The next chapter has lotsa crazy stuff that I have to work out, so just a fair warning that it might be a while before I post the next chapter. Plus I'm trying to finish out my Hidden Origins story as well (didn't mean for its ending to coincide with this story's ending, totally accidental) and since I haven't posted for that story in a longer period of time - aka I want to post more often than once every month - it'll be sucking up most of my attention. There are only like two or three more chapters to go, but they're gonna be packed with tons of stuff. I'm in the "It's the end, all bets are off, big battles to the end!" sections of both stories. Gotta kick my muse into action (and stop getting distracted by other side ideas…)
:)
First Person: Rei
Despite the midday heat and the raging storm of death energy, a group of tourists was climbing over the ruins. Fortunately there weren't many, and they didn't give the demigods a second look. After the crowds in Rome, we'd stopped worrying too much about getting noticed. If we could fly our warship into the Roman Colosseum with ballistae blazing and not even cause a traffic slowdown, we could pretty much get away with anything.
Nico led the way. At the top of the hill, we climbed over an old retaining wall and down into an excavated trench. Finally we arrived at a stone doorway leading straight into the side of the hill. The death storm seemed to originate right above our heads. Looking up at the swirling tentacles of darkness, I felt like I was trapped at the bottom of a flushing toilet bowl. An overwhelming sense of fear surged through me, and I took deep breaths to try and calm the pain building in my chest. The memories were still trying to fully break through, and it was taking all I had to stay on the surface of my thoughts and not delve too deeply into my ocean of destructive thoughts. I hadn't felt this disquieted for a long time; there wasn't a moment of rest from your own mind, after all.
Nico faced our group. "From here, it gets tough."
"Sweet," Leo said. "Cause so far I've totally been pulling my punches."
Nico glared at him. "We'll see how long you keep your sense of humor. Remember, this is where pilgrims came to commune with dead ancestors. Underground, you may se things that are hard to look at, or hear voices trying to lead you astray in the tunnels. The barley cakes?"
"What?" Frank suddenly asked.
He had been thinking about his grandmother and his mom, wondering if they might appear to him. For the first time in days, the voices of Ares and Mars had started to argue again in the back of Frank's mind, debating their favorite forms of violent death.
"I've got the cakes," Emily announced. She pulled out the magical barley cakes they'd made from the grain Triptolemus had given us in Venice. "We tried to make them taste better, but…well, best to just dive right in and get it over with."
"Eat up," Nico advised.
I did as Emily said and ate the cracker of death as quickly as possible. It tasted like a cookie made with sawdust instead of sugar.
"Yum," Piper said.
Even the daughter of Aphrodite couldn't avoid making a face.
"Okay." Nico choked down the last of his barley. "That should protect us from the poison."
"Poison?" Leo asked. "Did I miss the poison? Cause I love poison."
"Soon enough," Nico promised. "Just stick close together, and maybe we can avoid getting lost or going insane."
On that happy note, Nico led us underground. The tunnel spiraled gently downward, the ceiling supported by white stone arches that reminded me of a whale's rib cage. I didn't know that I had a mild case of claustrophobia until now. It was another moment that I tried to separate myself from my mind and just focus on the task at hand. I twisted Veon's sheathed lance between my fingers with my bow gripped tightly in my other hand.
As we walked, Hazel ran her hands along the masonry. "This wasn't part of a temple," she whispered. "This was…the basement for a manor house, built in later Greek times."
An odd power of the children of Hades, being able to tell so much about an underground place just by being there.
"A manor house?" Frank asked. "Please don't tell me we're in the wrong place."
"We are in the right place," Azrael announced. He took a deep breath, closing his eyes, and holding his hands slightly out as though using his palms to see. "The Veil is strong. The Veil is here."
"The House of Hades is below us," Nico assured him. "But Hazel's right, these upper levels are much newer. When the archaeologists first excavated this site, they thought they'd found the Necromanteion. Then they realized the ruins were too recent, so they decided it was the wrong spot."
"They were right the first time," I continued. "They just didn't dig deep enough."
We turned a corner and stopped. In front of us, the tunnel ended in a huge block of stone.
"A cave-in?" Jason asked.
"A test," I corrected. "A child of the Underworld can get through with ease. Anyone else would have a trial before them right here if they wished to speak to the dead on their own."
"Hazel, would you do the honors?" Nico offered.
Hazel stepped forward. She placed her hand on the rock, and the entire boulder crumbled to dust. The tunnel shuddered - cracks spread across the ceiling. For a terrifying moment, I imagined being crushed under tons of earth (a disappointing way to die, after all we'd been through), unable to move or breath, pressure on all of your limbs as you slowly suffocate in pain the entire time, wanting to die but being unable to.
I sucked in a deep breath. No, stop those thoughts. That must've happened to me before to some extent. We'd barely even started the House of Hades and I was already struggling to keep sane.
The rumbling stopped and the dust settled. A set of stairs curved deeper into the earth, the barreled ceiling held up by more repeating arches, closer together and carved from polished black stone. The descending arches made me feel dizzy, as if we were looking into an endlessly reflecting mirror. Painted on the walls were crude pictures of black cattle marching downward.
"I really don't like cows," Piper muttered.
"Agreed," Frank said.
"Those are the cattle of Hades," Nico said. "It's just a symbol of-"
"Look."
Frank pointed. On the first step of the stairwell, a golden chalice gleamed. I was pretty sure it hadn't been there a moment before. The cup was full of dark-green liquid.
"Hooray," Leo said halfheartedly. "I suppose that's our poison."
Nico picked up the chalice. "We're standing at the ancient entrance of the Necromanteion. Odysseus came here, and dozens of other heroes, seeking advice from the dead."
"Did the dead advise them to leave immediately?" Leo asked.
"I would be fine with that," Piper admitted.
Nico drank from the chalice, then offered it to Jason. "You asked me about trust, and taking a risk? Well, here you go, son of Jupiter. How much do you trust me?"
The others look confused, unsure of what Nico was talking about, but Jason didn't hesitate. He took the cup and drank. I was next, quickly downing a gulp of the stuff. It tasted like spoiled apple juice. Great. At least it didn't taste as bad as the barley cakes. But it was still pretty darn bad. The others passed it around, each taking a sip of poison. Frank watched the chalice going around nervously, being the past one in the line to drink. I thought about what grown-ups always asked when you mimicked another's bad actions - 'If all your friends were drinking poison, would you do it too?'
Kaze didn't drink from the chalice, probably because he was already dead and didn't need it. Azrael was the only one who didn't cringe when he drank the poison. Whatever that kid's connection to the Underworld was, I wouldn't claim that my random infinite knowledge of stuff told me what it was. Sometimes I knew things, sometimes I didn't. All I knew about Azrael was that he was powerful. I kept imagining him facing an army, holding his hand up as a shower of arrows rained down upon him. My prophetic powers had rarely been easy to interpret before I'd gotten a Primordial with the wisdom of everything shoved into my brain all at once. That…didn't help. My thoughts were sometimes my own, sometimes they were from the past, sometimes they were from a near or distant future. I got a feeling of unfamiliarity when I was having a prophetic sense, but with my already messed up mind, I just couldn't make sense of any of my thoughts vs visions.
