Chapter 71

[Third Person's PoV]

"Arise!"

From the shadows a hand shot up followed by another completely made of a shadowy stone.

An excited look came over Lucian's face as he watched, suddenly he felt liquid running down his nose and eyes.

Confused he wiped a bit to check and saw blood staining his fingers, he felt his energy leaving his body causing him to fall to his knees, "Shit" he muttered lethargic.

A ten meters tall black shadowy Golem appeared behind Lucian as he was on the ground coughing up blood.

After the golem was done manifesting, Lucian was gasping for air as blood stained his face and the ground underneath him.

'What did I expect? It's a God after all, of course there were going to be consequences, although it's only because I didn't have enough energy to "Arise" it to full strength.

And It's still not at full strength, it looks like it's power has been cut to half. Honestly it could have been worse, I lose a bit of blood and I get a Shadow with half the strength of a God? I call that a win in my book' Lucian thought to himself catching his breath.

Lucian looked at the black stone shadowy golem in front of him and put a hand on his chin before snapping his fingers. "I got it, I'll call you Golurk! Man my genius knows no bound"

The golem then knelt down and put a hand on his heart, "Thank my Leige for gifting me a name"

"WHAT THE F–"

…

Earlier, while Lucian engaged in a fight with Ourae…

"Are you sure it was a good idea to leave Lucian behind?" Thalia couldn't help but doubt herself.

"It's Lucian I'm sure he's going to be alright" Luke answered reassuringly as they ran up the mountain.

"That's the exact reason why I'm worried, it's Lucian, not to sound rude or mean but well, we all know he has a bit of a screw loose… maybe more than 1, but you get my point" Thalia retorted.

Annabeth then tried to defend Lucian, "Lucian's not that bad I'm sure when the option to run away to safety or fight a hopeless battle he would run–"

"..."

"Dammit" They all said at the same time, before they could say anything else the ground beneath them shook with great intensity which sent them all to the floor as they lost their balance.

They all look towards the place where they ran away from with worry, "Lucian's going to be okay, right?" Annabeth asked, almost tempted to run back towards Lucian and help him.

"I wouldn't worry too much, he has the tendency of a cockroach. I'm sure he'll be alright." Luke reassured her but before they could get up they heard the sound of rocks falling.

They snapped their attention towards the tumbling rockslide coming their way, Thalia immediately summoned her Spear.

She aimed it towards the sky causing a lighting bolt to hit it, and as it did Thalia swung it down towards the coming rocks destroying the ones in their direct paths.

Annabeth reached into her purple bag to her side and pulled out three cards with the ancient Greek symbol for shield.

She threw one towards Thalia, another towards Luke and one to her feet. A translucent blue shield appeared around all of them, which protected them from all the wayward rocks that weren't caught in Thalia's attack.

As the rock slide passed by them the shield started flickering before onlh the card remained, they soon all went flying back towards Annabeth.

"Nice save" Thalia said with a smile.

"Thanks, and now thanks to your attack we have a clear path ahead" Annabeth reciprocates the gesture.

They all took one last look back from where they came and heard the giant roar in pain, before seeing it get launched back causing the others to look at each other in shock.

"Does Lucian have the higher hand in this fight?" Thalia asked surprise before they turned and started running through the opening she created.

"If anyone has a chance of fighting a God and somehow gaining an upper hand it's Lucian, but I still can't help but worry for the way he does things" Annabeth answered with a wry smile.

They then ran up for a couple of minutes and soon reached the top of the mountain where the Garden of Hesperides resides.

They were stunned as soon as they viewed the garden, it was the most beautiful place any of them has ever seen.

The grass shimmered with silvery evening light, and the flowers were such brilliant colors they almost glowed in the dark. Stepping stones of polished black marble led round either side of a five-storey-tall apple tree, every bough glittering with golden apples of immortality.

The seen would have been perfect if it wasn't for the hundred headed dragon coiled around the apple tree.

Before they could fully have another step they heard someone then shout, "Visitors! Oh my how many years has it been since we have any?"

"As expected I didn't i mention we were going to have guest due to all the commotion"

"Oh my oh my, they even have a cute boy with them"

"And he's blonde? Just my type"

4 very gorgeously beautiful yet dangerous women were seen walking towards them, their focus was mostly settled on Luke. They have caramel-like skin, glassy black eyes that are like volcanic rock, and silky black hair that tumble loose around their shoulders, while wearing a white greek chiton.

Luke was almost stunt by their beauty but he composed himself after all he was here for a quest.

"So what brings you handsome?" One of them said in a flirty tone.

Luke chuckled foolishly as he rubbed the back off his head with a faint blush. Thalia smacked him on the back of the head with the staff of her Spear and looked at Luke in disgust.

"Ouch!" He said rubbing the back of his head but this time from the pain, he stood up straight and coughed in his fist to compose himself.

Luke bow towards them, "We were sent on a quest by the God's to to retrieve a golden apple from this garden and I was hoping you would give us one"

"No can do!" One of them crossed her arms in an X shape

"We are tasked to guard the garden not hand out it's fruit"

"Come on handsome, are you sure you aren't here for something else? Something we are allowed to do?" One of them asked, clinging close to him and drawing a circle on his chest.

Luke pushed her hand away as he sighed, "That's why we are asking you for the fruit in the first place, I know you guys are here to guard them from thieves, so if we asked for them and you gave them to us willingly we wouldn't be considered thieves and you would have done your job of guarding them."

"That's a nice loop hole"

"I know right"

"Isn't that like the millionth time we heard that before?"

"We're being sarcastic Erytheia"

"Oh…Sighhhh seriously why are the blonde ones always the dumb ones, and they always have to be handsome as well"

A tick mark grew on Luke's head hearing them make fun of them.

An idea suddenly developed inside Annabeth as she took a step forward "Did we not mention we were sent by the Queen Goddess herself"

"What!" They all exclaimed at the same time surprise, they didn't even doubt Annabeth as no one would ever use the gods in such ways.

Luke and Thalia gave Annabeth a hidden confused look but she just secretly winked at them, "Right we haven't introduced ourselves have we, I'm Annabeth, that's Thalia, and he is our friend Jason"

Slowly they started to catch onto Annabeth's idea as she continued talking,

"As you remember Our Queen Goddess is very fond of demigods with the name Jason, thus she gave our friend the mission of coming into her garden and testing him to see on how he would obtain the Gold apple.

He decided to be upfront with his request, choosing to show his wise thinking, and show he can think outside the box and not just use brute force to complete his quest"

"I see…" one of them muttered with a hand on her chin.

"Our lady was always fond of that boy long before so it makes sense…"

"If its a request from our lady we can't really deny it can we"

All three started to inwardly smirk as they saw Annabeth's plan working.

"YO ANNABETH, THALIA, LUKE!! HEYYY"

They all snapped their heads towards the bloody Lucian waving at them with a happy and satisfied expression being carried by his Asura.

The three of them grew enraged quickly realizing their plan just failed when they were so close and it's all thanks to…

"LUCIAN YOU BASTARD SHUT UP!!!" The three shouted in anger.