Karen: Right, now comes the harsh truth. There will only be about 3 more Chapters to this story, because it is all I need to finish it. I technically only need 2 Chapters to complete the story, so consider the last Chapter as a bonus Chapter

Sarah: Aww... so soon?

Karen: I know it's 2 Chapters less than the first in the series but, In Trouble had around 49,000 words whereas this right now has around 36,000 words, and given 3 Chapters, it will pretty much equal it, if not surpass it.

Lyla: Well then, we should just enjoy them whilst they last

Karen: You heard the girl, now enjoy!

Chapter 9: Olcultus Showdown

Within minutes, Sarah's air magic had taken them the distance over the water to Olcultus. When they hopped off of the air, they landed on the floor, only to find it was covered in water.

"The heck?" Evie asked as she concentrated on not turning into a mermaid.

"This is how Olcultus is, the water on its ground is to ward off any mermaids who might try and stop the shell from being destroyed," Ivan explained. "Anyone got any bright ideas on what to do with it?"

Zac tried to heat up the water and to freeze it, learning that it was the same kind of water he'd dealt with before. He stared at Tanya and motioned to his feet, who very quickly caught onto what he wanted. As Zac jumped into the air, Tanya fired two shots of Ice at him, freezing his feet. As he landed, he landed directly on the waters surface.

"Ice travel, had to use this in my battle against the Sea Demon," Zac briefly explained.

Tanya then proceeded to do this to everyone else, except for Ivan, Bill and Nick, who used their Hyperos magic in a similar way, only the source of the magic came directly from the soles of their feet and kept them floating on the water. It had the same effect as Ice though, meaning they had to glide everywhere. Just to be safe though, Zac coated the ice with a little bit of his Overdrive so that Lucien and Rick wouldn't be able to destroy it. As for the guys, he gave them a brief coating over their soles even though it was highly unlikely that they wouldn't get struck there.

"If we're all ready, lets go stop the world from ending," Zac announced as he led the group towards the centre of the barren land, where Ivan said their ritual would take place.

Right at the centre of it at that moment, everything was now prepared for Lucien and Rick. A solitary pillar stood in the centre, with curled spikes around the rim of the platform. The shell was placed on the centre, Rick and Lucien concentrating all of their energy on getting the spikes to move upward and eventually spike the shell, destroying it.

"So close, come on," Lucien whispered as he pushed himself harder to speed up the process.

They were so close, and with no-one in sight, it looks as if they had won, grins adorning their faces.

"Not so fast!" They could hear a voice call.

Looking behind them, they saw Zac and the rest of everyone else from the tower, including Nick, gliding at full speed towards them.

Rick gritted his teeth and began chanting "hurry up," as they got closer and closer.

Zac fired a small dart of Ice, landing it just under the shell. Tanya then used her powers to explode the dart, the shell being fired into the air, just missing the spikes as they shot themselves towards where the shell would have been.

Sarah went next, using her air magic to keep the shell aloft in the air. Pretty much everyone then contributed towards the protection of the shell. Evie created a ball of fire around it, electricity sparking off of it due to Isis, Tanya then chipping in by surrounding all of that in a ball of solid ice. Nick, Ivan and Bill created three protective barriers around it, which would need the power of 5 of the 100 Hyperos experiments to destroy it. To top it all of, Zac used a little bit of his Overdrive to create his own barrier around it, just to make the shell even more protected.

Rick and Lucien could only watch in amazement as the shell became protected by layer upon layer of magic.

"The only way that shell is falling into your hands, is if you manage to kill all of us," Zac stated, a fierce fiery glow in his eyes.

"Actually, we needn't kill all of you, only our brethren," Rick replied, trying to be smart.

"Don't you dare try to call us brethren Rick!" Nick shouted, truly angered by his words. "We are nothing like you. We may be of the same heart, but we're not killers."

Rick smirked. "You're right. You're nothing like us at all. If of anything, you are weaker."

That really pushed Nick over the edge. He fired a shot of Hyperos towards Rick, who created a barrier around himself along with Lucien who created a second one over the top. Even though the shot of magic destroyed the first barrier, it fizzled against the second.

"Are you forgetting how it works? 1+1=3. You'd need all three of you to hit us in order to even get close to killing us," Lucien reminded them.

