36 Chapter 36

A group of people were walking amongst the dark shifting corridors of an ancient temple, of unknown origin, Weyland Enterprises, led by billionaire industrialist Charles Bishop Weyland came to this cold place to investigate and find out what this temple is for.

Its discovery had been a complete accident, an unidentified source of heat in Antarctica had been detected by one of Weyland's satellites, leading Charles Bishop to assemble a team of paleontologists, archaeologists, linguistic experts, drillers, mercenaries and a 'rough and tumble' female guide named Alexa 'Lex' Woods.

However, Lex at first was very reluctant to guide this team to Antarctica, the trip would be very dangerous and the conditions very harsh, it would also take three weeks to train everyone properly to be able to survive the trip, and handle such a long and dangerous trip.

Charles Bishop Weyland however refused to take that long, he explained that they weren't the only ones with satellites that would orbit on top of Antarctica at some point, so he didn't want to take the risk of someone else coming to search the heat source.

Lex, refused to take the risk and decided to leave, to her, trying to do this unprepared was just stupid, something she knew would lead to deaths, so she didn't want anything to do with this.

Luckily an archaeologist she befriended named Sebastian, convinced her to stay and help them survive, so a reluctant and very cautious Lex, guided Weyland's team to the island Bouvetøya.

Once there, everyone was ready to begin to excavate to reach the temple, but to their surprise and shock, they found that someone had already created a tunnel toward the temple.

Everyone was very confused and couldn't understand how something like this was even possible, they searched the area for answers or for who had done this but found no one.

The excavation team was utterly perplexed and when Charles Bishop Weyland, asked them how the tunnel could have been made, they just didn't have an answer, it should have been impossible to reach the temple in just 24 hours.

Nothing in the world was advanced or efficient enough to do this, in the end, Weyland just ordered everyone to continue with the plan and the excavation team went to set up a lift of sorts, to safely reach the temple through the tunnel.

Later that night, Lex went to let Weyland know that the lift was almost ready, only to find him coughing and struggling to breathe, as it turns out, Charles Bishop Weyland is sick and shouldn't really be in Antarctica.

Lex seeing him sick, try to convince Weyland to go back to the ship and let the team handle everything, but Weyland wanted to be there, he wanted to leave his mark on the world and saw this discovery as a way to do so.

In the end, after Lex told him the story of how her father died climbing a mountain while she was present, Weyland just smiled and asked her what her father's last thoughts were the agonizing pain he felt as he died or the beautiful view from atop the mountain he shared with her?.

After that, Lex couldn't argue with him and reluctantly agree to him continuing to be present, though she would be keeping a close eye on him, she really didn't want anyone getting hurt or dying on her watch.

Sometime later, the lift was ready and the team immediately began to descend in groups, eventually, they all reached the temple, and the paleontologists and archaeologists were in awe at the building found deep beneath the ice.

They even found out that it had traits from all sorts of cultures around the world, causing them to theorize that this temple belonged to the very first culture of Earth.

This of course excited and awe them, they definitely couldn't wait to investigate and research further, though for now they would only look around and see what else they can find.

Eventually, they made it to the sacrificial chamber, everyone was disturbed by the place, and the fact that people were willing to lay down their lives here creeped them out quite a bit, but some of the paleontologists and archaeologists wanted to investigate and translate the hieroglyphs around the room.

So the group split up into two groups, and this is how Lex found herself following, Weyland and his bodyguards, deeper down into this ancient and dark temple.

-----

Meanwhile, outside the tunnel and in one of the abandoned cabins, time and space cracked like glass and then shattered, Morgan, Hope, and Thalia arrived in this world and all three looked around where they have arrived, as reality fixed itself around them.

Thalia walked forwards and hummed "This place looks abandoned, this is a house no? Weren't we supposed to arrive in Antarctica?".

Morgan walked around and began to look around everywhere, while Hope walked up to Thalia's side and spoke to her "We are in Antarctica, this must be one of the houses around the abandoned town here".

Thalia nodded "Ah I see" she then looked at her body and stared at the oversize jacket she was wearing, along with the thick pants and boots, she then turned towards Hope and deadpanned when she saw her in her normal clothes.

Hope raised an eyebrow "What?".

Thalia sighed "I kinda wish I was as tough as you both Firebird".

