Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson or Harry Potter.

Consul of the Underworld: End of Disc 1

Chapter Twenty-Four: The enemy of my enemy is my friend - Daughters to the Rescue!

Beta: ShadowofAxios


As the golden light faded, Alkaid moved her hand that had been covering her eyes which she had thrown over them in a natural reaction for any Half-blood to any golden light for fear that it might be a god assuming its true form, the sight of would reduce them to ash. Only to be greeted by the fact that she, her wife and Black Team had been transported to a long, seemingly endless corridor formed of two linear walls of dark stone which were periodically topped off with obelisks. A corridor whose walls were in poor condition, with their stone work riddled with gaps and holes. To further add to the derelict feel, pieces of wood and broken chunks of stone were scattered across the floor, and weeds flourished in the walls themselves.

"Shit…" Alkaid said as she panted with exhaustion and her body ached. But despite her depleted endurance, she flicked her vibrant green eyes in a survey of their surroundings and sent out probing tendrils of her magic to look for any clues to their whereabouts. "Damnation. We've fallen for the trap I told you all about. The one Angel warned us to be on the lookout for."

"And where are we?" Her battle-ready wife asked her. A grim frown on her face as she held her labrys firmly in her hand.

"The Goblin King's Labyrinth."

Just as she finished making that ominous statement, a thunderous voice boomed out from all around.

"IT IS NOT JUST THE GOBLIN KING AND QUEEN WHO SET THIS UP, ALKAID POTTER."

Alkaid's usual pale pallor ashened even more after hearing that familiar powerful voice full of malice.

A pale Pyrrha shivered a little, "Was that-"

"Yes, it was Angra Mainyu." The daughter of Hades said with a nod as her wife trailed off even as she pulled Le Grimoire from her pocket, silently thanking her prudence in keeping it on her person at all times since receiving Angel's warning, and transforming it from its disguised form as a silver and black card holder into the magical tome that was its true form. Considering how tired she felt, she would need her artifact's magical amplifying abilities and, perhaps more importantly, the store of spell cards she'd charged up useful spells contained within.

"Woah, woah, Angra Mainyu? Are we talking about that super wicked Persian evil god?" Caelus asked as he tensed, his trident held at the ready.

"Dammit, okay… he is still a god. He cannot overtly interfere so we've no doubt been sent into some sick game. The question is what?" Peggy asked, biting one of her thumbs nervously as she held her pistol, Athena's Wisdom in a white knuckled grip in her other hand.

"Should have stayed off site. Why oh why did I leave the mobile base?" Michael groaned as he reached into the Hammerspace Backpack he had wisely carried with him when he'd joined the rest of the team back in the slaughterhouse and pulled out his warhammer, Kinetic Gavel.

"It'll be okay, Alkaid and Pyrrha have faced him before and came out on top. Let's have some hope." Helena forced a smile, though it looked a touch fragile, as she finished arming herself with Huntress' Crossbow and loaded it with a bolt from her own Hammerspace Backpack.

Alkaid didn't blame them for their reactions. This was well above Black Team's paygrade.

Suddenly, there was a burst of dark energy behind them. In response, Black Team spun around and found themselves facing a pillar of raw power as it coalesced into a pack of monsters. They appeared to be a gaggle of old women with sharp teeth, long stringy hair and razor sharp talons.

"Hehehehehe." They all giggled in creepy unison before they all turned invisible.

"Watch out!" Alkaid called out as she pulled at her dwindling stores of magical energy within her, draining her already flagging stamina even further. "Those are Al, they make themselves invisible and attack like wolves! Give me a moment to make them visible!"

"Speed it up, Alkaid!" Peggy urged as she shifted Athena's Wrath into its rotary gun mode and spun around with the gun raised, her trigger finger twitching nervously.

"επικαλούνται: σημάνει διακόπτη (Invoke: Spell Breaker)!" Alkaid cast, sending an invisible wave of counter magic that tore away the veil of invisibility concealing the grotesque grannies and removed their greatest advantage.

"Oh dammit." One of the old ladies grumbled as she and her peers were revealed to have closed three quarters of the distance between them and where Angra Mainyu had summoned them in the precious few seconds it took Alkaid to cast her spell.

"Kill 'em dead!" Pyrrha roared as Black Team charged forward to eliminate the monsters.


Back in the Potter family home in California, it was dinner time and Gracie had thankfully managed to wrangle her little sisters to sit down on time. Yet, despite all her herculean effort, Mum and Mama's mission seemed to be running late as they hadn't returned at their designated dinner time and weren't joining them for the meal like they typically did.

"Mina, eat slower." Gracie chided as she wiped the young goddess' face, cleaning off the splatter of sauce that had ended up on her cheek due to her messy eating.

"Fiiine~"

Thankfully, Kura was eating at a much more sedate pace and with proper manners.

Sighing in contentment that her sisters were eating properly, Gracie took her own seat and pulled her chair in. Just before she began her meal however, she pulled out her most treasured possession: the Wizarding Pocket Watch that Mum had given her. It didn't look fancy, being just a plain gold pocket watch. However, looks were deceiving and this watch was incredible! Thanks to a bunch of complicated enchantments it had the ability to track the statuses of her various family members.

However, before she could flip the cover open, a small ritual to help soothe her worries before every meal or whenever she was feeling uneasy, Mina spoke up, knife and fork in the air.

"You need to stop being so paranoid, Gracie. Mum and Mama are fine. I don't sense anything wrong." The white haired goddess said as she stabbed her steak rather violently.

"Yep yep~ Besides, they're super duper strong! What can hurt them?" Kura asked in a carefree way before she scooped up a forkful of mashed potatoes and swallowed it with a happy hum.

Gracie pouted. Her sisters could be so inconsiderate at times! Then again maybe she was being unfair, after all could a goddess and Zashiki-warashi really understand the tribulations of a Half-blood?

Still, Gracie had the embarrassed decency to laugh. "Yeah, you're probably right."

She put the pocket watch on the table beside her and prepared to tuck into her own dinner. However, just as she was about to cut into the steak that the family House Elves in charge of cooking, Missy and Pinky, had prepared for dinner, Rhip flew into the dining room in a panic, squawking desperately for their attention.

"Rhip went loco!" Mina cheered. Clearly her sensibilities as a goddess of madness was being tickled pink by what by all appearances seemed to be Rhip going mad.

"No, bad Rhip! We don't want you getting fat!" Kura shouted as she shielded her dinner.

The familiar landed on the table by Gracie and began pecking at her precious pocket watch repeatedly.

"Rhip! Don't damage it!" Gracie said, pulling her watch to safety and trying to shoo Mum's familiar away. What in the world had gotten into him?

"I think he's gone loopy." Kura pouted. "Why is he saying that Mum is in danger? We would know if they were!"

"Yeah-huh!" Mina nodded sternly, a pout of her own on her cherubic yet scarred face. "If I can't sense anything, they should be okay. They're just on a mission. They'll super maximum kill anything in their way."

She got what her sisters were saying, but she couldn't shake off a niggling feeling of doubt. "If Rhip is saying Mum is in trouble…"

She looked at her watch, "I-I'll check, just in case."

Mina and Kura exchanged a look.

"I guess it wouldn't hurt?" Kura said, a look of mild worry creeping onto her face. "I mean, someone could be scrambling our ability to sense if Mum and Mama are in trouble?"

"It would have to be someone very powerful though." Mina said with a frown. "Gracie, check it!"

"Right away!" Gracie said, prompting Rhip to let out a caw of satisfaction and begin hopping on the table in triumph.

"They're fine, they're fine, they're fine." Gracie told herself, a sense of panic and foreboding swirling around her heart, as she hurriedly flipped her Wizarding Pocket Watch open.

Looking into the magical item, what she saw had her gasping in horror even as her eyes blew wide in shock.

""What is it? What is it?"" Mina and Kura asked in stereo.

