(RECAP: "See, that was successful wasn't it. Now we have reduced Tartarus' numbers and just have to wait for him to show up." Percy smiled.

"Let's hope we don't have any more surprises, we can't deal with any right now. We all will be needed here if we want to have a chance at defeating such huge numbers." Zeus said in an ominous voice, knowing that they weren't in a position to handle the absence of even a single God, Dionysus included.

"Lord Zeus, you might want to tell them the prophecy now." Percy reminded Zeus, while most of the senior demigods took a sharp intake of breath at the mention of another Prophecy.

*LINE BREAK*

"Besides, what better way to extract vengeance and wrestle control of the seas back again than allying with Tartarus." Oceanus laughed, for he knew this distraction and Tartarus' numbers would do the trick. And he also knew Poseidon would never abandon his Palace once again. He knew the sea would once again be at war, and the Gods would watch helplessly as they lose the war, and one by one, their pathetic lives.)

NARRATOR'S POV:

Zeus proceeded to tell the prophecy, which earned same looks from the campers and legionnaires alike as every prophecy ever has - confused and wary.

"The earth shall break and part way for hell, 

you will realize the lie in which you dwell. 

The lost hero shall reunite friends and foes,

But suffer worse than death to his woes. 

Indubitable, the sides may sound,

Misleading judgement shall lead to losses propound.

While Rome cringes in fright of the devil, 

The sea's anger shall rid the world of all evil. 

For destruction, for bloodlust the devil who pray,

Beware their life lightning shall slay."

"The first two lines sound really bad and depressing." Hazel spoke.

"The next line gives us hope only for the following line to dash them." Piper said.

"Misleading judgement - I don't like the sound of that." Jason spoke with narrowed eyes.

"If Rome cringes in fright I don't even want to know what this devil is." Frank shivered while Reyna had identical expressions.

"The last three lines provide hope. The sea is obviously Percy, but again we can't be sure as the Gods are taking part and it might end up to be Poseidon for all we know. Same goes for lightning, only with more possibilities as there are two children of Zeus amongst us." Annabeth said.

"So all in all our average prophecy. Pfft. Piece of cake." Leo said, earning raised eyebrows from the Gods, but his friends just rolled their eyes.

Percy knew the Lost Hero was Leo, he had helped stop the war and combined the Greek and Roman forces, but didn't speak anything. Mainly because of the line that followed. But suffer worse than death to his woes. He had a feeling all his friends knew, but weren't saying anything because of the same reason. He also had a feeling that their anger and resentment towards him was soon going to overshadow their maturity and sense of importance of the war. Inevitable as it may seem, he just didn't wanna end up dead by Thalia or Clarisse or someone else's hand."

"Now that we have the prophecy, I'll advice you all to use is as a guidance rather than try making something out of it and wasting valuable time." Zeus spoke, observing the thoughtful looks on the senior campers, especially the children of Athena like Annabeth and Malcolm.

"Dad, what are we to do now? Simply wait for Tartarus to show up?" 

"Unless you wish to go to Tartarus to attack him, son." Zeus said, but with a small smile to let Jason know he was joking. 

"Uh, no thanks. Won't be needing that kind of experience on my resume anytime soon."

Just then, Poseidon fell on the floor clutching his head. "No. Not now, this isn't possible. No, no, no." He was muttering.

Zeus and Percy rushed to him.

"What ! Is Tartarus Attacking! Poseidon what's wrong?"

"Dad! Why..? OH..." Percy realized.

"What?" Zeus asked.

"It's not Tartarus, or it may be Tartarus, but he hasn't attacked here. It's the Ocean. The Ocean has been attacked.

Poseidon rose up, and spoke "I have to get back to my palace, they are being attacked. We don't know who this enemy is, but most probably it is Tartarus. Will any of you be coming to aide me?" Poseidon asked looking at Zeus.

"Go, make sure it is Tartarus and has a huge army. If the army is small it might just be a distraction and the attack will happen here and destroy Mt. Olympus. Otherwise IM us, brother. Then grant the Council the permission to enter your domain. We shall destroy Tartarus and his ocean forces." Zeus nodded, and Poseidon was about to vanish.

"Dad, take me with you. I can help."

"We played that little Triton stunt Percy. They currently hate you. If I have to call you all there I will clear things out there then call you. If not,  we don't have that time now."

Percy understood. He just nodded while Poseidon vanished.

They waited for a few moments, then an IM appeared with a very worried looking Poseidon.

"It's a small army." He said.

"Then why are you looking so worried Poseidon?" Hades asked his brother.

"Because the army isn't Tartarus' either. Oceanus has grabbed this opportunity to ally with Tartarus, and I can't leave my home unprotected this time. You will have to deal with Tartarus yourself it seems." He replied sadly.

The Gods and campers watched the sea God wide eyed. Percy was so taken aback that Bob had to shake him out of his reverie. He had no words to speak, just like the rest of them. Poseidon just stared sadly "I'll come as soon as I can, just try to hold them off for a while, then we shall all attack together."

