Chapter 18: Olympus Crumbles
In the brief pause following Tartarus' words, Annabeth extended her wings and rose high above the bridge connecting to Olympus. She turned her back on the monsters gathered on the opposite side of the overpass, and her helm began to glow brightly as her warbling voice erupted from it.
"THAT SHOULD BE ALL THE PROOF YOU NEED!"
Percy grinned from behind his wolfish mask as Annabeth shouted to a seemingly absent audience; the plan had gone exactly as intended. He could see in their shifting unrest that their enemies were confused by her outburst, but realization struck them all at once when the armored remnants of the felled demigods began to dissolve in wisps of purple smoke.
"ZEUS CHOSE HIS SIDE; WE MEAN NOTHING TO HIM! DROP THE WALL AND RETAKE OLYMPUS FROM THE–"
Tartarus pointed his clawed hand at the floating demigod, but Zeus didn't need to be commanded. The red-faced Olympian launched his cursed bolt of lightning while Annabeth was still mid-sentence. Percy reacted instantly, leaving a crater in the marble at his feet as he ripped skyward. Already swinging his sword, he met the careening projectile in midair as Riptide cleaved against it.
A deafening explosion followed, its force shoving Percy backwards into freefall, and he found himself enveloped from behind in a brief blanket of purple haze. At the moment he'd struck the Master Bolt, Annabeth's plan had come to fruition. A towering column conjured of the Mist had dissolved from behind their divine alliance, revealing the hidden audience.
Ten floating triremes creaked and groaned as they advanced in formation, a V-shape spearheaded by the Argo II and its captain enveloped in flames on the bow. Next to Leo stood Hazel bracing herself against the railing, recovering from the strain of hiding them all with the Mist. Armored demigods crowded each of the flying ships, all beating on their shields and shouting in a deafening orchestra. The monsters ahead joined the echoing cacophony while the triremes sloughed their way through the red haze blanketing the entirety of the godly city.
A pair of white gauntlets broke Percy's fall as they wrapped him from behind and steadied him in midair. Eight ships rocketed past the demigod and his savior while the remaining two docked directly beneath them. Immediately as the triremes landed, well over two hundred demigods tore from them and onto the bridge with Hemera and the allied Olympians leading the charge. The monstrous army had surged forward in tandem, and the jarring sounds of battle ripped through the blood-tinted air of Olympus.
"You could have had the courtesy to catch me bridal-style, Wise Girl," Percy said, his eyes unmoving from the battlefield below, "But thanks anyways."
"Thanks yourself; you saved me first. Maybe if you'd been faster so I could finish my speech, I would've caught you more comfortably," Annabeth teased in reply.
But her scrutinizing gaze didn't leave the city ahead. The eight triremes still in the sky had become ceaseless engines of flaming projectiles. They launched heaving stones and rockets of greek fire that blew craters through the buildings still standing on Olympus. Monsters wailed as their onagers exploded against each other under the torrential firepower from the demigod warships. Incinerating walls of greek fire burned gaping holes in the ranks of monsters choking every street of the city, but they were filled as quickly as they opened by the unending tide of the hellish creatures.
"There!" Percy called, pointing.
Tartarus, towering over the rest of his army, still stood much further back past the bridge. Both Zeus and Oryx had left his sides and waded forward through the monstrous sea, incinerating with lightning or melting with acid anyone in their way. But the Primordial of the Pit was looking skyward, holding conjured spears in both hands. With a scathing laugh, he launched them and sheared the bronze hulls of two triremes. Both ships stalled before catching fire and careening down to earth, crumpling against the growing ruins of the Olympian acropolis. The ground shook from the impact of the two massive warships against the godly island.
Annabeth tore through the sky with Percy in tow when Tartarus' dark whirlpool face trained onto the pair. It unleashed its innate, paralyzing rage while two more spears formed in the monster's hands. Annabeth stumbled midair, her grip loosening, and Percy knew she was reliving their final moment together in the Pit where Tartarus had thrown his spear at her. The demigod gritted his teeth as he removed his helm and spun towards her as best he could.
