Narrator / January 14th

It seemed as if all of the worldly tensions were being condensed into one singular spot. There was mostly silence; either sides were waiting on the other to make the first move. Though thunder crashed up in the sky rigorously, the breeze blew against the combatants peacefully.

"Such a shame you've decided to turn against me, Glacies. I knew Calor was a traitor from the start, but you've disappointed me" Syn said

"We know all about your plan" Glacies replied. "I'm surprised the other three will still follow you despite that"

"Syn, what's he referring to?" Mera questioned suspiciously

"Nonsense" Syn dismissed

"What's our plan here?" Layton asked

"Annabeth's still knocked out, so I'm not sure what the best decision would be" Percy said. "But I'm sure she'd probably want us to kill the dragons and then do the world merge while they're dead"

"Hazel, get Annabeth somewhere safe and stay there. I can't risk you getting injured" Layton instructed

"Lowering your forces are we?" Syn said. "I should remind you that I could kill you all by myself"

"All this talking is making me eager" Terram muttered. "I'll start with the traitors"

The ground shook and Terram quickly burrowed under the ground, disappearing from view. He bursted through the ground beneath Calor, hitting him with a sickening uppercut that sent him slamming into a tree. Glacies attempted to help his brother, but Ira charged him and the two began to fight it out.

"I believe we still have unsettled business Perseus" Mera said. "There's a beach just out west"

Mera walked through the crowd of demigods and past Percy, walking towards the beach that could be seen in the very distance. Percy took one last glance at Annabeth before nodding at Hazel and following Mera deep into the forest.

"The rest of you should help Calor and Glacies" Layton suggested

"They look alright. Plus, Syn's too powerful for any one of us alone" Chloe protested

Syn grinned. "She's right"

"You'll only get in my way" Layton said

"Cocky now are we?"

"You gave me me access to dark magic - it was your biggest mistake"

"Elemental magic, godly magic, dark magic, I've seen all of it" Syn responded. "Try as you might, but no magic will work on me"

Once again, the ground began to shake violently, and red lightning began to circulate through the trees as the wind picked up pace, threatening to tear the trees from their roots. Layton crossed his arm in an x shape, opening up his thumb, index, and pinky finger only. Beams of light escaped the ground diagonally around Syn, and the Shadow-Dragon stumbled back.

"What's this?" Syn mumbled under his breath

Suddenly, the beams of light contorted into spiky vines that wrapped around Syn, holding him tightly. Despite his strength, the dragon was unable to wriggle out of the vines of light. The demigods turned up to the sky to see it being literally split open by a pair of large hands with sharp claws. In the darkness beneath the sky, two red eyes stared back at the ground, and the face of a dragon became visible.

"W-What kind of magic is this!" Syn shouted, thrashing around violently as crows, conjured out of smoke, began to bite at chunks of his flesh

The massive dragon peaked its head out of the sky and lunged towards the ground, taking a massive bite out of the ground and eating Syn up with it.

"Did he... do it?" Victor said

"That was a good illusion, but I doubt you have the power to summon something that could tear the sky open" Syn's voice boomed across the terrain

There was an explosion down in the crater that had been formed by the dragon's bite, and Syn walked out of it with nothing more than mere scratches over his body.

"It's too bad that you didn't notice the real deal" Layton said

"Huh?"

A massive beam of energy shot down from the clouds and hit Syn, reducing him to ashes in an instant. Before the demigods could even move a muscle however, loud whispering came from deep into the forest, and a swarm of dragon-like humanoids burst out.

"More Shadow-Dragons" Layton muttered

"There's so many" Leo said

"I can sense about two hundred of them in all, and there's seven of us" Nico said

"It's time for a nice demigod meal" said one of the dragon's in the front

"Are you sure you want to eat me?" Leo replied. "People say I taste like overcooked-"

The dragons lunged unexpectedly and thrashed their claws around violently. It was bad enough that they were injured from the crashed ship, and now they were outnumbered around thirty-to-one.

.

Percy knew that all he was doing was stalling for time.

"I'm glad you survived my attack, Perseus," Mera admitted, "because now I can kill you myself"

"You busted half of New York" Percy replied, uncapping Riptide

"A small portion of my power" Mera shrugged, her trident appeared in her hand. "This time, there will be no god to save you"

The two lunged at each other and met in the center, their blades clashing. Waves crashed against the shore, and the water further out began to churn violently.

"Your lucky to have lived this far" Mera swept her trident at Percy's legs, and he rolled back to avoid it. "But your luck runs out now"

Back in the forest, there were explosions of fire on the right, and ones of ice and water on the left, which showed that the conflict amongst the Shadow-Dragons were still going on. In the middle, a spiral of dark energy shot up that pierced the clouds in the sky. White electricity circulated it began to circulate it, and it closed inwards a couple of moments later.

"The dark demigod sure can exert a lot of power" Mera said. "If you had joined us, you could have done so much more than that"

"Sorry, but I'm not joining the dark side" Percy replied, referencing a movie he had watched with Annabeth not too long ago

"I know, which is why I'll kill you instead"

Mera lunged faster than Percy could blink, but even faster than that, a dark orb of energy shot out of the forest and her in the side, curving upwards and sending her so far up into the sky that she became nothing more than a sparkle of light. Seconds later, there was a visible explosion.

