Chào các bạn! Vì nhiều lý do từ nay Truyen2U chính thức đổi tên là Truyen247.Pro. Mong các bạn tiếp tục ủng hộ truy cập tên miền mới này nhé! Mãi yêu... ♥

The Second Fall of Rome


Chapter 38: The Second Fall of Rome

So I am literally speedrunning this shit rn. Lot of stuffs gonna happen this chapter, I literally have a list below this AN as I'm writing of stuff that's gonna happen so I don't forget to include it, including some shit about bombs and duels.

Chapter 38: The Second Fall of Rome

"Fire!" Calix yelled as the empusa pulled the levers of their catapults, firing large barrels of Greek fire towards the city. They smashed upon impact, quickly spreading across the walls and roofs of homes, forcing civilians to run out into the street, panicked.

At the sight of the city quickly going up in flames the son of Perseus grinned madly. He hastened the delivery of more barrels, waiting impatiently as the cyclopes loaded them onto the six catapults and moved to the levers. "Fire!" He ordered once again as the monsters let the firebombing commence once more.

On the walls of the camp Reyna watched as both the city burned and hordes of telekhines charged at the walls of Camp Jupiter holding tall siege ladders. "Shit. Will! Gather some Apollo campers and head for the city! Tend to the wounded and get them into the bunkers!" She commanded, and the confused son of Apollo nodded and ran off.

Will passed Nico on his way down the walls to the other Apollo campers. "Will!" Nico said out of breath, launching in to hug his husband. Will smiled as the love of his life met with him in all the chaos. "Neeks, where were you?!" He asked, as he hadn't seen the son of Hades for days.

Nico shook his head. "No time, do what Reyna said and just hold out, hold just... a bit..." He said faintly, closing his eyes and nearly collapsing. Will had to catch him as he cursed. "Shit, just- uh, stay there, Neeks. I love you." He said quickly, dragging him over to the war room and leaning him against the wall inside. The son of Apollo gave him a quick peck on the lips before rushing back out.

The medic quickly ran back around the walls, grabbing any Apollo campers he could find and urging them to follow him. The twelve or so children of the sun god got up on the wall connecting the camp and the city and ran like their lives depended on it towards the flaming heart of the Empire.

The telekhines quickly reached the wall and the ones in front dug the bottoms of the ladders into the ground while the rest did their best to push them up so they leaned against the wall. As she saw the ladder get placed against the wall Reyna immediately ran over and pushed it over. "Stop the ladders!" She commanded her troops as they continuously fired down into the hordes of the thousands.

More and more ladders were erected as the army nearly reached its peak of 100,000 monsters. The roars and shouts from the fields were deafening as they thirsted for the blood of demigods. As the demigods struggled to keep the ladders back more and more monsters began to climb, some almost reaching the top of the wall before they were either cut down, pushed over or had their brains blown out by an arrow. It wouldn't be long before the exhausted demigods wouldn't be able to keep up and they'd be overrun.


As Calix continued to fire onto the city his twin sister Larissa rode down parallel to the horde, whipping her shadow mares and releasing her own furious roar. As she sped past the gates she looked up and locked eyes with the praetor, resulting in an intense stare off before she continued down the lines past the army.

Among the horde of monsters were two distinctly human looking beasts, one wielding an axe and the other a blade, one a godling and one a goddess. Achilles roared and raised his axe in the air with all the other monsters as they looked at the wall of archers angrily. Eris, by his side, held a similar amount of fury but was not shouting, only laughing at the discord occurring around her.

The guards on the wall were becoming weaker and weaker as they couldn't keep up with the amount of monsters coming over the walls. It was becoming harder to even lift their swords and though none of them had died yet, monsters were managing to actually climb up onto the ramparts for a few seconds before they were disposed of.

Over on the wall between Camp Jupiter and New Rome, five friends stood watching the army with anxiety welling up in them. Ari, Estelle, Crassus, Alexander and the heavily injured Michael all stood with apprehensive fear. "What are we gonna do?" Alexander asked sadly as he watched the hundred thousand beasts do their best to scale the walls.

Michael, for once, didn't have a plan. Everything was going to shit. They were on the backfoot, his parents were dead, and now it seemed like he and his friends were not far from suffering the same fate. "I don't know. Die, I guess." He joked morbidly.

Crassus took another swig of the alcohol he'd found in the praetor's office. "Well, it could be worse, I guess. And we had a good run, didn't we?" He asked with a worried grin towards his friends. Michael smiled and nodded, his life flashing before his eyes.

