Disclaimer: I don't own anything that doesn't belong to me.

…

The rest of the fortress – for this was indeed a fortress – wasn't much better than the room Ariel had woken up in.

Everything was still in shades of black, black, and more black. There were few ornamentations and those which were sparsely spread throughout the long, dark corridors were pretty grisly in presentation. Lots of skulls, bones, and motifs of dogs along with the occasional image of one of the gods of Infershia, Sphinx and N Ma most prevalent.

(There were almost no images of Cerberus, which Ariel took to mean her host was not especially vain. Something to consider.)

It was cold. The black fires burning in the black torches gave off no heat, but even if they did, Ariel wasn't sure she would feel any warmer. Something about this place leached the warmth from her bones, leaving her with a soul deep chill that wouldn't go away.

It also felt empty. She saw plenty of other Zobils going about their business, but they all ignored her even when she addressed them, and she got the weird feeling they were even more hollow and lifeless than the average Zobil, not that the living dead had ever had much in them to begin with. This was a huge place, but Ariel somehow got the feeling that there was only one real person living here. It must be pretty lonely.

She probably have felt more sympathetic towards her host if he hadn't kidnapped her.

She tried a few times to press her escort for information, but the well-dressed High Zobil always dismissed her concerns and promised his master would explain everything.

Typical. The undead foot soldiers of Infershia never were very good conversationalists.

No matter. She was still picking up plenty of context information from her environment. Her friends and the billions of other insects of the Hive watching through her eyes were making careful note of everything, memorizing the path she was taking, analyzing the composition of the fortress walls to try and determine any weakness in its makeup, and even trying to find ways around the magic seal locking poor Lepidoptera's powers and her magic away.

(They hadn't found anything yet, but she gave them points for trying.)

"I… I've never felt this weak before," Lepidoptera whimpered, fluttering her dull wings weakly. "So… Diminished."

"This is no fun for me, either," Ariel murmured back, trying, for the hundredth time, to conjure up the smallest bit of magic. "Is this how it feels like to be a regular mortal? Wow. I can't help pitying them even more now. I feel so… Empty."

"We heard that," the majority of the Buzzing, which lacked magic, replied flatly.

"Ariel. Don't worry. Once we get you out of there will be able to break your seal and get your powers back," Nushi promised.

"Stay strong, Lepidoptera. We'll get you out of there soon," Coccinella added.

"Thanks, lovebug," the two butterflies cooed gratefully, allowing themselves to be enveloped in the overwhelming love of the people they cherished most. It was almost enough to make them feel whole again.

Almost.

"When you see Cerberus, you have to be very careful," Apista told Ariel. "It seems he is unaware of your connection to the Buzzing or that it still works despite whatever dark magic is in play. You can use this to your advantage, just so long as you don't let on that you already know more than you should."

"I understand," Ariel replied. "I'll play it safe."

After all, just because the Hive had a penchant for honesty didn't mean they were stupid. They knew full well that sometimes being fully truthful was the fastest way to get yourself killed in the wrong situation. There were ways to twist the truth without lying, and while they weren't exactly comfortable with it, they were practical enough to understand the necessity.

And if deceit were absolutely necessary… Well, there was a reason the Hive was so insistent acting wasn't the same as lying. Heavenly Saints bless those insects and their alien morality.

Ariel was good at acting. Great, even. And, without a rank amateur like Goro to screw things up –

"Hey!"

-She was sure she could play the perfect role to extract as much information as she could from her captor to help her loved ones take him down. She just needed to figure out what script she was following, and she would be able to figure that out once she was alone with Cerberus. A terrified damsel cowering before a wrathful brute? A defiant, sharp tongued rebel before a cold yet restrained warlord? A sympathetic ear for a sad, lonely old man?

She would be whoever she needed to be to survive. She might be powerless, but she was not alone. She would never be alone again, and she was never happier for that truth than in that moment.

"Wish me luck," she thought to her friends as her escort led her to a pair of massive, grim doors and ushered her inside.

"Good luck," the entire Buzzing replied.

She wasn't sure where she had expected Cerberus to meet her. A throne room, to lord his power over her? A banquet hall, to play at being a benevolent host? His bedchambers, to-

She immediately clamped down on that line of thought.