"Annabeth!" he shouted, grabbing her shoulders and jerking her entire body to the side.
A blood-red spear tore past them at blinding speeds, missing by mere inches before vanishing into the Eclipse's haze. The projectile's accompanying scathing winds snapped Annabeth out of her stupor. She shook her head as her own helm vanished, and Percy felt a knot in his stomach seeing the fear in her eyes. Her terror seemed to subside as she met his gaze, the pair granted a transient moment of only each other.
It vanished as quickly as it'd arrived; Annabeth's stormy eyes hardened towards something behind Percy, and his neck whiplashed forward as she jerked them both into a sonic nosedive. While they rocketed towards the raging battlefield below, Percy caught a glimpse of the second spear soaring through the sky far above.
"Holy shit, you're fast," he breathed as Annabeth leveled out and shot forward, "that missed us by a mile."
Annabeth didn't get a chance to respond before a massive figure below them blazed past even faster, momentarily blinding the pair. Hemera had arced her massive glowing sword like a scythe, reaping thousands of monsters as she cleansed the entire bridge of them in an instant. The primordial's momentum came to a halt several dozen yards into the city, and an explosion of sparks alongside the screech of her blade against Tartarus' twin sickles rippled across the divine acropolis.
Annabeth and Percy gained altitude to avoid the earth-shattering clash of the two primordials ahead and found their own targets immediately beneath them. Their allies had capitalized on Hemera's blinding advance and torn their own way across the bridge, setting up the beachhead of their invasion to retake Olympus.
Four triremes were descending in a square at the entrance to the city, framing a border for the demigods' infirmary. Injured bodies already littered the plaza, the felled demigods having to rely on children of Apollo to heal them while Hestia built a blazing hearth to center her powers. Immediately outside of the square's barely guarded borders, their Olympian allies faced off against their absconded counterparts and Oryx.
Annabeth and Percy shared a glance before the son of Poseidon grabbed her face and kissed her. She tightened her grip around him as she leaned into it, and the pair dropped into another nosedive towards the outside of the plaza.
"Please don't die," Annabeth whispered, pulling herself away only far enough to speak.
"I just found you again; not a chance."
Both demigods' helms reappeared over their faces, and Percy kicked away from her, rocketing towards the towering creature he'd spent far too much time with in the Pit. Oryx's talons dug into the plaza's pavement as he stalked towards the God of the Underworld locked in battle against Hermes. But the hellish monster never got the chance to reach Hades before Percy's armored form barreled into his side and launched them both through a collapsing building.
Hades slashed his scimitars and shoved back the God of Travelers, venturing a glance at the collided pair before turning his attention to the surrounding bloodshed. Behind him, Artemis slipped beneath Demeter's staff as she dealt a swift kick to the harvest goddess' throat. Thick vines ripped from the streets as Demeter stumbled back, flying past her towards Artemis. The graceful huntress was a blur between the tendrils, unscathed as she dodged between and sliced them to pieces with her twin daggers. As the thickest one shot towards her face, the Goddess of the Hunt ducked, and the vine continued its beeline ahead towards a preoccupied Athena.
On pure instinct, the Goddess of Wisdom whirled away from Hephaestus, slipping his heavy warhammer, and caught the spearing root on her Aegis. The thick projectile fell limp, and Athena returned her attention to Hephaestus with a stab of her spear.
Keeping their distance from the Olympian duels, the demigods had already split into the plaza's surrounding streets as they fought for footholds against ceaseless tides of monsters. They were holding their own with the help of Apollo, but the injured ones had no way to bridge the gap between the streets and the infirmary cordoned by their triremes. Black bolts of lightning rained down outside of the square, eviscerating demigods and monsters alike that weren't corralled into the alleyways riddled with golden dust and limp bodies.
The sky coalesced as Zeus manifested above one of the passages overflowing with combatants. The King of the Gods eyed the frightened demigods vengefully, his cursed Master Bolt sparking a harsh orange and demanding to be unleashed. In the Olympian's rage, he didn't notice the soaring demigod bridging the distance to him, and he reared back his godly weapon.