Everything flew past. His first Christmas that he could remember, playing with Selena at camp, his first kiss, the special moments with his parents, meeting Ari for the first time, their first kiss. His earliest memory was bland but still sweet, him sitting by his mother while she and his father played uno with a man he didn't recognize, likely a god or long dead demigod.

Some of the memories made him want to cry, in fact most of them did thanks to the situation he was currently in. But determined to keep himself together for his friends, he didn't let the tears free.

He suddenly felt something warm on his hand and opened his eyes, only to see another hand draped over his. His eyes followed the arm up to the face where Ari smiled at him with that swoopy hair slightly draped over one sea-green eye. "But we'll always be together in Elysium." She promised, turning to also clasp Estelle's hand. Crassus and Alex smiled softly at her words and they looked down at the ground.

When the son of Dionysus finished his bottle he threw it as hard as he could at the horde, grinning as it smashed over some goblin-looking thing's head. "I should go help with something." He said, rushing off to the Camp. Alex nodded, following suit. "Yeah, I should too."

Inside the war room Reyna sat with her head in her hands, staring down at the map. "Only 189."She muttered frustratedly, talking of their manpower. She heard the door open and her head snapped up, only to meet the eyes of that Dionysus kid, Crassus or whatever. "You need help with anything aside from archery?" He asked, and Reyna bit her lip and looked down at the map.

"Well, you're not gonna like it."

Back in the realm of Nyx a little girl sat on a bed with the primordial in question behind her brushing her hair. She was the last of her family left there. Now not only had her brothers and dad gone off to war, but her sister and mom had run off to go fight too, leaving her alone with Nyx.

They'd all just abandoned her to go off and die and fight and she hated it. She hated them for leaving her with every fibre of her being.

But at the same time she was sad. Uri had left to fight only a few days ago but he never came back. Uri never came back because he fought and died and left her. Her older brother left her and never came back and now the rest of her family was gonna do it too.

At the thought of her family abandoning her forever the little girl began to cry and her lip trembled, something which Nyx very quickly caught onto. "Sapphire, what is wrong, child?" She asked, turning the girl's head to look at her.

Not being able to hold it in anymore, little Sapphire began to bawl and buried her head in Nyx's side. "They're not coming back!" She cried. Nyx sighed as the little girl weeped in her embrace, rubbing her back soothingly. "Yes they are, little one. They will be back and they will be perfectly fine." She said.

Sapphire looked up, sniffling as she remembered the pinky promise her brother had given her. "You promise too?" She asked, sniffling more with tears flowing freely down her face. Nyx softly and wiped her cheeks with her thumb. "I promise."

Achilles jumped over the wall, axe in hand and roared as he immediately engaged in combat with two guards. He held his axe pretty close to the head to allow for more speed as he repeatedly bashed it against the first one's blade. After a few hits their guard broke and he was able to kick them off the wall down into the camp's courtyard before focusing his attention on the second one.

The second one he dispatched easily as more and more monsters managed to climb into the camp amongst the chaos. He merely jabbed them in the gut with the hilt of his axe before pushing them off the side down by their friend.

He smirked as he saw Eris quickly scaling the wall and held out his hand. "Milady." He gave her a lopsided smirk, making his girlfriend roll her eyes before taking his hand and setting foot on the ramparts.

Surprising Eris, the second she stood up he pulled her in close for a deep and passionate kiss. Her eyes widened at the sudden assault before she grinned and pulled his head in to deepen it. She broke away and traced his chin with her long and sharp fingernail teasingly before pushing him to the side and throwing a knife down the wall where it hit a legionnaire in the side and made them fall to the ground.

Achilles grinned back at his girlfriend. "Nice shot." He complimented, before turning to go fight more Romans, Eris in tow.

As Ari and Estelle sat on the wall, the former noticed something in the distance and squinted. A small human sized monster was not running with the crowd but was instead charging towards them. She paid it no mind for a moment, thinking it couldn't reach her before she noticed a baseball in his hand.

If there was one thing Ari knew after her weeks in the Greek world, it was that monsters didn't usually play baseball.

Just as she feared, the monster stopped and lobbed the ball over at the wall and Ari cursed. "Shit!" She yelled, vaulting over the wall on instinct. "Ari!" Estelle called her name in worry as her younger sister jumped the wall.

The second her feet hit the ground Ari slid to grab the ball and chucked it back at the monsters. The ball landed back by the crowd at the feet of the one who threw it before detonating and blowing up at least fifty of them.

At the sight of the explosion Ari's eyes widened and a large smile appeared on her face. The daughter of Poseidon stood and laughed before a spear was thrown through her left shoulder.

