. . .To eternal peace shall Abinor thrive. . .

  The final words of the prophecy kept relaying in my mind like a tape on loop. Whatever I was going to do next—whatever we were going to do next—would determine whether those final words would come true or be entirely lost in Aries's eternal flame.

  The ground was splitting up so terribly I had to constantly make sure I was moving, lest my feet got swallowed by the boiling lava. Deep red cracks snaked all over the land, quickly making their way towards the village. The marketplace was already crumbling into the earth's crust and so did every other thing in Aries's path as he headed for the village.

  At that point, even Parthenos's strategic perfection would only have done so much. We went after Aries with everything we had.

  I cut through the middle, leaping over jutted rocks as the ground deformed. Skorpius and Leo flanked while Parthenos sailed over me, managing short bursts of flight despite having only one wing.

  Parthenos threw two blades at Aries. I waited until they struck his back and fired my arrow. It landed right between the blades, discharging a lightning bolt that electrified the blades. They exploded on his back. Aries stumbled forward. Skorpius and Leo closed in, ramming the fiery Zodiac from either side.

  Aries merely frowned as flames erupted around him, knocking away the two. He advanced ahead, apparently not so keen on retaliation. He maintained his progress towards the village, tapping into his speed and tearing at the ground after him.

  "We need to act fast," Skorpius said, brushing off a piece of burning rock from his spiked shoulder.

  "At this rate, he'll destroy the place in a heartbeat," Leo snarled. His left cheek was charred.

  "Then we don't let him," I said, "he's fast. We have to be faster." I turned to Skorpius. He knew what to do.

  We all materialized out of the shadows, in time to throw Aries off course and he tumbled at super speed, his body rolling several feet towards the village entrance, by the river. He still managed to land on his knee. He was getting up. Skorpius sprang up on him from the shadows with surprise attacks, getting him severally across the face.

  Leo and Parthenos raced towards them. Skorpius brought down his hook for another strike but Aries caught it. He squeezed it in his hand and flames began to eat through it. Skorpius howled before he was hurled towards an opening fissure. He jumped into the shadows in time to escape the lava about to swallow him and reappeared behind Leo and Parthenos. The two maneuvered their way towards Aries; Leo dodging the incoming chains of lava by twisting his body through them while Parthenos leaped into the air.

  Aries brought up flaming rocks to shield himself from Leo's tail but Parthenos flipped, slashing at Aries's shoulder with her blade. Aries roared, summoning an even bigger wall of flaming rocks. He bashed the two with it, sending them to the ground. I traced Aries's movements, running around him and looking for an opening. I didn't found one. I brought my free hand to the bow and an arrow materialized. I fired. The arrow sailed over Parthenos and Leo then lodged into the wall of fire.

  Aries grinned at me but a little too soon as his fiery shield exploded in an array of flames and lightning. He staggered back. I found my opening. Another arrow nocked itself. I fired once, twice. Aries reared some more, his core exploding every time an arrow landed on him. I fired a fifth arrow but Aries had had enough. He froze the incoming arrow, suspending it in the air and dousing it with flames. The arrow spun around and I tried to duck the moment I realized what was happening. Too late. My back spasmed as I received the full hit of the arrow. I fell forward, my body landing on the heating ground.

  "You are only fooling yourselves if you think you stand a chance with those toys of yours!" Aries roared. Lava flowed up into his arms and they appeared to increase in flaming glory.

  I was barely on my feet before I nocked another arrow. It flew aimlessly towards Aries. He swatted it away like a fly and I watched it plunge into an open chasm of lava. Sparks of lightning struck the ground around it before it was completely engulfed.

  I nocked again but Aries bolted towards me. His blow had got to me faster than I could register and I span in the air. He leaped towards me, coming down hard with his hooves. I tried rolling out of the way. My shoulder snapped. His hooves would have crushed into my core had it not been for Parthenos. She had leaped across towards him, cutting him off midair. The two went crashing into the ground but it was Aries who was back on his feet, pummeling Parthenos with flaming fists. He directed lava towards her face. Parthenos shielded herself with her single wing. She tried to knock Aries off of her, slashing at his skin with the metallic ends of her wing.

