(Recap: "Ha! You think you can do it alone? Where is that coward Perseus Jackson? I must say I at least expected a fight, however weak it could've been. Not a getaway filled with such cowardice! I can't believe he is still mourning the death of his good for nothing Princess! " End roared, realizing he was the last powerful person left in his side.
"I don't plan on running away, End. I never did." Came a booming voice from a person who had just teleported directly onto Filos' back.
"Why don't I show how good I actually am End?" Came the voice of another person, a girl, who incidentally goes by the name of Skylar Void.
Percy Jackson had returned, and somehow with his girlfriend, who was presumed dead.)
Ch. 29
There were murmurs in the crowd, the monsters now visibly scared. They'd lost Omega and Gaea all with the two most powerful beings in the enemy camp not even present. Now they were both here, and Gaea and Omega were dead. On top of that, the vehicle on which they were was also pretty intimidating, seeing as it had single-handedly destroyed Omega. Filos.
The campers' joys knew no bounds. They rejoiced and cheered and chanted the names "Percy" "Percy" and Skylar" "Skylar" until their throats became dry. Sure, the opposition army was huge, but now they had Percy and Skylar. And as of now, it didn't matter where they were or how Skylar was alive. All that mattered was they were there now, and Gaea and Omega weren't.
"Percy Jackson. You and your friends have caused me a lot of trouble. I don't know how that girl is alive, but she won't be for long. NONE OF YOU WILL BE!" He screamed the last statement as if daring someone to oppose him. As it happened, that someone ended up being the 'that' girl he'd just made a reference to.
"Omega was a fool. I'm the Princess of this Universe End. Chaos' daughter. You wanna go against my father? You'll soon realize you can't even get past his daughter." Skylar confidently challenged. She looked almost as if she'd gone away on some field trip in the forests. Some cut marks and wound marks from injuries that had already healed, a round mark around both her wrists signaling - the marks of when she was chained. Apart from that, she didn't look like she'd died and come back at all. In fact, she looked pretty battle ready.
"So Omega couldn't kill you. That's what I was wondering. How could that creature kill Omega? He didn't do he. He never dropped Omega on temporal steel. He died because of a broken oath and you wanted to make a theatrical entrance. I got it right didn't I?" End smiled contentedly as if he'd just figured out a great puzzle.
"Oh look at that kid! So delighted on realizing the most obvious thing in the universe! You act like you figured out how to make Dionysus love this camp or something End. Grow up. Wow, hadn't expected I'd ever say this to one of the oldest beings in the Universe." Percy mocked. All the campers and the army who had heard of Dionysis and his exploits at camp laughed. Even some of the monsters gave a throaty chuckle, all though when End gave them a look they shut up.
"Enough talk Perseus Jackson. You ran away for long enough. Get down here from that pathetic creature and get ready to die!" End bellowed, now pretty angry at how this war was shaping itself. However, whatever was happening wasn't enough to intimidate or scare him in the least. It just irritated him. "Huh, these puny earthlings! More time till I get my hands on Earth." He'd think frustrated.
Percy though was currently on cloud 9. Just like he'd hoped, everything was going according to plan. He'd heard the murmurs about Nico, Leo, and Hazel. But he was a trained warrior. The first thing you train a warrior is that emotions may be important in life, but they have no place whatsoever during a fight. So he kept his feelings aside, merely concentrating on the fact that Skylar was alive, fine and standing right beside him, hands held.
Percy whispered something to Skylar. For a moment it looked like Skylar would disagree, but she hesitantly nodded. In a nice show of acrobatics, she gracefully jumped 20 feet down from Filos' back and onto the head of a hippocampus. In a quick move, she separated its head from its body leaving golden dust in its wake. Seeing this both the sides got the signal. The war resumed, for what looked like the final time. The night attack had turned into a day attack, the sundown spreading beauty and positivity throughout the Camper and army ranks.
Skylar joined Fritz and the Council's Army while Percy was still on Filos. The rejuvenated 'good' side looked so menacing now that to defeat this side seemed like a daunting task. End bore the brunt of the pressure. He knew he'd have to kill Percy and hope his still outnumbered but highly demotivated army could defeat Skylar and the rest or at least weaken her enough that after Percy died he could kill her. He cursed Omega for not carrying out such a stupid task of killing an imprisoned woman. He kept on thinking 'It was so easy. One job. Strangle her, that too when she's chained to a wall. And he still made a mess of it. The pathetic weakling.' However, he was still more irritated than scared. A bit unsure now, but not enough that it would rattle his self-belief and confidence.
