As the sun rose above the horizon, and the first rays of light fell on my face, I opened my eyes. For a moment, I forgot why I was high up in the air, above the clouds.

Then it hit me like a train.

The bus, Dolos, the lion and the birds. All those dead mortals.

I shuddered, instead, staring at Pandora.

"Everything okay?" I asked, gently patting her back.

"Good morning, Master! We have travelled much under the cover of darkness."

"Really? Do you know where we are?"

"I only know where we're going, the scent of the Roman camp permeates the air even from this far."

I recalled the conversation I had had with her yesterday, how she had asked to rest a bit.

"In that case, set us down. Don't think for a second I forgot my promise from last night... You can rest, and we'll take a look around to see where exactly we are while you do that."

"As you wish, master."

Sophia was lightly snoring on my thigh. I'd let her continue doing that until we set down on the ground. She'd need every drop of sleep she could get, especially because I'd need her knowledge about the Romans in the coming days. As for me, I was surprised at how much better I felt. Sure, stretching felt painful and rolling up my sleeves, I could barely see my regular skin tone from all the black and blue spots covering me, but other than that, I was fine.

All I could say was that I was thankful for the existence of the food and drinks of the gods, even if I might've been dancing on the very border of what was healthy for a demigod to consume.

Or on the other hand, maybe I was nowhere near dangerous levels. I wasn't exactly a regular demigod, was I? Who knew what extra punishment my body could take?

Though I sure as hell didn't want to find out the hard way.

Pressing various parts of my body, I felt them ache under my palm. That feeling wouldn't disappear for a while yet, that much I knew from experience. Cuts close and broken bones fuse back together under the effects of ambrosia and nectar, but the freshly-healed areas complain about the non-existent wounds for days after.

Pandora descended below the clouds, and after gliding for ten minutes, she landed with two beats of her massive wings. Our surroundings, most of which was vast emptiness, was covered in snow. Nearby, two trucks passed us on a road, ignoring us as if it was an everyday occurrence that a dragon landed on a field beside them.

A sign on the road gave me a good idea as to where we were. Denver... Or somewhere near the city anyway.

Shaking Sophia awake carefully, she lifted her head and stared at me, bleary-eyed.

"Yeah?" She muttered, scratching her messy hair.

"Pandora needs some time to rest. We should look around a bit while she does that."

She nodded slowly, but sat there for a bit longer, slowly blinking the sleep from her eyes. Standing up and stretching, I let out a grunt of satisfaction as my back cracked, then walking over to Nico, I woke him up just as carefully as I had Sophia. He looked at me with his eyes opened to just a crack, and as I explained what was happening, he let off a yawn without putting his hand before his mouth.

Unwillingly, I copied him. Letting off a small chuckle, I pushed him upright.

From then, it took no time for us to be standing on the ground, staring at Pandora's pitch black body as she shrank into a crow and fluttered onto a nearby power line.

"That a gas station?" Nico broke the silence, pointing at a building some distance down the road.

"Looks like it might be," I said, "It's a good place to start."

"Last time didn't go so well." Sophia reminded us.

"Well, this time, if a girl gives Daniel her number, we're strangling her," Sophia nodded in agreement with the son of Poseidon. I frowned at both of them, but Nico simply walked past me, the Athena cabin counsellor following him, but not before giving me a smirk.

A short walk, during which we watched a few vehicles pass us on the nearby road... Mortals going on with their everyday lives, ignorant of what was happening in the background. Entering the run-down building with a single beaten car sitting before it, a bored-looking cashier playing with a stack of paper cups glanced up at us. Instantly, he was straightening his back, and muttering a half-hearted greeting that he'd probably been forced to learn, reciting it for every customer.

"Welcome to Non-Stop Gas! Come, fill yourself up!"

We exchanged a look, my two companions conveying the same thought that I had.

This guy couldn't possibly be a monster. He was too uninterested in us, he was too... normal.

Splitting up, I walked over to a rack of newspapers. There was no mention of yesterday's battle, though that didn't come as a surprise. It had happened halfway across the country, and only a few hours or so ago.

