Chapter 28:
Nameless City
Spires of reinforced steel and glass work arose from the distant horizon. Gray stripes against a backdrop of orange sunset and stranger gray clouds that hovered around the city in shades of blue green and more lifeless gray.
The city was a steel oasis in a sea of pathetic wasteland with only abandoned roads, burned out buildings and car wrecks feeding into the city like veins on a corpse.
The desolate emptiness was unnerving to Percy. It was uncanny to see a city with high skyscrapers surrounded by flattened land. It looked as if it was artificially placed after the land had been ruined.
Nico lowered his binoculars and put them away. "That's our end goal. We just have to cross the deadman's land and we'll reach the Nameless City."
"That's Elysium?" Percy asked. "That sad place?"
"It isn't," Khione answered. "But our 'ride' to Elysium is there."
Percy looked at the city himself. An aura of…something poured from the city.
"Magic," Kampé spoke. "I can feel it from all the way over here, what is that place?"
Nico frowned as if the question was hard to process. "We call it the Nameless City. It's one of the Elysium outposts. There, we can contact Elysium and get a ride for the rest of the journey."
"Nameless City," Percy repeated. The city in the distance did seem very familiar to him. It was fortified and far less bright than before, the surrounding scenery was utterly changed and uncanny but the city, he had seen it. Pictures in traveling guides, in scenes of movies and—
He scratched his head. The memory was gone.
"That's the effect of Lethe." Khione pointed at the city. "The city's name and place have been wiped from all our memories, Olympus can not destroy what they have no knowledge of. Elysium managed to piece together some of the details and repurposed it into an outpost, we call it now the Nameless City."
"Deceptive," Kampê narrowed her eyes. "The Greeks always did love their naming tricks."
Nobody, this is just the Nobody trick with Polyphemus but applied to a whole city. Percy felt a sting in his heart. Annabeth would approve of such a plan.
"Okay, well, final stop before Elysium right?" Percy tried to crack a smile. "I hope you guys have showers."
"We do." Nico returned the smile.
The mismatched band of heroes turned their attention back to the nameless city.
Percy spotted a few monsters roaming the wasteland. Nothing overtly dangerous but still, there could be traps.
As if she had heard his thoughts Khione said, "I don't trust this wasteland." She kept her eyes peeled on the empty stretch of land between them and the city. "It's too open, we would be targets for anyone that sees us."
"We can wait until nightfall," Kampê suggested.
"Or the Nameless City will attack us if we don't do something fast enough," Nico put away his binoculars. "They might grow suspicious."
A chill ran over Percy's back. The skyscraper in the distance seemed more threatening now.
A short silence fell as everyone weighed their options.
Khione sighed. "I'll teleport us."
"Are you sure?" Nico turned towards the ice goddess. "Last time you-"
"I can do it," Khione said with a confident smile, although Percy thought her voice sounded like it had been put through a gutter.
"It's only a small distance." Khione snapped her fingers.
The son of Hades skeptically nodded. "Of course, you can do it. But is it wise to do it?" His voice had an edge to it, one Percy had not heard for a while.
Kampê couldn't help but to scoff. "What's the problem? Are you too weak to teleport us?"
Khione straightened her back. She flicked her long black hair over her shoulder. "Of course not. I am a goddess," she said defensively.
"Whose power is growing weaker with the day," Nico muttered.
"It's our last stop," Khione turned her eyes back to the Nameless City. We contact Elysium and my duty to save the world is done for this lifetime."
"But-" Nico tried before Khione shot him a cold look.
"If you want to go there by foot, say so."
Nico shook his head and muttered something underneath his breath. Despite the irritated tone of his muttering Percy spotted a small smile.
The ice goddess stepped forward, closer to the center of the group. "Watch me!"
A brilliant white shape exploded in front of him. Beautiful in its pureness. Pure energy given form. Formless perfection.
The world was snow white.
Then it was gray.
It turned solid.
The world—
"Did you look at my divine form?!"
"What?"
"Impossible, death would take him if he did."
Slowly Percy blinked.
The world that had fractured once he saw the divine light began to put itself together again.
He looked around, dazed, but still somewhat aware that something had gone wrong.
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He saw trash littered streets.
Plants breaking through the cracks of the pavement.
Large buildings blocking out the sun.
The loud sound of insects buzzing.
Cables running from building to building above him like telephone lines.
Street signs that were spray painted over with red.
Military vehicles left on the side of the road.
"This is not good," Nico said. In his hand he was holding his sword.
Kampê as well had taken out her scimitars. Why is everyone dead? Percy wondered as he tried to make sense of his situation. What had happened?
"Focus Percy," Kampé hissed.
Percy nodded and uncapped Riptide. The trust worthy blade grew to its full length, readying him to face the worst.
