The happiness at my success of passing over the dark lands successfully didn't last long. Exhaustion does that to you. So I scanned the ground below and aimed for some place far away from any reforming monsters that had enough rocks for me to hide in or behind. There wasn't much, but one particularly rocky area caught my eye. I forced myself to zoom down, stumbling off the bike (wow, that hurt), and immediately finding a place to pee. Amazing how much better that can make you feel.
After that, I glanced around where I'd landed, hoping for a cave or something, hopefully unoccupied and somewhat safe. Then I grabbed the bags I'd brought with me, some of which I'd already raided for food, and turned to begin trekking along the mound, desperately wanting to lay down and close my eyes. My eyes lingered on the ice-bike, though. It would probably completely melt overnight, but that really didn't bother me. I could just make a new one when I woke up. However, it was a source of water I didn't have to summon. I considered the bike, an idea beginning to form in my mind (I was getting better at those).
My contemplation was interrupted by the sound of skittering. Frowning, I turned to glance around me again. I couldn't see anything, but I'd been getting better at sensing the liquid around me too, and I could feel something there. Taking a deep breath, I closed my eyes, focusing on my sensing ability. The water I had on me and the bike flared, but I pushed past that to focus harder on what I could sense outside of that. It took me a few moments, but eventually I found what had made the noise. Small creatures, much like the scorpion/spider things that I'd found near…
I felt myself pale and my eyes snapped open.
Oh.
Oh, no.
Instantly I forced my powers forward, turning the bike into water. It took longer than I would have liked, a few seconds can cost a lot in a fight, after all, but nothing happened except that I heard more skittering. However I knew I didn't have long.
Ignoring the ache in my (I'd really been using my power too much recently) gut, I forced the newly melted water into a new shape surrounding me, like a bubble, and hardened it.
I got the shield up just in time. Dull 'thunks' sounded as all too familiar scorpions jumped at me, thankfully hitting the 'shield' before being knocked back. Not proud of it but I fell on my butt, bags scattering around me as I stared at the shield of ice—all that stood between me and certain death.
Story of my life.
Especially recently.
The worst part? I could still see outside somewhat. Ice can be transparent, and I hadn't cooled it enough to fix that. The scorpion/spider things around my base camp didn't look like the things still thunking against my ice-shield. Those were smaller, more of a dark brown, and nowhere near as aggressive. They tended to run from me instead of attack me. These, though… no, these were Pit Scorpions, plain and simple. And they were terrifying even now. Especially en masse. I knew what they could do. If I got stung by one of them, it would be game over. No one here could heal me… and even if I managed to find someone who could, why would they?
Unfortunately, I didn't have many options just then. My entire torso throbbed with how much I'd used my powers. I could force more out, but I didn't want to know what would happen if I had to fight prolonged. Would my power stop working? Or kill me? Or worse? Divine powers weren't exactly predictable.
I needed a way out of this, but I doubted I'd be able to get away without flying… again. But even if I could, where would I fly to? I still had no idea where Damasen's camp was (I could only hope it was closer than before) and there hadn't been anywhere else to take shelter for as far as I could see. Sleeping out in the open would be suicide—practically an open invitation to come and get demigod meat. So…
I shook my head and tried to calm down. What would Annabeth do?
That… didn't initially help. Actually, my mind went completely blank, pure fatigue dragging at me. I shook my head hard and forced myself to think back. Address the problem, she'd said once when she'd outlined how she came up with plans and ideas. I looked around at the gathering number of scorpions. The problem seemed pretty obvious to me.
Just do it, Seaweed Brain.
Taking another calming breath, I nodded and forced myself to consciously lay out my current problems. I was tired—exhausted—after traveling non-stop for an entire day while using my powers. I needed to rest, and was pretty sure my body would shut down fairly soon one way or another. The only place to go that I could take shelter in for miles was where I'd landed, but it just so happened to be chalk full of deadly pit scorpions. Was there anything else I'd missed?
(Well, I was in Tartarus, but that was an even more obvious given than the stupid scorpions.)
What do you need to solve the problem? Annabeth's voice asked.
A safe place to sleep.
Come up with ideas. Brainstorm. Be aware of any problems those ideas can have.
