XLV

After escaping the nymphaeum, Percy leads Jason and Piper through tunnels toward mechanical rumbling, entering a vast underground hypogeum packed with ancient machinery, cages of beasts, and conveyor systems. Spotting a large bronze jar on a dais, they advance cautiously, wary of traps in the chaotic, shifting floor mechanisms.

Platforms descend, revealing the giants: Ephialtes in a grotesque Hawaiian shirt and Otis in a ballet costume. At Ephialtes’s order, Otis tips the bronze jar and Nico di Angelo spills out, pale and weak but alive. Concerned that a fight could kill Nico, Percy stalls for time while Jason and Piper stand ready.

As Ephialtes boasts, Piper identifies the hypogeum’s function. The giants explain they were imprisoned beneath Rome for ages and have built this underworld stage to produce Rome’s final spectacle. Ephialtes claims Annabeth is “already doomed” and that Leo, Hazel, and Frank are captured for sacrifice, intending to keep Percy, Jason, and Piper alive only long enough to stage their deaths.

Piper attempts charmspeak, proposing a surprise release and even a ballet escape to sway Otis, briefly tempting the giants. Ephialtes, priding himself as anti-Dionysus, refuses and demonstrates control panels that can unleash monsters, automata, floods, fires, and quakes across Rome. He declares a month-long destruction leading to Gaea’s awakening.

Learning little more and seeing Nico begin to crawl away, Percy pushes for delay, but Ephialtes insists they cannot be killed without gods and that the show must proceed. With Annabeth’s fate ominously referenced and their friends’ capture asserted, the demigods abandon negotiation. Percy, Piper, and Jason coordinate and charge to attack.