Chapter 10: Shift
River floated soullessly up into Mewni's sky, the King of Mewni just the most recent to fall victim to Meteora's soul-sucking ray. The king had fought valiantly, crippling Meteora in the process.
Seeing her dad go down made Star freeze up, which wasn't a dandy thing to have occur when Meteora even with one arm was still the most dangerous being in the dimension.
Her rage-filled eyes focused in on her, still suspended in her butterfly form but the aura of her magic weakening.
"You little brats! How dare you?" she cried out in pain, her eyes beginning to turn green. Just as she was about to fire, Tom threw himself in front of the blast and took the beam meant for Star.
It seemed to shock Star out of her daze, as Tom's eyes momentarily went blank. He gasped, she gasped, and then the light returned to his eyes as only one of the many thousands of spirits had been taken by Meteora.
"Tom?" Star asked, as he and Meteora seemed to be caught in this weird cycle where she would suck out one of the many thousands of spirits Tom had residing in him. Eventually she seemed to tire of it, and she let loose with one continuous stream of magic that sucked dozens of them from him at a time. Even he wouldn't last long under it.
"Raspberry Ribbon Lasso!" she cried, as six elastic strings of magic emerged from her hands. Five of them barreled towards Meteora, wrapping around both of her arms, and one snuck down to Tom and pulled him away from Meteora's grasp.
Tom hit the dirt with a thud, most of the spirits within him still intact. He opened his eyes only to see Star struggling with Meteora once again, this time the monster had taken hold of the raspberry lassos and yanked Star around with them.
The magic began to rip as if it were made of paper, and when it finally did the momentum caused Star to hit the ground and roll backwards. While she was stunned, Meteora was on her in a flash, pinning her to the ground while Star instinctively got a magical shield up just in time to hold back the soul-sucking ray.
Star made exerting gasping noises as her six arms struggled to keep her shield aloft. She stared at Tom with pleading eyes as all strength seemed to fade from her butterfly form.
The shield gave out, and the soul-sucking ray robbed the mewman princess of her butterfly form and her soul in one fell swoop. The six arms faded, the golden dress Star wore dissolved and she was left floating there lifelessly, two armed and completely vacant in the eyes.
"No!" Tom screamed, rather shrilly for the Prince of the Underworld, but all three of his eyes began to glow with red-hot anger that everyone in the underworld feared.
Meteora wasn't everyone in the underworld. She looked on as Tom began to chant demonically, snickering to herself in that spiteful way that she always seemed to do. This time she didn't prepare her magical eyes.
"End of the line, demon. Your two-timing girlfriend has answered for her family's crimes, and your little demon curses aren't enough to affect me." She didn't even flinch when demonic chains began to wrap around her mid-section, but her focus was drawn to rustling from over to the side.
There was Eclipsa, pilfering the wand from Star's soulless hand.
"Mama?" she asked, somewhat confused but also somewhat happened. The nervous smile turned into a nervous frown when she saw the look on Eclipsa's face, one of hurt, vengeance, and anger.
The wand began to pulse magically, changing into the shape of a parasol resembling the one seen in Eclipsa's tapestry.
"Midnight Shriek," Eclipsa whispared. A dark butterfly with a skull-like visage on its wings materialized on the parasol's tip, before splitting with a blast of dark magic that burned Meteora.
"W-What? What are you doing, mama?"
Eclipsa didn't even give her a chance to recover, to lash out at what had happened and proclaim her rebellion to her mother and the world. She merely encased her monster daughter in her Black Velvet Inferno.
Tears began pouring from her eyes as she began pounding against her magical prison, and she was ashamed to admit she looked away when the magic did its final, dirty deed.
Tom had just sat there kneeled down and watched the whole thing as the spell began to shatter as if it were made of crystal. The anger faded from Tom's eyes and he stopped recanting his demon curses; he just sat there, stunned. There was a small bundle near where Meteora had succumbed to the spell.
"W-What was that?" he asked.
"Something that I had to do..." Eclipsa mumbled. She wasn't looking at Tom, but rather at the form of the temporarily disadvantaged princess who was slowly falling out of the sky as her senses returned to her.
"Hubba? Huh? What! What happened? What happened?" she called, breathing heavily. Tom gave a joyous laugh and ran forward to embrace her.
"Starship! You're okay! I was worried there for a second!"
Star didn't return her boyfriend's embrace. She was still too in shock.
"B-But Meteora! I swear she got me! Eclipsa!" Star blurted out, staring at the woman who was holding her version of the wand. Eclipsa stared back.
