Chapter 13: Battle on Two Fronts
Third Person POV
"Kian, what the hell were you thinking back there?!"
Kian stopped a few feet from Mia, both of them running around the streets of Seattle trying to find the demigods and most importantly the God Killer Empena.
The two came to a stop in the middle of an empty alleyway, rubbish bins taking up the space lying adjacent to the wet concrete walls.
"Can we not do this now?!" Kian rubbed his temples. "We have to get to Percy and his friends!"
"You are not getting out of this Kina!" She continued. "Why didn't you listen to me?!"
"Mia, she insulted both my races." Kian began. "How would you like it if she was to say that about your parents? When she told them those lies, calling my species monsters… about the Reaper, about me and about what happened…I just lost it. I wanted to"
"You wanted to kill her?!" Mia shouted, frustration filling her voice. "That worked out last time didn't it Kian?!"
"She was dead, I was sure of it!" Kian growled and sighed. "Well…she was dead. I forget that she's not normal."
"If you had just stuck to the plan then-"
"That was the plan, Mia."
Mia recoiled slightly. "Wait…what, you told me that-"
"It doesn't matter what the fine details were. I would destroy her heart, then decapitate her and that should have been that….but of course, something had to happen!" He kicked a small rock on the floor and sent it ricocheting against the walls before it disintegrated into dust.
"How's that possible?!" Mia held her hands in thought. "How can you move your own heart from where it's supposed to be? She's not like Split, she has a fixed form like us."
"Must be something she stole after what I did to her!" he scoffed and looked up at the sky. "An ability to relocate parts of your body. I'm sure that's what happened."
Mia wiped her hair. "We need a better plan now that we know that."
"I'll deal with that don't worry, I've got a special move for her!"
Mia shook his head. "We need to find the demigods. With the Dark Moons lose in the city, they'll be in so much danger."
"They've been in worse situations than this. I've been locked onto their telepathic presence since you teleported them so I should-"
~~!מפלצות בסיאטל!~~
A burst of dark red light cloaked the city for a split second and Kian looked around frantically, eyes wide at what just happened.
"I felt that too…" Mia shuddered. "She's-"
"She….she's cast an immense hell circle around Seattle." Kian started his voice on the edge of breaking. "All of Hell's creatures are loose in the city. She's trying to kill this city to capture them!"
"That's not her actual plan is it?!"
"It is! The lives of innocent people mean nothing to her if she manages to get what she wants.
Mia gritted her teeth in frustration. "She knows what she's doing! Distract us while she gets what she wants?"
"She won't get a damn thing!" Kian's suit gained a new metallic coating and increased in size and a helmet formed over his head. "No harm will come to the people in this city while we're here!"
XxX
A crowd of bystanders ran throughout the streets of Seattle as a grotesque 4-limbed creature plucked anything in sight and put it into its mouth like a walking black hole. It was flanked by smaller-sized versions of this creature and many more creatures that belonged to something out of a horror novel.
This scene was beginning to become direr and direr as more of these creatures joined this ever-increasing horde, consuming the lampposts, and cars and even attempting to consume humans too. They were only instructed to consume everything except the demigods.
The 4-limbed creature set its target on a mother that was holding an infant child in her arms, a target that would give it a full meal and reached a long purple tentacle towards her. The mother held her child tightly as she ran but the tentacle was faster than her.
It would have reached her had someone not intervened.
A swirl of red and blue cloaked in lightning appeared out of nowhere and slashed the tentacle into pieces letting the mother and child go free. Kian landed in front of the horde of monsters, all of hell's worse creatures that were before him.
Electricity sparkled around him as he faced the horde. "As the vessel of Lucifer Morningstar, The King of Hell and the creator of your kind, I command you to return to where you came from."
~~" We cannot obey your command, Empena commands us now."~~. The hive mind of the swarm of monsters replied telepathically.
"What are your orders?!"
~~" To consume everything"~~
The 4 limbed monster tried to consume Kian, sending multiple tentacles toward it only for it to be cut down with transparent glass blades that appeared out of nowhere. Before the monster could react to that, multiple glass blades sliced it open and its mutilated body lay in pieces on the floor before vanishing in a flash of dark red light.
Mia landed gently next to Kian, thrusting her arms to the side to soften the impact. "Not listening to you?"
"Empena still has them under her control," Kian explained
"Makes sense."
"Taking our powers and now our creations? I'll make sure she feels all the pain!"
