The time of reckoning had arrived. Now the rift had grown big enough for the giant of darkness to pass through. It was a horrible creature, its face was warped and ugly, having teeth so jagged and pointy that even a man beaten ten times over looked better. But still, it was powerful. With one swing of its arms, it completely knocked away the first line of soldiers that tried to intercept it. The Gifted, ballistae and catapults still supported from behind, the giant arrows equipped with chains in an effort to slow the giant. But even so, at this rate it wouldn’t be long before the creature killed them all. But what made matters worse, was the other hand reaching through the rift, an arm half the size of the first giant. Now if that thing came through as well, then the kingdom would most certainly be placed in a siege.

            But luckily, Evan had planned for the first giant. As for the second, he trusted his brother to close the rift before that thing could get out. But as for the moment, the smaller giant became engulfed by the storm cloud. Rain poured and lightning struck while the monster haphazardly swung his arms around in vain trying to attack the cloud that turned to mist in is hands.

            “What the hell!” commander Marcus exclaimed as he saw Evan floating above on his little cloud. “What are you doing here?” Marcus asked.

            “Isn’t it obvious? I’m saving all of you.” Evan replied.

            The commander let out a small chuckle which transformed into a coy grin, “Now is that so? Well, keep doing what you’re doing and we’ll see how we can help.”

            “Yeah, about that. I don’t suppose you could get anyone from the Electora family to come here?” Evan asked.

            “I’m afraid not. They’ve all evacuated to their fortress in the Thunder Mountains.” Replied Commander Marcus. “But why?” the commander asked as he ordered the troops to fall back away from the storm cloud and recuperate.

            “Well, you see. I can’t exactly control rain or lightning. The only part of the storm I can manipulate is the cloud itself. If someone who could control lightning was here, they’d be able to make use of the storm better that I can. That being said, the Aquaron family could also use this to their advantage.” Evan explained as he flew upwards to look at the giant within. The monster was walking towards to walls of clouds that surrounded him but Evan cleverly moved the storm in turn with him so that he never reached the wall. But even so, at this rate he would still reach the kingdom since the giant seemed to know the direction which to walk without even seeing.

            “Well, water won’t do much damage. But I probably can.” Evan said to himself as he pulled a piece of the storm and bundled it into a giant arrow. He compressed it to a degree where it could actually pierce through something, not to mention it occasionally sparked lightning. If Evan could time it well enough, he could hurt the monster.

            Lightning sparked in the arrow cloud and instinctively, Evan launched the arrow straight into the beast’s neck. It growled in pain and reached to pull the electrifying cloud out of itself. And so it did. Evan watched as the shadows immediately converged and began to heal the ‘wound’ of the giant. Truth be said, there was no blood or flesh, just like the Hell wolf, the monster was nothing but shadowy darkness. The problem, unlike the Hell wolf, this giant was much too large to be crushed. But still, there had to be limited amount of shadow mass that the creature consisted which meant that it could only heal itself so much. In fact, though it was barely noticeable, Evan saw the giant had reduced its size ever so little. But regardless, it was visible which meant he monster could be defeated and would be defeated if they continued attacking it. The problem was that they would not be able to defeat it before it reached the Kingdom’s wall.

            They had to attack the creature and more, had to cause enough damage so that it would reduce its size small enough for them to simply crush it. But how? Evan watched observed. He noticed that most of lightning attack the creature but at different spots. Small wounds, easily healed, not enough for it to reduce its size quickly enough. They needed a concentrated attack, a wound big enough to drain the monster’s size. So Evan came up with an idea.

            If he could redirect most of the lightning to a specific part of the giant, and then deliver and final blow along with the others, then perhaps they could win this battle. But first, he needed equipment. Evan surveyed the troops below, the arrow heads were made of iron and so were the chains, both of which were conductive. The soldiers also used iron spears, perfect for lightning rods. All Evan had to do now, was create a circuit for the current to flow. His mother had thought him about this when she spoke about the Electora’s family powers. He remember the stories of the mountain fortress that was run completely on electricity. Plans for the capital to undergo such changes were being made but it was still a working progress. But right now, Evan thanked that he had this knowledge.

            Without even explaining, Evan grabbed several spears and chains using a cloud formed hand and hoisted a ballista into the sky along with Commander Marcus and two other soldiers. “Hey! What the hell are you doing kid?” exclaimed his uncle.

            “I don’t have time to explain. Just aim the ballista at that things back, make sure it’s somewhere he can’t reach.” And with those words, Evan flew around the creature and struck iron spears into its shadowy skin, then wrapped a different chain around each. “Shoot it now!” he shouted to the commander who ordered the two men to aim and shoot straight for the back of the creature. The monster groaned in pain, while lightning still continued to strike it. Evan then connected each of the chains to the giant metal arrowhead, but as he was wrapping the final one, there was a quick flash and before anyone could blink, Evan found himself staring at a bolt lightning. In less than a second, he would have thousands of joules of energy passing through his body. He could even die. However, from the peripheral right of his eye, Evan noticed another flash of red which moved ever more quickly than the bolt of lightning coming towards him. And in the blink of eye, the two bolts had collided saving Evan from a near death experience. Evan quickly wrapped the last chain and flew out of the storm.

