I could only stare up at Kampê, my mouth dry and my stomach twisting in knots. I didn't answer her with more than a nod. I couldn't. What could I possibly say to her?
"So, you are the demigod everyone seems to be so interested in." She spoke in ancient Greek, but it felt even older. Not as old as the language she'd spoken the last time I'd seen her, but still ancient. I was glad I could understand her without a translator. That would have been awkward. "Well, let us see what you have."
Before I could even prepare myself, she launched forward, leaving me on the back foot as I desperately tried to parry both of her swords at once. She moved so seamlessly, I could barely keep up. I had no idea how she could fight like that, so nimbly even with all of her appendages and how large she was, but she did. I had to appreciate that, even as I absolutely hated it.
I couldn't keep up. That became very apparent very soon. She frowned.
"Is this the extent of your power, little one?" she asked as we continued to fight along the bank of the river. "I'm disappointed. Don't even have to use my tail or any magic."
I swallowed as I ducked one of her swings, only to roll out of the way of her second scimitar. This… this wasn't even her at her strongest? Then I almost kicked myself as I dodged and jumped another swing. Of course it wasn't. This was Kampê.
"I doubt you could lead us against the gods. Perhaps you truly are just better off dead."
Something inside me broke at that because… she was probably right. I really was better off dead… except, Annabeth. All of the kids back at camp. They were behind me. They wanted to bring me home. I couldn't let them down.
Which meant I had to get over my own fear and start fighting.
I backed away and took a deep breath as she let me, tipping her head as she contemplated me. Then she shook her head and shot forward again.
I met her blades again, trying to push harder and failing. But that was fine. I couldn't beat her with a sword, and I knew that. So, behind her, I lifted the entire Phlegethon into the air. Doing so while fighting a swordswoman who had thousands of years on me was not easy, but it was worth it when I literally dropped superheated, glowing water over her.
She screamed as her flesh melted and blistered. She didn't drop her swords though. I backed off, trying to catch my breath as I reached back and unscrewed the tops of every bottle of water I had, but one. She wanted a fight. Fine. She'd get one.
I had Cocytus water, Acheron water, Styx water, and Phlegethon water (obviously). I left the Delta water in its bottle as I didn't want to use that unless I absolutely had to. It would make her forget while physically and emotionally torturing her, and even I didn't want to go that far if I didn't have to. That would be my last resort. Otherwise, I let the water float around me in small bubbles easily keeping track of which was which.
Then, to my confusion, I realized she was laughing… and healing. Just being here in Tartarus let her heal like that?! Di Immortales.
"Now that is better," she said through her cackle.
"Time for round two," I said and shot forward, hoping to get the drop on her.
I didn't.
She met my sword with another cackle, still healing. This time, I used the regular water as shields, both ice and hardened water, against her attacks. If I hadn't had my water armor, I doubted I would have lasted ten seconds. Her scimitars flashed and blurred in the glowing light of the Phlegethon and it was all I could do to keep up with them, but I was able to at least keep her barbed tail from skewering me and I got in more than one hit of my own when driving my water spikes into her. She still laughed and healed every time.
"Let's step this up, shall we?" she asked. I barely had a moment to understand her words before she spoke in her ancient language. Then she took a deep breath, and breathed out fire. I felt my eyes widen and stacked several shields in front of me while making sure my armor covered my entire body. The first three shields vanished in the flames. The last two didn't, but the sheer heat of her attack left them mostly melted by the end. I did not want to get hit by that directly.
I grit my teeth. "Fine!" I yelled, sending my Cocytus and Acheron at her. She laughed and blocked my attacks with her swords as I summoned more regular water. Once I had more to work with, I decided to try and pull what I had on Echidna, except with my Styx water. That should end it once and for all. One touch should kill her.
The Cocytus water spike managed to graze her and she gasped, but recovered quickly, much to my frustration.
"You control Lord Tartarus' blood, I see. Interesting. Very well, I will admit—" she gasped again, this time due to the Acheron. "Ingenious and ruthless. I am impressed."
