Chapter 124: I take my aim,not really

(Percy POV)

'Okay, what happened?'

That was the first thought I had when I regained conscious. The air was hot, and I was presumably lying on a stone floor. I opened up my mind palace and try to access the last thing I could remember.

Immediately the black void in front of me turned into a large black tv screen.

It showed me the lying on the floor in pain. The smoking hot chains kept me restrained, and I was crying out in pain. Even the real time me flinched a bit.

Then past me suddenly yelled. "Heroes final hour now known to rise!"

A second later the screen turned black, the mind palace equivalent of passing out.

I turned away from the TV screen and got ready to leave the mind palace when the screen suddenly flashed white. I turned back to the TV and wondered what my mind palace was trying to show me. Words began to appear on the TV screen, slowly each letter appeared in a random order. Finally, they spelled out: IT'S TIME TO WAKE UP.

The letters began blinking and turned blood-red. A beeping sound followed, like some kind of alarm clock inside my mind triggered.

The sound was ear deafening, and I screamed while wondering what the Helheim was going on, my mind palace had never done such a thing. Although I only had it for a day or two.

My eyes shot open and I gasped for air.

A girl with silvery hair I didn't recognize pulled up. She grinned and said, "Your lucky you smell so delicious."

I blinked a few times. My eyes had to adjust to the light. I glanced around and saw I was still standing in Sibyl's chamber.

Katie suddenly embraced me in a hug and grinned, "Oh gods. Percy, I thought you died."

I smiled and hugged her back, although I had no idea what happened.

After a few seconds she pulled back and began scolding me, "Seriously Percy? You cut just the chains without wondering if it could maybe a trap?"

I rubbed the back of my neck, "Sorry? I won't do it again...I guess." Katie rolled her eyes while Hazel chuckled.

I still felt a bit weak, so I had to lean on Katie until my strength came back. Luckily Katie helped me across the room.

Herophile was kneeling in front of the floor tiles. They hadn't been there when I passed out. Or at least I did not recall any memories of a solid floor.

Now the entire room except for the edges where the lava was still burning hot.

The tiles had glowing words on them.

At the other end of the room, was a familiar giant stuck to the wall.

He had his legs and arms spread like an X.

His arms and legs were covered with webbing, thick layers kept him stuck to the wall.

In front of him stood the silver-haired girl I saw when I woke up. I now recognized the girl as Arachne in her human form. Which I could've guessed from the spiderweb.

Next to Arachne stood Kampê in her full glory. One of her Scimitars was stuck in Orion's stomach. Piercing him and from the depth of the sword I guessed she had even pierced the wall with her poisonous blade.

When Katie and I made our way towards them, the two monsters turned around. Arachne smiled while Kampê snarled.

"Feeling better?" Arachne asked concerned.

"You almost got yourself killed." Kampê said with disgust, though I quickly read her emotion and saw she was slightly relieved to see me I was healthy.

"Kampê? Arachne? What are you doing here?" I asked flabbergasted.

Arachne smiled, "I heard you scream and came your aid."

I frowned, "Scream?"

Hazel coughed, "The high-pitched scream you did before spitting out the nonsense, what did he call it again?"

"Canary cry," Katie said, "That scream thing you learned from Apollo."

I frowned, "Wait you heard it? I thought-"

"I heard it," Arachne said, "It was almost like a psychic beacon. I tracked down your delicious scent and found you in trouble."

'The pain was horrible,' Chaos confessed suddenly, 'I accidentally let out a distress signal for your friends to pick up.'

Arachne smirked, "And I've done a good job at helping you." She pointed at Orion who was stuck on the wall.

"Well," I said, "Thanks for coming here." I turned to Kampê, "And how did you got here?"

Kampê shrugged, "Arachne forced me into this."

Arachne scoffed, "Now I did not. We were heading towards the same goal. You bumped into me."

"You bumped into me!" Kampê snarled and drew her scimitar.

"Relax," I said and used a little bit of soul speak. Trying to reach whatever part of the two monsters that wanted to relax. "So you two were coming to help me. That's nice."

"Don't expect me to save you every time." Kampê said glaring at Arachne and me.

"So I see you manage to capture Orion?" I asked, trying to steer the conversation to a new target.

Arachne grinned again, "Yes. I caught him in my web."