I sighed again. This was the hard part for me on a good day when I wasn't about ready to collapse from exhaustion.
What do you have access to?
I glanced around. I had weapons, food, water, Phlegethon water, my sleeping bag, the cordage I brought to tie trees down… Except, wait… I couldn't see that inside the sphere of ice. Then I remembered how I hadn't taken that off of the bike when I'd melted it down. Sure enough, I glanced out and saw my pile of carefully wound cords now lying innocently under a growing army of way-too-large bugs. I glared at it as angrily as I could, which probably only came across as miserable at that point. At least the scorpions seemed to ignore it completely.
Think through one thing at a time, Annabeth had said. I realized I'd have to ignore those for now and try to think of a way to get them tomorrow. Unless I left tonight, but my aching gut told me that was not a good idea.
Which meant I'd have to stay there.
And nothing I'd mentioned would be helpful except maybe the water.
Wait.
I took another hard look at the ice-distorted world I could see outside. A couple of feet away, I could see a fairly even patch of ground, just large enough to stretch out in, between some stones. Seeing as I didn't want to summon any more water than I absolutely had to, and I was looking for some place defensible where I could build up several layers of ice… Yeah. That could work.
I was so going to tell this to Annabeth. In detail. She'd probably just smile in amusement at my plebeian attempts at applied knowledge, but I knew she'd be proud of me for thinking my way out of a problem, even if it ended up being as simple as 'hunker down and wait'.
Taking a deep breath, I stood, gathered my belongings, and dumped most of the water out, forcing myself to catch it with my power. Then I melded it into the ice dome (that was still too thin for my liking) and stepped forwards. It wasn't easy, forcing the shield to move so that it constantly protected me as I walked, but it worked, and that was all I cared about.
The ice pushed most of the pit scorpions out of the way, and squashed any that didn't move. I had no issues with that, even if it seemed to make the other scorpions angrier. Hey, it was their fault for not moving. I also made sure to be careful with how the shield interacted with my surroundings. I didn't want any gaps in the wall from dips in the ground, so it took me a little longer to get there than I would've liked, but eventually, I stood between the two stones.
I only realized how much I'd been pushing myself when I stopped moving and realized I'd gritted my teeth so hard they hurt. Still, I forced myself on, moving the ice so it would be as thick as I could make it before pushing the temperature to drop. The shield shifted slowly, as if reluctant to follow my command, but eventually it got into the right shape and then I froze it as solid as I could, leaving me in an opaque chamber of ice just barely large enough for me to stand in.
Almost as soon as I let go, I collapsed, almost falling asleep right then and there. Staying awake was a struggle, but I also remembered Annabeth's next warning from her explanation. Remember that nothing goes smoothly. Nothing. Especially not for a demigod. There will be problems with whatever plan you come up with. So always check for potential problems. Never take anything for granted.
That had been a hard-learned lesson, and she was right, so I forced myself to look around. What could be a problem inside the safety of this little ice bubble?
Wait… how much air did I have?
Right. Holes. I could do that. Except, then the pit scorpions might be able to get in. Could they climb on ice? I didn't know, but did I want to chance it?
No, I really didn't. So what could I do? Make the holes small, I supposed. But could they still get poison through those holes? What if they could?
Always assume the worst and prepare for it.
This was getting too complicated.
I sighed and reached up, wincing at the worsening twist in my gut, and then pulled the water from as high as I dared—not on top, it would be too easy to leak… something down onto me… or break. Even I could see that. After all, I was making quite a few small holes. But up on the side… yeah. That should work.
Once finished with that, I struggled for the last piece of advice she'd given me.
Double check. Triple check. Make sure it works, and then make sure you can keep it working.
I frowned. Maybe I should try to summon more water to make the ice walls thicker?
I groaned at that. It was the best I could come up with at the moment. Reaching out, I tried to summon more seawater, but only got a little before the ache turned into a sharp stab of pain. I sat there on the ground, just forcing myself to breathe for some time. At least the temperature had cooled down. Good to know.
Eventually, the pain faded a little, and I forced what water I could into the ice walls. My torso still hurt, but it worked. I knew I would pay for this… but that was a problem for tomorrow's Percy. Right now, I just needed to make sure that the walls were… there. Thankfully the ice felt thicker now. And I did feel safer.