  Aries grabbed at the wing. I heard Parthenos yelp, followed by a sharp high-pitched noise. Aries was ripping off her wing. I found my bow and was already up on my feet as Leo dashed towards the two, spinning and bringing his tail around. He whacked Aries off of Parthenos. Aries dug at the dirt with his hands and hooves. Leo descended on him but flames shot out of the ground like geysers, disrupting his attack. Aries was on him while he was still airborne. He blasted him several yards, sending him sailing over the river and into the village.

  Aries summoned even more flames as I watched how the lava fueled him. He was coming at Parthenos and me. His movement was strained and black clouds formed behind him. Skorpius's arms materialized, trying to wrap their way around his neck. Aries pulled apart Skorpius's arms.

  "Let's see how you like it!" he struck him with a firebolt, forcing him into the clouds and Skorpius vanished into the shadow realm. I looked around but I didn't catch him reappearing. The dark red atmosphere was no help either.

  Raising his arms, Aries heated up the air around him then slammed at the ground, creating tremors. The ground split up even more and the river's banks were ruined. Lava and water filled up the land. Aries slammed the ground again. The impact was greater this time and we all went down in heaps of dirt and debris.

  "And now," I heard Aries's voice amid struggling to heave myself up as lava quickly ate at the ground around me. "For my final act."

  I gnashed my teeth, building up enough strength to get up from the dirt and step away from the lava. I was joined by Parthenos and Leo.

  "Skorpius?" Parthenos winced, some of the blades on her wing had been partially melted off. There were dark patches on her white skin where she had been burned and I did not dare feel my own face. It stung so much I was sure I looked worse.

  Leo's face was much better. It was the rest of him. His silver armor was torn apart and I could see areas with a kind of orangish liquid matted all over. His tail had lost a lot of its sharpness.

  There came the sound of horse hooves and I turned to find the Chieftain, accompanied by two soldiers. He gasped at the sight of the ground and he couldn't have played "the floor is lava" game better than anyone at that moment. He took off his crown and a desperate expression rested on his face.

  "Valeria," he muttered, "my daughter. . .!"

  I had no idea what had happened to her, or even the Seer. They'd all vanished just as Skorpius.

  "I'm afraid you're about to have a lot more to worry about, your highness," Leo sighed, looking beyond the breaking river.

  Aries was upon the village. Lava was jutting out and falling nearby houses and soon, it would be the whole of Abinor.

  "I heard you were evacuating," I said to the Chieftain. "Are there still people left?"

  "Yes," the Chieftain replied dreadfully. "The evacuation was barely underway before all. . .all of this." He looked at me, confusedly shifting his gaze from Leo to Parthenos then back at me. "You work alongside them." Another glance at both Parthenos and Leo. "And now you are helping us. . .why?"

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  "You need to gather as many people as you can," Parthenos offered before I could say anything. "Or these two are the only thing you'll have left."

  The Chieftain got back on his horse and rode off with his soldiers. How he was going to get into the village, I did not know but what I did know, lay ahead of me.

  "The lava," I said as the three of us crossed the river, quickly rushing towards Aries. "it's his power source. He's feeding from it."

  "Well," Leo mused, "he's got quite the feast. We'd need a miracle to cut off his supply."

  "The only way we'd achieve that is by using the river," Parthenos said ruefully, "but that would take forever without. . ."

  She never finished her words but I clearly heard Pisces's name in her voice. More structures crumbled and got engulfed in lava as I looked at Aries's form in the distance. I watched how the lava would flow up his legs and into his arms and they would go ablaze. He blasted at everything around him. He—hold on. I looked back at the lava. The lava on him and the lava all over the place.

  "What?" Parthenos was reading the dawning expression on my face. "What is it?"

