CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
Zack and Cody exchanged a glance and watched as the light faded and they watched Blazen and Phantom move closer to them. Reaching out a hand, Zack expected there to be some warmth, some heat radiating from the fire-like feathers that coated his—now a phoenix—guardian's body. But Blazen's flames were cool to the touch, warming from the inside rather than the out. The further along Zack ran his hand along Blazen's back the wider the flames became but still he didn't get burned.
Cody marveled over Phantom, watching as the feathers o his body rippled and swirled much like water. The ripples followed the movements of his hands as he continued to run them around until he reached Phantom's head. That's when he paused, afraid of putting water droplets into his guardian's eyes. But when he pulled his hand away, his palm was dry, as if he hadn't touched him in the first place. The rational part of his brain wondered how it was possible there was a water phoenix as he knew phoenixes, as mythical as they were, were only reborn through their own ashes. But the other part of his brain quickly pushed the thought away, knowing there was so much they had gone through that didn't make sense to anyone that stumbled upon what they were doing.
"Cool," Zack whispered, lowering his hands from Blazen. His nose then wrinkled. "I wish we could've done this sooner."
"You're telling me," Blazen agreed. He scratched his clawed foot against the ground. "It would've made things so much easier."
"This power…it's come from the Oracle Element," Cody murmured. "Do you think it'll be powerful enough? Do you think it'll be what we need to stop Uriel?"
"We won't know until we try," Phantom reminded him. He brought his wings down around him and settled onto the ground. "This time we're not split up. We're all working together to try and defeat hi. We shouldn't split up now."
"You're right," Cody agreed.
He took a deep breath and looked over at Zack, who nodded back at him. The two turned around and looked over at their friends. Cody took another deep breath; he couldn't help the wave of fear that rolled through his body like the waves on Phantom's feathers. He tried to calm himself but it was so hard, his friends were around him and they were all working for the same goal but there was still a chance they were going to lose.
Uriel was much stronger than any of them had ever thought. Much stronger than anyone they had faced before. He had an invisible grasp, could take down anyone he wanted with just one touch, and could bring someone back to life if he needed to. He was probably weakened after having been on Earth for so long after his banishment as well as the power he put into the Shadow Hunters and other Elementals took a chunk of his powers as well.
Still, he was a realistic, not an optimist. Zack was the one that usually went in with the blind faith and even looking at him now he could see the same trepidation in his face. Nevertheless, Zack clenched his hand into a fist. He could feel the surge of power moving through his veins, siphoning off from his guardian and knew they still had a chance to defeat Uriel.
Not a big one.
But still a chance.
"Just because you managed to tap into some new source of power doesn't mean you'll defeat me," Uriel pointed out. "The Oracle Element…it's not anything any of us from the Element World fear. Many around look for it, they have tried and failed but the power of that can't rival mine."
"We know you lose power the longer you're here on Earth," Bailey said, continuing to clutch the Book of Esme to her chest. "We know that's why you continued to put portions of yourself into other people and through the Shadow Hunters."
"And yet you still managed to be so afraid of me when you were nothing but little children," Uriel said. He appeared board. Pushing his hair back behind his shoulders he cracked his knuckles. "Though I wasn't nearly strong enough to get you then…all of this could have been avoided if I was able to finish with my plan then. But killing you now will be just as enjoyable." With that, his eyes narrowed and there was another blast of invisible energy.
This time, the group anticipated it and leapt over the blast as high as they could, their guardians moving into position to keep their wards safe. One by one the Elementals and their guardians raced around Uriel, using small blasts of their attacks against him, to get an idea of the power Uriel had. He fended them off with relative ease, invisible glances here and there that knocked them backwards before another one of them would swoop in and take the chance to attack the. Zack and Cody held back as the last resort, to keep from using up all of their power lest they had the chance to catch Uriel off-guard.
"Bailey, Maddie, and Aaron stay back," Zack declared once they got going on another round of attacks.
"What?" Bailey snapped. No. This wasn't the way it was supposed to go. She was supposed to help them save the world. And she couldn't even get a response from Geneva and Gattaca to help her. Now she was expected to stay behind and do what? Cower in fear as they waited for their chance to be utterly destroyed? "No! I'm going to help you!"