I could only hope it was safe enough. I was having a hard time stringing thoughts together at all by that point.
I snarfed down a couple of rolls while getting my sleeping bag out and laying it on the ground. It was a little cramped from side to side, but decently long.
Finally, I just nodded and crawled inside the bag. Then I collapsed. I was out before I'd finished fully settling.
Thankfully, I didn't have any dreams.
xXx
Part of me was surprised I woke up at all. I'd been so tired the night before that I was sure I'd overlooked something. Overlooking something in Tartarus tended to end in lots of screaming and pain and death. Hence my expectation. If I was too tired to do damage control, it should—in theory—end with me dead. So the fact that I opened my eyes to ice walls that were melting and once again see-through, but still firmly standing, kind of blew my mind. I wasn't normally that lucky. Terrifyingly, I could still see an even larger amount of Pit Scorpions outside said ice, but I was still safe. I'd take that.
I smiled, still tired but glad that my plan had worked. It had totally worked and I couldn't wait to tell Annabeth! Of course, that was before I looked up to see some of the scorpions skittering around up there.
"What the—" I started, sitting bolt upright. Then I winced as that something inside my gut ached, still. I didn't know if that was a Tartarus thing, or if I'd finally gotten to a point where using that much energy didn't just knock me out. I'd never experienced it before my banishment—before I started heavily training with my powers down here.
It wasn't anything I could really pinpoint on my body. Just my… chest… area? Although it also somehow felt like my entire body too. And it hurt. I got the feeling I'd over-strained myself and forcing even more travel sounded like… well, a very bad idea. But I also needed to get away from here and those… things. I glanced up at the scorpions overhead and shuddered. Honestly, I was kind of proud of myself for not doing what I would have likely done before I'd reached New Rome and just pushed through it. Hades, I likely would have done that after too. (I still wanted to, but I'd promised Annabeth I'd take care of myself… and truth be told, I wasn't under an extreme deadline like usual.)
And honestly, after traveling all yesterday on the equivalent of a bike… yeah, I could feel that in my muscles too. Just moving hurt. I could if I needed to—if something happened and I had to fight, I could. But I needed to save that for if I had to. That had also been one of Annabeth's demands, that I keep a reserve of energy and avoid pushing myself to the absolute brink if I could help it.
(Like I had the 'night' before.)
I hated it but… okay, I would… take care of myself. For Annabeth (and my mom because she'd be right behind my girlfriend). I winced at my choice, but it was what it was. I had food and other rations. I could afford to spend a day recovering. Or half a day. Or a couple of hours. Honestly, I just needed a little ambrosia… and maybe the Phlegethon water. My lungs were hurting a fair amount now that I thought about it.
I got up and fumbled around in one of my bags for my stash of ambrosia. Almost as soon as I took a bite, it eased the ache in my chest. Then I'd swallowed a mouthful of Phlegethon (gagging as drinking the thing after eating Ambrosia was the worst) and then finished the square of Ambrosia. The contrast between the godly food and the hellish water couldn't have been more stark. Worse than drinking orange juice after brushing my teeth.
I waited a couple more minutes, so the ache had eased significantly, before reaching out with my hydrokinesis. My gut twinged, but didn't ache nearly as much as it probably would have before I'd had some of the precious ambrosia. Depleting my stash was well worth it, though, as I was able to sense the water now soaking the ground; water that had melted off. I concentrated and forced as much of it as I could back up and into the walls of the ice dome, evening out the curved sheets and adding thickness again. Then I dropped its temperature so it froze more solid again, consequently becoming more opaque. Releasing my powers, I looked around, nodded, and then dug through my food bag until I found some fruit and crackers. After eating that, I relieved myself (in a corner of the room, well away from me) and then went back to bed. I could use a couple more hours of sleep anyway.
xXx
When I woke again, I felt far better. Still not perfect, but I could travel again. Which was good because the walls had begun to melt and clear up again (was that how normal ice acted, or was that just my ice here in the warmth of Tartarus?) and I could see some much larger figures outside. I couldn't see what they were, but if they could be around pit scorpions, I wasn't entirely sure I wanted to know. Well, I'd probably find out soon anyway.
