Skeletons, as Ryker quickly discovered, were far more of a nuisance than he would have initially given them credit for. After Erebus vanished and Ryker went off in the direction that the compass pointed him the demigod quickly discovered that the Underworld had far more tricks up its sleeve. The skeletons had been pulling themselves from the ground with an annoying regularity and they had an even more irritating tendency to avoid staying down. In fact, as Ryker learned, destroying them wasn't always in his best interest. When they reformed they wouldn't always take their original form. This was even more difficult as the skeletons were not only human. Animal and monster skeletons were pulled from the ground just as frequently as human ones. As Ryker now saw, they would occasionally come together to form a monstrous bone behemoth. He had shredded close to thirty skeletons with contemptuous ease and they had now compiled into the monster he now faced. "You are really pissing me off." Ryker snapped, staring at the monster.
The monstrosity did not even remotely resemble a human skeleton, or indeed any beast that Ryker had ever faced. He leapt back just as one of the creature's massive arms swung forward in an attempt to grab him. That was one of the other annoying things about the skeletons. They weren't trying to kill him, they were attempting to capture him. He had been grabbed once when a skeleton had emerged from the dirt beneath him and grabbed his ankle. He had been pulled down to mid-calf before managing to free himself. Ryker leapt forward and landed lightly on the skeleton monster's exposed arm. The demigod ran up the bone and up the creature's back until he was at the back of what he presumed was the creature's head. The kick he planted at the twisted skull's base was enough to shatter the bones that made it up and send them flying away. Ryker managed to retain his balance as the monster began to fall apart. That was the only weakness the seemingly endless creatures had. Remove the head and the body would fall. But it didn't last long. Ryker had only just landed on the ground before the bones began to rattle again and began to reform themselves into yet another atrocity.
"Go to hell." Ryker growled at them, turning heel and sprinting away from them. He glanced down at his hand corrected his course as the arrow indicated a change in direction. He had been following Erebus's little guide for hours and thus far the landscape had not changed even in the slightest. He had not even come across one of the other rivers that were supposed to flow through the Underworld. In fact the only other signs of life he had come across, and this irony was enough to make even Ryker slightly amused, had been the skeletons. While a waste of time in search of his goals, Ryker had learned something from his battles against the skeletons. The claws that Erebus had given him were far more than the god had let on. The further that Ryker fell into his wild instincts, the farther the shadows crept up his arms. But they were not like the blessing that Ares had given him in that it was a mere aura, no, the shadows took form as they traveled. His arms had been covered in dark, extremely strong scales that the skeletons simply could not pierce. In between battles, and before the shadows retreated back down his arms, Ryker had tested the scales. He ran his claws along his bicep and was pleased to see that scales fully protected his flesh, even against his own claws. This development made Ryker want to see what would happen if the shadows were to envelop his entire body, but they acted completely independent of his own will. He could only summon his claws, the shadows ignored his other orders.
The skeletons continued to pull themselves from the earth as Ryker ran, but they were slow creatures, even the skeletons of the animals. They couldn't hope to catch Ryker, and he no longer had any desire to waste more time fighting an endless battle with them. He wasn't sure what they did after he was far past them, but he assumed they simply returned to the earth. "Or they are forming one massive beast." Ryker muttered, the thought actually giving him momentary pause. A beast formed of the hundreds of skeletons he had passed would be nigh on impossible for him to overcome. He checked the arrow again and cursed as it suddenly jerked to the right and forced Ryker to alter his course yet again. He ran for perhaps fifteen more minutes before finally coming across a change of scenery. A single sliver of silver in the earth. Ryker slid to a stop right before the oddity and bent down to examine it. He reached out and placed a hand on the metal and blinked in surprise. All of a sudden, for no reason at all, he felt himself become… cheerful. He removed his hand immediately and glared suspiciously at the silver metal. He touched it again and the feeling of joy returned instantly. It was nice, but the feeling was odd for the demigod who had spent so many days being wary of happiness as such feelings led to carelessness. He slowly got to his feet again and checked the compass. He set off once more, at a walking pace this time. He had gone perhaps one hundred meters when he realized that the skeletons were no longer coming from the ground in their attempt to capture him.
Ryker stepped over the silver metal and continued on his way to where the directional arrow took him. After several hundred feet his ears picked up something that seemed out of place in the Underworld. Laughter. Sounds of pleased excitement. Happiness. They were as out of place as he was, perhaps even more so. He quickly scaled a jagged stone mountain, carefully avoiding the strips of silver metal that now appeared with far greater frequency. At the summit he gazed over the scene that was before him with no small measure of disbelief. A massive city that was seemingly hewn from the same silver metal that he had encountered was before him, and the citizens of that city were going about their tasks with beatific grins all over their faces. Their clothes were spun from all the brightest colors of the rainbow, with not a dark color in sight. Ryker wasn't entirely certain what the inhabitants were doing or if they were even human, but they seemed very content.