Hope smiled at her older sister "You barely became a dragon Thalia, compared to me and Morgan who have been dragons for a long while, you still have a long way to go.

You're already a demigod, but being a dragon is a whole different park, you're still coming into your power but power-wise you're still a young dragon, give it some time and you'll see that you will begin to develop all kinds of abilities".

Thalia nodded "You're right, my electrokinesis is already that much more powerful, plus my senses have increased as have my physical abilities, honestly, I'm way stronger than I was when I was just a demigod of Zeus...".

Hope grabbed Thalia's hand and gently smiled "You'll grow in power and awaken more abilities soon, it was the same with me and Morgan, though we started at a high level.

Eri even started at dragon king rank, I think Sherry would be the best example, with dragonification, she started at high class, and has trained and gotten as strong as a dragon king, very soon she'll reach heavenly dragon".

Thalia nodded "I see, Pops told me that I started at least at ultimate level, Percy, Bianca, and Nico as well, now I'm stronger than dad but still at super devil, you girls seem so far away".

Hope giggled "You'll get there, besides, there's no rush, Dad wants all of you to have fun, get in trouble and be kids, all of you never had a chance to just be kids and he wants all of the demigods to experience that".

Thalia smiled, it was true, her pops, really was the best dad ever, he wasn't one to be strict, instead, he trusted them all to be responsible for their own actions and to be careful, of course, he was also very supportive.

He doesn't judge and is always ready to be there with you, many of the demigods had trauma and broken hearts, feeling like no one wanted them or that they weren't worthy of anyone's time.

But he came in and cared for everyone, talk to them, listen to their anger and sadness, and even when some of them lashed out, he just stood there and took it with a smile.

He understood after all, his childhood was shit, everyone knew that, but because of that, her pops understood them the best, that's why everyone now loved him to death, and respect him.

The fact that he plays and gets into trouble with them is the best, it's funny that even when everyone gets scolded, he sits with them to get scolded too, all the while having a big bright smile on his face.

So perhaps Hope was right and she should take things slowly, and not worry too much about what she can't do yet, suddenly Morgan came running to them while holding a panicking penguin in her hands.

Morgan brightly smiled and then showed Hope and Thalia the penguin "Guys! Look what I found! There are penguins here!".

Thalia stared at the penguin that was wildly squirming in Morgan's hand, it was flapping its flippers and kicking as fast as it could in an attempt to escape.

It made Thalia laugh a bit "Mog, let the poor little guy go, he looks terrified".

Morgan smiled and nodded, she then bent down and put the penguin on the floor, it immediately waddled away while flapping its flippers, it looked hilarious to Thalia.

Morgan giggled, finding the way the penguin ran away funny as well "They're so cute, they look like they're wearing little suits!".

Thalia grinned in amusement, while Hope shook her head "Don't antagonize the wildlife Morgan".

Morgan pouted at Hope, who just stared back at her not inching back at all, Thalia smiled and then said "I don't know, I kinda want to wrestle a polar bear".

Morgan grinned and nodded to Thalia, Hope just sighed "Please don't encourage Morgan, she'll really go look for one".

Thalia just laughed finding this whole conversation hilarious, Hope and Morgan looked at her, and then shared a look, both soon smiled and share a laugh as well.

-----

After convincing both Morgan and Thalia not to bully the animals of Antarctica, the girls went out to look around the small abandoned town they found themselves in, it was dark as night had fallen, and as they looked around with the howling wind and snow hitting everything they came to find quite the gruesome scene.

Right in the middle of town, the girls found multiple dead bodies hanging from the ceiling by their ankles, which made for quite the macabre sight, well except for the girls.

As supernatural beings, they had seen worse, but it did make them wonder what was going on here, Thalia approached the hanged bodies and looked around "Okay.. but why though? Why hang the bodies like this?".

Hope walked to her side and inspected the bodies as well "Hm, they have been dead for at least an hour, maybe less but the wounds aren't bleeding".

Morgan walked over and summoned her boosted gear, with it she used the new omnitool function and scanned the bodies "... I see, most of their wounds have been caused by plasma, that explains why there's no blood".

Thalia looked to the side and noticed that one of the bodies was bleeding, so she got closer to take a better look "This wound was made by a very sharp weapon, the cut is too clean... guys, whoever did this isn't human.