'I get it,' Lyssa said, 'Because she is a spider. And spiders make spider web.'

I rolled my eyes and turned to Orion who was groaning in pain, the scimitar in his chest must have hurt a lot. Yet he was still alive."

Kampê noticed my concerned look and said, "It's because he won't die."

"I know," I said, "He's a Giant. Only a god and a demigod working together can kill it."

Kampê shook her head and the snakes around her legs hissed angrily at Orion. "No, that was not the problem. The point was that we could not beat Orion."

I perked up, "What?"

Katie sighed, "Everytime they wounded Orion the damage they had done disappeared. Making him invisible."

Arachne glared at Orion, "I met Giants before and this is certainly not normal. It was like we were trying to kill a rock."

"I cut off his arm," Kampê said proudly, "It immediately reformed."

Hazel nodded, "Yes. It was really scary."

"You mean he healed himself?" I asked.

"No," Arachne said staring at the scimitar stuck in Orion's chest."Orion simply grabbed his arm and pushed it against his wound."

"That's weird." I admitted, "Even for my standards."

"But at some point I managed to pin him against the wall," Kampê said proudly, and she pointed at the scimitar in Orion's chest.

"Where are Caligula and Inaticus?" I wondered.

Arachne pouted, "We were so busy with the invincible Orion that they managed to escape." Kampê confessed, sounding disappointed.

That's when I noticed the state she was in. She had multiple cuts over her body, and a few dragon scales were ripped off. Revealing red flesh.

"Oh gods," I exclaimed and stumbled forward. "Kampê you're hurt."

I pushed my hands against Kampê's side. She flinched for a second but relaxed slightly after that. "You don't have too-"

"Heal you?" I asked, "Of course I'm gonna heal you."

Golden flames began to lick around Kampê's body and her cuts began closing up.

After a minute I stepped back and Kampê was good as new.

Kampê huffed, "That was not necessary."

"You can barely stand on your own feet Percy" Hazel said with an annoyed tone.

"That's not true." I complained as I almost fell to the floor.

Orion in front of us let out an audible groan, apparently the bickering became too much for him.

I grinned and turned to Kampê, "Have you interrogated him yet?"

Kampê snarled, "No. He won't talk and the pain his is in right now is already to much for a normal being."

I turned to Orion and pulled off his mask.

To my surprise he was a handsome looking evil giant. His face was like it was almost chiseled out of marble. But that was not the thing that surprised me.

I heard stories from Reyna about Orion and one thing that she had told me was how he had mechanical eyes.

Orion once tried to court with Merope, a daughter of a certain Greek king named Oinopian.

Said king found out and blinded Orion. After a long Bird Box challenge Orion got his eyes replaced by mechanical ones by Hephaestus.

But right now Orion had just normal human looking eyes.

I frowned while my mind ran down all the things that this could mean.

Someone had not only brought down Orion from the stars (Without Nyx noticing) and healed his eyes which was something even Gaia couldn't do.

Maybe he got his hands on some Gorgon blood. I put it in the list of anomalies and decided to interrogate Orion.

I decided to ask a simply question first, "Who are you?"

"Fuck off." Orion groaned in pain.

"He's been talking like this since we caught him." Kampê snarled with hatred.

'Oh,' Chaos said, 'Can we do good cop bad cop?'

'Shut up,' Lyssa cried out, 'That's what I wanted to do!'

'We're gonna do bad cop only.' I muttered with annoyance.

"Okay second question." I said, ignoring the fact that Orion insulted me. "How did you came back from the dead?"

Orion grimaced, even though he was in terrible pain he managed a manically laughter. "That's the real question isn't it?"

I glared at Orion, feeling myself losing it a little. "Yes, now tell me."

Orion smiled.

"Is it your mom?" I questioned, "Is it your father?"

Orion laughed harder.

Suddenly a second scimitar penetrated his chest, and he let out a cry of pain.

I glared at Kampê. "Seriously?"

She smiled at me. "I thought I help you a little."

I shook my head and turned back to Orion. "Are you now willing to talk? Just one simple question, who brought you back to life?"

"I won't tell you. You can't kill me." Orion groaned in pain, saliva was dripping out of his mouth and his chest was one bloody mess.

I grinned, "Let's try out that theory of yours."