A slug-like monster the size of a pickup truck and with skin like a bubbling lava field threw itself towards Kian but it was cleaved in two with a slice of Kian's sudden blue light blade on his arm and met the same fate as the monster before.
Another monster of the same type was the next to follow, it attempted to crush Kian with its sheer weight but Kian grabbed it and threw it to Mia behind her who sliced it in two with an orange buzzsaw construct.
"Kian!" she complained. "That was close!"
Kian chuckled and met the alarmed horde of monsters that knew how dangerous the Nephilim was. They began to charge forward, intent on destroying as much of the environment as possible around them.
Kian smiled widely before moving at hyperspeed, slashing all the monsters he could see into pieces with blades of blue, creating an arc of blue light that painted the streets with bright light, illuminating the destruction that the Nephilim was causing.
Mia watched him on as he began the clean-up of this part of the city. They had been doing this for about an hour, going around several parts of the city and ridding them of the nastiest of the creatures that Hell could ever provide.
She was no stranger to this kind of creature, it was something she learned when she was just a little girl, that there were creatures beyond the human brain's understanding all existing in another dimension somewhere in the universe via the Masters of the Mystic Arts of course. After she knew she was a half-angel, she was quickly caught up on these creatures from hell and how to slay them.
How would you slay a fearsome creature from hell you might ask?
Use the energy from the heaven of course. Or a weapon that was blessed with divine power. Either should work if you land a fatal blow on the monster of choice.
Mia watched as one by one, the horde of hell creatures that were present in Seattle now fell to Kian's blue blades, each one disappearing in a flash of red light as they returned to hell.
She gazed up at the sky and realised that there was still a large number of ariel monsters still present in the city, as many as maybe 100 or so.
"Guess I'll take care of the rest!"
They noticed the young girl dressed in blue robes and screeched their war cries before surging forward. Mia made the appropriate hand signs and thrust her arms towards them.
"BY THE SEVEN SUNS OF CINNIBUS!"
A bright beam of orange light, hot as the combined power of seven suns, surged from her hands and towards the monsters, vapourising them as they tried to flee their attacker. Mia painted the dull grey skies with the bright sparks of orange light and the fearful cries of monsters, reducing their numbers in a matter of seconds.
Once this was done, Mia stopped her spell, satisfied with her efforts and clear airspace over the city.
But despite Kian's efforts, more ground-based monsters that remained in the city ran towards his and Mia's location. She felt the footsteps and turned to see hordes rushing in to save their comrades from every narrow street.
She thrust a hand to her left and right, each one pointed towards a single horde. "BY THE MYSTIC BOLTS OF BALTHAAK!!"
A burst of blue energy tore through them and reduced them to cinders, connecting each monster to Mia like a long electric wire. She repealed the same action for more hordes that rushed in making sure to completely clean this area of the city from monsters.
She dropped her hands when she was done, a little out of breath after casting two powerful spells one after the other.
Casting spells wasn't as easy as pressing a button that you might be so used to in video games. You had to know how to cast the spell, either through the use of hand motions, vocal incantations and knowing the cost of the spell that you were going to cast. The stronger the spell is, the more energy that it'll take out of you and you had to be careful how much energy you spend
Especially if you were part Celestial...
"Kian, I'm done!"
Kian turned back and his helmet retreated into his neck. "That's this section of the city cleaned. Seattle should be monster free now."
But before they could celebrate, they heard thundering footsteps and turned to see a 10ft monster covered in obsidian black skin and had needles all over his body.
ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAR!
The monster screamed and rattled the buildings around the city once it saw the sight of Kian. Its red eyes locked on the Nephilim.
"A needle monster?" Kian raised an eyebrow. "Now this takes me back!"
"How do you want to take care of this?" Mia asked him.
"How about we do a combination move?"
Mia smirked and many ideas started to swirl in her head. "Let's do this!"
The needle demon screamed and shot high-velocity needles toward Kian and Mia. Unfortunately for the monster, the needles simply bounced off Kian's skin while Mia blocked them with a simple shield. To almost prove to a nearby bystander the danger of those needles, a stray needle pierced through a nearby letter box, leaving a damaged item behind it.
Kian walked forward, an eager smile on his face as he faced the monster, the memories of facing one as a child fresh in his mind. He could remember the faint look on the monster's face as it was sent into space and now…Kian wanted to show this monster what he was capable of now
The needle-filled monster charged toward Kian and swung at his head. Kian drew his sword out of his left hand and sliced up the monster's arm in an instant, letting the chopped appendage vanish into red light.
