Chapter 17: Awakening Giants

The skies over London darkened unnaturally. The flaming message in the sky had vanished, but the fear it left behind was palpable. Down below, people scrambled across the streets, staring up at the sky, whispering of doomsday.

Kai stood on the rooftop, heart pounding in his chest. Jace was beside him, his usual grin replaced with a grim line.

"I really thought," Jace muttered, "that after saving the world once, we'd get a break."

"No such thing," Kai replied, his voice calm, though his mind was already racing. The warning from the sky wasn't just a bluff.

Thunder boomed, and far in the distance, ancient statues carved into the cliffs along the English Channel began to shudder. Dust fell from their stone bodies, and with a sound like cracking glaciers, they moved.

The Titans were waking up.

Elias' face flickered on the holo-comm. His brow was furrowed, eyes tense. "Kai, I've confirmed it. The Titans aren't just relics. They're ancient elemental embodiments — older than humanity, older than magic itself. The shards you gathered… they were originally created to keep the Titans asleep."

Jace swore under his breath.

"How many?" Kai asked, already knowing the answer would be bad.

"Seven," Elias said. "One for each primal force: Earth, Water, Fire, Air, Storm, Ice, and Darkness."

"And they're all waking up at once?"

"That's what it looks like."

Kai exhaled slowly. The Titans were not creatures that could be reasoned with. They didn't understand humans — they represented nature in its purest, most violent form.

"What's the plan?" Jace asked.

Kai didn't answer immediately. He stared at the sky, feeling the shards hum against his chest. He could sense them pulling, almost as if they wanted to go toward the disturbance.

"We confront them," Kai said finally. "But not head-on."

Elias nodded. "I'll coordinate intel from the Archives. The first signs of movement are near Dover. That's where the Earth Titan is emerging. If that one fully awakens, it'll start shifting tectonic plates, causing quakes across Europe."

Kai nodded sharply. "We stop the Earth Titan first."

They barely had time to grab their gear before another tremor shook the city.

An hour later, they stood at the cliffs of Dover. The famous white chalk cliffs had cracked open, and something immense was pulling itself out.

A colossal figure — easily three hundred feet tall — made of stone and soil, with glowing emerald eyes that burned like wildfire.

The Earth Titan.

It took one thunderous step forward, and the ground split. Great fissures tore through the land, swallowing roads and forests.

"That thing could level half the continent if it keeps going," Jace muttered.

"Not if we stop it first," Kai said, though his stomach twisted at the sheer scale of what they faced.

He raised his hand, and the shards ignited with power. Earth, air, water, fire, storm, ice — all responding to his call.

The Titan's head turned slowly, and it noticed him.

Suddenly, it roared — a deep, grinding sound like mountains colliding — and swung an arm the size of a skyscraper toward them.

"Move!" Kai shouted.

They leaped back as the massive stone arm slammed into the cliffside, sending rock and debris cascading into the sea.

Jace rolled to his feet. "Uh, any plan B?"

"I'm working on it!"

Kai closed his eyes briefly, focusing the power of the shards. He could feel the Titan's energy — ancient, slow, but overwhelming. He couldn't fight it head-on. But maybe…

"Elias!" Kai called through the comm. "Any weak spots?"

"I'm scanning. The Titans are protected by layers of elemental shields. You need to disrupt its connection to the earth. If it can't draw power from the land, it'll weaken."

Kai's mind raced. "Jace! We need to separate it from the ground!"

Jace glanced at the cliff edge and then back at the Titan. "You're kidding me."

"No. We're going to drop it."

The Titan took another massive step forward, sending shockwaves through the ground. Kai focused on the shards, calling on the power of air and water, mixing them into a cyclone.

The winds howled, swirling around the Titan's legs, while Jace charged forward, planting explosive charges at the cliff's edge.

"Come on, come on," Jace muttered, racing back.

"NOW!" Kai shouted.

Jace hit the detonator.

The explosives roared, and the cliffside crumbled. The Titan, caught off balance, let out a thunderous bellow as the ground beneath it collapsed.

The giant stone form plunged into the ocean with an enormous splash, sending waves crashing against the cliffs.

For a moment, there was silence.

Then the Titan began to rise from the water, but its movements were slower. Heavier.

"It's working!" Elias shouted. "It's losing its connection to the earth!"

Kai didn't hesitate. He gathered the shards' combined power and unleashed a massive surge of energy into the water. The currents responded, forming whirlpools around the Titan's submerged body.

The Titan struggled, but without its direct link to the land, it couldn't resist.

Finally, with one last groan, the massive stone form crumbled into the depths, vanishing beneath the waves.

Kai collapsed to one knee, breathing hard.

"We got one," Jace said, panting.

Kai nodded, but there was no time to celebrate.

Elias' voice came through the comm again. "Kai, that was just the beginning. Reports are coming in from across the world. The Fire Titan is emerging from Mount Etna. The Ice Titan has broken free in Greenland. The Storm Titan is forming over the Atlantic. They're all waking up."

Kai stood slowly. His muscles ached, but his resolve hardened.

"Then we go where we're needed."

He looked at Jace.

"You with me?"

Jace grinned. "Always."

Elias chimed in. "I'll coordinate transport. But Kai… this isn't just about stopping them. The Titans are reacting to the shards being united. The only way to truly stop this is to separate them again."

Kai hesitated. He had grown attached to the shards, to their power. But deep down, he knew Elias was right.

"Understood," Kai said quietly.

Their next destination was Greenland. The cold wind hit them the moment they stepped off the plane, biting through even their thick jackets.

The Ice Titan was unlike anything they had seen. Towering and crystalline, its body refracted the light like a prism, and wherever it stepped, glaciers cracked and surged forward in walls of ice.

Elias spoke through the comms. "Same approach — break its connection to its element."

Kai summoned fire and storm energy, creating bursts of heat that melted ice beneath the Titan's massive feet.

But the Ice Titan was faster than the Earth Titan. It responded quickly, sending freezing gusts of wind that turned their breath into ice crystals.

Jace shivered violently. "Okay, this one's playing rough!"

The Titan's icy hand shot forward, and Kai barely dodged as a massive spear of ice crashed into the ground where he had stood.

"We need to trap it!" Elias called. "Melt the ice under it, then freeze it in place!"

"Sounds insane," Jace muttered.

Kai didn't argue. He called upon the shards again, combining fire and water into scalding steam jets that blasted the Titan's legs. The ice beneath it melted rapidly, forming a deep, slushy pit.

Before the Titan could recover, Kai switched to water and ice control, freezing the melted water solid again — locking the Titan's feet in place.

The giant roared, straining against its frozen prison.

"Now!" Elias shouted.

Kai summoned the shard energy one more time, firing a massive beam of concentrated elemental power into the Titan's core.

Cracks spread across its crystalline body.

One more surge — and the Titan shattered into millions of glittering shards, collapsing onto the glacier in a brilliant display of refracted light.

Jace collapsed onto the ice. "Two down."

"Five to go," Kai said, though exhaustion was already gnawing at his strength.

Elias' voice came through. "Kai… the Storm Titan has reached Category 7 status over the Atlantic. It's heading straight for New York."

Kai clenched his fists.

"Then we don't stop."

He turned to Jace, who was already on his feet again, grinning despite the cold.

"Ready for round three?"

Jace punched his shoulder. "Let's make history."

And once again, they boarded the jet, racing toward the next battle.

Because heroes never rest.

And storms never wait.