I really didn't want to impress her. I just wanted to live through the day and be on my way.
Finally, behind her, I managed to get the Styx water to coalesce into a spike and pulled it forward. I thought I'd succeeded. I thought she hadn't seen it. I was wrong.
At the last moment, she dodged, chuckling at the attack as it missed her and splattered on the ground, as if I'd been a toddler doing something cute. I grit my teeth and tried to get the Styx water back, but I didn't have the time or concentration to really focus on it, especially as she spoke her ancient language again. Fire consumed what was left of my Styx water as I watched in horror. That… that meant…
I swallowed again, took another deep breath and ignored the discomfort beginning to grow in my stomach. That just meant I'd have to get creative. Fine. I could get creative. I'd been working with my ice-golems lately to try and figure out how to move them around. Especially the pegasus.
Time to see what a fire golem would do. Reaching out to the Phlegethon, I lifted as much as I dared. She saw and spoke her magic again. This time what looked like a shimmering shield appeared above her. I just grinned at the thought that she'd just wasted energy as I pulled all the water towards me. It surrounded me, lifting me up so I was face to face with her, buried inside the glowing phlegethon water. It wasn't very see-through, though, so I had to use my regular water as a screen directly in front of me, allowing me to see her. I also kept a layer of regular water all around me to stop the heat of the Phlegethon from slowly building and either distracting or eventually singing me. It took a lot of control and concentration, but it was kind of gratifying to see her look so surprised.
"Round three," I yelled, forming a sword of glowing water in my golem's left hand. The golem itself wasn't more than a vague, humanoid construct, but it was something I could fight with. I hoped.
Kampê threw her head back and guffawed, loud and hard. Then she lunged forward again. I could tell she wasn't holding back like she had been before… which worried me. If she hadn't been holding back before, I would have been dead many times over.
While she attacked, I made the water-golem move with me as I made to block and parry her attacks. It was… a new experience, and most definitely not one I'd really tried before—I'd only just gotten how to move water as a single entity—but she couldn't do much more than slice my golem and that did little good when it was made of literal, lava-water.
"That is wonderful, little demigod!" she practically beamed. It looked about as scary as her challenging face. "But how long can you keep that up?"
I could barely hear her through the water, but I still managed to. She didn't have a voice meant for speaking underwater. Thankfully, I did.
"Long enough to destroy you!"
She laughed again. I was really starting to hate that sound too.
"Is that so?" She spoke her magic and another one of those strange shields appeared in front of her. My golem's sword splashed against it, much to my surprise. I had to make it reform. Then the same thing happened again, and again, no matter how I tried to keep the whole thing hard. I was losing my ability to control so many aspects of water at once.
We continued to fight, but I couldn't hit her, and she couldn't hit me. We'd come to a stalemate and I knew I couldn't win a battle of attrition. I'd been holding multiple shapes together in water and ice for a while now, and moving my 20-foot-tall lava-water golem for several minutes as well. The sheer amount of power I was using at once was taking its toll on me, as the splashing sword proved.
Then she did something I wasn't expecting. She'd been using shields to fight my golem, mostly, as her swords did little good. They didn't scare me because they couldn't do anything, but I underestimated her. She rushed forward, looking to slice me again, but this time she moved her shield at just the right angle to knock my golem's arm out of the way and stab right at me with all her might. My eyes widened as the sword thrust through what I had of the golem—I hadn't bothered to even try to make it hard too—wasn't even sure I could have at that point with how much that would have cost me. I'd used too much power.
The sword pierced my armor before I could move out of the way. For several seconds I could only look down at the green scimitar sticking in my chest. Not through me, my water had been able to stop that at least, but…
And then the pain started as poison rushed through me. I screamed and lost concentration, the Phlegethon water splashing and sizzling onto the ground below me. It also fell onto me as I collapsed onto the black sand, which may be the only reason I didn't die. Shock had stopped me from acting, and it almost killed me.
