Taurus walked past the fountain with his Ethruki following him obediently. “This Zeera is no longer a natural creature, no longer even a tower guardian. It’s been tainted by corruption, malice and magic. I will see to it that it’s cast back into the abyss, never to trouble the world again.”

“How could this be?” Aurin asked Taurus.

“I did not foresee that tampering with the interdimensional forces that brought a tower guardian into a tower would cause it to mutate in this way. I had hoped it would be sealed away…at worst, I expected it could manifest as a normal tower guardian.”

“You still don’t get it, do you?” Kyle asked Taurus. “You haven’t reset the world to the way it was meant to be, you’ve corrupted a rift in time and space. You’ve completely broken things!”

“This can be fixed,” said Taurus, waving away Kyle’s concerns. “Leo! Sagittarius!”

Leo and Sagittarius ran through the crowd of tamers and towards their leader with Abysarex and Mindadam following. The three cosmic Minakai had been assembled and their tamers were ready to fight to repel Zeera.

“Hold him!” ordered Taurus.

Ethruki, Abysarex and Mindadam ran towards the Zeera, who spied the charging cosmic Minakai through the crowd. Its eyes glowed orange and it let out a roar that rumbled the air and sent a wave of terror throughout the square. Many Minakai turned and ran, but the three cosmics continued their charge.

Ethruki’s body became surrounded by an ethereal aura and it stopped abruptly. A rippling force was propelled through the air towards Zeera, halting its attempted swipe and freezing its arm in place. Abysarex bounded on all fours towards the epic Minakai, then leapt and threw a punch into the sky. A spectral fist appeared in the air and collided with Zeera’s face, making the titan recoil.

Mindadam’s eyes glowed turquoise and it let out an echoing, robotic neigh. It slammed its hooves into the ground opened up a glowing portal in the square. It burst through and reappeared from a new portal that appeared atop Zeera. Mindadam headbutted Zeera in the nose. As Zeera shook it off, it fell through a new portal it conjured and reappeared on the ground uninjured.

“It’s working,” said Aurin, his anxiety turning to relief.

The three cosmic Minakai stood on the ground and used their elemental magic to hold Zeera’s entire body in place; it was completely frozen and unable to move. The tamers all cheered at the apprehension of the mighty Minakai.

“Look!” called Gardner, pointing at Zeera.

“What?” asked Aurin.

“It blinked. It shouldn’t be able to blink.”

“Oh no…” muttered Aurin as Zeera started to shake.

Like Dolissile had done in Briarwood, it was fighting back against the cosmic elementals. Unlike during Aurin’s own fight against Tobias’s Mindadam, the three Zodiac cosmics had not been exhausted.

Zeera violently lunged forward, slamming its fist into the ground as the Zodiac Squad’s Minakai narrowly escaped being crushed. The three Minakai tried to reestablish their hold on Zeera, but it was less effective this time, merely slowing it down before it broke free of the cosmic power.

“Aurin!” called Conrad, running alongside Klaus, who had finally arrived in Hazelton.

“You’re finally here,” Aurin said to Klaus, but realised that no one else had shown up with him. “Where are the rest of the Minakai Guardians?”

“I was sent alone,” said Klaus.

“You’re joking, right?”

“I’m afraid not. I was told to come here and assess the situation for myself before they would send further reinforcements.”

“We’re losing!” called Aurin. “Our town is being destroyed.”

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“I can see that,” said Klaus. “I already made the call, but I can only guess when backup will arrive.”

“Agh!” yelled Aurin. “How can things possibly get worse?”

Abysarex was suddenly flung into the fountain by Zeera, smashing it to pieces. Leo watched his mighty Minakai twitching in the rubble and then turned to look at Zeera, who was now trying to trample on Mindadam who was forced to teleport through its portals.

“There’s nothing we can do,” said Leo, dropping to his knees. “This…this was not the way things were meant to be.”

“How can we keep fighting?” asked Luna, clinging to Aurin. “If the cosmic Minakai can’t defeat Zeera, then what hope do we have left?”

“It’s too big, it’s too powerful,” said Conrad. “I told you we needed more backup than this!”

“You know it was out of my hands, Conrad,” said Klaus, his voice shaking with anger. “If I had my way, I’d have stormed the town with a hundred men, armed with as many powerful Minakai as I could get my hands on. Maybe now, our superiors will deploy our own cosmics. Three is not enough.”

