Chapter 19

 The fact that they also couldn't sense or see it made things harder. 

"What's the plan, boss?" Violette asked taking a step back as the three covered each other's backs. 

{A girl can't even rest with all the noise.}

"I am the boss," Aian told Violette appearing beside Howard. "First things first, Illuminatia Visionaria."

Their vision disappeared momentarily as their eyes glued shut. However, their other senses made up for the lack of sight tenfold. When their sight returned, it wasn't one of colour. 

Everything was bright as day except for the blackness ahead. A tall dark thin figure watched from within its dual-coloured eyes not blinking. 

"You, I smell the power of the Elder Ones on you," the figure said pointing a claw at Aian. 

"You are right, I am an Elder One," Aian replied raising her left hand. A silver mist spread out of it. Whatever the mist touched, decayed into dust. 

The being countered by throwing darkness at it. He narrowed his glowing eyes as the darkness started growing brighter. Aian flocked her pinkie finger and the figure was blasted away from the darkness. 

The blackness quickly wrapped itself around the figure protecting it from another blast. Aian was thrown back by an unseen force that was quickly followed by three spiked lances piercing her. 

She got to her feet and the three lances impaled through her. 

"I have to get serious," she said. Her eyes turned white and glowed brightly as she rose to the air. The lances disintegrated into dust that blew away. 

She formed arrows and rained them down on her adversary. The arrows kept a relentless barrage for a full minute. When the dust had settled, a dark spear flew out of the dust. 

With a wave of her hand, she deflected the spear to the side. 

The three humans watched unable to do anything as Aian had frozen them in place. But Howard was slowly undoing the restraints on him thanks to the bracelet. 

He noticed that he could move his left wrist slightly and he continued jiggling it within the confines, increasing the radius of the space. The bracelet then started warming up and he felt invisible tendrils shoot out of it slowly cracking the restraints. 

The spear struck the ground, exploding on contact. Aian tiring of the games, materialised a small glowing golden cube and threw it at the darkness. 

On contact the cube started sucking in the figure, trapping it in the cube. Aian lowered herself to the ground approaching the cube. Five tendrils of darkness shot out and wrapped themselves around her. 

The cube shattered as the figure emerged from it. Aian tried to use her powers but the tendrils dampened her powers. As she wasn't in her divine form she couldn't use raw power to break them apart. 

Howard watched in horror as a sixth tendril stabbed Aian straight through her abdomen. That was when he felt it. 

A hot stabbing pain in his gut and he let out a primal scream. That was a side-effect of a blood bond. Pain above a certain threshold was felt by the other party. 

The bracelet reacted to his pain, glowing green counteracting the pain. 

The figure watched as a green light started eating away at the black tendrils piercing Aian. With his attention diverted Aian quickly phased out. She reappeared a few metres away, drained but free. 

Violette and Nike rushed forward: Nike to cover her and Violette to attack. 

Her dagger sliced mercilessly at the darkness. The figure smiled tauntingly at the fact that it was receiving no damage. Violette smiled back at him and pointed. 

Where the darkness had been sliced, purple gashes appeared and they kept on spreading. 

"Those eyes," the figure said and dodged a stab. But he never knew Violette wielded two daggers. With her second dagger, she stabbed the figure and muttered a word. The dagger grew exponentially ripping the figure apart. 

The light in the eyes died out. And the darkness disappeared. She sheathed both daggers and spread out her PSI. It merged with Kuronike's who was constantly searching for enemies. 

"Howard, take me to him," Aian muttered. He nodded and carefully carried Aian to where Howard lay unconscious. She put her hand on the bracelet and felt her energy being restored. When she had enough energy she then turned her focus on Howard. 

A few seconds later, he opened his eyes, the pain having vanished. He looked up quickly to see Aian was free and unharmed. 

"He's dead," Violette answered him. She looked at both Howard and Aian strangely but didn't ask anything. 

"I know you have questions but not now, let me summon the others," Aian told her. 

"What about Him? If you do that, won't he find us?" Howard asked getting on his feet.

The goddess shook her head, "The cosmic particles here will cover us. But we have to hurry before they dissipate,"

Aian's eyes glowed brightly as she teleported Juma, Winjoy and Frank. Fortunately, she had forcefully grabbed them with all the items. Juma was still stunned, a second later and he would be history. Winjoy and Frank unlike Juma had no scratches or any battle scars. They had it easy.

"We don't have much time," Aian told them, she looked at Juma, "It looks like you already bumped into him. Thank you for holding out and buying us some time."

She stretched out her right hand and muttered a few words. The air in front of her shimmered as a grey stone archway having two stone gargoyles on each end and a writhing stone serpent at the top appeared before their eyes. The eyes of the serpent had emerald green eyes while the four gargoyles had ruby-red ones.

The archway glowed silver and gold writings that neither humans could read appeared on the stones. 

She hurriedly pushed Howard into the doorway and motioned for the others to follow him. Winjoy was hesitant but Aian pushed her roughly into the doorway. 

Before she stepped through the archway, the sound of fox yelping reached Aian's ears. A red fox appeared and stared at Aian who stared back at it. The fox nodded and Aian stepped through the portal. 

The fox started to bark and lightning bolts devoured the portal. It barked again then disappeared into the undergrowth. A few moments later, Njata Githiora appeared at the site. 

He looked around but saw nothing of interest. Yet he could feel that divine beings had just battled here; not only that, but a human he had almost captured had disappeared before his very eyes.

Had it been daytime, he could have got the information from the sun but even now the moon wasn't around. There were no bodies around which meant that no deity or being had been killed, that meant they had opened portals.

However the cosmic particles in the air would have tainted any traces that would be useful. He shook his head angrily and opened a portal that he stepped through.