Chapter 9, Act II - The Labyrinth.

Lou tried to literally drag me to Zeus' Fist when we finished eating. She crawled into a tiny space, and pressed her thumb to something. A staircase opened up, same as it did to the Labyrinth years ago. "This is different." She shook her head, sprawled on the stairs.

"Before, it just dropped me into a hallway. But you knew about this, didn't you?" She asked. I nodded. "I knew it! You told me about the Labyrinth before, and I thought maybe there was an entrance in camp. I asked Chiron for a quest for a while, and after you disappeared, he finally let me search for an entrance, and when I found it, he finally gave me a quest to find a way to close it." She explained.

"So far, I've only found that killing Daedalus would prove effective, but he's already dead, so that clearly wouldn't work. But come on, let me show you." She dragged me in. We hit an invisible wall.

Dungeon Level 89!

Would you like to enter?

Yes/No

Lou staggered back. "What?" She spluttered. "Wait, you're telling me you can see that?" I pointed at the screen in front of us. She nodded. "This is part of my power. It makes my life a game, essentially. We can go in, and it'll spit us back out when we're done when we want, for the most part. Right, System?" I asked the System.

Fine, but only because you have an important quest tomorrow morning.

Lou looked insanely confused. I faltered. Right, she can't see that. Huh. Well, time to test something I've been meaning to test. "Party invite Lou-Ellen Blackstone." She flinched at a "Ding!" and a party invite appeared in front of her. She clicked yes. "Well, shall we?" I grinned maniacally.

"Well, I heard who you trained with, so you better carry me through this." Lou decided. I clicked Yes, and we stepped into the dungeon, the exit closing behind us.

We explored the maze of halls before us, finding nothing but the way back out. "Alright, let's stick to the stay left rule." I hugged the left wall, turning left when presented the opportunity.

After maybe an hour of roaming, we found our first sign of life. A horde of skeletons. "Not this shit again." I equipped my gauntlet, and clenched my fist. The skeletons crumbled away. "Well, I'd think we're going the right way, if there were enemies this way." Lou suggested. I nodded, and we continued.

Minutes later, we found a massive chamber, and I knew this was where we needed to go. I stepped into the chamber, and it rumbled. "Can it get any more dramatic?" I muttered. Naturally, being in the world of Greeks, I spoke it into existence.

Someone jumped from a platform above us, floating down. Imagine a lady with the Wizard's cloak from Clash of Clans, with auburn hair, and literally pulsing purple eyes, kinda similar to mine. She was pale, her face marred with some kind of brand. I almost tripped when the System told me what it was.

It was a tyet, the symbol of Isis, the Egyptian goddess of magic.

"Two children of Hecate, I see. Interesting you made it past my army." The lady noted. "Army? There was only a tiny horde." I shook my head. "Ah, but they were equivalent to an army. Or did you not notice?" She asked. "Notice what?" Lou asked.

"Those weren't normal skeletons, Lou." I realized. "They had some kind of magic empowering them, making them more powerful. Something a normal demigod wouldn't be able to handle. If you went through this alone, Lou, you would've died."

She was pale. I turned back to the lady. "Who are you? Why do you have a tyet branded on your forehead?" I demanded. "It's strange a Greek would recognize such a symbol. I thought your gods forbade it, after what happened in the Civil War." She mused.

"And I'm not your typical demigod." Lou was confused during this whole exchange. She started to say something, and I held up a hand. "Lou, this is information that can get you killed. I'd advise you stay quiet, and tell nobody what you're hearing. Hopefully, you'll forget. Now, lady, can you answer my questions?" My hand was in my inventory, gripping my key to the Underworld. Not as a weapon, but an escape route, if necessary.

"I am the Eye of Isis. At least, this body was. Her soul burned up, and I've since been imprisoned, as a spirit, in this body, due to the interference of Hecate." Great, an Egyptian goddess who's probably gonna want to exact revenge by murdering the two kids of the person who imprisoned her. "So, Lady Isis, then. What do you plan to do?" I ask, slipping the key into my hand.

