XX

Carter

Piper screamed so loudly I thought my ears would fall off. Zia lobbed a fireball down the giant's throat as he was gloating, but although it did push him back a little, it didn't seem to faze him. I was about to yell, "STOP ATTACKING!" when Zia summoned the pillar of fire I had seen her use back when we were fighting Desjardins on the ship, and he had called on Sekhmet.

Zia fainted, probably from overexertion. The pillar of fire kept following the giant everywhere, and he kept running away from it. I yelled to the few conscious people left- Nico, Piper, Hazel, Frank, Leo and Coach Hedge (Nico's serpent was in its water sphere)-and they gathered around me.

"We have to get Walt fixed up first." I said. "We need him to defeat Thoon!"

Everybody just stared at me. The only thing that we could hear was the giant's rumbling while he searched for us. After a long silence, Frank finally asked me, "Why?" I

"Because he's hosting Anubis." I said.

"WHAT?" Coach Hedge yelled. His yell was so loud that everyone covered their eardrums. "YOU MEAN-"

"Quiet down, please! You're bursting my eardrums!" Frank protested.

"Yep." I said. Frank and Hedge both looked at me, and said in unison, "Who's side are you on?"

"No- I'm talking about the way to defeat Thoon!" I said. "Walt's hosting Anubis, an Egyptian god. Do you think that would count-"

"You," Coach Hedge said, "Are a genius."

"Thank you, thank you." I said.

The others stared at each other. Frank asked me, "What do you-"

"Oh, Anubis is an Egyptian god," I said. "I think I said that already. Plus, he's inside Walt's mind, which is part of a human hosting a god, and they can communicate with each other telepathically, and Walt has Anubis powers."

Everyone just stared at me.

Nico said, "WHAT?"

"Yeah- that's one of the perks of being blood of the Pharaohs." I said.

"Oh."

"I hosted Horus once," I added. "And Sadie hosted Isis."

"Iris?" Frank asked. "Like, the messenger god? The one who eats ROFL made, organic, lactose free cupcakes?"

"Umm… no. The goddess of magic. Horus is the god of war." I rolled my eyes.

Everyone looked like their brains were about to fry, but Coach Hedge nodded. "Any god of war is a friend of mine, so let's do it!"

"Good," I said, relieved that the first major problem had been solved-the willingness of the others to carry out the plan. "Piper and Hazel, you two try to get Walt back up. Hedge, Nico, Leo and I will go distract the giant while you're at it."

I sneaked out from behind the stalactite we were hiding behind and yelled, "HEY! OVER HERE!" to Thoon.

He saw us, opened his eyes wide open, and swung his mace.

My instincts kicked in. "Scatter!" I yelled, and I ran in one direction. The others ran in the other one. Thoon was stupid enough to go lumbering behind the others, who would clearly have the upper hand. I snuck back to Piper and Hazel, who were trying to awaken Walt, but to no avail. Piper was trying to use her charmspeak, and Hazel was putting a pack on her head (where she had found it, I didn't want to know). I peeked my head out and called, "Coach Hedge!"

Hedge came over and got a bottle of Gatorade from his pocket. Where that bottle had been, I didn't know-but it was dented in more than just one place. He popped open the cap and poured some of it into Walt's mouth. Unfortunately, his aim wasn't that good, and Walt ended up having some orange liquid all over his face.

"Whoops." He said.

As I tried to wipe most of it off, Hedge went back to attracting Thoon. Piper continued on her charmspeak. Walt stirred.

Suddenly, Thoon noticed us. His eyes widened, and he lumbered towards Walt. "Uh-oh." I said, and ran towards him.

Unsurprisingly, he didn't even bother about me. He was too intent on not letting Walt heal, I tripped him with my sword a little too easily. He fell down, his head crushing the rock that concealed Walt. His snake hair narrowly missed Walt's shoes. Any close, and he would have crushed Walt.

Piper continued on her charmspeak as Thoon got back up and ran towards them. I knew tripping him wasn't an option now, knowing that he would crush Walt, but at the same time, I had to.

While I was busy thinking, Hedge and the others solved my problem. They ran from either side of the giant, and swung their blades (Coach Hedge with his baseball bat) from behind the giant's legs. Physics meant that Thoon fell backwards instead of forwards, and once again, the giant fell down, crushing a few rocks in the process.

Meanwhile, Piper and Hazel were almost done with awakening Walt, and his eyelids were almost completely open. He still probably felt a little snoozy. Thoon used the handle of his mace to bat us all out of the way, and charged towards Piper and Hazel.

"No." I said. "No, no, no!"

From the tiny rocky crevice that Thoon had bashed me into, the scene in front of me almost seemed like a movie. Just when Thoon was about to hit Walt with his mace, Piper yelled with one, loud scream, "AWAKEN!". Thoon's mace was about 3 inches away from Piper's face when Walt's hand stretched out as fast as lightning, and he touched the mace. It turned to dust and came down to the floor in a million tiny metal bits.

Thoon's eyes widened. He called us a few choice names, and ran in the opposite direction. Suddenly Walt started to glow a little, and when it faded, Anubis was beside him.

I think I'd probably know what girls would be like if they saw Anubis, and my guess was correct. Piper and Hazel both opened and closed their mouths like goldfishes, unable to speak anything in the presence of the "Hot Boy God". Jason got a little gleam of jealousy in his eyes.

Sadie, who had just began to stir, said, "Anubis!" and she immediately sat up straight.

Piper piped up (Good joke there), "Buh… Buh… Aren't you… a guh… God?"

Anubis didn't even look at her, but did say, "Yes."

He looked at Sadie, and nodded his head. Suddenly, Sadie's face turned red.

[Yeah, great job looking cool and composed, Sadie.]

Anubis ran over to the giant along with Walt, and touched his face. Walt did the same, and he crumbled into dust. Thoon slowly dissolved, and stared at us. "You really think you can simply close the Doors of Death?" he spat out. "Think again! We will destroy the gods by their roots! Our plan is almost complete, and Gaia will awaken in less than a week! You should be going to Mount Olympus right now, in fact!" he suddenly closed his mouth, or maybe that was just because his mouth had disintegrated.

"Okay…" I said, and crawled out of my little hole. "So somebody has to go to… Mount Olympus?"

"Oh… Hold on." Jason said. "I think the giants once said something about 'Pulling the Gods up from their roots'." He looked at Piper and Leo. "Right?"

They nodded.

"Oh… right." Nico said. "So… Even if we manage to close the Doors, the Giants might even still destroy the Gods."

"Yeah." Jason nodded.

"So what should we…" Nico suddenly stopped.

His eyes started to glow.