Trigger Warning : Fuck Khione
Valen stabbed the first wolf through its open jaw, killing it instantly. A burst of wind surged through his arm, throwing the dead wolf into a group of earthborn running towards him.
He saw Jason jumping on one of the storm spirits back, grabbing its neck for life. He could not waste time worrying about them, not when Erebus' blessing might leave him at any moment.
He turned back towards his assailants and stomped his foot on the ground. A dozen shadowy spikes shot out of the ground, skewering them in places that made Valen wince in sympathy.
He dodged a storm spirit coming towards him, putting Stormguard in its way, cleaving the spirit in half while it was still solid.
He advanced through a shower of golden dust, making his way closer and closer to the goddess who was fighting Leo.
Leo was the right man for the job. She kept summoning ice daggers to throw at him, blasts of winter air, tornadoes of snow. Leo burned through all of it. His whole body flickered with red tongues of flame like he'd been doused with gasoline. He advanced on the goddess, using two silver-tipped ball-peen hammers to smash any monsters that got in his way.
He tried to shadow travel to them, but the darkness was not the same as shadows. Instead of entering the realm of shadows and passing through, he arrived instantly between them, materializing from nothing but pure darkness.
His eyes widened, and his sword arm moved to block an ice spear that was headed his way. He did not get there in time, and the construct stabbed straight through his chest, in the same exact spot Ares had stabbed him so many years ago.
"Not again," he complained, strangely it didn't hurt him. He touched his chest where the spear had gone through, but there was no blood.
He looked down, his flesh had momentarily turned into pure darkness, rendering the wound effectless. He watched in morbid fascination and the wispy blackness shaped itself back into his flesh and lung.
I cannot keep saving your skin like that. Erebus warned.
I'll be careful. he said off-handedly.
He looked up to Khione who seemed just as surprised as him.
"Who- What are you?"
Valen raised his arm, "Do you not recognize his symbol?"
Khione's eyes went as wide as saucers, and she stumbled backward. "No," she said in disbelief. "He has never involved himself in our ordeals. None of them have."
"Is it really that surprising when Gaea herself is awakening?" Valen said as the darkness spewed out of him, casting a dome around them, covering the entire room and blotting out the light. Essentially trapping Khione inside with them. The black tendrils on his body visibly receded.
I need to finish this before I'm out.
"What did you do?!" she demanded, frantically looking around.
"Wouldn't you like to know?" Valen smirked, but there was no amusement behind his eyes.
"You okay there?" Leo asked, walking up to him.
Valen nodded, "What about you, up to kill a goddess?"
"Fool!" Khione snarled. "Goddesses cannot be killed!"
"But they can be sent to Tartarus," Valen countered. "I've heard it's not a very pleasant place."
She paled even further, if that was even possible. "N-no," she stuttered, then regained her composure. She laughed haughtily, "You cannot defeat me."
"We'll see about that knockoff Elsa." Leo retorted, the flames covering him flared.
Khione glared at him, and sent another volley of ice constructs their way. A wall of fire arose between them, melting and vaporizing the ice.
Khione glanced towards the two towers, and a manic grin split her face, "You're too late! He's awakening."
Valen glanced behind him, and sure enough, the spire had almost completely risen up.
"Leo, go break Hera out," Valen said. "Jason, help me out here."
"But I don't know-"
"We don't have a choice," Valen interrupted. "Now go!"
As Leo left, Jason joined the fray. The horde of monsters had diminished to only a couple dozen by then, and they all seemed to be hell-bent on killing Jason.
"Keep Khione distracted," He told Jason. "I'm going to try something."
Jason nodded, swinging his sword at the goddess, sending a mini hurricane her way as he engaged with the monsters.
Valen raised his sword, and the shadows covering it parted to reveal the thunder running inside.
"O' Stormbringer, O' slayer of giants, hear your kins plea," Valen began chanting, the words coming to him as if he had been practicing for ages.
"With my words I compel thee. Bringeth down the might of god, and striketh the haughty down." Thunder began rumbling overhead, and the lightning in Valen's sword took an eerie red hue.