            “What was that?” Evan asked the commander, who was as lost as he was.

            “That I believe, was my awesome Gift saving your butt!” an eccentric voice came from behind and Evan turned around to see a boy with red hair floating in the air, assisted by someone from the Aerite family. The boy then hopped onto to Evan’s cloud and reached out his hand with a grin “Name’s Blyke Electora, you can thank me later. But right now, let’s kick this giant’s ass!”

            “Blyke Electora, but your family is-”

            Blyke cut off the commander “I don’t consider those cowards my family. Big deal, I stayed behind. Saw the commotion and thought I’d blend in with the battalion and Gifted, my buddy down there helped me out with it. Now let’s get on with already.”

            “This is great!” Evan exclaimed. “Say Blyke,” Evan put a hand over Blyke’s shoulder, “Think you could aim a gigantic bolt of lightning at that ballista arrow’s head.”

            Blyke replied with a grin “Damn right I can!” Blyke then charged a lightning bolt but was stopped by Evan “Hold on, let’s wait until everyone else is ready to attack. Not to mention, we should let the natural lightning of the storm do some damage first.”

            And with that said, Evan hoisted all the remaining Gifted over the storm where they could easily strike the monster. “On my command!” shouted Marcus, while readying a translucent, thinly sliced shard from his hand, “Attack!” Marcus shot a shard from his hand while the other Gifted shot multiple powerful attacks at the monster.

            The giant roared and raged, it became quite noticeable as lightning struck along with the attacks of the Gifted, that its size was being reduced. “Do it now.” Evan said to Blyke who was charging his lightning bolt, one remarkably larger than the first. And as such, with a confident battle cry, Blyke blasted the giant straight on to the arrow’s head electrocuting the monster to a crisp. Or at least, to a fraction of the size that it once was.

            The giant now stood only a little under ten meters tall, and for the most part, it would be no threat to the Kingdom’s wall, giving the Gifted time to recuperate their strength and ranks. And also allowing Evan to return the storm to the skies, sending it away from the direction of the Kingdom. The remaining troops and Gifted could take care of the shrunken monster in due time, now the only problem that remained was the even more enormous arm reaching from the rift. And what was even more frightening was the intelligent eyes that peered through it. Eyes which were little more than burning balls of fire, but rather glowing orbs of red that traced a pattern within. A pattern which Evan recognized as the symbol of transcendence in hell, a symbol which marked a lord. A demon lord.

            Raus and Rill had already destroyed one source while they were both searching along the coast, more towards the west side that went out to sea. Maya soon found another while floating in the air as she was scouting around in the kingdom’s lower region. There she had seen the grotesque lump of piled bodies in a far out alleyway and with a blast of wind, she vanquished the luminescent sphere that hovered above it. She had wondered why there had been no pungent scent but she soon realized why that was so. Whatever happened to those people ridded them of all the flesh that had once covered their bodies and now only bones remained. But she hadn’t time to morn, she blasted off into the air and off she went searching for more bodies.

            Meanwhile Lias and Eon had been racing off towards the North-Eastern direction. As usual, Lias had fallen behind Eon which bothered him to say the least. But what bothered him even more was that Eon seemed to know more about these rifts than he did himself. Regardless, he hadn’t time to deal with that now and soon broke off from Eon and headed towards the Eastern forest while Eon continued towards the Northern Mountains.

~

            All the while panic was ensuing near the rift. Marcus and his men continued to whittle away at what remained of the first giant and soon it would become nothing at all. But Evan was much more concerned at the glaring red eye that looked towards him from within the rift. Considering that its eyes were large enough to occupy almost the entire rift, Evan didn’t even want to think of how big that giant would actually be.

            And that was when the giant moved its head so that its mouth would show through the rift. Only a part of its red cloaked teeth could be seen but still, it was terrifying. And it opened its mouth to let a snake like tongue reach out from within and aim for Evan. The boy quickly reacted and dodged it while floating on his little cloud. He watched as it retracted back into the rift as a roaring voice began to speak.

            “You boy.” The monster said. “Were you the one controlling that storm cloud?” the demon lord asked.

            Evan wasn’t sure if he would reply but Blyke, being eccentric as he was, spoke in his stead as he shot a bolt of lightning to the creature’s mouth. It didn’t flinch at all. Regardless, Blyke spoke with confidence “Yeah, so what if he was.” The boy yelled. “What are you going to do about it?”

            The demon laughed wickedly. Ha-Ha-ha-Ha. “How interesting.” The demon lord said. “I’ve never known anyone who could do that.”

            “Really?” Evan said finally as he folded his hands. “I’m pretty sure some from the Aquaron family can.”

            “No, no, no.” the demon said as he returned his eye into view and looked towards Evan. That sent a chill down the boy’s spine. The demon continued to speak. “You see, storm clouds are different from normal ones. They’re not just water. They’re contain lightning and carry winds along with them. For one to move something of three elements, you must be indeed something special.”

            Evan didn’t know what the demon was trying to imply. But frankly, he didn’t care. He only raised his hand and pulled the storm cloud over the rift. If that monster did come out of that rift, then he’d have the storm to deal with as well. Though Evan doubted that would work, he had to at least make preparations. Right now, he could only pray that his brothers would find the cause of the rift and destroy it.