7 WEAPON

Athos' face went through a flurry of emotions as he stared at the stone ring in his father's hand. Surprise, confusion, disbelief and denial flashed past his dumbstruck face.

"You're not being serious, are you?", he said, hoping that this was his dad's idea of a joke.

"I do not jest", Herakles said with a poker face. Athos squinted and stared at his father, but it was truly hard trying to make out whether he was actually being serious or not, for he almost always had a perpetual 'resting bitch face' that was carefully nurtured for over 3 millennia.

"Are you actually telling me that 7 years of training only gets me a stone ring? A cracked one at that? Please tell me its some fancy weapo-"

Just as Athos was about to finish his sentence, the ring in Herakles' hand rumbled and shot out, hurtling towards him.

'Shit!', he thought. It was too fast for him to dodge, but he managed to raise his arms, covering his head.

But it was unnecessary, for the ring didn't seem to want to hurt Athos. It merely slipped onto the index finger of his right hand, slightly shrinking for a better fit. After adjusting to its new position, it gave out a dark light, its stone surface disintegrating revealing a shining metallic surface underneath and gaining a faint black metallic glow.

On instinct, He tried to pry it out, but even with his superhuman strength, it didn't budge a single bit. It almost seemed to be welded to his flesh and seeing the ring practically become a part of his body, Athos started to panic a little.

"Was this supposed to happen?", a bewildered and slightly terrified Athos said, looking up to find an equally confused Herakles staring back at him.

"No. This...I've never seen this before. It wasn't supposed to do any of this." Herakles said, walking forward and examining Athos' hand.

"This was supposed to be a weapon I acquired during the Gigantomachy. It could transform into a celestial bronze hammer and return to the owner if lost. I used it to clobber Porphyrion's giant head. Oh, those were the days..."

"Oh! This was a weapon? Great!". Athos interjected. A weapon was of vital importance to a demigod, for it was one of the main ways they could dispose of monsters. His bare fists could indeed defeat a monster, but it would be immensely difficult to actually finish it off with only his hands.

"Yes. A very powerful one at that. Rightfully so, for it was given to me by a God.", Herakles said.

"A God? Was it a reward?", Athos asked, a little surprised for Herakles usually didn't like the Olympians all that much.

"No", Herakles shook his head. "It was an exchange. I used to wield a blade named Anaklusmos at the time. It was a fine blade. It was forged in the fires of Mount Etna and cooled in the River Lethe. But as the sword drew its power from the ocean, it attracted Poseidon. Since he could ruin his reputation by just snatching a Demigod's weapon, he gave me the ring as compensation instead."

Athos didn't know what to say to that, for he had just heard the history of one of, if not the most important weapons. It was wielded by the protagonist, Percy, after all. He did know that Herakles was given the blade by Zoe Nightshade, one of the daughters of Atlas, but he didn't know how exactly it ended up in Percy's hands.

Well, now he knew.

"Will the weapon have it's same appearance? After the glowing and whatnot?", Athos asked tentatively. He liked hammers, yes. It was great at dealing blunt force damage against armoured enemies, but with his strength, his hands could do the same, albeit with less force. Thus, an axe would've been better suited for him.

"I do not know. Perhaps a few changes may have indeed occurred. The only way to know is when you summon it", Herakles replied, rubbing his chin.

"And how exactly do I summon it?", Athos asked.

"It responds to your intent. Merely will it to appear and it shall", Herakles answered, his eyes glinting with some anticipation.

Hearing that, Athos closed his eyes and concentrated for a few seconds. Immediately, the ring shuddered and morphed into a large weapon that fit perfectly in his hands.

It was about 131 cm ( 4'3 feet).

The first thing he noticed was that it looked extremely similar to Stormbreaker, but with a metallic handle. The front of the weapon was an axe blade, so sharp it seemed to almost cut the air, while the back of the weapon ended in a hammer-side that could do immense damage to armoured enemies. Surprisingly, instead of celestial bronze, the axe blade and the hammer side seemed to be made with Stygian iron, another magical metal that could damage monsters and one that was usually found in the underworld (It is refined in the River Styx), and the handle was made from an odd alloy of some strange silverish metal and some more Stygian Iron.

This gave the axe a mettalic-black colour with a tint of purple, with the handle having a slightly lighter shade. But the strangest part was the glowing blue gem embedded between the Axe blade and the hammer side. It had luminous blue lines extending from it, coiling around the metallic handle, giving the axe an ethereal look.

'Fucking hell', Athos thought, his mouth wide open, staring at the masterpiece of craftsmanship in his hands. Wasn't this supposed to be a hammer? What had he done to change an ancient weapon's composition? And how could he even hold it in the first place? Shouldn't only creatures and demigods of the underworld be able to wield weapons of Stygian Iron?

"This...This is unprecedented", Herakles muttered, his eyebrows almost disappearing into his hair. He had never seen anything like this before in his long immortal life. How could a previously normal weapon completely change its composition to the point where there were absolutely no similarities? The axe looked more powerful and robust than the Hammer too!

"Does it have a name?", Athos managed to stutter out, shaking himself out of his reverie.

"No. For one, I do not believe it's right to use its previous name, for it is now too different in both power and form. Even so, the hammer, oddly enough, did not possess a name in the first place", Herakles said, staring at the blue gem that was slightly pulsating.

"It was nameless? How so?", Athos frowned. Most weapons had a name for names had power. No self-respecting hero would use a nameless weapon. Even if they did, they would first give it a name before using it to slay monsters and men.

"There are two reasons a weapon would remain nameless. One reason is that the weapon is faulty and thus a failure, or... if the weapon is incomplete", Herakles explained, holding up two fingers.

"What?! The axe is incomplete?", Athos spluttered. How could something so beautiful possibly be incomplete? What more could one add to it?

Herakles nodded solemnly.

"That is indeed what Poseiden told me. It was a still powerful weapon, so I did not care. But he also gave me some more information. The weapon was not crafted by Poseiden's Cyclopses, nor Hephaestus, but by Telekhines, the weaponsmiths that were thrown to the depths of Tartarus"

"Telkhines", Athos whispered to himself. They had the snouts of a dog and flippers that ended with clawed fingers. Their skin and body were sleek and black like seals. They were excellent blacksmiths who could compete with the likes of Hephaestus and the Elder Cyclopses, but were thrown into Tartarus by Zeus, due to their use of Dark magic.

They forged mythical weapons and were even responsible for reforging Kronos' Scythe during the second Titan War which Percy helped stop. Perhaps he would have to find them to uncover the secrets behind his axe.

"Let us not talk about them. Instead, how about you name your axe? Being the first one to name your own weapon would increase your familiarity with it", Herakles interrupted Athos' thoughts.

"I can name it? I thought it was incomplete?" Athos said, confused.

"It may be incomplete, but it is still worthy of a name. It is powerful enough.", Herakles rebutted.

Athos thought for a moment, his mind remembering an angry tattooed man with an axe and his sassy child. He grinned and looked at the metallic-Black axe in his hands.

"Leviathan", he said, and the gem's glow intensified ever so slightly.