Disclaimer: I do not own this story or these characters
"Thanks Chiron, I'll remember those words." I said.
"You have grown up into such a fine, strong hero my boy. If nothing else, just know that I am so proud of you." He said, sincerity and pride shining in his eyes.
I hugged him once more before Nico shadow travelled them all away.
"Well man, I got a few hours before sunrise, why don't you show me that little project that you were working on?" I said.
"Sure, why not? It will be a big help to have someone new with fresh ideas. But look who I'm talking to, your mind is so full of kelp." He joked with me.
"Careful Nico. I have the blessing of Athena now so I'm much smarter now than when I was a few years ago. Plus, I can still kick your immortal, underworldly butt." I said smirking.
Nico laughed. "While you have gotten so many cool blessing and weapons, you never change Perce. You never change. He said as the shadow consumed us, taking us out of the throne room.
Now…
Percy POV
We reappeared on the banks of the River Styx on the other side of the Underworld. The murky black water of the Styx was flowing lazily in its banks; carrying the broken dreams and lost hopes of the dead and lost souls that entered the realm of the dead.
"So, Nico, what is this big project that the mighty Heir of the Underworld is working on?" I said, smirking at my cousin.
Nico rolled his eyes at me. He pointed along the banks of the Styx, were I could see multiple sets of footprints in the black sand.
"When the Second Giant War was going on, it wasn't just the Original Mount Olympus that was attacked by monsters. Gaea sent some of her undead monsters down here to scatter our guards and forces, causing mass confusion while she and her minions took the evillest souls from the Fields of Punishment for the war effort." He explained as he began to walk in the direction of the footprints.
I jogged to catch up to him. "But the war ended over three years ago. What does that have to do with what you're doing now?" I asked.
He sighed and looked at me. "Think Percy, use that Athena blessed brain of yours. What do the surviving forces of any enemy do after their master was been captured or killed?" He said expectantly.
I began to think of multiple scenarios in my head before realization struck me. "They hide out and go underground, still trying to carry out their master's mission." I said.
Nico nodded his head in confirmation. "Yep. With my new powers as my father's lieutenant and heir, I have been able to track down and destroy all but one group of these rouge spirits. But these ones are the most powerful and most difficult to destroy." He looked confident on the outside, but I could tell he was nervous.
"Don't worry Nico. I'll help you out with these spirits. Then once we destroy them, your dad will be so proud of you." I said reassuringly. We mess around and poke fun at each other, but even I know when my cousin needs some reassurance.
He smiled gratefully at me. "Thanks Percy."
I smiled back at him. "So, what exactly are we facing? Must be a pretty powerful group of monsters; strong enough to cause disturbances but stealthy enough to remain hidden for years." I mused, mulling over potential threats.
Nico looked a little astounded that I was able to figure that much out from the information he has given. "We have a group of 30 monsters. Ten are ghouls that have betrayed my father and joined Gaea during the war. They know the layout of the Underworld and know all the hiding places within the shadows." He said, giving me a description of the monster.
"Next we have about 15 rogue spirits of some of the evillest people to have ever been sent to the fields of punishment. Ever had a run-in with an eidolon?" He asked.
I flinched at the memory of being used like a puppet and having no control over my buddy.
"More than I care to admit." I said hauntingly.
Nico looked curious about my tone but just pushed it aside. "Well, these spirits have that ability but they all have jumped into host bodies; rotting corpses, skeletons, creatures made of rock, etc. They all have increased senses and strength so be careful with them." He warned.
"Gotcha. And the others?" I questioned. Nico shifted uneasily.
"They are the most dangerous. They are enhanced Sparti like the ones you fought on your quest to save Artemis." He said a little sadly, probably think of Bianca.
I winced at the memory. Those things were not fun to play with. I remember Frank having Gray, his personal Sparti, and it was a ruthless killing machine. If these things aren't on our side, then this thing is going to be a tough battle.
"Enhanced? How are they different from other sparti?" I asked.
"They are twice as big and have the fighting skills of some of the best heroes from the days of old. They used to be my father's personal elite fighting force, but Gaea managed to alter their minds somehow." He replied.
Great, Gaea is still causing trouble for even after being put back to sleep.
"Alright then, lead the way." We began walking along the river in comfortable silence, before I broke it.
"Hey Nico?" I said timidly.
