A/N: I'm so sorry that this chapter took so long. It was a mix between me not knowing where to go next with it combined with other stuff that I was focused on at times. But this story is still far from dead, and I definitely plan to finish it! There won't be many chapters after this one...perhaps two more and then an epilogue. But thanks to everyone who has still stuck around after all this time. I really appreciate it.
Aflame
Chapter 26
Stump Day
Getting inside Lucitor castle was much easier than Janna had expected.
She and the knights had appeared about a mile or so away from the structure, as planned, hidden among some rocks. From there Janna took immediate charge (much to their visible annoyance), giving them instructions on where to go and what to do. But annoyed as they were, Eclipsa had given them specific orders to listen to anything Janna had to say, and they weren't about to disobey their Queen. So they listened, and performed every action exactly as Janna described it. Sneaking around the landscape as they got closer and closer to the castle, each of them praying that they wouldn't be caught, ending the mission before it even began.
Luckily, this is not what happened. With Janna's assistance, they made it to one of the walls of the castle with little difficulty. From there Janna walked them along it until they were met with a large door, twice as tall as any of them. After that, she turned and spoke just loud enough so that they could all hear her, but not loud enough that anyone in the castle could.
"Okay." She said. "This is it. I have the keys to this door, but once I get inside, all but a few of you will be on your own. You all have the maps I drew, you all know what demons you should especially watch out for, and you all know what to do if you get caught. But before we really start this, is there anything else that you guys want to know?"
"Yes, actually." One of the knights said. "Eclipsa told us not to leave this place until you came back...or, well, we can't really leave it because you're the only one who can make the ritual spell to get us out of here. So what are you doing, and how long is it going to take?"
"Like Eclipsa, I can't tell you what I'm doing, but I will tell you that it shouldn't take too long," Janna explained. "As long as everything goes well, we'll be able to free Tom's parents and therefore him." She looked at the sky and frowned. "The festivities should have begun by now… so Bren should have taken notice and is up there. Which means we're on a schedule, because Tom needs to be free before he makes his appearance on stage. So no more questions, sorry, but we're doing this now."
Nobody protested against this, and all waited patiently while Janna pulled the keys out of her jacket and fiddled it around in the lock near the bottom of the door, before turning it with a satisfying click. From there the door swung open by itself, and a small group of knights drew their swords and moved Janna behind them in case there was a demon waiting directly on the other side of the door.
Thankfully, none of that happened, as the knights entered and found that the room they found themselves in was completely devoid of life. A hallway, made with solid stone, with a raggy long and red carpet covering the floor that looked like it hadn't been washed in years. Torches lined the wall, providing the only source of light, and to the left and right were further halls, seemingly identical to the one they were standing in now. Janna pushed her way forward and took a quick look around, before moving forward and motioning for everyone to follow her. The knights did so reluctantly, and before long everyone was packed in the now slightly crowded hallway, ready to truly begin their mission.
"Okay. This is it." She said. "This place should be marked down on all your maps, and you should have lines drawn on them telling you where to go next. Once you have Tom's parents, bring them back here. But don't forget to take along the small black device that the person guarding them has. If we don't get that, then Tom won't be able to know that his parents are safe and that he doesn't have to listen to Bren anymore. So don't forget it."
"..."
"Good," Janna said, before turning around towards the right hallway. "Everyone that's assigned to me, let's go. For the rest of you...good luck."
After that, Janna started hobbling down the hallway on her crutches, while ninety percent of the knights present moved down the left hallway, carefully following the waypoints they have been given. A group of about three knights tailed Janna, all of them standing as close as possible (much to her visible discomfort.). Soon, the two groups were out of each other's sight, and Janna hoped that this wouldn't be the last time she saw them alive.
"So how far away is this place, anyway?"
"Not that far," Janna replied, rolling her eyes at the knights' avoidance of her order to stay as quiet as possible. "We should be able to make it at the pace we're going in no more than a few minutes. As long as we don't run into any demons, we'll be fine. Although I doubt our luck will be as perfect as that…"
"Isn't it dinner time for them? You had us all leave when you claimed they would all be eating themselves silly in the great hall…" One of the knights asked.
"True, but that doesn't mean we're completely safe. There are only fewer of them patrolling the hallways now, not a complete absence. Bren wouldn't be that stupid." Janna explained. "More likely than not, assuming he's gone to the surface, he'll have left guards outside the room we're headed to. So we might have to take care of them."
"And what if he is still here?" The first knight asked.
"Then we wait until he leaves. Crap plan, I know, but we can't turn back at that point." Janna said. "We just have to hope that things turn out in our favor, even in the slightest way…"
"Hold it." One of the knights asked, whose name was Steve. "Didn't Eclipsa tell us to just run if we saw any demons? And not fight them? Why did you tell us and everyone else to kill them if we see any?"
"Because it's inevitable that we're going to see some, and that they will see us," Janna said. "If we go by those rules, then we may as well just leave now and call this whole thing a bust. I get that she's worried and that everything has to be perfect, but they don't have to be that perfect. As long as we can kill the demons we encounter fast enough, there should be no problem."
"That truly depends on what type of demons we see…" Steve mumbled. "There are many, many types of demons in this world. And while there are numerous ones that we could handle with a single swing of our sword, several we would be able to do nothing against."
"Like the giant one made out of rocks that Bren had attacked the town with." Janna chimed in. "Which we still defeated in the end. But don't worry. Something like that won't be in this castle. If it was, we'd have already heard it stomping around by now."
"I hope you are right…" The third knight said, the one named Leo who had stayed quiet up to this moment. "We have been ordered to sacrifice our lives for you if the situation calls for it, but we are not eager to do so if we don't even know what we are dying for."
"For the protection of Earthni, of course." Janna reminded them.
"Don't play coy. You know exactly what I'm talking about." Leo scoffed. "When we get to wherever we're going, you better-"
"Give you a full explanation, yes, I know." Janna sighed. "You already requested that. And I will. And once you see what it is, you won't be complaining any further...now stay quiet. We're almost there, and if there are guards standing outside then they'll hear us before we even get close."
The knights obeyed Janna after this, shutting their mouths and grimacing. The four of them silently crept through the castle, moving up a few staircases until Janna held up a fist and signaled for them to stop. They did, and copied the girl as she peeked around a corner they had stopped at. There they could see the entrance to a great room, and inside of it were numerous tables, shelves, and desks, all filled with books and vials of unknown substances. There was no one standing guard outside thankfully, and Janna smiled, wondering if it was truly going to be this easy.
"Alright." She whispered. "This is it. Looks like we're in the clear. Eclipsa's plan to lure Bren away must have worked, which means we have to act as fast as possible. Hopefully, the other group is doing their job well enough…"
"Have faith in them," Leo said. "Many of those knights are veterans that I fought with in wars past. They know what they are doing."
"I'm not saying that they don't," Janna said. "I just hope that they're doing it fast enough…"
The group then moved forward into the room, with two of the knights taking up positions near the door while the other one followed Janna deeper inside. She hummed and looked around, surveying the place like a health inspector.
"Well?" Steve asked. "We're here. What do you need to do?"
"This," Janna said, walking over to the center desk and running her fingers along the book placed on it. "Hmm. This is not the right book." She turned towards one of the shelves, which held many more volumes, some of them looking like they hadn't been opened in millennia. "Guess I'm going to have to do a bit of searching."
"What? You don't even know what book you're looking for?" Leo hissed. "But there are hundreds there. We definitely don't have time to look through even half of them, never mind all!"
"Relax," Janna said. "It's gotta be here somewhere. And I know what book I'm looking for. I just don't know where it is on this shelf." She walked towards said shelf and began pulling the books off one at a time, taking a quick look at the cover and spine, which was written in a language completely alien to the knights, before carefully putting them back like they were the most delicate thing in the world. The armored trio shifted nervously as this continued on for about five minutes until Janna smiled as she walked back over to the desk, book in hand, and set it down.
"Got it." She said. "This...this is the one. Probably the oldest one there."
"No kidding…" Steve said, glancing down at the thing. The pages were so yellowed that it was almost impossible to read the text, and the front and back covers, made of some sort of leather, appeared ready to fall apart at the slightest touch. "How old even is that?"
"At my guess? At least ten thousand years. And I doubt it's been opened in the last five." Janna said. "Doesn't matter. These things were made by demons. They're more durable than they look." She continued flipping through the pages until she reached the one she needed, upon which Janna simply stopped and stared at it, as if wondering if this was truly the right thing to do. The spell was there. She could read it. She could activate it. She could...wield it. But if things went wrong, it wouldn't just be the Underworld that was screwed. Earthni...no, the entire dimension was as good as gone. And then it would spread to even further dimensions through this newly made hole in creation…
She could be dooming tens of billions of lives with this one decision.
But, it had to be done. If the Fire-god was to be stopped, it had to be done. And even better, Janna didn't need permission from that prick to perform this spell. Although it was being done with demon magic, the being on the other side of the spell would sense what was happening, and give its own energy, in the hope that it might be able to tear through the rift.
Janna was hoping to use this to her advantage any way she could.
"Is there a problem?" Leo asked, taking note of her hesitation.
"No. No problem." Janna said, before taking her backpack off and opening it. She pulled out several items, one of which was the jar that contained Bren's finger. The knights stared at her in bewilderment as she pulled out a pair of gloves and tongs and put the former on, before setting the jar and the other items down.
"Is that a finger in a jar?" Steve asked. "Why do you need that?"
"This is actually the centerpiece to our plan, if you can believe it," Janna said. "With this, we'll be able to claim victory, as long as everything else goes well. It's some...extra insurance, if you will. To make sure that if everything goes right, then everything goes right."
"That doesn't make sense."
"Maybe not to you," Janna replied in a sing-song voice. "But regardless, this finger is the most important object in Earthni at the moment. All I need to do now...is cast this spell, and hope the whole thing doesn't blow up in our faces. And by blow up in our faces, I mean release an interdimensional entity older than the multiverse that will kill us and everyone on the planet."
"...Excuse me?" Leo said, shooting her a stunned look. "What did you just say you're going to do?"
"I didn't say I'm going to do that," Janna said. "I said that's what I'm trying to avoid doing."
"Doesn't matter, what the hell are you talking about?!"
Leo yelled, turning away from the door. "You're saying that if this spell goes wrong, there's a chance that all of Earthni will just be-"
"Consumed. By a creature that's already devoured countless universes in its quest to make all of creation what it once was: Its playground." Janna said casually. "Luckily, it still needs a way into a universe to get to it, but it's content with playing the long game. And yes, if the spell goes wrong, then that thing will come spewing out of it. But on the plus side, it'll happen so fast that we'll be dead before we know it. Of course, we won't be able to go to any afterlife, because even our souls will be destroyed after something like that...but it won't be painful."
"..."
"..."
"Then I'm stopping this now," Leo said, drawing his sword and walking towards Janna, who grit her teeth. "I don't care how much this helps us, but I am not going to risk the chance that we'll all be erased from existence by this spell. My job is to defend Earthni, and I can't do that when there is no Earthni left!"
Janna sighed internally as she heard Leo approaching. 'Why do I have to put up with such a lack of common sense?' She thought. 'Your Queen told you to go along with anything I told you. This qualifies, you moron!'
Janna was about to turn around to smack Leo with one of her crutches, but before she could Steve stepped between them, and Leo growled like a feral dog.
"Get out of my way." He said.
"No. You heard Eclipsa." Steve said. "We go along with anything she tells us to do, no matter what. We've been prepared for a whole week that no matter how weird, or how strange sounding Janna's plan is, we are to simply let it happen without attempting to stop her."
"Okay, but even you have to admit that you never expected something like this!" Leo hissed. "If she is telling the truth, then all of us will die!"
"And if she's telling the truth, we might all be dead if she doesn't do this!" Steve countered. "Listen. I heard. I honestly want to stop this just as much as you. But orders are orders. If Eclipsa trusts her, then I have no choice but to trust her as well. Or…" He reached for his sword and looked Leo dead in the eyes. "Do I need to charge you with insubordination?"
"..."
"..."
"Fine." Leo spat, knowing that Steve outranked him by two full levels. "But if you die, then I want the last thing in your mind to be the thought that I could have prevented it, but you stopped me."
"Sounds good," Steve said. "Now go back to the door."
Leo scoffed and walked back to where he was standing, grumbling the entire way. Janna rolled her eyes again at this display, no longer impressed with the loyalty of Eclipsa's knights.
"Thanks." She said to Steve. "I don't think I would have been able-"
"Don't thank me just yet. You heard what I said." Steve interjected. "I think this is a terrible idea just as much as he does if it is true. I just have a little more self-control."
"Duly noted," Janna said. "But I thank you anyway. This all would have been made pointless if I couldn't cast this spell."
"Let's hope you are telling the truth now," Steve said. "Speaking of which, how close are you to starting it? With all your talk of how we don't have much time, you sure seem to be taking yours."
"I was just about to begin," Janna said, unscrewing the jar and taking the finger out with the tongs. She carefully set it down on the table and then rummaged around in her backpack until she found what she was looking for. A black sheet of metal, three vials of blood (you know who's it is), a few yarn strings, and another vial, this one filled with a dark blue liquid. The knights eyed this one carefully before opening their mouths, clearly interested in what Janna was setting up.
"I was at the hospital that day, you know." He said. "Is that truly...?
"Bren's blood?" Janna said, quickly anticipating what he was about to say next. "And yes. Yes, it is. There was plenty of it lying around, so I didn't think anyone would miss it if I took a bit. And I'm sure Eclipsa had it hosed away anyway...so it's not like anyone was going to miss it."
"But you already have blood...why do you need that?"
"This spell has some very odd specifics when it comes to the sacrifices," Janna said. "It requests that you need the blood of a sentient being, as well as the blood of a being from a dimension that was already conquered by the interdimensional monster in opening a portal to. This is human blood I have right here, taken from one of my friends…" She explained, pitching to the three red vials. "...And this is obviously Bren's blood, and I know for a fact that he is from a dimension consumed by the creature. It's only survivor…"
"Hold on." The knight said. "In the briefing we got about who Bren is, it said that he wanted to kill us all because his dimension was destroyed when the magic dimension was, not that it was eaten by some...giant monster from another plane of existence."
"Partially correct," Janna said. "But in reality, Bren's dimension didn't fall apart because magic was destroyed. The fires would have just gone out and it would have been a world of forever cold, which is the same as an uncountable number of other dimensions out there. But...those fires also had a second purpose. They were keeping the all-consuming entity out, which had been trying to break in for some time. So when the fires went out, it had free reign over the place, and I'm sure you can guess what happened next."
"I see…" Steve said nervously. "But how did you plan to get this blood before we attacked Bren at the hospital?"
"I didn't. This plan only came to me after that." Janna revealed. "And I must say, it was perfect timing. Now we have a real chance of beating the bastard, and I am the centerpiece of this plan."
"I suppose so," Steve said. "But one more thing. How do you know all this?"
"I may be in...contact with a very specific person," Janna said. "I'm not going to tell you that much about it, but rest assured, they're on our side. Well, technically, they're on their own side, but our interest can serve their's, so we made a bit of a deal. They help me get rid of the Fire-god, and in return one of their enemies is destroyed."
"Enemy…is this person a god?!" Steve gasped.
'And here we go.' Janna thought, mentally facepalming. "I thought you said that your last question was...your last question."
"It was going to be until you dropped this little bombshell," Steve said. "Now answer me. Is this person-"
"Yes, they are, but we can trust them," Janna said. "Not every god is an evil selfish piece of shit. I mean, most are, but not this one. Or at least...they're not as much of one as the Fire-god is."
"And how are you so sure that they haven't just tricked you into a false sense of security to further their own goals?" Steve asked.
"Because they've helped me in ways that they never would have if they truly didn't care about me," Janna explained. "And I suppose they don't in a way, but they care enough that they listen to what I have to say, and they listen to my suggestions, which is a big deal when it comes to stuff like this. Because gods don't like the literal little people telling them what to do, so when you got one's attention, you know you're doing the right thing."
"And how many times has this god actually put into effect what you suggested?"
"A few times," Janna said. "And while they do occasionally shove their own plans in it, they still put themselves out there to go along with my plan. They acknowledge me, at least, that I'm very good when it comes to that."
"And how-"
"Oh my god, enough." Janna snapped, causing Steve to shut his mouth out of surprise. "Can you just trust me? For god's sake, if I was working with Bren against you, you'd all be dead for weeks now. My knowledge of demon magic and other subjects that practically everyone else in that town is clueless about would basically ensure that none of you would stand a chance. You wouldn't even know about demon magic if it weren't for me! I have had dozens of opportunities to take you out in the past, and I haven't! You know why? Because I'm not working with Bren. So please stop acting like I have no idea what I'm doing, because if that were true I wouldn't trust myself enough to be here. Got it?"
"..."
"..."
Leo scoffed again. "Sounds like you're putting yourself on quite the pedestal there."
"Maybe so. But it's one that I earned." Janna said. "I risked my life more than enough times to gain that information, and it's all been worth it for this moment. And if you all would shut up and just let me do my work without asking any more questions which I continue to answer for whatever reason...you'll all be recognized as the heroes who helped in the salvation of Earthni. Now do you want that, or do you want to be briefly remembered as the fools who stopped me mid-spell and brought destruction upon this entire dimension and many others?"
"..."
"..."
"Fine." Steve sighed, finally giving in. "Do it. I won't ask any more questions."
'Thought that would work…' Janna said, trying to hide a smirk. "Thank you. Now, all we have to do is set things up…"
Meanwhile, thousands of feet away, a much larger group was performing a much different objective. The other group of knights, all twenty-seven of them, were "sneaking" through the castle as best they could, trying to make as little noise as possible. Even though this was practically impossible due to the armor they wore. They would have been doing the mission without it, but some insisted that they would need it if things went sour, so here they were.
But they had not needed it as of yet. So far, they had not encountered or had to hide from a single demon. For all intents and purposes, the castle seemed empty.
But they remained wary nonetheless. Everyone was supposed to be in the great hall, after all. And there was no telling when they might leave. They knew their route. They just had to get to Tom's parents, rescue them, and get out. Hopefully, that human girl would complete whatever she was doing in time...
There was no further availability to dwell on that, however, as they had almost reached their destination. The group slowed down as they approached the hallway that would lead them right to the area where the Lucitors were most likely being kept, as the dungeons (at least the ceiling) were not big enough to hold Lady Lucitor. For that, Janna predicted that they would have to be in the second biggest room in the castle: The throne room. With how busy Bren was, Janna assumed that he would have no time to sit around on a chair all day, so he likely wouldn't ever go in there. But it was the perfect place to hold a large prisoner. Secure, huge metals door designed to withstand forced entry, and plenty of room. It also added a touch of irony. The Lucitor Royals, imprisoned in the same room they once ruled from. Bren was the kind of person who would find that amusing, which only gave Janna more reason to believe that that's where they were.
"Okay." Sir Stabby said, who was leading this mission, Higgs by his side. "We made it. All of you wait for my signal. I'm going to check and see how many guards there are."
And then ever so carefully, Stabby peeked around the corner, his eyebrows raising in surprise when he saw that there were only two guards in front of the massive doors, a number much lower than he had expected. And they weren't the type of guards he had been expecting either. He assumed that they would be huge, monstrous demons comparable to the one that attacked the town. But it was not to be. These demons weren't larger than any other Mewman or human taken off the street, with paltry-looking swords in their hands and a bored expression on their faces.
Not that Stabby was complaining, he just found it a bit odd. Even if everyone was dining in the great hall, he'd think that Bren would at least leave some guards outside that were actually...capable of fighting off an attack.
But he didn't see any more reason to focus on that. Now was the time to act. He turned towards the rest of the knights, nodded his head, and then moved forward. A group consisting of Higgs and two other knights followed him, as planned. All of them moving at once this close to the guards would surely give away their presence, but only four of them, one of which wasn't even wearing a full set of armor, would allow them to sneak close.
The four of them ducked behind a giant pillar the first chance they got, lest they give themselves away prematurely. While they were probably already in the clear to rush forward and kill them, Sir Stabby wanted to be positive that the demons could die without being heard. A group of twenty-seven knights was enough to hold off a dozen or so of these creatures, but an entire castle's worth?
Not a chance in hell.
Luckily for them though, the guards didn't seem to be paying much attention, almost as if they were distracted by something. The group made it to the pillar closest to them because of their obliviousness, and Sir Stabby was about to give the order to strike when one of the demons spoke, and he paused to listen, curiousness overpowering everything else.
"I still can't believe this…" They said.
"You've said that a hundred times, you know." The other one replied, sounding like they wanted to jump off a cliff.
"Well, I still can't believe it." The first one shot back, whose name was Agemo. "Look at us. Down here standing outside this door. There are already guards inside, so why the heck does Bren need us here?"
"For extra protection." The second one sighed, whose name was Atled. "We are guarding one of Bren's most valuable assets. We should be honored that he's chosen us to do it."
"Not now. Not that everyone else has left." Agemo said. "We were left behind because we're the useless ones. Because we can't fight like all the others. Because we're at the bottom of the pecking order."
"You know you're insulting me as well, not just yourself, right?" Atled asked coldly. "I really don't appreciate that."
"But it's true," Agemo said. "Now everyone is going to be up there soon, having fun and going full-demon, while we're stuck down here, doing nothing."
"Maybe we'll get the leftovers later. Hunt down whoever is left." Atled suggested. "Try and look on the bright side of things."