Instead, she found herself in a long, gloomy hall with a black carpet running over black flagstones to a raised dais where a massive statue of N Ma loomed over smaller effigies of the Infershia Pantheon. Every statue had a brazier before it, and all but the one before Sphinx were lit, burning with a steady black flame. Stained-glass windows lined the walls, dim light passing through and painting the floor in images of N Ma and the gods creating Infershia, waging war against Magitopia for control of the surface, and, one by one, perishing at the hands of her parents, aunts, uncles, and grandparents. Beneath the windows were row after row of statues of monsters, dozens of Hades Beasts and Beastmen, some of them from tribes Ariel recognized, others of which were wholly unfamiliar to her. These, too, had burning braziers before them.

Cerberus, shrunken from his colossal true size to only a head – or three – taller than her, was at the far end of the room, kneeling before the statues, heads bowed in prayer, and Ariel realized that this was a memorial for his kin.

(What kind of power play was this? Was he trying to make her feel guilty for the actions of her family? The Hades Gods had been bad news, all of them except for Sphinx and Titan, and if her family hadn't put a stop to them, the world would be nothing but a barren, lifeless rock. Even her Aunt Sphinx had agreed they needed to go, though she wished Titan hadn't suffered such a horrible fate.)

"I do not blame your family for their actions against my kin," Cerberus spoke up without turning to look at her.

Ariel blinked, startled. He hadn't read her mind, had he?

"No, we'd know if he had," Lepidoptera assured her.

"It was war," Cerberus said calmly. "And such casualties are inevitable. And while I mourn the passing of my kindred, I do not fault your side for winning, for they would've wiped you out just as readily given the chance. The fact that you have been far more gracious to Infershia in victory then we would have been to Magitopia proves that, ultimately, perhaps the right side won."

He paused, ears standing up straight. One of his heads glanced over his shoulder to look at her. "That does not, of course, mean that I forgive them. They were… Family, or something like it. And N Ma was my master and creator. However, I have no interest in pursuing vengeance against them. What's done is done, the war is over, and I am glad that my sister has found happiness and that my homeland continues to exist, even prosper."

"If you don't want revenge," Ariel couldn't stop herself from snapping. "Then why did you kidnap me? Why are you working with one of our greatest criminals and my personal enemy? Surely you know that these actions could lead to a new war!"

"Careful-" Mibojin started.

"I know what I'm doing! Probably."

"I assure you," Cerberus replied, slowly standing up and turning to face her. "The fact that you are a member of the Ozu family has nothing to do with my actions." He sighed. "If anything, it makes this much more difficult. Had you been any other woman, this would be… Much simpler. But, of course, fate rarely works in ways we would prefer, and so I had no choice but to abduct my own niece."

"Niece?" Ariel demanded. "I would think someone would've told me if I had another Hades God as a relative. And just who are you supposed to be, anyway? Sphinx never mentioned there was another member of the Pantheon still alive!"

"She would not have," Cerberus said calmly, with more than a hint of sadness. "Until today, she would not have remembered who I was. Allow me to introduce myself. I am the Forgotten God, Cerberus… Sphinx's brother, which would make me your uncle. I am sorry we had to meet under such circumstances, but… As I said, things rarely turn out the way we wish."

He bowed respectfully to her.

"He seems genuine in his remorse," Apista nodded.

"Yeah, I bet he's real sorry for teaming up with Floragel, stealing me from my home, and neutering Lepidoptera and me!"

Ariel did not bow back. "So where the hell have you been all my life, then?" She demanded. "You've got several years of birthday presents to make up for!"

"You're really worked up about that?" A baffled Goro asked.

"Why not? I would be!" Philia chirped.

"I have been here," Cerberus replied, gesturing around the chamber, and to the fortress beyond. "Doing my duty, standing guard, as my master bade. Protecting Infershia from what lies below."

Ariel frowned. "What lies below?"

(She knew Cerberus's story, of course. Nushi had filled her in. But he didn't know that, and perhaps Cerberus could tell her, and through the Buzzing, her friends and family, more?)

"Did you happen to look outside?" Cerberus asked, glancing with one of his heads at one of the windows.

Ariel shuddered involuntarily, and he smiled grimly. "You saw it, didn't you? The abyss."

"We gazed into it, and I think it gazed back," Goro murmured.

