Chapter 25, This was NOT one of my three wishes!

Okay, I've finally got an idea for the Magnus Chase crossover, which was hard because I needed to pick out something from Ragnarok that HADN'T already been used in the canon Magnus Chase books.

Also, a certain character from Chains of Olympus has been combined with a power from that same game for plot reasons. You should be able to figure out what and who when you get far enough in the chapter.

And again, please be patient with my updates. I've got enough on my plate right now as it is. I do NOT need constant reminders to update chapters sooner. Keep in mind, I haven't outlined this story past this point at all. For books two and three of this trilogy, as well as the Magnus Chase crossover spinoff, I'm going to outline both entire storylines ahead of time before even starting to write chapter one of either of them.

Percy's POV

"Well, none of us exploded." I pointed out as soon as we stepped through the portal. We stepped into what looked like an arena

"Felt like I was about to though. It was like someone threw me into a dozen power-lines." Jason commented.

"I felt like they dropped me into a volcano." Sierra replied.

"Mine was like getting hit with a blizzard and tidal wave at the same time." I told them. I looked at Nico after a few seconds. "What did yours feel like."

Nico didn't answer the question. He just seemed to hesitate talking about it before pointing to the center of the arena. "That looks important." he said, obviously trying to change the subject. Jason, Sierra, and I agreed not to press the subject with him anymore, but from how Zane described what it looked like, the powers Nico got almost ripped his soul out of his body.

At the center of the arena, sitting on a strange pedestal, was some kind of weird jar...thing. It looked like some sort of incense burner or something, and it had flames coming out on top. "What is it?" I asked, reaching to grab it, but it was crazy hot. "OW!" I yanked my hand away, like it was a boiling pot I'd touched by mistake, only hot, since whatever was in it was burning. "Uh...Sierra, your turn."

"What a little – OW!" Sierra tried to grab it just like I did, but she should have been more resistant to the heat than I was. Her working for Hephaestus for fire powers should have made her immune to it, like Leo, or at least resistant, but she'd gotten burned just the same.

"Maybe we should break it." Jason said as he drew his sword. He raised it and was about to slam it down on the burner when Nico stopped him.

"Hang on a second." Nico interrupted. "What if it breaks your sword?" Jason did a double take and sheathed his sword immediately, remembering just how unstable Imperial Gold is. It explodes when broken, for some reason. "I'll use mine. Stygian Iron's a lot stronger anyway." Nico drew his sword, which actually seemed to make the room a bit darker as its purple glow appeared. That thing always gave me the creeps. "One..." We all drew our swords as Nico raised his in the air, "Two..." and got into a fighting stance just in case. "Three!" Nico slammed his blade right through the jar, causing a blast of heat and force to explode from the jar's split remains, blasting all four of us into the sides of the arena.

It took us all a few seconds to come back to our senses and stop being dizzy, but we then saw what we were up against. It looked like a flaming red genie, with iron bands on its wrists. Its body's flames seemed extra-concentrated on its head, and even more fire coming off its ears, seeming to stretch the ears to 'Jack and Daxter' length. It was heavily armed too, carrying a quiver of spears on its back, a curved scimitar-like golden sword, and a thick moon-shaped shield. Jason later described these weapons as Persian in origin.

"We have to fight a genie?!" I shouted, already holding my sword back up. Now was the PERFECT time for my new ice powers to spontaneously activate.

"I think it's a Djinn, probably an Efreet." Jason corrected.

"Isn't that the same thing?" I asked him.

"WHAT DIFFERENCE DOES IT MAKE?!"Sierra shouted. "JUST KILL IT!" I took the hint just in time to avoid the Efreet's sword swinging down right at me, which was especially good timing since it was now on fire.

There was no other way of looking at this. We needed to attack this thing head on, no matter how powerful, terrifying, nightmare-inducing, or insanely overpowered it was. I needed those ice powers right then and there, no time for instruction, which is why, as the Efreet came at me again, I raised my sword, and focused all my attention on activating my new ice powers. To my surprise, and massive relief, I felt an unusually cold mist surrounding me. I opened my eyes and saw that it was glowing bright blue, slowly swirling around me, almost like my usual 'hurricane mode' as Annabeth called it once. Getting an idea, I waited until the Efreet swung his sword down on me again, pushing my sword forward just before his sword hit the mist. My new 'hurricane mode' sped up in speed and rotation, hitting the Efreet with a blast of magical ice, causing it to scream in pain, probably from the steaming pieces of ice now embedded in its chest and on its sword.

