[Third Person’s PoV]

“Okay, can I finally ask what you all are doing?” Bianca asked, sitting in one of the chairs in the room. Nico was perched on her lap, looking curious himself.

“Yes, I suppose it’s time you all know,” Lucian said with a smirk.

“Are you sure, though? Once they learn this, there’s no going back,” Annabeth warned.

“Hm… You have a point,” Lucian muttered. “Very well, I’ll let both of them decide for themselves. What I’m about to tell you is very important and dangerous. Just knowing what we’re doing is risky and can get you killed if you’re not careful. So, do you still wish to know?”

“Absolutely,” Nico said without hesitation. “Doing something dangerous that sounds almost illegal? Count me in!”

Bianca quickly placed a hand over Nico’s mouth. “Wait a moment! Don’t just agree without thinking it through!”

“Is that why you built this room then?” Bianca asked warily. “To do whatever you’re doing? Is it so dangerous and wrong that you don’t want even the gods to know?”

It was Thalia who answered, pouring a potion into a vial. “What we’re doing is so dangerous and illegal it’s considered blasphemy to the gods themselves. If my father ever found out, he wouldn’t hesitate to execute me on the spot.”

The serious tone in Thalia’s voice took both Bianca and Nico by surprise.

Nico pried Bianca’s hand from his mouth. “Okay, when you say it like that, it just makes me even more curious. Come on, Bianca, don’t chicken out now.”

Bianca didn’t answer immediately. She looked at Lucian with a serious expression. “If our father found out about this, would he execute us as well?”

Nico’s whimsical expression vanished as he froze, staring at Lucian, frightened by what he might say.

Much to their relief, Lucian chuckled. “No, he wouldn’t. In fact, if I told him, he’d probably support it. He’d laugh and say something like, ‘I can’t wait to see the face of my idiot brother when you appear at his doorstep as a–’ Well, since you haven’t answered, I can’t say what yet.” Lucian did an uncanny impression of their father, making the others glance around as if he were in the room with them.

“So our father would protect us if we learn this, right?” Bianca asked for confirmation.

“He’d definitely try his best. Our father is weirdly supportive. As long as we don’t give him any more work than he already has, he couldn’t care less what we do,” Lucian said with a shrug.

“That doesn’t sound supportive in the slightest; it just sounds like he doesn’t care,” Nico muttered.

“It might seem that way sometimes, but trust me, he cares… about us, I mean,” Lucian reassured them.

“Aren’t you lucky,” Thalia said, slightly bitterly.

Bianca wiggled her lips slightly, as if trying to make up her mind. She let out a sigh and nodded. “Very well, I’m dying to know what you’re planning if it would even make the gods angry.”

“We are becoming gods ourselves,” Lucian said, raising a finger to his lips and winking.

Bianca’s and Nico’s faces fell into disbelief.

“You’re becoming what? Sorry?” Bianca asked, looking at Lucian as if she had misheard him.

“You heard him correctly. We all are, actually,” Annabeth added with a smirk.

“All three of you?” Nico asked, his eyes wide, his mouth widening into a grin.

“There are two more of us following this path,” Thalia corrected. “So there are five of us.”

“Who?” Bianca wondered, looking between them.

“Guess,” Lucian said with a grin.

“Percy,” both Nico and Bianca guessed instantly.

Lucian raised an eyebrow. “Yeah… How did you know?”

Nico shrugged. “He fought the God of War head-on. It’s pretty obvious.”

“Touché,” Lucian nodded.

“Is it Clarisse then? His girlfriend?” Nico asked, thinking of who it could possibly be.

“It’s Luke, isn’t it?” Bianca answered.

Thalia grimaced slightly at the mention of his name, while Annabeth scoffed disdainfully. Luke had shown he wanted to kill Lucian, making him an enemy in her eyes, one deserving of nothing but death.

Lucian nodded in confirmation, but before he could say more, Nico interrupted. “So how are you doing it? How are you all becoming gods?” he whispered, as if afraid he would get them into trouble if overheard.