The monster screamed at the sudden loss of its left limb. Kian appeared behind the monster in a split second and the monster whirled on the spot and jabbed at Kian with its remaining needle arm.
At least it would have done if a transparent blade of light hadn't cut the arm, leaving the monster without any arms present and screaming again.
Kian smirked at the scene. Usually, these monsters could regenerate their lost limbs if something were to damage them. Well, they would have done it if it had been damaged by non-heavenforce-related manners.
Mia cast a spell and the ground seemed to swallow its legs, holding it in place as it solidified. The monster in its desperation craned its neck at Kian, its red eyes glowing white-hot before a beam of bright red light surged towards Kian's head. Kian used his blue sword to deflect the beam of energy and slowly turned it against its owner.
It writhed and roared in agony with a shrill sound so high pitched that reminded Kian of a tea kettle, if that tea kettle were an extremely off-key soprano singer and a monster created in the vilest of places,
Mia cast a series of floating orange platforms in the air and ran up it, shooting energy blasts at the monster to confuse it further. Without any eyes or arms, and its legs were frozen solid in the ground, it was a sitting duck or rather a sitting monster waiting to just die.
Kian's blue sword glowed brightly, waiting for Mia to reach the last platform for it to release its true power. "Come on…"
As Mia was about to step on the last platform, Kian coiled his legs and supercharged his blue sword with as much Heavenforce he could provide, turning it into a glowing instrument of destruction.
He jumped forward, just as Mia stepped forward.
"FIRE STYLE: DIVINE SOLAR WHEEL!"
"BY THE FLAMING BLADES OF THE FALTLINE!"
Kian took the skies and slashed his sword across the empty sky, drawing a spiral arc of bright blue flames in consecutive spins. Mia materialized a flaming violet sword, cutting through her target's hips in a bright trail of purple fire that was perfectly timed with Kian's attack as she landed on the ground. Both attacks were so colourful and intense that they painted the nearby street with intense blue and violet light.
The creature from hell groaned and fell to the floor, body parts disintegrating in a flash of red light as it returned to hell once again.
"That was fun!" Mia smiled and adjusted her headband.
Kian landed on the floor and turned to her. "I remember those monsters being hard to kill…now..not so much."
"ZOOM!"
Kian was certain he had just heard a sound akin to a sonic boom behind me. He turned and… he complained internally.
A familiar speedster in all black now stood in front of Kian, her posture as tense as ever, ready to break into a dash any moment
"You again?" Kian asked. "Did Empena send you? I don't think I saw you with the rest of the Dark Moons?"
She didn't reply.
"Kina is this the person who-"
"Yeah." Kian agreed. "The speedster who attacked me. Looks like she's back for more. I'm surprised she hasn't attacked us." Kian pulled his red sword and readied it with his blue one, ready once more to fight but Mia stopped Kian with a hand across his chest.
"I've got this, Kina."
"What are you talking about?! Hand to hand isn't your speciality!"
Within an instant, her blue dress changed into something akin to slim armour. She clenched her hands, a pair of silver gauntlets reflecting the white light around her, the same effect on her leg pieces and the armour on her back.
Kian glanced at her. "What the hell is that?!"
"I had Harry make this for me. Special armour that strengthens my body. No more glass bones with this on!"
"And for fighting?"
"I've been practising. Marcel and Chris have been teaching me!"
Kian glanced between the speedster and her. "I'm not sure about this Mia!"
"Kina, don't you see, Empena wants to keep you and the demigods separate long enough to kill them. That's why she's sent her after us. If you don't get to them then-"
"You can die, Mia!" Kian said sharply. "And I don't want to see you die!"
"I won't die Kina. I know what I am doing."
"Do you?"
"Do you trust me?"
Kian pursed his lips and balled his fists. "Of course I trust you. J-just take care of yourself, I don't want-"
"It's fine." she smiled. "I won't."
She patted Kian's head and giggled. "Go find those demigods, I'll handle her."
Without wasting another moment, Kian put away his swords and flew off into the sky while Mia stayed behind to fight the speedster.
Mia's metallic gauntlets and leg pieces glowed with white light and she put both her hands out to obtain a fighting stance. "Let's see what you're made of!"
XxX
CLANGCLANGCLANG
Both Mia and this speedster lady were engaged in heavy combat, both trying their best to overpower the other. Mia defended for her life as she blocked constant jabs and kicks by her opponent, each attack bouncing off her silver gauntlets and metal armour.
