Chapter 102: I love trees

(Nyx)

"The Sky," Aether muttered, "It burns." He tried to move but he couldn't. The Celestial bronze chains kept him tied to the hospital bed. If it wasn't for the chains Aether would've burned this place down to the ground.

I stared at him, feeling disappointed. I had hoped that Apollo would be able to cure him fast, but he had been stuck in his hallucination for almost a month and his situation didn't seem to improve anytime soon. Apollo of course tried a lot of things, but nothing seemed to work.

I felt a bit sad seeing the primordial of light drooling and crying for his mother. I was present but he didn't seem to notice me, even when I was right up in his face. Same for his wife, he was lost in his own personal hell.

...

(Pery POV)

Looking at the dragon was like staring at a optical illusion. At first you don't see it but once you see it you can't unsee it.

Looking up, at what I first thought to be the sky, I saw giant wings that were so big I could not imagine the full size. I knew I only saw a small part of what was the real size.

Two eyes I mistook for planets stared down at me, at random times both disappeared, only to reappear a second later. Like the dragon was blinking.

I could not see anything else except for the wings and the eyes.

I quickly glanced at Hel. She had a smug smile on her face which, her milky eyes returned my glare. "You could give up." Hel offered.

I stayed silent, I couldn't talk.

My mind was still trying to comprehend what was above me, Chaos wasn't there and neither was Lyssa. I really could use a goddess of madness today.

Sadly, she was nowhere to be seen.

I swallowed and kept staring at the monstrosity above me. Apparently Hel mistook it for me not wanting to surrender. She scoffed and muttered, "Well have fun dying here."

Before I could negotiate anything she turned into a flurry of snow and disappeared, leaving me alone at the bottom of the world tree.

I kept staring at the dragon. 'Maybe I'm too small to be noticed,' I thought, though it was wishful thinking.

Above me, the dragon tilted it head, it two gigantic eyes fixed their gaze on me clearly noticing me.

"Fuck." I muttered as Nidhogg opened his mouth, revealing a blazing hell that must been the inside of his mouth. From my perspective it looked like the gates of had opened. [No, we get to that part later] The fire was so fierce it almost blinded me right on the spot, I was sure it would've if it wasn't for the fact I was the champion of Apollo; the sun god.

This meant I could easily stare into the sun without getting blinded by it. This also counted for other bright things like firework and the divine Flashbangs the Hephaestus cabin created.

The mouth of Nidhogg looked like some kind of tunnel, tight walls that must have been his esophagus led down deeper into his body. The walls looked like burning magma with spikes piercing through the inside of his mouth making it look like some kind of cave.

The teeth of the dragons were as big as the Manhattan skyline. Each teeth was like a collection of skyscrapers pulled together and bended into a spike. There were multiple rows of teeths and together they were big enough to bite through anything in existence.

I swallowed and managed a croaked, "Hello."

Nidhogg opened his mouth wide.

The first thing that came through was a terrifying scream, like thousands and thousands of people screamed at the same time. It was a sick combination of a high pitched scream and a low animalistic roar.

The roar almost blew me of my tree root I was standing on, I barely managed to keep myself from falling. When the roaring stopped, the dragon narrowed it eyes. It must have been really surprised by the fact I was still standing.

He opened his mouth for a second time and a waterfall of fire crashed down on and before I knew it I was surrounded by fire. When I opened my eyes all I saw were flames engulfing everything in my vision.

How was it? It was hot and confusing, I was fire-resistant but standing in a fire waterfall was certainly not normal, even for me.

The fire crashed down on me and it made a lot of noise, along with the fact that the standing in fire blinded my vision it was annoying. But the fire also had a different effect, it helped me.

It felt like I had a splash of water in my face, or like I took a good cup of coffee. I felt a new energy rush through my veins and suddenly I was aware of my surroundings. It was like a sixth sense had activated itself, I could feel a small stream of water rushing through the root underneath me. It was weak but still present. I could sense Helheim being around thousand miles below me, I could sense the entire size of the Nidhogg but it didn't scare me. I just took it as a fact.

I felt awake and more alive than I've ever bin, which was funny considering I was dead.

My mind had taken a step back and tried to analyze my situation, not skipping one detail. I immediately realized that the fact I was fire resistant didn't meant the root underneath me was. I estimated that the only reason it was not burned to ash yet was the fact it was the root of the world tree and that there was still a little bit of life left inside it.

I waved my hand and wielded the fire to move around the root, but not to much because I didn't want Nidhogg to find out I wasn't burned to pieces. Second, I realized that as soon as the dragon stopped his firewater fall (which shielded me from his sight) and found out I was still there he would try something else to kill me. Things that were more likely to kill me than the fire.

I only had mere seconds, I narrowed my eyes and considered all options.

Growing ice wings to escape, but I didn't know how to fly nor if it actually works on demigods. I skipped to plan B; Trying to wield the flames right back at him. Problem, most dragons in mythology were fire resistant. Plan C; Trying to teleport away from here, but Nyx wasn't here to help me, nor was I able to telep-

I could teleport, something I've only done a few times before and only in practise. Something Katie had learned me, but I sucked at.

Plant teleportation,

Katie had showed me she could teleport away by touching plants, it was exhausting and ineffective and that was the reason I hadn't used it at all. Along with the fact I sucked at it and could only teleport a meter away. But right now I was not just using a small plant. I was standing on the world tree.

My eyes widened and I knelt down, pressed both my hands against the black tree root. I felt the small stream of water trying to flow up towards the tree branches. I silently prayed that Nidhogg wouldn't stop spitting fire anytime soon and tried to channel my power through the tree root.

At first I felt nothing then I felt the water rushing through the root faster than it had been before. In front of my eyes the roots changed from black to a dark green shade. I grinned and tried to teleport myself.

If I was right the tree would boost my teleportation power, being connected to all nine worlds.

"Magnus," I muttered, "Bring me to Magnus."

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