Leo / December 4th
Being caught in the center of an explosion was probably as bad as it gets. Luckily, most of the damage had been avoided by Layton's protective barrier. Most of it. The barrier had cracked and shattered instantly, but that stopped enough force to save us from dying or being extremely injured.
Even though I should be able to mostly resist heat, fire and explosions, I was shaken up from the attack. Ryan, Chloe, and Victor all had cracks in their armor that was suppose to be invincible. Frank turned back into a human from whatever he had been a moment ago when I looked over, and Hazel was on the ground next to him.
"I will restate my offer" Majin Kai walked closer. "Take me to Mount Olympus, or die"
Piper sat up. "We would, but it's kind of closed"
"Yeah, but you can try again next year" Hazel added
"A year... a year is too long" Majin Kai said. "I will give you one day to give me the location of Mount Olympus"
"Wait... really?" Piper questioned
"Twenty Four hours begin now" Majin Kai sat down with his legs criss-crossed, and a large hourglass popped into existence next to him
We looked around at each other, to make sure that what was really happening was real, until it hit us. One day to strategize.
December 5th
After Majin Kai let us go, we headed back to the ship and remained grounded. It was getting pretty late so we all instantly headed for a bed, agreeing that first thing in the morning, we would try and think about ways to take down the Majin.
We gathered around our usual spot - the dining table in the mess hall. It was about ten in the morning, and we were only missing one person. No one said anything first, and we all just kind of ate our food miserably.
"You know I woke up at three in the morning, and Majin Kai was still wide awake and staring at the ship in the exact same position" I informed
"He probably doesn't need sleep" Victor said. "I wouldn't be surprised considering he isn't exactly human..."
"What even is a Majin?" Ryan asked
Layton entered the room, rubbing his eyes. He wore normal clothes - a green long sleeved shirt and black sweats - but he had his white cape on. "Majin in Japanese is demon god"
"Do you always wear that thing?" I questioned
Chloe giggled and my heart did a little flutter. "You do look a bit ridiculous in that"
"I just get use to having it on" Layton said as he sat down
"So... demon god" Ryan restated
"It's from Japanese mythology. A majin is a god" Layton replied. "As for our Majin, he wasn't technically created by Xander. His presence has existed ever since time began, but he was the one who awakened him.
Xander and Majin Kai became sworn enemies with the guardians of Earth. There were four of them for each corners of the world, but they didn't last long as Majin Kai wiped them all out"
"He said something about absorbing the gods" Jason said. "But what was weird was that he used said he would become the strongest thing in the universe"
"Well we aren't exactly limited to Earth" Layton revealed. "Asgard, Thor's home... it's not on Earth. Similarly, Titan was home to life"
"Saturn's moon?" Annabeth asked
"Yeah... but they all died. Except one, but that's a story for another time" Layton said
"Ok... so aliens exist" I summed up
"You could say that. When Syn first lived, he attempted to rule the cosmos by turning everything into negative energy, which would just collapse the universe onto itself"
"Syn... like the voice?" Annabeth said
"You heard him?" Percy asked
Annabeth nodded. "He helped me actually - he was the one who convinced Arachne to trust me. But he also said how Shadow-Dragons are born from the mistakes of the gods, and how... he was born when Poseidon stirred you"
"Stirred me? But that isn't possible. If he's in the book then he should be thousands of years old" Percy said
"Shadow-Dragons live many times. Syn's only talking about his latest life. He must have been killed off by Poseidon after he was born again, taking advantage of the fact they're weak at birth" Layton explained
"I've heard him speak to me before too" Ryan added in. "A couple of months ago, he tried to convince me to join him"
"Shadow-Dragons live to kill the gods. They're the physical embodiment of their mistakes after all" Layton said
"Okie dokie, we can deal with that all that Shadow-Dragon stuff later. We have a Majin waiting for us outside" I reminded
"He's right" Frank agreed. "What do we do about him?"