Arachne grabbed me by my shoulder and pulled me away from Orion. She had a look of concern on her face. "Perseus, don't let him get to you."

I shook my head. "Orion is not going to talk. So we'll kill him."

"You can't kill me!" Orion laughed, "You could never kill me. True immortality has been achieved. Powers beyond Chaos'."

I felt Chaos' rage, she was furiously.

Chaos was not a prideful goddess like most of the Olympians. She had a good sense of humor and mostly didn't mind people mocking her but even she had a line.

Orion had crossed her line, and mine too.

'Okay,' Chaos said furiously. 'Now I want him to suffer.'

"Okay," I said calmly, "This is not going to work."

I snapped my fingers and in my hand an old bow appeared.

My two monster friends did not recognize the bow. "What's that going to do?" Kampê asked.

"You don't have an arrow." Katie reminded me. "Unless you're going to use the talking one."

She had been watching the interrogation from a few yards away. Not wanting to see the blood and gore. Same for Hazel.

"This bow has been blessed by Athena herself," I said to no one in particular. "It has great powers, I just have not found them yet. But one thing is for sure, this bow supposedly can kill a Giant."

Orion grinned. "What are you going to do? Shoot me?"

I smiled back. "I have a fun idea." I turned to Kampê.

"Could you please open his mouth?"

Kampê grinned wildly and forcefully opened Orion's mouth, her sharp claws dug into Orion's skin, he gasped and for a moment he seemed horrified.

A few web lines appeared on Orion which pulled Orion's lower jaw down while a few others pulled his upper jaw open.

"Percy?" Katie asked uncertainty. "What are you going to do?"

"Kill Orion." I simply said and stepped closer to Orion and held my bow with two hands.

"Say aah!" I said and with one slash I brought down the bow into Orion's mouth. He immediately gasped in pain as the 4,5 long bow crashed down on his trachea. The wood of the bow splintered and I felt the bow break through something squishy. If I had to guess it were his lungs but it was just a guess.

I brought down the bow deeper and I heard a metallic slashing sound coming from my bow.

When I finally had brought own my entire bow in his esophagus I stepped back to admire my work.

Orion's throat was shred to pieces, and he was choking in his own blood. He gasped and pathetically twitched in his place.

His eyes were for once filled with pure terror.

It was oddly satisfying.

"Will it kill him though?" Arachne asked. She was not disturbed by the sight of an...damaged...Giant.

I shrugged, "I hope it for mister; You can't kill me, otherwise we'll just leave him here."

Orion turned to face me. He gasped and gurgled up blood.

"Is he going to die?" Arachne asked curiously, she sounded like she could make a bet about it without feeling guilty.

To my surprise Orion's body started to dissolve slowly, from his waist down. He let out another cry as his legs crumbled to dust and the destruction began slowly crawling up his body.

"You're a monster." he said as his eyes met mine for a second. He grimaced in pain. "You can't stop what's coming."

I grinned as Orion body began to steam and fade away, "You're wrong. I'm not a monster. We are the Suicide Squad and whatever is going on...we'll stop it."

Orion let out a final scream, a second later there was nothing left except some dust.

Kampê grabbed her scimitars, which had dropped to the floor. "Guess he wasn't that immortal after all." she smiled.

I nodded and grabbed my bow who was now covered with Ichor.

"That was kind of ruthless," Hazel muttered, looking really pale.

"It worked." I pointed out.

"But you could've done it without letting him suffer-"

"He killed three hunters remember," I said. "Let's call it divine justice."

Hazel frowned, clearly not understanding what I meant.

Chaos however was smirking satisfied with Orion's fate.

I grabbed the bow which had landed on the floor and I noticed something weird.

A blade was sticking out of the bow. It was glowing in a soft blue color, I could not see how the blade was attached to the bow, or how it even came into existence.

The blade glowed brightly for a second and I had to close my eyes for a second.

When the bright light faded away the bow looked like a regular old bow.

The blade had disappeared without a trace. There was no notch where the blade had been but I guess magic weapons had their own laws of physics.

"What was that?" Katie asked.

I frowned and studied the useless bow in my hand. "Maybe I'm supposed to hit people with it instead of shooting arrows."

"That sounds stupid." Kampê snarled.

I decided to test the theory and smashed it to the ground.

It broke with an audible snap.

