DA : Chapter 159: Rampage III

Annabeth gave one last dismissive snort at the disposed garbage before moving on, still not feeling sated in her growing bloodlust as her dagger glowed an ominous scarlet that was even starting to bleed through into her eyes.

...

She felt a red haze start to encroach on her vision, her heart speeding up as a warmth spread, echoes of panicked screams drifting through her ears mixed with pleas of mercy. She knew what was happening. She was connecting and embracing her domain.

War was still prevalent in the mortal world, even if not to the scale things like the world wars, Vietnam, and such took. Hidden wars between the powers of the world, gang and turf wars, civil wars and terrorist groups. War was everywhere and steadily growing in violence ever since Ares was faded.

And right now her method of war was the most prevalent. Small and fast operations to disrupt operations and invoke fear or panic, to cripple each other. Lies, black-mail, and back stabbing were the bread and butter of it all.

It was all there, feeding her, slowly driving her into a frenzy as more prayers reached her even beyond the traditional limits of the West. A nice little bonus ever since things like the Fall of Cordoba and even Rhea's appearance in Saint Peter's Square.

Before she had managed to hold off on the relatively little prayer and influence she received from those using Guerilla tactics in the West but with the increase, her needs to connect and personify that domain had only increased.

And now with her anger, her last restraints were slipping. A malicious smirk formed on her face as she moved through the narrow allies and dark corners of the abandoned mountain, pinpointing the forces under Pallas control and already planning on how to not only end them, but break and crush them.

To make each and every one of them regret ever having been born and thinking they could get away with harming her daughter. So with that in mind she moved, ducking around corners and jumping up and over buildings as she picked off each guard.

She landed behind one mortal sporting only black military fatigues and a few guns before waltzing up to his back and tapped him on the shoulder. He darted around and upon seeing her, jumped with widened eyes, about to shout out in draw attention. That simply wouldn't do. With a serene smile she close in and lashed out, her hand driving up and slamming into his slightly opened jaw.

The sound of his own teeth crushing themselves from her strike was almost funny to her as he dropped to his knees as he clutched as his own shattered jaw but whatever scream he was going to try was cut short as another quick jab to his throat left him a coughing and gagging mess. Looking down at the mortal she glanced to the side before smirked as she grabbed a handgun he'd dropped.

A silenced handgun.

A simple Glock by the looks of it, completely black and shiny. A quick check confirmed Celestial bronze rounds which was a pity. She'd wanted to use them on him. Still, with a shrug she tucked it into the back of her pants before grabbing the mortal's head, his eyes bugging out as he met her now crimson gaze. He opened his mouth to say something, maybe scream, but all that came was a gush of blubbering between blood and tooth bits that stained the front of her armor.

"That'll take forever to clean" she muttered as she looked down at her own breastplate before looking at the mortal.

Her scarlet eyes flashed with malice as she held the sides of his face almost tenderly. She gave him one last easy smile before slamming it back into the wall behind him.

Like an egg his head went, blood splattering from his mouth and the back of his crushed skull splashing her as well but she didn't care. Leaving the corpse she moved on. She still detected the small cluster of guards at the entrance to the throne room along with a couple inside the actual room besides Pallas and her daughter.

Growling lowly she skulked about until she climbed one of the smaller temples and had a direct line of sight to the grand doors leading into the throne room. Spotting the same mix of monsters and mortals she moved around the other side of the roof and out of their sight. She knew that she was currently downwind so there wasn't a worry of the cyclops sniffing her out but that didn't mean the situation would remain if she managed to get around them.

However it would be more beneficial to get around them rather than kill them regardless of how much she wanted to, knowing that an ambush on Pallas would only be possible as long as he didn't specifically detect her. He had to know she was already in the city upon her arrival but she'd suppressed her presence by instinct and as long as he didn't see her himself, she was an unknown. An unknown with a weapon made for ambushes.

With that in mind she prepared to scale down and use the back alleys to get to the back of the last cliff leading up to the mountain rather than make use of the steps. However, as she took a step she stumbled as her senses were bombarded along with a freezing pressure fell on her shoulders. Gasping and nearly losing her concentration to hide herself, she paused as her scarlet eyes instantly turned up, widening in disbelief.

It was only now that she really looked up to the sky, not having bothered before as she focused on the task at hand but now was different. A small break in the stormy clouds over Olympus gave her unrestricted sight of the moon. But it wasn't the moon she was familiar with. The light wasn't soft and detached as normal. It wasn't soothing and pretty. Instead the moon was covered in a harsh, almost angry glow as its surface was marred in all sorts of craters and trenches.

But that wasn't what really got her attention. That was solely on the one point of darkness writhing along the surface as tendrils of shadow moved along the moon's surface. And at the center of it all she could feel one unmistakable signature, Percy. But this wasn't like before. Before in the council's throne room they felt overwhelmingly powerful, dwarfing her to terrifying degrees but this was different. Before each had been powerful but at the same time, had a sense of being finite.

Like looking at an immense lake with the opposite shore just a thin, hazy line in the distance. This though was like looking out at the sea. It just went on and on making you doubt if there even was another shore to begin with.

'And that's what Artemis is facing,' she thought, for once feeling truly sorry for the goddess even after knowing everything she'd done and how she had it coming.

Luckily the pressure withdrew to the point it didn't feel like someone had made her to squat several tons of weight while in a freezer. She had no doubt it was still there and couldn't even imagine how that pressure felt to Artemis herself considering she was the sole target of that presence.

Still, tearing her eyes off the moon she returned her focus to getting around Pallas' guards, her mind having been literally shocked out of her frenzy as her eyes dimmed slightly but still held the faded red color to show her anger was still present.

At least she could rest assured that Pallas had definitely had his own senses thrown for the loop with that power surge and her own presence would be easier to hide. Smirking at that she continued on her way, swiftly moving to the back of the last cliff face leading up to the throne room.

Once there she glanced up before placing her shield on her back and her knife in her belt before beginning to scale the cliff side. Silently thanking Chiron for all those years of making her climb that damn lava wall, she made short work of climbing the rock face with little effort until she arrived at the back of the throne room.

Making a short check to make sure she was alone and knowing the atmosphere was still saturated with the power of the battle raging on the moon, she took out her symbol of power again before focusing on it. Within moments her formed seemed to become hazy before all but disappearing from all senses as far as she was aware, making her little more than a ghost as she moved silently to one wall with only a large window over a story off the ground.

Will the throne room lacked any other entrances aside from the main gates, she knew about the back room usually used by Zeus connected to the throne room. Spotting her target she took off in a sprint and once she got close used her momentum to run up the wall until she reached the window.

With a quick grab and pull she was in, her entrance nearly completely silent. Dropping into the surprisingly sparse room she moved through the darkened hall, her senses stretched out around her as she clung to the dark corners, her ears picking up some noise coming from the main throne room.

Once at the large door leading into the throne from behind Zeus and Hera's thrones, she slowly moved along the outer ring separated by columns that were several dozen feet away from the thrones themselves along with the audience seats still placed behind to make it seem more like a large amphitheater.

"Damn bitch …" she heard a rough voice mutter making her pause and slowly look from around a pillar, her eyes narrowing on the owner of the voice. "… Lost her …"

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Don't forget to throw some power Stones, to keep the story going.

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