"We make our own lamp" Layton answered. "There's this place that recently got released from the Hidden Archives. If we-"
"The gods can write about a whole place?" I asked
"Assuming it's not like an entire city and it's not that well known then sure" Layton confirmed. "It's a forge. If we can get it up and running then we can use it to make a new lamp"
"That's great and all, but we don't even know how to make a working sealing-lamp, and Majin Kai won't let us leave" Jason pointed out
"We can use shadow travel" Nico said
"And we can make our own lamp. Curtesy of Athena and Hephaestus" Layton snapped his fingers and blueprints appeared in his hands with a puff blue smoke, clearly showing how to make one sealing-lamp. "We should take a small team. We'll need a few people to defend the process, since there should be monsters that will attack when we start up the forge"
"I'll go. You'll need a guy like me" I said, standing up
"Might as well" Chloe stood up
Oh gods.
Time Skip
After Nico tracked down the location with some difficulty, we found ourselves in an extremely large underground room. The floor and walls were an obsidian black and red scratches marked the room in several spots, seared in. Tools were scattered across the floor and there was a pit of lava still churning over on the right. On the left, boxes of Imperial Gold and Celestial Bronze. In the center was a large table with different gears for crafting that had steps leading up to it.
"I'm gonna sit down for a bit" Nico exhaled. "Call me when there's monsters"
"All the instructions we need are here" Layton handed me a piece of paper with the best handwriting I had ever seen
"Where'd you learn to write like this?" I asked
"I didn't write it" Layton simply said as he walked away
"My handwriting isn't that neat" Chloe leaned over, examining the paper, and my heart picked up a couple of paces
"Well uh... let's get this forge started" I suggested. "We are running on an hourglass"
"Step one, pull the lever by the lava pit" Chloe read off the sheet
"Sounds simple enough" I scanned the room and spotted the larger black lever standing next to the pit. "But seriously, who puts a lever there?"
Chloe laughed. "Right?"
I quickly made my way over to the lever to try and get my heart to slow down. What's wrong with me? She's only beautiful I thought. Once I got myself in a comfortable position, I tugged on the lever's switch, but the large pole wouldn't budge more than an inch.
I grunted and grit my teeth. "What's this thing made of?"
"Here, let me try" Chloe said and I let go, almost stumbled into the lava pit
Thank the gods I didn't because I would have either a) died in embarrassment or b) lived in embarrassment.
One-Handedly, Chloe tugged on the switch and It moved downwards, gears shifting around, without hesitation.
"Oh uh, my hands must have been greasy from breakfast" I nervously chuckled and scratched the back of my head
"Didn't you eat cereal?" Chloe raised an eyebrow
"I um... yeah"
Heavy gears and locks began to shift behind the walls and the lights finally came on, illuminating the dark room with a low contrasted white glow. Things moved into place on their own, and in the center of the room, the table was shifted up by a piston. Layton grabbed two blocks of Imperial Gold and placed them in the center of the table.
"So what now?"
"Step two, placed the material you wish to use in the center of the table... check. Step three, kill the lava monster"
"Kill the what?"
Behind us, the lava pit began to churn even more violently and the ground shook for a moment. We backed up and joined Layton in the center of the room as a large arm erupted from the pit. Before I knew it, an eight foot ogre made of pure lava stood before us.
"I probably should have thought about what I was writing as I did it" Chloe said
Nico rushed over. "What is that thing?"
"The lava monster" I muttered. "I kind of don't have a weapon..."
"I don't think a weapon is going to hurt this guy" Layton said and put his two hands forward
His silver wristbands spun rapidly as the lava monster began to be pulled back into the pit. Chloe watched, impressed and with a cute sparkle in her eyes. It gave me a small sense of jealousy, though I didn't really know why. Then, the lava monster began to overpower the tug of the lava, and I honestly was kind of rooting for it.