Frank drained the chalice before it turned to smoke in his hands.
Nico nodded, apparently satisfied. "Congratulations. Assuming the poison doesn't kill us, we should be able to find our way through the Necromanteion's first level."
"Just the first level?" Piper asked.
Nico turned to Hazel and gestured at the stairs. "After you, sister."
I had never been consumed by the dark before. My skin apparently acted like a solar panel and absorbed sunlight so that when I went into the darkness I would glow. When we were younger, Kaze always used me as a nightlight. When I was unconscious, my glow apparently dimmed, but it never went away. I absorbed moonlight the same way, since the moonlight was technically just reflected sunlight, but don't ask me how that worked when Artemis and Apollo were two different beings. I guess all of my deaths didn't just activate my direct bloodlines, but I guess Auntie Artemis gave me a smidgen of power too. With over a thousand painful deaths and power boosts, who knew? Maybe I had the power of the entire Greek pantheon? Hell, let's add in every pagan deity in existence! Cause why the flip not?! Now I suppose I knew why my mother was so feared among the gods and forbidden from having a physical form. Making a demigod from her power and the power of humanity was a dangerous thing.
You know, now that I think about it, that means I'm related to Bob. My father was a son of Apollo, Apollo was the son of Leto, Leto was the daughter of Koios, and Koios was Bob's brother. This really shouldn't be a surprise to me, honestly. The gods were the children of the Titans. We probably shouldn't get into the fact that a lot of relationships in Greek mythology - particularly ones involving Zeus or Poseidon - are often some form of incest. There are times when gods hook up with their own grandchildren which is somehow okay because the blood has been diluted enough, times when they hook up with children of other Titans who should technically all be related but meh, the fact that Hera and Zeus are kinda brother and sister but they're also husband and wife yet Zeus continuously cheats…etc.
In no time, I felt completely lost. The stairs split in three different directions. As soon as Hazel chose a path, the stairs split again. We wound our way through interconnecting tunnels and rough-hewn burial chambers that all looked the same - the walls carved with dusty niches that might once have held bodies. The arches over the doors were painted with black cows, white poplar trees, and owls.
"I thought the owl was Minerva's symbol," Jason murmured.
"The screech owl is one of Hades's sacred animals," Nico explained. "Its cry is a bad omen."
"This way," Hazel announced. She pointed to a doorway that looked the same as all the others. "It's the only one that won't collapse on us."
"Good choice, then," Leo said.
"Yes sir," Azrael said, though he wasn't looking at Leo. He was looking to his left at the wall. "Thank you." He turned his head so that his ear was facing at a slightly steeper angle upwards. "No. You be quiet."
My skin tingled, probably a side effect of the poison. I was also beginning to feel colder - well, colder than I usually was. Cool air brushed against my face as I heard other voices whispering in the side corridors, beckoning us to veer off course, to come closer and listen to them speak. I assumed that was who Azrael was talking to. Some ghosts appeared to be friendly to him, others he was shushing with the authority he had as a boy with the power of the Reapers.
"At least Mars and Ares are settled down," Emily whispered to a nervous Frank.
The guy wore his emotions on his sleeve without even realizing it, and even without her powers Emily worked to try and keep his spirits high.
"Not sure if I'd prefer them or the ghosts," Frank admitted.
Finally we reached an archway carved in the shape of human skulls - or maybe they were human skulls embedded in the rock. In the purple light of Diocletian's scepter, the hollow eye sockets seemed to blink. Frank almost hit the ceiling when Hazel put a hand on his arm.
"This is the entrance to the second level," She said. "I'd better take a look."
Frank hadn't even realized that he'd moved in front of the doorway. "Uh, yeah…" He muttered before making way for her.
Hazel traced her fingers across the carved skulls. "No traps on the doorway, but…something is strange here. My underground sense is…is fuzzy, like someone is working against me, hiding what's ahead of us."
"The sorceress that Hecate warned you about?" Jason guessed. "The one Leo and Emily saw in their dream? What was her name?"
"Pa-" I began before cutting myself off. "Actually, it would be safer not to say her name."
"But stay alert," Hazel agreed. "One thing I'm sure of: From this point on, the dead are stronger than the living."
"I suppose that means I should lead the way," Kaze said humorlessly.
"I shall assist in navigation with the power over the dead," Azrael volunteered.
The voices in the darkness seemed to whisper louder, and now I could catch glimpses of movement in the shadows. From the way our friends' eyes darted around, I guessed they were seeing things too. Azrael advised them to not disturb the ghosts and the ghosts would not disturb them.
"Where are the monsters?" Frank wondered aloud. "I thought Gaea had an army guarding the Doors."
"Don't know," Jason said. His pale skin looked as green as the poison from the chalice. "At this point I'd almost prefer a straight-up fight."
"Careful what you wish for, man," Leo warned. He summoned a ball of fire to his hand, and for once Frank was glad to see the flames. "Personally, I'm hoping nobody's home. We walk in, find Percy and Annabeth, destroy the Doors of Death, and walk out. Maybe stop at the gift shop."
"Yeah," Frank said. "That'll happen."
"Hey, I wouldn't protest to a gift shop," Audrey volunteered.
The tunnel shook and rubble rained down from the ceiling.
Hazel grabbed Frank's hand. "That was close," She muttered. "These passageways won't take much more."
"The Doors of Death just opened again," Nico said.
"It's happening like every fifteen minutes," Piper noted.
"Every twelve," I corrected.
"Someone must keep pressing the UP button for twelve minutes, or the journey will not finish."
The memory flowed through me as most of them did - recalling themselves on their own yet being natural as any other memory and giving me a familiar feeling. The voice sounded like Bob's, but I didn't understand how I heard that from him unless I managed to find him in the future and he explained the Doors of Death to me. I was sure he hadn't told me that in the past. I sighed and shook off the confusion, accepting the knowledge as I always did and just ignoring all my theories and trusting my gut. My instincts always knew better than me, after all.
"Percy and Annabeth are close. They're in danger. I just know it."
As we traveled deeper, the corridors widened. The ceilings rose to six meters high, decorated with elaborate paintings of owls in the branches of white poplars. The extra space should have made us feel better, but all I could think about was the tactical situation. The tunnels were big enough to accommodate large monsters, even giants. There were blind corners everywhere, perfect for ambushes. Our group could be flanked or surrounded easily. We would have no good options for retreat. If no monsters were visible, that just meant they were hiding, waiting to spring a trap. Even though we knew that, there was nothing much any of us could do about it. All we could do was continue forward and make sure that we made it to the Doors of Death under any circumstances.
Leo held his fire close to the walls. I walked close to the other side and saw Ancient Greek graffiti scratched into the stone. There were prayers and supplications to the dead, probably written by pilgrims thousands of years ago. The tunnel floor was littered with ceramic shards and silver coins. This place was right out of an indie horror game.
"Offerings?" Piper guessed, looking at the coins.