Pale from panic, Gracie turned to show her watch to her sisters. Causing them to both turn as pale as she was as they both saw how the hands for Mum and Mama were pointed towards 'Mortal Danger'.


Not another one! Pyrrha thought with frustration as she, 'Kaidy, and the rest of Black Team, stepped out into the latest clearing in the open air maze made out of a series of oddly shaped walls and stairs that they had found themselves in after fighting their way past the Als and out of the stone corridor where they'd first been dropped into the Goblin's Labyrinth. The sight of which had all of them tensing and readying their weapons in preparation for what they knew was coming. One or more monsters were about to attack them. Just like they had every time they found themselves in a clearing as they made their way through the maze.

"Above!" Helena shouted as she fired off a bolt from Huntress' Crossbow at the monster that was dive bombing them. The trick bolt, because of course she was using one of those, exploded just short of the monster and unleashed what looked like buckshot at the descending creature with a dog's body with the head and wings of an eagle.

Though considering the monster had a wingspan of at least thirty feet and a body with the size to match, even a round worth of Celestial Bronze buckshot did little more than irritate it. That wasn't a problem though. They had plenty more firepower where they came from. As proven when, even as Helena hurriedly pulled a fresh bolt from her Hammerspace Backpack and reloaded, Peggy shifted her trick shield, Athena's Wrath, into its rotary gun mode and opened fire. Her bullets were soon joined by dozens of emerald bullets of magic as 'Kaidy threw a couple of her spell cards containing Axel Shooter spells in its direction and released the stored spells against the monster.

"That's the Kamak Bird! Don't let it flap its wings! If it does, it can conjure intense bursts of heat!" Alkaid shouted in warning as despite the firepower shot its way, the monster kept up its dive undeterred.

So its wings are the threat, are they? Pyrrha mused. Then why don't I clip them?

Smirking at her idea, she brought her labrys over her head in preparation for a powerful downward slash and began incanting, "Surge, Water and Heaven! Tidal Slash!"

With her incantation complete, she swung down and sent a thin wedge of water screeching toward the monster just as it was about to pull out of its dive.. A mini tidal wave that effortlessly cut the Kamak Bird's right wing off at the shoulder and a good chunk of its right side besides.

The monster howled in agony at the grievous injury but that was only the beginning of its misery. As it tumbled in the air from the loss of its wing, Helena lined up a shot and fired an explosive bolt from Huntress' Crossbow that via its gaping wound, found its way inside the monster where it detonated in a satisfying large explosion.

It was a tough MFer though and didn't collapse into shadow like all the Persian monsters seemed to do when they died. Instead, the half dead monster crashed into the ground and began struggling to get back to its feet.

"Oh, no you don't!" Caelus shouted as he leapt onto the beast and stabbed his trident clean through one of its paws, pinning it to the ground. "Michael, give me a hand!"

"Got it!" The Son of Vulcan shouted as he ran forward and landed a solid hit with his Kinetic Gavel against the monster's side. He must have amped the gravity manipulators on his warhammer up high because his blow not only sent the Kamak Bird crashing back onto its side, pinning its remaining wing, but it also literally pulverized a good chunk of its body where he had hit it.

"Time to put it out of its misery." Peggy said as she lined up Athena's Wisdom with one of the monster's immense eyes and pulled the trigger, sending a bullet through the eye, bursting it, and into something vital, because seconds later, the immense monster collapsed into shadow.

"Nice brain shot." 'Kaidy praised the daughter of Athena. "But let's get moving before the path ahead closes and another monster gets the jump on us."

Glancing at the path ahead on the other side of the clearing where the walls on either of its entrance was already beginning to shift to block it off, Pyrrha broke into a run and shouted at everyone else.

"Hurry up! Before we get cut off!"


Alongside Rhip and Mina, Kura was in Mum's office, which was usually off limits without Mum's permission. This was an emergency though and Kura was sure Mum would understand when she got home. Fidgeting in her seat, she watched Gracie refer to one of Mum's spellbooks as she worked to come up with a spell that she could cast with her Mystiokinesis on her pocket watch that would let her trace the magic that let it track Mum and Mama so they could figure out where they were.

This is my fault! I should've known that Mum and Mama were in trouble! Kura thought with a deep frown. She was a Zashiki-warashi! She should know everything there was to know about her family, especially if they were in danger or not. And here Mum and Mama were in mortal peril and she hadn't even realized it!

"It isn't your fault, Kura. I didn't know either." Mina said, clearly either sensing her thoughts or outright reading it thanks to her godly powers, in a quiet whisper and pulled her into a hug.

"I know, but I still feel it's my fault." Kura whispered back just as quietly.

Neither one of them wanted to disturb Gracie as she worked her magic. She was the only one who could find Mum and Mama.

And Mum and Mama really were missing. After seeing what Gracie's pocket watch was showing about their statuses, they'd tried calling them on their MagiPhones, the fancy new magical smartphones that their Wizarding friends in Britain had started selling via their company, EUM Corp (Eta Ursae Majoris Corporation), but hadn't been able to get through. Even Iris Messaging didn't work, which meant either they were somewhere both forms of magical communication couldn't reach or they were being blocked or, as Gracie seemed to think, a combination of both. Something about the former for their MagiPhones and the latter for the I.M.s. All Kura really knew was that they couldn't get in touch with Mum and Mama.

So they tried calling Grandpa Hades and Grammy Persephone via Iris Message for help and like Kura and Mina, they didn't even know Mum was in danger, much less where she was. It seemed whoever was endangering them was blocking their godly awareness just like they were Mina's and Kura's own Home Embodiment. It was only the fact that the bad guys didn't seem to take into account normal magic like Rhip's familiar bond with Mum and Gracie's pocket watch that they even learned Mum and Mama needed help.

"I know." Mina said comfortingly. "But we just gotta trust in Gracie now. She'll find Mum and Mama."

Kura just nodded and buried her head in the crook of her big sister's neck, fighting back the tears of worry for her parents and shame at having let them down that threatened to fall. Now wasn't the time for crying. She needed to be strong, just like her big sisters, so they could go rescue Mum and Mama together!

Sure, Grandpa Hades, Grammy Persephone and the House of Hades had also started their own search, but something in Kura's gut told her it would need to be them - her, Mina and Gracie - who had to rescue Mum and Mama. That only they could do it. Like someone, the Fates or maybe someone even more powerful, weren't going to let anyone but them have a chance of succeeding.

"And then we'll go stabbity stab anyone in our way and bring Mum and Mama home safe."

"Un!" Kura agreed enthusiastically.

A soft caw from Rhip had both younger Potter daughters looking at the raven, who in turn nodded towards Gracie.

"Okay, I'm ready to give it a go." Their elder sister declared. "Let's hope this works."

"We have faith in you, Gracie." Mina told her even as Rhip gave her an encouraging caw and Kura just nodded. She was too choked up with anxiety for words.

"Thanks, Mina, Kura, Rhip." Gracie said before taking a deep calming breath. "Here goes nothing!"

"Παρακολούθηση νημάτων (Tracking threads)," Gracie incanted in Ancient Greek as a massive bank of Mist popped into existence around her and Mum's office table where she had placed her pocket watch. "Ακούστε το ταπεινό μου κάλεσμα, δείξε μου το μονοπάτι προς αυτούς με τους οποίους είσαι δεμένος (Heed my humble call, show me the path to the ones to whom you are tied)."

As she finished her incantation, the Mist she had conjured shifted until twelve wispy threads shot out from Gracie's pocket watch. One of which, Kura noticed, seemingly disappeared into her chest, signifying that it was tied to her, whilst three more were tied to Gracie, Mina and Rhip.

"Okay, which ones belong to Mum and Mama?" Mina asked, having also figured out what these threads of Mist were. "Do we open up your watch and see which thread is tied to which hand inside?"

"No! Don't!" Gracie shouted urgently. "That will disrupt the spell!"

Mina, who had been about to teleport over to open Gracie's watch, froze in her seat.

