I ran down the hill, never slowing down, never looking back, right past all the green trees, the brown dirt, all the life living in that forest, content one goal, Thalia. I heard footsteps behind me and only assumed they were Gabriel's. I thought of what they would do to her, I thought of the old man in the prison we were only in for an hour at most. I thought how insane they'd drive innocent Thalia if I didn't get there in time.

I ran down the mountain until finally, I reached the town border. I saw that there were tons of people, almost all monsters, being walked out of the streets and toward the mountain.

"Tarran!" I yelled out. Within a minute, he came around a corner with a score of people carrying two large prison boxes. Inside, one was Thalia's mother, Amy. Inside the other, was Thalia.

"I want my friends back! I commanded.

"And why should I do that?" He replied, "I've got everything, you have no power over me. I've got the rest of the artifacts, and it turns out there's one more than we thought. I have five, you have four, I have the Midnight Stone, you have the Red Sun Stone. I have the upper hand right now, and even in the day, I'm still probably better than you."

"Well, I'm not leaving until I defeat you!" I swore back.

"Then you won't leave." Tarran motioned to two of his men, and they stepped out and shot two beams, one of rock, the other of nothing but energy. Frantically, I raised my two hands and shot out two beams of solid ice. The magic coiled in mid-air and set off a magnificent fireworks display. I then created two ice balls and chucked them at each man. As if guided by a wire, each hit their target exactly on the head. They stumbled backward and looked very surprised. I fired more balls of ice, and it was as if space was bending for each of these to hit so remarkably spot on. Eventually, they ran away, fearing I was something too much for them to handle. Tarran motioned again, and many more humans started charging at me. They were just too many!

As one was about to hit me with a club, a monster in a white smock with black soot all over it, stepped in front of me and blocked with the metal of a blacksmith's hammer. Looking behind me, I could see so many people were taking up arms and fighting with me. I unsheathed my sword, iron scraping on iron, and charged forward. Sending my sword in giant arcs, I smashed into 3 people at once, knocking them down to make way for another slash. I saw complete strangers on each side of me, yet we were all working in unison. I saw people getting clobbered left and right. Not all were Tarran's men, though. Yet, every time someone went and tried to swing at me, I always, somehow, always blocked perfectly.

After a while, I managed to push through the line of fighting and starting rushing in on Tarran himself. I sent a giant ball of ice herling at Thalia's cage, hitting the lock and shattering it. She and I both ran toward Tarran, ice in my hand, fireball in her's.

We ran until suddenly, our feet were lifted off the ground. We helplessly flailed, but a blue light enveloped us. The same blue light around Tarran's hands.

"You fools! Now I've gotten you and there's nothing you could ever do about it!" He cackled, "You see, the entire time I've wanted to rid the world of monsters, so that's why every monster from all the cities around, is right here, going into that cave." He pointed to a deep crevasse in the side of the mountain. As we looked back, we saw the monsters were evidently losing and being drawn back into that cave. I've known about it for a long time, but my parents always said it was dangerous to go through into the cave systems behind it. As I was running down the mountain, I didn't notice that hundreds of monsters were being stuffed in there, magical guards guarding the innocent people.

Suddenly, Thalia started being lifted up further. She screamed at me to help, but there was nothing either of us could do. She went flying back into the box she was imprisoned in before, but with a new lock on it.

"I made a barrier anyone can go into but you would need to be able to control spacetime to get out of. Isn't it great, to see all those twisted monsters in one place, and out of our world, our lives!" Tarran had the same twisted grin he always had on, as he looked at the disgusting thing that was nothing but enslavement.

Suddenly, I saw his left leg suddenly catch fire, and I saw a wide grin on Thalia's face. "Oh, you shouldn't have done that," Casin replied, putting out his leg. I then saw Tarran's hand grow blue, as did a massive boulder, and what I saw next, I couldn't believe. He opened Thalia's cage with one hand and flung the bolder right into her chest with the other. I looked and saw her body slumped over, and I saw the boulder stained a deep red. I could see Thalia's eyes open, but I could see no blinking. I could see her mouth open, but I could see no breathing. I could see her hands draped around the side of the rock, but I could see no movement.

I fought to get at Tarran a furious rage, but I was still stuck in mid-air by his blue grasp. I swiped and kicked at air, but it did nothing but waste my energy. I screamed, but all that seemed to do was make him smile more. I started crying, and could barely hear what Tarran said next.

As if oblivious to what I was going through, Tarran kept monologuing, "Right now, tons and tons of magical energy is being pumped into that barrier to keep it live, but the only things I need to make it permanent is the artifacts, and with these..." he snapped his fingers, and the teacup, the book, and the crystal flew out of my pocket. I was too lifeless to even try to grab them back. "I can trap monsters in there forever. "

He then took four artifacts from his own pockets, an old straw blanket, a heart-shaped locket, an iron sword, a purple smock, and a stone, as black as midnight.

"Anyways, each one of these things is bonded to someone, mine are bonded to me and your's are bonded to you. Basically, I need them all to be bonded to me, and the only way to break a bond is by killing the person the bond is linked to." Tarran had the slimy smile again as if he thought life and death were but mere toys. He then picked up the biggest rock he could find on the side of that mountain with his blue glow and bowled it straight toward my head. Time seemed to slow down as the rock came closer and closer, it speeds up as it sped toward my head. I saw it get right next to me. I felt it touch the side of my head with great force, I closed my eyes. But then suddenly, it was gone!

I opened my eyes and saw the moon high in the air, right at its zenith. I looked around and say... Thalia, right next to me! "I have Alexander Ravos!" She yelled, absolutely crazily, "But not one step closer! We outran you once, we can do it again!" I mouthed her words as she said them. It was weird, it was exactly like before. I watched the entire thing play out, I watched Tarran ask for me, then I once again saw the stone fly straight toward my face, and then I teleported... again. Then, I heard Thalia say thank you to Gabriel once more. Wait, didn't I say that last time? This was all very confusing! I then did the only thing I could have, I showed Gabriel and Thalia my artifacts, and then we heard voices coming through the bushes. That was when I drove off course, just to save Thalia. I couldn't watch her die again. I yelled at Gabriel to get us out now, and we suddenly ended up on top of the mountain, all three of us.

I looked around frantically, and I saw Tarran's men nowhere. I then ran to Thalia and hugged her as hard as I could. I cried tears of joy, and yet the memory of Thalia's dead body was still very vivid in my mind. I don't know what I'd do without her. As I let go, she looked at me like I was crazy, and I probably was with what I said next, or more what I didn't say. "I just... don't know what I'd do if we ever got separated." I told her, and yet I didn't tell her what happened for some odd reason. I then went over to the same rock formation, I had gone to just hours before and took out the same rusted iron sword and said, "I think this time, we might need this."