Author's Note: To begin, I have some announcements to make. Well, it certainly has been awhile since I last updated anything. For those who read my Menace to Olympus: I'm sorry but I will not be updating that anymore, unless I rewrite the whole thing. Why? Because it's just plain garbage. It's so bad that I cringe when I read it myself. For those who read my cross over between Fate and High School DxD: I will update that fic if I have time, but for now, I want to focus on the one i'm currently writing and actually finish it this time. Feel free to leave a review, follow/favorite, or PM if you have any question. I will be happy to answer them. If you have any ideas, you can also leave me a PM or write it in the review. I do have the majority of the story planned out, or at least where I want to take this, but fresh ideas are definitely welcomed. Also special thanks to firehelm for collaborating with me and helping me edit ^_^ Check him out, he is a good writer, but I can't guarantee you that you will be satisfied since he never finishes his story. Anyway, enjoy!
Prologue: The End Is Just The Beginning
"Annabeth! Watch out!" I screamed desperately at the daughter of Athena who was too busy fighting a basilisk to notice that a hellhound crept up behind her.
Swiftly, she rolled to the side and avoided the pouncing hellhound. The basilisk, however, did not stop its attack. Before Annabeth could recover herself, the monster swept its tail underneath her, knocking her to the ground, and sunk its fangs deeply into her calf. A cry of pain let loose from the daughter of Athena as her blood dripped down and was absorbed into Gaia's waiting hand.
"The blood of Olympus shall raise our mother!" One of the Giants loudly cried. "Now, we just need one more sacrifice from that son of Poseidon."
Ignoring what the giant said, I continued to slaughter my way to Annabeth, who was currently on the ground with Thalia and Clarisse defending her. After slicing through an Empousa, I ran towards them and knelt down next to her to scrutinize her wound.
"Annabeth," I said while breathing heavily. "Are you alright?"
"No, seaweed brain," she grimaced and hissed through grit teeth. "Can't you tell that I'm poisoned from the color of my calf?" I looked down and mentally kicked myself for not noticing such an obvious thing before yelling into the sky, "Apollo! Get over here!"
In an instant, the god of medicine flashed next to us and looked at Annabeth for a brief moment. "This should do it," he said while sending a pulse of golden light to her calf, closing the wound slowly. I gave him a nod of thanks and turned back to see Annabeth in a much better state and was trying to stand back up.
"Careful there wise girl," I knitted my brows at her. "I don't want you to get hurt or die."
In response, Annabeth rolled her eyes at me, "You shouldn't be the one talking, considering you're the one running into harm at any chance you get."
Before I could defend myself by saying that I never asked for any of this and that the Fates always had their own ways of making my life as difficult as possible, Thalia looked back at us after impaling a dracaena with her electric spear, "Guys, less talk and more monster killing alright?"
I stuck out my tongue playfully at the daughter of the Zeus. "Alright pinecone face," I began cheekily. "Let's have a competition then."
Without taking an eye off of the dracaena that she was fighting, she asked in a challenging tone, "Oh? What competition? Well, either way, I'm going to whoop your ass anyway, so bring it on." Even though I was unable to see her face, I swear she was smirking at this very moment.
Picking up Riptide and assisting Thalia in finishing off the dracaena, I told her my idea. "It's a simple one," I began as I twirled around to avoid another pouncing hellhound before kicking it out of the way. "Whoever kills the most monsters will be the winner. Of course, the loser will have to take on an undeniable request from the winner." I added cheekily in the end.
"You're on, Jackson," Thalia accepted with an evil grin on her face. I shuddered at the thought of her asking me to do something extremely embarrassing in front of the campers and the hunters. I was determined to win this time, since it didn't really end well last time. If I remembered correctly, it ended up with me having to wear a t-shirt that said "I LOVE GREEN DAY" while singing and dancing to their songs during campfire.
I pushed the distasteful memory out of my mind. "By the way," I began with an evil grin of my own. "The dracaena that I just killed will count as one for me." Sure, she had the kill, but in order to win this little competition of ours for sure, I would need every advantage.
