Chapter 3
Shade Serpents
Warning: There is violence and some blood in this chapter.
Notice: I made up 'Shade Serpents", they are not really in Greek Mythology.
Athena stared into Archie's eyes, then let go of him. He quickly ran out of the room after his friends.
His mind was filled with thoughts: Great, The Styx is already overflowing, and now there are these 'Shade Serpent' things, and this it thing wants me?
He caught up with his friends, not so eager to go to the yacht as his friends were. Atlanta, however, seemed pretty happy.
"It's been awhile since we've seen any good action!" she exclaimed. She looked at her friends' weary faces and said, "OK, maybe it's only three days, but still, Action is good right?" Seeing that still nobody agreed with her, she fell back to where Archie was. "C'mon, Archie, this'll be fun, right?"
"Maybe if there wasn't so much water," he replied, "and if this it thing wasn't after me."
How did he know? Atlanta asked in her mind. Then it hit her, Athena! She must of told him! "Don't worry," she said, "everything will be fine." But she couldn't even convince herself of that.
An hour later, the seven young heroes were all on a small yacht, or so Hermes called it. It was actually pretty big, but being a god, Hermes must have been used to something much bigger.
"OK," Jay said, "We still don't know much about these shade serpent things."
"Then why don't I give you an example," Cronus's voice came from behind them.
"Cronus!" Jay shouted, swinging around. The other six turned to face Cronus.
Cronus was holding a black-cloaked figure-a shade no doubt-by its neck over the edge of the boat. The shade was wailing and screaming, and when the seven heroes looked over the side of the boat, they saw green water already a foot high in the streets of New Olympia.
Cronus dropped the shade and everybody watched it fall. It hit the water and fell under. Blood pooled where it had fallen in, and there was a terrible sucking noise. Then out of the water came the head of a large red serpent.
The serpent's scales shimmered in the sun, and its circular mouth was gaping wide.
"So long," Cronus said. He opened a portal and left.
The serpent stared up at them with gleaming yellow eyes. Then suddenly it propelled itself out of the water using its tail like a spring. It landed on the boat, and they saw that the serpent was fifteen feet long. It turned to the seven teenagers and sprang towards them. But Jay quickly pulled out his sword and threw it at the serpent.
A red scale fell to the ground and blood dripped out of the cut the sword had made. The sword slipped out of the serpent, and it was stained with blood.
The serpent roared as it slowly deteriorated into purple mist, and the mist turned into a purple ball, which slowly became a shining crystal.
Athena came out of her cabin at that moment. "What's going on," she demanded. "What was-" she stopped when she saw the blood on the floor.
"Well," Jay said, picking up the crystal, "we met a shade serpent." He then gestured toward the crystal in his hand and asked, "what is this thing? It came out of the serpent when we killed it. Well, actually, the serpent turned into this."
Athena eyed the crystal and said matter-of-factly, "that would be its soul crystal. Give it to me and I will keep it. Later it will be transformed back to a shade."
Jay handed the crystal to Athena. Athena walked back to her cabin and stopped when she reached the door.
She called back: "This will just be a warm-up compared to IT." She then opened the door, went inside, and closed it.
Cronus stood inside the school near Persephone's secret entrance to the Underworld. He raised his hand and green water began to pour out. He was already knee-high in water, but now the water was up to his neck. He opened a portal and went through it.
Seconds later the entire school exploded in a burst of water. The burst of water washed over New Olympia. Every human in the city was killed and turned into a shade. And every shade...
Archie watched from the boat as every living person became a serpent. Then he saw something that caught his attention. The last of a spiked green tail was disappearing under the waves. And the tail was huge.
Cronus, watching from atop the dry roof of a tall building, saw the same thing. "No, that can't be real," he said. But as he watched the shadow of a large form swim through the water, a look of horror came onto his face. "So Charon told the truth." His voice was timid.
"Yes, I did," A rasping voice said. Cronus spun around to see Charon standing there. Charon said slowly, "IT has awoken. IT is here."