Boil 19
Gods? Uh, yeah, don't even get me started on the gods. We'd be better off without them.
-Quote attributed to Percy Jackson
Percy had seen pictures of the Grand Canyon. He'd never been, but travel brochures always emphasized the natural beauty of desert vegetation growing around the Colorado River in the bowels of the canyon's reddish-brown rock face.
The canyon Athena teleported them into would never be pretty enough for that kind of marketing. They were surrounded on both sides by black and gray rock that rose for half a mile, terraced at irregular intervals on the way up, sometimes sloping and sometimes just flat stone. With no hint of grass, bushes, or trees, the only green as far as the eye could see came in the form of whirling eddies of lime-green miasma hundreds of feet above them. Those whorls were also their only light source—save for the occasional flash of orange lightning from the black clouds far overhead.
Something dark crept into the back of Percy's mind. It burrowed through his ear canal and wriggled around in his skull, giving him an itch behind his eyes. The phantom parasite settled, and while Percy knew he was just imagining things, an uneasy feeling still gripped him.
"This way," Athena said, pointing toward one end of the yawning emptiness. Percy could just barely make out a curve in the dried riverbed. Normally, he would have been bummed that there was no water, but not this time. The water he'd find in Crag was likely corrupted beyond reason. "Keep your wits about you. Stay vigilant."
Percy looked around. They would have to walk the rest of the way to the Blood Slough Promontory. As Athena had explained, dimensional waypoints warped the metaphysical fabric of space for a few miles around them in every direction, which interfered with teleportation magic. Blood Slough Promontory was no exception. Their options were walk or bust.
Percy went to the front of their formation as planned, with Jann behind him and Athena pulling up last. The goddess had already made this trek on her own two weeks ago when it became clear that Hades would refuse to cooperate, meaning Percy was left with no choice but to trust her directions.
Four miles. Pass the curve; after a mile, the canyon widens and grows deeper. Another mile down and we pass the hanging skull. Last two miles are bumpy and uneven, pass a rockslide, find the cave entrance on the left.
It wouldn't be easy to remember all that if something happened along the way. And, unfortunately, something was bound to happen. Athena's calculations aside—one hundred percent chance of being attacked before they reached the promontory—Percy felt like there were a thousand slimy, bulbous, milky, bloodshot, gurgling, hateful eyes trained on him.
He brought Riptide out. The miasma's sickly green light retreated from his sword's warm glow, hissing and spitting where the colors bled into each other.
They started walking. The riverbed was little more than cracked gray dirt and loose pebbles. Percy's eyes never stopped moving; they flitted left and right, up and down, and he kept his head on a swivel. Hot, sticky air would occasionally wash over them from ahead, almost as if something was breathing on them.
"So anyone else getting bad vibes? No? Just me? Neat." Jann's voice was almost swallowed by the canyon. "I mean, there's something wrong with this place."
Percy snorted. "You can say that again. Feels like we're in a horror movie. We're being watched, and the audience really wants us dead."
"Great. Remind me why I agreed to do this again."
"Good question. Why are you here in the first place? Athena recruited you, but why'd you say yes?" Percy asked, using the sound of their voices to keep him grounded.
"Well… uh… Why'd you say yes?"
"Me? I just really wanted to beat up Hades. Gods need to be reminded that their actions have consequences every few decades. Hades is overdue, so I figured I'd volunteer."
"Oh."
"Kidding. Mostly. It's complicated, but I may or may not be somewhat responsible for tipping Hades into the deep end. I'm here to clean up the mess I made. If I made it."
Percy tossed a sidelong glance over his shoulder. Athena met his gaze blankly, as if she didn't know what he was talking about.
"Atonement, huh? If I didn't already know better, I might have assumed you had the spirit of Heracles," Jann said.
"I don't."
"No, you don't. I know you don't because one of my friends does."
"Why isn't he on this quest, then? Guy has the spirit of the strongest Greek hero. We'd be set with him on the team."
"He's not part of Olympus' orbit. Not anymore, at least."
Percy figured there was a story there just by the tone of Jann's voice, but it would have to wait. He'd caught movement from the corner of his eye. He whipped around toward what he'd seen and pointed it out to the others. "Heads up. Big and ugly on our left."
A creature was skittering on the canyon wall, sticking to it like an insect. It vaguely looked like a mix between human and scorpion, though nothing at all like what Hollywood might green light for the big screen. Mostly scorpion, the creature had eight legs that ended with human hands, a segmented tail tipped with a stinger, vein-riddled flesh instead of an exoskeleton, and a human-like head growing from the front of its thorax. It had one eye and no mouth.