Kampê tsked, shaking her head in disappointment. "And you had so much potential. What a pity.
"Just to inform you, there is no antidote to that poison. You will die because of it. Even the Phlegethon will only prolong your suffering."
I stared up at her, gasping. "I thought… you wanted me… to live."
She shrugged (at least she had modern mannerisms down enough to get her utter lack of care across). "Only if you are strong enough. Only the strongest live down here. That is similar to the Roman motto, is it not?"
I grit my teeth. I'd never cared for the 'Roman' way. There were a lot of things I could appreciate about the Roman's culture, but that was most definitely not one of them. Knowing that monsters mirrored it didn't raise my opinion on it either.
I could feel the poison burning through me and had to wonder what I could do. I could stop my blood, but that wouldn't do me much good. I kind of needed my blood to live, and stopping it would probably only kill me faster.
Wait… An idea came to my mind. Could I just… stop the poison? I'd controlled poison on more than one occasion by this point, and I'd controlled my own blood. Did I have a choice?
Gritting my teeth I closed my eyes and concentrated on the liquid in my body. Yes. I could feel the blood pumping through my heart. I could also sense the other ingredients inside the liquid. I knew that one had to be iron, and plasma, and…
There. A small amount of something foreign. That had to be the poison. It took more power and control than I would like to admit, but I managed to draw all of the poison back into my bloodstream and isolate it, not allowing it to touch any of the cells, surrounding every molecule with liquid so dense nothing could touch it anymore.
It still hurt and I hissed as the pain of moving the foreign substance through my blood system until it came back to the cut on my chest wasn't pleasant, but then nothing about Tartarus was.
I let the poison fall from the cut onto the black sand below, forcing it out until nothing remained. Then I collapsed. That… that had hurt. A lot. But I was alive and not poisoned, even if I had had to let a fair amount of blood seep out simply because I couldn't concentrate on that too, in my state.
But if I lost any more…
I wished I still had the ambrosia squares, but I'd run out of those far too long ago. Thankfully, the Phlegethon was right there. But I couldn't will myself to crawl to it, so I took a deep breath and drew a small amount of fire water to me.
"You are a fighter, aren't you. How long can you resist that poison, boy?"
Wait… she didn't know I'd gotten all the poison out? I… I could use this.
Ignoring my now very much aching gut, I forced myself up to my hands and knees, then pushed myself back, glaring up at the gorgon-like monster angrily. As discreetly as I could, I uncapped my last bottle of river water and willed it to leak out. Meanwhile, I concentrated on the Phlegethon water, letting it fall into my hands and upending it into my mouth. It burned, as always, but different than the poison had. It was something I could concentrate past, probably only because I was so used to it.
Then I reached over and grabbed Riptide, which lay in front of me again, and forced myself to stand up.
Kampê continued to look down at me, amused.
"Is this what you humans call 'Round Four'?" she asked.
I didn't answer. Instead I took a stance, forcing my very tired body into the familiar form.
She laughed again. "Very well. I can appreciate you fighting to the very end. Respect it even. Perhaps you could have been the one everyone seemed to speak of, if only you'd been stronger now."
She readied her weapons.
For several seconds we just stood there, waiting for the other to move.
Then I grinned smugly.
"Checkmate."
She frowned. "What does that mean?"
"Have you ever been to the Delta of Despair?" I asked instead of answering, trying not to give into that vindictive pleasure of winning against such a powerful monster. "Ever felt its water?"
Her frown deepened. "All of your river water was lost, except for the Phlegethon here."
My grin grew. "Was it?"
Kampê's eyes widened and she jumped back, but it was too late. She finally noticed the black, sludgy water crawling up her skin. She dropped her scimitars to try and brush it off with her hands, but I wouldn't let her succeed, making sure I had control over every ounce of it.
