Chapter 25

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We marched the prisoners back to the center of the camp and left them there. I didn't know what to do with them so I walked into the partially destroyed Big House followed by Tammi, Zach, and the Minotaur.

"What do we do now?" I asked.

"Start the executions." Said Zach.

"I said spare them, Zach." I said with an authoritative tone.

"Fine, we don't kill all of them." Said Zach.

"We could put them to work rebuilding this camp in your image." Tammi offered.

"Okay, I like that. Zach, you and the Minotaur go outside and start that." I said.

"Sure thing." Said Zach as he left with the Minotaur.

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I'll put them to work. I thought as I left the Big House. But first I'll break their spirits.

Once outside I walked to the front of the large group of demigods and snapped my fingers. A cyclops carried chopping block to the front of the group and placed it next to me.

"Percy Jackson!" I shouted. "Please step forward!"

The boy bravely walked out of the crowd and up to the chopping block.

I kicked him behind the knee cap and he fell.

The Minotaur pulled an execution hood from his belt and placed it on Percy's head.

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I walked out of the Big House and towards the group of campers. What I saw outraged me to no end.

Zach had Percy Jackson on his knees and the Minotaur was in the process of placing an execution hood over Percy's head.

"Zach!" I shouted as I stormed over.

"Hello, Jake." He said casually. "Is there a problem?"

"Is there a problem?" I asked in anger. "You have Percy Jackson on a chopping block and you ask me if there's a problem?"

"We need an example of what happens if you speak out from now on." Said Zach. "Jackson is perfect for the job."

"I said no unnecessary killing!" I shouted in rage.

"Yes, but your father promised me revenge." Said Zach. "This is how I choose to take it. It'll hurt everyone here without killing them."

I clenched my teeth and glared at him in anger. I may be the Prince of Monsters, but my father was the king. I couldn't veto Zach's choice.

Zach walked over to Percy, sighed in triumph, and kneeled down. He then pulled the execution hood off of Percy.

"On second thought, I want to see your face when you die." Said Zach.

Percy spit in his face.

Zach wiped the spit from his face and slugged Percy in the jaw.

"Kill him." Said Zach as he stepped away.

The Minotaur lifted his massive war ax into the air and prepared to kill Percy Jackson.

I didn't know what to do. I was already in too deep with my plans to back out without being shunned by both sides. If I did the right thing, my army would think I betrayed them but the camp would still hate me. If I let Percy die, the camp would hate me even more but my army would praise me.

I scanned the crowd. Annabeth was crying, Jason and Piper were trying to comfort her without any luck. Nico was glaring it me with black fire burning in his eyes. It was Madison that helped me make my decision. When I saw her, her face was painted with extreme sorrow. Her eyes begged me to do something.

I was going to die if I did what I was thinking, there was no way around that. I would completely use up all my power and burn out my very life force, but seeing Madison's expression made it worth it. I couldn't let her think of me as a monster, and I was prepared to die to stay human in her eyes.

I breathed a small ball of fire into my hands and threw it at the Minotaur. The ax was inches from Percy's neck when the fire ball hit the Minotaur. The fire ball hit with force and knocked the Minotaur to the ground. The fire ball then spread, completely consuming the Minotaur, burning him to death. I then ran to Percy and helped him to his feet before ripping apart the ropes that held his arms behind his back.

"Run!" I shouted. "I'll hold them off!"

I then flame jumped behind the group of campers and summoned a massive wall of fire to separate them from the army of monsters. It completely drained my energy but I somehow found the strength to maintain the wall.

Everyone was confused and didn't know what to do.

"I said run!" I shouted as loud as I could.

The campers followed my orders this time and made a mad dash towards the camps borders.

Once they had a decent head start I dropped the wall of fire.

"Traitor!" Shouted Zach. "Kill him."

I drew my sword and took up a defensive stance while the entire army I'd assembled moved in on me.

