The doors of the palace were big enough to steer a cruise ship through, but they'd been ripped off their hinges and smashed like they weighed nothing. They climbed over huge piles of broken stone and twisted bronze to get inside.
Kronos stood in the middle of the throne room, his arms wide, staring at the starry ceiling as if taking it all in. His laughter echoed even louder than it had from the pit of Tartarus.
"Finally!" he bellowed. "The Olympian Council – so proud and mighty. Which seat of power shall I destroy first?"
Ethan Nakamura stood to one side, trying to stay out of the way of his master's scythe. The hearth was almost dead, just a few coals glowing deep in the ashes. Hestia was nowhere to be seen. Neither was Rachel.
And the four of them that started it stepped into the torchlight to end it.
"My lord," Ethan warned.
Kronos turned and smiled through Luke's face. Annabeth made a painful sound in the back of her throat, like someone had just sucker-punched her.
"Shall I destroy you first, Jackson?" Kronos asked. "Is that the choice you will make – to fight me and die instead of bowing down? Prophecies never end well, you know."
"Luke would fight with a sword," he said. "But I suppose you don't have his skill."
Kronos sneered. His scythe began to change, until he held Luke's old weapon – Backbiter, with its half-steel, half-celestial bronze blade.
Next to them, Annabeth gasped like she'd suddenly had an idea. "Percy, the blade!" She unsheathed her knife. "The hero's soul, cursed blade shall reap."
No one else understood - well, maybe Cressida might have had she had all the pieces but there hadn't been enough time to tell her with everything that had happened over the last few days.
"Wait!" Annabeth said as Kronos raised his sword, but it was too late as he lunged at Percy.
Annabeth was just watching, she wasn't able to do anything but watch as two of the people she cared about most fought. Ethan ducked to one side, trying to get behind Percy, at least until Cressida intercepted him, this time stopping his blade with her own weapon.
"We have to stop meeting like this," Cressida smirked before they started fighting.
Grover played his reed pipes, the sound filling his friends with warmth and courage.
Percy had been pressed up against the Hephaestus throne that instantly went into defence mode before he jumped over Kronos' head and the throne shot tendrils of electricity in all directions.
One hit Kronos in the face, arcing down his body and up his sword as he crumpled to his knees and dropped Backbiter.
The distraction was enough for Cressida to be able to roundhouse kick Ethan out of the way as Annabeth saw an opening and charged at Kronos.
"Luke, listen!" she pleaded.
Kronos flicked his hand. Annabeth flew backwards, slamming into the throne of her mother and crumpling to the floor.
"Annabeth!" Percy screamed before Cressida charged.
Kronos flicked his hand again, but Cressida saw it coming. She had no idea if it would work but her instincts were driving her as she let a wall of fire separate them. Kronos' magic pushed her back a little bit but she didn't fall as she surged through the flames and brought her spear down. Backbiter clanged against her spear as they fought.
Kronos may have been very accustomed to Percy's fighting style, but he definitely wasn't accustomed to Cressida's as they slashed, dodged, swiped and whirled.
Grover's music took on a more urgent tune. He moved towards Annabeth, who Ethan was advancing on, but he couldn't go any faster and keep up the song. Grass grew on the floor of the throne room. Tiny roots crept up between the cracks of the marble stones. And that was all Cressida needed.
Vines grew from the ground as they separated Annabeth from Ethan. But while her concentration was pieced, Kronos used a blast of magic to send her flying towards her father's throne. However, the seat made of grapevines almost sensed her coming, or they sensed the part of her she got from her father as the grapevines reached up to catch her and set her back on the ground.
"Nakamura!" Kronos bellowed, still recovering from the Hephaestus blast. "Time to prove yourself. You know Jackson's secret weakness. Kill him, and you will have rewards beyond measure."
Ethan's eyes dropped to Percy's midsection and they knew he knew. And even if he didn't do the deed himself, all he had to do was tell Kronos.
"Look around you, Ethan," Percy said. "The end of the world. Is this the reward you want? Do you really want everything destroyed – the good with the bad? Everything?"
Grover was almost to Annabeth now. The grass thickened on the floor. The roots were almost half a metre long, like a stubble of whiskers.
"There is no throne to Nemesis," Ethan muttered. "No throne to my mother."
"That's right!" Kronos tried to get up but stumbled, not realising how much the blast hit him. Above his left ear, a patch of blond hair still smouldered. "Strike them down! They deserve to suffer."
"You said your mom is the goddess of balance," Percy reminded him. "The minor gods deserve better, Ethan, but total destruction isn't balance. Kronos doesn't build. He only destroys."
Ethan looked at the sizzling throne of Hephaestus. Grover's music kept playing, and Ethan swayed to it, as if the song were filling him with nostalgia – a wish to see a beautiful day, to be anywhere but here. His good eye blinked.
Then he charged.
The act took Kronos by surprise as Ethan brought his sword down on the Titan Lord's neck.
It should have killed him instantly, but the blade shattered. Ethan fell back, grasping his stomach. A shard of his own blade had ricocheted and pierced his armour.
Kronos rose unsteadily, towering over his servant. "Treason," he snarled.
Grover's music kept playing and grass grew around Ethan's body.
Ethan stared at Percy, his face tight with pain. "Deserve better," he gasped. "If they just ... had thrones –"
Kronos stomped his foot, and the floor ruptured around Ethan Nakamura. The son of Nemesis fell through a fissure that went straight through the heart of the mountain – straight into open air.
"So much for him." Kronos picked up his sword. "And now for the rest of you." He pointed his blade at Cressida. "Starting with you. You may not be his literal Achilles heel, but you are his source of weakness. You will join your brother in the afterlife, Cressida Lynn."
Percy turned to Cressida but there wasn't a single silver of fear in her expression as she pumped her arm and her spear changed into her thyrsus.
"Castor gave his life so I could live to stop you," she said, angry tears in her eyes. "If I die, that's fine, so long as I take you down with me."
And she charged.