"I have. All I see is darkness." Agemo whined. "Why don't we just abandon our posts? Considering what he had planned, I'm pretty sure that he won't need Tom after tonight. His whole revenge scheme will be complete. Everything will be over, at least when it comes to the surface."
"I wouldn't be so sure," Atled said. "I've been hearing rumors that Bren plans to take over the entire Earth, not just Earthni. He wants the whole planet to burn."
"The whole thing?" Agemo gasped. "Does the Underworld even have the firepower to do that?"
"I think he just plans to assassinate all the human leaders with Demon Magic, and then swoop in and kill the rest after everything has fallen into disarray," Atled explained. "Or at least that's what I would do."
"Huh," Agemo replied. "I wonder if that's the first good idea you've ever had in your entire life."
"Hey!"
"What? I meant it as a compliment."
"How the hell could a statement like that be perceived as a compli-HOLY SHIT!"
"Wha-?" Agemo vocalized, turning around and following Atled's path of vision. And there he saw why the demon had had such a sudden outburst, because running towards him at top speed were a group of four knights, swords raided high in the air. He gasped and prepared to fight back, but it was already too late, as Sir Stabby reached him before he could do anything, plunging his broadsword deep into the demon's heart. Higgs was right being him, jumping and slashing his throat open for extra insurance. Atled, meanwhile, was too shocked to even move, which was very convenient for the other two knights, as the first to reach him chopped off his head with a single steady swing, while the other speared the disembodied object three times in quick succession, knowing full well how resilient demons could be.
And like that, it was over.
Both of the demons twitched for a few seconds, before stopping and laying still. Sir Stabby scoffed and kicked the body of the one he had assisted in killing, clearly unimpressed.
"They brought up a good point." He whispered. "I wonder why would demons as weak and pitiful as these be sent to guard something as important as the Lucitors?"
"They mentioned something…" Higgs said, shaking the blood off her knife. "About how everyone was leaving. How they all went...to the surface?"
"To the surface…" Sir Stabby echoed, before frowning. "That can't be good. There's no way that doesn't mean Earthni, and if everyone is going, almost all the demons in this castle…"
"Then it can only mean one thing. Bren's planning an...invasion." Higgs said, a look of horror now plastered on her face. "That's why we didn't run into anyone on the way here. That's why these two weaklings were the only ones left. Everyone capable of putting up a fight was sent to do just that."
"Then...then we have to go back!" One of the other knights said. "We have to find Ordania and make her teleport us back to Earthni. We have to warn Eclipsa. If Bren shows up with an army of demons in the middle of that celebration, with the singular goal of causing as much death as possible…"
"It'll be a massacre...no, not even that. A complete and utter genocide." Sir Stabby growled, before clenching his fists up and kicking the corpse again out of frustration. "Damn it! Does...does this mean he knew about Eclipsa's plan beforehand? How? She said that the meeting discussing it was kept in complete secrecy. There wasn't a person there that she couldn't trust."
"Unless one of the council members had been working with Bren since the beginning…" Higgs suggested.
"If that's the case, then everyone up there is likely doomed already, regardless of how long it takes us to arrive," Stabby said. "But never mind that! It is time to take action! You three stay here. You will find out why in a moment."
Before any of the other knights could ask why and learn prematurely. Stabby brushed past them and headed back towards the waiting group of knights, who had heard the entire conversation and now all looked equally terrified as they realized why the castle was empty.
"Alright, listen to me." He said. "You heard all of that. So what I want you to do is track down Ordania and get her to get you back to the surface. I don't care if she's done with her mission or not, you force her to do it if you have to. They have to be wanted, otherwise, all is lost. Now go!"
"What about you, sir?" Someone asked.
"I shall stay behind to complete our mission. It is still important in its own way." Stabby said. "Do not worry. I shall be fine. Now, again, go! That is an order! And don't worry about making noise! There is no one left in this castle anyway!"
After this, the knights all exchanged glances and then hoofed it, turning around and sprinting for their lives and the lives of the ones above. The ones at the front hastily pulled out their maps, guiding the ones behind them to the location that Janna said she would be at. In only a few seconds the entire crowd had disappeared, leaving Stabby alone with his squire and the other two knights.
"Complete our mission? We're still going after the Lucitors?" Higgs asked.
"Of course," Stabby said. "In the coming slaughter, Bren will no doubt order Thomas to help attack the town, and due to his royal heritage, he will be one of the most powerful demons in his arsenal. If we can find him and show him that his parents are free, he will turn on Bren, and he will be of great help in repelling his attack."
"But they already left…" Higgs mumbled. "Do you think the attack has already started?"
"Possibly. In which case, that only gives us more reason to complete our task." Stabby said. "Now move, all of you! I will break down this door myself."
The trio of knights did as Stabby commanded, walking to the sides of the door as he backed up and prepared to charge it like a bull. After a few seconds, he let out a literal roar and ran forward, before he impacted against the door and caused it to snap off its hinges. The entire thing fell inward in a gigantic cloud of dust, and Stabby lifted his head while the three behind him peered into the throne room to see what was about to greet them.
And there, at the end of the great room, they saw three shocked faces. Two belonged to the Lucitor Royals, who had their arms and legs tied up in massive chains that connected to the walls and ceiling, while the other belonged to a single demon, frozen in place and holding a small black device, the same one the knights had been told to find and destroy at all costs.
For a second, no one moved.
But then...the demon backed away quickly, turning the device over and revealing another button, this one a bright green. Sir Stabby rightened himself as the other knights entered the room, not sure if they should charge forward or wait for orders.
"Stay back, you Mewmans!" The demon shouted, almost in a derogatory tone. "I think you know full well what will happen if I press this button. Take one step forward and both of the Lucitors die, and their blood will be on your hands!"
'...Of course. Damn. This isn't good.' Sir Stabby thought, signaling for his compatriots to do as the demon said, as least for now. The worried expressions on the faces of the Lucitors told him that the demon was telling the truth, and now they were stuck in a corner. They had to get that device out of their possession...without coming any closer.
"Now just hold on…" Higgs said, trying to use her most peaceful manner of talking. "You don't have to do this. You don't have to work for Bren anymore. Eclipsa told us everything. We know you're scared that Bren will hurt you or your family if you don't do what he says. But things don't have to be like that anymore. If you just let us free the Lucitors, then everything is going to be okay! Our Queen has a plan to take down Bren tonight, and after that you'll be free. You never have to serve him again!"
"I don't think so." The demon scoffed. "Why do you think I'm guarding these fools in the first place?"
"Because you're weak and useless just like those two slaughtered fools outside?" Stabby half-asked.
"No, I-well, okay, maybe." The demon admitted. "But no! I requested to be here because I see it as an honor! For years these two tyrants ruled the Underworld horribly! Everything fell apart on the daily! But now, with Bren in charge, things have changed. No longer do we have to perform meaningless tasks that carry no real weight. No longer do we have to listen to the orders of a worthless king and queen!"
"Yeah, because it's been replaced by an even worse tyrant who kills anyone that doesn't do what he says!" Higgs shouted. "And you don't have any more tasks to do because Bren isn't interested in ruling the Underworld! He just wants revenge, and when he gets it he'll leave you all behind, probably after killing you first! This isn't a better life you're living! That's just what Bren wants you to think!"
"Lies!" The demon shouted. "Things are better...things can still get better with him around! And the best part is...we won't just be ruling the Underworld soon enough. He will turn the entire surface into a hurricane of fire and blood! Everything up there is out for the taking! This dimension is a demon's world now!"
"But for how long?" Stabby asked. "My squire is correct. Bren will betray you all in the end. You seem to like him. You praise him. You see him as a being worthy of leading you all. But he's not even one of you, species-wise. Think about his actions. Has he ever focused on actually making the Underworld a better place for all of you, and not just revenge? Has anything he's done been out of your interest?"
"Yes!" The demon shouted, almost in a proud manner. "Why would I say he's leading us better than those two fools…" He pointed towards Dave and Lady Lucitor, who looked quite nervous at the whole situation. "...If it wasn't the truth? He had made this a new utopia for all of us! Our last leaders were lazy and let demons do what they wanted without punishment. Every day was a battle for survival. But with Bren here, he had made several new laws. One of which is that demons cannot kill other demons. We should be saving our bloodlust for the ones above who have squandered us for all these years! And that we did! And now is the time to put that lust to good use. All the worst demons, the most barbaric and worst ones who are nothing but animals are gone. Thrown in the dungeons, then slaughtered after their escape. It is just us now. The better ones...the superior ones...the ones who deserve to live."
"You people have very odd standards," Higgs said. "But if that's true, then it's just so he can gain your trust. Again, Bren doesn't care about the Underworld! Star Butterfly destroyed his home dimension and now he wants revenge, and you guys are only a means to an end!"
"Enough!" The demon said. "Stop trying to infect me with your lies, Mewman." He spat. "You'll get your punishment some enough. As for now, I suggest you leave, unless you want the two people you came here to rescue brains splattered all over the floor."
"..."
"Go!"
"...No," Higgs said. "You won't do it. Those two are the only leverage Bren has on Thomas, which is his main method of transport. If you kill them, then Tom has no reason to continue serving Bren. It'll be all over in that regard. And even if it was to stop us from rescuing them...they die, or escape. No other option, but the same outcome. There's hardly a difference when it comes to you losing your most powerful soldier. Bren won't be that happy about that, and I think you'll receive quite the punishment for it..."
"N-no. You're wrong!" The demon said. "He'll understand that I did what I had to do to make sure they didn't fall into your hands!"
"Will he?" Higgs asked. "Tell me, how many of your fellow demons has he killed for disobeying simple orders? Or slaughtered for not doing something? Or just did it for the intimidation factor!? We already know that he wiped out a good amount of demons upon first coming here to show his power. He doesn't value your life in the slightest. Especially since you're one of the weakest ones, one of the demons left behind because they're useless in an invasion. He probably won't even do it himself! He'll just order Tom to blast you with a fireball, judging you as not even worthy of the smallest amount of his time."
"But...I have always served him loyally." The demon said softly. "I have done everything he had ever asked without hesitation. Surely that will affect his judgment of me!"
"It won't," Higgs asked. "Even this job. With the Lucitors gone, you won't be needed anymore. You can't even guard two simple prisoners effectively, why would he bother keeping you around?"
"..."
"So...if you want none of that to happen…" Higgs continued, taking the smallest step forward. "Then you can just walk over here, give us the remote, and leave this place forever. Start a new life away from Bren, away from this fantasy you've placed yourself in. He may be your leader, but for the last time...he thinks you're all shit and will dispose of you the second you aren't useful and could potentially pose a threat to him."
"..."
"So what's it gonna be?"
"...Very well." The demon said, now staring at the ground, and everyone let out an internal sigh of relief. "I will...I will give you the remote."
"That's better," Higgs said, before moving towards the demon. "Now you can just hand it to me and this'll all be over. No more hardships, no more living in fear of being killed, no more any of that-"
"Or maybe I can do this!" The demon screeched, just as Higgs reached arms distance. And then without any further warning, the demon pulled a dagger seemingly out of nowhere and struck, aiming directly for the center of Higgs's chest. Her eyes widened and she attempted to leap backward to dodge it, but she was just a second too late as the demon hit his mark and sunk the blade deep into the right side of her chest. Her escape attempt had prevented it from going directly into her heart, but the same could not be said of one of her lungs, and immediately she fell to the ground, convulsing in pain.
"HIGGS!" Sir Stabby yelled, fury evident in his eyes at what had just happened to his squire. He drew his sword and ran towards her attacker, reaching the halfway point in a matter of seconds. "I WILL TEAR YOU LIMB FROM LIMB FOR THAT, YOU-"
"Stop right there!" The demon yelled, holding up the remote again. Sir Stabby stopped in place, reminded of how two other lives still hung in the balance. But it took every scrap of his willpower to not continue running and rip the demon's head off, and he wasn't sure how much longer he would be able to hold himself back. "Everything is still the same! Nothing has changed! Come any closer and I'll kill them both...no, I'll kill all three of them, assuming this one isn't dead already!"
He then kicked Higgs right where she had been stabbed, causing her to cry out and curl up. If it was possible for Sir Stabby to become any angrier, he was now, and his entire body shook in silent rage as he saw his squire still struggling in agony on the floor.
"So don't you move." The demon commanded again. "Don't you dare-"
And at that moment, the one person that he saw posing no threat whatsoever became one. Taking advantage of the fact that his attention was all on her knight, Higgs summoned the last of her strength to sweep both of her legs sideways across the floor, crashing into the back of the demons and causing him to lose his balance and topple over. Sir Stabby wasted no time in using this opportunity to the fullest, rushing forward again. The demon saw him coming and held up the remote, but Stabby simply snatched it out of his hand the second he got close enough, before throwing it to the ground. It skidded across the floor and landed on the far side of the room, while Stabby grabbed his soon-to-be victims by both sides of his head, slowly crushing his skull.
"You attack my squire after she gives you a genuine chance at redemption! You threaten us with killing a Royal! You continue to work with Bren after all the chances we gave you!" He shouted, as the demon pointlessly writhed in his grip, helpless again his iron-like hands. "I believe I shall deal out your punishment myself!"
And then in a truly grotesque display of brutality, Stabby moved his hands together and crushed the demon's head in a fountain of blood and bone, causing even the Lucitor Royals to wince in shock and disgust. The body slumped to the floor and he stood there breathing for a moment, before moving towards Higgs, carefully picking her up in his arms. She was currently drifting in and out of consciousness, and Stabby didn't know how long she had left before her wound became fatal. It wasn't blended as much as he expected it to, but she was clearly having trouble breathing, and it wouldn't be long before her lungs filled up with blood and she drowned.
There was no way in a million days he was going to let that happen.
So he simply turned towards the two knights and barked at them. "Free the royals and get them to a safe place!" He commanded. "I'm going to find the rest of our group and get Janna to go back to the surface."
"But how are we supposed to get back to the surface if you're already gone?" One of the knights asked.
"Fools. You're not going back. At least not right now." Stabby said. "I told you to get the Royals to a safe place. And pretty soon, down here is going to be much safer than anywhere up there. Bren is about to unleash the demons of this world upon that town, and neither of you are going to be in the middle of that."
"But what about you?"
"I'm going to get a Higgs to that overcrowded hospital and then join the fight. That place is safest if anything." Stabby said. "Now free them and do what I told you! And don't try to get back to the surface until someone comes back down here for you. That's an order."
"...Yes, sir." One of the knights said, and Stabby nodded at them both before running away, out of the room. The two knights watched him leave and then turned towards the Royals, hoping that whatever they were bound by wasn't some impossible magic lock.
Dave's chains were relatively simple, with two of them attached to his arm and bolting him to the floor. There were also shackles around his legs, although they were so long and loose that they would only be able to restrain him if he attempted to do a split. Lady Lucitor, on the other hand, was quite different. She had similar chains, but these were covered in glowing runes, no doubt suppressing her demon strength and preventing her from breaking free. They also both had collars around their necks, although neither of the knights could discern their purpose from one glance.
"Hold on." The first one said. "We're going to get you two out of there."
"Please do," Dave said. "I've been wearing these things for so long I think they're starting to fuse with my skin.", which was met with a growl of agreement from his wife.
"Not anymore it's not. Hold still." Zeke said, and with one mighty swing he sliced off the chains connected to Dave's right arm, and then the left. The shackles around his feet were next, and before long the king was free, and he graciously rubbed his limbs, bruises and deep black and blue marks visible where his cuffs were once placed.
"Thank you." He said graciously. "Now before you attempt to free my wife, they have a magical spell on her restraints. I can get rid of it, so don't do anything."
'Oh thank god.' Zeke thought, who had no idea up to that point how he was going to break those runes. "Wait. You know how to break those chains of hers, but they placed you right next to her? What kind of logic is that?"
"One that wouldn't make sense unless you have a backup plan. Which is this." Dave said, pointing to his collar. "That device your leader knocked out of that fool's hand. If he pressed a button on it, it'd have exploded and killed us instantly. We were watched every second of the day, and they repeatedly told me that if I tried anything, my wife would die. Truth be told, I think they were hoping I would…"
"...Yeesh," Zeke said, not sure how else to respond. "Very well. Then get her out of there, and we shall find somewhere safe to go."
Lady Lucitor growled loudly after this, and both Zeke and the other knight exchanged glances, both of them thinking the same thing.
"Uh, what did she just…?"
"She was explaining how we can go to our vacation home located on the lava lake," Dave said. "It is also a secondary retreat place for us Lucitors. We would have gone to it at the start of this whole crisis, if Bren didn't capture us first. But it is the best place we can go. It will be abandoned now, and even if it isn't, my wife can easily dispose of any intruders. Very few even have a chance of standing up to her."
"Yeah, I don't think there's any doubt about that," Zeke said, who was still trying to calculate in his head how many times larger the demon queen was than him.
"Good," Dave responded. "Now both of you be quiet while I break these runes. I need to concentrate here…" Dave then grabbed onto one of the giant chains attached to his wife and started whispering something, and both of the knights moved towards each other, whispering so low that they almost couldn't hear themselves.
"Vacation home, huh?" Zeke repeated. "Do you think that's a good idea?"
"It's as good as any," Edward responded. "They know this world. We don't. All we have is a map of the castle. If they know of a place that's safer than this one, then I say we trust them and follow without complaints. Face it. The second he frees that demon, all we are is dead weight. There's nothing we can kill that she can't handle a hundred times over."
"True. Hopefully, they let us stay…"
"We will. And by the way, you're terrible at whispering." Dave shouted at them, before returning back to the runes.
"...Guess that solves that problem," Zeke said. "My only regret is that we won't be able to get to the surface. If Bren's giant demon army really is invading Earthni, they're going to need everyone they can get up there. Us included."
"Well, maybe we can-"
"There. Done." Dave suddenly announced, which was followed by the loud clanging noises of the gigantic chains that once restrained lady Lucitor falling to the ground. She growled happily and rubbed her ankles and wrists just like Dave, before looking down at her husband and smiling.
"...Does that mean we're leaving?" Zeke asked.
"Indeed it does. And I'm sorry about Earhtni being under attack, but we have to get to safety, and soon enough afterward we're going to have to be ready to deal with the possibility of a civil-"
Before Dave could say anything more, though, he was interrupted by another loud growl from his wife, one that resonated throughout the entire room. Although Zeke and his companion still couldn't understand a word, it didn't take a genius to figure out that what she had said was shocking, judging by her husband's reaction.
"What? But, dear…" He started. "That's a terrible idea! We've spent the last few months in captivity! You're not possibly strong enough to go up there and fight!"
Lady Lucitor shook her head and growled again, pointing a gigantic finger right in the middle of Dave's chest, whose fingernail was larger than his entire head.
"...Are you sure?" He asked. "If you do this, there's no going back. You could get hurt, or even killed. You may be one of the Underworld's strongest, but we will be fighting against an army of hundreds."
Lady Lucitor nodded her head and growled one last time, before pointing at Zeke and the other knight.
"Yes, I...I see. Very well then." Dave said with a sigh, before turning around to the two waiting patiently behind him. "Change of plans. My wife wants to go to the surface and assist you in defeating Bren and quote on quote, "teaching those traitors their place"."
"Seriously?" Zeke asked incredulously. "She wants to go up and fight with us?"
"Correct. She also believes that her mere presence will be enough to make some demons surrender. And in all likelihood, she's correct." Dave said. "So...we will be leaving for the surface soon. Prepare yourselves, as she thinks we will likely be arriving right in the middle of a war zone."
"We're as ready as we'll ever be," Zeke said, raising his sword before looking up at the gigantic demon. "And I cannot thank you enough for this. With your help, we may have a chance at victory. And once Tom sees you and joins our side, we could actually win!"
Lady Lucitor girdled again in response and bowed, and Zeke hoped that he was understanding her correctly. But, there was no further time to dwell on that. If they were going to leave, then they had to leave now, and everyone realized that.
"I assumed we're all ready to leave, then?" Dave asked. "She requested that we leave as soon as possible, but if you want to go back and try to find some of your compatriots, then that might not be a bad idea."
"They're likely already long gone by now," Zeke said. "No. We're leaving immediately. Nevermind what Dtabby said about waiting for someone to come get us. This carries a better outcome for all of us. I assume your wife has the ability to teleport us all out of here?"
"Indeed she does. Now come close so she doesn't have to surround the entire room in a wall of flame." Dave said, and the two knights complied, stepping as close as they comfortable could to Lady Lucitor while Dave did the same. "Anytime you're ready, dear."
Lady Lucitor growled in response, and raised her arms in the air. A roaring tower of flame erupted from the ground and consumed them, and a moment later it vanished as always, leaving nothing in its place.
After so many months of captivity, the Royals of the Underworld were finally free.
Free to transport themselves to an entirely new hell.
"Hmm…hmm hmm hmm...hmm hmmm hmmm hmm hmmm hmmm…"
"What are you humming?"
Janna, who was currently deeply invested in her work and only a minute away from fully setting up the spell, flinched at the cold tone of the question and turned around to glare at the knight with an equally cold stare.
"None of your business." She said. "And I asked you to remain quiet. If that humming had been part of the spell, you would have messed it all up."
"Is it?"
"No. That's why I said "if it had been"." Janna sighed, rolling her eyes. "But now is an especially pivotal stage. I am only a minute away from setting this up and getting what I need. Just gotta collect enough essence from the portal I'm about to open, fuse it into this finger, and then we'll be all set…"
"You keep saying that," Steve mumbled. "How long until we're actually set?"
"I just told you, a minute."
"Will it truly be a minute?"