I'm dead. I thought as I screamed and charged headstrong into the army cutting down anything that I could. I impaled a harpy, scorched a group of cyclops with a torrent of fire, and decapitated a creature that I didn't even recognize. I continued fighting for my life, using every trick I'd learned and taking every cheep shot I got, but it wasn't good enough.

Eventually I was over run with monsters. They dog piled me then started violently raking me with claws and biting me.

I focused on my body catching fire. It did and severally burned every monster touching me.

"Stop!" Shouted Zach. "I'll do it myself."

The monsters backed off as Zach drew his sword and walked towards me.

"What happened to 'you and me against the world,' Zach?" I asked him in anger.

"You're weak." He said. "You're to merciful. I won't be."

"If I'm so weak, then how am I still alive?" I asked.

"Luck." He said as he slashed at me.

I blocked his attack and we locked swords.

"Luck abandoned me a long time ago." I said as I glared at him.

He backed out of the sword lock and slashed at me again. I parried his attack and stabbed at his gut. He jumped away and slashed sideways at me, lightly cutting my left cheek. He then took advantage of my recovery and jabbed his sword into a chink in my breastplate. He then pried my breastplate off. The armor on my arms fell off because they no longer had anything to attach to.

He then swung his sword straight down. I blocked it but he pressed down harder, forcing me to one knee.

"You know, I was actually going to let some of them live, but now I think I'll kill them all, starting with Madison." Zach taunted.

"You. Won't. Touch. Them." I said, my voice barely above a whisper.

I pushed up against Zach's sword and managed to stand up. I locked eyes with him.

Just like when I fought Todd, something inside of me snapped. I pushed him away with my sword and threw it aside. My vision turned red and my entire body screamed in pain. I had a splitting headache and grabbed my head to try and ease the pain.

The pain worsened and I staggered around a few times before falling to my knees and screaming in pain.

I blacked out for half a second.

When I opened my eyes I was still on the ground. I pushed off the ground and saw my hands. They were scaly with a red tint. Each of my fingers were tipped with a curved black claw.

I then looked behind me and found that the rest of my body was the same way.

Along my back, multiple boney spines had grown out of my spine, tearing my shirt apart. My wings had also grown in along with a long, lizard like tail.

I ran my tongue across my teeth and found that they were razor sharp.

I was still seeing in red when I tried to stand up. I found that when standing I was about eight feet tall but that it was considerable easier to stay on all fours.

I crouched down and lunged at Zach. He turned around and ran but I chased him. I caught him in a matter of seconds and pinned him. I prepared to kill him but was attacked from above. Multiple harpies were dive bombing me.

One flew in for another attack, but I jumped up and grabbed her. I brought her to the ground and clawed her to death. The other harpies tried to fly away but I burnt them to a crisp with a torrent of fire.

Turning my attention away from Zach I faced down the army of monsters with newfound energy.

I plunged into the army ripping every monster I touched to shreds. In about a half hour I had cut down a third of the army, but I was still only one person.

The army closed in and started to break me down.

I had only one option now. I had somehow survived so far and I was going to finish what I started. This camp was going to be safe for everyone to return or else the army would continue to chase the campers across the nation.

It would kill me, I was sure of it, but I didn't care anymore.

I crouched down and focused all my energy into a ball of fire underneath me. I kept the ball there and waited for the right time to unleash the power.

The entire army surrounded me and closed in for the kill.

I had a good run. I thought as I willed the ball of fire to explode.

The ball detonated with enough force to incinerate anything within a hundred foot radius. I was launched straight into the air and saw my work. The camp was leveled. There was a thick layer of monster dust in the air but there wasn't a living creature in sight.

I felt tired as I started to free fall. As I plummeted to certain death I closed my eyes and went to sleep.

The only thing I could think of kept repeating itself in my head.

They're safe.

I fell straight down, picking up speed before I finally hit the ground.

A/N: Wow... That was pretty heroic. Wouldn't y'all agree? But what price did he have to pay for using all that power?

Tune in next time to find out!