Chapter 14

Olympus

Zeus and Hades were in a standstill. Both had been fighting for nearly an hour and yet it was nearly impossible to decide who was winning. Hades had burn marks all over his body from the rigorous shocks that he had taken but Zeus too had bruises and cut marks in various places.

Hades then said, "Zeus, I command an army of the dead. The moment I call them you will be defeated. But the only reason I'm not doing so is because I don't want to harm my new kingdom."

"If you command the army of the dead, I command all other Olympians. Hades, this time there will be no mercy. This time I will prove to you why I am the king of the gods, AND IT IS BECAUSE I AM THE STRONGEST!" shouted Zeus.

Then they both ran towards each other and started fighting again. All the other Olympians were still in the throne room because none of them wanted to interrupt in the fight.

Zeus stabbed at Hades with the Master Bolt but Hades ducked and punched Zeus in the stomach, then in the face and then he threw him on the ground, face first.

By the time Zeus had gotten up, Hades had disappeared, of course, with the help of his Helm of Darkness. Zeus started seething and sent little bolts of electricity into all the shadows in his surroundings.

Hades stumbled out of one and Zeus, as quick as lightning, whacked Hades in the face with the Master Bolt. Then Zeus ran towards Hades to deal with the final blow but was suddenly frozen in his tracks. Hades had trapped in his position.

Earlier in the fight, Hades had done it but Zeus had broken out of the spell easily. But now that the fight was in its latter stages and Zeus was comparatively worn out, it was quite tough for the king of gods to move at all.

Hades then limped over to Zeus and then whispered, "I told you again and again that I am the better one, the elder god and thus, the more powerful one. But just because I let you run rampant, like the little dog that you are, you thought of yourself as the king. You are nothing, just a beggar of a god who is so power-hungry he'd rather kill his own family then give up his power for the good of this world."

Then Hades committed the final act of disgrace that any god could suffer, Hades spit on Zeus' face. Then Zeus spoke in a voice which was so cold that he himself didn't know that he was speaking like that. "Brother, do you why gods have domains, it is so to make sure that each god has an area where he can never be bested no matter what. My domain is the sky and also Olympus, and in here I can never be defeated."

"I agree, but what if a god's domain is penetrated and made ….. I don't know, open? What if the god of the sky is neither in sky nor in contact with Olympus? Because now that I have covered us in this shadow dome, you are no longer connected to Olympus. If I shadow travel to the underworld, it will be your end. And thus I ask you for the final time in your eternal life, will you bow before me, acknowledge me as your superior, and step down as I become the new king of the gods?" questioned Hades, with a smirk on his face.

"Now that we are in this shadow dome, I have no need of holding back." said Zeus.

Hades was puzzled and just as he muttered the word, 'whaa…" Zeus let out the full force of the Master Bolt, in one final attempt to defeat his brother; Zeus used all his power and focused it all on Hades. The Master Bolt is not called the most powerful weapon in existence just like that, it is because it is the most powerful that it is called so.

And Hades was perhaps feeling the worst shock in his life. Imagine a shock of approximately 10 billion volts. Count that and you are somewhat near the amount of electricity that the shock contained.

The shadow dome disappeared and so did Hades' hold on Zeus. Random sparks let out from the bolt crashed into the walls and the ceiling and the numerous pillars, destroying the infrastructure of Olympus (again).

By now all Olympians had come out of the Throne room and were now standing in the grand hall, all of them horrified at the sight. After the Master Bolt was thoroughly exhausted, and there was no glow left in it at all, the electrocution stopped and Hades fell to the floor. Zeus then let out a sigh and said, "Let this bastard lie here only. It will be a message to all that nobody challenges me, the king of the Gods and lives to see another day."

And as soon as Zeus turned to walk back to the Throne Room, his eyes widened and he fell down. Standing behind him was …

Camp Half Blood

Artemis had been a goddess for many millennia, but never in her eternal life had she ever seen anything like this before. Percy had transformed into a huge snake. The goddess of the hunt had no idea what to do.

