FOR THE FINAL CHAPTER, LET'S HAVE PERCY'S POV:

Hey mortals! Good to be talking to you again! I'm Percy Jackson, but you probably already know that! How have you been?

Anyways, coming to the war...

I grabbed Annabeth's hand as we sat on Blackjack's back.

"You got any sugar cubes boss? Or doughnuts?"

"The world is about to end and the Gods have most likely lost immortality Blackjack, it's not the time for donuts!" I exasperated.

"Whatever you say boss." my Pegasus neighed sadly. I stroked his back affectionately. I'll never fully understand Pegasii.

Once Annabeth sat comfortably, I gave Blackjack the 'Go' signal.

"Go slow Blackjack, we need to keep up with Argus and the harpies, they are bringing the others in the camp trucks."

"Pfft boss I can't go that slow!"

"Unless you fancy a meeting with a very angry Tartarus, you'll have to go slow Blackjack." I deadpanned.
He visibly gulped.

"Oh, I'll take going slow as a challenge! Humans have slow cycling races don't they!"
I just rolled my eyes.

"Just get us there in one piece buddy, that's enough. Also, do you remember Tempest and Arion? Heard from them off late?" I asked while Blackjack's speed looked ridiculously slow and yet somehow I could see the truck being driven at very high speeds. The streets were empty courtesy the traitor God of sleep Morpheus once again. Blackjack responded in a negative to my earlier question and I hoped they would show themselves soon.

The hunters of Artemis were being led by Thalia and I just realized something. Reyna had already notified her sister Hylla and Lupa that she needed assistance. Now Lupa and her pack weren't frontline attackers but given the circumstances I'd expected them to at least show up. And Hylla....It has now been 5 days since she was asked for aide and she still hasn't come. When does she wanna come...after the war is finished?

Soon I could sense sinister power, feel the anger and witness the destruction done by a very angry Tartarus as he roamed the streets of New York. Mortals didn't seemed to be harmed but the streets were filled with lava and tar.

"He seems close. We'll get down here buddy, get yourself out of here as fast as you can. I don't want you getting hurt."

"Pfft Please boss I can take care of myself!" Blackjack said confidently as he landed.

"You just take care of yourself. I don't know why evil beings hate you so much, you are nice and you bring me doughnuts..."

I sighed at my Pegasus' immaturity. Whoa what? Since when did I become mature? Hmm..I guess it's true what they say - war does weird things to you. That and dating the smartest daughter of Athena.

"If only doughnuts is all they wanted Blackjack. But no! They always want to take over the world. Now I can't be nice and give them that, can I?"

Blackjack replied but went unheard as a frustrated daughter of Athena who had been silently sitting behind my back holding my waist in her strong yet tender arms spoke

"Stop talking to a horse and start talking to a human Percy! I'm going crazy here!"

Blackjack turned out to be a coward after all... Seeing Annabeth's angry avatar he took off immediately, not even staying to say 'catch ya later, boss' like he usually does.

"Sorry wise girl. We were just talking about...uh...important matters!"

"Really? Like?" She furrowed her eyebrows.

When I didn't answer she said "Doughnuts are hardly considered important matters seaweed brain."

Before I could reply, the camp trucks came to a screeching halt beside us and one by one people - armoured and deadly looking demigods and an intimidating centaur to be precise started getting down. The Hunters of Artemis stood in one group while the demigods of both camps stood together socializing slightly. After the almost-war, it had been a bit difficult for them, but mostly because of the guilt each one had.

"Percy, you sense that power?" Chiron asked me.

"I do, that's why I had to stop Blackjack here. We need to move straight."

Once the demigods nodded we set out. For those of you interested or curious, the path and side of the city we were in was nowhere close to the Empire State Building. We just followed the villain almighty's trail and path of destruction.

Once the demigods and the wild as well as Tyson and the Cyclops had all arrived at the rendezvous point as discussed in an IM, started going in the decided direction. I had a chat with Tyson and Grover first of course, and hugged both of them tightly before proceeding.

After few moments of silent walking and careful and wary steps we finally had a clear view of Tartarus.

"Perseus Jackson! I could've smote you like ants yesterday, but I chose honour. And what did you do? Go behind my back and kill all of my children and make my home inhabitable? You will pay dearly for that, yes...very dearly indeed!" His eyes were burning with insanity and bloodlust.

He was wreathed in an aura that flowed off his body and swayed the nearby objects nd made the lighter ones fly into the air. It was like a horror movie with surreal VFX, only this was very much real. The air around him cracked with electricity and fire. He literally looked waist deep in flames and yet he was unfazed. His body shook with force and fiery rage seemed to have taken over him completely. The most intimidating thing of this form were his - oh my. Those eyes...they weren't orbs or balls but pitch black nothingness. And behind those pitch black eyes were flames - Flames raging and dancing as if lava was boiling in his body.