Sophia was asking the guy where she could get some coffee, and the cashier was more than happy to show her how the machine worked, his previous boredom completely gone. He also seemed unfazed that all three of us were covered in dirt and, in some places, even blood.

Meanwhile, the son of Poseidon was striding down the aisle of snacks, indiscriminately grabbing two of each packet that he walked past. I couldn't decide what was funnier, Nico's way of buying supplies, or the mixture of confusion and annoyance the cashier was gazing over him with.

It was two minutes past eight according to the analogue clock hanging above the young cashier's head, his name a mystery thanks to his nametag laying face-down on the counter. He couldn't have been more than a year older than I was, acne speckling his face, and his greasy, black hair hanging just above his eyes.

If the clock was to be believed, we had slept more than twelve hours. After such a fight, I wasn't surprised by that.

After finishing flipping through the pages of the newspaper, and seeing nothing noteworthy, I settled on taking a sudoku puzzle book and walked up to the cashier. Placing it on the counter, he looked at it from his chair with badly concealed annoyance, before standing up and slowly scanning it. Would I have not been waiting on Nico and Sophia to finish, I would've happily grabbed it from his hand and scanned it myself, so unenthusiastically was he doing his job, distaste etched on his lips.

"That'll be twelve ninety-nine." He said, my hands gravitating towards my pockets before I remembered all the money I had was laying near a bus crash in Springfield, torn apart and rendered useless.

"Ummm..."

"Dude, you never bought anything in your life yet? You need money to pay for stuff." He huffed.

"Sorry, I must've lost my wallet." I gave him a lopsided grin, trying to hide the fact that he was getting on my nerves, "Sophia, can you come help me out a bit?" I called to the daughter of Athena, who was filling a second cup with coffee. She turned her head towards me, saw that I was beckoning towards her, and marched over.

By the time she reached the counter, she had put two and two together. Without any words exchanged, she was unzipping her bag and handing me forty bucks.

"Here you go."

"Thanks," I said, and she flashed me a smile, before walking back to finish coffee duty.

"What a fucking lame-ass." I heard the cashier mutter.

"Sorry?" I looked at him, and he quickly averted his gaze.

"Nothing!" He stretched out his hand and I pressed the cash into his outstretched palm.

By the time he had counted out my change, both Nico and Sophia were standing at the counter with me.

First Sophia quickly paid for the two cups of cappuccino, then it was the son of Poseidon's turn. Piling a mountain of snacks onto the counter, I heard the cashier fail to hide his sigh, scanning each item only slightly faster than my book. While he slowly pushed each item under the scanner, he looked at Sophia and tried striking up a conversation.

"So what are you guys doing all the way out here?"

It took Sophia a moment to realise he was talking to her specifically.

"Oh, umm... Nothing much."

"Ah, come on now. Were you hiking or something?"

She nodded quickly, "Yep, hiking. Pretty good weather for it."

"Really?" He looked outside at the snow, "I'll take your word for it. Where've you been to?"

It was there that I got bored of the conversation, and told Sophia I'd wait for them outside. Whatever body spray the guy used, it was irritating my nose, though I probably didn't smell much better.

Leaning against the wall, I watched my breath condense in the cold air, enjoying the coolness on my face. Looking back through the window, I could see the guy was still talking with Sophia, who was trying her best to endure the conversation. At one point, one of her eyebrows lifted high up in confusion. Finally, Nico handed him some money, and on the receipt, I watched the cashier scribble something down and slide it towards Sophia.

Was the guy serious?

Did he know what he was potentially signing up for?

She read whatever was on the message, then looked at the dude, stone-faced. Beside her, I could see Nico's eyes gleaming with humour, staring between the two of them.

The guy tried holding her gaze but his smile quickly wavered as the gesture wasn't returned. After a good minute or so, he broke eye contact and stared at the counter uncomfortably.

They left the store, and the moment the door closed behind them, Nico couldn't hold it in anymore and started laughing loudly. A smirk slowly crept onto Sophia's face as well, and I looked between the two of them.

"What the hell happened inside?" I said, Nico's laugh contagious and a smile also appearing on my own face.