In response to what he said, both Nick, Bill and Ivan combined their powers and created a much larger shot, preparing to fire it at Rick once again. Rick pre-created his barrier as did Lucien around him.

"Really now? You tell us we need 3 people and do nothing about it?" Nick asked puzzled. With enough power gathered, the three of them fired off their much larger shot, though it travelled a lot slower towards the target.

"Oh Felicity," Lucien cooed. He clicked his fingers, which seemed to moved Felicity's hand forward, firing a strange purple shot towards Rick, creating another Hyperos barrier.

No-one bothered to watch as only two of the barriers broke and turned their attention to Felicity, who stood their like a frightened deer caught in headlights.

"What the hell did you do to me!?" She cried, as she almost broke down.

"Felicity?" Sarah asked concerned as she moved closer towards her sister.

"Don't come near me!" She screamed in fear. "I don't want to hurt you."

Lucien clicked his fingers again, making Felicity fire another shot of Hyperos towards her sister. Luckily, Ivan and Bill made barriers around her just in time.

"No, this can't be happening," Sarah feared. "You're my sister, we grew up together, I have memories of us as kids!"

"It's okay Sarah," Rick told her in a calming voice. "She's not of Hyperos. But as of now, she's no longer on your side. Corsollan Anthranox code 1, release!"

Felicity's eyes suddenly change to white for a moment, before changing their back to their normal red colour. As she turned to face Zac, she said nothing, but held both her palms flat out towards him.

As Rick spoke, Felicity spoke at the same time, though her voice was very monotone. "Sentrian arts, trace!"

Two beams of focused white light burst out of her palms, heading directly for Zac. Zac in defence, held out his own palms in order to try and dispel the white beams, but nothing was working. He could feel something strange was going on deep inside of him, but he couldn't quite figure it out.

It was only once the white beams disappeared that he'd learnt what just happened. Felicity kept one of her arms up and and fired a rather large shard of ice at Zac, who quickly disposed of it by using his fire magic to melt the ice, the trace of what it once was fading into the water beneath them.

"What the heck's going on here?" Zac demanded to know.

Rick just began laughing as usual. "Like I said, she's no longer on your side. She's drugged with Corsollan Anthranox, something we created. It's a mind control drug, allowing us to do whatever she wants with us. There's a reason we had so much information on you, we used Felicity here as our spy."

Sarah couldn't believe it. Her sister had been used as a spy. She figured that she didn't know anything about it due to the IMH being in control of a vast amount of Eraser Anthranox, the miraculous memory changing substance.

"God dammit Felicity snap out of it!" Sarah fired a high speed shot of wind Magic at Felicity who clicked her fingers, another Hyperos barrier appearing, protecting her from it. "How the heck did you guys get her to use Hyperos? You didn't stuff a crystal into her heart did you!?"

"Oh please, the original crystal is long gone, and we can't remove it from our hearts, it would turn to dust if we did so, and so would we. Hyperos isn't the only lost forbidden magic we use. We're also very familiar with the Sentrian arts, mainly used to copy the magical abilities of someone else. Though it can only hold the magic of two people at a time," Rick explained. "And you've guessed it, she's got mine and Zac's powers now, and that's the biggest arsenal on the table right now."

Zac was rather worried. What if the Sentrian copy had copied his Overdrive? Felicity would technically be invincible if she'd copied it.

Zac looked to Ivan and nodded his head, Ivan catching onto his worry. He fired a shot of Hyperos straight towards Felicity. If she did had Overdrive, she would be able to block the attack. As it was incoming, she clicked her fingers to summon another barrier, Rick contributing with a second one.

"Oh thank god," Zac sighed.

"What?" Rick asked confused.

Zac smiled at them. "Never mind, nothing for you to be concerned about."

Now they were concerned. Zac knew something they didn't, and he was obviously determined to keep it hidden. The best thing to do right now, was split them up. It would be too easy for Zac to fight Rick or Lucien, they knew he might overpower them. Against Felicity, it would be a different matter.

Together, they created three rather large walls of Hyperos magic, and split the Island into three. One third had just Zac and Felicity alone in it, another one had Rick facing Isis, Evie, Nick and Bill, leaving Lucien stuck with Tanya, Sarah and Ivan. They knew their best bet was to split up the elemental mermaids as well as their Hyperos buddies.

