Rift Duology #2: Rift of Shadow

Chapter 6: Run, Run Away!

-Jayden's POV-

After a few hours of walking and exploring, we finally made it out of the jungles.

"So, why do you want to go to this camp?" Ellis asked.

"Oh, that's where my friends are. It's like a temporary safe-spot for demigods, especially after what happened with Keros." I replied.
"You should stay there, you're a pretty good fighter for a child."

"Hey! Wait, is 13 a child? It's whatever. Thanks for the offer, but I'd rather just be on my own for a bit." Ellis said.
"A concentration of demigods isn't good for being discreet."

"Yeah, true. Well, you're welcome at any time, Ellis." I replied.

After several more hours, we made it to the makeshift camp. No one was there, and there were a few boats.
"Since no one's here, might as well take one!" Ellis and I ran over and climbed onto a boat, and he steered it to a different direction.
Where exactly is this camp?" Ellis asked.

"West. Then, more North." I answered and pointed to a direction. Ellis steered the boat in that direction and left it there and we both went to check the cabin down below.

There were 4 rooms, and each had a cabinet with canned food and bottled water inside. It was pretty clean for an old boat, so we decided to take turns sleeping and steering.

After many more hours, maybe even a day, we sailed around New York, Long Island.
I was pretty sure some sort of surviving sea god helped us, because I know it would've taken much longer without help.
After saying my goodbyes to Ellis, I ran off to the strawberry fields and the hills.
I saw Thalia's Tree- it seemed to have been snapped in half during the fight, and there was a pile of ashes around the tree.

Walking deeper into the camp, I met up with the rest of the remaining demigods.
A lot were around the dim, black hearthfire, and several others were sleeping in what remained of the cabins and beds.

"Jayden, over here!" Owen called out. I followed his voice and found him with Nyctos at the edge of the lake, and Nyctos seemed to be reading a book.

"Hey Owen!" I greeted him.
"What happened? Did you find anything out while I was gone?"

"Yeah, but did you see Albus? Or Jayus?" Owen asked.

"I saw Albus. He's not in a good condition, Owen.. there's something called the 'Darkmist', something that makes the breather fall under the control of Keros and corrupts them." I explained.
"And as you can guess, Albus already breathed that in. And so are hundreds of other demigods, as far as I know. It's really bad, Owen."

"Oh.. well, I bring good news to try and lighten you up! I talked to my sister, Mariah. I think Clarisse was with her, so they're safe!" Owen said.

"Really? That's great! Are they coming here?" I asked.

"Yeah, I told them where we were." Owen replied.

"Perfect. Also, who's that?" I pointed to the man a few feet away. He had dark skin and dark gray hair, like a storm cloud. His hair also looked like one- and parts of the back hair floated around.

"Oh, that's Azure." Owen replied, as if it were no big deal.

"Yeah, say that super casually- How'd the god escape? Didn't Keros kidnap them all?"

"He said demigods helped him escape if I remember what Xavier said correctly. Speaking of which, have you seen him around? He disappeared after he and Riley went to talk to Azure in the woods." Owen asked.

I shook my head.
"Has Riley returned?"

"Yeah, she said she had a nightmare about a weird location. Oh, there she is now! Maybe she can explain it to you better than I can." Owen gestured to Riley walking towards us, and we all sat down next to each other to hear the story.

"So, being a demigod, we get nightmares. Usually visions, but it doesn't matter. Anyways, my dream started in a mountain. The sky was dark, with a tint of red.
After that, the 'camera' moved to the base of the mountain, and down a flight of stairs.
Then, the wall started to glow- a prophecy, I presume, was shown. Nyctos is trying to recreate it now.
But it said something of the 'Titan's Hand', a child of an unknown god, and they'll save the world with a dark something."

"Wow, that's a lot to take in." I replied.

Nyctos stood up and finished the recreation.
I widened my eyes, looking at the words in a different language.
"Riley, that's Mythonian- and I know how to read it. And the words are not good."

-Xavier's POV-

After me and Riley's meet-up with Azure, I kind of ran away.
It was for a good reason- for me.
Maybe not for them.

The truth is, I hadn't been very honest with myself or the rest of the group.
I resented each and every one of them.
They hadn't tried hard enough to turn me back into a human. As if they didn't care. The only one who showed they sometimes cared was Owen, but he was too much of a coward to take action.
Because of this, I had to.
I was going to turn myself back into a human, even if I have to kill to do it.

And because I would do whatever it takes, I had to steal the Realm Hammer.
It took me back to Mythos, somewhere in Angria.
It was a small village, and I asked around about the Candle of Enaid, a candle that handled stuff about ghosts and death-related scandles.
They all said the same thing.
It was in the Temple of Aero, which it wasn't. Even if it was, it was destroyed in Keros' invasion of it.
But only one person knew the location of it, after asking about it the entire day.

He said it was somewhere in The Abyss, along with the Blade of Jjnx, a poweful Chromatica sword.
The old man gave me a chunk of what seemed to be Ominous Obsidian, just incredibly old. It was cracked pretty bad, and had moss covering most of it.
After thanking him, I smashed it with the hammer and was absorbed into the portal, and was thrown into the Ring of Monsters.