Nico looked at me curiously. "Yeah Percy, what's up?" He could tell I had something serious on my mind.
"How are Mom and Paul?" I said so softly that I didn't know if he heard me or not.
I looked at Nico to see he had mixed emotions on his face; sadness, sympathy, and happiness.
"They are doing great Percy." He said in an understanding tone before he smiled. "You're not going to believe this but your mom and Paul have both done the impossible. You must get it from her. But what's amazing is that they both made it into the Isles of the Blest!" He said with an excited smile.
I felt immense joy that not only did they make it into paradise, but they made it into the best place that all of the Underworld had to offer. If anyone deserved it, it was my mother.
I felt my eyes get a little misty. "That's amazing Nico! Wait a minute, if they made it into the Isles of the Blest, then who were they in past lives past lives?" I asked.
Nico just shrugged. "Sorry Perce. Not allowed to reveal that. Let's just say that they were some amazing people that have led others out of crisis and have changed the world." He said cryptically.
Well that sucks, but I couldn't help but smile that my mother and Paul were living it up in the best place that was offered. I just prayed that should I ever die, that I could make it there to so that I can see them again.
We were walking in silence along the River Styx and I was watching the currents of the Styx flowing. I could feel the lost hope within the river as I saw the broken dreams and hopes flowing in its waters.
"Sad, isn't it?" I turned to Nico to see he had a sad look on his face. "The Styx is the River of Mortality and Bidding Oaths. It is one for the most powerful rivers and yet is polluted with the lost hopes and dreams of all who have died."
"I see what you mean. I can feel the hope in the waters so low. How did it get to this point?" I asked.
Nico shrugged. "The Styx is the River of Mortality, so all those who have lived and haven't fulfilled their lives goals or dreams, dumps pieces of their mortality as they die. And you can see from the Fields of Asphodel that many have done that indeed." He said solemnly.
"There's got to be something we can do to clean it!" I said, looking at my cousin expectantly.
He just looked at me sorrowfully. "Sorry Percy. Dad has been trying to find solutions to that problem for millennium. We don't know what to do." He said.
I crouched by the riverbed and looked into the water, my mind racing with possible scenarios that could possibly work to fix the Styx. Then, I saw a faint glittering on the edge of the river that caught my attention. I didn't know what it was, but I had a sense that I have seen it somewhere before and it filled me with dread a little bit.
I reached out my hand and grabbed the glittering thing, making sure not to touch the water; I've already been burned by it once, don't want that to happen again.
As I opened my palm and studied the item in my hand, I recoiled in shock and a little bit of horror.
"Percy! Percy what is it?" Nico said frantically, seeing my reaction.
I was unable to speak as my eyes were glued to the object in my hand. Sitting in the palm of my hand, was the simple, silver engagement ring that I was going to propose to Annabeth with.
"H-how is this possible?" I choked out, my hand trembling.
"What is it Percy?" Nico asked in concern. I showed him the ring and he looked at it curiously.
"This is the ring that I was gonna give to Annabeth when I was gonna propose that day I ran away." I explained as he recoiled in shock.
"How is it here?" I asked.
Nico looked thoughtful. "Maybe it's because you crossed into the Underworld and you lost such a big dream that you may have accidently dropped it in the Styx." He said.
Looking at the ring, I curled my hand into a fist before looking at the River Styx with new determination burning in my limbs.
"You said that this river is filled with broken dreams and lost hope, right? What if it got an infusion of hope?" I asked Nico with my back towards him.
"I don't know." He said.
I starred at the Styx and held my hands out in front of me, thinking of the burning power of hope contained within the hearth.
"Percy, what are you doing?" Nico asked a little anxiously.
I ignored him and brought forth as much hope and power as I could muster and shot it into the river. I thought of hopeful scenes in my mind that I held a powerful connection too; my mom giving me a blue cookie when I was young and her unending love for me, my dad standing in front of me with his trident, his eyes shining with pride at me, my cousins Nico and Thalia and their sibling affections for me and my mother Hestia adopting me. I thought of my remaining friends that I still cherished and their friendship. Finally, an unexpected image of Artemis popped into my mind and a powerful pulse of hope sprung from that image. Where did that come from?
I just focused on all those images and I kept pushing the power of hope and the hearth into the Styx until finally, I couldn't anymore. I dropped to my knees, sweat pouring down my face and I was exhausted. Channelling that much power over the hearth was both draining and exhilarating.
