CHAPTER LVI:Blackened Skies And Shining Blades.

I had moved close to the window to see Sorcerer on a rooftop across from us. He was crouched down with a display of arrows ready. He notched an arrow in his red and black bow, and immediately took an arrow to the shoulder.

I could hear Adam yelling upstairs. "You're fighting a Son of Apollo now! I'm way better at archery than you punk!" He yelled at Sorcerer.

As sorcerer ripped the arrow from his shoulder, crimson blood spurted from the wound. He winced slightly at the blood coming out, and fell back. I doubted that would be the last I saw of Sorcerer I saw in the war, but it looked like Adam put him out of commission for the day. I continued looking out the window and saw Keaton with two guards in modern USMC gear each holding a black M16 assault rifle. Keaton had already started raising the dead and I had no doubt his legion, Pluto's Guard, was raising the dead as well. Even though demigods didn't use guns, with a few exceptions, they had a firm belief that a bullet through a skull could end a life faster than a knife across a throat. I blame Ares for that belief.

I moved away from the window and opened the door quietly. "Everyone follow me, ok? Let's try to get out quickly. The faster we get Sara to the school, the faster we can continue our quest." I said looking around outside.

"I think Atlantis would be better, no?" Sara asked looking at me.

"Atlantis fell to Khaos' forces not to long ago. The whole city is under enemy control." I said.

Sara looked like something inside her snapped. Sara lost her best friend, had an army coming to kill her, and lost her home in the same week. I was honestly surprised she hadn't lost her cool sooner than this. Sara walked outside and as if on cue two legionnaires dropped in front of her showing off their Sol markers. They went to attack Sara, and she responded by slashing both of their throats clean open. The man on the left fell face down but the one on the right grabbed his throat and knelt down as blood spilt through his hand, Sara accordingly responded by slashing his chest (armor and all) open killing the man.

"Son of Apollo." Olivia said walking outside with Penny and Mino at her side.

"Remind me to never piss Sara off." I said following Sara down an alley.

"Water weaponry can do that!?" Penny asked shocked.

"It's a type of magical steel reinforced by enchanted salt, it can cut through most metals and solid concrete. Of course if you don't have salt, I've read that sand and sea minerals work as well." Olivia said with a small hint of jealousy in her voice.

I could understand why, I was jealous of Sara's ability and I was the Princess of Elysium. Gods I can't get over that, I was a rare breed of demigod. I wasn't just a kid of Hades, I was one of the only Daughters of Hades. In the history of demigods there have only been twenty Daughters of Hades, and when we are born disaster will surely follow. The first Daughter of Hades (my first half-sister) was born in Grecia in 450BCE and the Peloponnesian war followed, another Daughter of Hades (my eighteenth half-sister) was born in the year 1890 in Austria-Hungary and World War One followed, and the Daughter of Hades before me (My nineteenth half-sister) was born in Britain in the year 1925 and was alive to see World War Two and the Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster. Olympians called it The Curse of Hades' Princesses, death loomed over our shoulders like a gargoyle on the side of a building in New York.

Besides the twenty Daughters of Hades my other dozens of half-siblings (or real sibling in Seth's case) have all been males. Even now, I have a younger half-brother in Japan who I never met. I also have a technical half-brother in Seattle, Washington named Set Pail. Set was an Egyptian demigod who was a Son of Anubis, he was famous for writing a book about the revival of the Egyptian Gods. Everyone thought Set was insane, but ever since I learned that Daedalus has a blessed eye from an Egyptian god I'm coming to the shocking conclusion that Set wasn't crazy. Daedalus probably helped Set write the book on the Egyptian gods now that I'm thinking about it further, that would explain Daedalus' disappearance a few years back.

