Echidna Before the Void
Percy kept falling, but that no longer seemed the most important thing; what mattered was the rain of destruction coming down behind him. The burning rocks—those meteorites—shot past him and exploded upon hitting the ground, leaving enormous craters that reminded him, quite suddenly, that he was still plummeting downward.
Before he could scream again, he felt something invisible grab him, stopping him just a meter above the water. From the height he had fallen, hitting the river would have been like slamming into concrete. He looked up and saw his master floating in the sky; Miraak's wings shone with a bluish-gold light, somewhat translucent, as the rain of meteorites continued to fall around him like the mark of a destructive god.
For a moment, Percy felt a flicker of gratitude. Miraak opened the hand pointing at him, and instantly Percy felt gravity return. He dropped toward the water.
Plop. The splash echoed as he sank into the Mississippi.
Confirming that his disciple would be safe for a while in the water, Miraak turned his gaze to the other two brats running frantically in search of a shelter that didn't exist; nothing could withstand a meteor's impact. With a small gesture, he caught them mid-air and hurled them toward the river, near where Percy had fallen.
Plop, plop. The splashes marked Annabeth and Grover's fall upon the surface of the river.
Meanwhile, the beasts and monsters fleeing for their lives were consumed by the fire and the explosions of the meteorites. Miraak turned to Echidna; she dodged the flaming rocks with her gigantic body, but being so enormous, many impacts struck her, leaving charred spots across her scales. Still, she looked resilient; however, the wounds were beginning to show.
"Ahhh, cursed one, damn you!" she screamed, maddened, glaring at Miraak. He stood amid the chaos as if nothing were happening, watching her with disdain.
Echidna, in her fury, lunged toward him, ignoring the meteorites that threatened her. "Die!" she roared, thrusting her right hand toward Miraak, claws first.
Miraak gripped his sword. With one hand on the hilt and the other resting lightly along the blade, he deflected Echidna's claws; the clash produced sparks, as if steel and scale had struck an anvil.
Deflecting her blow, he spun the sword and brought it over his back to use the motion's momentum. Both hands on the hilt, he prepared a downward slash.
Echidna, swift, raised her left hand to cover her face. Miraak's blade fell and sliced the fingers off her right hand; the cut continued across her face and chest. A fountain of black blood gushed forth.
"Ahhh!" Echidna wailed. Her severed fingers hit the ground as she clutched her face in pain. Her massive body twisted, protecting itself instinctively. Then her enormous tail, lifted high, lashed toward Miraak.
The strike was so powerful that his sword barely deflected part of the impact. The blow hurled Miraak several meters backward; he crashed through a nearby building, broke through the other side, and stopped mid-air by beating his wings.
"Wuld Nah Kest," he shouted again. He vanished and reappeared before Echidna, who writhed in pain, her tail coiled tightly around herself.
"Enough," hissed the creature, raising her tail as a shield to stop him. Miraak slashed horizontally without hesitation. The edge carved a trench through her scales.
"Ahhh!" Echidna screamed, a mix of fury and agony.
Miraak descended to the ground with controlled movements. He gazed at the great serpent and at the black blood pooling on the earth. That pool drew more creatures; compared to the first wave, what now approached was an endless tide. It was as if every monster on the continent had joined the stampede—not only beings from the Greek pantheon, but rare and strange abominations from other myths as well.
The rain of meteorites had ceased, but the sky remained black. Far away, something even darker moved in layers—not real clouds, but a swarm of flying monsters gathering.
"VEN MUL RIIK," ordered Miraak. A thick fog began to form around the battlefield, so dense one could barely see a hand before one's face. Any creature entering it would lose its senses, wander aimlessly, and forget the way.
Miraak used the fog to separate the creatures from their duel. He wanted the fight to continue undisturbed.
Echidna whimpered in pain; her long tail wrapped around her like a protective net. It was the first time she had ever suffered such harm. She was furious, yet the fog prevented her from seeing clearly the man attacking her.
"Cursed one, damn you. You will die. I will kill you. I will devour your flesh, drink your blood, and drag your soul to Tartarus so you may be destroyed again and again by every creature there!" she bellowed in rage. She began lashing her tail wildly, causing explosions around her, but, strangely, the fog did not disperse; it remained as thick as before.