I opened my eyes and starred in shock at the transformed river before me. Before the Styx was a powerful river but now I could feel an aura of power radiating from the waters. All the pollution that was rushing along was gone; a shimmer ran along the river and I could tell that it was happy and full of hope once more. I could feel it emitting from the water.
I turned to look at Nico who was staring at me with a dumbstruck look on his face. He seemed to be frozen in shock at what I had just done.
"H-how did you…with the orange light…hope…Styx…what?" I spluttered out trying to form a coherent sentence.
"I just gave the river an infusion of hope it so desperately needed." I shrugged my shoulders.
"Dude!" Nico said, finding his voice. "That was INCREDIBLE! Oh MAN, dad is gonna be so happy about this!" He exclaimed in excitement.
"It was no big deal man. I just couldn't sit by and let the River Styx be so low in hope. Now come on, we got a group of monsters to find" I said as I turned away from the happily gurgling river and started walking.
We continued to walk in silence until we came to massive cavern. Even though I have been to the Underworld a few times, I know the layout pretty well and I have never seen this cavern.
The cavern was huge, about the size of two football stadiums, only if you replaced the green grass with black rock and the stands with walls covered in obsidian stone with black spires jetting out of it, then you got a pretty good idea of what it looks like. The ceiling was a dome in shape, littered with stalactites that glowed an unearthly green colour, casting a green-tinged light on the cavern.
Something felt off about this place. Energy seemed to pulse in the air, power pulsing throughout the room. On the far side of the cavern was another opening, leading straight out into a large pit. Some unknown force was prodding me forward, like an invisible rope was tied around my body, pulling me closer and closer to the ledge.
The energy seemed to be strongest here. Looking down, I saw a sight that shocked and stunned me.
Far below the cliff, about 200 feet down was a enormous whirlpool, churning and spinning with different colours. The whirlpool was about the size of five Olympic size swimming pools. There were five openings in the walls, each pouring a different river into the collective lake. It took a moment for my brain to process what I was seeing but I began to recognize the rivers being pumped in to the pool and my anxiety went straight through the roof. The rivers being pumped into the pool was non-other than the Five Rivers of the Underworld.
I saw the River Styx, with its midnight black waters, radiating with its newfound infusion of hope and mortality. The River Lethe, with it pale white waters of forgetfulness, was streaming into the churning water. One drop would make you slowly lose your identify, memories, and sense of self. So, powerful was this river that it could even wipe clean the mind of an Elder Titan! I saw the rust red colour of the Acheron, the River of Pain, with thousands of voices screaming in unrelenting agony and pleading for mercy. The River Phlegethon, the River of Fire, with its waters of flowing fire, glowing red, orange, white, and yellow, were rushing into the pool. The river can bring great pain with its fiery waters, but without its healing properties as well, I would have never survived Tartarus. Finally, there was the River Cocytus, The River of Lamentation. I remember that river was the river me and Annabeth fell into in Tartarus and it brought up all of my life's sorrows. Every unpleasant memory, every sorrow, every regret, was brought to the surface and intensified till it was nearly overwhelming. With so much power being pumped into a single pool, I was surprised that much energy didn't explode or blow up the entire Underworld.
I looked over at Nico, expecting him to know what this place was and saw that his already pale skin had taken on a sheet white colour of paper. He looked frightened out of his mind. Something told me he did not know this place existed.
"By the gods." He whispered in deadly quiet tone. "It's actually real. The legends and myths were actually true."
I waved my hands in front of his face and snapped my fingers trying to get his attention.
"Nico. Nico! Geez man you look like you've seen a ghost…which wouldn't really be a big deal since we are in the Underworld but you know what I mean! What is this place?" I asked him.
He shook his head violently, snapping himself from his shock. Looking at me, I saw something I rarely see in my cousin's eyes: Fear.
"That Percy, is the point where all the Rivers of the Underworld flow and their waters mix. It is the centre of their power and it is incredibly dangerous." He said, voice trembling slightly.
"So, what does that mean? I'm guessing it is bad since you look so freaked out and I can literally feel the power from it pulsing in the air." I guessed.
