Chapter 29:
Darkness You Can't See
The idea of his memories and thoughts betraying him was unthinkable to Percy on multiple levels.
He first tried to deny the uncanny truth, he believed the weariness was getting to him, turning restless nights into a hazy blur; after all one tends to go unfocused after weeks of interrupted chaos.
When the world was a waking nightmare, his own thoughts had become dream-like.
Later he came to the conclusion that the gods were gutting out parts of reality to mess with him, not in a manner all too dissimilar from how he couldn't recall the spider covered city. This was the world of today, a place where names, ideas and concepts could be razed from the face of the earth, leaving only gaps in reality.
Percy knew the crack in his memories hadn't been there before, but he couldn't recall when they started to appear or how he had gotten them.
He was familiar with the black pit of memories he had felt when Hera abducted him, but that void had been identifiable to him, kinder and more open about the things that were missing.
The current disease raiding his brain felt like a living gap, moving and slipping from one portion of his consciousness to another, almost as if his failing memories had a mind of its own and didn't want to be found.
It unsettled Percy so much that the thought of losing his thought became lost to him, until he was forced to rediscover it all over again when he found himself again unable to recall the small details.
Names, faces of his friends, places he had been before; they were fading from his mind. Not all at once and certainly not fast but at times he found his memory to be nothing but a bottomless pit where he could dive down and yet never find the bottom, for he hadn't been able to take the dive in the first place.
What had happened to Calypso? What had Gaia said to him when she tried to drown him in the earth, what had been Kampê's original goal? Why?
It scared Percy that he was struggling to recall these things.
But that wasn't the worst part.
The unsettling reality of the situation was that Percy was most likely going mad.
He revolted at the idea, he didn't want to accept it, but he had to accept that his demigod brains were still fallible and that the evidence pointed towards him going insane.
A weird thought crossed Percy's mind.
Is any of this even real? He tried to go back on what had happened, retracing the steps of his sad journey to the end of the world. The Olympians betraying humanity didn't feel like something that would happen. After all, they needed humanity to sustain their own existence.
Questions slithered around like a pack of snakes, each wanting to sink their teeth into his soul and drive him crazy with the venom that was doubt.
How had he survived his time in the deserts when the heat flayed him and the cold ate him alive? Where was his mother? Just...why?
What if I am still in Tartarus? Percy shivered. The memories of Hell flooded back and like the Plegthon these memories set his mind on fire.
He was lying in a pool of murky water that threatened to consume him. He was standing in front of an abyss. He was flying through the void—he wasn't himself.
He tried to light a candle into the dark, to find a way out of this madness.
Inside his own memories lay the cure to this disease, the answer to the ultimate question.
But as he lit the candle to shine light upon the truth, a larger shadow was cast.
And as quick as these thoughts had cropped up and invaded his consciousness, they fled his mind again, forced back to the darkness of his own shadow.
Percy's eyes were forced open, tears rolled down his face as tiny needles pricked his irises.
Uncaring to how Percy felt, fire all around him roared and sang its song.
His skin was blistering, smoke penetrated through his eyelids and stung his eyes while every breath he took felt like he was swallowing gasoline.
Confused Percy stared at the burning sky.
The sky had a sick orange glow, hundreds of tiny flames rained down from above and burned through the spidersilk it came across.
A sea of fire ate through everything it came across; egg sacks, mummified corpses and spiders the size of small cars were relentlessly preyed upon by the inferno.
The eggs exploded into black waves made up of a million tiny spiders while bigger spiders unleashed loud screams as the flames consumed them.
The sky breathed fire. It danced upon the spider web from building to building, burning the Nameless City and converting the spider ridded grave into a glorious pyre.
Buildings previously embraced by the spider silk were now covered with an orange glow—no, that wasn't right. Everything in sight was covered by the orange haze that permeated from everything remotely flammable.
A draconic creature landed next to Percy. It created a loud thud as it shattered the pavement underneath, its scales glistening in the wake of the flames.
Kampê.
The name returned to Percy in an instant.
"There's an opening up ahead," Kampê stabbed her large scimitar towards a set of toppled buildings. The fallen apartments had created a gaping hole in the earth, loosely resembling a tunnel.
"It leads to…an exit," Kampê said tentatively, she pronounced the final word wrong, like the word exit wasn't the thing she was going to say but ultimately landed on.
"The son of Hades claims we can go through the sewer system, that should allow us to stay clear of both the fire and the spiders." Again the same inflection that made Percy suspect there was something else at hand. However, there was no time to question it.
From above something jumped down. Percy saw beady eyes and eight hairy legs.
He moved out of the way just in time. The spider released a belching acid from his mouth and splattered the street with its disgusting fluids.
