The battle had already started by the time Blackjack and his buddies landed next to Thalia's Pine tree. The Golden Fleece still hung on one of the branches, glittering brightly and proudly.
Peleus, the dragon that usually had its body wound around the tree, was with the campers, who were fighting monsters. Not the Greek kind, but the ones that were found in the Labyrinth.
It was clear that the monsters' only goal was to destroy all the campers. Demigods and monsters alike were falling everywhere, and their blood stained the ground beneath them.
Blackjack caught sight of a few pegasi lying on their sides, blood flowing out of their wounds.
The Aphrodite kids were blinding the monsters, throwing their various makeup supplies at their eyes, allowing the weapon-wielding campers to finish them off.
In a moment, all of the demigods next to Blackjack had their respective weapons out.
The pegasus could see Clawless, smashing the other monsters into gross, bloody piles of mush, a dark-skinned girl on its back, slicing anything that came into reach of her sword.
The Satyrs, Dryads and Naiads were doing their own part. The Satyrs made vines rise from the ground and entangled the monsters within them with their reeds and a little help from the Dryads. The Naiads splashed the water in the lake all at once, causing wave after wave of water to come crashing down on both the monsters and demigods.
"Hazel!" Frank cried, turning into a dragon, almost crushing his friends with his gigantic wings as he flew towards his girlfriend. It seems the daughter of Pluto was able to escape her kidnappers and join in on the battle.
The rest of the demigods charged into battle, their weapons raised, their faces determined and, in Hestia's case, fire sprouting from her arms.
Looking around at the huge mass of monsters, Blackjack was glad Reyna had told her troops to start marching towards Camp Halfblood before they left.
Without any weapons to fight with, the pegasus flew into the battlefield, kicking at monsters with his hooves and, if the monster had no body armour, he would sink his teeth into their flesh. The other pegasi did the same.
Over the sounds of battle, Blackjack heard marching. An entire army of Romans had arrived, their well-polished weapons glinting in the sunlight. They moved in as an organised group, as opposed to the Greeks, who ran about slaying any monsters they could.
More than three hundred monsters were dead, but there were still what seemed like millions more — though it was probably no more than a thousand, which, now that I think about it, is still a pretty large number.
The demigods were falling fast, too. A child of Apollo, after taking down five or six monsters with her arrows, was taken down from behind, along with two of her siblings, one of which was Will Solace. And yet the gods did nothing to help their children.
Blackjack could hear Nico's wail of grief over the sound of swords clashing against armour. The earth shook, knocking monsters and demigods down. Bony arms shot up from the ground, their hands grasping at the air.
Hordes of skeletons had joined the fight, wearing worn out armour and wielding rusted swords and shields.
They attacked the monsters relentlessly, their anger fueled by their master's thirst for vengeance.
One of the monsters, a beast as dark as night and twice as terrifying, fell to the ground, oozing black liquid which Blackjack assumed to be its blood.
The liquid pooled and, before long, had become a puddle, increasing in size every few seconds.
The sky darkened. The clouds concealed the sun, which had been shining brightly only a few minutes before, behind their large grey forms, showing promise of a storm.
The wind howled so loud that Blackjack could hear nothing but the wind itself. Everyone, even the monsters, turned their heads upward to look at the figures falling from the sky.
They were being sucked into the now-lake-sized black liquid, which churned and bubbled before transforming into a hole.
The figures raced towards it, probably against their will. They struggled against the pull, and in the few seconds they were in the air, caught between going up and going down, everyone could see their faces.
The twelve Olympians.
Ares got about two inches above the rest, before getting dragged down again.
The gods looked at their respective children, pleading with them through their eyes.
The demigods stared at them, rather unwilling to help the people who had most likely been watching the battle instead of giving them assistance.
And so, one by one, starting with Hera, they began to fall, screaming Greek curses.
Poseidon was the last. He hung on to a rocky ledge with all his might.
The boss walked over to the hole, his clothes and hair whipping around him. Poseidon reached for him, his face hopeful .
The boss looked back at Blackjack. "Would you do the honours?"
The pegasus walked over, lifted his right front hoof, and smashed it into the god's face.
Poseidon lost his grip and followed his godly family into what Blackjack was certain was Tartarus.
The monsters were soon swept into it as well, along with a whole bunch of minor gods, who, like the Olympians, had fallen out of the sky and the Titans and Giants, with Prometheus spitting out curses among them.
And finally, Chaos was dragged towards the hole. Dicky clung to his ankles, with his pet goat hanging on to him by biting his shirt.
Chaos grabbed the same ledge Poseidon had grabbed.
"W-wait! I helped you find Percy! You have to help us!" yelled Chaos from inside the hole, his son and the goat still clinging to him.
Blackjack said nothing. Neither did anyone else.
There must have been a reason Chaos was being dragged to Tartarus.
Hestia was still there. It seemed this was what Tartarus wanted.
The gods and Titans and Giants who had been more than just a little naughty.
And though nobody necessarily liked Tartarus, with or without a physical form, they let him suck Chaos, Dicky and the goat down into his depths. Though what naughty things the goat had done, nobody knew.
A week later, Camp Halfblood, with the Romans' help, was put back together.
Shrouds were burnt. The dead were mourned. Tears were shed.
The camp became better than ever. All the deities who had not been tossed into Tartarus came to Camp Halfblood, living among the demigods as equals.
The Hunters of Artemis came along to the camp, too, but now they were known only as the Hunters.
Of course, it did suffer many losses. Two of the Seven were killed — Piper and Leo, Jason's best friends.
The son of Jupiter wept for his lost friends, as did the rest of the camp.
Both the Stolls were killed. Many children of Aphrodite, unable to defend themselves from the monsters' attacks other than with makeup, were killed. Grover, with lots and lots of other Satyrs and Dryads, including Juniper, were killed. And others whom I will not list due to the sadness in my heart had met with death as well.
Monsters stopped attacking, allowing the demigods to finally relax without worrying about them.
Chiron, no longer needed to train demigods, faded away, a genuine smile on his face.
"Finally," he had said as he began fading away. "I may rest."
A sapling sprouted where he had been when he vanished. The campers called it — you guessed it — Chiron.
Annie cried for days, mourning the death of her instructor. But she knew, as everyone else knew, that it was for the best. The centaur had lived too long and seen too many of his students die.
And Blackjack? Well, he's been reunited with his boss. That's all he cares about.
The End.
Yellow! Hope you enjoyed it. In case you couldn't tell (which I doubt), the book has ended. And with a thousand something words too! Wow! Anyway, don't get too happy you've finished the book and you'll finally be able to regain the IQ points you lost while you read this. Cuz I might write another one! Key word: Might. I don't know.
For the first and last time in this book, I bid you farewell.
-Destiny