"Can we go now?" Percy managed to ask after the tears had stopped and their breathing had begun to even out.

The heir of Hades pried his face from the son of Poseidon's chest and frowned. "Only if you still have the book."

He tossed his head back with an exasperated sigh.

The book Nico was referring to was either a copy of or the real Necronomicon, as the human prophets of the void called it.

If it was a copy, it appeared as a black book whose pages were made of flayed, human skin and inked in blood. Within the black tome were written fragments of knowledge of the Outer Gods, their twisted minions, long forgotten magics and technologies, and a seemingly endless amount of other topics collected by a long dead race that had sacrificed themselves to seal the hungering darkness away.

It was all valuable information (even if he couldn't make heads or tails of it) but it was insignificant to the real deal.

Or at least that's what they hoped...

There was next to no concrete information about what the Necronomicon was; they weren't even certain it was a book. All they learned about it coming from the rare, passing mentions in the copies they managed to locate. They knew it contained the sum of the Elder Things' knowledge, which according to Piper included a map to the Dream Lands; a world apart from all others that would contain the tools needed to defeat the forces of the Void once and for all. They also knew that it was constantly jumping from one reality to the next. Only stopping long enough to depart some of its vast knowledge to those it seemingly deemed worthy, which so far included an eighth century nut job from the Middle East, a thirteenth century monk with the unfortunate name of Herman, and some random nineteenth century guy from Rhode Island whose parents hated enough to name Whipple. All met unfortunate ends, or vanished without a trace. The only thing they had in common were strange first names.

"Well, that answers that question," Nico mumbled as he slowly began to untangle himself.

"Please don't tell Piper I dropped it," he sighed, moving his legs so the other could stand up easier. "I do not need her chewing me out when we get back. Not after..."

"I would never." The insignificantly younger demigod held out his hand which Percy gladly took. "But when you say chewing, do you mean that figuratively, oooor-"

He slugged his partner in the shoulder, earning a satisfying yelp that quickly turned into laughter. "Gods, you're an ass," he smiled, reaching down for Nico's Master Bolt.

"I learned from the best," the son of Hades smirked as he took back the Celestial Bronze cylinder. "Now, do you got any idea where you dropped it?"

"Can't you track it like before?" he asked.

Nico shook his head, making him swear under his breath. "The whole place is practically covered with its stench."

----

"I feel like I'm in an episode of Scooby Doo," Percy stated as he shined his flashlight across the ruins of the once resplendent entrance hall.

"Mixed with a twisted homecoming," Nico muttered aloud from his perch atop the overturned reception desk. His sweeping gaze lingering for a moment on an overturned coat check rack and its now scattered contents, the numerous styles like a strata showcasing just how many eras the Lotus had trapped people from.

"It's definitely not what it once was," he said as he quickly turned his beam of light away from a severed arm. A needle-like phantom pain pricking at his own damaged limb at the sight, forcing him to roll his shoulder. "We really did wreck this place..."

Only a scant few hours ago the resort had been the closest thing to paradise on Earth. Grand gaming halls filled with every variation of slot machine, Blackjack table, roulette wheel, Backgammon table, Keno, Craps, Texas hold 'em, Mahjong, and every other game one could wager on, and there was always an opening at the table of your choice. For those had no desire to gamble, there were multiplex IMAX theaters that always played your favorites, arcades that had every video game ever made and then some, indoor and outdoor water parks with slides that seemingly had no top, live shows where you were also brought on stage to assist the performers, theme parks that put Disney World to shame in every way, and so much more that one could never experience it all in a thousand lifetimes. Outside the realm of entertainment, every room was a penthouse suite with an unparalleled view of Vegas, room service and restaurants to appease any palette, and lavish spas that could work out even the most stubborn of kinks.

And all it cost to experience this paradise was forgetting the world just outside the gilded entrance.

It was kinda like that one hotel out in California, but with better service and less nonsensical metaphors.

But it was none of that now, or at least the parts he could see. The resort nearly leveled from a battle between him and Nico against a pair of gigantic, deep sea salamanders called Dagons or Mother Hydras based on their sex (and he had now idea how to tell them apart).

The brightly lit halls were now cloaked in darkness. The power knocked out when he used the water from an Olympic pool to drill through several levels of the casino in an attempt to slow the void creatures down, inadvertently flooding the maintenance levels and soaking just about everything else. The only light now coming from their flashlights, a few scattered neon bracelets worn by corpses, and the frequent arcs of electricity from the Master Bolt.