"Oh... Star. Good to see you're okay. I... may have had to borrow this once you were out of commission. Sorry about all the trouble," she said as she prepared to hand back the wand to Star.
Star stared at it, seemingly deep in thought.
"I take it you saved us. The Butterfly Kingdom owes you a great deal of debt. And..." Star took a deep breath, mentally preparing herself as she tore out of Tom's embrace, "Keep the wand. Please. It was yours to begin with."
"Star?" Tom asked uncertainly. Eclipsa almost seemed surprised by the girl's offer, until a baby's cry broke her attention. The bundle of cloth that had been leftover revealed a tinier, baby version of Meteora.
"What?" Star said flatly, "Did you..." she trailed off, looking to Eclipsa as the woman seemed obviously overjoyed, but also a little surprised at what she was seeing. She went over to the crater and picked up her reborn monster daughter.
"Thank you, Star. Please, find your mother..." Eclipsa said, as she opened her parasol after taking Meteora under her arm, using magic to fly upon the wind and leave Star and Tom staring blankly.
Star collapsed onto her bed in exhaustion, her arm reflexively reaching out to put her wand on her nightstand, before remembering she didn't have it anymore. That would take some getting used to. Just a whole other thing to add with the whole identity crisis she had going on at the moment.
What a battle. They were lucky to escape with their lives, let alone no damages whatsoever. In the end, the soul-sucking magic had been undone and Meteora never made it to Butterfly Castle.
Even she had had her soul sucked for a very short period of time, and she shivered when she recalled the fact. The utter feeling of lifelessness, the emptiness of being suspended in that void. She hadn't been aware of it at the time, but now that she was conscious once again she remembered being in that state. It was... hard to explain.
Meteora was gone, reduced to the status of an infant somehow, but then there was the matter of Eclipsa. She had given up the wand to the woman; did that mean she was surrendering her family's right to the throne? She wasn't the most knowledgeable princess when it came to royal succession and the bylaws that came with who was ruling. For the time being, Eclipsa had disappeared and she still lived in Butterfly Castle with her father while she governed in her mother's absence.
She didn't want to delegate anything to those idiots though; all she wanted to do was rest.
As she was about to doze off, she slapped her hands against her cheeks in an attempt to wake herself up, and in doing so uncontrollably transformed herself into her golden butterfly form.
"Well, at least I can still do that. There's no time for me to rest. I can worry about the throne later, AFTER I find my mom." Star leapt off of her bed in her butterfly form and opened a portal to the Realm of Magic.
In the doorway, a hooded figure was watching into Star's bedroom, smiling underneath their hood.
A portal opened up in the landscape above the Realm of Magic as Star arrived. It was purple and red and gold, all kinds of swirling colors. It mirrored the one that had also appeared not too long ago in the world of peace.
Star touched down in the lake of magic, and the only thing that prevented her from succumbing to the euphoria threatening to overwhelm her was her mission at hand.
"Oh, hey, it's you! You wanna paddle around with me?" one of the baby unicorns rode in on a swell and started circling around her. Star narrowed her eyes and looked at the thing distrustfully.
"No, no, no, no. No way, buster. If I have fun with you, I'll forget who I am and be stuck here forever."
The baby unicorn only smiled wider, and off-puttingly looked away and didn't meet Star's eyes, "Yeah, doesn't that sound great?" it laughed, eyes twitching back.
"Nice try. But this time, I came prepared!" she pulled her compact mirror out of the her pocket and smiled smugly. The baby unicorn was undeterred.
"Okay! See you soon!" it said as Star began walking off into the distance. Star again was unbothered by the unicorn's final words as she began to trudge through the thick liquid in the shallows.
After walking for nearly an hour, she had found no sign of her mother, and the buzz in her head that told her to forget everything and everyone was getting louder. She passed by a flowing stream of magic in a field of crystals. Some of the jellyfish took off into the sky and she found herself mesmerized. Nothing she was doing was putting her on a path closer to her mom; why not stay and relax a bit?
The buzzing in her mind was now a low continuous hum, her ears ringing but her mind totally at ease. Her task forgotten, she waded around in the Realm of Magic without a care in the world.
"Whoaaaaaa..." she drawled, "Who am I? I don't remember my name. I don't remember anything!" she giggled, and began splashing around in the shallows carefree.
She would have been left alone to her devices, had it not been for the voice that began calling out to her.
"Hey..." it said, soft and tempting, "You have returned..."
"I have returned..." Star echoed, patting her hands against her knees.
"I thought you might return." the Firstborne said, revealing herself as the source of the voice to Star. Star's eyes glazed over and began to sparkle a light shade of purple.