Conrad shook his head in frustration. “There must be some way to trap it. Hold it somewhere it can’t escape from until we can find a way to send it back where it came from.”

An idea suddenly came to Aurin. “I know what to do,” he said. “Stall for as long as you can. I’ll be back as soon.”

Dolissile was deep in the fray, fighting alongside the other Minakai to attract attention away from the cosmic elementals, but had taken a few knocks from Zeera’s earthly attacks. Aurin summoned the cybernetic dolphin to his side.

“Going to need you to push through the pain, mate,” said Aurin, climbing onto his Minakai’s back and holding on tightly. “Full speed ahead to the ranch.”

“What are you doing?” asked Luna, but Aurin was already halfway across the square.

Dolissile sped through Hazelton and Aurin gripped onto the dolphin as tightly as he could, trying to avoid being thrown off. He had to be quick or the rest of Hazelton would have been flattened along with everyone in town.

Along the streets, through the alleyways, down the path, past the forest and into the ranch. Dolissile was almost spent, having torpedoed at such speed, but Aurin would need him again momentarily. He climbed off, his hair swept back by the intense air resistance, and then burst into Kyle’s house.

Aurin ran up the stairs and into his room, flipping his bed up and pulling out a wooden box made of dark oak and lined with gold metal trim. He grabbed his key, opened the lock and threw the lid of the box open.

“Please work,” said Aurin, grabbing the item he kept securely in the box and running back outside, leaping down the stairs and almost breaking his ankles. “Back to the square,” said Aurin, throwing himself onto Dolissile’s back, holding onto his Minakai with one hand and onto his Palace Royale prize with his other.

Aurin could see the undeterred Zeera wreaking havoc in the town square and the dots that were flying Minakai being swatted away by flies. He prayed that his friends were safe as Zeera kicked and stamped its massive feet.

Bursting into the square, he threw himself from Dolissile and summoned Skrow to his side. He was relieved to see that everyone was still safe, but there weren’t many Minakai left.

“Aurin, why did you leave?” Luna asked.

Aurin held up the large peach-like berry in his hand. “To get this.”

“Of course!” called Kyle in amazement. “The Roche Berry…that might just work.”

“Taurus,” Aurin called to the Zodiac leader. “I need all of your men targeting Zeera. If it opens its mouth, you need to freeze him. We may only get one shot at this.”

Taurus nodded. “Zodiac Squadron!” he roared. At least a hundred tamers, both masked and unmasked stepped through the crowd and made their way to their leader. “Now is the moment we push hard. We’re going to course correct and get rid of this menace. I need you to give it your all, do you understand?”

“Yes, Master Taurus!” the Zodiac Squad called out in unison.

Aurin held up his tamer glove and summoned the rest of his team. “Shamtile, you’re in charge,” said Aurin to the masked lizard who was ready to give his fellow earth-elemental hell. “Sunny, keep the cosmic Minakai healed up. Budescent and Skrow, you’re with me.”

Aurin mounted Skrow and Budescent climbed on behind him. The green wolf wrapped itself, Aurin and Skrow in vines, binding them together and letting Aurin hold the Roche Berry in two hands.

“Everyone ready?” he asked.

The tamers all yelled in agreement as Zeera smashed three buildings with a single kick meant for Mindadam.

“Let’s save our town,” said Aurin. “Attack!”

The remaining Minakai in the square kept low and charged on Zeera, drawing his attention away from the air as Aurin soared into the sky with Budescent and Skrow. They flew above Zeera, keeping away from his gaze as he attacked the Minakai on the ground.

“We need to time this just right,” Aurin said to Skrow. “The second he opens his mouth, dive.”

Aurin could see Ethruki fighting to hold back one of Zeera’s feet while Sunny kept close to the cosmic bull. Taurus’s Minakai was key right now, and Aurin knew he had to trust that the Zodiac leader would follow through.

Ethruki released Zeera’s foot and it slammed it into the ground, but missed its target. Angered, Zeera opened its mouth and drew breath to roar. Skrow burst forward and Aurin felt his hands shaking as he clutched his Roche Berry. He moved his hands to his side and threw the berry with all of his might, watching it fly through the air towards Zeera’s open mouth.

Ethruki suddenly appeared through one of Mindadam’s portals and stood atop Zeera’s nose. The mighty Minakai’s mouth was locked in place as the berry made its mark and hit the back of Zeera’s throat before disappearing from sight. Ethruki vanished from sight and Aurin backed away as Zeera was allowed to unleash its roar.