"You know the thing about water—about liquid?" I asked. "It always wins eventually, unless you have specific defenses against it. Which you don't. What a shame." It clung to her skin, even on her hands, which she shook hard, but it didn't dislodge anything. After a moment, she recognized the futility and stopped, shooting me an angry glare. It was very effective, even knowing what I did.
"I will destroy you!"
She lunged forward in a blur, but it was too late.
"No. You won't."
I was surprised it hadn't had an effect on her yet, not like it did on me. Perhaps because it was so far from its source, or because it had been in that bottle for so long? Maybe because it she was just that strong? I didn't know, but I could still feel the despair radiating from it. So I kept forcing it up until it hit her lips. Then I directed it into her mouth, then her eyes and nose. I forced it down her throat.
She collapsed, screaming in pure pain—a wet, gurgling scream.
"Is that good enough for you?!" I yelled. "Good enough to live? As if you had any right to try and take my life! You are merely a jailer! I'd say don't forget it, but I'm pretty sure you will!"
She glanced at me in confusion, not knowing who I was. I could see it in her eyes. Good.
Then I made the water expand and she exploded into sulfur dust.
For several seconds I just stood there, breathing hard, making sure she was gone. Then I swayed as the world began to go black around me.
In a haze, I stumbled back towards where I'd left my ice-bike and found it. Thankfully. I managed to break it down into an ice-bubble to keep me safe, barely finishing it—including breathing holes—before I collapsed and passed out on top of my stuff.
xXx
I woke slowly, feeling groggy and that ache in my gut throbbed, but felt better than it had. It took me several minutes to remember where I was and what had happened. When I did remember, I immediately shot up and bumped my head on the ice above me.
"Ow!" I yelped, rubbing my head and glaring at the ice. Right. I hadn't had the time or energy to summon more water, so I'd had to deconstruct my ice bike (sad, I'd liked that design and wasn't entirely sure I could replicate it) and use that to keep me safe. There hadn't been enough water to do much more than create an ice coffin for me.
Maybe that wasn't the best imagery to think of. Suddenly I very much wanted out and went to tear the whole thing down when I noticed a figure sitting on a small throne just outside my bubble. I froze. I couldn't see much through the ice, just that they were there and that they glowed orange, like the Phlegethon, but seemed perfectly content to not do anything to try and get to me.
I bit my lip, wondering what I should do. If I left the ice barrier, I'd have to deal with whoever that was. If I didn't… well, I didn't have claustrophobia just yet, but that could change.
You can come out, little demigod. I have no ill intentions, a voice sounded in my head. I jumped and hit my head again.
"Son of a…" I started but faded off when I realized that I didn't have much of a choice. If that was a god, which I strongly suspected, said ice wouldn't do much good to protect me.
Swallowing, I reached out, ignored the protest from that place just behind my stomach, and let the ice melt into a large bubble of water as I stood. Whoever this was, I would not face them on my knees.
The figure sat on a throne that glowed like embers, remnants of a fire that seemed particularly ancient. It also swirled like eddies in water, constantly moving. The man himself had a deep tan, dark hair and eyes, and a completely neutral face as he watched me. His eyes glowed orange too and when he smiled—it looked forced… kind of fake—I caught a glimpse of more orange and yellow, like the inside of a furnace behind his teeth. He wore Greek robes that looked like fire made liquid.
I knew almost immediately who I was looking at.
"Phlegethon."
The man just raised an eyebrow in response. I didn't really know what to say to him, though. 'Thanks for letting me drink your waters all the time and keeping me alive even though that's not your job?' 'Thanks for not fighting too much when I manipulate your waters to win my fights?' I knew the five rivers all had deities connected to them, but there wasn't much about them in the myths. I'd never heard of anyone meeting them, besides Styx. Then again, I wasn't the most well-read, but still…
Eventually, I settled on asking a question.
"Um, forgive me, but… why are you here?"
He lowered that eyebrow, returning him to a neutral expression. He reminded me more of Mr. Spock than any other god I'd ever met, completely blank faced with only a couple of exceptions. (A little ironic considering Vulcan/Hephaestus.)