Zac turned around to see how the barriers had split them all up and was about to place his hands on them and destroy them, until he saw Ivan waving his arms, mouthing for him not to do so. Zac just gave him a thumbs up. When Lucien turned around to see what he was doing, Zac just turned his back and began whistling.

"Right," Rick began. "Now I'm pretty sure you've all worked out how this is going to work out. These barriers won't disappear until you defeat us. Kill me, and the barrier between me and Lucien will open up. If Lucien is killed, the barrier between him and Felicity will open up. And if Felicity falls or loses her Hyperos magic, then the barrier between me and her will open, allowing you a better shot at overpowering us. Since there is no escape. This is a fight to the death!"

- Within the barrier of Felicity's fight -

Zac knew exactly what he had to do. He didn't want to kill Felicity, but if he had to, he would, in order to kill Lucien and Rick, and not let them get control of the shell. If he allowed himself to die now, that was the end for them. In fact, if Zac lost, it didn't matter which of the others fell next, Rick and Lucien would be able to break all the magic surrounding the shell and gain control of it.

The two began eyeing each other up for a long time, trying to figure out what was the best course of action, since they pretty much had the same magic, except Zac had his Overdrive and Felicity had her Hyperos. In terms of power, his Overdrive was more powerful, being able to overcome Hyperos, but with Felicity now having the same magic he did, he fared to see how it would make much of a difference.

He started off by generating a ball of electricity in his hands, firing it straight at her. Felicity didn't even use her Hyperos to stop it, instead she used ice magic to freeze the oncoming lighting. Once she froze the ball, she twisted her hand and watched as it shattered into tiny pieces.

He tried to then use his own air magic to send a tornado flying at her, but she simply used lightning magic to fuse the two into an electric tornado. She sent it flying into one of the barriers, watching as it fizzled away to nothing.

Next, he tried fire magic, but same as before, Felicity created her own tornado, and sent that one flying into a barrier as well.

Last but not least, he tried ice magic. Though it was rendered useless when Felicity used fire magic to melt it into nothing.

"God, does nothing I try work on you!?" Zac shouted furiously. None of his four elements were working, and he couldn't work with the water since he couldn't freeze it or boil it. Setting it on fire wouldn't do any good, nor would using any other element help him out. Every element had a counter. Lighting was weak to Ice, Ice was weak to Fire, Fire was weak to Air, and Air was weak to Lighting. It just went round in one massive circle, no element he possessed would be able to help him now.

Felicity had also gained Zac's weather powers, and his ability to combine elements into various deadly storms. He could only but watch as a dark cloud appeared above his head from her weather power. The air magic began creating a raging storm, her lighting magic providing some thunder. Within seconds, he could see large chunks of Ice brewing up inside of the storm, and she'd set them on fire. She was planning to hit him with electrified ice stones that were set on fire, ouch!

Felicity raised her hand to the storm she'd created, then lowered it, almost pointing her hand directly at Zac. That's when it began, the fiery icy hell was unleashed and at first, Zac did take a few hits. When he raised his hands to try and protect himself, his Overdrive magic created a barrier that the pellets simply bounced off of, Felicity cocking her head when she saw this.

"Oh that's right. You didn't know about Overdrive's power did you?" Zac said sarcastically.

Felicity glared at him and tried to create a similar barrier for herself, only to find out that the coding over Overdrive didn't make it through the Sentrian copy. Zac still had some form of magic, strong enough to be like Hyperos.

Zac smirked at her, finding he now had the upper hand in this fight.

Felicity then smirked for herself, as she stopped her storm and created a rather large ball of Hyperos magic, and flung it at an alarming speed towards Zac. He just smiled and simply created an Overdrive barrier in front of himself, Felicity standing there in silence, a little shocked by the fact that his Overdrive was stronger than her Hyperos. Now she was in trouble.

With the barrier still up, she tried to see if multiple shots of Hyperos would break it. She fired a good 20 odd shots at Zac, losing him beneath the cloud of purple smoke that had accumulated from her magic. Not being able to see into it, she waited patiently. Moments later, Zac came running out full speed, running directly towards her.