Mia slid backwards and threw a couple of jabs toward her opponent, both of them being blocked easily. She saw an opening appear and Mia roundhouse kicked her with her armour-covered shins, kicking her into a nearby car and crumpling it with the force
Those gauntlets were made from the purest mix of Uru and Incinium, the latter a type of metal that was mined from the planet of Incini and blessed with sacred angelic power, a metal that was very rare to find now. Mia had cast a spell that would increase her physical abilities at the cost of her spell casting abilities to compensate for her weakness in a physical fight.
She was thankful that all that practice with Marcel and her brother was seeming to be paying off.
The speedster lady got up and charged again, this time coming in with a thrusting side kick. Mia stepped sideways and forwards, using her lowered guard to launch a strong axe kick to her face. The speedster lady reacted quickly and blocked it but the ground gave way with the impact of the kick. She grabbed Mia's foot and slammed her to the ground before throwing her against the ground
Mia rolled to a stop and got up albeit a little shakily. She wiped some from her face and faced her again, thankful that the armour had protected her against serious damage.
"Who are you?!" Mia demanded
The woman didn't answer her.
Mia didn't ask Kian to leave her on her own for just the sake of a fight, based on what he had said about his earlier interaction with her, Mia was curious about this person.
"Are you a Dark Moon? Kian said you were?!"
Again no answer.
Mia clenched her teeth in frustration, she was getting nowhere with her. Either this woman was mute or she didn't want to speak up.
Mia tried again. "Are you working for Empena?!"
The woman nodded but…it was strained and almost forced?
Mia's eyes widened. "So you can hear me. Has Empena gotten to the demigods?!"
The woman slowly shook her head from side to side.
"Can you take me to Empena?"
The woman didn't reply and instead black lightning started to sparkle around her. She went straight and coiled up towards Mia.
Mia was in trouble. She was very slow compared to this speedster lady, in the moment she would have needed to think of what to do, and the speedster would have already killed her via powerful jabs to the head.
An idea quickly popped into her head and Mia smirked. "Well if you're going to kill me, come and do it!"
The speedster girl dashed towards Mia, launching a few hundred jabs in a few seconds, each one creating a small gust of wind behind them.
Mia dropped to the floor taking advantage of her opponent's tendency to jab first. While she couldn't cast many spells while wearing her armour, she could cast a few low-level ones and this one was as low as it would have come.
The ground beneath the speedster began to bubble and she sank to the floor suddenly, the ground swallowing her up until she was neck-deep in the ground.
Mia chuckled and faced her opponent. "If you had just talked, all of this could have been avoided. Now, let's see who you are."
Mia reached forward to pull the woman's visor away from her face but the very ground Mia stood on now changed in an instant. Sharp spikes of tarmac erupted from the ground and surged upwards towards Mia's chest, the impact sending her flying backwards.
She adjusted mid-flight and skidded to a halt as she observed what happened. The woman slowly rose from the ground, black tarmac spikes formed and slowly rotated around her, aiming themselves toward Mia.
"That's impossible!" Mia rose to her feet. "The only person who can do that is…"
The woman didn't reply and she changed forward, black tarmac spikes charging towards Mia in sync with her.
Mia's gauntlets disappeared and her orange mandala shields appeared. She ran through the spells in her head ready to cast them one after the other against her opponent.
Luckily…she didn't need to.
"JAVELIN RAIN!"
Multiple red missiles crashed down in front of Mia's opponent, covering the area in red smoke and a figure in red and black armour landed in front of her.
The speedster woman regained her composure but before she could do anything, a repulsor blast caught her off guard and sent her crashing back into the floor behind her.
"How did you find me?!" Mia yelled at the sudden appearance of the strangers.
"Heimdall told us."
The person who spoke was clad in light blue and white armour as he landed near Mia. His helmet popped open and sunk into his neck. His messy brown hair sprung forth and hung just above his forehead.
He glanced at Mia. "Did you get anything from her?"
"I was about to before you and Marcel came here."
"We just saved your life, a thank you would be appreciated, Mia!"
Marcel snapped back to where the speedster woman was, his fingers ready to blast at any moment. His red and black armour was constructed similarly to Kian's armour except he had requested stronger gloves for more power.
The cloud of red smoke vanished into nothing and the three old friends stood and waited for the woman in all black to respond. She coiled up and faced the now trio together.
"Come on then!" Marcel shouted, his red eyes glinting with excitement, hands sparkling with explosions. "Fight us, Empena's servant!"
