This Cold Year ― Percy Jackson & Annabeth Chase²

―ix. one last trip

THE BLOOD HAD SPILLED. The Earth was awake. The world was at its end.

Then, overhead, the clouds parted over the Acropolis.

There was no blue sky on the other side—just a black space spangled with stars covered the whole of the sky, the palaces of Mount Olympus gleaming silver and gold in the background.

An army of gods charged down from on high.

It was too much to process at once, and it was probably for the best that Naomi didn't see it all. Only later would she be able to recall bits and pieces.

There was a supersized Zeus riding into battle in a golden chariot, a lightning bolt the size of a telephone pole crackling in one hand. Pulling his chariot were four horses made of wind, each constantly shifting from equine to human form, trying to break free. For a split second, one took on the icy visage of Boreas.

Zeus had bound and harnessed the four wind gods themselves.

On the underbelly of the Argo II, the glass bay doors split open. The goddess Nike tumbled out, free from her golden net. She spread her glittering wings and soared to Zeus's side, taking her rightful place as his charioteer.

"MY MIND IS RESTORED!" she roared. "VICTORY TO THE GODS!"

At Zeus's left flank rode Hera, her chariot pulled by enormous peacocks, their rainbow-colored plumage so bright it hurt Naomi's eyes.

Ares bellowed with glee as he thundered down on the back of a fire-breathing horse. His spear glistened red.

In the last second, before the gods reached the Parthenon, they seemed to displace themselves, like they'd jumped through hyperspace. The chariots disappeared. Suddenly Naomi and her friends were surrounded by Olympians, now human-sized—tiny next to the giants, but glowing with power.

Jason shouted and charged Porphyrion.

The rest of the Eight joined in the carnage.

The fighting ranged all over the Pantheon and spilled across the Acropolis. Naomi spotted Annabeth and Athena side-by-side, fighting Enceladus. The goddess thrust her spear at the giant, then brandished her shield with the fearsome bronzed visage of Medusa. Together, Athena and Annabeth drove Enceladus back into the nearest wall of metal scaffolding, which collapsed on top of him.

Percy battled the giant twins, Otis and Ephialtes, while at his side fought Poseidon in a loud Hawaiian shirt. The twin giants stumbled. Poseidon's trident morphed into a firehose, and the god sprayed the giants out of the Parthenon with a high-powered blast in the shape of wild horses.

On the opposite side of the temple, Frank and the god Ares smashed through an entire phalanx of giants—Ares with his spear and shield, Frank (as an African elephant) with his trunk and feet. The war god laughed and stabbed and disemboweled like a kid destroying piñatas.

Piper fenced with the giantess Periboia, sword against sword. Despite the fact that her opponent was five times larger, Piper seemed to be holding her own. The goddess Aphrodite floated around them on a small white cloud, throwing what looked like very fancy knives at Periboia's most vulnerable places. All the while, she called encouragement to Piper. "Lovely, my dear. Yes, good. Hit her again!"

Whenever Periboia tried to strike, doves rose up from nowhere and pecked at the giantess's eyes and face, leaving her blinded again and again.

Leo was racing across the deck of the Argo II, shooting ballistae, dropping hammers on the giants' heads and blowtorching their loincloths. Behind him at the helm, a burly Hephaestus was tinkering with the controls, furiously trying to keep the ship aloft.