The lizard part of Percy's brain immediately froze at the sight of the creature. Luckily (or unluckily) for Percy, he'd seen and fought worse than a freaky scorpion person.
"That's a theta-type Crag-spawn," Athena said. She had warned them about the canyon-dwelling inhabitants she'd encountered on her scouting mission, using the Greek alphabet to classify them for easier identification. "Lowest on the food chain here. Vermin, really. One should pose no problem."
According to her minimal observations, the theta-type spawn were pack hunters, meaning where there was one, there would probably be more. Not encouraging, but they were supposedly the least dangerous creature roaming the canyon. On the other end of the spectrum, Athena had made it very clear that the lambda-type spawn, should they encounter it, was not to be trifled with.
"I've got it," Jann whispered. As soon as his fingers touched the bowstring, an arrow materialized between them. He hefted the bow and took aim.
The theta dropped. Jann cursed and tried to track the monster as it fell. He loosed the arrow into the path of the monster's descent. The theta slapped its tail against the wall, launching itself into an arc over their heads. It landed thirty feet away on four pairs of human hands and scuttled atop a nearby boulder with spider-like agility despite being as large as a rhino, regarding them with its lone eye before turning tail and darting further ahead into the canyon.
Percy and Jann waited for a while before lowering their weapons. Behind them, Athena sighed. "I suppose killing it now or killing it later makes no difference. Though thinning out the pack before engaging them would have been preferable."
"We'll make do," Percy said. He glanced around. "Should we wait for them to come to us, or do we bring the party to them?"
"We press forward," Athena said. "The longer we stay here, the higher our chances of encountering one of the more dangerous Crag-spawn."
In any other situation, Percy might have poked fun at her. Not now, though. He knew Athena wasn't scared. She was just being efficient and insightful. The fact of the matter was that they would have to get through Crag using his and Jann's power. Athena had just teleported them into the Underworld and would have to teleport them into the Netherworld once they reached the promontory. Going slow through Crag might have given her more time to recover, but they ran the risk of drawing the attention of something truly horrible.
When Athena had told them the plan, Jann and Percy had been quick to point out that she would be far from one hundred percent by the time they reached the Netherworld. The goddess had merely shrugged and said, "I've accounted for that."
Maybe that had been enough reassurance for Jann, but Percy wasn't convinced. Gods were prone to overestimating themselves, which was both a blessing and a curse in many respects.
Athena looked between them, expecting an argument.
"We're a party on wheels, then," Percy said.
They fell back into formation and trudged deeper into the canyon.
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The next hour was quiet and tense. Well, quiet in a relative sense; thunder cascaded through the canyon at irregular intervals, never truly giving them a chance to settle into their skin before the next peal came crashing down.
Unexpectedly, it was Athena who broke their self-imposed silence first. "Would either of you like to rest for a few minutes? The first battle approaches, and while you may not have noticed, this place, Crag, is eroding your strength."
Percy cocked his head. He had been feeling hot under the collar for a while now. At least he knew it wasn't because he'd let himself go. Still, if what Athena said was true, then…
"We should keep going, in that case," Jann said. He wiped the sweat from his forehead and gave Percy a toothy grin. "I'm the worst off here, ain't I? Look at me, sweating like a pig under the summer sun. I'm about ready to bite the dust, but I can keep going. Besides, it feels like I'll go crazy if I stay here for too long."
"That's certainly a possibility," Athena said.
"Let's not stop, then." Percy gestured with his sword down the way. In the distance, beyond the hazy gloom, he could see the hanging skull Athena had mentioned. It was a massive thing, stuck between the canyon walls by its gargantuan horns, the final remains of a truly titanic monster. "Two miles after the skull, right? Is that where they'll attack us?"
Athena surveyed the area. Her eye wandered from corner to corner, wall to wall, crack to crack, until it finally rested dead ahead. She nodded. "That's where they are congregating. Maybe ten of them. Not insurmountable odds, but the fight will be more difficult if they are allowed to ambush us."
"Like we have any choice but to spring the trap," Percy pointed out.
Part of their general strategy was to attract as little attention as possible for as long as possible while they went through Crag. The more they had to fight now, the harder it would be to fight Hades later. That was their thinking, at least. Percy could see the wisdom in it.