"Sorry about that, Mina." Gracie soothed the goddess. "Just… be patient okay."

Mina nodded. "Sorry. I will. Just…"

"I know, Mina. I know. But this is entirely new magic I'm working here, okay? So don't rush me." Gracie told Mina as she began hovering her hand over one of the unidentified threads and closed her eyes. "Okay, I'm seeing Camp Half-Blood. I think this is either Bianca or Nico's."

"It and the one next to it are pointing northeast." Kura observed. "The threads must lead off in the direction that whoever they're tied to are."

"Probably," Gracie agreed as she opened her eyes and moved her hand away from the thread. "But we cannot be sure. Just let me double check."

She moved her hand over to the other thread leading northeast and closed her eyes again as she communed with its magic. "Yeah, I think you're right, Kura. I'm seeing Bianca, I think this is Nico's thread. He just ran up to her and started talking to her. I can't hear what they're saying but now she looks worried. I think Grandfather Hades or Grandmother Perspehone told them what's going on."

"Of course they did, Bianca and Nico are family." Mina said with a shrug. "But now's not the time to get them involved. Let's find Mum and Mama first."

"Right." Gracie agreed as she moved away from Nico's thread.

She took a moment to look over the remaining unidentified threads. Three of them were pointing dead down, which a hunch told her led to the Underworld and Grandpa Hades, Grammy Persephone, and Auntie Makaria. A fourth was moving a whole bunch like whoever it was tied to was frantically traveling all over the place.

That's probably Auntie Mel and she's out looking for Mum and Mama.

The last two threads were pointing southeast.

By process of elimination…

"Gracie, try those two." Kura suggested, pointing at the two threads that headed southeast. "My gut is telling me they're Mum and Mama's."

Gracie nodded and moved to hover her hand over the two threads. They were so close to each other that they might as well be braided together. Closing her eyes, Gracie began intuning herself with one of the threads.

"Oh! You're right, Kura! This is Mama's! I can see Mum!" Gracie said excitedly, causing Kura to exchange an excited look with Mina before they both turned expectant gazes towards their big sister. Even Rhip let out a relieved croak. "Let me try and track where they are… Hmm…"

"They're in some kind of maze? Okay, but how do we get there?" Gracie focused her concentration, her brow furrowing as she did. "Come on, a little further back, just a little further…. Ahhhh!"

"Gracie! What happened!?" Mina shouted in alarm as she and Kura both teleported to their big sister's side as she recoiled from Mama's thread at whatever she'd just seen.

"I-I know h-how to get to where Mum and Mama are." Gracie said as she hugged herself, prompting Kura to wrap herself around her terrified big sister.

"That's good, right?" Mina asked with a frown, one of her knives in hand, looking around for hidden dangers that might have scared Gracie.

"Y-Yeah," Gracie said as she took a deep breath and finally returned Kura's hug. "B-But I've been there before. It was a supply base of t-the…"

Mina turned to look at Gracie worriedly. "The Titan Army?"

Gracie nodded pitifully and Kura tightened her hug. She could understand why her big sister was freaking out now. Gracie's time with the Titan Army had been super traumatic for her.

"Can you tell us where we need to go, Gracie?" Kura asked gingerly. "You don't need to go with us but-"

"No, I will. I must." Gracie said firmly, as with a full body shake she shook off her fears and replaced it with determination. "I won't be left behind this time."

"You sure?" Mina asked, her face full of concern for Gracie.

Gracie nodded firmly.

"Okay, then where do we need to go?" Mina asked.

"Mina, can you teleport us to the Sea of Monsters?"


Several hours into their forced journey through the Goblin's Labyrinth, Alkaid, Pyrrha and Black Team found themselves in a large, stone paved courtyard that featured a range of topiary figures, stone statues and hedges that had a section of the floor dedicated to a giant sundial. A yard that was surrounded by a neatly kept hedge maze.

And like every open space they found themselves in as they traversed the Goblin's Labyrinth, they were confronted by monsters. In this case, they were confronted by a group of nine feet tall Persian giants armed with massive swords known as Div. Giants that had gray skin, horns growing out of their heads, and vicious tusk-like teeth.

"So just out of curiosity, what did Angra Mainyu promise you guys if you defeat us?" Alkaid asked as she used her gymnastics skill to roll out of the way of a swing of the sword wielded by the Div she was fighting.

"Hah! No point not telling you mortal." The giant replied with an arrogant laugh. "Not when you'll be dead shortly."

"Why, how generous of you." Alkaid said as she backflipped out of the way of the Div's furious swings.

Thank the gods that I've kept up with my gymnastics training.

She might not have much use for the skills most of the time but practicing them was a good way to maintain her health and when the need for them did arise, it was invaluable.

"Yes, I am indeed. Hah!" The Div said with another arrogant laugh. "Lord Ahriman promised that if we defeat you mortals, we will receive a promotion to our rank in his court. Now you will not die ignorant!"

"Thank you." Alkaid said as she ducked under another swing of the Div's sword and slipped a spell card from Le Grimoire that she had strapped to her hip with a couple belts that Michael had conveniently had in his Hammerspace Backpack and tossed it at the monster. "Goodbye!"

As the Fireball stored in the card discharged, the Div was consumed in a blaze. It screamed and flailed around as it desperately tried to smother the flames. However, its efforts were futile and within a few seconds it was reduced to naught but ash and shadow.

Okay. Now to help out the others. Alkaid thought as, despite her aching muscles, she turned her attention towards the rest of her team and was pleased to see that they didn't really need it.

Just a stone's throw away from where she was, a Αιμοληψία (Bloodlust) enhanced Pyrrha was facing a Div in a straight on fight, sword to labrys, and through a combination of skill and magically enhanced strength, was slowly overpowering it. On the other side of the courtyard, Peggy had just used the grappling line of Athena's Wrath to bind a trio of other Divs together, allowing Caelus and Michael to go wild on the restrained giants. And last but not least, Helena was suppressing four Divs with shots from Crescent Rose's sniper rifle mode, forcing them to take cover behind some of the stone statues that were scattered around the yard.

Everyone else has it handled, so I guess I should help Helena finish off her opponents. Alkaid thought as she pulled a fresh spell card from Le Grimoire and tossed it towards the nearest piece of cover being used by the Divs suppressed by the Legacy of Venus.

As it discharged the stored Plasma Flare, it sent a white plume of energy at the statue of a particularly fat Goblin in armor that engulfed and incinerated it. The Div hiding behind it dove away from the energy burst conjured by her spell and to his credit managed to do so with only minimal injuries. More unfortunate for it, the spell had destroyed his cover and with his desperate evasion, he had stopped paying attention to the threat of Helena. He was thus caught completely unawares as a bullet from Crescent Rose found its mark in his skull, reducing him to shadow stuff.

"Only three left! Let's finish them!" Peggy shouted as she shifted Athena's Wrath into its rotary gun mode and used it to open fire at the last three cowering Divs.

It seems the others are done with their opponents. Alkaid thought with a smirk as Pyrrha, Caelus and a trailing Michael moved to attack the surviving giants.

"Lord Ahriman! Help us! Give us the strength to defeat our foes!" One of the gray skinned giants shouted out fearfully.

It seemed that Angra Mainyu was in a generous mood because he actually heeded his servants' call. Out of nowhere, a dark hole in reality popped into existence roughly equidistant from the three Divs and sucked them in alongside the statues that they'd been using as cover and a large chunk of the courtyard.

"Everyone back off!" Alkaid shouted in warning as her team obeyed and cautiously retreated from the churning dark mass that the Divs had been sucked into. "We have no idea what Angra Mainyu will unleash from that."

"WHAT WILL I UNLEASH, ALKAID POTTER? SEE FOR YOURSELF!" The Persian god of evil's voice boomed as the dark energy mass he had conjured exploded, releasing a destructive shockwave.

"Wind Wall!" Pyrrha cast hastily as she conjured a wall of compressed swirling winds that shielded them.

