Nico is so clever. I don't know what we would do on this quest if we didn't have him. I swear even Annabeth isn't this smart. Funny, you never see Nico not having enought time for you because of his reading. What am I thinking?! - thought Percy.
The ceiling / elevator stopped moving after what seemed like a couple of minutes. Then all of a sudden it rotated, making the demigods fall.
"Ouch, that hurt!" - complained the blond son of Jupiter.
"No time for hurting, let's go!" - said the son of Hades as he started walking towards the trap door which was now on the wall. They opened it and climbed out. The demigods were now standing in a rather large chamber with a lot of lit torches on the walls. The fire, however was green and started emmiting vapor. Soon the room was full of green gas, it was impossible to see.
"This is never good."- said the Sea Prince worried.
Once the vapor had vanished infront of the demigods was a beast of legends, part human, part cat – a werecat. It was looking at the demigods with yellow eyes, getting its long black claws out out of its paws overgrown with dense brown fur, saliva dripping from its fangs. It launched itself towards the demigods, who had to jump out of the way, but this time they didn't split. The werecat was holding its paws to its head in pain.
"I've got a plan."- said the green eyed demigod. He whispered it to Jason and Nico. The Ghost King went back into the elevator / ceiling through the trap door. The son of Jupiter shot electric bolts at the monster multiple times forcing it to go near the trap door where the son of Hades stabbed it with his black Stygian iron sword turning it into golden dust.
"It worked!"- cheered the son of Poseidon, a little surprised seeing how simple the plan was.
"A little too early to celebrate victory, still dead remember!"- reminded the olive skinned demigod.
Just then a hole in the floor appeared and the three heroes jumped right in, before realising it was a few miles deep. Luckily Jason was strong enough to summon the mighty forces of air in order to slow down their fall.
"Probably shouldn't have done that without thinking first."- said the blond Roman demigods, referring to their jump. Everything was dark down there except for some writting on the wall which seemed to be shinning despite there not being any visible source of light. It said (in ancient Greek, of course) You come very far, only one more test separates you from your goal, the test of Logic. Answer this riddle and the gift of eternal life is yours: I am not alive, but I grow; I don't have lungs, but I need air; I don't have a mouth, but water kills me. What am I?
They thought for a couple of moments and than the Italian said: "You are Fire!"
A secret passage way opened at his words.
"How did you know?"- asked the other two, eyes opened wide in disbelief.
"Oh, come on it was so obvious!"- said Nico. I really have to get to know Nico better, once I am living again.- thought the Sea Prince.
The passage way led to a big, golden door covered in rubies and saphires.
"This better be it!"- grunted the three young, powerful demigods in union.
Jason and Nico tried to push the door open but it just wouldn't budge.
"Guys it's allright you've already done enough, besides this isn't so bad, atleast I can talk to you guys, how many people can say that they can talk to their best friends after their death?" - said Percy realising he might be stuck like this, so he naturally looked on the bright side.
"No forget it, Perseus Jackson, don't even think like that, I promised to both you and your mother I'd bring you home and I have absolutely no intention of breaking that promise!"- roared the son of Hades. I've never seen Nico like this, he's kind of hot! Wait what?! - thought the ghostly demigod.
The Ghost King thought for couple of minutes before an idea hit him.
"Grace can you shoot wind and electricity from your hands at the same time?"- asked the black eyed demigod.
"I think so"- said the blue eyed son of Jupiter.
"OK I will gather the shadows into an orb like earlier and we shoot all we've got at this door at the same time. When they were done with that all that was left of the golden door was a pile of dust.
The chamber behind it was absolutely breathtaking. There were beautiful marble statues holding torches that lit the whole chamber and there were even small ponds of water, but most important of all on several spots on the ground there was tall, turquoise almost transparent grass which the demigods knew must be the divine herb they were looking for. Nico tore a handful of grass from the soil and put it in Jason's backpack.
"We finally did it!" said the Roman demigod.
"Uhm guys how do we plan on getting out?"- wondered the son of Poseidon.
"I think I have enough energy to shadow travell us back home."- answered the shaggy haired demigod. Shadows engulfed them and by the time they disappeared the three demigods found themselves staring at the Grand Canyon.
"Nice going Ghost King!" - teased Percy
"No time for that Perce, we've been beneath the earth for nearly 3 days meaning today is Halloween and it's a quarter to midnight so eat some freakin' grass quickly!"- said the blue eyes demigod. Nico gave Percy some grass and the son of Poseidon chewed quickly and then swallowed. A few seconds later he felt like he was on fire, everything started spinning and he passed out. He regained conciousness a few minutes later and looked at his hands realising he was no longer able to see through them.
"Welcome back, Perce!"-cheered the other two.