"Let's sit down first." Sophia nodded towards a nearby curb. Opening some snacks, and taking one of the cups from the grey-eyed girl, I looked at her expectantly, "Really?" She exclaimed, "It wasn't that interesting! He tried making a move on me, that's all."

"Well, I wouldn't say that that's all!" Nico giggled, "The guy thought you were her boyfriend!"

I felt my face redden a bit, but unlike Sophia, who tried to hide it with a cup of coffee, I just snorted.

"Well, that's a first. So, lanky emo kids aren't really your type, huh?"

"I don't really have any type, thank you very much," She used air quotes, before taking an annoyed sip from her cup, "Plus, he's an idiot, and a mortal. I'd never date a mortal, they're so... So narrow-sighted. Many of them are literally unable to see the bigger picture. That would just piss me off quite quickly."

"Ah..."

"Anyway, why is it that so far every gas station we've been in, one of us has been hit on by the person behind the counter?" Nico asked, "First Daniel, now Sophia. Next time we see a gas station, we're going in. Third time's the charm, as they say."

"I mean, I got a primordial, and Sophia got a-" I looked at her for help.

"Jackass." She muttered, sipping from her cup whilst staring blankly forward.

"Yeah, that. So going by that logic, I think you'd not enjoy the experience."

He frowned, "Maybe you're right. Gods be damned, why'd you have to ruin my fun?"

I laughed, and Sophia smiled along with us, though I could see she was lost in thought.

"What're you thinking about?" I asked once we fell silent.

"Stuff..." She muttered.

"Cool." I said sarcastically, finishing my cappuccino, "I'm thinking that we've sat for long enough on the back of Pandora, and we'll sit even longer after she's finished resting. We should move around a bit."

"Move around a bit? With half-broken ribs?" Nico asked. He, like me, wasn't complaining about his side and could walk without any issue, but I could see why he might be worried about a small hike.

"Why not? We reach New Rome and we might have to move around a lot more. Better we get used to it a bit beforehand."

He shrugged, unable to think of any counterargument. Following my lead, he stood up, leaving Sophia alone on the ground.

She focused on us, ripping herself from whatever thought she had gotten herself lost in.

"Where we going?"

"Nowhere specific. Just a small walk to clear all of our heads. How about it?"

"What about Pandora?"

"She'll find us, don't worry about her. Come on, we'll help you up." I held out my hand, the son of Poseidon following suit.

Grabbing each of our outstretched hands, with a single tug from the both of us, she was standing on her feet.

We started down the road, leaving three sets of prints in the snow. We were silent at first, Nico slowly trailing behind as he struggled with opening a new bag of snacks.

"I'm sorry about your hat," I muttered, looking at the daughter of Athena, who whipped her head towards me at the sudden conversation. Letting out a sigh, her shoulders drooped.

"Thanks. It was just a hat, but it was a gift from mum, and in some way, a gift from Annabeth too. How cool was that? A gift from your hero?!" She smiled sadly, "When that hat burst into flames, it felt like I lost a part of myself... Like a bit of my connection with my mother turned to ash with that hat. A century and a half, that's how long it managed to survive, and it was in my possession when it was destroyed. What does that say about me?"

"What it says about you is that you used it to the best of your abilities and that it took a meeting with a primordial to see you lose it. It was only a tool, true, it had significant value, but so what?"

"So what?" She wasn't angry, rather confused.

"Exactly. You're still you, Sophia, whether you have a cool hat or not. You're not Athena, nor are you Annabeth. And that's exactly how I-" I quickly changed the wording, "-how we like you."

She stayed silent for a good while, the tension breaking thanks to Nico's constantly rustling.

Finally, she glanced at me with a thankful look in her eyes, conveying more meaning than words could. I simply smiled at her and nodded.

The sun rose higher in the sky as time ticked past, the cars rushing past us growing in number ever so slowly.

"-and that's why you don't mess with the nymphs," Sophia smirked, and I couldn't help but agree after her story. Vengeful nymphs didn't sound all that appealing anymore.

"Well, now that you brought up that topic, I'm not quite sure that's the moral of the story. There's actually this really cute naiad in the lake-"

"Nico? Don't tell me you're getting a girlfriend," I smirked, playfully punching his arm.