"I blinked. Everyone else did too, right?" Shin asked.

"I didn't," Mibojin spoke up.

Shin rolled his eyes. "Big surprise there."

Ariel nodded, rubbing herself. "It was… Huge. It almost felt… Alive. Like… Like if I fell into it, I would never get out."

"That's not entirely true," Cerberus informed her. "Over the years, I've sent many Zobils down into the pit."

Ariel glanced up at him. "And?"

His eyes hardened. "When they came out, they weren't Zobils anymore."

He did not elaborate. Ariel found herself grateful for that. The numerous horrifying imaginings currently filling the Buzzing were more than enough to give her nightmares, or would if they didn't filter out for that kind of thing. "What's… down there?"

"Something old. Something dark. Something that must never wake up," Cerberus said gravely. "Millennia ago, my master crawled out of that chasm and into these caverns that would one day become the Infershia you know."

"N Ma came from… Down there?" Ariel asked, trembling. She knew that, of course. But knowing it intellectually and comparing it with that… That lightless void… Made it far too real.

"Where did you think he came from, anyway?" Lepidoptera wondered.

"I dunno, that he just manifested one day from the collective nightmares of humanity? Some kind of dark magic ritual gone wrong? Nobody really thought much about it," Ariel replied.

Cerberus nodded. "He never spoke of what was down there, not directly. One got the impression that whatever his place of origin, it terrified him enough to find a way to escape to this higher part of the underworld. This impression was strengthened when he ordered me to stand guard over the pit, and make sure that nothing else ever followed his example and crawled out of it."

"Has anything crawled out of it?" Ariel pressed, dreading the answer.

"Yes," he replied tersely. "And I will not say more, only to assure you that everything that has come out of that pit, I have thoroughly killed. Some of them were as strong as my master. Some were… Stronger."

Ariel went white with terror. She knew full well how horrifyingly powerful N Ma was. He'd destroyed Magitopia and the surface and killed her father, for the Arch Saint's sake. And to think that underneath her feet, there'd been something worse – no, lots of somethings worse-

"Well, that's certainly a cheery thought," Shin muttered.

"We already know that the Underground Empire Tube is beneath us too, along with the Doggler Beasts, and I think the Tailed People Clan Jashinka Empire was from deep underground as well, and Badan came from there at one point," Nushi murmured. "There's much more beneath the earth than there is on the surface. I wonder who else is down there."

"We may be better off not knowing," Mibojin said wisely.

"My master tasked me to stand watch, because I was the strongest of my brethren and the one he trusted most," Cerberus continued with a hint of pride. "Once I took up my post, he erased all memories of me from the denizens of Infershia, to make sure that no one came looking for me, whether in a misguided attempt to offer aid, or… To try and claim or wake up the dread power lurking below, the power which spawned my master and everything else that has emerged from the abyss, something so horrifying that it gave the master of darkness himself pause."

"… What could be that bad?!" A horrified Ariel demanded.

Cerberus shook his heads. "I do not know. But I suppose even nightmares have something they are afraid of."

"And… It's really been you down here, all this time? Alone and forgotten?" Ariel pressed, finding herself sympathizing with her captor despite herself. Damn her empathy!

"It does kind of suck," Shin agreed.

"I have zero sympathy," Mibojin spoke up, to nobody's surprise.

"Neither do I," Nushi growled.

"I wasn't always alone," Cerberus admitted. "Once, I had many comrades who fought alongside me. Brothers in arms." He hesitated, his three heads panning to take in the statues lining the hall, and then his gaze drooped. "I am all that remains."

"Why… Why didn't you reach out for help?" Ariel demanded, aghast, her heart aching for her captor once again. "After N Ma died, surely you had no need to stay here, forgotten by everyone!"

"Just because my master is dead does not mean my duty should be forsaken," Cerberus argued. "This is a task that needs doing. The pit must be guarded, and Infershia protected from what lurks below. And if they were to get past me, I doubt the surface world would be safe for very long."

"But if you'd asked us for help, we would've-"

"Done what?" Cerberus interjected. "Insisted on venturing into the pit, like the bold, valiant heroes you are? Believing that your courage and magic alone would allow you to overcome any challenges that waited you in that hell?" He snorted and shook his heads. "How do you think I lost most of my comrades? If you're lucky, you would perish quickly. If not…" He clenched his fists. "As I said… Anything that goes down there doesn't come back the same."