"It will be if you stop bothering me," Janna said, resisting the urge to turn around and start flat-out yelling at them. Where was the loyalty? The respect? Eclipsa, again, had told them to do whatever she said without question. Yet by the time she had first arrived, all they had been doing was asking questions. Was it too much to ask that they just shut up and trust the person who the queen had said may save them all?
Clearly, the answer was yes.
"There," Janna said, wiping some sweat off her brow. "I'm all ready. Now I just have to say some words, and pray to whatever god is on my side that this doesn't kill us all."
Steve was about to reply to this, but curiosity got the better of him and he decided to instead inspect the circle that Janna had painted on the table. It was much more complex than the one she had used to get them all here, with so many random symbols and runes that he was impressed she had seemingly managed to make it by memory alone. There were four outlying circles surrounding it, each containing the objects she had gotten. In the middle of it was the disembodied finger she had pulled out, and the whole thing made him dizzy if he looked at it for too long.
"That finger…" He mumbled. "What are you going to do after collecting the essence and I'm assuming, fuse it with that thing? Throw it at Bren and hope for the best?"
"Fire-god isn't here right now...just the presence of this circle should be keeping him back or making him blind to what we're doing."
"What did you just say?"
"Nothing," Janna replied quickly. "And yes, actually, that's exactly what I'm going to do. See, I'm going to infuse this finger with the essence of the entity I was talking about, the one that might kill us all. If I throw it at Bren, and manage to hit him, it should drive the Fire-god out of his body and leave him in a relatively weakened state. This will allow my friend who I talked about to wipe out the Fire-god once and for all, or at least drive him off to the point where he never comes back. And then we take care of Bren, and it's all over. No more gods, no more Bren, no more none of it." She smiled. "So there you go. At last, you know my plan. What do you think? What complaints do you have about it?"
"...Assuming it all works, none this time," Steve said. "But you do know that this plan of yours requires you to get close to Bren first, correct? That may be a little difficult. And I heard he's extremely fast. He may just dodge this finger of yours and make all our efforts worthless."
"Of course he may. There's a very large possibility that this will fail." Janna said, earning a shocked look from the knights. "What? You thought I was one hundred percent confident in this? No one is. Not Eclipsa, not the Royals, no one. We all know just how much of a risk this whole Stump day thing is, and how likely we are to fail. But we're doing it because it's all we have at this point. We need to take down Bren as fast as possible, and this is the way we decided we're going to do it."
"I already knew all of that," Steve said. "I'm just surprised to hear you admit it. But again, what is your plan to get close to Bren in the first place? Just wait until he's on the stage?"
"Pretty much," Janna replied. "And then I swoop in and do what needs to be done. But I do think I have a chance. Bren is the kind of person who likes to make a big entrance with a typical evil villain speech and all that nonsense. This whole plan is counting on the fact that he'll see the citizens, and want to go up on stage to make them cower before him. And his track record says that he will. He likes to reveal himself...like to make horrible strategic decisions…all for the sake of ego. A person I once was a long time ago, until I discovered things that helped me show the way."
"No surprise there…" Steve mumbled. "Okay. Are we going to start this ritual or not?"
"We are. Stand back. And I mean it." Janna ordered, and Steve immediately took a few steps backward, not wanting to be anywhere near the portal, the one Janna had stated multiple times would lead to an interdimensional monster. "Okay. All we have to do now is says the words...the words...ummm…"
"Don't tell me you forgot them," Steve begged.
"No, I remember perfectly," Janna said. "It's just that these words are a little odd. Usually, this stuff is said in Latin, but this language is one that's never been used normally on Earth or Mewni. Even in the Underworld, it was only spoken by a few select groups that kept mostly to themselves. So...just don't try to understand any of what's about to come out of my mouth. I hardly do. Only enough to cast this spell."
After that, Janna cleared her throat and began speaking. And just like she said they would (n't), none of the knights present could hope to comprehend what she was saying. It was hard to even describe. It was like a mix between a mountain goat screaming at the top of its lungs, the call of a lonely whale, and a person throat singing mixed together into what was supposed to be a "language". Steve didn't even know that humans were capable of making such sounds, and he was sure that they weren't supposed to. Because kidding by the look on Janna's face, this was actually rather painful.
But this "spell" lasted for all of thirty seconds, until the girl stopped and fell to her knees, gasping. She immediately pulled a bottle of water out of her backpack and chugged it down, emptying the entire thing in a matter of seconds. Steve stepped forward to see if she was okay, but she held a hand out and motioned for him to stay back, while she shakily got to her feet and backed away as well.
The circle she had drawn glowed a bright red, then black, as the objects she had placed inside it started melting like wax. After they had all been turned to liquid, all four streams shot up into the air and merged into one, then started rapidly spinning in a circle. This circle expanded to create a sort of donut, and in the middle of that donut, Steve could see some...thing.
It wasn't like a portal he was used to, one created by scissors. It was more like Janna had just punched a hole in reality. Suddenly the entire room got a whole lot colder, and Steve felt like he had been placed in the middle of a blizzard. It was like he was staring at the center of a black hole, something so alien and ancient he couldn't hope to understand it.
Janna then moved forward again after what seemed like an eternity, grabbing the finger with her pair of tongs and slowly approaching the portal.
"I'm going to need you to get out your sword." She whispered to Steve. "When I approach, something is going to come out of that portal and latch around this finger, and when I say "now" I need you to cut it away. Do you think you can do that?"
"Y-yeah," Steve said shakily. "I can do it."
"Good. Because all our lives depend on it. And sorry for not telling you earlier." Janna replied, and as Steve drew his and took a position next to the portal as Janna motioned for him to do, she took a few more steps. Closer...closer...holding the pair of tongs out…
Until something that hurt to look at shot out of the portal and wrapped around the tongs. To Steve, it had a similar appearance to some kind of tendril, bathed in shadow. But when he inspected it closer it was like it was made of a semi-liquid, malleable and ever-changing its shape-
"CUT IT NOW!" Janna shrieked, and Steve was brought back to reality as he remembered what he was supposed to be doing here. And with one swing he held the sword in the air and then brought it downwards upon the appendage, severing it in half. An ungodly shrieked arose out of the portal, and that was definitely a sound that no human could make. Or heck, any creature could make. But he was hearing it now, and it made his ears feel like they were about to explode.
But Janna didn't waste any time. The second the tentacle was cut, she rushed towards the book and ripped out the page that contained the spell, before taking a match out of her pocket that must have been there all along. She lit it by scratching it against the table, and then lit the page aflame before tossing it into the portal. Instantly the howls of the creature on the other side fell silent, and the portal simply…
Vanished. One second it was there, the next second it wasn't. The glowing circle in the air, the gaping hole in reality, it all just blinked out of existence like it was never there to begin with. The room instantly returned to how it was normally temperature-wise, and Janna and Steve stood there, breathing heavily, while the other two just watched with wide eyes, still trying to comprehend what they just witnessed.
"What…" Steve started. "What was…"
"The only way to ensure that it would never come back," Janna said. "I could have repelled it simply by throwing the match in there. This thing is a being of infinite cold and darkness, and hates all forms of warmth and stuff. That's why the room temperature dropped like that. That match only did enough damage to make it back off so the portal could close on its own. I had to time it perfectly. If I had been a few seconds too soon...it could have come back, and this time there would have been no stopping it."
"One of the most dangerous beings in the multiverse stopped by a lit match? Well, consider me less terrified." Steve scoffed. "But the page…"
"A precaution. To ensure that it couldn't come back and no one could ever summon up the portal like that again." Janna explained. "This being is a creature who learns from its mistakes. If we had made another portal right after this one, then it wouldn't have used the same tactic. It would have any in hundreds of those tenders and overwhelmed us. So now, if anyone in this dimension ever opens a portal to that thing again, using any tactic, we're all royally screwed."
"Wha-did you know that nobody had done it before?" Steve asked.
"Nope. I just had to bet on it." Janna said. "Since the god I'm in contact with can't tell me about stuff like that, one of the few rules they have to follow, I just had to I guess and hope for the best. Thankfully, no one was stupid enough to try...before me."
"You..." Steve said, before sighing. "Oh, forget it. There's no point in getting mad about it now. But it's done? That monster won't be able to get in here?"
"If it was, then we wouldn't be here right now. So yes." Janna said. "The portal is closed. Hopefully for a long enough time period that we'll all get to live out our natural life spans before it finds Earthni."
"Isn't there anything we can do to stop that?" One of the knights behind Janna asked, the one who she still hadn't learned the name of.
"Nope." She replied nonchalantly. "No one can. This thing just wants to make the universe how it was originally, and eventually, it's going to get what it wants. It's one of those things where we just have to hope for the best. Like a civilian in a war zone. You can either run or hide and hope the enemy doesn't find you. And this is an enemy that will find you eventually...the multiverse is only so big."
"...Isn't the multiverse infinite-"
"Enough questions," Janna said, before looking at the finger she still had placed in the tongs. It was now a much darker color, but not like the skin had changed tone. It was as if the air around it had shifted to become darker, and the finger was only a victim of this color change. Janna smiled and dropped it back in the jar she had, before sealing it tight and shoving it in her backpack.
"Well, that's the end of that." She said, gathering the thing else and putting it away. "Get ready to leave. We have what we need."
"That's it?" Steve asked. "So we just go back to the surface, find Bren, and you throw that at him?"
"Correct," Janna said. "If you want, you can tag along. See the outcome of this whole thing for yourself. And I could use some extra protection in case things go wrong. How about it?"
"After all that...there's no way I wouldn't be going with you to see what this thing is capable of," Steve said. "I'm coming." He then turned towards the two behind him. "And you two are as well, whether you like it or not."
"...Yeah. Okay." They both said simultaneously. "But this better work. Because otherwise, we're killing you before Bren gets a chance to."
"Sounds fair to me," Janna said, before throwing her backpack on and stretching herself out. "And now, it's time to-"
"HEY!"
At the sound of this sudden shout, all the knights drew their sword and took up immediate combat positions, facing towards the door and expecting anything from Bren himself to a single cowering demon. Janna dove behind the table and took cover before she even realized who had spotted them, not wanting to risk getting caught after coming so far.
However, their fears were all for nothing, as it was revealed that the person who now had three massive swords at him was another knight, with the rest of the group behind him, all looking completely out of breath.
"Oh...it's you guys," Steve said. "Janna, you can come out now. It's just our fellow knights. Nothing to worry about."
Slowly, Janna peeked her head over the tabletop and then stood up fully when she saw that Steve was telling the truth, and afterwards, she sighed and stepped forward, clearly unhappy with their sudden arrival.
"What are you guys doing here?" She asked. "You're supposed to be saving the Lucitor Royals. Unless you've already managed to save them, which I honestly find hard to believe-"
"We need to leave as fast as possible!" The knight interjected. "We know. We know we should be saving the Royals. But Sir Stabby is doing that right now, and he sent us on a more important mission. There's a reason that nobody is in the castle, Bren and the other demons. They're all doing to the surface to attack. All of them."
"Attack? What?! Are you sure?!" Janna said, now paying much more attention. "But if that's true...if they've all gone up there to invade...then the Stump day celebration is going to be a total massacre. Even with all those knights hidden in the crowd, they'll never be able to handle that many demons. Not without prior warning. And even then..." She shook her head and looked back at the knight. "Get everyone to stand outside this door and come over here now. I planned to do this outside the castle, but we have to move as fast as possible here."
"What are you going to do?" Steve asked.
"Take a guess," Janna replied, pulling her backpack off and taking out the paint and even more objects. "Hopefully there's enough space in here...but it's going to be a tight squeeze nonetheless."
After this there was a great rush as all the knights started crowding outside the door while Janna drew the teleportation spell on the ground as fast as possible, her work notably much sloppier than before, but it still got the job done. It only took her three minutes to finish the completed circle and place the trio of objects she needed inside it, and then she stood in the middle and motioned for everyone to do the same. The knights all rushed in, eager to get back to the surface, and the circle glowed as they crowded into it, with barely an inch of space between them. And for Janna, it was even worse, as she felt like she was practically suffocating.
But still, she had just enough space to raise her arms and finish the spell. Which is exactly what she was about to do, until-
"WAIT!"
"What the-" Janna started, before peeking her head over the crowd that currently surrounded her. There she saw Sir Stabby, the knight who had apparently stayed behind to rescue the Lucitors, holding an unconscious and bleeding Higgs and rushing towards them. Janna didn't even know what to make of this at first, her mind first going that the Lucitor rescue had failed to wondering if any demons were following them-
Before someone thankfully asked the questions for her.
"Sir Stabby?!" Steve said. "What are you doing here? We were told that you were rescuing the Lucitors!"
"They are rescued," Stabby said, causing Janna to sigh in silent relief. At least that meant that Tom would be safe...for now. "They are alright. But my squire was stabbed and we need to get her to a hospital immediately!"
"Already on our way out of here." Janna chimed in. "Squeeze in with the rest. We'll exit in the same place we entered, the forest, and then we can take her to the hospital while the rest of you go off and warn Eclipsa about Bren's invasion."
"Good, good…" Stabby said, and several knights moved aside to let him in. After that was finished, Janna waited for a second to see if anyone else was going to suddenly show up, and when they'd firm she finally raised her arms and activated the circle. A tower of flame rose and fell, taking all those present with it.
And like that, the mission was done.
The Lucitors, after so many months, had finally been rescued.
But unfortunately, Janna had no clue how to accomplish her next goal without being killed. For all she knew, everyone in Earthni might already be dead.
"How much longer until the main festivities begin?"
"Well, we said they would start when the sun went down, which is at about seven. And it's only six-thirty right now...so we have a half-hour."
"A half-hour…" Eclipsa mumbled, thinking about the answer that Globgor had just given her. Thirty minutes. Just thirty minutes until what very well may be the most important moment of her life up until this point. Either the plan worked and Bren showed up, or everyone died and they failed. She peeked out from behind the curtain they had set up, looking past the "fake" crowd of knights dressed as normal civilians. Past all of them she saw the real citizens, crowding around the various food stalls, each of them eagerly waiting for them to open. At seven o'clock, Eclipsa would give her speech and declare that the Stump day had begun. Then, Bren would hopefully show up and...oh, you already know what she wants to happen. But again, this was it. There was no room for error, and plenty of chances for it to happen.
And again, they only had a half-hour left. However, it had already been an hour since Janna and the knights departed for the Underworld, so Eclipsa expected for them to get back relatively soon. Or at least one of them, to inform her of the fact that the mission was a success.
But they hadn't, and so she was starting to get a little worried. If they didn't arrive before Bren arrived, then they wouldn't be able to convince Tom that he didn't have to fight anymore. If they simply told him that his parents were free, Bren would call a bluff and order the demon to attack everyone. Probably after making a big speech about it first. Such was his way.
"You see rather anxious…" She heard Globgor say, and the Queen jumped slightly and moved away from the curtain. "And I understand why, but if we're going to go out there, we can't be looking like sweaty messes. We have to show that we're fearless in the face of this enemy...even if we're really not."
"Yes, I know," Eclipsa said. "Speaking of fear, how are the other Royals doing, by the way? Are they all locked away in their castles at the moment?"
"Most are, yeah," Globgor replied. "They gave us as many knights as they had to spare, and I think a few were even left without them. So their castles are their only methods of protecting themselves at the moment. And I'm sure that more than a couple are planning to make a run for it if things go especially bad."
"There is nowhere to run to," Eclipsa said. "Even if we've detonated the bombs on the hill of flags already-"
"And destroyed like ninety percent of it, which the Butterfly Royals were a lot angrier about than I thought they would be." Globgor chimed in, the memory of the destruction of the hill and the blowing up of Bren's various bombs fresh in his mind, despite it all happening "off-screen".
"Yes, well, they'll just have to deal with it," Eclipsa said. "But as I was saying, even if we did that, the military is still surrounding the town with their blockade. Where do the Royals intend to run to, exactly?"
"Not sure. But desperation makes people do crazy things." Globgor said. "So don't you do anything insane, because I can see just how desperate you're becoming."
"For very good reason. Janna and her group still aren't back yet, despite an hour being plenty of time for a group of that skill set to break into the castle, evade the guards, rescue the Lucitors, and do whatever Janna needs to do." Eclipsa sighed. "And yet they are still not back. But we need them to be here in order to prove to Tom that his parents are safe, so now we-"
"Okay, just calm down," Globgor said, putting his hand on his wife's shoulder. "I get it completely. You're freaking out because this is the moment where the fate of all our lives is decided. I'm freaking out too, just internally, and that's what I need you to do. After all, what if Bren's watching us right now, waiting for the moment where you come on stage? If he sees you like this, he might assume that something is wrong."
"Maybe he'll just think it's stage fright?"
"You're a queen. You've had years of practice talking to people in front of a large crowd. You could be delivering the most important address in the history of the multiverse and you wouldn't even flinch at the idea of that was all it was." Globgor said. "No. I need you to remain calm for all of us."
"All of us…" Eclipsa echoed. "Meteora is safe, correct?"
"Yup, she's safe," Globgor said. "As we planned, we gave them to the Diazes, who are currently hiding out at Moon's home. Since that place is already naturally hidden, I think even Bren will have a hard time finding them. And not many people know where Moon lives specifically, just that her house is in that forest." He nodded his head. "So yeah. Meteora is safe. That house is probably safer than any of the bunkers the Royals have at the moment…"
"Even if we win this, we will likely still have to drag them out of those things." Eclipsa scoffed. "But on the plus side, if things go wrong, we do have a plan for the few knights secretly running the food stalls to start directing everyone to the nearest bunker, which would be...the one in the Butterfly Castle, correct?"
"Yup. And since no one really lives there anymore, we didn't have to haggle with any of the Royals to keep their doors open in case all hell broke loose." Globgor said. "Very convenient, actually. I just hope that all the barricades we made hold up in the end."
"They will. If Bren decides to attack the citizens, those barricades will be more than enough to stop the likes of him." Eclipsa replied. "Now then, how much longer do we have?"
"Ehm...about twenty-five minutes."
"Oh my goodness…"
In a fantastic flash of light and flame, the forest of certain death was lit up against the night sky, the tower of fire extending far beyond the horizon. But only for a second, to the point where nobody nearby even noticed it. But still, it signaled the return of Janna and her entourage of knights, who currently all had their weapons drawn. They could be returning to anything, after all. A giant army of remain staring them right in the face…
But thankfully, nothing like that appeared. There were no demons, no giant fires raging, and no screams in the distance. Somehow, they had managed to arrive before Bren's demon army.
However, there was no time to be relieved. The second the knight all realized that they scattered, one of them grabbing Janna as she instructed and moving towards the front of the crowd. Sir Stabby was right behind them, the only thought in his mind being getting to the nearest hospital. The rest of the knights all stood around for a moment, watching their two leaders disappear into the darkness of the forest, before they quickly followed them, not wanting to be left here, in the Forest of certain death, without proper guidance, at night of all times.
And it only took them ten minutes to get to the entrance, an impressive feat considering that it was over two and a half miles away. Once they got there Stabby didn't stop, intending to sprint all the way to the hospital. He left everyone else behind and vanished into the town, and the rest of the knights stopped, even the ones who wanted to follow him knowing that they had no chance of catching up with the man.
"Okay." Steve gasped, still carrying Janna in his arms. "What's the plan here? Do we just get to Eclipsa and tell her what's going to happen?"
"Yes," Janna replied. "We'll have to call off the Stump day plan, but we have no other choice. Even with all those knights in the crowd, if any civilians are there when Bren arrives then it'll be all over for them."
"I don't understand why he hasn't gotten here yet." One of the other knights standing nearby said. "He's not in the Underworld, and he's not here yet, so...where the hell is he?"
"Likely a place where he can temporarily hide all his demon troops before bringing them out to the main event," Janna said. "I'm betting Bren is here, hiding somewhere, but they're not. Just waiting for his orders to strike."
"Fantastic…" Steve growled. "Well, no time to waste. Let's get the hell out of here."
"Yes, let's," Janna said, and then the two of them ran off in the direction of the celebration, several of the knights following them as best they could.
"And this, Star, is what we like to call the "outside world". Very pretty, isn't it?"
"Haha. Very funny, Marco."
"Hey, I'm just trying to lighten the mood. You're finally getting out of the hospital and we're going to the Stump Day celebration to beat Bren once and for all! I thought you would be a little more excited."
Star, with a shaking of her head and a sigh, looked over at her boyfriend and gave him the best "seriously?" expression she could. "Marco, nobody who knows what's really going on here is excited. We all know the stakes. If we don't win here, then we don't win ever."
"Yeah, I know," Marco replied, struggling to stretch his legs out in the rental car they were currently sitting in. "But I just want to be as positive as possible before this. I've been acting like a huge jerk recently, moping and crying in my room and all that. I'd like to stop..."
"Well, don't force yourself to," Star said. "And especially don't pretend like you're someone you're not. I heard about how that's one of the worst things you can do to yourself after going through a traumatic-"
"Yes, yes, I already know, Star," Marco interjected, before punching her lightly in the shoulder. She grinned and responded by elbowing him in the stomach, almost causing him to kneel over in pain. "Okay…" He wheezed. "That was definitely not a fair trade."
"Eh, you started it, so it was in my eyes." Star chuckled before looking out the window. For the first time in forever, even though it had only been a few days, Star was out of the hospital on leave. Eclipsa had given her special permission, and the hospital was honestly more than happy to get rid of her for a while. After she had terrified their halls and doctors for so long, they practically handed her over.
