NARRATOR'S POV :

Athena had a very logical explanation for the Prophecy, but how true was it? Only time would tell. For now, the demigods were both shocked and happy at once owing to the turn of events. Tartarus was fuming with anger. Once again he'd underestimated Percy Jackson. Initially, he'd thought making the oath was merely losing an advantage. But now he himself, the great Tartarus was rendered useless because of a stupid oath.

The war had not yet even begun after Tartarus entered the battlefield, but somehow suddenly things looked glum for the monsters. True, they had thrice the numbers. But when demigods go on a rampage, numbers matter little. Tartarus needed to get out of this situation. Unlike his children or wife, Tartarus was clever, patient and not as overconfident. He could already see the result of underestimating one lone demigod. Now right in front of him was an army. The Demigods and Gods had all taken up arms with a new kind of confidence that looked like it wouldn't falter anytime soon. They were patiently waiting for Tartarus to make his move, as he was the one to look for.

Meanwhile, Tartarus thought
"If I fight right now, I won't be able to harm the demigods but these stupid Olympians will be able to attack my army. There's no oath binding them after all. On the other hand, if the army retreats it'll look like I'm weak. But if I...Hmm..." He had a thought as he smiled to himself.

Then he looked at Percy and said
"Very well played Perseus. Indeed very well played. But do not think this will alter the result of this war. My victory is imminent!"

Percy smirked "Last time we had a chat I fooled you into making an oath. The time before that we had a chat I fooled you into believing that I was your ally. That's two out of two for me. You still wanna chat some more Tartarus? Or get on with the defeat as fast as you can?" Percy mocked.

Tartarus wasn't an egoistic jerk like Kronos but had high regard for himself. He fumed with rage and said darkly "Up until now I was taking this as a game. I wasn't even trying to attack you, just scare you. You made this personal Perseus Jackson. Now I will tread with caution."

"So I made the 'Oh so great Tartarus' cautious !" Percy countered.

Tartarus gave a sinister smile "You and I both know what I'm capable of Perseus. But by all means, laugh at me. I can put aside my ego if it means winning this war."

That wiped the smile off Percy's face as he watched Tartarus nervously.

"Think of new attempts to outsmart us and fail Tartarus. Meanwhile, if you don't mind, we're gonna kill your army. You can either chose to watch or fight the Gods. As it is, unlike some fools here no oath is holding the Olympians back from killing enemies. You have the numbers - unwinnable as it may seem. But we have the Gods." Percy said, making a huge mistake. Tartarus carefully scrutinized his words and clicked his fingers.

He gave a wide smile and spoke "You are absolutely right, no oath holds them back. But the laws sure do! You are a strange man, making me swear an oath then helping me in return!"

"What do you mean? The ancient laws allow them to fight now since you've shown up." Percy said, now confused.

Tartarus said "HA! Of course, of course. Keeping that conversation aside Percy, tell me this - if there are neither Gods nor me present in the battle, who do you think will win?"

"I don't have to think about scenarios that will never exist."

"Aw, no answer? Never mind, I know the answer. You'll lose. You'll die pathetically and painfully. Then the remaining numbers along with me can easily overpower the Gods!"

Percy shrugged carelessly, having no idea where Tartarus was leading this conversation. Iapetus spoke from the crowd

"Be that as it may, Tartarus...that can only happen in one of your dreams. Now I suggest you move on after being fooled and just fight and prepare to lose."

"Ah." Tartarus spoke coldly and with harshness "My 'son' !" He mockingly emphasized the last word then continued "Dreams do come true, don't they!"

Now Percy was looking at the Primordial warily, so were his friends. Tartarus' smile was meanwhile only growing wider by the moment. He continued

"Your Gods are here because I am. Without them, you are nothing. Similarly, without me, they are nothing. If I leave the battlefield then they will have to follow suit, the ancient laws prohibit them from participating in the fights of their children. You have no chance against this army now. HAHAHA!" Tartarus laughed delightfully as if he'd just hit a bullseye after multiple failed attempts. That looked to be true considering the gaping expressions of the demigods.

"You will run away?" Percy tried to hurt Tartarus' pride.

In return, to everyone's astonishment, the evil being just laughed.

"I may not be a strategist, but even a child can see what you're trying to achieve here Perseus. Call me a coward, shout out to this world that I ran away if that's what you desire. But you know as well as I do Jackson, once I'm done with you those you speak the tale of me leaving the battlefield to will have long gone to the underworld. As to my children, they think of this as a very smart move - they hate you kids and they'd love to have you for themselves, isn't it right children?" Tartarus looked at the huge army that were his children.