It takes quite a bit of strength to be able to cut through bone as cleanly as whoever did this to this guy".

Hope nodded and closed her eyes, she then began to sense the planet for mana or supernatural energy "Hm... this planet doesn't have any mana, nor do I sense any divine energy".

Morgan put away her sacred gear and looked around "So no supernatural beings nor gods are present in this world, but if that's the case, then who did this?".

Thalia frowned "Who knows, but we should look around, but let's be careful though, we don't know what we're dealing with here".

The girls nodded and began to look around the town together, without knowing what was going on they decided to stick together, in hindsight, that is a very smart thing to do, in situations like these.

-----

After a few minutes of walking around the town, they finally found some kind of deep hole in the ice, all three girls took a look into it and were a bit surprised by how deep it seemed, Thalia whistled "Wow, that's some drop here, how deep you think it is?".

Both Morgan and Hope shook their head, they didn't have a clue about the depth, but it look really deep, Hope frowned and turned around to stare at the town "There was a fight out here and the humans lost, I think whoever came here and killed all of those humans, went down this hole".

Thalia nodded since she was thinking the same thing, Morgan summon her boosted gear again and scanned the hole "This hole was made with plasma too and...".

Morgan turned around and looked up at the sky "It came from above, maybe some sort of laser weapon in a satellite?".

Hope shook her head "That's something only your father is capable of doing... then again we don't know in what kind of world we ended up in, it could be a highly advance one for all we know".

Morgan nodded, Thalia then decided to speak "I guess we should head down and see what we find down there".

Hope and Morgan nodded, with that decided all three girls hopped inside the hole and slid down the ice at high speed.

-----

It only took a few seconds, but the girls soon arrived at the bottom of the hole, Hope quickly dried their clothes with magic since they got went from sliding down the ice, Thalia looked around and noticed another dead body nearby.

She walked up to it and inspect it "A puncture wound right through the heart... a spear maybe?".

Hope and Morgan walked over to her and then looked deeper inside the cavern they found themselves in, Morgan immediately noticed the lights that have been set up to illuminate the cavern "Looks like someone else is down here already, must be more humans".

Hope walked forward and narrowed her eyes as she saw the silhouette of an enormous building "Is that a pyramid?".

Both Morgan and Thalia turned their heads towards the direction where Hope is looking and saw a big pyramid of odd design, Morgan suddenly created some orbs of light and then sent them flying up towards the pyramid.

The whole construct was illuminated and the girls could clearly see it now, Thalia walked up towards Hope and frowned "It looks familiar to some of the pyramids I've seen in my school book... Aztec I think, but something isn't right, this one looks odd".

Hope nodded "Plus this is Antarctica, there shouldn't be any pyramid from that culture all the way here or at least I don't think so, it could be different in this world".

Morgan shook her head "No guys, this thing is completely weird, nothing matches from what I've seen on the internet... there are all kinds of styles mixed in this thing".

This whole situation was just getting weirder and weirder for the girls, but they were also curious about it all and with that in mind they decided to search the pyramid.

-----

The girls walked over to the pyramid and quickly found an entrance, all three could see that someone had already been here and opened the entrance, so they all walked in and followed the pathway.

But as they all walked the pathway they suddenly heard a scream of pain, the girls jumped in surprise not expecting a scream, suddenly they heard more screams and the girls frowned.

They cautiously began to move a bit faster, but not knowing what they were dealing with, they decided to not jump in at the problem and be careful

-----

~Before the girls walked into the temple~

Lex, Sebastian, Mr. Weyland, and his bodyguards were investigating a chamber they found deeper within the temple, and here is where Weyland and his bodyguards made a very serious mistake.

In this chamber they had found a puzzle with an ancient Aztec calendar, Sebastian easily solved it and it opened a sarcophagus nearby, everyone cautiously walked over and took a look.

Only to find some very odd and advanced objects, objects Mr. Weyland chose to take because he began to have a coughing attack and Lex ordered everyone to leave not wanting to endanger Mr. Weyland, of course, this decision was made against the wishes of Sebastian and Lex who knew it was a bad idea.

As soon as the objects were taken, a mechanism was turned on and the temple began to shift and move, which made everyone panic, choosing to get out of this chamber they tried to rush out.

But it was too late, the doors to the chamber close and a new one opened, meanwhile screams began to echo from the chamber above.