Fear filled her eyes as she tried to fire more Hyperos shots at him, knowing it was the only thing she had that might stop him. But it didn't, Zac just held his arm in front of him, the Hyperos shots disappearing when they touched the barrier he'd created.

Once he got close enough to her, he placed his right hand on the top of her head and pushed down on her skull, actually firing a shot of Overdrive down into her body. He knew that if it was enough to dispel Hyperos, it might have been enough to destroy the Corsollan Anthranox and Sentrian Arts inside of her.

Both of them stood still in silence as Felicity's eyes suddenly glowed white again, the glow disappearing seconds later. She looked up frightened into Zac's eyes.

"Thank you," she whispered before her body became limp, Zac managing to catch her before she hit the floor. Just to check, he put his ear to her heart, relieved to hear a pulse coming from it. She'd simply just fallen weak from the sudden disappearance of her borrowed magic.

Zac knew that the barrier between him and Rick was now open, but decided to get Felicity away from the action. He carried her body over to where the shore was and layed her down. Gliding back over to join the fight with Rick, he was rather shocked to see that the barrier between him and Rick hadn't disappeared. Rick had lied to them, like the barrier would really fall, he was the one who created it not Felicity.

He comptenplated using his Overdrive to destroy it, but Ivan had told him to keep it a complete secret from Rick and Lucien, as a last minute surprise. When they were caught of guard, it was Zac's time to strike. The plan was never for anyone else but Zac to defeat Lucien and Rick, only he could do it and it would be seriously risky.

- Over in Rick's area -

Even though Felicity was done for, everyone was shocked to see that the barrier between the two thirds didn't disappear.

Rick smiled at everyone. "What? Did you honestly think I would give you the upper hand and let the barrier be destroyed?" He laughed.

Evie was seriously mad, but kept it in. She was a little confused as to why Zac just sat there, not bother to break the barrier. She tried not to think too much on it. She looked over at her dad, who just flashed her his regular cheeky grin, meaning they had something planned.

"Just remember the plan, we can fend off any Hyperos magic he throws at us if me and Nick work together. He can defend his heart pretty well, and we won't be able to use our Hyperos to break through to it, so we need you two to use your fire and lightning magic to break through into his heart, and then just fend off the rest of his attacks," Bill explained to Evie and Isis.

Isis was to use her lightning magic to nullify Ricks movement on the field, and give Evie a clear space to seer a way to his heart. It wouldn't matter how much blood he lost, as long as his Hyperos Crystal was intact in his heart, they could do nothing. It was a different story with Raidus and Kaeylum since they weren't expecting it, and got caught off guard with not enough time to create a defence. Rick would be on guard at all times and most likely already had a defence set up around it by a fair number of Hyperos barriers.

"If you four are done babbling away to each other," Rick interrupted. He began by clicking his fingers, several purple spots appearing under everyone's feet. Nick almost panicked for a second, before remembering what Zac had done to them.

"You're going to just stand there?" Rick asked with a puzzled look on his faces, which slowly turned into a grin. "So be it then."

He clicked his fingers again, the small purple spots exploding as they were like little bombs. Only the sounds of the explosions rang in the air, purple smoke covering up where everyone stood.

Rick began laughing to himself until a shot of lightning came out from behind the smoke. It was so fast that he didn't have enough time to create a barrier and screamed in pain as his felt his body begin to go a little numb. Luckily for himself, he managed to shake it off just as the smoke cleared, unable to comprehend what he saw.

Everyone was still standing with their feet firm on the waters surface, no-one had flinched and the ice was still in place.

"But you-" he said with a rather squeaky voice. Clearing his throat, he went for another try. "You shouldn't be standing!"

"We shouldn't?" Nick asked. "Don't quite know what you were expecting to happen. Care to tell us?"

In rage, Rick fired a shot of Hyperos directly at Nick, who clicked his fingers to create a barrier, Bill creating a second one around him.

"You know perfectly well what I was expecting!" Rick shouted. "You should have been blown sky high by that shot and the ice and Hyperos on your feet should have been destroyed!"

"Yeah well, it didn't, now get over it," Bill replied, flashing a cheeky grin at Rick.