"I do not intend to combat either of you. I am bound by laws similar to that of your gods, as I am under their watch, currently. I can only directly harm either of you if you attempt to harm me, or challenge me, and I do not believe either of you wish to do that." I slipped my key back in my inventory.

"It's not exactly in my interest to do combat with you, though it's unusual to find a passive being at the end of dungeons such as these. Typically, my peculiar powers allow me to enter the Labyrinth and fight enemies to grow stronger, and have something for me to gain at the end. Do you have anything for us?" I asked a little bluntly.

She tilted her head, as if listening to something. "Ah. I see now. Yes, there is something for you here, though I must create a...test, of sorts. I do apologize, though I will give you both a final chance to back out."

I narrowed my eyes. "I came in here for a challenge, Lady Isis. Do what you will." Lou nodded with me. "Very well. I wish you luck." She shimmered into the background, becoming part of the mural on the wall. Literally.

The floor rumbled, and two creatures emerged. A Sphinx, and a weird cross between a Chimera and a Griffin. Well shit. "You have two options." Isis' voice echoed through the chamber. "A test of wit," the Sphinx bared her teeth in a smile, "or a test of strength." The Chimera-Griffin mix roared.

"Choose your fate, demigods." Her voice boomed. I looked back to Lou. "Whoever takes the Sphinx, will not have to deal with the hybrid. Whoever takes the hybrid, will not have to deal with the Sphinx. But interfere, and you forfeit yourselves, and must face both." She explained.

I knew what I had to take. I didn't like it, but I had to take the hybrid. I didn't have any lightbulbs, or Medusa's head this time. I had to wing it, likely only with Circe's magic. "I'll take the hybrid. Let Lou take on the Sphinx first, so we do not cause a ruckus and interfere with her test by distracting her."

"Very well." Isis said. I could almost hear a smile in her voice, as a podium erupted from the ground. Lou walked up nervously, stepping up onto the podium. "This," the Sphinx rumbled, "will be a test of wit. I will ask three riddles, and five trivia questions. You will get three lives, before we initiate combat. If you pass, you need not face me." Lou nodded.

"For the first riddle."

"What has roots as nobody sees, is taller than the trees, up, up it goes, and yet, it never grows?" The Sphinx asked. My head ached, faint recognition of the riddle ringing in my mind. I bit my tongue as I realized it. A mountain. I don't know how I knew, but the answer was a mountain. I was certain.

Lou sat there for a moment, before she snapped her fingers. "A mountain!" She declared. "Very good. Now, for the second one." The Sphinx chuckled. "You heard me before, yet you hear me again. Then I die, until you call me again." An echo. That seemed significant to me, somehow. Something strangely obvious.

Lou seemed to arrive at the same conclusion quickly. Granted, it was a rather echoey chamber. "Right again. The final riddle..."

"I never was, yet always will be. I am never seen, yet always come. I can carry nothing, yet hold much for some." Tomorrow. Bells were ringing in my mind. Why did I know these? Where did I learn these from?

Lou took a few minutes to process it, and came with the answer shortly after. "Good, good. Now, for the trivia. First, who is Harry Potter's father?" She asked. "James Potter." She answered practically instantly. I guess it'd probably be an insult to not know that one, as a child of Hecate.

"What was the title of people who looked into the future by looking into the entrails of animals, back in Rome?"

"Augurs."

"What are three states of matter?"

"Solid, liquid, and gas."

"What is the name of a baby kangaroo?"

"A Joey."

"Lastly, where did jazz start?"

"New Orleans." At that, Lou looked especially offended. Maybe she had family from there.

"Very good. You have passed." Lou smiled hesitantly, stepping down. I gave her a grin, and I turned to my foe. "The hybrid, huh? Chimera and Griffin. Mostly invulnerable on the exterior. Been there, done that." I examined the area for anything I could use for poison.

"May the duel begin." Isis' voice rang out. The beast roared, and I rolled out of the way. There were containers all over the place. I lunged, checking a vase. Nothing. I kept repeating the process. Duck, roll, dodge, whatever, check a container around the chamber. I needed a poison.