Going around wasn't a good option since they'd already made it halfway. Teleporting now was physically impossible, so they would have to backtrack two miles to escape the promontory's space-warping effect, and even if they went to the other side of the canyon, they wouldn't have any idea of what to expect. For all they knew, that side could be riddled with lambda creeps.
No, they were better off staying the course. At least on this side, they had a rough idea of what was to come.
Athena armed herself with a spear and shield. Percy instinctively glanced away but quickly realized that her shield wasn't Aegis. He lifted an eyebrow, which she saw. "This will suffice for these vermin," she told him. "Unless you would prefer me to stay out of the battle entirely?"
"Never said that."
"Your expressions tell me more than your words do."
"No wonder you're so hard to read."
"It's dangerous to take people at face value, Percy."
"Aren't you doing that with me, though?"
"Yes, but there's a difference between you and me." She shrugged helplessly. "Shall we continue onward?"
Percy nodded. Jann glanced between him and Athena with some concern but followed suit, falling in step without a hint of protest.
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The skull was larger than Percy had initially thought. It looked big enough from afar, but now that he was practically right beneath it, he couldn't help but marvel at the size. Its horns had carved valleys in the rock face. Two rows of teeth the size of cargo ships jutted down from the top of its mouth. The entirety of its lower jaw was missing. Thick cracks ran through the yellowed bone. Its eyes looked to be glowing green from the miasma.
"Woah." Jann voiced Percy's thoughts.
"This thing must have been as big as Typhon," Percy said. He would never forget the sight of the storm giant for as long as he lived.
"Just about," Athena confirmed. "Good guess."
Percy realized he shouldn't have said that.
"I can't see anything around," Jann said. "Are we sure they'll ambush us here?"
"Yes," Athena said.
They scanned the area.
"There!" Jann pointed up at the skull. A theta-type had crawled out from a crack in one of the teeth. Taking aim, Jann said, "Not gonna miss this time, you overgrown bug."
Thunder rolled, and hell let loose.
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Percy hadn't heard them over the peal of thunder. His attention had been squarely focused on the skull and the lone theta on it. Plain and simple, it was his mistake.
The thetas didn't hoot and holler, growl, roar, groan, or shriek. They moved in near-total silence. Only the sound of their feet shifting through the dry riverbed alerted Percy to the presence of multiple somethings coming up from behind.
"Be aware!" Athena barely managed to eke out a warning before a horde of horrors crashed into them.
Cold blood splattered Percy's clothes. Riptide cut through the frenzied thetas with every swing. Dust clouded his vision, but Percy didn't worry. His reflexes were enough. The thetas threw themselves against him, and he carved through their vein-riddled flesh without a second thought. Their bodies piled quickly, chunks of arms and heads and tails. Blood soaked into the dirt, its first nourishment in what might have been decades.
Looking past his own immediate battle, Percy saw Athena darting around Jann, keeping the creeps away from him, killing swathes of them on her own. She was a force of nature, a hurricane that rained death, elegant where he was simple, yet still more efficient. Jann himself was taking potshots from behind Athena's protection, each of his arrows fired with enough force to pierce a few thetas at a time. He stayed light on his feet, though, keeping himself safe when Athena could not.
The horde thinned and thinned. Percy could hardly take a step without almost tripping over the carcasses surrounding him. He swung Riptide once more and cut another theta in half, noticing that the remaining monsters were no longer mindlessly attacking them. Instead, they circled around an unseen perimeter, ambling on silent human hands.
Taking the chance for what it was, Percy waded through the bodies to link up with Jann and Athena. Neither of them looked hurt, though Jann was shaking.
"That wasn't so bad," Percy said once he reached them.
Jann gave him a wide-eyed look. "It's not over yet, though. It could get a whole lot worse."
Athena smiled grimly. Her eye was directed at the skull. "It's about to."
Percy followed her gaze while ensuring he didn't lose track of the last circling thetas. He saw what she saw. It was some kind of floating skeletal dodecahedron. Each of its pentagonal faces had been cut out, leaving only their connected outlines to form its body. At its center was a twisted mass of glass that seemed to shift every other second. The tubular dodecahedral shape looked to be made out of black metal.
"I don't remember you describing anything like that," Percy said.
"Because I didn't," Athena said. She looked at the floating dodecahedron covetously. "I've never seen anything else like this in my life."
"Don't get too comfortable. We're not gonna stick around long enough to figure out what that thing's deal is." Percy flicked his eyes left, then right, then back up to the UFO.
"Should I…?" Jann used his bow to gesture at the UFO.
