WITCH

Inside of his personal quarters Hazel pondered what action was the best one he could take next with what Ozpin… No… What Oscar had trusted him with.

"Search for my own truth…" He stood himself up and made his way out with a hint of resolve in his eyes.

Oscar was laying down in the torture chamber, looking up at the ceiling. "And so the girl fell through the world, away from all of her problems…"

"Yet, when she returned she was a changed person…" Ozpin finished. "That one's a classic, even by my standards." he chuckled as Oscar sat up on the ground.

"I sometimes felt like that during our adventures. All that excitement and wonder… The calm days and hardships with the others." Oscar reminisced. "I kind of get why the girl felt so sad when she returned now…"

"Oscar… I feel like our plan failed." Ozpin confessed. "We can get out of here with our own power. All you need to do is just-"

Oscar shook his head adamantly now. "No, I won't use magic again. The more I use magic, the more I can feel our souls merging, and I don't want that to happen."

Before Ozpin could talk to Oscar more, the door into their cell opened and in stepped Hazel Rainart. "Come with me, boy." he picked Oscar up by his collar and dragged him out of the room.

"Hazel please!" Oscar reasoned. "I understand your resentments towards the academies, but does everyone need to suffer-"

"Quiet." he commanded while continuing down the corridor.

Yang stepped through a puddle as her and Jaune were following Ren's lead. "So are you really sure your new semblance ability can find him?!" she asked.

"Yeah, I'm almost certain." Ren assured. "Although, I can't read the specifics of any distant emotions from this range."

"So we could potentially run into Salem herself… Great…" Jaune sighed as he stopped for a moment to take a deep breath along with the others.

"To call this harrowing would be putting things lightly." Yang leaned on the wall before quickly moving her hand off of it and shaking some slimy substance off. "I just wanna find him and get out of here as soon as possible."

"Don't forget about any potential routing for the Ace Ops." Jaune added as he looked to the timer he gave the group. They had roughly 30 minutes to find Oscar and get out before the Ace Ops would make their bomb run if what Winter told them was correct.

Ren immediately started walking forward again, but stopped and immediately used his semblance on himself and the others while a seer Grimm passed around them. "I think I figured out security in this place. As long as those seers don't spot us, we'll be able to avoid another big fight." he explained.

"Makes sense…" Jaune nodded as the seer turned a corner now and they immediately picked up the pace.

"I'm sensing some strong emotions this way." Ren instructed as Jaune and Yang followed behind him more before coming to a sudden stop after opening another doorway into another hall.

"You…" Yang's eyes narrowed as a conflicted Emerald stood before them.

Jaune immediately unsheathed his sword as Emerald took her Thief's Respite out and fired at him, forcing him to raise his shield up while Yang fired off a shot at her that she deflected with one of her sickle blades before smirking and activating her semblance.

"Where'd she go?!" Jaune asked as he started to back up towards the others.

"Stick together, she could be anywhere!" Yang reasoned.

"This is bad, if she gets away she'll tell Salem." Jaune glanced back at Yang while still keeping his shield raised high.

Ren oddly held himself firm and let his guard down. "I don't think that's the case."

Emerald's eyes narrowed at the most vulnerable target, which was Ren. There's no way he'd know what struck him. She swung both of her sickles at him.

Her illusion almost immediately dropped when Ren's Stormflower guns were raised up just in the knick of time to block her strike. "W-WHAT?!" she exclaimed as Yang vaulted over Ren's shoulder and slammed her prosthetic fist right into her face with an added shotgun blast that sent her flying backwards across the hall.

Emerald barely caught herself on her feet as the others started to run towards her, but she soon vanished again, running away from the trio.

"Dammit, we can't let her get away!" Jaune wanted to pursue her, but Ren stopped him.

"No, it'll be fine." he assured the others.

Yang was even surprised by this. "What do you mean?! She's with the enemy, do you not remember all that she did before?!"

Ren simply shook his head. "She was conflicted when I read her emotions. She won't go to Salem because she's terrified of her…"

The entrance to the lamp chamber was opened and Oscar was slowly dragged towards the lamp before being dropped right in front of it by Hazel.

"I thought more about what you said…" Hazel took a few steps back from Oscar. "If you're telling me the truth, then I could easily come to Salem with the password you've given me."

Oscar sat up on the ground and took the moment to catch his breath while looking up at the lamp which was suspended in the center of a pedestal made out of flesh and teeth.