Miraak stood motionless, breathing calmly. He measured the terrain, calculating, letting Echidna's fury burn itself away in pain and noise. The battle bore the mark of the inevitable—a fight not of strength alone, but of will.
Then Echidna felt something within the mist.
"RII VAZ ZOL."
A deep pain, as if someone were trying to tear apart her very existence, surged through her entire being.
"Ahhh!" she screamed; the sensation made her double over for an instant. Destroying an existence like hers wouldn't be easy, but the torment made her tremble.
That was exactly what Miraak had been waiting for. He appeared before her again, the blade pointed at her neck.
Echidna, her hands clutching her head, opened her eyes and, by reflex, spat venom. The green liquid drenched Miraak; toxic smoke rose around his figure.
The impact halted the sword's trajectory for a moment, but Miraak, half-blinded by the substance, kicked her square in the face.
He hit the ground and wiped the poison from his face with one hand.
"Ha, ha, ha," Echidna laughed for the first time, satisfied; she had managed to land a deadly blow, for that venom was lethal. It was only a matter of seconds before it reached Miraak's heart through his skin. "You're dead now, dead!" she mocked, certain of her revenge. From her perspective, the poison had already spread throughout his body.
While she laughed, something emerged from the mist toward her—a growing shadow, a dark mass from which black tentacles extended. They coiled around Echidna's body.
She flailed, trying to free herself, but the appendages wouldn't stop multiplying; every time she tore one off, ten more appeared, born from the same shadow.
"What is this?" she screamed, ripping one free only to watch ten more sprout and slowly ensnare her.
She looked ahead. Miraak, who by all logic should have been dying from the venom, was calmly approaching with an irritated expression. There was not a single sign of poisoning—only a few green drops staining his clothes.
"It's better to end this already and stop wasting time. I thought you'd make the battle more exciting, but you're not much," Miraak said, bored, as if the whole affair disappointed him. He had expected a worthy fight, but Echidna's reputation and stature had proved, to him, greatly exaggerated.
Meanwhile, thousands of tentacles bound Echidna; she could no longer move.
"Let me go. Let me go right now!" she roared, but Miraak jumped and planted his boot on her chest, greatsword in hand, with no intention of arguing further.
He raised the blade, aiming for her chest.
Echidna glared at him, fury burning in her voice. "Release me, bastard. When I return, I'll find you and kill you. I'll kill your brat, the son of Poseidon. Even if I must become your eternal enemy, I'll come back as many times as it takes; I'll kill everything around you. You can't kill me—I'm immortal; I won't vanish just because you send me to Tartarus," she spat, as if death were nothing more than a round trip.
Miraak laughed derisively. He pulled from his robes a black gem, dense and nearly cursed; large, almost the size of a human head. Darkness seemed to pulse around the stone.
Echidna sensed it—felt danger. Not because the gem could harm her physically, but because something within her soul shuddered in alarm.
Miraak released the stone. The gem fell onto Echidna.
"Give my regards to the Ideal Masters. I'm sure that with an existence like yours, they'll be quite interested in making one of their famous deals," said Miraak with a cold smile that never reached his eyes.
At those words, and seeing the gem, Echidna felt a terrible premonition. Her mind screamed not to let herself be struck—but Miraak didn't hesitate. He drove the sword downward.
The blade pierced Echidna's chest and sank deeper, impaling her completely.
Then the creature's body began to turn to dust, slowly. Something was being drawn into the sword; Echidna seemed to feel her very existence, her immortal soul, being extracted.
"Nooo!" she screamed, her voice shredded by pain.
The sword gleamed as it absorbed her essence. Echidna screamed and turned to ash, but Miraak ignored her entirely.
A few seconds later, Miraak landed on the ground. Echidna was gone; he stood upon the space she had once occupied. His black sword still vibrated with power, cracks beginning to form along the blade. From it emerged a dark light that projected toward the gem lying nearby. The gem, unable to withstand it, shattered into fragments that scattered across the ground.
The stone, black as night, began to glow with a faint violet hue; its shape changed, and a dark halo surrounded it. It seemed to form into something like a dark star. Miraak picked it up and studied it for a moment, interest flickering faintly in his eyes.
Then he turned his gaze toward the fragments of his sword, scattered across the ground.