Annabeth, Thalia, and I were currently speeding up the elevator to stop Kronos who was already in the eternal city destroying it from the inside.
As the elevator kept going i kept getting more annoyed by Apollo's choice of music ( I leave this to you ), I mean who puts depressing music in times of war? I thought as I turned to the speaker.
"Why did you do that!?" Asked Annabeth as she stared at the now split in half speaker.
"It was annoying me," I replied simply.
"Were here," Thalia suddenly warned us causing us to snap out of the mini argument in the making.
Usually I just as any other would marvel at the beauty of Olympus, but now we couldn't afford that.
We were forced to weave,duck, and jump through the rubble of what used to be giant statues.
Unfortunately we I didn't see the statue of Hera that was leaning and about to fall seeing as how I was to focused on the throne room which was getting extremely close.
Suddenly the ground cracked and the force sent the enormous statue heading straight towards me and Annabeth.
I would've died had it not been for Thalia who pushed us out of the way at the last minute.
Luckily I managed to take the fall off the uneven surface well, but Annabeth wasn't as lucky. She had most likely broke an ankle judging from the angle of the foot. I looked back desperate to see Thalia alive but I heaved a sigh of relief when I saw that she was merely pinned down at the legs, not well but alive.
With horror I realized it was me vs Kronos, I had no backup no plan just one on one me versus the possibly most powerful being on the planet.
"Thalia," Annabeth screamed in hope of getting to her friend she thought she lost.
"I'm alive," Replied a shaky voice that I instantly recognized as Thalia.
Standing up I surveyed my surrounding and I saw we fell into a newly created crevice about 15 ft deep there was no way that Thalia and Annabeth could get out without help so I sighed and turned to the two girls.
"Thalia Annabeth i'm going to have to leave you here and fight Kronos one on one don't worry about me and stay safe," I told them not giving them time to respond as I climbed up the cliff face which I had done so many times at the lava wall in CHB.
As the throne room came into sight I sighed in relief because it seemed that Kronos hadn't yet destroyed everything.
"Kronos, fight me you bastard," I shouted at the person I hate most.
"Well, well Jackson seems to have made it through, how delightful I was hoping for a good fight," said Kronos and i'm not quite sure if he was talking to me or himself.
No more words were said as we both took stances ready for the long fight ahead.
From the corner of my eye I saw that Ethan was off to the side watching, the corner of my mouth twitched in a slight smirk at the thought of it all ending. The final showdown, me vs Kronos, everything in my life was leading up to this moment and the thought of all the stress going away brought new determination over me as I waited for him to lunge.
Kronos made the first move as i expected just a quick slash at my side to get the fight started. The next five minutes of the fight was the same swipe somewhere and observe the reaction of your opponent to figure out their fighting style.
Suddenly the original phase ended, we were on round two. Kronos started speeding up and putting more force on his attacks and it took all I had to keep up with him. I cursed myself for thinking that having Luke as a host might limit his powers severely, while he still wasn't at 100% he was still much more powerful than anything or anyone I ever fought.
The fight stayed like this for what felt like hours but was probably minutes. Dodging and parrying were the only two things I could manage he was too fast it was if I was moving in jell-o.
That's it, I thought as I took a step back. He raised an eyebrow and I answered his unasked question by raising both hands.
The water from Bessie's water sphere rushed over to me breaking Kronos' minor time spell I knew he cast and hit him straight in the chest.
When he got up I knew I was screwed. I saw one emotion in his gold eyes, hate. I tried my best to keep up with his whirlwind of strikes but even with the water helping me he disarmed me and had me on the ground with his foot on my chest.
"Goodbye Jackson", he said as he swung his scythe straight towards my head for one final kill blow.
Alot of emotions went through my head but it finally settled on one, fear. I admit it i was scared that I was going to get everyone I loved killed, that I would be the reason for the deaths of millions. But I realised at that moment the true depth of his battle. I knew instantly that if it came to it I would anything to save the world from being torn apart.
My hand shot out and grabbed his scythe, stopping the blade from smashing my head in. His eyes widened in surprise but I barely noticed as I took out his leg with my other hand and rolled as he fell down onto the floor of the throne room.
I wasted no time as I sprung up and raced for riptide where I spun just quick enough to block a overhead strike from Kronos.
I went back on the defensive side trying to figure out how to beat Kronos. Every Time I had an idea I couldn't develop it because Kronos just kept pushing harder and harder trying to get rid of me. Finally I came up with an advantage that might just work.