"I highly doubt it." He rubbed the spot absentmindedly, "Water nymphs are infamous for being flirts, so I highly doubt she feels anything more towards me, and I'm not so sure what I feel myself."

"Well, Nico, you're forgetting that you're the son of Poseidon. For a naiad, you're not exactly the sort of person who they'd just flirt with for a laugh." Sophia told Nico, and his eyes glinted with hope.

A crow fluttered down in front of us, and even without announcing her presence, I knew it was Pandora. Had she really rested so quickly?

"Aren't you supposed to be sleeping?" I asked silently.

"I do not need much rest, Master. We still have a long way to go, and time is of the essence."

She grew in size quickly, suddenly appearing before us as a dragon.

Nico jumped so hard that his feet slipped out from underneath him, while Sophia also took two steps back in surprise.

"Where the fuck did she come from!?" The son of Poseidon asked, holding his chest that was raggedly lifting up and down.

"Hoooly shit..." Sophia laughed, "I saw her land, and still, she surprised me."

"Well, good for you, but I still see crows as being simple crows, not shapeshifting dragons!" Any further indignant complaints were silenced by Pandora as she picked him up and plopped him onto her back.

With all three of us sitting on her, she took off and quickly lifted back up over the clouds.

"Oh gods, that didn't feel nice." Sophia whispered queasily behind me, "We should try to go by car on the way back." I looked at her and saw her holding her stomach.

"I mean, it's an option, sure, but Pandora is by far the fastest way we can travel."

"Speed won't really be necessary though, once we're returning home."

"The girl speaks some truth there, Master. Once the quest is over, the time to return home doesn't matter, it isn't urgent."

"Are you saying this because being a dragon is tiring?"

"I do not deny that part. It would be much easier for me if on the journey home I would not need to grow larger than a phoenix. If it is required of me, however, I am at your service."

"We'll think of something then."

I could hear a noise that sounded kind of like a purr. An expression of gratitude.

"Daniel?" Sophia asked. I had completely zoned out while talking with Pandora.

"Oh... Umm... We'll find a way back that doesn't require a dragon."

"Cool, good to know, but that wasn't my question."

"Sorry," I winced, "Can you repeat it?"

"How long do you think it'll take to reach Camp Jupiter at this rate?" She sighed.

"Half a day, maybe more," Pandora informed me.

"Half a day, probably more," I told them, and they groaned, "Oh come on, it won't be that bad!"

With a grin, I held up my sudoku booklet.

I was shaken awake as another wind spirit was incinerated by Pandora. They had recently appeared in ones and two as we neared San Fransisco and though my pet had little trouble destroying them, this was now the fourth time I had been woken by the fuckers. Hopefully, they weren't the same ones that had been working with Dolos, because by the gods did I not want to meet with the primordial ever again.

The others didn't have the same problems as I did, and both of them were sound asleep, Sophia clutching the sudoku book, more than half of the puzzles already solved by her.

"Where are we?" I asked, yawning.

"We are near, my master. Maybe ten minutes and we can land... Where should that be?"

As I tried to come up with something, I quickly realised I was entirely the wrong person for such a job. Shaking the daughter of Athena gently, she raised her head, along with an eyebrow.

"What?" She scratched her nose, almost instantly wide awake, "We there?"

"Nearly. Pandora's asking where we should land. You know the place better than I do, so I'll let you answer."

She thought for a moment, biting her lower lip, "We don't know what the situation's like, it's best if we don't land a dragon in the middle of a war zone. The Caldecott tunnel. I'll guide her there if we can get below the clouds."

Responding to her words, we dipped below the sheet of puffy clouds, brilliant lights twinkling to life all around us as the city came into view.

It looked and felt similar to New York in the sense that, even at night, I could hear it buzzing with life.

As I suddenly stood up, the blonde-haired girl's eyes widened.

"What the hell are you doing?"

"I have to wake Nico."

"Wouldn't it be better to do it when we land? I'd rather you not die while trying out your new tight-rope walking trick on the back of a dragon."