"But, why have I returned? Where is here?" Star asked, already having forgotten her previous visit to the Realm of Magic. She yelped as the Firstborne dove underneath her and hoisted the princess onto her back.
"Come... this is not the place to discuss such things. You must go... to the Pool of Origins. You have been summoned. Hopefully you will be more receptive this time."
"Summoned... okay. Don't know what that means. I like this place though," Star giggled, "Let's go."
The Firstborne reared on her hindlegs and took off galloping through the shallows. The delirious Star tried to take in all the sights in her childlike wonder, but the unicorn was fast and she couldn't see everything there was. Eventually, they reached a pool of deep magic with an island in the center of it all.
"Woooowwwwww. What is that?" Star asked.
"The Pool of Origins," the Firstborne said, which was all she had to say about it, "This is as far as I can take you," she said as she had Star disembark on the shore, "Good luck, my queen..."
"Buh, whatever, funny-legged thing," Star grumbled as she stepped out onto the island.
"Ooh, I feel funny..." Star giggled, "It tingles, even more than over there!"
Star discarded her shoes and flexed her toes on the soft magic ground. All of a sudden, an updraft of air picked her up and she was floating above what would have been considered ground in the Realm of Magic.
"Weeeeeeee!" she squealed as she was carried above the skyline, "Ooh, where am I now?" she asked as the updraft ceased. It was even more amazing than the place down below. She was actually standing on air, for corn's sake!
She was up in the clouds; it was just like an ocean up here, wispy currents and turbulence flowing everywhere. She took a step forward, and Star swore she saw a flicker of movement and a figure out of the corner of her eye.
Her bliss and exuberance faded, but she was just numb and confused as ever. She walked at more of listless pace, and her eyes widened when she spotted the first thing besides the airy ocean in the sky.
It was distant, but there. Waterfalls flowing into the sky, just like the loyal layer. Unlike those however, they converged into one thick stream heading straight up.
She took off running, somehow drawn to the sight. As she got closer, another golden lake appeared before her eyes, somehow suspended in the sky without any problems. She fell to her knees at the shore of the lake, staring into the pool.
It was magic, just like the substance below, golden and syrupy.
But somehow this was the most beautiful, thickest, and purest magic of all. She could feel it; it made her warm and cozy in a way that other magic could not. As she was basking in it, a reflection appeared in the water and Star yelped.
It was a person, semi-transparent directly under the pool and staring up at her.
Star stared back. She was a young woman who looked remarkably like her. Really, it was a dead ringer down to the blue eyes and the slightly darker shade of blonde hair. The only differences were the markings on their cheeks and the over-the-top poofy dress she wore. Oh, and the fact that she was golden and transparent. If Star had been in the right frame of mind she would've recognized her as a former Queen of Mewni: Crescenta the Eager
The woman gave a cheery smile and wave that eased Star.
"We have been waiting for you Star," she said in a soothing voice that belayed the megawatt grin on her face.
Star... that's right. Star was her name. It was all coming back to her.
"We're all so proud of you. We've been waiting for someone worthy. We thought it would be your mother, but she threw away that opportunity. You're the only one with the magical potential."
"What... do you mean?"
Crescenta gave a disarming smile and swam around in the magical pool she was residing in without any resistance. She returned after her little display and offered a hand to Star.
"Never mind that. You want to be a great queen of Mewni, don't you? Then follow me into the Nexus of the Ether."
No alarm bells resounded off in Star's head; she was still too delirious. But one thing she did remember was that she did want to be a great queen of Mewni. She took Crescenta's hand, and began wading in the Royal Jelly.
For the second time recently, Marco was getting reminded why Mina Loveberry was considered Mewni's greatest warrior. A hulking behemoth that could fly and conjure magic from her fingertips, and had no sense of fear and conscience in battle.
The Knights of Mewni weren't exactly a threat when he had a monster arm available; Mina was a different story.
In his periphery, Marco noted he had been thrust into the chamber with the giant red monster encased in crystal. Mina had called him the "Monster God", with all the implications of what that meant.
Mina hovered up in the air, fangs bared and glaring down at Marco with her white, soulless eyes. She covered the area with her signature blue fire and blocked further escape routes from this room.
After that, Mina dovebombed him. Her foot lashed out with a kick that Marco blocked with his tentacle arm; if it wasn't slippery and boneless he would've had a mangled arm by now. He vaguely remembered how he had used the thing against Jeremy and muscle memory took over. He let the monster arm guide him, and unleashed a flurry of punches, his human fist acting as normal but the monster arm lashing and contracting as if it were a sort of whip.