Weyland's bodyguards immediately tried to radio everyone to check on them, but no one responded, knowing that something dangerous was going on, they all immediately began to get ready by pulling out firearms much to Lex's consternation.

At the same time, something was moving through the temple at high speed, with everyone unaware of this they all decided to just get out of this place and walked over the newly open pathway which lead to stairs going down.

Lex stopped right before them and looked down while using her flashlight to light the stairs "this bearing should take us back to the entrance... and we'll regroup at the whaling station".

Sebastian walked up to Lex's side "What about Thomas? Rousseau?".

Lex frowned but still answered Sebastian's question "We'll find them on the way up".

Mr. Weyland turned his head towards the leader of his bodyguards "Max".

Max nodded and then said, "Stone, Verheiden cover our tracks".

Graeme Miller, an engineer who chose to go with Lex and Sebastian, suddenly spoke up when he realized something "The heat bloom that your satellite detected makes more sense now Mr. Weyland".

Mr. Weyland turned his head towards Graeme "What do you mean?".

Graeme then explained, "Well, a building this sophisticated... would require a major energy source, I think that's what your satellite detected, a power plant from this pyramid firing up".

Everyone except Lex who was looking down the stairs still, turned to look at Graeme while he went on "Preparing...".

Mr. Weyland immediately asked "Preparing? For what?".

Lex however cut them off "Gentlemen".

Both Mr. Weyland and Graeme stopped their conversation and followed Lex, who began to walk down the stairs and into a dark hallway.

Meanwhile, in the sacrificial chamber a woman named Adele Rousseau was waking up, she gasped and looked around from her spot on the floor, only to gasp again.

Only this time in confusion and fright as she noticed the creature that had attacked her, on the floor and unmoving beside her, Adele immediately sat up and looked around wildly.

She quickly noticed that everyone that was with her in the sacrificial chamber was now on the floor with a creature on their faces, the same creature that now lay on the floor beside her.

She suddenly began to gasp for air and cough as she watched the creatures on the faces of her crew, tighten their tails around their neck, but at the moment she couldn't even worry about that.

She was quickly struggling to breathe and in an effort to do so she opened up her jacket, but it just got harder and harder for her to catch her breath until there was a horrible cracking sound and she felt a horrendous pain in her chest.

It made her gasp and grit her teeth in pain, the pain subsided for about a second, leaving her once again gasping for air, this time however, there was a lot of pain as well.

But then there was another horrible cracking sound and Adele screamed in pain as blood began to drip from her chest, more and more cracking sounds echoed through the chamber while Adele squirmed in pain on the floor.

Until something suddenly burst out of her chest, a small creature hissed as it got out of its Adele's chest while she screamed for the last time in pain.

-----

The girls who heard the screams and the screams that followed after the first one tried to rush over toward where those screams came from, however, the pyramid suddenly shifted on them to much and they lost their way.

Morgan looked around in annoyance "Sheesh... who decided it was a good idea to make this pyramid into a shifting maze?".

Thalia nodded and then sighed "This reminds me about Tartarus, that place is supposed to be a shifting maze as well".

Hope hummed as everyone continued to walk "Isn't that in the Underworld? I think daddy said something about Uncle Hades being in charged of it".

Thalia nodded "Yeah, it's in the Underworld, it's supposed to be a prison for titans and Kronos, I think, though Pops did free the good titans from there".

Morgan sighed "What do you think is going on in here?".

Thalia hummed and looked up but continued to walk "I think the humans in here are being attacked by something, though what? I have no clue".

Hope nodded "Whatever it is, it isn't human, what we saw outside shows that maybe whoever or whatever attacked the human outside is attacking the ones inside the temple".

Morgan clicked her tongue "And this pyramid is just making it hard to navigate this place, I think it's too late to help whoever just scream though".

Thalia frowned and looked over at Hope "Can't we just blast our way inside?".

Hope shook her head "We might collapse the entire pyramid and if there are any humans left alive in here they will die if this place crumbles on them, it's best we don't do anything too drastic and try not to destroy anything".

Morgan groaned "That means no big attacks! This is Racoon City all over again!".

Hope giggled at Morgan, but she was also right, without knowing what they were dealing with or if there are more people alive in here, it was best to be careful".

Thalia nodded in understanding while she grinned at Morgan, but then asked something else "What about teleporting?".

