By the time they got to the street, it was too late.
Campers and Hunters lay wounded on the ground. Clarisse must've lost a fight with a Hyperborean giant, because she and her chariot were frozen in a block of ice. The centaurs were nowhere to be seen. Either they'd panicked and ran, or they'd been disintegrated.
The Titan army ringed the building, standing maybe twenty feet from the doors. Kronos's vanguard was in the lead: Ethan Nakamura, the dracaena queen in her green armor, and two Hyperboreans. Prometheus was nowhere to be seen. The slimy weasel was probably hiding back at the headquarters. But Kronos himself stood right in front with his scythe in hand.
The only thing standing in his way was . . .
"Chiron," Annabeth said, her voice trembling.
Chiron had an arrow notched, aimed straight at Kronos's face.
"Step aside, little son," the Titan lord said.
Hearing Luke's body call Chiron his son was weird enough, but Kronos put contempt in his voice, as if son was the worst word he could think of.
"I'm afraid not." Chiron's tone was steely calm, the way he got when he was really angry.
Y/N tried to move, but his feet felt like concrete. Annabeth, Ethan, Percy, Grover and Thalia were straining too, as if they were just as stuck.
Kronos's powers, Y/N thought.
"Chiron!" Annabeth yelled. "Look out!"
The dracaena queen became impatient and charged. Chiron's arrow flew straight between her eyes and she vaporized on the spot, her empty armor clattering to the asphalt.
Chiron reached for another arrow, but his quiver was empty. He dropped the bow and drew his sword.
Kronos chuckled. He advanced a step, and Chiron's horse-half skittered nervously. His tail flicked back and forth.
"You're a teacher," Kronos sneered. "Not a hero."
"Luke was a hero," Chiron said. "He was a good one, until you corrupted him."
"FOOL!" Kronos's voice shook the city. "You filled his head with empty promises. You said the gods cared about me!"
"Me," Chiron noticed. "You said me."
Kronos looked confused, and in that moment, Chiron struck. It was a good maneuver—a feint followed by a strike to the face. But Kronos was quick. He had all of Luke's fighting skills, which was a lot. He knocked aside Chiron's blade and yelled, "BACK!"
A blinding white light exploded between the Titan and the centaur. Chiron flew into the side of the building with such force the wall crumbled and collapsed on top of him.
"No!" Annabeth wailed.
The freezing spell broke. They ran toward their teacher, but there was no sign of him. Y/N pulled helplessly at the bricks with the others while a ripple of ugly laughter ran through the Titan's army.
"YOU!" Annabeth turned on Luke. "To think that I . . . that I thought—"
She drew her knife.
"Annabeth, no!" Y/N tried to grab her arm, but she shook him off.
She attacked Kronos, and his smug smile faded. Perhaps some part of Luke remembered that he used to like this girl, used to take care of her when she was little. She plunged her knife between the straps of his armor, right at his collarbone. The blade should've sunk into his chest. Instead it bounced off. Annabeth doubled over, clutching her arm to her stomach. The jolt might've been enough to dislocate her bad shoulder.
Y/N yanked her back as Kronos swung his scythe, slicing the air where she'd been standing.
She fought Y/N and screamed, "I HATE you!" He wasn't sure who she was talking to—Luke or Kronos. Tears streaked the dust on her face.
"You can't fight him," he told her.
Kronos laughed. "So much spirit. I can see why Luke wanted to spare you. Unfortunately, that won't be possible."
Kronos whirled his scythe, a flashy move, the sword blurring as it spun in his left hand, leaping to his right hand to make another blurred wheel in the air before settling, upright and rock steady before him, in both hands. He started forward confidently.
Raising his sword, Y/N moved to meet him. Only a trained eye would know that he wasn't simply walking. Only a trained eye would see that he was in perfect balance every heartbeat. Luke would've noticed; he'd been a remarkable swordsman, no doubt. Kronos might catch it, too—he was a Titan, a supreme being. It didn't matter. Y/N wasn't thinking about Luke or Kronos. His mind was empty. But he did intend to hold Kronos back for as long as he could.
Kronos wasted no time with maneuvering. The instant he was within range, he swung his scythe toward Y/N's neck like lightning. Without conscious thought, Y/N stepped sideways and forward, closing on the Titan. Kronos's eyes widened in surprise as his stroke missed Y/N's left thigh by inches, widened more as the golden blade touched his arm. Of course the Titan's skin stayed unscathed, but he'd probably intended to have Y/N's head with the first blow.
Kronos was so full of himself that he didn't take Y/N seriously. Y/N could move without any difficulty, without the air around him seeming to turn to jello. They circled each other, moving back and forth, parring, slicing, slashing without either of them hurting the other. Kronos was invulnerable; Y/N dodged and used his lion coat to protect himself.
How long they fought, Y/N couldn't have said. But suddenly, as Kronos raised his scythe, before he could strike, a dog's howl pierced the air somewhere behind the Titan's army. "Arroooooooo!"
It was too much to hope for, but Y/N couldn't help thinking, Mrs. O'Leary?
The enemy forces stirred uneasily. Then the strangest thing happened. They began to part, clearing a path through the street as if something behind them was forcing them to.
Soon there was a free aisle down the center of Fifth Avenue. Standing at the end of the block were the giant dog and a small figure in black armor.
"Nico?" Y/N called.
"ROWWF!" Mrs. O'Leary bounded toward him, ignoring the growling monsters on either side. Nico strode forward. The enemy army fell back before him as if he radiated death—which of course he did.
