↳ chapter twenty-six ₊˚.༄
[# iana's shadow man]
IANA WAS SURROUNDED BY WOLVES. NOT EXACTLY THE MOST DESIREABLE opponent in a fight, especially when her weapon wasn't made out of silver but, she'll manage. Fighting came naturally to her, either because she was a troubled kid or it was just the demigod instincts. Jason and her had been fighting side by side until he decided to deal with the storm spirits, which was a reasonable excuse.
That only left her with a half useful dagger, semi-effective spells, and her lovely shadow that decided to finally pay a visit.
"Think you're gonna make yourself useful now?" Iana asked as she pressed the hilt of her dagger against the wolf, throwing it to the ground. Of course, the shadow said nothing. The short haired girl punched another wolf and stared at her dagger, frustrated with a weapon that couldn't finish the job. Unless...
If she had been named the most powerful Illusionist even before her birth, perhaps she could make those illusions come true. Muttering a small prayer to her mother, she waved her hand over her dagger, casting an illusion spell to make it look like the dagger was made out of silver.
Mother, if you're listening, please help me.
Iana tightened her grip on the handle. Another wolf launched at her but this time, she slashed, cutting through the animal's eye. She didn't wait and see if she'd been successful before taking the wolf in her arms and twisting its neck. It took her a moment to realize what she'd had done, staring at her hands in disbelief.
A low growl from behind her brought her back to her senses, and without thinking twice, Iana hurled her dagger toward the wolf's neck, watching as the weapon lodged itself onto its throat, the wolf falling limp against the ground.
Iana's eyes widened before she rushed to retrieve her dagger, a hint of excitement in her eyes. The sliver of hope continued to stick throughout the fight as she took down wolf after wolf. Amongst the chaos, she caught glimpses of her friends.
Piper was surrounded by Earthborn, but she seemed to be holding her own. She was impressive as she fought, almost glowing with beauty, that the Earthborn stared at her in awe, forgetting that they were supposed to kill her. They'd lower their clubs and watch dumbfounded as she smiled and charged them. They'd smile back- until she sliced them apart with her dagger, and they melted into mounds of mud.
Leo had taken on Khione herself. While fighting a goddess should've been suicide, Leo was the right guy for the job. She kept summoning ice daggers to throw at him, blasts of winter air, tornadoes of snow. Leo burned through all of it. His whole body flickered with red tongues of flame like he'd been doused with gasoline. He advanced on the goddess, using two silver-tipped ball-peen hammers to smash any monsters that got in his way.
Iana realized that Leo was the only reason they were still alive. His fiery aura was heating up the whole courtyard, countering Khione's winter magic. Without him, they would've been frozen like the Hunters long ago. Wherever Leo went, ice melted off the stones. Even Thalia started to defrost a little when Leo stepped near her.
Khione slowly backed away. Her expression went from enraged to shocked to slightly panicked as Leo got closer.
Her enemies started dwindling down. Wolves lay in dazed heaps. Some slunk away into the ruins, yelping from their wounds, some in a pool of their own blood. Piper stabbed the last Earthborn, who toppled to the ground in a pile of sludge. Jason rode a horse (but Iana wasn't sure if horses were supposed to be made out of air) through the last storm spirit, breaking it into vapor. Leo was bearing down on the goddess of snow.
"You're too late," Khione snarled. "He's awake! And don't think you've won anything here, demigods. Hera's plan will never work. You'll be at each other's throats before you can ever stop us."
Leo set his hammers ablaze and threw them at the goddess, but she turned into snow- a white powdery image of herself. Leo's hammers slammed into the snow woman, breaking it into a steaming mound of mush.
Piper was breathing hard, but she smiled up at Jason. "Nice horse."
The horse reared on his hind legs, arcing electricity across his hooves.
Iana was wiping away a wolves' blood on her pants when she heard a crack from behind. The melting ice on Hera's cage sloughed off in a curtain of slush, and the goddess called, "Oh, don't mind me! Just the queen of the heavens, dying over here!"
The four demigods jumped into the pool and ran to the spire.
Leo frowned. "Uh, Tía Callida, are you getting shorter?"
"No, you dolt! The earth is claiming me. Hurry!"
As much as Iana held a distaste for Hera, what she saw inside the cage alarmed her. Not only was Hera sinking, the ground was rising around her like water in a tank. Liquid rock had already covered her shins. "The giant wakes!" Hera warned. "You only have seconds!"
"On it," Leo said. "Piper, I need your help. Talk to the cage."
"What?" she said.
"Talk to it. Use everything you've got. Convince Gaea to sleep. Lull her into a daze. Just slow her down, try to get the tendrils to loosen while I-"
"Right!" Piper cleared her throat and said, "Hey, Gaea. Nice night, huh? Boy, I'm tired. How about you? Ready for some sleep?"'
"EJ," Leo turned toward her. "Use your magic, any spell, any curse, anything! As long as it helps buy us time."
Iana nodded. Her instinct would have been to overthink every spell. She was a new witch, she was weak, she didn't know anything. But the fight before only thought her to follow her gut, so she did. Hovering her hands over the bars, she closed her eyes and focused on her magic, focused on what she wanted it to do.
After a moment, she opened her eyes and the corners of her lips tugged in satisfaction. With both her magic and Piper's charmspeak, the mud was rising more slowly. The tendrils seemed to soften just a little- becoming more like tree root than rock. Leo pulled a circular saw out of his tool belt. Then Leo looked at the cord and grunted in frustration. "I don't have anywhere to plug it in!"