"You have no idea, Perce. The waters of the Rivers are a bunch of the deadliest and most powerful properties in the world aside from the gods themselves. So powerful in fact, that should anybody, immortal or not, should fall in, they would be completely obliterated from existence. No Underworld, no afterlife, no realm of the faded. Just complete an utter oblivion. And with you cleaning up the Styx, it just got a whole lot more powerful." He said morbidly.
I just stared at him, trying to comprehend what he was saying. With so many options and thoughts running through my head, I blurted out the first one that popped to the front of my mind.
"You've been going to those Goth, poetry readings again, haven't you?" I said. Damn ADHD.
"Hey! I'm not goth! And those poetry slams are actually really cool!" He said indignantly, before slapping his hand over his mouth.
My eyes widened before I doubled over laughing hysterically, clutching my sides with tears streaming down my face.
"You…you actually g-go to those t-things?" I gasped out in between laughs. His face was as red as a fire hydrant and he had a not so amuse face on.
"Shut up." He mumbled. I just smirked at him, thinking of all the things I could do to blackmail him with this little bit of information.
"So, Goth Boy, what are we going to do about this place?" I asked, getting serious knowing this place was extremely dangerous.
Nico's face slowly regained its natural colour, but his cheeks still had a bit of red to them. He opened his mouth to speak but was cut of by a loud hiss.
"Nothing! The power in this place should be enough to raisssse our masssster from their ssssslumber. But not before we desssstroy you!" A voice hissed behind us.
We whirled around to see the weirdest assortment of monsters I have ever seen. There were 10 creatures with pale blue skin that looked like they spent way too much time in the water. They were about 5 feet tall each but looked really buff. Their faces were shaped like goblins, with pointy ears, large nose, and big mouth with pointy teeth, and it was covered with a whole bunch of ugly. I would have laughed had it not been for the murderous glint in their eyes. Looks like those things were the ghouls Nico warned me about.
Fifteen of them look like someone got a bunch of rocks, mud, dirt, plant-life, and corpses and just mixed them all up in one giant concoction of ugly. These things were tall, short, fat, thin, every kind of body shape you could find. Their bodies were either rocks covered in dirt or corpses with bones and blood sticking out of the skin. Each had an assortment of limbs that varied in number; some had two, others had three, a few had one, and one dude even had four. And all of them were wielding a weapon of some kind, from bows and axes to swords and spears. Each one of them were radiating a ghostly evil, malice and I could just tell that these were the spirits that escaped from the Fields of Punishment. The only good thing I could see about these 15 is that their bodies looked unstable and that they couldn't handle heavy blows.
The last five were by far the most intimidating. Think of a skeleton; now think of a skeleton that is four times its normal size. Now think of one that is covered in weaponry and had a menacing red light glowing from their eye sockets. That's what the Enhanced Sparti looked like. They were nine feet tall with sharp looking bones that I knew they could use as weapons. They were decked out in army clothes that were torn and ragged with bits and pieces of Greek armour attacked at random places.
"So…" I said, "You have got to be the weirdest stalkers I have ever seen."
All of the monsters stared at me and I could feel their gaze like it was a laser scope.
"Ah, the son of Poseidon." One of the spirits said, "We have heard a lot about you and your reputation proceeds you. Your impudence and impertinence truly knows no bounds."
Thanks to Athena's blessing, I actually knew what those words meant. I smirked slightly, deciding to egg them on a little.
"Why, thank you." I said with a mock bow, "Of course, I have never heard of you. And with a look like that, it's a freaking miracle I have to say."
The mixture or rock and corpse began to tremble in rage and if that body had a face, it would probably be shooting daggers at me. It began to stalk forward before on of its brethren pulled it back.
"Not now, young one! We must deal with the brat of Hades before killing the sea spawn. Then we can collect the waters from the rivers and hasten our master resurrection!" It said, turning menacingly towards us.
"Evil spirits! You will be back in the Fields of Punishment by today's end and the tortures that await you will make your others seem like Elysium!" Nico shouted in voice of power.
"You little brat of Hades! Your father will pay for the injustice he has put us through and when our master rises once again, he will be cast into Tartarus along with the rest of the Olympians! And then we will rule the underworld and have power!" A goblin yelled arrogantly, followed by the cheers of the others.
