"He's dead? HE'S DEAD?!" Gus asked, panic and disbelief filling his cracking voice.
"Oh, it's no big deal." Luz explained, her tone unnervingly blasé, "Apparently this happens all the time."
"Happens all the time?" Willow asked, pointing at Vulkan's lifeless body, "Amity just committed murder! There is a corpse a few feet away from us!"
"What are we gonna do?!" Gus asked, his hands glued to his face, "Belos is already mad at us and now we're killers? This is it for us, we're finished! Game over man, game over!"
"It's amazing that even now Gus's making human references." Luz thought to herself.
"We've gotta hide the body, people can't see this!" Gus insisted.
"Hide the body? How!" Willow asked, "We're just three kids, and I've already got an unconscious Amity to lug around! That guy is, like ten times the size…"
Willow stopped as she pointed in the direction of Vulkan's corpse. She was shocked to see the body had completely vanished – leaving no trace of blood or broken ceramite.
"I… how did… what?" Willow stuttered.
"See, told ya!" Luz cheerily replied, "He should respawn soon… I think? Honestly, I'm not sure. The whole 'Perpetual' thing seemed pretty inconsistent."
"Wait, respawn?" Gus shuttered, "You mean he's coming back?!" Gus began nervously biting his fingernails, "I think I liked it better when he was dead."
"Gus, between what you just said and trying to cover-up a murder I'm starting to get concerned." Willow bluntly stated, "But we don't have time for that now. Luz, it looked like this guy came from Eda's house, don't you think we should check on her?"
"Oh my gosh!" Luz gasped, "Eda! King! The other two!" Luz rushed to Willow and Gus, grabbing them by the wrists, "Come on, we have to go!"
Luz sprinted through the damaged remains of the town as Willow and Gus did their best to keep up. They found themselves frequently stopping and detouring as their path was blocked by confused civilians and piles of rubble. This, combined with the clouds of dust polluting the city, led the group down a convoluted and twisting maze of damaged city streets, before they finally realized they were hopelessly lost.
"We're hopelessly lost!" Willow pointed out, tugging her arm away from Luz's grip, "We can't just keep randomly running around town. We need to take our time, ask for help, or something! It's impossible to make left or right of where we are when none of these buildings are even recognizable."
Meanwhile, the frequently jostling Amity had endured from the group's wild run about town was enough to shake her awake. Her eyes slowly opened, but the dust clouds combined with her weary consciousness left her vision blurred. She could swear she saw someone approaching from the distance – a thin figure wearing what looked like a witch's robe. As she got closer, Amity could make out some of her finer details – her skin was pale, the robe was black and tattered, and her long hair shown a dark, inky shade of blue.
"Lilith?" Amity asked in a whisper, weakly outstretching her arm to point at the figure.
"Wait, Lilith?" Willow asked after hearing Amity's whisper. She whipped around to the direction the voice had come from, and in doing so carelessly knocked Amity's head against a damaged wall.
"Who was that?" the distant figure echoed, "Luz, is it you?"
"Amity!" Luz cried, completely ignoring Lilith's question. She ran up to her suspended friend and cupped her head within her hands."
"Amity, are you okay? Say something!"
"Ugh…" Amity mumbled, slowly raising her head and opening her eyes. She stared at Luz for a moment before slapping a limp hand onto her face.
"Oh, hey there Luz! Don't tell anyone I left the house, or else Mom's going to kick my ass!"
Amity's body went limp as she slipped back into unconsciousness.
"Luz? Anyone? Who's there?" Lilith asked, now close enough for the group to make out her appearance.
"Lilith!" Gus shouted, waving his arms, "Luz is over here! She's with... TITAN WHAT IS THAT?!"
Hearing Gus's cries, Lilith quickly rushed towards the group. What they hadn't noticed until she had gotten closer was that she was cradling Eda's head in her hands.
"Lilith? Eda!" Luz shouted, suddenly noticing the duo. She got to her feet and ran towards them, quickly swiping Eda's head from Lilith's grasp.
"Eda, are you okay? Where's the rest of you?"
"Yes, I'm fine, Luz, so glad you took the time to ask." Lilith grumbled.
Eda's eyes stared at Luz for a moment, flaring with irritation.
"Luz, did you leave the door unlocked?"
"The door? Eda, Vulkan smashed through it when he was chasing…"
"Not that door, Luz!" Eda interrupted, "In the basement – the door Vulkan came through – did you lock it back up after last night?"
"What?" Luz asked, slightly offended, "You had the key to those locks, and you never went downstairs after I met Vulkan! How could I have possibly locked it?"
"Oh… ha!" Eda snorted, "Yeah, guess that one's on me. Well, anyway, some more guys came through. Not that I'm complaining, though."
"WHAT?" Luz, Gus, and Willow all asked in unison.