"Wonderful, isn't it?" Erebus asked, appearing from the darkness at Ryker's side. The demigod glanced over, not at all surprised by Erebus's appearance. He glanced over at the god and scowled. Eerbus smiled at him, unconcerned with his fearsome expression. "Elysium. The place that heroes go after they die. Not quite the best the Underworld has to offer, but good enough."
"Is she here?" Ryker asked, returning his gaze to the silver city. The god's appearance only served to further irritate him.
"I hope so." Erebus said loftily, scratching the back of his head. "If not that means you have to go to that other place, and that is quite the journey. Much farther than this."
"Why didn't you just transport me here?" Ryker demanded. "I know that must be within your capabilties."
"Oh, yes of course." Erebus shrugged. "But if I take too much action things will be so much more boring."
"Hmph." Ryker grunted. "How will I find her down there? There must be thousands of people!"
"Millions actually." Erebus corrected in a most unhelpful way. "But don't worry, the ones you see are simply the mortal souls whom are worthy enough. The demigods stay in a different area."
"Where?" Ryker asked.
Erebus glanced at him and laughed before vanishing without another word. Ryker suppressed an angry growl and began to quickly pick his way down the stone mountain with ease. When he finally reached the bottom he realized that finding the demigods wouldn't be the only problem he faced. The entire city seemed to be made from the happiness-inducing silver metal. And Ryker had the sneaking suspicion that his clothes would not entirely protect him from the silver's properties. He made his way to the city's edge warily, his eyes darting around for some sign of defenses or anything of the like to prevent someone from entering. There wasn't even a single wall to protect the inhabitants. He warily stepped onto the silver bricks and immediately he knew that his suspicion was correct. The fabric greatly reduced the joy that the metal brought him, but it did not completely erase it. It was manageable however, and Ryker was able to press on without standing in one spot beaming like a fool. The search for the demigods in Elysium had begun.
Leo could not believe his eyes, and from the expressions of his friends neither could they. They stood in a loose circle, staring down at the spot where Ryker's body had fallen and been left. "There's no way." Percy said through gritted teeth, his eyes flashing dangerously. "He was dead. I made sure he was dead."
It was true. After the arrows had punctured Ryker's skull and chest Percy has beaten the corpse repeatedly with water ripped from the earth until Ryker's bones had been reduced to powder and more cuts that anyone cared to count had marred his skin. Percy had only stopped after Frank ordered him to be taken away. The unfortunate guards who had been assigned the task were punched, kicked, and cursed as Percy fought to continue his onslaught against the corpse of the man who had killed the woman he loved. That had been a side of Percy that Leo, or anyone else present, had never seen before. It was true savagery that only a shattered heart could have brought about.
"I doubt very much that he walked away." Frank said, rubbing his eyes tiredly. Leo felt for the big man. Monster attacks had become more and more common until two attacks in a day was considered a good one. Dozens of Romans had already fallen and the Senate had been forced to call older members of the Legion out of retirement to bolster their ranks. Old gray-haired men and women, college age kids, and mothers and father with young children clinging to their skirts arrived in droves to bolster their numbers. But even with that Leo knew that they were fighting a losing battle. The Greeks had fared no better, and the gods had grudgingly admitted a need for the two camps to merge if they were to survive this. Thus far the gods had been little help other than to provide mental encouragement and to help them around the camp. The only god who had taken an active role in the camp's defense has been Ares/Mars depending on the day. By all account Mars was the more helpful, providing weapons and shields to supplement the broken ones. Ares on the other hand simply assisted them on the battlefield by growing to twenty feet tall and doing his best to terrify the monsters into submission. The strategy had worked for a couple battles but it quickly lost its effectiveness when the monsters realized that he was not actually fighting.
Leo had asked his father why the gods were not assisting more directly and his father had simply said, "Because Zeus wills it to be so. He does not want us to waste our energy protecting our children."
"Wasting your energy." Leo had repeated incredulously.
Back at the place Ryker's body had laid, the leaders of the camps exchanged uneasy glances. "You don't think that there is a way that they could have brought him back… do you?" Piper asked quietly, voicing a silent worry that each of them had.
"I hope so." Percy muttered darkly, his hands tightening into a fist. The loss of Annabeth had been hard on him, and Leo worried for his friend. Hatred never ended well, and the want for revenge coupled with that was especially dangerous.
"I don't think so." Nico said confidently, stepping out of Frank's shadow. He had been there the entire time, but the son of Hades apparently had a love for making an entrance. "I went to the Underworld and spoke to Minos. Ryker was sentenced to the River Acheron. He isn't coming back."
"But why did they take his body then?" Hazel wondered, kicking the dirt lightly where Ryker's head had laid. "What did they want it for?"
As the demigod leaders of each camp voiced their thoughts and opinions on the subject, several hundred yards away Orion muttered the same question to himself. Who had taken Ryker's body, and why?
