Chapter 66: Visitors From Another World.
[Maximus Westphall-Bennett]:
In the space between realities, in a ship designed to survive the Void, Max sat knees down, head down, eyes closed in concentration.
For the better part of 2 years he's resided here. Between comprehension exercises, power realization sessions, state of being improvement rituals and, of course, sexual experiences (of which he has had quite), Max's level of power has long since stabilized at the very zenith of Transconceptual level being in all aspects of his being, not just power output or magic, but every facet of his existence was on a Transconceptual level.
Even his Charm Factor was breaching into Extraversal levels—A fact that he found interesting as he hadn't realized the factor grew with him.
He figured it had something to do with bringing the base power and its entirety to Transconceptual Tier.
As a Transconceptual being, Max technically didn't need the ship to travel the void between realities. He could technically take a singular step and appear in the Universe of his choosing. It's not an impossible feat, honestly, for someone of his tier of power. It would go with the territory.
But Max enjoyed travel by ship. It reminded him of his mortal roots and it was a great way to find peace of mind between journeys—The sex was just the bonus feature.
Speaking of sex...
Max opened his eyes.
"By now, that Jax experiment should be underway..." Max murmured to himself, his eyes seeing between the layers of reality. "I wonder how it's going?"
It was by Max's influencing a fledgling Poseidon from Percy Jackson's Riordanverse had "discovered" a new reality. It was also by Max's influence that the circumstances of Jax's existence came to be.
To Max, Jax's story is an experiment. A testing of theory, thought and of experience.
Jax's story isn't technically written in stone. Max made sure to not make it rigid in the threads of fate, but he still wanted it to flow in a way that would let him experience life from a mortal to immortal perspective—complete with all the experiences that made life worth it. And then some.
"He will probably be fine," Max thought aloud. "Anyways, he has his own friends and allies to make. He'll be fine.
"I, on the other hand, need to proceed with my journey."
Max looked in the direction of the thread of fate and sighed. 'I hope I won't have to deal with even more drama than I can take.'
Max ordered the bioship to speed up, allowing the ship to channel himself as its speed dramatically increased.
"Full speed ahead," Max muttered. "I've got an appointment with the Dark Lord and, depending on the stances, I may need to battle the Devil just to get rid of this annoying fate thread."
[General POV]:
Meanwhile, back on Jax's world, a coterie of mermaids were discussing Zac's situation.
"There's no other way in," one of the five mermaids said. "What did you do?"
"Nothing," Sirena tried.
"Stop lying!" said the fourth.
"We're not lying," Sirena tried again.
"We didn't do anything. Please don't tell the pod."
"We have no choice," said the fourth, before turning and going under the water.
"If what you say is true and something has happened to the boy," began the fifth. "I fear for us all."
Shaking her head, the fifth mermaid also turned and dove down in the water, leaving the trio of mermaids (Lyla, Nixie and Sirena) alone in the moon pool.
"What if she's wrong?" Nixie asked.
"What if nothing did happen to the boy? We have to find out."
[Jaxon Davens]:
Jax watched the scene play out through the book screen before it shifted again.
This time, he saw a familiar scene—One of an endless, surfaceless body of water with a trident in the middle of it. Again.
"Why do you keep showing me this?" Jax asked aloud, but received no response. "Do I need to find it? How?"
The screen shifted to a full moon then to the island of Mako. The passage. The entrance. The trident.
"Okay, during the full moon, I need to look for it... Is there an easier way to get to it?" Jax asked, to no response. "Right. What am I expecting? It is still only a magical book."
Jax had been shown countless things by the book—The faces and histories of present day mermen and the past reasons for their exile. It's even shown him the countless monsters lurking beneath the waves and the magics of the merpeople—Many of which were lost arts, ironically.
He currently knew more about the mermen/mermaid world than any merman alive and probably more than a majority of mermaids on Earth.