"Yes," Nico said. "If you wanted your ancestors to appear, you had to make an offering."
"Let's not make an offering," Jason suggested.
Nobody argued.
"The tunnel from here is unstable," Hazel warned. "The floor might…well, just follow me. Step exactly where I step."
She made her way forward. Frank walked right behind her - not because he felt particularly brave, but because he wanted to be close if Hazel needed his help. The voices of the war gods were arguing again in his ears. Danger felt very close now.
"Fai Zhang," Azrael whispered in a voice that wasn't his.
He had insisted on going after Frank. He would have been leading the charge if Hazel hadn't been superior with her underground navigation skills. The ghosts appeared to be telling him what he needed to know, but it seems they were also using him to speak as well. Kaze was right behind Azrael and I was right behind Kaze, which made it so that I was probably the last person in the line able to hear Azrael talking. Hazel continued forward while Frank stopped for a moment in fear.
"Pylos. I await you in Pylos."
Frank felt like the poison was bubbling back up in his throat. He'd been scared plenty of times before - held even faced the god of Death. But this voice terrified him in a different way. It resonated right down to his bones, as if it knew everything about him - his curse, his history, his future. His grandmother had always been big on honoring the ancestors. It was a Chinese thing - you had to appease ghosts; you had to take them seriously. Frank always thought his grandmother's superstitions were silly. Now he changed his mind. He had no doubt…the voice that spoke to him was one of his ancestors. He didn't turn around to look at Azrael, perhaps because he was frozen in fear, perhaps because he wanted to know more information about what the voice was trying to tell him.
"To survive, you must lead. At the break, you must take charge."
"Lead what?" Frank asked aloud.
"Hm?" Azrael asked, his voice back to normal.
The voice was gone, its absence clear, as if the humidity had suddenly dropped. Azrael probably had experienced no time at all while the rest of the world had continued on with the ghost speaking through him. The entire interacting had taken only a few seconds, enough to get the others behind me to pause in confusion, but only Frank's speaking had truly alerted them to something being wrong. Such a short interaction in the real world must have been microseconds to Azrael, so it was no wonder he looked around, confused.
"Uh, big guy?" Leo asked from behind me. "Could you not freak out on us? Please and thank you."
Everyone beyond me, Kaze, and Azrael were looking at him with concern - even Hazel had stopped from her trek forward. The three of us that weren't concerned were more interested in moving forward rather than dwelling on it while in unstable territory.
"I'm okay," Frank managed. "Just…a voice."
Nico nodded. "I did warn you. It'll only get worse. We should-"
Hazel held up her hand for silence. "Wait here, everybody."
"There is something up ahead," Azrael announced.
He jumped past Frank, slowing down his internal clock so that the hasty jump for him actually turn into a slow motion move to the rest of us - therefore making it so that his momentum didn't add pressure to the floor as he moved. It was a smart application of his powers. He really had advanced with those powers of his, considering I was told when they'd found him he'd never even heard of the Veil and was just learning to utilize its powers as a Reaper. By the time he returned to normal speed, he was hurrying after Hazel and disappearing down the tunnel.
I counted to twenty three before they returned, Hazel's face drawn and pensive while Azrael looked more amused than anything else.
"Scary room ahead," Hazel warned. "Don't panic."
"Those two things don't go together," Leo murmured.
"Let us proceed," Azrael announced, waving everyone to follow.
The place was like a circular cathedral, with a ceiling so high it was lost in the gloom. I snapped to try and determine the height through echo location, but by the time the sound returned, it was so little that even my sensitive powers could hardly detect it. I wouldn't be surprised if flying up there meant that we could break the surface with a single punch. Dozens of other tunnels led off in different directions, each echoing with ghostly voices. The thing that made me nervous was the floor. It was a gruesome mosaic of bones and gems - human femurs, hip bones, and ribs twisted and fused together into a smooth surface, dotted with diamonds and rubies. The bones formed patterns, like skeletal contortionists tumbling together, curling to protect the precious stones - a dance of death and riches. It gave me bad memories of my limbs being forced in the wrong directions that were inhuman, some tasks normally impossible for any human, no matter how flexible. Granted it became easy once your bones had been broken the right way-
I sucked in a deep breath, pressing my hand against my stomach to attempt to shove the anxiety down. It was not a quick process. It took more time than I probably realized, but I managed to at least break the surface of my emotions and prevented myself from drowning. I had to stay above it, I had to push it down even if I couldn't get rid of it. Just a little longer.
"Touch nothing," Hazel warned.
"Wasn't planning on it," Emily muttered.
Jason scanned the exits. "Which way now?"
For once, Nico looked uncertain. "This should be the room where the priests invoked the most powerful spirits. One of these passages leads deeper into the temple, to the third level and the alter of Hades himself. But which-?"
"That one."
To all of our surprise, both Audrey and Frank spoke at the same time. What was worse, the two of them were pointing determinedly at two different tunnels. In the doorway Frank was pointing to at the opposite end of the room, a ghostly Roman legionnaire beckoned. His face was misty and indistinct, but he was looking right at our group - more specifically, Frank. Meanwhile, in the doorway Audrey was aimed at, a little girl was urging them to follow her, motioning deeper into the tunnel with an urgent face. I realized that the girl looked a lot like me, a younger version of me, and I figured it was a Remnant. Audrey could see it too because she had the Remnants within her. Why would a Remnant be showing us a different path than for the others?
Hazel frowned. "Why that one, Frank?"
"You don't see the ghost?" Frank asked.
"Ghost?" Nico repeated.
Frank frowned, realizing that if he could see a ghost that the Underworld kids couldn't see, something was definitely wrong.
"We split up," Audrey announced. "Our team has to go down that one, the rest of you follow Frank's tunnel."
"There can't possibly be two different correct tunnels," Piper muttered. "Can there? The whole trip here has been a single path forward."
"There can be two different paths if one of the paths can't be survived by just anyone," I pointed out. "Audrey's right, we have to split off. I'm unkillable, Emily's invincible, Audrey can turn to water to avoid being crushed by rocks, Kaze's pretty much impervious to harm thanks to his new state-"
"Do you all feel that shaking?" Emily interrupted.
I realized that there was a light vibration in the floor beneath us, which was steadily growing stronger.
"We need to get to the exits!" Frank announced. "Now!"
Hazel almost had to tackle him to restrain him. "Wait Frank! This floor is not stable, and underneath…well, I'm not sure what's underneath. I need to scout a safe path."
"Hurry then," He urged.
He drew his bow and herded Hazel along as fast as he dared with Leo scrambling behind to provide light as I split off and allowed the others to pass, guarding the rear. Frank could tell he was scaring his friends, but he couldn't help it. He knew in his gut there were only a few seconds.
"Audrey, can you hydrokinesis your way over there?" I asked.
She nodded, "Right," and jumped as her body transformed into water and flew across the cavern.
"Kaze, help me fly Emily over there," I ordered.
