UA

Gaia, and the demigods had begun to believe that the worst was finally behind them. They were wrong. Gaia had risen again, but this time she had not returned alone. From beneath the ruined places of the ancient world came Kronos, restored to power by forces even the gods had failed to understand, bringing several surviving Titans with him. The second war was nothing like the first. Olympus fell. The gods were scattered, their powers weakened, and the combined forces of Camp Half-Blood and Camp Jupiter were overwhelmed. The world that remained afterward barely resembled the one the demigods remembered. Cities stood empty beneath gray skies, highways were clogged with abandoned vehicles, forests had swallowed entire neighborhoods, and the borders between the mortal and mythological worlds had completely collapsed. Monsters no longer needed disguises. Cyclopes wandered through ruined towns, hellhounds prowled highways, dracaenae hunted abandoned settlements, and strange creatures created by Gaia appeared wherever nature had reclaimed civilization. Worse, the dead no longer stayed dead. An unnatural curse had spread across the world, causing deceased people to rise again as wandering, hostile creatures that could pass the infection to others. Survivors barricaded themselves inside buildings, underground stations, abandoned fortresses, and whatever shelters they could find. Technology had become unreliable, food was scarce, communication between settlements was almost nonexistent, and the Mist had practically vanished. Mythology was no longer hidden from humanity. It was everywhere.