Zeus nodded and Poseidon swiped his hands through the mist.

"Okay this isn't so bad." Athena spoke, and we she spoke, people tended to listen since she was almost always right.

When none of the onlookers spoke a word The goddess of wisdom continued

"If Poseidon can finish off the war in two days after Tartarus attacks, we have to only hold for a while. On the first day Tartarus plans to retreat. On the second day he will be waiting for his army to join. The one that was sent to destroy the camps. But we foiled that plan, so no new reinforcements shall be there on day 2."

"And then once Poseidon comes we can hopefully push them and defeat them." Zeus said, nodding at the idea.

"We can't." Percy said, earning raised eyebrows and questioning looks from everyone present in the room, Bob included.

He sighed and spoke

"Tartarus is the pit itself. With his added power now, smallest of the monsters take about a day to reform, some bigger ones take two days. If Tartarus sends all kinds of monsters right from day 1, by the time dad comes their numbers will have hardly diminished. And by the time Lord Zeus plans to push them on the defensive, the bigger monsters from day one will have joined the fight. Not to mention Tartarus is a Primordial and if the Gods can't hold him back for even one minute, one attack and he'll destroy a huge part of our army."

The campers and  Gods alike looked at a loss, just then Percy spoke

"Lord Zeus, have you notified Tyson? He is the commander of the Cyclops Army and his brothers will be needed in this war."

"I haven't as a matter of fact, and I won't yet. They need to make arrows and other weapons as fast as they can, we can't deal with dwindling resources Perseus. But I'll call them if I see we have enough and the enemy might fall, or that we desperately need their aide." Zeus said, to which Percy nodded. Just then Hades spoke.

"Not to seem off the topic but has anyone seen my son Nico?" Nico wasn't present in the crowd. Nico wasn't in the Greek camp when Percy visited once, wasn't in the Roman camp when Percy visited there twice. 

"I thought he was with you doing your underworld business so I wasn't even worried!" Hazel exclaimed. 

"Chill guys. I haven't forgotten death breath. He'll soon come. I sent him to fetch Grover. He knows my plan, knew since the beginning. I sent him as soon as I told him everything, so he must've crashed out a lot along the way due to extensive shadow travelling since Grover went on some other continent for some Lord of the Wild work, but when they get back we shall have an army of Wild." Percy said. "And most probably a passed out son of Hades." He added as an afterthought.

Hades and Hazel nodded looking relieved. Just then the ground shook beneath them and they rushed towards the windows to see what caused the commotion.

"Tartarus' army. The war has begun." Zeus breathed, stunned at the size and variety of the enemy army.

Within a moment, the Gods had teleported the demigods all out of the throne room and in front of Olympus an disappeared. "Remember that you have to defend the throne room at all costs children. And call us as soon as Tartarus shows his presence. Praetors take charge of the legionnaires, Perseus, Jason, Annabeth divide the Greek forces into three and lead them. You haven't got the time to assign areas to cabins like last time or set traps, but you have the numbers." Zeus had said before we were teleported.

"We have numbers, well so do they." Percy thought.

The army was still far away, marching leisurely as if having all the time in the world. Yeah, a monster army of about a thousand monsters with various shades of ugly could be seen from a distance walking like they were coming to meet old friends. Suddenly the demigods and Gods alike (watching from the throne room from Hephaestus TV) gulped, thankful that they'd voted that the camp be blasted. If that army had combined with this one, they would've had no chance. The Roman Praetors had divided the army in two and one of them led by Frank was retreating, finding spots to hide. These were the archers, finding spots from where they could pick off enemies. The hunters of Artemis did the same, Thalia leading them. Percy, Jason and Annabeth - inarguable the greatest leaders the century had seen, came together for a discussion. They knew that they had a while since the monsters were pretty far away and had actually stopped, maybe waiting for the ugliest of the lot to step forward and lead.

Within five minutes, the Romans stood in a turtle formation or testudo formation as they called it - It was very impressive, forming a barricade of shields around them. The Romans came together, stuck their shields tightly to each other. The ones in the front line kneeled down and placed their shields tightly on the ground and connected so close that no gaps were left for arrows or spears to hit the soldiers. The same procedure was followed on all the four sides, and the ones in between raised their shields over their head so that it was a fortified castle of its own. The first line had the job of attacking and when one of them died the one behind him would replace him. They formed a kind of shell around them to protect themselves as well as attack, hence the name turtle. Hazel and Dakota and the rest of the centurions were in the first line. As the enemy got closer this formation would break and the last line that consisted of expert spear wielders would throw their spears at their enemies, the whole army then charging into battle as one. The archers would also at this point discard bows, unsheathe their spears and swords and join their other half with Frank leading. Reyna and Frank were good...

While the Romans stood in this formation with their praetor standing proudly beside them ready to ride a new Pegasus since skipio had died, Annabeth put forth a plan, Jason added some things and Percy modified a few things to arrange the Greeks in a formation.