Annabeth whipped her wings at Zeus just as he launched his bolt, and the projectile rocketed off course, exploding in a violent black flash and eviscerating hundreds upon hundreds of monsters choking the alleyway. Dozens of demigods flattened to the ground from the impact, but they quickly scrambled to their feet and advanced through the thinned passage while straggling monsters crawled back towards their reinforcements.
The King of the Gods whirled around with his weapon back in his grasp as his hateful glare found Annabeth, and every muscle in his body tensed.
"You killed my wife," Zeus grated, his knuckles white around the Master Bolt.
"You did that yourself when you abandoned Olympus," Annabeth spat back, her white daggers glowing, "You sent her to kill demigods. That's how all of this started; I was just the first one chosen."
"Your mother made that choice!"
"And she already asked for forgiveness after regretting it every day!" Annabeth's glare hardened behind her mask, and her helm responded with a blinding glow. "It's your turn to repent."
Zeus roared as he tore through the sky, and Annabeth met his charge with a warbling shout of her own. They clashed in midair, Annabeth's glowing daggers slashing against the arcing tendrils of the Olympian's Master Bolt. The buildings beneath them collapsed into the emptied alleyway as the duelists traded a flurry of rippling strikes at untraceable speeds.
Further down the rubbled street, Jason shed his hood as he shot a glance back at the floating fighters. He'd been hidden in the crowd destined to be smited by Zeus, only to be saved yet again by Annabeth. As the young god lifted himself from the ground with the winds, a pair of hands grabbed his legs and wrenched him back down to the bulk of the demigod division.
"Wait!" Nico hissed, appearing out of a shadow and pulling Jason's hood back on.
The son of Jupiter didn't get a chance to spin towards him before the bell tower a dozen feet ahead exploded; a screeching Oryx barreled straight through it in pursuit of Percy. The demigod in black armor unleashed a harrowing shout from his helm before he ripped open the earth at his feet and brought forth the Rivers of the Underworld.
The Acheron shot out as a geyser and grabbed Oryx like a liquid limb, forcing a chittering shriek out of the monster. Its explosive pressure continued to increase as more water erupted, and the street began to shake as cracks spidered across entire city blocks. Oryx clawed forward from the grasp of the river, his heaving talons ripping out of the liquid prison and finding a grip on a building. As he pulled himself free, he called to the surrounding monsters, who turned away from the demigods and towards the former champion of Tartarus.
Nico shoved Jason behind a legionnaire before he cupped his hands around his mouth.
"Percy!" the godly son of Hades shouted, "take him into the city! We're fighting through the streets!"
The son of Poseidon ventured a quick glance over the throng of monsters charging towards him and the armada of demigods chasing behind them.
"Push towards the throne room!" Percy shouted back, "Hemera's moving there now!"
The geyser's crevice deepened before an entire tidal wave of the cursed water ripped forward. It caught both Percy and Oryx in its melting grasp and washed them out of sight. Exhaling, Jason pulled his hood off again as he turned towards the son of Hades.
"Thanks, Nico," Jason breathed while the demigods ahead of them tore into the backline of receding monsters.
"Yeah," Nico answered uneasily, "Thalia told me you were coming and that something bad would happen if Percy saw you."
"He'd probably try to kill me–"
"–Leaving that huge freak without an opponent, and we'd all be screwed," Nico finished for him, his tone cold.
Jason grimaced at the callous words before Nico's hand gripped his shoulder.
"We have our problems, and I don't see them ever going away. But for now, I'm trusting you to lead this group through the city and to the throne room. Good luck."