  "What if we let the lava build up instead?" I was already picking up a rock.

  "You do realize we're trying to do the exact opposite," Leo added shrewdly.

  I dropped the rock into a crack filled with lava. "No. I mean, since Aries is using the lava to juice himself up. . ." the rock hissed as it dissolved until nothing was left. "we could make him overcharge like a. . .like a battery!"

  "A what?" came both Parthenos and Leo.

  "Ah, of course you don't know what a battery is," I shook my head, quickly adding, "if I've learned anything in physics and chemistry class is that energy can only be contained so much—"

  "It would need a release," Parthenos offered and I was glad neither her or Leo asked what physics and chemistry was.

  "And now we'd cut off that release by making Aries fill up on his fiery cuisine," Leo finished. "but how exactly are we to do that? We've been having our asses handed over to us more times than I'd like to brag."

  "We would need to contain him," Parthenos said, coming to my aid.

  "Yes!" I responded, "prevent him from exerting any more power."

  "But how. . .?" Leo reiterated.

  I frowned. Aries was causing even more destruction and would soon get to the people of Abinor. Even Parthenos fell short on this one.

  The atmosphere split apart behind us and out came Skorpius, black clouds swirling behind him.

  "Ugh," he exclaimed, wiping off mud and grime from his garments. "I've had it with that asinine flaming freak!" I raised my eyebrows, never before having heard Skorpius curse. "Oh, and look who I found. . ."

  The swirling clouds were still there. Another figure emerged and my jaw dropped, my eyes widening. "Zak!" I blurted, still not believing my eyes. I wanted to hug him but thought better of it and instead, ended up giving him a weird handshake.

  "Hey there, chap," he said as if he'd just come from a nap. "What did I miss?" he looked around and of course, noticed the lava and splitting ground. "Oh. . ."

  "How are you—" I had so many questions but they would have to wait as the ground shook. "Right. We have this plan. We wanna contain Aries and use his power against him."

  "But the question is how to do that," Leo added, again.

  I racked my brain. There had to be something. We were running out of time. We were. . .My eyes fixated on the black clouds that dissolved behind Skorpius and. . .was that it? Come on. Could it be? Could it work?

  "I know what we're going to do," I finally said, particularly looking at Skorpius who narrowed his eyes at me. "What?"

  "How long can you keep your shadow clouds open?" I asked.

  "Long enough, why?"

  "Long enough to repeatedly charge back lava at Aries from all directions at once?"

  Skorpius looked at me, catching on what I was saying, and so did everyone else. I got uneasy at the way his yellow eyes looked back at mine.

  A new plan was therefore set, this time, coming from me. It was a long stretch. A really long one but we were running on empty here.

  Aries had made it into the heart of the village. People were running for their lives, running away from the snaking lava cracks and the Chieftain and his men had made their way there, quickly helping everyone vacate the premises. I watched all of this chaos unfold until I was at the center of it when Aries stopped right in front of me.

  "You're in my way, mortal," he boomed.

  "That's because you've reached a dead end," I shot back, hoping the comeback sounded as tough as it had in my mind.

  At that point, I had grown used to the billowing hot winds and wet atmosphere. The red environment was more than a bonus then as I could no longer tell whether the liquid on my arms was water or blood.

  "Look around," Aries raised his arms. Red lightning flashed above him. "Everything is already dead."

  I subtly shifted my eyes to either side, hoping Aries didn't catch on what I was doing. He did not. I hoisted my bow and nocked a fresh arrow. I pulled, aiming at Aries's head.

  He chuckled and balls of flame appeared on either of his hands. "You still don't get it, do you? There is no stopping this—" he paused, his smug expression turning into a frown. "Where are the others—"

  "NOW!" I yelled, making use of that fraction of a second when Aries was thrown into confusion and fired the arrow. It exploded against his head. He groaned, staggering.