"Hey!" Thalia protested while blocking a strike from the monster. "If you want to play dirty like that, then so be it."
The daughter of Zeus raised her hand into the air and summoned a huge bolt of lightning down from the sky while giving me a smirk. The instant the bolt made contact with the earth, several dozens of monsters around her disintegrated immediately.
"Well, two can play that game," I muttered under my breath and began drawing power within myself. A familiar tug was felt as a miniature hurricane sprang to life. Within seconds, all the monsters within five meters were either swept off the ground by the wind or destroyed by the storm.
Thalia narrowed her eyes and without another word, she resumed the slaughter. She would impale a monster with her spear, drop to a roll while unsheathing her hunting knives to either throw it to the next target or slash away at amazing speed. While she had the swift movements of a hunter to surprise the monsters, I on the other hand relied on raw strength. Riptide became arcs of destruction as I hacked away wildly, leaving a trail of golden dust behind me. Though our fighting styles were vastly different, we were still able to achieve the same result.
After carving a path in the monster's rank, I ended up right next to an exhausted looking son of Hephaestus. "How you holding up Leo?" I asked while parrying an attack from an empousa with Leo finished it off with a fireball.
"Man, just how many more of them?" he whined. "Why can't the earth lady just stay asleep?"
I chuckled a bit. At least he was still able to make jokes. "I don't know man," I replied. "Anyways, have you seen Jason?"
"Yeah, he should be over there with beauty queen," he pointed to the left, in which I nodded and began working my way over there. Despite the fact that all my friends were capable of holding their own grounds, I wanted to ensure that nothing tragic occurred in the midst of battle. Already, few demigods I knew from the camps had fallen during battle, which made me want to ensure the safety of my friends even more so. The image of Annabeth getting hurt from the basilisk flashed briefly in my mind. Injuries were inevitable, but death was avoidable. At the very minimum, I would do all that I could to prevent any loss of life.
As I cautiously made my way over to Jason and Piper, I carefully scanned the battlefield. Zeus and Hera were riding in a chariot, blasting off pure energy into groups of monsters. Artemis and Apollo were fighting next to few hunters, supporting the Olympian army by firing silver and golden arrows from afar. Hades and Nico were doing their underworld thing, summoning the undead to aid us in any possible way. Though the undead's' movements were not as proficient as any demigods, having an extra body on the field was still able to serve as an useful distraction for us. Occasionally, the ground would open up and swallow some monsters before closing back again. Everything was at a disadvantage, yet we were still able to defend ourselves from their relentless assaults.
"Jason," I yelled which he glanced to see who was calling him. When he realized it was me, he gave out a big smile. "How are you holding up?"
Summoning a lightning bolt from the sky and knocking away a hellhound with the shaft of his spear. "I'm alright. Sent few hundreds of them back to Tartarus," he pointed at the pile of golden dust around his feet. "How about you?"
Before I could answer, a large horn sounded from a distance, signaling the retreat of the monsters. I let out a sigh of relief. A break would be nice right now.
How wrong was I.
As soon as all the monsters retreated, the true enemies of this battle stalked out. All the gods flashed next to their demigod children at the sight of the giants that were born to oppose each of them. The prophecy seven had their respective parents standing right next to them, preparing to take down those children of Gaia.
"I see that you godlings have managed to survive against my forces," the king of giants mused out loudly as he raised his hand, signaling the others to halt. "I am quite impressed, seeing that you are outnumbered by ten folds. So, I've decided," he made a pause and eyed us cheekily. "If you surrender now and hand over all the goddesses on your side, along with Perseus Jackson, then we will show mercy by allowing you to live. Afterall, his sacrifice is very important for the awakening of our mother."
"You dare?" Zeus bellowed in anger, enraged at the incredulous proposal. "The result is going to be the same as last time with you dead in Tartarus and us victorious."
