With a great clash, the two armies merged into one fighting mess. Soldiers yelled right and left, some in pain, on the ground, slowly dying, while others in confidence, as a battle cry.
I charged right into the mass, a whirlwind of strikes, parries, and stabs. Soldiers fell every second by Riptide, but two more would take their place. Nevertheless, I kept trying to kill as many as I could; they had the numbers.
I then came across one of Void's elite squads. I immediately focused on them. In a few strokes, they too were out of the fight.
But I wasn't a god; killing hundreds of soldiers with no break was taking a toll on me. And I couldn't exactly recuperate, since I had charged into the enemy lines with no abandon and now didn't know my left from right.
Suddenly, a familiar hulking form came into view, fit with a gigantic battle-ax that seemed to be at least two hundred pounds. At first, I was terrified to see Wesley—especially since he looked angry at me—but then I had a brilliant idea.
"Wesley!" I exclaimed friendlily, as though right at that moment I wasn't slaughtering his comrades right in front of him. "How are you doing, man?"
It had the reaction I hoped to provoke. "I can't believe you were on Chaos' side all along!" he roared, livid. "Now die!"
I gulped as he raised his weapon and charged at me, while I kept pretending to ignore him. But at the last second, I dove to the ground, the battle-ax missing me by mere millimeters . . .
And hit half a dozen Void soldiers.
The warriors went flying in all directions like rag dolls, hitting dozens of more soldiers and either giving them minor injuries or just making them stumble to the ground. This gave the Chaos soldiers in the vicinity an advantage, and you better believe they took it.
"I'm sorry about this," I genuinely apologized as I stabbed a caught-off-guard Wesley who gaped at the chaos he caused in shock.
Then I went back to demolishing soldiers.
After a little bit, I realized there was also an enemy who was slaughtering dozens of soldiers on my side. I charged from behind my, Riptide aimed at their heart . . .
Only to be deflected as the soldier turned around with inhumane speed and parried it.
"I finally found you, Jackson," Eon said triumphantly as Void soldiers—who had been hanging deeper in enemy lines—surrounded us in a big circle so nobody could get in—or out.
"Any chance we could just call it a day and fight tomorrow?" I tried. "I'm pretty tired—Whoa!"
I jumped back as Eon stabbed at me, anger flashing in her eyes. "We're settling this right here."
We circled each other, looking for an opening to exploit on the other, but not finding any.
Then Eon snapped. Within a moment, she was in front of me, swinging to decapitate me.
I quickly blocked, and we became blurs, one moment striking at each other then defending the others' stab. We were quite evenly matched—but I knew the moment she got impatient and decided to use her powers I was dead.
That's exactly what happened.
At one point, Eon did a powerful swing which would've cleaved my skull open. There was no time to dodge the strike, so I opted to block. But I didn't realize Eon's blade was lit up with blue fire until it was too late.
The force of the hit was as though I had gotten hit by a semi. I flew backward through the air for what felt like infinity until I hit the hard steel of a soldiers' shield, knocking the wind out of me. I slowly got up, wincing at the pain in my ribs—they were definitely bruised or even broken. Eon hadn't moved, her lips in a very irritating smirk. I lifted Riptide again, ready to fight.
Only to realize Riptide wasn't in my hands. So I probably looked like a dork more than a menacing warrior. I looked around frantically, finally spotting my sword a few yards behind Eon, glittering tantalizingly in the light.
End strode towards me slowly, like a predator cornering prey. I looked behind me, wondering if I could push through the armored soldiers—
"Percy!"
Eon and I both turned around as Rosaline pushed herself into the circle and threw Riptide straight at her. By natural human instinct, Eon dove out of the way. But as it came towards me, I plucked it out of the air and sent a grateful smile to Rosaline.
Then, we both attacked her at once. Eon was forced on the defensive but we still couldn't find a chink in her guard, even though we kept changing our fighting styles.
But a few things happened at once. Eon roared, and somehow she manipulated the soundwave so that it was powerful enough to knock me back into another shield, this time certainly breaking my ribs.
Rosaline faltered in her attack, and couldn't help but look to see if I was okay.
That gave Eon enough time to plunge her sword into Rosaline's heart.
Rosaline just looked at her fatal wound and dropped to the ground, her blood pooling around her as a sob escaped me.
I roared in anger as I got up and recklessly charged at Eon.
Rosaline was much more than an acquaintance. She was a true friend and supported me in my low lows and celebrated my high highs. I would give my life to save her. And now she was dead because of me!
Eon was struggling to block my attacks that were fueled by my grief, sadness, anger, and adrenaline.
"Why don't you just give up now?" Eon asked, still with that aggravating smirk. But her eyes had a tinge of panic in them. "I've already killed your friend."
I let out another shout as I doubled the strength of my hits, ignoring the pain that went through my full body every time she blocked.
"Just shut up!" I screamed, losing my cool for the first time. My vision turned red as I yelled, "Just die!"
There was no response. And when my vision went back to normal, Eon was on the ground, bleeding silver ichor from several, severe wounds in her chest.
Soldiers rushed towards me, wanting to finish what their General died for. But they were blasted into the sky, revealing Omega a medium distance away.
All my adrenaline and energy disappeared, leaving me with my achy body as I hobbled towards Rosaline's unmoving body. But as I knelt, Rosaline was still breathing.
"Jackson," Rosaline said in a whisper. "Is that you?"
"It's me, Rosaline," I said, trying not to cry as I hovered over her desperately. "You're not going to die on me. I'll take the sword out and heal you with my powers . . ."
"I'll be fine," Rosaline said, huffing a small and breathy laugh. "You don't need to heal me."
"You have a sword sticking out of you! How are you fine?!"
"Just look at what I'm bleeding."
I looked at her blood, pausing in my attempt to pull the sword out of her painlessly.
It was silver.
"You're primordial?!" I exclaimed, getting up, my grief dissipating. "I don't need to take care of you then."
"You serious?" Rosaline asked. "I'm still in pain here."
"I was just kidding," I said, crouching down to her level. "What do you want me to do?"
"Kill me," Rosaline simply said.
"I'm not going to do it," I said firmly after a moment of surprise.
Rosaline sighed. "Fine. Pull out Eon's sword."
"Why? You want to get healed?"
"No, you idiot," Rosaline said. "So I can kill myself. I don't have enough strength to do it myself."
"I do not endorse suicide," I told her.
"I'm in agony here! Where's your grief along with your pity?"
"Down the drain when you told me you were an immortal," I said, smirking.
"If you do, you can tell everybody you killed me, and it'll be true," Rosaline tried.
I pretended to think about it for a moment. "Tempting . . . but I think I'll pass."
Rosaline's retort was interrupted by an object crashing down a short distance away from us like a meteor, throwing up brown dust and debris that prevented me from identifying it.
I got up and told Rosaline, "It's not worth it. I'll come back in a second, and you better have changed your attitude."
I strode—more like limped—towards the unidentified object as the dust settled, allowing me to see a humanoid shape. Void.
Her skin was paler than normal, and her beautiful body was peppered in bluish-purple bruises. But that wasn't the worst part.
Her eyes were open, in a glassy-eyed stare towards the sky. Her body wasn't moving, and she wasn't breathing.
My hand trembled as I felt her pulse. Nothing.
Tears streamed down my face as her body slowly dissipated into silver dust.
Artemis is a significant part of me, Void had said.
No.
It couldn't mean . . .
Was Artemis killed as well?
I fell to my knees, sobbing openly. What did I do?
The war was won, but not without regrets.