Roman Chronicles: Book 1, Apollo: Chapter 8, Styx this, Styx that

"Styx...?" Now, if I hadn't been only reading Percy Jackson for the last 6 years of my life, I would have had no idea what she was talking about. Thankfully, I had read Percy Jackson the last 7 years of my life. I said, "Magical river of broken sadness, memories blah-blah sad stuff- immortal-ness-blah?" He nodded. "Why?" I asked. He looked at his feet. "Because... Because I... I- just... never mind. It isn't any of your business." He glared at me and then closed his eyes. Dang, this guy was good. I slid under the door as it was closing. I wasn't prepared for any of this. I had a clear view of the Fields of Punishment, and it was not something I wanted to see. People being burnt at the stake, people being whipped while running barefoot over burning nails into a pit of hungry, angry black widows, people being... I turned away. The place I saw was where I definitely wanted to go. Crystal-clear sand splashed by perfectly aqua and turquoise water. Palm trees with emerald-green leaves blew in the breeze, the chocolate-brown trunks swaying. Red, orange, yellow, green, blue and every single exotic fruit you could think of were heavy but not too heavy on the trees. Beautiful animals (probably extinct on Earth) were running everywhere, and an area with tall, clean Victorian houses sky-blue and sunshine-yellow were lined perfectly with giant backyards and perfectly green lawns, rare flowers colored purple and green and red. Very few people were there, and they were strolling around, happy, content, and 10 times more beautiful and handsome than they probably were on Earth. Then, there was a grey field. Long, tall stalks of black wheat and corn stalks without corn. Creaky black trees were planted here and there, and I heard slow, cold muttering. The eyes of the thousands of people were dark, empty, and cold. I walked on. Soon, I heard rushing water. "This should be it..." Nico said, tons of nervousness in his voice. He stepped forward, towards the murky black water. He started stuttering. "I don't know... I don't know if I can do it..." I pushed him forward. His toes dangled over the now louder, higher water. I said, "If I can do it, so can you." He stared at me. "If you can do it...?" I closed my eyes, held my breath, and... jumped in. Percy understated it. It was not like acid. It was like jumping into greek fire. First it was just like lava and acid mixed together, which was totally enough for me. Then, my body was filled to the top with acid, fire, greek fire, lava, magma, boomslang venom, rat poison, and Thursday school lunches. (Toasted mushrooms with lobster juice. Yech.) Nico reached out to grab me back out, and I wished he had long enough arms. Then, I blacked out. I saw Nicholas. He was staring down at me saying, "Choose. Choose, Roman. I don't really have all day." Then I realized what he meant by choose. I thought about my skin area right between my thumb and pointer finger. Then, I burst out. A picked a broken doll head off of my face.  I put it back in the river. Nico grabbed me out and stuffed a lemon bar in my mouth. It dissolved and tasted like cookies and chocolate cake covered in white chocolate. I chewed and chewed. Finally, the acid and greek fire faded. The pain dissolved and went away. Nico reached down. "You know how dangerous that was?" I gulped and nodded. He started smiling like a maniac. "Let's test it." My eyes widened. "What? No!" He took out his sword. He raised it... and brought it down. It clanged through my shirt, but just dented a little against my skin. I took of the nail-sized piece of shirt and threw it in the Styx. It shimmered gold then died out. I sighed. Nico ran off in the direction of a palace. Once he had gone, I followed  him and entered the palace. The doors creaked. I looked in, and gasped. The floors were lined with shining obsidian. You know, technically, everything was obsidian. Then, I heard, "What are you doing?" I swirled around. Hades was behind me, his double-bladed stygian sword tightly held in his hand. I gulped "N-nothing." He sighed. "Just as well, I can't let you leave." He swung his sword  down.