The adopted daughter of Sally Jackson fell back against the still intact wall in pain and shock, seeing the six foot long weapon just sticking out of her. "ARI!" Estelle yelled in fear and anguish from above.

Ari's vision was clouding as she struggled to keep her eyes open, staring off into the horde. Out of all of them she could discern one specific shape, one which had haunted her dreams since the night she'd first seen it. It was a shape that'd instill terror into her for the rest of her days, or hours.

Or maybe even seconds.

Two long horns, a tall and broad figure, an iron labrys. Yep, it was him alright. The beast that had killed her father, The Minotaur, and he did not look happy. He reached her quickly and Ari's heart raced as he raised the axe over his head to strike her down.

She all of a sudden heard the roar of a girl from above her before a loud and sharp clang. Ari's vision cleared up only to be met with Estelle's back as the hunter blocked the labrys with her sword.

In the courtyard Michael roamed, looking all around at the monsters and campers dueling viciously, a Imperial golden sword in his right hand. He hobbled around through the chaos before a large shadow began to block his vision.

Weak and weary, the son of Jason slowly moved his head up to meet the tall figure's, finding bright golden eyes behind a mask of steel and darkness.

With all the campers preoccupied a monster on the inside rushed to the gates and, with one fell swoop, sliced the barricade in back, kicking the rest of the locks off and opening the gates. The monsters outside had no sympathy for their comrade as they trampled him immediately, before many were run over by a chariot of steel storming through, shadowy steeds at the front and an iron girl at the helm.

Estelle's sword clanged against the Minotaur's axe multiple times as she struggled to block and parry his attacks. The monster was about four times her size so you couldn't really judge her. All her willpower was concentrated on killing this beast and saving her sister.

Clang! She parried to the left. Whoosh. The Minotaur's labrys missed her and nearly hit the ground as she dodged in the other direction. Estelle whirled around to strike it in the hip, making the half-bull roar in pain.

Ari watched her sister struggle as the spear lay embedded in her shoulder, her consciousness fading. She was determined to get up and help but her body was not allowing her. She did not have the strength to get back up anymore.

Larissa had to dodge wolf attacks from Lupa's pack as she rode her chariot around the large fortified camp, the army having finally breached it. She grinned under her helmet-mask as the monsters burned and destroyed all the barracks, fighting every legionnaire they saw.

She roared in triumph as she continued to muster her horses around the camp, not looking where she was going. If she did look, she may have noticed the daughter of Bellona standing in her path.

When she walked out of the war room, Reyna was greeted by chaos and bloodshed. Legionnaires and campers alike were engaged in combat with multiple monsters at once, some falling and some triumphing. She turned her head to the left when she heard loud clattering getting louder, spotting some kind of shadow chariot bound for her.

Without even thinking Reyna turned and grabbed a hatchet which had been embedded into the wall next to her before launching it at the horses. It striked one in the forehead, and the mare vanished into black dust as Reyna jumped up on a pile of logs next to her.

The praetor did a bit of parkour as she jumped from the ground to the pile before launching herself into a flip and unsheathing her sword. The chariot passed underneath her and she flicked the blade at the round, where it sliced through the last horse's neck and resulted in it's similar vanishing to the first.

Larissa's eyes widened as both her steeds were struck down in an instant and her chariot was suddenly without any horses. The helm fell forward as it was left on the two wheels, digging into the ground and sending it's rider flying out of her seat.

Larissa almost comically flew forward and hit the dirt, her armor clanking and not proving very useful against the impact of a high speed accident. She slid to a stop on the ground, flat on her stomach. The daughter of Perseus groaned and turned over onto her back, only to be met by a gladius to the chin.

The girl's heart rate increased as she stared into the eyes of the praetor, whose eyes showed only malice and bloodlust. "No!" She rasped in pain as she held out her hand. The daughter of Bellona raised her sword and slashed at her throat.

On the ground by the wall Ari struggled to stand. Estelle was still deep in a duel with the killer of their father as her younger sister made to move. On shaky legs she stepped, uneasy and unbalanced by the pilum through her shoulder.


In a move that was definitely dangerous and definitely even more stupid, Ari grasped the pole of the spear and, with great hesitation and reluctance, pulled desperately. Her head shook violently as she struggled to get it out, before it slid out of her body with a wet squishy noise she definitely hated.

The girl, weak and tired and perhaps even on the verge of death, lowered the spear to an almost horizontal position and charged forward. The Minotaur had no time to react before he received a Celestial Bronze spear through the gullet, and Ari was rewarded with a loud and pained bellow from the beast. "Fuck you." She muttered, back up a bit.

