I had already visited Grandad’s grave that day, so there was only one more to do. I thanked the Gods that Jeremy was buried in the same cemetery.

Jeremy and I hadn’t exactly been the best of friends, but we knew each other, and his death still hurt me. At Apercaput, I only knew him as Cecilia’s brother.

He always helped me, Cecilia, and Alyssa with magic if we ever needed it. I felt no shame in saying that he was one of the best wizards I knew.

His death was perhaps the main reason that I wanted my shot at Maltor. As long as I lived, I would never forgive him for that. They were brothers.

I stopped in front of Jeremy’s grave. As I stared down at it and read the words carved into the headstone, I felt my throat begin to burn.

Jeremy James Confussée

Born 25 November 2003 Died 16 May 2022

Rest in Olympus. Your bravery will not be forgotten as you move to your final resting place. You were a beloved brother and son and a magnificent friend to all who knew you. Light was shed wherever you walked. Wait for us as we look forward to seeing you again.

I placed my hand gently on the top of the headstone.

‘Couldn’t have put it better myself,’ I said quietly, part of me hoping that he could hear me. ‘Rest easy, man.’

He hadn’t been granted his fight with Maltor. His life had been taken before he had been given the chance to do what he wanted to do more than anything else.

I gritted my teeth. I had to do it for him. I would give Maltor the fight of his life if given the chance. In his name. Maltor would fall under the joint might of me and Jeremy.

‘I’ve got a cool new sword now,’ I continued, still looking at the text. ‘I’ll kill him with it for you. I’m gonna win this war for you, man.’

Giving a deep sigh, I removed my hand from the headstone, patting it gently as I did so.

Tomorrow was the big day. The nineteenth of June. The humanitarian side of me was hoping that no attack came. I was glad that the humanitarian side of me was not the larger side of me. I wanted nothing more than for Maltor to show his face. Then, at the very least, Albert could destroy him.

Albert had informed us all that we would all be in a squad together with Charlotte. I didn’t know Charlotte too well, but I knew that everybody else trusted her. And I didn’t mind being with someone I didn’t know if it meant charging into battle with all my friends.

I had to get some training in. Albert had set me up with a Combot of my own, and it was a lot more helpful than I had originally expected.

Today was my last chance if Albert’s prediction was correct. I had to at least give it a shot.

As I began to walk away, I glanced back at Jeremy’s grave. My heart panged.

‘See you, Jeremy,’ I said quietly. ‘Wish me luck for tomorrow.’

I hoped he was listening.

***

Flying backwards across the school Gym, I questioned whether I really should have done some training.

I slammed into the shiny wood of the Gym’s wall, and I saw Peter and Isaac wince out of the corner of my eye. Both of them appeared upside down.

When I had arrived at school, the two of them had already been in the Gym. All three of us had decided to get in some last-minute training, so we all joined forces and did it together.

Grunting, I got back to my feet and lunged at the Combot, swinging my sword in a wide arc as I did so.

‘Not so wide!’ Peter called frantically. ‘You make your body vulnerable!’

Quickly bringing my arm in slightly, I just about blocked a swing from the Combot. I had been moving with such momentum that I forced it back by a few feet before the two of us became locked in the ninth stalemate that day.

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We lashed out for a few seconds, our swords colliding numerous times.

As much as I told myself that this thing was designed to perfectly match my skill level, it always seemed to hurt whenever I struggled against it.

Then I landed a great hit. I slammed my sword into the side of its head. And I didn’t stop there. I struck it in the side and the ‘legs’, before finally hitting it in the arms and then in the chest to send it flying to the ground.

Isaac cheered and Peter slowly began to clap.

‘Have you gotten any better with your chain swords?’ I asked as the Combot began to get back up. ‘Combot, stop.’

‘A bit, but I definitely can’t do any tricks with it yet,’ Isaac said, sounding a bit shameful. ‘But once I practice more I’ll be set for life.’

‘From what you’ve done today you seem pretty good without any flashy tricks,’ Peter added. ‘You don’t need them. You’d have to be a master swordsman to pull off some of the stuff you mentioned.’

‘Then a master swordsman I’ll be,’ Isaac replied, puffing his chest out and putting his hands on his hips. ‘If I go out I’m gonna go out like a badass.’

‘You’re gonna get yourself killed by annoying your opponent a bit too much,’ Peter joked. ‘May the Gods help us if you’re ever taken hostage. You’d be dead in an hour.’