He'd seriously had it with his bunch. Just what exactly did Zac do? He knew it had to be him that had done something as he looked like he had something to hide earlier when he'd fire a shot of ice at Felicity. He also had to think of a plan, and fast. Without being able to stop their high-speed movement along with the boys being able to protect all of his Hyperos, he was in trouble. He knew he should have split up one of them with Zac.

Just to make Rick's life a little more fun, Bill and Nick had just applied a Hyperos Barrier across the water so that they were on a slightly more even field. A watching Zac dispelled the Overdrive on their feet. Lets just say Rick was more than a little confused when the boys destroyed the ice even though he wasn't able to.

"This better for you Rick?" Bill asked in a baby like voice. They knew Rick quite well, he didn't take to being made fun of, and doing do made him lose his focus, exactly what they needed.

"I guess," he replied, trying to keep his cool. He knew he had to use the last trick he had up his sleeve. Rick had used the Sentrian Copy on himself so that he had two copies of Hyperos under his belt. One was his own, one was Lucien's, and they counted separately to boot. He thought about destroying the floor but realised that the even playing field right now was more fun, plus he would just be wasting energy.

With him looking a little distracted, Nick and Bill put in the first part of their master plan. They both began firing off shots of Hyperos at Rick, who defended off each shot with both of his barriers. This had created a lot of smoke on the field, and had masked everyone out of sight. Luckily for the good side, British Lightning mermaids have incredibly good eye sight, and Isis was able to see right through all of the smoke. After about two minutes of waiting, Rick's barriers had finally worn out, and she used his moment to lunge forward in the smoke.

Rick didn't even see her coming, and was rather surprised when he felt a hand touch his body. He looked down in time just to catch a glimpse of Isis.

She didn't say a single word, and just pushed her hand further against his chest, sending out shocks of lighting all over his body, this time, managing to render him incapable of movement.

The lighting gave Evie a good target to head towards. With Rick down on his knees unable to move, she moved in to do her part. Just managing to keep his eyes open, Rick sighed as he saw Evie run towards him, a fireball ready in her right hand. She ran head on at him, Isis moving out of the way so that she could fire it at his heart. Evie did so successfully, watching as the fireball burned right through his skin, leaving an open wound. The fireball fizzled as it was greeted by 5 Hyperos barriers, and blood began pouring at an alarming rate out of his fresh wound. His actual heart was a scarlet purple shade, only because of the tint the crystal had given it over the years.

"Nice try," Rick began to say, as he finally shook off the lighting, rising back to his feet. "But aren't you forgetting? We can't die unless our crystals are destroyed or removed. No matter how much blood we lose, we'll live on."

"We know," Bill replied nonchalantly. "But why we did that is of no concern to you."

Rick had really had it now. They were up to something, something big, and nothing made sense to him. "That just about does it with you four!"

He raised his hands to the sky and began brewing up a massive storm of his own. He used both of his different kinds of Hyperos, the storm turning a very dark purple. Once he lowered his hands, pointed directly at the group of four, the storm flashed a bright royal purple, thousands of small orb-shaped Hyperos magic pelting down on the four.

Nick and Bill set up massive barrier covering the four of them. Everything looked okay for a few seconds before the second barrier was also destroyed, leaving them all wide open for the offensive.

"What!?" Everyone screamed as they second barrier was broken through, putting their arms over their heads to try and protect themselves, even though it was to no avail.

Oh how Rick enjoyed hearing the screams of pain coming from them, as he began laughing like a maniac over it.

After he let it subside, he looked at the group in glee as they all lay lifeless, cuts and bruises galore all over their bodies. None of them would be able to stand.

"Looks like victory is mine!"

"I wouldn't count on it," Bill coughed. He raised his hand slightly, and he began shaping the floor. He pushed it upwards, creating a hill, and pushed Rick right back into the corner where the Hyperos barriers met.

Rick grinned and put his hand on the barrier, rather shocked when he found out he couldn't destroy it. He even tried using both versions of his Hyperos. "Why? Why isn't working!? Again!?"

Zac had also given them a last resort, and gave Bill and Nick one dose of Overdrive each. They would be able to use it only once, intertwined with their Hyperos, just in case things got really sticky. Bill had used his shot to push Rick right into the corner, which is just where Rick needed to stay. Needless to stay, he was well and truly stuck there now. He knew Rick wouldn't use his Hyperos to destroy any of the other barriers as it would mean giving the other side an upper hand.

