Nico's Tale: The End of the World.

One More Day of Living

There was nobody to see the bloody rags on the floor. Nobody to see the golden ichor on the marble walls of Mt. Olympus. Nobody to see the ravaged Empire State Building turned to an infested hellhole. Nobody except the ruined corpses of the fallen demigods tearing the place to shreds. Nobody looked out their windows. No mortal dared open their curtains and look upon the destruction the mist could no longer hide. The universe was taking it's revenge.

A leaf-shaped sword was clutched by one of them. One of the demons. One of the many taking their toll on the Earth. One more powerful than all the others. One who once gave up eternal life. One who's soul was fighting against the corpse's every movement. One who could cause infinite chaos if it so deserved.

His jaw cracked open, hunting through the building for survivors, for dinner. His frame shuddered and shook with every step, his broken flesh and decaying bones creaking and cracking. Blood stained his teeth, the iron flavour a refreshing supplement to the taste of human meat. Skulls crunched on the floor, the crisp noise giving him a grim satisfaction. He almost wished he hadn't picked those ones dry. He had reached the top floor he could reach for now and was ready to head back downstairs when something behind him slashed through the air.

'Sssson of Hadesss.' The creature hissed with contempt lacing his words, icing his tone.
'Leave this place. Please. I beg you.'
'What happened to your little excursion with the ssssword?'
'He's alive, for all it means to you.'
'And you? You sssurvived that encounter with the Cyclopsss?'
'Don't you dare pretend you didn't have something to do with that.'
'Oh he was eassssy. This form was not difficult to lull him with. The previous owner had some... connections.'
'You used their connection, their bond, to turn him into one of you? What has Kronos done to you?'
'Ssso you know about my mastersssssss? What they plan to do to your world?''
'Who are you? Because you certainly aren't the person you were when you died.'
'That person was weak, giving up his chance at eternity for some ignorant child of Athena.'

Nico didn't let his eyes water, he couldn't, he mustn't. He lifted the Stygian blade to the creature's neck and felt his heart burning. He prayed the alterations to the metal would allow him to kill this like all the others. He prayed to whichever god was still there that he would be forgiven for this sin. He prayed that somewhere, the soul that should be in the body would be thanking him for doing this.

And he brought his sword up, the creature looking up expectantly, taunting him where those beautiful sea-green eyes should have been, waiting with a sick pleasure for his body to be removed from the Earth.

'You are not Percy Jackson,' Nico felt the tears coming hot and fast. 'You are not Percy Jackson.'

And a little bit of him died inside.

The Forest of the Armada of the Night.

The darkness that had enveloped Thalia Grace felt like it was burning her eyes from her head. She spun her spear around her head and tried to stab herself through the heart, the head missing completely but relieving the pain somewhat, the focus of the spinning spear helping keep her mind at one.

She reached her hand towards Reyna, praying that she could still be alive, somehow in this void of nightmarish, agonising fate, whatever hellish dream she was in suffocating her.

'Thalia!'

A embrace shook her and she stared around, gulping as all she could see was fog. Her head was pounding, her brain fiercely trying to force itself out of her head. She felt herself falling to the ground as a soft hand caught her head and the light of the forest materialised around her.

'Thalia! Can you hear me?' Reyna soothing tones and her tough arms supporting the Huntress Captain's head gave Thalia an odd sort of fearful calm. Amici was standing next to her with a bottle of water ready to be splashed on her head and the reality of the world came rushing back to her. People were running to and fro, carrying supplies and weapons, weapons including -

'You're using guns?' Thalia's voice came out in a disgusted, outraged, shocked yell that Reyna felt she didn't deserve.
'These are desperate times, Thals!'
'Where did you get them?'
'A shop.'
'So I'm expected to believe you just rocked up to a shop during all of this and had the money? That's bullshit Reyna!'
'I never said we got them legally.'
'You stole them.'
'We're going to die!'
'Ah-'

She had a point. There was no hope at this point to be using ordinary weapons.

'Those things aren't mortal zombies. At least not anymore. You'll need all the celestial bronze and imperial gold we can get.'
'We have people on that.'
'What are said people doing?'
'Getting the materials by whatever means necessary.'
'That isn't an answer.'
'We recruit the demigods that want to join us and the ones that don't, well...'
'You steal their stuff.'
'That would be a slow, agonising, painful death sentence. No.'

Thalia's mind raced. What the hell did she mean?

'You don't - Do you? You bastards!'
'It's the easy way out, Thals.'
'You could just have let them go. You could have been friendly about asking them to join! How did you find so many anyway?'
'Lost demigods roaming the streets is an easy find nowadays.'

Thalia reached over and grabbed one of the bullets. It was celestial bronze, the same as all the other ones she had seen. ALL the other ones.

'They're Greek. They're all from Camp Half-Blood! Did you at least be friendly about it? Or did you show up with them at spearhead? You're killing innocent children! Kids scared for their lives! You're a monster!!!!'
'I do what has to be done. If they don't join the zombifictation process would be long and painful and hard and I can't let anybody go through that.'
'So you're just going to kill them? No second chance, no persuasion. Just death.'
'It's what we have to do!'
'You're a monster! An irrational monster do twisted by this you're no better than the zombies themselves. You disgust me.'

Reyna reached a hand out in slight anger, shock, pain, every emotion running through her as Thalia stared her down like a bull going for the kill. She snapped, pulling out her spear and lunging at her former friend but it was grabbed, she was flung around and a gun was aimed at her head.

'I'm sorry you wouldn't listen, Thals.'

The Chase Space

Sally looked at all the sick and injured in the building and felt tears in her eyes. Magnus came over to her and wrapped his arms around her, able to pretend for just a second that he was hugging his own mother.

'My son is dead, Magnus. He's dead! What do I do?! My daughter is gone, my children reduced to corpses traipsing the landscape, cannibals! Cannibals!!!'
'I'm sorry, Mo- Ms Jackson. Is there anything I can help with? Do you need some tea or anything?'
'I'll be fine Magnus, thank you. Go take care of them for me, please. I beg you.'

He stood up regretfully and went over to Samirah as she was comforting a little girl who's Spider-Man plushie had lost his head. She was bawling her eyes out, crying for a Mommy that would never come to her aid again. A mommy who if she saw again would be the last thing she'd see.

It was heartbreaking. The pain and misery of the event, the death of so, so, so many people. The world had been lay waste to by Kronos and his accursed minions. Kronos and Apophis and Surtr. All of them. Every single bloody one.

The demigod Viking went to a chair and cried himself to sleep, praying for this to all be over soon. Praying that Sally would be okay. That the girl would be happy again, experience joy just one more time in her life. Just one more day of living.