not human heroes of olympus

𝟬𝟬𝟮. for life

   "We're marooned," she whispered, her voice falling flat against the lowly sounds of crackling fire. "On our own."

          Grover let out a nervous bleat, which Eirene thought was fitting given the circumstances; his brown eyes moving between the fallen bridge and the road to Olympus. "The connection between Olympus and America is dissolving. If it fails━"

          "━The Gods won't move onto another country this time," Thalia spoke grimly, the remnants of dirt and blood smeared across her face illuminated by the silver glow she imitated. "This will be the end of Olympus. The final end."

          Eirene was really beginning to hate that word: final. It was so fucking depressing, esspecially considering the situation they were in now, forget Olympus it could very well be the end of them ━ of her, and she was really not ready to die, although whoever was? She swallowed despritaly at the bile rising rapidly in her throat, the thought of being dead was terrifying enough, they did not need the added pressure of being responsible for the damage of the entire Greek Pantheon upon their shoulders as well. "Ignore the damage," she instructed aloud to herself more than the others as they made their way down the ruins of streets, "everything here can be fixed."

          They ran hastily through the streets. Mansions were burning. Statues had been hacked down. Trees in parks were blasted to splinters. It looked as though someone had taken a giant weedwacker and attacked the city.

          As though he had read their minds Percy spoke aloud, "Kronos' Scythe."

          The group continued along the winding street towards the palace of the Gods. Eirene did not remember the road being so long, nor her thoughts so drawn out. She could tell that the others, Percy in particular, was having the same problem as he continuously glanced over his shoulder ━ like they should have been somewhere entirely different. Perhaps Kronos was making time go slower, that was of course the logical answer, but maybe it was the exhaustion and dread running through their blood that slowed them down.

          The whole mountaintop was in complete ruins, a sight an archaeologist would wet their pants over ━ so many timeless buildings and gardens gone, lost forever at the hands of the thing that had made them oh so precious in the first place, time.

          A few minor gods, naides and nature spirits had tried to stop Kronos. What remained of them lay abandoned in a jumbled mess about the main road; shattered armour and torn white garments, swords, bows, daggers and spears of the finest celestial bronze. Eirene bit at her lip, bending down to pick at the broken knife by her feet. It was less a knife by now and more a small shard of shattered glass ━ the magic that hid within the blade of the weapon would have long escaped by now, sensing that no more battles were to be fought.

          Somewhere up ahead, beyond a row of overgrown shrivelling hibiscus shrubs, Kronos' voice roared, "brick by brick! That was my promise. Tear it down BRICK BY BRICK!"

          A sudden explosion rocked Mount Olympus, the thing that went bang? A white marble temple with a gold dome - the dome had shot way up into the air like the lid of a fancy old Elizabethan teapot, and when it came back down, it shattered into a billion pieces, raining rubble of golden fire all over the city.

          "That was a shrine to Artemis," Thalia grumbled, her hand shaking by her sides as she did all she could not to reach for the daggers strapped at her thighs and charge. "He'll pay for that."