Instead of feeling insulted, Porphyrion began to laugh. "You really think we didn't learn our lessons from last time? You really think Gaia doesn't have a plan at all?" As if right on cue, numerous earthborns appeared from the ground, circling in the twelve gods and demigods with the exception of Frank and Ares since Damasen was still banished in Tartarus for being a peaceful giant. The rest of the demigods could only watch in horror, but their horror was quickly replaced by panic when the monsters slowly advanced towards them. They were heavily outnumbered like Porphyrion had said and after realizing that help from the prophecy seven was impossible, they began to lose their morale. "Like I said, there is no hope for you godlings this time. Surrender and follow through our conditions for a merciful ending."
The situation was definitely not favorable for us, but then again, since when was it favorable. A year ago, we had to fight against the Titans with little to no help from the gods to salvage the western civilization. Each and every battle that I fought was for the sake of protecting and saving what I cared the most - my friends and families. And each and every time, sacrifices were made to accomplish such goal and to maintain the current peace. True, not everyone could be saved but my friends had been dying because of me, and the pain and guilt were starting to overwhelm me.
Bekendorf, Selena, Zoe, Bianca, and many others would've lived if not for me. I looked to my side and caught Annabeth looking at me as well. I wouldn't be able to bear the pain if anyone else died because I wanted to be a hero and fight till the very end. If my sacrifice was able to save everyone around me, then so be it.
"Romans," a confident yet crystal clear voice barked over the panicking sounds of the scattered demigods and also broke me from my thoughts of turning myself in. "Get into formations. Hold your grounds and stand up tall like a proud Roman you are!" With the encouragements from Reyna, the Roman demigods began to form into ranks. The legionaries formed up in small triangles with the tip pointing towards the enemies, which served as a mean to break through the enemy lines and was reinforced by adding more demigods from behind. Without a doubt, fear still existed among the ranks, but the pride and honor of being a Roman forced them to push their negative feelings behind and to fight till the very end.
On the Greek side, Nico and Thalia were also doing similar things to lift the mood of the campers. "Hunters," Thalia began while eyeing all of their sisters with fierce determination. "I'm not as wordy and dramatic as Reyna, so all I can say is," she paused mid sentence for the dramatic effect while failing to contain her smirk. "Good hunting." A cheer erupted among the hunters of Artemis, and the Goddess herself gave her lieutenant a smile.
Thalia then turned her attention towards me with her eyes narrowed. As if knowing what I was thinking, she said in a dangerous tone. "Percy Jackson," she addressed me while giving me a murderous look. "If you value all of us and our friendship, you better not turn yourself in stupidly. You got that?" She was serious, and I could hear a tight tone to it that indicated an anticipation to my answer. Annabeth, along with the others that were trapped in by the earthborns, all gave me the same look, demonstrating that no alternatives could be made here. I was slightly surprised by the fact that all the gods, including Ares, showed off the same expression.
"Listen up punk," the god of war grunted as he shifted into his Greek personale. "I may not like you, but if you surrender yourself to them, I would not be able to participate in possibly the greatest blood bath since Trojan war." By the end of the sentence, he was almost unable to contain his excitement. "But kid," he quickly added when all the other gods stared at him, shifting back into his Roman aspect. "You have my respect as Mars, and it would be a shame if you were to die by their hands."
"Yes Perseus," Artemis began after rolling her eyes at the god of war. "It would indeed be a shame if the only decent man on this planet were to die." On the side, Aphrodite agreed by nodding her head furiously, though I was sure that her reason was completely different from Artemis'.
I looked up at Poseidon, who smiled warmly at me. "Percy," he began with a somewhat sorrowful tone. "I'm sorry that you have to go through all this, but I will always be by your side and fight with you till the very end," Poseidon reassured me, which all the gods nodded in agreement.
"So are you done with your little farewell," Porphyrion taunted, while his brothers laughed in unison. "I was correct in having no expectations. You don't want to surrender." he concluded, amusement in his voice. Focusing his gaze at me, the king of giants asked, "Perseus Jackson, are you sure you want to watch your friends perish under our hands? Alas, it would be a tremendous pity that they would all shed their blood when a single sacrifice on your part could've prevented it."