Ariel's eyes widened. "So… Some of the things that crawled out…"

"I used to call friend. Yes," Cerberus replied, briefly closing his nine eyes in sorrow.

"… Damn," Shin murmured. "That's rough."

"… You still could have reached out," Ariel said softly. "At the very least, we could have built some kind of seal big enough to close this thing, plug it up!"

"I tried that," Cerberus said bluntly. "Made a lid out of the strongest alloys in the underworld, infused with incredibly powerful dark magic. It didn't last."

"… Fruit Jesus," Ariel whispered in horror.

"But you are right," Cerberus admitted, to her surprise. "I probably should have reached out. But… I have been doing this on my own for so long, the idea of asking others for help… Well… It is not something I'm accustomed to, and I suppose I was a bit less inclined to trust your people given what they did to my master and kin."

"I will not apologize for the actions of my family," Ariel said harshly. "Your master and the other gods needed to be stopped."

"Perhaps so, but that does not mean I need to forgive them for it," Cerberus retorted. He sighed. "In any event, I doubt my kidnapping you will make Magitopia likely to provide me with assistance now."

"If you let me go, I could put in a good word for you," Ariel offered, totally genuine. Yes, she was pissed that Cerberus had kidnapped her and was working with Floragel, but he seemed a bit more reasonable than she'd expected and it was pretty obvious being on guard duty all alone for millennia had worn on him a bit. Plus, from the sound of things, it seemed like he really did have a good excuse for not being there for any of her birthdays or family holidays!

"You are too kind for your own good," Mibojin chided her.

"Hey, it's not like I'm going to forgive Floragel!" Ariel insisted. "No way that's never going to happen!"

"Oh, I fully intend to let you go," Cerberus informed her, much to her surprise.

"Wait, what?"

"Wait, what?" The entire Buzzing echoed.

Cerberus nodded. "Yes, once I have verified that the prophecy you are a part of has been thoroughly averted. Don't worry, if all goes well, you should be home in a few hours, with your magic restored, your familiar freed of her affliction, and your cell phone returned to you." He held up her MagiPhone NX. "I'm fairly certain you don't have service down here, but I thought I should hold onto it just in case."

Ariel blinked. "A few… I don't understand. You went all this effort to abduct me, and you're just… Going to let me go?"

"Once you and your family made it clear that you would not listen to reason and take the necessary actions to avert disaster-"

"I told Floragel that I am not going to break up with Nushi!" Ariel snapped.

"Which is why I was forced to bring you here while I take the appropriate measures to prevent the prophecy from coming to pass," Cerberus continued. "Don't worry, it should all be over soon. I am… Sorry it had to come to this," he confessed, seeming genuinely apologetic. "But you really left me no choice-"

"Oh, so it's my fault you had to kidnap me?!" Ariel shouted, furious.

"Well…"

"Oh hell no, don't you dare blame the victim!" Ariel yelled, livid. "You're the one at fault here, you and that… Bitch Floragel! You know who she is! You know what she did to me! You claim you're sorry you had to do all this, but you're willing to work with her?!"

"She is not my first choice for a collaborator," Cerberus admitted, having the decency to look embarrassed. "But… Well, desperate times and all that… I promise you, I will not let her get anywhere near you or put you in a position where she can hurt you again."

"A bit late for that," Goro growled.

"Forgive me if I find that a little hard to believe considering you let her drag me down here in the first place," Ariel replied coldly. "How did you even find her in the first place?"

"Actually, she found me," Cerberus replied, surprising her again. "When she was cast out of Magitopia, she was cursed to forever wander, her magic diminished, shunned by all. During her travels, she found the Book of Prophecy – or rather, it found her – and she learned of the prophecy about you. I do not know whether she was motivated by a genuine desire to help and make amends or the selfish belief this would somehow win your heart – I suspect it was a mix of both – but she reached out to numerous powerful magical beings to warn them of the coming crisis, but all of them refused to listen to her, the curse and instinctual fear of incurring the Arch Saint's wrath causing them to dismiss her out of hand. I, however, had no such fear, because the Arch Saint did not know I existed, and therefore the curse had no effect on me."

