ONE HUNDRED FLOORS OF HELL
CHAPTER IV
The elevator ride was by far, the most confusing thing that had happened to him so far. It was quiet, unnaturally so. There was no noise– not the doors, not the elevator itself, nothing. It didn't even feel like they were moving.
Until the elevator chimed and the doors slid open– and Percy had an entirely new set of problems on his hands.
He was blinded by white. A wave of cold washed over the elevator, chilling him down to his bones. His breath crystalized as it escaped his lungs.
He waited for his eyes to adjust, shielding them from the light. When he saw what stood beyond the doors, he wished he hadn't taken the elevator after all.
There was snow. So much snow.
He poked his head out, trying to ignore the way his skin felt like it would fall right off due to the cold.
He was in a valley, snowy mountains and black ice formations keeping him from seeing beyond a few hundred meters in any given direction. The trees looked suspiciously like pines, yet they were gigantic, as if they could reach Olympus itself. They were laced with glowing fungi.
Agis hated it immediately. He hissed at the snow as if it would come alive. Instead of staying down there, the cat opted to jump onto his backpack once more, but not before Percy took the hoodie out.
He slipped it over his head and put on the hood. It wasn't much better, but it would have to do.
Riptide in hand, he stepped out of the elevator, just in time before it started shaking ominously. The doors slammed shut. The whole thing slowly sank back into the ground until it was gone, leaving no trace that it had ever been there.
No way back now. Percy frowned.
Ninety-nine. That was the number that had been engraved on the button, which meant that he had been on… floor one-hundred?
That couldn't be it. That would mean that there were a hundred-something floors. Was the surface at the very top? He hoped not. He didn't know if he had it in him to fight his way through a hundred floors of monsters.
Then again, he didn't really have any other option.
As he pondered, something moved at the top of the cliffs surrounding him. The sound of creaking wood. He twitched, head turning towards the noise.
A pair of pale blue eyes, glowing with life, stared down at him. To his right, on the opposite cliff, another pair appeared.
They emerged from the woods– hounds?
They resembled hellhounds in a way, though their fur was stark white and their eyes blue. They were thinner, looked hungrier.
A dozen more slowly made their way out from their hiding spots, looking down at him from the top of the slope. Percy watched them, his expression grim.
"Hang tight," he told Agis. "We're not alone."
He tried to stretch his left arm, only for his shoulder to scream in agony still. He groaned. That wouldn't work. He needed to find some source of water so he could heal. Fast.
Tucking his arm against his side, he spun Riptide in his good hand.
"Come kill me or leave me be." His voice echoed through the valley. The green of his eyes had turned icy. "But make up your damn mind."
With that, the first hellhound –frosthound? – leapt down the slope. Its brothers poured down the hillside, forming a wall of white that raced towards him like a tidal wave.
Percy scooped down, packing some snow onto his bad shoulder. It would melt, and melting snow meant water. Water meant healing. As long as he kept healing, he would keep winning.
With a fierce yell, the demigod met the pack of hounds head-on.
"What if it lines up like it did in the Trojan War ... Athena versus Poseidon?"
"I don't know. But I just know that I'll be fighting next to you."
"Why?"
"Because you're my friend, Seaweed Brain. Any more stupid questions?"
Riptide cut through the glowing fungi like it was butter. He let it fall into his palm, gingerly rolling it around. It gave off a faint warmth.
He held it up to Agis, who sat atop the newly acquired cloak, made from the white pelt of a frosthound. One of the last to die had left it behind upon death. It was quite good at staving off the cold. His digits still felt frozen though.
"This edible?" he asked.
Agis sniffed the mushroom, before meowing once. He didn't hiss, so Percy took that as an affirmative. He popped it in his mouth.
"Bleh." He pulled a face, chewing it down. It tasted bitter, almost foul, but upon swallowing he felt arcs of warmth spread through his system.
It was something. He'd have to see if he got sick later –he doubted he would– but otherwise this would prove to be a great foodsource, taste aside.
In the hours after the battle against the hounds, he'd made his way out of the little valley, entering the thick pine forest surrounding it. He realized he was much higher up than he realized. Relative to what, he didn't know, but he could see the black tips of the mountains but a few hundred meters above.
The snow hadn't stopped either. His clothes were soaked, though the pelt seemed to be very resistant to the snow.
The frosthounds as he'd dubbed them, weren't all dead of course. There were too many of them. He'd slaughtered those that came after him, but at some point they had given up and retreated. He heard their distant howls still, reminding him that they were very much still present.
Another thing was the bodies. Completely frozen, their skin like glass, they stuck out of the snow, eternally clawing at the sky. Percy wondered if they had been alive at one point, and if they would come back to life.
There was no night and day in Tartarus as far as he knew, but his rumbling tummy and tired muscles told him that he'd been wandering for too long. He needed to rest. To sleep.
When was the last time he'd slept, anyways? He couldn't remember. He didn't even know how long he had spent in the Pit so far, having been unconscious in Arachne's cave for God knows how long.
Man, his shoulder was killing him. Fighting the hounds had taken a lot out of him.
He briefly thought back to the dream she'd spun in his head. Hesperia and her hut. An uncomfortable feeling gnawed at his chest. Could you mourn someone who hadn't really existed?
Percy eventually found a small grove, tucked away behind a large formation of black ice. From the outside, it was practically invisible. He had only found it by almost falling into it.
He slid into the tiny pocket inside the ice, resting his back against the surface. It was cold and not too comfortable, but he could rest for a few moments here, without worrying about being stabbed in the back.