Bill gave himself one last smile before his hand fell back down.

"All up to you now Zac."

- At the same time as Rick's fight, in Lucien's third -

Sarah, Tanya and Ivan pretty much had the same plan as the other four did. Lucien and Ivan would have some issues since Hyperos head on can destroy anything. The plan would be to trap Lucien in a Hyperos barrier that had Overdrive intertwined in it, thanks to Zac before the battle. Before this time, Sarah would have to use her air magic to trap him on the spot, whilst Tanya would then proceed by tunnelling a hole into his heart using her ice claws up close. It was a lot more risky having to get up close but it was the only way. Lucien would probably have several barriers pre-prepared around his heart too.

Lucien actually started off by employing the same tactic that Rick had, planting several purple spots beneath them. Sarah noticed a spot a little closer to Lucien and quickly hurried over to it. It didn't matter to Lucien though, as he exploded the small bombs whilst she was still moving.

The smoke was still pretty thick, and it actually managed to stop Sarah as she could no longer see where she was going.

Lucien let out a small laugh until the smoke cleared.

"Huh? ... Why the heck are you guys still standing!?" He questioned.

"Just as impatient as always Lucien," Bill interrupted. "You'll find out why, give it time."

"Sadly I'm afraid I don't have that sort of time to waste," Lucien retaliated as he fired a Hyperos shot directly at Sarah. Instead of putting up a barrier, Ivan fired his own shot at the oncoming one, the two cancelling each other out. This was the only way that Ivan could stop his magic.

Lucien then tried firing two off, both at Sarah and Tanya. He could clearly see that they were more important, even though taking down Ivan would ensure that they could destroy all of the Hyperos barriers. But he was still worried by what Zac had possibly done, or furthermore, by what secret he was holding back.

Ivan quickly fired off two shots to cancel out the two fired from Lucien, and then decided to put their plan into action.

Ivan began by firing off several shots of Hyperos at the ground close to his team mates, shrouding them in purple smoke, which gave them time to prepare for their attack.

Lucien couldn't quite work out what was going on, and began creating a much larger shot of Hyperos.

Behind the smoke, Ivan was doing exactly the same thing, although he was combining it with Sarah's wind magic, which spun around the outside of it.

Once the smoke has subsided, both Ivan and Lucien fired their shots at each other. Even though the Hyperos cancelled each other out, Sarah quickly removed her wind magic and sent it flying right at Lucien, caught completely off guard.

The wind had moved its way down to his feet, and was encircling him, rendering him unable to move. After creating such a large shot of Hyperos, he had no time to create another barrier or try to dispel it.

When he eventually looked up, he was rather shocked to see Tanya flying at a breakneck speed towards him, Ice claws ready. She took a lunge and aimed directly for his heart. She plunged them into the skin and then paused, watching as the claws began to turn and broke a massive hole, his heart no exposed. Just as with Rick, Lucien's heart was also surrounded by 5 Hyperos barriers. Tanya's ice claws also disappeared once they accidentally touched one of the barriers.

She turned around and glided back to join her team mates.

"You know you guys make no sense. Ivan, you know that no matter how much blood I lose, I'll live. So why open up a wound like that?" Lucien questioned.

"That's for me and my friends to know, and for you to eventually find out," Ivan smirked. Yep, they definitely weren't giving away a single clue on what they were up to.

"Fine, if you won't tell me, then I'll beat the answer out of you!" Lucien screamed as he raised both his hands to the sky, creating a Hyperos Storm much like Rick was as that point in time. He lowered his hands to the group of three, watching in amusement as the Hyperos pellets broke through Ivan's barrier, the three letting out ear screeching screams of pain. Like Rick, he enjoyed that sound, all too much.

Once the smoke from the pellets had cleared, all three of them were pretty much down for the count, battered and bruised.

During his gloating session though, he'd failed to notice that Tanya still had some movement, and created a wall of ice which began pushing him right into the corner where Rick was now positioned as well. He managed to destroy the wall of ice that was keeping him trapped, only to be greeted by a barrier around him, set up by Ivan.