Nico's face turned red in anger before it shifted into a wicked expression. He suddenly began to grow in height, higher and higher until he was twelve feet tall and a dark aura of power surrounded him. Shadows flew from the walls and covered his body before fading and revealing him coated in a black Stygian Iron armour with his own, miniature Helm of Darkness on his head. He pulled out his Stygian Iron sword that was now about six and a half feet in length and looked wicked sharp.
With a menacing grin, he pointed it at them. "Who's little now, traitor? Let's see how you like going against the Crowned Prince of the Underworld!" He yelled before he charged at them with me following right behind.
The group of monsters were stunned at our bold tactic and before they could recover, we were upon them. Nico decided to take on the five Enhanced Sparti as they were the biggest threat, blasting them with pure black energy, leaving me with the other twenty-five freaks.
I pulled out my two swords, Riptide and Typhoon, and their blades were glowing in the darkness of the cave. Even though it was dark, my eyes adjusted, making it brighter; thank god it was so much darker on the sea floor.
I jumped up, avoiding an axe being wielded by one of the goblins, and brought my swords down in an overhead strike, slicing two goblins in half, bursting them open like a piñata at a kid's party. I quickly spun around, blocking a strike aimed for my neck, parrying the strike and killing another goblin. I grabbed his spear before hefting it and sending it flying into another goblin, spearing him right through the neck. Four down and twenty-one to go.
I became an arc of death as I dealt with the remaining ugly creatures, slicing, stabbing, jumping, blocking. I began to show off a little bit by whipping my wings out, soaring over and picking up the last goblin and dropping him from a height of 50 feet where he fell directly on a stalagmite.
I landed back on the ground and before I turned around I felt a spear, hit me right in my wings. The weapon couldn't penetrate my wings with them being invincible and unbreakable, but the impact did knock me forward. I turned around to see one of the spirits, picking up his spear and charging me. I spun around on the ground, lashing out my leg and sweeping him off his feet. Wasting no time, I plunged my sword into his rocky chest all the way up to the hilt, embedding it in the ground.
I expected him to dissolve but imagine my surprise when he just began to laugh.
"Insolent demigod!" He howled in laughter. "While this body is unstable you cannot kill us! We are already dead!" He said as he got his feet under me and launched me off of him.
He tried to dislodge my sword from his chest but it wouldn't give. With a pained grunt, he slid to the right and allowed the sword to slice right through his body. I watched in sick fascination as the rock formed back together, leaving only a small scratch line.
"These bodies cannot be harmed by your little Celestial bronze weapons." He said as they all began to surround me. "Only weapons of the Underworld can banish us back to the fields and sadly, only your little friend has that, now doesn't he?"
I smirked internally as I remembered Nico wasn't the only one with an Underworld weapon.
"I wouldn't be too sure now." I said as I light my hand on fire and blasted two fireballs at them, sending them flying as their bodies burned.
Quick as thought, I pulled out one of my Stygian Iron throwing knives, and flung it at my nearest target hitting him dead centre of the forehead. He collapsed to the ground in a heap, screaming in pain, as his body of rocks, bone, and mud dissolved into a disgusting heap. I could almost see the stupid stunned looks on their rocky faces. Looking at me in fear, I pulled out another knife before smiling fiendishly at them.
"Looks like Uncle Hades gifted me with an awesome, Underworldly weapon. Let's see how many shots it takes to kill you all, shall we?" I said as they ran in terror.
With inhuman like speed, I fired off all of my throwing knives with pinpoint precision as they embedded themselves in their targets. Heads, necks, hearts, joints, all hit with precision, as the spirits all collapsed in screaming heaps, the Stygian Iron, pulling their souls from their host bodies and sending them straight back the Fields of Punishment. I threw on knife so hard that it actually took one of their heads off and I could see the spirit get absorbed into the throwing knife. I killed all but one of the foul spirits by firing off three knives, pinning his arms to the ground and one lodging in his chest.
Running of to his screaming form, I plunged the rest of my knives into his joints, taking care not to hit any of the vital areas, pinning him to the floor. As soon as I pinned the last one into his body I stood up and located Nico.
I watched in awe as he fought like a demon from Hell. After becoming the Crowned Prince of the Underworld and becoming an immortal like his father, he got all the advantages that come with the power, including the speed and fighting prowess of an immortal. His sword motions were fast and precise, attack flowing in the next with grace and skill. However, against five of those giant Sparti, each with the skills of an ancient hero, he was having a tough time keeping up with all five, unending attacks.