Khione finally broke out of the storm, and her pupils dilated when she saw what Valen had done. The remains of the storm spirits flew up to him, forming the visage of a bearded god behind him.
"So singeth the crimson lightning, thus the hamm'r hath fallen." he finished, wheezing at the end.
"Strike her down, grandfather." he asked, raising his free hand up, and the remaining tendrils of darkness rose up from his hand like smoke, integrating into the image of Thor. The crimson lightning lost its brightness, the black almost overtaking the red.
The image of Thor raised his hammer, and the lightning flew up to it. Khione raised a barrier in vain, a last-ditch attempt to stop the spell.
And when the hammer fell, it shattered the ice like a sheet of glass and struck Khione with the full force of a god of the heavens.
Khione's vision went black almost instantly. And when she opened her eyes, all she saw was a hellish landscape and a river of fire flowing beside her.
She could see monsters of different types all around her. Her sudden appearance had piqued their interest, and they began approaching towards her.
"No," her voice shook, and she tried to materialize her ice, but her powers did not respond. All she could make was a tiny ice cube.
"S-stay away!" she yelled, scrambling backwards until her back hit a massive leg. She looked up at the lone malicious eye of a cyclops, and the grin on his face sent a shiver down her spine.
Down in the depths of Tartarus, no one paid heed to the terrified screams of a goddess.
Back with the others, Piper had begun talking to the cage, coaxing it to rest with charmspeak. And as absurd as it sounded, it worked. The mud was rising more slowly. The tendrils seemed to soften just a little—becoming more like tree root than rock.
Leo pulled a circular saw out of his tool belt. Then Leo looked at the cord and grunted in frustration. "I don't have anywhere to plug it in!"
The storm spirit, which Jason had named Tempest, jumped into the pit and whinnied.
"Really?" Jason asked.
Tempest dipped his head and trotted over to Leo. Leo looked dubious, but he held up the plug, and a breeze whisked it into the horse's flank. Lighting sparked, connecting with the prongs of the plug, and the circular saw whirred to life.
"Sweet!" Leo grinned. "Your horse comes with AC outlets!"
Their good mood didn't last long. On the other side of the pool, the giant's spire crumbled with a sound like a tree snapping in half. Its outer sheath of tendrils exploded from the top down, raining stone and wood shards as the giant shook himself free and climbed out of the earth.
"..." Valen stared at the giant in deadpan, "I just fought and beat a goddess, I don't have enough juice to take down a giant too!"
Porphyrion was even taller than Enceladus, and even more ripped. He didn't radiate heat, or show any signs of breathing fire, but there was something more terrible about him—a kind of strength, even magnetism, as if the giant were so huge and dense he had his own gravitational field.
Like Enceladus, the giant king was humanoid from the waist up, clad in bronze armor, and from the waist down he had scaly dragon's legs; but his skin was the color of lima beans. His hair was green as summer leaves, braided in long locks and decorated with weapons—daggers, axes, and full-size swords, some of them bent and bloody—maybe trophies taken from demigods eons before. When the giant opened his eyes, they were blank white, like polished marble. He took a deep breath.
"Alive!" he bellowed. "Praise to Gaea!"
Jason sighed, "Leo."
"Huh?" Leo's mouth was wide open. Even Piper seemed dazed.
"You guys keep working," Jason said. "Get Hera free!"
"What are you going to do?" Piper asked. "You can't seriously—"
"Entertain a giant?" Jason said. "I've got no choice."
"Excellent!" the giant roared as Jason approached. "An appetizer! Who are you—Hermes? Ares?"
"I'm Jason Grace," he said. "Son of Jupiter."
Porphyrions white eyes bored into him. Behind him, Leo's circular saw whirred, and Piper talked to the cage in soothing tones, trying to keep the fear out of her voice.
Valen downed a litre of Nectar down his throat, he could feel his body heating up as it was overloaded with mana.
Porphyrion threw back his head and laughed. "Outstanding!" He looked up at the cloudy night sky. "So, Zeus, you sacrifice a son to me? The gesture is appreciated, but it will not save you."
