The Tower of Nero

Considering the damage Apollo has wreaked, Nico suspects his godly powers are growing stronger. Nico tells Apollo that just as Apollo had suspected, the trogs have eaten the Greek fire. Summoned by Rachel, Camp Half-Blood has attacked the Tower of Nero. A battle is raging all around them. Nico takes a concussed Apollo to the building terrace where an enormous fight is underway. Nero’s baristas are imprisoned dryads or tree spirits; they have joined forces with Camp Half-Blood against Nero. As Apollo recovers in a corner, he notes that many of the brave campers fighting Nero’s forces are newbies as young as 11. Kayla, Apollo’s daughter, restocks his arrows, and he resumes his search for Meg. Nico goes off to look for Will.

Apollo spots his son Austin near an elevator. Austin tells Apollo the elevator leads to Nero’s throne room, but they need an access card to get in. The elevator opens and Cassius, the stepson of Nero who cut off Lu’s hands, steps out. He hands Apollo Meg’s rings and his key card.

The elevator emerges into a hallway leading to a large room. The room is packed with guests. A dryad reassures them that the party for which they were invited—the burning of New York—is slightly delayed by a disturbance but will start soon. Austin begins to play “Pop Goes the Weasel” on his saxophone, using his musical gift to rouse the guests into a stampeding mob. The mob departs, leaving the area empty for Apollo to explore. Apollo finds a screen with Nero’s live feed on it. Nero addresses Apollo directly and mocks Apollo for thinking he could outwit the emperor. As Plan B, Nero has stocks of Sassanid gas—an ancient poisonous gas—ready. He will flood the building with the gas, killing all the campers and guests. Meg is with him in his reinforced throne room, safe. Nero will let Meg decide what to do with Apollo. He asks Apollo to head one story up to his throne room. From the corner of his eye, Apollo spots a trog listening to the conversation and asks the trog to stay out of Nero’s sight. As Apollo goes toward the upper story, the trog tells him he was sent here by Rachel, who had a premonition Apollo would soon receive vital information. The trog says he and his team will try to find and disable the Sassanid gas while Apollo stalls Nero.

Nero’s throne room is sealed by blast doors fortified with magic, titanium, and Imperial gold. The doors open for Apollo. Apollo spots seven of Nero’s 11 demigod stepchildren standing next to plotted plants and their attendant dryads. If the dryads rebel, the demigods will burn their respective plants. Nero asks Apollo to surrender his backpack, ukulele, and weapons. Unknown to Nero, Apollo still has Meg’s gold rings with him. Nero calls forth Meg, now dressed in an imperial purple toga like her foster siblings. Nero says Apollo ruined his fireworks display of a burning New York City, but Nero can still have fun with the Sassanid gas. He asks his cronies for a remote that controls the gas. Since the room has many remotes, the Germani and cynocephali—wolf-headed humanoids—fumble to find the right one.

To stall Nero, Apollo screams that Meg must decide Apollo’s fate. Nero asks Meg to choose a terrible death for Apollo since Apollo is selfish and has caused the death of many innocents like the griffin Heloise (Book 2 in the series) and Jason Grace (Book 3). Unlike Apollo, who is a terrible father to his many children, Nero has rescued an army of orphans. Meg replies she cannot order Apollo’s death. Nero bids the dryads to kill Apollo.

Apollo knows the dryads are only attacking him in order to keep their plants safe. The dryads only pretend to fight him till one of Nero’s children notices and torches her plant dead. The dryads are forced to intensify their attack, injuring Apollo. Meg orders them to stop, her powers coating the entire room in green pollen. Commanded by the daughter of Demeter, goddess of plants, the dryads freeze. Their trees begin to sprout new branches and roots. Meg promises to keep the plants safe and the dryads leave. When Meg bows to check on a battered Apollo, he hands her the rings.

Nero cautions Meg that her actions will anger the Beast and cause him to murder, just like they caused him to kill her real father. Meg tells Nero she knows the truth is that Nero alone killed her father and many others. She throws away his rings because she is done fighting with his weapons. Nico di Angelo appears on the scene with the animated skeleton of a taurus silvestre (a son of Hades, Nico can very briefly raise dead creatures). A fight breaks out, with Meg trying to angle a weapon from one of her foster siblings. Nero shouts for the remote. Lucius, Meg’s foster-brother, stabs Apollo. Nero seems to have hold of the right remote. He pushes the button, screaming, “Death to my enemies!” (301).

The remote turns out to only lower the window shades. Nero resumes his search. Apollo shoots arrows at Nero; Nero stays unharmed, suggesting his fasces is intact. Apollo fears Lu has failed to bargain with the guardian. As if to prove him wrong, Lu and Rachel enter the throne room, accompanied by Will Solace. Rachel is holding the fasces—a golden axe protected by golden rods—in her arms. Lu tells Apollo the guardian accepted her offer. She is immortal because of her connection with Nero; however, in giving away her immortality, she has also surrendered Nero’s immortal life. Nero scoffs that he is immortal anyway because no one can break his fasces. However, if the fasces were to break, its power would trickle down to Python in Delphi, making the monster stronger. Apollo understands that Python has been pulling Nero’s strings all along. Meg tells Nero to surrender. Nero asks his guards to kill Apollo.

Apollo knows he has a chance to break the fasces by summoning a burst of divine power, as he did in Indianapolis when battling Commodus (Book 2). He takes the fasces from Rachel. Nero races after him and the two grapple over the axe. The axe begins to pulse with blinding light. Apollo tugs the axe and tells Nero, “I am Apollo. […] God of the sun. And I—revoke—your—divinity” (317). The fasces explodes, releasing Nero and the other emperors’ pent-up power and rage. A terrified Nero tells Apollo that the god does not know what he has done. Nero crumbles to golden dust, which an invisible force drags down the floor of the throne room and further. Apollo collapses into another dream, where his family in Mount Olympus is watching his unconscious form in Nero’s throne room on a screen. Hephaestus (god of metalwork and machines), Aphrodite (goddess of beauty and love), and Apollo’s twin Artemis (goddess of the hunt) bicker over Apollo’s fate. To Apollo’s surprise, his stepmother Hera, whom he thinks hates him, chides the others for treating Apollo’s life on earth as a game. Apollo’s father, Zeus, seems concerned about him as well though Apollo wryly observes that Zeus is as great an actor as Nero. Athena (goddess of wisdom and victory) fears that, failing his last quest, Apollo will meet a destiny worse than death.