He grabbed one of Emily's arms and put it over his shoulders while wrapping an arm around her waist. I was planning on helping him, but he took off before I could even think about it and sailed over to the intended tunnel where Audrey had landed and reformed. Kaze dropped Emily and Audrey helped steady her as I caught up and slowly hovered myself down.
At the other tunnel, the legionnaire ghost vaporized. The cavern reverberated with monstrous roars - dozens, maybe hundreds, of enemies coming from every direction. I recognized the throaty bellow of the Earthborn, the screech of gryphons, the guttural war cries of Cyclopes - all sounds that had been encountered as recently as the Battle of New Rome, amplified underground.
"Hazel, don't stop!" Nico ordered.
He pulled the scepter of Diocletian from his belt. Piper and Jason drew their swords as the monsters spilled into the cavern.
I grabbed my bow, prepared to fight, but Audrey snatched my arm with an iron grip. "There is no time, big sister. Please, you must come with me."
"But-"
"We don't have long! No. 1 shall be destroyed without your help!"
The tunnel we were in began to collapse from above us, raining down tons of earth. I had no time to ponder being crushed under the rocks because the floor dropped out from under us at the same time. I saw Kaze jumping out of the tunnel and into the battlefield just before everything went black and I was tumbling down a steep slope of rocks. I didn't know if the others were still nearby, I didn't know if I was going to die again from some large fall or if I'd be crushed under the rubble. All I knew was that I was tumbling into the darkness, and I had no idea what I was supposed to do now.
First Person: Kaze
A vanguard of six-armed Earthborn threw a volley of stones that shattered the bone-and-jewel floor like ice. I didn't hesitate to run for Azrael as he held up his hand and caused the stones flying towards him to slow to a halt, meaning he'd taken them into a layer of the Veil. To him, they were still flying at normal speed right towards him.
I tackled him at speed, realizing that from his perspective I was probably hitting him with the force of a meteor, but I didn't care so long as I got him out of the way of the attack. It seemed that the moment I touched him, he was pulled into the perspective of my speed-mode, which made sure that I wasn't going at light speed when I tackled him, and I twisted my body so I took the hit of falling on the ground out of the way of the rain of stones. The delicate flooring began to crack beneath us, but I pulled us both into speed-mode and helped Azrael stand as we scrambled out of the way to safer ground.
But the time we returned to real time Azrael was looking around in shock. "That was…cool," He said.
I considered that he'd only ever seen the world from a slow-mode perspective where he was slowed down and the rest of the world was fast. He'd never seen the rest of the world slow down before. There was no time to stand in awe as fissures began to spread across the center of the room, some going straight for Leo and Hazel. No time for caution, Frank tackled his friends and the three of them skidded across the cavern, landing at the edge of the ghost's tunnel that Frank had pointed out as rocks and spears flew overhead.
"Go!" Frank yelled. "Go, go!"
Hazel and Leo scrambled into the tunnel, which seemed to be the only one free of monsters. I wasn't sure if that was a good sign. I decided it was the safest place at the moment and grabbed Azrael, tossing him in the direction of the tunnel before drawing my shuriken.
The entire cavern shuddered. Dividing the cavern was a new fifteen-meter-wide chasm, spanned only by two rickety stretches of bone flooring. The bulk of the monster army was on the opposite side, howling in frustration and throwing whatever they could find, including each other. Some attempted to cross the bridges, which creaked and crackled under their weight. Jason, Piper, and Nico stood on the near side of the chasm, which was good, but they were surrounded by a ring of Cyclopes and Hellhounds. More monsters kept pouring in from the side corridors (except for the one that Onesan and her friends disappeared into, which had completely collapsed), while gryphons wheeled overhead, undeterred by the crumbling floor. The three demigods would never make it to the tunnel. Even if Jason tried to fly them, they'd be shot out of the air.
Frank remembered the voice of his ancestor: 'At the break, you must take charge.'
"We have to help them," Hazel said.
"The scepter!" Azrael shouted. "Nico di Angelo, the scepter!"
Nico raised Diocletian's scepter, and the cavern air shimmered purple. Ghosts climbed from the fissure and seeped from the walls - an entire Roman legion in full battle gear. They began taking on physical form, like walking corpses, but they seemed confused. Jason yelled in Latin, ordering them to form ranks and attack. The undead just shuffled among the monsters, causing momentary confusion, but that wouldn't last.
Azrael raised his hands and closed his eyes, holding his hands out, fingers spread, palms facing the ground. He took in a deep breath before throwing his hands downwards and stopping them at about hip-level, like he'd hit some kind of invisible table in front of him. The new dead army all turned and looked in his direction from wherever they were standing. Azrael, still with his eyes closed, clenched one hand into a fist while circling his other above it as if to mimic an eagle flying overhead of its pray. The dead army began to turn clockwise, the same direction that he was moving his hand. All at once, they turned a ninety-degree angle and stopped as Azrael paused his hand. He unclenched his fist and faced his hand palm up. He then took his higher hand and raised it up, all of the Roman legion doing the same with whatever weapons they had at their disposal. When he brought his hand down and sliced at his palm, all of the undead warriors attacked as one.
"I don't know any formal battle techniques," Azrael said, his voice strained. He opened his eyes and looked to Frank. "What commands do your people use to organize an army?"
"Why aren't Jason's commands working?" Hazel wondered.
"Even should Azrael learn to use the Roman army, we cannot waste time here if we desire the safety of our comrades," I announced.
"He's right," Frank said. He turned to Hazel and Leo. "You two have to keep going."
Hazel's eyes widened. "What? No!"
"You have to." It was the hardest thing Frank had ever done, but he knew it was the only choice. "Find the Doors. Save Annabeth and Percy and everyone else."
"But-" Leo glanced over Frank's shoulder. "Hit the deck!"
This time it was Azrael who grabbed me and tossed me away before I could even realize what was happening. A volley of rocks slammed overhead. Everything happened too fast for me to comprehend - which hadn't happened since before Gaea had revived me with my new speed. By the time I'd sat up, Hazel was weeping and screaming like a two-year-old throwing a tantrum, attempting to get through the debris that separated us from the others. If the earth shifted any more, the entire complex might collapse on our heads. Still, she pounded her fists against the stones and yelled curses that would've earned her a mouth-washing with lye soap back at St. Agnes Academy.
"Azrael…" I realized. "Azrael!"
I stood and went to helping move the rubble with my strength being greater than Hazel's and my speed being more helpful in clearing the way faster, but the moment I moved one of the larger rocks, the ceiling began to tremble and even more rubble came tumbling down upon us, forcing the three of us back further into the tunnel. This much debris couldn't have all built up in the split second that Azrael had shoved me away, it wasn't possible! The rocks had barely been falling when he'd pushed me. Now they were piled up, an entire section of the wall had collapsed, leaving a slope of smoking rubble completely blocking the exit, and Hazel appeared to have been weeping over it for some time now.