Then Percy called the entire Apollo cabin and the remaining cabin leaders. The plan was discussed and passed on. Soon the Greeks, who were known for disorder and a bit of carefree attitude were standing in a formation that was a combination of the ancient Greek Phalanx and the Testudo formation along with a few impressive modifications from Percy. The sight made Reyna's eyes bulge out of her sockets, stunned at what a deadly order they stood in.

The Apollo campers, unlike the Romans stood as the first line kneeling down, bows ready and arrows aimed at the sky. The second line consisted of spear users, barricading themselves with shields on all sides just like the Romans. Only, they were standing instead of kneeling down. The third line again consisted of archers - the Apollo cabin was quite huge and even some other campers that had taken a liking to bows were present. These soldiers were standing instead of kneeling, their arrows aimed straight and sideways instead of upwards. The ones aimed sideways were of course special arrows like supersonic ones and fire and water ones and a few more. These meant to disrupt the enemy attack long enough for the fourth line to come into picture. The most strangest yet the most deadly line, these were the kids of Hephaestus, Leo present in the line. They had vials of Greek fire and multiple weird looking devices that spewed large amount of Poison and Fire when thrown. Much like a handful of grenades. They had these things in large quantities. The rest of the lines that followed were combatants and would come into picture only after the damage was done, but they had also fortified themselves like the Romans from all sides so no spears or swords could get through. There were about 20 such lines, 200 soldiers in all ready to face hundreds of monsters. The first four lines consisting of throwers were supposed to throw whatever they had planned - arrows, vials, spears, then use their shields to retreat to the back of the army. Then the Greeks would remove shields from above their heads, raise their spears and charge.

The Gods were a bit stunned at the speed with which the three came up with all this, their parents looking at them with pride. Except Poseidon of course.

The plan had more to it. Percy and Jason nodded to each other, grabbed their shields, took out their weapons - the famous pen and the coin from their pockets. They were to start the proceedings with a little bit of a hurricane and tornado, then Blackjack and tempest ( whom they had summoned while their army was arranging itself ) would get them out of the way and the first line would begin the task of demolishing the huge army.

The monster army watched from a distance and snorted, confident that their numbers would completely destroy the demigods. Their leaders had taken charge - the minatour, echidna - the mother of all monsters and the chimera. A few hydras and Laistrygonian giants and cyclops formed the front lines while the rest had lesser monsters like Telekhines, The gorgons Stheno and Euryelle (thankfully no medusa), dracaenae and the list went on and on. Tartarus hadn't appeared yet, but on some unknown signal, the monsters charged. Just as the monsters were nearing the river, Reyna yelled

"Romans ! At Arms !" And they locked their shields and notched their bows ready to fire.

Before the Romans could attack, they saw a very big hurricane and Jason in the centre of it making them halt in their tracks. Percy was on blackjack. The Pegasus soared to a certain height then Percy simply jumped down and hit the ground kneeling on one knee. It caused a massive earthquake that sent a lot of the lesser monsters to plummet down to their deaths in the river and even a few bigger and stronger ones to lose balance.

Percy then concentrated on the water and formed a defense in front of him and his friends. He solidified this wall of defense so that the enemies could not send any kind of things hurling at them. Blackjack scooped down and got Percy out of there. He dropped the tired son of Poseidon near the Greeks. Percy uncapped riptide, then let the wall down in a huge splash of water. The greatest swordsman of the century hadn't even raised his sword and already destroyed large chunk of the enemy. The monsters at first looked relieved and angry at the same time, then afraid and...well afraid at the same time.

They stared wide eyed as not one, not two but about 10 hurricanes came in their direction. A smart few took cover, but the rest were not so bright and ended up falling into the river as the hurricanes threw the monsters helter skelter, mostly in the water. Jason stood exactly where he had been when Percy had made a wall, proud of the new trick he had learned by Percy's idea. The two children of the big three had alone destroyed one third of their enemies including the powerful Echidna and Chimera, for both of whom the combined attack proved too much - without even stepping into battle, and the look of certainty of the monsters' eyes was now gone now. The demigods cheered, then began what even the Gods had termed the most difficult battle of their existence. Jason and Percy waited out a while, but Annabeth commanded and the Greeks got ready for the attack, the first line aiming their arrows ready to fly into the enemy camp, flailing as many monsters as they could before they had to retreat and the second line would took over.

(A/N: IMAGINE THE FORMATIONS IN YOUR HEAD OTHERWISE THEY WON'T MAKE MUCH SENSE. I HAVE TO SAY, ALL THOSE TWISTS AND STUFF I CAME UP WITH, THIS WAS THE CHAPTER BY FAR THAT HAD ME THINKING THE MOST.SO FOR THOSE WHO BOTHER TO READ THESE NOTES, PLEASE LET ME KNOW HOW IT IS, GGOD OR BAD.)

(fRoM ThE eDiToR's DeSk:

CONGRTULATIONS TO THE PAST WINNER!!! @Cloudinessgaze, YOU WERE PRETTY FAST!

CONTINUING THE GAME, NEXT QUESTION IS:

Who faced more loses during the war with Gaea? Greeks or Romans?)
Do remember to tag me )