I turned to look at Annabeth, who also happened to be staring right back at me, gave me an encouraging smile. At that moment, I knew what to do.
"Porphyrion," I spoke up, which everyone looked at me expectantly. The battlefield was dead silent as they waited for me to finish. Porphyrion looked as if victory was in his hand, while Zeus has a worried expression. "It seems that my friends are not going down without a fight. Sorry to disappoint you, but you are not going to get what you want so easily." I glared right back into the giant's eyes and continued with a dead serious voice, "If you want me, then come and get me. But just so you know, I am not planning to lose any of my friends anymore."
Upon receiving my answer, Porphyrion boomed into laughter. "Just how stupid can you be?" He then narrowed his eyes, his sinister smile still ever present on his face, and raised his hand up, "If that's what you want, then you will all perish!"
"Bring it on," Zeus snarled. "We'll see who ends up in Tartarus after today." With his symbol of power in his hand, he shifted to his Roman personale, Jupiter, before addressing his son. "Jason," Zeus began solemnly. "I know I'm never around you, but that's something you have to shoulder as my son. That being said, I am proud of what you have accomplished thus far."
"Thank you, father," Jason responded to his father. "And it will be my honor to fight beside you." Satisfied with his answer, Jupiter gave his son an approving smile.
This was the end. This was the final fight that would determine whether or not the western civilization was going to remain or perish by the earth mother's hands. All the training we did, all the quests we completed, and all the experience we accumulated over the course of our lives as demigods lead us to this very moment.
Though we were surrounded by the earthborns and the giants, the best course of action here was to focus on my own fight and to take them down as fast as possible. Thalia looked at me and gave me a nod of assurance. Nico and the other demigods were all in formation, ready to strike once the battle begins. Nonetheless, the tension of the battlefield was as tight as a fully drawn bow, and the momentary lull was only the calm before the storm. Turning to my side, I gave Annabeth a smile, and mouthed "I love you" to her, which she returned with a smile of her own and mouthed something that seemed to say "I know, kelp head."
Leo stood next to Hephaestus, both had their hammers out with Leo's being engulfed with fire. The goddess of love had a relaxed expression on her face, occasionally summoning a mirror to ensure her makeup remained perfect. Piper held onto Katoptris and eyed the giants nervously whereas Frank had transformed into a grizzly bear with Mars by his side, gripping onto the shaft of the spear. Since Hades was fighting alongside Nico, Hazel now found herself in the presence of Hecate, who opted to surround herself in a thin layer of mist.
Glaring at us with immense amount of hatred and digust, Porphyrion raised his hand and let out a battle cry, determined to draw the curtains for the final battle and revive his mother. And of course, I would not allow that to happen.
No one was going to die anymore. I will save them all.
"Perseus Jackson," Polybotes bellowed loudly at me, eyeing me with pure hatred. "Come forward and let me taste your blood." With the help from Terminus, he was defeated when his forces invaded Camp Jupiter. And with some odd sadistic reasons, he really wanted to kill my dad and I in ways that I had never imagined before.
With a smirk forming, I taunted the thirty feet tall giant, "I see that you've forgotten how it ended last time. May I remind you that you got your ass whooped by me?" A look of pure fury was clearly shown on his face. Good. This was what I was going for. Against this narrow minded and short tempered giant, agitating him before the fight even started could potentially be advantageous.
Enraged by my remarks, the bane of Poseidon charged at me with a trident in his hand. Since this was my second time battling this particular giant, his movements along with his attack patterns were quite predictable to me. With ease, I simply sidestepped his attack at the very last second, causing him to stumble forward a bit to regain his balance. Poseidon, who was watching from the side, saw this small opening and attempted to land a blow with his own trident. As fast as the god of sea was, the giant, however, was faster to react.
