Percy Jackson: The Light Bringer

We Gotta Get Outta Here

  Within a second, I had summoned my sword and cut through Andromeda's bonds. I then went on to attack War but found that my path was all but blocked with the demons.

   I summoned hellfire in a ring around andromeda, stopping any of the shades from approaching her, and hen proceeded to chop down the army of shadows. 

   Not to sound prideful, but I was an arc of destruction. Thousands of the monsters fell on my blade. My skin started glowing in response to the power I was channelling, which in turn burnt more of the creatures.

   A beam of energy pushed me back all of a sudden. Rubbing my chest to ease the pain, I saw War standing with his palm extended towards me, a sadistic smile on his face. I stabbed a shade that got too close but maintained eye contact with War. 

   The shadows kept a distance from me, though unsure if it was the fact that I was annihilating them or if War ordered them to halt. "What are you waiting for? Huh?!" I yelled at him.

   His smile only became wider. From the corner of my eyes, I saw the flames around Andromeda slowly die down. I slowly walked towards her, in the manner one would walk while facing a lion in the jungle. Once I was next to her, I gently but urgently patted her back, trying to get her to stand.

   She opened her eyes groggily and quickly got back to her senses. She sensed the danger and we both knew that we had to make a break for it if we wanted to live. Using my powers, I already knew the places the various tunnels of this underground bunker led to. 

   "Come on" I told Andromeda, who now fully awake. We both quickly ran towards one of the entrances and I looked back to see War just standing there, creepily smiling at us. Before I could figure it out, he was hidden from the scene by an ocean of monsters.

   I've got a bad feeling about this.

   I turned and let Andromeda go through the tunnel first and I followed, not letting her out of my sights. As we went deeper into the tunnels, the inhuman growls gradually became distant. We kept walking until we reached a room that looked awfully lot like a prison.

   The air was freezing and the light was dim. One could barely see the other end without squinting. Something about this room felt off, very off. I started to feel weary, the room leaching my powers at a rate higher than ever before. 

   It was wide, enough for fifty people to stand comfortably. In the middle there was what I thought to be a bed. I suppose it resembled a coffin more. It looked like one of those cryogenic tubes used to freeze humans from the movies.

   It looked timeless, the only thing a possible indicator of its age being the rusty metal chains that were tied around it. But that was not the weird part. The weird part was the ground, or more specifically what was inside it.

   Originating from the coffin, purple vein-like tendrils spread across the room, like the roots of a tree. The veins looked like it was siphoning of

   The ground pulsed in regular intervals, with the veins getting brighter and then dimming again.  While I'm no expert in stuff like this, I knew what it looked like: whatever was inside the coffin was feeding off of the surroundings.

   Curious, we both walked towards it and tried to look inside the glass lid. From what I could tell, there was a woman inside...asleep, or at least unconscious. 

   I felt a sudden and painful throbbing in my head. I got the feeling of recognition once more, just like the time I first saw War. A realisation began to dawn upon me. What if...?

   "We gotta go...now!" Andromeda said urgently. I agreed with her. This place was starting to freak us both out and you could hear the growls of the monsters getting closer. We ran towards the tunnel on the far end of the room.

   While I trusted my instincts, since they had kept me alive more times than I can count, something felt wrong this time. We walked past skulls and others bones that were randomly scattered across the cold floor.

   The tunnel zig zagged and we had to make some sharp turns at places. We kept walking until we came to face a wall; a dead end.

   "There!" Andromeda said, pointing above. I sighed in relief as I saw the chimney of rocks lead up to an opening. You could see the light from the other side poring in.

   "That's...oddly convenient" I said much to myself, to which the author smiled sheepishly and shrugged. 

   The narrow path of rocks upward was too small for me to fly through. My wings would barely last a second against the sharp edges of the granite. So instead, we had to climb up all the way.

   It took us a while to reach the top. By the time we did, we were covered in numerous cuts and scratches all over our hands, legs and face. I could tell that Andromeda's muscles were aching. How? Because even with all my light bringer power and what not, mine hurt too.

   I stood up and offered a hand to Andromeda. She rolled her eyes and took it without hesitation. "Well whaddaya know, chivalry is alive after all." she said jokingly, to which I smirked.

   However, her expression soon turned to surprise as she looked behind me. I turned too, wondering what it was that startled her when I saw them: the doors.

   They were huge, like really huge. I had to strain my neck to look that high and yet I couldn't find the top of the doors. The doors themselves were made of some kind of metal and looked sturdier than a nuclear bunker. What caught my eye though, was the huge symbol inscribed on them.

   It was the same symbol that the doors guarded by the metal guardian had: the shield knot. But the symbol looked old and was even chipped off in places. Every once in a while the doors would give out a loud bang, like someone was hitting it from the other side. 

   On the base of the doors, there was a stone protruding from the ground. It was shaped like a cuboid, had some carvings in it and gave off a small glow. 

   "It's..." I heard Andromeda say as she walked forward in a trance like state. "Beautiful"

   "Andromeda?"

   "Yes, you have waited so long. Don't worry, I'm here to help you" 

   "Andromeda!" I yelled.

   "Huh?" She responded, snapping out of her daze. "What..." she asked, holding her head, looking confused. I slowly went towards her and took her hand. "Are you alright?" I asked and she nodded in response.

   She then took her hand back and walked towards the rock. "It's weird but... I think I know what to do" she said. "Trust me on this" she said looking at me. Before I could reply she took out her knife and sliced her right palm.

   "What the..." I yelled as I pulled her hand to try and stop the bleeding. But Andromeda just pulled back her hand, not even the slightest expression of pain on her face.

   "It needs my blood to work" she said to my bewildered face. She then turned towards the rock and took a deep breath.

   "This better work" she said and placed her hand on the stone.

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