Rift Duology #2: Rift of Shadow

Chapter 11: Lost

-Jayden's POV-

"I knew it! Of course you're working for Keros!" Nyctos exclaimed.

"Not the time for this, Nyctos." I said and summoned my dagger. As I did this, Riley smiled.

"You guys really can't piece it together? I'm a daughter of Keros. I have an Oni form that could easily overwhelm you." Riley said.

Before anyone could respond, I focused my hands and created one of those singularities.
The pure essence of Determination and Destruction, a perfect mix of both.
After I shot my hands out, the orb quickly expanded around Riley, and was much more explosive than Jayus'.

"Okay, now we run! Or, float away!" I yelled and we all floated towards the comet.

I looked behind us and saw Riley, in her Oni form.
Black horns with red tips, fangs, purple eyes, patches of scales, and her hands and feet had claws.

"Gods- hurry! She'll catch up any second!" Owen urged us and we reached one of the comets that was closer to the Palace of Moonlight, the vault that holds the fragment.

Out gravity increased around the comet, which was an advantage. While Riley zoomed past us because of her lack of gravity, we stayed firmly planted on the rock.
"Eugh! This damned zero-gravity!" Riley yelled and she lunged in our direction, and grabbed several large boulders, and threw them at us.

I quickly ran away from them, while Owen and Nyctos tried dodging them.
In the end, no one got hurt, but Riley kept throwing stuff at us.

"What do we do?!" Owen screamed and ran with Nyctos towards me.

"I have no idea." Nyctos replied.
"Maybe we can trick her into thinking we got crushed?"

"How? We don't have anything to do that." I said, and just then, a bright, red glow came from the distant palace.

Riley laughed and stopped throwing the boulders.
"Looks like you already lost, demigods."

"Hey Jayden? Now's a good time to use that ability you've been practicing." Nyctos said.

"Chromatica? I barely just began training on that- I'm still learning the basics!" I replied.

"If it's as powerful as you say, it's our only chance at defeating Keros right now." Nyctos said and a figure rose from the light and flew at our direction.

"Fine, fine." I agreed and closed my eyes.

Chromatica: An ability that uses, creates and combines several powers at once.

I focused energy into my hands and opened ny eyes.
I was holding purple orbs of light, and they flickered several different colors.
I shot them at Keros, and they exploded into the skulls.
Then, thin purple strands of energy shot at Keros from my hand. Each had a needle at the end, and I tugged quickly, flinging Keros towards me.

"Now's your chance, Nyctos!" I yelled as he slashed Keros with his sword.

The dust cloud quickly dissipitated, and Keros rose. None of that was enough with the final fragment..

The Fragment of Power. The Fragment that grants the user the entire power set of Cassiopeia.

He flicked his wrist and the comet we stood on split apart, and he moved again, sending me crashing into a distant dwarf planet.

-Xavier's POV-

"It's really like that? Even after I freed you?" I said.

"You're seriously saying that? If anything, I was the one betrayed. You told me we were going to help Keros." she replied.

"It- it doesn't matter!" I swung the axe and a large arc of red energy sizzled through the air and shot at Andrea, and she quickly moved out of the way.

"Don't rely on sole magic, ghosty. It won't go too well for you."

I didn't listen and swung the axe again, and the same attack shot at her again.
This time, it sliced her arm open.

"Gah! You'll pay for that, Xavier!"
Andrea's hair darkened, and long, spiral horns grew from her head.
She also had scaly skin, claws and a trident made of a black metal.

"Gods- you're an awfully ugly creature, aren't you?" I teased, which I soon regretted.
She ran towards me and swung her trident, which was imbedded with sharp Stygian Iron flakes.
The slash mark stung and left a pulsing sensation of pain throughout my entire body, and I flew backwards.

"This 'ugly creature' will kill you!" Andrea screamed and pointed her trident at me, and the individual Stygian Iron flakes seperated from the trident tips and launched at me, making a huge cloud of shiny, black dust.
"Good luck dodging that!"

I tried to think, but it was too much. The gash already burned enough, but now hundreds of tiny cuts appeared on my arms and face.
'Think, think think!'

I tried to bear the pain and held the axe in front of me.
A thought appeared in my head- as Andrea said, if the axe was once used by Cassiopeia, it holds some of his power..
so I used the power of Storm- more specifically, the power of Wind, and shot the flakes back at Andrea.
This gave me time to quickly run away, and I returned to the maze of hallways.