Reply to Lord Sanguine: The Olympians have all been influenced by the Fates and think that Crius is going to destroy the world. Poseidon is still loyal to Zeus, if Crius had given him a real reason to let him go, he would have, but otherwise, he just can't ignore what the others say.

The light from the coin was gone. Crius was in a world of total darkness, a place where the shadows were enveloped by even darker shadows. All light had stopped coming down miles above where they were.

And still, Crius somehow managed to 'see' the thing that was in front of him, but he had a feeling that it was more in his head than with his eyes.

The thing, which Crius supposed was Erebos, looked like a small baby the size of car. Its eyes were closed and it was sucking on the coin that Crius had offered to it. It would have looked cute if it wasn't just so weird.

"Who there?" the thing said. Crius didn't hear it exactly as its mouth never moved, but he was used to expecting weird things at this point.

"My name is Crius," Crius said slowly. "I-I- I come in peace. Who are you?" It had sounded a whole lot cooler in his head.

"Erebos. You coin. What want?" Erebos muttered. Crius was kind of surprised to see that Erebos looked nothing more like a baby. Wasn't he supposed to be at least a billion years old or something? Plus, Crius had always assumed that Erebos was going to look something like Hades.

But now he had a bigger problem. Sure, he had went ahead and said that he wanted to talk to Erebos, but now that he was here, he had no idea what to ask. After all, he wanted to ask about pretty much everything, but unless Erebos could read his mind, it wasn't going to be quick.

When Crius was silent for several minutes, Erebos talked again.

"I so sleeepy. I come coin. I accept offering. What want? Power? Weapon? Healing? Ask quickly."

Even though Erebos looked like a baby, Crius still felt afraid of him. He also had a feeling that this wasn't Erebos' true form or whatever.

"I want to know about my sword," Crius said, waving his sword around even though he couldn't see it. As a matter of fact, he couldn't even see his own fingers. The only thing that was visible somehow was Erebos, which strengthened Crius' conviction that he was probably really seeing him in his head.

"I no know," Erebos said. "It older than I."

"You don't know anything about it?" Crius asked.

Erebos paused for a second and continued sucking on the coin. "There is a forest. Trees. It linked to that. I know no more."

"Do you know why the Olympians are after me?" Crius asked.

"Fate," Erebos said. "Destiny. Must happen. You must leave."

"Whoa- wait there," Crius said. "Couldn't we, uh, talk this out? I kind of need some assistance here, and I was told to visit you... and..."

Erebos opened his eyes. There wasn't anything in them, somehow, they were darker than even what surrounded Crius. Crius felt as if he might just find himself sucked into them and lost forever. Kind of like a black hole. Crius tried to look away, but found that he couldn't.

"No," Erebos said more forcefully than before. Evidently, he wasn't used to being told things by twelve-year-old mortals. "I tell you special. But I old. I listen to no one. But you give coin. I will help you. I will help that child Hades better. But goodbye now."

Crius felt something tug at his sleeve, and realized that he had forgotten about his guide for a second there. He wanted to tell someone to stop. He wanted to say how Erebos had told him next to nothing about what he needed to know, and now a shark was taking him somewhere that he guessed he wouldn't like.

But the thing was that Crius was sure that none of that would help in the slightest. The only thing he could think of for the moment was to go somewhere and wait for Hades to turn up, but the moment that the thought had formed in his head, he found himself suddenly standing somewhere where the ground wasn't very hard.

The trip towards Erebos had taken a really long time, but somehow Crius had ended up where he was instantly. Maybe Erebos had made the trip faster. Crius looked up and saw that it was pretty sunny.

But before he could enjoy the scenery any more, someone jumped out at him from behind the trees.

The person was wearing some old-fashioned armor and was pointing a spear at Crius. Only he was pointing the wrong end at him. He noticed that and twisted it awkwardly into the right position.

"Who are you?" the guy asked. He was pretty tall, but something about him made Crius think that someone had handed him the wrong job.

The guy then noticed something. "You're not wet at all. I just saw you come from the Tiber, but you're perfectly dry." The guy touched Crius' shirt to make sure.

Crius turned around to see there was a river behind him. He might have been imagining it, but he thought that he could see a shark fin for a second. But then he remembered that sharks don't swim in rivers, but then again, Crius wasn't dealing with a regular shark.

"I asked who are you," the guy said again. Crius thought about it for a second. This person didn't look very eager to do his job, which probably meant that there were several people nearby who took things seriously.

"I think my name is Crius," Crius said. "I don't remember much else."

"Great," the guy said in a tone that made it perfectly clear that he thought the exact opposite. "Well, I suppose I'm supposed to take you back to Camp and all."

Crius started off, but the guy told him to stop. "Don't you know how heavy this armor is?" he asked.

The armor was heavy, and it was way too big for the skinny guy. Kind of like a turtle who had taken a shell that was far too big for it. Crius was no expert, but even he could see that the guy hadn't exactly fitted his armor properly.

All along the way, the guy kept muttering and swearing at points saying things like "Stupid Greeks," mentioned some names including Reyna, Jackson, and Jason. He kept tripping at points and muttering about how heavy his armor was.

"So why don't you take it off?" Crius asked after the tenth time.

"That's a great idea," the guy said, rolling his eyes. "Why didn't I think of that? Do you think I want to go around wearing this? I was demoted. I was first an Augur, but after that war and my failure at that other camp, I get sent doing minor guard duty while a daughter of Mercury prances around being the Augur. I bet..."

He continued talking for at least five minutes, though Crius really wasn't listening. He was instead wondering where he was supposed to be.

Oddly enough, the guy seemed to have missed on the fact that Crius was carrying a sword. Or maybe he just didn't think it was necessary to bother, as it didn't seem too dangerous. Crius couldn't tell if the guy was just inept or bored with his post or both.

Eventually, the guy stopped. Crius couldn't see why.

"What am I supposed to be looking at?" Crius asked.

"You can't see it? Are sure?" the guy asked.

All Crius saw was a lot of forest. But just then his sword began vibrating and Crius felt a tingle crawl up his arm, and then the scene in front of him changed dramatically.

"Welcome to Camp Jupiter. I'm Octavian," the guy said.