And the cavern he was in? It was but one singular cavern in an almost city-spanning underwater cave system with full furnished rooms, chambers, moon pools and caves that go further subterranean in-land without losing access to the waves underneath. Some of the passages were so delicately detailed Jax had a hard time imagining it to be naturally occurring.
Either way they were lit by the torches—the same exact ones in the main cavern—Sea-green lit flames.
And the place was surprisingly modernized, with some chambers possessing high tech and entertainment technologies like smart TV, computers and internet.
Jax wasn't sure how this was possible. Internet in a place like this should've been impossible. Honestly, he chalked it up to divine powers, given his father was Poseidon and all.
"I get that this place exists probably for me and any mermen I rescue from the tyring eyes of mermaid society," Jax said, looking to an object in his hand. "But what I don't get is why must I pursue that trident when I possess one of my own."
[Reference Image]:
"Maybe I should just go after it later," Jax murmured, looking at the book briefly. "At least, this place offers a teleportation chamber to any place that I've been... Sucks that I have to have physically been there in person. Otherwise I would've gone on a world tour with Zac and Cam... Speaking of Zac and Cam... I should probably return home..."
Naturally, the trident in his hands was the trident stuck in the stone. It was a magic, divine artifact, supposedly. Jax could feel how it increased his connection to the water and, strangely enough, the sky. It even managed to have its surface spark with electricity twice.
He placed the trident back in the stone and leaped into the water without transforming.
He was home within 35 minutes of swimming. He could've used the teleportation chamber, but swimming at this speed was oddly freeing.
He could accurately tell his geological location and the direction of his destination, thanks to being the son of the sea god.
He could accurately tell his geographical location and the direction of his destination, thanks to being the son of the sea god.
And because he was the son of the sea god, he didn't get wet if he didn't want to and didn't have to hold his breath while underwater.
So many benefits…
[General POV]:
Cam had walked to Zac's place, looking for his friend.
"Zac?" he asked as he traversed the dock. "You here?"
"I'm over here!" a voice sounded from the water.
"Zac?" Cam walked over and was surprised to see his friend swimming... ...With a bright, blue tail. "What the—... You've got a tail!"
"I told you something happened!" Zac grinned, joyfully. "Check this."
The whole scene with the bubble of water happened, leaving Cam soaking wet.
"How'd you do that?" Cam asked, stunned, while Zac just laughed in glee, backswimming with his tail.
"Because he's a merman," a new voice said, startling both boys and Cam turned to see Jax calmly approach. "I'd advise you not to let the mermaids learn of your existence... Though I imagine this warning is way too late by now."
"Jax!" the boys seemed shocked.
"The one and only," Jax grinned. "Nice tail."
Meanwhile, somewhere else in Queensland, three figures seemed to materialize—Three men, one of dark hair, green eyes, one of blond hair and blue eyes and one of dark hair and dark eyes. They each looked roughly around the same age—17 to 23.
They were demigods who had travelled here out of curiosity at the behest of Poseidon.
[Reference Images]:
"Are we at the right place?" Jason asked.
"Based on my mental GPS, yeah," Percy answered.
Nico remained silent as always.
They were each children of the Big Three, but from a timeline where Piper and Annabeth died in the Shrine from House of Hades, Nico never got with Will, Gaea rose before the Great Prophecy could be enacted against and they were almost killed in the process before being extracted to Poseidon's domain and issued a new quest—a new life—elsewhere—Specifically, this new world.
"Well, let's find this little brother of yours, Percy," Jason said, clearly psyched.
"I've always wanted one. Tyson is cool and all and I love him but he's a cyclops," Percy stated. "Maybe this one will be human?"
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P.S.: Author here! This will be the premise of my next fanfic story, "Mako Mermaid: Son of Poseidon"—A BL story which continues this main story for Jaxon here. I'd post it on WebNovel and AO3, just FYI.
Furthermore, I've changed Jaxon's lastname from Bennett to Devans. Just putting that out there for my WebNovel readers.
Please check it out when you can, thanks! XD