Mia and the man clad in armour were ready for her.
The woman scanned and she thought better of fighting three instead of one as she vanished from the place in a flash of black lightning.
"ARRRRGHH!" Mia complained. "What are you guys doing?!"
"What are we doing? Harry and I saved your life!" Marcel snapped. "You-"
"I was handling it!"
"It didn't seem like you were." Harry put an armour-covered finger on his chin. "Multiple projectiles against a person who was quicker than you."
"I could have won without your help!"
"Where's Kian?" Marcel looked around. "Last time we asked Heimdall to look, he was here with you!"
"I sent him to find the demigods."
"What?" Marcel raised an eyebrow. "Why didn't you stick together?!"
"I thought that it would be good if Kian got to the demigods before Empena."
"We've sent the rest to secure the demigods," Harry announced.
Mia let out a sigh of relief. "I'm glad to hear that. But if that's the case then what's Kian going to do now-"
A look of horror dawned on Mia's face.
"He's going to fight Empena on his own!"
"WHAT?!" Harry and Marcel exclaimed in unison "That's suicide!"
"He almost killed her in an ambush..well would have if her heart was where it was supposed to be."
"We have to go help him." Harry grit his teeth. "I don't care how much he doesn't want us to be there for him but we have to do something!"
"Agreed." Marcel nodded. "He's not getting a chance to kill her when I have some unsettled scores with her!"
Harry brought his right arm up and a holographic display popped up. He tapped something into the display and turned back to the group. "She's looking for the Warp Drive isn't she?"
Mia nodded.
"Kian's headed to the Saint James Cathedral. That's Seattle's Warp Gate. The others have secured the demigods."
"What about the Dark Moons?" Mia asked him.
"I think we can handle them." Marcel grinned. "I'll personally take them down if I have to!"
"Who's left?" Harry asked.
"Rashomon, Split, Nivan and that Speedster lady."
"Yeah, we can handle them." Marcel smiled confidently.
"This is a battle on two fronts. We need to make sure Kian doesn't get killed and the demigods aren't hurt too." Harry announced. "Got that?"
Mia and Marcel nodded. "Let's go and save our friend."
With that, Marcel, Mia and Harry both left the semi-destroyed street to search for their friend.
XxX
Percy's POV
"Is this all you can do?!"
Remember those Dark Moons that Kian was talking about? Well, we were fighting two of them, and failing!
"What should we do with them? Kill them or just get their hairs, Nivan?"
"Doesn't concern me what we do Split, just get the Mistress what she wants!"
The Dark Moon called Split jogged over to me and went to yank my hair with his green slimy hands of his. Fortunately for me, someone managed to stop him.
A lightning bolt streaked between me and Split and the arcs of electricity went into Split's hands shocking him and forcing him back.
"Dammit!" he cursed to himself. "How are you still standing?!"
Thalia shakily got up, pointing the end of her spear towards Split. "We've been through much worse than you think, you Play-doh freak!"
"Why is this proving so difficult?!" Split complained.
"It is because you are not trying hard enough!" Nivan announced. "Watch and learn Dark Moon 4!"
Nivan opened his body and a dark blade emerald blade formed from his right hand. He looked at me and surged forward attempting to decapitate me. I brought my blade against his and blocked the attempt.
Nivan grunted against Riptide. "Impossible, a Terran shouldn't be able to block my strike!"
An invisible figure shimmered into existence and slashed at the space behind his legs, drawing a series of sparks. Nivan spun around to see Annabeth just near his foot and I used the distraction to slash at his chest and kicked him away from us.
"What was that about trying hard enough?" Split mocked Nivan's advice. "Stupid old man!"
I heard the rattling of bones and saw that a small army of skeletons tried to swarm Split. He just smirked and in a grin arc of destruction, spun around reducing them to just bones.
Nico cursed and earned Split's attention with a question. "What in the Hades are you?!"
"Me? Have you Terrans not seen a liquid-based lifeform before?" Split asked.
We didn't answer
"Oh well," he shrugged disappointedly. "I don't suppose you'll live long enough to find out!"
Within seconds, Split collapsed onto the floor with a splash of green and suddenly 3 of him appeared in the same place, each of them standing in a single file line from each other, facing us.
"What should we do?!" I asked Annabeth.
"I'm thinking…" Annabeth's eyes suddenly lit up. "Percy, Thalia I need you to listen to me."
"Hey Nivan!" one of the Split clones spoke. "Be on alert if these kids try something!"