It only took a few seconds for the Efreet to shake off the ice attack, and it had turned away from me, and towards Jason. I could see that he was thinking the same thing I'd figured out, especially when yellow sparks started shooting out of his body like a plasma globe, quickly increasing as he readied his sword for a stab maneuver. Before the Efreet came at him, Jason stabbed his sword forward, shooting a ball of yellow electricity at the evil genie. It seemed to stun it immediately, which was made obvious by how he was covered in the same yellow sparks Jason had been charging up.

When the electricity wore off, the Efreet seemed unfazed again. It came at us again before a glowing purple line appeared in its chest, causing it to scream like crazy. Two more of those lines appeared in his chest, almost making a triangle, right before Nico seemed to appear out of nowhere next to me and Jason. He must have turned invisible with his new powers...lucky. The Efreet tried to come at us again, but Sierra blocked his flaming sword with...her...flaming sword. After seeing Sierra set her own sword on fire, and Nico turn invisible, I was really hoping I'd get cooler powers than just ice.

"Nothing's working. Our powers aren't enough to do any real damage." Jason shouted.

"It's an evil spirit made entirely of fire. What did you expect?"

"Not entirely. Look!" Nico pointed at a blood stain on the floor, right where the Efreet had been floating when Nico attacked him. "It has a physical body inside. I think there's someone fused with the genie."

"Efreet." Jason corrected.

"DON'T START THAT AGAIN!" Sierra shouted, still holding the Efreet back with her fire powers.

"Well, none of our individual powers are doing anything. Maybe we should use them in combination." I told them.

"I might be able to separate the Efreet from whatever physical body's inside it.

"Whatever you have in mind, do it now!" Sierra shouted. I figured she couldn't hold it back much longer, so I improvised and focused my powers again, covering my sword in magic ice, then swinging it to shoot the icicles into the Efreet. The icicles embedded themselves in the flaming Efreet, which managed to drive him off of Sierra., but they were evaporating fast.

"Jason! Stun it!" I shouted. Jason took the hint and blasted the Efreet with lightning again, almost paralyzing it. I took the advantage and stabbed my sword in the arena floor, causing a line of massive ice spikes to shoot up from the ground, some of them jamming into the Efreet. The combination of the electric stun and ice spikes completely immobilized it.

"Nico! Now!" Nico jumped on the Efreet's back, luckily the ice spikes were chilling the flames way down to just barely smoldering. Nico dug all ten of his fingers into the Efreet's back and started to pull. It took some doing, but something started coming out of it. The Efreet's body seemed to be reverting to a human body, definitely a Persian warrior, but he was huge The Efreet's flame body was rapidly separating from the Persian warrior, until it pulled free. Nico didn't let go of the struggling fire spirit either. Its orange flames started turning bright purple, and its form started shrinking. I guess Nico was draining its soul or something. It only took a few seconds, and the genie dissolved into a small film of ash on the floor.

We didn't have time to celebrate though. The Persian warrior was breaking the ice spikes and getting back up again. "You may have destroyed my Efreet, but I am still alive, and once I restore my empire to its former glory, you will all..." He didn't get to finish his evil rant before I froze him solid in a block of ice. Honestly, after all the giants, monsters, and Titans I'd ever faced before this, a really tall Persian king just wasn't that intimidating.

"Uh, Sierra, you mind finishing him off so we can go?" I asked him.

"Oh, sure. You guys get the fun part. I'm stuck with blowing him up." Sierra complained, obviously having wanted a bigger cut of the action.

"Blowing him up's NOT the fun part?" I wondered. Sierra completely ignored me, and held up her clenched fist, which seemed to be on fire. I guess she was charging up a blast of fire or something, because when she punched the ice block, it exploded into a million tiny pieces, covering the other wall with frost and...well, you can probably guess what else was covering the wall. "Who was that guy?" I asked everyone.

"I think he was a Persian king, probably the guy Kratos took that Efreet from. He must have fused the two of them together to control them." Jason guessed.

"I'm not even gonna ask how he did that." Sierra told us, sheathing her sword. A door opened in a side wall, a swirling portal glowing inside it. "I guess we passed. Hopefully, the others are about to meet up with us right now."

Okay then, that's one test out of the way. Now, once I figure out something for the others to fight in the next test, using the Keys of Ascension, I'll be able to start the second test. But again, please be patient with my updates. I can't just improvise whatever comes to mind and upload that as new chapters. Anyway, my current estimate is that there should only be about five chapters left in Book One of this trilogy. I'll update when possible, but I've also gotten ideas for Kamen Rider, Super Sentai, and Ultraman fanfics burning a hole in my head. It's one of those times where you're focusing your attention on a different fandom from the fanfiction you're currently working on, so it just keeps pulling you towards your fanfics of those source materials.