Morgan shook her head "No, without knowing where we're going and with the pyramid shifting all over the place we might end up inside a wall or something".

Thalia sighed "So we look around the good old-fashioned way then".

Hope nodded "Yup! Good ol' walking around".

The three girls then sighed and slumped, but still continued to walk, despite their complaints, they were still curious about what was going on in this weird pyramid.

-----

Back in the chamber Lex and the rest of her group found those weird objects in, three big humanoid silhouettes walked up towards the sarcophagus and found it empty, the silhouettes suddenly became visible revealing three humanoid-like creatures.

The biggest of three and the leader let out a clicking sound and then roared in annoyance, the other two began to look around for clues as to who could have taken the objects they came to look for.

-----

~Minutes later, back with Lex and the group~

The group led by Lex, began to slowly make their way through the dark pathway they had found, luckily it was very wide so they could easily move around though the many statues around the pathway just gave it a very creepy atmosphere to the area.

But the group ignored that for now, and just focused on keeping an eye on everything going on around them, as Mr. Weyland's bodyguards check around, Lex and Sebastian took a look at the statues.

Lex frowned as she saw something very familiar on the shoulders of one of the statues "Do you see that? On its shoulder?".

Sebastian nodded "Yeah... it's exactly the same as the one we found in the chamber".

Max who is the leader of the bodyguards and a person close to Mr. Weyland looked at the statues "We worshipped these things?".

Sebastian stepped closer to the statues and began to decipher the hieroglyphs at the base of one of the statues "According to this, we did and the artifacts you removed from the sarcophagus seem to be their weapons...".

Max just scoffed and looked around, Lex looked at her watch and then loudly said "Let's get moving! Only another 200 yards to the entrance".

However, what they didn't know, was that they were being watched by the three humanoid creatures, after looking around they found traces of who had taken their weapons and then followed them down the pathway Lex and her group took.

It didn't take them long to catch up and find them, especially because Sebastian and Lex would stop to investigate the statues, but now that they had the thieves in front of them, the creatures will make sure to get what rightfully belongs to them at any cost.

All three stared at the humans with special vision, infrared, and they were able to see the heat coming out of the human's body, something that showed very vividly in this cold and dark temple.

One of them scanned the backpacks of the bodyguards and saw their weapons inside of them, once the location of their weapons was confirmed they began to quietly move.

The fact that they were somewhat camouflaged and invisible, made it possible for them to get close to the human without them noticing anything at all.

One of the creatures decided to set up a trap and so made a noose with a thin cable and set it up in front of one of the bodyguards, specifically, the one at the very back of the group.

The bodyguard didn't even notice the noose and walked right up to it, the moment his head and neck had the thin and almost invisible cable around it, the creatures quickly pulled him up.

Taken by surprise and without warning, all the bodyguard could do, is made a choking sound and kick around as he was pulled up, no one noticed anything until he dropped his weapon making a loud crashing sound on the floor.

Everyone jumped and immediately turned around only to see a firearm on the ground, one of the bodyguards suddenly yelled "Take cover! Move!".

Everyone immediately moved to cover and began to look around with their weapons and flashlights, Max frowned "Where's Stone!?".

But no one knew, no one could see him or where he went, so they began to look all over the place while calling out to Stone hoping he would answer.

One of the bodyguards, slowly began to scan the whole wall in front of him, until he noticed a strange figure standing above him while holding a spear.

His eyes widen in shock, but before he could do anything the creature suddenly threw his spear at him, the spear flew too fast and impaled the bodyguard through the chest.

The bodyguard gasped and out of reflex pulled the trigger of his firearm, which alert everyone, the rest of the bodyguards immediately turned around and shot their weapons, while Lex watched in shock as the bodyguard impaled by the spear dropped to the ground dead.

The creature moved away really fast and not one of the bodyguards noticed it was no longer where it stood, so they continue to unload their weapons at the wall without ever getting close to hitting it.

-----

~Meanwhile, back with the girls~

Morgan suddenly stopped and looked around "Hey, did you guys hear that?".

Hope listened closely "Those sounds like shots from an assault weapon".

Thalia frowned "The humans?".

Morgan nodded "I think so, I think someone or something is attacking them again".

Hope narrowed her eyes "Whoever killed the human in the town above right?".

