Chapter 12: The Mist Plays Tricks

Chapter 11

The first thing I noticed about the explosion was: its loud. Not the loud that you get from turning the amp up to 11, louder than that. The next thing I noticed is, it was hot. Now, if I felt the heat that meant something. The ground around us was melting, flying away, then melting again. The molten metal of the swords and hammer from the giants earlier flew away almost like they were feathers.

Then the roar stopped and, more disturbingly, it suddenly grew cold. So cold that the rock we were sitting on started getting frost. The molten magma flash solidified, cracked, then froze also. I could not hear anything for a moment, but I tapped Sean and Anna on the shoulders. They let go of me and got up, Sean favoring his left leg. Their mouths were moving, but I couldn’t hear anything. As my ears recovered I started to hear the screaming.

Two voices were screaming at the top of their lungs. I got up off the rock and turned around. Hyas was screaming in pain from the burns of the explosion, but it was looking in horror at the blade, still sticking out of his chest. It was almost like he was more afraid of the blade than the burns he received. Then the color started draining from him. I don’t mean like his face turning white in shock, I mean like he was turning black and white. Even the blood was paling all of it focusing toward his chest, the center of his body. When all the color disappeared from him, his body became transparent, then vanished. The blade dropped to the ground, smoking, crackling, and then shattering.

“Stygian Iron...cannot be destroyed,” Anna said in disbelief at what she was seeing.

I looked at her, “Stygian Iron?”

“It comes from the River Styx. Like Imperial Gold, but rarer. Hurts mortals as well as Demigods.” She replied woodenly.

The other screamer didn’t stop during this entire episode. We looked at him. Caligula looked like overcooked meat. His entire body was blackened, from head to toe. If we hadn’t heard his voice before we wouldn’t be able to tell it was him. He finally stopped his screaming and looked down at his body. It started to heal, whole clumps of the burned mess falling off like dirt, to reveal a Caligula that was scarred in some places, but otherwise unharmed, wearing his purple toga.

He took a deep, painful breath. Then he looked up. The ashes of the Pheonix sat on the ledge where it had been standing on before the explosion. Then they began to move a little, followed by a little birds head poking out of the ashes. It looked around for a moment, then started to climb out of the ashes. After it got out, it flapped its wings and flew into the cave system, growing larger every moment.

“You...You...You stupid children. You have ruined my plans. Again. I shall destroy you!” He screamed and dramatically pushed his hands towards us. At first nothing happened, he just looked ridiculous with his hands pointing towards us palms curved as if he was holding something. Then we saw the Mist.

Whatever the strange things he was doing with the Mist was, he was doing it again. It started to fill his hand, this blue smokey material that was too natural looking to be natural, too unnatural to be unnatural. It slowly filled his hand until there was a solid orb of it. He smiled, and that is what freaked me out. Not the fact that he could mess with the Mist. Not the giant explosion that doubled the size of the landing in front of the caverns, nor the frost that followed it. Caligula’s smile.

From the strange little orb a hook began to poke its way out of the top. Then so fast I did not see it move, it in my arm. One moment, growing out of the sphere in his hands, the next in my arm. I felt a tugging, but not on my body, somewhere else. The tugging grew more and more insistent until I felt myself being dragged. I noticed my feet weren’t going anywhere, but I was moving closer to Caligula and his strange new trick.

Then another explosion. This one of pure force. It sent me flying, and I blacked out.

Chapter 13