They finally entered a large circular room similar to the one they had seen before.
"That took you longer than I expected," Deones said from behind them.
"We ran into your little pets," Aysh Ra snapped.
"Yes, I know. The dumb things will soon be extinct just like their ancestors."
"We will see that that doesn't happen," Helen told him.
"You? What are you going to do? Throw pots at me?" he said sarcastically.
"No. I'll roast you," Aysh Ra said and fired five fireballs in his direction. Like Dairniss, he stopped them before they reached him, but instead of disintegrating them, he turned them around to fly back toward them.
"Watch out!" Vyndi said, she outstretched her hands and a strong gust of wind filled the room causing the fire balls to extinguish.
"No more fire balls please," Marina told Aysh Ra in a vex tone.
"What next? I can't wait to see what you'll throw at me this time." Deones said confidently.
Vyndi closed her eyes and ordered all oxygen molecules to leave the air around him, the same she had done for Dairniss, only that this time it didn't seem to work.
"Unfortunate for you," he told her, "all the oxygen will stay here."
Gaia thought of an earthquake, but that would only crush them all, something she didn't want to do at that moment. She looked at Vyndi and saw what her next spell was. Above them, black clouds began to form, a strong wind began to blow. She noticed that Marina was also participating in this one, and she knew it wasn't a spring shower they where forming. She was amazed to see Aysh Ra add her bit of fury to the storm also.
"Helen, get back," she said pulling her back with her.
"Interesting." Deones said watching the storm grow. A few seconds later the room in front of Gaia and Helen closed with a rain of hail. Lightning illuminated the now dark room, and burned a hole in the ground. Gaia could see that Deones had somehow managed to put a shield around himself, therefore escaping the fury of the storm. This was useless. They needed Helen to participate or they would all be dead when Deones got tired of playing with them. Where was Dairniss anyway?
Helen could tell they were getting nowhere. But she didn't know how she could help. Dairniss had given her a pearl, that she had no idea what to do with. She knew he was coming, he was near. Her hypothesis was proven when Dairniss entered the room from behind Deones. He quickly took cover with his brother to avoid the raging hail storm.
"Ironic isn't it?" Dairniss said quoting Deones from earlier.
"What? That I have spent the last fifteen years worrying over nothing?" Deones asked him.
"No," Dairniss told him slowly, "that they have spent he last fifteen minutes playing with you." Around them the storm died.
"What do you mean?" Deones asked him suspiciously.
"Look at what I found," he said and then lifted his spell of Helen.
Helen suddenly found herself being the center of all the attention. If there had ever been any doubt among any of the witches it died in that moment. She finally knew what to do.
"Ironic," Deones told his brother in a deadly tone, "that I have been searching for two things for fifteen years and suddenly they both walk to my door." No one saw it coming, all Helen knew was that a second later everyone around them including herself were one the floor. A strange wave had knocked them all down. Marina saw their status change from offensive to defensive in the blink of an eye. Looking up, she saw how Deones attracting strange lighting to his hand and that he was ready to throw it at Gaia and Helen who were together.
"Gaia!" Marina called. "Look out!" Gaia looked up and saw it coming.
"Helen!" she cried out over the sound of thunder the strange lightning caused.
"Oh, my goodness!" Helen cried looking up and seeing the thing heading her way.
Both she and Gaia rolled out of the way seconds before it struck where they had been.
"Get behind me!" Marina called at them. "I have an idea." They all ran and stood behind her.
"Gaia, this is crazy!" Saria screamed frantically.
"You wanted to come along, right?"
Marina kept a wary eye on the next energy ball forming in Deones' hand and looked around. Great. No water. She reached for her necklace and pulled loose one of it's shells. Shaking it she confirmed that it had water inside. She threw it to the floor breaking it and spilling the water it had contained.
"Expansion. Mayiam," she said and the water on the floor began to multiply. Looking up she saw the next energy ball on it's way.
"Wall up." It raised forming a watery wall from the ceiling twenty feet above their heads to the floor. She took a few steps back to see if her plan would work. The lightning crashed against the water causing a blasting sound of electricity separating hydrogen and oxygen and the tearing apart water molecules. The wall held. The lightning expanded all over the watery wall filling the room with an eerie, whitish glow.
"That won't hold him long," Vyndi pointed out.
"At least it'll keep that lighting out." Aysh Ra noted. Another ball crashed against it, suffering the same fate as the one before it. But this time the wall visibly shook.
"Vyndi's right. Every time he hits it, the wall looses a layer of water, it won't hold for very long."
"We must do it now, then," Gaia said pulling out her emerald, the Emerald of Earth.
"It takes time," Aysh Ra told her. "He'll be blasting the place to cinders as we prepare. Not to mention it will be us he'll be aiming at." Another electricity ball crashed against the wall, this time leaving only a thin layer behind the impact. Vyndi turned to them after looking at the wall.
"Ok. Lets do it," she said quickly and took out her diamond, the Diamond of the Winds.
