Curse of the Triblood

Chapter 43

Percy POV

It was night, and I stood before a whole I had made by tapping on the ground with Olethros and forcing the earth to part. I stood before the pit as Nico dumped McDonald's happy meals and root beer into it. He started the ritual to speak to his mother.

"Tell me why you're not using Olethros to just summon her, again? I mean, that thing gives you almost as much say in the Underworld as Persophe and Hades," Grover asked. The ritual to call ghosts from the Underworld is not a make-you-feel-good type of spell. It makes you feel the peaceful moments of passing in your sleep but then soon after, it is filled with a heart-retching feeling of seeing the person you love die before you, and you are helpless to fight back their impending doom. Safe to say, this is not something nature-related creatures, creatures associated with life and thriving, like to be around.

"Maria has always been...difficult. She's as sweet as a peach until the peach turns rotten and spicy. It's a strange combination but trusts me, you understand. Makes me wonder if she's the one with split personalities instead of the gods," I mutter the last part to myself. "Using Olethros to summon the dead is basically like me giving a royal decree to get over to me or so help you Hades will make you suffer. A child of hades doing the proper ritual to summon them is basically like a heartwarming invitation to come. That's not mentioning the fact that if forced by Olethros, it's going to be more painful for her than if offered the opportunity by both a son of Hades and the Wielder of Olethros."

"This does not feel heartwarming," Beckendorf stated.

"Have you ever been dead?" I asked him.

"No," he replied as if that was a stupid question.

"To them it is," I said, pointing to the dozens of wispy whitish-blue lights coming near the pool of food. Slowly some turned into human shapes and outlines, but none were allowed near the pool.

"Minos should be here by now," Nico realized.

"If we're lucky, he died...for a second time. Maybe he's in the double Underworld," Silena said hopefully.

"Is that a thing?" Beckendorf asked.

"It better not be. Because that would mean there's a double Tartarus. If everything in Tartarus is double as dangerous as before, then I think we could all safely say we would need a change in underwear," Grover said.

"Oh yes, Grover Underwood is so scared of the Underworld that he needs a change of underwear," Silena pointed out. "Am I the only one that sees that pattern here?"

"Well, the place is underground, and that does make him feel like he is under the weather," Beckendorf smirked.

"I understand the underlined joke you guys are doing, and continuing it is a huge undertaking," I said, continuing the joke. "But you're underselling how dangerous a second Underworld could be. To say I would be terrified would be a massive understatement."

"If Percy is scared and needs a change in underpants, at least we can figure out if the Jackson family actually does poop gold," Annabeth joked. "I always thought the Jackson's were underplaying how much gold they actually have."

"Percy has gold poop? Percy poop is very special. Can I have special poop to make jewelry?" Tyson asked, killing the joke.

"I'm going to kill whoever started the rumor that Jackson's crap gold," I muttered.

"Do you?" Annabeth asked. I looked at her as if she was getting on my nerves.

"Have you at least checked?" Silena asked. I didn't say anything and looked back at the ghosts. "You totally checked."