"There's two issues I thought of about what you said. If you're lying to me and that password does nothing, I'm on her bad side again. No doubt, after her punishment on you, I'd be taking the fall for it."

"And the other?" Oscar glanced back over at him.

"I don't know what this thing does when it activates. For all I know, that could just be the password to make it destroy itself." Hazel crossed his arms. "So go on, prove to me you're telling the truth, boy."

Oscar stared back towards the lamp and took a deep breath. "Jinn."

Just as he spoke her name Emerald frantically ran into the room. "Hazel, we have company!-" she came to a halt when the lamp activated and time seemed to halt around them as the bubbles of dark liquid on the floor froze in place while a blue smoke began to emerge from the lamp until Jinn appeared.

"Hello again, old man!" Jinn greeted as she laid down in midair and glanced around the room. "Quite the interesting audience you've gathered for me here." she looked at Hazel and Emerald.

"W-What?!" Emerald didn't quite know how to respond to the sight of the lamp of knowledge's spirit.

"What questions may I answer?" she asked while calmly floating herself in midair.

Hazel's hands balled up into fists and he grit his teeth. "All the questions I had are answered now."

This response from Hazel surprised Oscar. "You can ask anything right now to the lamp, Hazel. Any question you've had about Oz or this whole war-"

The larger man simply shook his head. "That won't be necessary, Oscar. I think… Deep down I knew. I knew that you were in the right, that even my sister… As naive as she was, was right to choose the life she did, even if she didn't get to really become the huntress she wanted to be."

"Hazel, I-" Emerald didn't know what to say anymore, between this and all that she figured out over the last day, she didn't quite know where she fit in.

"You look like you found your own truth as well." Hazel put a hand on her shoulder. "Now then, I can do what my sister likely would have done in this kind of situation. That starts with getting you kids to safety."

"So just to get this right, none of you have a question for me?" Jinn asked the group with a slight hint of disappointment in her tone.

"I'm afraid not this time." Oscar shook his head. "But we will be taking you with us."

"After I get you kids out of here." Hazel insisted. "Once that lamp is moved, this place goes on high alert. I'll come back for it, you can trust me with that much." he assured them.

The trio started to make their way out of the room now. "Hazel, one last thing… I need my cane back. It'll be of some help." Oscar requested of Hazel.

"Are you certain about that, Oscar?" Ozpin asked him in his head.

"As certain as I'll ever be. Trust me on this, Oz..." Oscar mentally responded to Ozpin.

"It'll be done." Hazel affirmed before going his own separate way. "I'll meet you by the exit."

With that, they exited the lamp chamber. As they did, Jinn started to vanish, but smirked at the sight of a figure approaching her. It was Neopolitan, who bore an amused look on her face.

Salem was strolling through the walls of Monstra with a seer Grimm by her side, the seer Grimm was showing the carnage that was going on just outside of her creation, which amused her greatly. "They'll be overwhelmed soon enough…" she remarked before noticing Emerald and Hazel in the halls.

"Hazel." she approached the pair. "How has progress been on learning the lamp's password?"

Hazel glanced away in an uncharacteristically nervous manner. "I um… I uh…"

Emerald lightly elbowed him now with an angry glare. "I'm certain that I've… Nearly broken him to the point where he'll-"

The alarms in Monstra went off suddenly as Salem's seer immediately went off ahead of her. "Intruders?! The lamp, after them!" she yelled before she turned into a dark orb and sped around the halls, a trail of smoke behind her as she went straight for the lamp's chamber.

"The lamp's been taken?!" Hazel asked in confusion. "We didn't-"

"I might have forgotten to tell you that there's some extra company here…" Emerald stated as she continued down the halls with Hazel.

Jaune's shield blocked all of the tendrils a Seer sent his way as Yang fired a single shot that blasted the seer Grimm into dust.

Ren pulled his blades out of the head of a Creep Grimm that had also spawned in as a result of the alarms going off.

"I don't get it, we were careful about being sighted." Jaune glanced around for any more signs of trouble.

"I mean it was only a matter of time really." Yang shook her head. "Now come on, it's time that we do what we do best, and rush blindly into more danger." she chuckled before turning a corner and coming to a sudden halt.

Jaune and Ren were behind her and they stopped in surprise as well when Emerald and Hazel were standing around a corner. Emerald brandished her weapons, but Hazel stepped in between them. "Wait, wait!"