Annoyingly, the shockwave was not the only thing that emerged from the exploding dark mass. Alongside it, there emerged a supersized Div.

"Hahahahahaha! Time to die, mortals!" The now thirty foot tall monster said as he eyed them with murderous malice.

Why does everyone seem to think that bigger is better? Alkaid thought with a sigh as she pulled out a new spell card from Le Grimoire.

"You'd think they know that the bigger they are, the harder they fall." The sorceress said as she tossed the card to the ground in front of the looming giant where it proceeded to discharge a Ground Dasher that caused the earth underneath its feet to collapse like a house of cards. The spell was not quite as precise at manipulating the earth as her geokinesis, but it did the job and more importantly by using a spell card to cast it, it didn't drain her already waning stamina.

"Whaaat~!?" The supersized giant cried out in alarm as it fell into the pitfall that Alkaid's spell created.

"Kill it please." Alkaid told her team as she gestured at the disorientated giant with a tired sigh. As exhausted as she already was when she had first been teleported into the Goblin's Labyrinth alongside Pyrrha and their team, the gymnastics she'd used in the fight was even more draining than they normally would be.

"Leave it to us, 'Kaidy!" Pyrrha said enthusiastically as she and everyone else descended on the Div like predators on wounded prey.

Her wife pummeled the monster with a barrage of explosive, wasp-like projectiles courtesy of her Apes Igniferae (Crimson Bees) spell. She was joined in this barrage against the giant by a torrent of Celestial Bronze bullets from Peggy's Athena's Wrath and sniper shots from Crescent Rose fired by Helena. A hail of fire that kept the giant too disorientated to climb out of the pit it was trapped in and leaving it open for Caelus and Michael to add on their own measure to the Div's pain by attacking it from either side of the only exposed portion of his body, his head. Hitting him from the right, Michael's Kinetic Gavel practically caved it in and had the monster's head snapping to the side and right into Caelus and his waiting trident. And with a bloodthirsty smirk, Caelus was happy to take advantage of the opening that Michael set up for him and thrust his weapon deep into the Div's skull, killing it.

"Alright, it's dead." Helena said with a relieved sigh as she pushed herself back to her feet from her sniping position and put Crescent Rose back into her Hammerspace Backpack.

"Yes, it is." Peggy agreed as she reverted Athena's Wrath to its default mode. "Let's keep going before All the world's evil decides to send more monsters to challenge us whilst we're here."

"Right, let's go." Alkaid said with a nod as she began walking towards the entrance to the hedge maze that her modified Four-Point Spell indicated would lead to the path out of the Goblin's Labyrinth.

"Right behind you, 'Kaidy." Pyrrha assured her as she and the rest of Black Team formed up behind Alkaid as they headed into the hedge maze and the next challenge the alliance of their greatest enemies had planned for them.


"This is the place, Gracie?" Mina asked her big sister as she finished teleporting them, Kura and Rhip outside a lobby of a fancy resort in, of all places, the Sea of Monsters.

"Y-Yeah." Gracie said with a shudder that had Rhip who was perching on her shoulders, cawing at her comfortingly. "The last time I was here, it was a ruin but this was what I saw when I used my spell to track where Mum and Mama are."

"Okay." Kura said even as she hugged Gracie reassuringly. "So, um, where do we need to go now?"

"Hello. Welcome to C.C.'s Spa and Resort." A woman who was a little older than Gracie in a snazzy bellhop uniform said as she walked over and greeted them with a smile. "How may we serve you today, Guests?"

Mina and her sisters ignored her.

"Rhip, you're up." Gracie said, turning to look at Mum's familiar. "Use your familiar bond with Mum to lead the way to her."

Rhip let out a croak of agreement, launched himself into the air and began flying towards the resort's lobby.

"Follow Rhip!" Kura shouted enthusiastically as she raced after the raven, Mina and Gracie keeping pace with her.

"Uh, Guests!?" The bellhop shouted after them worriedly. "What are you doing?"

"Gracie, they'll be calling security on us soon!" Mina pointed out as she and her sisters ran through the resort lobby as they chased after Rhip. "Any way to keep them busy? Dealing with them ourselves would waste too much time!"

Through there! Rhip cawed as he flew towards a staff door behind the reception counter.

"Gracie, use your Mist constructs!" Kura urged as she used her telekinesis to pull out three explosive coasters from her trusty randoseru and sent them flying towards the reception desk.

"Right!" Gracie shouted back as the coasters detonated, blasting both the desk and the staff door apart, sending the nearby staff scrambling for safety and, more importantly, opening an easy path for them. "Leave it to me!"

"Oh no! Not again!" One of the receptionists screamed as she ran away.

"Call for security!" Another member of the resort staff that Mina could not place shouted fearfully. "Stop them before they wreck the place again!"

"Gracie, hurry!" Mina shouted as they followed Rhip in rushing through the staff area behind the reception.

"Hey! Give me a second, would you!?" Her elder sister cried out with a pout as thick banks of Mist began gathering around them and quickly began forming into hordes of Gracie's monstrous Mist constructs.

"Shit! Why did I ever follow Tabitha here? Why did I take this job? I'm not paid enough for this!" A girl in a security uniform and a Celestial Bronze sword cried out in dismay as a flock of Gracie's Winged Horrors - creatures that ranged in sizes from sparrow sized to the size of big cats and had bodies that continually shifted and changed but as a whole generally resembled great worms or serpents with a huge pair of bat-or dragon-like wings of a rubbery texture, strangely distorted heads, and had twisted appendages which ended in wicked talons - sent her fleeing for her life.

"Screw being loyal to Tabitha! I'm sooo~ getting a new job if I survive this!" Another security girl screamed as she was chased off by a pack of Gracie's vaguely hound sized Phase Hounds whose exact features seemed to be in constant flux and thus remained indistinct whilst she simultaneously dodged fireballs lobbed at her by one of Gracie's Deep Ones, a fire spitting Angler fish man with lobster claws.

"Are we jinxed or something!? Why are we always getting attacked by Half-Bloods for no reason!?" Another security guard cried as she ran from cover to cover as she dodged fireballs from Deep Ones and shot arrows with Celestial Bronze arrowheads from her bow at a Nightgaunt - a vaguely humanoid sized and shaped creature without eyes, ears or a mouth that sported leathery wings, inward-curving horns, a whiplike tail with a barbed tip, and vicious talons - that was pursuing her.

"I almost feel bad for them." Kura said as she and the rest of them raced deeper and deeper into the employee area of the resort, past offices, meeting, break, and store rooms.

"Don't." Gracie told their youngest sister. "They are working for the Immortal Sorceress and if we need to be here to get to Mum and Mama then she must be the person, or at least one of the people, that were responsible for putting them in mortal danger."

"The Immortal Sorceress? Who's that?" Mina asked with a frown. She didn't recognize that alias.

Through here! We're almost there! Rhip cawed as he led them towards a backdoor to the building they were in. Open that door!

"Leave it to me, Rhip!" Kura replied as she sent another of her explosive coasters flying at the door, blasting it open.

"She was referring to me, little Zashiki-warashi and my fellow goddess." A very beautiful woman, almost as beautiful as Mum, said as she stood waiting for them in a courtyard that Mina, Rhip and her sisters found themselves in.

The woman had long dark hair braided with threads of gold and piercing green eyes. She was dressed in a silky black dress with shapes that seemed to move in the fabric: animal shadows, black upon black, like deer running through a forest at night. And she was a woman that Mina's powers let her immediately recognize as the Greek goddess of magic, Circe.

"My dear sister is just trying to avoid referring to me by name and invoking me." Circe said with a smirk. Though it lasted on her face for only a moment before it turned into a frown. "And seriously, Sister, did you have to wreck my resort? Last time it was a bunch of half-bloods and pirates! And now it's a bunch of little girls! Who by Tartarus did I piss off to deserve this!?"