Nivan would have replied if a series of shadows hadn't restrained him. He grunted and groaned and all Split clones looked at him suddenly.
"Nivan, what's going on?!"
"Guys!" Nico had thrust his arms out. "I can't keep that guy like that for too long! Hurry up!"
"Thalia, give me the supply bag!" Annabeth asked and Thalia threw it to her. She went fished something out but a Split clone went to attack her. I stepped in and blocked the blade that was about to slice my girlfriend in half.
"Oh oh oh, think you're so cool doing that in front of a girl do you?" Split cackled in my face. "I wonder what Kian thinks of this?!"
I pushed him back and slashed at his head, only to see my sword not hit his head. With an evil smirk, he tried to kill me again with two sharp green blades. I deflected both blades in one move with Riptide and as if almost on instinct, I had activated my second sword and cut through him again, only this time there was a burning cut in his torso where I had drawn my sword across.
"Impossible!" Split looked at the deep cut on his torso that was healing slowly but smoking. "How Terran?! What kind of weapon is that?!"
"Percy…" Annabeth looked at Split's new wound. "How did you do that?!"
I didn't wait for Split to react and I kicked his solidified torso away from us. I turned back to Annabeth. "What do you want us to do?!"
Annabeth shook off whatever she was feeling and looked at me and Thalia. A split clone charged toward Thalia but she moved back and stabbed him with her spear, earning the same result as I had.
"You see that fire hydrant over there?" Annabeth glanced at something around and I saw what she was talking about. A small red hydrant was a few feet away from us. "I need you to get your clone to that position and release the hydrant when I give the signal."
"What signal?"
Annabeth smiled at me. "You'll know."
She drew her knife and faced the two clones with me.
"How sweet, you'll die together!" the two split clones cackled.
Both of them charged at us with speeds that we were used to having faced many hellhounds and monsters before. I feinted to throw off the one to my left and slashed across his torso.
"Thalia, drive them to the fire hydrant!" I yelled at her, hoping she got it.
The clone I faced launched a series of attacks that I countered both with my second sword and riptide earning a scowl from the Dark Moon.
"What has he taught you?!" Split growled at me. "What did the Reaper teach you to defend yourself against me?!"
"Kian taught me enough!" I slashed at his head and he ducked, launching a low kick that I just managed to avoid. I kicked him in the face and heard a satisfying crunch noise.
Annabeth was having some trouble with her clone, her blade's shorter reach not allowing her as much freedom to slash as I could have done but she was still putting up a good fight. The clone tried to kick her but Annabeth blocked it and drew her dagger across his neck leaving a smoking trace and him scrambling back.
The clone I had attacked stood up slowly and glared at the two of us. "Has he told you about what happened?"
"He told us enough about you!"
"I'm honoured but no," he chuckled. "Did he talk about the day he showed the world that he was the Reaper?"
"How do you know him?" Annabeth pointed her knife at him, her other hand holding something.
"How do I know him? I went to the same school as him, I trained with him until I realised how much of a monster he was!" Split spat out. "He had the audacity to hide he was a hybrid of those monsters!"
"You can say whatever you want, I know it's all lies!"
The left clone rose, his broken nose present on his face. He scoffed at my comment. "I don't need you to believe me when I know it's right. Kian's blood contains only destruction and rampage."
They both launched another attack and we defended again. We were slowly moving the clones to the fire hydrant when I heard a scream and saw the clone at my right had drawn his green blade across Annabeth's stomach. I moved on instinct and with my sword cut the clone's arms off.
"Pay attention!"
I turned back too late to see the clone I was fighting inches away from cutting my head but I didn't have to worry. A celestial bronze blade blocked the attempt and I turned quickly to cut my clone's arm off.
"You ok?"
Annabeth was face to face with me and I could tell by her expression that she was. "I'm fine," she said. "It's just a little scratch."
I pulled back to see the clones looking at their chopped-off limbs before looking at me. With a sudden smile, the parts of the limbs that they had chopped off suddenly regenerated.
"Did you think that you could injure us?!" the clones said in unison. "Defeat us? I am Dark Moon 4, I've killed hundreds, a couple of teenagers are nothing to me!"
"Guys!" Thalia exclaimed, dodging her clone strikes to her head. "Do it!"
"You should watch where you standing," Annabeth smirked and opened a canister. "Percy, now!"
I felt the familiar tug in my gut and I broke the fire hydrant, spilling forth the icy cool water buried deep within the ground beneath us. It sprayed it all over the clones and would have done over Thalia, Nico and Annabeth had I not protected them.
