Prologue
The sky was an unhealthy, dark colour. Like the air was filled in tiny flakes of ashes. And probably it really was.
The sunlight was weak and pale, like the sun was always covered by thick clouds, giving the city a sinister atmosphere.
The Tour Eiffel was strangely twisted on its left side, looking like it was about to fall. Of the city, once so beautiful, was left nothing more than a shadow, a fading memory.
The few trees left were dying and loosing leaves. The Seine, almost dry, lapped against its banks with great trouble. Only few buildings were still intact.
Big gashes opened in the metal of bridges and monuments, broken bricks and flakes of pester rested in piles at the sides of the streets.
The rooftops were almost completely wrecked, and the streets were unnaturally quiet.
The broken street lamps drew thin, long shadows on Rue St. Honore stoned pavement.
A man, looking shabby, was sitting on the cold stone, his back leaning against the metal pole, and his eyes were closed.
Suddenly, a series of loud thumps and trembling broke the silence. The ground trembled at regular intervals, like if giant feet were trampling on it.
The man shut his eyes more firmly and bit his lips, understanding he was in danger. He kept his eyelids glued together, until he felt a shadow covering his face.
He opened his eyes and looked above, finding himself face to face with a squared, gigantic and very creepy head.
Polybotes cracked his knuckles, and grabbed the man's head, pinching it between his thumb and his index finger.
- Hey, you. Don't you smell demigod's stench, around here?
The man weakly shook his head, shivering form head to toe.
- Stupid Mortals. Ah, if it were for me, I would've killed you all!- the Giant roared.
Then he leaped his arm forward, and threw the body he kept between his fingers as far as he could. He chuckled with satisfaction, seeing it crashing into the side of a building about 50 metres far.
He turned forward the opposite direction, and, walking heavily, he went back to where he had come.
The Giants were one of the most important parts of the Greek Mythology. Fathers of the Titans, ancestors of the Gods, and beings of immense power.
They were beaten by the Gods, and imprisoned into the darkest depths of Tartarus. There they stayed, planning revenge and projecting plans to gain back their ancient supremacy.
After thousands of years, when the Olympians, who moved with the West Civilization, settled down in America, the Giants decided to finally attack.
Gaea, Mother Earth, awakened from her long sleep; she called for her Giants, still in Tartarus, and started a new war against the Gods and their sons.
Seven heroes were chosen to follow the Great Prophecy. Seven between the strongest demigods, sons of Rome and Greece, travelled to the Ancient Lands to stop Gaea from rising again.
Too late, they realized they couldn't stand a chance against such an ancient power. They were annihilated, the Olympians with them, and the entire modern society as well.
The Giants kept the whole world at their will, maintaining a dictatorship of violence and horror.
The cities were destroyed and sacked, the Mortal sentenced to discover the world that had always been hidden from their sight by the Mist. Gaea's fury didn't forgive anyone.
The first ones to pay were the demigods who fought her and the Giants in the first place: Percy Jackson, Annabeth Chase, Piper McLean, Jason Grace, Leo Valdez, Hazel Levesque and rank Zhang were executed in Greece, right under Mt. Olympus.
"Their blood will wash away centuries of the Olympians' illegitimate domination" Mother Earth said when the Seven were killed, one by one.
Jason Grace was the first to suffer his terrible destiny: he had been the first to raise against Gaea's return, freeing Hera from her cage. As a punishment, he was imprisoned in the only place where his lightening couldn't help him escape: earth. He was buried alive, guarder by Porphyrion.
The second one was Percy Jackson, for killing Chronos and refusing to joint Gaea's forces when he had been offered to. He died by poison, Polybotes watching him suffering until his last breath.
Fortune had never been so mean with Piper. Her charmspeaking power was used against her. The giant who oversaw her execution, managed to use against Piper the very same order she gave him in order to save her friends and her own life: to everyone who watched, hers was a suicide more than an execution.
She cut her throat with Katopris, Elena's Knife. Maybe, that knife had been used as a weapon, instead of a mirror, for the very first time.
The easiest to kill had been Frank and Hazel. As the winners of this new Gigantomachy, Gaea and the Giants had free access to the Doors of Death. For this reason, Hazel was deprived of her second life as easily as Nico had given it to her; for Frank, a little more than a spark had been enough to end his life: the piece of wood, which represented it, already consumed to save Thanatos, burned so quickly it didn't offer the Giants any entertainment.
Annabeth was obliged to face her worst fear, along with the worst pain. She was offered as a tribute to Arachne's sons, as a payment for their alliance with the Giants. She was bitten to death by the most dangerous and poison-filled spiders, under Encelado's sight.
Leo had to suffer the monsters' anger in the place where they came to life and died: Tartarus. As a punishment, he was imprisoned in such an obscure and hopeless place, left to die by the hand of the monsters he defeated himself.
After the Seven's death, the Giants started to hunt all the demigods, using their godly parents as a bait.
Since that day, all the demigods were considered traitors, and hunted down like criminals.
The only place where they could avoid death was Camp Half Blood, a home for all the Olympians' sons. The Camp was that spark of hope, of rebellion, the whole world believed in.
The Camp had the goal of giving the Gods their power back, and defeat the giants once again. For a long time, they failed.
Humanity knelt under Gaea's power, weak and unable to react.
A hundred years have passed. After a hundred years, humanity remembers. After a hundred years, humanity fights back.