Nico looked around and saw how the camp was covered in snow. Frost covered the chariot track and the strawberry fields. The cabins were decorated with tiny flickering lights, like Christmas lights, except they seemed to be balls of real fire.

More lights glowed in the woods, and weirdest of all, a fire flickered in the attic window of the Big House, where the Oracle dwelt, imprisoned in an old mummified body. Kurayami was interested in how oracles worked.

“Whoa,” Nico said as he climbed off the bus. “Is that a climbing wall?” Kurayami nodded. “Yeah,” Nico noticed the lava. “Why is there lava pouring down it?” Kurayami walked up to it and stuck his hand in. “Once you are strong enough water just is not a challenge.” Nico’s eyes shined and Bianca felt he replaced her with a cool brother. She did the same and now she knew what he felt like. .

Kurayami patted him on the back after shaking his hand off. “Come, let’s meet Chiron and Mr. D. Hey, Zoe, you know them?” “I know Chiron,” Zoe said stiffly. “Tell him we will be in Cabin Eight. Hunters, follow me.” began to get ready Bianca included. They accepted Grover’s offer for help. Kurayami and the girls shook their heads. “They got problems.” Nico nodded.

The Hunters shouldered their packs and their bows and headed off toward the cabins. As Bianca was leaving she hugged Nico who looked like he wanted out of the hug. “Please, Nico. This is important to me.” He pushed away. “Stop. Leave me alone.” She looked even more terrible, but what did she expect?

“Take care, sweethearts!” Apollo called after the hunt. “Hey, Kurayami. You can drive my car any day.” Kurayami fist-bumped the god and Apollo hopped back in the bus. “Later, cat girl.” Kuroka frowned. “My name is Kuroka.”

He gave her a wicked smile as if he didn’t care. Then he closed the doors and revved the engine. They still wore their shades as the sun chariot took off in a blast of heat. The lake was steaming. A red Maserati soared over the woods, glowing brighter and climbing higher until it disappeared in a ray of sunlight.

Nico was still looking grumpy. “Who’s Chiron? I don’t have his figurine,” Esdeath explained. “Chiron, trainer of Greek heroes. Son of Kronos has the ass of a horse.” Nico just about broke out laughing. As for Mr. D, he is the wine god.” Nico sighed. “If those Hunter girls don’t like him, that’s good enough for me. Let’s go.”

The camp was pretty empty. It made sense as Kurayami took about 20 demigods and they don’t grow on trees, but it looked even more empty Kurayami saw Charles Beckendorf from the Hephaestus cabin stoking the forge outside the camp armory. Terrence said he was his brother as they shared the same father. He was a better blacksmith than Terrence apparently.

The Stoll brothers, Travis and Connor, from the Hermes cabin, were picking the lock on the camp store. A few kids from the Ares cabin were having a snowball fight with the wood nymphs at the edge of the forest. That was about it. Kurayami was not interested in recruiting more honestly.

The Big House was decorated with strings of red and yellow fireballs that warmed the porch but didn’t seem to catch anything on fire. Inside, flames crackled in the hearth. The air smelled like hot chocolate. Mr. D, the camp director, and Chiron were playing a quiet game of cards in the parlor.

Chiron’s brown beard was shaggier for the winter. His curly hair had grown a little longer. He wasn’t posing as a teacher this year, so I guess he could afford to be casual. He wore a fuzzy sweater with a hoof print design on it, and he had a blanket on his lap that almost hid his wheelchair completely.

He frowned when he saw Kurayami, however Mr. D smiled as if found his friend. “Ah welcome, welcome. I got a list of campers I want you to take.” He pulled out a list and read names off it. “The Stoll brothers, some brats from the Apollo cabin.” Chiron took the list and ripped it up. Mr. D frowned. “Hey, I am helping the camp. The less there are the faster I leav- I mean the less at risk.”

Chiron looked at Nico. “Boy, have you decided to join Nephilim?’ Nico nodded and Chiron slumped. “That’s 21.” Mr. D smiled. “One less problem.” Nico introduced himself. “Nico di Angelo, half-blood I think.”

Chiron had hoped. “Where is Annabeth?” Kurayami explained. “I think she went off with Thalia.” Chiron sighed in relief. “Thank the gods.” Mr. D said in a bored voice, “Good for her.” Just then, Grover trotted into the room, grinning like crazy. He had a black eye and red lines on his face that looked like a slap mark. “The Hunters are all moved in!” Kurayami patted him on the shoulder.

“Come on Grover. Have some class.” Grover smiled. “I was touched by one of the hunters, what is better than that?” Kurayami walked away with Nico. “Sleeping surrounded by girls.” Nico grinned as his bro was awesome. “Hey, Chiron. Where can we stay?” Chiron sighed. “You can ask Zeus if you can stay in his cabin.”

Kurayami took the golden coin from Chiron and threw it forward. “Zeus.” A rainbow suddenly appeared and showed Zeus sitting on his throne. He frowned when he saw Kurayami, especially with how much stronger he was. “What do you want? Not going to scam an animal out of me.” Kurayami shook his head. “Lord Zeus, I have a request.”

Zeus sighed. “What do you want?” Kurayami explained why he was here and how he decided to help the Greeks with their problem if they signed a peace treaty. Zeus felt it would be a good idea to keep a monster like Kurayami from getting in the mood for god killing. “Fine.” The message ended after. “We can stay at the Zeus cabin. Let’s go.”