A deep rumbling shook the sky, and for the second time that day, Jason felt another presence invade his own. But it didn't last, as soon as it had entered his body, it had been thrown out as if his body was rejecting it.
Jason sighed, Thanks for trying I guess.
He hefted his sword up, and yelled up at the Giant, "If you knew who I was, you'd be worried about me, not my father. I hope you enjoyed your two and a half minutes of rebirth, giant, because I'm going to send you right back to Tartarus."
The giant's eyes narrowed. He planted one foot outside the pool and crouched to get a better look at his opponent. "So…we'll start by boasting, will we? Just like old times! Very well, demigod. I am Porphryion, king of the giants, son of Gaea. In olden times, I rose from Tatarus, the abyss of my father, to challenge the gods. To start the war, I stole Zeus's queen." He grinned at the goddess's cage. "Hello, Hera."
"My husband destroyed you once, monster!" Hera said. "He'll do it again!"
"But he didn't, my dear! Zeus wasn't powerful enough to kill me. He had to rely on a puny demigod to help, and even then, we almost won. This time, we will complete what we started. Gaea is waking. She has provisioned us with many fine servants. Our armies will shake the earth—and we will destroy you at the roots."
"You wouldn't dare," Hera said, but she was weakening, it was evident in her voice.
"Oh, yes," the giant said. "The Titans sought to attack your new home in New York. Bold, but ineffective. Gaea is wiser and more patient. And we, her greatest children, are much, much stronger than Kronos. We know how to kill you Olympians once and for all. You must be dug up completely like rotten trees—your eldest roots torn out and burned."
The giant frowned at Piper and Leo, as if he'd just noticed them working at the cage. Jason stepped forward and yelled to get back Porphyrion's attention.
"You said a demigod killed you," he shouted. "How, if we're so puny?"
"Ha! You think I would explain it to you? I was created to be Zeus's replacement, born to destroy the lord of the sky. I shall take his throne. I shall take his wife—or, if she will not have me, I will let the earth consume her life force. What you see before you, child, is only my weakened form. I will grow stronger by the hour, until I am invincible. But I am already quite capable of smashing you to a grease spot!"
"You boast of being invincible," Valen said, entering the fray, "When you are the least invincible of the three races spawned of Gaea."
Porphyrion chuckled, "Do you truly believe that, demigod?"
He rose to his full height and held out his hand. A twenty-foot spear shot from the earth. He grasped it, then stomped the ground with his dragon's feet. The ruins shook. All around the courtyard, monsters started to regather—storm spirits, wolves, and Earthborn, all answering the giant king's call.
"Great," Leo muttered. "We needed more enemies."
"Hurry," Hera said.
"I know!" Leo snapped.
"Go to sleep, cage," Piper said. "Nice, sleepy cage. Yes, I'm talking to a bunch of earthen tendrils. This isn't weird at all."
Porphyrion raked his spear across the top of the ruins, destroying a chimney and spraying wood and stone across the courtyard. "So, little demigods! I have finished my boasting. Now it's your turn. What were you saying about destroying me?"
"I'm the son of Jupiter!" he shouted, and just for effect, he summoned the winds, rising a few feet off the ground. "I'm a child of Rome, consul to demigods, praetor of the First Legion." Jason didn't know quite what he was saying, but he rattled off the words like he'd said them many times before. He held out his arms, showing the tattoo of the eagle and SPQR, and to his surprise the giant seemed to recognize it.
For a moment, Porphyrion actually looked uneasy.
"I slew the Trojan sea monster," Jason continued. "I toppled the black throne of Kronos, and destroyed the Titan Krios with my own hands. And now I'm going to destroy you, Porphyrion, and feed you to your own wolves."
"Wow, dude," Leo muttered. "You been eating red meat?"
Porphyrion raised an eyebrow at him, intrigued, "You have achieved more than I expect a mortal to. Not a bad sacrifice." He turned to Valen, "What about you, nameless demigod?"
"I'm the Dominant of Erebus, that's all you need to know." Valen stated, and the two demigods charged at the giant.