The illusion over Hazel dropped, revealing him to be none other than Oscar. "She's with us now!"

"Oscar?" Jaune, Ren, and Yang all said his name at once.

"Oscar!" Jaune sheathed his sword and ran over to him with a hug, lifting him up to the ground. "I'm so glad you're okay!"

"I knew there were some weak minds nearby." Emerald chuckled, only earning a glare from Yang.

"Okay is kind of an overstatement." Oscar grunted as Jaune put him down and saw how beaten he looked, deciding to use his semblance to help heal him as much as he could.

"Why should we trust her?!" Yang asked with her weapons raised in Emerald's direction.

"She's our best ticket out of here." Oscar reasoned.

"She's as scared as we all are." Ren added with a nod.

Emerald just nodded along with what was being said. "So, if you want any hope of getting out of here alive, you're gonna need to follow me." she insisted now as Jaune stopped healing Oscar.

"That'll have to be enough for now." Oscar insisted as he leaned himself on a wall before following after Emerald with the others now.

Hazel sat alone in his quarters again with Long Memory clutched tightly in his hand. "So, this is what he needs." he pondered now. "Is this really what you would have done, Gretchen?"

"Of course, I would, bro! You know I'm all about helping people in need!" the familiar voice of Gretchen echoed in Hazel's head making him look around the room.

"Gretchen?" he stood up now, but saw nothing around him. It was all just in his head.

Taking a deep breath, he clipped Long Memory to his belt and made his way out of the room.

The door made of flesh opened up to the exterior gills of Monstra that also served as a docking platform. "This way, hurry!" Emerald insisted as the group continued towards the edge of the platform when a powerful screech made them all stop in their tracks and hold their heads.

"W-What was that?!" Jaune asked as it stopped.

"She's here…" Emerald glanced over at everyone before the wall they were in front of exploded out, scattering everyone around.

Salem stood at the epicenter of the blast and glanced around, oddly enough there was no one present.

Emerald held her focus on Salem as the others slowly pulled themselves up, if any part of this hallucination dropped, it'd spell certain death for everyone, so she held a wide stance.

The only thing Emerald failed to account for was Oscar's extra labored breathing, it seemed as though even with Jaune's healing, the fatigue Oscar felt from his torture sessions was really setting in and Salem heard this.

A dark orb formed in the witch's hand and she fired it off in the direction of Oscar's breathing.

Jaune was fast to jump into action here, blocking the orb with his shield as Emerald's illusion dropped.

"So… You're the group that's been causing all this trouble for me on my own creation?" Salem seemed unimpressed until she saw Emerald among them.

Emerald immediately started to run, but Salem teleported in front of her and grabbed her by the neck. "Emerald… You have been honing that semblance of your's…"

The thief tried to rip herself free from Salem's grasp but was quickly tossed at a strange glyph that Salem had created, several Grimm arms protruded from it and held her in place.

"Let her go!" Ren opened fire on Salem, but the witch merely sidestepped the fire as Yang rushed right at her now, boosting herself forward with a shot from her gauntlets.

"ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORAAAA!" she yelled as she punched Salem several times, planting mines on her body before firing a shot off that backed her away from the witch. Pulling both gauntlets back, Yang watched as Salem's body was blasted apart.

Salem's arm snapped itself around until it straightened. A dark web shot out of her arm and right in Yang's direction. She barely brought up her gauntlets in time to block it as she was starting to be reeled in like a fish despite how hard she was pulling herself back.

As the rest of her wounds healed, Jaune rushed straight at her and swung Crocea Mors at her in it's greatsword form. She caught it with two fingers, still looking rather unamused while taking hold of Yang's prosthetic arm.

Yang could hear the sound of her arm's metal straining from how tightly Salem was gripping onto it, and thinking fast, Yang spun herself around, kicking Salem in the face and forcing her to let go of both her and Jaune.

Jaune swung as hard as he could across Salem's body, black liquid splattering out as he panted heavily, the wound closing as fast as it was made.

Ren was more focused on trying to cut Emerald free of the Grimm arms that were holding her down, managing to slice one of them off, freeing Emerald's elbow before Salem's attention was now on them.

Ren didn't have any time to react to the powerful beam of magic fired his way, but thankfully Jaune did, tanking the blast with his shield as it sent both him and Ren flying backwards into a wall, shattering both of their auras.