The wide-eyed son of Jupiter didn't get a chance to respond before his former crewmate vanished into a shadow. Taking a deep breath, Jason took flight again and called to the sky. The winds obeyed in an instant and, with a tug in the young god's gut, a violent tornado touched down at the heart of the monstrous fleet ahead. A storm rolled in from all sides as the street darkened, the clouds above thundering and raring to unleash their lightning. Drawing his golden gladius, Jason narrowed his eyes and rocketed past the demigods he'd been chosen to lead. For all of the mistakes he'd made, the son of Jupiter would fight tooth and nail to defend the soldiers behind him and do his part in reclaiming Olympus.
On the other side of the city, Nico materialized out of the shadow cast by a hulking hellhound. A trio of demigods backing into a corner shouted for help as the demonic dog advanced on them. The entire alleyway seemed to be mirror images of demigods hiding behind dented shields or cowering beneath the hellhounds leading the street's monsters.
Nico's eyes widened before he shut them tightly. Calling to his domain, the young god thrust his hands out and exerted his will over the heaving canines that littered the streets. The monster closest to him, salivating over the terrified trio of demigods, began to shake violently as it seemingly wrestled with itself. Its jaws clamped shut, its growl died in its throat, and it shuddered for a moment longer before freezing like a statue.
The same fate befell every hellhound in sight, the massive monsters standing still like sculptures as the son of Hades straightened his back and opened his glowing black eyes. All of the demigods stared bewildered at the frozen dogs before scrambling for their dropped weapons. Just as stunned were the rest of the monsters entrenched in the alleyway as they watched an entire segment of their allies halt in an instant.
In the brief pause from the deafening sounds of war, Nico inhaled deeply as he unsheathed his Stygian Iron blade and buried it in the earth to the hilt. A fissure ripped forward, and ghoulish arms crawled from the abyss by the dozens. The son of Hades didn't give the monsters a chance to renew the battle themselves as he vaulted onto the nearest hellhound and shouted,
"ADVANCE!"
The reaction was instant as both demigods and hellhounds roared in reply and shifted their raucous tide towards the horrified monsters suddenly being attacked by their own frontline. Nico watched as the braver demigods kicked themselves onto their own allied hellhounds as the entire division tore through the smothering alleyway towards the throne room far ahead.
A street over, Thalia vaulted from rooftop to crumbling rooftop alongside the Hunt. But unlike the rest of the girls' torrential rain of arrows, the daughter of Zeus was a human lightning rod conducting a ceaseless eruption of electricity. Glowing tendrils shot from her hands and spidered their way past the demigods below into the frontline of monsters. The tide of hellspawn incinerated by the dozens as the lightning ripped its way through them. The ones lucky enough to survive fell to the ground convulsing before being finished off by pouring arrows or slashing swords.
The entire city of Olympus continued to crumble as four triremes still circled in the sky and unleashed ballistae on the remaining defenses being manned by enemy cyclopes and dracaenae. The Argo II led the small battalion as Leo stood off of the bow launching his own massive fireballs onto the rooftops. Another building exploded as his flames tore through the payload that was about to be shot towards their ship. Hazel craned her neck from the stern as she caught a projectile rocketing towards them, dissolving it to a firework with the Mist. The city's defensive onagers dwindled as they burned to nothing or were abandoned by their crews, and the triremes shifted to drop their demigods into the fight.
The center street of Olympus, by far the widest and with a straight shot towards the throne room, was the demigods' decisive front. Led by Reyna and Frank, the collective clawed its way forward inch by inch under the constant fire of sparse catapults and the ripples of divine duels coming from every direction. The monstrous army was being pushed back by the whirlwind that was Reyna wielding her gladius, the demigod enveloped in the Blessing of Bellona. Right beside her was Frank as an African Elephant trampling monsters into dust.
But the demigods' numbers were waning, and their momentum felt destined to fail when the receding monsters realized reinforcements weren't coming. Reyna dipped back as her blessing faded, calling for Frank to duck with her, and the elephant transformed back into the burly son of Mars. Leaning against each other and breathing heavily, the pair shared a knowing look regarding the fate of their push forward. A trail of bodies lay behind the demigod army, most of their companions injured but many worse.
"We need to get the wounded to the infirmary," Reyna wheezed.