But it wouldn't last forever, of course. Star had been given strict instructions to not perform any unnecessary movements and to go back to the hospital immediately if she felt any pain, which indicated that the drugs she had been pumped full of were starting to wear off. And when that happened, it might grow to the point where she was unable to even move because of how painful it would be, so it was in everyone's best interest to get her back as soon as possible.
Except for hers. Because she wanted to stay out there for as long as possible. Even if she was only being allowed out to lure Bren to the stage, she had made Marco promise that they would hang out a bit afterward, possibly to check out some of the foods at the stalls they had set up or just walk around town and see how the rebuilding process was going. (Not good.)
But overall, she just wanted to relax with her boyfriend without having to think about any of the recent events, even if they both knew that such a thing was impossible. But maybe, just maybe, if they went to the Diazes house, got some of their favorite nachos, and put on one of their terrible karate movies that Marco liked, then they could have a taste of what used to be. Of what they had lost in order to get this far.
Even if it hadn't been that long at all…
"Marco?" Star asked.
"Yeah?" He replied. "What is it?"
"How long had it been since all this started?"
"What...you mean like the thing with a Bren or…?"
"The thing with Bren," Star said. "How long has it even been since he showed up? I feel like it's been months at times…but I know that that's not true. How long has it been since we first started fighting him?"
"Well, let's see…" Marco said, before retreating into his own head. "We started fighting him the day of the demon attack, there was a few days after that, then we had our beach day and the explosion, then we had the meeting the next day, and then, and then…" He shook his head. "I don't know. I think it's been a little over two weeks. At least."
"Two weeks...just two weeks?" Star asked, before groaning and sinking into her seat. "Jeez. It feels like it's been years. So much has happened in those two weeks that I can hardly keep track of it all anymore. I mean, we've faced some pretty crazy stuff in the past, but nothing quite like this. Even if I've been stuck in the hospital doing nothing, it feels like I don't even have time to breathe."
"I know what you mean. Everything had just been one giant mess." Marco said, stating the obvious just as much as Star was. "But hopefully, whatever comes next helps us cleans up that mess. If Eclipsa's plan goes right, then soon everything will be all over. Bren will be dead, Tom will be saved, and we can get to work on rebuilding once we force the government to give us everything we want. Oh, and the people that made that deal with Bren will hopefully go to prison, even if that's a stretch if anything."
"They are," Star said. "Otherwise, I'm gonna drive all the way across the country and throw them in a cell myself."
Marco smirked. "You can't just solve every problem with your fists, Star. Soon enough this will all be over…one way or another." He gulped.
"Over...yeah," Star said, before gazing at the sky. "Marco...even though Bren is attacking everyone, it's still really just me he wants, right?"
"Yeah. Why?"
"Just checking…" Star mumbled, before sighing. But she wasn't really just checking. Star knew just how important this little detail was in the grand scheme of everything. If things turned sour at the Stump Day celebration, then Star knew that she might be the only one with the capabilities to lure Bren out. She didn't know what she was going to do after that, but...she had to admit, she wasn't sure how comfortable she was with doing something like sacrificing herself as long as it meant Bren died in the end and everyone was safe.
She couldn't just leave everyone behind. But if everything went wrong and it truly came to that…
'No, don't think like that.' Star thought. 'This is all going to go just fine. You know the kind of person Bren is. He'll definitely fall for the bait that Eclipsa is going to set. As long as we can get him on that stage, and the knights are all in position, then we should be fine. Just rush him and finish it once and for all. Like at the hospital, only this time we finish him for good, and afterwards, Janna uses a spell to banish that Fire-god. No more gods, no more Bren, no more anything.'
She sighed again. '...Yeah. How much of that do I really believe? How are things ever going to get back to normal after this? Even if Bren died right now, there are still so many problems to solve that I can hardly even count them all. The problems with the government, all the money, rebuilding, the fact that the Lucitors will have to regain power in the Underworld after Bren dies…everything just really sucks so much. Bren's death is only the beginning of the end of all this crap. We still have a long way to go after that, and even longer before everything returns to how it was pre-Bren levels. I mean, all those people that died, more than a thousand, and even more now that we know everyone who has attempted to leave so far is currently rotting on the side of the road. And we haven't even broken that part out yet! How is everyone going to react when we tell them that all their injured friends and family members are gone and that we've actually known for a few days but decided not to tell them?'
"So what are you thinking about?" Marco asked, snapping Star out of her thoughts. She jumped slightly and looked over at him, where he was wearing a smile, an actual smile, not that forced one that he had been made to put on every time he went out in public nowadays. (And by forced, we mean that he forced himself to do it. His parents and Star were completely against it in every aspect of the word.) "You look like you're thinking up the next great American novel."
"Is that what I look like?" Star asked, before shaking her head again. "You know. I'm just thinking of usual stuff. What we're gonna do once all this is over, and how we can keep moving forward...and how can we help everyone else keep moving forward. If you think about it, all the death and destruction that have been happening recently, we've been really lucky. None of our friends have died, only a few have been injured, meanwhile, almost everyone else in the town is going to be burying a relative once this is all over. Somehow... even though we're the main targets of all this...Bren has really only taken out his rage on the rest of the town."
"Ahem." Marco coughed, before pointing at himself. "None of our friends and family have died, eh? Sad to see that you don't think of me that way, Star."
"What are you...oh my god, I'm so sorry!" Star exclaimed. "I'm sorry, that completely slipped my mind, and I just wasn't-"
"No, you don't have to worry about it. I was joking anyway." Marco said. "But you do have a bit of a point. Other than me dying and getting resurrected, you being put in the hospital, Janna being out in the hospital, Tom being enslaved, your mom being...um...being…" He then paused and glanced at Star. "Okay, nevermind. Are you sure that we and our friends haven't been attacked a lot?"
"Maybe I'm exaggerating a bit, but still. Sometimes it feels like everyone else is suffering more than us because of all this." Star said. "And it's not like a competition or anything, I'm just pointing it out."
"You do have a point there, but as you just said, it's not a competition, so I don't think it's worth discussing," Marco said. "Everyone is suffering because of all this in some way, so our main goal should be just to stop that widespread, and not compare who's got it worse than who. As long as we focus on helping everyone instead of focusing on a single person, we should get through this."
"Yeah...but still," Star said. "How many people do you think are gonna leave the town after this is all over? Someone like a Bren might come along again. His dimension was definitely not the only one destroyed by the destruction of the magic realm. If someone else comes along, pissed at me for the same reason…" She groaned and buried her face into the back of her seat. "It'll be this all over again."
"I wouldn't be so sure. It's been six months, after all." Marco said. "If there was someone out there that both survived and wanted to get revenge on you, or even knew that it was you in the first place, I think we would have seen them already alongside Bren. A year is probably how long we should wait until we can call it safe, but for now, I think we're okay when it comes to more revenge-happy lunatics."
"You think so?"
"Uh, yeah. Why else would I have just said that?" Marco asked rhetorically. "Just don't try to think about it, Star. In the end, I'm sure everything is going to be just-"
Before he could finish his sentence, the car suddenly came to a grinding halt as the brakes screeched, and Marco faceplanted into the chair in front of him while Star lurched forward and nearly got burned from her seatbelt. She yanked it off and Marco groaned as he moved back, while Star peeked into the front seat to see what was going on.
"Mrs. Diaz, what the heck?" She asked. "What's going on with...oh."
Oh indeed. Because in front of them Star could see the reason as to why they couldn't travel forward any further. There was a gigantic crowd in front of them, none of them turned their way, all steadily moving forward. Even a mile away from the Stump Day celebration, there were already people lining up, and Star had a feeling that they wouldn't be very eager to get out of their way.
"Oh wow," Star said, before facepalming. "Okay, this isn't good. We have to be at the stage in like twenty minutes, and that's still over a mile away. And with a crowd this size...we're never going to make it in time."
"Told you we should have left earlier…" Marco said, still rubbing the front of his head. "But what do we do now? Climb a nearby building and travel on top of the rooftops?"
"I mean...I have no objections to that!" Star said, opening her door. "And we don't really have a choice if we want to get there as soon as possible. All the other streets are probably just as packed as this one. We took this route in the first place because we thought it was the one with the least amount of people…"
"Yeah, and I bet it still is," Marco said, before opening his door as well. Normally a suggestion like this would have chased him to think twice, but there were more important things going on than their perinatal safety and worrying about falling off a roof. If jumping from rooftop to rooftop got them to the stage the fastest, then that was what they were going to do. "Okay, thanks for driving us, mom! And you're sure you'll be safe at Moon's house once you get back there?"
"You're welcome. And of course." Angie replied. "She gave us a short tour before we were allowed in, and I must say, that place is built to withstand a siege. The walls were made of metal, the door looked like it was a foot thick, and I'm sure I saw more than a few weapons hidden about."
"No doubt those are my dads," Star said. "He used to do the same thing when we still lived in the castle, until my mom made him put a stop to it. I guess now that they live there, she just doesn't bother arguing with him."
"Sounds interesting," Angie said. "Well, I would love to say more, but you two are on a deadline! I'll see you later and call you if anything happens!"
"And we'll be there in a matter of minutes if anything does," Marco said. "Bye, mom."
"Goodbye, Marco," Angie said, before pausing and looking him right in the eyes. "And...please. Be safe."
"I will," Marco said. "I will."
"Good," Angie said, and with that, she drove off into the night, and Star and Marco watched her as she disappeared into the night before the former started heading towards a neat building.
"Come on!" She said. "Once we get to the top of this the hard part is over! The gaps between these buildings are nothing to us."
"I can't believe we're actually doing this," Marco said, as he and Star headed towards the fire escape attached to the side of the structure. "I hope Eclipsa doesn't mind us literally dropping in on things. As well as possibly showing up late…"
"I'm sure she won't mind," Star said, as the two of them began to climb up. "As long as we get there, that's all that's important. We arrive, She and I start giving a speech and stuff, and then Bren hopefully drops in and tries to scare the hell out of everyone."
"I know the plan, yes," Marco said. "But what if he doesn't show? I actually don't know our contingency plan if that happens."
"Then we keep going and continue with the celebrations," Star replied. "The citizens are going to be pissed if we suddenly say that they all have to go home. The fact that they all showed up and are happy is a miracle in of itself considering all the news that's come recently about the government abandoning us and the town being surrounded by an army."
"I suppose that's true…" Marco grunted, as he pushed himself up on top of the roof. Star was already there, looking out towards the festival, just in the distance. The lights from here were almost blinding, and for the first time in weeks, she felt like she could relax.
"It's a lot prettier from up here..." She said.
"You know what else is prettier?" Marco asked, seeing an opportunity.
"I don't know, Marco. Is it me?" Star asked, before chuckling and hugging him. "Who am I kidding? Of course it is. Because if it was anything else, I would shove you off the roof."
"That would've been a pretty premature end to our relationship…"
"Eh. You survived the Neverzone." Star said. "I'm sure you'd be fine."
"Whatever you say, Star," Marco replied, before hugging her back. They remained like this for a few moments, before Star remembered that they were still on a schedule. So she let go of Marco, much to his visible disappointment, and started running towards the end few of the roof, before leaping over the three-foot gap to the next one.
"Come on!" She repeated. "This celebration won't wait for us! I mean, Eclipsa might make it, but we don't wanna be late and cause her even more stress!"
Marco smiled and then shook his head, before carefully following his girlfriend. The gaps between the buildings were easy to get over, as she had claimed, but he still felt his heart jump every time he jumped over.
'Still can't get rid of that "safe kid" energy, huh?' He thought to himself. 'At this rate...I just hope that we both survive to see tomorrow.'
"Go faster! We need to go faster!"
"I'm going as fast as I can! While carrying you! I have my limits, you know!"
"Then try and push past your limits!"
"What the hell does that even mean?!"
Janna hesitated for a moment, honestly unable to come up with a proper response for that one. Instead, she just shook her head and remained silent, and Steve scoffed and kept going, starting to get far too annoyed by her shenanigans. But these shenanigans were going to become necessary soon, if they wanted to get there on time. They were still running, all four of them, towards the center of the celebration, but unfortunately it was over two miles away. And while this would have been nothing but a leisurely jog for someone like, say, King River, the knights' stamina was rather spent after so much time in the Underworld, not to mention the fact that they were still wearing plates of heavy armor. And Steve was carrying Janna, which just added to their decrease in speed.
But still, they had to make it. Janna had a feeling that Bren would show up with his entire army when the celebration started and focus on killing all the knights first before moving to the civilians, leaving them with almost no chance to fight him. Most of the police were dead, and it's not like they could get help from any outside sources, so the knights at the celebration were all they had at the moment, not including the group currently stationed in the forest.
However, even if they all joined the fray, it might not be close to enough. There was no telling how many demons Bren had gotten on his side and was about to summon. But if even just one of them was anything like the rock demons he had sent to destroy the town a while back, then without Janna and without demon magic, they didn't stand a chance.
And honestly, Janna didn't even know what she was going to do once she got there. She still had the finger, which she planned to use against Bren no matter what. However, that wouldn't be enough for his army of demons, and never would. They needed more knights and weapons, and unfortunately, they didn't have that at the moment. All the knights at the festival were armed with was simple swords, knives, and shields, which would be laughably ineffective once the demons showed up and started swarming the area. They needed Earth weapons to win this one, but Janna didn't know how many guns they even had in the town. Only that however many there were, it likely wouldn't be enough. They would need full-on machine guns, sniper rifles, and all other sorts of things that no one had access to at the moment. Ironically, most of the citizens of Echo Creek who had guns had discarded them after it was proven that the new arrivals were safe as a sign of good faith. And anyone who did have them was at the festival, and thus not in a position to suddenly rush home and grab their weapons.
Janna didn't know what to do.
But at the very least, she could get to the center stage and have Eclipsa evacuate everyone to one of the many castle bunkers. Try to save as many as possible before Bren arrived. Which might not work, considering that the second Bren thought they knew what he was up to, he would summon his army to take everyone out. But, it's not like they had any other options. They could either warn the people, and most of them might die, or they could stay and fight, and everyone would die. Either way, Janna was not looking forward to whatever came next.
Whether they killed Bren or not, everything might fall apart this night…
"I don't get it." Sir Stabby suddenly said, knocking Janna out of her thoughts. "I simply don't get any of this."
"Still, I'd like you to be a little more specific so I can have an inkling about what you're on about." Janna requested. "And I'm sure you've already guessed that I'm a person who doesn't like to be kept in the dark."
"I'm talking about Bren's attack," Steve said. "He knew of our plans, somehow. He knew what we were trying to do to him. And yet he still isn't here? Why wouldn't he strike when all of us were in the Underworld? Why leave anyone there at all, or at the very least, tell the guards not to discuss his plan, because otherwise, we would have never known about it!"
"That is all a bit odd. But then again, so is Bren." Janna pointed out. "All I know is that he belongs in a mental hospital in hell. I don't care why he hasn't chosen to attack. Most likely, he's waiting until the ceremony starts. That's why we planned it this way, after all. He loves a big entrance. If I were to guess, I would say that he's gonna jump in like we planned, and just after we revealed that the civilians in the crowd are actually knights, he's gonna reveal his demon army and pull a switcheroo on us."
"That means we have until it starts to get everyone out of here," Steve said. "What time is it?"
"Ten minutes. We only have ten minutes until it starts." Janna said, holding her hand up, which contained a timer. "Set this thing right before we went to the Underworld to make sure we got back before the festivities began. So...ten minutes. No, even less than that, considering that it might take us a few more to get there and push out way through the crowd."
"Dammit...don't you have one of those phone things?" Steve asked. "Call Eclipsa and tell her what's going on! I know she has one as well!"
"No can do," Janna said, shaking her head. "I didn't bring my phone with me because it always had a tendency to melt whenever I used the teleportation spell. In the past, when Tom took me to the Underworld normally using his powers, I had my phone with me, and by the time we got there, it was totally fried. So sorry, but I don't have it. Electronics just don't do well with magical transitions."
"What about that stopwatch?"
"Complicated electronics."
"Ugh...why does everything have to be against us at the moment?" Steve screamed at the heavens. "Could this situation possibly get any worse?!"
"Yes, and I recommend you don't ask, otherwise the Fire-god is going to hear you and make this worse for us," Janna said. "And I'm surprised that he hasn't shown his face yet, or even let us come back here in the first place. He controls all demon magic, which means we were only allowed into the Underworld because he allowed it."
"What?" Steve said. "So there was a possibility that none of this would have worked from the very start?"
"Pretty much," Janna said. "But it has, which means he's confident enough that we're not going to be able to stop him. He might just be biding his time, searching for another proxy at the last minute, who knows. Even me, the person who knows the most about how gods think and work, can't predict with one hundred percent accuracy what one of them is going to do next. At this rate, he may even suddenly switch sides and work for us, all for shits and giggles."
"Really?"
"No," Janna said. "That's probably more something I would do if I was ever in that situation."
"...Remind me when this is all over to request to Eclipsa that you never get put in any position of power," Steve said. "If that's how you deal with matters, then you're the kind of person who would open the doors to an enemy country the second they say they're going to invade us."
"Aw, but where's the fun in that?" Janna chuckled, before taking on a serious demeanor again. "But honestly, I don't know what the big man is going to do at this point. All we can do in that regard is wait and see. I could try contacting him and see if he answers, but I doubt that's gonna happen. He doesn't want to deal with me anymore."
"Anymore?" Steve echoed, raising an eyebrow. "What the hell does anymore mean-"
"Not like that!" Janna interjected. "Don't get any wrong ideas that I'm working with him or something. No, he just tried to contact me earlier with an offer to make me his next proxy once all this is over. After Bren. Bren doesn't know it, but the Fire-god doesn't intend to keep him around forever. He only used him to scout out Earth to find a potential carrier for his word, or to put it in simplistic terms, the person who will spread the religion of fire across the whole world and keep his existence from going."
"Really? And what did you say?" Steve asked.
"I essentially told him to screw off," Janna said. "I wasn't going to work for the same being who was perfectly willing to let all my friends and family die just so he could have a few more thousands years of life. Screw all of that. I'm not letting the gods choose my path for me. I'm doing that myself. And while I am working with a god at the moment, after that's finished, I think I'm going to take a break when it comes to associating with them. All this divine power here and there...it's getting to be a bit overwhelming. Not to mention obnoxious. I'd rather our home planet not become the personal playground of these bastards." Janna then sighed. "I mean, it's not like we would be able to do much to stop it, but still. Any way I can get them to go home, I'll do it."
Steve scoffed. "So what does that make you, then? Earthni's noble protector against the forces of godly evil from other dimensions?"
"You make it sound so cheesy," Janna mumbled. "But sorta, and at the same time, not really. I don't want to deal with these guys. This isn't going to become a regular thing. Once the two gods in this dimension go away, the Fire-god and the one I'm currently communicating with, the rest probably won't bother us. We're not that special as a dimension anyways. Plenty of worlds have been merged together in the past, when magic was still around. We were just the last one. And sure, we might be of interest because everyone who was responsible for a big portion of the multiverse going to shit currently lives here...but the gods are powerful enough that the ones who remain weren't affected at all by this, so they have nothing to gain if they attack us."
"And the ones who were affected by it?" Steve asked.
"They're long dead," Janna said. "Either the destruction of magic killed them, or something else did when they were weakened by it. Likely a rival god. We would know if any god had simply been weakened by it but was still alive, because they would already be here blowing this place to Hell. No, the gods all hate each other, and when they see an opportunity to bump another god off, you can be sure as hell that they're going to take it. So I'm not worried about more gods showing up, because I would already know about them. They're not a particularly...patient bunch, despite being immortal."
"So does this mean we all had faith for nothing?" Steve asked. "Because the more you speak, the more it sounds like the gods are no different than us in terms of personality. They're not some grand all loving and caring beings. They don't care about us at all."
"You pretty much nailed it," Janna said. "Think about it. Why would gods be different than us just because they have more power? They have the same level of consciousness and awareness, they're just able to observe more things simultaneously. It's just like if one of us was suddenly granted great power. And as we've seen from history, when someone gets their hand on just a little bit of power, it tends to go to their head and they become huge jerks. That's what the gods are. Just us...but with more power. They call us mortals, but depending on the definition, they're far more "mortal" than we will ever be."
"...You know, I'm thinking that this information really shouldn't be leaked to the public," Steve said. "Huge parts of your world basically run on religion, don't they?"
"I wouldn't say run, more like…" Janna said, before shrugging. "I don't know. But yeah, try not to go posting about this on the internet. If a few billion people learn that their precious deities are a bunch of greedy and lazy beings just like them, everything is going to hit the fan."
"No kidding…" Steve said, and before he could say anything more, he turned a corner and almost ran smack into somebody, his feet coming to a screeching halt against the pavement. The other two knights topped as well, their heady dropping when they saw what stood between them and the stage, still almost a mile away. A gigantic crowd of people, packed so tightly that there was no way they would be able to get through it unless they literally picked people up and tossed them out of the way. Especially with the armor on. And they couldn't just tell them that Bren was coming to get them to move, because then a mass panic would set in and somebody was bound to get trampled if that happened.
"Oh my god, we don't have time for this!" One of the knights behind Janna screeched. "There's no way we'll be able to get through this crowd in time! What the heck are we going to do now?!"
"Umm…" Janna hummed, before looking upwards and arching an eyebrow as something loving across the rooftops caught her eye. There, in the distance, she could make out the shadows of two people moving either away, jumping from roof to roof. She couldn't quite make out who it was at first, before she noticed one person had comically long hair, and the other was pausing before, as if making sure that it was safe enough. She chuckled and shook her head, now fully aware of who it had to be.
