Lights. Bright, bright lights. Percy face-planted onto icy ground, and looked up to see a sight he had not expected at all. He and the other candidates appeared to be in an enormous gallery, glowing with light.
Chandeliers hung from the ceiling above, all alight with many candles. The walls themselves were built out of solid marble, lined with an assortment of gold, diamond, sapphire and emerald. The floor was polished and many people were bustling in the room, talking amongst themselves. Massive doors were open on the far side of the gallery, revealing the night sky, a beautiful city and an enormous wooden horse.
"Troy..." Was all he said, looking around the place.
"Correct, Perseus. Slay Antenor, only then may you leave Antenora. But be warned..." People stated to collapse from drunkenness as the voice spoke to Percy. "You have little time. And only his beating heart can open the portal."
"We seem to be in Troy, right? So do we help the Greeks or something?" A boy asked, as the remaining Candidates all stood in the corner of the gallery.
"No. Something tells me that it's the opposite. We find someone. What was the Second Round of the Ninth called again?" Percy asked the other candidates.
"Antenora, right?" Some girl asked, only a few months older than Percy.
"Okay then, we slay Antenor like we beat Cain, right?" Some boy suggested, and Percy nodded in confirmation.
"Now give me a boost boys, I'll see if I can see our knight in shining armour." He said, and a few of the boys reluctantly agreed and one hoisted Percy up on his shoulders.
The candidate scanned the population within the gallery, and saw someone who seemed to be King Priam of Troy. Where were Hector, Paris and Helen? Then the pieces seemed to fall into place. The Sack of Troy.
Vigorously he looked around until a man stood out from the crowd, basked in a red glow. Antenor, He thought. After being let down, he pointed into the opposite direction of Antenor. He couldn't risk them killing him and they being slaughtered if the Greeks run out of the horse. Neither could he tell Priam, because he would be accused of something preposterous.
Planning was taking forever as Percy made his way over to Antenor, and tightly clutched his sword. Before he could get into range, a battle cry was heard from outside of the gallery. The Trojans scrambled for safety but Percy wrapped his arm around Antenor's throat to hold him back.
"Now is time for the hard part: the Portal. It's the horse." The voice said bluntly, and Percy's eyes widened before cursing in ancient tongue.
Antenor continued to struggle and Percy raised his sword slightly. This stopped him. Bodies began to fall as the Greek army slaughtered the Trojan people, ensuring that every last male would succumb to death, the females for bed later on into the night.
The candidates all looked around as chaos broke out, confused. They saw Percy holding a man with his sword in hand.
"Are you in league with them or something?" A boy asked, drawing a weapon to cut Percy down.
"Antentor is needed alive to get out of here. And all you lot want is to kill. We need to be smart, not idiotic." Percy sneered, taking a step away from some of the candidates. "Now the portal is somewhere around the Trojan Horse, and I'm leaving with or without you lot. History always repeats itself anyway: All inhabitants of Troy shall die." And with that, the boy dragged the frightened man off, towards the Trojan horse where the Greek army was climbing down.
"Bloody Hell." A boy muttered and he, along with a small group, ran after Percy. While he wasn't as trusty as the others, the child was one thing: Smart. He somehow was able to navigate the Ninth Circle effortlessly, despite the fact that he was (to be as blunt as possible) dumb. He couldn't even read for crying out loud! After a few moments of frantic thinking, most went with Percy while two of the older ones thought of their own wisecracking ideas.
At this present moment in time, Percy was sneaking through the slaughtered Trojans and Greeks. The Horse was around 100 metres away, and this was the obvious time for him to get caught and killed... More than once or twice, and his corpse burnt and head rammed onto a pike.
With one arm still wrapped around Antenor's throat, he scurried across the burning streets, the group of candidates following behind him. They soon reached the bottom of the Trojan Horse, a rope ladder running up the horse and into a trap door above. Cursing slightly, Percy sheathed his sword and began his climb, some boy called Robbie helping him carry the heavy body of Antenor up the ladder.
