Battle of the Bookstore

The Battle of the Bookstore is the final battle with King @Tarquin in @Cyclops Books.

In an effort to finally get the @Sibylline Books, Tarquin heads to Cyclops Books where he interrogates Aristophanes, but the cat refuses to give up anything. Having realized what Tarquin is up to, @Apollo, @Margaret "Meg" McCaffrey and @Hazel Levesque arrive to stop him and Tarquin uses his power over Apollo, who is dying of a zombie infection, to force him to reveal that Ella has tattooed the prophecies onto Tyson's skin. Pleased, Tarquin snaps his fingers to summon the rest of his undead army to pillage the city, but nothing happens.

As Hazel prepares to attack the undead king, Aristophanes strikes first, launching himself at Tarquin's face, fastening his foreclaws on the skull's eye sockets and kicking his back feet against Tarquin's rotten teeth. Tarquin screams in Latin, although it's garbled due to Aristophanes and the battle begins. Hazel launches herself at Tarquin while Meg chooses to focus on the zombies in the bookstore instead, using her double blades to stab and hack and push them towards the non-fiction section. Apollo draws an arrow only to realize that it's the Arrow of Dodona and collapses. Meg kills a zombie that is about to eat Apollo's face and moves on to the other ghouls as the Arrow of Dodona gives Apollo a pep talk and Hazel engages Tarquin who throws the cat off of him. As the battle continues, the arrow urges Apollo to hold on as his zombie infection reaches the point of nearly consuming him completely. In order to hang on, Apollo begins singing "Sweet Caroline," reluctantly joined by the @Arrow of Dodona.

Finally, Meg clears out all of the zombies while Hazel stabs Tarquin through the chest with her spatha. However, instead of dissolving, the undead king struggles to his feet, declaring that he has lived for millennia and Hazel can't kill him with a sword any more than she could with a ton of stone. At that moment, a pack of wolves arrives along with Diana who Hazel agrees to let have the kill. Diana shoots Tarquin in the head with an arrow, disintegrating him utterly and leaving only his gold crown, Diana's arrow and Hazel's sword behind.

Apollo greets his sister before collapsing as his zombie infection finally consumes him. However, Diana is able to heal the infection and her brother's wounds, saving Apollo's life. Diana explains that she had come in response to his summons which even @Zeus couldn't argue against, bringing with her the @Hunters of Artemis to help destroy Tarquin's undead army while also rescuing @Lavinia Asimov and her forces after they had destroyed @Caligula's fleet.