Before the split clones could react, a burst of cold air surged out of Annabeth's canister and blew over the 3 Split clones. The cold water started to crystalize and slowly freeze them in place, a look of shock and defeat upon their faces the reaction to what was happening.
Annabeth closed the canister and looked directly into Split's eyes. "You haven't faced these teenagers before!"
"Wise Girl, what was that?" I asked her.
"4 winds from the corners of the world." she shook the canister to demonstrate. "A blast of that with cold water, you'll be frozen solid for a while."
"ARRRRRRGGGGGH!" The 3 split clones said in unison. "What have you done to us?! TO ME?!"
The head was the only unfrozen part of their bodies which made me sympathise with him. Just a little. His green eyes were wide in agony from the cold.
"What do you know about Kian?!" Thalia demanded. "And tell us the truth!"
"I told you the truth!" the clone said in unison again. "He's a monster, he's a killer!"
"Why is he called the Reaper?!" I asked.
The clone started to laugh. "He slaughtered over 200 of Empena's grand army when he tried to kill Empena. He managed to even tear out her heart with her bare hands, something only a monster could do."
"And you expect me to believe that?"
The clones clenched their teeth angrily. "I saw it happen Terran, with my own eyes! He's clever, never showing you that side of him so you would believe him!"
"Where is Empena right now?" Annabeth asked one of the clones.
"Getting the Warp Gate of course!" Split replied gleefully. "Finally, she can conquer this universe without any celestials to stand in her way!"
"By killing innocent people?" I said. "The planet of 10 billion?!"
"They are just collateral damage. Their sacrifice is meaningless in the grand scheme of the universe."
"Well Kian was right about one thing," Annabeth spoke. "Empena and all of you are just…plan evil!"
"Evil?!" Split looked offended. "He's the last child of an Evian and a Vorakian, destruction and murder in his blood!"
"What and who?"
The split clones gazed at us for a few seconds. "You are lucky you've never encountered them! I envy you all!"
"Guys!"
I heard Nico scream and the thudding of footsteps behind me. I turned to see Nivan charging at us and slamming his fists into the ground which sent me and Annabeth floating upwards before we crashed back down hard.
I groaned and got up, feeling a sharp spike of pain along my sides, my weapons still on the floor in front of me. I turned to see Nico was laying on the floor, groaning and weakly splayed over the cold hard floor.
"Are you serious?!" Nivan looked at the clones. "Dark Moon 4 and you were incapacitated by a bunch of children?!"
"Get me out of here!" The clones screamed.
"Hold still!"
Nivan put his arm out and it started to glow bright red, thawing the frozen clone out from his frozen prison. I got up quickly and looked around to see Thalia and Annabeth getting up slowly but surely.
"Why do you hate Kian so much?!" I asked the pair. "You both said something to him!"
"Where do I begin?!" Nivan turned to me. "Before he interfered, my family and I lived an amazing life, we had plenty of money, plenty of power and we could do whatever we wanted. When he came along, all of that vanished in smoke."
"What?" I stood there just confused. "I don't understand!"
"I don't expect you to. Terran." He said in his deep voice. "All I expect from you is to die!"
BRAHMASTRA….KUNDALA!
A fiery projectile zipped from thin air and hit the floor beneath us creating an explosion of bright flames that I had to shield my eyes from. More of these explosions occurred in the span of a few seconds that I thought some had let fireworks out.
A figure in all gold landed in front of me and faced the two dark moons. While they were distracted with whatever this was, I went to gather Annabeth, Nico and Thalia.
"What's happening?!" Annabeth winced.
"You!" Nivan shouted. "What are you doing here?!"
"Doing my job!" the figure clad in all gold spoke. His voice was sharp and British. "Nigel, deal with the clones!"
"On it!"
A second figure clad in a cloak and dark armour descended to the ground and moved in flashes of black streaks, slashing across the now free split clones and turning them into puddles. The puddles coordinated into one and Split formed up from it.
"Damn it!" he complained. "They're here!"
"Our objective is to take the demigods!" Nivan spat out. "I have an idea let's-"
"Screw that!"
"What?!"
"We aren't here for the demigods, that's our secondary objective. We need to assist the mistress in capturing the Warp Gate!"
Nivan thought it over and he sighed. "For the first time, you've made a good point. Fine!" His dark black started glowing and he thrust them on the ground, sending a wave of superheated rock towards us.