A couple more blasts from Ember Celica tore through Salem's body as she turned her attention back towards Yang.

Tired of these games, Salem snapped her fingers, glyphs appeared under Jaune, Ren, and Yang. Restraining the boys the same way Emerald was, but Yang just barely dodged to the side with a slight jump.

"STAY AWAY FROM THEM!" Oscar yelled as he fired a small green orb of magic at Salem that struck her chest.

A glyph appeared under Oscar and a larger Grimm arm picked him up by the collar, Yang held her position, unsure of how she'd be able to get everyone out of this situation.

Salem walked over to Oscar, taking a deep breath now. The arm moved to hold him closer to her. "You call what you just did, magic, boy? I suppose my dear Ozma truly has diminished his power. And for what? A world that's doomed to perish?"

She grasped tightly onto his head now. "Why don't you just stay dead?!"

Despite how much her hand was shaking, Yang knew she had to speak up. "Why won't you?" she asked, earning a glare from Salem while Oscar managed to pull himself out of the Grimm arm's grasp and took the moment to catch his breath.

"I know your whole story… All of this death and destruction…" Yang pointed at her. "It's because you got screwed over one time. I'm probably not the first person to say this to your face, but I'm still gonna say it. Who cares? No one gets their perfect fairy tale ending. We all have dead people. I'm sure I can blame a lot of the problems in my life on your constant meddling…" her eyes turned red now.

"Oh, and if everyone does have dead people as you say, who is it that I'm responsible for taking from you?"

"My Mom, Summer Rose." Yang spoke up again. "You took my mother from me, and I'll never forgive you for it!" she readied her combat stance again, with tears clearly in her eyes.

"Her again?" Salem seemed amused at the mention of Summer's name.

It was at that moment when Hazel stepped out to the source of the conflict from another door. His eyes narrowed at the restrained Jaune, Ren, and Emerald, he also noticed the exhausted Oscar sitting on the ground not too far away from where Salem and Yang were.

Hazel's gaze fixated on Oscar who made eye contact with him and nodded. But before Hazel could reach his target destination, Salem spoke up, making Hazel freeze dead in his tracks.

"Hazel, what perfect timing for you to show up here and be of assistance. I caught Emerald assisting these children in escaping with our valuable prisoner. Would be so kind as to shut up that petulant girl?" Salem requested as Yang's attention turned towards him, and she raised her fists up.

Salem moved herself away from the pair and to Emerald's side, wanting to watch what was to unfold here.

He grit his teeth, he couldn't disobey a direct order now, not without putting everyone's lives in danger. Taking two dust crystals out of his pockets, he stabbed a burn crystal and an ice crystal into his arms, his veins starting to light up as well as his eyes, showing that his pain numbing semblance was activated.

Emerald was starting to slow in her restraints as her eyes narrowed. Maybe she could still help. Her gaze now fixated on Salem.

"So, this is really what your sister would have wanted, Hazel?" Yang asked him as he cracked his knuckles. Ozpin had only briefly told her and the others about what Hazel's deal was, and Yang couldn't help but relate to him the most with his whole situation involving his sibling.

"I still need to pay you back for what you did to me at Haven." he affirmed while walking forward, ignoring her statement.

"Answer me, dammit!" Yang demanded as Hazel threw his fist forward, a row of icicles shot out of the ground in Yang's direction that she rolled to the side of, countering with a couple of blasts from her weapon that Hazel tanked through easily, storming forward now as Yang propelled herself backwards with another shot to avoid his attempt at grabbing her.

A smirk formed on Salem's face as she kept her attention focused squarely on the fight before her.

Looking around at the scene before her, Yang knew that the lives of everyone around her depended on whether or not she could best Hazel.

A fireball launched from Hazel's fist interrupted her thought as she quickly brought her guard up to block it, the fire dissipating around her gauntlet as she ran straight for him, ducking under a heavy uppercut sent her way before slamming her fist into his gut, getting little reaction as he reeled his arm back and struck her in the face with his wrist bracer.

She caught herself at the edge of the platform and decided to take the approach she took back at Haven of making him tire himself out by dodging around his attacks and popping in where she could for strikes. This plan would start with a simple boost into the air, or so she thought.

The moment Yang launched herself upwards, a glyph appeared right on the ground below her and a large Grimm arm shot out, pulling her back to the ground harshly.