"No…"
This is what it felt like to be Azrael, I realized. This is what it felt like to have the world pass by around you so quickly that you couldn't keep up. He had to rely on others to come to his rescue when he slowed down the world, he had to face threats head on and just hope that once everything sped up someone or something would save him. It had to be scary, it had to be lonely. I could speed around as fast as I wanted, take in every detail imaginable, but Azrael…he had to accept the fact that he'd miss things, that the world would spin around without his input. It must've disconnected him from reality to have that kind of power. Then again, when living in a Ward where all you wanted was for everything to be over with, perhaps that skill had proven useful.
He had done something to pull me into his time perspective so that I couldn't protest to being stuck with Hazel and Leo, that by the time I realized what was happening, it would be too late. He was facing an army of monsters with the straining power to control a dead army and the power to slow down his targets and just hope that someone would help him when he needed it. With my speed, I could always make sure I was there for him. Now, he was doing it all alone.
And that made me angry.
I felt like I hadn't in ages. I felt rage, I felt helplessness, I felt fear. I'd had my soul stripped away to become a heartless monster, but it wasn't like with Tsuchi or Kandai who had been dead when the operation took place. My soul was still there, and whatever Azrael had done had unlocked it.
First Person: Azrael
These dead legionnaires must have all been demigods, because they were totally ADHD. They clawed their way out of the pit, then milled about aimlessly, chest-bumping each other for no apparent reason, pushing one another back into the chasm, shooting arrows into the air as if trying to kill flies, and occasionally, out of sheer luck, throwing a javelin, a sword, or an ally in the direction of the enemy.
It was all I could do to keep their attention aligned with my thoughts to control them, let alone get them to work in sync with an actual goal. Being able to control them and being able to command them were two very different things.
Meanwhile, the army of monsters got thicker and angrier. Earthborn threw volleys of stones that plowed into the zombie legionnaires, crushing them like paper. Female demons with mismatched legs and fiery hair - empousai, I assumed - gnashed their fangs and shouted orders at the other monsters. A dozen Cyclopes advanced on the crumbling bridges, while seal-shaped humanoids - telkhines - lobbed vials of Greek fire across the chasm. There were even some wild centaurs in the mix, shooting flaming arrows and trampling their smaller allies under hoof. In fact, most of the enemy seemed to be armed with some kind of fiery weapon.
Despite his new fireproof pouch, Frank found that extremely uncool. He was pushing through the crowd of dead Romans, shooting down monsters until his arrows were spent, slowly making his way towards the others. A little late, he realized - duh - he should turn into something big and powerful, like a bear or a dragon. As soon as the thought occurred, pain flared in his arm. He stumbled, looked down, and was astonished to find an arrow shaft protruding from his left biceps. His sleeve was soaked with blood. The sight made him dizzy; mostly it made him angry. He tried to turn into a dragon, with no luck. The pain made it too hard to focus. Maybe he couldn't change shape while wounded. Great time to find that out.
He dropped his bow and picked up a sword from a fallen…well, he actually wasn't sure what it was - some sort of reptilian lady warrior with snake trunks instead of legs. He slashed his way forward, trying to ignore the pain and the blood dripping down his arm. About five meters ahead of him, Nico was swinging his black sword with one hand, holding the scepter of Diocletian aloft with the other. He kept shouting orders at the legionnaires, but they paid him no attention - probably because he was Greek. Having control over the legionnaires didn't come simply from being a child of death, it came from power over the dead souls themselves. These legionnaires were Roman at heart, therefore they only responded to Roman command. The only reason I could probably control them was because I was not only a Reaper, but I was also a live Reaper, making me an oddball of oddballs. If my parents' theories were correct, being Reapers already meant that Death didn't know what to do with any of us, but as for me, there was no telling what I'd be able to do so long as I was alive. Controlling this entire army all at once was not one of them.
Jason and Piper stood at Nico's back. Jason summoned gusts of wind to blast aside javelins and arrows and even deflected a vial of Greek fire right up the throat of a gryphon, which burst into flames and spiraled into the pit. Piper put her new sword to good use, while spraying food from the cornucopia in her other hand - using hams, chickens, apples, and oranges as interceptor missiles. The air above the chasm turned into a fireworks show of flaming projectiles, exploding rocks, and fresh produce.
I took control of only a few legionnaires at a time, ones that were in positions to be of use in protecting the others and intercepting monsters that began to become a problem. I had to drop certain ones in order to take full control of others, able to maneuver their actions accurately rather than an uncoordinated attack of all of the army at once. That left the rest of the dead legionnaires to just stand there or do stupid counterproductive moves. Some of them I moved to just stand in the way, blocking monsters and taking fire, but if they kept getting moved down, there wouldn't be enough of them left to organize if we eventually did learn how to command them.
Jason kept on shouting orders in Latin, but even he as a Roman praetor wasn't getting their attention. Granted, he didn't come off as a very Roman guy. There had been the story of how Jason had spent time at the Greek camp, which had affected him in a big way. The undead legionnaires recognized his Greek-ness, recognized that he didn't give off the right sort of vibe, or the aura of a Roman leader.
That meant that the only official Roman left in our group was Frank.
"Make way!" Frank shouted.
To his surprise (not mine, however), the dead legionnaires parted for him. The closest ones turned and stared at him with blank eyes, as if waiting for further orders.
"Oh, great…" Frank mumbled.
Frank had been warned back on one of his previous excursions to Venice that his true test of leadership was coming. Even just recently, his ghostly ancestor had urged him to take charge. If Frank could command these legionnaires to act of their own accord, that would be far more effective than my scattered controlling of them.
Frank finally made it to the others as a wave of Cyclopes crashed into them. He lifted his sword to parry a Cyclops's club, then stabbed the monster in the leg, sending him backwards into the pit. Another one charged. Frank managed to impale him, but blood loss was making him weak - his vision was blurring, his ears were ringing. Jason was on his left flank, deflecting the incoming missiles with wind (though his face was beaded with sweat); Piper was on his right, yelling charmspeak commands - encouraging the monsters to attack each other or take a refreshing jump into the chasm.
"It'll be fun!" She promised.
A few listened, but across the pit, the empousai were countering her orders. Apparently, they had charmspeak too. The monsters crowded so thickly around them that Frank could barely use his sword. The stench of their breath and body odor was almost enough to knock him out, even without the arrow throbbing in his arm. I pulled as many legionnaires towards them that I could, as many as I could get and still be able to retain enough control to have them lift their shields and create a defensive wall around the three of them - and that wasn't a lot. The legionnaires lifted their shields, but they didn't take official defensive positions, and so they were falling only slightly slower than before. For every one of them that fell, I had room to take control of another and make it take the previous one's place, but at this rate, they were just being made sacrifices - ones that were growing fewer and farther between.
"Stupid ghosts!" Nico shouted.
"They won't listen!" Jason agreed.
"Frank!" I shouted as loud as I could over the chaos. "If you want to live, command them! Now!"
Frank didn't look confident, but he summoned all his strength and yelled, "Cohorts - lock shields!"
The zombies around them stirred. More than I had been controlling all lined up in front of Frank, putting their shields together in a ragged defensive position. I was able to let go of my controlled ones as they moved of their own accord, but they were moving too slowly, like sleepwalkers, and only a few more than before had responded to his voice.
