Son Of The Cup Bearer {Percy Jackson x Ejen Ali}

Eat Fire!

Finding the temple was easy, which didn't comfort Khai, but on the contrary worries him. It was the calm before the storm, and Khai already knew it was going to be a nasty one. 

Why don't you just run away then? you might ask. Gods, no! This was his quest, whether he liked it or not, the success or failure of this mission is his responsibility and...so was Moon's life. 

Ever since the kidnapping yesterday, Khai had been blaming himself over and over for the loss of Moon. He could have done anything else but he just had to lash out at her. What did she do to deserve such a horrible friend like him? She had never done anything wrong, it was just stupid, stupid Khai - and now her life was in danger because of him. He could never forgive himself. 

That didn't mean he would quit. He was determined to at least make it up for Moon the way he couldn't for Petalio; he can't lose yet another person dear to him.

It was not so surprising when they arrived at the temple, the entire group of Numeros were already there. Though, being put on high alert, Khai instead scanned the temple for possible ground advantages to be applied if - sorry, when - a fight were to occur. 

The Temple of Styx was made of glittering black obsidian, just like Pluto's palace. Columns soared into the air about fifty feet high, supporting a triangular-shaped roof etched with disturbing images of mortals slowly making their way to death through a series of trials; they seemed to be expressing the warning of breaking an oath to the goddess Styx and the possible slow, long tortures they would be sentenced to before their inevitable death. Khai gulped. There were very few things worse than death, and breaking an oath to the goddess Styx was right there at the top of the list. 

Presented on the altar in the centre of the temple was a spear made of dark metal. Khai couldn't feel any power coming from it, but there was a sense of steely seriousness in the air around them that Khai couldn't quite explain. OK, maybe because being held at sword point by a large-nosed man wearing nothing more than a dark suit and a (cringe) mini-jacket, looking petrified, was none other than the ponytailed daughter of Hecate: Moon. 

Moon started screaming and squirming the moment she saw them, but her voice was muffled from a gag and her movements restrained by Alpha's hold and sword. Khai felt even angrier seeing her like this, he nearly charged.

"Moon," Rizwan said sternly, eyes not on her but on the man holding her hostage. "Stay where you are. Don't do anything rash. Alpha: let. Her. Go."

The man in the mini-jacket scoffed, but sheathed his Imperial gold sword and pushed Moon down the steps of the temple to them. 

Halfway down the steps, Moon broke into a run with her arms wide. Khai was about to hug her back when she barreled past him and into Ali, wrapping around the chest and burying her face in his orange camp shirt. The sight of their intimacy made Khai's heart shrivel a little, though he had more serious matters to focus on right now.

"The Yoyo Of Phlegethon," Alpha demanded. 

Rizwan shared a look with Ali and they both nodded simultaneously. Well, here goes nothing.

Beige yoyo in hand, Ali stretched out his arm to offer it to the Numeros. Khai and the others watched closely as the daughter of Zeus, Beta, came down to collect the yoyo. 

She was just reaching out to take it when Ali twisted the yoyo and got into a fighting stance. Khai and the others did the same, with all their weapons aimed or pointed towards the woman. One move, and they could slice her head clean off. 

"I'm sorry," Ali said though gritted teeth. "But I don't think so."

With a blast of green Greek fire, Ali blasted Beta off her feet and back towards her Numeros members. Even standing by the sidelines, Khai could feel the shockwave of the blast and his pores opening in the heat. 

Oh, heat. 

His heart rate increased, his muscles started twitching and itching for battle; it was all Khai could do to make himself stay still and not move a single muscle until the Numeros attacked.

"Treachery!" Epsilon shrieked. 

"Attack!" Alpha commanded. 

Letting loose of all restrain, Khai attacked the first Numeros member to arrive at their doorstep. With a single swipe of his wooden bat, he smashed with all his might into the ventus Digamma. 

However, as he was a storm spirit, his bat merely passed through him. The ventus reappeared in his human form with a hiss at his side. 

"Fool!" he criticized, little flashes of lightning coming from his fingertips. "You can't kill me with a mere mortal weapon!"

"Oh yeah?" Khai challenged. "Take this, then!"

As Khai took a second swing, fire travelled from his arm all the way to the bat. Despite it being made of wood, the bat did not disintegrate upon contact with the fire, but rather encouraged it by bursting into flames. 

Taken aback by the non-common sense of this, Digamma stood rooted to the spot as Khai's flaming bat whacked him right in the stomach, sending the ventus right into an obsidian column. 

Khai turned to Rizwan and Ali who were trying to avoid every single duel happening around them. "Hurry, go get Styx! We got them."

"Let's go," Rizwan told Ali. 

The both of them climbed up the temple, where mysteriously, not one of the Numeros could be seen. The Numeros weren't that stupid to leave a part of Asteri unguarded...or could they?

However, Khai didn't have much time to ponder over this as Digamma chose that time to reappear and take his revenge. The last thing Khai saw was a streak of lightning coming towards him before his head collided with the ground.