Chiron felt it was good to have peace as Azrael was still a menace that brought terror to all. When they entered the Zeus cabin they surprised Thalia who was used to being alone. Kurayami explained how he just talked to Zeus and why he was allowed here. “I don’t mind, honestly this place would be better to have some company.”

The girls all had to choose a bunk bed as they were not meant to be shared. Raynare, Kurayami and Esdeath were the only ones who used weapons and they liked to just clean them. Something about it calmed them while Shin just laid on Thalia’s bed. Nico got on his bed and put out all his figurines.

“Hey, Kurayami, do you think the camp will really fall?” Kurayami looked up while placing the Rebellion on his shoulder. “This camp started with a bit over 100 demigods. I took 20 and after that many of them died, joined Luke, or just never came back. More than likely.

She looked down as it was sad. “So, what do you intend to do?” He laid down on his bed while thinking. “I just came to help Annabeth when she called, but this got more interesting. We will stick around as much as we need.” They talked longer until they just went to sleep. The girls were annoyed as Kuroka just turned into a cat and slept on Kurayami’s chest.

The next morning they woke up early and they all went out of the cabin to just explore a bit. Natsume was not a morning person and had Kurayami carry her. She was falling asleep and the rest of the girls frowned. Akeno walked next to him while Kuroka was on his head like usual.

“Hey, brother. I heard that there will be a capture of the flag today between the hunters and the campers. Who do you think will win?” He looked at Akeno and smiled. “Obviously the hunters. They are older and more experienced and it would take a miracle for the campers to pull it off. Esdeath sighed. “I wonder when Atlas will show up.” He had to agree.

“Who knows, but let’s go find Percy. He usually has bad luck and he draws news and fate to him. That is why he is more useful here than with us.” Raynare was interested. “That why haven’t you tried to recruit him?” He nodded. They found Percy and Grover talking about his nightmare.

Kurayami patted him on the shoulder and Percy looked back. “I heard that you dreamt off something? What was it?” Percy explained that in his dream he saw Luke holding up a bunch of rocks before he tricked a female demigod that was charmed by him.” Kurayami nodded. “Next time I see him I will feed his soul to my sword.”

Grover shivered, but he got the courage to speak. “I heard that Zoe also had a nightmare.” The girls all looked at him like he was scum. He sighed. “Let me guess, you camped outside their cabin?” Grover blushed, but he nodded.

Kurayami sighed. “While I will not say you deserve better, but none of them will love you back. It’s like trying to marry a porcupine. It will end badly.” The girls thought the analogy was strange. “A porcupine?” He sighed and looked at Lavinia. “I mean he will get spiked either way.” They understood what he meant.

“However, Grover. What did Zoe say.” Grover grimaced. “Well, she starts talking really old-fashioned when she gets upset, so it was kind of hard to understand. But something about Artemis being in trouble and needing the Hunters.”

Kurayami nodded and began to walk away while Kuroka looked down into his eyes. “Hey, Kurayami Nya. Where is Nico?” Kurayami pointed at the Zeus cabin. “Still sleep. He does not want to think about what happened. Let’s go.” They all left and they all flew into the sky. Lavinia and Natsume were still human, but they were going to turn soon.

Kurayami landed and sat on a rock and had a thoughtful look on his face. Natsume was on his lap and looked up. “Something wrong?” He nodded. “If Artemis is in trouble it means that Atlas is strong or she was tricked. Whichever it is, I am interested in helping her. Shin, you got her scent?”

The dog barked and shook his head. He sighed as it would be helpful if he knew where to start. He doubted that the mummy would just give him an oracle. Kurayamu sighed. “Why must things be so fucking complicated?” The girls agreed and soon it was time to capture the flag.

Raynare looked at the teams and found it quite pointless. “I think for the first time I can agree with the campers. Imagine being a 2000 year old person or just a hundred years and being asked to play a kids game.” Kurayami nodded and looked over at Nico. “You want to go join the game?” Nico looked at it and got up. “Sure.” The girls helped him get a suit of armor and a sword.

Kuroka looked at Kurayami. “So how strong do you think he will be?” Kurayami had a thoughtful look on his face. “Depends if he is a son of the big three, or if he has a supernatural talent. Otherwise he will just be another average demigod.” Esdeath looked at Nico with a small bit of interest. “Does he really hate Bianca?” Kurayami shook his head.

“No, he just thinks he does. I want him to use that feeling and turn it into power. Anger is one of the best motivators to get stronger.” Many of them knew he was right as Lavinia was using her anger at Glenda to train harder. Kuroka was doing what she could to get stronger and seems after this whole year she can finally grow stronger even if slowly.

The fight kind of went as expected with the campers losing as Percy broke rank falling for a trap. Kurayami saw how Thalia and Percy were locked in an argument and it ended with both of them nearly fighting each other. However Kurayami and the girls all shut up when they saw the green mummy leaving the attic.

Natsume hugged Kurayami tightly while shivering. “WHAT IS THAT!?” He wrapped his arm around her. “Seems the oracle is going to give a quest. Let’s see what it is.” They all went toward it and the quest made Kurayami’s eyes shine.