"And you gave her what she wanted?" Ariel asked in disgust.

"Actually, I dismissed her as well," Cerberus informed her, raising his esteem in her eyes. "I did not believe the prophecy had anything to do with me or my duty, so ignored her warning. And aside from that… I knew what she'd done to you, and while I had no intention of being a part of your life… Well. You're still my niece. That counts for something."

"Not much, considering he still teamed up with her anyway," Philia pointed out spitefully.

"Then why are you working with her now?" Ariel demanded, bewildered.

"I was wrong. The prophecy has everything to do with me and my duty," Cerberus informed her gravely.

Ariel blinked. "What are you talking about? The prophecy has nothing to do with you or the big evil thing at the bottom of the pit!" She hesitated. "… Does it?"

Cerberus sighed, shoulders sagging. "Regrettably, I believe it does. I assure you, if I had any reason to believe otherwise, I would never have embarked on this venture to begin with. Unfortunately, all the evidence would seem to suggest that you do have a connection to the evil that lurks below."

"… How is that possible?" Ariel asked, dumbfounded.

"While I have never ventured into the pit, I know that the darkness below has been bound by an incredibly powerful force, one that has been gradually weakening over time, which I believe led to the birth of my master and the other horrors of the deep, its influence warping whatever life exists at those depths and turning them into abominations. However, while the seal has been growing weaker, it was nowhere near breaking, and I estimate it would've remained intact for several million more years, possibly even beyond my own lifetime.

"And then, a few months ago, the seal weakened rather drastically, all at once."

Ariel blinked. "What? But what happened a few months ago that would have-"

"NO," all the Great Divine Insects cried out at once, and Ariel at once realized the truth.

"Oh shit," the rest of the Buzzing cried, realizing the same thing.

"The thing in the pit… It's… It's the primordial evil that the Great Divine Insects sealed away when they came to Earth billions of years ago?!" Ariel gasped.

Cerberus nodded grimly. "The very same. And every time you and your friends awaken a new Great Divine Insect, the seal gets weaker, and the evil it contains grows that much closer to breaking free."

"Oh no…" Apista whispered.

"We were afraid of that, but… We never thought it would have consequence like this!" A shocked Great Caelifer cried.

"But that's… That's not our fault!" Ariel protested, horrified. "We need their power to defeat the Swarm! Parasitica just keeps improving and modifying the cosmic fungus to make her monsters stronger, so we need to get stronger as well to keep up, and constantly upgrading the Great Divine Insects we already have alone won't be enough!"

"I sympathize with your plight, and understand that you are doing the best you can," Cerberus was quick to assure her. "But that does not change the fact that the longer your war with the Swarm goes on, the closer I come to failing in my duty to protect Infershia, and the surface, from the evil below."

"I understand that, but… I still don't understand what this has to do with the prophecy," Ariel spurted, flustered. "The prophecy says that the love between Nushi and myself will cause the breaking of the world. But that has nothing to do with our fight with the Swarm!"

"Are you so certain?" He interrogated her sharply. "You have known of the prophecy for quite some time, and knew that your love might cause disaster. And yet, instead of doing something about it, you have simply chosen to continue acting as if everything were fine, and damn the consequences. That sort of cavalier attitude is not something that a Savior of the world should be exhibiting, and if you're willing to risk the fate of the world because you don't want to break up with your girlfriend, who is to say what other errors in judgment your love will lead you to make? How do you know that your love for her isn't causing you to drag this conflict out longer than it has to be because you're too afraid to risk losing each other to fight at full strength and do what is necessary?"

"That… That's not fair! How dare he!" Coccinella screeched.

While those words hit a little too close to home then Nushi would like, Ariel didn't even entertain them for a second. "Clearly you've never been in love before, or you'd realize that's complete and utter nonsense," she said harshly, and from the grimace on all three of Cerberus's faces and the way his ears folded against his heads, she knew she'd struck a chord. "Not to mention your logic is spurious at best! The prophecy specifically said that the love between Nushi and myself will cause a disaster. Our love has nothing to do with the weakening of the seal on this ancient evil beneath the earth. You have no evidence to prove otherwise."

"Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence," he argued. "Not to mention that the chances of whatever disaster you are fated to bring about having nothing to do with the disaster I am trying to prevent, a disaster your own team seems to be indirectly causing, seems rather slim."