He ate some more of the mushrooms. When Agis snatched one for himself, he simply rolled his eyes. The cat settled on his lap, resting its head on his stomach.
Percy tugged at his cloak and hoodie, lifting up the fabric. The cold rushed in, and he hissed. He uncovered his shoulder wound.
He wasn't a doctor, but it didn't look good.
The wound wasn't bleeding, at least. It was still raw and not fully closed, but that wasn't the issue. The skin around it was blue-ish. His veins were bulging, black and generally didn't look very healthy.
"Poison," he muttered. Great. Just great.
He'd stayed away from moving his left arm too much, now he realized that it had gone completely immobile. He could bend his elbow and flex his fingers no problem, but his shoulder joint was out of commission. He couldn't lift it more than a few agonizing inches, even if he tried. The black veins crawled around his shoulder like the world's dirtiest river.
He didn't feel feverish or anything, so he figured it was a slow burning poison. Or maybe his system was more resistant to poison. He didn't know. Either way, he'd have to do something about it soon.
After packing some more snow on it, he pulled down the fabric of his clothes, relishing in the returned warmth.
Before he knew it, his eyelids began to droop. He let himself relax for a moment. Five minutes couldn't hurt. He'd been running for so long. He just needed some rest–
A loud rumble shook the ground and the entire grove he was in. His eyes snapped open– had he fallen asleep? How long had it been?
It didn't matter. Something had found him. And that something was big.
Another footstep. His teeth clattered from the vibrations it sent through the ground. Percy hoisted himself up, shaking Agis awake– he wasn't even aware the undead could sleep– and crawled out of the ice pocket he'd been hiding in.
The sky hadn't changed. For all he knew, he'd been asleep for days.
A large shadow loomed over him— he looked to the right, to see a sight so otherworldly it reminded him of encountering a titan, back in the second titan war.
A giant… man? Was it a man? It was a giant nonetheless, dressed in a rag tunic. Its skin was pale blue and frozen solid, cracks running along its arms and legs. With glowing blue eyes, much like the hounds, it scanned the perimeter.
He didn't dare make a sound.
It hadn't spotted him yet. He took a hesitant step backwards, wincing at the crunching snow. If he could just get to the trees, he'd find enough to cover to slip away, and–
Agis yawned, before letting out a high pitched meow. Percy's heart sank.
The giant's head turned. Its eyes found him. Riptide sprang to life in Percy's hands.
"Thanks for that," he grunted, gripping his sword tight in the one hand he could use. He watched as the monster took a large, thundering step towards him. It was slow, fortunately.
But how would he beat something so large, with one arm? By trying, he supposed.
Percy dashed, his cloak billowing. Cutting through the snow like a saw, swerved around the monster, swinging his sword in a wide arc.
Riptide bounced off the giant's calf. He almost dropped the sword from the vibrations that raced up his arm. Just the barest hint of a cut was left in the monster's skin. Percy cursed.
"You reek of divinity," the giant spoke. It was so loud, Percy could feel its voice at his very core.
"What's it to you?" he replied, his voice hoarse.
"Haven't seen one of you in these lands before." Its gaze flickered to his sword. "A Greek, no less. Demigod?"
"What the hell are you?"
Sweat poured down the back of his neck despite the cold. The giant chuckled darkly.
"I am one of the mighty jötnar, boy. I am the Hrimvolgr." He beamed with pride.
At Percy's blank look, the giant bristled. "I am a frost giant, you imbecile."
So he'd been right– it was a giant. Small 'g'. He seemed to be intelligent, at least enough to hold a decent conversation.
"You're not Greek," said Percy. "Why're you here?"
"Enough questions," the jötunn barked, taking another step. Percy stumbled back. "I know of a goddess who would pay a pretty penny for you. Perhaps even passage out of this cursed place."
"What goddess? Gaea?"
"You're not as daft as you look," the giant grunted. "Yes, the earth mother stirs. A demigod in the Pit… how delighted she'd be to hear of this."
Percy's teeth ground together. "Delight is the last thing she'll be feeling, trust me," he spat.
The giant chuckled. "Think again."
The forest came alive around them. The pack of frosthounds appeared from the flora with gnashing jaws and predatory eyes. The frozen undead began to move, cracking as they crawled their way out of the snow, standing tall once more.
Percy was surrounded. How had he let this happen? He shouldn't have stopped to rest. Moron.
"I won't go down without a fight," he warned them. "I'll take at least half of you with me. You know it's true."
The undead didn't react, but the hounds hesitated. They remembered their comrades' fate. However, they didn't back off. Percy cursed internally.
"A good attempt," the giant mocked. The monsters began to move, closing in on him.
Percy lashed out, obliterating one of the zombie-wannabes who tried to grab onto him. Agis hissed at the crowd surrounding them. His breaths were shallow.
How could he beat all of them? No, he didn't need to. He just had to cut a path, preferably through the hounds. They were easy to kill, yes. He would–
Turning his attention away from the Hrimvolgr was a fatal mistake.
The giant's hand made contact with a sickening slap. Percy was lifted off the ground, crashing into a tree, denting the bark. Splinters rained down on his prone form. He groaned, trying to push himself up.
Stars swam in his vision. His ribs ached. His shoulder screamed. The poison in his veins burned. He fell back down.
Darkness followed.
"Goodbye, Percy. There is a new golden age coming. You won't be a part of it."
"I've been here since I was a kid! I did everything they ever asked, yeah, I did! And for what? You know this world will never be ours as long as our parents rule over the stars!"
"Stars. I can see the stars again m'lady."
ONE HUNDRED FLOORS OF HELL