Chapter 74: Defend and Attack

Luke, with his hate-filled eyes, stared down at the old man who put him in that illusion...

His worst fear was seeing his loved ones suffer and not being able to help them. And guess what the illusion he saw was? Exactly that, he saw every single person he ever cares about being tortured and slowly going insane and killing themselves, while he had to watch it all, without being able to do anything to help! He had to watch Pruno being impaled by thorns and bleed while the thorns moved around his body like tentacles, piercing his skin and damaging his body, making painful yet thin slits, just to make him feel pain and not die, and when he was about to die from blood loss, he would be given Ambrosia and Nectar to heal his injuries, starting all over again.

In Thalia's case, he had to watch her being electrocuted by wires till her skin smelled like burned plastic, she would also be given Ambrosia and Nectar only when she was about to die, the torture would keep up until she couldn't resist anymore and died by biting her tongue off and drowned on her blood.

Luke had also to watch Annabeth being devoured by small spiders, alive, she would not die because each spider would die or simply stop eating her, and Ambrosia and Nectar would be given to her and the process would start all over again. She died by having one spider eat her heart, she bleeds out choking his name and asking for his help, which he couldn't give.

And Enychta... Eny was the worst of them.

He had to watch Eny being suspended by golden chains, his limbs were slowly being pulled apart from his body and he couldn't do anything about it, the worst thing is that Eny didn't cry or shouted, he laughed as if everything was ridiculous, he laughed and laughed, he would scream how and shout how it was all his fault, all his fault, how he should just end this all and break apart...

And how Enychta died?

He didn't die. Even after his head was removed from his body, his head continued to laugh and point out how everything was his fault, but a moment before breaking free from the Illusion, Luke heard the head of his beloved whisper: "It's all the old man's fault." So he was saying that it was all "his" fault, not Luke's fault, but the old man's fault... When he opened his eyes again, he was looking at an old man holding a snake scepter with a golden disc leaving the snake's mouth.

Luke kept hearing the phrase that the Enychta in his illusion whispered: "It's all his fault..." In his head, this was an aftereffect of the illusion, or maybe Luke's psyche was on the verge of breaking? Who knows.

Meanwhile, Pruno had seen other things.

What he feared the most was losing his family, and that was what his illusion was about. He lost his family right in front of his eyes, they all died in front of him, each in a different way! Thalia was burned alive, Annabeth drowned to death, Luke had his legs cut off and died of blood loss and Enychta died in a very strange way... A hole appeared on the ground and he fell, all Pruno could hear was the screams of pain that came from the hole that suddenly stopped, turning into growls and laughter, which then turned into silence. All he could assume is that Enychta died there because before he could think otherwise, the illusion was broken by Isis.

It was so vivid, for both boys, who had their worst nightmare in front of them.

And of that was this old man's fault!

Pruno did not hold back, thousands of hundreds of roots began to crawl from the ground in a very explosive manner, wrapping around the man's body before crunching him down with the weight of several tons of angry roots that formed a cocoon around his body. However, what he did not expect was the roots being destroyed by invisible blades that appeared around the man, spinning in a clockwise motion at great speeds, cutting down every single root as the blades started to expand. "Huh, what a youthful and angry boy you are..." The old man smiled, making Pruno's whole body tense as a thin shard of ice flew towards him from the old man's hand, before he could dodge it or even more out of the way, Enychta was already taking the damage of the shard of ice for him.

It didn't seem to hurt as much as he thought it would, but he could still see the blood flowing from the injury Eny received. The old man suddenly vanished as Luke appeared behind him with his sword, going for the head, but before he could take the old man's head off, the old man was gone. Floating above then, the old man Iskandar chuckled as he said: "My my... What did you two see to make you so angry?" His question had a sarcastic tone to it, making both boys even angrier.

"Goddess Isis, will you please take us out of here?" Enychta asked the Goddess of Magic beside him, who shook her head said: "I would need to bypass Iskandar's magical block, which means you three will have to defeat him or protect me for 1 whole minute against Iskandar... Both are very likely not to happen since he is the most powerful mortal magician alive..." Enychta frowned as he looked at both Pruno and Luke who wanted that old man's blood and sighed.

"We are going to do both, at the same time," Enychta smirked as Isis's eyes widened, surprised that Enychta was this bold and confident, before nodding and smiling at him, hands forward she concentrated as several threads of several different colors appeared in front of her.

Enychta's naked body began to change, he grew scales and a pair of draconic wings as he transformed into his dragon form. With a frightening roar, he stood back as he protected Isis but was also ready to protect both boys with his body, he trusted them to kill that old man, or at least hurt him pretty badly.