"… He… May have a point…" Nushi murmured hesitantly.

"I dunno, the world is almost destroyed by largely unrelated incidents like half a dozen times a year," Ariel shot back. "And even if you're right… Even if our love is somehow going to break the seal on this big bad evil thing… You know as well as I do that the prophecies of Magitopia are absolute. By trying to stop it, you run the very real risk of causing whatever disaster I'm apparently destined to bring about in the first place!"

Cerberus grimaced. "… I know," he admitted. "But… I cannot simply do nothing. I promised my master that I would do whatever was necessary to prevent the evil beneath from getting free and destroying Infershia, and if there is even the slightest chance that I can stop it, I have to try. My duty calls for nothing less." He sighed. "Which is why, although I found it distasteful, I contacted Floragel, broke her curse, and agreed to aid her in trying to avert the prophecy. You will be grateful to know that I managed to talk her down from her initial impulse, which was simply to kill Nushi."

"I would've liked to see her try," Manti spoke up in amusement. "We would have turned her into fertilizer before she got the chance."

"Damn straight," Goro agreed.

"Of course she did," Ariel muttered venomously. "Of course, that didn't stop you from continuing to work with her anyway."

"She has more experience with Magitopia and the surface, and with you, then I," Cerberus replied. "And seeing as how I cannot leave my post for long, I needed someone I can trust to act as my agent beyond my domain."

"And you actually trust her?" Ariel asked in disbelief.

"I trust her to act in her own interests, and her obsession with you is… Useful, if less than ideal," Cerberus sniffed. "Given her belief that she can somehow win you back, I know that her dedication to dissolving the relationship between you and Nushi is ironclad."

"Yeah, well that's not going to happen," Ariel shot back. "I already told you, Nushi and I aren't breaking up! And since you already said you're planning to let me go soon, and you don't plan to kill Lovebug, there's no way you can possibly change that!"

I hope.

Cerberus sighed and shook his heads. "Unfortunately, that's where you are mistaken. Have you forgotten, niece, that very little is impossible where magic is concerned?"

And Ariel's blood ran cold, as she suddenly remembered what had nearly happened to a certain other member of her family who had been kidnapped by Infershia.

"No… You… You're going to use a Puppet's Ring to make me fall in love with someone else, like when Berserker King Glúm do Bridon tried to force my Aunt Yuka to marry him!" Ariel shrieked, horrified.

Cerberus recoiled, shocked. "What? No, of course not. Who would I even make you fall in love with?"

"How about Floragel?" Ariel venomously accused. "If you promised her she could have me, she would do anything you asked!"

Cerberus angrily shook his heads. "Of course not! I already told you, I have no intention of letting her harm you or even touch you again."

"Then what about you?" Ariel angrily pushed. "You said it's pretty lonely down here. Maybe you want a Persephone to your Hades, huh? Well joke's on you, I don't even like pomegranates!"

Cerberus blinked. "… Ariel, I'm your uncle."

"Yeah, and Hades was Persephone's, but that didn't stop him!" Ariel retorted.

"The heck is with your planet's gods?" Wondered a disturbed Philia.

"Our myths are a reflection of the people who made them," Mibojin reflected. "A better question might be what is wrong with us."

"And people wonder why I am so gung ho to give up my humanity," Nushi grumbled.

Cerberus grimaced and pinched one of his brows. "That's not… Ariel, my pantheon is different from the Greek gods. We didn't do that sort of thing."

Ariel raised an eyebrow skeptically. "Really? Because Aunt Sphinx had a thing or two to say about Gorgon and Drake, and-"

"I have no intention of using a Puppet's Ring on you! Or any other form of brainwashing!" Cerberus snapped, much to her relief. "Besides, it wouldn't solve the problem. You would no longer love Nushi, but she would still love you, and her love and anger might lead her to do something… Unwise to try and fix things."

"He's right," Nushi said darkly, and for a moment Ariel was reminded that all geniuses were a hair's breadth away from turning into mad scientists, and Nushi was a step above most geniuses, and if anyone were to break the world in a fit of rage at a lost love, it would be her. "I would."