So I stood, stretched and grabbed something to eat. My lungs weren't hurting, so I decided to forgo the Phlegethon water and instead gathered everything up to take with me. Once I had my sleeping bag stored away and my bags situated, I looked around my little ice room. I'd have to fight my way out of all this now. Thankfully, I had an idea, but I'd need more water. So I focused on the shell around my neck and called the sea forth. Once I had enough, I looked up at the ceiling and the silhouettes of the scorpions I could see there. They'd have to go first.
Closing my eyes, I imagined the water and ice growing into spikes. With their hard exoskeleton, it did nothing more than throw them off, but I was fine with that. Once done there, I siphoned water through the holes I'd made for air circulation. The scorpions and monsters outside were growing restless, if the movement I could feel from the liquid in their bodies was anything to go by.
I solidified the water into large, flat plates and let them hover for just a couple of seconds. Then, in the same motion, I had them grow spikes and slammed them down as hard as I could. I was positive I squashed a lot of the rocks too, but that was fine.
The area reverberated with the sound of dying shrieks and… squeals? Was that how the pit scorpions sounded? Or were those the other monsters? Hmm… I didn't care. I held the water down, keeping it hard, for almost a full minute, until the sounds of the monsters had died out. Then I let the water go. It splashed harmlessly over the remains of what was there. I was about to release the water walls when I realized I still felt movement outside.
That would be my luck. Pit scorpions—Tartarus' cockroaches. (Freaking huge cockroaches… Huge poisonous cockroaches.)
So I pulled my trick with the water-wall spikes again. I could still sense movement. I went to try a third time, but paused. No, I wasn't on a deadline, but did I really want to sit here and squash every single bug? Or did I want to be on my way and try to find wood to build with? And Damasen's camp. (I really hoped the Giant had reformed and returned there, too.)
No, I decided, no I didn't. So I drew the water back and reformed it into the water shield, then began walking back to pick up my cordage and ropes. Thankfully, I was able to clear away the leftover viscera of the dead scorpions. I was even more thankful for that when I found the cordage because it had been covered in dead bug parts. Joy. I rinsed it off as best I could before picking it up (I wasn't about to leave it behind) and freezing some of the water into an ice-room again.
Then I used the leftover water to make another bike-like form and mounted it. Once situated, I melted the top of the dome and lifted the water-bike into the air as quickly as I could. Nothing attacked me, and when I looked back I could only see wet ground and the remains of gold dust. I wasn't unhappy to leave it all behind.
Once high enough, I looked left and right, trying to decide which way to go. Eventually, I picked left, keeping the Dark Lands on my right. From my memories, that seemed more likely. So I kept an eye on the deeper darkness of the Dark Lands and where it started, then began to skirt the edge of it.
I stayed close enough to the ground that I wouldn't be too hurt if I fell, and actually began to find the ride somewhat enjoyable… as far as flying over the embodiment of an evil primordial deity went.
The next area I came to was most definitely not the swamp. It looked more like a mountain range (although what that said about Tartarus, I wasn't quite sure). More black rocks jutted into the air while deep crevices I couldn't see the bottom of zig-zagged through the area like black lightning bolts. I decided I didn't want to know what was down there and kept pushing on, stopping only once on an outcropping as a lunch break. Thankfully nothing attacked me.
The craggy area stopped abruptly, ending in a cliff that fell into a river chock full of rapids. I wondered which river it was, and reached out briefly. A sense of guilt and pain came back to me. The Acheron, most likely… the same river Annabeth and I had had to cross when passing through Nyx's mansion. I pressed on not wanting to be anywhere near it.
The land farther in got wetter and wetter. I still felt echoes of pain, so this must be some sort of offshoot from the Acheron, but the farther I went, the more that sense lessened. Then the tar pits started appearing, bubbling menacingly and releasing a yellow, sulfuric-smelling gas that hung in the air and smelled even worse than the rest of Tartarus (not an easy feat).
Then the trees started popping up. Not the branchless trees that looked more like giant hairs, but actual trees. Albeit they looked like someone had drained the life out of them and sagged more than they stood, not to mention they didn't grow terribly large, but still. I swore I even saw flowers among the moss that began to appear.