  He roared and was about to charge before Parthenos had descended on him, dropkicking him and knocking him out of his speed. He span and was welcomed by a whack from Zak's battle axe on the other side. He span again and Leo slid over, swiping out with his tail which wrapped around Aries's legs. Aries fell forward, flames exploding out of him.

  Skorpius rounded out the plan, literally, by appearing from the shadows and encircling Aries, creating a trail of shadow clouds.

  Aries got up, infuriated. He was surrounded by shadows in a tight circle. He tried to burst forth but ended up reappearing at the same spot. It was not over yet. He attempted to jump out of the trap but Parthenos took care of that, kicking him while airborne and sending him back into the epicenter.

  Aries conjured up flames and blasted at the shadows. The flames were absorbed and spat back out at him from every direction. He pounded at the shadows but would only hit himself. Skorpius conjured up even more shadows, enforcing the trap's strength. It was working.

  Another attempt at leaping out of the trap and Parthenos was there again but Aries managed to burn her foot. Parthenos fell back. Aries leaped again and it was Leo who brought him back down this time, wrapping his tail around his neck and slamming him back into the trap, careful not to tamper with the shadows.

  It was time to act quick. "Deliver the charge!" Parthenos commanded, getting up.

  I nocked an arrow and aimed it straight ahead. Skorpius extended a hand and another cloud formed in front of me. He nodded, signaling for me to take action. I fired. The arrow plunged into the shadows and struck out inside the shadow trap, rupturing the ground beneath Aries.

  Lava poured out and quickly flowed into Aries's body. There was no other exit point. Any stream of lava that would stray wounded up finding its way back at Aries through the shadows.

  "It's working," Zak said as Aries growled, filling up with lava. He would try to let it out through fire blasts but they would all end up hitting him.

  I approached the shadow trap carefully. "You're in a loop, Aries. Caught up in your own unending mess. Even you can't escape."

  The lava continued to build up inside Aries's body the more he struggled to break out of the trap and a reaction was quickly unravelling. Skorpius's shadows were morphing into a blanket of fire, spiraling wildly around Aries and charging up his body.

  The atmosphere shifted all of its attention towards Aries, directing all of its lightning at him. "He's attracting the opposite charge!" I called over the raging storm that was forming over Aries. "We need to get back!"

  Aries cried over the storm and swirling flames. The ground cracked incredibly and the wind blew sharply around him. I strained my eyes. I had to make sure he wasn't coming out of that. My worst fears were confirmed.

  The swirling wall of fire cracked and Aries's hand broke through. Lightning arced around it. He struck out again and his foot stuck out.

  "He's getting out!" Parthenos cautioned.

  I fumbled with trying to nock but Aries had forced his head through, his horns tearing apart the wall of fire. The ground shook and I dropped my bow. The heat was intense and even worse around Aries. Skorpius's shadows would evaporate every time he'd try to conjure them.

  Aries's whole form was nothing but liquid red flames.

  I reared and my hand hit something hard. I glanced down and noticed the small pouch hooked to my belt. I dug out whatever was in there, having entirely forgotten I'd had it with me all that time. I took it in my right hand, wrapping my fingers around its curved pointy form. I rushed forward, fighting my way through the heat and thrust out my hand. I planted Tauros's horn into Aries's core.

  "THIS. . .IS. . .THE END!" Aries thundered, stomping right towards me. ". . .MY. . . SALVATION! NO ONE. . . CAN. . . ESCAPE IT!"

  I was thrown back and caught the horn go deeper inside Aries, bursting into lava and pushing him back into the flames.

  His body was still reacting to the buildup and he struggled from the pressure. He would soon douse us all in his eternal flame. Aries tried to control the fire but it had taken over him. It was as much as the Zodiac of fire could handle. This was beyond him. Beyond everyone.

  His body finally let up. The overcharge was achieved.

  I tried to teleport but even then, it was no easy fete. I'd only managed to do that once and the intense heat only made things worse, besides, I needed sight to find my way through cosmic gateways. All I saw was red and orange as it finally happened.

  Aries exploded.