Indigo Eyes

Chapter 63

And her eyes burned with purple fire as she began to stand, grunting through gritted teeth. Her heart was beating in her rapidly in her chest as she got back onto her knees, she could barely see anything, she could barely move her limbs that felt like lead.

But she did it. Bit by bit, she made it back to her knees, and then one knee as she pushed through the exhaustion that ate away at her. And despite the fact that it felt like the vertebrae in her spine were being compressed together like an accordion, she didn't stop as she pushed herself up to her feet, letting out a tortured scream.

But the scream was more than that as Cressida rose to her feet as she bore the weight of the sky. It was more than that because she believed in herself, she became tired of being scared of what her powers could do because she believed in herself enough to control them.

And as she got more powerful, so did her powers as her body writhed in purple fire that began racing along the ground and for the creatures that Annabeth was fighting.

And when the daughter of madness does indeed tire,

She shall burn in purple fire.

And she wasn't the only one to burn as the hellhounds began turning on themselves, leaving Annabeth untouched as they attacked each other.

They were so busy worrying about the fact that Cressida was going to burn alive that they didn't even question why the fire was purple. It was her father's fire as the air smelled of grapes and wine as the hellhounds went mad.

And as it looked as if she was burning atop a pyre of purple flames, she kept telling herself, 'Just a little bit longer. You can hold it a little longer. You can do this.'

She kept repeating those sentences as Annabeth and Percy stared at her in shock before Annabeth and Thalia fought Luke and Percy joined Zoë and Artemis against Atlas.

'Get ready,' Artemis spoke in her mind after a time and Cressida realised that she was leading Atlas back towards her.

"You fight well for a girl." Atlas laughed. "But you are no match for me." He feinted with the tip of his javelin and Artemis dodged.

It was a trick.

Atlas's javelin swept around and knocked Artemis's legs off the ground. She fell, and Atlas brought up his javelin tip for the kill.

"No!" Zoë screamed. She leapt between her father and Artemis and shot an arrow straight into the Titan's forehead, where it lodged like a unicorn's horn. Atlas bellowed in rage. He swept aside his daughter with the back of his hand, sending her flying into the black rocks.

She vaguely heard Percy bellowing Zoë's name, but Cressida's strength was waning and it was becoming difficult to fight through the pain. Then Atlas turned on Artemis with a look of triumph on his face. Artemis seemed to be wounded. She didn't get up. 

"The first blood in a new war," Atlas gloated. And he stabbed downward. As fast as thought, Artemis grabbed his javelin shaft. It hit the earth right next to her and she pulled backwards, using the javelin like a lever, kicking the Titan Lord and sending him flying over her.

"Cress!" Percy screamed but she already knew what was coming, what Artemis had planned as she began to loosen her grip on the sky and stand up on the toes of her feet, getting ready to jump.

Atlas slammed into her the way she had done to Artemis and she didn't hold on as she let herself be pushed out of the way and used whatever strength she had left to roll to safety as her flames extinguished themselves.

The weight of the sky dropped onto Atlas's back, almost smashing him flat until he managed to get to his knees, struggling to get out from under the crushing weight. But it was too late.