the great wave | percy jackson

𝑖𝑣 - asphodel

Time had no meaning anymore. Nothing had any meaning anymore, Ash thought as her body moved on its own, slashing and hacking through monster after monster, each worse than the last, the waves neverending as she, the seawall, braced the shore. To her back were the Doors of Death, gaping open, to her front, the slope of Tartarus' heart, roiling with a sea of evil.

This was the routine. Dive in, do whatever she could, and get out just as she started to drown. Oh and trust me, Ash fought to her last breath every time, she did, but it wasn't enough, it would never be enough, she wasn't even holding the issue at bay, really, just plugging the tiniest of holes while water poured through all the other gaping cracks.

She saw a glow begin to build in the far reaches of the sulfurous, poisonous gas resting atop the horizon and groaned aloud. She was early this time. Ash thought'd she'd have at least another week of guard duty without having to face a Titan again.

The silver glow began to grow more concentrated, approaching and coalescing into a tall figure cutting their way through the crowd to reach her. Ash sheathed Reaper and plucked the matching ring on the opposite hand off her thumb, the only finger it would fit on. Throwing it in the air, she caught the long, dark wooden handle that appeared and twirled it deftly around her shoulders, cutting through a ten-foot radius of monsters in one swathe as she brought the scythe of Death itself down in a wide slashing arc. Sticking the end of the weapon into the ground and leaning on it like a cane, Ash waited patiently as the Titan Lord Theia, lady of the aether, marched towards her.

"Can't say it's good to see you again," Ash sighed, absentmindedly tracing a finger up and down the smooth lacquered wood of her father's weapon. "Here for your regular ass-whooping?"

Theia growled, silver eyes burning dangerously bright with hate as she leveled her spear at the demigod. "Let's skip the pleasantries, little reaper. These precious spats of ours break the monotony of reforming while I wait for our great mother Gaea."

"Ya mom's a bitch," Ash said blandly, examining her nails, and with a great roar Theia charged. Ash sidestepped her initial swipe, and the two quickly met in a flurry of interchanged blows, fighting with the long wooden handles of both their weapons until Ash made a brutal downwards cut, sweeping low and slicing right through Theia's armor, opening a deep gash from the woman's shoulder to her upper thigh. She backed up, catching her breath, briefly wiping her mouth where Theia had caught her across the face. The Titaness was screaming with rage and pain, body glowing with an opaque light that Ash knew was dangerously close to going nuclear, and so she darted forward while her opponent was still off guard and promptly lopped her head right off.

Theia's body collapsed to the ground, head tumbling somewhere off into the briefly paused roiling sea of monsters who watched in dumbstruck awe as the Titaness was absorbed back into the heart of Tartarus, eventually to be reformed somewhere else in one of those gross mucus sacs, and probably way too quickly for Ash's liking as well. You know, if she'd had time to celebrate the victory, she probably wouldn't even have bothered, because this was like the fifth time she'd sEnT tHEiA bAccK tO tARtArUs so far. Clearly the threat was getting old.

Making one last sweep with the scythe, wielding it like a violent tornado, pulverizing monsters into dust in such a way that they would never reform, never again, Ash let out a yell as a score of enemies were killed and she was once again wearing a ring slightly too big for her. Thank the gods that one was quick. Wielding her father's scythe was like, well... it was like holding the weight of Death in her hands.

Ash estimated she had maybe ten seconds before the enemy regrouped and the next surge hit. Dear gods. This was hopeless. Exhaustion settled deep in her bones as she put her hands on her knees and panted heavily, desperately trying to catch her breath before the next wave came. It would never stop. Ever. And not just here and now either, but year after year, century after century, these same monsters would still be here, crawling their way up to the surface, going after demigods. Four seconds now.... Ash had a thought that broke her heart. Someday, when she was hopefully lounging in an idyllic cottage in the Fields, her children would be fighting these very same beasts...