"Frank, how did you do that?!" Jason yelled.
Frank's head was still swimming with pain and he had to force himself not to pass out. "I'm the ranking Roman. They, uh…they don't recognize you. Sorry."
Jason grimaced, but he didn't look particularly surprised. "How can we help?"
Frank wished he had an answer. A gryphon soared overhead, almost decapitating him with its talons. Nico smacked it with the scepter of Diocletian, and the monster veered into a wall.
"Orbem formate!" Frank ordered.
About two dozen zombies obeyed, struggling to form a defensive ring around Frank and his friends. It was enough to give the demigods a little respite, but there were too many enemies pressing forward. Most of the ghostly legionnaires were still wandering around in a daze.
"My rank," Frank realized.
"All these monsters are rank!" Piper yelled, stabbing a wild centaur.
"No. I'm only a centurion."
Jason cursed in Latin. "He means he can't control a whole legion. He's not of high enough rank."
Nico swung his black sword at another gryphon "Well, then, promote him!"
It was a bad time to become self-aware that I was standing all alone, backed into a wall, with the army of monsters in front of me. I liked having an eye on the entire battlefield, which was why I hadn't followed Frank to where Jason and Piper were, but that, in turn, left me vulnerable to attack. Without Kaze, my Veil powers to slow down targets was pretty useless - they required someone else, particularly someone fast, to protect me once I'd slowed down attackers. The monsters had been more focused on the three demigods backed into a corner to notice me, but that was quickly changing as a single monster pointed at me through the chaos and some of its nearby comrades began to respond to the call.
I had to forget about commanding what little I could of the army as I backed away from a small tidal wave of monsters. I had no weapons on me, I doubted that I could fight even if I wanted to. All my life, it had been powers, powers, powers. That's all they wanted of me from Ward K, that's all I'd been able to learn since I'd escaped. All I could do was extract souls when in the Veil, slowing time to a halt for me. If I did that, I could destroy maybe one or two of the monsters before I'd have passed enough time in the real world that the battle would be decided for the others. I could slow down the monsters in the Veil with me, but the others were so far away that they wouldn't be able to help me once the monsters had been slowed in the real world.
While debating my options - or lack thereof - a gryphon came down from above where I hadn't expected it and tackled me down. I felt claws digging into my shoulder and my stomach and I swatted my hands only to be met with a sharp beak. My legs were useless as I tried to kick the thing off me and its beak nearly hit me in the eye as I flailed. I felt the familiar warmth of blood on my face as I fought harder with everything I had in a last-ditch effort to free myself.
Then I heard a loud snap as the weight of the gryphon disappeared and was replaced with a light shower of monster dust. I thought it was some kind of gunshot, or maybe the monster had accidentally self-destructed somehow. That is, until I heard the voice from above my head.
"You leave MY SON ALONE!"
A whip snapped above me towards the monsters and I heard the distinct screech of death from another gryphon perhaps. Curiosity was enough to help me push through the pain and sit up, holding my side and keeping my shoulder as still as possible. My mother, Hannah, was a daughter of Hephaestus. While they were well-known for their inventing skills, possibly their fire skills, Hannah had grown up in the circus. She had been an orphan when her mother had died, but by luck or by chance, she got raised by an entire family of circus members. That was why she was extremely athletic and flexible, she didn't panic when it came to stressful situations where she had to improvise because she'd been trained to react to a worst-case scenario.
She was not afraid of heights. She could handle a tightrope like it was nothing, acrobatics in the air were child's play. She swept her whip out, the whip longer than probably anything that was feasibly possible in the human world, and took out everything on the ground. She threw her whip up and grabbed onto a gryphon, pulling it down before jumping up and handing on its back. She wrapped her legs around its neck and pulled at its feathers, causing it to screech and dive downwards towards the ranks of monsters. Her whip retracted with a flick and became a six-foot-tall thin sword perfect for being on the back of a creature. She pulled up the gryphon before it dived beak-first into the ground, but as she flew through the monster horde she swung her sword out and dissolved anything that was unfortunate enough to be in her path instantly.
She eventually had to abandon her gryphon as it began to fall victim to attacking monsters trying to stop her. Its wing was clipped by a rock thrown from an Earthborn and they went tumbling at high speeds in the air. She did not panic. She gracefully released her legs and shifted her weight to aim the gryphon's descent before hitting it right in the eye of a Cyclops as she threw her long sword out to expand it back into a whip that grabbed onto another Cyclops by the neck. She used her fall and centripetal force to literally bring the Cyclops crashing down on top of some unfortunate victims nearby, and with a final tug of her whip, she decapitated the Cyclops and turned its remains to dust.
"Urie!"
The Veil shifted and opened up to reveal Ithuriel, dropping from the air. He came down right in the middle of a group of wild centaurs, his lance raised above his head before it shifted and expanded into a larger and more intricate version, slamming into the ground and releasing a visible blast of blue energy that wiped away everything within a five-meter radius. His lance retracted to a simple polearm again as he looked around to the dead legion scattered throughout the monster crowd that weren't reacting to any of Frank's commands.
His face bared a frown that was unnatural on the normally lighthearted man. "Well, what are you waiting for?! Fight, you ingrates! Are you warriors or just maggots?!" He began to glow with an aura of power. "I said FIGHT!"
The nearest dead warrior swung a sword towards an empousai beside it as though it had been possessed into doing so without even thinking about it. The rest of the dead legionnaires began to fight deliberately, but separately, in an unorganized fashion, using whatever weapons that were available to them - swords, polearms, even whacking enemies with bows and stabbing with arrows. Some even picked up weapons from the enemy, anything to get a weapon and wreak havoc with it. Ithuriel was Greek, after all. He had the power to make anyone he wanted go berserk, but he wasn't one for organized battle - such was Ares in comparison to a war god such as Athena, for instance, who fought more strategically. It was clearly unnatural for the dead legion to be fighting so chaotically, but then again, nothing about a legion risen from the dead was very 'natural.'
"You! Frank Zhang!" Ithuriel snapped, slicing through the battlefield as he stalked up to the three demigods.
"Uh…yes?" Frank asked nervously.
"You're Roman. You know Roman stuff. Can you command this army properly?"
"I…I guess, but I'm only a centurion-"
"You, Jason Grace, was it?"
"Yes?" Jason asked, his expression firm.
"You're the current praetor, right?"
"Yes, but the army won't listen to me because I'm not…well, very Roman…anymore."
"Then promote Zhang! I don't care. Just get these idiots fighting like they're supposed to." He jabbed a thumb towards the army of dead warriors. "It's giving me bad vibes, controlling Romans. You're a son of Mars, right Zhang? So prove it."
With that, Ithuriel turned and joined Hannah in fighting the crowd of monsters.
I pulled myself with one arm over to the edge of the area, leaning against the stone barrier that had blocked off Kaze, Hazel, and Leo. Kaze would kill me if he realized I had gotten hurt after I'd pushed him to go on without me. Something about that thought made me want to laugh, if it weren't for the burning ache in my body from the act of making any motions at all.