"You can't help us if you can't tap into your power," Zack snapped back, eyes flashing with a fire that Cody had never seen before. "I'm not saying it to be a jerk, I'm saying it to try and save your life. Until you can do that, I don't want you anywhere near this. Especially Aaron, we've seen that he's managed to attack every once in a while but we still don't know the extent of his power either." He pointed over at Maddie. "I don't care if we're close to our last breath, you do not come out to help us until I give you the okay to."
Maddie nodded quietly in response. Like Bailey she wanted to help the rest of the group in any way she could. But she couldn't do anything but heal the others as she wasn't an Elemental herself, but some sort of healer as they had learned years ago. Like Bailey and maybe Aaron, she had some sort of a spirit from the Element world inside her that aided them in their fight, but hadn't given her a guardian or a set of powers along with it. Still, she exhibited bravery and the want to help as long as they had been fighting their WingzCorp and whoever else had come their way over the last few years.
Zack's eyes shifted behind Maddie and his breath nearly caught in his throat, the world slowing down around him as his enhanced sight noticed movement down the street from him. He could see his mother and father watching him from a distance, with London, Esteban, Mr. Moseby, Core, Christian, Kristen, Reed, Renee, and Akito with them, all standing around Project ATOM. Even from that distance he could see they were going to do whatever it took to protect the bomb as well as the others in case it was to go off prematurely.
Maybe it's not so bad, Zack thought. It'd overpower him and while we'd lose our abilities as well, he'd be weak enough to be sent back to the Element World. Tilting his head back, Zack looked up at the sky. It was a bright blue color, the same shade that was normally seen on a beautiful summer day. The kind that he would longingly gaze out at when he was stuck in class and begging for the day to end. There wasn't a single cloud in the sky to mar the painted picture. And yet on a beautiful day they were fighting for their lives.
He couldn't imagine on a day like that they would all go out within a power stroke of…what? Glory? Pain? Sorrow? What was the end of it going to be and how many of them were still going to be alive?
As he continued to watch his parents, he wasn't sure they could see him. Nevertheless he could see his mother's hands clasped together, staring out in his direction while his father placed his hand on her shoulder, gently rubbing it, giving her comfort he had never seen him give before. He could clearly see the expressions of determination on all of their faces—even London—and swelled with a renewed sense of pride. If they could continue to be brave throughout everything they had been through; the not knowing, the mysteries, the lies…then they could too.
"Stay with them," he said, motioning to their friends. "Protect them if you have to. Just stay safe."
"You got it." Maddie said. She hesitated, turning to leave, then went over to Julius and hugged him hard. Zack turned away, giving them a moment to themselves. If it was to be the last time…he pushed the thought away and turned back to Bailey, grasping her shoulder.
"I know you can do this," he said to her. "The prophecy says so. I can't have you get injured and things go wrong—"
"—What about you and Cody?" she demanded. "What if you guys get hurt?"
"We've been hurt many times before and managed to get through it with no problems. I don't think this time will be any different." He rolled his eyes as he remembered that he and Cody were supposed to be the strongest. It used to give him a sense of pride and excitement, even a bit of arrogance to know that, now it was a heavy burden on his shoulders he'd as soon forget. "But you have the Book of Esme for a reason and we need to know what can happen with the use of that book. If you're the only one that can do it, we can't have anything happen to you."
Bailey opened her mouth to protest further, but Aaron reached out and grabbed onto her arm, pressing the side of his face into her skin. Zack wasn't sure if it was to be a comforting gesture or a sort of way to show her that Zack was right and the best thing they could do was stay out of the way and figure out how to get the book to be read. Finally, Bailey nodded as well and took Aaron's hand in hers before turning on her heel and running back towards their family and friends.
Zack turned back around as there was a low laugh and he found Uriel's eyes shift to a dark black color. Turning back to Blazen, Zack pressed his hand against his guardian's side. "Are you ready?"
"Of course," Blazen replied.
Max was the first one to start the next wave of attacks. If the rest of these guys can do this, so can I, she thought, slowly moving towards Uriel at a brisk walk with Canis by her side. You were cut down when he was strong before, you're still strong and you can still hold him off, to give others some time. She looked down at Canis as the two increased their speed, starting to run. Canis looked up at her and nodded before leaping into the air and sending out a blast of air. Max followed suit with a blast of her own before she launched herself upwards.