"We better do this fast," Marina said pulling out a sapphire, the Sapphire of the Seas.
"Agreed," Aysh Ra said watching as the last bit of wall collapsed under the electricity. She took out her ruby, the Ruby of the Flame and looked at her friends.
"Let's run and take our positions then," she told them.
"Helen..." Gaia started.
"I know, I'll be the bait while you guys prepare," she told Gaia and smiled at her. They all broke of running in a different direction.
"Saria," Gaia called out, "go with Helen, the more things he has to shoot at, the less the chance of somebody getting hurt."
"Yes, Gaia!" Saria told her and flew after Helen.
Helen ran for her life. She knew she had to get all the attention on herself while the guardians prepared. Why was she always the one running?
"Hey!" Saria said from the opposite side of the room, "Ya big, good for nothing, smelly, old sewer rat!" Saria turned human size to be an easier target. Deones turned to face her. Saria noticed that he didn't look the same as he had a few minutes before, more sinister. A cascade of lightning flew in her direction.
"Oh boy...aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!" Saria shrunk to fairy size and flew upwards.
At least I got his attention off of Helen, she thought as she avoided the electric blades.
Helen looked at Gaia and saw she still wasn't ready. Nor were the other three for that matter. She was forced to snapped back to reality when a lightning bolt missed her by a few inches. She saw Saria was flying in her direction.
"Get him off me! Get him off me!" she screamed as she flew past her forcing Helen to follow in order to avoid the energetic blades.
"We can't let him attack the others, Saria...we have to keep running." Helen was beginning to feel out of breath.
"Let's split up!" Saria said turning to fly in the opposite direction. Helen continued running and then it hit her that if they where in a circular room, they would meet forcing the energies to crash against each other.
"Saria! Fly towards me!" she screamed at her. The poor little fairy looked exhausted, but obeyed her. Their circles began to meet, Helen took a deep breath.
"Duck!" she called out to Saria and drop to the ground in exhaustion. The little fairy mimicked her and above them, the to blades met causing a blinding explosion. She looked at the little fairy. Saria looked exhausted and scared but unharmed.
"We got rid of this one..." Helen told her breathing hard. Saria pointed at Deones.
"That means we get up and do it all over again!" she turned into her human size got up and continued to run. Helen stood up to follow only to discover she couldn't move.
******
Dairniss woke up feeling a sharp pain in his head. Since he had been next to Deones, he had gotten the worse part of the shock wave. He looked up and saw and extraordinary sight. Something he had only seen pictured in one book. The four element witches stood on four points of the compass each holding up stone in front of them. But where was the fifth one? He looked for Helen and saw her standing in front of Deones. That wasn't right, the last witch had to be lined up with earth and water, yet standing a few paces before them, she had it all wrong unless...Deones...He knew that spell. It would freeze the victim disabling all movement. He looked at the witches and saw that they were ready to cast their spell, but if Helen didn't say her part, it would all be for nothing. Not only that but Deones seemed ready to fire one of his lightning balls at her. Not good, Gaia or any of the other might survive a few moments longer after impact, and even that was a slim chance, but Helen was the most frail of all, not to mention the most defenseless, she would be killed instantly. There was no way to contradict that spell unless...
It was all beginning.
"Mayiam," Marina said putting her sapphire on the floor. A mystical blue ray emerged from it.
"Pou Ra," Aysh Ra said and a similar ray, only red emerged from her ruby.
"Phoey," Vyndi said and a while ray emerged from her diamond.
"Shay," Gaia muttered and a green ray emerged from her emerald. All four rays met in the center of the room falling on Deones. He looked around momentarily confused, then looked at Helen.
"They can't finish without you, and they shall not." Helen felt desperate. She had to move or she would be hit by a blazing lightning ball. 'Move!' she screamed at herself inside, but her body wouldn't respond. She looked to her side and saw Dairniss looking at her with a determined expression on hid face.
"Difusshais!" Dairniss screamed over the roar of the rays. The last thing he saw was the lightning change course from Helen toward himself.
******
Helen found herself free and rolling through the floor. When she stood, and saw that she was standing between Gaia and Marina. It was time. She took a deep breath and took out the pearl Dairniss had given her. Now she understood. The Pearl of Life, the last piece of the puzzle finally fell in its place. She placed it in the floor in front of her.
"Shalem..." she said softly, a delicate silver ray reflected from it and united with the other four. Deones looked around him and saw an invisible wall begin to build. He looked down on Dairniss who was trying hard to stand.
"Know that I never meant any harm toward you," he told him, he smiled a thin smile and turned to face the witches. "Know that you have not seen the last of me." The invisible wall began to change to each of the colors of the gems until it turned silver. This attracted all the jewels that were on the floor to come toward Deones. When they reached him there was a single flash of blinding light and then all returned to normal. Helen looked to where Deones had been but only saw a single black pearl in his place. She looked at Gaia who stood motionless in the eastern corner of the room. She walked over to it and picked it up.
"For now, it is over," Gaia said.