Said person turned towards them in surprise. He started to say, "Children—" but it was too late. The ground rumbled. The blue light turned to searing white, and the Rosetta Stone exploded, rendering everyone unconscious.

The first thing Carter noticed when he gained consciousness was the splitting headache he was having and some strange sensation in his head. The next thing was that the scene seemed very familiar it him, like he had seen it somewhere.

He immediately bolted upright, shaking his head to clear any dizziness and immediately turned towards Sadie, who was slowly waking up. "Where is Percy?" Sadie asked groggily as she rubbed her eyes.

Carter paled at those words and then it hit him like a truck. 'The dream! Of course!' he thought as he frantically looked around, praying that it doesn't come true. He could not look at the scene of Percy and his father dying again.

At the same time, he heard a laughter—horrible, gleeful laughter mixed with the blare of the museum's security alarms. The gallery was in ruins. Waves of fire rippled in pools along the floor. Giant statues had toppled. Sarcophagi had been knocked off their pedestals. Pieces of the Rosetta Stone had exploded outward with such force that they'd embedded themselves in the columns, the walls, the other exhibits.

Ignoring everything that was happening around, they approached Percy and shook him, trying to wake him up. "Percy wake up. There seems to be some trouble here" whispered Sadie but he didn't wake up. There was no bodily harm on him but somehow was going into a coma stage.

Before they could do anything, they heard that horrible laughter again and looked around, this time, spotting his father. Julius was in a bad shape. A bloody cut ran across his scalp. He gripped the boomerang tightly. He was looking ahead, facing his kids, but did not focus on them.

No one understood what he was looking at. It was then Carter realized that someone was standing in front of him. Asking Sadie to be quiet, he focused in front of him. At first, he could barely make it out—just a flicker of heat. But then it took on a vague form—the fiery outline of a man.

"Well done, very well done, Julius." the mysterious man said. "You were not summoned!" Julius said, his voice trembling slightly. 'Summoned? What is he saying? What is happening here?' the two of them thought, a little confused at the events unfolding.

"Did dad tell you anything about this?" Sadie asked and Carter just shook his head, confusion clearly written all over his face. Julius held up the boomerang, but the fiery man flicked one finger, and the stick flew from his hand, shattering against the wall.

"I am never summoned, Julius," the man purred. "But when you open a door, you must be prepared for guests to walk through." "Back to the Duat!" Julius roared. "I have the power of the Great King!"

"Oh, scary," the fiery man said with amusement. "And even if you knew how to use that power, which you do not, he was never my match. I am the strongest. Now you will share his fate."

Unfortunately, the kids couldn't make sense of what was happening, just that their dad needed help. Before anyone did anything, Julius shot them a silent look of warning: Get out. It was then Cater realised that he was gesturing them to escape.

But Carter wanted to help him. He was having a hard time to supress that feeling to help Percy aside. Alarms blared. Fire circled around the doorways of the gallery. The guards were on their way and Carter didn't have much time.

Sadie watched on as her dad crouched to the floor, keeping his eyes on his enemy, and opened his painted wooden box. He brought out a small rod like a ruler. He muttered something under his breath and the rod elongated into a wooden staff as tall as he was. On throwing the staff at the fiery man's feet, and it changed into an enormous serpent—ten feet long and as big around as I was—with coppery scales and glowing red eyes.

It lunged at the fiery man, who effortlessly grabbed the serpent by its neck. The man's hand burst into white-hot flames, and the snake burned to ashes. "An old trick, Julius," the fiery man chided. Julius urged them to run, but the two refused. Sadie picked up a chunk of stone.

"How many?" Julius asked quickly, trying to keep the fiery man's attention. "How many did I release?" "Why, all five," the man said, as if explaining something to a child. "You should know we're a package deal, Julius. Soon I'll release even more, and they'll be very grateful. I shall be named king again." "The Demon Days," my father said.

'Wait...wasn't the demon days a myth about how the five gods who were born? Why is he talking about it now? Was the five...the five Egyptian gods? Then...are the Egyptian gods all real? Then if I am right...which god is this?' Carter thought.

"They'll stop you before it's too late." The fiery man laughed. "You think the House can stop me? Those old fools can't even stop arguing among themselves. Now let the story be told anew. And this time you shall never rise!"

The fiery man waved his hand. The blue circle at Dad's feet went dark. Dad grabbed for his toolbox, but it skittered across the floor. "Good-bye, Osiris," the fiery man said. 'Why is he calling dad Osiris? Can't someone explain something?' Sadie thought.

With another flick of his hand, he conjured a glowing coffin around Julius. At first it was transparent, but it became more and more solid—a golden Egyptian sarcophagus inlaid with jewels. Julius caught Carter's eyes one last time, and mouthed the word Run! before the coffin sank into the floor, as if the ground had turned to water.

"Dad!" Carter screamed. Sadie threw her stone, but it sailed harmlessly through the fiery man's head. He turned, and for one terrible moment, his face appeared in the flames. The image seemed as if someone had superimposed two different faces on top of each other—one almost human, with pale skin, cruel, angular features, and glowing red eyes, the other like an animal with dark fur and sharp fangs. Worse than a dog or a wolf or a lion—some animal I'd never seen before. More likely one of the five gods 'released'.

Heavy footsteps echoed on the marble floor of the Great Court. Voices were barking orders. The security guards, maybe the police were heading that way, but it most likely would've been too late thought Carter as the fiery man lunged at us. Just before he could touch them, he was thrown back.

The air sparked with electricity. The amulet around my neck grew uncomfortably hot. The fiery man hissed, regarding him more carefully. "So...it's you." Carter just looked confused, fed up of everything happening.

The building shook again. At the opposite end of the room, part of the wall exploded in a brilliant flash of light. Two people stepped through the gap, their robes swirling around them. Both of them held staffs. The fiery man snarled. He looked at them one last time and said, "Soon"

Then the entire room erupted in flames. A blast of heat sucked all the air of out my lungs and they crumpled to the floor. The last thing Carter remembered was the man with the forked beard and the girl in blue were standing over him.

He vaguely heard something before he started losing consciousness, his last thoughts being on what would happen to his sister and cousin.

A/N: Hey there guys! I know it has been more than a month since I had updated this story while I seemed to update other stories but I was a little caught up and I had no clue on how to write the chapter. I hope the next chapter would be written sooner, mostly in two weeks or max 3 weeks.

Anyways, hope you all liked this chapter. I know this is short but I promise the next chapter would be longer. All comments and criticisms accepted and appreciated. Any pairings for Nico and Percy?

Thank you all for reading!

Rasi10 signing off

Published on 5 October 2018