"You clever little…" She started, before spotting the same fire escape that Star and Marco had gone up earlier. "There!" She said, pointing it out to the others. "We can go up that and make it to the rooftops. From there we can jump to each one until we get close enough that the civilians aren't a problem. They won't move out of our way, but the knights in disguise will."
"We're going to be jumping from roof to roof?" Steve exclaimed. "In full armor?"
"Well, unless you have a better idea that doesn't involve charging through that crowd like an out-of-control rhino, then I'm all ears," Janna said snidely.
"..."
"..."
"Fine." Steve groaned, before motioning towards the other two. "Come on. It's the only way. If you get tired, just remember what we're doing this for. To save Earthni. If we don't succeed, then no one does except for Bren."
"Right!" The other two knights simultaneously, and a moment later all three of them were rushing up the fire escape, following the same path as the pair from earlier.
Everything was falling into place…
"How much further do we have to go?"
"We're almost there, Marco!" Star replied, as she noticed that her boyfriend was beginning to lag behind her. "Just a few more rooftops! I think I can almost see the stage from here!"
"I really hope you're right." Marco groaned. "The last time you said that, it just turned out to be the light being cast from a pizzeria sign."
"Hey, can you blame me?" Star asked. "It looked a lot like the stage from a distance!"
"Doesn't matter!" Marco complained, before holding his side. "Okay. I know we're on a tight schedule, but I seriously need to stop. No one is going to care if we're a little late, Star. Bren's going to be willing to wait all night until you arrive, the citizens don't even care about the speech, only about the food, and the knights have been waiting and training all week for this. Everyone has patience at the moment."
"No," Star said, suddenly having a serious look on her face. "We have to be there on time, Marco. Nothing can go that isn't how we planned it. It doesn't matter if your side hurts or you're tired. And I'm sorry that that sounds mean, but you know it's true. We really don't have many opportunities for error here."
"I know. I know…" Marco sighed. "Nothing can be out of place. We probably shouldn't even be talking like this since Bren might be listening in to what we're saying. But, Star...do you really think this plan is going to work? I know that's a question that's been asked so many times over the past week, to the point where I'm tired of hearing it, but I never really got an answer for it. Do you think we can pull this off?"
"Yes, I do," Star said. "Eclipsa's logic was flawless. Bren is the type of person to make a big entrance like that. And the knights, even the ones with muscles bigger than their heads, have all been perfectly disguised. No one could tell from a distance, or even from up close (no), that they're battle-hardened warriors and not regular people who would scream at the sight of Bren showing up on the stage...which is what we're instructed them to do, of course."
"But I'm still worried. About the Fire-god." Marco said. "Even though we did our best to mask our presence from him, he's still, you know, a god. What are the odds that he's noticed nothing about what we've been doing? How much luck would we have to have on our side to pull this off?"
"All of it," Star said. "But there's something else. This is all we can do, you know? We don't have any other way to defeat Bren. We can't wait for an opportunity to present itself. We have to make it. Storming the Underworld, trying to track him down normally, or just waiting this out until help arrives that nobody is planning to send...they're not options anymore. They never were. From the very start, this was made so that we would have no chance to beat him once he put his mind to it. We may have had a few small victories along the way, but that was Bren acting stupid and not thinking straight. If he wanted it, we'd all be dead already. He could have just snuck into our houses, planted the same type of bombs that he used to kill Brudo, and left. And that would have been it. We would never be able to do anything about it…"
"But he didn't," Marco said. "And if I'm being honest, I think that's what's important here, Star. He's given us so many opportunities to take him down. Remember our first meeting? He literally requested that we try to stop him so he could have some fun. And everything we've done to stop him at this point has been almost entirely ineffective. Like you just mentioned...any victory we get it's like we were allowed to do it. He let us."
"Except for that one time at the hospital," Star said. "That was totally thanks to my mom and dad. Tackling him out the window like that...I have to admit, even though I looked shocked at that moment, my brain was smiling wider than ever before. That was awesome. And I knew a fall like that wouldn't really hurt my dad anyways, so yeah."
"He did seem a little banged up, though," Marco said. "He's okay, right? He seemed to be doing fine at the last meeting…"
"Oh, totally. He just had to sleep all that off." Star said. "But what were you just saying? About what's really important here?"
"I was saying, or I'm trying to say, just in an extremely complicated manner, that I'm worried we've been set up," Marco said. "All those things we call victories that weren't really victories at all...I'm getting the feeling that this is going to be that. That Bren knows what we're doing and that he's going to make it seem like we've won, only to reveal at the last moment that he has some grand backup plan ready for us. Like Tom. Tom is going to be nearby." He then gulped and looked around. "And oh god, I almost forgot. Janna's mission has to be done by the time all this starts, otherwise, we have nothing against Tom. If Bren shows up and the knights charge him, but the Lucitors are still under his control...Tom will just be ordered to kill everyone, and that'll be the end of that. No amount of knights could stop him. At full power...he could probably take out this entire town."
"Maybe a little bit of over-exaggeration there," Star said. "But I know. I haven't forgotten about that. And since we have no way to contact Janna, and not really be able to afford to wait for her arrival, all we can do is hope for the best and pray that she's done with whatever by the time the main ceremony comes along."
"Hope…" Marco echoed, before staring up at the sky. "It's been a few hours. I think they should be done…"
"I suppose we'll just have to wait and see," Star said, before leaping straight across a seven-foot gap. Marco gulped again and did the same, only with a windup. As unnerved as he was by it, this was a good sign. It meant they were almost to the stage. There were fewer buildings the closer they got to the town center. And it didn't take a genius to put two and two together. So this routine continued for a minute, Marco needing bigger and bigger windups, until they came across a gap that was easily fifteen feet wide. Star grinned widely and was about to jump it, but Marco grabbed her shoulder and made her stop, even if he knew she could probably clear that with ease.
"I think we're close enough that we should be able to walk…" He said, before point ahead, where they could both see the crowd of knights in the distance, perfectly disguised as civilians. "Come on. Let's go down here and walk the rest of the way. Maybe enjoy what the Council set up a little bit before the main event."
"Mmm...okay, if you say so," Star said, before gazing forlornly at the building across from them. "But I just really wanted to know whether I could clear that jump or not…"
'She wasn't even sure herself!' Marco thought, an expression of horror on his face. But this only made him pause for a moment. In the next, they were both walking over to another fire escape, Star jumping from platform to platform instead of using the stairs. Once they both made it down they walked out of the alley and into the streets, where it wasn't as tightly packed as the start was, but still rather difficult to traverse through without touching anyone else.
"Wow...even if this is all fake, they did a really good job with everything," Star whispered into Marco's ear. "All this food, all the stalls, this is all expertly done."
"It had to be, if we want it to turn out as genuine as possible," Marco said. "I just hope that the plan goes off without a hitch and nothing over here gets damaged. If the citizens don't get all that free delectable Royal food they were promised, then we may have another riot in our hands even after Bren gets captured."
"Eh. I'm sure that letting them all know that will quell any riots." Star said, as she looked to the right, grabbed Marco's hand, and then started leading him through the crowd. "And I'm surprised that no one seems to recognize us. We're walking past all these people, yet not a single person is looking our way, despite the fact that we're easily the most famous people in the town."
"I'm sure they don't care. The general attitude at the moment seems to be that of a big city." Marco said. "I went to New York once with my parents, and I saw some pretty crazy things happen in the streets that I never thought I'd see. But nobody else cared or even looked towards the direction of these events. It was just business as usual. I think it's the same here at the moment. As long as we don't bother anyone or get mixed up in their business, they don't care what we do or who we are. They're just going to walk right on by."
"Talk about convenience…" Star said, as they continued walking along. Eventually, her hand became entwined with Marco's, and the two looked at each other and then he gave her the dorkiest smile ever known to man, and all she could do was laugh in response. But she didn't let go. The two continued walking through the crowd together until they reached the end of the stalls, and the beginning of the knight crowd. They were packed so tightly together on purpose, to prevent any civilians from making it through. But the second they saw Star and Marco they stepped aside simultaneously, before joining back together as the couple moved forward. This pattern continued all the way until they reached the stage, upon which they sent up a set of side stairs that led to the back.
What they found there was Eclipsa walking back and forth, Globgor with a tired look on his face, and several others, including Moon, River, a few knights, and even the Mayor, sitting on a random foldable chair and looking dejected. Once Eclipsa spotted Star she almost ran over to the girl, practically tripping on her dress in the process.
"Star! Oh, thank goodness you're here. We only have ten minutes until the ceremony begins and I was worried that you wouldn't be showing up."
"Like I'd ever skip out on something as important as this." Star chuckled. "Don't worry. We're here now. And it looks like everyone else is as well. Besides, um, Janna."
"Yes, and unfortunately we have no way to contact them," Eclipsa said. "I can only hope that they show up at the last moment like you just did, otherwise taking down Bren will be much harder."
"No kidding." Marco chimed in, before peering over Eclipsa's shoulder and looking at the Mayor in confusion. "Uh, what's the Mayor doing here? Are you and him going to perform a Duumvirate speech? Change things up a little from the initial plan?"
"Yes, we are. It was a last-minute decision." Eclipsa explained. "I felt like it would be more convincing for Bren if we both showed up and did a speech, rather than just one. This way, it doesn't look like the Mayor is hiding away, and is perfectly okay with showing himself like this."
"...Good thinking," Marco said. "But what do you plan to talk about? You mentioned that you had a speech prepared, but you never told us what was in that speech. I assume you're just going to stall for time and stuff."
"That would be correct," Eclipsa said. "We just need to make the speech long enough that Bren has the ability to come on stage. Although knowing him, he'll probably show himself right before I speak the first word to take the spotlight…"
"Frankly, that'll just make this even better for us," Star said. "The sooner he appears on stage, the easier things will go for us."
"Agreed," Globgor said, appearing out of the darkness. "Nice to see you again, Star. In-person, I mean. You look like you're recovering pretty well!"
"Ha! Only on the outside." Star said. "They pumped me full of more drugs than the totality of what you get on Mewnipendence day. Painkillers, stuff they make it so my body won't overwork itself, something with a name that I couldn't even pronounce...all kinds of things." She explained. "And they're supposed to wear off in only a few hours, and I'm supposed to get back to the hospital before midnight...which I seriously doubt is going to happen. But you know. I can take it."
"No, you can't," Eclipsa said. "If we need to take you back to the hospital, even at an inopportune moment, that's what we're going to do. Refusal to go in the first place is what got you into this situation, Star. I'm not letting it happen again and resulting in you having to stay in the hospital for another few weeks."
"I'd rather die," Star said. "But okay. That makes sense. But overall, I think I'm recovering just fine. The doctors said that at this rate, I should be out of the hospital normally, like Janna, in another few days. As long as I don't exert myself tonight...they were really adamant to warn me about that."
"No surprise there. Considering how you've been acting there, I'm betting they want to get rid of you as soon as possible." Marco teased, smiling to himself. "So much for not exerting yourself, though. Just five minutes ago you were making seven-foot jumps across the rooftops."
"Yeah, a bit too late for that. But some sacrifices have to be made if we're going to make it through this." Star said, before peeking out of the curtain and looking at the crowd. It was still the same as before, with several of the knights fake talking with each other, doing their absolute best to appear as if they were normal people. "Those guys are all armed, right? Where are they even hiding their swords and shields? Some of them barely have more on than a t-shirt and some shorts."
"They don't actually have the shields and swords on their bodies at the moment. They're standing on top of them." Eclipsa explained. "We had them bury everything a few inches underground beforehand so that when the time comes, they can simply reach down and grab them out of the ground, before arming themselves. It took a while, but it's going to be worth it in the end. There's nothing on them now that would suggest they're knights."
"Yeah, except for the fact that they all look like they take twenty packs of steroid pills a day…" Marco replied.
"Well, that can't particularly be helped," Eclipsa said. "But only up close, if we're being honest. From a distance, we've dressed them to look completely like any normal civilian. Out of everything involved in this plan, the appearance of those knights is the most foolproof."
"I hope you're right about that," Marco said, before looking at his watch. "Seven minutes. Only seven minutes left until the fireworks start and we either all win or die. Where the hell is Janna? If we do this without her, Tom is going to kill dozens of people!"
"Don't worry about that. I can handle Tom." Globgor said. "If Janna doesn't arrive in time, then I'm going to grow to gigantic size right after we give the word to attack Bren and crush Tom with my hand. Janna and I talked about it beforehand, and she told me that he's capable of surviving something like it. It would only incapacitate him for a short while until she arrives."
"Do you think you'll be fast enough?" Star asked. "He can fly...if you don't get him the first try, it'll basically be like a person chasing a fly around their house, futility attempting to kill it with a fly swatter."
"I'm sure I can handle it. I did stuff like that all the time back in the war hundreds of years ago. Just show up behind a person suddenly and crush them." Globgor explained. "Now that I think about it, doing that was one of the reasons I gained such a fearsome reputation...well, that and lighting hundreds of villages on fire."
"Yeah, I think that would do it," Marco said, nodding along to this, before checking his watch again. "Five minutes. It's normal for my heart to beat this fast, right? Even if I was completely healed after my resurrection, I'm still getting the nagging feeling that my heart is going to reopen some old wounds…"
"You're just nervous, and that's understandable. I'm sweating buckets under this dress." Eclipsa said, wiping her brow. "We're all worried. It's as you just said. We either win here or die. There is no other way. He knows we're all here, and Bren will likely see this as the perfect opportunity to wipe us all out once and for all. We both have similar plans at the moment. In fact, I'm sure he has his own thing planned once he steps onto that stage…"
"Wipe us all out? I don't think so." Star said. "Unless he's bringing an army with him, which he is not because that's not the sort of thing an arrogant ass like him would do, I'm not sure if he'll be stupid enough to attack us all while we're right here. Globgor and my dad can punch just as hard as him at their strongest, and my mom is nothing to scoff at either. And Marco and I...he knows some sweet karate moves, and I received warrior training for years." She spread her arms to gesture towards the whole group. "He would be fighting, alone, against a group of capable, battle-hardened, badass warriors. That's not exactly going to be an easy challenge, even with his powers. And if we all gang up on him we should take him down easily. Heck, my mom was able to stand up to him by herself!"
"After he fell out a three-story window, and each of my hits still felt like I was kicking a solid concrete wall. I think I have bruises on my ankles from that..." Moon reminded her. "But yes. You do have an excellent point, Star. This isn't a group of people that he can defeat alone. Or even defeat at all...we're all still here, and hopefully, it remains that way."
"Yeah…" Marco said, before slowly looking from face to face, a sense of nostalgia hitting him. "You know, you guys, I want to thank you. Even if we're about to die, I want to thank you for everything you've done and how exciting your arrival on Earth has made my life over the years. When Star first came here I didn't even want anything to do with-"
"WAIT! WAIT! DON'T START ANYTHING!" A sudden voice from nearby shrieked, and they all jumped out of their shoes as they turned around and saw a knight carrying Janna on his back, rocketing up the stairs that led backstage and towards them. Following them were two other knights, and once they got close the knight set Janna down and then flopped onto his back, completely out of breath.
"Don't start anything!" Janna repeated, hobbling towards them. "You can't go on with the celebration! Bren-"
"Okay, okay, Janna, stop and slow down for a second!" Eclipsa said, making the girl pause. The Queen then opened her mouth again to speak before pausing, not sure what to say next as she had over a dozen questions for the newly arrived guest. "I...sorry, I'm just surprised. But first, I'm very happy to see you here. Your mission, was it a success?"
"Yes, but that's not important in the slightest at the moment," Janna said. "The Lucitors are safe, but in about five minutes everyone else in the entire damn town isn't going to be!"
"What are you talking about?"
"It's Bren. He figured it out." Janna said, and everyone's heart's immediately dropped. "He knew what we were doing, he knows about our plans, he knows everything! He's going to be arriving here soon with an army of demons he gathered from the Underworld to cause a mass slaughter, and they're going to drop right in the middle of this celebration!" She gasped for a moment before continuing, her still broken body protesting at how fast she was talking. "We have to get everyone to the nearest Royal shelter as fast as possible. That way, we might be able to save a few people before Bren realizes that we realize what he's up to."
"..."
"..."
"...Well?!" Janna exclaimed. "We don't have the time to just sit around and do nothing! We have to move as fast as possible here! You heard what I just said, right? We should-"
"No! Wait!" Eclipsa said. "We should...no, we have to think this out first. Nobody do anything."
"Nobody do anything?" Janna echoed. "I get your train of thought, but I don't think we have much time until Bren arrives. We have to move now or-"
"Okay, Janna, calm down," Star said, putting both her hands in front of her. "This isn't like you. You need to calm down so we can think this out."
"I've been trying to stay calm…" Janna mumbled under her breath. "But like I've been trying to say, I don't think we have the time to think this out. Bren is going to be here in minutes, so unless we do something now then hundreds of people are going to die! And yes, this isn't like me, freaking out and yelling. But I do it when it's necessary, and that moment is now. So...please listen to what I'm telling you and give an order right now to tell the knights to start moving people to the shelters."
"..."
"..."
"...I…" Eclipsa started, unable to come up with a response before she retreated into her head, her thoughts sounding like those of a manic person. 'No...nonononono! This...this is not good. An understatement, if anything, but if Janna is telling the truth then the implications are horrifying. It means Bren knew about our plan all along, and that he's come up with his own to take us all out. A demon army? Here, with this many people in the area? The shelters won't even matter! The closest castle to here that had a shelter is the Butterfly castle, but because that place is still being renovated, it's rather sub-par compared to the rest. If we move everyone in there...the demons will break through in a matter of minutes. It'll hardly even be a fight. And who knows where Bren is planning to have then teleport in…'
"Um, Eclipsa?" Janna said. "You've just kinda been standing there for a minute and we're all staring at you? What do we do? Are you gonna give the order to get everyone out of here like we should or do I have to go out and do that?"
"I...okay, everyone stop," Eclipsa said, which was a rather pointless command considering how no one else was doing anything at the moment. "I need to think this out. We can't just evacuate everyone into the shelters like this. If Bren is really here and is waiting to attack, then he'll send his army in once he notices that people are leaving. It'll be a slaughter. Moving everyone right now is not an option."
"It may be the only option we have," Janna said. "I don't think he's going to wait for us. If we move everyone, then he notices and sends his army in. If we take too long coming up with a plan, he'll think something is up and send his army in. Either way, people are going to die. I'm just going with the option that I think we'll get the least casualties in."
"You...may have a point," Eclipsa said, before looking around her, as if begging for someone to help her. 'So...this is it.' She thought. 'After all this time, after all those plans, after all the preparations and sacrifices we made...we blew it. He figured us out. And now he's about to bring an army here, full of demons that could probably tear any knight apart with their bare hands, and we have no way to stop it. No way to...to…wait. Maybe...just maybe…"
"I have an idea." Eclipsa blurted out. "Janna, you're wrong. There's a third option here that we're not considering. We don't have to have a fight here at all. Tell me, who is Bren after?"
"...He's after Star," Janna replied.
"That's correct. How, since this is true, don't you think he will chase Star down and ignore everyone else if he thinks that she is trying to escape?" Eclipsa asked. "Do you think that he will drop everything and run after her, even if it means putting himself at a disadvantage?"
"Maybe?!" Janna said, before groaning. "We don't have time for-"
"Here's what I'm thinking we should do," Eclipsa interjected. "The barrier on the edge of the town is made up of the military. I'm saying we use that to our advantage. As quickly as possible, making as much commotion as possible, I say we get Star and Marco to pile into a car and start driving away from the festival to the edge of the town. Bren will likely follow her and thus his army will as well. Then, when they get too close, the military will attack all of them without being able to properly see them from a distance. Star and Marco will turn the other way and escape, meanwhile, Bren's demon army will be fired upon and hopefully, a majority of it will be destroyed. There. That is my plan."
"..."
"..."
"...That's your plan?!" Janna screeched incredulously. "Eclipsa, there are so many things wrong with that. First off, Bren wouldn't let his demon army go that far out. He knows about the barrier and knows that he'd be fired upon like everything else if he went too close. He can make some pretty stupid decisions at times, but he's not going to do something as dumb as that."
"Yes, he will," Eclipsa said. "Bren doesn't know that we are aware of his barrier. From his perspective, we're still ignorant about it. He won't think that we're leading him into a trap. He'll just think that Star and Marco are trying to leave the town. Now, Bren is the type of person who makes everything personal, so you know he's not going to be happy if some random soldier makes the killing shot on the person who he's wanted to murder for months. When he realizes what Star is doing, he is going to drop everything and head straight for her so nobody can kill her before he does."
"That...actually makes sense," Janna admitted. "But what makes you think that he's going to bring his entire army along and not just leave them behind to kill everyone?"
"Because we'll be leaving before he arrives with his army. I am one hundred percent certain that Bren is already here, watching us from afar…" Eclipsa said, and everyone instinctively looked around, but saw no sign of their enemy hidden anywhere in the numerous shadows. "...But his army is not. They're demons. If a group of them that large was nearby, we'd be sweating buckets from the heat alone."
"...That's true," Marco said. "Anytime I was near Tom, like no more than a foot away, I could feel that heat coming off of him like a radiator. I grabbed his shoulder once, and it was like touching a plastic plate that had just been put in a microwave. If those demons were here, then I'm sure our clothes would have caught fire by now."
