A.N: The beginning of this chapter starts out with a bit more fluff. I wanted to end the last chapter at Percy's POV, so here's Arty's POV. Sorry if it's toooo fluffy. Enjoy!
Artemis POV:
I jogged side by side with Percy. I had a feeling that we were nearing our destination and the sooner we got there the better. Suddenly, I tripped on a rock that was jutting out of the ground. I felt a pair of hands catch me before I could fall. As I looked up, I lost myself in Percy's beautiful eyes. He just smirked at me.
"Be more careful, Arty. We wouldn't want you get hurt," He said.
"Thanks," I muttered softly, not even registering in my brain that he had called me by my nickname. He gave me that blinding smile again and pulled me up to a standing position before jogging away. I blushed faintly, the feeling of his hands still gently placed on either side of my shoulders. I thought back to last night. What is wrong with me?
Flashback:
I waited patiently on the bed as Percy contacted his family. Even though he had assured me that he was alright, I could tell that he was still wounded by the words that had come out of that boy's mouth. For some reason, I didn't ever want to see Percy upset about anything. His smile lit up Tartarus like a light in the dark and his sea green eyes shone brightly whenever he was happy.
Speaking of Percy, here he comes. Percy walked through the doorway. I could see a tear stain that he had obviously attempted to hide from me. It must have been hard for him to see his family, but be able to touch them.
"How did it go?" I asked him.
"Fine, I was able to I.M everybody that I wanted to without bursting into tears," He replied. My lips upturned ever so slightly at that. Of course he would try to make a joke out of it. He always seemed to be able to find the humor in something, no matter what it was. That was one of the many things that I admired about his personality and what made him the best male alive.
"Anyways, I've been meaning to ask you something, but didn't get the chance today."
"And what might that be?" I inquired.
"Can I ask you why you were so distant this morning? You didn't say a word to me all morning," He said. Immediately the guilt hit. There was no excuse for my behavior towards him. He didn't deserve that kind of treatment and my actions were unfair to him. I looked down in shame and remorse.
"You have to understand that I've been against the male gender for pretty much my entire life. Now you come along and you're making me question my views on men. You're so much better than any other male I've ever met. I was trying to distance myself from you so that I wouldn't have to make an exception. So that you would hate me and I could go back to hating you," I replied softly. I hoped that he would understand. I knew that this didn't justify the way I had acted, but at least it offered some form of apology.
I felt his hand underneath my chin, tilting it upwards so that I was staring into his vibrant green eyes. I had to fight the urge to lose myself in their endless pools.
"Artemis, you don't have to make an exception for me. You can hate me if you want, but please at least try to see the good in me. You don't have to like me, but I ask that you tolerate me. After this quest is over, if you still hate me, then you don't have to ever speak with me again. For the rest of this mission, just try to see that I am worthy of your friendship because I really hope that I am."
His words just made me feel even more guilty and tears welled up in my eyes. He really thought that I hated him. In truth, it was far from it. I had realized that everything about him was the exact opposite of what I had believed males to be. I was starting to like him, maybe even something different, something more. And not a single thing I could say or think would ever change that.
(Thoughts are not italicized) Didn't I tell you that you would feel this way? I knew because I am you, the annoying voice in my head said. Great, it's back. Yes, yes you did. Now could you please be quiet, I thought back. I heard a faint chuckling in the back of my mind and then nothing. I guess it had decided to shut up for once. Maybe because it had finally gotten me to admit that it was right.
"That's the thing Percy, you are worthy of my friendship. The only male on this planet who is so. I was just too naive to see it. From now on, I'll try to be more welcoming to your friendship. I can assure you that you are the greatest male to ever walk the earth and I definitely don't hate you. Thank you for that," I said with as much sincerity as I could manage. I needed him to understand that I didn't hate him and that he really was the only male that could ever be a true friend of mine.
On impulse, I leaned forwards and pecked him on the cheek, letting my lips linger for a couple seconds before drawing back and resting my head on my pillow once again. I took note of his quickly reddening face and his shocked expression. One that was mirrored on my own at my actions. That was by far the most intimate thing I had ever done with a man, but Chaos knows he deserved it.