"I guess Hephaestus didn't find it helpful to tell us how to defeat this thing" Layton frowned
"Let me try" Chloe grabbed her bow and an arrow shimmered into existence in her shooting hand. She fired the icy-blue arrow and it hit the lava monster's eye, exploding. From the explosion, ice began to rapidly cover the monster until it was inside a large block of ice.
In a few second, the ice melted and the monster trudged forward a couple of inches.
"Anyone got a bottle of water?" I asked
"It's probably too hot for water to make contact with it" Layton shook his head. "I would keep it in place like I did with Ephilates, but Vibranium and lava don't exactly mix. Neither does skin and lava..."
"Stand down demigods" demanded the monster
"You can talk?"
"My name is Umbra, the protector of the forge. Why do you wish to use it?"
"We need it to make this magical lamp that can seal a demon that wants to absorb the gods and become the strongest thing in the entire universe" I rapidly explained
Umbra grunted. "You will have to prove your worthiness in order to gain access to the forge. Not that I understood half of what you said anyway..."
"Right, because attempting to save the gods isn't worthy enough" Layton said sarcastically as two silver katanas appeared in his hands
"He's not wrong" Chloe giggled but blushed and quickly looked away when Layton raised his eyebrow at her
"I care nothing for the gods. Hephaestus abandoned me and had the audacity to trap me along with the forge in that book. If you want to use the forge, you will need to defeat me in combat" Umbra said
Umbra extended out his hand and shot a fireball at us. Layton crossed his swords in an x shape and sliced forward, making the ball of fire explode into chunks around us.
"Easier said than done" Layton cleaned his blades with each other. "Leo, can you control lava?"
Chloe glanced at me hopefully, which almost made me lie, but I admitted "No"
"From the looks of it, our swords will just melt on impact" Nico put away his Stygian Iron blade
Umbra charged forward out of nowhere and we quickly cleared so we didn't accidentally make him break the center table. He jolted to the right where me and Chloe had broken off too, and we rolled out of the way of his fist.
"I can run forever" Umbra assured
Chloe pulled out the dagger that she had strapped from her side, and tossed it at Umbra, but it slowly melted into him and disappeared.
"Well, there goes a perfectly good dagger" Chloe sighed
Two chains erupted from the ground on Umbra's sides, wrapping around his waist tightly to keep him in place. It worked at fist, but the iron began to melt away.
"Anything you try, I will melt" Umbra said and the chains broke
Narrator
The pieces the of broken chain suddenly stopped midair and contorted into sharper pieces. They then flew into monsters and got melted in, making Umbra grunt in pain.
So that's your weakness, monster Layton thought.
The four demigods regrouped at the center and Leo pointed over to the far side of the room. "Look. There's a conveniently placed rope attached to an anvil. If we can get him to go under the rope, someone can snap the rope and cause the anvil to fall"
"I doubt he would fall for that. He must know about it" Layton disagreed
"Well it's better than nothing" Leo argued
"Fine, he can chase me then" Layton said. "Chloe, have an arrow ready to break the rope"
"I'll steer clear" Nico turned and jogged away
"I guess I will too..."
Leo and Nico went to stand over by the lever and the lava pit, with Leo looking miserable about his lack of helpfulness.
"What's up with you?" Nico asked him
"Nothing"
"It's definitely something. You've been acting weird ever since I met you" Nico said
"And how do you know I'm not just weird?"
"Because I can tell that's not how you are. Also Piper and Hazel told me a few things..." Nico quickly shot a glance at Chloe
"What? What'd they tell you?" I asked, noticing the glance
"Um, nothing" Nico shrugged. "Nothing in particular"
"No, no. It's definitely something" I insisted
"Well you probably know what it is anyways" Nico chuckled
"Come on Umbra" Layton motioned for the monster to come towards him
Umbra grunted and charged forward like a gorilla - his two arms pushing off the ground like his legs. Once he got close enough, Umbra threw his fist forward, but Layton time-skipped back a few feet in front of him - avoiding contact.
"Your magic tricks do not impress me" Umbra said. "I've seen better"
"I'll show you magic"