Porphyrion seemed genuinely surprised that they even considered attacking him. As such he didn't respond until two bolts of lightning struck his eyes, blinding him. He stumbled back, and almost fell. The circle of monsters let out a collective growl and moved forward—wolves and ogres fixing their eyes on Jason and Valen.
"No!" Porphyrion yelled. He regained his balance and glared at them. "I will kill them myself."
In response, Valen held his arm to the sky, and pulled with all his might. A bolt of lightning broke through the roof and struck Porphyrion head on, setting his hair on fire and blackening his face.
Jason swung his new sword, and a crescent wave of sharp wind and thunder flew out of it, hitting the giants collar and cutting a shallow gash in it. Golden ichor flowed out of the wound, tainting the green skin of the giant.
Porphyrion bellowed in rage, and it was like the mana obeyed his will, pushing everyone away from him.
The giant raised his spear and it began to glow. "You want to play with lightning? You forget. I am the bane of Zeus. I was created to destroy him, which means I know exactly what will kill you."
Valen paled, feeling all the ambient mana funneling towards the spear. The spearhead was so concentrated in it, Valen wasn't sure how it hadn't exploded yet.
"Got it!" Leo suddenly yelled.
"Sleep!" Piper said, so forcefully, the nearest wolves fell to the ground and began snoring.
The stone and wood cage crumbled. Leo had sawed through the base of the thickest tendril and apparently cut off the cage's connection to Gaea. The tendrils turned to dust. The mud around Hera disintegrated.
The goddess grew in size, glowing with power. "Yes!" the goddess said. She threw off her black robes to reveal a white gown, her arms bedecked with golden jewelry. Her face was both terrible and beautiful, and a golden crown glowed in her long black hair. "Now I shall have my revenge!"
The giant Porphyrion backed away. He said nothing, but he gave them one last look of hatred. His message was clear: Another time. Then he slammed his spear against the earth, and the giant disappeared into the ground like he'd dropped down a chute.
Around the courtyard, monsters began to panic and retreat, but there was no escape for them.
Hera glowed brighter. She shouted, "Cover your eyes, my heroes!"
Valen closed his eyes shut, knowing what was coming, but Jason was too shocked to respond to it. And he watched as Hera turned into a supernova, exploding in a ring of force that vaporized every monster instantly.
Even without the ability to see souls, Valen knew Jason was gone. To see a deities true form and survive, was nothing short of a pipe dream.
Is there nothing we can do?
Other than go to the underworld and bring his soul back up? No. There are a few ways to bring him back, but the consequences would be catastrophic.
I see.
Piper kept calling out to Jason, holding his limp body in her arms. His body was steaming, his eyes rolled back in his head.
"It's no use, child." Hera stood over them in her simple black robes and shawl.
Every vestige of winter was gone from the valley. No signs of battle, either. The monsters had been vaporized. The ruins had been restored to what they were before—still ruins, but with no evidence that they'd been overrun by a horde of wolves, stormspirits, and six-armed ogres.
Even the Hunters had been revived. Most waited at a respectful distance in the meadow, but Thalia knelt by Piper's side, her hand on Jason's forehead.
Thalia glared up at the goddess. "This is your fault. Do something!"
"Do not address me that way, girl. I am the queen—"
"Fix him!" Hera's eyes flickered with power. "I did warn him. I would never intentionally hurt the boy. He was to be my champion. I told them to close their eyes before I revealed my true form."
"Um …" Leo frowned. "True form is bad, right? So why did you do it?"
"I unleashed my power to help you, fool!" Hera cried. "I became pure energy so I could disintegrate the monsters, restore this place, and even save these miserable Hunters from the ice."
"But mortals can't look upon you in that form!" Thalia shouted. "You've killed him!"
Leo shook his head in dismay. "That's what our prophecy meant. Death unleash, through Hera's rage. Come on, lady. You're a goddess. Do some voodoo magic on him! Bring him back."
Valen sighed, "I'm afraid she is right, loathe am I to admit it. The only way to bring him back would be to break in to the underworld."
Thalia glared up at him, "You saved Zoe during our first quest, can't you do that again?"