"Let's deal with the thetas first."
"Wait, what's it doing?"
The dodecahedron's glass core shifted more rapidly. An electric hum picked up from dull droning to keen whining.
Then, a flash of light, and Percy was halfway to the ground. He registered the roar of thunder in his ears even as pain lit up every nerve in his body and his muscles spasmed. His vision went black. Everything was still for what felt like an eternity. He was weightless but in agony. His brain took that time to fill in the pieces.
The dodecahedron had just struck him with lightning. Actual, honest-to-Zeus lightning. No exaggeration or dramatization. And while Percy was fast, he wasn't fast enough to dodge lightning from a hundred feet away. Annabeth had drilled it into his head that without some very lucky precognition, dodging a lightning bolt just wasn't physically possible.
"Depending on the atmospheric conditions at any given time, the return stroke can travel at almost a third of the speed of light."
"Yeah, and?"
"Hate to break it to you, Seaweed Brain, but you aren't able to move anywhere near that fast. Not with that flesh and blood body. And no, you can't convince me otherwise."
Eternity ended, and Percy hit the ground. Somehow, he was alive. Sure, he was hurting pretty bad, but he could move his arms and legs, and his vision had returned to him. He managed to roll over and push himself up on shaking arms. The theta-types all turned tail and fled into the shadows. They must not have wanted to get caught in the crossfire.
The dodecahedron began to whine again.
Athena took to the front of their formation. A barrier sparked to life—just in time. With a flash of light, the dodecahedron fired off a blast of energy. The barrier held strong for a moment, keeping them safe from the initial explosion, but it shattered with the shockwave, nearly knocking Percy off his feet.
"We're leaving!" Athena raised her voice to be heard over the thunderclap. She hefted her spear over her shoulder and took aim. The enemy began its electric whine again, but before it could gather the energy to send more lightning their way, Athena took two quick steps, planted her foot, and whipped her arm around. The spear was little more than a blur, but Percy knew it had the UFO dead to rights.
Except no, it didn't. The spear was deflected by something solid and impenetrable inches away from the dodecahedron's aired-out planes, and it rebounded away from the enemy at a downward angle before planting itself firmly in the ground, buried deep in the dirt.
Another bolt of lightning. More thunder. The blinding flash and ensuing roar essentially muted the world for a few seconds.
When Percy's vision shrank back from infinite darkness into the canyon, he saw Jann sprawled on the ground, convulsing.
"Damn," was all Athena said. A shimmering veil surrounded her body. When she moved, it was as a blurred smear that made Percy question whether something had gone wrong with his eyes. He could barely follow her as she scooped Jann up with one arm and then grabbed him with the other.
Then, they were moving.
Then, they weren't.
Percy felt as though he'd just been put through the wringer. As soon as Athena stopped moving and loosened her grip on his arm, his legs turned to jelly, and he fell to his knees.
"What the hell?" He blinked hard to get the stars out of his vision. Looking over his shoulder, he saw the skull far off in the distance, still gargantuan, but they must have been almost a mile away. Which meant the dodecahedron was a mile away now too. Good riddance. He grimaced at Athena. "You couldn't have done that sooner?"
The goddess ignored him in favor of checking on Jann. She knelt by his body. Jann's chest rose and fell, which meant he was still alive, but Percy wasn't sure how badly he was hurt otherwise. He'd been hit by that same lightning, and there was nothing pleasant about it. He wondered if Tiamat's necklace had done anything to blunt the attack. Electrocution was still one of those things that'd put Percy down if he got hit with enough voltage.
"How's he doing?" Percy asked.
"He'll live," was her answer. Athena pulled Jann into a fireman's carry without complaint. "We've no time to waste. Let's go."
"Wait. You sure he'll be fine? I mean, that was lightning."
"You're fine, aren't you?"
He didn't take the bait. "I've got some Phoenix Tears. If you don't want to heal him—"
"Save them for later. He'll make it to the slough."
"Will he?"
"Phoenix Tears won't do him much good, anyway. I'll keep him unconscious for the last mile. Once we get to the slough, I'll heal him properly."
"All right," he conceded, glancing back toward the skull. From this distance, he couldn't see the dodecahedron, but he also didn't want to stick around long enough to get another taste of what that thing could do. If it was coming for them, they were better off moving quickly rather than standing around talking.
They pushed onward.
"So you've really never seen that thing before?" Percy asked.
"Never," she said.
"Huh."
