The Game of Olympus

Chapter 12

Percy POV

It was now about midday and we had reached Las Vegas. Once we made it to the outskirts of the city, Artemis ordered the Hunt to stop.

"Alright, it is now time for us to part ways" she said, looking at us. "You must make to Los Angeles on your own now, Hades has forbidden any gods from getting any closer than this to the entrance of the Underworld."

I nodded. It was probably in spite of being basically banished from Olympus. Even though he had tried to kill me, I couldn't help but feel bad for the god. He had been banished from Olympus for supposedly being a dark  god or something like that.

It was pretty obvious that the real reason was that Zeus was paranoid that Hades would usurp his throne. After all, he was the eldest of the three brothers.

But, I still knew that he would kill me if he got the chance. After all, no demigod was supposed to come back from the Underworld alive once entering it, especially a son of Poseidon.

"But, I have decided that my Lieutenant will continue to travel with you, as we need to be absolutely sure that this Quest succeeds. After all, none of us want war" Artemis finished.

I raised by eyebrow at this. Zoe was going to travel with us? I was honestly kind of happy when she said that we would be splitting, but a small part of me was sad as well. I realized it was because that I would probably never see Zoe again.

After our rocky start, I had come to see just how much of a normal person she was, and that she wasn't exactly the cold, ruthless Hunter that everyone thought of her as. Last night, I had seen her laugh genuinely, the thought almost made me smile.

I had sort of broken through the hard exterior and she had spoken to me like I was just another person, not someone who she hated with her soul. I still didn't know if she hated me, but maybe she didn't hate me as much anymore.

I would get a chance to see exactly how much during the rest of our Quest. We had about 18 days left now, and we were still in Nevada. We had to get to Cali and go across the entire country again, without the help of Artemis.

Not wanting to worry myself about the future, I looked at Zoe to see how she felt about this. I had expected her to have a face of hatred or at least a little bit of disgust, but she had a neutral face. That was at least much better than a disgusted one.

Annabeth, Piper, and Zoe quickly grabbed their things and their tents before coming back to where I was. Artemis also walked over to us.

"Listen well, Perseus, once you enter the Underworld make sure that you have an escape plan that Hades cannot stop. It has to be something that is out of his control. That is one place you do not want to test your luck in. Too many have, and they all never came back."

With that dire warning and a goodbye to us, she walked back to her Hunters. I looked at the three girls.

"So...where do we start?"

Time skip brought to you by Chronos

The four of us were now in the middle of Las Vegas, looking around. Without the help of the Hunt's speed boost, it had taken us almost 2 hours to get to where we were now. We had considered getting a taxi, but after out last encounter, we chose not to.

After all, we still had well over two weeks to get the firecracker and return it. What could go wrong?

Piper POV

As the four of us traversed through the large city, I couldn't help but wonder how people were able to make such a lively city in such a desolate wasteland. We had walked past a few casinos, and I managed to recognize some from when I was here with my dad a few times.