"For Annabeth." Though it was Percy who said them, it affected Jason more. The memory of his dream haunted his thoughts, causing a shiver to run up his spine. He looked over the assembled Greeks and Romans wishing for what seemed the thousandth time in a minute that they could have managed to assemble a larger force. The Roman forces had been somewhat bolstered by one hundred retired legionnaires that had been living in New Rome, but that was not nearly enough for the massive force that they now faced. Besides, many of the reserves had not fought in a battle, much less held a spear in years. But numbers were numbers, and the strength of the Roman ranks had increased nonetheless. Through the night Nico and the forces of the Underworld had shadow-traveled all of those unable to fight to a safe distance several hundred miles away.
Tartarus had set the stage for this battle, clearing several acres of land. The earth was charred and scarred, the roots of hundreds of trees poking up from the ground here and there. Other than those few roots there was no evidence that the grand forest that surrounded New Rome had ever been there. The forces of Tartarus stood at the end opposite the demigods, watching them. Even from where he stood Jason could feel the bloodlust and pure joy at the prospect of a fight emanating from them. The Romans stood in formation, their spears vertical to the ground, awaiting orders from Frank. The Greeks were decidedly not in formation, milling about or checking their weapons. It was an odd contrast, the intimidating cohesiveness of the Roman Legion next to the individual quiet deadliness that was the Greeks. Any other foe might look upon their combined might and reconsider picking a fight with them, but Jason got the sense that this form of intimidation merely served to excite their adversaries.
Frank's voice rang out over the assembled demigods, bringing the Romans to attention and ordering them to march forward. "Alright, move out." Jason called. Normally Percy would have been the one to command them, or Annabeth if she had been there, but Percy was not in any shape to command anyone. Jason had never seen such anger on his friend's face, not even after Leo's death. Thalia called for the Hunters to move out as well, arrows readied on their bows. The Amazons were right behind them, their battle fork-lifts fully outfitted and ready for the battle.
"Are you ready, Jason Grace?" Ceres asked, appearing next to him. Flashes of light ran along the lines of demigods, signaling the arrival of the gods. Each of them was outfitted for battle, their divine weapons gleaming with an abnormal light. "This may very well be the last battle you fight."
"This might be the last battle any of us fight." Jason reminded her, examining his sword and running his thumb over the blade. It was razor sharp, as expected. More and more flashes of light appeared among the ranks of the demigods and Jason had to admit that having so many gods fighting on their side was immensely reassuring. It was also worrying. If they were right, supposedly Tartarus had created a weapon that the Corrupted demigods could use to kill even the gods. If a god fell, what would happen to their children? Moreover, what would happen in general? Despite that concern, Jason simply couldn't imagine anything being able to best a god or goddess. They were ancient and immortal after all.
When the demigods were perhaps an eighth of the way across the field the forces of Tartarus began to move as well. When the two armies were a mere hundred meters from one another a mechanical thrum sounded out from the direction of New Rome. Jason had to grin as the first of the ballista, crafted by the combined efforts of the sons and daughters of Hephaestus and Vulcan, smashed into the enemy forces. Several monsters cried out and were reduced to dust instantly.
"Oh, yes!" Ryker proclaimed happily. "Let the blood flow! Slaughter them!"
"Charge!" Jason roared, summoning lightning into his non-sword hand. On his right, Percy had disappeared within the depths of a hurricane that swirled around his body. The Romans lowered their spears and just in time as well. The Corrupted demigods launched themselves at the demigod, each of them grinning crazily and laughing. The monsters were only a few steps behind, but they threw themselves into the fight with significantly less enthusiasm. Jason was immediately engaged by a Corrupted demigod, a son of Hypnos he recognized immediately, and he no longer could pay attention to anything else. The Corrupted demigod was strong, ridiculously so, and as Jason fought him he found that he was growing more and more tired. Battle fatigue was common enough, but Jason had fought for hours before without even a hint of the affliction showing itself. As he parried a particularly vicious axe swipe aimed at his neck the answer hit him like a ton of bricks. "THEY CAN USE THEIR POWERS STILL!" He roared, warning the others on the off chance that they hadn't figured it out yet.