Estelle stood back up and grasped the sword with both hands. "This is for my dad you bastard." She said with hatred in her voice before she swung up, decapitating the monster like it was nothing.

Just before the blade could catch her throat Larissa lay flat on the ground, dodging the swing before sitting back up and punching Reyna in the vagina with all her might permitted her. Completely incapacitated by this strike, the praetor hunched over and cringed, allowing for Larissa to climb up with her back against the wall and reach for a spare sword.

She wielded it threateningly toward the daughter of Bellona, who was now very enraged with the daughter of Artemis. Tired and sweaty inside the helmet, Larissa tore it off so she was able to breathe. She hadn't expected to be doing so much exercise in that thing.

The Roman veteran made a strike at Larissa, who quickly parried it. Upon doing so Larissa laughed, her silver-dyed streak of hair coming to fall in front of her eyes. Reyna hissed and swung again, and this time Larissa ducked as the blade hit the wall where her head once was.

Larissa pushed forward, staggering Reyna and allowing the twin to put in an offense. She did a quick jab towards Reyna's belly, which was barely blocked, before going for a wide overhead swing. Reyna caught it with her blade and the two were locked in some sort of movie stalemate in which their blades were just locked as the two of them stared each other furiously in the eyes.

Despite her mastery with the blade, Larissa's former injuries were catching up as her legs were slowly becoming too weak to hold her. Eventually she had to bend down on one knee just to have the strength to be able to continue fighting. Now Reyna had the high ground, striking her down as soon as she'd be able to get the golden blade of Perseus out of her way.

She would have won too if it wasn't for the body flying out of nowhere and smashing into her side, sending her through the door into the war room.

Reyna was dazed and confused as she looked around the dusty room for a bit, before her eyes drifted back to the doorway where a tall imposing man stood staring down at her. He was dressed head to toe in armor, much like his daughter had been before, and his eyes were different from the last time she had seen them. They were no longer sea-green like Ari's and Neptune's. They were gold. Despite having not seen him for 17 years, Reyna knew exactly who this was. Her old friend and co-praetor, Percy Jackson.

"Hello Reyna." He said chillingly, walking into the room with a cold stare down upon her.


Deep below in the camp, in tunnels old and forgotten, a son of Dionysus and a son of Apollo moved the last of the explosives into place. "Well, looks like the last of it." Alex noted, brushing his hands off. He did not know the second part of the plan.

Crassus nodded sadly, biting his lip. "Yeah, you head on out. I'll meet you soon." He said, but Alex immediately caught onto the lie as his eyebrows furrowed. "What? Crassus what's wrong? I know you, and I can tell something's up. What is it?" He asked.

The son of Dionysus frowned and looked at the ground, unsure of how to break the news. "Look, Alex, I- There's something I didn't tell you about this plan." He began, and Alex raised an eyebrow. "I.... I'm not leaving." He broke it to him blunt and fast.

Alex's heart dropped as his best friend said those words. "What? What do you mean you're not leaving?" He asked. Crassus shrugged, hands in his pocket. "There's a reason Reyna didn't wanna do this. The fuse isn't long enough to let me run back out of the tunnel. I have to stay here and light it." He told his friend.


Alex's face was crestfallen. "But... You'll die." He said bluntly, like Crassus didn't know that. The demigod nodded. "I know, Alex. And that's okay. I'm cool with it. We're probably all gonna die." He reasoned.


Alex was stonefaced. "Well in that case, I'm staying too." He declared, making Crassus' eyes widened. "Like Hades you are!" He yelled. Alex shook his head. "You said it yourself. We're gonna die anyway. Might as well go out with my best friend." He said determinedly.

Crassus' jaw was slack as he stared at his friend dumbfounded. "So what, you're just gonna sit here and die?" He asked in astonishment. Alex smiled and nodded. "With you, dude." He promised.

Seeing there was no reasoning with him, Crassus pulled out the matchbox and lit one up. "Are you sure about this?" He asked, wanting to be sure. Alex smiled and stepped forward before planting his lips on the demigod's. In shock, Crassus dropped the match, which landed on the fuse and lit it up.

He pulled away after a few seconds. "How's that for sure?" He teased, and after coming out of his shock Crassus grinned. "I think that's proof enough." He said, leaning in to kiss him again.

As the flame neared closer and closer to the explosives the two parted and rested their foreheads against each other's. "I love you Alex." Crassus told him with a smile, and the son of Apollo grinned back. "I love you too."

