with Nico's plan. He couldn't find his Stygian iron sword. Will had confiscated the most dependable, handcrafted weapon he had. Will knew Nico too well to trust him to keep his sword by his side and restrain himself from using it.

After checking Cabin 13, the dark obsidian building that was as close a home as he had, and with his sword nowhere to be seen, Nico began jogging towards the camp's vast forest. As he ran, he silently cursed Will for hiding his favorite possession.

He wasn't surprised at how simple it was to sneak away from the infirmary. Everyone was already in the forest, satyrs and nymphs and campers and all. Even the non-participants in the Capture-the-Flag game usually were eager to watch how the teams would play out in the end. The satyrs enjoyed casting bets using an assortment of tin cans and enchiladas; thanks to a trend their leader Grover Underwood began. Nico only half-hoped their jackpot wasn't solely for eating, but he knew better to believe that.

His random thoughts soon dissipated as he reached deeper into the forest. He sensed something was off. The air smelled faintly foul, like a combination of roadkill and rotten eggs. And he couldn't see anyone in his surroundings. Nico's instincts urged him to stay away and retreat.

But instead he marched on, getting a terrible feeling that the campers were in danger; that Will was in danger. The camp's sporting event had never took place this far from the Camp Half-Blood base before. As he pushed aside a broken branch that hadn't snapped completely from its tree, he heard the sniffling. The sound was coming from the tree, which at first made Nico wonder if he really did need the infirmary rest. Immediately though he realized that he had missed the hiding dryad, who was now cowering in absolute fear, hands over her face.

"P-please don't h-hurt me!" the tree nymph cried. Although she hadn't intended to offend Nico, he felt a pang of resentment towards himself. Nico didn't think he was that scary, child of the Underworld or not.

"Hey there, it's okay," Nico said gently, backing away from the tree and holding his arms up as if in surrender. "I don't want to hurt you."

"Oh... you're a demigod..." the dryad muttered, finally uncovering her face and looking up at him. "Sorry about that. I thought you were that monster."

"Monster?!" Nico exclaimed. "What's going on? Where's everyone else?"

"They're that way," the dryad pointed further into the forest. "I'm afraid I can't help with much else. I ran away when the monster attacked a camper. I'm a coward, I know."

Nico repulsed at the word "camper". It could be Will, or any of his other friends. He had to leave. Now.

"Don't say that," Nico said comfortingly. "Thanks for the info, and stay safe."

He didn't wait for a reply. With that, he sprinted away in the direction she had indicated.

As he bolted past tree after tree, he just barely noticed the darkening sky. Clouds gloomed overhead, as if they had been painted black. He imagined the sky perfectly camouflaging with his Hades cabin. Pretty soon, night seemed apparent, contradictory to his knowledge that it was just noon a few minutes before.

That was when he heard the scream, definitely human. Nico pushed himself even harder now. Because the lack of insolation shining through, his visibility was limited. He tripped and stumbled a few times over what was probably fallen branches or logs. But after those rough falls, he stood right back up and continued on.

Finally, he caught sight of what the commotion was. It was atrocious. A towering giant stood at the center of attention with his back towards Nico, Chiron and the campers surrounding him with pointed weapons. Away from the demigods' circular attack method, Nico noticed two children of Apollo, whose names he didn't know, one crouched beside the other. One of them was lying down, without a doubt having been wounded deeply, and the other desperately using their healing abilities. The healer was at a costly disadvantage, though. The complete lack of sunlight tended to drain strength from any Apollo campers.

Reluctantly tearing his focus away from those two, he moved closer to the giant. Nico craned his neck for any sign of Will, but found none. The situation wasn't looking too bright, literally. Since the Romans had already returned to Camp Jupiter, their demigod army seemed much smaller than it had been several days ago.

Suddenly, the monster turned around, and Nico tried not to let his gag reflexes take over. The bloody interior of the giant's stomach lining was exposed, and there seemed to be gaping holes that deformed his liver, as if some creature had consumed it. The scarring image immediately reminded him of Nico's childhood days, the ones spent playing Mythomagic by the hour.

For a moment, he envisioned himself back in his mother's apartment, laying his thick deck of cards across the dirty carpet, reading through each one carefully and memorizing the facts about each mythological creature. He imagined Bianca was beside him, giving Nico her typical affectionate roll-of -the-eye followed by ruffling of his hair. Although back then he was completely unaware that the cards displayed information about living gods and goddesses, one of them being his father, he was still intrigued by the so-called "magic" of the game. He wishfully pondered on this: what if none of the aspects of his once beloved Mythomagic game existed in reality at all? What would his life be like? Would his mother and sister be alive right now?