"Harr! Harr! and hundreds of other wild and weird noises echoed through the night that had become eerily silent as the monsters screamed and cheered in approval. The conversation and the drama ensued today had taken so long that dawn was just about to break. Annabeth realized this and decided that in order to stand a chance against this 'unwinnable' army as Percy had himself put earlier, they needed time. She needed to stall the conversation in order to let dawn break so the army could retreat - only a few minutes more.

"There must definitely be some flaws in your plan Tartarus, otherwise why would you lack confidence?" Annabeth chose words smartly as she had observed that while Tartarus didn't give in to pride hurting or egging on, he was helpless when curiosity got the best of him.

The daughter of Athena's words served their purpose, piquing Tartarus' interest. He looked at her with a raised eyebrow and spoke "Me? Lacking confidence? I suffered a few setbacks, I admit. But this is a war and I didn't expect a no-show from you, I had anticipated it to not be easy. But I was always confident that the end result would be in my favour, so not sure what you speak of Annabeth Chase."

"The fact that you had to have Thalia kidnapped to get secrets out of her? The fact that you had to blackmail Artemis to spy for you? Or despite having such a huge army, resorting to immoral ways like kidnapping Percy's mortal mother and hurting her? Where was your confidence then Tartarus? Why would you stoop so low if you were confident of your numbers?"

Tartarus just smiled.

"They were all part of the plan. Some were unintentional, some urgent and some well thought of. And what you described was hardly stooping low, you silly girl. Remember, I had to take help from your pathetic boyfriend of a demigod. Demigod! I think if I can stoop so low as to do that, what I did most certainly qualifies as anything but showcasing lack of confidence."

"So you can do anything to win? Just how desperate are you? And why? It's not like we've done something to you. And as much as I hate to admit it, you seem like the kind of God who would prefer minding his own business. But suddenly you rise, you try to brainwash one of our own, then just set out to annihilate everything...why? Surely you don't hate the Olympians that much?" Annabeth tried a different approach.

Tartarus had a thoughtful expression on his face for a long time before he finally said: "Actually, the reason was you."

"Me? How?" Annabeth asked confused.

"You...and Perseus. You escaped from the pits of me alive. And not only that, you managed to turn two of my stronger children against me. One of them still fights alongside you. I first heard your name when Kronos was defeated. Then once again heard you were part of the seven that defeated my wife. I was curious to see what you must be capable of. You destroyed the giants and you made Gaea sleep. The Gods were present to assist you only because the prophecy demanded. In the past, I had heard a lot about brave heroes and their tragic ends." He paused to take a break then continued

"Your names though, all of you. I kept on hearing about your successes. I understood you worked as a team. There had been a hero or two that was exceptional in the past, sure. But a whole group was a novelty. At first, I thought there were only over exaggerations all around, then you came into my pit-body and proved me wrong. I had to come up and see for myself how good this lot was, how capable you were and how much were your capabilities exaggerated. Turns out they weren't. You actually got to me on a few occasions."

"You honestly must be the first enemy we've faced that actually entertained the idea of a possible failure in your head and planned accordingly," Annabeth observed.

Tartarus nodded "That is one of the main reasons I know I won't fail. I do not understand love, but I do not underestimate its power. Nor do I prefer to taunt or mock. A war is won on numbers and skills. Admittedly you have the skills, but the sheer numbers shall now render all the skillset in the world you possess helpless."

Now Annabeth was running out of plans to stall, it seemed to be taking the sun forever to rise today. She mentally cursed Apollo while Tartarus, for some reason was staring at Annabeth as if expecting or waiting for more to chat about. When Annabeth sighed, he gave a small smile and said

"Good try Annabeth, but like I told you I'm smarter than I look. If you want a day's break then honourably demand one. I can grant you that. I fight viciously but honourably. Stalling me isn't going to get you anywhere" Tartarus chuckled.

Annabeth's cheeks reddened as she felt like a kid being entertained just to keep her from crying.

She thought to herself "Chuckling! The nerve of him!"

Just then dawn broke, a ray of sunshine slipped through some clouds and hit the ground. The monsters were all murmuring and already beginning to retreat. They all literally retreated into the ground. In a few moments, the area was clear of monsters. Tartarus, however, stayed back.

Then he dramatically began sinking back into the ground. Halfway under the ground, he spoke

"Tomorrow this ends, one way or another. Be prepared for your final stand demigods. You tried hard, but now you have nothing to come up with. Numbers win wars, which I do have. Goodbye for today, you shall meet only my army henceforth as I promised. So once again Olympians" He said looking at the Olympians while almost fully having sunk into the ground

"You will only be able to watch as your children die...again." And with that, he sank beneath the ground. The ruptures and cracks in the ground didn't seem to fix itself, so the demigods guessed that the monsters and Tartarus would make an appearance from there itself the next day.