"There!" A Greek soldier called out as he noticed the group climbing the ladder.
Percy hauled the body into the horse, and everyone continued to run up into it. Soon the Greeks were almost at the top of the ladder, and Percy cut the ladder down. With a scream and a sickening crunch, twenty soldiers plummeted to their deaths.
"The head of the horse, Perseus." The voice called into Percy's head, and he looked up the wooden ladder ahead of them. He ran for it and clambered up it.
"Get Antenor up here, I think we've found our ticket out of here." Percy called down as he saw a alter in the middle of the head that glowed a deep blue colour. They did, and Percy placed the traitor to Troy on the alter, who began babbling nonsense in Greek.
"Shut it, Trojan. This is your resting ground." Percy snarled.
"Slice open his chest but don't kill him. Then remove the heart and throw it at the portal. You shall have sixty seconds." The voice told Percy.
"Who has a knife?" Percy asked, and a girl passed him a small penknife, obviously brought during their time up above on Earth.
"What do you plan to-" The girl was about to ask, but Percy sliced off Antenor's toga and slipped the blade into the flesh of the man. He screamed loudly and blood leaked through the wound, but Percy continued on with his work until the skin was removed. Antenor soon began to fit and go into shock.
Not thinking, Percy plunged his hand into the body and ripped out the bloody organ. With all his might, the twelve year old hurled the heart at the portal opening. A loud roar was heard and the portal cracked open, and an explosion rocketed the horse, sending Percy flying into the rear end of the horse. The Greeks were apparently shooting arrows of fire at the horse in an attempt to bring them down.
His ears were ringing as the other candidates ran through the portal. Still in a daze, Percy could hardly stand, let alone walk. A groan was heard from the horse and it suddenly jolted, a massive plank of wood collapsing and swiping Percy's legs out from underneath him.
Crawling across the wooden floor, he barely made it back to the burning ladder. He climbed it, ignoring the burning sensation of his hands. It took time, but shouts of Greek could be heard from the outside. The portal was glowing bright red.
"You disappoint me, Perseus. This is where you fall. I wonder what your mother would think." A dark voice echoed from inside of Percy's head. It was ancient, like that other voice. But this one was evil. Like it wanted him deader than dead.
"Shut... up..." Percy weakly managed as he dragged himself across the burning wood.
"Artemis would be disappointed, would she not? Probably can't wait till someone takes her."
These words; they were sore. He felt like he had to impress the Moon goddess. He felt some strange pulling sensation towards her. It was as if she meant more to him than these trials. And those words angered him. She was his.
With a sudden burst of adrenaline, Percy got onto his knees and lunged, narrowly making it through the portal as the horse collapsed.
The Demon Rites
More gold was definitely not what Percy wanted to wake up to. If he was back in Troy, he would definitely go all-out psycho.
The boy sat up and looked around clueless, trying to gather his bearings. He was in a gold hall, and voices were approaching him. Desperate, he shuffled backwards and huddled into a small concave-shaped gap in the wall. The voices passed by, talking in Arabic. Percy only heard 'Ptolemy' mentioned, and something bad instantly sprung to his mind. In seconds, Percy was out of his hiding place and ran down the hall.
The palace was like a maze he couldn't deny that. But he soon appeared in front of some kind of abattoir. He walked in, hoping that it would get him out of the palace, because it wouldn't be good if this was the Ptolemy whom was the Son of Abubus - the Israeli governor who got his father-in-law and two of three brother-in-law's murdered during a banquet.
The abattoir made Percy forget all else that truly mattered at the present moment. It was sickening. Humans were strung up by large hooks through the back of their throats. Some were skinned half-way, while some were hanging from their ankles as their throats are slashed. One was still screaming, she couldn't have been older than Percy. Next to her was a boy with his legs missing, blood still dripping from the wounds. Something was familiar about this boy...
He was one of the Candidates!