Just as she thought, Uriel reacted to the first two blasts that were sent his way and swept his arm around, sending a wave of energy in the direction they came. Max, who kept herself hovered into the air, tucked her arms to her sides and shot forward and before cupping her hands together. "Aerial Ace!" A shot of energy came from her hands and struck Uriel in the face. His head jerked back but he didn't fall. Instead, he turned and an invisible force slammed her into the wall of a nearby building. Max groaned in pain at the impact and covered her face as dust and debris fell, her body making an imprint in the wall. Lifting her hands, she sent bricks rocketing back towards Uriel before she shot herself in a circle around him, pelting him with bricks as she did so.
Spinning around him in quick succession, Max got him covered in a tornado and continued to fling debris into the raging wind so that they continued to strike Uriel over and over again. He cried out in rage and held his arms out, causing the tornado to immediately dissipate. He then levitated the leftover bricks in the air and shot them back into Max, followed by the force of a strong punch to the gut, knocking Max back into another building where she fell limp.
"Max!" Tapeworm immediately raced over to her while Crystal ran after Uriel next.
"Dricer!" Crystal leapt onto her guardian's back and he took off towards Uriel with a loud roar. Once they reached a close enough distance, Dricer opened his mouth wide and shot out a blast of ice at Uriel that covered his lower body. He then charged directly into Uriel, crashing into his stomach. There was a loud cracking sound and Uriel fell backwards to the ground where Dricer leapt atop him once more and bit at his face.
Uriel knocked Dricer up into the air and out of the way. Crystal leapt off of Dricer's back and flipped to the ground, kneeling down to keep herself up right. "Glaciate!" Placing her palms on the ground she watched as a sheen of ice spread across the ground and washed over Uriel, slowing down his movements. "Frost Bite!" She clenched her hands into fists and the wall of ice started to crack and rise, sending spears of ice up into the air, sticking through parts of Uriel's body. "Ice Spear!" She summoned her bow and arrows and quickly laced them. Bringing the tip of an arrow up to her mouth she licked the sharp tip, pointed the bow into the sky and fired the arrows.
The arrows shot into the air with all but one falling back towards the ground, turning into icicles as they fell. The one arrow that went into the air erupted into what appeared to be hail before falling back to the ground atop Uriel. Breathing heavily, she held onto the bow and watched as Uriel's body twitched for a few moments. Then the icicles shot up into the air and flipped around, pointing towards Crystal. Her eyes widened even further when Uriel pulled himself up, his body riddled with holes where the icicles had gone through. However, instead of blood coming from the orifices, he healed himself within seconds. The icicles continued towards Crystal and Dricer ducked his head between her legs and pushed her onto his back before leaping out of the way.
He roared in pain as an icicle caught him on the tail. Then Uriel was suddenly at their side, punching Dricer in the flank, knocking Crystal off her back. She brought her arms up and encased them in ice as Uriel tried to strike her this tie, sending snowflakes everywhere as she did so. Lifting her feet, she kicked Uriel over her head and flipped back to her feet, turning around and sent blasts of ice out onto the ground as she leapt atop it and skated away from him. Gaining speed, she held her hand out in front of her and skated along the ice that continued her to swirl around. As she went by him in tight circles, she continued to send ice over Uriel, hoping to slow him down. But he swung around and sent a strong kick to her face that sent her flying.
Rhuben followed aft her cousin and sent a shot of darkness at Uriel, encompassing him in a bubble. She lifted him off the ground with one hand and pulled her arm back with the other, holding onto her heavy blade. She threw the blade as hard as she could before following it with a strong push off the ground and leaping after the sword. The darkness bubble continued to increase in size, sending blasts of black lightning everywhere as it continued to grow in power. Reaching her sword, Rhuben grabbed onto the blade and spun around, slicing through the bubble with the blade and catching Uriel. He smirked, uninhibited by the power of darkness that brewed around him and held up his hands, catching the blade of her sword and grinding her to an immediate stop.
Gasping, Rhuben looked up into Uriel's face before her face twisted into a snarl of pure evil. She wasn't going to allow herself to hold back any longer. They were to leave everything on the battlefield or else they wouldn't be able to live with themselves. If that meant she would have to give her all to the powers of darkness, unsure whether or not she would come back from it, then so be it. Her eyes turned a dark purple and she allowed the darkness to take her over, realizing that for the first time she had completely control over it. The darkness rolled down the end of her sword and shot Uriel in the chest, rocketing him back a few yards away.