"Oh! Just shut up and get out of the way, Circe!" Gracie told her fellow daughter of Hecate as she hurled a fireball at the goddess.

"Now, now, dear sister," Circe said as she batted the fireball away and shot Gracie a fake welcoming look. "Let us not make this… messy. I'm sure two civilized women such as we can talk this out."

"Say that while not using Charm Speak." Gracie snapped back. "By the way, my madness makes me partially immune to it. Mina stabbity stab her!"

"On it, Big Sis!" Mina said as she leapt in front of her sisters and with a swing of an arm in a large arc in front of her, she used one of her techniques. "Fan of Knives!"

Tracing the path of her arm, dozens of deadly blades full of her power to impose death materialized and shot through the air towards the other goddess.

"No! Keep those away from me!" Circe shouted with a fearful shriek as recognizing the threat the knives posed, she teleported away.

"Woah! She just ran away?" Kura asked, blinking in surprise. "She's such a coward."

"Forget about her. We need to find Mum and Mama!" Gracie reminded them and looked up at Rhip who was circling overhead. "Rhip, where do we need to go now?"

This way. Rhip cawed as he winged towards what looked like a utility shed on the far side of the courtyard. We need to head inside there.

"Right." Gracie said as she began gathering a fireball only to be preempted by Kura shooting an explosive coaster at the shed door, blasting it open.

"Leave the doors to me, Gracie." Kura said with a smirk.

"And any boss-type enemies to me." Mina added with her own smirk.

Gracie looked between them before shaking her head in exasperation. "Sure. Let's just keep going."

Nodding in agreement, Mina and Kura followed after Gracie and Rhip as they walked into the shed. They found it empty save for a single portal whose frame was made out of what looked like random pieces of junk and with the portal itself consisting of a pane of swirling golden energy.

Mistress is through there! Rhip croaked as he landed on Gracie's shoulder and bobbed his head towards the portal.

"Rhip says that Mum is through there." Mina translated for Gracie, who as a mortal was unable to understand him.

"Right." Gracie said as she took a deep breath and Mina could sense her releasing the power she had been using to maintain the Mist constructs she had sent to rampage through Circe's resort and cover their rear. "Let's go."

Kura nodded. "It's time to save Mum and Mama."

"Yup." Mina said with her own nod. "It's time."

Rhip cawed his agreement and led the way as they charged through the portal.

Just wait a little longer, Mum, Mama. We're on our way!


"'Kaidy, why is there a swamp of all things in the middle of the Goblin's Labyrinth?" Pyrrha asked as she eyed the vile, foul-smelling lake full of twisted, gnarled trees growing in and around its disgusting waters that she, her wife and the rest of Black Team found themselves on the banks of.

"It's the Bog of Eternal Stench." 'Kaidy said with a shrug. "It's one of the Goblin Labyrinth's most infamous landmarks and one of its greatest defenses."

"Eternal Stench?" Peggy asked, shooting Alkaid a horrified look. "Is that literal?"

"Yes," 'Kaidy confirmed with a grim nod. "If even a drop of it got on us, we would be cursed with, like the Bog's name implied, a powerful stench that requires a powerful countercurse to dispel."

"Right~! Because of course it does." Helena said with a shudder, a horrified look on her face. "Let's, um, give the water a wide berth, okay? Like a very wide berth?"

"Agreed." Peggy said firmly as Caelus and Micheal nodded their agreement.

"We will." Alkaid promised them as she began leading them gingerly around the Bog of Eternal Stench.

"Think the Bog itself is enough of a challenge that the bad guys will give us a pass on the monsters?" Pyrrha asked hopefully.

"You wish." The unfortunately familiar voice of Tabitha, daughter of Bia, said as she suddenly stepped out from behind a tree ahead of them on the path they were taking around the Bog at the same time as the shadows around them suddenly began to twist and grow until they became a horde of Shadow Men. "If you want to keep going and escape the Labyrinth, you'll need to get through me."


"Rhip! Just keep leading the way! Ignore everything else!" Gracie shouted at Mum's familiar as he jinked and weaved to avoid being mauled by a murder of ravens made out of shadows. Harrying enemies that a flock of her Winged Horrors swarmed and quickly dealt with. All whilst she used one of her Celestial Bronze knives to gut a wolf made out of shadows that had leapt at her.

"Yes, keep going!" Kura urged as she hurled explosive coasters at the numerous shadowy constructs in the shape of various dangerous beasts and monsters that were trying to waylay them, blowing dozens of the enemy up and softening them up for Gracie's own Mist constructs.

"We'll cover you!" Mina encouraged the raven as she unleashed a Fan of Knives to thin the shadow hordes.

Rhip croaked his understanding and recovered quickly before winging back towards the direction he had been heading before his shadowy counterparts had tried to attack him. Quickly beginning to circle a stretch of the wall of the shifting maze that they found themselves in.

"That way, Rhip?" Mina asked, only to receive a caw of agreement.

"Then leave it to me!" She added as she threw a knife at the section of wall that Rhip had indicated. A knife she must have imbued not just with her typical power to impose death but also a big dose of explosive energy because as her blade buried itself in the wall, it blew up in a pretty explosion.

Immediately, a good chunk of the shadow monsters moved to try to block the opening that Mina had just created. Gracie was not about to let that happen however and with a mental order, she sent her own Mist constructs to intercept them.

"Come on! Let's go!" She shouted as she ran through the hole in the wall, with Rhip keeping pace with her in the air and Mina and Kura trailing behind her. The latter supporting her army of Mist constructs with a barrage of explosive coasters she shot at the enemy and a twister of telekinetically controlled utensils that she swept across the shadows' ranks.

"A forest?" Mina asked with a frown as they found just that on the other side of the hole they had just ran through.

"Yeah, why is there a forest in the middle of a maze?" Kura asked as she pulled her utensil twister back into her randoseru.

"It's like Daedalus' Labyrinth, I guess?" Gracie replied with a shrug. "It just plops a whole bunch of random things together in a confusing manner?"

"Ha! I will love to see the look on the Goblin Monarchs' faces when I tell them that's what you think of their precious Labyrinth." A voice boomed from deeper in the forest.

"New enemy?" Mina asked with a tired sigh.

"Probably," Gracie said with a shrug as she pulled her army of Mist constructs into a ring around her and her sisters. She wanted them close just in case she needed them. The shadow hordes followed but they weren't a problem. Her constructs were keeping them at bay and she was confident they could continue to do so.

"This is getting tiring!" Kura whined. "I just wanna find Mum and Mama already!"

"If that's what you want, little spirit, then you will need to get through me first." The voice from earlier said as it emerged from the depths of the forest and revealed itself to be a colossal dragon with a rotund and heavy build that resembled a crocodile. Its entire body was colored in shades of brown and black with numerous large spikes and golden gilded scales on his back. Its body was covered in a thick set of bark-like armor and had crystals and entangled plants growing all over it. Its head was layered in numerous large frills of spikes and was adorned with four long golden curved horns. It also had a large stone chin that covered his entire mouth. And last but not least, its tail took the form of a giant tree with bony branches and golden leaves that curved upwards.

"I am the Azhdaha, Naghi!" The dragon loudly declared. "And by the order of the great Lord Angra Mainyu, you go no further, little girls, for I will not let you!"

"We don't have time for this." Gracie declared with annoyance as she gathered a large mass of Mist and began to shape the most powerful of her Mist constructs out of it. "Come forth, my Mind Flayer!"

As she finished speaking, the massive bank of Mist she'd been shaping finished coalescing into a gargantuan entity. It was a being at least as big as the Azhdaha with a body that appeared to be entirely composed of minuscule particles, giving it a misty appearance akin to a shadow and which possessed multiple limbs, some of which branched into several smaller appendages, and an elongated, flame-shaped head that sprouted from the central body that bore no visible facial features.

"What is that thing?" The Azhdaha - Naghi was it? - asked as it took a reflexive step away from her super cool, super intimidating Mind Flayer.