The group was overcome with horror at the realization – save Eda and Lilith; who seemed unaffected and lightly annoyed, respectfully. A noise could be heard in the distance – rhythmic chanting and the sound of stomping boots. "Fortify! Fortify! Fortify!" the distant voices repeated. As they approached, what was once the sound of footsteps turned to a deep rumbling in the ground.
A group of warriors soon burst through the dust into the group's view. They wore armor somewhat similar to Vulkan's, though theirs was a bright yellow with red trim. Luz noticed a white insignia on their pauldrons, encompassing the image of a clenched fist. They completely ignored the group, instead tending to the damaged buildings surrounding them. With blazing speed they raised walls, swept away rubble, and generally focused their efforts on repairing the ruined buildings of the Boiling Isles.
"Fortify?" Luz heard from behind. She turned to see another warrior. While his left pauldron matched the regalia of the others, his armor – in stark contrast to the other warriors – was pure white. He also had a strange drilling-device on his right wrist, and two mechanical appendages extended from his back.
"Fortify!" he shouted, charging towards the group. He ran with such blinding speed that, before anyone could react, he had reached Willow. He drew his chainsword from its hilt and slashed the vines holding Amity to her back, catching her before she could fall to the ground. He sheathed the blade and raised Amity to his eyes. The visor in his helmet seemed to scan her body.
"Wait, no! Don't touch her!" Luz desperately cried. She ran towards the warrior with her arms outstretched, attempting to take back her friend.
The warrior's free hand stopped, outstretched, in front of her face. Luz, not noticing, ran blindly until her face smacked into the armor appendage. She fell to the ground, but soon rose ever defiant.
"Get away from her!" she cried, widening her stance and raising her fists. The warrior – having completed his scan of Amity – turned his head towards her.
"Fortify?" he asked, pointing towards Amity's leg. He then put the child down and reached behind his back. There was a clicking sound and the warrior revealed a metal box he had retrieved from his person. He unlocked two latches on the box, reveal its contents. Inside were gauze, staples, threads and needles, and a myriad of other medical tools.
"Are… are you trying to heal her?" the confused Luz asked.
"Fortify!" the white knight gleefully answered, giving the child a thumbs-up.
"Luz," Willow interjected, "Should we trust this guy? After Vulkan I'm just not sure we should let another one of these guys operate on Amity."
Luz took a moment to ponder the situation. She observed her surroundings, seeing several of the yellow-clad warriors working tirelessly to repairs to businesses and homes of the Boiling Isles. They seemed completely oblivious to the witches surrounding them, save the white knight that was hellbent on fixing Amity's broken leg.
"I mean…" Luz started, "They seem to just want to fix everything. I know your first impression of Vulkan was, well, awful… but trust me, he is a good guy! He's just had an… interesting history."
"Fortify!" a warrior enthusiastically cried as he charged from the distance. As he grew closer, Luz noticed that he had an article under each arm. Under the left he was cradling King, while under the right was Eda's body from the neck down. Once within reach, he grabbed Eda's head out from Luz's grasp and screwed it back onto her neck. Once reassembled, he shoved King into her arms.
"Ow!" Eda cried, reacclimating to her body, "Ugh… geez, it would've taken hours to put this all back together. Thanks!"
"Fortify!" the warrior replied in a singsongy tone, before running off to aid in the architectural repairs.
"So, Luz…" Willow began, "What's your call?"
Luz sat to think for a moment. It seemed like everything would be fine with these weird guys to fix everything, but she found herself fixed on Amity. After hurting her leg, and even after Luz's business with Belos, she still went out of her way to support Luz to the best of her abilities.
"Eda…" Luz started, "Is the Owl House fixed?"
"Are you kidding?" Eda enthusiastically replied, "It's better than ever! After these guys got through with it we might as well start calling it the Owl Palace!"
"Then why don't you guys head back." Luz said, "I… I think someone should stay here with Amity."
Eda nodded understandably, while a playful grin covered Willow's face. Nobody cared about anyone else's reactions.
"Luz," Gus interjected, "We can't just leave you…"
Gus stopped as Willow hoisted him up by the collar, making sure Luz couldn't see.
"Yes. We. Can." She quietly growled before setting Gus back on the ground.
"Uh…" Gus droned, a film of sweat suddenly appearing above his brow, "Yeah, Luz, you've got this! Okay let's get to the Owl House now bye!" Gus rapidly said as he zipped down a nearby alley with reckless abandon.
"Wait, Gus! It's not that…" Eda began, "Ugh, kids."
Eda and crew quickly ran after Gus, starting what would most likely be an overly long and complicated journey home. Luz, meanwhile, scooted herself closer to Amity. The white knight turned towards her, staring suspiciously from his visor.
"Can I stay?" she innocently asked, "I just… I don't want her to be alone."
Luz clutched Amity's hand and looked at her face with glazed eyes. The white knight saw the gesture and silently nodded. The drilling-device on his arm whirred as he prepared for surgery.
"It's okay, Amity." Luz whispered, "I'll be here."