Narrator / December 25th
Times of peace never truly lasted for demigods. Sure, there were those months in between conflicts, but those were always interrupted at the worst of times. Wether it be a date or a camping trip. In this case, the two children of Hades (or Pluto) had gone on a simple trip to a forest with the son of Apollo, Will Solace.
"Who are you?" Nico asked the mysterious figure in front of them who had just emerged from the shadows
"It doesn't matter" Samael dismissed
"I think it does matter" Will innocently pointed out
"Silence, or it'll be your head, son of Apollo" Samael said, flaunting his dual-sided sword
Nico scowled. "I don't suppose your here to kick us out the forest"
"Yeah, we were actually just about to start packing up" Will added
"No, but I only came for the children of Hades, so the other boy can scram" Samael said
"You don't have a weapon Will, just hide behind a tree or something while we deal with this guy" Nico instructed
"Alright... stay safe" Will said as he jogged into the darkness behind them
Samael held out his sword flat in front of him, and the two blades began to spin rapidly in a circle. The ground split open in front of him and three skeletons emerged, each wielding a sword and shield.
"You'll be joining those skeletons in the dead soon" Samael said and tossed his sword like a boomerang. The sword smashed through the skeletons and Nico sidestepped to move out of the blade's way, but still ended up taking a cut to his arm.
The sword landed next to Hazel, who picked it up and dual-wielded it with her cavalry sword.
"Are you alright Nico?" Hazel asked
"Yeah I'm fine. Just a cut" Nico assured, but the blood was dripping down his sleeve and soaking the shoulder of his shirt
"Well, I've got his sword now" Hazel said
"Nice try little girl, but I wouldn't just throw my sword like that" Samael chuckled and pulled out his feather-shaped dagger
"We've still got you in the blade department" Hazel replied
"If you're so confident, then come and attack" Samael dared
Hazel scowled and three combatants closed the distance in between them. Despite it being three blades to one, Samael was quick and would parry any incoming strikes, including ones from his own large dual-sided blade that Hazel was attempting to use against him.
Samael held out his hand and the long silver sword flew out of Hazel's hand and into his free one. The momentum caused Hazel to stumble forward and Samael kneed her in the gut. Nico slashed to protect her but he blocked with the feathered dagger and swung the dual-sided blade.
Nico rolled backwards to dodge but quickly lunged forward before Hazel could get her head chopped off by the long sword. Nico managed to block the sword and kick Samael in the chest, sending him stumbling back. Hazel used the delay to lunge in and quickly disarm Samael of both blades that went flying to the side.
Hazel slashed her sword against Samael's armor but it did nothing more than cause a few sparks to fly off of it.
"You've disarmed me of my blade, but you still can't harm me" Samael stated
Despite the statement, Nico slashed his sword against Samael's armor, but only to the same result. Somewhere around the fight, the wind whirred and Samael snapped his head in the direction.
"A god approaches" He muttered and vanished into black smoke
Multiple twigs snapped on their right, and Thalia broke through the darkness along with other archers.
"Thalia?" Nico asked
"Where is h- oh gods, your arm" Thalia approached and examined Nico's arm, where the blood was starting to dry up from the cold air
"It's fine, really" Nico said
Will came jogging over and put on a worried expression at the sight of his arm. "We should probably get that healed up though"
"Normally it would be good to see you guys, but we need you back at camp" Thalia said. "It's urgent"
Elsewhere
"And that's why I said no" Leo said
"Wow, I didn't know you knew so much about that kind of stuff" Piper replied
"What can I say, I'm a natural when it comes to romance" Leo shrugged
"Haven't you had a crush on Chloe for like a year now" Jason pointed out
"What? Who told you that?" Leo questioned
"You just did" Jason chuckled
Leo was about to reply until somewhere off to their right, footsteps cracked multiple twigs. A shadow dashed behind a couple of trees and the wind blew with a greater force.
"It's like we're in a horror movie right now" Leo looked around him for any potential jump-scares
"We're almost to camp, maybe we should just make a run for it" Piper suggested
"I'm not sure," Jason said, "we don't even know what it is"
"Ever heard the saying, 'better safe than sorry'?" Leo asked
"Plenty of times" Jason answered
In the darkest part of the forest, opposite to where the sound originated from, a black-robed figure stepped out from behind a tree. Their hands were in the robe pockets and on their chest, a cursive letter ? was scorched in.