"Father, teleport the children to the throne room. We have to do something about the situation before we let any of them rest." Athena said referring to the need to make strategies for the day later as they faced an army thrice their size.

Zeus nodded and with that, the Gods flashed out to the throne room leaving Zeus behind. He himself first teleported there then with a snap of his fingers brought the demigods in the room.

Without wasting further time, Zeus asked Athena and her children to come up with something. Hope seemed to be decimated along with numbers in the enemy ranks. They had already lost more than half of their numbers - this was easily the bloodiest war there had been in recent times.

Meanwhile, Percy looked extremely sad. Not because of what the situation was but because of what he knew he had to do. One thing was certain - if they went to war now they had no chance of victory. He had zoned out, and when he heard the ongoing conversation Athena was shaking her head dejectedly and saying

"No father, there really is no way we can set so many traps. Besides these children need to rest otherwise they will faint on the battlefield."

"We have no chance of victory if you don't fight. We'll all die either way! So why not break the laws instead? Annabeth offered depressed.

"Ancient rules are self-upholding and have punishments that in the olden days were termed as unbelievably horrible. Who knows, if we break the laws and we are automatically thrown from rulership, Tartarus may be allowed to take over even if he is in a weak form. Laws cannot be played with my dear, we're sorry." Athena said softly, understanding that even if her daughter had suggested something unwise, she was in a flurry of thoughts and hence the suggestion.

"It's okay mother, I understand."

After contemplating for a little longer, Percy spoke

"There is one way, but it's too risky." All the talking and discussions ceased, stares hooked at Percy with burning curiosity.

"Just say it, nothing can be riskier than our current predicament Percy." Poseidon urged his son to speak up

After a huge intake of breath, Percy started "You remember the explosion at Camp Jupiter? Those special bombs?" He asked and a few nodded while the others waited for him to go on

"I had a few more designed, and I planted them in some other location also." (A/N: REFER CHAPTER 10 IF YOU DON'T REMEMBER THIS)

"What other location? Spit it out already." Frank spoke frustrated.

"Tartarus. The place where the current army is resting."

Total silence. Then total pandemonium.

"What the hell?"

"Why didn't you say sooner?"

"We can easily win this! Just blast the whole place!"

"We won't have to even fight!"

"ENOUGH!" Zeus boomed as the demigods silenced themselves. Then Percy took over.

"There were two reasons I didn't say this earlier. One was that the monsters only just now went to that place to rest and wait for the day to pass. No point blowing up an empty area, right? Second was...The gods would never allow it."

There were some confused murmurs.

"Percy, why would we not allow you to kill an army by blasting something underground? The damages may be austere, but in the end, we'll win without losing a single more life!"

"Because..." He hesitated.

Poseidon now looked his son in the eye and said

"Percy, son. Whatever it is, just say it."

Percy again inhaled a deep breath then said

"Because the location of those dynamites is sensitive and their quantity is humongous. Where they are planted, they will destroy the whole building there, I honestly don't know how even the mist will be able to hide something this huge."

"That isn't our concern Percy, right now we just have to win! Let the building be destroyed, let anything related to Greek and Roman mythology in that particular structure be destroyed. We can fix that."

Now Percy looked Zeus in the eye instead of his father

"I don't think so. Because that structure is this very building we are in."

Again there was silence.

A stupid Roman said "So what? We can just move out from here! The throne room was destroyed once and remodelled, it can be done again!"

Percy apparently knew the camper and addressed him by name

"Michael, are you aware that the Gods' power stems from their thrones?"

When The camper nodded Percy continued

"Last time the throne room was destroyed. All Kronos wanted was to destroy the thrones in individual to render the Gods powerless." And realization dawned on his face

"Oh..so...You mean the blast will destroy the thrones?"

Percy nodded meekly.

"The blast will destroy their power and most likely make them mortal. Then they will first have to defeat Tartarus who will be in full power. We have that sword of course, and we won't have an army against us. But Gods may actually die in that battle...not fade away temporarily to be reborn. They will permanently lose control over their domains. I and Jason might not be able to use air and water. Frank and Leo may be able to use their powers since they were born with it in their blood. The world won't have a ruler. It shall be total mayhem. Earth as we knew it will become a history."

Once he finished, Percy looked at Zeus questioningly.

"As much as I hate to admit, these times are for survival, not power. But this is too much to give away. Some of us would rather die than become mortal and die at the hands of Tartarus. We will still call for a vote. This time only Olympians may vote. All in favour of Percy's idea raise your hands..."

(A/N: SINCE THIS IS MOST LIKELY THE SECOND LAST CHAPTER, I EDITED THIS MYSELF.) (VOTE AND COMMENT HOW IT GOES SO FAR, THIS IS DRAWING TO AN END NOW.)