On day three, Alexis sits between Kharon and Augustus in the coliseum under overcast skies. Hades enters the arena for his round. Within minutes, he unleashes a thick fog of death across the sand. The five Cyclopes tear themselves apart in the darkness while the crowd watches in stunned silence. The entire brutal display lasts only 10 minutes, demonstrating his power and impressing upon Alexis what it means to be his daughter. The next day, Alexis realizes that Erebus is Kharon’s father.

On day four, Erebus, the primordial god of darkness, enters the arena. He points at five charging Cyclopes, and shadow blades materialize from the sand, spearing each creature through the heart. They drop dead instantly.

The following day, Aphrodite wields a golden ax and brutally dismembers all five Cyclopes through sheer Spartan strength. The crowd falls silent at her display of raw physical prowess. When the men who had been heckling her with sexual taunts go quiet, Aphrodite blows them a kiss and exits. The Chthonics cheer loudly while the rest of the stadium stares in shock.

At the following symposium, Alexis is confronted by Titus, a bully from the crucible, who apologizes under pressure from his House. Alexis coldly refuses his apology, telling him that she used to wish he were dead and has no interest in forgiving him. When Kharon and Augustus arrive, Titus backs away. Zeus makes a toast to the younger Chthonics starting their rounds the next day. Alexis stares back at him without fear.

On day five, Alexis and her colleagues discuss their impending participation in the SGC. Hades and the other gods watch Zeus announce the day’s events, appearing perturbed. Charlie offers Alexis good luck, but she briefly believes that he speaks aloud instead of signing to her, unsettling her.

Agatha is the first younger Chthonic to compete. She fights four Olympian guards and then is forced to fight her partner, Hermos. When they refuse, Zeus threatens them with his lightning scepter. Hermos incapacitates Agatha to save her life, and she is branded five times for her failed labors.

During dinner, the Chthonics dwell on their powerlessness, upset after watching Agatha be branded. Augustus and Kharon ask Alexis about her favorite food to distract her. When she struggles to answer, explaining that she simply likes food she can have every day, they grow concerned. Hermos arrives drunk and distraught over Agatha, who is being brutally interrogated about Medusa despite what she’s been through. That night, the three sleep together peacefully. Kharon falls asleep for the first time in recent memory.

The next morning, on day seven, Hermos fights four male Gorgons in the arena. He impales all four on his 15-foot spear. The crowd reacts with mixed horror and approval.

On day eight, Patro enters for his round. Before the fight, Zeus announces that Patro’s Achilles tendon was severed during interrogation the previous day. Despite his injury, Patro and his jaguar protector, Poppae, quickly defeat two Nemean jaguars. Helen, Charlie, and Achilles watch anxiously from the stands. After his victory, Patro blows a kiss to Achilles, who sits rigidly in the stands.

On day nine, Achilles’s destructive round begins under stormy skies. Patro limps into the arena with a bandaged, bleeding ankle and removes Achilles’s muzzle. Despite Achilles’s reluctance, Patro leaves him, and the round begins. Achilles fights four Nemean wolves with only a kitchen knife, defeating them quickly alongside his wolf protector, Nero.

For the second round, four Minotaurs enter. The Chthonic leaders protest, but Zeus threatens them with his lightning scepter. Achilles removes his muzzle fully, revealing thick scars across his lips where someone attempted to sew his mouth shut. Before the Minotaurs attack, Achilles slashes his own heel in solidarity with Patro. He then opens his mouth and breathes Greek fire, incinerating the Minotaurs and setting the entire arena ablaze, including the rain itself. The stadium evacuates except for the Chthonics.

At the symposium following Achilles’s display of power, Alexis worries about the violent interrogations over Medusa, observing Agatha’s extensive bruising. She briefly sees a vision of her colleagues fighting and dying in the violence of the coliseum, and powerful light begins to emit from her hands before disappearing. Nyx tries to help her use them again by strangling her, believing that the pain will force the powers to arise. It doesn’t. Afterward, she dances with Augustus and Kharon, and then she tells them that she wants to be intimate with them. They escort her to their room.

In their room, Alexis, Augustus, and Kharon enter the bathroom together. Alexis admits her fear, but Augustus and Kharon assure her that they love her. In the shower, the three engage in intimate acts together. Through their bond, Kharon shares his overwhelming emotions with Alexis. Alexis notices matching tattoos on both men’s left thighs: Her name and their wedding date are permanently inscribed on their skin. Afterward, they tenderly care for her, drying and tucking her into bed before they settle in for sleep.

Kharon wakes up holding Alexis draped across his chest like a blanket. He reflects that he has not slept or rested peacefully in years until this week with her. Tracing the scars covering her body, Kharon becomes emotional while realizing how much she has endured. He is grateful that they found each other and vows that she is his wife and other soul.

On day 10 of the SGC, Drex enters the arena for his round. He faces two Chimeras but spends 30 minutes running from them rather than fighting. When the round ends, he flees the arena without killing either beast. Guards shoot the Chimeras dead. Zeus brands Drex twice for his two failed labors. Despite the loss, Drex sneers at Zeus when the Olympian leader tries to console him.

The next day, under sunny skies, Kharon enters the arena with Hell and Hound. He carries a silver bow, deliberately mocking Artemis, who disowned him. Three massive, powerful beasts called Typhons emerge. Kharon shoots arrows into their beaks while his hounds attack. During the fight, a Typhon’s spit burns through Kharon’s chest.

Through their bond, both Augustus and Alexis feel Kharon’s excruciating pain. Augustus realizes that Alexis has been suffering silently through all their injuries.

Kharon staggers from the arena as Typhon spit melts through his flesh and bones. Hades catches him as he collapses, but Zeus takes Kharon away.

Kharon wakes in an underground chamber, chained to a chair. Zeus interrogates him about Medusa’s location, using a healing tonic as incentive. When Kharon insists that he doesn’t know where Medusa is, Zeus has guards torture him. Patro arrives and confirms under threat that Kharon is telling the truth. Zeus finally gives Kharon the healing tonic.

Patro helps Kharon return to his room. They discuss their strained friendship, and Kharon admits that he loves Alexis. Patro looks devastated but accepts this.

When Kharon reaches his room, Augustus tells him that Alexis can feel their pain through the marriage bond. Kharon realizes that she experienced his torture. Overwhelmed with guilt, he hyperventilates until Augustus and Alexis calm him. They promise to face everything together.

Day 12 of SGC is Augustus’s round. To spare Alexis from feeling his pain, he unleashes his full power for the first time. He commands six Minotaurs to kneel and die, causing their eyes and brains to explode. The display of power shocks Sparta but ensures that he is not injured.

On day 13, Alexis wakes alone. Guards force her to the coliseum and rush her to choose a weapon, and she selects a spear. She enters the arena to face 12 labors under stormy skies. Zeus holds his lightning scepter. Eight Nemean lions emerge instead of the standard four.

Alexis, Nyx, and Fluffy Jr. fight desperately. A lion crushes Alexis into the sand, but Fluffy Jr. saves her. With her hands burning and covered in her own blood, Alexis discovers that she can solidify her poisonous blood into a weapon—a thick rod with a sharp point. She kills the remaining lions with this newfound ability. She then points her blood rod at Zeus, and Hades’s fog fills the stadium, nearly starting a war before Zeus backs down. As the gate opens for the second round, Alexis stands exhausted and injured, accepting her fate.