"A pleasure to see you again, demigods"
"Xander" Jason growled
"You survived?" Piper asked
"I saw Majin Kai's treachery coming from miles away, so I took the necessary precautions. I was never there at the battle" Xander explained as he walked closer, standing fifteen feet in front of the group
"Where is Majin Kai anyways?" Leo inquired
"After he departed, he went straight to the seas in search of Poseidon. I tracked him down, sealed him, and destroyed his essence" Xander said. "I no longer need him for my plans"
"You've been gone for a year, bro. You're old news" Leo replied
"Once you've seen the work I've done, you'll be surprised to find out I did it in only a year" Xander chuckled
Jason flipped his coin and summoned his golden sword, while Piper unsheathed Katoptris, ready for a fight.
"You think this is what we're needed at camp for?" Leo whispered. "Percy, Annabeth, Nico, and Hazel were already attacked. Was it Xander?"
"I don't think so. They would have said so" Jason shook his head
"It's probably just someone working for Xander" Piper guessed
"Sounds reasonable" Jason agreed
"I never agreed with Gaea and the giants, except for the fact that in order to accomplish our goals, that we must start with the demigods" Xander said
"So you're still trying for the societal balance. I'm surprised you haven't given up, considering society is a lot different then when you first lived" Jason replied
"Society has evolved, but the Olympians have remained the same. When I'm done, all the gods will cease to exi-"
The three demigods wish they could forget what they had just seen. Out of nowhere, a long silver blade pierced through Xander's chest and raised him off the ground, and his body instantly went limp.
"No trickery this time" Samael pulled the blade back and the sorcerer dropped to the ground in front of him, face first and unmoving
Leo gulped. "Thanks, I guess"
"Jason Grace, Piper McLean. An honor to meet you again" Samael stabbed his dual-sided sword into the ground next to him
"And Leo Valdez" Leo added quietly
"What do you mean again?" Piper asked, using charmspeak
"If you try and use charmspeak on me again, you won't have a tongue next time do it" Samael warned
Jason stepped forward. "Who are you and what do you want?"
"My name is Samael, and what I want is simple. I need you to deliver a message" Samael pulled out his feather-dagger
"What kind of message?" Jason pressed
"You won't have to do much" Samael assured, beginning to write with the dagger in the air
"Does he know he's not writing anything?" Leo whispered as quietly as possible
Once Samael was done, a swarm of electric-yellow arrows appeared and floated in the air in front of him. The dark-armored enemy swiped his dagger and the arrows shot forward at a high speed, piercing the demigods skin and causing great pain.
"The message will be your lives" Samael put away his feather-dagger and picked up his dual-sided sword off the ground
Leo groaned. "We should've known better than to trust a guy wearing black armor. We can't even see his face..."
Samael closed distance and stabbed his sword forward at Piper, but Jason quickly sidestepped and parried the strike. Piper lunged around and slashed Katoptris against Samael's armor, but it did nothing but indent a small white scratch in it. Samael swung his sword horizontally and Piper ducked out of the way, while Jason rolled to the side. Leo blasted a column of fire but Samael's blades began to spin rapidly like a helicopter rotor. Once the fire made contact with the spinning blade, it branched out in different directions, hitting the trees on the side and starting a fire.
"Oops" Leo said
Jason continued his assault and pressured Samael, but he was having his strikes easily dodged by the enemy who seemed to already know his next move. With one swing, Samael disarmed the son of Jupiter of his sword, and it went flying, stabbing into the side of a tree. Jason rolled back just as Samael swung his sword, but due to the length of it, it still slashed across his chest.
"You've got guts, that's for sure" Samael said
Piper and Leo attempted to stepped forward to check if Jason, who had blood trickling down his shirt and dripping onto the ground, was alright, but Samael extended out his free right-palm and shot a column of ice that froze their feet, making them stand in place.
Knowing his attempts to kill the other demigods had all been interrupted, Samael wasted no time in trying to decapitate Jason. However, an arrow shot out from deep in the forest and stuck to the side of Samael's head. It did nothing at first, but it then exploded with some kind of purple energy, and Samael dropped his sword and to his knees, as a heavy weight was added to him.