He leapt backwards to avoid yet another swing from the axe and abruptly fell onto his butt. He felt something warm on his hand and glanced down, momentarily distracted. His eyes quickly fell upon what had tripped him, the lifeless body of Sherman Yang, a son of Ares. The demigod's eyes were wide an unseeing, a vicious cut opening him from throat to navel. He was obviously dead. Jason's momentary horror was immediately shoved to the back of his mind as the blade of an axe passed by an inch from his nose and buried itself into the arm of Sherman. The Corrupted demigod grunted in annoyance as he tried to pull the axe free, but Jason didn't give him the chance. The sight of his friend lying dead had effectively cleared his lethargy and he went on the attack. He cut at the son of Hypnos in a dizzying flurry of slashes and stabs, giving his opponent no time to go on the offensive. Summoning another lightning bolt in his free hand Jason stabbed forward again, using the momentum to get close enough to the Corrupted demigod for Jason to shove the lightning bolt into his chest. The son of Hypnos jerked and twitched as the electricity burned him up from the inside, finally collapsing as tendrils of smoke wafted up from his charred skin. The last bits of the demigod's power washed off of Jason and he was suddenly wide awake once more. His battle had only taken a couple minutes and yet the battlefield had descended into chaos in that time. Jason avoided the blade of an empousai as she attempted to disembowel him and abruptly separated her head from her shoulder. After fighting the Corrupted demigod the monster's movements seemed sluggish which made her much easier to dispatch.
"That was very well done." A familiar voice congratulated Jason as the son of Jupiter leapt aside to avoid being crushed by the massive club of an ogre.
Jason rolled to his feet, his eyes going to the ogre just as the monster was brought to its knees. As Jason watched, Ryker quickly cut out the monster's feet from under it and then proceeded to pierce his saber through the monster's skull. The ogre crumbled away and Ryker flicked the ichor from his blade with a simple twitch of his wrist. "Terribly sorry about that." He apologized, leveling his saber at Jason and smiling pleasantly. "I'm sure that you wanted to kill it yourself but, alas, patience is not my strong suit. I simply could not bear to wait for you to end that contest."
"You want to go?" Jason challenged readying his sword in front of him.
"But of course!" Ryker cried, bringing his sword in front of him, its blade directly in front of his face. "Now summon your lightning, Son of Jupiter. Allow me the pleasure of killing you at your full strength. Anything else simply will not do."
Jason was going to anyways, but he was annoyed that the Corrupted demigod was ordering him around. They were enemies after all. He didn't have to listen to him. But he summoned his lightning bolt nonetheless, bringing the bolt and his sword before him at the ready. "Come on then!" Jason challenged. "Let's go!"
"With pleasure!" Ryker laughed, dancing forward and launching a barrage of stabs at Jason.
The son of Jupiter parried them with relative ease, the heat of battle sharpening his already keen warrior's instincts. They traded blows for several minutes, Ryker laughing and smiling all the while. He avoided the lightning bolt and met Jason's sword every time, almost as though he was mocking Jason's skill. "I must say, you are much better than the last demigod I fought." He offered, dancing away from Jason's lightning bolt. "He did not last very long at all. Rather disappointing actually."
"I'm going to stop you." Jason promised, stabbing his lightning bolt at Ryker once more. "You aren't going to hurt any more of my friends!"
Ryker smirked and rolled his eyes. He glanced around him and, before Jason realized what he was doing, ran his saber through a demigod who was already engaged with another monster. The blade went in through his back and sprouted from his chest, passing directly through his heart. Ryker pulled the blade free and pushed the fatally wounded demigod forward with one finger, leaving him to be shredded by the dog-headed man he had been fighting. "I didn't have to do that." Ryker admitted, examining his saber as the demigod's blood dripped past the hilt and onto his hand. "But I do despise declarations of intent, specifically those that cannot be reinforced."
Jason was at a loss, his mouth agape as he looked at his friend being torn apart by the dog-headed man. There was nothing he could do, nothing he could have done. Ryker had acted far too fast for Jason to realize what he had been up to. "Y-you…" Jason's arms trembled and sparks began to spring from his hands. His sword began to glow a slight blue as electricity sparked up and down its blade.
"If you want me, come and get me Son of Jupiter." Ryker laughed and slipped away, disappearing into the chaos of the battlefield. Jason howled in frustration and fury, giving chase to the Corrupted demigod.
As he ran after Ryker his path was suddenly barred by a Corrupted. A very familiar one. A very scary opponent. Reyna. She smiled at him and twirled her spear in her hand effortlessly, the dark red spearhead flashing in the sunlight. "Well, I guess you will do." She said dispassionately, leveling the spear at him and lunging forward.
