is equivalent to declaring war on Night and Chaos simultaneously. Olympus is nothing compared to him."
Nyx and Chaos do not look at each other as rivals. On the contrary, a strange harmony seems to be born between them in the room.
They stare at the sleeping Percy with absolute possession.