The spirit horse jumped into the pit and whinnied.
"Really?" Jason asked, shooting it an 'are you serious' look.
The horse dipped his head and trotted over to Leo. Leo looked dubious, but he held up the plug, and a breeze whisked it into the horse's flank. Lighting sparked, connecting with the prongs of the plug, and the circular saw whirred to life.
"Sweet!" Leo grinned. "Your horse comes with AC outlets!"
Their luck didn't last long. On the other side of the pool, the giant's spire crumbled with a sound like a tree snapping in half. Its outer sheath of tendrils exploded from the top down, raining stone and wood shards as the giant shook himself free and climbed out of the earth.
Iana caught her breath, briefly pausing her spell
Porphyrion was even taller than Encaladus, and even more ripped. He didn't radiate heat, or show any signs of breathing fire, but there was something more terrible about him- a kind of strength, even magnetism, as if the giant were so huge and dense he had his own gravitational field.
Like Enceladus, the giant king was humanoid from the waist up, clad in bronze armor, and from the waist down he had scaly dragon's legs; but his skin was the color of lima beans. His hair was green as summer leaves, braided in long locks and decorated with weapons- daggers, axes, and full-size swords, some of them bent and bloody- maybe trophies taken from demigods eons before. When the giant opened his eyes, they were blank white, like polished marble. He took a deep breath.
"Alive!" he bellowed. "Praise to Gaea!"
Iana could've sworn she heard Jason whimper, but she couldn't blame him. No demigod could defeat the Giant on their own. Porphyrion could lift mountains. He could crush them with one finger.
"Leo," Jason said.
"Huh?" Leo's mouth was wide open. Even Piper seemed dazed.
"You guys keep working," Jason briefed. "Get Hera free!"
Iana furrowed her brows. "You don't seriously think you could-"
"Entertain a giant?" he offered. "I've got no choice."
The short haired girl could only nod before returning to the cage, putting more energy in her spell that started to take the form of a dark red mist. Any other person would have been surprised by a shadow rising from the ground, but taking in the fact that neither of her friends could see it, Iana assumed it was her shadow friend paying her another visit.
Iana stared at it intently, watching its still figure hovering over her. If you're trying to taunt me, then it's working. Help me free her.
The shadow broke into a dark mist, slowly wrapping around the cage bars. If her friends had noticed the change of color, neither of them acknowledged it.
Iana hadn't been paying attention to whatever Jason, the giant, or Hera had been saying, but when the earth shook she dared to break her focus. Porphyrion had rose to his full height and was holding a 6 meter spear in his hand. All around the courtyard, monsters started to regather- storm spirits, wolves, and Earthborn, all answering the giant king's call.
"Great," Leo muttered. "We needed more enemies."
"Hurry," Hera urged.
"Don't you think we're trying!" Iana snapped.
"Go to sleep, cage," Piper pressed. "Nice, sleepy cage. Yes, I'm talking to a bunch of earthen tendrils. This isn't weird at all."
The trio of friends continued to work on the cage as Jason tried his best to buy them time. She caught pieces of their exchange as she worked, how he apparently slew a sea monster and fought a titan with his bear hands, which she found herself surprisingly believing.
"And now I'm going to destroy you, Porphyrion, and feed you to your own wolves." Jason finished.
"Wow, dude," Leo muttered from beside her. "You been eating red meat?"
Then the fighting finally started. Lightning streaked out of the sky and Iana assumed Jason had delivered a fatal blow.
"No!" Porphyrion yelled. "I will kill him myself." Iana took a quick glimpse over her shoulders and caught the giant raising his spear. "You want to play with lightning, boy? You forget. I am the bane of Zeus. I was created to destroy your father, which means I know exactly what will kill you."
Something in Porphyrion's voice told Iana he wasn't bluffing. The silver lining started to grow thinner, but she wasn't going to give up. Not now. Not when they've got this far.
"Got it!" Leo yelled.
"Sleep!" Piper said, so forcefully, the nearest wolves fell to the ground and began snoring.
Iana gave one final push of magic and the stone and wood cage crumbled. Leo had sawed through the base of the thickest tendril and apparently cut off the cage's connection to Gaea. The tendrils turned to dust. The mud around Hera disintegrated. The goddess grew in size, glowing with power.
"Yes!" the goddess said. She threw off her black robes to reveal a white gown, her arms bedecked with golden jewelry. Her face was both terrible and beautiful, and a golden crown glowed in her long black hair. "Now I shall have my revenge!"
The giant Porphyrion backed away. He said nothing, but he gave Jason one last look of hatred. Then he slammed his spear against the earth, and the giant disappeared into the ground like he'd dropped down a chute. Around the courtyard, monsters began to panic and retreat, but there was no escape for them.
Hera glowed brighter. She shouted, "Cover your eyes, my heroes!"
Just as Iana was about to close her eyes, she noticed Jason standing in shock, too slow to understand Hera's command. She could sense the shadow had reappeared beside her and whipped her head around, a pleasing look in her eyes.
One last favor, please.
The shadow obeyed and turned into mist again, circling Jason's head to cover his view before he could watch his own death. But Iana did. She was too slow. She watched as Hera turned into a supernova, exploding in a ring of force that vaporized every monster instantly.
The Illusionist collapsed onto the ground. The last thing her senses could pick up was that she was burning and a single vine wrapping around her body.
author's note!
whoops 😅
anyways, have a great day y'all!!