"Hihihi! That's my Mind Flayer of course." Gracie said with a giggle. Why was she suddenly giggling? She didn't know. She just really felt like giggling right now. "And it's gonna destroy ya, Naghi-kun! Go, go Mind Flayer~! Destroy that meanie dragon!"

"Oh no! Gracie's sanity is slipping." Kura cried out worriedly as she glomped Gracie's side.

"Well, she did just conjure her boss construct. You know how that always brings out the madness in her. She draws on it too much to power it," Mina said with a shrug as they watched the amazing Mind Flayer stalk towards the Azhdaha all scary-like. Like, like, it was the killer in a stalker movie! Yeah! Like it was Jason Voorhees!

"I know not what manner of foul beast you might be, abomination! But I will defeat you! I will not fail Lord Angra Mainyu!" Naghi the Azhdaha roared in defiance before with a stamp of its front feet, it caused large chunks of earth to rip themselves out of the ground and shoot at the Mind Flayer.

"Hihihihihihi~! You'll have to do better than that!" Gracie taunted the dragon as her Mind Flayer simply shrouded itself in an aura of eldritch red lightning that easily shielded it from the attack. "Oh! Oh! Punch him, Mind Flayer! Punch him!"

At her command, her boss construct - as her sisters insisted on calling it - transformed a pair of its limbs into warhammers and in a burst of speed that left red lightning trailing in its wake, it charged into close quarters and began using its newly created bludgeon arms to swing at the dragon.

Despite his bulk, Naghi was surprisingly nimble on its feet and actually managed to scramble out of the reach of her Mind Flayer's limbs. Sadly for it, her creation was very good at shifting its form and so just stretched its warhammer arms out like tentacles so they slammed into him anyway. A blow that was amplified by her Mind Flayer channeling a surge of its red lightning through the blows.

"Arrrrrgh~!" The dragon cried out in delicious pain even as it counterattacked by breathing a torrent of pressurized water at her Mind Flayer, dispersing its vaporous body and forcing it to reform a distance away.

Not that Gracie minded. She was too busy giggling happily and jumping up and down with glee at the pain she'd caused the dragon.

Her sisters might have been saying something but Gracie was too focused on the awesome kaiju fight to even notice what they said. As such, she couldn't help but let out a squeak of surprise and had to quickly hold down her skirt - Mum said she looked good in a skirt, that it helped show off her legs, so she started wearing them more often even though she still thought jeans were better - as she was caught in Kura's telekinetic hold.

Wait! If she is holding me with her telekinesis then I can try something I've always wanted to!

"Here goes!" Gracie said with a silly grin as pressing firmly down on her skirt, with a small jet of magically conjured force, she threw herself to the side in a spin. "Weeeeeee~!"

Yes! This is as fun as I thought it would be! She thought with glee as she spun and spun around in midair.


"Uh, Mina, I've got Gracie and we are ready to go but, um, is she supposed to get this loony?" Kura asked worriedly as she watched her usually responsible and level-headed big sister use a combination of her own magic and the telekinetic hold she had on her to spin herself around. Laughing crazily all the while.

"Yeah." Mina said with a shrug as she looked at the fight between the Persian dragon and Gracie's Mind Flayer where the two kaiju were busy having a beam lock as they shot lightning at each other. "This is how batty Gracie really is. I just taught her how to keep a lid on it."

"Oh! Dizzy!" Gracie said with a silly little laugh as she finally stopped spinning.

"Ok, well, I like Gracie when she's normal." Kura confessed as she idly used a telekinetically controlled knife to skewer a shadow wolf through the eye as it got past the cordon of Gracie's Mist constructs and tried to leap at her from behind. "She's so out of it now that I don't think she even realizes we're here."

"Yeah, don't let Mr. D know or he might take away my mad god card, but I think so too." Mina agreed as she turned away from the kaiju fight where the dragon had conjured some giant vines to try and restrain the Mind Flayer, only for Gracie's boss construct to turn into a cloud of Mist and slip through them before reforming behind the dragon and hitting him with a bolt of red lightning. "So let's get going. The faster we find Mum and Mama, the sooner Gracie can dismiss her Mind Flayer and go back to normal."

"Why don't we just kill the dragon?" Kura asked, tilting her head to the side in confusion. "If it's not around then Gracie doesn't need her Mind Flayer to be either, right?"

"You think Angra Mainyu would let her just dismiss it?" Mina asked as the Mind Flayer was sent crashing to the ground by a powerful gust that its draconic opponent had conjured, only to retaliate by shifting entirely into red lighting and shoot back towards its enemy.

The dragon was ready for it though and even as the Mind Flayer slammed into it, it grounded most of the energy into the ground and though it grunted in pain, weathered the attack. And as the Mist construct reformed its body around it to press the attack, it was promptly caught in another gust of conjured wind and sent flying back. A turn of events that seemed to deeply thrill Gracie if the way she was hooting and hollering was any indication.

"Even if we kill this dragon, he'll just drop another or something else just as bad on us to make sure Gracie needs to keep the Mind Flayer around. He's a cheating meanie like that." Mina explained as she used a Fan of Knives to thin the ranks of the shadow creatures attacking them. "Rhip, which way?"

Mum's familiar cawed and flew off into the forest, a flock of Gracie's Winged Horrors flying around him in escort formation. Mina immediately followed after him at a run and Kura, and Gracie who she had in her telekinetic hold, flew after her. At how fast Rhip was flying and Mina was running, if she didn't use her telekinesis to fly, there was no way she'd have kept up with them.

"So why isn't he trying to counter us too? Why just Gracie?"

"Dunno," Mina shrugged. "Maybe he's not got anything ready that can? I mean, I don't think he expected that we would even come after Mum and Mama. Dragons are easy to find. He's probably got hundreds of them. But something to counter a powerful spirit like you and a goddess like me without breaking the Ancient Laws more than he already is with this bad guy team up doesn't, like Mum says, grow on trees."

"Right. Wait but if he's breaking the rules-"

"We're the Fates way of evening the odds." Mina replied. "At least I think so. It doesn't have to be equal, just equal enough."

"That's so unfair."

"That's the Fates and the Ancient Laws for you." Mina said with a shrug as she tossed a knife into the brain of a shadow construct in the shape of a giant eagle that had used its size to bull rush through Rhip's escorting Winged Horrors and was about to attack the raven.

A boom and a particularly loud cheer from Gracie caused Kura to look back and she saw the Mind Flayer performing, of all things, a suplex on the Persian dragon.

How by Grandpa Hades did it manage that!? The youngest Potter couldn't help but ponder. Wait! Now's not the time to let my mind wander like this!

Slapping her cheeks, Kura cleared her head. With her head back in the game, the Zashiki-warashi focused all her attention on what was really important and ignored the cool kaiju battle waging behind her.

Mum and Mama, hang on a little longer! We're almost there!


"Eat a Silence, Tabitha!" Pyrrha heard 'Kaidy shout the moment they saw the former Amazon Queen step forward to confront them, tossing one of her spell cards at the daughter of Bia as she did that discharged the curse that sealed away the dangerous powers of the short blond woman with orange raptor-like eyes.

Alkaid's spell seemed to be the signal for the fight to begin and the hordes of Shadow Men surged out of the forest with weapons just as ethereal as their bodies in hand to attack them. Pyrrha would have helped to fend them off but annoyingly Tabitha had no intention of letting her, something she made abundantly clear by throwing her morning star in the direction of the daughter of war's head. Now, even without her Demigod powers amplifying the force between the throw, the weapon still had a hefty ball of solid Celestial Bronze for a head and getting hit by it would still cave Pyrrha's skull in. But that wasn't really that difficult for Pyrrha to deal with.

"Yeah, you're going to have to try better than that." Pyrrha said as she leapt out of range of Tabitha's opening attack and the follow-up sweep she did with the morning star.

Tabitha snarled and probably spat curses at Pyrrha but thanks to 'Kaidy's trusty Silence spell, she heard nothing as she lined up Miló (Speak).