I snorted, "Don't worry, Pandora'll catch me if I fall."

"I will try."

"Thanks."

"What did she say?" She asked, "What did she say?!"

"Nothing, nothing at all, calm down already!" I smirked, inching closer to the sleeping demigod at the very back.

"Five more minutes..." He whispered after I shook him.

"We're here, so you don't have that long."

"Whu-" He sat up abruptly, and looked around, seeing the lights of the city filling the air.

"We'll be landing any minute, best if you prepare for the worst," I said grimly and sat back down.

With Sophia's guidance, my pet landed on the ground with two rapid wing beats, kicking up trash and dirt. We were deposited on the floor a moment later, the dragon turning into an owl. Beneath us ran the highway, disappearing into the belly of the mountain, but Sophia was ignoring all of that, and instead, staring at a set of double doors that looked like the entrance to a maintenance tunnel.

"Nobody's guarding it?" Sophia asked rhetorically.

"Not a good sign," I frowned and she nodded in agreement, Nico resting his hand absentmindedly on the pommel of his sword, "Sophia, you should lead the way, you know it best."

"Me? You've got the impenetrable cloak!"

"Then drape the Nemean lion's pelt over yourself and you'll be fine."

She grumbled but didn't argue as she pulled the pelt from her backpack and hung it around her shoulders.

We strode up to the set of doors as Pandora flapped her way over the hill. As they creaked open, red light spilled out of the tunnel, barely bright enough to see the edges of the tunnel, and even that was incredibly straining on the eyes.

"This is the way. Through the tunnel, and there'll be a road at the far end-"

A god-awful stench wafted over us, Sophia going pale while I felt my stomach churn and rebel against the smell. The son of Poseidon took two steps backwards and vomited into the darkness.

That was the stink of rot, putrefaction and death.

No words had to be exchanged between us, Sophia's blade appearing in her hand in the blink of an eye and mine quickly following her lead. After he was done, Nico wasted no time to also draw his weapon.

She took her first few steps forward then, with a small yelp, she disappeared from view.

"Sophia!" Nico exclaimed, "You okay?"

Only the outline of her blonde hair was somewhat visible on the tunnel's floor.

"I'm fine..." She trailed off, "What the fuck is this? There's something on the floor, but I can't see what it is."

"Wait, I've got a torch in my backpack," Nico muttered, quickly opening his bag and pulling out a large flashlight that was half the size of his forearm. He pointed it down the length of the tunnel, turning it on with a click. A large beam of light burst into existence, illuminating everything in the passage. The walls, the electric cables trailing off into the gloom along the length of the walls, the roof.

And the bodies. Dozens of them.

Sophia instantly jumped to her feet, scrambling off of the one she was laying on, and violently wiped herself down, shuddering in the process as she backed away from the corpse.

The wall was splattered with dried blood, like some horrific abstract painting, and the roman corpse that Sophia had tripped over... Well, it was certainly a Roman, judging by the armour it wore. I didn't need the daughter of Athena's knowledge to recognise that.

His face, however, was a different question. Bashed into an unrecognisable pulp of blood and metal, the latter once being a helmet. Dried blood caked the floor all around him.

"What the fuck!" Sophia screamed, only just noticing what the remnants of the dead man's face looked like.

Nico looked like he was about to be sick again, but he surprisingly managed to hold it in this time. Before continuing, I had to step back and take a few deep breaths of fresh air, just to calm myself down.

That corpse had once been a living, breathing, talking man.

Holy fucking shit.

With Sophia leading the way, and Nico holding the torch we slowly made our way down the tunnel, having to step over body after body. Some had puckering flesh wounds, others were mangled beyond recognition. Not all of them wore legionary armour either. Quite a few were dressed in casual, everyday clothes, with mismatching bits and pieces of armour. Here and there, the torchlight illuminated white teeth scattered across the floor, laying amidst piles of dust.

My two companions both looked horrified at what they were seeing, their faces chalk-white in the torchlight, and I could see from the way the glow of their celestial bronze blades wavered that they were shaking.

A brighter, orangish light appeared at the very end after we weaved through an S-shaped bend.