The camp was in chaos, her hunters were routed, and many of the cabins were destroyed. The only reason Artemis had not revealed her true god form and fought Percy with all her strength was because there were many campers, and even if she hated the male gender, she still didn't want to kill them in a mass-genocide.

So she shouted out to the back, "All the campers, hunters, and everybody else, evacuate the camp right now. It is no longer safe …"

The snake hit Artemis with his tail and she crashed into a tree, bringing it down. She immediately sent a message to every Olympian, "I need help, Perseus has unleashed his full power and I cannot hold him until all campers evacuate."

But unfortunately for her, due to the troubles in Olympus, not one god her plea for help. This could turn into a big disaster for Artemis.

Not many heard Artemis' order to evacuate, and those who did could not bring the others to follow, as some of the campers were engaged with the still retreating forces of the monsters, while others were mourning the loss of their siblings and friends, while some were just running around, too scared to do anything.

Artemis got up and readied her bow and arrow. She then used some of her pure god energy and healed all her wounds. Then she ran towards Percy, shooting arrows all the way.

Even though her shooting speed was very fast, the former son of Poseidon was able to slither here and there and evade most of them.

And due to the thick armor like scales, the arrows that did strike the snakes body did no harm at all. It then opened its mouth wide and struck the area where Artemis had just been standing, and he would have eaten the goddess had she not been moving.

Artemis then shot at the same spot again and again, in hope of breaking or denting the armor, but to no avail. All it did was deplete her quiver.

The snake then spit out some venom/poison from its fangs and it landed on a tree. In the next few moments the poison burned through it so brutally that even the body of the nymph did not remain.

"I certainly don't want that on me" – though Artemis. She then started firing blasts again and they only seemed to push Percy back a bit. Artemis had no choice, if she was to win this fight, then she had to turn into her godly form.

She looked around to see if any campers or hunters were still in the area or not, but unfortunately there were still some campers who still had to evacuate. She shouted, "All of you leave now. If you stay here any longer you will die."

But this was where everything went downhill for the Olympian. For Percy needed only these few seconds to gain the advantage on Artemis. He spit a lot of the toxic venom on Artemis, and it burned through her. She screamed in pain, dropping all her weapons and clutching herself.

Then Percy went down to eat the goddess of the moon and he would have if a huge bolt of lightning had not struck him, surprising him more than hurting him.

It was of course Thalia, who had done so, for she shouted next, "Leave her alone and fight me Percy. I will crush you."

She then readied Aegis and made a spear of pure lightning. Then she ran towards the snake, determined to end it once and for all. She threw the lightning spear at the snake's eyes and as soon it got near, a bolt of lightning hit the spear, increasing its size ten-fold. The spear hit Percy right on the eye.

Percy shouted and spit venom everywhere. Till then Thalia had run towards Artemis and shielded them both from the spit using Aegis, which of course was not affected by the spit.

Thalia then formed another spear of lightning and threw it, this time too at the eye. But Percy was ready. He slithered beneath the spear's path and then crept towards Thalia quickly.

Line Breaker

While all this fighting was going on, Annabeth and Chiron had given some ambrosia to Will, and then they carried Nico to the first floor of the big house, which was miraculously still intact.

They used celestial bronze chains to bind him, and Annabeth especially made sure to keep Nico's sword, which had fallen on the ground, with her so that he wouldn't free himself again.

After that the trio helped everyone else evacuate, as they had heard Artemis' cries. After making sure that no one was left in the camp, Annabeth ran towards the fight which was happening near the creek.

Chiron tried to stop her, but even Will ran behind her. Chiron shook his head and went on to carry an unconscious Nico to the van.

Annabeth had been horrified when she saw Percy transform into that big giant snake and this diminished her hope of him becoming normal again even more. But then she shook her head and focused on what was in front of her.

Thalia was striking Percy from every side with huge lightning bolts whilst defending Artemis and herself. But the daughter of Athena knew that she couldn't keep this up for very long.

She could see that the lieutenant of the hunters was starting to stagger, and her lightning bolts were getting weaker and weaker.

So Annabeth did the one thing she could do. She ran behind the snake and started climbing up from his tail. Slowly but steadily, she reached the head of the snake.