While End was busy cursing, the war had begun, and the campers got one more thing to celebrate about. Grover and the wild had just cheered in victory against the forest attack. Casualties had been heavy, but they'd still done an awe-inspiring job seeing how outnumbered they were. End was now more unsure, and Percy was waiting for this moment. He always believed that a war was never won solely on fights. The death of your morales is the beginning of your destruction. That's what he hoped. To weaken End as much as he could mentally and then boast about it to further decrease his morale. End didn't realize that and instead of attacking Percy just kept on huffing angrily at how his enemies were mercilessly running through his army. Nothing seemed to be going his way today.
Percy meanwhile had heroically stood up on Filos' back and walked on his wings before jumping down and landing on his feet. An attempt to boost confidence in his men and intimidate End. End saw this and readied himself for attacking. He made the first move. He charged at Percy with full force and wielded his sword in an arc to cut off Percy's throat.
Percy, instead of using orthodox sword maneuvers to block it, used a more modern technique. He ducked under the attack and poked End's legs with riptide. End lost his balance as even riptide had temporal steel in it that hurt end. Percy stood up from the crouch and tried slashes after slashes, stabs after stabs. End managed to detect or block them all somehow.
He was an excellent warrior. In a while he had not only continuously blocked Percy's attacks, he had counter-attacked a lot of times and now it looked as if Percy was on defensive and End was on the offensive. Percy wasn't a fool to not realize he was being pushed into a corner. So again he decided to change tactics. He suddenly jumped a few steps back, sheathed one of his swords and raised his palms.
"Enough with the childish fight End. Let's End this thing now. Ahh... No pun intended of course." Percy said smirking confidently. Somehow he knew End would eventually lose to him. Suddenly, he seemed to be concentrating on something. And he felt the familiar warmth of Purple flames dancing on his palms. End nervously gulped. If there was one poison potent enough to kill an immortal without giving him a chance, it was hellfire.
Percy, now wreathed completely in a purple aura, charged at End. He slashed End's thigh, reopening the wound caused by Jason. End gruffed and changed his stance so that the injured foot was backward. Percy tried to aim hellfire at that thigh, but to Percy's astonishment, End merely put his blade in between to deflect the fire and it hit the neaeby tree, burning it to ash almost as fast as you could blink. End was now wary of Percy. They clashed swords and shield and went back and forth. Sometimes Percy gained the upper hand while sometimes End did. Percy had just counterattacked End when End roared 'Enough!' and, with all he had, brought down his blade on Percy's.
However, Percy was just about to attack and the angle, unfortunately, made end's attack hit Percy's sword-arm wrist and riptide slipped out of his hand. He cursed and backtracked as fast as he could, hoping he could draw End near the river where he'd have an advantage, while riptide would soon return to his pocket. Yeah, that still happened. The difference was, Percy didn't sheath it or cover it anymore, so not many people knew.
The plan worked wonders as Percy's original parentage momentarily slipped from End's mind and he thought he'd almost won. Percy, of course, had other plans. As soon as End was close enough, he stopped and waited for End to make his move. End, thinking Percy had stopped at the riverbed as he had nowhere to run now, smirked victoriously and attempted to bring down his blade on Percy. However, Percy's sword had returned just in time. Just when end was about to stab, he uncapped riptide and blocked the blade. End was so taken aback by the sudden appearance of the blade that he unknowingly took a few steps into the water. Percy couldn't be more thankful to the fates. He motioned with his hand and two arms made up if water pushed end further into the river.
End widened his eyes, thinking that an Olympian had intervened. But then he saw Percy controlling the water and realized what a fool he'd been. It was his plan all along, to call End into a river where Percy had an advantage, but End couldn't see that. Now he was more unsure of his victory than ever. He went all out, using his powers. On the ground, it could have been deadly for Percy. But in his home turf, he felt almost invulnerable. End was a very difficult opponent though, and Percy had already been tired when he'd first entered the river. A bit rejuvenated now, he hoped he could devise a plan to kill End before End managed to take the fight out of the water.
The two super powerful beings had been at it for so long that even they were tired. Meanwhile, the campers and their allies had decimated almost half the army. Vials of Greek fire and assorted modern arms were brought in some time after Percy returned, courtesy an order Reyna had given to a demigod arms manufacturer before she had taken the hit. That helped a lot, it saved more lives than you could count. However, the main villain was still not dying. But the way things were, the demigods were beginning to hope it wouldn't be too long before Percy was done with end. He had the upper hand more often now. Soon, their hopes soared and their eyes witnessed a wonder like never before when their hero used a combination of all three - Chaos powers, water powers, and hellfire together in one attack.
