Chapter 28

Manhattan, New York

August 18th, 12:09 AM

3rd POV

A powerful roar emitted from above the city, as the demigods looked up to find what could've been the source of the noise, they noticed that many of the constellations were missing from their places across the sky.

To many of The Hunters, this didn't make any sense, they started to do a headcount of what was missing. What they found utterly confused them; the constellations Draco, Scorpius, Orion, Hydra and Leo were all unable you be seen. Suddenly, a bright blue portal opened high in the sky and another earthshaking roar sent shivers down the demigods' spines.

The legendary dragon Draco came flying through the portal. The chest of the dragon burning bright with white hot flames, ready to incinerate anything that dared to fight it. The claws of the ancient monster seemed sharp enough to cut through celestial bronze as if it was tissue paper. Draco's eyes held a manic look, its orange pupils scanning the crowd of demigods as if judging which one of them he should eat first.

The dragon decided and swooped down, taking the life of Malcom Pace in between his jaws. The dragon swooped down again, spraying fire across the depleted ranks of the legion. The Romans hastily locked their shields and prevented any more deaths, for now.

Suddenly, the Earth started shaking and clouds filled the once clear sky; although none of them wanted to say it, The Hunters had noticed more stars starting to glow before the clouds covered them from view. The wind begun to pick up and buckets of rain began pouring down from the heavens, lightning and thunder flashing spontaneously; the change of weather was so powerful that many thought Zeus himself was coming to save them. One particularly powerful bolt of lightning struck the wing of Draco, sending the dragon of legend spiraling into the ground. The dragon crashed into many buildings - causing millions in property damage until it finally landed in front of the demigods.

Even though the dragon was clearly out of it, none of the demigods dared to try and kill it, rightfully fearing the powerful jaws and fire of the ancient monster.

Another powerful bolt of lightning landed right in front of the demigods, blinding and disorienting all of the demigods present. When their vision cleared, a large man fully clad in black, spartan armour stood infront of them, his back facing them. The man didn't seem to be bothered by the extreme weather - apparently, his clothes weren't either, his black cape only billowing slightly in the wind.

The man pulled a similarly black shield and a fearsome spear off his back and muttered something about hating dragons. As the warrior went to end the dragon's life, another portal opened up right in front of him, this time, a Nemean Lion falling out.

The lion let loose a powerful roar and many of the demigods took an instinctive step back, but this unnamed warrior continued marching straight towards the monster. The Nemean Lion opened its mouth to bite the man in half, but stopped halfway through, a golden light surrounding the creature of myth. Without breaking stride, the man launched his spear down the throat of the Nemean and continued walking towards the now awakening dragon.

The Nemean Lion turned to golden dust and the spear planted itself into the concrete, the impenetrable pelt of the beast laying on the ground. The man held out his hand and his spear came flying towards him. Seeing this, Thalia Grace got a few suspicions of who this man was and couldn't keep the smile off her face, 'They're so screwed.'

Perseus was only a few feet from the dragon when Draco shot into the air, not wanting to become the first dragon-on-a-stick. The dragon flew into the air, its powerful wings pushing it faster and faster until it suddenly stopped, a golden glow surrounding the majestic beast. In a blink of an eye, a spear pierced the dragon's underbelly and continued flying through the scales on its back. As the spear continued flying through the air, the man walked under the still suspended dragon and held his arm in the air; the spear came flying down, going straight through the dragon once again, crating two more holes in its body.

Draco suddenly started moving once again, but it immediately fell to the ground, black blood flowing from its wounds. The man went to finish the ancient dragon when he suddenly turned and caught an arrow aimed at a chink in his armour. The demigods watched all of this frozen in shock and fear, rightfully scared of both the man and the beasts he's killed.

The man dropped the arrow and turned back around, without looking, he threw a knife into a glass window. The cries of pain resounding from the building did nothing to help quell the demigods' fear of the man. The warrior continued his march towards the bleeding dragon, who had crashed straight through multiple floors of the Chrysler Building and now laid in a half-dead state, blood pooling around it like the water pooling in the rain outside.

Two more portals were brought into reality and the man seemed to let out an annoyed sigh, apparently, he really wanted to kill that dragon; the demigods assumed that he has had bad experiences with dragons in the past - where he found the dragons, they didn't have the slightest notion.

A scorpion the size of an SUV and a twelve headed hydra came out the portals, eager to kill the man clad in black. With the man fighting off a two pronged attacked, what remained of the monster army charged the demigods.

What was left of the armies of Olympus fought valiantly, but after a day of fighting, they couldn't gain any ground in the seemingly never ending army of monsters.