Concrete sizzled and hissed as it was being eaten by the liquid.
Kampê only gave the spider an annoyed look and slammed down her scimitar on top of it. The spider was flattened instantly.
"You can stop the fire," Kampê looked around, "I don't think they'll recover from this."
Stop the... Percy looked at Riptide.
Like he was holding a wooden torch, fire hungrily licked and coiled around the Celestial bronze blade, growing from the hilt, twisting until it was embracing the full length of the sword.
"How did I do that?" Percy's voice was hoarse, it felt as if he had been swallowing smoke for the past days. He was trying to recollect his memories.
He remembered white light fading to red. He was drowning in a river of black. He recalled a scream.
That was him, right?
The flames covering his sword died down, as if it had simply run out of fuel.
Percy stared at the Celestial Bronze blade but answers eluded him.
Kampê scowled at Percy. From her expression he could tell she had a questioning burning inside her, but ultimately didn't say anything, instead the dragoness gazed at the sky.
In the distance buildings were toppling over as the fire leaped from building to building and tearing away the silk that was holding them together.
Through the orange haze Percy saw an all black sky.
More buildings crumbled. Weapon depots burned with the same delightfulness as the rest of the Nameless City, but exploded into bright colors as the flames reached them.
Missiles unleashed at last tore through concrete foundations, gas canisters defecated their poisons and a series of explosions shook the skyline.
"We need to go right now!" Kampê yelled when an unseen force triggered another dormant landmine.
"Agree," Nico stumbled into view, closely followed by Khione.
The son of Hades had sweat dripping down his forehead, the Stygian sword was dragged behind him.
His clothes had been torn and shredded, he saw spots where acid had burned and saw the places where it had been torn apart by something else.
A hundred tiny bite marks were on his legs and arms.
A grim expression was plastered on Nico's face. Behind him a large black wave was following him. When the wave crawled closer Percy could make out the countless tiny spiders that made up the miasma.
Behind Nico skeletal shadows moving through the crowd. They were fighting amidst the flames against the larger spiders, either hitting them with their swords, shooting them or tearing the huge spiders apart with their bare hands.
However, despite the skeleton's best efforts, they were powerless against the tidal wave that crashed through the city, slipping through every crack and gap they could find.
Chunks of rubble dropped on top of the wave from above, the heat fried a thousand spiders at a time and waves of ice tore through the black mass, but even though the spiders died by the thousands, attempts to stop the black wave were futile.
The snow goddess released a torrent of cold winds from her palms and split the wave in two, but again, the gap she created was filled up far too fast.
Khione turned around and Percy saw the sweat on her face.
Her white dress was scorched and bore black spots from both the flames and the spider blood. The perfect look on her face was ruined by sweat running down her face and her eyes showing a mortality immortal eyes should never hold.
"Let's run," Khione agreed. She wiped away the sweat on her face. Black hair clung to her face and dress. Her lips were cracked. The perfect facade was melting away rapidly. "I am getting sick of this place."
"Then you'll love where we're going next." Nico grimaced. He shared a look with Kampê. "Will you two make it?" His eyes were fixated on Kampê.
"For a monster like me it won't be too much trouble." She pressed her lips together. "You?"
"I have the string." Nico looked at Percy like he wanted to say more, he opened his mouth to speak but closed it.
"Then let's not waste anymore time." Khione ended the situation. She sent another wave of frost forward. The snow pulverized a car in its path, cutting through the large spiders while flash freezing thousands of the smaller ones. "We should leave now!" The goddess snapped.
Percy felt something coil around him. He was lifted up by Kampê's dragon tail. A playful smile still managed to find its way to Kampê, despite the miserable situation they were in.
His discomfort didn't last long as he was placed onto her back, something that they hadn't done before.
"I'm making an exception this time," Kampê didn't look Percy in the eyes as he wrapped her arms around her human shaped midriff.
If there had been any elegance to the situation it was lost as soon as Kampê spread out her shredded wings. A blast of wind flew past Percy and dug into the encroaching mass of spiders.
They fell from walls, ceilings, lantern poles and every part of the city that wasn't set ablaze.
Kampê began to charge into the gaping tunnel.
Next to him Nico and Khione held hands before they too became a white blur, leaving in their wake a trail of ice.
A shaky ride was unfit to describe the sensation of riding the half dragon's back, but there wasn't anything he could relate it to.
All her limbs plunged down, moved and grasped with a rhythm that made it impossible to tell whether he would hit a bump or a fall.
He did discover that Kampê's body was surprisingly warm as he hugged her closer to avoid losing grip.
The orange haze turned into pure darkness when they entered the tunnel of debris. He had hoped they would exit back into the light but in spite of his hopes they only went deeper and Percy was left to wonder whether he was smelling the sewer system of the Nameless City or something worse.