Immediately, I stepped up to defend my father by attacking the giant as I was able to anticipate the giant's next move. Before Polybotes could grab the shaft of Poseidon's trident and kick him in the chest, I lunged forward with Riptide in hand, aiming at the giant's armpit. There were two possible scenarios that could play out. The first one was the best case where the giant continues his retaliation, but loses his arm in the process, or he could simply dodge and avoid my attack, thereby resetting the entire fight. Fortunately, the giant tunneled vision on Poseidon. He did manage to disarm the god of sea, but in return, the giant lost his arm so fast that he didn't even react until it was entirely severed. Unfortunately for Poseidon, he also took a kick square in the chest, sending him flying backwards fifteen meters.
"Dad!" I yelled across the field, but got no response back as Poseidon laid still on his back. Even as one of the strongest gods, I wasn't sure how much that kick did to Poseidon. Sure, surviving that blow was almost a certainty, but being able to get back up and fight right now didn't seem like an option.
Polybotes began with an evil grin while holding onto his left shoulder with his still intacted right arm. "Looks like it's just me and you now, Perseus. I will make sure to have some fun with you first before I give you to my mother." I glared at the giant fearlessly, but at the same time, dread was piling up in my mind. A giant could only be taken down by the help of a god, so even if Poseidon was unconscious for now, I could still take down the giant with the help from other gods.
"As you can see," as if reading my thought, Polybotes spoke up. "My brothers are coming out advantageous or at the minimum, even, in these skirmishes," he said as he pointed towards Leo and Hephaestus with a smug face, who were battling against Mimas. Leo seemed to have lost one of his shoes sometime during the fight and was currently digging through his toolbelt to find something useful. Coming up with elaborate plans or was not an option under the giant's influence as his ability, reality warping, made everything break in his presence, including even an Athena approved plan.
I had to restrain myself from cursing out loudly as I surveyed the battlefield quickly just to realize that Polybotes wasn't boasting this time. Aside from Annabeth and Hazel, everyone else was on the defensive, trying their best to survive the brutality from the giants. Jason was floating in the air with his gladius, trying his best to sneak in some attacks while Jupiter was assisting by sending down bolts of lightning. Due to Porphyrion's electrical resistance nature, it was quite difficult for Jason to land any meaningful blows. The only reason that Jason was still alive was thanks to Zeus' master bolt as its tremendous might was able to penetrate defenses. Despite the power being weaker than usual, it was still able to weaken and distract the king of giants.
Though Piper was a skilled fighter, she was still struggling to keep up with Periboia. The training sessions she had with Hazel and Annabeth were definitely paying off since she was able to, at the very least, defend for herself. Occasionally, Aphrodite would sprinkle down rose petals as she flew around in a cloud of white smoke, temporarily blinding the giant, allowing her daughter to either evade the attacks or land a blow herself. However, the sheer power from the giant was too much for the Cherokee girl as she found herself backtracking while the giant pressed her attacks harder and harsher.
I was glad that Annabeth was doing well against Enceladus. Watching her popping out and disappearing into thin air with the usage of her Yankee baseball cap reminded me of the old days when we used to fight along each other's side. Athena was in her full battle gear with Aegis in her left hand and a spear in her right. As the goddess of battle, she definitely demonstrated her prowess in combat skills by holding her own against the giant that was opposed to her. With her magic shield, she would use it to block the purple flame from the fire breathing giant before striking back with incredible force and precision. To make matters worse for Enceladus, he also had to be wary of sneak attacks from Annabeth. The guerilla warfare like tactic that the duo was using proved to be quite successful, in which Athena would challenge the giant head on while Annabeth would deal as much damage as possible with her ability to stealth behind the giant. Even though the damage that Annabeth was dealing wasn't enough to fatally wound Enceladus, it still placed a large toll on the giant since eventually all the damage done would add up. Not only that, he also had to watch out for Athena's relentless attacks.
Before I turned my attention back to Polybotes, I noticed a small movement out of the corner of my eyes and I couldn't help but smirk a little. "Yes, you are right about that," I began with a calm voice, trying my best not to give away what was coming next. It was quite obvious that Polybotes failed to notice that Poseidon was slowly getting back onto his feet since the giant had yet to move to reposition himself to be wary of attacks from the previously downed god. "But, you know how I am going to beat you?" I asked while the giant gave me a confused look, no clue what I was trying to imply. To him, I was a trapped mouse, waiting to be killed, or in this case, sacrificed to wake his mother. "By using your ego."