"We're still cut off from our beachhead; all of the streets are," Frank answered as he choked through his breaths.
On queue, black bolts of lightning ripped from the sky, knocking over another building between their division and the four triremes that created a border around their haven. Annabeth and Zeus shot by overhead as sparks exploded in every direction, the pair a blur that neither Praetor could track.
At the same time, a chittering screech tore through their street, and Percy's body fell straight through a building into the central alleyway. The demigod didn't get a chance to recover before Oryx obliterated the structure in pursuit, grabbing him in his clawed hand. Dazed, Percy couldn't focus his vision on any of the demigods he saw fighting several yards away. But what he did hear was a warbling voice from overhead.
"Percy!" Annabeth shouted, blinking through the sky between tendrils of lightning, "Call the Phlegethon!"
An instant later, the sea of fire ripped from the earth in a tidal wave that washed across the center street of Olympus. Oryx shrieked as it enveloped both him and Percy, and the monster tore through the river into a different street before the demigod in his grasp could consume any of the healing liquid.
Reyna and Frank stood frozen for a moment before they shouted for their allies to drink the broiling water. At once, the injured demigods littering the street gulped the gasoline-like nectar, as did everyone else not on the frontline. They choked down the receding wave, feeling the torturous effects of one of hell's rivers but still grateful for the momentary boost in energy.
"This won't be enough," Frank coughed, his mouth still blistered.
Reyna only offered a labored nod in reply as she ventured a glance towards the plaza where the infirmary was situated. She didn't linger, and neither did Frank, as the pair charged towards their own frontline with a new spark of adrenaline. Finding an opening back to their beachhead was out of their control; they'd fight with what they had and pray that their Olympian allies won on the separating front.
Back in the square, ichor poured across the rubble covering the entire area as the gods remained locked in their duels. Hestia continued to teleport between their protected encampment and the dozen streets that injured demigods layed in, bringing back several at a time. Apollo had vanished down one of the alleys himself, razing enemies and leading that segment of the demigod army on a rampage towards the throne room.
Athena sidestepped a wide swing of Hephaestus' warhammer before shouldering forward and striking the god's jaw with her Aegis. As the forge god stumbled back, she gave him no quarter, instantly charging and burying her spear into his stomach. Hephaestus groaned as he fell to one knee, his entire body already riddled with wounds from their battle.
The Goddess of Wisdom blinked back tears as she twisted her spear, her own body shaking from the devastating blows she'd taken from Hephaestus' hammer. The arm holding her Aegis burned, the supposedly unbreakable shield itself cracked and her mangled limb behind it in even worse condition.
"Please, Hephaestus," Athena said, keeping her voice level, "Do not make me do this."
Her anguish had nothing to do with her injuries; those could be mended much easier than taking up arms against her family. Hephaestus moved one of his massive hands to the spear embedded in his abdomen, groaning as he held it in place.
"He is my father, Athena, as he is yours," the forge god croaked, "He gave me a place on Olympus after Hera cast me to Earth. For better or worse, I must fight with him."
Athena grimaced, fighting for control of her weapon as the burly god struggled to rise with it still protruding from him.
"Then I am sorry, Hephaestus, for I must fight with my daughter. I hope you return to us."
The God of the Forge shoved upright, lunging backwards to drag himself off of the spear. Allowing it, Athena released her grip on her weapon and barreled forward with her fractured Aegis held in front of her. Hephaestus stumbled, no longer feeling the pull of his opponent, before he lifted his warhammer overhead with both hands.
But he began his swing too slow. Athena shouted as she bounded from the floor, shifting her shield's direction towards the head of her taller opponent. Hephaestus' swollen face shifted to horror as the shield's paralyzing etching of Medusa slammed into his nose. With a shattering crack, Athena's Aegis split down the middle while Hephaestus' head gushed ichor from the impact.