The sky above the towering skyscrapers had turned dark, giving him ominous vibes. The streets of the Nameless City were in disarray. Different shades of gray blurred the street together in a depressing sight, except at places where the front of buildings had turned a disgusting red.
Bodies in mangled positions were scattered across the street. Some of them were wearing civilian clothes while others were dressed in military uniforms.
"I think the Nameless City might have been compromised." Nico let out a curse and put his palm against his forehead. He slid down his hand slowly, the look of agony was visible between his fingers. "Damnit, fucking Olympus. Why now of all times?" The son of Hades sounded desperate. His eyes scoured the place but found peace nowwhere. The look of pain didn't leave his eyes.
Percy thought it was wise not to say anything. While trying to avoid Nico's silent plea for a solution Percy felt his eyes drawn to a shape on the pavment.
Percy raised his sword and slowly got closer to one of the bodies near him. Invisible strings pulled him closer to the freakshow lying on the sidewalk. He tried to cut himself free but his eyes wouldn't leave it.
A child lay slumped against the sidewalk. Lifeless eyes stared up, Percy guessed he couldn't have been older than 10.
Flies and insects crawled around, feasting on the bodies while buzzing cheerfully.
Percy covered his mouth and nose with his free hand. Acids boiled inside his stomach and crawled up slowly.
Although the skin was starting to decompose, the corpse was still in a fairly good state. Percy could not find anything that should have killed him. It was as if he had been killed by a heart attack.
The lips of the child parted slightly. A black beetle crawled out of his mouth and spread its wings to join the swarm feasting on corpses.
Percy averted his eyes.
"This was recent," he announced. A fly settled on his skin. He swatted it away and stepped closer to Khione. "Now what?"
The goddess looked at him with shallow eyes. She looked tired, her ethereal aura had faded slightly.
"We keep going," Nico interrupted Khione's answer. "The radio should still be here. We can contact Elysium." He doesn't even believe it himself, Percy thought. Yet he couldn't find it within himself to tell Nico.
Percy knew that look, and he knew that if Nico gave up now, he would fall apart on the spot.
Kampê wasn't as considerate. "And disregard the recent massacre?" The monster scowled. The snakes that coiled and wrapped around her legs hissed and bit at the insects within their range. Rejoicing their small meal, blind to the missery plagueing the place.
"There's four of us," Nico insisted, lying to everyone including himself. "We can take whatever brought down the Nameless City." He paused," Unless any of you have better ideas?"
"I don't sense anything," Khione added, still sounding winded.
"Neither do I," Kampê stared at the vortex of clouds above the city. "But I don't like this at all."
The idea of traveling through this ghost city wasn't extremely appealing to Percy. The smell of rot was hard to bear and the sight of dead bodies everywhere was making it hard to focus.
But if their route to Elysium was in this city...
"We keep going." Percy let out an exasperated sigh. "After all, we need to contact Elysium, right?"
Nico nodded.
"Then we move, I prefer to be out of this place as soon as possible." He swatted another fly.
The Nameless City was bigger than Percy had imagined it would be. Although, he couldn't exactly recall where his expectations had come from, as he had only heard about this accursed place an hour ago.
Everything was so familiar yet so uncanny.
Windows were boarded up. Roads had been blocked off with large canvases that stretched from one end of the block to the other. Control towers had been set up and medical sites had been built.
He came across tanks, sniper nests and more modern artillery. All of it looked brand new but it was all eerily abandoned. As if the city had been in use by ghosts instead of the living.
To add to his sense of unease the city had turned almost completely dark.
The sun was now unable to reach them through the skyscrapers and the only light that aided their search was what little that shone through the cracks of the city's skin.
The storm clouds above him stared down like an evil eye. Unlblinking and never losing sight. Dead bodies looked back up at the sky, caught in an eternal staring contest.
It always gets worse before it gets better, Percy told himself. Except, he doubted it would get better.
Now he was getting closer to Elysium, and maybe answers, he was starting to miss the early days of the world's end.
Things were just getting worse.
"Hey," Kampê pulled Percy out of his trance. The Jailer came to a stop in front of a pair of traffic lights. "Are you guys seeing this as well?"
In front of them, at an intersection between two roads, were 8 corpses wearing Greek armor hanging in the air.
Percy had to pause and look again to confirm his mind wasn't playing tricks on him. He moved his head from left to right to see if it were a trick of the light, or if he could find the strings, but no matter how he turned it, the bodies remained the way they were, hanging in the air, no strings attached.
They swayed back and forth, like they were drifting on the wind, besides that the bodies were limp. Despite floating high above the ground it was hard to miss their contorted facial expressions. Their mouths were stuck in a soundless scream, as if they were asking to be released from whatever force kept them floating.
