The mound of stones shook. Heavy rocks and chunks of concrete rolled down.
Simon started toward the base of their crumbling mountain. “Everyone spread out and make for Gaios when Penny gives us the chance.”
Penny held the device in her outstretched arms until she could see the inverted image of Gaios in the crystal. Jane came next to her. There was a sudden calmness to the lightning elemental though her face held nothing but sheer determination. A roar built as the smoldering soul of the petite woman gave birth to a ribbon of electricity. It broke from her hands and cracked from her fingers to strike the device.
Penny gritted her teeth, losing sensation in her arms and hands. She didn’t feel as if she was being struck by the lightning although her teeth chattered from the feedback of so much power only inches from her. Her hands tried to shake, but she forced them to stay steady.
When the heart of the altar could hold no more of Jane’s power, it bucked in Penny’s hands. A weird disruption spread from the crystal. It seemed to tear open the air as it stretched across the ruined square. The disturbance slithered around Gaios, coating him in an unseen sheath, as his face twisted in alarm. He was torn free from the earth and suspended in space, buffeted as if caught in a brutal gale. Green swirls of aether streamed out of him from his eyes and mouth. The demigod collapsed to the ground in a rain of rocks. He fell limply to his hands and knees. The magma lake ceased roiling. London stopped shaking.
Simon led the charge off the mound of stones and across the lava-drenched battlefield toward the black basalt remnant of the temple.
The elemental struggled to his feet, wide-eyed, waving a hand. A rock rose up from the ground, wobbling and slow, to block a volley of Imogen’s quills. An ice lance impaled Gaios in the shoulder, spinning him back. Malcolm rolled to his belly and rested Penny’s blunderbuss on a rock. He fired off a shell. The stunned elemental lifted his hands, calling forth a stone shield. Its flimsy surface shattered from the impact, sending shrapnel flying back into the demigod. Kate lobbed three vials of treacle at Gaios, pinning him in place. Imogen fired more quills at him while a bolt of lightning struck the elemental square in the chest. Gaios screamed and hunched over the pain, his limbs going limp in the wake of Imogen’s toxins.
Under the cover of the barrage, Simon appeared before Gaios now, the runes on his body flaring through the smoke of the lightning. He reached out for the trapped elemental. “Your time is up.”
Then the world around them went mad as Gaios lost control of his power. The section of earth rumbled and bucked. Everyone was thrown to the ground. Kate dropped hard to the dirt. Geysers of flame spewed from cracks ripped in the crust. Choking ash and dust filled the air.
However, even Gaios was no longer immune to the upheaval. He was thrown into the air and fell back limp. Like an old man who suddenly found his body betraying him, he labored to rise. He looked frightened as he tried to bring his earth under control, but nothing happened. He raised his fists with soil sifting out from between his fingers.
“Gaios!” Simon shouted. “Stop!”
Gaios turned to the scribe, who was reaching out toward him. The elemental began to shake. Magma splashed high, like whitecaps in a storm. Streams of black and red lava swirled through the air and converged on Gaios. He stood with arms upraised as the searing river of boiling rock poured over him.
There was no chance for Simon to touch the elemental now. Fire rained down everywhere. Even Simon’s stone form would not save him from this. Kate rushed toward him, shouting for him to run. Globs of lava fell all around him.
The air seemed suddenly frigid. Magma spouts froze black. The open square transformed into a weird gallery of stalagmites of solid basalt, glittering in the half-light. It was a forest of large black spikes sticking out of the earth. The strange formations were thicker and more numerous closer to the center of the square where a great single pillar of stone stood with Gaios buried inside. From within that rock, a primal scream ripped out with a voice that came from deep inside the earth.
The surrounding obsidian pillars shattered in an instant. The air filled with a terrifying mix of huge stones rocketing amidst a black razor dust. It was like being trapped inside a thunderstorm, with black mist roaring and lightning cracking overhead. The air was thick and difficult to breathe.