The End of an Olympian

21 | Initial Invasion

It wasn't long before the sky started to darken and lightning struck the Earth. Zeus's attack was soon to begin.

1419 words

Caleb

It had been a few weeks since the Maris Astéria people came to learn how to fight. They improved immensely as did I. Or so Percy claims. I didn't feel like I was ready for real battle though. Some minor gods arrived and everyone felt a little more hopeful, but even still, there was no denying that fear of what was to come was in the air.

Speaking of, the air started to smell of ozone when a large lightning bolt hit the ground just outside of camp near the top of Half-Blood Hill. Those around me stopped what they were doing to stare at the monsters Zeus had summoned to fight us for the initial invasion. It seemed insane that he would side with creatures of evil for this war. Against his own family, his own children even.

While Poseidon may not have sired any more demigods since Percy, Zeus definitely did not stop having affairs with mortals. In fact, he had three at camp right now—not including Thalia—Bella, Laurence, and Spencer. Hades had been known to have a few kids over the past centuries, but they were far and few between.

The three Zeus kids made it clear way before the start of this war that they were not happy with their father. One of the Hermes campers told me that Bella's mom, a meteorologist, lost her job because Zeus promised her to light the sky with his bolts one night as a show of his affection. When she predicted this and it did not happen, she was a laughing stock amongst her peers and a meme for years. Bella nor her mom ever forgave him.

Laurence claimed that his dad was caught in the rainstorm that ended his life because Zeus was jealous and/or spiteful of his dad's new husband, a very distant descendant of Hades. They had just gotten married two weeks before the accident. He could never prove it, of course, but he never trusted Zeus after that.

Spencer didn't have a personal story but he was older than his two half-siblings and had gotten very protective of them. So when they shared their bitterness with him, Spencer stood by their side.

Thalia had never bonded with previous children of Zeus because most had an overinflated ego. But after meeting those three, she fully embraced them as her siblings. And after that was settled, Percy and Nico (mostly Percy) apparently welcomed them as family too.

Zeus's willingness to scorn his children for their loyalty to Percy only solidified their rancor for him.

I was brought back to reality when Zeus thundered, "Surrender and bow before the King of the Gods! Or I will show no mercy!"

Most people started running towards him armed and ready to defend their home in the name of righteousness. I ran towards him ready to shut him up.

I saw my dad, Ares, with a gleeful smile at the carnage that was sure to happen. Poseidon and Athena stood next to him, but were clearly displeased. Surprisingly, it was Athena who made this known. I guess it wasn't in line with her plans. And if it wasn't her plan, the chances of it not working were now in our favor.

"Father, we should not be hasty in war. A diplomatic approach is wiser in this situation. Your children, my children are involved in this fight too. I do not wish them harm."

"No! They have made their choice! And it is against me! The time for talk is over!"

Poseidon tried to pacify his brother. "Let us try, brother. Give my son a chance once more to end this before blood is shed."

"You mean well, Dad," Percy responded before Zeus could explode again. "But if Zeus refuses to free my people or let me free them, I will not back down from this fight."

"You see! Your son defies even you! His treason must be stopped!"

And before anyone else could say a word—or point out that many of his children are against him—Zeus struck down Thalia's pine tree and destroyed the magical border that protected camp. Instantly, all the monsters raced in to attack. And the gods too jumped into action.

The first monster I came across was a hydra. Fortunately, I remembered from monster class how to defeat it. Unfortunately, I had no fire to defeat it. So I was stuck dodging the heads and fighting all instincts to swing my sword.

Thankfully, Flora ran up beside me to offer help. "Caleb! I've got a prism from my mom!"

"Flora!" I yelled back, ducking as spray of acid flew by. "This is not the time to make rainbows!"

"Ok, rude. It's always time to make rainbows. But no, this is a special prism. The rainbows I make with this are superheated. They can combust anything!"

Her idea finally clicked in my head. "Oh! Ok, I'll slash, you make rainbows!"

Despite the fighting around us, we both grinned at each other. I quickly went and cut off one of the hydra's heads. Flora went behind me and immediately cauterized the stump with her high-powered prism. We did this for all the heads and managed to not get sprayed by its acid. Once the last head was severed and burned, the entire thing burst into the typical golden dust of monsters.

We tried to stick together after that, but the battle pulled us separate ways. I found myself stabbing random hellhounds and dracaena and empousai. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Michaela battling it out with a cyclops. I rushed over to help her, but she had it handled. Just as I arrived, I was blasted by the golden dust of the cyclopes blown by the wind.

Sputtering and coughing, I exclaimed, "Gross!" to which Michaela laughed.

A few monsters looked at us strangely as if wondering "Why is the puny demigod laughing in battle?" The distraction was beneficial to those fighting the perplexed monsters because they were quickly turned to dust as the campers took advantage of their lapse in attention.

"How's Flora?" Michaela asked worriedly.

"Fine," I was quick to reassure her. "We took down a hydra together. Who knew rainbows were deadly."

Michaela laughed again, but sadly, the monsters were not fazed by it this time. We kept fighting the endless stream of monsters coming our way.

I could feel more than see the battle of the gods. Percy, back in his 17-year-old form but enlarged to match the other gods' heights, was attacking Zeus, Hades took on Poseidon, Artemis was fighting Ares, Hermes fought Dionysus, Aphrodite went against Demeter, Apollo went at it with Athena, while Hephaestus was getting even with Hera. Hestia was still at the Roman camp for protection. Eirene, goddess of peace, was guarding the medical tents while the other minor gods and Themis were helping the demigods and Maris Astérians with the monsters.

It was vicious on all accounts. No one was holding back much. Poseidon and Athena may not have been aiming to kill, but they were not ones to back down from a fight. Both refused to be beaten by their respective brothers. The power they wielded was sometimes so overwhelming that monsters and demigods alike had to dodge the surges of destructive energy released.

Gold ichor and dust of the immortal beings mixed with the red liquid of mortal ones. The Earth seeped up both indifferently. Looking around, I saw that many cabins were demolished and large craters were cut out of the ground. My heart hurt as I saw my only home in ruins.

As the number of monsters slightly decreased, my fellow campers noticed the same thing I did. Some were spurred on by anger to finish off the rest of our enemies. Others were frozen in shock. I had to intercept a wooden club that another cyclopes sent down with the intent of killing a Demeter kid. Then a stray arrow was intercepted by Flora saving me from what would have been a nasty hit to my back. Somehow, Michaela fought her way to us too. We looked at each other and came to a silent agreement: we would protect our home at all costs.

With the confidence that my friends were fighting by my side, I rushed back into battle. But it wasn't long until the only ones fighting were the gods. Why? Because the Chaos army had unexpectedly arrived.