Right after I finished, Poseidon shot his trident at the giant in front of me, piercing him through the heart while I stayed low and launched myself forward, aiming to land the finishing blow to send him back to Tartarus. It all happened so quickly that with widened eyes full of disbelief, Polybotes collapse to the ground, once again losing due to his overconfidence.
Out of nowhere, a loud roar pierced through the atmosphere. Swirling my body around to face the source of the sound, my previous triumphant smile was quickly replaced by a shocked expression. On the other side of the earthborns where the other demigods were fighting, a figure laid completely still. Even though it was a bit far away, there was no way to mistaken the fallen demigod by the stocky and large frame. Additionally, kneeling next to him was Mars who had a sadden face, but was doing a good job at concealing his emotions. Even though he knew death was bound to happen on a battlefield, the lost of his son still hit him quite hard.
My shocked expression morphed into anger and guilt. Angry that the giants killed one of my friends and guilty because I couldn't protect Frank, resulting in his death. Polybotes, though near death, couldn't help but boom into laughters. "Perseus Jackson," he managed to get out, using a mocking tone of voice. "You may have defeated me, but you will also pay the price by watching your friends die. You shall suffer from this eternally. Oh look," the dying giant raised his arm up weakly and pointed towards Jason and Jupiter's direction.
"NO," I screamed desperately, but the inevitable had already happened. Though Porphyrion still had the upper hand in the battle, the relentless attacks from Jupiter's high voltage lightning along with Jason's skill with the gladius has proven to be nuisance to him. With a roar of defiance, Porphyrion unleashed a shock of electricity, knocking the duo back several feet. The giant then looked at them with a smirk as the spear in his hand began to glow brightly while Jupiter and Jason stayed on the defensive, staring at their enemy warily. When the light dimmed down, a different spear was in his hand. It looked majestic with the golden color, but the fear and dread that the weapon was radiating upon its materialization could be felt under my skin. As if time has stopped, Jason and Jupiter stood frozen solid, only to stare at the spear with terrified expressions planted on their faces and were shaking nonstop from the intense power that could rival even Zeus' master bolt. It was fearful sure, but glancing back at the reactions of the father son duo, I concluded that there must be more to that spear than just the power it exuded.
Slowly, the giant advanced forward, taking all the time he wanted with Jupiter and Jason still frozen in place, affected by the overwhelming malevolence and hostility greatly. Stopping himself right in front of the duo, Porphyrion began smugly as he addressed Jason. "Remember I told you that I have a way to defeat you and your father when I was resurrected?" However, Jason gave no response, either he didn't hear him, or he couldn't answer under the influence of the weapon, petrified as he was.
"Nonetheless," Porphyrion continued, still eyeing Jason. "I will start by killing you and then your father." I had only blinked once, but in that moment of inattentiveness, Porphyrion speared Jason's body through the chest with the golden spear. Even still, no reaction could be seen from the boy, as if he had long since been slain. An intense but familiar tug could be felt in my stomach.
I snapped.
Seeing two of my friends die successively in front of my eyes unleashed all the guilt, anger, and pain that had been piling within me ever since the beginning of the first Titan war. I promised. I promised myself that I would not allow anyone else to die, yet at this very moment, Frank was lying in a pool of his own blood and Jason was impaled on the spear in Porphyrion's hands. Despair washed over me but disappeared as fast as it came, replaced by a wave of cold fury.
It felt as if I was taken over by a demon. My thoughts clouded over, and only the thought of slaying any enemy in front of me remained. After sinking my blade into Polybotes' body, sending his essence back to into the pit, I located my text target through my reddened vision. Kicking off the ground and dashing towards Periboia with an almost inhuman speed, the giant could only watch in horror as Riptide pierced through her body before she could even defend herself. Before she could regenerate, Aphrodite whirled a cloud of pink smoke and evaporated her right on the spot, leaving only a pile of golden dust behind. Without any delay, I charged towards Mimas, giving him the same treatment with my blade sticking out of his throat this time. Hephaestus gave me a nod of thanks, and he too, dumped a pile of molten iron on top of the giant's head.
