CHAPTER LXXXIV:Back To Back;

I came to in another open arena, it was made to look like the Roman Colosseum. Above me was an open sky filled with stars. Hecate was in the stands with Echo by her side, Hestia joined them in the stands sitting next to Echo. I sat up and saw Seth, Santoro, and Olivia in the arena with me. Olivia had her sword and dagger drawn, Seth held a sword and his handheld crossbow, and Santoro had his dagger drawn instead of his raiper. I stood up and squeezed my fists, my twin daggers swiftly slid into my hands.

Hecate stood up from her seat, "Welcome to the arena! You four will fight together against legions of enemies before moving on to the final trial! The first part is preparation, which starts now!"

Hecate's voice filled the arena and bounced off all of the walls. My guess was Echo was responsible for it, her mimicking abilities were on point. Seth took a bag off of his shoulders and started taking some gear out for everyone. He took out a few infinite water bottles with some cups, some granola bars, and ammunition, Olivia's sand bolts for her dagger and some crossbow bolts with phoenix feathers tied to the tip, and laid them all on the ground in front of us. Greek Adventurers were trained to make use of what they had when they left, the same with rogue demigods, while the legions were taught space management and were given specially made MREs.

I got a granola bar and a water bottle then walked to one of the walls to be alone. I opened the foil wrapper and started eating the granola bar while taking swigs from my water bottle. While I did I set my sword next to me and turned my daggers into rings. I unsheathed my dagger from my belt feeling the energy stored in the dagger. I looked at the blood enchanted blade and saw myself in the reflection. When did I learn to master blood magic transference? That takes years to master and I had only just started, right? I looked at my blade and my eyes were glowing a bright peridot green.

I looked up from my blade to see myself with my mother, Julie Riley, we both had oak brown hair but my mother had emerald green eyes. We were running towards the gates of The Underworld. Behind the both of us was a task force of Jupiter's Strikers running for us. They wore Roman armor, and the same stormy grey uniform underneath. All of Jupiter's legionaries had platinum plumes with a lightning bolt welded on the side on their helmets. In front of me was Seth, he was behind the gate for the fields of asphodel, being guarded by Cerberus.

"They're getting away!" A man yelled from the group of legionnaires.

The group stopped and lined up, they held their shields up and readied their spears. I could practically feel the hit of electricity. All five of the legionnaires struck their spear tips against the ground and spun them around and hit their spear tips against their shields. Five blasts of electricity came from the group, my mom pushed me out of the way as two blasts of electricity hit her. My mom was sent to the ground and fell in front of me, I tumbled next to the river bed of The Styx.

I continued to watch from afar as my past self went to stand up and got stabbed in the chest by a cold, steel, spear. I coughed up blood and grabbed the spear trying to pull away. The legionnaire called a strike of lightning from above hitting me directly and then kicked me off the spear into The River Styx. I ran over to my past self at the Styx and froze, my hair had turned white and the wound in my chest was closing. A small dagger fell from my belt, it looked just like my new one with a slight variation. There was a black and white snake curled up around the handle, that and there was no mark of Thanatos and Morpheus on the handle.

Hades ran to the river and I came to hearing yelling. "Wake up!" Seth yelled shaking me violently.

"What happened?!" I asked dropping my granola bar.

"You blacked out….like you were having a vision. What did you see?" Seth asked keeping his hands on my shoulders.

I took a deep breath, my hands were shaking and they wouldn't stop, "I saw matérs death."

Seth looked at me for a moment, "You're Greek is coming back."

"I used to speak Greek?" I asked.

"Yeah, you studied Ancient Greek for years. You also knew some Latin before the incident, after you were shocked you forgot a lot. You actually forgot me for a bit, and what happened next," Seth explained.

I looked Seth in his dull grey eyes and asked a question that shook me to my core, "What happened next?"

Seth paused for a moment, "Hades saw you fall in The Styx and had me bring Achilles to the river to recover you. Then he…..Hades sent Cerberus after the legionnaires, Cerberus killed all but one. Emily Valdez, who was a Centurion at the time, escaped with a bite mark to her arm. Cerberus practically took it off, but Apollo and Asclepius healed her."

My father had sent Cerberus to kill a group of Strikers, for me? Hades risked punishment from Olympus after almost losing me. A part of me was happy and proud, while another part of me was sickened by what he had done.

"I need some more time alone, Seth," I said curling up slightly.

Seth nodded and moved away, he sat there for a moment before going over to Santoro and Olivia. I looked back at my dagger and picked it up and ran my hand along the blade. I focused on the handle and used some of my power to change it, a black and white snake curled around the handle again. The mark of Thanatos and Morpheus burned away completely and was replaced by the snakes head which faced me. The Pearl eyes and the white fangs completed the look of my old snake handle. The snakes body curled around the handle perfectly, leaving spots for my fingers to hold the dagger perfectly. I had also added one last detail to the dagger with my rediscovered magic, I put a gauge in the snake's body so I could see the amount of power I had in my dagger. My power was stuck at twenty-five percent of the dagger's max capacity.

"I knew you'd get it," Hecate said from in front of me, "Now let's make this permanent."

Hecate took my dagger from me and burned the mark of Hecate, a torch with a fork in the road behind it, into the blade itself. A white glow came over the dagger, and Hecate gave it back before walking away. I smiled and sheathed my dagger and picked my granola bar up, usually I wouldn't eat floor food but I was desperate. I finished the granola bar and drank my fill of water, I grabbed my sword and stood up. I sheathed my sword with renewed hope running through me. I was regaining my memories and my skills, and I was excited for when Zeus' curse wouldn't control my life anymore.

Hecate was back in the stands with Hestia and Echo, smiling wickedly, "I hope you're ready demigods and goddesses! Your new challenge is soon to come!"

Hecate's voice echoed through the arena once more, vibrating in my skull. Echo needed to tone it down is she was the one who did it. I looked up and saw dead warriors rising from graves, and the gates around us opened allowing ghostly lions and ghastly dogs from Asphodel. In the middle of the arena a large hole opened up, and a large cyclops climbed up from the hole. Time to fight the population of Tartarus, I thought squeezing my fists having my daggers come back into my hands. Everyone else grabbed their weapons and stood up, Seth had already packed everything back into his bag except ammunition which would help us. I stood at the ready as our new enemies circled us, and got close. Santoro, Olivia, Seth, and me all stood back to back facing a different direction ready for the fight of a lifetime.