DeathLiger, who had been waiting for his moment to move, raced after Uriel, increasing his speed as he continued to go. It was then she noticed there was another form racing on the ground along with DeathLiger and quickly recognized it as Reihu in his lion form. The two lions circled Uriel and darted forward to bat at him with their strong paws before jumping backwards so that the other got a good chance to get an attack in. Rhuben teleported through darkness to come up on the ground on Uriel's other side and held up her hand.
"Dark Darts!" A large wall of darkness appeared in front of her and it started to shoot out little bullets of darkness, striking Uriel it he back, sending him forward into DeathLiger and Reihu. DeathLiger swung his wings down and the sudden blast of wind knocked Uriel further back into Rhuben's attacks. Uriel then turned around and grabbed onto DeathLiger around the neck and lifted him up, slamming him to the ground.
Rhuben screamed in pain, feeling the shockwave of DeathLiger's pain shoot through her body over and over again until she fell to her knees, bringing her hands up to her head. "You're going to pay!" She hissed, voice as dry and dark as the energy flowing through her.
"I don't think so."
Uriel tightened his grip around DeathLiger's neck before he turned and grabbed onto Rhuben. Her arms slammed against her sides as she was pinned in Uriel's grasp. Uriel then brought DeathLiger and Rhuben together in a hard slam before flinging them to the ground. Rhuben rolled onto her back and looked up in time to find Uriel had grabbed a large wall of brick and started to throw it down onto her.
She then felt a tug on her arm before she was brought into a pair of arms and leapt far away from the attack as they could make it. Rhuben looked up into Reihu's face as he crouched on the ground and found that he had become more injured than she had noticed before. He was shaking, using all of his energy to keep her up, blood dripping down his face and pooling around his eye, breathing heavily.
She tightened her grip on him and he nodded in response, finally falling to his knees.
Julius and Sydney took over once their sister fell to the ground. With their similar abilities, maybe working together would help them take down Uriel once and for all. Julius summoned two large rock walls and sent one flying forward, why Sydney used his abilities on the other to break up the slap of rock into smaller pieces that would continuously shoot forward and crash into Uriel. Once his attention was diverted, the two Elementals raced toward their opponent.
"Fire spirits!" Sydney called, his staff starting to glow red.
"Infernal Blow!" Julius called.
The elder Jackson's hands erupted into flames and he sent a steam of fire straight towards Uriel, the other into a nearby storefront. Uriel deflected the rush of flame but didn't react in enough time to stop the other attack. The storefront immediately imploded and raining debris of fire out towards Uriel. Julius then turned his stream of fire into a fire sword and leapt high into the air.
"Double Strike!" He and Sydney shouted. Sydney turned the front of his staff into a flame sword as well, the entire weapon becoming consumed in flame and they slashed down with the swords at the same time. Uriel brought up his hands and the flames struck an invisible wall, sending the two back once more. But it didn't deter them.
"Arctic Armour!" Julius became encased in ice and shot towards Uriel once ore as Sydney pulled up his own ice spirit powers. "Ice Crash!" A crystal ball of ice appeared in the air and exploded, sending shards down into him once more.
"Herald of Ice!" Sydney added, creating a wave of ice that moved like water, towards Uriel. Uriel turned around and punched a fist through the wave of water and grabbed Sydney around the chest, pulling him into the wall of ice. He crashed into it, Uriel pushed his hand forward, moving Sydney away from the wall, and pulled back once more, striking him again.
Julius turned around as he heard his baby brother's cries, and lowered the shield of ice from around him. "Rudin!" He called and watched as his guardian flew overhead to take care of Uriel. Julius used his enhanced speed to race over to his brother as he was heading towards the ice wall once more. He reached his brother in enough time and, creating an axe of wood, brought it down upon the invisible hand that held his brother, and grabbed onto Sydney around the waist, knocking him to safety. Sydney ducked his head into his brother's chest and curled himself into a ball as the two fell to the ground.
"Are you okay?" Julius as his brother as soon as they were in the clear.
Sydney nodded and looked up as Spirit Saru appeared on his shoulder. "I had him with me. Thanks, Juli." Despite feeling the familiar sensation of irritation at the nickname his brothers and sisters insisted on calling him, Julius held onto his brother tightly as they got to their feet. "I don't think any of us even made a dent against him and his powers."