"Eat fire, Tabitha!" Pyrrha said as she unleashed the fury of her bracelet into the Amazon's face.

Before the flames could connect however Tabitha was surrounded in a black aura and she suddenly leapt out of the way of Miló's flames in a superhuman leap.

"Want to try me without my powers being sealed, Pyrrha Branwen?" Tabitha said with a smirk as she landed and immediately shot forward like a bullet, courtesy of her powers redirecting the kinetic energy involved, directly at the redhead.

"Wind Wall!" Pyrrha cast even as 'Kaidy tossed another spell card Tabitha's way and discharged another Silence as evidenced by how as the Amazon slammed into the wind barrier like a freight train, she didn't redirect the force and instead hit it full force.

Of course, this should've killed her but again her allies saved her because instead of being reduced to a bloody smear, she was surrounded by an aura, golden in color this time, and instead staggered away from the collision.

Not wanting to chance that whoever healed her also lifted 'Kaidy's Silence, Pyrrha expertly flicked the wrist of the arm she was wearing Akoúo̱ (Listen) on and drew her wand from the Hammerspace it was linked to. A wand she promptly used to cast her own Silence on the still recovering former Amazon Queen. At the same time she shifted her labrys into its spear form. As much as she loved her weapon's primary mode, it was primarily a two-handed weapon. So if she needed to use her wand too, then it was best to use its spear mode instead. It at least was designed to be wielded one-handed. The moment the change was made, Pyrrha went on the offensive and thrust her spear at Tabitha.

Unfortunately, by the time she did, the Amazon had recovered enough of her wits to deflect Pyrrha's thrust with her morning star, spitting curses at her that thanks to the active Silence spell produced no sound. The daughter of war was undeterred by this however and just pressed her advantage, launching a furious flurry of spear thrusts that Tabitha struggled to deflect or evade.

And with her enemy on her back foot, Pyrrha finally found herself having, for the first time since this fight started, the breathing room to check in on the others. Peeping from the corner of her eyes, she saw the Bertinellis working like a well oiled machine as they slew Shadow Men by the dozens. Helena would shoot at any monsters targeting them from afar with Huntress' Crossbow, thinning their numbers and leaving any that got past her deadly bolts to get flattened by Michael and his Kinetic Gavel or a bone crushing tap from her and Long Memory, her own kinetic energy manipulating bludgeon. Peggy was, as usual, taking advantage of the target rich environment to go crazy with Athena's Wrath's rotary gun mode, though by the frown on her face, she was not appreciating the fact she was reduced to heavy fire support. As for Caelus, he was racing around all over the place like a bolt of blue lightning, cutting down Shadow Men wherever he went. The only one having any trouble at all was 'Kaidy, who, tired as she was, was struggling to keep up her evasions of the enemy even as she tossed her spell cards at the monsters, killing whole mobs of them at a time.

Shit! At this rate, it's only a matter of time before she slips up! Pyrrha thought worriedly as true to her fears, Alkaid misjudged one of the gymnastic jumps she used for her evasions and tripped. She didn't seem to have hurt her ankle or anything, but the opening that her tripping created was more than enough for a pair of Shadow Men armed with pikes to thrust at her as she recovered.

"Kaidy! Watch out!" Pyrrha called out in warning.

"Don't need to worry, Pyrrha! I've got her!" Caelus shouted back as in a blue blur, he appeared in front of 'Kaidy and with a deft swing of his trident deflected the pikes that were seconds from skewering Pyrrha's wife.

"I'm fine, Py!" Said wife shouted back in reassurance as she tossed a spell card at the pikemen which had just attacked her and sent the pair of Shadow Men back to the darkness from whence they came with the eponymous burst of luminance of a stored Cleansing Light.

"You should be-" Tabitha began as a fresh pitch black aura faded from around her.

"Oh! Just stay quiet, you bitch!" Pyrrha said as she rolled her eyes at her opponent. "Silence!"

Honestly! If her power was restored, the former Amazon Queen should have used it. But no! Instead, she just used the lifting of the curse by her allies to make use of her restored voice to start trying to talk crap!?

What an idiot! Pyrrha thought with a shake of her head as she decided to up the ante in her fight with Tabitha.

"Expelliarmus!" The Witch cast with a jab of her wand in Tabitha's direction, sending a scarlet beam shooting from its tip at the Amazon at the same time as she thrust her spear at the same target.

Caught between deflecting Pyrrha's spear and evading her spell, the daughter of Bia chose the former.

Fool. Pyrrha couldn't help but think as the Disarming Spell hit the other Half-blood dead center in the chest and not only sent her flying back like she'd been hit by a truck but, more importantly, sent her morning star flying out of her hands.

Fool or not, the daughter of war was not about to just end things there. She knew how dangerous Tabitha could be. So even as the blonde sailed through the air courtesy of Expelliarmus Airlines, she began spitting spells at her to make sure she stayed down.

"Stupefy!" She incanted, sending the red beam of a Stunner at the daughter of Bia, knocking her unconscious.

She followed this up with, "Petrificus Totalus!"

And as the white beam of the Full Body-Bind Curse hit Tabitha and temporarily paralyzed her, thus restraining her just in case she somehow resisted the Stunner, Pyrrha finished things up.

"Incarcerous!"

The moment she completed her incantation, thick ropes appeared out of thin air and promptly wrapped around Tabitha and hogtied the former Amazon Queen.

That should keep her down. Pyrrha thought with a satisfied grin.

She was just about to turn to go help the others with the Shadow Men when suddenly a thick bank of Mist suddenly surrounded the whole area they were fighting in. And before Pyrrha could so much as question what was going on, a sliver blur shot of the blanketing Mist from behind her and landed on top of the bound and unconscious Tabitha. A blur that Pyrrha quickly recognized as one of her daughters.

"Mina?"

"You tried to hurt Mama! I'm gonna stabbity stab you for that!" The goddess of serial killers declared as a pair of vicious looking knives materialized in her hands and before Pyrrha could say a word to stop her, she plunged them deep into the defeated daughter of Bia. Repeatedly.

"Mina!" Pyrrha said, her mind catching up with the situation. "What are you doing here?"

Sure, she was a little upset that Mina had killed Tabitha when she'd gone out of the way to not do the deed herself, but she wasn't that hung up on that. She was a daughter of Ares and was married to a daughter of Hades. She was intimately familiar with killing. Plus, Tabitha had been a thorn in their side for long enough. Even if her death might cause problems with her divine mother and possibly with the Amazons, she wasn't gonna begrudge Mina what she'd done.

She was honestly just confused that her daughter was here at all.

"We're here to save you and Mum from 'Mortal Danger'." Mina chirped happily as she finally got done stabbing Tabitha's corpse.

"Huh?"


"Damn it, there's no end to these things." Alkaid cursed as she followed up her use of the Cleansing Light spell card with one charged with a Elmekia Lance: Phalanx Formation spell card. A card whose use conjured hundreds of lances of light that shot into the ranks of the attacking Shadow Men, killing hundreds of them. "I'm running out of spell cards. That was my last one with a light spell."

"Already? But you only used like what? Seven of them?" Caelus asked with a frown as with a single spin on his heel, he gutted a trip of Shadow Men that tried to come at him from different sides all at once.

"I'm a daughter of Hades, light isn't my thing. So sue me for not charging up many light spells." Alkaid retorted with a blush as she used a Firestorm spell card to unleash a trio of fire tornadoes that she made track through the ranks of the attacking monsters until the magical energy that had conjured and sustained them ran dry.

"Here, Alkaid! Catch!" Peggy said suddenly as she tossed a vial of something at her before returning to blasting away at the Shadow Men with her rotary gun.

"Nectar?" Alkaid said with a gasp. "I thought I drank the last of it we had on hand back in the slaughterhouse?"

"I dug around Athena's Wrath's Hammerspace and found that I had one last vial of it left." Peggy explained. "I have no idea if it's expired or not though."