A large bow materialized in the hands of the figure clad in gold and with a flick of his finger, 4 arrows made from light hit the wave of superheated rock and exploded, turning the ground beneath us into charred cinders with a cloud of explosions.
After the smoke cleared, Nivan and Split were nowhere to be found and the figure clad in gold cursed.
"Dammit, could have captured them!" He turned to face us and tapped something in his ear. "Yeah, they're fine Harry, me and Nigel secured them."
"I'm sorry..who are you?" I asked this stranger.
"I'm-" something must have heard something in his ear because he started talking to it instead of me. "What?! He's doing….what?! He's an idiot! Why didn't Mia stay with him?!"
"You know Mia?!" Annabeth was the next to ask him. "What's going on?!"
"I can explain."
I heard Mia's voice and turned to see her descending onto the floor with two people next to her. "Are you guys okay?"
"Yeah, we're fine," Nico replied, walking slowly towards us. "Who are these people?"
"Did they seriously handle 2 Upper Moons on their own?!" the man called Nigel appeared from behind us. "That's impressive!"
"They managed to freeze Split of all people, that kid over there held Nivan in place with his shadows. Not bad." The figure in all gold told him. This figure was around my age with sepia skin, jet black hair that fell on either side of his face and dressed in sleek but cool-looking golden armour.
All around me were guys my age but I felt like they were older with the way they behaved. The man in the white and blue armour's helmet slid open and he began to speak. "We need to get to Kian. Like right now!"
"Why?" Annabeth asked
"He's about to do something incredibly stupid."
"Like what?"
"He's going to fight Empena on his own."
"That's fine right, he can win right?" I said confidently in my answer. "He nearly got her earlier!"
The glum looks on their faces made me think otherwise. My stomach sunk. "He can win…right guys?"
"It's not him not winning that I'm worried about. It's the fallout from this fight." Harry explained. "The last time he fought…"
"Where is he, Harry?" the guy in gold armour asked.
"Saint James Cathedral. That's where the Warp Gate's located, V."
"I'm sorry…" Thalia said. "Who the Hades are you guys?! And how do you know Kian?!"
"We're his friends. We pretty much know him since we were 12." the guy in red and black armour replied. "We're his Archangel Team!"
"Archangel Team?" Thalia blinked.
"Every Archangel gets signed a team," Mia said. "Usually, the senior Archangels assign it randomly but they were okay with Kian requesting us to be in his team."
"Ok cool?"
Harry sighed and looked around. He looked at something on his arm, a holographic display of 2 dots. One blue and one red.
"We need to hurry!" he started. "If they fight then this whole city is at risk!"
"Kian already evacuated the residents near that place," Mia explained. "I have something in case the destruction becomes too big to handle."
"Good. We don't need a repeat of what happened here 2 years ago."
"Where is Kian now?" Annabeth asked. "How far away from here?"
"40 minutes. 20 if we all sprint." Harry said.
"Thanks…"
"My name is Harry, Harry Pendragon." he looked at Annabeth and the rest of my friends. "We already know who you are, Annabeth Chase, Percy Jackson, Nico Di Angelo and Thalia Grace."
"How?!" Annabeth drew her knife. "Who told you?"
"Kian did of course." Harry half-smirked. "So much for not making new friends. You can put the knife away."
"He told you about us?" I asked him.
"He tells us about everything."
"Where are the others?" Mia asked Harry. "Won't-"
"We need some people on the other side to operate the Warp Gate on Asgard," Harry explained. "They're fine too don't worry."
"If Kian's life is in danger then we should probably hurry!" I explained.
Everyone nodded and understood and we began to sprint towards where Harry led us, flying through the air like I would see Iron Man do in the news.
Kian, wherever you are, we're coming to save you!
XxX
Third Person POV
Somewhere in Seattle, near Saint James Cathedral…
Upon the gravesite of a cathedral, a tall figure draped in a black cloak stood in front of a large stone statue, her dark red hair adrift in the wind. She reached and gently touched the surface initially unaware of the figure that had materialized behind her.
She smiled and turned around. "Hello there….Reaper!"
Kian scowled at her as he stood a few meters away from her, the now scorching heat of the sun hitting his armoured blue and red suit. His black bangs drifted across his face in the gentle Seattle wind, doing nothing to hide the fury behind his pulsating scarlet red eyes.
What..an update in a few days, must be crazy right? Well, I've finished uni and so I have a lot of free time. The next chapter is something I had so much fun writing and choreographing but until it's posted...
Until the next time...