*First of all, I am super sorry I didn't post a chapter yesterday. That was the day that my teachers had layered over a ton of homework and essays. :( But here is the next chapter, and on Saturday I hope to post at least 2! Reviews are appreciated. :)*

Percy

The empousa bared her fangs. "How . . . uh, aren't you frozen?"

"Monssssters and godssss. Only demigodssss and mortalssss are frozen." she hissed.

"So, can we like . . . go down?" I ask.

"Why? What do you need? is it another life sssaving thing Perccccy Jackssson? Or you mussst die!" she lunged at us.

I grabbed Riptide and sliced through her, recapping my pen and heading into Hell.

We passed through as we had when we had our first quest and saw the River Styx. Lost memories flowed down, acid bubbles appearing on the surface.

"You ready?" Annabeth holds my hand, and I notice her looking nervous.

"Ready," I breathe and glance worriedly at the river - if this didn't work, the River Styx could make Hell collapse.

"You don't have to," she says, "It may not work."

"What work? Better sorry than safe, huh?" I laugh.

Then, we spot Nico. He notices us and come toward us, "What the heck are you people doing here?"

At 21, he was tall and lean, not very muscular or stocky. His hair swept over darkly over one side and his eyes were filled with an eerie look. His hands were nimble and his smile was like 11 years ago. Which, was better than the depressing scowl, which he wore on his face of the moment.

"Harintok," Nico stiffened at Annabeth's answer, "We need help. We need a challenged soul. Any ghosts in mind?"

"Yes. But he is dangerous. Jason faced him before. Midas or Lit. Midas would be more cooperative, but water could really petrify him," he mumbles, as Midas's ghost rises up and appears on the river Styx.

"Uh . . . go in the water!" he commands. Midas pulls away but sinks in. When he floats back up he is a sickly green and his eyes were blank, a shriveled ghost. Midas curses at us before he sputters out a nugget of gold. His touch was powerful. The river was in a thin layer of gold. We collected him in a stone jar and then scooped up the layer of gold and put it in too, careful not to touch the River. I tried to move the water into the jar, and I got 3 drops in, which fizzed in the jar. Nico spat in the jar, and I spat too. Annabeth pulled out a strand of her hair. We placed the jar in the Styx and it fizzed, popped and burned. The cap of the jar was still there, and when we heard a loud boom the jar became a sword hilt.

I pulled it out and a sword exactly like Harintok's appeared.

Nico paled, "Midas is the last challenged soul of the ancient times, and he was pretty minor. The next will be of your generation."

We fed him some ambrosia and nectar and he ate it softly. Just looking at the Styx ivory blade made my eyes blink vigorously. My reflection was beastly, I had ashy hair and a rugged look on my face. How did this happen? The empousa fight hadn't been too bad . . .

"You guys need to go," Nico mumbles out and sets himself in a rock's shadow.

Annabeth nods and laces over a spider string sword cover over the Styx Ivory blade, and we head off.