‘And you wouldn’t have me any other way,’ Isaac said, grinning. ‘Nobody’s gonna take me hostage if you’re around anyway. A son of Zeus and he has a giant cleaver? Nobody is gonna wanna fight you.’

‘Me?’ Peter shrieked, his voice unusually high. ‘How about Albert? Or, you know, the other two demigods of Titan that’ll be there?’

‘Don’t act like I’m some sort of threat,’ I murmured. ‘I’ve still gotta get past this damn robot.’

‘You’re tired,’ Peter said, evidently trying to lift my mood. ‘You were doing great when we started, what, three hours ago?’

‘Yeah, we’ve done three and a half,’ Isaac replied quietly, nodding. ‘No wonder you’re not only doing a bit worse than before, but you’re getting more annoyed at yourself.’

The three of us put away our Combots in the back wall of the Gym before we all found ourselves with nothing to do.

‘Great, now what are we supposed to do?’ Isaac yelled, sarcastically throwing his hands in the air.

I didn’t really care what we did. Part of me wanted to just stay with the two of them and do something. Over the six months that I’d known these people, I already felt as though they were the best friends that I’d ever had.

But there was one aspect of my training that I had forgotten about almost entirely for the past week. As much as I wanted to stay with Peter and Isaac, and maybe even go to the café or something with them, I had to at least do this one bit of training first. I could go somewhere with them after the fight. If I didn’t do this training then I might be dead before I got the chance to go anywhere.

‘You two can go ahead and do something else, but I wanna go do one more aspect of training,’ I murmured apologetically. ‘I would stay with you guys, but I don’t wanna go into the fight unprepared.’

‘What could you possibly have to train?’ Peter asked, sounding almost appalled.

‘My Titan powers,’ I mumbled, so quiet that even I could barely hear it.

Peter paused for a moment before nodding sympathetically.

‘You’ll be unstoppable if you train them well enough,’ he assured me. ‘There are not many demigods of Titan, but the ones that exist are the most powerful demigods that exist.’

‘Exactly. I wanna be as powerful as Albert one day.’

‘Don’t we all?’ Isaac sighed sarcastically. ‘I’m almost excited to see him fight Maltor tomorrow. Knowing Albert, he’s gonna go batshit insane when he sees him. It’s gonna be completely different from when he fought Righello.’

‘I almost feel sorry for him,’ Peter added. ‘Unless he’s undergone even more efficient training than Albert and Ethan did, he’ll be dead in twenty-four hours.’

‘We’ve gotta get to tomorrow first,’ I pointed out, smirking.

‘Now I just wanna sleep,’ Isaac groaned. ‘Thanks a lot, Harvey.’

‘My pleasure,’ I retorted wittily, grinning at him.

***

Letting out a great roar of triumph, I stared at my creation.

A huge spike of earth had risen from the ground and now loomed over me. It extended about five metres up into the sky, towering above me impressively.

It had taken a fair bit of effort, but at least I had done it. Over the past hour, I had gotten better at extending blades of grass and manipulating the wind.

I was dying to trap somebody in a cage of grass. I could form the basic shape, but I would have to make it strong enough so that the prisoner could not escape. Thinking about such a scene made me excited to fight.

I could barely stop myself from grinning at the thought of charging into battle with Albert. The only two remnants of the Santrrer family. Two descendants of Titan.

It was my time to show the world what Harvey Bèstia was made of.

Tightening my gut as Albert had told me to do many times, I just about managed to shrink the brown spike of dirt back into the ground at my feet.

I stared up at the sky through the leaves of the trees.

‘I’m gonna get him for you,’ I said quietly. ‘You won’t go un-avenged.’

A shiver ran down my spine at the thought that the war could be over in twenty-four hours. We could do it. We could end it.

‘Watch me, Grandad,’ I continued. ‘Look at how far I’ve come tomorrow.’

I patted my wand in my pocket. Even if I didn’t have a sword, so long as I had my wand I was safe. I could fight.

And fight I would. It was my time. My chance to do something meaningful. Those petty duels I had been a part of on the ship to RoCity were nothing compared to what I was about to walk into. This was different. This could end the war.

There were so many people that wanted to kill Maltor, myself included, that I wondered who would be the one to do it for a moment. Only for a moment as it was a stupid thing to ponder. Obviously, it was going to be Albert. There was nobody more fit for the job.

But I wanted my piece. I was more powerful now than I had ever been. I would avenge Jeremy. And I would save the world.