He sliced of the arm of one of the Sparti before another stabbed him with a spear in the thigh. He stabbed the attacker in the chest before pulled the spear out with a wince. He rushed forwards, attempting to stab one of them in the chest, but it was blocked and parried, drawing a gash along his arm. Ignoring the pain in his damaged arm, he lunged forward and lopped the Sparti's head clean off, where it erupted in a column of flames before disintegrating into a pile of ash.
Before he could even begin to celebrate, another Sparti came behind him and stabbed him through the shoulder. Nico let out a scream of pain, clutching his shoulder as golden ichor flowed out of the wound. He collapsed to his knees in pain as the Sparti raised his sword ready to finish him off.
When I saw my cousin wounded by the Sparti and was about to kill him, I saw red. Bellowing in rage, my black wings whipped out of my back and I shot into the air and dived on the unsuspecting Sparti. I grabbed him by his spine and with an inhuman roar of anger, I ripper it apart with my bare hands and set the two halves on fire. The two parts of its body tried to reattach but I sent brought out my swords and chopped the bones into thousands of fragments and set the entire pile on fire, effectively destroying it.
I turned to the other Sparti, who were no looking at me warily but charged forward nonetheless. I ducked under one strike and sliced the legs off from under it. Shooting a white-hot blast of fire from my hands, I reduced the legs to dust, leaving the skeleton crippled. I then continued to slice and dice at it where it feebly tried to fend of my rage-induced strikes. All that remained was I head, which I promptly grabbed and set on fire. Raising the temperature of the fire, I watched as cracks formed in the bones and the heads exploded into thousands of tiny little bone fragments.
After killing the third Sparti I heard a groan and saw that Nico was struggling to his feet. Immediately I ran over towards him and supported his immortal form, which dwarfed my height of 6'4'.
"You okay, man?" I asked in concern, summoning a square of ambrosia, which I promptly gave to him.
After eating the godly food, he nodded his head as his injuries began to heal and his energy seemed to come back. Steadying himself, he reached down for his sword and grabbed it.
"Thanks Perce. Now what do you say we finish this fight? Bet I can kill both of them before you can." He said in challenging tone.
I smirked and we both ran towards our opponents who were by far the most difficult and deadly fighters out of all the monsters. If I had to guess, I would say that they had the fighting skills of Achilles and the Original Perseus. My Sparti, who I'm guessing had Achilles's fighting skills, was ferocious in its attacks. It kept pressing forward with me doing all I can do to block its strikes. I managed to block a lot of them but some made it past my guard, opening up a few wounds on my arms and chest. That's when I got angry. After all I have been through, I wasn't going to let an overgrown skeleton get the better of me!
I stepped up the fight, using my superior speed and began to press back, switching to offensive. Now the roles were reversed, with me pressing the Sparti back as I began slicing off ribs and opening up deep gashes on the bones. Its attacks were beginning to slow down and I capitalized on that, going all out, slicing and stabbing any part that I could. Soon, I made my move when it overextended on a lunge. Stepping within its guard, I set my blade on fire and sliced his head clean of his shoulders. He stood there for a moment upright, before his bones completely un-knit and collapsed in a pile. Just to be sure, I sent a continuous stream of fire from my palms, reducing the piled of bones to nothing but ash.
Satisfied I turned to see how Nico was doing on his fight and was glad to see he was holding his own. I decided to help by sending a miniature earthquake around the Sparti's feet, catching it off guard. In that moment, Nico struck, stabbing the Sparti in the chest, letting the dark aura of his sword flow over the skeleton and banishing it to the fields of punishment.
We both looked at each other before we grinned and high-fived, wincing afterwards. That fight took a lot of effort and energy out of both of us and we both sustained some wounds. Nothing life-threatening, but they still hurt.
Pulling out two squares of Ambrosia, I handed him a square and I eat mine, tasting my mom's blue chocolate chip cookies as its magic healed my wounds.
Sighing in relief, I turned to Nico. "Dang bro, where'd you learn all those sweet new moves? You were like a demon!" I exclaimed.
He blushed at the praise. "Been practicing for the past three years and my new-found immortality doesn't hurt either." He said, grinning.
I laughed too before I heard a groan and stopped. We both turned towards the noise and saw that one spirit that I pinned to the floor earlier in the fight.