"It doesn't seem like anything is going to work unless we can figure out how to get Bailey to tap into Aeon's power," SpiritSaru commented. He looked up and let out a squeak as there was another implosion and Rudin flew their way. Leaping off of Sydney's shoulder, SpiritSaru turned once in the air, creating a spirit shield that caught Rudin before he hit the ground. "And fast." He looked over as Riley, with the help of DalFang and Koto—who suddenly raced by with more energy Julius and Sydney had ever seen—took her turn against Uriel. "None of us are going to be able to hold him off; I don't even think Zack and Cody can do anything."
"We'll have to keep trying."
Mr. Moseby winced and let out a low moan as there was another explosion. They couldn't see much from where they were standing, but the sounds they could hear didn't seem like their heroes were doing much to stop Uriel. He was just too strong.
"We have to do something," London insisted. "Let me go and get my fighter jet!"
"Your fighter jet isn't going to help, London!" Maddie snapped. Seeing the Asian girl lower her eyes, she reached out to her best friend and held onto her tightly. "Uriel could probably crush it in his palm quicker than you can get it off the ground. I don't want anything to happen to you, London, you're safe here." London gave a small smile and Maddie gazed at her in surprise. "That was really brave."
"Yeah, well…" London shrugged. "You don't know what's happened while the rest of us were on the boat."
"Well, let's make sure that you can tell me later."
"Okay."
London and Maddie hugged each other tightly. Esteban brought a hand to his mouth and quickly chewed on his nails. He looked over at the scientists as the continued to look over the monitor on the front of Project ATOM. He couldn't help but notice the concerned frown on Core's fac. "What?" He asked. "What is it? What's wrong?"
"It's nothing that's wrong," Core said quickly. "More of something that I can't understand. We're picking up on some strange anima energy that I haven't seen before. There's the energy from Uriel and the rest of the Elementals but this is something that I don't know where it's coming from."
"Is that good?" Mr. Moseby's heart lifted in his chest. "Is it someone that's going to help?"
"We don't know, mate." Reed shook his head. "It could be something that's going to help Uriel. We have no idea the kind of power he already has within him, if it was lowering or just getting stronger." All of a sudden he cursed and punched his thigh.
"What is it?" Renee asked, looking worriedly up at her husband before turning to look in the direction that her children were fighting.
"It's a portal," Kristen finally realized. "A portal to the Element World is opening somewhere. But we can't be sure if it's coming from someone that'll hurt or help or where it's coming from." She turned her gaze to the sky before closing her eyes and turning away, pressing her face into Christian's chest as the wind around them suddenly increased.
Mr. Moseby was the only one that couldn't look away from the fight going on further down the block. Every time there was an explosion of power there were bright colors of light and he could feel the ground shake beneath his feet seconds before the shockwave hit them. Looking over at Diamond, watching as the soldier continued to stand back with the rest of the group, Mr. Moseby reached out and grabbed onto the pistol that sat tucked in the back of his pants.
"Hey!" Diamond cried.
"Mr. Moseby, stop!" Maddie called after him as he started to run towards the battle, his Tipton tie flapping as he went. "What are you doing?"
"I'm going to help them somehow!" Mr. Moseby shouted back over his shoulder. He glanced over his shoulder for a second and smiled when he found Esteban grab the shotgun off of Diamond and started to run after the hotel manager. The bellboy always did want to help Mr. Moseby in any way he could. When they were close enough they came to a stop and watched the fight in front of them, staring in horror as the kids they had known since they were young teens fought as hard as they could, bouncing back no matter how critical the hit they took. But he could see them slowing down.
Mr. Moseby opened the pistol to check the chamber and looked at the green, blue, and white bullets that rested inside. Esteban lowered the shotgun and aimed at Uriel, firing off three shots while Mr. Moseby followed it up with three shots from his pistol. The bullets within the Element gun shot out spear-like vines, a wave of water, and a blast of light that show out and struck Uriel at the same time as the bullets from the shotgun.
Zack and Cody immediately turned around, leaving themselves to be knocked into the ground. They quickly scrambled back to their feet. "Mr. Moseby, Esteban, run!" Cody shouted.
"Hurry, go!" Zack added.