He quickly snapped out of the remnants of his past. There was a much more serious matter to worry about. For one, his flashback reminded him of who this vile giant was. Tityos was the name, Nico recalled. He was a fairly well-known criminal for attempting to harm Leto, Apollo and Artemis's birth mother. Even though Tityos did so at the commands of a jealous Hera, he was sentenced to an eternal punishment in Tartarus. Every day, vultures would pay him a visit and feed on his liver. Every night, the liver would regenerate itself whole again. And the endless cycle of torture of his digestive system continued.

But somehow the monster was able to escape from Tartarus's captivity. Nico presumed Tityos had taken advantage of the previously open Doors of Death awhile ago. Just then, a sliver of a memory trickled into his mind, an old Mythomagic card about Tityos stating: Enemies ~ Leto, Artemis, and Apollo.

Out of the blue, the skull ring that Nico had always worn felt heavy on his finger. If his recollection about this giant was correct, then Tityos was probably feeling revengeful. While neither Apollo or Artemis wasn't present at the moment for the giant to annihilate, it was likely he had some desire to hunt down his children.

Which meant Will was possibly in danger.

Nico's eyes darted once again in search of Will, avoiding the R-rated view of Tityos's insides, and finally found him. Thank the gods. He was about to sprint towards his friend when a spear whizzed in front of him with unprecedented speed, buzzing with electricity. Probably Clarisse, Nico thought. The electric spear landed itself straight into the giant's shoulder, but if he felt a jolting shock of pain Tityos didn't show it.

Unfortunately, the strike backfired. The giant turned around again to face the spear thrower, but caught onto something more interesting to his eyes. The healer Nico had noticed before. Tityos began to stomp towards her, his steps implanting what mortals would probably have labeled as Bigfoot evidence.

"Catherine, no!" Nico heard Will yell at the top of his lungs.

With newfound dread, he watched Will as he nocked an arrow to the bowstring of his weapon. Will then aimed his bow at the giant and released the string, the arrow just narrowly missing the eye. Either way, Will succeeded in diverting the attention away from the healer. Tityos roared and wrenched the arrow out of his skin, snapping it in half as if it was a flimsy pencil. The giant rotated his position to face Will now, his face even more ugly with a grisly scowl. He seemed to sense Will was also a child of Apollo, causing a rise in his ire. Completely outraged, the giant's feet shook the ground as he stormed towards Will. Still calm and collected, Will prepared to take another shot out of his bow.

Nico recalled something Will had once said, a plain statement that although Will was the son of a god known for his remarkable archery, Will was a decent but not exceptional archer. He had said so factually too, as if there was nothing that could be done to change this. Suddenly fearful for Will, he watched as the archer not-meant-to-be aimed once again at Tityos.

Will Solace missed the target.

Tityos paused, as if even he wasn't expecting a poor shot. He stopped only for a brief second, then proceeded to near closer to Will.

Only several feet away. Too close for Will to attempt to use his bow and arrow, the only weapon at his disposal, for a final time. The other demigods' methods were practically useless, only hacking tiny scabs at the giant, which appeared to be painless. There was no way Will could outrun this monster that was three times the size as he.

Frankly, Will was in big trouble, as big as the footsteps Tityos left behind in his track.

Nico couldn't comprehend what happened next. His own hands moved, his feet planted firm to the ground, but he wasn't sure what he was doing. He panicked, not for his own safety but for Will's. Before he knew it, a fissure had split between Tityos's feet. The cracks grew, like branches off of a tree. The breakage of the rock widened until a giant gap erupted. He had formed an earthquake. It looked like a black hole, and it all was Nico's doing. His creation certainly functioned like the space phenomenon. Before the giant could even escape, Tityos fell into the hole. The gap quickly closed in like quicksand, and despite the giant's desperate attempts to crawl back up, he was eventually swallowed whole, until the haunting echoes of his bellows could not be heard anymore.

The silence that followed felt disquieting. Soon after, Nico heard shouts from the demigod campers. It sounded victorious, but he had spent all of his energy and couldn't focus on his surroundings any longer. His knees buckled, and with his hands unable to support his fall he crumpled to the forest ground. Then Nico felt hands catching him, but he struggled to look up and see who it was. He could vaguely make out a golden outline of someone's body kneeling beside his. That same someone seemed to be screaming at him. He could have sworn on the River Styx the person was saying "stay with me, stay with me" over and over again.

Wait. His choice of words sounded familiar. Another memory popped into his brain, more recent than the former. It was Will, standing before him all cute but serious. Now swear on the River Styx, Will had said urgently. Swear that you will obey doctor's orders, until I say you have fully recovered.

And Nico had broken that promise. He had reneged it without a second thought.

Sure of who the person in front of him was now, he tried forming his thoughts into spoken words, but couldn't.

I'm sorry Will.

And with that his eyes closed, his vision completely red for a scarring moment, and he faded away.