I was coming up on the final container as it flew at me. It bit down on my foot, and it tore it off. I hobbled to my feet. Foot? I don't know. "Well, now, didn't your mother teach you any manners? You don't bite off a stranger's foot." It melted away as I reached into the last container. I felt something, and pulled it out.

It was a rough, spherical object, with a button in the center. It was all midnight black, aside from a small splash of red. It felt familiar. Why did everything here feel so familiar?

I didn't even get the time to observe it, to see what it was. It was likely my solution. I hoped that my luck would hold out, and I chucked what I suspected was a grenade at its mouth as it roared again, my foot reappearing in the right place, fully mended. It bounced off its snout, back at me. I kicked it back with aerokinesis, as it went off, emitting a green smoke around it.

I gagged. "Poison. It's a poison grenade." I blasted the gas at the hybrid, and it lunged at me, straight through the gas, taking a mouthful of the poison.

The Hybrid (Poisoned)

HP: 9847/10000 (-10% per minute, due to poison)

I paled. I was poisoned, too. I rolled away from a blast of fire from it, and I hoped I could use aerokinesis to cleanse my lungs of the poison. I ducked behind a pillar, and I focused. The pillar had cracks grow on it, as the hybrid apparently ran into it, judging by the whimper.

I saw a cloud of green exit my mouth, dissolving. Good. The poison's out of my system. I rolled out from behind the pillar. "Alright. New plan." I brought out my key. I placed it in my palm, and pressed two fingers against it, and it grew into a javelin. I leapt out of the way of another blast of fire.

9000/10000 now. One minute has passed. It lunged at me, and I panicked as my legs were already tiring. I held out my hand, and my training from Circe kicked in. A large chunk of the ground shot up, nailing the hybrid to the ceiling. Chunks of debris fell as it quickly freed itself.

It landed back on the floor, growling. "Hey, you insolent little pest! Come get me!" I called, ducking around another blast of fire. "Get me yourself, rather than trying to roast me. I'm right here." I yelled. It roared, and I conjured a light arrow, launching it into its mouth, followed by another three, four, nine, eleven, eighteen, in seconds.

100/10000. Blood poured from its mouth. I used geokinesis, which was a rarity, frankly, from my elemental powers, to drop one of the few pillars left standing onto it. It dissolved into golden dust. I was breathing heavily, before vomiting. Maybe the poison still had some adverse effects, despite being expelled.

I heard a clapping. I looked up to see Isis and a Labrador sitting next to her. "I see your mother sends her regards." Isis said distastefully, leaping down from a platform, same as before.

Hecuba followed Isis' example, looking at me with interest. "Hello, Hecuba. It's nice to see you again." I scratched her behind her ears. "You performed well." Isis said, rather rudely interrupting me from petting Hecuba. I looked at the goddess, and she held two items. A staff, and a bottle filled with a liquid that looked suspiciously like blood.

I found Lou at my side, and I looked at her with uncertainty. "Now, you both get to choose. This staff enhances the user's physique, or in Nikomedes' case, it enhances his physical statistics, such as Strength, Constitution, and Dexterity. As for this bottle..." She hesitated before continuing.

"This bottle has gorgon's blood in it, from the side of which heals the one who consumes it. It is only enough for one dose. It can heal any ailment, except for death. It can save someone from the brink, however close they may be to death." Her eyes were locked on me the whole time.

"I had wondered when I was provided this, if it could heal memories." She mused. I don't think it was much of a question. I was taking the gorgon's blood, but not for myself. "I'm taking the gorgon's blood, unless Lou wants it." She shook her head.

"Do visit. It gets lonely down here. Do update me on the results of the gorgon's blood, Nikomedes." She faded into the mural again, and I shook my head. "I almost forgot that you're an amnesiac." Lou shook her head in disbelief. "You certainly don't show it."

"Yeah, well, I didn't take this for me." I slipped the bottle into my inventory. "There's a prophecy that foretells deaths. I'm going to stop them in any way I can." I declared.

You beat an improved Chimera. Impressive. We will provide a reward later for this.