Sophia came to a halt and stared at that light.

"What do you see?" I asked.

"Nico, turn off your torch," He hesitated, but after she repeated her instructions, he quickly shut off the light, "That's not normal. First off, the doors should be closed. Whatever the reason is, they're open, but that doesn't explain that glow."

We sprinted the last few meters after Sophia, jumping over the dead and exiting the tunnel.

"That's..." The son of Poseidon forgot to finish his sentence.

New Rome was ablaze.

What had once clearly been a magnificent city was now reduced to piles of rubble and burning carcasses of buildings.

Dozens of bodies littered the road leading over a river, one bridge completely destroyed, the other coated with even more of the dead.

Legionaries, casually-dressed folk and if I would've gotten closer, probably piles of dust would've become visible too.

I didn't want to approach the dead though.

"We need to help them." I said, stomping my foot in anger and frustration, my gaze falling on a destroyed fort, "But how?" I turned to Sophia, hoping she had some idea as to what we should do. She tore herself from her trance-like state and opened her mouth, her eyes glinting. That's just what I wanted to see.

"New Rome is built around a lake!" She roughly pulled the son of Poseidon closer, "Nico! If you send the water crashing down on the flames, we'll stop the fire from destroying everything."

"I- I can certainly try."

Pandora passed over us, hooting, only for it to turn into a powerful squawk as she changed into a phoenix.

Jogging down the path, we passed by a distressing amount of bodies, though this time there were more piles of dust and mortal-clothed corpses, than those dressed like legionaries. After what felt like forever, running down a trail of neverending corpses, we entered the fortress, nothing more than a burnt-out husk now. Surprisingly, there were no dead folk laying about the place.

"Camp Jupiter... Fuck me." Sophia muttered to herself, holding her head as she came to a stop.

"Is this all that's left?" I looked at the ruins, "Are we too late?"

"No! There must be someone that's still alive. This is the Twelfth Legion Fulminata we're talking about, for fuck's sake!"

We continued towards the city, Sophia looking from left to right, confused. The next time we stopped was because of a statue.

A man, carved from the waist upwards and missing his arms. An ugly crack ran diagonally across his body, and now he lay on his side, in two separate pieces.

And his head was completely gone.

"Is that Terminus?" Nico asked.

"That was his statue... But where is he? He should be defending the city!" Sophia fretted, and I felt my blood start to boil.

"You know what, fuck him! He isn't doing jack shit right now, so it's up to us to help. We can most certainly figure out where he's pissed off to later." I pointed to the Poseidon cabin counsellor, "Nico! How close do you have to be to the lake to control the water?"

"Not that close, any building I can see it from is good enough for me." He cleared his throat, "I saw a small replica of the Colosseum in the distance. If I can climb to the top of that, I'll most probably be able to do what needs to be done."

"Good." I nodded, slapping his shoulder, "Sophia, do you know where it is?"

"If I can find the Forum Romanum, I'll be good to go from there. Let's get off the main road though, the last thing we need is to meet something nasty marching down it."

Darting down the small streets of the city, we weaved past smashed crates and broken vases, their contents long ago rotten or just simply eaten by rodents. Then there were the dead bodies. Seeing the armoured body of legionaries was a rare sight among the carnage.

Rather, most of whom lay on the ground were civilians.

Civilians.

Some of whom were still carrying jewellery, rusty knives and old legionary gear.

After our journey down the infinite streets of New Rome, the mouth of the street we were currently jogging down suddenly widened, and my feet slapped against the ground as I came to a sudden halt.

"This is it, we've got to continue down-" Sophia's eyes widened, and she was darting behind a box as I stared at our surroundings, unsure of what she had seen, "Fucking get down!" She whispered angrily, practically pulling us behind a cart.

"Why?" Nico asked, peeking around the corner, only to pull his head back the moment he noticed whatever it was, "Ah, I see."

"Mind telling me what it is you two saw?" I looked between the two of them.

"Soldiers. A few of them were dressed like legionaries, but others didn't even look human."

"So... You're saying they're not friendly?"

"Not in the slightest bit."