The two nodded and turned on their heels, racing back towards their friends, the wind making it tough for them to gain and progress. Once they reached Maddie and the other once more they turned around to find they had brought the fight closer to them than before. Uriel had started to go after them as they had managed to injure him, but Zack and Cody quickly got into the way and were trying their hardest o hold him back as long as they could.
"We have to set it off," Core finally said, turning to Project ATOM and turning knobs and buttons on it.
"What?!" Bailey and Aaron cried in unison. It was the first time they had spoken as they had become preoccupied with trying to figure out the language being used within the pages. There were a few lists that Bailey recognized having read before that spoke of Zack's and Cody's awakening years ago. Others she could see were spells and incantations that Mother Nature had used before; evident from the recipe lists that had been created. But there were other things she found with them, pictures and symbols. Some she recognized as the symbols her friends held along their skin, showing the mark of their Elements but otherwise she couldn't get a grasp of it. "No. No. No!" Bailey started to turn the pages faster, desperate for something to jump out at her. "Not yet! Please give me more time!"
"Dad," Aaron pleaded. "You know what'll happen if you do!"
"I'm sorry, but we don't have a choice," Christian said. "If this is the only thing that'll keep him from destroying everything."
"But you're going to destroy them, too!" Bailey insisted. "Their powers will be gone! The after-effects of the dark matter, x-elements, dark energy…and whatever else sort of particles that will be released may hurt them more than topping Uriel."
"It's no use!" Uriel's voice commanded over the empty streets, swirling around them with the wind. "You will never stop me! I am too strong. I've been going too easy on you all this time." As if to prove his point, Uriel reached out and pressed a fingertip into a nearby tree, the only one around that still had emerald green leaves. As soon as he touched it, it fell apart, rotting within seconds, leaves falling from the tree and dusted the ground. "But now playtime is over! I know that you're the reincarnates of those that banished me from the Element World all these years ago and now both worlds are going to come down to my wrath!"
He knocked Zack and Cody aside with a sweep of his arm and charged towards Project ATOM with blinding speed.
"Stop!" Riley shouted.
"MOM!" Crystal screamed. "DAD!"
"NO!" Julius shouted.
Bailey continued to flip through the book before closing it and holding it against her chest. She closed her eyes, a tear slipping down her cheek as she waited for the pain to come. There was a sudden bright blast of light and Bailey felt nothing but warmth envelop her. She slowly opened her eyes and found Mother Nature, Father Time, Geneva, and Gattaca all standing in front of her, smiling warmly.
"W-what?" she gasped. "What's going…where have you been?" She then paused, a sickening thought encompassing her. "Am I dead?"
"No, child, you're still very much alive," Geneva said with a warm smile. "I'm glad to be able to see you again, my friend." She reached up and grasped onto Bailey's hand. "Aeon. You've finally allowed yourself to come in and realize your power once more."
Bailey/Aeon smiled in response and looked down at the book she held in her hands. She sighed happily as she opened it and found that she could read each and every word clearly. She should have been able to, it was her native language. "We're sorry we were unable to help you," Gattaca added. "We needed you to come into your power yourself. Once we felt you were doing so, we opened the portal to reach you."
"Thank you," Bailey/Aeon said. She held her book to her chest. "I know what to do now. We're going to help these kids defeat Uriel." Then she slowly shook her head. "But we can't have any of this without life and death."
"You're right," Mother Nature agreed. "We would all cease to be, not in death but in nothing."
"Don't worry." Bailey/Aeon smiled widely, a confident smile. "Gaia and I can handle this." She looked over to the lone figure that stood at the far end of the circle. He grinned at her, his grey eyes flashing, equally gray hair moving along with a lone wind that blew around them. "Thank you for helping me for so long. With your help, Aaron was able to tell Bailey about the cores of the Earth and Element World. I know it's where Uriel is drawing his power from and with Project ATOM we can stop him."
"You're very welcome, Aeon," Gaia said, his voice holding an accent hat Bailey didn't recognize. It sounded Greek, but an accent all of its own as well. "I'll help you as much as you can, but you need to go back right now. The rest of us are here to help you with every step of the way. They've realized Mother Nature and Father Time's identities as well as Geneva and Gattaca, this will end now."
Bailey/Aeon nodded and closed her eyes.