Jason shouted in his best drill-sergeant voice: "Frank Zhang! I, Jason Grace, praetor of the Twelfth Legion Fulminata, give you my final order: I resign my post and give you emergency field promotion to praetor, with the full powers of that rank. Take command of this legion!"
Frank felt as if a door had opened somewhere in the House of Hades, letting in a blast of fresh air that swept through the tunnels. The arrow in his arm suddenly didn't matter. His thoughts cleared, his eyesight sharpened, and the voices of Mars and Ares spoke in his mind, strong and unified: "Break them!"
I hardly recognized Frank's voice when he yelled: "Legion, agmen formate!"
Instantly, every dead legionnaire in the cavern stood at attention, drew their swords, and raised their shields. They scrambled toward Frank's position, pushing and hacking monsters out of their way until they stood shoulder to shoulder with the comrades, arranging themselves in a square formation. Stones, javelins, and fire rained down, but now Frank had a disciplined defensive line sheltering them behind a wall of bronze and leather.
The fact that Ithuriel and Hannah were wreaking Greek havoc across the battlefield also helped. Hannah transformed her whip into a short but thick and heavy broadsword as she sliced right through a particularly large boulder that had come her way, while Ithuriel spun his lance to run straight through a plume of fire and slice the source in half.
"Archers!" Frank yelled. "Eiaculare flammas!"
He didn't hold out much hope the command would work; the zombies' bows couldn't be in good shape. But to his surprise, several dozen ghostly skirmishers nocked arrows in unison and their arrowheads caught fire spontaneously. A flaming wave of death arced over the legion's line, straight into the enemy. Cyclopes fell, centaurs stumbled, a telkhines shrieked and ran in circles with a burning arrow impaled in his forehead. Hannah and Ithuriel took advantage of the confusion and sliced down the panicked and confused monsters, having easily avoided the tidal wave of flaming arrows.
Frank heard a laugh behind him. He glanced back and couldn't believe what he saw. Nico di Angelo was actually smiling.
"That's more like it! Let's turn this tide!"
"Cuneum formate!" Frank yelled. "Advance with pila!"
The zombie line thickened in the center, forming a wedge designed to break through the enemy host. They lowered their spears in a bristling row and pushed forward. Earthborn wailed and threw boulders, Cyclopes smashed their fists and clubs against the locked shields, but the zombie legionnaires were no longer paper targets. They had inhuman strength, hardly wavering under the fiercest attacks. Soon the floor was covered with monster dust. The line of javelins chewed through the enemy like a set of giant teeth, felling ogres and snake women and hellhounds. Frank's archers shot gryphons out of the air and caused chaos in the main body of the monster army across the chasm.
Frank's forces began to take control of their side of the cavern. One of the stone bridges collapsed, but more monsters kept pouring over the other one.
"Urie!" Hannah shouted.
He understood instantly and turned towards the chasm, thrusting his lance forward. It extended all the way from his position midst the monster army to the other end of the chasm, imbedding itself in the stone just a foot or so below the edge. Hannah didn't hesitate as she jumped up and landed on the thin lance, holding her arms out just so as she ran across the short path with practiced tight-rope skill. As she jumped to the other side, Ithuriel ran towards the chasm - his red aura making him immune to the attackers around him. His lance retracted as he went, kicking and punching any monster that got in his way with a sort of invincibility from his Ares aura, and then he jumped, his lance completely retracting down to normal size (which was still as tall as he was). Hannah was still falling from her jump from Ithuriel's lance to the other size of the chasm, but she turned in the air, threw out her whip which wrapped around Ithuriel's entire body like a harness, and then twisted her body to throw him over to the other side. Both of them loved this kind of risky combat, not just because they were technically dead and couldn't die anymore, but because it was exhilarating to be in danger. Both of them were crazy in their own way. I wondered if that was a sign for my future.
All of this happened in a split second, and Ithuriel was tossed right over the center of the monster horde, Hannah's whip releasing him as he raised his lance for another attack similar to the one that he'd entered the battlefield with.
"Highwind!"
Ithuriel didn't waste time; even after his earth-shaking blast that dazed the enemy, he charged in and began attacking the nearest target almost madly. Hannah was similar, landing on her feet and throwing her whip out causing it to snap around in a wide arc, taking every monster in its path down. With her long reach and quick reflexes to any incoming projectiles, she was a beast on the battlefield.
"Jason," Frank called. "Can you fly a few legionnaires across the pit? The enemy's left flank is weak - see? Take it!"
Jason smiled. "With pleasure."
Three dead Romans rose into the air and flew across the chasm. Then three more joined them. Finally Jason flew himself across and his squad began cutting through some very surprised-looking telkhines, spreading fear throughout the already confused enemy ranks.
"Nico," Frank said. "Keep trying to raise the dead. We need more numbers."
"On it."
Nico lifted the scepter of Diocletian, which glowed even darker purple. More ghostly Romans seeped from the walls to join the fight. Across the chasm, empousai shouted commands in a language I didn't know but somewhat understood thanks to the Veil's power of universal language. The gist was obvious - they were trying to shore up their allies and keep them charging across the bridge.
"Piper!" Frank yelled. "Counter those empousai! We need some chaos in their most organized force!"
"Thought you'd never ask." She started catcalling at the female demons: "Your makeup is smeared! Your friend called you ugly! That one is making a face behind your back!"
Soon the vampire ladies were too busy fighting one another to shout any commands. The legionnaires moved forward, keeping up the pressure. They had to take the bridge from the front before the forces on the other side - i.e. Jason and my parents - became overwhelmed. Even with that looming threat, I wasn't that concerned.
"Time to lead from the front," Frank decided.
He raised his borrowed sword and called for a charge.
Frank became shrouded in a red light, an aura similar to that of Ithuriel (it was still weird to refer to him as my father). Javelins couldn't touch him, rocks somehow got deflected, and even with an arrow sticking out of his left biceps, Frank had never felt so full of energy. The first Cyclopes he met went down so quickly it was almost a joke. Frank sliced him in half from shoulder to waist. The big guy exploded into dust. The next Cyclops backed up nervously, so Frank cut his legs out from under him and sent him into the pit. The remaining monsters on their side of the chasm tried to retreat, but the legion cut them down.
"Testudo formation!" Frank shouted. "Single file, advance!"
(AN: The book actually calls that Tetsudo formation, which I think is a typo, but if there is such thing as a Tetsudo formation, do inform me)
Frank was the first one to cross the bridge. The dead followed, their shields locked on either side and over their heads, deflecting all attacks. As the last of the zombies crossed, the stone bridge crumbled into the darkness, but by then, it didn't matter. Nico kept summoning more legionnaires to join the fight. Over the history of the empire, thousands of Romans had served and died in Greece. Now they were back, answering the call of Diocletian's scepter. Frank waded forward, destroying everything in his path.
"I will burn you!" A telkhines squeaked, desperately waving a vial of Greek fire. "I have fire!"
