The Hidden Archives, Book 5: The Seven Gates of Tartarus

Synopsis: More time has passed, and the Demigods - including Hera's Trio Brigade - have gotten comfortable with their new, peaceful and mortal lives. However, trouble stirs up when an excavation in Egypt causes an ancient artifact, released from the Hidden Archives, to be activated.

It seems that the most dangerous group from the Olympian's hidden book has been unleashed upon the world: The Seven Gates of Tartarus, powerful demigods who wield God-Slaying Magic, ready to extract their revenge on the gods who sealed them away.

How will our demigods deal with enemies unlike they've ever faced before? Just what weakness does this God-Slaying Magic have? Find out in the fifth installment of The Hidden Archives, but don't get too attached to the characters, because a demigod might just get slayed...

Narrator / June 12th (11 Months Later)

Rocks shattered to pieces as pickaxes were slammed against them. Empty water bottles, caused by the hot, Egyptian weather, were gathered into piles and put into bags; some miners were struggling to stay awake; and the strict, pushy boss demanded that they kept working towards the treasure that they had been seeking for years now.

"Boss, are you sure that the treasure is here?" said Samar, who was basically second-in-command

The boss, Mr. Rahman, put his pickaxe down and gave the younger miner a hard look. "Samar, sometimes you need to learn to go with flow. The treasure is here, and it's only a matter of time until we find it"

Ten minutes later, a miner came rushing over to the boss with urgent news. Samar and Mr. Rahman went over to over to the west section, where other miners were gathering around a six foot-wide, four-foot deep hole. Inside of it, a yellow jewel laid - its structure was intricate; it reflected the sun off of it with dominance; and small amounts of electricity sparked around it.

"Mr. Rahman... is that it?" Samar asked

"I believe it is." Mr. Rahman took the jewel and held it up to the sky, admiring the treasure he had been seeking for in the past ten years. "This will make us all millions."

Suddenly, dark clouds began to gather up in the sky, and thunder shook the terrain. Miners looked around with worry, but Mr. Rahman was stuck in a trance staring at the jewel with pride and joy. Then, the jewel began to spark up with more electricity, and it shot up into the sky, joining the thunderclouds.

Mr. Rahman, now half-furious and half-confused, looked around the area for an explanation on what just happened. A deathly, creepy, sound pierced his brain, and miners began to faint on the spot as rain began to pour from the thunderclouds. It sounded like old, slow bells, accompanied by the heavy clicking of a clock that seemed to count down his limited time.

"What in Hell," Mr. Rahman muttered

As soon as the last miner had fainted, a heavily-clothed figure appeared, walking towards them. They wore armor, the deepest shade of black that the human eyes could process; a dark-purple, ragged cloak on top of it; a bandana of the same purple color that hid most of their face; and on their back, they carried five different shaped staffs. In the rain, the tip of their silver hair reached their eyes.

"Who are you?" Mr. Rahman demanded. "And what have you done?"

"I should be asking you those questions," they replied

"What buisniess do you have here?"

The figure removed one of the staffs of their back - a staff made from black-wood that carried the skull of a cow with devil-horns on it - and pointed it at the miner. "To make your soul mine."

1 Hour Later / New York

"Jeez, it sure it hot out today," Chloe said

"It's either that, or it's just because you guys are in my presence," Leo replied

"Shut it Leo." Piper narrowed her eyes

Percy, Annabeth, Jason, Piper, and Leo had been out in the city with Chloe, who still wasn't that accustomed with the rest of society - her entire life, she had been bred by Hera to be the ultimate warrior, so she wasn't that use to being out in the city without the purpose of hunting monsters.

It had been Leo's idea to take a day off so that they could show her around the city and do normal people things - that was something that they all needed desperately after all the fighting they had been through.

"I'm just trying to lighten the mood," Leo defend himself, "you guys all look depressed."

"I think it's the heat," Percy said. "I don't remember New York ever being this hot."

Annabeth attempted to look up at the sky, but even one glimpse hurt her eyes. "It better not be something supernatural."

"Apollo must be having a bad day or something," Jason guessed

"Someone should cheer him up, this heat is a real downer," Leo said

Passersby were dripping with sweat as if it were raining. Others went inside buildings with air conditioning in order to avoid the heat, while others sat down at tables and chugged bottles of water down. The heat wasn't getting any better, and every second it seemed like it was getting hotter and hotter, even if it was only slightly.

"It's one-hundred and ten degrees," Jason revealed while checking his phone - one that had been made by Leo that wouldn't attract monsters. "Something's definitely up."

"Yeah, even I'm starting to feel a little warm," Leo agreed

"The archive is picking up an origin of the heat," Chloe announced - her Vibranium glove, which could appear at any moment, displayed a screen with multiple details on the weather.

"Let's check it out," Annabeth suggested

The group of six made their way to a deeper part of the city, where much less people lived and less buildings were. It looked more like a rundown area where worser-off people could get a shot at living. Here, it felt almost twice as hot, and even Leo, who was resistant to heats, was sweating.