The man clad in black expertly fought off the two legendary monsters, waiting patiently for either of the two beings to slip up. Evidently, it would be Scorpius that would die first. The monster had tried to impale the man with its stinger, putting all of its tremendous strength behind the attack; Scorpius missed and accidentally embedded his stinger in the concrete, struggling to pull it out. The man in black started climbing the metasomal segments of Scorpius' tail and halfway through, jumped down on its body. The man pulled his celestial bronze sword out of its scabbard and stabbed down into the gargantuan sized scorpion's brain, killing it instantly.

Scorpius dissapeared in a cloud of golden dust, leaving the man sitting in the air with nothing to hold him up. He fell on his rear and was forced to dodge and block under the assault of the hydra. The man was getting irritated, this fight should've ended a long time ago. He started glowing a bright, white light, blinding all twelve of the hydra's heads.

Faster than thought, the light surrounding the man lashed out and wrapped its way around each of the hydra's necks, slowly burning its way until they all fell off; the hydra tried to scream in agony, but the light hardened, constricting all twelve of its throats and preventing any sound from escaping the dying monster.

The man started hacking his way through the back of the monster army, clearing a path towards the Chrysler building. Anything that dared to step in his path was cut down with ease; cyclops, centaurs, hell hounds, draceana, laistryogonian giants, and many more fell to his blade.

As the man left the battlefield and into the Chrysler building, silver and bronze arrows started raining down into the army of monsters, cutting down troops of monsters with each volley.

Jason Grace called down lightning bolt after lightning bolt, using the already brewing storm to help ease the effort summoning lightning required. He commanded the fifth cohort with expertise only a former praetor of New Rome could have, filling in the role of Dakota, who had died earlier in the battle.

Through the darkness, a flash of light could be seen coming from the Chrysler building, followed by a loud roar that would be abruptly cut off.

Lightning and thunder started landing in bundles, killing tens of monsters with each strike. Even though they had far greater numbers, the monsters knew they were outmatched, and began to retreat.

The demigods, despite their win, didn't celebrate. They were too busy grieving for the friends and family they've lost to enjoy their victory; many of them knew the cost of fighting this war, but for some, the price was too high.

As the man in black started walking towards the Empire State Building, all of the demigods immediately went silent, not sure whether they should thank or fear the warrior. Annabeth Chase, the ever so curious daughter of Athena, would decide for them, "Who are you?"

The man just ignored her and started scanning the area, "Hey who do you think you are? You can't just ignore someone." The man continued to ignore her, still scanning the area for something, not seeing it, he let out a loud whistle. An excited bark came from inside the Empire State Building and out came a sprinting wolf. The demigods watched on in confusion as Zoë, despite her bad leg, tackled the man to the ground started yapping excitedly; Zoë tried to lick the man's face, but continually found her tongue blocked by a visor and helmet, which she started pawing at.

A deep laugh resonated from under the helm, "Okay, okay, I'll take it off." The man took off his helmet and a collective gasp escaped the lips of all demigods present. The man, now revealed to be Perseus Jackson, looked around as if he just noticed the presence of everyone here, "Oh, hey guys, glad you're still alive."

Leo Valdez was the first to snap out of his shock and walked up to Perseus, who was still petting Zoë. Leo reached Percy and sent a small ball of flames at his old friend; the fire dissipated nearly immediately, even though the rain had dried up as the battle finished. "You're going to have to do better than that, Valdez."

Leo sent another fire ball at Percy - who still hadn't looked away from his wolf, this one much stronger. Again, the flames died out as it left his hand, "I know you've been getting older Leo, but I didn't expect you to be having performance issues this early in life."

Percy's armour shimmered and transformed into clothes and a backpack, which immediately upset Leo, "Hey, I was looking at that. Where'd you even get armour like that? It looked amazingly well crafted."

"I sent Hyperion to the void," he replied simply. Percy didn't even notice the confused and shocked expressions everyone held, he was too busy inspecting the wound Zoë had obtained earlier. As he unwrapped the bandage, the ground started shaking and the sun began to glow brighter; puddles on the ground began churning and storm clouds appeared in the sky once more.

Percy took a deep breath and everything started going back to normal, much to the relief of everyone watching. Percy waved his hand over the wound and watched it heal right before his eyes. He waved his hand again and any fur Zoë had lost grew back at impossible speeds; when he was done, there was no way you would've been able to tell there was an arrow wound in the first place.

