The remainder of the trek up the mountain went by quickly; the last narrow escape had spurred everyone into reaching their destination as quickly as they could.
"Stop!" Vincent instructed, after they'd reached a flattened part of the peak—the hole caused by Vincent's Ultima spell from all those years ago.
"But we haven't reached the top yet," Flim-Flam pointed out. "You only took out half the peak, Vince—there's still higher we can climb!"
"Voudini, Boris, and I never made it to the top; we rested here, aiming to climb further when we were attacked. This is where we'll find the gate, believe me."
"It's probably buried under a lot of snow," Daphne realized. "That lady said that no one's been here for thousands and thousands of years."
"I don't think so," Vincent replied. "The gate that appeared outside my castle was brand new; the companion gate to send us back should also be new; this lady you spoke to would have had no way of knowing if anyone had been here."
"Rhut it's not rhere!" Scooby said, sniffing around in the snow.
"You don't suppose that meanie and the shadow witch lied about there being a second gate?" Scrappy asked.
"It's possible, but one-way gates like the one that brought us here are almost always created in pairs," Vincent said.
"There has to be one," Daphne agreed. "Why else would he have tried to stop us from climbing this mountain once he found out how close we were?"
"Okay, so… where is it?" Flim-Flam asked.
"Uh… Would this gate be a bunch of weird shapes and squiggles all carved in a big circle?" Shaggy asked.
"Yes, those carvings would be runes that would need to be activated in order to open the gate," Vincent said.
"Groovy—then I found it."
They all glanced at Shaggy, who had been leaning against the part of the peak that had survived Vincent's spell, albeit after having been flattened by the spell; behind him, carved on the flat side of the mountain, were the runes he'd described. In the center of the circle were two depressions meant for hands—and, arranged in a star pattern around the central depressions were five more sets of depressions all around the edge of the circle.
"Rhow do we ropen it?" Scooby asked.
"Give me just a moment to read the runes; they'll tell us what to do…" Vincent began, but then he trailed off. "Oh, no…"
"…I don't like 'Oh no's. They're never good," Shaggy gulped.
"The good news is that this gate is the matching one-way portal that will take us back to our world," Vincent informed them.
"…And the bad news?" Daphne asked.
Vincent exhaled, staring at the runes that stood between them and the way home.
"This gate can only be activated by blood magic."
"…What does that mean!?" Flim-Flam asked, his eyes wide.
"Not what you're thinking," he assured them, seeing that they all had similar expressions, as though they were expecting something along the lines of someone needing to draw blood. "Blood magic is just an archaic way of saying that those who attempt an endeavor—in this case, opening this gate—need to have familial ties."
"Oh, so me and Uncle Scooby could do it?" Scrappy asked.
"You would be able to… except neither of you have any mana. If order for blood magic to work, at least one of the ones involved needs to have mana," Vincent sighed.
"Oh…" Scrappy said. "Gee, that's too bad."
Daphne's face fell for a moment, but she quickly pushed the disappointment aside to put on a brave face for the others.
"Okay…" she said. "So… for now, we need to find somewhere else to go—somewhere safe where that other warlock can't find us."
"Yeah," Shaggy sighed. "We gotta go before Double-Ugly comes up with that thing again. I really don't wanna be the bait again."
"And hey, going down the mountain will be easier," Flim-Flam grinned.
"Rheah, let's go," Scooby agreed.
Vincent just stared at them as they all moved to go back the way they had come. After he'd led them all here for nothing, dashing any hopes they'd had of going home, they didn't hold it against him. They didn't even think of asking him to try something else—no, they never asked him anything, save for that moment back at the village when Daphne and Shaggy had been pleading with him just to stay alive.
As much as he knew they would accept living here, in this dangerous and unfamiliar world, without complaint, Vincent knew he couldn't let them down now. They were too tired, too drained to climb down the mountain, especially with the threat of being attacked on the way down.
"Wait!" he called.
They paused, looking back at him in surprise.
"There may still be a way that I can open this gate," he said. "My power is great enough that I could, possibly, force the gate open with my magic if I focus all of it at those central depressions."
"…But, like, that would drain your mana, wouldn't it?" Shaggy asked.
"What if it doesn't work, and your mana runs out?" Scrappy asked, his eyes wide.
"They're right—you'd be completely vulnerable if that happened until you recovered!" Daphne exclaimed. Her face took on a horrified expression as Vincent now placed his gloved hands on the two central depressions. "Vincent, no!"
