Ascension of the Fallen

The King's Dilemma

The King's Dilemma

Ascension of the Fallen: Chapter 25

The night was silent. The chirping of the crickets, the singing of the birds, the ribbits of the frogs- all absent.

Eight figures stalked towards the city of New Rome, their faces obscured by dark hoods. Their footsteps were quiet, nearly silent, even as they made their way through the forest and towards the Pomerian Line.

The lead figure suddenly held out his arm, alerting the rest of them to stop in their tracks. He gestured to another hooded figure.

"Valx, if you would."

"With pleasure."

A daimon stalked towards the front of the group, before flicking off her hood. Magenta eyes peered towards the city, before she nodded. She took an archers' stance, an ethereal fuchsia bow forming in her hands, an arrow already knocked. She drew backwards with a practiced ease, tightening the string. Magenta energy crackled around the bow, increasing in intensity as the string was tightened further and further. Her eyes seemed to light up with power, as a cocky smirk formed on her face.

She fired.

The resulting shockwave blew their hoods off.

A streaking bolt of purple left arcs of magenta in its wake, as it hit the barrier of New Rome. The barrier crackled and groaned. It imploded into a violent sky blue color, giving way, and the bolt of energy carved its way through buildings, hitting the center of the city. The resulting explosion caused the ground to creak and moan violently, as if the Earthshaker himself was exerting his power.

There was a moment of silence, then screams ensued. Screams, chaos, panic. The barracks were a mess, soldiers stumbling out of their beds and shrugging on armor as fast as they could, tripping over each other in the process. The attack had been sudden, too fast for them to react in time, and too strong for the barriers of that Terminus god to stop.

Everything they had wanted.

Slaine allowed a cruel smirk to dance across his lips.

"We will enter the city and continue wreaking havoc. If our sources are correct, the titan lord and his lot will be attacking that Greek camp soon enough," he chuckled deeply, his eyes lighting up with fire, "The Olympians, should they, against all odds, choose to intervene, shall have their forces split between these two camps. And unfortunately for him, he cares about the demigods too much. A weakness to be exploited. The question is: Which camp shall he come to?"

---

In Camp Half-Blood, everything was quiet. Peaceful, even.

No one was on edge. And why would they be?

They had just had a fun night of Capture the Flag (well, fun to the hunters of Artemis, at least), and a night of singing around the campfire, telling stories and jokes. Monster attacks had decreased recently, and there had been few casualties in the past few months. The night was calm, quiet, the bright moon carefully gazing over the camp, keeping watch.

Until the ground abruptly opened up near Zeus' fist.

The ground shook, creaking and groaning as monsters poured out of the Labyrinth in numbers unseen since the Golden Age of Olympus. Hellhounds, hydras, empousai, drakons, laistrygonian giants, cyclops, basilisks, telekhines, among others surged forward, eager to feast on the unsuspecting demigods.

Cries of alarm and shock rang throughout Camp Half-Blood, as monsters rampaged about the camp, pouring into cabins at will as demigods frantically scrambled for their armor and weapons, many of them caught with their pants down, literally and figuratively.