"Dude! Since when could you do that? And -" Leo stopped firing off his questions as Percy began moving. He walked over to where he had killed the Nemean Lion and picked up its spoils of war. He tossed the golden hide to Thalia Grace, the pelt shifting into a leather jacket halfway through the air, "I'll tell you my story, on one condition: we get some food. I haven't eaten in a few millennia.

—

Shake Shack, 1333 Broadway St, Manhattan

3:58 AM, August 18th

Percy explained his story inbetween seven hamburgers and a multitude of different flavored milkshakes, all created by Leo, who had taken a fondness to cooking over the years. Percy had only allowed a select few people to come with him and hear his story; Thalia, Jason, Piper, Hazel, Frank, Nico, Leo and Zoë were all chosen, however, Nico opted out of coming.

Percy told them mostly everything from his fall into the Styx to the extinction of The Horde, keeping out a few of the more horrific details of his travels. Hazel looked at Percy worriedly, she knew from Nico what Tartarus could do to someone's mind, "Percy," she reached out and grabbed his hand, "are you okay?"

The question sounded so strange to Percy, as if 'okay' was a concept he couldn't understand, he gave Hazel a weak smile, "Of course I am." Percy tried to sound confident and not let anyone know what was going on inside his mind, but his eyes gave away his true feelings: he hasn't been okay for a long time.

Leo sensed the tension and decided to break it with a low whistle, "So you were down there for hundreds of centuries; Does that make you older than Zeus? 'Cause if so that's awesome." Piper elbowed Leo in the side and charm spoke him into going back to the kitchen.

Hazel continued pressing on, "Why don't you ever stop fighting Percy? The weight of the world doesn't have to fall solely on your shoulders, you have friends to help you." Percy's shoulders slumped and he got a faraway look in his eyes, "I wish I could stop, but I know I can't. The day I put my sword down is the day the weight I've been bearing my entire life falls onto someone else, I couldn't live with myself if I let that happen; you guys don't deserve to see the things I've seen - no one does. The Fates have set you all on paths full of peace and happiness, I walk a different path.

"At some point, you all will join your friends in Elysium and party it up for eternity, I am cursed to walk this Earth forever." Zoë, who was sitting next to Percy, nuzzled her head in his shoulder, "At least I won't be alone, eh Zoë?" Zoë barked her agreement, causing a smile to find its way onto Percy's face.

Thalia sent a small shock of lightning to Percy, which he didn't notice; his new powers over storms negated any effects lightning could have on him, which seriously bummed Thalia out. "Ah c'mon Jackson, you'll always have me and the rest of The Hunt. If we make it through this whole war, I'll get Lisa to give you her secret recipe."

Percy let out a small laugh, "Thanks Thals, but it wouldn't make a difference. All food just tastes the same to me nowadays, I couldn't even tell the difference between any of these milkshakes, I just wanted to see if Leo could actually make any of them. Maybe I'll get a few taste buds back in a couple centuries, but I think the Styx burned them all away."

Piper tried to lighten the mood, "So, spill the tea, who did you see?" Percy gave her a confused look, "The tea? I didn't see anyone in the Styx if that's what you're asking, I had to pull myself out, but what in the name of Poseidon does 'tea' mean?" This elicited a laugh from everyone except Hazel, who didn't know either.

Leo poked his head out the kitchen door, a shit-eating grin spread across his face, "Hey Aquaman, guess what today is." Percy scanned the room to find anything that would give him a hint, only to find nothing, "How would I know Leo? It's not like I kept a calendar with me when I was walking across the pit of eternal damnation."

Leo frowned, "Yeah I didn't think of that." The smile that previously adorned his face came back as fast as it left, "Anyways, it's your birthday!" Leo walked out of the kitchen with a chocholate cake, adorned with blue and green sprinkles, "I know its not a blue cake, but I took the time to separate all the other sprinkles into a bowl and only put the blue and green ones; I left the green because there was too many of them and I wasn't ready for that type of work."

Percy let out a genuine laugh, "Thanks Leo, I haven't had any blue food since I was with The Hunt."

Percy spent the next couple hours laughing along with his friends, eating chocholate cake and listening to Leo's stories. As they all left to get some sleep for the fighting that would happen later, Percy sat on the roof of the Empire State Building, not able to fall alseep. He sat there running his hands through Zoë's fur and strumming a small tune on his guitar; apparently Zoë had kept his backpack with her throughout the years, not willing to let it go.

Maybe Ouranos awakens and ends the world, maybe he will finally die and get some lasting peace in the afterlife, but one thing was certain to Perseus: he wouldn't be going down without a fight