Out on an alleyway, a mass of flames shot out, traveling around the roofs of buildings until landing on a house in front of them. A ring of fire spread out around the ground, trapping the demigods in; from the flames on top of the house, a silhouette appeared.

"I haven't been out long and I've already found my first batch of demigods," said someone from inside the burning flames

"Looks like we spoke too soon," Leo said

Walking out of the flames came a boy who appeared to be their age. He had a cocky grin on his face, only made more menacing by his dark-red eyes, accompanied by his chestnut-brown hair and attire - a short-sleeved red shirt with black pants; on his left index finger, he wore a shiny, red metal ring.

"Tell me, what year is it?" He asked

"It's 2011," Piper answered

"So in other words, that's thousands of years of destruction I have to catch up on." The boy pointed his hand to the left, and a massive explosion was set off in the distance, melting buildings down in an instant and most likely vaporizing anyone in the blast radius

The demigods brought out their weapons and prepared for a fight, but deep inside, they were already intimidated by the power of the opponent in front of then, along with the fact of how confident they seemed to be.

"I'm willing to make a compromise that'll spare mortal lives," He offered. "Bring me to Hephaestus and I shall spare the lives of everyone in the city."

"Hephaestus is my dad, but I have no idea where he is," Leo replied. "Not that I would tell you anyways."

"Oh, so you're a son of the fire god?" He said. "In that case, it's a pleasure to meet you. My name is Scorch, and today begins the second annual Day of Tartarus!"

An aura of flames ignited around Scorch, flowing with intensity, like a nuke ready to go off at any moment, causing widespread disaster and destruction. Leo decided to attack first, putting his new training to the test, by shooting a column of flames from his hand.

"Don't be such a downer, you're ruining the festivities," Scorch said, pushing back the flames with his hand casually

Leo's column of flames exploded, swallowing up the entire house in front of them along with Scorch, who had been hit by it; It sent out multiple shockwaves of air, blocking the demigods's ears up.

"That's... not what I mean to do," Leo said disappointingly

"At least it should hurt him," Piper pointed out

The mass of flames caused by the explosion began to swirl around, before being absorbed by something inside of the flames: Scorch, who had his mouth wide open, consuming the flames as if it was food.

"Those are good flames, but I've tasted better." Scorch wiped his mouth as if he had eaten something crumby

"You... ate the flames?" Chloe questioned

"It seems your godly parents never told you the day that they came closest to extinction," Scorch said. "Today begins part two, beginning with you all."

"The Day of Tartarus... I've heard about this somewhere," Annabeth said

Scorch melted down into a pile of flames that shot forward, landing in front of Percy, where he transformed back to normal and smashed his head in against the building behind him.

"You may only be half-god, but that's good enough for me," Scorch growled

Blue flames burnt up around the hand that was pushing Percy's head against the wall by the face, and another explosion was set off, taking both of them in; the other demigods only barely managed to get behind Chloe's Vibranium shield for protection.

The smoke dispatched as Scorch waved his hand, walking out completely unharmed by the explosion. "I'll send your souls to Tartarus, where you belong!"

A large crater was formed underneath Scorch as his aura began to explode out of control, seconds away from busting everything in the vicinity to ashes. Unable to do anything in time, the demigods were forced to watch as the aura coming off of the enemy set off another massive explosion, swallowing them up whole.

The surrounding buildings all collapsed; screams were heard in the distance; and distant sirens were coming closer and closer to the scene. When the demigods regained consciousness, they were unable to move with all of the pieces of rubble on top of them. Flames still danced around the buildings tauntingly, boasting that they would burn forever.

Annabeth was less concerned about herself, and more about Percy, who had taken the explosion as well, and not before having been brutalized by the opponent. Broken in half was the right-side of Chloe's helmet; that same side of her armor was tattered and torn, despite being nearly indestructible. Leo, who was suppose to be resistant to flames and explosions, was feeling pain like he had never experienced before-literally.

"It seems that you all lived that. But that's no problem, because now I get the enjoyment of finishing you off myself," Scorch announced

The demigods attempted to push the rubble off of them, but they could muster absolutely no strength in aiding them. Instead they were forced to watch as Scorch walked closer to them, scanning around the area for his first target to pick off.

However, just before he could make his decision, the sound of bells ringing in the distance captivated his interest; he turned straight in front of him, which was behind the demigods, and noticed the silhouette of a figure entering the walls of flames around their area.

"It seems a new challenger has arrived," Scorch said with interest, "whoever they are, it's a demigod with a large magical power."

The demigod in question took hold of one of the staffs of their back - a staff with what appeared to be a a large, metal paper fan on it - and raised it up. In an instant, all of the surrounding flames were absorbed into it, reducing the immense heat and making the figure visible.

The contrasting colors of silver, black, and purple made it all obvious who had come, however, wether or not they would be able to deal with the threat was up for debate.

"You must be the one who seared the land," Layton said

"Yours truly," Scorch replied. "It seems I've finally met a knowledgeable demigod."

"The Seven Gates of Tartarus... to be honest, I hoped this day would never come," Layton admitted