She then took out her knife, whispered, "I'm sorry, Percy" and then stabbed him on the head. Percy screeched in pain and started shaking his head heavily. Annabeth could not maintain her balance and was thrown off in front of Thalia. She stumbled up, picked up a stone and threw it at Percy's head.

When Thalia saw Annabeth she motioned for her to go away but then fell down, unconscious. In the meantime, Will too had arrived at the scene and had taken out his bow and arrows.

Will then sent a prayer to his father, and started shooting fire and sonic arrows at Percy. His aim was good enough to make Percy slither back a little.

All the while Annabeth carried Thalia and Artemis, who had gone unconscious because of the pain, under a tree, and laid them there. Then she took Artemis' bow and quiver, and ran back to where Will was. She then sent a prayer to Artemis and her mother and then started shooting arrows at Percy.

This went on for a few minutes till Percy spit a bit of his venom on them. They managed to dodge the acid, but in the process gave Percy enough time to recover and slither towards them to eat the two half-bloods.

He was just a few feet away and Annabeth had closed her eyes. Will saw a silver blur appear in front of them and stop them snake with one hand.

It was Artemis and her eyes were glowing with power. She was about to release her true form so Will shut his eyes and told Annabeth to turn back.

Line Breaker

Artemis finally felt all the power flowing through her. She was holding Percy by the neck and was squishing with the all that she could.

Percy kept spitting venom but it evaporated as soon as it came near her. Then it slowly coiled its tail around Artemis' body and then pressed tightly (like a boa constrictor), while the goddess kept pressing the snake's throat the whole time.

They both were choking each other and it was now a battle of who would last longer and who would give in first. They both were radiating with power, glowing even, Percy a dark brownish red, with a tint of black, while Artemis glowed silver.

And then suddenly all that faded away. They both had exhausted their power. Artemis' god power was gone and she looked like a normal young woman, albeit a very tired one, while the snake was turning back to Percy.

As Artemis fell she called out to the two half-bloods. Both Will and Annabeth looked and rushed to Artemis'side. But she only pointed in Percy's direction and croaked out, "Get him".

Will nodded and then picked a sword which was lying nearby. Then he rushed to where Percy was lying, and stabbed him in the chest. He pulled out the sword and was about to do so again when Annabeth shouted, "Will, look out, behind you."

Will turned around just in time to have himself stunned to the point where he saw nothing and felt nothing except his own body which was surprisingly getting lighter. Then he was punched in the stomach and then on the head and he was out cold.

Annabeth was surprised when she saw that it was Chiron who had done that and riding on him was Nico, with a huge smile on his face. "Well, it looks like our plan was successful. What a delight."

"Delight? You call this a delight? Scores of campers and hunters and magical creatures dead or injured. The whole camp in ruins. How is any of this delightful you sick little bastard?"shouted Annabeth.

"Well, I didn't say it was a delight for you, now did I? Anyways you just summarized our whole plan. And as always, like in a good war story, after the destruction of a civilization, now comes the warning." Then Nico's expression turned serious. "Be warned, daughter of Athena. You know not what you face and what you don't know could hurt you terribly. Believe me when I say that as of right now a quick death is the one thing you should start asking for from your mother because when this war begins you will be tortured to the extent where you would do anything just to survive. This was just a portion of our power. The true limits of master's powers are not known to anyone but himself. Convince the gods that they should surrender, because if they don't, then they will suffer the same fate as did the god of war."

After that Nico kicked Chiron at the side and pointed toward Percy. Chiron bent down to pick Percy up and Nico slapped him on the back of his head. "Work faster mule".

After that the three rode off until even the dust left behind had settled and there was silence everywhere once again.

Tartarus

"Ah, they have done it. Now that the demigods have been uprooted from their home of many millennia, they have nowhere left to go except for Olympus. And as few a number as they are, they do not present any threat to me at all. They are not even enough to sustain the will of the gods. The second part of my plan will now begin. Along with the internal strife in the Throne Room of Olympus, the second part of my plan has just begun. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA"