Ataraxia [BTS au | Heroes of Olympus]

36

In no time, he felt completely lost. The stairs split in three different directions. As soon as Namjoon chose a path, the stairs split again. They wound their way through interconnecting tunnels and rough- hewn burial chambers that all looked the same – the walls carved with dusty niches that might once have held bodies. The arches over the doors were painted with black cows, white poplar trees and owls.

"I thought the owl was Athena's symbol," he murmured.

"The screech owl is one of Hades's sacred animals," Jungkook said. "Its cry is a bad omen.This way." Jungkook pointed to a doorway that looked the same as all the others. "It's the only one that won't collapse on us."

"Good choice, then," Hosoek said.

He began to feel like he was leaving the world of the living. His skin tingled, and he wondered if it was a side effect of the poison. In the eerie glow of their magic weapons, his friends looked like flickering ghosts.

Cold air brushed against his face. He thought he heard other voices whispering in the side corridors, beckoning him to veer off course, to come closer and listen to them speak.
Finally they reached an archway carved in the shape of human skulls – or maybe they were human skulls embedded in the rock. In the glow of the celestial bronze sword, the hollow eye sockets seemed to blink.
He almost hit the ceiling when Jungkook put a hand on his arm.
"This is the entrance to the second level," he said. "I'd better take a look." He hadn't even realized that he'd moved in front of the doorway.

"Uh, yeah ..." He made way for him.

Jungkook traced his fingers across the carved skulls. "No traps on the doorway, but ... something is strange here. My underground sense is – is fuzzy, like someone is working against me, hiding what's ahead of us." Jungkook chewed his lip. "But stay alert. One thing I'm sure of: from this point on, the dead are stronger than the living."

He wasn't sure how he knew that, but he believed him. The voices in the darkness seemed to whisper louder. He caught glimpses of movement in the shadows. From the way his friends' eyes darted around, he guessed they were seeing things too.

"Where are the monsters?" he wondered aloud. "I thought Gaia had an army guarding the Doors."

"Don't know," Yoongi said. His pale skin looked as green as the poison from the chalice. "At this point I'd almost prefer a straight-up fight."

"Careful what you wish for, man." Hosoek said as Yoongi summoned a ball of fire to his hand, and he was really glad to see the flames. "Personally, I'm hoping nobody's home. We walk in, destroy the Doors of Death and walk out. Maybe stop at the gift shop."

"Yeah," he said. "That'll happen."

The tunnel shook. Rubble rained down from the ceiling. Jungkook grabbed his hand. "That was close," he muttered. "These passageways won't take much more. The Doors of Death just opened again."
"It's happening like every fifteen minutes," Namjoon noted.
"Every twelve," Jungkook corrected, though he didn't explain how he knew. "We'd better hurry."
As they travelled deeper, the corridors widened. The ceilings rose to six metres high, decorated with elaborate paintings of owls in the branches of white poplars. The extra space should have made him feel better, but all he could think about was the tactical situation. The tunnels were big enough to accommodate large monsters, even giants. There were blind corners everywhere, perfect for ambushes. Their group could be flanked or surrounded easily. They would have no good options for retreat.

All of his instincts told him to get out of these tunnels. If no monsters were visible, that just meant they were hiding, waiting to spring a trap. Even though he knew that, there wasn't much he could do about it. They had to find the Doors of Death.
Yoongi held his fire close to the walls. He saw Ancient Greek graffiti scratched into the stone. They were prayers or supplications to the dead, written by pilgrims thousands of years ago. The tunnel floor was littered with ceramic shards and silver coins.
"Offerings?" Namjoon guessed.
"Yes," Jungkook said. "If you wanted your ancestors to appear, you had to make an offering."
"Let's not make an offering," Jin suggested. Nobody argued.

"The tunnel from here is unstable," Jungkook warned. "The floor might ... well, just follow me. Step exactly where I step."
Jungkook made his way forward. He walked right behind him – not because he felt particularly brave but because he wanted to be close if Jungkook needed his help. He could sense danger – very close now.

Jimin Park.

He stopped cold. That voice ... it seemed to come from right next to him, like someone whispering in his ear.

"Jimin?" Taehyung whispered behind him. "Jungkook, hold up a second. Jimin, what's wrong?"

"Nothing," he murmured. "I just –"

Pylos, the voice said. I await you in Pylos.

He  felt like the poison was bubbling back up his throat. He'd been scared plenty of times before. He'd even faced the god of Death. But this voice terrified him in a different way. It resonated right down to his bones.

"Jimin, don't move." Jungkook sounded alarmed. He looked down and realized he'd been about to step out of line.

Then the voice was gone. He could feel its absence, as if the humidity had suddenly dropped.

"Uh, Jimin?"Hosoek said. "Could you not freak out on us? Please and thank you."

His friends were all looking at him with concern. "I'm okay," he managed. "Just ... a voice."

Jungkook looked at him concerned. "It'll only get worse." Suddenly Jungkook turned and held up his hand for silence. "Wait here, everybody."

He didn't like it, but Jungkook forged ahead alone. He counted to twenty-three before he came back, his face drawn and pensive.

"Scary room ahead," he warned. "Don't panic."

"Those two things don't go together," Hosoek murmured. But they followed Jungkook into the cavern.

The place was like a circular cathedral, with a ceiling so high it was lost in the gloom. Dozens of other tunnels led off in different directions, each echoing with ghostly voices. The thing that made him nervous was the floor. It was a gruesome mosaic of bones and gems – human femurs, hip bones and ribs twisted and fused together into a smooth surface, dotted with diamonds and rubies. The bones formed patterns, like skeletal contortionists tumbling together, curling to protect the precious stones – a dance of death and riches.

"Touch nothing," Jungkook said.

"Wasn't planning on it," Jin muttered.

Namjoon scanned the exits. "Which way now?"

For once, Jungkook looked uncertain. "This should be the room where the priests invoked the most powerful spirits. One of these passages leads deeper into the temple, to the third level and the altar of Hades himself. But which –?"

He felt like the floor was vibrating underneath him. Then he realized it was vibrating.

The cavern reverberated with monstrous roars – dozens, maybe hundreds of enemies coming from every direction. He recognized the throaty bellow of the Earthborn, the guttural war cries of Cyclopes – all sounds he remembered from the battles he had fought, amplified underground, echoing in his head loud.

Jungkook pulled the Stygian Iron sword from his belt. He pulled out Riptide and others followed. Hosoek drew his bow as the monsters spilled into the cavern.

A vanguard of six-armed Earthborn threw a volley of stones that shattered the bone-and-jewel floor like ice. A fissure spread across the centre of the room, coming straight towards Yoongi and Hosoek.Jungkook tackled his friends, and the three of them skidded across the cavern, landing at the edge of the ghost's tunnel as rocks and spears flew overhead.

"Go!" Jungkook yelled. "Go, go!"