"Hazel, quit playing with your food." Salem instructed now as Yang forced herself to her feet again.

"All you're doing is creating more Gretchens, Hazel!" Yang looked him in the eyes as he stabbed himself with an earth dust crystal now and ripped the burn dust crystal from the same shoulder, turning it into a large flaming boulder.

He threw it in Yang's direction, the blonde successfully destroying it with a well timed shot, but Hazel was one step ahead of her, this time, charging through the smoke and chunks of rock from the blast. He grabbed Yang by the collar and slammed her into the ground, raising his fist up.

Salem smiled at the sight of this, while Emerald's eyes focused now on Salem, creating the hallucination now of Hazel senselessly pummeling Yang's face into mush.

He nearly brought his fist down on Yang's face, but Yang wrapped her legs around his arm, tossing him over her shoulder now while standing back up.

Hazel stood himself up again, now with a Wind dust crystal in hand and clapped his hands together over it, the powerful gust, sending Yang flying backwards, but she managed to catch herself still, boosting right back at Hazel and slamming her fist into an ice covered one.

The collision created a powerful shockwave in midair as Yang landed on her feet right in front of Hazel, who held his arm while Yang's eyes and hair both lit up with her semblance.

Taking this opening for what it was, Yang let loose on him, assaulting him with a barrage of hard hitting punches that were boosted by blasts from her gauntlets. "ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA!" Yang yelled before reeling her fist back for one final and heavy uppercut. "ORAAAAA!" she put all of her might into that attack as her aura shattered and she fell to one knee.

Hazel landed on his back, and yet… His aura wasn't broken. He immediately stood back up now as Yang's eyes widened in fear, expecting the worst when hearing his footsteps nearing her, yet, that didn't come… Instead he merely smiled at her. "Protect that sister of your's Yang, no matter what."

His gaze then narrowed at Oscar, who was sitting in a similar position to Yang, just a few feet away. He picked him up by the collar again, looking him in the eyes. "No more Gretchens, boy." he dropped him to the ground, having left Long Memory in his hand.

Salem was satisfied at the end result of the fight she was watching, the sound of Hazel's fist slamming into flesh, being all the music she needed to hear before she turned her attention back towards Emerald, who immediately dropped her hallucination when an orb appeared in Salem's hand. "Tell me what you did with the lamp."

"I-I don't know I swear! I didn't touch it!" Emerald desperately pleaded with the truth as far as she was aware.

Salem reeled her hand back, it was now balled up into a fist covered in magical energy, but before she could do anymore, another fist slammed right into her fast and sent her flying away from Emerald.

"Hazel!" Emerald struggled in her restraints now.

"When you're able to move, run as far away from here as possible, understood?" he looked her in the eyes and she bit her lip, but nodded.

He threw his vest off and stabbed more dust crystals into his shoulders, another burn dust crystal, and an electricity dust crystal for good measure. His veins lit up more visibly with the strain of the crystals as Salem pulled herself back to her feet and stared disappointingly at Hazel.

"So you've given up on vengeance?" she asked while conjuring up a storm cloud around her.

"I've chosen justice." Hazel cocked his fists, both of them lighting up with fire. "I know this is what Gretchen would have done."

"Then die like her." Salem fired bolts of lightning from her storm, Hazel was able to dodge them thanks to enhanced speed from electricity dust.

He shot off two fireballs in her direction that she dodged around before turning the storm behind her into a tornado that she sent forward in Hazel's direction.

Hazel did what he did before with wind dust to dispel the tornado, only to be grabbed by Salem directly, who slammed him into the ground, dragging him along with her before tossing him through another wall of Monstra.

He didn't stay down from this either, immediately emerging from the hole in the wall.

Salem prepared a dark orb to counter his next attack, but found her arm grabbed by him. Hazel then threw her as hard as he could, but she caught herself by conjuring a tornado under her body.

She then formed a set of dark orbs around her, turning them into black spikes as Hazel ran at her.

They all fired out, and one spike impaled Hazel's leg directly, but that didn't stop him from slamming a gravity dust crystal into the ground to boost himself into the air. He then combined his fists and created a giant ball of earth, electricity, and burn dust, slamming it into Salem, who growled in annoyance at this.

The giant ball hit her directly and shattered over her body as Hazel landed atop her. With a single punch, Salem's head was splattered all over the ground… With that went her focus on Ren, Jaune, and Emerald, who were freed from the glyphs that dissipated.