After the initial shock from my blitzkrieg-like attack by the defeat of two giants within a minute, the other giants finally snapped out of their trance and glared at me furiously. Abandoning the idea of slaying their counterparts, the rest of the giants decided that killing me would be the best idea right now. Soon enough, I was surrounded in a circle, but I gave no indication of fear or unease. Strategically speaking, encircling me put me in quite an advantageous spot since one-on-one fights became the only possible scenario. If they chose to attack me all at once, then they would risk any sort of friendly fire and through the mist of the chaos, I could then dodge around and take them down. However, this also meant that there was a chance that I could get caught in between their attacks, accidental or not.
Plus, I lost everything already. Nothing matters to me anymore.
"Percy - ," was as far as Poseidon gone before I raised my hand and cut him off.
With an expressionless tone, I ordered, "Don't. This is going to be between me and them. By the end of the day, one of us will die." All the gods and demigods were all looking at me worriedly, but no one dared to say otherwise.
Amused by my choice of declining the help from the gods, Porphyrion mused out loudly, "So, the great Perseus Jackson think he can take on all of us at once." By the end, the king of giant began to laugh heuristically at my incredulous declaration, but was soon replaced by a snarl. "Let's see what you're made of then."
Ignoring him completely, I launched towards Clytius with a faint glow of sea green surrounding my body. With his dagger ready in his hands, he met my strike with incredible force behind it, forcing me to stumble back a bit to regain my footing. While I recomposed myself, the giant went on the offensive, hacking and slashing wildly with all his might, but was unable to touch the edge of my shirt.
I was simply a lot more agile than he was.
With my battle senses, I instinctively dove to my right, only to realize that purple flames had scorched where I was just a second ago. It seemed that Enceladus decided to join the fight, supporting his brother by breathing out fire from long range. Realizing that he was not getting some help, Clytius smiled at me wickedly, which I returned with a blank stare, but was also grimacing a bit. Porphyrion was still observing this entire fight from the side, which was also concerning, seeing as he may come out in the very end after I was exhausted from taking down his brethrens.
The only option for me was to take them out fast without exerting too much energy. Instead of fighting head on and exchanging blows like with Clytius, flanking and finding openings would serve as better options. Once again picking myself up from the ground, I charged at Clytius again. Right when I was within his arm's reach, I feinted a swing to the right, baiting him into shifting his balance to meet my attack, while I slid in between his legs at the last second and slashed his ankles in one swift motion. Immediately, I turned around to land a finishing blow on the now immobile giant, but was forced to dive to the side once again to avoid the attack from Enceladus. The flame still managed to hit me, but no serious injury was dealt, at least not on me. Even though the attack was aimed at me, my last second dodge made Clytius take most of the damage. Seeing her opportunity, Athena sent a blast of energy at the burning giant, which he too, turned into a pile of golden dust.
I turned to Athena and gave her a nod of thanks. Porphyrion no longer had an amused expression. After watching me taking down two more giants, nervousness and agitation slowly crept up to him.
Of course, things never end up the way I wanted.
Right when I was about to attack the king of giants, the ground began to shake violently, knocking me off of my feet. Confused, I looked at Poseidon, assuming he was the one causing the earthquake, but he too, had a puzzled expression.
"Ah," Porphyrion managed to get out after realizing the cause of this phenomenon. "You fought well, I'll give you that, but you lost." I stared at him with narrowed eyes, not entirely sure how this earthquake has anything to do with them winning the war.
"Raise mother," Porphyrion bellowed as he kneeled down to one knee. "Alas, the final blood of Olympus has been spilled." With widened eyes, I looked to my injured arm, realization along with panic finally hit me. Even though Enceladus's attack wasn't fatal, he still managed to make me bleed, and without me knowing, the earth took in my blood with great pleasure.
