*Read previous Rick Riordan Greek myth books for context
Book 5 in series
Apollo has spent half a year as Lester after his fall from Olympus. After narrowly defeating Caligula and Commodus at Camp Jupiter, he and Meg are returning to New York on an Amtrack. Apollo sees a two-headed snake on the train and is immediately suspicious. When Meg is unconcerned, he tries to figure out if the snake really is evil on the pretense of going to the bathroom. The snake grabs him and utters the next stanza of Apollo's final prophecy, scaring him. Unfortunately, the regular humans can't see any of this because of the Mist and shush Apollo. After the snake delivers its prophecy, it momentarily panics about missing its station before it is killed by an arrow. Apollo turns and sees that some of Nero's henchmen have caught Meg. It turns out Meg knows one of them, a Gaul named Luguselwa. She cryptically tells them to pretend to go to the bathroom near Union Station. She and Meg pretend-fight while Apollo decouples their train car from the rest of the train, completing their escape.
As they flee from the main city (Nero has cameras everywhere) Meg explains that Luguselwa used to be her caretaker and taught her gladiator-style fighting. Apollo still doesn't trust her, but she claims to have a plan. Nero can't realize that she has turned against him, so they have to pretend to be chased to the top of a building. Then, when she pretends to kill Meg, Apollo will push her off the roof. Nero is planning to douse the city in Greek fire unless Apollo and Meg come to his fireproof tower and surrender. When they do that, Lu (Luguselwa) will free them from their cell and help them destroy Nero's fasces, his symbol of power and part of his immortality. Since they really have no choice, Apollo decides to go along with it. But first, they need fresh clothes and rest because it's raining outside, so they go to Percy Jackson's house. They are the most hospital home anywhere, and with the new addition of baby Estelle, Apollo feels that he must succeed in order to protect them and everyone else in Manhattan.
After breakfast the next day, the three head out to the building. Apollo and Meg sprint onto the rooftop with Lu in hot pursuit. Apollo starts to crawl around and look afraid while Meg and Lu fight. But when he sees what he perceives to be a truly murderous look in Lu's eyes, he picks her up and somehow throws her multiple blocks away. He and Meg take the Grey Sisters' taxi to Camp Half-Blood. During the ride, the Sisters produce the next stanza of the prophecy. At Camp, Dionysus greets Apollo.
The next day, Apollo basically spends time worrying and trying to get more information. Meg admits to him that she is afraid that Nero will control her again if she goes to the tower, but Apollo reassures her that he won't let it happen. The prophecy stated that a son of Hades and a Dare would guide the way, so Meg and Apollo take Nico and Will with them to Rachel Dare, the current priestess of Delphi who is hindered by Python's possession of the prophetic ground. Outside her father's building, there are cows, which turn out to be Taurus Sylvestre, invincible bulls that can only be killed by being lured into pits. Fortunately, Apollo remembers this fact and they lure them into a construction pit, where they die. The four shadow travel away to the cave dwellers mentioned in the prophecy. They are troglodytes, enemies of the aforementioned cows, who believe humans aren't civilized because they don't constantly wear hats. Nico planned to give them a lizard as a present and ask them to tunnel into Nero's underground Greek fire delivery system to shut it off. At first, the trogs don't see any reason to. Apollo convinces the troglodytes "CEO" to help them by giving a speech about how in order to stop the destruction of the world, they must all work together. The Taurus can apparently tunnel underground, and they intrude upon the meeting. One trog gets Apollo and Meg away while another takes Nico and Will to dismantle the Greek fire pipe system.
Apollo and Meg turn themselves in at Nero's tower and are taken up to his throne room. It turns out that Nero had already found out about their plan with Lu! Her hands are chopped off and she is imprisoned with Apollo while Meg is taken to her room. Apollo and Lu hatch a plot. He has discovered in one of his dreams that the guardian of Nero's fasces is an ancient monster. It gives him a bargain: since he is guarding the immortality of Nero, one must give immortality to get it from him. Apollo finds out later that Lu's life force is tied to Nero's in a way that makes her immortal and that is what she plans to trade for the fasces. They spread salve on the floor of their cell so that the guard trips the next time he enters. After they leave the cell, Lu goes for the fasces while Apollo tries to get to Meg before Nero's guards. He accidentally stumbles upon technicians trying to activate the Greek fire vats. He can't stop them, but it seems the troglodytes have successfully dismantled the system. Nico comes back and takes Apollo one floor up, where troglodytes and Camp Half-Blood are fighting guards. Several of Apollo's children get him up to Nero's throne room, which he enters alone. Nero makes it look like he is protecting Meg from being harmed by Apollo, which makes him mad. He also says that he has poison gas ready to kill all his friends on the lower levels. Just in time, Lu, Nico, and Rachel burst in with the staff. Naturally, a battle in which Apollo nearly dies ensues, and Nero's fasces is broken, killing him. Apollo now has to face Python, his ancient enemy.
Python is in his lair below the tower. He awakes from his slumber when Apollo's first arrow misses, and nearly ends up destroying him. He tries to utter a prophecy, which would inevitably seal Apollo's fate, but he only gets to "Apollo will fall-" before he is cut off by an arrow. But Apollo gets beat up by Python anyway and is on the verge of defeat when the Arrow of Dodona speaks. It tells him that it's finally time for it to be used, and that even though Apollo will fall, he must rise again. After the Arrow impales one of Python's eyes, Apollo drags them both down into an abyss, into the underworld, and into the River Styx. It carries them all the way to the edge of existence, Chaos, where Python goes over and Apollo barely hangs onto the ledge. There, Styx (goddess of the River Styx) tells him to remember what he has learned before he blacks out. When he wakes up again, he has been restored to Olympus. Not forgetting, he returns to Earth and thanks his friends.
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