"I'm willing to take the risk." Alkaid said as she tossed a Lightning Lancer: Phalanx Shift spell card at the Shadow Men hordes, sending almost a hundred green spheres with black sparks of electricity crackling around them shooting into their ranks where they exploded in satisfying explosions of black lightning. "I'd be useless if I don't recharge some of my mana or I run out of spell cards and I'm getting close to the latter."

"Can Nectar even expire?" Caelus asked curiously as he stabbed his trident through the eyes of a particularly tall and bulky Shadow Men that had been armed with a weapon so big that it doubled as a bludgeon in addition to being a sword.

"Depending on how you process it? Definitely." Michael said over the radios they were all still wearing. "The pure grade stuff the gods drink lasts forever and so does the high grade stuff from the Camps, but low grade stuff you might get on the black market? Those have a shelf life alright."

"Michael! We didn't get on the radios so everyone can hear you wax lyrical over Nectar quality." Helena scolded. "Thank the gods that we at least made sure to not loop Pyrrha into this call, we don't wanna distract her from her fight. It looks intense."

"Is something the matter, Helena, Michael?" Alkaid asked after downing the vial of Nectar that Peggy had given her and felt a surge of relief as her energy was partially restored. Not by much but enough that she felt comfortable casting some spells if she needed to instead of feeling on the brink of passing out if she even cast something as simple as a Dancing Lights spell.

"Just wanted to give you a heads up. There's a big bank of mist, which I'm thinking is actual Mist, blowing in from behind us. Don't know if it's friend or foe but I thought it'd be better if you know."

Turning towards their rear where the Bertinellis were holding the line, Alkaid saw exactly what Helena was talking about. Heading towards them was a wall of Mist - and as a user of Mystiokinesis and magic, she could confirm it was Mist - was indeed billowing toward them. At a pretty high speed too.

We can't outrun it. Not whilst we're busy dealing with Tabitha and these Shadow Men. Alkaid concluded with a frown as she tossed a Raza Clover spell card at the shadow monsters, sending flickering motes of blue astral energy to blow towards their endless ranks like a blizzard.

"Whatever it is, we just have to weather it. We can't outpace it."

"Gotcha, Alkaid. Hope whoever or whatever is behind it is friendly then. Not sure we can take on any more enemies."

"Let's keep our fingers crossed then." Alkaid replied as the Mist front was almost upon them. "We'll learn either way soon enough."

No sooner had she said that when in a sudden burst of speed, the wall of Mist shot forward and covered the entire area around them in its white, obscuring vapors. This was followed moments later by the Mist rapidly beginning to form itself into various shapes. Shapes that Alkaid recognized.

"Gracie's constructs? Here?" Alkaid gasped as the familiar forms of an army's worth of her eldest's array of monstrous Mist constructs formed around her and her team and began engaging the Shadow Men.

"Mum! Mama!" The familiar voice of Kura called from nearby, causing Alkaid to spin towards it.

"Kura?" Alkaid gasped as she saw her youngest daughter flying towards her with a rather out of it looking Gracie floating, no doubt in her younger sister's telekinetic hold, behind her and Rhip flying beside her. Considering the latter's constructs had already made an appearance, she really shouldn't have been surprised that her daughters, or Rhip for that matter, were here but she nevertheless was.

She blamed it on her exhaustion.

"Oof!" Kura grunted cutely as she skidded to a stop next to Alkaid.

"Hi Mum~! You're looking soooo~ pretty! Hihihihihihihihihi~!" Gracie greeted deliriously.

"Kura, darling, what are you doing here? And why does Gracie look like she's on drugs?"

"Fufu, we're here to save Mum and Mama! And Gracie is like this because she conjured her Mind Flayer." Mina said as she skipped over with Pyrrha thankfully by her side as with Gracie's army busy keeping the Shadow Men at bay, the Bertinellis also wisely walked over to take a breather. They'd been running through the gauntlet their enemies had set up for them in the Goblin's Labyrinth for who knows how long already and everyone needed a rest.

"Well, this is convenient." Alkaid said, pleased that everyone was together. "Now, the only question is how should we escape the Goblin Labyrinth? To my understanding, the only chance we truly have is to reach the sole exit at the King's castle. Teleportation is blocked, so as far as I know, that's the only way to escape."

Kura and Mina exchanged a look at one another and shrugged. ""We don't know.""

Gracie, the poor dear looking higher than a kite, spoke up in a deliriously cheerful tone. "That's super easy, Mum-sensei~ Mina just needs to stabbity stab her power to super murder kill those silly lil' protections! And then we can poof and go home and have s'mores."

Everyone stared at the out of it girl for a moment before, one by one they turned to look at Mina expectantly only to find the goddess looking at her hands with deep contemplation. It was almost as if she was seeing them for the first time.

"Whoo!" Mina cheered after a long moment, a pair of knives materializing in her hands. "I can stab all the things!"

And, that was when, likely deliberately to spoil the mood, a feeling of utter wrongness spread across the area and Angra Mainyu and the Goblin monarchs appeared in a pillar of thick corruptive mud from the Bog of Eternal Stench.

"Not so fast, Potters!" The evil god declared as he stood atop of a geyser of the Bog's foul waters with his allies flanking him.

Everyone tensed up, preparing for a pitched battle between them and the enemy alliance.

Gracie, the poor dear, giggled like a madwoman as the hulking form of her Mind Flayer suddenly appeared, striding out of the Mist like Godzilla surfacing out of the ocean to begin one of his cinematic rampages through Japan. And just like the fictional kaiju, the Mind Flayer's appearance made quite the impression thanks to the mighty construct tossing the battered and unconscious form of a rotund dragon directly at the god and the Archfae.

Startled by this, the trio hastily threw up barriers. And Mina, using the same instinct to identify openings that she used to get into trouble when she and Pyrrha weren't looking, happily took the distraction for the chance that it was and stabbed the two serrated daggers she'd conjured earlier straight into the ground.

Repeatedly.

Because, when did the adorable goddess of serial killers ever settle for a single stab if she could go for more?

"Die die die!" She chanted with wicked glee as the earth around them quivered and shook, the land starting to crack and split.

"See ya later, stinkers~!" Kura chirped with a wink. As everyone was surrounded by the light blue tint of the spirit's magic, as she teleported them away in a blink.


Done and done! Thanks to Nameless and Axios as always!

Woot! Now this was a chapter! Been a while since we did such a long one. Like 12K+? It feels good to get that done. Now, onto the chapter itself! Personally, my favorite part would be Gracie's time to shine. She's really come into her own as a character not just development-wise, but also powerwise! Her massive constructs are amazing, but I personally like what she did to figure out where Alkaid and Pyrrha were. The Mist threads she used to track down her loved ones were a treat that Nameless came up with and reminded me of the Spirit Ribbons from Bleach (the start of it at least). Oh yeah, and her Mind Flayer tossing a dragon about was giggle worthy. Not that she wasn't a loony giggle monster due to her madness. Nice job on that Nameless!

Nameless: Thanks. It was tough to write a loopy character 'cause I kept having to stop myself from fixing up her speech and thoughts to not be so crazy. But I think the effort was worth it. I quite like the final product.

And of course, crazy Gracie comes up with the idea that lets them escape the Goblin's Labyrinth. Good thing Mina's a goddess of death and stabbity stabs! Then Kura comes in clutch for the teleport and the girls save the day! Nice little role reversal from Black Team just murder blendering things XD And rest in pain Tabitha, you crazy bitch. Felt the need to mention it~

Nameless: Yes, RIP Tabitha. You've served us well as a character. Though her influence isn't done yet folks. What do we mean? Well, you'll need to wait till the next book to see what we mean but we hope you like what we came up with when you do. Just a hint though, Angra Mainyu really liked Tabitha. She was his kind of mortal. *Wink* *Wink*

You know what to do! Smash that review button and tell us what you love! No flames and peace off my peeps!