"What makes you so skeptical?" Athena fixed him with a sideways stare. "Crag is far beyond my usual scope of knowledge."
"Thought you knew everything."
"If only that were true. No, Percy, I don't know everything. Some things I know less about than others, this place included. Crag is an enigma to me. As is that oddity we encountered. Fascinating, to be sure, but beyond my ken. A shame it proved to be hostile towards us. But such is the way of Crag, from my limited understanding."
Percy shook his head. "We shouldn't have brought Jann with us. He's not cut out for this place. Neither am I, to be fair."
"Jann is a necessary part of my strategy. I need him. We need a human for this. Your role is not his."
"And yet…" To prove his point, Percy gestured to Jann's limp body. "C'mon Athena, this was a bad call. We needed another god on our side. Or at least someone else like me."
"There is nobody else like you that I know of."
"You seem to know a lot about me. How much did your owls tell you?"
"More than enough." She pointed to the bleak sky above them. "At the very least, I know you have a reason to return to the Overworld. So now that you're here, there's not much else you can do but press on as hard as you can. Or will you leave Ingvild to fend for herself—die down here, break her heart? I'm sure you wouldn't. And that's why I like heroes. Especially compared to gods. So reliable."
Percy grunted. The glowing green miasma continued to light their path forward.
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As Athena had reported, the last leg of their journey was through uneven, rough terrain. Huge boulders and piles of rocks choked the riverbed, which itself was pockmarked and sinuous, snaking up and down and side to side. Acicular crystals sprouted from cracks in the canyon walls, glittering in the whorls of green.
The air grew denser with every passing step. Thankfully, they didn't meet any more monsters along the way.
Eventually, they reached a landmark. Athena pointed out a smattered fan of rocks that was half-piled against the canyon wall. It was larger than the other rock piles they'd seen by a good bit, easily as tall as a three-story building. "The rock fall. We're getting close. The cave entrance will be on our left, maybe another ten minutes at this pace."
Nodding, Percy kept his guard up. Not that he'd lowered it since entering Crag. This place demanded his full attention every waking second. The pounding in his head hadn't stopped since their encounter beneath the skull.
At least he wasn't as bad as Jann. Athena insisted that Jann's health would hold up until they reached the slough, but Percy was still worried. Getting hit by lightning was nothing to scoff at. Some people walked it off, and some people never walked again. Hopefully, Jann would be one of the former.
"Ah, there it is," Athena said.
Percy squinted ahead. Sure enough, he could make out a gap in the rock face. It was taller than it was wide, with crisscrossing crystals forming a natural barrier over the entrance. The crystals reminded Percy of a hunk of green quartz Rachel had once shown him. She didn't believe in crystal healing or anything like that—she'd just thought it was neat, which Percy could understand.
They approached the cave cautiously. Only the first few yards were clearly illuminated by the miasmatic whorls from the canyon, creating a gradient between sickly green and pitch black. Warm, sticky air billowed from the cave's innermost bowels.
Athena went first. The crystals were large, but there was enough space between growths to squeeze through if they shimmied just right. Neither the dodecahedron nor the thetas would have been able to follow them into the cave. Athena took care to make sure Jann's limp body didn't get snagged by any of the reaching crystals, moving with an unsurprising amount of grace. Percy followed after her.
Once they made it past the mouth, Athena created a ball of blue-white light in the palm of her hand. It hovered beside her, casting its light every which way and giving them a couple of dozen feet worth of vision. There were a few crystal growths sprouting in the cave, but not enough to make Percy think it would be hard to walk the rest of the way.
Hard to believe a slough could be in a cave, but there were more important things to be skeptical about these days. He glanced over at Jann, who was looking worse for wear. The skin around his neck and jaw was red and splotchy, and a line of dried blood trailed out from his nose. Percy looked away, shaking his head.
"Hope you know what you're doing," Percy muttered as they went deeper into the cave.
"You're much slower to trust than I thought you'd be. Or is it just me you dislike?"
"I don't trust people I know are lying to me."
"What am I lying about?"
He shrugged. "Dunno. I just know that you are lying to us about something. Can't trust you until you come clean, so if you don't, then you shouldn't expect much trust from me." Percy thought about it some more, tilting his head her way. "And yeah, I don't like you, so there's that."
"What have I done to offend you?"
"Call it intuition," he said, stepping around a stunted stalagmite. The cave was made of a white-gray rock with plenty of bumps and uneven surfaces for them to trip over. "Might trust you one day, but that depends on you."