Through the face guard of his skull-shaped helmet, he smiled. "Got your message," he told Y/N. "Is it too late to join the party?"
"Son of Hades." Kronos spit on the ground. "Do you love death so much you wish to experience it?"
"Your death," Nico said, "would be great for me."
"I'm immortal, you fool! I have escaped Tartarus. You have no business here, and no chance to live."
Nico drew his sword—three feet of wicked sharp Stygian iron, black as a nightmare. "I don't agree."
The ground rumbled. Cracks appeared in the road, the sidewalks, the sides of the building. Skeletal hands grasped the air as the dead clawed their way into the world of the living. There were thousands of them, and as they emerged, the Titan's monsters got jumpy and started to back up.
"HOLD YOUR GROUND!" Kronos demanded. "The dead are no match for us."
The sky turned dark and cold. Shadows thickened. A harsh war horn sounded, and as the dead soldiers formed up ranks with their guns and swords and spears, an enormous chariot roared down Fifth Avenue. It came to a stop next to Nico. The horses were living shadows, fashioned from darkness. The chariot was inlaid with obsidian and gold, decorated with scenes of painful death. Holding the reins was Hades himself, Lord of the Dead, with Demeter and Persephone riding behind him.
Hades wore black armor and a cloak the color of fresh blood. On top of his pale head was the helm of darkness: a crown that radiated pure terror. It changed shape as Y/N watched—from a dragon's head to a circle of black flames to a wreath of human bones. But that wasn't the scary part. The helm reached into his mind and ignited his worst nightmares, his most secret fears. He wanted to crawl into a hole and hide, and he could tell the enemy army felt the same way. Only Kronos's power and authority kept his ranks from fleeing.
Hades smiled coldly. "Hello, Father. You're looking . . . young."
"Hades," Kronos growled. "I hope you and the ladies have come to pledge your allegiance."
"I'm afraid not." Hades sighed. "My son here convinced me that perhaps I should prioritize my list of enemies. As much as I dislike certain upstart demigods, it would not do for Olympus to fall. I would miss bickering with my siblings. And if there is one thing we agree on—it is that you were a terrible father."
"True," Demeter muttered. "No appreciation of agriculture."
"Mother!" Persephone complained.
Hades drew his sword, a double-edged Stygian blade etched with silver. "Now fight me! For today the House of Hades will be called the saviors of Olympus."
"I don't have time for this," Kronos snarled.
He struck the ground with his scythe. A crack spread in both directions, circling the Empire State Building. A wall of force shimmered along the fissure line, separating Kronos's vanguard, Y/N, and his friends from the bulk of the two armies.
"What's he doing?" Percy muttered.
"Sealing us in," Thalia said. "He's collapsing the magic barriers around Manhattan—cutting off just the building, and us."
Sure enough, outside the barrier, car engines revved to life. Pedestrians woke up and stared uncomprehendingly at the monsters and zombies all around them. No telling what they saw through the Mist, but for sure it was plenty scary. Car doors opened, yells echoed.
Then Hades charged at the wall of force, but his chariot crashed against it and overturned. He got to his feet, cursing, and blasted the wall with black energy. The barrier held.
"ATTACK!" he roared.
The armies of the dead clashed with the Titan's monsters. Fifth Avenue exploded into absolute chaos. Mortals screamed and ran for cover. Demeter waved her hand and an entire column of giants turned into a wheat field. Persephone changed the dracaenae's spears into sunflowers. Nico slashed and hacked his way through the enemy, trying to protect the pedestrians as best he could.
"Nakamura," Kronos said. "Attend me. Giants—deal with them."
He pointed at Y/N and the others. Then he ducked into the lobby.
The first Hyperborean giant smashed at Y/N with his club. Y/N rolled between his legs and stabbed his sword into the monster's backside. He shattered into a pile of ice shards. The second giant breathed frost at Annabeth, who was barely able to stand, but Grover pulled her out of the way while Ethan went to work. He sprinted up the giant's back like a mountain goat, ran his spear through the monstrous blue neck, and created the world's largest ice sculpture—a giant holding his own throat, trying desperately to stop blood from spraying.
Y/N looked at the rubble pile on the side of the building.
"Mrs. O'Leary," he said. "Please, Chiron's under there. If anyone can dig him out, you can. Find him! Help him!"
He wasn't sure how much she understood, but she bounded to the pile and started to dig.
"Come on, guys!" Percy said, running inside the building. "We have to get Kronos!"
Y/N, Annabeth, Ethan, Grover and Thalia raced for the elevators after him.
A/N: Hey! Merry Christmas!
I hope you liked the chapter. It's shorter than usual, but there'll be a lot of things going on in the next one and the one after that, I assure you. Let's say that this one is my present to you all so you can have something to chew on (sorry, I've not written much even though it's the holidays and I've got plenty of free time; I just didn't really feel like it). I hope you've had presents you like or, if you don't do presents in your family, that you're having a good time.
The next chapter is going to be the last confrontation with Kronos, as you can guess. It won't be a much surprising chapter, as you all know how it must end for the rest of the story to go on. But the chapter after that, well, it should be original. I hope it won't be disappointing (I fear because I've talked so much about it, you might expect too much out of it; but at the same time, it's supposed to be something BIG, so yeah, you'll see).
Again, Merry Christmas!
See you next time and happy reading!
PS: I don't know when the next chapter will come out, but you'll probably have to wait two or three weeks. Just when the holidays end, I've got my exams for the end of the first semester, so I've got to study. And also, there's the New Year. So I'll be a bit busy and focused on other things.