He shook his head, "That was a very specific situation. Her heart had been stopped, she only needed something to jump start it. But in Jasons case, it's imposs-"
"He's breathing!" Piper interrupted.
"Impossible," Hera said, unintentionally finishing Valens sentence. "I wish it were true, child, but no mortal has ever—"
"Jason," Piper called, putting every bit of her willpower into his name. "Listen to me. You can do this. Come back. You're going to be fine."
Valen knelt down beside her, placing his fingers on his throat, he could feel a weak—very faint—pulse. Erebus?
The girl, her charmspeak is strong. Erebus said, Aphrodite has blessed her with much.
Elaborate?
Her voice reached Jason Grace's soul in the underworld.
How in the— And Jason's soul was just able to waltz out of there?
Thanatos should have stopped it, something is wrong.
Before Valen could continue the conversation, Jason gasped awake. For a moment his eyes were full of light—glowing pure gold. Then the light fadedand his eyes were normal again. "What—what happened?"
"Impossible!" Hera said.
Piper wrapped him in a hug until he groaned, "Crushing me."
"Sorry," she said, laughing and wiping a tear off.
Thalia gripped her brother's hand. "How do you feel?"
"Hot," he muttered. "Mouth is dry. And I saw something…really terrible."
"That was Hera," Thalia grumbled. "Her Majesty, the Loose Cannon."
"That's it, Thalia Grace," said the goddess. "I will turn you into an aardvark, so help me—"
"Stop it, you two," Piper , they both shut up.
Piper helped Jason to his feet and gave him the last nectar from their supplies.
"Now …" Piper faced Thalia and Hera. "Hera—Your Majesty—we couldn't have rescued you without the Hunters. And Thalia, you never would've seen Jason again—I wouldn't have met him—if it weren't for Hera. You two make nice, because we've got bigger problems."
They both glared at her, and for three long seconds.
Finally Thalia grunted. "You've got spirit, Piper."
She pulled a silver card from her parka and tucked it into the pocket of Piper's snowboarding jacket. "You ever want to be a Hunter, call me. We could use you."
"You guys have phones?" Valen asked.
"Something similar."
Hera crossed her arms. "Fortunately for this Hunter, you have a point, daughter of Aphrodite."
She assessed Piper, as if seeing her clearly for the time. "You wondered, Piper, why I chose you for this quest, why I didn't reveal your secret in the beginning, even when I knew Enceladus was using you. I must admit, until this moment I was not sure. Something told me you would be vital to the quest. Now I see I was right. You're even stronger than I realized. And you are correct about the dangers to come. We must work together."
"Yeah," he said. "I don't suppose that Porphyrion guy just melted and died, huh?"
"No," Hera agreed. "By saving me, and saving this place, you prevented Gaea from waking. You have bought us some time. But Porphyrion has risen. He simply knew better than to stay here, especially since he has not yet regained his full power. Giants can only be killed by a combination of god and demigod, working together. Once you freed me—"
"He ran away," Jason said. "But to where?"
He is silent.
What?
Thanatos, he has been chained in Alaska. This explains why Tartarus' spawns keep regenerating. There is no one to keep them back, and Thanatos' gates are left unguarded.
That's why Jason could come back. Valen realized, This is bad.
"We have bigger problems right now," He said, and their eyes turned to him, "We figured out why monsters keep coming back and why Jason was able to come back."
So he explained to them what Erebus and he had talked about regarding Thanatos and his Doors. "That explains a lot of things," Thalia said. "Mortals returning from the dead, monsters regenerating moments after we killed them…"
"Wait, if Death itself doesn't work, does that mean we cannot die?" Jason asked.
"Do we just respawn, like a video game character." Leo said, somewhat excited by the prospect.
"It's not as simple as that," Valen said, "You would still need to go through Thanatos' Doors. In Jason's case he had not yet reached the underworld, Pipers magic brought him back while his soul was on it's way there. Which, by the way, really impressed Erebus. I suppose that's what they call the power of love."
Piper blushed in embarrassment, and nodded back in thanks.
I was not that impressed.
Of course.
I am being serious.
Yeah, I know.
"I need to find Annabeth," Thalia said. "She has to know what's happened here."