"Ah, yes, because my only desire is to gain your approval and trust." Athena scoffed. "You presume too much."
"How long is the cave?"
Athena didn't miss a beat despite his abrupt question. "At our pace, we'll reach the slough in twenty minutes."
Percy picked up his pace. The sooner they got there, the sooner Jann would get help. Gods only knew why Athena didn't want to heal him in the cave. Whatever the reason, it didn't sit right with Percy. She knew something he didn't, and she wasn't telling him. While he wasn't necessarily expecting Athena to betray him, he'd have to be extra careful. There was no telling what was going on in that head of hers.
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"We're close now," Athena said.
Percy perked up. He saw light coming from the far end of the cave. "Finally."
The light, it turned out, was coming from a rectangular hole in the ground that looked way too symmetrical to be natural. The hole was big enough to swallow three elephants at once, and Percy could hardly see the pool of water at the bottom. It was a long drop, but at least he knew he would be fine.
Even from this distance, he could tell the water was good enough for him to control. It was gross water, worse than the Hudson River, but nowhere near as bad as bathing in the Styx, which meant there was nothing to worry about apart from smelling like a sewer for the next few days.
"Down there?" Percy asked.
"Down there," Athena confirmed.
"Certain death?"
"Nothing's certain. That said, be ready for a few betas."
The beta-type Crag-creeps were, according to Athena, less threatening than the lambdas, but much more dangerous than the thetas. She figured a handful of betas would be their match, even if she helped from the sidelines. Of course, she'd already told him the Blood Slough would have betas, so he hadn't even needed to ask.
Though, that reminded him…
"Hey, that floaty thing from before, where would you put that on your danger scale?"
"That? Certainly above lambda. I've decided to call it a mu-type."
Percy breathed a sigh of relief hearing that. So mu beat lambda and lambda beat beta, meaning mu beat beta. But, wait, did a handful of betas compare to a single mu?
"Well, whatever. See you down there. If I die, give my sword to Tiamat." Percy nodded at Athena and stepped over the edge, letting gravity do its job. He free-fell for a whole twenty seconds. About halfway through, the elephant-sized tunnel opened up to reveal a cavernous marsh. The water was tinted reddish-brown, with small strips of land poking above the surface. Light was coming from… somewhere, though he couldn't pinpoint a specific source. At least he could see, and that's what mattered.
From above, the promontory was easy enough to spot. It was surrounded on all sides by waterfalls that fell up, and a spire made of smooth obsidian rose from the center of its otherwise rocky crest.
Percy scanned the area on his way down but didn't see a single beta-type. That didn't mean there weren't any, of course. They were probably lurking just out of sight.
He hit the water headfirst, sinking a few yards beneath the surface. Immediately, he felt stronger. So much stronger. It was almost scary to think that this was what time and effort did for him. His power kept ticking up as he got older, and with some training under his belt, the sky was only a soft limit. Kronos' hell had been a double-edged sword.
For real, this time.
The water pushed him up until he broke the surface and rose to stand sure-footed on the placid bog water. Anemic yellow reeds grew all around the Blood Slough, barely able to hold themselves upright, and pockets of brown moss lazily adorned the water's still surface. Still no trees, but at least there were signs of life here. The stench of metal clung to the damp air. Compared to the canyon, the Blood Slough was an oasis.
Athena dropped silently, landing on a nearby patch of land covered by dead grass without so much as a grunt.
"It seems Hades is expecting us," Athena said. "One of his reapers awaits us on the promontory's isthmus."
"Just one? Any betas?" Percy hadn't seen anybody on his way down, but Athena's eye was probably better than his. Not that he'd ever admit that to her.
"I didn't see any, oddly enough. That doesn't mean we won't find one, though." She gestured with her head in the general direction they needed to go. "Ideally, we wouldn't have faced any opposition here, but that was always wishful thinking. The reaper will likely be Pluto."
"Pluto. That's one of Hades' lieutenants, right? How did they know we were coming?" Percy asked.
"You'll see." Her cryptic response didn't ease Percy's suspicions.
"And you wonder why I don't trust you." Percy ran a hand through his hair and shook his head. "All right, what's the plan now?"
Athena dropped to one knee and gently lowered Jann off her shoulder. She laid him down on the ground, then pointed toward the promontory. "Go kill Pluto while I take care of Jann."
"You're making it sound way too easy. I mean, this guy is, like, Hades' right-hand man. Give him a little more credit than that, c'mon."