Before Percy could turn to see what had sent the blast, the ground shook and Terram burst out of the ground in front of him. He had scratches over his body, and Percy could tell that he had taken some damage from his fight with Calor, which he clearly won.

"She's already been disposed of? How sad" Terram said. "Then again, it means I have you to myself now"

Over on Percy's left, where the forest was, slow and heavy footsteps approached them. Each footstep shook the Earth heavily, and both Percy and Terram turned their attention towards it. From the forest emerged a half-familiar figure - who Percy thought was Layton in his black armor, except there were two spikes protruding from his shoulders, and he was equipped with arm-blades.

"That dragon was all talk and no bite" Syn's voice echoed

"Syn?" Terram said, almost inaudibly

"I now have the power of a demigod, and two Shadow-Dragons on top of my own. I will cultivate a new universe, where I reign supreme. There will be no gods except me" Layton spread out his arms, and a cold and heavy breeze of air sent chills up Percy's spine

"You've took over the demigod's body then" Terram stated

"I've waited centuries for Percy Jackson and this demigod to be born, so I could begin my rightful conquest - my destiny. Ever since the day they were born, I've protected them, for they would be the keys to achieving my goal. I've grown restless, and I'm taking matters into my own hands now" Syn said before lifting up one hand. It wasn't the first time Percy would have to fight one of his friends who were possessed by a primordial entity. "I hereby announce the end of all Shadow-Dragons - their extinction"

"W-What are you talking about?" Terram questioned

"I suppose now that victory is inevitable, I will reveal my true intentions" Syn said. "I knew ever since birth, that if the other six supreme Shadow-Dragons were to die, I would be the one to collect their power. However, instead of killing them for it, I knew I had to wait for the arrival of two demigods whose blood would give me rule over the cosmos"

"So Calor was right... you're the traitor" Terram figured

Syn took a couple of steps forward. "I was never like the other dragons, who only cared for killing the gods... no... to me, the gods are nothing but annoying flies in my way. I will kill all other Shadow-Dragons, and then spill the blood of both demigods"

"You're a fool. You will never rule the universe" Terram said, growing a pair of his own arm-blades

"Not this one. I will corrupt and destroy the entire universe using my negative energy, and then build a new one fit to my will" Syn responded

Terram swallowed, and black sweat trickled down the side of his face. "Demigod, I don't suppose it's too late to team up"

"We don't have any other choice" Percy agreed

"Demigod and Shadow-Dragon working together? It's been eons since I've witnessed that" Syn chuckled. "Come, show me what two enemies who put their powers together for the 'greater good' can achieve"

Terram lunged first, slashing his arm-blade; Syn stayed in place, simply blocking with his forearm. Percy went in next, attempting to cut off his arm-blade, but only to find it was made of something much harder than Riptide.

"Clearly not much" Syn taunted

He held up a fist and opened it; both Percy and Terram were sent flying back to the edge of the shore. They got up quickly, but the sand at their feet swirled around and locked them in place. Shards of ice rapidly burst out of the ground, piercing their skin until Syn lowered his hand and stopped the torture.

"This body is fun when you really let loose; such a wide variety of powers all at my disposal"

Despite being on the brink of collapse, Percy got back up and charged forward. Inches away from swinging his blade, he noticed everything change into shattered glass. Knowing what was going on, he quickly jolted around and swung Riptide; the blade collided with Syn's arm-blade.

"It seems he's been in contact with the time stone for enough to have developed abilities from it, but you already know that, seeing as you managed to block my attack" Syn said

"Fight me yourself" Percy demanded

Syn kicked Percy in the chest, making him stagger back. "You'll die all the same"

They closed the distance between them and clashed blades, neither gaining the edge over the other. Syn thrusted his arm-blade forward, skimming Percy's neck; Percy took the delay to his advantage, slashing Riptide across his helmet.

"You're not half-bad in sword combat" Syn commemorated. "But your life would have ended so many times if wasn't for me, Perseus, even excluding Tartarus. All those times the blade didn't quite kill you, or it barely missed you... that was me"

"So you only saved me just so you could kill me yourself" Percy said

"Precisely" Syn's expression was unreadable behind the helmet, though his tone seemed less menacing

Percy lunged, and Syn didn't bother moving, so he staggered back from Riptide's slash. He was about to go in for another strike, but stopped when he heard the correct voice of the body in front of him.

"This is a loosing battle Percy" Layton said

"So you're just going to give up?" Percy asked. "I never took you as a quitter"

"I know when to sheath my blade when it's already out" Layton replied

"Well I'm not giving up" Percy said. "It wouldn't make sense for me to have come this far, just to give up now"

"I don't know how you do it, but you tend to believe in other more than they believe in themselves" Layton held out his hand. "If you really want to go for it, then I'll leave you one thing"

There was a bright purple flash that blinded Percy momentarily. When he came back to his senses, he felt rejuvenated; his wounds had been healed, and he felt faster and stronger, even more so then from his dip in the River Styx.

"What'd you do?" Percy asked as he noticed he was now wearing a white cape

His body twitched, meaning Syn was seconds away from coming back. "Percy, you inhabit the Spirit of Vengeance now"