Lucien just grinned to himself. "You think that'll work?" He asked, laughing slightly. Though when he placed his hand on the barrier, he was shocked to find he couldn't remove it. "What is it with our magic not working today?! Are we just becoming faulty?" He asked himself. Looking to his left, he could see that Rick was in a similar position, squashed up against the corner of all the barriers. Did they plan all of this?

- In Zac's third -

The time had come. Lucien and Rick were both pushed against the corners of the barriers and both were pretty distracted by the fact that they were stuck.

He decided to strike fast, placing his hands on the backs of the two barriers, watching as they shattered.

The noise of the shattering had caused Rick and Lucien to turn around, both of them speechless when they saw that the barriers between them and Zac had been destroyed. With them both turned around, Zac plunged his hands into the holes now open to their hearts, easily breaking through all of the Hyperos barriers, grabbing their hearts with his bare hands.

Even though they were pretty speechless, Rick eventually managed to squeeze something out. "How? Hyperos shouldn't be able to be destroyed except by its own kind!"

Zac smirked at them. "That's just it though. It's not the invincible magic you think it is. It may be impervious to mermaid magic, but not to human magic," Zac replied as the glow of Overdrive surrounding his body grew more and more intense.

"Human magic? No thing should exist!" Lucien screamed as he tried to move, but with his heart in Zac's hand, he couldn't. "Even if it does, you had every opportunity to destroy the barriers earlier and joint he fights. You could have saved your friends the pain of doing all of this!"

"But don't you see?" Zac asked as his Overdrive grew more and more intense. "This was our plan all along. I gave them all some Overdrive magic to help them corner you guys, and thanks to them, they've done all the hard work of giving me a clear shot at your hearts, your weakness."

Rick gritted his teeth. Of course with three other IMH members on their side, they would have known most of the ins and outs of using Hyperos and what it can do. Zac had pre-prepared all of this in advance. They couldn't have beaten him even if they'd have tried, his Overdrive magic was Hyperos' one ultimate weakness.

"So much for trying to destroy the world huh? You spent 1044 years of your lives trying to get this moment perfect, so that you could get your precious revenge and rule the new world. People like you, make me sick," Zac spat. "But because of people like you, there will always be people like me, waiting to strike you down!" His Overdrive was growing more and more rampant, practically bursting into a brilliant white flame. "Not just me as well, all of my friends who've helped out as well! People like you... cannot be allowed to live!"

Upon his final words, Zac gripped their hearts even harder, and watched as they began to crystallize. Slowly but steadily, it spread across the entire of their bodies until they were completed coaxed in the crystal substance. With one last strong grip, Lucien and Rick shattered into a million tiny pieces. Zac's Overdrive also began to calm down, to the point where it disappeared, along with the golden colour of his eyes. His ears though, remained.

Zac stood there, completely shattered from destroying them, taking in deep heavy breaths of air. Eventually, all of the water on the floor of the barren land disappeared, as did the remaining Hyperos barrier that was once between Rick and Lucien.

Everyone had risen back to their feet, watching in awe and Zac got rid of their enemies once and for all.

"It's- finally over," Zac stated, still huffing for breath. He looked completely fine, until his eyes rolled over, his body falling limply to the floor, his tail finally appearing.

"Zac?" Evie asked herself as she watched him standing there, completely unresponsive. It was only once he'd fallen down, that she raced over to him to finally check if he was okay.

She immediately placed her head on his heart, so glad to hear a beat. "Come on Zac, wake up," she begged. Yet still no response from him. She was even more concerned about why his tail had suddenly appeared, there was no water around.

"Is this like when Mako first sank, and the girls turned back?" Evie asked, turning to look at Ivan.

Ivan sighed deeply. He didn't expect for this to happen. "No, it's worse."

"Worse?" Evie gulped, fearing what would come out of his mouth next.

"He's expended all of his human life energy in using his Overdrive to kill Lucien and Rick. If he awakes, he'll never be able to return to human form ever again."

Karen: Cliffhanger!

Evie: What the hell is wrong with you? Can no-one get their happiness around here!?

Karen: Oh come off of it, this is suppose to be the dark chapter. But don't worry, good things will happen in the next chapter, but even that isn't going to be without some consequences for one character.

Good luck racking your brains trying to work out who's going to die in the next chapter. I'll give you a hint though, it's a character that I own.

See you all next time, don't know when though!

xxx