"Then what exactly are you planning to do?" Ariel demanded, knowing that the answer he gave might be the most important thing she could extract from him, possibly what Nushi and her family needed to thwart his plans. "How do you plan to prevent the prophecy?"

"It's simple, really," Cerberus told her. "The prophecy says that your love will cause the end of the world. Therefore, if I were to remove that love, the threat would be resolved."

"But if you're not going to use a Puppet's Ring, then how-"

"If I remember correctly, your grandmother possesses an artifact called the Flower of Heaven, does she not?"

For a moment, Ariel's heart stopped. The Flower… The Flower of Heaven-

"That…n-no, you… You can't…" She blinked, then smiled in relief, her confidence returning. "No, actually, you can't. The Flower only blooms once every 10 years, and we already had our Fantastic Happy Day a couple of years ago. It can't be used to destroy love!"

"No, it can't be used to destroy all love in the world," Cerberus corrected her. "I estimate it has just enough magic stored up right now to terminate a single love, especially if energized by enough dark magic and souls to make it bloom prematurely. Floragel is already on her way to retrieve it as we speak, and since your family and the forces of Magitopia are mobilizing to march on the Vaults of Tartarus, that means the Flower is completely undefended. And once it is in my possession, I will arrange for Nushi to find her way here and then use the Flower on both of you. The two of you will no longer love each other, and the prophecy will be averted. I will then allow both of you to leave in peace."

The sheer amount of horror, revulsion, and fury that blazed through the Buzzing was nearly enough to knock Ariel unconscious.

"NO!" Nushi screamed in the voice of every member of the Hive.

"But, but you can't possibly know where the Flower is-" the horrified Ariel protested, raising her hand to her face to hide a nosebleed.

"I do, actually. You showed Floragel where it was being kept while visiting your grandparents several years ago," Cerberus told her.

Shit, that was right! She'd brought Floragel over for a visit, back when they were friends, back before she realized what she really was.

"She still won't be able to get it," Ariel insisted, grasping for straws. "Even if nobody is in, there's no way she can get past the defensive wards-"

"Which are tied to your bloodline and magical signature," Cerberus interjected. "I am aware. Which is why we hired a member of the Doppelgänger tribe to scan your magical signature while you were unconscious to become a perfect double of you, one good enough to bypass the security system and allow them to steal the Flower of Heaven."

"No… No, no, NO!" Ariel panicked.

"The Doppelgänger tribe?" Mibojin inquired.

"They're a race of Hades Beastman who, as the name implies, can turn into anyone," Ariel thought frantically. "And they don't just shapeshift, they become a perfect double of you, down to the cellular level. The really good ones can even mimic your unique energy signature! If one of them was really able to scan me, then-"

"Then they can steal the Flower, and-" the aghast Nushi realized.

"They could… They could actually do it. They could DESTROY OUR LOVE!"

"NOOOOOOOOOOO!" Philia and everyone else who hardcore shipped the two of them wailed.

"Do not worry," Cerberus said calmly, seemingly oblivious of her turmoil. "You will still be capable of loving others. Just not Nushi. You shall remain friends, good friends, but that is all. Your ability to fight the Swarm will not be affected."

"And that's supposed to make me feel better?!" She shrieked.

"It is the best solution I can conceive of that does not involve killing Nushi or imprisoning you here," Cerberus replied. "I am doing what your parents would not, what you would not. Thwarting the prophecy and saving the world."

"And you think you'll just be able to walk away from this?!" She demanded. "That we'll just let you off after doing something so horrible?!"

"I do not ask for your forgiveness, nor would I expect it," he said firmly. "I do what I do because it is my duty. Nothing more. The fact that you are family is regrettable, but… It changes nothing. No matter what, I must fulfill my task and prevent the evil below from getting free. Whatever it takes, I will stay true to my Master's last request."

"Guys, you have to get somebody over to my grandmother's house," Ariel thought to her friends, terrified. "If they get that Flower…"

"That's not going to happen," Goro promised.

"We will stop him," Shin vowed.

"And if he thought whatever is in that pit is terrifying… Wait until he feels the wrath of Nushi Cheng," Nushi snarled with uncharacteristic hatred.

And, for the first time, Ariel felt fear in conjunction with Nushi. Not fear of her, she could never fear her, she loved her too much for that.

Rather, she feared what she might become, when pushed to her limits…