Taken back, Percy fell into a body with its guts hanging out all over the place. That caused Percy to throw up. Then voices could be heard from afar, as if through a wall. He ran towards it and walked through a door into what must have been a kitchen. The men and women working here all turned to the intruder. A man grabbed a meat cleaver and charged Percy. Drawing his sword, the man was headless in seconds.
"Allah hu Akbar!" Another man shouted before Percy cut his head off. The kitchen staff all ran at Percy with anything they could find.
"ENOUGH!" Percy roared. A massive blast of energy erupted from the young boy, rendering all of the men and women to ash. It took what energy that was left in him out, resulting in him almost collapsing to the floor. As quick as he could, Percy griped onto the marble kitchen top and used it to support him as he navigated the enormous room. He soon made his way through a set of double doors, where he walked into a dining hall. There, were what was left of the candidates at a dinner table littered with food. At the head of the table was a man and women, smiling down at Percy.
"Ptolemy..." Percy snarled. Some dropped their food to look at Percy, while a few continued shovelling the food from the banquet down their throats. "Don't eat! Its human!" Those words caused one or two of them to spit out their half-chewed mouthfuls.
"Ah, so Perseus Jackson turns up after all. They thought you died back in the horse. Which you should've." Ptolemy said darkly, taking a sip from a glass of wine. He was a large man, well built. He had a freshly trimmed beard and hair. His eyes were a dark brown, almost black in colour.
"Tell me why I shouldn't kill you now, scum. You killed your own father in law along with two of your brothers-in-law." Percy growled, raising his sword weakly.
"I am the Son of Abubus, fool. I am the most powerful governor in all of Israel! And you are some weak cretin who can barely hold his own sword!" Ptolemy announced, standing up.
A boy stood, drawing a make-ship hatchet. "But I can fight." A few followed him, saying that could fight as well.
"GUARDS!" Ptolemy bellowed, and the doors were smashed open behind Percy, causing him to dive forward under the table. "Then these will keep you entertained." The governor then ran like a bat out of Hell out of the dining hall along with his wife.
Where Percy once stood were what seemed to be an entire army dressed in heavy armour, all weapons poised at the candidates. They all ran, picking up the enormous table and flipping it on its side. The candidates all dragged it across the marble floor of the dining hall to the other end, where they pressed it up against the door Ptolemy and his wife had just run out of.
The candidates charged through the door as a large battle axe slid through the table top like a hot knife through butter. They entered a hallway, where at the end stood Ptolemy with his wife, before a portal.
"Perseus!" He calls out, drawing a massive sword. "Come and fight me. I promise that on my defeat I will grant you and your friends passage."
Percy stood there, thinking about the choice he had just been given. He would have to fight this man in his weakened state, but also knowing full-damn-well that Israeli men (and women) all serve in the army especially during this period. And knowing Percy's luck, this man was trained in the art of the assassins. But he had no choice in reality. Fight and die with dignity, or die slowly and as a coward. It was quite the obvious choice really.
"No." Percy snarled, holding the hilt of his sword tightly.
"No?" Ptolemy questioned, a murderous glint in his eyes.
"If I wanted to die with dignity, I would die on a battlefield fighting for my people. You have no dignity. There are eight weapons on you at this moment, not including your sword." Percy snapped, drawing his sword.
"Care to show me where?"
"On your forearms, ankles and opposite sides of your stomach. Don't take me for an idiot."
"That's six, you fool."
"Really? Well, I didn't think you would want me to disclose the blade you keep on your tongue and the axe you keep stuck to your back under loose flesh." Percy bit back, throwing his sword to the floor. "So I suggest we loose our weapons and fight like men."
"Good boy Perce, following that bloodlust. Can't say that I blame you though, the blood running across your fingertips is always pleasurable, like intercourse." The same dark voice from earlier spoke up, a headache erupting in his head.
"Shut... UP!" Percy hissed as Ptolemy dropped all of his weapons to the floor.
"Then let's get this over with. Allah will claim your soul and toss you into oblivion." Ptolemy cracked his bones as he stepped forward.