True to that guess, there were minor cracks in his body from which a red and orange coloured liquid was oozing out - Pure Boiling Lava. That sight was enough for the bravest demigod I've known - Annabeth to clutch my hand tightly with eyes wide as saucers. I wouldn't be too surprised if a few demigods ran away, and I honestly wouldn't blame them. The Tartarus we had been dealing with so far was a controlled Primordial with sane actions. This was not that Tartarus. This was the Tartarus of the underworld. This was the real Tartarus' form, the one that had birthed all those deadly and emotionless monsters. The one that wouldn't think before destroying, blink before annihilating or feel before painfully delivering gruesome deaths. This was the power of the pit itself, the angered God of the pit had released all his fury caused by the death of all his children. This was the one, the one that me and Annabeth had faced. The one that had made my knees buckle, my mind numb and made my sword drop. This was the Tartarus that held enough power to raze the world without too many efforts. And we had a group of teenage warriors and a few wild and handful of Cyclopes- all of whom looking scared out of their wits and numb on their knees to fight him. Not to mention the absence of the Gods. Joy.

"Be ready to pay for your actions. I was STUPID! STUPID THAT I WAITED SO LONG...waited so long when I could have DESTROYED YOU ALL!" His voice modulation and pitch changes were so fierce and powerful that even I was scared. Yes, me. I couldn't move or speak, act or think. I could imagine the others going through the same thing, each and every one of them since I'd sneaked a glance at Chiron and even he seemed to be in a trance. The old centaur was a veteran of centuries, and if anything ever produced could stun him into silence, it was obvious none of us newbies stood a chance. But I was so wrong.

Someone did the unthinkable. Someone broke us all out of our shocks and then again shocked us when we saw his face. Someone had just attacked Tartarus, who was equally shocked. The attack was strong and determined, making Tartarus stutter a few steps back. No, nobody had used a sword or a spear or an arrow.

Tartarus had just been attacked by a huge fireball, courtesy Leo Valdez. Leo, our friend, the dude whom we called repair boy. That same guy was completely surrounded in flames, his eyes were blazing very much like Tartarus except that they were orange instead of pitch black. He emanated power that could rival a minor Gods', his eyes dance with anger, sorrow, pain, regret and a ton of other emotions. The site was intimidating, and eye opening. It shook us out of our thoughts and made us realize two things at once. Before I could, Jason voiced them out loud.

"LOOK! WE HAVE THE NUMBERS, AND AS PROVEN HERE WE HAVE POWERS WE WERE BORN WITH! WE STAND A HUGE CHANCE OF VICTORY!"

These words gave each one a new hope, and Annabeth, Piper, Reyna, Nico, Frank, me and Jason took the front line, the couples holding each others' hands with ne hand and weapons with the other. The rest of our friends rallied behind us. Leo stood separately since he was in flames, but he stood at the front in a challenging pose. We had none of the Apollo kids, neither Greek nor Roman since Will had requested the Gods needed as many healers as possible. We were short on archers, so the onus was on the hunters of Artemis and the few remaining Roman archers led by Frank. Chiron and all the archers of the group stood at the back, ready to rain down arrows at the Primordial of the Pit. If only the amazons were here...

Once we were ready in a group, we passed nods between each other in the frontline and Annabeth inhaled deeply. Then with full force she yelled "ATTACK!"

For a moment, Tartarus had wide eyes, and that caused many of us to smirk, mostly all of us to gain confidence. A group of over a hundred demigods (Yes, sadly we were reduced to just that) , about the same number of wild creatures and a few tens of cyclopes, maybe over 40 attacked one lone being.

But then Tartarus' expressions changed into a sinister smirk as fast as they'd changed to uncertainty, and our confidences suffered a choke just as quickly.

Suddenly, he disappeared from his place. We were charging like bulls, and only when Tartarus was no longer there did we realize there was a crack in the ground which would lead to that place we all knew. The front liners yelled a warning, but the momentum was hard to contain. We halted just near the edge of the crack, a few of us namely me, Piper and Frank had our footwear burnt due to the small flames flying out off the crack.

"GET BACK! GET BACK!" I yelled, knowing full well that Tartarus would take advantage of the situation. Like a car in reverse gear, everyone started walking back warily, alert to fend themselves against the enemy. We were almost at a safe distance, when suddenly Tartarus appeared again, with a blast. Right in the middle of the demigods. The ones at the centre instantly lost their lives, while the ones in the nearby area went flying in various directions in the air. Unfortunately, not all of them could attain that height. Travis, who was standing almost by our side as the front line was hit by the force of one of the fling victims.