"Thalia…" Jason gripped her hand. "We never got to talk about this place, or—"
"I know." Her expression softened. "I lost you here once. I don't want to leave you again. But we'll meet soon. I'll rendezvous with you back at Camp Half-Blood."
She glanced at Hera. "You'll see them there safely? It's the least you can do."
"It's not your place to tell me—"
"Queen Hera," Piper interceded.
The goddess sighed. "Fine. Yes. Just off with you, Hunter!"
Thalia gave Jason a hug and said her good-byes. When the Hunters were gone, the courtyard seemed strangely quiet. The dry reflecting pool showed no sign of the earthen tendrils that had brought back the giant king or imprisoned Hera. The night sky was clear and starry.
"Jason, what happened to you here?" Piper asked. "I mean —I know your mom abandoned you here. But you said it was sacred ground for demigods. Why? What happened after you were on your own?"
Jason shook his head uneasily. "It's still murky. The wolves …"
"You were given a destiny," Hera said. "You were given into my service."
Jason scowled. "Because you forced my mom to do that. You couldn't stand knowing Zeus had two children with my mom. Knowing that he'd fallen for her twice. I was the price you demanded for leaving the rest of my family alone."
"It was the right choice for you as well, Jason," Hera insisted. "The second time your mother managed to snare Zeus's affections, it was because she imagined him in a different aspect—the aspect of Jupiter. Never before had this happened—two children, Greek and Roman, born into the same family. You had to be separated from Thalia. This is where all demigods of your kind start their journey."
"Of his kind?" Piper asked.
"She means Roman," Jason said. "Demigods are left here. We meet the she-wolf goddess, Lupa, the same immortal wolf that raised Romulus and Remus."
Hera nodded. "And if you are strong enough, you live."
"But …" Leo looked mystified. "What happened after that? I mean, Jason never made it to camp."
"Not to Camp Half-Blood, no," Hera agreed.
"The roman camp," Valen said.
"That's where you've been all these years." Piper continued, "Somewhere else for demigods—but where?"
Jason turned to the goddess. "The memories are coming back, but not the location. You're not going to tell me, are you?"
"No," Hera said. "That is part of your destiny, Jason. You must find your own way back. But when you do…you will unite two great powers. You will give us hope against the giants, and more importantly—against Gaea herself."
"You want us to help you," Jason said, "but you're holding back information."
"Giving you answers would make those answers invalid," Hera said. "That is the way of the Fates. You must forge your own path for it to mean anything. Already, you three have surprised me. I would not have thought it possible …"
The goddess shook her head. "Suffice to say, you have performed well, demigods. But this is only the beginning. Now you must return to Camp Half-Blood, where you will begin planning for the next phase."
"Which you won't tell us about," Jason grumped. "And I suppose you destroyed my nice storm spirit horse, so we'll have to walk home?"
Hera waved aside the question. "Storm spirits are creatures of chaos. I did not destroy that one, though I have no idea where he went, or whether you'll see him again. But there is an easier way home for you. As you have done me a great service, so I can help you—at least this once. Farewell, demigods, for now."
She waved her arm, and a white light enveloped the demigods. Valens tattoo suddenly flared up, and absorbed the light before it could take him away. When he opened his eyes again, he was alone in the ruins with Hera.
He could see a massive presence talking to Hera, but it was hard to make out any distinct features. It hurt to look at it, all he could see was a mass of smokly darkness.
Erebus? he thought.
"I cannot send him the-"
Erebus interrupted her, speaking in a language unfamiliar to Valen.
"It is a fragile place, one mishap-"
He interrupted her again, from the tone Valen could guess he was snappish.
Hera sighed, "Fine, but if anything happens, you will take accountability."
Erebus nodded, and Hera turned to Valen.
"Should I be concerned? I feel like I should be concerned."
"Your benefactor has made quite the daring proposition," Hera said. "Pray that you do not do anything irresponsible there."
"Where are you sending me?" Valen said, backing away from her.
"To the center of all existence, the heart of the fire."
"Wha-"
And the light engulfed Valen for the second time that day.