"Oh, do you mean Hell? Sorry pal, been there already. It's a pretty charming place if you consider that there are many people to talk to and that. Well, except for the fact that we're in Hell." Percy shrugged effortlessly and ran forward. The governor of Israel was shocked as Percy said that and was quickly kicked down to the floor. "And Allah can kiss my arse."
Ptolemy kicked Percy's legs out from under him, using this momentum to get himself back onto his feet. He swiftly punched the twelve-year-old in the side a few times, breaking some of his already cracked ribs. In a fit of rage, Percy swung around and knocked the enormous man backwards and picked himself up. Ptolemy ran at the young boy and jumped high into the air, probably above five-feet high. He delivered a brutal kick to Percy's chest with a sickening crunch, rendering the boy to a crumpled mess on the floor. He was now desperate – he had to win.
Remembering the knife up his sleeve, Percy stood to his full height. "That all you've got? You Israelis are pure weak." He taunted, and Ptolemy's eyes darkened.
"Allah hu Akbar!" Ptolemy bellowed as he charged Percy, fist drawn back to kill the pest before him. In a second, Percy flipped the knife out and moved to the side, sliding the blade deep into Ptolemy's chest. He pushed against the man's body weight and slammed him down onto the floor with all of his strength, cracking the marble floor beneath. Most of the candidates were in shock; where had this boy become so powerful?
The boy simply stood up and kicked the dead man off of his knife and walked back, picking up his sword and sheathing it.
Ptolemy's wife stared at Percy in fear, her dark eyes glimmering. "GUARDS!" She bellowed, and the door at the other end of the hall burst open, revealing the Israeli army. Spears were thrown, most missing their targets but a large portion of the candidates were cut down by the army as they ran in the direction of the portal.
"Why isn't it opening...?" Percy asked as he kicked the frame of the portal. They couldn't die here. They just couldn't. "WORK BASTARD!" Percy bellowed, drawing his bloody knife and thrusting it into the portal frame. It roared and came to life, and the boy jumped through without a second thought. Many of them jumped through, but some fell through to the other side dead, spears protruding out from their limp corpses.
Percy's stomach clenched at the sight, turning away from the dead bodies piling up. As he did, he took in the Fourth Round of the Ninth Circle. It looked a lot like the maze from when they began their trek towards Cain.
"Surely this won't be hard fellas." A boy smugly strutted forwards, only to get crushed by a enormous hammer sweeping across the corridor. At the far side, probably around 100 metres away, was the exit displayed in a bright white doorway. But, it was obviously lined with traps.
The floor once more was thick ice, a few heads here and there trapped in the ice, mid-scream. The images were haunting.
A man shimmered into existence before Percy. He was around 6ft tall, and had dark, shaggy hair. His beard was unkempt, and his brown eyes held passion, but also regret.
"Perseus Jackson..." He said as he looked at Percy, transfixed. "I am Judas Iscariot, a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ, son of God. I am your guide for the Fourth Round of the Ninth, and the only help you will get. Listening to me is the only way you will get through this circle, so listen to everything I say carefully. Satan is through that doorway over there. I will not ask of you to follow, but stay here and the goblins may catch up. They see through these mere illusions and you will be their snack. So make haste friends."
"Judas... Why should we trust you?" Percy asked.
Judas looked at the young boy. "You must know when to trust me and when not to. These four Rounds were all to test if you are worthy of meeting Lucifer and completing your task. Caína, Round One: your fighting skills against Cain. Antenora, Round 2: your hunting skills and stealth skills. Ptolomaea, Round Three: cope with treachery and be able to betray, and know the exact right moment to. Then there's Judecca, a test to teach you when to and when not to trust those around you – which is this place. Only I am your obstacle standing before you and Satan. So follow me if you wish to survive, enemies to the Lord Christ." He explained, confusing Percy heavily (not that it was hard).
"You could've said that in a few lines, not a life story." Percy said simply, his eyes spinning from all of the information he had just been given.
"But every detail matters. Don't forget that young one." Judas crooked his head to the side, not completing understanding how he could've shortened his explanation. "Never the less, follow me candidates." Judas turned on his heel and walked down the corridor, every single trap passing through him as if he were a shade.