Morgan turned her gaze towards Hope "More than likely".

The three girls shared a look and then nodded toward each other, they then took off running toward where the shots were coming from.

-----

~Meanwhile, back with Lex and the group~

After shooting for a while, the bodyguards stopped shooting and began to reload their weapons while glaring toward where they believed they were attacked from, Lex, Sebastian, and Graeme looked around everywhere as well.

But suddenly, the pyramid began to shift around them again, which startled everyone, Sebastian called out to everyone "The pyramid is shifting again!".

Everyone looked around as walls moved, new passages were opened and then the whole area changed around them, however, something suddenly jumped across two statues and the bodyguards were barely able to notice it.

But they did and immediately began to shoot at it in hopes of taking down whatever is attacking them, but the shifting pyramid began to make it very hard for them to keep shooting, Max growled and yelled "The wall is closing! Move!".

Everyone quickly began to move out of the way of the shifting walls and try to regroup, but it was becoming harder and harder, one of the bodyguards didn't notice the floor open up in front of him and he fell when he walked over the new hole on the floor.

He slammed on the ground and gasped in pain, but not everyone noticed he fell, Lex looked around and noticed a wall closing over the way to the path leading outside so she yelled at everyone "Come on! It's closing!".

Everyone heard Lex and immediately took off running towards the closing wall, hoping to catch it before it close completely, the poor bodyguard who fell down the new hole on the floor quickly got up and began to yell for someone to help him get out.

But no one heard him because of the loud noise coming from the shifting walls, except one other bodyguard, but he didn't even try to help the poor guy and just stared as the floor close in on him.

The poor bodyguard crouched down and wildly looked around "Someone! Somebody! Help!".

-----

But unfortunately, no one would hear him, Graeme however rushed forward and crashed against the guy who just watched as the floor closed in on the poor guy trapped underneath, both Graeme and the bodyguards panicked when they saw the walls close around them.

Lex and her group could only watch as they lost sight of them as the wall completely closed in front of them.

Everyone was beginning to get cut off by the new walls around them and as everyone looked around all they could is watch as the entire inside of the hallway they were walking on was completely transformed.

-----

~Back with Graeme and the bodyguard.~

Both looked around wildly, worried and scared that they have been separated from everyone, the bodyguard growled as he looked around "Tch! I hit that son of a bitch dead on! It didn't stop, it didn't even slow down!".

Graeme was looking around but stopped when he heard the bodyguard sound paranoid now "Hey!".

The bodyguard continued to ramble on while ignoring him, so Graeme yelled at him again "Hey!".

The bodyguard finally snapped and turned towards Graeme "What!?".

But Graeme just calmly said, "I'm not a soldier but I think you should calm down, really, we're not dead yet, okay?".

The bodyguard was breathing hard in his panic and in that panic, he got even angrier, so he grabbed Graeme by his jacket and got to his face "Well, thanks Professor!".

The bodyguard pushed Graeme back and began to try to breathe more calmly, though Graeme just sighed and said, "Actually, it's Doctor and you be uncomfortable okay?".

That just served to make the bodyguard angrier and so he yelled right into Graemes's face "What!?".

But Graeme just ignored him and looked around, if the guy wanted to make an ass of himself, it was his problem, he needed to find a way to get out of there somehow, and arguing with the other guy wasn't going to help.

-----

~A few minutes before~

Morgan, Thalia, and Hope ran toward the sound of gunfire, but then the walls around them began to shift all around them, the three girls stop in their tracks and looked around as the walls moved.

Hope frowned "Back to back! and keep an eye on the walls!".

The three girls jumped and then stood back to back towards each other, all three watched as the walls moved and changed the area around them with caution and curiosity.

A minute later the walls finished moving and the girls were able to relax, Thalia scratched her head as she looked at the new passages opened around them "Okay... this is annoying".

Morgan nodded "Yeah... we need to time these changes so we don't accidentally run into a wall or fall down a hole".

Hope looked down and saw a hole that opened up by their side, proving Morgan's words true "This is going to be a problem, now we don't know where we're going or where those humans are.

We might as well end up going in circles and never meeting up, plus we still don't know who is attacking the humans".

Thalia looked down at a new passageway with a frown on her face "Should we get going or wait to see if they come our way?".

The girls crossed their arms as they began to ponder on what to do next.