This, of course, was in addition to the odd monster bubble. Those still looked disgusting. They would never not look disgusting.
(I did not want to think about myself reforming in one of those things… nope. Just, NO.
I had to get out of here.)
Part of me couldn't help but feel ecstatic once I realized I'd found the swamp! And maybe Damasen… I could hope.
The swamp, though, was much larger than I remembered it being, with clumps of the trees here and there, but it went on for as far as I could see. Which was good. It left me a lot of wood to work with. (I hoped these were made of wood, in any case.)
I didn't feel any pain from the water here either, which I definitely counted as a win. I wondered how the tar pits and water bogs could exist in the same given place, but ultimately decided that I didn't really care. They could and that was that. Annabeth might care, if I pointed it out to her, but the last thing I really wanted to do was remind her more of our first trip here.
I saw the first monster—an empousa—before she saw me. I turned far out of my way to avoid her. The fewer fights, the better at this point. I was starting to get tired again and didn't want to give my position away. Then I saw a couple more monsters… and even more… and by that point, I figured I should probably backtrack and find a place to sleep for the night. I'd been riding almost eight hours (ish) and was getting tired again. My legs ached still from both my previous ride and this one and I needed to eat. Also, my lungs were beginning to hurt.
So I quietly backtracked until I could no longer see any movement in the trees and looked for a place to land. I found a clump of trees that had enough room inside for me to lay out my sleeping bag. It was a large enough grove that if I made myself another ice-room inside (seriously, I should have thought of that before) no one should notice. So I made camp for the night, ate a healthy dinner, drank my Phlegethon water (a burning throat a day keeps the doctor away, right?) and settled in.
Unfortunately, I dreamed.
Demigod dreams sucked.
Tartarus dreams were, of course, worse. Or… at least more intense.
I found myself floating in a void, much like the ceiling of Tartarus that I'd seen. Colors—some I couldn't even put a name to—twisted and turned and clashed, creating new colors I'd never seen before. That would have been amazing, if not for the sense of the shapes and beings surrounding me. Some felt older than the Earth, some younger than me, but all of them had a sense of otherness to them, like they were large, beyond comprehension, but also small enough to fit in the palm of my hand, while also being about my height and build all at the same time. Some of them seemed to want to mimic me, taking on humanoid forms, but it also felt… mocking somehow.
I didn't like it.
So I went on guard, ready to fight if I had to (even if I knew it would be utterly futile).
There you are! You've wandered quite the ways from your chosen home. You know, they never told me how amusing you are, mortal. My children, I mean.
I froze. I knew that voice… even if it wasn't a voice I could physically hear.
"Tartarus," I said, whipping around, looking for the shape of the primordial. I only found more of the same, mocking void.
They told me you would be fragile. That mortals die and it was difficult for my messengers, children and grandchildren to understand, so how could I? A dark chuckle that wasn't really a chuckle, but more a sense of amusement, reverberated unpleasantly through my mind. I think they underestimated you.
I shook my head. "I'm mortal and can die, just like any other mortal."
And yet you live, destroying everything in your path that will stop you from reaching your goal.
"My goal is survival."
Another dark chuckle. The shapes around me seemed agitated, whether in pleasure or fear, I didn't know, but they reacted to Tartarus and thus could hear or sense him. That didn't put me at ease.
Of course. I've been coddling you, methinks. That stops now. My gut clenched and if I'd had an actual body, I was positive my heart would have frozen in my chest.
"W-why?" I found myself asking, almost against my will.
Why stop coddling you? Because you'll never reach the potential you have like that. Obviously some obstacles will need to be held back still but you are certainly more capable than I was led to believe. And more inventive.
I wasn't sure whether to feel pride in the compliment or horror.
"No, I mean you've been stopping monsters from coming after me. Why?"
A pause. How else could your survival be ensured? There were, indeed, other ways—torture, brainwashing, simply using our power on you—but this is… far more entertaining. After all, we are in no particular rush.
"I won't fight the gods for you!" I yelled, screamed really. When would these… these… nope, I couldn't come up with a term disgusting enough to call them, but when would they get that through their thick skulls?!
