Rift Duology #2: Rift of Shadow

Chapter 15: Aero's Ruins

—Jayden's POV—

When I woke up, I only saw ruins of buildings. The 'sky' was dark, and the clouds above us were black.

"Nyctos? Owen?"

It took me a while to realize we were in the Aero Kingdom, now in ruins.
The clouds were dark and stormy, the sky was black, the buildings and temples were now rubble.
Gusts of wind only brought piles of ash and hot air, as if the heat from the fires never went away.

"Jayden! Over here!" Owen called.
I looked towards the noise and saw him.
Owen and a smaller group of people were sitting around a fire, in the ruins of the Temple of Aero.
I ran towards them and stopped at the doorframe.
When I tried walking through, there was a wall that didn't let me pass through.

"Hey Azure, open the Gates!" Owen yelled.
The haze of the doorway disappeared and I stepped through.

"Azure? As in, our god friend Azure?"

"No, just a random child I met earlier.
...
Yes, that Azure." Owen responded.

I turned to Azure. He had burn scars on his arms and his face.
"Gods, what- what happened to you?! Last week saw you, you were fighting Keros."

"No need to remind me." Azure looked down.
"I couldn't just hold him back. He already had the power of the fragments, and—"

"Hey, it's okay. No need to apologize, no one could survive him if he was at his full power." I cut him off.

"But now he is- he resurrected Cassiopeia, didn't he?" Azure asked and I slowly nodded.
He shook his head and stared at the doorway.
"I know you demigods are powerful people.
But even the Etherials had trouble defeating Cassiopeia.
We had to temporarily resurrect Polaris to even stand a chance, but even then, that was after the mass destruction and genocides."

"But unlike then, we have more Artifacts and Godly Materials, and much more general knowledge on things.
Like, we know Cassiopeia is the opposite of Polaris. They're twins, so if we get something opposite of Cassiopeia and equivalent in power, we might stand a chance!" Owen exclaimed.

"There's no such thing. As powerful, maybe. But the opposite? Chaos Magic is one of the most powerful, if not the most.
It can't have something equal in power and the opposite, unless it's Polaris herself." Azure responsed.
"Besides, we would take too long. Owen told me about the Fragments and their recharge. Essentially, that's double Cassiopeia's powers, leaving us with less than half of the power we originally had."

"What about Polaris? We can find her Tomb, and bring her back." I proposed.
"Can't be too hard, right?"

Azure shook his head again.
"The Tomb is in the Hellion Realm. In the Kristel Coves, the place you went for your first adventure.
It's under the mountain range, and is in the middle of the Coves and Mountains."

"If we get the Crystal Crown, could we stand a chance?" Owen asked.

"I'm not sure.. I haven't had the chance to study the Crown, like you both.
We don't know the full extent of its powers, even if Kristel did use it."

"Then that's out of the picture.." I said.
Then I realized something.
"Wait, the Cassiopian Fragments combined have the power of Resurrection, right?"

"Yes, but it's only for Cassiopeia, as far as I know." Azure responded.

"But what if we somehow change it? Infuse it with Polaris' magic and replace the Destruction Magic with Creation Magic.
Theoretically, we could resurrect Polaris with the fragments." I said.

"I mean, it could work. But we would need 2 things- the Fragments themselves, which according to Owen, Cassiopeia has." Azure listed.

"Yeah- wait, Owen, where's Nyctos?!" I asked. I totally forgot about him, he might've been hurt.

"He's fine, just hurt. He's at the tent over there," Owen pointed to a tent in the corner of the ruins.
"He's resting right now."

"Okay- well, back to the plan.
We would also need a powerful source of Creation Magic- something that could change the very essence of the Fragments." I said.

"I'm not sure if there's any possible way to rewrite the fragments. I mean, there's plenty of Creation Artifacts, but not nearly enough.
The only other things is a feather that could edit any object. But it's extremely rare-" Azure proposed.

"Where is it? Maybe we can retrieve it." Owen asked.

"I don't know if it was chained or killed, but I'm sure it was on one of the islands in the Mythonian Cluster." Azure stated.
"It might've left there, so finding it would take too long."

"What we're doing now is taking too long.
We should be looking for a way to go back to the Mortal Realm! Who knows what Cassiopeia's doing to it right now." Nyctos exlaimed and sat down next to me.

"We know, Nyctos. We just need to rest for a bit." Owen replied.

"Fine. But can we leave tomorrow? I saw Xavier in the streets, and there was an army-"

"Wait, you're right! We have to go." I said as I got up.

"Jayden, we can't just go now. I know you love him, but let's be realistic. He probably already died in the hands of Cassiopeia.." Nyctos said.

He was right. Xavier was strong, but not that strong. He couldn't face the wrath of Cassiopeia.

"I think Nyctos is right. You should leave." Azure said.

"What? Why?" Owen asked.

"That—" Azure pointed to a distant cloud. It was a dark shade of red and slowly grew bigger.
"Darkmist. Leave!"

"What about you all? We can't just leave!" I said.

"The citizens of the Aero Kingdom decided to stay here until their demise, and it's my job to accompany them. I was the former god of the Skies and Weather, after all.
Now go, don't waste a single second!" Azure exclaimed and pressed the button on the floor we found so long ago.

When we arrived in the Mortal Realm, we crashed in the Desert of Despair, and came face to face with a giant Sand Serpant.