In the war room Percy lifted his sword to Reyna's heart. "Any last words?" He asked, wanting to get it over with quickly. He took no joy in killing his former friends. In fact it only made him sad.

Reyna smirked up at him weakly, hoping she was on time. "Well actually I've got an explosive plan." She joked, making Percy raise an eyebrow.

Suddenly, shocking the Dark Lord and even the praetor a bit, there was a loud BOOM! From outside, making Percy turn to look at the wall. He gave Reyna one last dirty look before running outside to make sure all his children were alive. "Larissa, are you okay?" He asked, and the twin of Calix nodded. "What the fuck was that?" She asked.

He shook his head. "I don't know. ACHILLES! ERIS! CMON!" He urged, picking Larissa up bridal style and running out to their army with his second son and future daughter-in-law in tow. At the sight of their master heading towards the explosion, most of the monsters packed up and ran too.

Estelle and Ari were almost trampled as they came upon the main gate where a horde of hundreds of monsters were rushing out like water from a tipped-over bucket. She waited for them all to pass before helping her greatly injured younger sister into the camp. "Medic!" She yelled in distress, getting Ari over to a wall.

Immediately some Hermes and Mercury kids with medical experience came over and treated her wounds while some more went over to a body on the ground. Ari's eyes were barely open and she caught sight of the body, and it's familiar blonde hair.

"Mike?" She wondered aloud, and as the kids checked his pulse and shook their heads sadly, her eyes widened. "MIKE?" She raspily screamed as Reyna stumbled out of the room. The daughter of Bellona's eyes widened as she saw both Michael and Ari's conditions. "Get them to the ward, gods be damned!" She ordered, and immediately both Greeks were ushered to the medical building where dozens of other campers were being brought, despite all the Apollo kids being in the city.

On the battlefield the Jacksons reunited, Percy setting Larissa on the ground in the clearing the monsters had made for their masters. All around them was chaos as the generals rode around barking orders at the confused monsters. A bomb had detonated, a massive one, and it had taken approximately fifty thousand of their ranks.

"Dad, what's going on?" Selena asked in slight fear after the boom. She'd never liked explosions. Calix was the one to answer. "The Romans had some sort of bombs underground, must've taken out a whole legion." He informed them.

Percy cursed as he wiped his forehead while Calix helped Larissa to her feet. "Shit, um, okay. I..." He trailed off as he eyes caught something and he squinted, making all his children look too.

In the east, far on the top of Mount Diablo, sat an unrecognizable man on a white horse. He was alone, wielding a long and powerful looking spear. Soon more people rode up alongside him, and Percy counted about thirteen up there alone.

Soon the monsters noticed them too and stopped their bustling to look up at them. Percy himself was so confused as to what was happening until he heard cheering from both the city and the camp. "They're here! The gods have returned!" He heard the cheers, and his head snapped back to the mountaintop.

All of a sudden the one at the head raised his spear and spurred his mount into action, being to canter down the cliff. The other twelve cheered and followed suit, gaining quite a bit of speed as they moved down the mountain.

What made Percy's heart drop was when a line hundreds of feet long of even more rides appeared along the mountaintop, and they began descending too. Row after row came over the hill, and Percy could swear there were at least twenty thousand by the time the last row came over the hill.

The sound of the hooves charging down the mountainside was deafening, like Yellowstone was erupting below their feet that very moment. The ground shook and the riders storming down the mountain looked like a spill of colors all charging down to meet them.

There was then the thunderous sound of ten thousand bow strings being pulled at once, and the largest volley of arrows were fired into the air. As they rose it was almost beautiful, until they began to descend and it became a hailstorm of hellfire. Percy's eyes widened. "COVER!" He ordered, and immediately the entire army ducked and hid under their shields.

All except Selena, who'd noticed a familiar glint in the sky amongst the hellfire. Two arrows, one silver and one golden, were headed right for them, standing out among the rest. "Mom?" Selena came to the realisation and felt the thorn of betrayal, speaking that one painful last word before a silver arrow struck her in the eye and sent her to the ground, blood splattering everywhere.

LMAO YALL REALLY THOUGHT URI WAS THE ONLY ONE ID KILL BAHAHAHAHA SELENA, CRASSUS, ALEX AND MICHAEL ALL IN ONE CHAPTER LMFAOAOAOAO IF YOU THOUGHT THIS WOULD HAVE A HAPPY ENDING THEN YOU CLEARLY HAVENT BEEN PAYING ATTENTION. HAPPY THANKSGIVING MOTHERFUCKAS.

But fr tho whatd u think of the chapter?

Word Count: 4779

Bạn đang đọc truyện trên: Truyen247.Pro