His arms fell limp, and Athena caught the descending warhammer in her own hands without losing any momentum. She spun a full circle on her heel, the heaving weapon whipping in a wide arc, before its serrated edge crumpled the side of Hephaestus' head with a sickening crunch. The warhammer obliterated his jaw, erasing it from his body, before the God of the Forge cascaded onto his stomach. A matter of moments following his decisive defeat, the Olympian dissolved into molten iron.
Athena fell to her knees, the warhammer still in her hands. She silently prayed that Hephaestus would find his way back following his reformation, whether it took centuries or millennia. Around her, more duels neared their bloody endings, and the Goddess of Wisdom instead hobbled towards Hestia, unwilling to watch more of her family fall.
Hermes was moving as quickly as his winged sandals would carry him, slipping between fatal slashes of the scimitars wielded by Hades. His caduceus lay in pieces, both of his snakes lying limp beside it, and the God of Travelers knew he was on his last legs. From behind heaving strikes of his twin swords, Hades wore a pained expression.
Shadowed hands climbed from the floor, shoving away red haze as they reached Hermes and grabbed his feet. The wings carrying the god froze instantly, plucked clean off of his sandals an instant later by the black limbs. A third hand, larger than the others, materialized and pinned the panicking god's arms to his sides.
Hermes' eyes turned fearful as he tried to fight out of the vice-like grip. But Hades' Helm of Darkness had appeared, and his eyes of black fire held a solemn promise that it wouldn't be possible.
"Stop!" the trapped god shouted, his expression wild, "Father wants to save us! We have a promise of Cha–"
"I am sorry, Hermes," Hades whispered as he thrust both scimitars through his heart.
Shadows swallowed the God of Travelers, returning his broken essence to the depths. The God of the Underworld silently sheathed his blades, his heart heavy from the task he'd just carried out. The eruptions of war still rocked the city from all sides, but Hades silenced his mind as he took a moment to dwell on his tattered family. They would have sacrificed the world to hell itself for the sake of self-preservation. The God of the Underworld shuddered at the thought, and a whimper from feet away dragged him back to his deafening reality.
Artemis had buried her twin blades into Demeter's chest. Tears streamed from both of their eyes as the harvest goddess dropped her staff, and her hands moved to rest softly on Artemis' tense forearms. She fell to her knees, and Artemis dropped with her, holding the daggers in place.
"Please, Demeter," Artemis whispered, wiping her eyes on her shoulder, "We can stop this. We can win."
Demeter shook her head profusely, and her grip tightened on Artemis' forearms. Her eyes suddenly hardened.
"There is no victory in war, especially not this one. Finish it; there are monsters on both sides."
Artemis fell stunned by her words for only a moment, and that was enough time for the Goddess of Harvest to wrench both blades further through her body. She fell limp on the weapons she'd dragged past her collarbones, and Artemis could do nothing but watch as the goddess vanished into grain.
The plaza surrounding the cordoned infirmary stood still as the allied Olympians gathered themselves. But their peace didn't last more than a second. Black lightning lashed down alongside Zeus' roar from the sky, the vengeful god having taken notice of their victories. A white light ripped past them as Annabeth's glowing blade caught an arcing tendril of orange. Another deafening explosion followed, just like the one the Olympians had seen when Percy had blocked Zeus' Master Bolt.
"The demigods!" Annabeth's voice warbled as her nearly invisible form escaped back into the sky.
Artemis recovered from their collective stupor first, barreling towards the surrounding streets; the path back to the infirmary had become safer. But as she entered the first alleyway, the Goddess of the Hunt immediately understood what Demeter had meant. Percy tore through a building followed by a spiraling wave of the five Rivers of Hell. They coalesced in an eruption behind the roaring demigod, who was wielding Poseidon's trident. His heaving tendril of water carried Oryx thrashing against the rivers' combined might, and the monster's claw reared back to rip through another tower. The demigods trapped beneath them stood no chance as both Oryx and the Styx razed the street.
Artemis launched up the side of a tower, vaulting to another alley while the rupture of what must have been a shotgun exploded from between the demonic combatants. Her heart thrumming in her head, she grabbed the nearest limp demigods she could find and teleported them back to the infirmary.