Mina roared as her own bulky fist connected with the end of Marco's monster arm, the lack of recoil in each strike from the monster arm giving her no time to recover.
"Enough!" Mina roared, sweeping her arm across and conjuring some blue fire. It singed the end of Marco's arm, but he pulled it back and backed up the moment he saw flames ignite from the end of Mina's hands.
Mina thrust forward and punched, obliterating a wall. Had Marco not ducked, his skill would've been shattered. Mina wasn't done. She tackled Marco in a dive bomb through the newly shattered wall and clutched him tight, flying horizontally through the air. Marco freed his human arm from her capture, beginning to batter Mina's head in a series of weak, ineffective strikes.
Without any leverage, it was useless, until his monster arm freed itself from Mina's grasp and struck her across the shoulder entirely independent of Marco's will. Mina had carried them above, flying them just above the ceiling and when Marco had resisted enough to cause he to drop him on the big, red monster's crystal.
He bounced off it uselessly, reaching his human arms to try and grab the surface of the crystal. His nails began grinding against the prison as he slid down; he even began to bleed under his fingernails from the friction and the inability to hold on.
He eventually went into free-fall, but before he did there was a crack of crystal. Mina had landed on it as well, pushing off with her legs and actually slightly breaking the prison.
Hands glowing with blue fire, she actually caught him by the tentacle arm. He began thrashing again, doubly so considering the magical fire was searing his monster arm as if it were cooking calamari.
Up above him, Mina leered at him through her sharp, ironically monstrous face.
"Nice try, earthling. But, I've got a hold of your real weapon right here..." she said, stopping in mid-air and squeezing Marco's tentacle arm even tighter. Marco gave out a cry of pain from the pressure, in addition to the burning. There came a splatter, not as Marco's appendage was crushed, but as if began to secrete a black, inky-like substance that made Mina's hands slip.
She let go, and Marco fell back down onto the ground floor of the temple with a thud, rolling over to avoid Mina's boot coming down on him. It made a small crater in its wake, throwing off Marco's rolling slightly as he lost all momentum. He jerked to a halt suddenly as he felt pressure once again on his transformed limb.
There's where being so lengthy had its disadvantages. The large monster arm stuck out and he could maneuver it away in time before Mina slammed her foot down on it and pinning him to the ground.
Mina twisted it into the ground with a savage grin on her face. Methodically, she reached down and grabbed Marco's arm with hands, releasing the grip her foot had on him in order to pull him by the arm directly in her direction. Her fist cocked back, charged with magical power.
Time flashed to a standstill for Marco, and his mind went numb to what was happening as he was jerked in Mina's direction, movement and control completely sapped from his body by Mina's superior strength.
The fist impacted him at full force. He first felt the wind get knocked out of him, then excruciating pain for a split-second as the fire burned through his hoodie and charred his flesh before cauterizing his nerves.
He broke through the wall of the temple into the fresh air of the surrounding forest, before Mina appeared before him again. This time she uppercut him while he was still in the air. He was propelled dozens of feet higher into the air, straight up from the superhuman blow, and that was when his life truly flashed before his eyes as the blow broke numerous bones.
His parents, his school friends, his unborn brother, the town of Echo Creek, Mewni, Star...
"I should've told them what was going on; now I'm going to die with so much unsaid." His ears rang and his vision blurred; his mind moved a mile a minute as he reached the zenith of his ascent.
His body flopped as he fell down to earth, barely alive and in no control of his motor skills. As he came back down, Mina cocked her fist one final time, once again charged with magical energy. Her face was roaring with hatred, mouth agape as she gave an inhuman screeching warcry. As much as Marco would love to say his final moments would be spent thinking about the ones he loved, he was sorry to say that that nightmarish face, twisted by years of magical experimentation would be stuck in his brain.
She cracked her fist against his unprotected face the moment before he was about to hit the ground. His body shot off horizontally through the trees, hitting the ground roughly before bouncing back up and barely stopping his momentum. His face had caved in from the punch, but he flew by a particularly thick tree trunk that his legs caught again and them them with it.
His body slid into the dirt before his back hit a tree and he laid there lifelessly. Mina touched down and marched forward menacingly to admire her handiwork. Once she was satisfied with the unmoving Marco, she took off above the treeline to greater ventures, leaving his body to rot for all the nasty creatures of the Mewnian forest.
Several hours later, a woman carrying a magical parasol descended upon the ruins of the monster temple. Carrying a baby, her mouth pursed into a thin as she surveyed the recent damage, including the trail that led into the forest.
End of Chapter