This time, Tartarus outright laughed at me. Of course not. As amusing as that would be, it will be far more amusing and satisfying to see you fight them for yourself. Just as they did against us.
I shook my head vehemently. "No. It will never happen."
Gaea, my love, was too hasty, methinks. But as for me? I can be patient. What is a few more years in the grand scheme of the world? In the meantime, please continue to entertain us, Grandson.
And with that, I sat up, yelling. It took me a moment to realize I was still inside my sleeping bag in the safety of my ice in the grove of trees. "NO!"
My heart beat so fast and I couldn't seem to catch my breath.
Count your breaths, I heard Annabeth say in my head. Nodding as if she was there and had spoken aloud, I followed the instruction. In, two, three, four, hold, two, three, four, out, two, three, four. Then again. And again. Eventually, I felt calm enough to think again, but I didn't stop shaking for hours.
I really hated Tartarus.
xXx
After a small sip of Phlegethon and choking down some food, I decided I wanted to travel lightly. If I had to fight, I didn't want the bags to hold me down, so I set an icy monolith in the center of the grove, just tall enough for me to find again if I flew over. Then I set off towards where I'd seen the empousai come from with only a couple of squares of ambrosia, riptide, a canteen of water, my water armor (not currently hardened) and some lunch.
The first group I ran into, I managed to ambush and destroy within a minute. Same with the second, and the third. After the fourth, I decided to keep the last one alive long enough to interrogate her at swordpoint.
"Why are there so many empousai here?" I hissed.
She laughed. "It's no longer claimed territory. If you want to see why, go in that direction," she pointed off to the left and behind her.
"Like I'm going to walk into that trap," I said dryly.
She just laughed again and lunged forward recklessly, arms and claws outstretched, practically throwing herself on my sword as I ducked her lunge. She popped into gold dust and I sagged in frustration. Should I just go back and avoid the trap altogether, or should I see what was going on? I was pretty sure that she'd pointed towards Damasen's hut, though, and I desperately wanted to see if he was there… although the 'unclaimed territory' didn't give me high hopes.
Eventually, I decided I didn't have enough Phlegethon water to last me more than a couple of days and I still had to make the trip back. I didn't really have time to walk around whatever they'd laid for me.
"Looks like I'm walking into the trap," I muttered to myself as I put Riptide away and carefully continued forward. I ran into a group of hellhounds and dracanae next. And then more empousai. I really wasn't liking the pattern.
After several hours and more monster fights than I wanted to acknowledge, I finally came across what I'd been looking for. Sneaking very carefully through some swampy areas, allowing the water to stop me from sinking more than a couple of inches deep, I ended up crouching behind some of the sickly, thorny bushes that had become a staple of the scenery as I sneaked forward.
I could hear a crowd celebrating, sounding more like Mardi Gras than a monster party, ahead. I very carefully crept until I could lower some bush branches and, for the first time since I'd returned, set my eyes on Damasen's camp. I found the same enormous hut made of bones and skin (I knew why Damasen had chosen that now, at least) in the same clearing as before, but it felt completely different, probably due to the literal hundreds if not thousands of monsters practically swarming the area. It felt… wrong, to look around and see groups of monsters huddled all over. Some were fighting, some played games (yes, they had cards and everything), some had stretched out or curled up, lounging and sleeping.
I did not like seeing them there. The hut had been Damasen's home. The giant had wanted nothing but peace. Seeing the bloodthirsty monsters there just… made me angry (like a lot of things tended to in the Pit).
But the worst part of it was the all-too-familiar manticore in the center of it all. I remembered him from Nico's school. I remembered Annabeth falling with him, disappearing over the edge of a cliff…
I desperately tried to shake off that memory and the sudden terror I felt from it (with little success) as my eyes were drawn to the enormous monster regeneration bubble—complete with translucent, yellow slime I remembered all too well—behind him.
Inside that bubble was Damasen.
xXx
AN: *Cackles* YES! I will leave it there! *ahem* What?
Thank you so much for reading! And thanks to Berix and Quathis for their help on this.
Oh, I'm going to start posting the titles for the next chapter at the end of each chapter. So, next week's chapter: Blood of Armies
Discord: discord. gg/xDDz3gqWfy (no spaces)