"Don't do it, Vince!" Flim-Flam pleaded. "There's gotta be another way!"
"Rhease, Mr. Van Ghoul!" Scooby barked.
But an emerald-green aura flared around Vincent, concentrating at his hands, and the others could only watch as Vincent began to burn through his mana. The gate trembled, trying to resist his attempts at forcing it open.
"We've got to stop him!" Daphne ordered.
She was the first to run over, trying to pull his arm away from the gate, but he seemed to have put himself in some sort of stasis in order to completely focus—she couldn't budge him, not even slightly. Nor could the others, who had also run over to try to move him.
Daphne now switched tactics, hammering on the gate with her fists. It did nothing—until her hand struck one of the depressions on the outer edge of the circle. For the brief moment her hand had hit the depression, it had glowed with the same emerald green glow.
"Daphne, do that again!" Shaggy exclaimed. He placed his hands on another pair of depressions—which also began to glow.
"…But how?" Daphne asked, placing her hands back—and also causing them to glow. "How can we activate the blood magic lock?"
"Who cares!?" Flim-Flam replied, placing his hands on another set of depressions.
Scrappy placed his paws on another set, and Scooby stood up on his hind legs to place his paws on the final set.
As all six sets of depressions glowed, the runes carved on the gate began to glow—and then, the two halves of the gate began to pull apart, revealing another portal.
Vincent came out of his trance at last, a bit dizzy from having started his attempt at forcing the gate open, but he stared as he began to register what he was seeing.
"Um…" Shaggy said. "Mr. V? You did say that blood magic was about family ties, didn't you?"
"That is what I said, yes…" Vincent said, still staring at the now-open gate. "As I also mentioned, it is an archaic term." He paused. "So archaic, in fact, it would appear to have not taken into consideration the possibility of family by choice, rather than by blood."
He'd said it himself, hadn't he, when the other warlock had threatened the others in his dream? "Stay away from my kids!"
To think, at first, he had wanted as little to do with them as possible… And yet, without even trying, they'd ended up being the closest thing to family he'd ever known.
Another roar from where the swirling, dark-magic-powered beast drew all of their attention. He'd sensed the opened gate, and was, no doubt, attempting to summon the snow-and-skeleton creature once more—they could hear it thundering up the mountain path.
"Zoinks! The thing is back!" Shaggy yelped.
"Through the gate—quickly!" Vincent ordered, gently ushering them through the open portal.
He'd half-considered taking on the amalgamation himself to buy them more time, but the others had already anticipated that option; they'd all taken a cue from Daphne and Shaggy's earlier bid to get him to go with them—and had all grabbed onto his arms to make sure he was going with them.
Having been transported from one mountain to another, their sudden landing in yet another snowbank had them temporarily questioning whether they truly had made it back—but looking behind them to see the castle that was now home was all the reassurance they needed.
"Yippie! We made it!" Scrappy exclaimed, as Vincent now led them back across the castle's threshold to the safety of the protective barrier.
"Impossible!" the shadow witch screech. She glared at Vincent, who glared right back at her from the edge of the barrier. "You made it back alive!?"
"I hate to say 'I told you so,' but I told you so," Weerd quipped.
"Yeah, you underestimated them," Bogel added.
"You stay out of this!" she quipped at them, before glaring back at Vincent. "You should be dead. You were almost dead! How did you survive!? How did you break the lock on the gate!?"
"The answer to both of those questions is the same," Vincent responded. "My survival and my return were all thanks to… Hmm, what was the phrase you used? Ah, yes—those 'waifs and strays' that I'd taken under my wing!"
"But… the lock was blood magic!" she sputtered.
"It needs a new name," Vincent snarked.
The sorceress found herself at a loss for words—but she was soon spared from saying anything as the snow-and-skeleton creature now appeared, brandishing its ice swords as it roared, prompting Bogel and Weerd to clutch at each other in sheer fright.
"Uh-oh!" Flim-Flam gulped. "I guess we should've closed that gate behind us—"
He was cut off as the crystal ball was once again hijacked by the enemy sorcerer's wounded eye.
"Fools!" he thundered. "It matters not whether I end this in my realm or yours, but end it, I shall—make no mistake!" The snow-and-skeleton creature now pointed one of the ice blades directly at Vincent. "Step out of that barrier and accept your fate, Warlock, or I will unleash this beast upon every village in these mountains and all who live in them!"