"I am always here," he said, gesturing to the river in front of us.
I rubbed the back of my head. "Right. You are. And… um, thanks. For being the best river—or in charge of the best river, I don't know how that works—in the Underworld and… well, here."
He didn't smile, but did seem to perk up in pride a little at my words. "You are welcome."
His answer kind of surprised me. I'd never had a god be so straightforward with me. Before I could say anything else, he leaned over in his throne, studying me.
"You have power over my waters."
I bit my lip but nodded. "Yeah. Son of the Sea God. Water is kind of my thing."
"But it is my water." Again, no inflection to say whether he was angry or amused or annoyed…
I glanced at the flowing water behind me. "Um…" I said, turning back around. "Should I not?"
"It is just… strange," he finally said. "It is unusual for anyone to have power over the strongest symbol of one's domain. Even the Algea, the gods of pain, can do little with my water without permission despite our overlapping domains. And you do not have power over simply one, but all rivers here."
I didn't like the sound of that. "Is… it really that unusual?" I hated how I sounded more like the unsure teenager I used to be than the twenty-some-odd man I'd grown into. But I didn't like my power being pointed out to me like that. I never had. It still scared me. More now than back then even.
Phlegethon didn't seem to catch onto that. Or if he did, he didn't care. "Yes."
"Oh."
We sat in silence for several seconds before I worked up the courage to ask him another question.
"May I ask if you know why?" then I paused and added on, "Sir." Because if he was going to be polite, I'd be polite right back. Funny how so few of the other gods seemed to pick up on that.
"You may."
And he said nothing more. I sighed. Gods were still gods.
"Then why can I do that? Do you know, sir?"
He thought about that for a moment. "I believe it is a combination of your father's domains, your will, and your own domains. I also believe it has something to do with the status of your soul."
"My—" I cut off as his words fully registered. I'd been about to ask about the whole will thing, but what did he mean by 'my domains'?! "My domains?" I asked.
I felt my stomach sink.
"I do not know many demigods, but those who have known my waters tend to have domains similar to their godly parent. You are interesting as you also do, but… more. Sometimes a demigod will have powers of a near relation to their godly parent, but I have never seen a case like yours before."
I shuffled a little in place, worn shoes that didn't really fit me (I'd gotten them off of a monster some time ago when Aphrodite's sneakers finally wore through) kicking at the black sand.
"I believe necessity has driven your will to new heights. When your will outweighs a god's, their very domains can bend to you. This cannot happen with other gods, unless their domains are the same and they are worshiped for said domains. The only conclusion I can draw is that you can because you are part mortal."
Which made absolutely no sense. "M-mortal?" I asked, baffled. "The part of me that can die?"
"It does not completely add up with what we know, but it is the only option that remains."
Oh.
I mean, part of me liked getting the answers, but part of me didn't really like the answers, and the rest of me was very unnerved that none of this made sense to even gods.
"And… um… the status of my soul?"
"When you first arrived, you had many kills to your name, but reveled in few of them. You did not enjoy killing, or any other vile acts as many of the monsters down here do. I am the personification of pain, but justly pain—the purging of impurities. Thus your body can withstand my water. Though you have consumed so much of it now that even if that did change, you would likely still have some immunity." He frowned, obviously not liking that. I didn't either.
I winced a little. "Sorry. I… I'm trying." I didn't want to say what I was trying to do. Not fall, not give in to my sadistic side, not become a monster (even more than I already was)… all of the above?
He nodded, and I was positive he understood. "I know. It is why I do not fight you when you seek to control my waters."
"Oh. Um… thanks. I… don't think I would have survived down here without that."
"Indeed," the god said.
Then we fell into an awkward silence again. He wasn't big on talking, was he.
"So," I said, gathering the courage to speak to him again. "Why did you decide to, um, come and talk to me? Did you…" I paused and winced, then crossed my fingers behind my back, "did you need something, sir?" Please say no. Please say no. Please say no.