The rumbling sound along with the intensity of the earth shaking began to increase as time went on. Everyone was on the ground, trying to stabilize themselves by finding their central balance, and at the same time maneuvering around from the cracking ground and dodging from the falling tree branches. Earthen hands were appearing from the ground, either tossing the demigods around or killing them through suffocation. Some unfortunate ones were eaten up by the cracked ground, disappearing into Gaia's realm almost instantly. Unsurprisingly, the giants were not affected by any of the disastrous event that was unfolding. In fact, they were chasing down helpless demigods who were too busy trying to stay alive from the wrath of the earth.
As soon as the rumbling died down, a deep but clear voice spoke up. "I have awoken from my slumber, and to celebrate, I'm going to make everything back to its original state. Forget about the tall, majestic building. What can it do in the presence of nature?" The anonymous voice, which I could safely assume it was Gaia, declared her future plans for the planet. It wasn't as simple as destroying the gods, no, she wanted total annihilation of all living beings, and of course, to give earth a complete makeover.
"Ah, and of course," Gaia said in her ancient voice. "I need to meet my special guests." Right after she finished, an earthen hand shot up and grabbed me around the waist and lifted me high up in the air. Next to me was Annabeth, who was also struggling to break free from Gaia's grasp. Even though Gaia didn't have a distinct form, I was still able to feel a piercing gaze staring right back at me, making me extremely uneasy. "I'll make this easy for you," Gaia continued after scrutinizing the two of us. "Goodbye."
With a muffled scream, Annabeth's entire body was engulfed by the earth and was forcibly dragged down into the cracked ground, disappearing right before my eyes. I tried to scream, I tried to call out her name, but it was too late as an earthen hand also covered up my mouth.
Instead of getting dragged into the ground like Annabeth did, I was faced with a grinning Porphyrion, who had his spear in his hand. As if reading my thoughts, Gaia answered my confusion, "As for you, Perseus Jackson, I believe that my children would like to have some fun with you first." Here she gave a pause, and I swore if she had a face, she would be smirking right now. "After all, you did kill most of them by yourself."
Before I even realized, the spear that Porphyrion was holding not too long ago was driven deep into my shoulder. He ripped my right arm off of my torso when he twisted and retracted his weapon. The overwhelming pain that I received almost made me faint on the spot, but this wasn't over yet. The giant king severed all my limbs, while Enceladus was torching my entire body with purple flames. By then, I was hurting too much to fathom anything that was happening, but I did want them to finish this quickly.
"Alright," Porphyrion began with a sickening smile with blood tainted all over himself. "This is the end, Perseus." Using my last bit of strength, I opened my eyes and glared at the giant weakly. It didn't matter how much I tried, or how hard I fought, I still allowed my friends to die even after promising that I would save them. I was unresigned! I could not possibly accept this! There was so much that went right! We had been so close, only to be defeated like this!?
But in the end, everything fell apart. Despite myself feeling the anger boiling up inside me, there was practically nothing I could do beyond this point. I tried to unleash my powers and my inner rage, but my attempt was to no avail with the iron grip that Gaia had on me along with the loss of blood that was taking a huge toll on me.
Porphyrion walked up slowly and paused when there was still couple feet between the two of us. Pulling out a dagger from his waist and licking the tip of it, I knew what was about to come.
I was about to die.
The giant raised the glittering dagger, ready to deliver the final blow while I closed my eyes, and in an instant, memories and faces of them came rushing through my mind. I thought about my first quest with Annabeth and Grover. I thought about the time I spent at the roman camp and eventually the quest that lead us up to here. However, those memories could only increase the pain and guilt that I had been carrying all this time. They were all dead, and it was because of my inability to protect them. Well, I guess it was my time to join them, and even so, I didn't think I would have the courage to see their faces.
My thoughts were torn away when the sharp and cold dagger drove through my chest, and the last thing I knew of that time was pain and darkness.