The Son Of Snakes

57 - In The Oracle's Mind

"Pythia...?" Ria gasped as she gazed upon the floating form of her friend.

Someone was controlling her. From the tone of her voice to the way she spoke it was instantly clear. And that wasn't even counting the super obvious things, such as the glowing golden ring she held, the seemingly return of her eyesight, and the flight.

"Apollo." Artemis glanced towards her twin brother.

Apollo immediately started to strum his lyre, releasing a beautiful tune as he sang along. But as he played his song he quickly realized it was having no effect upon the floating Pythia.

The song and lyre that could even conquer minor gods had no effect at all upon whatever was happening to his oracle.

And he knew for a fact his oracle was a normal mortal, other than her unique receptiveness to the gods' messages. He was the one who had originally found her back then.

The controlled Pythia launched the golden ring forwards, sending it flying towards Ria. Melinoe jumped in front of her, blocking the glowing ring with her sword.

It clashed against her sword, sparks flying as she held her ground. It then suddenly swerved to the side, going a completely different direction. Pythia's hand was still extended with an open palm, almost as if she was controlling it.

"Ria!" Melinoe spoke. "Go!"

"But-!" Ria started to protest.

"You aren't a fighter, Ria." Melinoe stated. "You're a captain. Our captain. Get Athena so we can find out what's going on."

Ria smiled at her words, giving a quick nod. Holding her basic trident tightly, she dashed away and towards the exit of the arena.

The glowing ring had been pursuing the elusive Artemis before suddenly switching targets again, rushing towards the fleeing Ria. Once again Melinoe blocked it, batting it away with her sword.

"I have your back!" Melinoe grunted, clashing against the ring once more.

Artemis brought out her spear. Her bow would have no use against whatever that was. Apollo summoned a basic sword in his hands. He didn't ever really use this weapon, but there was something that felt incredibly dangerous about that golden ring.

For some reason, despite having no knowledge of what it was and being an Olympian, he actually felt a fear towards that strange glowing weapon.

"Hey, could you summon me one too?" Bellerophon asked.

Apollo raised an eyebrow.

"I'm usually a fists guy, but I don't want to touch that thing." Bellerophon stated.

Apollo nodded, summoning another sword in his hand and tossing it over to Bellerophon. He then thrust his fist out, a new signal that he had created inbetween men.

Bellerophon seemed to instantly understand, clenching his own fist and bumping it against his as he held his new basic sword.

Nikolas frowned to himself. 'This is not her.' He immediately knew as she had spoken. But he was unsure of what he could do.

Thus, he rushed forwards with his spear to help Melinoe and Artemis with the flying golden ring.

. . .

Pythia gasped as she found herself in a dark void. Everything was black, from the flat ground she stood on to the sky. Every direction, as far as she could see, was black. And even when she looked at said ground, it didn't even look like she was standing on anything.