The Junkyard of Destiny - Pt 4
Thalia was staring intently at the nearby scrap, and her expression became more serious the more she saw what had been thrown away there.
Aside from refrigerators and many useless objects that would normally be found in a scrapyard, there was something that wasn't normal.
Golden weapons and armor. Solid gold statues that looked almost perfect, with only the slightest crack or tiny imperfection. Mechanical remains of what looked like a golden chair.
And the more she saw things that could only have been discarded by truly extravagant beings, the more concerned she became.
"What are you looking at?" Bianca asked as she climbed the pile where Thalia was observing the gleaming scrap that could probably make anyone a millionaire if they managed to take away even a single one of those objects.
The moment Bianca saw what Thalia was looking at, her eyes widened in surprise.
She had never seen much gold in her life, but she could tell when something looked really expensive.
"I think... this isn't an ordinary scrapyard," Thalia said while looking at a golden guitar very similar to Apollo's lyre, with reddish sparks occasionally flickering from it, perhaps from the heat itself. And many other objects very similar to those used by the gods of the Greek pantheon.
Bianca couldn't help lifting a small golden tree whose branches were partly broken. But the branches that remained still held tiny golden bird statues, and the moment they were lifted, they began moving as if alive and softly singing.
"This is so fabulous," Bianca said while looking around, unable to stop herself from feeling amazed.
"We'd better not touch anything and go back to tell the others. Maybe someone can figure out who owns this place," Thalia immediately said with a serious expression.
Bianca didn't answer, seeming completely fascinated as she looked around at all the magical objects.
She was even holding a small black statuette shaped like Hades, god of the Underworld, which for some reason seemed connected to her.
"Did you hear me?" Thalia asked more seriously.
"Ah, yes. Sorry. I got distracted," Bianca immediately said as she stood up.
"Let's just go back. In the morning we'll figure out how to cross this place," Thalia said, letting out a sigh as she began walking toward Gila Claw, where the others should be waiting.
"Yeah," Bianca said, following after her.
But at the same time, she slipped the little black statuette into her pocket and quietly murmured to herself,
"I'm sure Nico will really like this."
With a small smile, she followed Thalia, who hadn't heard anything and continued looking around with her guard up.
But there didn't seem to be any danger, at least not in this area.
So when she stepped back onto solid ground, she felt like maybe she had worried for nothing.
Or at least that was until Bianca touched the ground behind her.
Because the moment she did, a tremor suddenly shook the mountain while a sound like a million garbage crushers shredding metal echoed through the air.
Both girls turned around in alarm toward the mountain of junk, which had begun to shift as something seemed to be emerging from its center.
Suddenly, like a volcano erupting, the scrap at the peak of the mountain exploded outward.
As an enormous bronze hand emerged from within, like a titan awakening from its sleep.
Then another equally colossal hand.
Both hands grabbed onto the sides of the mountain of scrap and pushed it aside while simultaneously pulling themselves upward.
The entire mountain trembled as the owner of those hands slowly began emerging from within.
While scrap metal rained down across its bronze body, what finally rose from the wreckage was a bronze giant clad in Greek armor.
Incredibly tall.
Almost like a living skyscraper.
It moved its deformed, half melted head, and its eyes locked onto both Thalia and Bianca.
Its joints creaked with every small movement.
And parts of its body had been partially melted by heat.
And on its chest, someone had written "Wash Me" using a finger larger than either of them.
Which wasn't funny at all in this situation.
"Talos," Thalia couldn't help saying as she recognized the giant from the stories of the Argonauts.
Or at least the resemblance.
But Talos didn't seem interested in introducing himself or anything like that.
He simply reached toward his waist and grabbed the enormous sword hanging there, a blade that had to be at least thirty meters long.
As he drew it, the screech of metal scraping against metal deafened everything for miles around.
And once it was fully drawn, it revealed a rusted edge that had long since lost any sharpness.
But that really wasn't important, because given its size, it was still a terrifying threat.
Talos wrapped both hands around the sword and, without thinking twice, brought it down in a massive slash directly toward where Thalia and Bianca were standing.
Bianca froze.
Because even though she had learned how to use her bow, she was still a novice when it came to being a demigod.
Fortunately, Thalia reacted in time.
She touched her bracelet, summoning Aegis, her magical shield.
At the same time, she slammed into Bianca, knocking her out of the sword's path.
The blade struck the ground, throwing up dust and launching rocks in every direction like a massive explosion.
Thalia had used her shield precisely to protect herself from those rocks while also shielding Bianca with it.
"Run! Go get the others. This isn't something we can face alone," Thalia immediately said as she watched the colossus lift its sword once more, tearing it free from the ground.
It even shook the blade to remove the dirt clinging to it.
Then it looked at both of them again.
Ready to annihilate them.