"Easy? Not easy—simple. Something's simplicity has nothing to do with its difficulty. That being said, Pluto is not Thanatos' match, meaning he ought not to be yours. Killing him should be entirely within your ability. In fact, I know it is. He will not underestimate you quite the same way Thanatos did, but that won't be a problem for you in this arena, will it?"
Percy looked around. She wasn't wrong, per se, but he didn't want to count his chickens quite yet. That was a good way to get himself killed.
"If you don't go to him, he may come to us instead. Will you allow Jann to be caught in the middle of something like that while he's in this condition?" Athena asked.
That would be bad. Percy's fingers tightened around the hilt of his sword. He was sure she was using logic to throw him off, lying to him for some reason, but he didn't know why, and if he called her bluff and it turned out he was wrong…
"Fine. Don't make me regret this," he said eventually.
Athena's small, half-formed smile belied how neutral the rest of her face remained. "That depends entirely upon you. Now go do your job, hero."
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The waterfalls roared as they fell up toward the cavern's ceiling. Athena, Jann, and Percy hadn't landed too far from the promontory, so the noise had carried to their ears, but now that he was closer, Percy could hear nothing but the raging water. He looked on in muted awe at the bizarre sight. The promontory's massive obsidian spire cast its shadow over the entire isthmus, standing about half as tall as the Empire State Building did.
Had, Percy corrected himself. Half as tall as the Empire State Building had.
Now was not the time for wonder, though. The isthmus proper was an elevated strip of land, maybe 20 feet wide, covered in sand and stabilized with riprap along the banks. Somehow, it looked smooth, clean, and symmetrical. The muddy red water lapped calmly at its rock-protected shores.
Percy walked the length of the isthmus. He saw the person Athena had been talking about. A reaper.
Unlike Thanatos, this one's robes were silky black trimmed with gold. His mask was a raven's skull made of polished brass. He held a scythe—not Backbiter—in his hands, still as a statue except for the billowing of his robes.
Pluto, he presumed.
The approach took some time, considering the isthmus' length. Once Percy got within a few yards of the reaper, he stopped and raised his blade. Pluto replied in kind, pulling his scythe back in preparation to swing.
They didn't speak. The thunderous waterfalls would have drowned out their voices anyway. Percy knew why Pluto was here, and Pluto knew why Percy was here. It would have to be a fight, no matter what. Hades demanded blood—one way or another, he'd get it.
Around them, the water began to churn against the riprap.
Percy pulled the trigger first. He launched himself at Pluto. Their weapons met in a flurry of metal that lasted only a second. The reaper disengaged and, as Percy expected, jumped back to put some distance between them, no doubt so he could try a ranged strategy. But Percy wouldn't let him. He brought his foot down, calling a wave from the bog. It wasn't big—barely enough to rise higher than the isthmus, but that was all Percy needed.
Water washed over his ankles, and the world lost all relief.
Percy's senses shrank in on themselves until he could feel nothing but the expanse of the Big Empty. The great wide nothing was prominent as ever to him, so gargantuan and noticeable that he couldn't believe anybody might have trouble finding it. It couldn't have been any more obvious. But Wukong disagreed. Most people didn't have what it took to quantify their conceptual understanding of the Big Empty. Either you had that special something, or you didn't.
And Percy, thanks to his luck, had it.
In the infinitesimal fraction of a second that Percy stood at the boundary of nothingness, he felt calm. Actually, he couldn't feel anything. That should have scared him. But it didn't. Some people were afraid of the truth. Not him. Not here.
He didn't jump in like he had the first time. Instead, he gathered the intangible precipice as best he could, stilling himself inside and out, and allowed the non-existent Big Empty to exist in all its peace and horror. With the wisps of nothingness held tight in his grasp, Percy stepped back from the ledge, resisting its gravitational pull that would have seen him tumbling into a void colder and more profound than the expanse of outer space.
The world regained its relief. Percy's senses expanded until he could feel the entire universe in the palm of his hand.
Pure energy shot through his spine and down each of his nerves. His heart beat so hard and so fast that he was sure it would explode at any moment. He could almost taste the sun's heat despite being a dimension apart.
Percy attacked again. The reaper tried to defend. A magic circle popped up. A magic circle shattered. That's all there was to it.
Pluto's head rolled off his shoulders. Then, the rest of him fell apart. Scraps of his robe were carried away by the wind. Blood dripped from Riptide's razor edge onto the wet sand.