I gained a wicked grin before turning to Nico. "Hey dude, you want to interrogate a soul?" I said, stilling grinning.
He adopted a similar grin. "Sounds like fun Perce." He said
We both stalked over to the pinned spirit who was trembling in terror, as we got closer.
"What are you?" It cried out in panic as I got closer.
I kneeled down next to him before summoning a ball of fire to my hand "I'm the guy that gonna burn you to a crisp of you don't answer my questions." I said, doing a pretty good job of intimidating.
"I'll never talk!" He said, but I could hear the tremor in his voice.
I just shrugged and placed the fire over his body, letting it seep into the cracks and burning him as he cried out in pain.
"Still not gonna answer my questions?" I asked as I raised the temperature of the flames even further.
"I'll talk! I'll talk!" He screamed out. I quickly pulled the flames from his body and he whimpered in pain.
"Now, let's try this again. What were you doing down here and why were you after the water of the Rivers of the Underworld?" I asked, holding out a palm of flames.
He stayed silent until Nico spoke up. "I'd tell the dude what he wants to know. I may be the Prince of the Underworld, but this dude here knows a lot of interesting ways to inflict pain." Nico said nonchalantly.
"We were gonna steal the water to help our master rise from their slumber!" He cried out in fear.
I only shook my head. "Gaea's been put back to sleep for another few millennia. There's no way she can be woken after the war we just went through."
The spirit shook his head. "Not Gaea. Something worse. Someone a whole lot more powerful and they will destroy all of you! The sky will rain fire and blood as the mortals are snuffed out from this world! The Olympians will be cast into the Pit to endure untold horrors and torture as we take control of the world! They will rise and there is nothing you can do to stop it!" He cackled madly as his sanity finally broke from the Stygian Iron, infecting his soul.
"Who is it? What is the threat?" I yelled out him but he just continued to laugh insanely before I silenced him with a knife to the throat. The laughter quickly stopped and his body collapsed in a heap.
I looked over at Nico and he looked freaked out and I know I wasn't much better.
"What do you think it is Nico?" I asked in trepidation.
Nico shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know dude, but I have to report this to my father. We got to put up some security skeletons and ghouls over here because the entrance to the Collective Rivers is a powerful place that can't go unchecked. And I got to report the conversation to dad as well. Not to mention what you did to the Styx." He said uneasily, still freaked out about what that spirit said.
"Ok man. I have to get back to the Hunt anyway or Artemis is going to have my hide, not to mention my balls." I said, wincing and the thought.
Nico looked at me sympathetically before smirking at me. "Make sure to tell Thalia that I said hi and to tell her I'm more powerful than her now." He said playfully.
I gained a knowing look on my face before smirking back. "Funny how you only mention Thalia. Is there something you want to tell me?" I said jokingly at his beet red face.
I laughed as he tried to form coherent sentences as he tried to splutter back a retort.
"I'm just kidding man." I said, punching him playfully. "Anyway, I'll try to visit more and if you ever need me give me a call okay?" I said reaching into my pocket and pulling out a drachma with a trident on the face of it.
"If you are ever in any trouble, just pull out this drachma and send and Iris Message. You don't even need water to so. But be careful as this is a one-time thing." I said, handing him the coin.
"Come on Percy. I got the powers of the Underworld at my disposal and you still treat me like a little kid. "He whined but pocketed the drachma anyway.
"I may treat you like a little kid, but that's only because you are my cousin and I care for you man. I promised Bianca that I would take care of you and I will no matter what. You're my cousin and my brother Nico and I wouldn't have it any other way." I said seriously.
Nico looked at me for a second before pulling me into a man hug. "Thanks man. And I will call you if I am ever in any trouble, you can count on it." He said as he pulled away.
"Ok man, I gotta get going. Tell your dad thank you for me for letting me into his realm and all." I said backing away waving.
"Ok bro. See ya later! Keep in touch!" He said waving back.
I spread my wings and concentrated on the location of the hunt and flashed away in a column of fire. I reappeared on the outskirts of the Hunt and I heard something that sent ice through my veins. The sound of battle, war cries, and enraged hisses could be heard all around me with the clang of metal hitting each other.
The Hunt was being attacked and I teleported right into the middle of a battle!
That's the chapter up! Leave a review or PM if you want a more regular update, then suggest how often.