“The question I’m most curious about is why. Why do you want to become gods? What do you hope to gain? Why are you doing this?” Bianca asked quizzically.

Lucian answered Bianca’s question with a smirk. “I’ll answer your question with one of my own: ‘Why not?'”

“Huh?” Bianca asked, noticing Lucian’s smirk widening.

Lucian shrugged. “Why not? Why shouldn’t I try to become a god? Is it possible? If it is, how hard is it? It all really stems from this one statement: ‘I’m doing it because I can,’ and that’s all I need.”

“You’re doing it just because you can…” Nico whispered back. He began to look feverish, breathing a bit heavily as he gazed at Lucian with reverence. “You’re becoming a god just because you can… You’re amazing,” he muttered in awe.

Lucian blushed slightly and scratched his cheek, a bit bashfully.

Bianca looked at her brother weirdly before turning to Thalia and Annabeth. “Are you doing it just because you can as well?”

They both shook their heads. Annabeth began, “I’ll follow Lucian to heaven or hell. If he’s condemned to hell, I’ll be right behind him. If he’s sentenced to death, I’d be the first one gone. If he’s becoming a god, I’ll be beside him, supporting him.”

“That’s a bit intense,” Bianca muttered under her breath before looking towards Thalia.

Thalia shrugged. “Lucian and I have had this rivalry ever since we met. I believe if Lucian can do something, then so can I. I’m here to humble him so he doesn’t think he’s all that special. If he wants to become a god, I’ll become one too, just to show him he’s not unique.”

Bianca smiled at that, while Lucian scoffed. “You aren’t very good at this humbling thing. I’m doing a better job at it than you are.”

Thalia was about to stick out her middle finger toward Lucian but, seeing Nico there, she chose otherwise and decided to ignore him.

Lucian then turned to Nico, addressing his earlier question. “As for how we’re doing this…” Lucian pulled out his Card of Blasphemy and handed it to him. Annabeth and Thalia showed theirs as well.

Nico and Bianca took their time studying the Cards of Blasphemy, surprised to see an older-looking Lucian depicted on them.

Before they could ask anything else, Lucian began to explain the process—about the potions, the sequences, and the special abilities they would gain.

“So, it’s practically one big ritual that takes years to perform and complete,” Lucian finished.

Bianca and Nico were instantly fascinated and highly impressed to learn that Lucian had created the process himself.

“So, what we’re witnessing now is Thalia preparing to advance to her next Sequence?” Bianca asked.

Thalia nodded and showed them the potion in her hands.

Nico looked at Lucian with a serious expression. “I want in.”

“Nico!” Bianca exclaimed.

Nico jumped off Bianca’s lap and walked toward Lucian, looking up at him with a determined expression. “That has to be by far the coolest thing I’ve ever heard. And I’m not taking no for an answer. If you made them, then surely you can make one for Bianca and me—”

“I haven’t said I want—”

“Be quiet, Bianca,” Nico interrupted, continuing to look at Lucian with determination. “I want to accompany you on your journey to godhood. It’s like you’re making your own Pantheon! And I’ll be damned if I miss out on something as exciting as that!”

Nico then bowed to Lucian, his arms sticking out to the side. “Please let me join you!”

“You can die, you know, and it’s going to be the most painful thing you might ever experience. It won’t be as easy as I’m making it out to be,” Lucian said with a serious expression.

Nico looked up at Lucian, his eyes abyssal black, as if draining the faint light around them. His gaze held a crazed and dark intensity, one only those related to the God of the Underworld might possess. Nico smirked. “I want to see if I can do it. If I fail and die trying, then it means I couldn’t, and it wasn’t meant to be. But I’ll never know if I don’t at least try… If I can become a god!”

Lucian had ignited a fire within Nico that couldn’t be extinguished.

“It would make you an enemy of all the other gods,” Lucian warned once again.

The shadows beneath Nico seemed to stir slightly. “I only have three words left to say then.”

Lucian raised an eyebrow. “Oh yeah?”

“Bring. Them. On.” Nico snarled with a grin.

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