"Shit." I muttered, looking at Sophia for support, "If they're here, then that means we'd be marching deeper into their territory if we continue towards the Colosseum, right?"

She thought for a second, probably picturing the layout of the square.

"Probably... Yes."

"Now, that's the problem. It's one thing to sprint down empty streets, that's no biggie. Fight our way through gods know how many monsters though? The city'll burn down before we even get there. We need a plan B, now that plan A is out of the question."

"What about if I do it from here?" Nico piped up.

"You can do your son of the sea god voodoo all the way from here?"

"It's not voo-" He stopped himself, sighing, "Probably, just give me a tall enough building and I'll see what I can do."

"How about that one?" Sophia pointed at a building on the other side of the forum. Its sides were scorched by fire, a part of it had crumbled in on itself, but it was still mostly in one piece, "The top of the market hall? As far as I can tell, it's not on fire right now."

"It's across the fucking forum though, isn't it?! How exactly do you plan on getting past all of... Them?" I muttered angrily, waving my hand in the direction of the monsters.

"My hat, we could..." She trailed off, frowning.

"Yeah, that's where this plan falls flat on its face. Anything else we could do?"

"No... This is still possible," Nico said, "That's the tallest building for quite some distance. I say it's worth a try."

"Alright, alright..." I looked at Pandora's vaguely illuminated body fluttering in the sky, "What if Pandora and I become the distraction? I don't know who they are, but after the lion, I doubt they'll cause us much trouble. You two sneak over to the door while we stir up some trouble. How about it Pandora?"

"I am here to serve you, Master."

"I'll take that as a yes. Guys?" Both of them looked at me, concerned, "Oh, come on! Do any of you have a better idea? The longer we wait, the more baddies arrive and the less we're able to save of the city. Come on now, let's do this, yeah?"

I put my hand forward, first Nico's then Sophia's joining me.

On the count of three, we let out a quiet hooray.

"Just be careful, okay?" Sophia smirked sadly, punching me in the arm for good luck.

Smiling, I stretched and took a deep breath. Then, without waiting for another second to pass, I sprinted forward, trying to get as close to the enemy as possible before they spotted me. Hopefully, they wouldn't realise which street I had come from. My boots clattered against the cobbles of the Forum, and I saw not one head turn my way almost instantly.

I could feel Pandora's presence above me, ready to strike at a moment's notice.

Slowing down, I took in the humanoid-looking monsters. From a distance, you'd hardly be able to tell the difference between them and regular people. All of them were well-muscled and quite tall. Even from this far, and past the acrid smoke billowing over me, I could sense how badly they stank, but even that could still be seen as human.

Then, of course, I spotted where they differed from a regular man.

Some of them had the heads of dogs, their bare legs and arms unusually hairy. Others, they had two heads.

"Listen here you fucking pricks!" I yelled, and suddenly every eye was on me.

Their combined growls pierced the air, and I inadvertently took a step backwards. Almost all of them wore an incomplete set of armour and carried a sword in their hands. Despite the orange shine given to every blade and metal piece of armour, I could see that some blades were the colour of iron, others gold.

Was the golden one the special metal that Sophia had talked about a few times? The one that the Romans used instead of Celestial Bronze?

At first, they just stared at me, sizing me up, a few of them scanning the ruins I had emerged from. I couldn't let them spot Sophia and Nico.

"Holy shit, which one of you smells this bad?! Man, I recently smelled a tunnel full of three-day-old corpses and man, oh man! They smelled much better than you lot."

The first and nearest one charged forward, opening his mouth to scream, but I never heard a peep.

From the air, a large snake pounced onto the warrior, draping over him and constricting in the blink of an eye. A sudden crack sound echoed through the air. Letting the two-headed warrior go, Pandora let out a roar as the lifeless body of the monstrous warrior collapsed limply.

My pet slithered by my side as I darted from foe to foe, lightweight blades cleaving through their armour as if they were wearing nothing at all. Each puff of dust blowing onto my face was another monster less to face.

Yet, from one corner of my eye, I could see more of these bestial warriors emerging from side streets, joining the crowd gathered around me.

And from the other, I saw a blur of blonde dart behind an upturned cart.