My theory was that if it was a bow used to hit people the blade should appear again. But it did not happen, instead the bow crumbled to dust and a brand-new one appeared (although it looked exactly like the old one).

I sighed and grabbed the bow, "Nope. That was not the hidden power of the bow."

"Does it always reform?" Arachne asked.

"Yes," I answered, "The bow's mine and once I try to destroy it. It comes back a second later. It would've been neat if it wasn't for the fact that I suck at archery."

"I thought you were blessed by Apollo." Katie said.

I chuckled, "I am but there are things that even Apollo can not fix."

'Though its weird that the blessing did work for Despina's shield." Lyssa said thoughtfully.

'What do you mean?'

'Well the blessing improve your accuracy with the shield but it had almost no effect on your skills with a bow.' Lyssa said. 'I guess you just really suck.'

'Thanks.' I said sarcastically.

'No problem.' Lyssa said, not picking up the sarcasm.

I taped my bow to my backpack, not caring if the bow would break along the way.

"So can we go now?" Hazel asked a bit anxious. "I mean the quest is over right? We freed Herophile and we put together a team."

"Wait a minute. What about the prophecy?" Katie asked.

She pointed at Herophile who was kneeling in front of the stone tiles.

Studying the text, which I hadn't seen yet.

I had been a little bit to busy with Orion to actually appreciate my work.

Hero's final hour Known to rise,

Order or Chaos In the end,

Promises to keep, Tears from lies,

Escape by suicide, Evil's your friend,

First words ever Spoken once again,

As night falls, Underworld in war,

Lasting rope binds, Missing spear finds,

Calling for help, Monsters answer call,

Only survive when Every memorie falls,

Nightmare becomes Reality, Reality burns away.

The gibberish was covering the entire floor now. Each tile having one glowing letter on it.

"What does it mean?" Hazel asked.

"It seems gibberish to me." Arachne said.

"Look at it," Herophile said absently though she sounded proud. "You finished the prophecy."

I followed her advice and studied the prophecy. Although most of it was gibberish a few lines were disturbing enough to attract my attention.

"Do you see it?" Herophile asked me.

I shook my head, "No I don't get it. All heroes shall fall and fail their duty unless they work together to stop the end...followed by this row of words?"

"Shouldn't you write that down?" Katie asked.

"Mind palace." I said.

Herophile chuckled, "Percy, don't you see it?"

I activated my mind palace without closing my eyes, resulting in it forming a second layer of reality. I grinned as my mind palace began pulling the words from the tiles and rearranging them and tried to look for patterns.

I gasped as my mind palace found a clue.

"Hope, Falcon, Kite, Summer." I said out loud with awe.

"What?" Hazel said while Herophile smiled proudly.

I threw a fireball at the tile in the upper left corner. I commanded it to move along the first letter in each line. Everytime the fire touched a letter it lit up even brighter. H-O-P-E-F-A-L-C-O-N.

Then at the other end of the margin a water drop appeared and began to move along the first letters of the lines in that column. K-I-T-E-S-U-M-M-E-R.

In the end all the first and fourth words were glowing, together they spelled out.

Hope, Falcon, Kite and Summer.

"Wow." Kampê said with awe. "I have no idea what this means but this looks impressive."

"This is just random." Hazel stuttered.

"For once I'm completely blown away," Katie said, "I can't find an connection between the words. I mean two of them are birds but the other two words are just...out of place."

"No they are not." I said looking at the words. "All heroes shall fall and fail unless they work together to stop the end." I recited, "And followed by these four names hidden within another prophecy I can only assume one thing."

"Names?" Arachne wondered.

"Which is?" Katie asked.

"Hope, Falcon, Kite and Summer are not random words," I explained, "All heroes shall fall. Those four words are not just random words. They are a code for the said heroes."

"You mean that the prophecy is talking about four heroes?" Katie said. "It makes sense though."

"So," Kampê hissed, "If your assumption is right, do you have any idea who the heroes are?"

She said the word heroes like she was talking about a disease.

"I have an idea who the four heroes are," I said. "But I hope I am wrong."

"Yeah," Arachne said, "I hope you're wrong and that it means something totally different. Seeing the lines of the prophecy I would say we are fucked."

I grimaced, "If my guesses are right we are not fucked. Than we are quadruple fucked."