"Thank you for providing proof, Marco," Eclipsa said. "So, his army is not here at the moment. If he starts chasing us, then it will be just him. He will be confident enough in his abilities to chase us down. However...I do think that if all of us go, he will not be confident to the point where he thinks he'll be able to beat all of us. If he "prevents" us from leaving the town, we must immediately move to attack him. And when he sees how outnumbered he is, he'll summon his horde, and then we start moving towards the barrier again, his army will follow us, and that'll be the end of it."
"Why wouldn't he just run back to the town after he sees he's outnumbered?" Janna asked. "Once he informs us of the barrier, he's not going to assume that we'll just keep going."
"Yes, he will," Eclipsa said. "Let me ask you this, Janna. Say we did exactly what my plan is, only for real. We are fleeing the town for real. Suddenly, Bren appears and tells us that he has a barrier around the town made up of the military, and that we'll die if we leave. What would you assume? That he's telling the truth, or that this is nothing but a trick?"
"...I would assume that it's a trick," Janna admitted.
"Exactly," Eclipsa said. "None of us would think he is telling the truth. So we keep going. Either way, he summons his demons. He either tries to stop us by himself and we attack him, forcing him to bring them out, or he summons them to stop us from leaving, still bringing them out. No matter which way it is, we can all get back in the car and head towards the barrier. The military will fire indiscriminately, and they will all die."
Janna sighed again and facepalmed. "There's still too much that can go wrong with this plan. There's even less of a guarantee that it'll work than the one we had before I learned that-"
"Yes, I know!" Eclipsa snapped, surprising Janna at the sudden rise in her voice before she seemed to calm herself down. "I know, Janna. I know that this is not a good plan. I know that so many things about it can and likely will go wrong. But at the moment, this is the only plan I was able to come up with on such short notice that might result in the lowest possible number of casualties. It's like you mentioned earlier. We have almost no options when it comes to a proper way out of this. Getting everyone to move away will only result in people being killed, and waiting time long to make a better plan will...wait." She then stopped, an even more intense look of fear coming over her eyes. "How long do we have until I'm supposed to go out there?"
"Uh...zero," Marco said, looking at his watch. "You're two minutes late, and by the looks of it…" He peeked out from behind the curtain, where he saw that many of the knights now had confused or extremely anxious expressions on their faces, no doubt worried that something might have gone wrong. "Everyone else doesn't want to wait around much longer. And I'm sure the citizens won't want to either…"
"They're only here for the food, and that's already available to them," Moon said. "They don't care. I'm sure a few aren't even aware that Eclipsa is making a speech."
"Fair point," Star said. "But, Janna, Eclipsa is right. We don't have the time to come up with another plan. Some of you have to stay here and stall as best you can so Marco and I can sneak off, but in full view of everyone, so Bren will chase after us. Then while he's doing that, you move everyone to the shelters and then come after us. If something happens, we'll need the extra support."
"I'll stay behind with the mayor. The rest of you go with Star and Marco." Eclipsa said. "We'll make our speech as needed, as then when Bren comes onstage, I'll inform him that it was all a diversion to allow Star and Marco to escape. He'll go after them, and then everything else will proceed as Star just said it."
"I still think that it's going to fail," Janna said. "But where am I going in all this? Are you going to want me to come with Star and Marco, or should I stay behind like you and the mayor?"
"...I think it's best if you stay behind," Eclipsa admitted. "It'll make Bren less suspicious. After all, if we were setting a trap for him, you're a person that we would never leave behind. Your knowledge of demon magic and basically every subject that's allowed us to survive at this point is beyond priceless. If we don't take you with us-"
"Hold on, won't that just make him more suspicious?" Marco asked. "You're right, Janna is super valuable when it comes to all this, which is exactly why we wouldn't leave her behind. If we do this...it can only be Star and me. Nobody else. Otherwise, he'll think something is wrong as well."
"A fair point…" Eclipsa mumbled. "Alright then. Change of plans. Marco. Star. Do either of you know how to drive?"
"I do...partially," Marco said. "I don't know how to drive perfectly, but I was taking a few lessons before all this started, and I know enough to get us out of town safely. As long as I don't have to parallel park or anything, we should be fine in that regard. I hope you don't mind the fact that I'm not legally allowed to do it though…"
"The police are gone and the knights are all going to remain here. There's no one left to arrest you anyway." Eclipsa pointed out. "Then that settles it. You'll drive Star and yourself to the edge of town, but make sure to keep below the speed limit so you don't make it there too fast. Even if Bren has a teleporter with Tom on his side, it's going to take a few minutes for him to show up and for me to tell him where you are in accordance with our plan."
"Wait...Tom." Janna said. "If Bren's gonna show up on stage, then Tom will be there as well. His parents are freed. Should...should we tell him that or do we need him to teleport Bren to the edge of town in order for this plan to keep moving forward?"
"We'll take care of that," Star said. "Once we get to the edge and Bren is there with Tom, we'll tell him that his parents are freed and that he doesn't have to fight anymore. Of course, we might need some sort of proof…"
"Right here," Janna said, taking out a page that Steve recognized as being from the demon book. "I took this from one of the books in the Underworld's library. I planned to use it later, but…" She shrugged. "...This'll alert him to the fact that we were there. Is that proof enough?"
"That'll do just fine," Marco said, graciously taking the object out of the knight's hands and shoving it in his pocket. "But now what do we do? Is this our plan? Star and I just leave and hope that you guys can do whatever you need to do?"
"That's precisely what is going to happen," Eclipsa said, before taking her car keys out of her pocket and handing them over to the boy. "You don't think. You don't wait. You just drive. But as an extra precaution...you have your phone with you, correct?"
"Yeah. Why?"
"Then when Bren appears on stage and after he's left after I tell him what you and Star are doing, I'll call you to let you know that he's coming," Eclipsa said. "This way you'll at least be a little bit prepared for whatever comes next."
"But...hold on. This is all getting sorta contradictory." Star pointed out. "The original plan was for all of us to go so we could beat him up together once he got there and let his army get blown to hell or, back to hell, I guess. But now you're saying it's just us?"
"Well, we did just realize that if too many of us go, he'll know that something's up," Janna said. "So I think we just have to make a few last-minute plan edits. Nothing too bad, but...oh screw it, we've wasted enough time already!" She shouted. "You two get going and don't stop until you either get to the edge or Eclipsa calls you. Got it?"
"..."
"...Yeah. We got it." Marco said, before looking at the keys in his hand and sighing. "I hope you're all making the right choice here. Because if this goes wrong then Star and I might be forced to fight him alone, and I think he might take that opportunity to finally kill us both. Permanently."
There was a rather awkward silence after this, as Eclipsa and Janna realized that with the request they were making, they could very well be sending Star and Marco to their deaths with this. If they didn't get to the edge fast enough, or if the military managed to hit them instead of the demons, then yes, it would be the end. Suddenly, this plan looked a lot less appealing. Janna started to open her mouth, maybe even to make a comment on how they could change things up again, but Star beat her to the punch, her voice sounding like she was trying to speak and sigh at the same time.
"I still think we should go, though. As crazy as this plan is, our original original plan had already been totally screwed over." She explained. "This might be the only way we even get a chance at victory at this point. So…" She grabbed Marco's arm and started leading him away. "If this is the last time we see each other, then I want you all to know I love you all, and thanks for all the help you've given us over the years. And Mom, if I die to this, then I want you to promise that you'll fill my place, repairing monster-Mewman relationships and just making the town a more cheerful place." She then paused and smacked her lips a few times, before shaking her head. "Actually, you know what, if we win you should do that anyways, especially since I think I'm going to be taking a long vacation once this is all over."
Star then ran away off the stage, not waiting for anyone else to say something as she remained knowledgeable about how little time she had to complete the mission Eclipsa had given her, something Janna approved of with a silent nod. She literally dragged Marco off for about ten feet before he found his feet and started running on his own, and together the two of them made their way through the crowd, past all the confused knights who let them past after a moment of hesitation. After that, they ran back into the stall area until they reached the fire escape from earlier, and began retracing their steps like no one's business.
"There...were still things I wanted to say to them," Moon said, frowning.
"You can say them to her after we're dead," Janna said. "Assuming we all end up in the same place, which I severely doubt. I'm sure you guys won't all choose the same option…"
"What?"
"Nothing," Janna said. "Okay, then. That's all finished. I'm sure we're ten minutes behind schedule by now, so Eclipsa, the time for planning is over. We don't have any more time. Go out there and do something with your time on stage worthy of applause. Maybe by some major miracle one of us will live through the night to clap their hands…"
"You should really cool it with the pessimism, even if it is appropriate at a time like this," Eclipsa said, before moving towards the curtain. She glanced over at the Mayor, who was frozen in place and looked shell-shocked after everything he had just heard. No doubt he would be of zero help in the coming speech, so Eclipsa just quietly elected to leave him behind. They might have to carry off stage later… "And I suppose I'm going now. All of you say here and wait until Bren comes out, and do not make any attempt to attack him. We need him to follow Star and Marco, and if Tom is there as well, none of you will stand a chance."
Janna scoffed. "One last thing. Are you sure about that? I know Tom better than almost anyone, and I can say that I think everyone's been overhyping him just a little bit. Yeah, he's had Demon Magic powers, but didn't Moon manage to take him down at the hospital by just casually slamming his head against the wall? With like, one kick?"
"To be fair, I had the element of surprise." Moon pointed out. "And he already seemed fairly injured from an earlier attack from inside the hospital, which I'm sure was dealt to him by the knight they had hired to play the role of a security guard."
"...Fair point," Janna said, before sighing one last time. "Okay, Eclipsa. Good luck. Try not to get yourself killed."
"Thank you for your inspiring words, Janna," Eclipsa said dryly. "I will surely take them to heart while I fear for my life on that stage."
Janna smirked, a mischievous smile that Eclipsa had seen dozens of times but did not expect to see in this situation. "It's what I do." She said, before her smile faded and she realized what else was happening at the moment. Eclipsa nodded back in response before approaching the curtain once more and standing in front of it, her mind swimming with different thoughts. What now, she wondered. She already knew the speech she was supposed to perform by heart. It even had a proper ending and everything, in case Bren didn't show up for whatever reason. There was no reason for her to be worried about that.
Of course, there was reason for her to be worried about almost everything else, so of course she was. But it was like Janna had repeated numerous times. They didn't have the time to do this. They had to act now before Bren suspected anything. Although to be honest, he probably suspected something was up one second after Eclipsa didn't arrive on stage at the right time.
Nothing she could do about that now and so with a deep breath the Queen pushed aside the curtain and walked onto the soft wood beneath her, ignoring the small freaks that rang out from. The knights all turned and faced forward upon seeing that she had come on stage, their faces asking what she had been doing in the last ten minutes. But not a single one of them said a word. They all knew better than to speak up and ask what was happening. The plan was still going on, after all. Eclipsa would have alerted them if it wasn't.
She only hoped that they could forgive her later on for not telling them the truth…
"Hello, everyone!" She said enthusiastically, after clearing her throat. "Thank you all for coming to our Stump Day celebration, even if it is a bit earlier than it normally is. But I don't think any of us are arguing with this, right?"
A few knights in the crowd cheered, as they had been instructed to do beforehand.
"Thank you, thank you," Eclipsa said, and that was when her brain switched into autopilot and her mouth started making one sound, but her mind made ones that were quite different. To everyone else, she was reciting the speech that she had made them that will not be shown here as it is rather tasteless and cliche like every other holiday speech. But she was thinking about something quite different, and her eyes showed this. It was the only part of her face that was not completely under her control, meaning that it was also the only part that showed everyone just how anxious and worried she was at the moment. It didn't help that they were darting around like crazy, looking for any sign of Bren. Eclipsa knew that while it was unlikely that he would be able to successfully disguise himself as a knight, he did have demon magic, so theoretically almost anything was on the table. Maybe he had even replaced Janna with some sort of imposter and was just trying to manipulate her even further for fun-
Nope. Stopping that thought train right now. Instead, Eclipsa did her best to concentrate on the speech, but it was still hard to. She looked in the distance at the rooftops that Star and Marco would have left on, and didn't see them anywhere. They must have already been halfway back to the car by now. If Bren didn't show up…
No. He had to. Eclipsa's logic was flawless. Bren was exactly the kind of person who would do something like this, as she had been saying all along. Making a huge entrance. Trying to scare everyone. Doing things that a person would see as strategically stupid, but since Bren was so confident in his abilities (although not for good reason), he didn't think he could be hurt. Unless that attack by the knights had humbled him somewhat, although considering that he was the kind of person who was a total psycho even if he wasn't possessed by the Fire-god, it was unlikely-
…
Wait.
Humbled? Knights? Plan?
Suddenly, a wide look came over Eclipsa's eyes as she realized that because of her previous plan, her current one was about to fall apart. The knights. They didn't know. All they knew was that there was a ten-minute delay, but they didn't know why. They weren't aware of the fact that they were just supposed to let Bren go after Star and Marco now. Eclipsa had told them not to wait for a single. The second Bren appeared on stage, he was to be attacked with a barrage of arrows no matter what. There was no way for Eclipsa to stop them unless she simply shouted it out, but if that happened then Bren might figure their new plan out, and everything would be ruined. Again.
She gulped and looked at the archers in the crowd, who weren't even looking at her back, they were scanning the rooftops, the top of the stage, anywhere where someone might be able to drop down from. More than a few knights were already taking their knives out, something their queen explicitly told them not to do. But there was nothing she could do now, except hope that they were hidden enough. Clearly, her soldiers were tired of waiting around, and wanted to disperse some good old-fashioned justice on the one who had mangled their town and kingdom to shreds.
And they might not have to wait much longer…
'Come on, think!' She thought to herself. 'You're the queen of Earthni! Don't freak out like this! You can come up with a plan...do any of the knights know sign language? I might be able to sign them something...if I knew it myself in the first place.' She mentally sighed. 'Oh, who am I kidding? Bren could appear any moment, and there's no way for me to signal the knights without tipping him off if he's watching. All I have to do is hope that I can give them some sort of silent signal the second he arrives. But I have to be ready and I absolutely can't-"
"BANZAI!"
And at that moment, with a wild scream that made Eclipsa silently say "no", everything had truly begun. Bren appeared as if from nowhere, falling down from the sky as if he had jumped right out of a plane. He soared to the ground before landing on the stage in a pencil dive, his legs barely even bending as he hit the wooden platform. He then outspread his arms like an actor appearing on stage, one waiting for a grand applause.
Only there was no applause, and instead the tensing up of an entire crowd of knights, the archers of which readied their bows and prepared to fire…
But at the last second, Eclipsa actually managed to stop them. She stumbled backward dramatically and fell, causing the knights to pause and look at her to make sure she wasn't somehow injured. She knew this would happen, and seized the moment to mouth "no" to them all, before shaking her head. And since the archers were in the front row, they immediately caught this and didn't attack. Doubtless confused, but still willing to follow orders. The rest of the knights, who weren't able to clearly see Eclipsa's signal but realized that the archers weren't firing, realized that something was wrong...nobody moved.
Except for Bren, who was still standing there with his arms outstretched, thankfully having missed Eclipsa's secret doing as he hadn't even bothered turning her way yet. To say he was confused at the fact that the crowd's only reaction to him was to freeze up was an understatement, and the smile slid off his face as quickly as he had arrived.
"...Yeesh. Tough crowd." He scowled, before swiveling his head towards Eclipsa, who quickly got to her feet and stared him down. Backstage, Globgor, Moon, and River looked ready to storm in any second to take Bren to the ground, but they knew that they couldn't act. He had to follow Star and Marco. And besides, there was no sign of Tom. He hadn't arrived. Which meant he was still lurking somewhere, perhaps waiting for an order to attack…
"Wow, Eclipsa." Bren continued. "What did you do to this lovely crowd? Teach them to be deadpan at my appearance? You look more scared at me appearing than any of them! Did you really spend the last week getting them to be-"
"What are you doing here?" Eclipsa interjected, deciding that she wasn't going to let this go on. She had to turn the conversation in a way that revealed Star and Marco were leaving...unless he already knew and had sent Tom after them. In which case, she might signal the archers to do their work…but for now, she simply had to do her best.
"Do you really have to ask?" Bren queried rhetorically. "I just heard that you guys were throwing this big celebration, and I wanted to make myself the guest of honor! You have no problem with that, right? We're all good here?"
"..."
"...Okay, I get it, this might all be a little unorthodox…" Bren admitted. "But you know, Eclipsa, as impressive as this whole setup of yours is, I must say that I am disappointed you thought your plan of yours would work!"
'Oh…' Eclipsa started.
'...Shit.' Everyone backstage finished. And then 'that confirms it. He knows', was the simultaneous thought that went through everyone's heads at that moment. But despite this, Eclipsa tried not to react. They kinda already knew that, after all. They had been expecting it fully. This was far from good, but it wasn't the worst thing that could happen, either.
But should she play dumb and fake shock? That probably wouldn't work...Bren would call her out at holding back the knights if she did, which proved that she had altered her plans for some reason. A reason that might suggest she knew he knew...
However, before she could contemplate on this any further, Bren spoke again, with an amused tone that might match a person watching a terrible stand-up comedy skit.
"Yeah, I know about your whole little plan to stop me. All those knights in the crowd? Disguised as normal people? I'm genuinely impressed! Those are pretty good costumes!" He chuckled. "Although, frankly I'm more impressed that you managed to convince them all to wear that stuff."
"...Where's Thomas?" Eclipsa asked, something she was actually wondering about.
"Wow, just gonna skip past everything I just said? Okay, I can get that." Bren sighed. "But I'm not going to tell you where Tom is. He's...nearby, I guess you could say. Waiting for the right moment. If you thought I was going to bring him first, I'm happy to say that you're dead wrong."
"It would fit your track record…" Eclipsa replied, slowly taking a few steps towards him. "But I see. So you knew about our plans. Who told you?"
"So you truly did plan to take me out with all these knights. And they actually are knights!" Bren mused. "I must admit, I still wasn't entirely sure myself. That you would come up with such a foolish idea and think that there was any chance of me being defeated by it. I should have known."
'And I shouldn't have fallen for that.' Eclipsa thought. 'So even he wasn't completely sure that whoever told him about this was telling the truth. If I had just played dumb, then maybe...no, shake that off. There's nothing I can do about it now. But the question remains…'
"Who? Who told you about this?" Eclipsa asked. "You clearly didn't figure it out for yourself, otherwise you wouldn't have thought that there was a chance it was all just rumors. So who told you?"
"You think I'm just going to reveal the big secret to you, in front of everyone?" Bren asked. "Sorry, but that's no fun. And it wouldn't be fair for my side. No, that's something you're going to have to figure out by yourself. After all, you'll very likely be dead soon."
"Killed by your demon army that's also in hiding, I presume?"
"What?" Bren snapped, his expression switching to a serious one in an instant. "How did you know about that?"
"I...only assumed." Eclipsa quickly said. "You're in control of the Underworld, after all. And even you and Thomas couldn't take us all on by yourselves. You'd have to have help...and all those demons down there are perfect for the job."
"Hm. Well, you assumed correctly." Bren said. "Good job, for once."
Eclipsa didn't respond, her brain only fracking with even more questions. 'What? What is this? What's going on? So he knows we knew he was going to show up here and made a giant plan for it, but isn't aware that we're aware of his army? I mean, of course, that was supposed to be kept a secret, but is there a possibility that this also means he isn't aware of what Janna and the other knights were doing? That they were even on a mission. That this person who fed him information...might have withheld the full truth for some reason? If so...does this mean it's one of ours?'
"And now…" Bren continued. "You look like you're deep in thought, Eclipsa. Something special you want to share with the rest of us?"
"No," Eclipsa replied. "You seem to have a tendency to be able to read our minds anyways."
"Fair," Bren said. "But no dawdling! Not this time! We skip right to the main event! So tell me, my queen, what do you plan to do now? My army of demons is ready at any moment, your knights will be no match for them like this, and the crowd behind them isn't even paying attention to me or you! They're all stuffing their faces at those food stations! Which I must admit, was a masterful move. How did you manage to convince all those stuffy royals to let you use their food supplies, which are quickly running out around town?"
"I told them it was either that...or they all die," Eclipsa said. "There's no way to escape the town, after all. They don't have any money. There's nothing waiting for them outside of this city."
"Indeed." Bren agreed. "But back to my other question...what do you plan to do?"
"...Leave."
"Hmm?" Bren hummed, tilting his head. "But you just said-"
"I'm not talking about me." Eclipsa chuckled. "You've been overlooking something, like you always do. Something you've missed."
"What, you mean the fact that you're going to have me chase down Star and Marco in their car and try to get me attacked by the barrier I have placed outside town, a plan which you thought up only a few minutes ago?" Bren asked, making Eclipsa nearly drop her jaw. "Was that the answer you were expecting?"
"..."
"..."
"What-?" Eclipsa said. "But how did you…?"
"I mean...you were speaking out loud." Bren shrugged, his expression switching to a completely normal one. "There isn't any magic or betrayals involved here. I was just hanging out in those metal beams at the top of the stage, concealing myself in the darkness, and just happened to overhear your little conversation. It's really not that complicated. If you had just whispered, I wouldn't know a thing."
"...Huh," Janna said from backstage, before glancing upwards. But despite her hopes, Tom was nowhere to be seen hidden in the shadows, and she cursed slightly before turning her head back towards the action, slowly inching towards Bren as she reached into her pack.
"...Really?" Eclipsa asked. "The answer is that simple?"