On the outside, it may have looked like I was asleep, but I was most definitely wide awake. My mind was reeling from what I had just done. Part of it was telling me that it was wrong and that I should never have done it, but a bigger part was shouting that it was destined to happen. That there was nothing that could ever have stopped that kiss. And for whatever reason, the rest of me seemed to agree with the bigger part.
Flashback End:
I looked to Percy, who was walking beside me, and took in every detail on his face, every molecule of his being. There was no denying that I felt something for him. I just wasn't sure what it was.
(Too much fluffiness for me, giving me the feels! On with the real story!)
I was pulled out of my thoughts when Percy laid his hand on my arm, stopping me in my tracks. I looked at him questioningly. He pulled me down behind a small hill and peeked his head out over the top.
"What is it?" I asked him.
"There's somebody or something in front of us, I'm not sure what it is."
I looked over the top of the hill and saw what he was talking about. There were two shadows about a hundred feet in front of us. They looked humanoid, but I couldn't see through the red haze covering the landscape.
"Let's get closer and take a look. Just don't stand up or make any noise. If this is a person, then it wouldn't be wise to alert them of our presence," Percy whispered. I nodded and we crawled towards the figure on our stomachs, making sure to stay behind the cover of any hills or rocks that we could find.
As we got closer, I could that tell that there was not one, but two figures, and they were most definitely alive. We approached them and by now, I could clearly see that they were empousa. Their donkey legs were visible and their celestial bronze prosthetic legs gleamed in the dim light.
They were conversing in a hushed tone and I had to strain my ears to hear what they were saying.
"Master told us to find them and bring them to him," One of them said.
"I know, but we haven't found a trace of them since we started searching," Said the other.
"Well, it's your job to track them. Master didn't send you to track them so you could fail. Try harder!" The first shrieked.
"Why don't you try finding a puny demigod and a goddess in this pitiful place. The air clouds my senses. I can't even see a hundred feet in front of me!"
The first one, the one who I assumed was in charge, growled and pulled out her knife, swinging it at the so called 'tracker'. They started a full out brawl with each other, each trying to behead the other.
I felt Percy tense when he heard their voices.
"What?" I whispered to him.
"Those voices. I think it's Tammi and Kelli, the two empousa that attacked me at my old school. I managed to kill both of them, but they seemed to have reformed already. If they're working for Apollyon, then there's no doubt that there are other monsters allied with him. At least they're stupid enough to fight over something so small. Maybe they'll slowly kill each other off," He whispered back jokingly.
I took in this information. What other monsters could be working for Apollyon? There was no way that any monster would give up an opportunity to see Olympus fall. I shuddered at the thought of having to fighting Typhon and Kampê. It had taken all the Olympians to bring Typhon by himself to his knees. With Kampê by his side, those two alone could be the downfall of Olympus.
If we didn't succeed in obtaining Apollyon's key and imprisoning him forever, then the battle ahead of us would be calamitous and hopeless for our side. This was more than a little worrying.
As the two empousa continued clashing, Percy shifted from his position behind the boulder. A small pebble under his foot was lodged free from the ground bellow and rolled down the steep slope behind us. It landed at the bottom with an almost imperceptible clinking noise as it bounced off another rock, but it was loud enough.
The two empousa immediately stopped what they were doing and I could almost see their ears twitching.
"Did you hear something?" Asked Kelli.
"Yeah. Whoever you are, come out and surrender yourself to us! If you do, then we might consider letting you live," Tammi yelled. I snorted. Monsters have no mercy. You could beg and beg, but they wouldn't even give so much as a second thought as they slit your throat.
I turned to Percy, only to find that he was gone with no trace that he had even been there. Where the hell had he gone? All of a sudden, I heard a loud yell and the sound of metal clashing. I quickly looked around the boulder and was shocked to see Percy with his sword through the back of Kelli. What are you doing, Percy?!
He quickly advanced on Tammi and ran her through as well, but not before she stabbed her sword into the ground and muttered something under her breath. The ground opened up and hands rose out as she burst into gold dust. There were at least thirty cyclops with nasty looking clubs, ready to smash our heads into our bodies. Just what we needed, more monsters to draw attention to ourselves. Why did Percy have to be so seaweed brained?
"That, is not what I expected to happen," Percy said a little shocked," Hey Arty, where you at? Get your butt over here and help me kill them!"