Reappearing in the area surrounded by their triremes, Hades and Athena were mirror images as they dragged demigods along in tow. Apollo had already received the message and sounded his own, commanding their allied army to peel back with the wounded and get them to safety. As the demigods responded, their limping forms appeared from the surrounding city, either walking themselves or being carried by more able-bodied companions.
Down the center street, Reyna and Frank attacked with renewed fervor as the demigods injured earliest in the battle joined their front while their most battered soldiers fell back. The line pressed on, tearing through the city under the blood-red glow of the hidden moon, as they neared the throne room. But while the division shoved further and further ahead, the tumult only got worse, and it became difficult to stay upright when the throne room came into view.
At the foot of the stairs leading up to the Hall of the Gods, Hemera and Tartarus were a blur of swords and sickles and claws. The bulk of the remaining monstrous army, pooled in the open area at the end of the city, gave the duelists a wide arc of space to avoid the guarantee of being smited in an instant.
If Hemera's sleek armor didn't have its glow, she would have been invisible to the naked eye. As the primordial slashed her double-edged blade, she left afterimages in the air, but Tartarus was an immovable wall. The Primordial of the Pit shoved forward into his opponent's whirlwind, bringing both sickles down against her parallel sword. In a raucous explosion of force, their rattling clash cleaved apart buildings a dozen yards away.
Demigods began pooling into the open area as they cleared through the rubbled streets of Olympus. The divisions began to unify with the central army as they continued their advance, but progress became slow as both demigods and monsters struggled to stay standing. Between the primordials dueling ahead and their demigod champions' own battles still raging, the entire city seemed to groan under duress.
Lightning exploded in every direction from the sky, and the amassing armies looked up to find Annabeth and Zeus frozen in a clash of sword against bolt. The King of the Gods roared in her face, and Annabeth answered with her own shout, the pair shoving against each other before the demigod slipped the standstill. Her sword split into daggers, and she swiped them in wide arcs beneath the Master Bolt. Moments too late, Zeus shot upwards, and one of the blades grazed his ankle.
The Olympian hissed through his teeth as a sliver of silver cracked its way up his armor. His eyes widened before he raised his bolt and blocked another strike from the demigod.
"It's already started, Zeus!"
The wound in the god's foot had numbed, and a momentary ease washed over him. But his vision hardened an instant later.
"It is a mere graze," the Olympian grated, "My soul is far stronger than you could imagine; you all will be long dead before I succumb to anything."
Annabeth could see the fear in his eyes betray his arrogant tone, but she knew believing in a premature victory would be a fatal mistake. The demigod pressed on, cleaving her blade against his sparking weapon. Zeus' fear suddenly vanished, and his eyes became wild.
"I am lightning itself!" he roared, exploding away from the demigod in a rush of electricity, "While you wait for your primordial blade to corrode me, you will see nothing but a blur as all of your allies fall!"
Zeus dove from the sky, manifesting as a single black bolt of lightning rocketing towards the battle below. Annabeth ripped after him, whipping her wings as the world bent around her. But the brief delay between them had been enough; Zeus struck down at the front line of the demigod army. Annabeth watched impotently as the rampaging rhino she knew to be Frank incinerated into orange sparks. Right beside him, Reyna vanished in an instant along with their surrounding battalion of dozens of demigods.
A ringing filled Annabeth's ears as the maddened laughter of Zeus echoed across the waging armies. Monsters rushed forward into the hole erupted by the raging Olympian, digging into the center of the demigod lines. The black bolt of lightning sparked again, arcing towards the far side of the battlefront.
Annabeth's vision narrowed as the world seemed to slow around her. The screech of war dimmed in her mind as she caught the individual sparks of orange exploding from the traversing bolt of lightning. Zeus' shape came into view, the god tucked into the rocketing tendril, and she watched him rear back his weapon for another strike. All of it was happening in an instant, but Annabeth's vision was the city through thick amber.