"TRAVIS!" His brother Conner screamed while Katie, who was closest to him tried to outstretch her hands; but it was too late. Travis Stoll had just tumbled into the hot lava after losing his balance. It was actually a waste, a tragic death. But those who knew him including Chiron could just watch in horror, just wordlessly witnessing yet another death of a hero. Meanwhile the demigods in the middle were trying to fend off Tartarus as he used a scythe to send powerful blows towards them. They were having great difficulty in defending, and just when it looked like the rest of us would reach there soon to help them, Tartarus again disappeared.

Annabeth must have realized Tartarus' idea or maybe come up with something of her own as she screamed for the demigods to break formation and scatter.

"Each one be alert! Hold your own! Separate and stay alone!" She shouted once the formation broke.

"Annabeth! Why would you do that!?" Chiron exclaimed just as Tartarus appeared suddenly in front of the wild. The satyrs couldn't do much except play their reed pipes. It was great against Hyperion, but Tartarus was another tale. He picked up a nearby car like the hulk and threw it up in the air and towards the wild. Then he summoned a vial of Greek fire from thin air and threw it towards the car. The timing was so exquisite that just as the car was about to hit the ground that the wild had scattered away from in fright, the vial hit it resulting in a huge blast that saw about over one fourth of the Wild lose their armies. Grover looked so dangerous there, he was playing a very angry tune. Just as a few roots from the underground were about to trap Tartarus, he disappeared again.

"If he keeps on doing this, we are in trouble." Nico said dryly, but his eyes were angry, and I could tell he was saving his energy instead of summoning the dead from the ground.

Just then a voice spoke in front of Nico "Oh you are already in trouble!" And Tartarus appeared in front of Nico di Angelo suddenly.

Meanwhile Annabeth had realized her mistake that Chiron had pointed out and had instructed everyone to stand in small groups of twos and threes. Unfortunately Tartarus had appeared before Nico just as the command was to be executed. Had there been someone else, I'm sure he would have been very startled. Tartarus expected this as well, so not wasting a lot of time he thrust his scythe in Nico's chest; only to have it meet thin air.

Then amazingly, Nico's voice spoke just like Tartarus' had

"These cheap parlor tricks cannot startle the man who sees ghosts more than the living each day Tartarus." Then Nico appeared behind Tartarus and tried to attack him. But Nico wasn't known for his stealth once he made himself known away from the shadows. Tartarus spun back to block an attack directed towards his spine, which became his chest as he turned to face Nico while defending. He deflected it in time with his scythe and kicked Nico back. The son of Hades was strong, but no match for Tartarus as he flew back about five feet and landed hard on the ground. With just one kick.

He crashed hard on the concrete pavement near the road and once again Tartarus had disappeared. Nico hadn't passed out, but he was having a hard time getting up. Eventually he did pass out, but we suspected it was more from the exhaustion of using his powers than the kick that Tartarus had dealt him. Will immediately rushed to Nico's side to heal him and help him up or at least regain consciousness again to be able to defend himself.

"WE CAN'T WIN IF THIS GOES ON! WHAT DO WE DO!" Katie screamed in frustration and sadness, still not quite over how one of the Stolls had died.

"HAHAHA! YOU DON'T! YOU JUST DIE!" Tartarus said, and you could literally feel the sinister smirk hidden, lurking somewhere, waiting to pounce. He was very smart, he didn't go for the Cyclops.

A few moments passed, and the demigods were getting more anxious by the second, heart throbbing with each passing moment.

"Annabeth! Think something!" I whispered to Annabeth. Meanwhile Nico was up and armed but dared not move from his position.

"I'm trying Percy, I'm trying! Tartarus...disappearing...which....not his domain....what power..." And that's when you leave Annabeth alone to think. Meanwhile I thought of something.

"Pipes...Pipes..." I whispered.

When the daughter of Aphrodite looked at me I said "Call him and try to make him stay!"

For a moment she was confused I was asking her of all people, she furrowed her eyebrows in confusion and said "How can I make him listen to me?"

"Just like you did Gaea of course!"

Charmspeak. It was worth a shot...

"Tartarus! Show yourself!" Piper shouted and I could feel the amount of power she used. But Tartarus didn't appear.

For a fleeting moment we thought he had given up, but just then a bright red flash was seen as Tartarus appeared...in front of Chiron - who was armed only with a bow and an arrow. He had a spear strapped at his back, but by the time he would reach for it, it would be too late and Tartarus was already smirking, just about to bring down his scythe while screaming the words "SAY GOODBYE TO YOUR BELOVED TEACHER!". His back was turned to us, and we couldn't breathe any longer...

(OKAY I KNOW I KEEP SAYING FINAL CHAPTER BUT THIS JUST WON'T END! THIS IS ALREADY CLOSE TO 3000 WORDS AND IF I WRITE MORE YOU WILL PROBABLY SLEEP BY THE END OF IT! PROMISE, THE NEXT ONE WILL REALLY BE FINAL. MEANWHILE LET'S HOPE CHIRON DIES PAINLESSLY...OR YET BETTER...SURVIVES.)