"Ignore that," Nico said sternly.
"How are they floating?"
"I don't know but at this point, we better just keep going." Nico insisted, his voice hard and cold.
The buzzing increased in intensity as they delved deeper and further into the dead city.
Hanging underneath the next traffic light were another set of corpses. Dangling in the air as if caught by invisible strings.
"Like angels," Percy said out loud.
Nico let out a grunt but didn't say anything.
They found more corpses and as time stretched long, all of them were floating.
It reminded Percy of Christmas in a way. The floating bodies were like candles, just waiting to be lit.
Dead eyes no longer stared up at the sky, but instead they looked down upon the group.
It unnerved Percy.
Their mouths were frozen in a howl, the eyes frozen over with despair yet there was no light within them.
Percy wondered if things could get worse.
Then one fell.
It happened so quickly, he almost got crushed underneath it.
Percy looked at the fallen body, it was almost like it was an angel being kicked out of heaven, or as if invisible string had been cut.
It landed with a dry thud right in front of the group.
A part of Percy expected the body to turn into a smear on the road. A red splash that he could ignore. He wanted it to remain dead.
The gods didn't let it. As if possessed the corpse started to twitch violently, it was moving its limbs in an effort to get up but the glass marbles in its skull didn't regain their spark.
Kampê's sword impaled it right through the torso before it could get up. The blade sunk deep into the ground and the body went limp as it was impaled through the chest.
Satisfied, the Jailer pulled out her sword. "Undead, again?" Kampê murmured.
"No," Nico moved back, his voice wavered. "That thing wasn't undead."
"What?!" Kampê hissed as she pulled her sword out.
Black liquid pooled around the body.
Was it still alive? Percy's worried thoughts razed.
From the corpse came a strange rustling noise even as it lay still and motionless. From the gaping hole in its chest Percy could see black internal organs, skin covered by white tissue and at the epicenter of this organic exhibition was a beating heart, twisting and shimmering but clearly still alive.
How?
Percy's breath caught in his throat as he took a closer look.
The heart exploded into a thousand tiny pieces.
Percy backed away.
For a brief instance the heart quivered, and then the last semblance of cohesiveness was shed and the pieces began to spread. Hundreds of small bodies spewed out of the body.
Legs unfurled as they skittered around the corpse and climbed through the hole created by Kampê.
A black carpet of insects broke through the skin, consuming it from within and devouring it into a tidal wave of gleaming black legs and beady eyes. Erratically they expanded outwards.
The buzzing created by thousands and thousands of spiders was deafening and Percy could only stare as their nest of spiders bled out into the world.
Tiny specks. Bigger specks, all crawling in chaotic ways towards him, covering the ground as if paint was smeared out across a canvas. The smallest of eyes looked at him with hunger.
A sudden burst of ice cold wind swept through the street. The black mass splintered and was blown away, taking the corpse with it. It disappeared into a back alley.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
More bodies began to drop from the sky as a violent wind blew past them. A chain reaction began to form as each body that fell caused a nearby body to drop fas well.
Within seconds, it started raining bodies.
Bodies hit the ground and exploded into swarms of spiders that crawled out the moment the skin popped. The ones not immidiatly splattered by the drop slowly picked themselves up. Canerous growths underneat their skin were bubbling with unholy life.
"Oh gods, the Mist." Khione said, her face was pale as she looked up.
Percy followed her gaze.
The mist that had clouded this place began to unfurl and crumble with each body that fell. It was as if the seams that made up the sky fell apart, revealing a second sky behind it.
His mind went completely blank.
There was no sky, not in this city.
Long gray strings and hair stretched between the buildings. Silky organic strings covered the top of every skyscraper and the space between, forming a network of silk lines and areas. Large black spiders the size of cars moved up the sides of buildings and across their own highway of webs.
There were hundreds of beady eyes looking at him. Thousands of hairy thick limbs weaving webs and millions of tiny arachnids all skittered across the silk turned sky.
Corpses hung by silver threads. Carefully packaged within webbing.
Sitting in the middle of this reality defying web was the queen herself.
A/N And Arachne's web appears to have grown since the last time we saw her. At least she is living her best life.
If Arachne can weave a web that conceals the location of Athena's favorite statue for eons, she couldn't have been that weak.
Thanks for reading and reviewing.
-CaptainMoonShine-
(Reviews)
Timbers03:
Holy shit… quite possibly one of the best fanfics I've read so far….
A: Ah, thank you!
olivewriter08:
Any chance Elysium is just a trap created by what is controlling the gods?
Also really god writing, can't wait to see how it ends.
A: It might be yes, luring survivors with a false promise and kill them.