I followed Sara through the city with Mino, Penny, and Olivia at my side, I saw Adam and Seth going rooftop to rooftop above us. Seth was probably using shadow hop, a variant of shadow travel, and Adam was using Artemis' huntress training which he learned from Luna. Adam's endurance, speed, jump height, and sight was all doubled which was rather impressive for a mortal (even if they were half god). I heard a few gunshots around the area and some metal clashing against metal. Sara picked up the pace, and we all followed.

"Where in gods name is Sara going?!" Mino yelled looking around.

"Golden Gate! There's a group of demigods about to die for no reason!" Sara yelled.

"What do you mean?" Olivia asked worriedly.

"A group of reinforcements are heading to Atlantis. They're deploying from Golden Gate Bridge to sneak up on them, but if they take that path they'll be slaughtered by any forces waiting for them." Sara said.

"Isn't that path incredibly hidden inside and out?" Penny asked.

"Not if they go through it, the path leads into the Atlantian barracks." Sara admitted walking across a street.

We all followed Sara as she walked down the street to the large red bridge. Adam jumped down from the roof, landing gracefully on his feet, and Seth appeared from my shadow. I really hoped that we could get there before the demigods do their dive. While the fall would usually kill you, if you were a demigod with the marker of Poseidon you could dive off that bridge easily. The water would come up and cradle you into the ocean if you jumped in the right spot with that marker. Sara and Olivia could do the dive onto the path, but if the rest of us followed we would die the second we hit the water.

Sara walked onto the bridge in between the red railing on both sides, one that kept you from going off the bridge and one the kept you from going into traffic. The bright cochineal coloring was painted onto everything. The railings, the large supports, and the wires on the bridge. It was beautiful, especially the glistening water below us that reflected the sun beautifully with each wave that went by. Traffic was surprisingly light, but the wind was a bit hard. Nothing too bad though, it was quiet enough to hear everyone around me.

"If I get out of this war alive, this is where I'm moving to." Mino said looking at the water.

Olivia shot Mino a small glare in response and said "Let's get there first, Theseus."

"If we get out of this alive I'm moving to Town Caesar. Fuck this demigod bullshit. I signed up for adventures and friends, not war." Penny said.

"I'll join you there, that or New Athens if I still have my gift. My familiar and the spirit of Delphi really like Athens." I said pointing to my head.

Penny blushed lightly and smiled happily. We kept walking along the sidewalk, I was looking around for a group of soldiers. Instead of soldiers about three dozen arrows landed in front of us and and the street. Traffic came to a complete stop and two legionnaires stepped in front of the cars. Luke and Deonna walked alongside the new arrow barrier smiling. Deonna's eyes were glowing blue, and the barrier rose up as a magical wall. Luke drew his sword from its sheath and Deonna's rings turned into daggers that slid into her hands.

"Did a legionnaire tell you that reinforcements were gonna be here?" Luke smiled.

"Couldn't imagine who that would be." Deonna said holding up a metal hexagon with a trident in the middle.

Sara's eyes widened. "The legion never got the orders…" Sara said staring at the god marker.

"Nah, we captured the group mid order transfer. The orders never got to Neptune's Blessed's reserve force, hell the second set of them never even got to Pluto's Guard." Deonna said smiling.

"I was aware of that, though. They sent a spare set of orders with Mars' Legion, and the reinforcements I sent evacuated any soldiers they could." Keaton said from behind me.

I turned around quickly to see Keaton with ten members of Pluto's guard, and twenty fierce looking Marines that were each undead. Keaton had a cocky smile, and held his spear up. Deonna kept a wicked smile on her face, but Luke looked fucking pissed. A decent force of soldiers came through the barriers with weapons ready. Deonna laughed wickedly as she put her hand to a necklace with a moon on it engraved on it, she turned it around to reveal a sun engraved into the metal. It was then I remembered why she was Legatus Legionis of the moon half of her legion, even in daylight her power was immense. Shadow monsters and the undead came through the barrier with the soldiers, I couldn't count the mass of soldiers but I knew we were vastly out-fucking-numbered.