Hazel kept pummeling her as much as he could now. "RUN NOW!" he demanded the now freed group, who were just starting to get up.

That brief distraction was all Salem needed to counter Hazel, conjuring more Grimm arms from the ground to grab him by the throat, holding him high above her. "I had high expectations of you, Hazel." she launched dark spikes at him again, but he blocked in time by combining two different dusts to form a hardlight shield.

Gritting her teeth in anger, Salem merely tossed Hazel into another wall, turning her attention to the slowly retreating group.

Ren and Yang immediately started opening fire on Salem as they were making their retreat, with Jaune deflecting a dark orb launched in his direction with gravity dust.

Each shot and the deflected blast tore through Salem's body as she slowly walked over to them, the wounds closing faster than they were being made. "Dammit!" Ren's ammo clicked as he started to reload while Emerald now joined in, shooting Salem as well.

Hazel was about to rush her again, but got blasted back again by a powerful gust of wind the witch sent his way.

"You will not-!" Salem stopped speaking when Oscar stepped forward with Long Memory in hand.

"Oscar, what're you doing?!" Jaune wanted to stop him.

"She'll just keep coming after us unless I do something." he stated. "I need all of you to hold onto me now."

"Shouldn't we just-" Emerald was cut off.

"NOW!" Oscar demanded with a more serious tone. As he began to activate Long Memory's main functionality.

Salem conjured hundreds of dark spikes behind her, not intent on letting Oscar's attack fire off, but was abruptly stopped when Hazel grabbed her from behind and again broke her focus. He squeezed her as tightly as he could.

"She's not immune to pain like Hazel is." Oscar explained simply as Hazel held her steady now before she fired a majority of the black spikes into his back, resulting in him sputtering a bit before biting down on a burn dust crystal he had in his mouth.

"DO IT!" Hazel spoke up with the last of his strength as Salem screamed while burning in his arms.

"Hazel!" Emerald called out to him as he smiled at her, closing his eyes.

Oscar took a deep breath as Long Memory finally finished charging up, a large green bubble formed around him and all the others before finally… Long Memory unleashed its power, the ensuing blast engulfing both Hazel and Salem in a blinding light...

Commentary: Here it is, Chapter 12 and what a chapter it is. There's a LOT to unpack and go over.

We'll start with the bits involving Hazel and Oscar, this chapter is very much Hazel's chapter, given how he has his big sacrificial redemption here. I decided to pull out all the stops for it, with him taking the same advice he gave to Emerald a few chapters ago about searching for his own truth and well, he found it.

Incidentally, speaking of Emerald, I gave her more of an encounter with Yang's group than before, wanting to already establish the animosity between them.(That's going to be something to factor into next chapter.)

Also, sorry if you wanted to see Salem stupidly run around, here I just had her turn into a cloud of smoke. Ya know, like she's able to do in the finale of Volume 8? Seriously, that's a way better effect than that silly hoverboard looking "run".

Finally, there's of course the big fights of the second half of this chapter. The whole initial Salem fight is one I knew I definitely wanted to have no matter what, after all this is our protagonist's first direct encounter with the main antagonist of the story. So I had them trade some more blows with her, not that they really did much, and then I gave Hazel one last fight with Yang.

I absolutely wanted a Hazel vs Yang rematch, a battle of the older siblings. Which, Hazel's final words to Yang here... They're definitely gonna be prophetic in a sense that I'm sure you probably already know, or will understand when we get to that point.

The Salem vs Hazel fight is one I wanted to increase the scale of as well, by having Salem doing some crazy stuff with her magic. I mean she didn't do everything possible, but she definitely did some different stuff, mainly those spikes that she brutally impaled Hazel with at the end of their fight.

Which if you're in the group that thinks Hazel is alive, I do apologize... I honestly just can't see him having survived a blast of literal centuries worth of kinetic energy to the face. Salem's immortal, so of course she's fine, but Hazel? Yeah, no that's not happening.

Another thing I'm sure you noticed is that Salem does seem to have a slight weakness when fighting her, if you can break her focus, she'll drop any long-lasting spell she has going like those restraining glyphs. This can be done by either destroying her head, or by inflicting so much pain on her that she can't think straight(EX: burning her).

Now that Monstra's finally dealt with, next time we're gonna focus on the immediate aftermath of it's destruction.