Her wings felt so heavy on her back, their weight increasing by the less-than-fractions of moments passing by, and she remembered who they belonged to. The wings were a gift from Aether, the Primordial of Light. It meant nothing that Zeus could move as lightning; Annabeth had been blessed by Light itself. She ripped forward, obeying the wings that demanded to be unleashed. Olympus shrank to a single step as Annabeth bridged the gap to Zeus, and she watched as the King of the Gods' expression shifted to abject shock.
With a cleave of her sword, she caught the horrified Olympian through the side, tearing open a massive gash. The demigod didn't allow him to fall, wrenching him from his dissipating bolt of black lightning, and barrelling him straight through every building in sight that was still standing. The towers collapsed one after another as the Olympian crumpled through them, and Annabeth dragged them both skyward, the fading god still headlocked between her arms.
As she ascended past the city's buildings, she ventured a glance towards the primordials' battle, and her heart stopped. From the center of the clearing erupted the sound of metal cleaving through metal, immediately followed by the earth-shearing sound of Tartarus' laughter. The entirety of Olympus seemed to freeze as it turned towards the chilling scene.
The Primordial of Day stumbled shakily for a moment, the glow of her armor sputtering. Tartarus twirled his sickles, one blade caked in silver ichor, as he languished in the pain etched on his opponent's face. Her sword trembled in one hand as she looked down at her other gauntlet on the steps of Olympus' throne room, severed halfway up her forearm.
The primordial's pained expression shifted to anger as ichor dripped from her ruptured arm, and her sword vanished. She bounded at blinding speeds, shocking even Tartarus, and barreled straight into his chest. Both combatants exploded up the city's divine stairs and sheared through the massive double doors that led into the throne room.
From her perch in the sky, Annabeth knew what her patron had been trying to hide by diving into the Hall of the Gods with her opponent. Maybe the rest of the armies hadn't seen it, already returned to their raging battle as the city's red haze deepened, but Annabeth had. From where the primordial's limb had been severed, orange cracks had slowly begun to claw their way up her arm.
Annabeth's blood turned to ice, and she dropped the Olympian weakly writhing in her grasp. Not even waiting for Zeus to fall against a rooftop far below, the demigod rocketed forward, a horrified scream building in her throat. Her warbling voice exploded.
"Hemera!"
A/N: We're in the final stretch, but who would I be if I gave up on cliffhangers? But I'll tell you where the next chapter starts: we're gonna see what exactly Percy and Oryx were doing leading up to Hemera getting half her arm cleaved off by a soul-killing blade. But we'll have to wait and see what happens to her or Annabeth (or anyone else) next. As always, I appreciate feedback especially when I'm trying to handle writing a battle while juggling so many people. Hope it went over well.
AvatarVader: Good Lord dude! Zeus needs to get capped ASAP! Mother of the Gods needs to spank his butt! Found this chapter really good, loved seeing The Demigods' reaction to the impending war. Keep it up!
I had your review in mind when I got around to writing Annabeth's moment with Zeus haha. Old man may not be dead yet, but he's definitely deserved everything that's happened to him (and everything that hasn't happened to him yet heh)
Dragon21356: HOLY BAJESUS, this is going to be absolutely incredible. I love the scene setting for this and just how dark and malevolent it feels. Cant wait to see what kinda cool moves and powers you conjure up. Though i must admit i do feel for Aphrodite a bit, poor lady keeps dying in every story ive read HAHA. Sick af ending to this chapter tho, I could imagine the elevator blowing up into bits and everyone zoning out before zoning back in again. KEEP IT COMING BUDDY!
I really hope this chapter lived up in terms of the overall battle! Wanted to keep it a fast pace of all of them charging down Olympus with the battles going on at once. But I've been saving some crazy stuff for Percy vs Oryx being fleshed out next chapter, so stay tuned :)
Guest: Absolutely beautiful, another amazing piece of work. Please keep writing these aw-striking stories.
This means the world to me, thank you. I have two chapters left (I think) in this story and then hopefully we'll be onto the next soon enough!