I head up the Mississippi full steam ahead. In a passing thought, I remember the confluence of the Ohio and the Mississippi Rivers is located in a city called Cairo, which is quite terribly tragic given the circumstances. No one signed up for the gods moving around the world, and especially no one asked them to kill the original gods of this land, but nonetheless, they show up and make themselves at home. Some insane luxury it must be to be a god.

Sailing against the current isn't as bad as I thought it would be with the crazy car-boat contraption, and I still have most of my speed heading north. I'll need to once again travel overland, for the only waterway that takes me to the entrance of the Underworld requires a trip through the Panama Canal. Still, the prophecy hangs in my head. What exactly is the old road? The Ohio River was once an important passenger route to many places in the United States before it was succeeded by railways. Then, the US Route system appeared and made things easier for cars. Then, the Interstate system often lays on top of these old roads or bypasses them, as they did to the Pennsylvania Turnpike. I don't know how old the road has to be, but it's got to be something old.

Estimating that I'm currently sailing at 94 knots northbound, I should reach St. Louis by daybreak. I make a final check of the Duat safe before going to sleep in the back seat.

I wake up from a thankfully dreamless sleep. As I predicted, I'm in St. Louis. According to the other campers, Percy once fell into the river here on his first quest. He also managed to blow up the Arch and judging by the burn marks still etched into the facade, I can say that that story was not some Camp Legend. Curse those Eris campers, for they either exaggerate absolutely everything or lie to sow discord.

I come ashore a few blocks farther south than the Gateway Arch Park. There is a fairly nice levee road on this section of the Mississippi River levee, meaning I can drive normally. I dry off the car with a fah-ru-maw spell and proceed on the open road as usual.

As soon as I hit the main road, one particular path stands out to me. There are two bridges at this section of the Mississippi River carrying traffic between Missouri and Illinois. The one I approach is the older MacArthur Bridge, and though the much nicer Poplar Street Bridge is just next to it, there seems to be a certain aura surrounding the older bridge. Perhaps that's the old path, but the bridge only carries rail, which is strange.

I continue on driving towards the Poplar Street Bridge and enter Interstate 55. Again, the same aura beckons me towards a specific road. Deciding to investigate, I take the exit and drive down towards that road.

I eventually reach Chouteau Avenue, a road the Interstate seems to happily bypass. The street is much too busy for my taste, and there are lots of bus stops all up and down. Nonetheless, I cruise along, stopping only once for restocking up on gas and food.

Eventually, I reach another major road, South Tucker Boulevard. The same feeling that told me to go down Chouteau now direct me down South Tucker. Something about these roads seems to be connected, but I don't remember how. It's as though it's at the tip of my tongue, but it's far more apt to say it's at the back of my brain, for it's quite subconscious.

I head down another road, then another, then another. These roads, they appear to form some sort of corridor, but the original purpose has been hidden behind bus stops and businesses. The road has been repurposed, I suppose. I continue down a few more roads to figure out why.

My experiment is cut short by a friendly little visit. I hear a very loud thump from behind me as I drive. The thump seems unnaturally loud, and its location of origin has a very unusual origin. It's as though it came from above rather than behind. Realizing that something is very wrong, I make a right turn and park in the next alleyway.

I step out of the car and look out to where I was in front of a second ago. There's a billow of gold dust and nothing more. However, that dust can only have come from one source: a Greek monster. Something fell out of the sky and died on impact, and I don't know what fell out of the sky.

My question is answered a mere seconds later. A massive yellow blur appears out of absolutely nowhere before it crashes into the pavement. Suddenly, I'm looking upon a sphinx much like I fought several days ago. As quickly as it appears, it dissolves into gold dust, meaning it was Greek, not Egyptian. However, that hardly makes a difference at this point, for hybrids and other awful creatures exist.

My brief moment of shock is quickly broken by waves of shadows on the ground. They are large and slender, as though they come from flying beasts. The shadows are peculiarly well-organized. They form a V-formation with their shadows, meaning this is not just some coincidence, and they manage to actually dim the sky. I turn around and look up to face what is coming for me.

I see the sky suddenly twist before my eyes. Thousands upon thousands of monsters fly overhead. Their formations suggest that someone is actively commanding these troops. Monsters of all shapes, sizes, and abilities cast an enormous shadow across the open blue sky. I shudder at the sight of so many enemies to take out.

Without warning, a patch of the road nearby is suddenly engulfed in green fire. Something must be dropping Greek firebombs on this place. This is followed by lots of standard firebombs and sudden nosedive maneuvers by flying creatures with dozens of types of heads and bodies. I conjure up whatever makes sense to shoot down this many monsters, allowing the gloves to choose for me.

The gloves offer an automatic magazine-fed shotgun containing Celestial Bronze birdshot. It also comes up with a magazine with silver and a magazine of Imperial Gold. I cock the first round into place and shoot at the sky.

Immediately, lots of creatures turn to gold dust. I fire off several rounds at a time, inflicting as many casualties against the monsters as I can. I also discover the magazine can't run out of ammo, for I have fired more than fifty shots already. However, that's still not enough.

Deciding to try a far crazier idea, I conjure up another weapon. A light machine gun should do the trick, right? I conjure up a large LMG with dual-ammo drums and two barrels, allowing me to fire off two kinds of bullets.

I shoot at the monsters once more. Now, hundreds of monsters fall before my firepower. However, it's still not enough.

Trying again, I will my gun to become something more powerful. The gun then shifts into a standard defensive turret. It would be as normal as a standard turret would appear, but, the gun takes mystical metal twelve-gauge shot and slugs. This thing better works quite well against the swamped skies, for I'll be out of options should the gloves need a cool-down time. I load in the massive belt of rounds and begin wildly firing whatever I have into the hordes of flying monsters in formation.

This time, I see much better results. The formations begin to collapse into disarray as random monsters are being shot out of the sky. I now realize a disturbing number of them are phoenixes or some other kind of bird, like these things have been breeding like rabbits. That probably explains all the fire unleashed.

Eventually, I sent enough of these things into oblivion that a patch in the sky has cleared up, meaning the Sun shines down once more. I jump and fly up through the gap carrying my turret with me. I fly to above the monsters in formation, then unleash gunfire on them from above.

The results are phenomenal. I manage to cause so much panic that thousands of monsters end up offing one another with friendly fire. Their organization slowly crumbles to ashes, and they themselves are slaughtered in droves with the firepower I wield. Thousands of casualties later, the survivors finally decide to retreat. The remaining monsters make a run for the horizon in all directions, and the attack is over almost as quickly as it started. I float my way back down to my car and proceed to figure out where these instincts about the road lead me.