Chapter 26

Absolute Darkness, Tartarus

(?) Later

Percy walked through Tartarus, his white light burning as bright as a star in the eternal darkness of the Pit. He cut down any being standing in his path using every weapon at his disposal, in his time down here - however long that is, his weapons had tasted more blood than he thought possible. The only monsters that still dared to fight him were The Horde, whether it was their confidence or their foolishness that compelled them to run to their death, he didn't know.

Percy didn't know how many of The Horde he's killed since entering the darkness. Millions? Billions? Trillions? It didn't matter to him. The slaughter would only stop when they were all gone. Percy marched through the bleak wasteland of Tartarus, trying to find any signs of Horde activity. Percy found some tracks and followed them to the entrance of a cavern. Seeing this, Percy let out a smile: they continued to make his jobs easier and easier.

Percy unsheathed a throwing knife and caught it after flipping it a few times in the air. Imbuing the knife with the power of destruction, he threw it into the cave entrance and watched as it sank hilt deep into the volcanic rock. Cracks spread throughout the ceiling of the cavern and continued to continue snaking it's way to the edge of the cave. Suddenly, the entire ceiling of the cave came crashing down, killing anything that was unfortunate enough to be hiding there. Whistling a small tune, Percy went and picked up his knife off the ground and returned it to his sheath.

Percy continued his never ending march through Tartarus, keeping his eyes peeled for any signs of The Horde. Percy's patience began to wear thin - he may be an all powerful lord of time, but he was still an ADHD demigod. He shot a beam of golden light into the sky, sending a beacon to any being that dared to challenge him.

As usual, The Horde answered the call, and they came scrambling into view. Eager to rip whatever was down here to its bones, The Horde ran at a full sprint to the light, their mouths salivating at the very possibility of blood being shed. Percy sheathed Riptide and took his spear from its spot on his back. Making sure his shield was securely fastened, he sprinted towards his enemies at speeds that shouldn't be possible for a mortal, albeit an extremely powerful mortal.

Percy decided to fight The Horde without his powers, he is planning on making a lot of progress today, and he'd need to save his energy for the later battles. As Percy stabbed, slashed and bashed his way through The Horde, he began to notice a change in the atmosphere. The air felt heavier and the smell of ozone filled his nose. Either Zeus had accidentally dropped his underwear into Tartarus, or something malevolent was hiding in the deep inside the Pit.

Percy finished his fight with haste, whatever was down here held more of a threat to his world than the dying numbers of The Horde. Percy continued walking to the direction of whatever was causing the change of atmosphere, every instinct in his body was telling him to turn away, but he didn't listen, if there was a threat to his world, it will be destroyed.

Suddenly, a loud boom emitted somewhere infront of him and the ground started shaking, bringing down stalactites hanging high above from the ceiling of Tartarus. Another boom. Whatever was hiding in the darkness was coming towards Perseus, and fast.

Percy increased the range of his light and for the first time since his sixteenth birthday, Perseus was truely scared. Percy found himself face to face with the single deadliest monster in Greek mythology, the Titan of storms, Typhon.

—

Manhattan, New York.

August 15th

Through the past few days, Ouranos' armies had started making moves towards Olympus, attempting an invasion through the island of Manhattan as Kronos once did. To rid the city of mortals, Ouranos used his limited power to cause enough destruction to evacuate any mortals within a hundred mile radius. With his armies' path clear, they made their way through New York. Olympus had called upon the help of the wind gods to prevent any monsters from being transported by a lightening strike, forcing the large armies to be funneled through the various tunnels and bridges leading into Manhattan.

The gods wouldn't be able to directly help in the battle as the ancient laws prohibited them, but that didn't stop them 'accidentally' leaving a few traps and battle plans here and there. The gods also had to prepare themselves for battle with Ouranos, the primordial of the sky has nearly awakened and he will have no such problems dealing with a few wind gods; Ouranos will be able to choose where and when he wants to battle.

The Romans planned on defending the Brooklyn Battery-Tunnel, The Brooklyn Bridge and the Manhattan Bridge along with the Apollo cabin. Any children of the Big Three and The Hunters of Artemis would be a mobile unit, going wherever they would be needed. The Athena cabin would defend the Lincoln Tunnel along with the Hephaestus cabin. The Ares cabin would be defending the Holland Tunnel while the Demeter and Aphrodite cabin defended the Queens-Midtown Tunnel. Due to their smaller numbers, a majority of the children of the minor gods would band together to defend the Queensboro bridge - with the exception of children of Asclepius, who would be on medical duty.

The demigods prepared themselves for what would be the battle of their lives. They will have to defend Olympus from the monsters as they had done once before. History will remember the names of all who fought, heroes will rise and fall, but Olympus will continue to stand.

—

The Darkness, Tartarus

Percy prepared himself to fight until the end. This will no doubt be the single hardest fight of his life. Typhon approached the demigod and stopped when he was well inside Perseus' light. The Titan of Storms looked down upon Percy with a smile on his face and spoke in a loud, booming voice, "So this is the legendary Perseus Jackson. You have quite the impressive resume my friend." The storm giant's voice was so loud Percy was tempted to cut his ears off, he wondered if this was how he killed his enemies - screaming so loudly they end up killing themselves. "Ah yes, I know all about you, young Lord of Time. How could I not? We are one and the same after all."

Percy yelled something ineligible at the storm giant, but Typhon seemed to understand him perfectly, "We are more similar than you realize. We both are world ending entities and leave a path of destruction wherever we walk." Percy yelled something at Typhon, but the giant couldn't hear him and just took it as an opportunity to keep talking, "Don't believe me? Look at your path through Tartarus. As I once nearly ended humanity and all life on Earth, you have nearly ended The Horde. Over the centuries of your imprisonment here, you've slaughtered billions upon billions of their people, you've killed monsters that haven't been seen since the rule of my brother, Kronos.