Jason knocked the spear aside with his hand, and Reyna's arm jerked as the electricity that the contact with Jason's sword coursed down the spear and shocked her. She staggered back a step and attempted a clumsy swing at Jason as he continued the assault. He stopped the spear with his sword again and Reyna's arm gave a spasm, the muscles in her hand involuntarily dropping her spear. Jason didn't bother playing nice like he would have normally. He grabbed Reyna by the shoulder, her body jerking as the electricity in his touch coursed through her, and shoved his sword through her heart. Her spasms grew even more violent as sparks arced off of Jason's sword. Only when she stopped twitching did he remove his sword from her chest, certain that her heart had been reduced to ash. He shoved her away, disgusted and upset. Reyna had been one of his closest friends and one of his most respected peers. Even though this was clearly not her, it still hurt him to kill the Corrupted who bore her appearance. He surveyed the battlefield once more, taking advantage of the brief lull in battle that a victory granted one. In the, perhaps, ten minutes that had gone by since Jason had first faced Ryker the chaos had grown even worse. Bodies littered the ground by the dozens and Jason was horrified to see that very few of them were the bodies of the Corrupted. Many of the monsters were gone, though whether they had fled or been killed Jason did not know. He searched desperately for Ryker, the thought of how he had carelessly ended the life of a poor demigod still fresh in his mind, and quickly found him.
The Corrupted demigod was laughing almost maniacally as he traded blows with a goddess, her divine glow giving her away. Jason narrowed his eyes, frowning slightly as he tried to recognize her, and then abruptly widened them when he realized who it was that Ryker was fighting. Cybele.
The goddess's lion laid several feet away, its entrails spilling onto the ground from a grievous wound in its stomach. Jason began to move to assist Cybele when the ground beneath him suddenly shook. He staggered and fell to one knee to catch his balance, searching desperately for the source of the tremor. He looked accusingly at Ryker, certain that this was the work of the forces of Tartarus, but Jason quickly saw that the tremor was just as confusing to him. The earth gave another great shake and, for a moment, Jason had a sudden horror that somehow Gaea had returned.
But, a moment later, the earth opened up and a stream of demigods poured forth. They were garbed in a strange assortment of armor, a mix between Greek and Roman, and they each sported a silver design on their cheek. As Jason watched, hundreds of demigods poured forth from the earth until the last one came through and the earth shuddered closed behind them.
The battlefield had grown quiet at their arrival, both sides unsure of what to make of this sudden arrival. For a moment, all fighting had stopped. Even the gods, who for the most part had been combating Tartarus and preventing him from crushing the demigods, stopped their battle. Jason could scarcely believe his eyes and, upon seeing the other demigods, he wasn't alone. Demigods who had died in the battle against Gaea, others who had died long ago, were among those who had come from the earth. And, most surprising of all, was who stood at their front. Annabeth stood in the center, clearly having taken command of these new forces, her gray eyes shining with fierce determination as she surveyed the battlefield. At her left stood Reyna, the real Reyna unless Jason was very mistaken, her eyes a mirror to Annabeth. And, most surprising of all, to Annabeth's right stood none other than Ryker. He alone was not garbed in the armor that the other demigods wore, instead he had some sort of dark clothing that slightly obscured his outline. He looked over the battle, his eyes seemingly scanning until he came across what he was looking for. Jason followed his gaze and saw that he was staring at his mother, Cybele. Ryker smiled slightly and Cybele returned the expression. For the first time Jason saw a goddess cry, Cybele's eyes overflowing with tears of silent happiness.
For a moment it seemed as though the battle would end there. But the Fates, as they always did, had other plans. While Cybele's gaze was diverted from her opponent, the Corrupted Ryker darted forward and, before anyone could shout a warning, shoved his dark aura covered hand into Cybele's back. The effect was instantaneous. The euphoric mood that Jason and the other demigods had taken abruptly turned to horror as they watched, in silent horror, as Cybele's divine glow faded. She opened her mouth to speak but no words came out. The Corrupted Ryker pulled his aura covered hand out of her back and Cybele pitched forward, falling to the ground most ungracefully. She didn't move.
A cry of such pain and sorrow the likes of which would haunt Jason for the rest of his days poured forth from Ryker as he watched his mother fall. "No!" He screamed, dashing forward with inhuman speed and reaching out for his mother desperately.