Frank took him down, and as the vial dropped towards the ground, Frank kicked it over the cliff before it could explode. An empousai raked her claws across Frank's chest, but Frank felt nothing. He sliced the demon into dust and kept moving. Pain was unimportant; failure was unthinkable. He was a leader of the legion now, doing what he was born to do - fighting the enemies of Rome, upholding its legacy, protecting the lives of his friends and comrades. He was Praetor Frank Zhang.
His forces swept the enemy away, breaking their every attempt to regroup. Jason and Piper fought at his side, yelling defiantly. Nico waded through the last group of Earthborn, slashing them into mounds of wet clay with his black Stygian sword. Hannah and Ithuriel worked in perfect coordination to wipe out the large numbers of enemies big and small - they were having fun with some of their enemies, I knew it.
Before we knew it, the battle was over. Piper chopped through the last empousai, who vaporized with an anguished wail. Hannah grabbed a Cyclops with her whip and swung it around with strength that was far from human, throwing it right towards Ithuriel as he launched right through it with his lance. Hannah finished off the last Cyclops by grabbing it with her whip and tugging extremely hard. With a crack of her whip, the Cyclops was squeezed to dust in an instant.
"Frank, you're on fire," Jason said.
Frank looked down. A few drops of oil must have splattered on his pants because they were starting to smolder. Frank batted at them until they stopped smoking, but he wasn't particularly worried. Thanks to Leo, he no longer had to fear fire.
Nico cleared his throat. "Uh…you also have an arrow sticking through your arm."
"I know." Frank snapped off the point of the arrow and pulled out the shaft by the tail. He felt only a warm, tugging sensation. "I'll be fine."
Piper made him eat a piece of ambrosia.
"Can I have one of those?" Hannah asked Piper abruptly.
Piper stared. Hannah was a whole foot taller than her with fierce brown eyes, a tanned complexion, the build of a strong, hard worker and fighter, a deadly whip held tightly in her grip that had just taken out countless monsters, and dark hair pulled into a choppy braid that you couldn't tell whether was dirty blonde or blonde and just dirty.
"Oh, uh…sure."
Hannah snatched up the ambrosia and ran in my direction. Ithuriel was waiting at the edge of the chasm, holding his arm out to grab her the moment she got close. His lance extended, launching them both across the void as they landed on my side of the chasm and sprinted to where I laid.
Hannah dropped her whip beside her as she kneeled in front of me, holding out the ambrosia. "This should heal you. Hopefully. Things of both the living and the dead realms should heal you."
She stuck the square into my mouth and I chewed. It tasted nice, like a food that Kaze had introduced me to on the Argo II…what was it? I think it was chocolate related. The throbbing pain of my injuries began to lessen and Hannah helped me stand. She was tall for a woman, and I was short for a teenage boy. And Ithuriel was even taller than she was. Seriously, these people were giants! I felt I hadn't inherited that gene.
We headed over to the edge of the chasm and suddenly we were lifted by the winds, flown over thanks to Jason's power. We joined the three of them as Hannah urged me to sit down and rest.
As she bandaged Frank's wound, Piper said, "Frank, you were amazing. Completely terrifying, but amazing."
Frank had trouble processing her words. 'Terrifying' couldn't apply to him. He was just Frank. His adrenaline drained away. He looked around him, wondering where all the enemies had gone. The only monsters left were his own undead Romans, standing in a stupor with their weapons lowered.
Nico held up his scepter, its orb dark and dormant. "The dead won't stay much longer, now that the battle is over."
Frank faced his troops. "Legion!"
The zombie soldiers snapped to attention.
"You fought well. Now you may rest. Dismissed!"
They crumbled into piles of bones, armor, shields, and weapons. Then, even those disintegrated.
Frank looked like he might just crumble too. Despite the ambrosia, his wounded arm began to throb. His eyes were heavy with exhaustion. The blessing of Mars faded, leaving him depleted.
"The post-battle fatigue gets better with practice, kiddo," Ithuriel promised.
Frank looked up as though just remembering Ithuriel and Hannah were there. "Um…have we been introduced?"
"Ithuriel, son of Ares. Yeah, the name's a Cristian angel. Don't think about it too hard. I'm Azrael's dad. In case the whole angel name thing wasn't a hint."
"I'm Hannah," Hannah said with a warm smile. "Der Meister von Allem. His mother. In case the whole 'Leave my son alone' thing wasn't a hint. Daughter of Hephaestus."
"What are you both doing here?" I asked. "I thought you couldn't leave the Veil, at least not for long periods of time, and never to show yourselves to mortals unless they were dying."
"This is a land where the dead and living can interact. We're able to be more freely with our actions while we're here. Commune with who we please. Besides, you all drank poison. You're already in a state of half-deadness. Besides, I'm not letting you die just yet, little one." She ran her hands through my hair and I moved to fix it. "Azrael's life while also being a Reaper is unique. He only gets one life. It was a miracle that we managed to convince Death to give him a life at all with the whole mix up that happened. Long story short, Azrael needs to be kept alive for as long as possible. Not that I don't like spending time with you, sweetie."
"So you came here just to save me?"
Hannah and Ithuriel shared a glance. "Well, no," Ithuriel admitted. "We came here looking for someone."
Hannah's warm gaze hardened to something colder. Maybe it was anger, maybe it was grief. "An old friend of ours."
Frank looked over to the collapsed cave on the other end of the chasm. "Kaze, Hazel, and Leo. We need to find them."
The others peered across the chasm. At the other end of the cavern, the tunnel they'd entered was buried under tons of rubble.
"We can't go that way," Nico announced. "Maybe…"
Suddenly he staggered. He would have fallen if Jason hadn't caught him. I felt a splitting pain through my head, like an instant migraine, and saw too many images to make sense of. Something about an elevator, darkness, a sea of monsters, a fight of both mind a body. My entire body trembled, and I knew that if I'd been standing, I probably would've fallen over just like Nico. Hanna and Ithuriel had both staggered beside me, clutching their heads, but they remained on their feet.
"The Doors," Nico said. "Something's happening. Percy and Annabeth…"
"The others," Ithuriel muttered. "The chosen ones-"
"I know!" Hannah snapped.
"We need to go now," Nico announced.
"But how?" Jason asked. "That tunnel is gone."
Frank clenched his jaw. He hadn't come this far to stand around helplessly while his friends were in trouble. "It won't be fun, but there's another way."
There was a light rumble in the ground that began to grow stronger.
"Oh no. Not more," Piper muttered.
"It's our job," Ithuriel said. "You need to go. Whatever you have planned, Frank, go!"
Out of the ground, instead of more monsters, appeared two humans, ones who some of them recognized, some of them didn't.
"Are they…?" Jason muttered.
"Yes, now you have to go," Hannah declared. "Go!"
Hannah grabbed her whip while Ithuriel rested his lance on his shoulder as the two of them headed towards the two undead reanimations. The demigods made their way to one of the walls of the room as Frank did a little concentrating. The spirits of some dead warriors, courtesy of being a child of Mars, agreed to help them get to their destination. A tunnel appeared in the wall, or perhaps it was some kind of portal. Either way, they slipped inside, and it closed behind them, leaving the two reanimations and the two Reapers.