"Correct," Bren said, before sighing. "Eclipsa. This game of ours. This fight. This battle. This...exchange of bullets…" He echoed, glaring at Janna for a brief moment before looking back at the Queen. "Tonight, in a few minutes, it will all come to a close. No matter who wins or loses...this is where the fun ends. All of this is going to be set alight."
"...Well, then what are you waiting for?" Eclipsa growled, finally seeing no true way out of this one. "Go ahead. Summon your demon army. See where it gets you. But the Fire-god is using you, Bren. That is the plain truth. You are, and will always be, a pawn."
"I knew that the second it told me it was searching for someone to take my place," Bren said. "Don't think I'm unaware of the endgame of all this, Eclipsa. I have been from the very beginning. No one who deals with gods ever had a pleasant fate in the end. Not me, not anyone before the Merge, not even you, Janna." He spat, turning towards the girl again. "How many times have you contacted otherworldly entities? How many deals have you made over the years? When you die, I bet they'll be dozens of them fighting over your soul which you sold to them so many years ago in exchange for something."
"...I'd make a snappy comeback, but you're not exactly wrong," Janna admitted, now only a few feet away from him. "I know that. But I have a plan for dealing with it as well. Just like with everything else."
"We'll see how well that plan goes...especially since you'll have to implement it tonight," Bren said. "I don't really care anymore if that Fire-god is just using me. From the very start, this has been about me getting revenge on Butterfly. And now that we're here...now that that day has come...I think it's finally time to end this all."
"..."
"A moment ago, Eclipsa, you dared me to summon my demon army up from the Underworld, clearly not having any sort of plan to stop me anymore," Bren said, nodding his head. "Well, I am here to tell you that I won't be summoning any kind of army here tonight."
"What?" Eclipsa said, trying and failing to hide her shock. "But why would you-"
"Now hold on!" Bren said. "I told you that I don't plan to summon anyone...but I wasn't talking about my other friends not bringing them up here! Word choice, Eclipsa. Word choice. A very important thing to remember."
"Oh. Of course." Eclipsa said, scowling. "So you're going to have Thomas bring them up then?"
"No," Bren said, making Eclipsa raise an eyebrow. "Tell me, did you ever consider the fact that someone on your special little council was a traitor?"
"Oh, godammit." Eclipsa cursed, not even hiding her anger. "Yes. I did. So...it was one of them, was it? After all this time...you even managed to spread your vileness to one of our own."
"I wouldn't say that. I'm only threatening them, after all. Like all the others" Bren said. "They have people they care about, and I use that to my advantage. A favorite tactic of mine, as I'm sure you know. And it's so easy...when there are so many people to threaten when it comes to them! Especially him."
"Threaten? So many?" Eclipsa repeated, before her eyes widened in horror. "No...that can only be…"
"Oh, yes," Bren said, nearly shaking with excitement. "And you know what the best part is? Of your terrible plan to have Star and Marco escape?"
"..."
"They're on their way to meet him right now."
"Come on! Don't start slowing down now!"
"I don't think I can go any further…" Marco complained. "I was still recovering from our mad dash earlier, and now we have to go even faster!"
"Suck it up! The hard part is over!" Star replied. "We made it past all those big gaps. All we need is a small hop for the rest of them. This...that'll be easy. Once we get to the car, you can relax. Somewhat, at least."
"Do we even know where it is?"
"Of course! I saw it after your mom dropped us off. It was parked next to the side of a building." Star said. "Eclipsa must have anticipated that the crowds would reach even that far. She even must have known that the rooftops would make for a quick escape if any of us needed it."
"Grateful for that, I guess…" Marco mumbled, before looking down at the crowds below, still completely oblivious to what was happening...or rather, what was going to happen. "But try to stay out of sight. If everyone sees us running back the way we came, looking all panicked like this, they'll know that somethings up."
"I know," Star said, before jumping straight over a five-foot gap, her feet not stopping for a moment as she reached the other side. "Do you think...this plan will work though?"
"It all depends on what's currently going on behind us," Marco said. "There's no way to tell. Maybe the demons are already attacking the stage, the screams just haven't reached us yet. But either way, we don't have much of a choice. Eclipsa's plan is hasty and likely to fail, which is just my honest opinion, but so was the one she told us about back in the Sanctuary. So was pretty much every plan we've come up with. And yet, we've still survived this far."
"So your point…"
"Is that I think there's a chance. Dumb luck seems to be on our side, at the moment." Marco explained. "Bren may be following us already, or he might have just sent Tom to do it." He shook his head. "I'm just trying to say that we should keep moving forward. We can't tell until it happens...which might be never."
"Got it," Star said. "And if we start hearing screams...if the demons attack...we go back and help, right?"
"No matter what," Marco said, nodding his head. Star gave him a nod of her own in agreement, and the two kept running, the gaps between the buildings becoming thinner and thinner as they went on, until they only had to step over them to cross. Before long, they could see the end of the crowds on the street, in the same spot that Angie had dropped them off. Putting on one last burst of speed, the two sprinted to the ladder they had climbed up previously and slid down it like something out of a video game, scratching both of their hands to high hell from the rust ingrained in it. Both of them winced, but ignored it. Except for Marco, who just had to comment on the situation.
"That's a future tetanus shot…" He mumbled.
"Better than being late and dead!" Star said, as she clicked the car keys. The car made the characteristic ding noise as it lit up, and together the two ran over to it, Marco getting into the driver's seat while Star tossed him the keys as she climbed into the passenger. He started the car before he had even settled into the fabric, and took off only a few seconds later, only turning on his headlights after the fact.
"Alright." He said, as they started carefully maneuvering through the darkness of the town. "Some of the streets are still blocked by giant pieces of rubble that were too big to remove, so all we have to do is avoid them and we should be able to make it to the Edge in no more than...ten minutes. There shouldn't be anyone else on the road right now, after all. We just keep driving and hope Bren follows us. If he doesn't by the time we make it to where my mom and I went, then we turn back and see what's wrong."
"Sounds like a plan to me. But I-" Star started to agree, before she squinted her eyes as she spotted something ahead on the road. It looked like...a group of people? The demon army? No, the people congregating there were much too small to be war demons…and they weren't glowing with fire or anything like that either. Was what…?
"Stop." She said. "Marco, stop!"
Marco did exactly as he was told the second he spotted the crowd, slamming on the breaks and coming to a halt no more than twenty feet away from them. The headlights now fully illuminated who was blocking their path, and it was...Buff Frog? Princess Spiderbite? And several others, although this only made the situation more confusing. Why would they be here, standing in the middle of the road in the dark? The two teens exchanged glances before getting out of the car, leaving the headlights on and creating a rather eerie glow as they moved further away from it.
"Guys…?" Star said, as she approached. None of them looked particularly surprised at her appearance, as if they had been informed beforehand that she would be coming here. "What are you doing? Why are you all just standing out here?"
Buff Frog whispered something.
"What?"
"I...I'm sorry, Star Butterfly." He said, looking at the ground, an extremely depressed expression on his face. "We...had no choice. He threatened us. Threatened everyone...we had to…"
"What are you talking about? And wait a minute…" Star mumbled, as she scanned the crowd again. It took her a second, but her eyes winded at the realization of who this group consisted of. "Hey! Wait a minute! This is everyone in your secret group! That underground monster-sympathizer group! Where you had meetings under Ludo's house…"
"Yes." Buff Frog agreed. "And we have been turned into monsters' greatest enemy."
"Greatest enemy?" Marco repeated, before his eyes widened. He then slowly looked down at the ground, where he saw a large red line painted onto the road. At first, it looked completely straight, but as his eyes followed it he realized that it curved, seemingly into a circle.
A circle that the people standing in front of them were standing in.
"No…" He said, realization hitting him in the face. "You guys...all this time...you're...you're with Bren, aren't you?!" He accused, prompting a shocked look from Star. "That's why he's summoning his demon army tonight! That's how he found out about our plans! That's how he's found out about all our plans! Because you guys have been supplying him with information!" He backed away in horror, unable to process this sudden reveal. "You...how could you?!"
"Okay, wait!" Star shouted, before looking back at Buff Frog. "Buff Frog...that's not true, right? You aren't really working with Bren? This is all just...some kind of misunderstanding! We've known each other for so long, there's no way you would ally yourself with him!"
"..."
"Right?"
Buff Frog, with a heavy face and a sigh, looked into the tear-stained eyes of the girl and shook his head. She gasped at what this meant and backed away, an expression of disbelief and terror etched onto her face.
"No...no…" She repeated. "Why...why...after everything we've been through...did it all mean nothing?!"
"We had to!" Buff Frog blurted out. "I am sorry! But we had to. Bren threaten us. Use our families against us. Told me that he would kill my buff babies if we didn't comply. Right after you left…" He explained. "He came down there. Beat up Ludo. Would do the same to us and our loved ones if we didn't do as he told. Tried to fight him, but demon boy arrived. Made an example…" He closed his eyes as his hands shook. "Made an example...by killing two monsters there. Only children, who wanted to help. Wanted to pave way for better Mewni. But no longer. Forced demon boy to burn them alive. Forced us to watch. Told us...we would be next. Then our families."
"..."
"Thought of buff babies. Of Katrina, still so little." He sobbed. "Could not bear thought of them suffering same fate. Had to...has to...so we agreed. We all agreed."
Around him, several others standing nearby shook their head with solemn expressions, showing that they too had been coerced into joining Bren for the same reasons. Star suddenly didn't think that Buff Frog was going to stab her out of nowhere anymore, but that didn't mean she wasn't still horrified.
"You guys…" She said slowly, before lowering her head. "So...that's it, then? What did Bren order you to do? To kill me and Marco? Or to capture us and bring us to him?"
"Something else altogether." Princess Spiderbite said. "He wants you...to see."
"See what?" Marco asked.
"See what you brought upon everyone." She replied, before lowering her head as well. "I don't know. That's just what he told us to say. And then he told us...to do this."
She pointed at the ground, at the gigantic, circular red line, and as they stepped back and revealed more of what was inside the circle, Star and Marco finally began to understand what was going on here.
It was a transport spell.
The exact kind they had used to vanquish the rock demon, only a hundred times larger. And it didn't take a genius to figure out what was going to happen next. Star gasped again and started retreating, finally seeing what was about to happen.
"He told us…" Buff Frog continued. "That if we stood in circle while summoning demons, it would take us to the Underworld. It would save us. Our families could live here...in exchange for him killing everything up here." He gulped. "We could not say no to offer. It was only offer that involved us living."
"What?!" Marco spat. "So you just decided to give up and-"
"Don't!" Buff Frog snapped, making Marco shut his mouth. "Please, karate boy. You know I would devote almost anything to safety of this town and it's people. I would even give own life to protect others. But only almost everything. Ask me to sacrifice myself? Without hesitation. But do not ask me to sacrifice the lives of my buff babies. When Bren appeared, I promised they would live through this...no matter what."
"So...am sorry." He continued. "But this is how things must go. Without pause...we must begin and-"
"No! Don't! Don't do anything! This will all be over soon!" Marco shouted, actually making Buff Frog pause. "Please, Buff Frog, don't do anything. Not yet. Whatever Bren told you our plan is, I assure you that he missed a few things. For example...does he know about Tom's parents? About how we freed them?"
"You...you freed the Lucitors?" Penelope asked. "You managed to get them out of there?"
"Yes!" Marco said. "Tom has no reason to fight anymore! So without him, Bren can't kill your families! That's how he would do it, right? By telling Tom to teleport to wherever they are to kill them?"
"...No. They already in Underworld." Buff Frog replied. "And there is flaw in your claim. Perhaps you did free Lucitors. But...how does Lucitor know? Does he even know?"
"..."
"Of course." Buff Frog sighed, taking their silence as a "no". "Of course. I should have known. So it makes no difference in the end. And even if you make Tom believe is it true, again, they are in Underworld. All he has to do is press button on that remote, and demons down there will kill them. Nothing will change." He sighed again. "So please...run. Do whatever you can to stop Bren and this army. And this invasion. If you do, please forgive us. But for now…"
He prepared to raise his arms, and all the people behind him did the same. Star and Marco almost froze on the spot, but then they realized what was going to happen. What was about to appear right in front of them.
So, naturally, they wasted no time. There was no more time to talk them out of it. Feeling nothing but betrayal, rage, and sadness, the two teens sprinted back to the car, got in, and then drove away as fast as possible. If there was anything Star was grateful for, it was that Buff Frog seemed to be giving them enough time to get away and warn everybody before the summoning.
And as they drove away into the distance, Penelope walked up beside Buff Frog, a single question in her mind.
"If they survive this...do you think they'll ever forgive us?"
"...No." Buff Frog said bluntly. "And nothing more need be said than that."
And then, in a simultaneous motion, the entire group raised their arms high. The circle glowed, illuminating the entire area and even the clouds above, and a second later a wall of flame a thousand feet high and a thousand feet wide shot up into the sky, looking like someone had just opened a portal to hell.
And in a manner of speaking, they did. The tower remained in place for a few moments, before it vanished like every one before it.
And in its place was an army of monsters, the personification of the end of this town.
Ready to fight, ready to kill.
In an instant, all of Eclipsa's fears came to life and all of her hopes shattered into pieces as the night sky turned orange and a spire of fire erupted in the distance. The entire area, which had been drowning with noise from the people at the festival just a few hundred feet away, turned dead silent as thousands of pairs of eyes made contact with the flames. Most had no idea what it was, but Eclipsa did. As did everyone else standing backstage, most of whom started swearing furiously in their minds.
The spire then disappeared, and the night that had turned into day was dark once more. Or at least partially. There was still an orange glow to be seen, as well as a sudden burst of heat that washed over them like a shockwave. Eclipsa gulped and started feeling herself sweating as she realized what came to pass, and what it meant.
"That heat...reaching all the way here…" She sputtered.
"Impressive, isn't it?" Bren asked rhetorically. "Looks like my precious little lackeys have done their job well. They'll get their reward in the Underworld...that part I wasn't lying about." He sighed. "If I were you, I would stop concentrating on me and get moving. Those demons will be here soon, you know. You have a chance to help the people escape. I would take it…"
Eclipsa looked at Bren, thought about punching him the face right then and there, but then realized he was actually right. The tower of fire, although massive, was still a good distance away. Much further than what Eclipsa assumed the demons would show up at. They had a chance. A chance to get people out of here and escape.
And something told her that Bren wasn't going to stop them, but just sit back and watch the show. Plus, she had no way to take him down at the moment. Moon said kicking his skin felt like kicking a chunk of concrete, and he was definitely too fast for her to hit him at the moment with the weapon hidden under her dress. So instead she glared at him one final time before running to the back of the stage, shoving the curtain aside.
"River." She said. "Go out there and alert the knights. Tell them to take off through disguises and start diverting people to the shelters whether they like it or not. Tell them that an army of demons is here, and will arrive soon so they can tell the people that. Got it?"
"On it." River said, and without pausing he ran onto the stage before jumping towards the knights, barking orders like a madman.
"Everyone else. Moon, Globgor, and myself." Eclipsa turned towards them. "We're going to fight for our lives when the demons appear, because there's really nothing else we can do to stop this, so get ready. I assume you're properly armed?"
"I have a sword...one that can cut through solid steel," Moon said.
"And I can grow larger than almost any demon," Globgor said. "Although the heat from them all might prevent me from using my full strength…"
"It's good enough. And I…" Eclipsa said, before reaching into her robe and pulling out a mace that looked like it was made of bone. "Brought this. A battle mace made out of the leg bone of a Septarian. Stronger than almost any metal known to Mewmans or humans. It'll certainly be able to put a dent in the armor of those demons."
"Wait, where did that thing come from?" Moon asked. "You had a weapon like that all this time and you're only now using it?"
"I wanted to save it for the right opportunity. Like launching a surprise attack on Bren and smashing his face in…" Eclipsa trailed off, before looking back at the stage. But Bren was gone, likely to witness the coming scene from afar. She grimaced, but ignored this. "We could-"
"DAMN IT!" A voice to their right said, and Eclipsa jumped as she looked at Janna, who was staring at the stage with a furious expression. "Agh! Just a little bit closer! If he had just been a little bit closer…"
"Janna?" Eclipsa asked. "What's wrong? We should
probably get you to a shelter with everyone else-"
"I had this whole thing planned out!" Janna shouted. "If he had just been a foot closer...I could have nailed him without any chance of him seeing me and dodging the shot! But he just jumped away like some crazed frog right before I got ready! Right at the perfect moment! Damn it...there's no way an opportunity like that will come up again."
"Planned this whole thing? What are you talking about?" Moon asked.
"I'm talking about this," Janna said, reaching into her backpack and pulling out a jar. And in that jar was something that gave Moon an intense sense of deja-vu. It was a severed finger, specifically the same severed finger that had once been Brens. Everybody looked at it in confusion, before Moon remembered that Janna had taken it...and said she was planning something.
"It's that…" She whispered. "What were you planning to do with that?"
"Throw it at him." Steve chimed in, walking over. "That's what you said you were going to do, right? After infusing it with the essence of that being? You were going to throw that thing at him and drive the Fire-god out?"
"Yeah…" Janna groaned, as she earned several surprised looks from the people around her. "But I had to get closer! He would have dodged it otherwise! And now...I'll never get the chance again. No way the Fire-god will let him get close enough after that."
"Hold on," Globgor said. "So all you have to do is get close to him, and then all this magic finger has to do is touch him and it'll drive the Fire-god out of his body?"
"That's the simplified version," Janna replied, before getting back to her feet. "But forget it. Just forget it. There's no chance now. Come on. We have to get out of here. Those demons are already on their way, and even with a head start…" She looked outwards toward the stage, and into the crowd, where she saw the regular citizens closely being corralled away from the stalls, several of them clearly panicking. They were leaving...but… "They won't get out of here fast enough."
"No. They won't." Eclipsa agreed. "But we have to try nonetheless. But Janna...you're saying that if you hit Bren with that finger, then he'll be vulnerable? We might be able to kill him? For good?"
"Yeah...although we may have to completely destroy the body," Janna said. "Otherwise the Fire-god might just resurrect him like he did with Marco…"
"Noted," Eclipsa said, before turning towards Moon. "...Moon. I'm going to need you to take that finger and find Bren. Hit him with it and get rid of the Fire-god. And the first chance you get…" She gulped. "Chop off his head. We can't worry about capturing him anymore. If you see an opportunity to kill, go for it."
"You don't even have to ask me," Moon replied, before snatching the jar out of Janna's hand, who clearly wasn't a fan of this action. "I'll find him and end him, then come back here so we can take out the rest of his army. Or better yet, bring his head back and show it to them. Maybe that'll convince them to surrender."
"It probably will. Bren's their only direct link to the Fire-god. Without him, the rest aren't useful at all. He'll abandon them, and they know it." Janna reassured her. "But...are you sure you know what to do with that? You can't touch it with your bare hands. And even touching it with your armor on for too long is dangerous. You have no idea how deadly that object is."
"I can handle it. No matter what." Moon said, before nodding. "Good luck to you all. And I promise that I will find him and kill him...one way or another."
Eclipsa nodded back at her, and then Moon ran off to go to who knows where. Leaving Eclipsa, Globgor, Janna, and the few other people backstage, including the mayor. Eclipsa looked over to the latter bunch and spoke, using her best "queen" voice.
"All of you participate in the evacuation!" She announced. "Follow the crowds to the shelters the knights are taking them to! You should be safe there while we...handle things up here."
Nobody waited for another okay. Everyone left the stage to join the gaggle of people slowly making their way towards the shelter, fleeing the orange light and heatwave that was growing more intense by the minute...but the screams hadn't started yet, which was good, at least.
Everyone left, except for, at least, the Mayor. He headed towards Eclipsa and she sighed, knowing that the coming conversation was not going to be a fun one.
"...Do you think you can really stop this anymore?" He asked. "I can feel that heat all the way from here. How many demons do you think that army is composed of? Your husband can grow giant...but I'm sure they'll overwhelm him eventually. What do you plan to do when that happens?"
"First off, don't talk like you know Mewman facts better than us," Eclipsa said. "And we have a plan. We need to find Thomas and tell him that his parents are freed. And with the page Janna had, he'll believe us. If he joins our side, many of the demons in Bren's army will realize that the king and queen are free, and hopefully, a good number will turn against him and both sides will fight and...hopefully wipe each other out."
"That would require finding the Lucitor boy." The Mayor pointed out. "And Bren seems to have an innate ability to know everything, so I'm sure he's aware the Lucitors are freed. He just thinks it doesn't matter as long as he has enough time to kill everyone up here."
"You're not entirely wrong," Janna admitted. "Bren probably does know. Every time we assume he doesn't know something, he shows up and reveals he does five seconds later."
"So why…?"
"Because what the hell else are we supposed to do? Fleeing the town will get us killed, so our only option is to stay and fight." Globgor chimed in. "You can choose if you want to participate or not, but right now, we're going to end this one way or another."
"Agreed," Janna said. "Which is why-"
Before she could go any further, however, Janna got a ping on her phone. She paused mid-sentence and then pulled it out, wondering who could possibly be messaging her at a time like this. Probably her parents. Which was understandable. They were always kind of-
"Oh god, no." She gasped.
"What is it? What's wrong?" Eclipsa asked.
Janna didn't say anything in response, only turning her phone sideways and showing it to Eclipsa and Globgor. They both leaned in to see, and simultaneously gasped when they saw on the screen was a cartoon image of fire, with a message beneath it that said: "incoming broadcast, please wait". Eclipsa stared for a moment before pulling out her own phone, her heart sinking when she saw that her screen was displaying the same thing.
