The Flames of Hope Ch 25

Chapter 25~Uninvited Guests
“What do you mean the entrance is here?” I asked in a shocked tone.

“It is behind the throne of Kronos,” he said. I walked over to the destroyed throne and I ripped down an old banner with a scythe on it. Behind the banner was the entrance to a stair case. It didn’t look like anything special, but if it was a gateway like the elevator to Olympus, I had no room to argue. However, as soon as I placed a foot on the first step, there was a rumbling sound and the room was filled with more Earthborn. Not only that, but they seemed to be coming from all over the mountain.

“He knows you’re here. He will destroy the gateway trapping your friends in another dimension forever,” Atlas said. “You don’t have the forces to win.”

As one of the Earthborn came toward me, several feathers stuck into his skin before falling apart. I looked up at the exposed roof and saw a flock of Stymphalian Birds enter the room and began showering the Earthborn with their metallic feathers. Pretty soon, monsters were appearing from everywhere destroying the Earthborn creatures in the most monstrous ways possible.

“It is fun destroying these earthly things,” I heard someone say in a thick French accent and I knew it was the manticore. I looked around the room and saw the monsters ignoring the demigods who were fighting alongside them.

“Keep going!” Malcolm called as he started firing arrows. Megan was slicing her way through the mess of monsters and pulled e up the stairs.

“Hurry up Slowpoke,” she said as she continued to pull me. “There is a whole army of demigods up these stairs and I think we could use all the help we can get.”

We ran up the stairs and eventually reached the end leading to a walkway were a floating island was. Not as large as Olympus, but like Olympus I could see the battle down below and the sheer number of Earthborn scaling the mountain to the top.

“We need to keep moving,” Megan said and we ran to the floating island in the sky. As we passed a large arch, I saw the throne room that I had seen in my dreams. The only difference was that the stone column to the left of the throne was covered in water, most likely meaning Poseidon had fallen as well. We both looked around the room. Megan because of how amazing the room looked with all the pillars emitting a different kind of energy, but I was looking out for Melinoe. We proceeded to run down a hallway until we came to a room filled with cells. They looked strange however because they weren’t made of bars, but some kind of energy that seemed to be sucking the power out of the demigods inside.

In my pocket, I felt a soft heat and the link made from Demeter’s power reacting to something across the room. I noticed a similar glow and I was drawn to it so I walked over and found a small dome that had the stolen links inside. I then understood what was happened, the links had been used to absorb the powers of the demigods and with Hestia’s link there too, it was literally making them hopeless.

“I’m going to check over here,” Megan said as she went down another walkway that could have lead to more cells. I on the other hand inspected this dome to see if there was a way to turn it off. There didn’t seem to be a plug in back so I pulled out my hammer. However, just before I brought it down, the figure of a young boy with flaming red eyes appeared in front of me.

“Don’t do it,” he said and several other figures appeared in front of me.

“Abrams?” I asked and he nodded. The other ghosts appeared and I knew a few of them from camp.

“You don’t want to do this,” one said from the side of me. “Go home.”

“To destroy this cell, you’ll have to destroy us,” the figures said as they all stood in front of the dome. I couldn’t kill my friends, even if they were already dead, it didn’t seem right. Then the ghost of Abrams looked like he was in pain and his eyes ignited in fire.

“Do it you idiot!” he said as his eyes burned into my mind and I was filled with anger. I heard a faint whisper in the room that said I control you, but I couldn’t see where it was from. I could only see those fire filled eyes that made me want to pound something.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t save you,” I said and brought my hammer down on the dome, causing a huge explosion and the ghosts to fade away.

“NO! What have you done?” I heard from above me and I saw Melinoe hovering on the ceiling. The cells one by one released the demigods and they all seemed to fall out of a trance as the built up energy the links had been stealing seemed to flood back to them. Pretty soon they all flooded into the center of the room with their weapons in tow. The entire camp was here and all that was here to stop us was a minor goddess who seemed to be scared of us now. She exited the room toward the throne room and several demigods chased after her. I was about to do the same when I heard a low growl from the tunnel Megan had gone down. I then saw a pair of yellow eyes looking back at me from the shadows of the dimly lit hall and pulled my hammer close. Then, a large beast jumped from the shadows and pinned me to the ground. As its large mouth opened to reveal a multitude of sharp teeth, I felt the rough texture of a tongue lick my face.

“Look who I found,” Megan said and as I pulled myself up, I patted the muzzle of the Nemean Lion who she was currently riding on.

“I was worried about you,” I told the lion and it seemed to roar to show how strong he was. “Come on, we have a battle to finish.” We all crowded into the throne room as Melinoe back up to almost the throne. However, a horrible sound could be heard move across the sky and a tornado of Greek fire dropped from the sky. Everyone backed away and in a second, the tornado was dispersed as two wings blew it away from the inside.

“Who has come to my home uninvited?” the large figure asked. “Don’t make me repeat myself. Who has entered the home of Leiomenos!”

Darkcloud1111 ~Fastest Hero Alive