"Hmm," he said, cocking his head to the other side, still studying me. "I was curious. And I will miss your presence when you leave. It has become quite… steady." I felt hope rise in my chest as I looked up at him. So I would be leaving? It was a sure thing? Then he dashed my hopes painfully (whether on purpose or due to his own domain affecting or outright controlling his actions, I didn't know) by tapping his chin with one hand and speaking again. "I shall look forward to your return."
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.
"I'm… leaving?" I asked.
He waved a hand nonchalantly. "The river exists simultaneously in the future and the past. Water that has known the path it has taken mingles with the water surrounding it all the way back to the beginning, thus I have some knowledge of the future and past, as most rivers do.
"You will leave for a while, sent away for another test, and then you will return… if you survive."
I wanted to groan. Story of my life.
"I guess I should make a trip to the Delta again soon." Replenish my supply of the different waters. I wouldn't have won against Kampê without them.
(Right, Kampê… I did not want to think about that just then but doubted I could put it off for long.)
"When you do, you will face another foe. They will lay in wait for you. You should stay here and rest a little longer if you wish to continue existing, though."
Right. Painfully blunt. Yeah, that tracked. "Thanks. For the information and all. Um…" no gift comes free, Annabeth's words from so long ago had stuck with me. It was, after all, truth. "What would you like in return?"
He smiled, and it looked far more real than most of his other expressions. It was small and slight, but very amused. "I wouldn't mind a sacrifice every now and then. You already sacrifice to your father and some other gods, do you not?"
I blinked at him for several seconds. "You… want to share my dinner?"
The smile vanished, but he nodded once.
"Oh, um… alright. Sure. I can even pass on the word to camp, I guess."
He frowned at that, but didn't say anything and I wasn't about to press.
"In any case, continue to rest, Percy Jackson. As long as you fight your own darkness and sadism, the pain from my waters will be manageable and my water will not fight you."
"Oh… um, thanks."
He nodded and then vanished. After a moment or two, I sighed. Manageable. Manageable. If that was manageable pain, I really didn't want to see just how far he could push into unbearable territory. At least he didn't seem to revel in his domain like Ahklys did.
In any case, I risked summoning more water through my seashell necklace and set myself up in a much larger ice bubble before I ate some food, went through my nightly routine, and went back to sleep, albeit not before my mind insisted on going over my fight with Kampê.
That I'd won.
I'd. Won.
With help from the different rivers' water, but… part of that was preparation too. It was a little mind blowing and… still terrifying. I didn't like how my power just kept growing. I mean, I did, because I liked feeling powerful and I liked being able to completely curbstomp the monsters coming after me but…
I was single-handedly taking on armies and monsters that fought gods. That… that was too much power for a mortal to have. And other people may think I was a great guy, but I still had a fatal flaw and could be extremely selfish. I was definitely in the category of 'should not be that powerful' and wondered how long that would take before it corrupted me. I was under no illusions that it wouldn't. Once again, story of my life, but… it was getting worse. And did that bring me closer to becoming a god or a monster? Was there even a difference? Really?
It took me longer to get to sleep than it had before, but eventually (thankfully) sheer exhaustion won out and I drifted off again.
xXx
AN: If anyone quotes Willow at me (the movie, not the new series), I'll... ... give you ten points and a plate of digital cookies! ;) But Kampe and Bavmorda give off the same vibes, right? Eh, I think so.
So yes, here we get to meet Phlegethon himself! Looked up what I could about him, and there wasn't much. So... *shrug*
A couple of questions to answer: I've read the first book of Trials of Apollo and then I've read the wikia articles on what happened to the different characters involved.
Thanks to Berix, Ajax, Asterius Daemon, Starlight3 and Quathis! My lovely Betas!
Thank you for reading!
Next Chapter (We're in the home stretch here!): Of Titans and Morality Chains
Discord: discord. gg/xDDz3gqWfy (no spaces)