And she had a feeling that it was the same for every screen in Earthni…
"Did...did he hijack the airwaves? Or just hack the wifi signal? Or...something?" She sputtered. "How did he even do this?"
"I'm not sure... I have a bad feeling about what's coming next." Janna said, before walking over to the curtain and peeking out of it. And there, she saw that every person in the crowd had just gotten the same ping and were looking at their phones. A sea of lights.
And then, as if Bren felt that he finally had everyone's attention, a message started broadcasting that would haunt all of Earthni for the rest of its days…
"What the heck are we going to do?!"
"I don't know! But for right now I'm just going to focus on driving straight! We'll be able to outrun those demons...but once we get back to the crowd I don't know what we should do."
"I mean...we have to fight them, right?"
"How? With what? You and I may be pretty strong, but Mewman martial arts and some karate moves aren't going to do anything against a being that can burn you without even touching you."
With a huff, Star looked away from her boyfriend and back towards the orange glow that they were currently fleeing from. The heat being emitted from it made the car so hot it felt like they were in a sauna, and even though the air conditioner had been turned to the max, Star still felt like her eyes were about to melt right out of her head.
And worst of all, she knew Marco was right. There was nothing they could do against this. These weren't monsters. This wasn't Mewmans. These were war demons, an army of them that could burn the entire town down just by standing still. They couldn't even get close to them without receiving third-degree burns, so fighting them with what they had available was next to impossible. Sure, if they had guns, they might be able to short them from afar...but the operative word here was had.
"Do you think Eclipsa knows what's happening?" She asked.
"For sure. I'm betting that tower of flame could be seen from fifty miles away." Marco replied. "No doubt she's already started evacuating everyone. If there's anything to be thankful for, it's that Bren decided to have them summon the army away from the festival, not right in the middle of it…"
"..."
"What's wrong?"
"I just…" Star said, before stifling a sob. "All that time we spent with Buff Frog...all the memories we made with him and everyone else in that crowd...they're all practically meaningless. Even if we somehow survive this and they're actually alive...they won't be for much longer. I don't think Eclipsa will execute them after she finds out why they did what they did, but the rest of the townsfolk might tear them apart and alienate them for her for siding with Bren. One way or another, their lives are over." She actually cried this time, a few stray tears falling down her cheeks. "Why...did things have to turn out this way? Why, for the millionth time, did I have to go and destroy magic like that all those months ago? Why couldn't I have just waited and found another way to defeat Mina?! Why did I...did I…"
"...Because there was no other way," Marco said. "We thought about it for a long time, Star. That was the best way to defeat Mina back then and you know it. And you couldn't have known that someone like Bren would show up, none of us could! We didn't even know the dimensions would merge! For the millionth time...don't blame yourself. In fact, just don't think about any of that until this is all over. Don't think about Buff Frog and the others, or something that other people are blaming you for, or any of it. The townsfolk need you and me to be strong for them right now...so can you do that?"
"..."
"Please, Star?"
"...Yeah. Yeah, I can do that." Star replied, quickly nodding her head. "Just push it all out of my mind. There are more important things to worry about at the moment. Like stopping Bren and getting back to Eclipsa. Maybe Janna can do something for us…"
"Exactly." Marco agreed. "I'm sure she carries a hidden demon magic spell book on her at all times, so she might be able to whip something up for-"
"LOOK OUT!" Star suddenly screeched, and Marco, who had taken his eyes off the road for only half a second, darted them back to see that someone was standing in the middle of it. They were going so fast that he knew slamming on the breaks would still result in them hitting whoever it was, so he did the next best thing: He slammed the breaks, but also swerved the wheel to the right which sent it on a trajectory path into a telephone pole.
But as the car made impact and he felt himself being lurched forward, he looked to his left and gasped when he realized that the person they had risked their lives to avoid crashing into was none other than their worst enemy, smiling at them smugly...
"Ugh! Marco! Marco! Are you okay?" Star called out, as she rubbed her head, which felt like someone had hit it with a mallet a few dozen times. She had been unconscious for only a few seconds after the car made impact with the pole, but that was more than enough for her head to smash into the glove box, denting it severely and giving her a decent-sized gash that was already bleeding. She wiped the blood out of her eyes and looked around, seeing Marco slumped against the steering wheel, his eyes fluttering. She gasped and unbuckled her seatbelt, the only thing that had prevented her from flying out the window, and then grabbed him and dragged him out of the car. She set him down on the street, panting as she felt the heatwave from the demons approach, before looking down the road to see who the heck had been standing in the middle of it.
And she saw the same person that Marco had seen. A pair of glowing orange eyes emerged from the darkness, and Star growled before immediately taking up a defensive position, standing in front of Marco to shield him.
"...Hello, Star. Nice to see you again," Bren said, doing this sort of slow clap thing. "Sorry about making you crash that car, but I had to get your attention somehow. And I didn't want to have you make it back to Eclipsa. That wouldn't help me."
"Get away from me…" Star growled. "Or I swear that I will-"
"I could beat you in a one-on-one fight any day of the week, don't try to make threats." Bren snapped. "And I have an army behind me. Even if you were stronger, by the time you beat me they'd have caught up and killed you. So don't kid yourself. Any fight will end with you being a corpse and Marco being killed...again."
"..."
"But I'm not here to do that. At least, not right now. I just wanted everyone to see this." Bren continued.
"What do you mean?"
"A moment," Bren said, before snapping his fingers. Then Tom appeared out of the darkness, somehow keeping his presence hidden until now. Star gasped when she saw the demon boy, but then quickly realized she had the advantage. She had the page...she had the truth...his parents were free...she could tell him! Convince him to attack Bren right now!
And he didn't know it…
"Here we are, then," Bren said, as Tom handed him a black camera-like device. "Do you know what this is, Star? This is a camera I created that had a special purpose. When I turn it on, it will connect to every screen in Earthni. TVs, phones, computers, you name it. And I will be broadcasting a message. To tell everyone of what is coming...of what their final night on this planet holds. Soon, your entire town will burn. Your friends will die. Your family will die. And then you, Star. After it all, you will die, right after watching Marco die. And then my revenge will be complete...the plan will have been finished."
"..."
"So I'm going to give you a bit of a head start, just like everyone else. But you must know it won't work in the end. Eventually, I'll carve through whatever defense you have and…what are you doing?"
What Bren was referring to was Star's sudden fit of laughter, as she doubled over like he was the most hilarious thing in the world. It honestly hurt like hell to laugh after the car crash, and because she was still only on hospital leave, but still. It felt good, in a way.
"You idiot." She chuckled. "Even if it's only him, this is gonna have one hell of an effect…"
"What are you talking about?" Bren asked.
"Tom…" Star said, turning to the demon boy. "You...you don't have to fight anymore. Your parents...they're free. It's over. We went to the Underworld and freed them. They're safe now."
"..."
"..."
"..."
"...WHAT?!" Tom exclaimed, his eyes widening to near-comical proportions. "What do you mean they're free? How?! When?! Where…" He then looked at Bren, whose smile had vanished and was glaring at Star. "Is...is this true?"
"Of course it isn't." Bren scoffed. "You really believe that, Lucitor? Even an idiot could see through that lie. Butterfly just sees the situation she's in and is trying to talk her way out of it. Your parents aren't free. Don't make any bad choices…"
"..."
"..."
"Then prove it."
"What?"
"Prove it," Tom repeated, and Star smiled even wider. "You say my parents aren't free, right? Well, then prove it. Call that little device you have and let's see what happens. If someone answers, then I'll keep doing what you say. But if no one answers, or if they do…" He took a step toward Bren and gave him a death glare. "Well. I'm sure you can guess what'll happen next."
"...Okay. Fine." Bren said casually, whipping out his device. Star was momentarily confused by this, fully expecting Bren to come up with another excuse. She hadn't even taken out the page yet as her own proof, but considering what Bren was about to do...maybe she hadn't even needed it in the first place.
'Does he...truly not know?' She wondered. 'I'm sure we assumed that he knew we had freed Tom's parents, but he didn't care as long as he still had him under control for long enough to destroy Earthni. Is he really unaware of the Underworld incursion? What about the Fire-god? Even if they used a spell to shield themselves, it should have seen something by now and alerted him…' She gulped and looked from Bren to Tom. 'Just what is going on?'
Bren pressed the button on the side of the device before holding it out for all to hear, a look of confidence on his face.
"Hello hello!" He said. "Listen, I'm just going to need you to answer me! Don't kill any of the two Royals, just let me know that everything there is going just fine!"
"..."
"..."
"..."
There was no answer, and Tom clenched his fists.
"...Hello?" Bren repeated. "Answer me, now!" But he was met with nothing but the sound of static, confirming his fears. For the first time since Star saw him, a look of pure shock spread onto his face, which confirmed that yes, he truly had no idea. He dropped the device, and it clattered to the floor. Tom took another step towards him, a fiery aura slowly growling around his form.
"Ummm…" Bren said. "Maybe we should just-"
And that was all he got out.
In one punch, months of pent-up anger, rage, aggression, and pure hate was let out of Tom, who fully ignited in flame and smacked Bren aside with everything he had. The punch was akin to nothing less than an explosion, sending Bren flying backward towards a nearby building, smashing in the walls, and causing the entire thing to quake like it was about to collapse. But Tom didn't let up. Not for one second. He immediately launched a barrage of fireballs at the structure, screaming profanities and other hateful things all the while, until it got to the point where he was just screaming normally. After a few seconds of this and the building collapsed in on itself, a cloud of dust engulfing the three standing near it as Bren was seemingly crushed under the weight of tons of rubble.
For a moment, Tom finally stopped, letting his arms fall to his side while panting. Star and Marco, the latter of whom had just woken back up and was greeted with the sight of Tom punching the tar out of Bren, didn't dare approach him, getting the feeling that if they did he might accidentally hurt them. But a moment later he turned his head towards the couple, before smiling.
"That…" He started. "That felt good."
"...Yeah, I bet it did," Marco said, before looking on in awe at the destroyed shop. "You know that probably didn't kill him, right? He's likely going to pop out of all that any second from now."
"Then I'll attack him again. And again. And again until he's burnt to a crisp." Tom said. "My parents are free. Nothing is stopping me from using my full power to extinguish his life."
"Except the giant army of demons currently heading this way…" Star pointed out, wiping some sweat off her brow. "It feels like it's a hundred degrees, and I can still only see that orange glow. Can you go talk them down?"
"No. They won't listen to me anymore. And even if they would…not yet." Tom said, before walking towards the remains of the building and tossing various chunks of brick and masonry aside. "He's somewhere underneath all this, and I'm not going to stop them until I kill him. So you two should probably leave as far as possible, because once I do find Bren this entire area is going to turn into-"
However, just like what had happened to Bren no more than a few minutes ago, Tom was cut off as a giant blast of flame nailed him directly in the face, launching him through the air until he landed on the street below. As if it was even possible, Star and Marco became even more shocked as they witnessed the scene, before seeing Bren push his way out under a pile of rocks, his hands glowing orange and engulfed in flames. Both of them felt their breaths catch in their throats, wondering how this was possible. When had he been able to do this?
"What…" Star gasped, backing away slowly. "Where did this come from?! You've never been able to conjure fire before! You can't do that!"
"Says who?" Bren asked. "Tell me, Star, what did that book say about the abilities of those who have been possessed by the god of fire? The one you read at Janna's house?"
"How do you even know we did that?!"
"Are you really all that surprised that I do?"
"...Yeah, no, I'm not," Star admitted. "But okay, the book says you can make fire. But you've never been able to do that before! Why can you do it now?"
"I've been able to do it all along." Bren scoffed. "I was just waiting for the right moment. Like...this moment. Plus, I wanted to display it for a big entrance. You know how I love the dramatics at times."
"So...if you could burn us all alive at any time...why didn't you just do it at the meeting when you crashed it?! A big enough jet of flame, and you would have taken out all your enemies right there and then!" Star shouted.
"Because I like to drag things out and save the worst suffering for last," Bren said. "Because killing you all right there wouldn't have been nearly as satisfying as seeing you all die this night. Because I wanted to. And that's all the answer you're going to get. I've been able to use fire all along...I just wanted to save it for the right moment. Does that not sound like me?"
"No...it totally sounds like you." Marco admitted, sounding like he was just done with it all.
"Good. Then this conversation had come to a close." Bren said, before fake wiping his brow. "Because wow, it is hot. Those demons are approaching fast…" He jerked a thumb towards the direction of the orange glow, which wasn't just a glow anymore. Now, Star could see them. She could see them all. A horde of demons with weapons twice as tall as her, armor that was as thick as a dictionary, and heads the size of shopping carts. (It was the first object that came to her mind.)
Overall, they were big. And they were heading this way. She could already feel their glares piercing her like knives.
"Presenting the top warriors of the Underworld!" Bren shouted. "Watch them line up and tear your town and its useless citizens to bloody bits! It's going to be one hell of a show, Butterfly. I know I'm certainly looking forward to it. If I were you, again, I would start running. I gave them specific orders not to kill you or your boyfriend, but that doesn't mean they won't tear off all your limbs and then cauterize the wounds so you can't escape."
"...No. You and me...this isn't over," Tom interjected, getting back up. "You think one little blast of flame is going to hurt me?!" He flew up into the air, a massive aura of fire igniting around his body. "I'm the prince of the Underworld! I could kill a hundred of you! This new power means nothing!"
"Maybe…" Bren said. "But do you really think I never prepared for something like this, Tom? You truly are an idiot if you think-"
"NO!" Tom screeched, before he rushed forward before Bren could say anything more. He slammed his fist into Bren's face again, causing him to slam into a nearby pole, toppling it as it fell on top of him. "NO MORE TALK! NO MORE BOASTS! NO MORE SPEECHES! NO LORE MONOLOGUES...I have been putting up with you for months, and now…"
His hands ignited in flame again, colored a deadly blue.
"I'm just going to kill you."
And with that, Tom started beating him. Not punching, just beating. Pounding him with his fists, his legs, even giving him a few head butts. Star and Marco looked on in shock, before they turned their attention back to the demon army, which was way too close for comfort. At this rate, they would arrive in no more than a minute. They felt like their clothes were about to catch on fire.
"Tom! Finish him off and let's get out of here!" Star shouted.
"No!" Tom shouted back. "I want him to suffer as much as possible! I'm going to make this last!"
"We don't have time for that-" Marco started, before he ripped off his hoodie, fearing that he was about to sweat out all the water in his body. "Okay, that's enough, we're leaving. Those demons are way too close." He grabbed Star's hand. "Come on! We're getting out of here!"
"But…but Tom!" Star protested. "We can't just leave him!"
Marco looked back at Tom, still pounding away at Bren, who was attempting to block each blow...and actually seemed to be making some progress. Bren mentioned that he had fought Tom before, and Marco felt that it wasn't long before he got serious and fought back. And Tom definitely wasn't going to be able to kill him before the demons got there. Plus, there was no way in a million days they could talk Tom into leaving with them like this. Not after months of enslavement and abuse.
"Tom can take care of himself," Marco said softly, resulting in Star glaring at him with a horrified expression. "But we won't be able to if we-"
"Screw that! Tom's been Bren's prisoner for months! I'm not going to be without one of my best friends for one second more! I'm bringing him back with us one way or another!"
And with that, Star dashed past Marco, got to Tom, and just picked him up entirely, lifting him over her head. The demon boy was clearly shocked by this move, and attempted to make Star let go of him, as the three (well, two) finally ran away down the street away from the approaching army.
"Let me go!" He shouted. "You're not going to deny me the revenge I deserve!"
"Maybe not, but you're not going to get that revenge right now!" Star shouted back. "Those demons are only minutes away from arriving. If you keep beating on him, they'll catch up to you and kill you!"
"I was going to teleport away and-"
"No, you weren't!" Marco said, shocked by what Star had done but willing to go along with it if it meant they escaped. "You were way too fueled by anger just a minute ago to make any kind of rational decision! So don't fight him and just come along with us! You wouldn't have been able to kill Bren in time, and you definitely can't do it now!"
"But...but…" Tom started. "All the things he forced me to do...all the people he forced me to kill...I have to avenge them...I have to-"
"I know. I'm sorry." Star said. "But you can't. Not now, at least. I'll do everything I can to make sure you can get your chance in the future. But right now, we have to retreat and strategize. So please, Tom…" She looked up at him, her eyes filled with tears. "Don't make me lose another friend!"
Tom blinked at her, his face flooding with realization. Eventually, he took a deep breath, finally got out of Star's grip, and started running beside the two of them.
"Fine." He said, his entire body shaking with rage. "Fine. But he will die by my hand, but the end of all this. I swear it."
"You may have to get in a line for that…" Marco joked, but he received no response, and went back to being quiet as the trio kept running, desperate to reach the festival before Bren and his army.
Bren, meanwhile, sighed, looking at the retreating gang in contemplation as he got back to his feet, only slightly worse for wear. He glanced back at his army, which had finally caught up and was now staring at him. They weren't doing anything, yet, but their mere presence was causing nearby buildings to burst into flames, and car tires to burst under the intense heat. Even the asphalt underneath then was melted into tar, tar that was sticking to the bottom of their shoes and leaving a gooey trail wherever they walked. They all stopped and looked at him, bruises covering his face, although it was nothing compared to what his beating at the hospital had been.
And then as casually as possible, he calmly said, "Well, what are you waiting for? You don't need an okay from me. Not this time. Go and raise hell!"
And like a flip had been switched, all the demons roared and rushed forward, their weapons now smashing everything in sight. Cars, houses, even random plants were bashed to pieces under their enormous axes and swords and spears and shields. Nothing was given mercy, and soon the entire area was nothing but a pile of rubble...and then they moved further ahead, to do it all over again. Bren smiled slightly as he watched the rampant destruction, even if it was lacking in bloodshed. But only for the moment. Soon, they would catch up with the crowd, and then he'd get all the blood he wanted.
He sighed and picked the camera back up, before turning it on. In no less than a second the signal being emitted from it connected to every screen in Earthni, and he began to speak as a collective gasp fell over the city.
He tapped the side of it and looked into the lens. "Hmm? Is this thing on? Yes?" He asked, before hearing the screams in the distance which was surely everyone's reaction to him suddenly appearing. "Ah. Good. Alright, Helloooo, Humans, Mewmans, and monsters of Earthni!" He said. "For all of you watching at home, or running away in a panic, I believe introductions are in order. My name is Bren, and I'm here with a very special public service announcement."
Bren cleared his throat and swiveled the camera to show the various fires and rampant destruction going on around him.
"The world is about to burn. Happy Stump day!"
He then started walking down the street while his army ran around, attacking anything and everything. Bren filmed all of this, making sure to get close-ups of every building collapse, every cloud of dust, wanting to leave nothing out.
"Yes, today's the day Earthni dies." He said. "The fire will burn, and when it is finally put out, nothing but ash will be left. You know, it's almost ironic. Earthni could be considered a fire of its own. You grew in size, adding more and more wood to yourself, making sure that the flame wouldn't go out! Alas, as bright as you can make yourself burn, all flames sputter out and perish eventually. No one knows that better than me. And who is to blame for all this? Who caused my lovely future massacre to happen?"
Bren then turned the camera towards Marco, who was still running away from him in the distance, and zoomed in.
"That's who," Bren said. "Star Butterfly. The stupid, naive, magic girl who so trident destroyed all of magic and took my home dimension away from me. That's right, people! Actions have consequences! You all have no clue how many died across the multiverse when magic was eliminated! How many hundreds of millions who depended on it to survive! But I suppose you don't care about that. And I can't blame you. She never told you, after all. They never tell you anything…"
He sighed and turned the camera away from Star, pointing it back at his army.
"But please don't blame her too hard for all this! So many more people than her played a part, after all!" He said. "Truth be told, I'm here for so many more of you than just Butterfly. Look to your left! Look to your right! Who do you see? You see people! But there are ones among you who are more at fault for all this happening than you are! So I say: Bring them to me! That's right! Bring them to me, bring them to the army approaching and I will let you live! Because I want the people who destroyed my home, not all of you! Bring those at fault to me...and I guarantee that you will survive. Turn to each other. Look in their eyes. You can see the guilt if they are at fault. Drag them away. Take them away. To me. And then...all will be given sanctuary."
He then took a deep breath. "But for the rest of you...for those that are unable to do anything to save themselves...well, enjoy the next few hours of your life people. Because…" He paused and looked up at the sky, soon to be covered by a red mist, thick with smoke and blood.
"...they will most certainly be your last."
He then slammed the camera on the ground, smashing it to pieces. But he knew that there were other cameras, and he knew that not a single person in the world wouldn't know about this. The people in Earthni were just the first. And so many were watching...so many running...so many that had no true part to play in this.
And a mile away, Marco, Star, and Tom, still running away to get back to the crowd
At the houses of the citizens, scared families that didn't go to the celebration, hugged themselves close as they watched the live broadcast end, fearing what would come next…
In the Underworld, Buff frog and all the others, crying their eyes out, regretting every action that brought them to this point…
Eclipsa, frantically barking orders to the knights, telling them to get ready for battle…
Moon, running towards where Bren was, having heard the broadcast even a hundred feet away from the stage...
Janna watching in silence...
Troops stationed outside the town, still wondering why they had been given these orders, as Bren's existence was still a secret from them...
All of them, wishing that something could have been done to stop this.
Except for Bren, who took it all in, and smiled, finally happy to see…
...the plan, almost completed, at last.
End chapter 26
A/N: …