"An anti-gravity arrow" Piper said, holding back a smile
Leo and Piper rushed up to Jason, who confirmed that he was alright for the most part, besides the blood. Behind them, a tree collapsed as the fire began to spread around them, circling them in a large vicinity. Through the trees by where Jason's blade was stabbed into a tree, three other demigods stepped through. One wore red armor nearly identical to Samael's except the insignia was that of a golden lion, and welded a red katana. The one in middle wore blue armor with a golden falcon insignia, and held a bow. On the right, a green-armored demigod with a golden bear insignia held a spear and shield.
"Looks like we're late to the party" Ryan said
"Not the first time for me" Victor mumbled
"Hera's group of demigods. An interesting run in" Samael stood up slowly as the anti-gravity arrow wore off
"Their armor is almost identical" Jason looked in between them
"It's like those old shows I use to watch when I was a kid, where the power rangers had to fight the evil one that looked like them, and then they turned out to be someone they already kn-"
"Leo" Piper sighed
Samael picked up his fallen sword. "I see you wish to join them in the after-life"
"Where'd you get that armor?" Chloe demanded. Ever since Layton's death, her personality became ever so much more rugged. During the five months in between Gaea's defeat and his death, she had been a big help in clearing out monsters that were being expelled from The Hidden Archives, and the two quickly bonded over time. Things were beginning to look past just a friendship, until that quest where Percy and Layton attempted to chase down a netherworld demon.
"I don't know myself" Samael replied . "Let's just say I woke up with it"
Chloe scowled beneated her helmet and fired another arrow, but Samael quickly unsheathed his feather-dagger with his spare hand and sliced it in half.
"Do you think we should help?" Piper asked
"I think we would only get in there way" Jason said
Charging first, Victor held out his shield in front of him for protection. Samael swung his sword and the pure force of the collision between the shield and the dual-sided blade made Victor stumble back a bit. Samael quickly slashed a weak spot in the armor using his feather-dagger and kicked him back. After the fight with Majin Kai, their Vibranium armor had been injured, so Leo and the Hephaestus cabin patched it up with Celestial bronze, which wasn't nearly as durable, but still worked.
Ryan and Chloe lunged with their katanas, but their attacks did nothing but cause a few sparks to fly off of Samael's armor.
"Your armor might mostly be Vibranium, but your weapons are cute" Samael mocked and then disarmed them both with a fury of strikes
Victor stepped forward and thrusted his spear, but Samael flicked it away with his dagger and then snapped it in half with his dual-sided blade before kicking him back again. Samael swung his sword at full length, and the single strike hit all three of the demigods at once, a shower of sparks flying off their armor.
Around them, the fire was beginning to get out of control and multiple tress were collapsing. Samael took noticed and shot a column of ice out in different directions stopped the fire, except for the ring that closed them in. While he was distracted, taking out the last bit of fire, Chloe fetched out another anti-gravity arrow. She lunged and stabbed it into his armor. The arrow went off and hit them both making them drop to their knees.
Somehow, Samael found himself able to slightly move, and he shot a column of ice that held Ryan and Victor in place by their feet. He recovered first and picked up his blade, pressing it against Chloe's throat, where there was a silt of a gap where skin was, between the helmet and armor.
"A valiant effort. You caught me off guard, something only one other person has managed... to do" Samael's voice trailed off to nowhere and quieted as he spoke
The arrow wore off on Chloe, but she feared that if she moved, Samael would have her head if he so wished.
"You're Chloe, daughter of Selene..." Samael said as if he was remembering something
"So what?" Chloe replied
"Thought I knew you from somewhere" Samael mumbled
"But you can't even see my face" Chloe argued, with a tone that read: are you stupid?
"Your name simply rung a bell, but it doesn't matter. You'll die anyways" Samael said
Samael began to press the sword forward, but two seconds in, a massive thunderbolt came from the sky and collided with him intensely, sending him skidding across the floor. The others thought it was Jason, until an axe came flying out the sky in the same direction. Samael stood up, but just as he did, the axe pierced his armor and stabbed into his chest.
"By the gods, you all have outdone yourself" Thor looked around the area where trees were burnt, and others on the ground. A ring of fire still encircled them, and the ice was only beginning to melt off everyone's feet.
"The god of thunder. What a shocking but pleasant surprise" Samael said