Percy knew that end was pretty weak now and soon it would all be over. So he decided to speed things up a little. He attacked end relentlessly with newfound ferocity while also concentrating on creating something underwater using his Chaos powers. Once he was done, he decided it was time to use it. Hw couldn't control the objects he could make, just use them. However, he could certainly control the medium by which the object was made - water. And that too inside a river.
End was growing weaker and weaker. Percy's energy too would have long sapped by now had he not been in the water since so long. But as it turned out End was foolish enough to let him, so he took full advantage. Percy kicked end back making him fall under water. But he didn't let him go deep. Just on the surface. He controlled the water beneath end and balled his arms in a fist and raised them up. And up went end. So high was the built pressure of water that end went soaring into the air for almost 10 seconds, which were much more than what Percy needed. He raised the bed full of sharp spikes he had created using his other hand and now he released his hold of the water he had used to push end up in the air, letting gravity do its job and push let end plummet to his own death. He used that freed hand to light the spikes with hellfire.
End, on one glance, had a horrified expression at what lay beneath him. But it was too late. He crashed into the spikes and a painful "Ahh!" echoed into the day. The sound soon stopped, and a huge blast followed. Everyone froze to see what would happen. But all they saw was Percy standing with his blade ready and eyes curious to know what had happened, while golden dust was flowing where end had been. For a moment everyone was left speechless. Skylar was the first to recover and said "He did it! It's over!"
Soon there were a lot of 'It's over!s' and 'We won!' and other sentiments. The remaining monsters fled in fear, and the campers were about to rush to the infirmary to check on their injured friends. However, the fates weren't that kind after all. To the 'good' sides utter horror, the golden dust started swiveling in the air. They could hear End's loud booming laughter from all over the place.
They all resumed their battle positions and became alert. Percy had his eyes on the swiveling golden dust. And in front of his eyes, the dust combined together to form a figure. First the legs, then the torso, then the hands, then finally the face. End was somehow reborn, and that caught Percy so off guard that he didn't see when end aimed a powerful kick on his chest and sent Percy flying out of the water. He laughed and said "Hahaha! I don't believe you punny creatures thought killing me would be so easy, let alone possible in the first place. I am primordial. Only the element of Chaos cannot kill me. You need the element of Void as well."
"What..what are you saying? I just killed you!" Percy asked puzzled at this new revelation.
"Oh, you punny demigod! I admire your skills. But face it, you're no match for me. You see an element is something that has one's power embedded inside it. After your flying friend here attacked me that day, my father called me separately and told me about it. He created a cube of temporal steel and handed it to me saying I should keep it safe so that nobody can harm me or my brother in the future! Little did he know that I'd use that same thing against my brother one day! You see, you have to kill him once like you right now had killed me. Then you mutter an enchantment and activate the power of the cube. Then you kill me again, and this time you throw the cube at me once I'm dust. The cube will do its thing and I'll stay dead."
"Suicidal much, End? You do realize you just laid out the whole plan on how we're supposed to kill you right? Seriously, I didn't even you could be that stupid, guess I overestimated you." Percy laughed while also raising an eyebrow.
"Ha! You can't ever get that cube. So what's their point. I told you all this to make you realize how helpless you are, knowing how to kill me, knowing you have the power to kill me, but not the right ingredient." End confidently boasted and let out a huge laugh.
"Oh no no. You misunderstand me. I didn't ask why you laid out the plan that could kill you. I asked why you laid out the facts that we already knew about and wasted our time." Now it was Percy's turn to smirk.
"There's no way you knew about it, and even if you did, it doesn't matter. Because you don't have the cube right now, and you can't escape from me today." End challenged with an evil smirk.
"Oh yeah? Then what's that?" Percy said painting behind End towards Filos and someone else.
End froze, so did everyone. Mostly in confusion, but some *cough* end *cough* in horror like they'd never felt before. Riding Filos was an old friend of Percy's his hands carrying the exact cube end has described.
"Hello, Percy. I hope I'm not too late to give you this?" he said and threw the cube at Percy, who caught it reflexively. The figure jumped from Filos' back and joined Percy's side. Meanwhile, Skylar too had gone on to join the two. She stood on one side of Percy while the figure on the other. She replied to the figure "Oh no, welcome to the party. You're just in time."
Percy added "Or we should rather say, welcome back to the party. He's apparently been dead after all! Haven't you, Omega?"
(A/N: PLEASE REVIEW, CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM IS APPRECIATED.)