A twinge in his ribs made Percy wince. Samael's blood had done a number on him, but oh well. If he hadn't done anything, Tiamat would have likely died. He was glad he'd managed to keep her alive long enough for Sirzechs to arrive. Some pain here or there was a small price to pay.
Percy held the universe in his hand for another second, waiting to see if Pluto had any crazy regeneration up his sleeve. When it was apparent that there wouldn't be a round two, he sighed and, with unease, let himself exist again. He took deep breaths to calm his racing heart. If only he had this kind of power when fighting Kronos. Then again, would that have mattered to a Titan who controlled time itself? Maybe, maybe not. If he caught the Titan King by surprise, maybe, but one slip-up would have led to the loop happening regardless.
Still, the 'what-if' ate at him whenever he thought about it. Could he have stopped the worst? Could he have saved his friends? Could he have saved himself?
Percy closed his fist. The water burbled and rose until it reached his knees, then it receded in waves, taking Pluto's remains with them. Nothing remained on the isthmus except him and the water-soaked sand. His eyes were drawn to the obsidian spire looming above him. He went to the head of the promontory. Here, the sound of the climbing waterfalls could have been mistaken for the start of armageddon. If he stayed too long, he would need a hearing aid by the time he was thirty.
Something about the promontory was hypnotizing. Maybe it was the spire, the spray from the waterfalls, or Crag's pressure fossilizing his brain. The possibilities were endless.
Percy planted his sword in the ground and turned away from the promontory. He found the flattest rock and sat down, then lifted his hand. His gut twisted torturously as Crag's malevolent power fought against him. The war between him and the ancient oddity came to a head after what felt like hours. Percy won, pushed Crag's freakshow influence away from the waterfalls, and relaxed.
Not even a second later, gravity regained its senses and started to pull the water down. Almost a billion gallons of water fell back into the slough. Percy watched and waited, sure he would have to keep the roiling waves at bay so that the isthmus and promontory would not sink, but that never became a problem. The slough's water level didn't rise or fall, and it was dead silent for the first time in forever.
Can finally hear myself think. Percy lowered his hand. He leaned forward, staring down the length of the isthmus.
The minutes passed by slowly. Percy's foot tapped impatiently against the ground. His finger brushed against the necklace Tiamat had given him. It felt hot to the touch. The metallic pendant it held was designed to look vaguely like a fish.
Eventually, he saw Athena and Jann in the distance.
Once they got close enough, Percy asked, "Well?"
Jann stepped forward. He moved stiffly, and parts of his face were still discolored, but he looked alive enough. "Sorry for being the weak link," he said, voice scratchy and laced with shame. "I never expected it would turn out this way, to be honest."
"Hades is gonna be worse," Percy said. "If you couldn't handle this—"
"He knows," Athena said, placing a hand on Jann's shoulder. "At this point, though, there is no turning back. Live or die, you've both made your decision already. The Netherworld awaits."
Percy's eyes lingered on how Athena held onto Jann. "What the hell are you doing down here, Jann? Whatever she promised you, I promise, it wasn't worth it."
"It was the only way," Jann said. He licked his lips and took a deep breath. "I've already decided to see this through. What I get from it doesn't matter. Not as long as I make it out, which I absolutely plan on doing. Athena's right. There's no turning back at this point, even if I wanted to. She's the only one who could get us out."
"You truly see me in the worst light, don't you, Percy?" Athena shook her head. "I offered Jann what I offered you: absolution."
"That's called blackmail where I'm from."
"If that's how you see it, that's how it is. I won't waste time arguing a moot point. Regardless, we ought to waste no more time. Your little display here might have attracted some unsavory elements," Athena said.
"She's just strongarming us into doing what she wants," Percy told Jann, electing to ignore Athena for the time being.
"Not like we have much choice," Jann muttered.
"We do," Percy said. "We could refuse to give her the satisfaction of manipulating us."
"Doesn't that mean… dying?"
"Death is always an option."
"Speak for yourself. Look, let's just get this over with." Jann closed his eyes and took a deep, aggravated breath. "I'm ready. Even if I'm not, I am, okay? I have to be."
Percy stood up, rolling his shoulders. He could see that Jann wouldn't be convinced otherwise. "Fine! If you're sure about this, then let's keep going."
And that's all it took for them to turn toward the spire. If Pluto's station were any indication, Hades would be waiting for them. He glanced at Athena, to which she responded with a conspiratorial smile.
Percy picked up his sword and retook the fore.
Author's Note: Thanks for reading.