I jumped out of my hiding spot and drew my bow, firing an arrow at one of the nearing cyclops, causing it to burst into dust.
"If you hadn't been so reckless, then we wouldn't be in this mess. Why are you blaming me?" I quipped as we continued slaying the monsters.
"Fine, I admit it, it's my fault, but at least it's just some cyclops. Nothing we can't handle."
No later had he said that, another couple monsters rose up behind the phalanx of cyclops. We heard a scream of rage and the two monsters charged to the front of the group, killing a couple cyclops in the process of doing so. Echidna and the Chimera.
Echidna had the appearance of a fat lady who had scraggly hair and grotesque facial features. Her nose was bent and her face was twisted into a permanent scowl. If I hadn't known better, then I would have thought a homeless woman had crawled into Tartarus. The Chimera had the front half of a lion and the back a goat. It had leathery wings and a fire was spurting out of it's snorting nostrils. I could almost smell the stench of it's breath all the way from here. Decayed and rotten flesh.
Great, this is just fantastic.
"Oh, that's not good," Percy said.
"Way to jinx it."
"Hey, how could I have known that Echidna and the Chimera were going appear?"
I just shook my head and drew my knives, running at Echidna. By now, all the cyclops had been slaughtered by either us, or Echidna and the Chimera.
"You take the Chimera, I'll get Echidna," I shouted at Percy.
He nodded and started fighting the Chimera with his sword. It spat fire in his face, but Percy was unaffected, as he had the blessing of both Hestia and Hephaestus. I turned my attention to Echidna as she pulled out a midget knife. It looked like a toothpick in her chubby hands.
"What are you going to do with a knife that small, huh?" I taunted her.
"Foolish little goddess," She spat. She spun the tiny blade around and tapped the hilt with her finger. The knife elongated by tenfold and now she held a broadsword the width of my entire body. (I'm pretty sure Echidna doesn't use a broadsword, but for this she does)
"That's more like it. Now let's see if you can actually use it," I jeered. My words had the intended effect and she snarled in fury.
"You ask me that when your head when rolls away from your dead body," She barked. She brought the sword above her head and swung it downwards towards my head. It was easy to dodge, but when it stuck the ground, it caused at tremor, making me fall to my feet. I quickly recovered and jumped up, ready to fight again.
I attempted to slash at the abdomen, but she caught my writ and punched my stomach. I soared through the air and landed on the ground twenty feet away, the air taken from my lungs. That is what I call a sucker punch. I need a new strategy. This isn't going to get me anywhere.
Echidna stomped towards me , her belly fat jiggling. I pretended to full on charge her. She attempted to slice my feet off with a low sideways strike, but I managed to jump over it and continue running at her. As I neared her, I dropped to my knees and slid under her legs, opening a gash in her leg as I passed through. I stood up behind her and jumped onto her back, driving both my knives between her shoulder blades.
She roared in pain and tried to throw me off her back, but I held firmly onto the hilts of my knives. Maybe she was crazy, maybe she was suicidal, but she swung her sword towards her own back in an attempt to slice me in half. I nimbly avoided the blade causing her to lacerate her own back. A deep cut appeared on her fatty skin, spurting blood all over my clothes.
I deftly jumped to the ground again walked around to her front.
"I guess you really don't know how to use that thing," I said, before stabbing her in the heart and watching as she slowly crumbled to dust. I turned to see how Percy was doing and saw that the Chimera had him pinned to the ground with it's teeth gnashing in his face. It opened it's mouth, about to spurt fire and turn Percy into a fried fish, but I reacted quickly.
The Chimera howled and fell off Percy with an arrow lodged in it's side. Percy hastily scrambled to his feet with his sword held out in front of him. The Chimera growled at him and it's snake tail squirmed, eager to take a bite of delicious demigod flesh. Monsters always targeted the most powerful demigods because they had the most tasty meat. Percy was definitely the most tasty demigod out there.
The Chimera launched itself into action and it came springing towards Percy. Percy stabbed his sword forwards into the mouth and down the throat of the legendary mythological beast. It gave one last cry and slumped to the ground, breathing heavily. Percy grabbed his sword and decapitated the animal to end it's misery.
"Thanks for saving me," He said.