The gaming tables and furniture were scattered about or smoldering piles of rubble. The serpentine monsters showing no sign of hesitation as they crushed any obstacles under their behemoth, black girths as they pursued their prey. Even the entranced resort guests were given little attention, whereas the monsters they had known from their youths would have stopped to grab a quick snack. He and Nico had tried their best to warn the bystanders, yelling and screaming for them to flee, but so powerful was the spell of the Lotus that they didn't notice the bus-sized amphibians until they were on top of them. Still, Nico tried to at least reroute the creatures away from the ignorant populace by using his lightning to set the casino's amenities aflame.

Massive sections of the once immaculate ceiling had collapsed and whole walls had been obliterated, covering everything with and filling the air with a thick fog of plaster and drywall. For once they realized that the salamanders were faster than they had any gods given right to be and that they couldn't outrun them forever, Nico opened the shadows so that they could engage them with guerrilla tactics. It seemed like a good idea, but the void creatures seemed to know exactly where they were going to reappear, and wasted no time to get to them by charging through anything in their path.

Percy could not recall a monster as relentless or resilient as the milky-eyed Dagons. Not even the amorphous, shapeshifting Shoggoths that had devoured their home.

Even trying to pull the moisture from the creatures didn't stop them. Only pulling a few gallons of water from their rubbery bodies at most, and he was positive he placed it their to begin with with his attacks.

The Master Bolt, the most powerful divine weapon of the Greco-Roman pantheon, barely made a scratch. The Dagons at most being momentarily stunned if Nico managed to strike them in the nose or their unblinking eyes.

Though they would never admit it aloud, the cyclops-forged weapons seemed to be growing weaker with time, as it used to be able to smite even a god.

It wasn't until they were forced to retreat to a kiddie pool did he figure out a way to stop the rampaging beasts. A pile of discarded water balloons provided him the eureka moment they desperately needed.

If the Dagons didn't have much water in them, then he would just have to hydrate them himself.

As the legged serpents surged forward in their relentless pursuit, he called upon all the water contained in the immense network of slides to come to his aid. With his own natural abilities enhanced by the power of the trident, the water obeyed his command without question. Bursting from the rainbow of interconnected plastic tubes that provided an additional barrage of shrapnel for his initial attack.

With a little concentration, he then pulled the water down in a uniformed layer, the sheer weight of the which stunned the Dagons and sent them crashing through several levels of concrete floors. Then with a great deal of concentration and effort, the Celestial Bronze of his arm glowing brighter to match the strain he felt, he refused to allow the water to disperse and instead forced it into converge on the massive beasts. He forced the water down their throats, through their gills, and every orifice he could feel until they were swollen like balloons on the verge of popping.

Without a word or so much as a gesture, Nico understood what he was trying to do, and unleashed the awesome might of the Master Bolt on the squirming Dagons.

The moment the lightning made contact with bulging, black flesh, the creatures exploded in a flash of blinding light. The water within their bodies launching skyward like twin geysers and shattering the glass ceiling above the now ruined water park.

"You think the gods got insurance on this place?" Percy asked Nico as his flashlight illuminated a small, black rectangle. Only for his hopes to immediately fall when he realized it was an old VHS tape. "I mean, that sounds like something Athena would do," he said, kicking the tape away.

"I doubt it," the son of Hades answered as he ducked down to check under a poker table that had been split in two. "They probably thought The Mist would handle any damage that might occur." Nico stood back up with a frown and looked around their surroundings. "But even The Mist has its limits."

"As long as it stays asleep."

"Don't even joke about that, Perce," Nico said, shooting him a dirty look. His face paling ever-so slightly at the thought of the true origin of the magics that obscured the divine from mortal eyes. "If it awoke, it's-"

"I know. I know," he sighed. "Fire and brimstone coming down from the sky! Rivers and seas boiling! Forty years of darkness! Earthquakes, volcanoes! Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together, mass hysteria!" He cried, before bursting out in laughter. He knew Nico was unquestionably right about the seriousness of an Outer God awakening, but sometimes he just needed to joke about something to relieve some of the tension that sometimes made him feel like he was teetering on the edge of insanity.

Nico shook his head in faux disappointment with a grin betraying his true feelings. "You and mom are watching way too much TV..."

"But it keeps us out of your hair while you try to understand the facility. Plus, you knew that was a reference!" Percy laughed. "I'm really proud of you!"

"Everyone knows Ghostbusters," Nico smirked. "Now, where should we look next?"

He shined his flashlight at the only directory sign still hanging, albeit barely, and tilted his head to better read the gilded words. He ran down the list of names and tried to remember which ones they had visited while fighting the Dagons, finally stopping on one of the gaming halls. "Let's go left."