"Ah yes, but I forget, you walk along the side of righteousness, do you not? But where is the righteousness in genocide? What are you getting out of your endless slaughter? Join me Perseus and we will walk to mortal world together and destroy anything that stands in our path; Ouranos will cower before our combined strength. Together, we could rule the cosmos! What say you Perseus?!"

Percy responded by throwing a knife into the giant's forehead, it bounced off harmlessly. "Very well, prepare for your doom." Typhon attempted to step on Perseus and squash him like a bug, but Percy was too nimble. He ran between the giant's reptilian legs and attempted to stab Riptide straight into the calf of the Titan, but the scales of Typhon proved to be much too sturdy for the celestial bronze blade.

Typhon laughed at Perseus' attempt at harming him, "Foolish mortal. The combined strength of the gods could not kill me, what hope do you have?" Typhon kicked Perseus and sent him flying hundreds of meters away. As Perseus got up, he realized that he couldn't hope to defeat Typhon by normal means; weapons would be useless against the giant's skin. Percy called upon the flow of time and slowed the storm giant down, giving Perseus some time to think of a plan.

Perseus time to strategize was limited, he knew that hoping to hold a beast as large and strong as Typhon until his time spell for longer than a few minutes was foolish. Still holding Typhon under his spell, Percy summoned more strength than he thought possible and channeled it into his powers over light. Percy's light grew so strong that even Typhon had to close his eyes lest he risk blinding himself, "Gah! Turn off that light before I burn you with it!"

The strength of the light burned as strong as a thousand dying stars, the heat produced incinerating anything the light touched. 'If I'm going to burn, I might as well burn bright.' The light swirled around Perseus' body, covering the demigod from head to toe in the celestial white light. Perseus' eyes swirled with power, he may not be able to use his weapons, but he alone was a walking arsenal.

Tendrils of light started to fly off Perseus' body, destroying everything it touched. Channeling his powers over earthquakes, Perseus stomped his foot and watched as the ground cracked and split, towards the still blinded storm giant. The cracks snaked it's way to one of Typhon's legs and destroyed the ground he was standing on. The ground couldn't take the weight of Typhon's body any longer and his leg fell deep into a pit.

As Typhon attempted to yank his leg out, Perseus sent his light into the cracks caused by his earthquake and watched the light make its way to Typhon's leg. Typhon screamed in pain, the light had burned its way through his leg and bone, incinerating anything it touched. Lightning started sparking off the storm giant's body, further destroying the land. "You will die for this insult, mortal!"

Percy ignored Typhon's threats and sent more of his light into the ground, eliciting another howl of pain from the Titan of Storms. Percy pulled his spear off his back and transformed it into a scythe. Weapons may not be able to penetrate the Titan's body, but Perseus was willing to bet the literal manifestation of Time could. Percy launched the scythe at Typhon, the blade spinning in a deadly arc through the air.

The scythe hit Typhon in the chest and the storm giant let out another howl of pain. No mere mortal, Lord of Time or not, should be able to harm him like this. Typhon momentarily forgot about his leg, desperately trying to dislodge the tiny scythe from his body, Perseus used this to his advantage and sent more light into the ground, but this time, he planned on destroying a lot more than a leg.

Percy snaked the light up the Titan's body, moving upwards from his lower leg to his thigh. Perseus continued sending more and more light into the Titan and started wrapping its torso. The Titan of Storms had finally brought the scythe out of his chest, but he had been ignorant to the light snaking its way up his body.

Percy called his scythe to his hand and used the ancient artifact as a catalyst for his power. With a single slam of the weapon, Percy increased the intensity of the light to that of a supernova. Typhon tried to scream in pain, but found that he couldn't. The pain and lack of a leg became too much for the Titan and Typhon soon collapsed to the ground. Percy slowly made his way towards the downed storm giant's neck, looking to end the storm giant once and for all.

Percy's eyes continued to swirl with power, an ethereal sea green light coming off his body, mixing in with the white light already surrounding him. Percy climbed onto the storm giant's body and in one swing, he sank his scythe deep into Typhon's jugular.

Any sign of life immediately left the Titan of Storms and cracks spread throughout his body. An electric blue light seeped out of those cracks and moved towards Percy's body. As the light hit slammed into Perseus, he felt as if he was being shocked by a million volts of electricity over and over again, bringing Perseus to his knees in spasms. As the pain subsided, Percy looked down at his body and saw electricity dance across his fingertips.

Percy climbed down from the Typhon's body and watched as it turned into a cloud of black dust that would take whatever remained of his soul to the realm of the faded. The lightening that hit Perseus seemed to have rejuvenated him, giving Perseus the energy to at least stand without collapsing from exhaustion.

Percy took a few shaky steps towards what remained of the storm giant and started searching for the throwing knife he had thrown at Typhon; Percy had worked really hard on the engravings on that knife, and he'd be damned if he lost it. Finally Perseus had found it near the pit Typhon had his leg trapped in and blew the dust off.

As Percy reached to take of his helmet, a loud screech came from behind him; Percy knew that sound, The Horde was coming. On instinct, Perseus spun towards the sound and shot out his hand. Lightening fired off Perseus' fingertips and hit the monsters charging him, the lightening jumped from creature to creature, killing everything it touched. Percy immediately collapsed to the ground, he barely had enough energy to stand after his fight, much less shoot lightning out of his hand.

As darkness consumed Percy's vision, a small smile appeared on his face, 'Thalia is going to be so jealous