Percy took a few steps forward and stopped suddenly as a blade swept down from the ceiling, almost splitting him in half. "So do you help us?" Percy asked, taking a step backwards. Judas turned at that question.
"These blades will pass through you if you walk through." The man simply said, standing half-way through the corridor unbothered by all of the blood and dead corpses around him.
"Ask yourself: do you trust him?" The voice that had guided him through a lot of the Ninth Circle finally spoke up.
"No..." Percy said quietly to himself.
"Then tell him this: Judas Iscariot: I do not trust you."
Percy nodded his head and looked up, his swirling dark sea-green eyes meeting Judas' warm brown pair. "Judas Iscariot!" Percy began loudly. "I do not trust you at all."
The man's eyes darkened slightly. "Good." He spoke, and waved his hand. The doorway flew back until it was right before Percy.
"Walk through, Perseus. It will lead you Lucifer's prison at the centre of this lake of mass graves." Judas smiled, walking towards the group.
"Can I trust you?" Percy asked.
"I don't know, can you?" The Disciple to Jesus faced Percy.
"No." The dark voice came back, its voice hammering the insides of Percy's head.
"Yes." Percy nodded. Judas evaporated into mist, flowing through the portal. "Come on guys, Satan awaits us." Percy gestured and walked through the portal.
The entire group moved towards the portal and walked through. The portal lead them to a cliff side overlooking a bottomless abyss to oblivion.
"Crap..." Percy paled as above them, a ledge appeared and Judas walked out onto it.
"Don't beat yourselves up." He spoke, a maniacal grin on his face. "Everyone fails the Fourth Round. Even Dante Alighieri failed." And with that, he stomped his foot and the cliff face gave way into the darkness.
It soon opened up into an enormous cavern, and a towering figure was in the centre of it. The thing was hideous.
The being was gigantic, a terrifying beast covered in ragged fur. It had three faces: the front face they saw first was red, while the other two joined above the midpoint of each shoulder. At the crown these three faces were reattached. The second face (on the right) was a pale yellow, somewhat white and the third face a dark black, like the night sky without the beauty or magnificence. The monster was waist deep in ice, and each of its six eyes appeared to be crying. Each of its six wings were beating, releasing gusts of icy cold wind as it tried to escape.
Each mouth was a man being chewed. But one stood out in the middle face: Judas. His head was being gnawed on viciously and his back was being ripped apart by Satan's claws.
The group harshly landed on the icy ground, and Percy realised that they were around the same place they started in Round One. Then it struck him as all three of the faces looked at him, removing the wailing bodies from their mouths.
"Who dares enter the realm of Hell's true king...?" It spoke in an ancient voice, causing Percy to shake with shivers crawling up his spine. It was the same voice from before, the one that caused him pain.
"You..." Percy muttered weakly, looking up at the eldest of the Archangels.
The Candidates were now in the presence of the Devil.
The Demon Rites
And that's chapter 5 complete! Sorry about the slight delay, but I'm far ahead of schedule. I am however up to my neck in tests and trouble, and I used a small exclusion to sneakily write this chappie quick.
Anyway guys, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter! And in case I don't update until after Christmas, I have to say this:
MERRY CHRISTMAS! AND AN AWESOME NEW YEARS!
I'll hopefully post a chapter Christmas day as I usually do, so yeah. But keep your eyes peeled.
However, there will be a small delay in chapters from now on. In January I have my mock exams, and from then until July I'm up to my neck. So yeah.
That doesn't mean I'm not writing guys, I'm just being slaved away at school being bored and acing classes (hopefully anyway). So good luck to all you school kids doing exams right now, get an A*/ whatever-the-bloody-hell-your-highest-achievable-grade-is!
Now, I'm off for now guys. Don't forget to leave a review, they remind me to get off my arse playing Just Cause 3, Rainbow Six: Siege & Rise of the Tomb Raider and write when I have a free schedule.
Until next time!
~ The Prince of Souls