Taking a step back from the battle I called out, "Ethan, Kronos doesn't want balance. Why do you stay by his side if you know he is just going to tear everything apart?"
"I joined him because he is the only way of showing those olympian scum their mistakes," He sneered at me.
"Yes Maybe the gods aren't the best rulers but their better than the titans, your mother is the goddess of balance what is balance without two opposing forces? The gods will always have enemies and balance while the titans enemies are all evil resulting in full chaos and destruction no light only darkness, do you want that no balance?" I tried to reason with him the best I could while fighting off the king of the titans.
Ethan seemed to contemplate my words before grabbing his weapon and strolling towards the battle between me and the titan, but instead of attacking me he ran straight at Kronos who was dazed slightly from a kick i delivered.
Ethan's blade struck straight on Kronos' neck but bounced off sending the energy straight into Ethan's arm which shattered to pieces on impact.
"Treachery," I heard The titan shout over Ethan's screaming before kicking the son of Nemesis off of olympus through one of the cracks formed in the floor.
My blood ran cold. There i had watched another die indirectly by my own hand, if I hadn't been born this wouldn't have happened there wouldn't be a war, or maybe there still would but either way i had caused these deaths, they could have been preventable I had asked someone to fight in a battle he was unready for and got him killed because of it. Names kept running through my head, casualties of this war, some were my friends others not. No matter what I did they always hung over me but now they collapsed on me consuming me in grief. It didn't last long as I realised what truly needed to be done to have those sacrifices justified; kill Kronos.
I exploded with rage and power letting go of all precautions as I had only one goal, kill Kronos and make sure that he can't hurt anyone anymore.
With a yell of rage I surged forward powered by my rage and the water around me I slammed into him full force knocking his guard down just enough to land a kick in before i went straight on the offensive with a series of slashes.
We kept trading blows one for one until me and him both went for a disarming maneuver and ended up without our weapons.
The fight didn't stop, it turned into a full MMA match between me and Kronos. It stayed an even matchup until I started using some tricks I learned against the Ares cabin. I threw a double punch at his right shoulder and left torso area and as he went to block I kicked him in his undefended chest. As he stumbled back I advanced spinning clockwise trailing my right foot behind me with a kicked aimed at his head. Again just as i expected he ducked and aimed a kick at my crotch to which I brought my left arm up taking his foots momentum with me as i completed my second spin by knocking his foot out from under him with the leg I was still trailing making him fall to the floor.
I followed him to the floor with both fists aimed at his head but unfortunately he caught them, but i still had the advantage as I was on top.
"Enough of this," He shouted as he let loose a torrent of power that blew me off him and almost into one of the cracks in olympus.
I struggled to get up as I sensed his time spell yet again holding me down. I realized with dread that my options were limited, I couldn't win, he could slow me down until he reaches his full form and everything would be lost. With every one of these thoughts I felt myself getting number as if I was bathing in ice… 'ICE THAT'S IT!' I thought as I realised that if I have control of water then why not it's other states?
With a yell I released my own power as i flexed the water in the air around Kronos to harden slightly slowing him down and I Released another personal hurricane and charged him with riptide uncapped.
To a normal person we might have looked sluggish because of our limitations on each others speed. After a couple minutes of this I stept out and recapped riptide.
"You finally quitting Jackson" he sneered somewhat breathlessly.
"Not exactly" I responded," the hurricane I used was for the moisture to soak into Luke's skin to get a feel for it to see where his moral point was so that I could finish you off."
His gold eyes widened in shock and fear and before he could ask I hardened a tendril of water and sent it straight into his moral point.
There was a scream of pure agony and a bright light as Kronos was expelled out of Luke's body and without a stable host shattered into pieces, most likely making him fade into oblivion.
In exhaustion I fell to my knees, it was over it was finally over I was so happy I wanted to cry but just then I heard a whisper.
"Percy," It said and with confusion I looked over to the thought to be dead body of Luke Castellan.
Before I could yell at him he continued.
"Percy I know what you're thinking that i'm going to try to trick you or something but I won't, just listen, please. I was wrong, don't allow there to be more like me, more corrupted, teach them the truth don't let them stray from the light. I don't care how you tell everyone about me just as long as you keep this message, do not let this happen again." He then proceeded to take his final breath and go to the underworld.
Within seconds the gods of olympus walked in to witch I turned to them leaning on riptide and addressed them.
"We need a shroud, a shroud for a son of Hermes."