‘This is just too sweet,’ Thanatos said. ‘Not only do I get to rid the world of mortal vermin, I get to take you and your little girlfriend with it.’

‘She’s not my girlfriend,’ Elliot scoffed. ‘Gross.’

Whatever was about to happen, he wasn’t going to die with that idea in the world.

‘Silence!’ Thanatos roared, the stone shining from his fingers like a rainbow beacon. ‘The moment has come! It is time for the world to be mine! And . . .’

He lowered the stone until its beam was aimed straight at Elliot’s heart. Elliot took a steadying breath. He’d be reunited with Mum sooner than they thought. That wasn’t so bad.

‘Elliot Hooper,’ Thanatos continued. ‘It is time for you to die. CHAOS STONE! DESTROY THE MORTAL SCUM! AAAAAARRRRRRGGGHHHH!’

Light burst from the Chaos Stone in an incandescent stream. But Elliot refused to close his eyes. He wanted to see the end. He wanted to stare it down. Elliot Hooper wasn’t going to fade into the darkness. He was going to blast into the light.

But before Elliot Hooper could do anything, a huge roar exploded from the other side of the cave. His head flicked to the source of the noise. Had Hermes come to save him? Was Hypnos returning to repay the favour?

But his saviour wasn’t a God. Nor a Daemon.

It was Virgo.

She sprinted across the cave and launched herself at the beam of light.

‘VIRGO!’ Elliot screamed ‘NOOOOOOOOOOOO!’

But there was nothing he could do. Trapped within his stone prison, he could only watch as Virgo threw herself between him and the bolt of elemental power that was about to destroy him and the world together. It was senseless. It was irrational. It was so not Virgo.

Time almost came to a standstill. He stretched out a hand to try to grab her, but she was beyond his reach. One millisecond at a time, Virgo and the Chaos Stone got closer, closer, closer. Until . . .

The beam hit Virgo with the force of a thousand sledgehammers.

Her slight body took the full impact of the combined power of Earth, Air, Water and Fire. It threw her so hard against the bars of Elliot’s stone prison that she shattered the stalactites to pebbles. Elliot braced himself for the beam to blast straight through her, straight through him and into the Earth’s core . . .

But it didn’t.

In half a heartbeat, the beam of light rebounded off Virgo’s body and ricocheted back in the direction it had come from.

Straight towards Thanatos.

‘What . . . NOOOOOOOOOOO!’ cried the Daemon, as the beam he had unleashed to destroy the world struck the Chaos Stone in his hands, exploding it into smithereens. With the Chaos Stone gone, the beam sought a new target . . . and promptly hit Thanatos square in the chest.