"No problem, just don't get in trouble like that again. I might decide not to help you next time," I said threateningly.
"I don't think that's possible. Trouble seems to find me wherever I go."
"Or you just go out of you way to get into to trouble."
He just shrugged at that ,"Let's get going. We need to find that circle before Apollyon does. Although, based on what those two empousa were saying, I think he already knows that we are coming. And I'm not sure who was controlling Nico, but that person probably informed Apollyon of our presence as well."
A silence settled between us with the knowledge that we were no longer alone down here. There were monsters greater than our worst nightmares lurking everywhere in this abyss.
We had just made it over a ridge and were standing at the top of a large hill, when I felt a power surge coming from in front of us. It was far too immense to be any sort of monster and it felt even more sinister.
"Did you feel that?" I asked Percy.
He nodded gravely," I think it's them. A signal to us, that he knows we draw near. As much as I hate to say it, I think it's best if we move towards it. It would probably lead us right where we want to be. The only problem is, it will also may lead us to our impending doom."
"Well that's reassuring. Let's go."
We practically jumped off the steep side of the hill and landed on our back, sliding the rest of the way and coming to a skidding stop at the bottom. Another pulse of power seemed to explode outwards coming from straight ahead.
Involuntarily, I grabbed the first thing I could find around me. Percy's hand. He didn't seem to mind and squeezed it within his own. I looked up at him and saw a cold determination in his eyes which made me feel slightly better myself, but I could feel a little sweat on his palm, indicating that he was more nervous than he let on.
"I wanted to say that if we don't make it out of here alive, then I gladly call you the only male friend I have ever had. Because of you, my views on men have changed slightly and I now believe that there might be some good men somewhere in the world," I said the Percy earnestly.
"Shush, there is no 'if'. We will get out of here and we will succeed. I am grateful for your words though and I take them to heart. I think I can safely call you one of my best friends at the moment."
I gave him one last nod of acknowledgement and we were on our way to fight with the most powerful being the universe had ever seen.
(Line Break)
The throbbing of the power coming from this one location was astounding. Every minute or so, another wave shot and spread through the surrounding area. Around here it was so strong that Percy and I had trouble standing upright as it passed through us. This type of power could only be from something so ancient that us gods had not even known about it. I was not sure even a primordial could produce this level of strength.
It took us ten minutes to find it, but here we were. There sitting before us was the one thing that we had come all the way here for.
A gold circle with a picture of man standing in the center. It glowed with an ethereal light that almost entranced me. The man in the center had a dress robe on with stars and galaxies imprinted on the folds. His sword looked deadly and it gave off a dangerous feeling. There was no doubt that this is what we were looking for.
I guess this was it, the final destination. I gripped Percy's hand even tighter and felt him squeeze back. We took step after step towards the symbol on the ground until we were standing right in front of it. I could almost feel the barrier that extended from the outer ring upwards. It was like someone had placed it there intentionally to keep people out.
"This is it. If this doesn't work, then we fade into nothing and the universe is doomed. One of us needs to take the chance. I'll do it. You stand back," Percy said.
"No, we are going to do it together. What's the point in doing it one by one. If this doesn't work, then it won't matter anyways."
He looked like he wanted to disagree, but after thinking about it for a couple seconds, he finally consented. We exchanged one final look of friendship between us before making a move to step into the circle.
Before we could even lift our feet, we heard a voice behind us.
"Where do you think you're going? You think you can just escape us by stepping into that circle. It will only be the most painful experience of your entire life, but it would be better than if I got my hands on you. Unfortunately for you, you won't be getting that type of mercy," It said. It was the same voice that had spoken to me in my dream. Apollyon. We swivelled around and saw three figures standing there.
A man cloaked in shadows stood there grinning at us with an evil glint in his eyes, almost gleefully. Nico was standing next to him with the same black eyes that he had when we encountered him a day earlier, and...
Nyx.
(End of Chapter 17)
A.N: I had intended this chapter to have more content in it, but it turned out that it was already long enough and if I had put what I wanted in there, then it would have been far too long and the update would have been even later. You will see that part in the next chapter.
P.S: So sorry for the late update. No real excuse for it, just got a little lazy. SORRY! This story is not something that I don't think I will ever abandon, so until the end of the story, you can expect more updates.