He was forced to hold onto Kampê while the darkness became all encompassing.
From around him there was the faint sound of a thousand legs crawling on the walls, jumping down or skittering over the floor.
Kampê tore through webbed up tunnels without any regard, leaving Percy completely blind.
He tried to light up the tunnels with Riptide, but the sword flickered pathetically before the light went out. Percy swung his blade again but the blood soaked sword felt lifeless, as if it had lost its will to fight the dark.
Saddened, Percy put away the sword and held onto Kampê, embracing the jailer tighter.
Behind them Percy heard a noise.
Something big shifted in the darkness.
A mangled laugh came from the other end of the tunnel. The sound was drawn out and twisted, moving at a speed slower than sound yet lingering far longer.
And even in the pitch black of the tunnels, Percy saw something move. Something darker than black. A shape that was so utterly out of this world it pushed away the darkness as if it was malleable, replacing it with something from a deranged reality.
An arm extended out of the tunnel.
Wordlessly, Kampê accelerated.
Sensory deprivation, the lack of energy and fleeting minutes of sleep blurred the passage of time.
A thought ran through Percy's head. The sewage system underneath the Nameless City shouldn't be this long.
At times he doubted he was in the sewage system at all. The earth shook above them, he could hear heavy footsteps, the sounds of a raging battle, only for it to be completely silent an instant later.
In the sparse moment of light provided by the Fates he could see the walls alternate between soulless concrete, Greek looking columns and service tunnels. A patchwork of loosely resembling hallways, stitched together in meaningless patterns.
At some point they lost the thing chasing them through the tunnels.
Percy didn't even notice it at first.
His mind had adapted to the blur of traveling in the dark, constant exposure to the chaos and against all odds he had drifted into a dreamless sleep.
When he awoke he stared at the orb in the sky, curiously wondering what the strange marble was doing there. It was bright, he felt like if he looked at it long enough it would blind him.
Was it the sun?
"You're awake, at last." A black haired woman softly kicked him in the side. Khione giggled upon seeing his startled expression, something that sounded quite odd coming from her.
Percy groggily got up from his position. He rubbed away the dirt and sweat that had stuck to his face and shook his head, trying to lose the dizziness.
He scanned his surroundings.
Dead wasteland surrounded him on all sides and the miserable flattened land continued until far into the horizon. A desert void of life with only skeletons of past inhabitants poking through the layer of rotting landscape.
In the sky black smoke was dragged out across the bright blue horizon, like it tried to divide the sky into two parts.
The smoke came from a faraway spot, merely a dot on the horizon. The Nameless City burned fiercely, releasing smoke that drifted in all directions.
Percy stood on his feet. His legs felt unsteady, the ground underneath him felt strange after riding on Kampê's back for so long.
He smiled and turned around to look for Kampê.
Behind him the monstrous lady slept on a pile of rocks, using the elevated rock formations as a pillow and her own wings as a blanket. The snakes on the legs softly hissed, their heads bobbing back and forth.
Nico was standing a short distance away from the group. Between his hands he held a paper scroll, on his shoulder at a black bird that looked back at Percy with a penetrating gaze.
The son of Hades studied the piece of paper carefully.
Out of nowhere Nico started laughing. He threw his head back and released a serene laugh.
His shoulders shook, alarmed the crow flew off. The black bird circled around the son of Hades, he picked at his black hair before flying off into the horizon.
Nico didn't care and continued to chuckle gleefully.
"Are you okay?" Khione impatiently tapped her fingers on her white dress. She pushed a hair lock out of her face and gave Nico a tired look when the demigod didn't answer her question. "Did you finally lose it?"
Kampê stirred from her rest and raised her head. "What's happening?" She asked with a drowsy voice.
He pointed at the burning Nameless City in the distance. "They saw it."
"The fire?" Khione furrowed her brows. "Everyone saw that."
"Yes, but they saw it." Nico put an emphasis on the word. He grinned and showed her the parchment clutched between his pale fingers.
"We're going to Elysium."
The words were simple. Two short sentences.
ㅤ
Message received. Prepare for Extraction.
A/N Things are going right for once. Also, I assume anyone can guess through what our merry band of heroes escaped.
As always thank you for reading.
-CaptainMoonShine-
BiazarKaiser:
well fuck, the Greeks got Elysium by unleashing spiders... where's the fuckin Greek fire napalm loaded in a flamethrower time to burn what I assume to be remnants of los Angoless or Vegas down
A: Haha, exactly what happened.
Chill Panda:
That was one of the most beautiful and disturbing descriptions that I have ever laid eyes upon
A: I try to, thank you for the compliments!