She opened them once more and watched as Aaron completely glowed white, the energy shooting out in a blast that knocked Uriel in the face, sending him backwards until he crashed landed on his back on the ground.
The light faded around Aaron until it blinked out with a dying whimper.
Uriel was left out in the open, vulnerable.
…
..
.
"What was that?" Zack whispered under his breath.
Cody slowly smiled. "I think it was the opening we were looking for." He pushed himself to his feet. "Phantom! Purity of Rain!"
Zack quickly followed his lead. "Blazen! Flame Totem!"
Blazen and Phantom shot towards Uriel and encompassed him in a rush of hard water that appeared from a cloud in the sky, pushing Uriel further into the ground, following it up with a wave of lava that replaced the water, melting the ground around Uriel, pushing him in even further.
"Blaze of the Heart! Fusion Form!"
"Water of the Soul! Fusion Form!"
Zack/Blazen and Cody/Phantom flew over to Bailey/Aeon and landed on the ground beside her. "Are you okay?" Zack/Blazen asked her.
"Yeah, I figure out how to stop this thing," Bailey/Aeon said quickly. "We need to use Project ATOM."
"Are you crazy?" Cody/Phantom demanded. He looked over at his friends as they lay on the ground, barely able to push themselves upwards. "What about our friends? We can't do that to them! If we can just get them out of the way."
"We don't have the time!"
As soon as the words came from her mouth there was a loud explosion and the three turned to find Uriel back to his feet, a column of black energy soaring around him and going up into the sky, blackening it by the second. He screamed and roared as he continued to take in as much energy as he could. They were about to succumb to his strongest attack. "If I can't defeat you…I'll take this world and the Element world down with me!"
"Do it now!" Bailey/Aeon cried towards Core. "Open it!"
Core swallowed thickly and nodded at the friends he had grown to know, lose, and find again over the years. Reed, Renee, Christian, and Kristen nodded at him. He then turned to Akito, who had been silent the whole time, watching the fight with his fox guardian by his side. He had a big smile on his face, relief evident throughout his entire body.
Finally, Core nodded and pressed a series of buttons that caused a loud, ear piercing screech to fill the air. Zack, Cody, and Bailey's friends all covered their ears and moaned, trying to block out the sound. Uriel's face twitched as the sound reached his ears as well, though he continued to suck in as much energy as he could hold.
"Vrtutem elementorum terra coniungeret; Ignire!" Bailey/Aeon cried, opening the book. It lifted into the air just as the bomb went off. The explosion from the bomb started to come outward. But instead of immediately destroying the buildings or the people right next to it, the energy converted into a bright beam of light that hovered above the book, turning into the shape of a sword. Smiling, Bailey/Aeon reached up and grabbed onto it.
"NO!" Uriel snarled. He took in the energy, a black/purple surrounding him, pulsing like a heartbeat. He surged towards them, eyes wild. "YOU WILL NOT BEAT ME!"
Zack/Blazen and Cody/Phantom moved in front of Bailey/Aeon to shield her but was stopped by a sudden combined blast of energy that knocked Uriel backwards a little bit. Surprised, the twin watched as Max, Tapeworm, Patrick, Noah, Crystal, Riley, Rhuben, Sydney, and Julius and their guardians stood in front of them, using their combined powers to hold Uriel back. They could see it was taking a huge toll on all of them but weren't going to give up.
"The pure white blade of the prophecy," Akito said in a low tone. "Finally."
Reaching up, Bailey/Aeon grasped onto the blade, holding it in her hand. It filled her with the same warmth she had felt before. This time even more comforting than before. Then two pairs of hands reached out and enclosed upon hers. Bailey/Aeon looked back and forth between Zack and Cody as the two grasped onto the handle of the blade around her. They nodded back and the three lifted the sword high into the air, taking in more light until the blade glowed in its entirety. Uriel struggled to get to his feet, to run, to get one last shot on them that would give him enough time to recuperate.
With a scream of effort, the three swung the blade, releasing the pent up energy within the three of them and the pure white blade, absorbing the shock wave and sending the blow out into Uriel. There was a brilliant light that brightened the area into nothingness. It absorbed all sound and disguised all movement as it continued to increase. Suddenly the light was mixed in with what appeared to be black lightning the two colors battling for dominance before the light overpowered it and engulfed the blackness once more.
The light faded.
Uriel was gone.