This chapter took WAY too long in getting out not just because my schedule suddenly got busy but I didn't know how I wanted to structure it. On the plus side half of the next chapter is already finished as well. Now finally BACK TO THE ACTION.
"Hmmmm, I don't know about this queen. What do you think Nacho?" Nacho mewed without much indication in his voice as they glanced at the first page of Solaria's chapter.
Jushtin had apparently lost his right to the throne after his sister was born which convinced Marco that Mewni was in fact a matriarchy or a former matriarchy. He had actually kind of liked Jushtin with the fabulous boy actually being rather smart in mathematics despite his strange way of speaking. Solaria on the other hand, well Star had mentioned her a few times with shivers down her spine and now he kind of saw why. After reading the first page of her chapter he already was beginning to see Solaria as a person hell bent on genocide if the Monsters did not go belly up to every unreasonable Mewman request. In fact it felt eerily similar to when he helped Ferguson go through some stuff in his attic and found an old box with a Gestapo uniform in it; needless to say the rest of the day was awkward. Although at the same time it did make Marco wonder what Monsters were like back several hundred years ago. Shaking that thought off Marco continued reading seeing Star had left a note in Solaria's chapter.
I was rather uncomfortable reading this chapter because of my heritage but I did it because I needed to. I need to know how these types of people think so I can hopefully change their ways or at least contain them. I don't like Solaria but not just in the normal way; every time I see her image I feel a strange primeval fear run up my spine like she's an Alpha predator and I'm her favorite prey. Don't follow Solaria's example future princesses; learn from her spells but not her ideals.
Marco sighed nodding and continued reading on Solaria's account of the 'Fire and Bone Wars' between Mewmans and Monsters that Solaria led for nearly 30 years. In it he found a collection of three spells that when used together could create the most powerful warriors in the cosmos according to Solaria. He also noted with some shock that Mina was the first one turned amongst a group of volunteers. 'Dang she is old.' Marco thought in shock as he continued to read. Eventually he got to a section that actually outlined different varieties of Monsters with pictures of them next to their descriptions.
Monster Annihilation Techniques
There is a more complete guide of this in the royal library as there are HUNDREDS of different varieties of Monster types and sub-types. The ones listed here are either the most numerous or the most dangerous varieties that I have written down to make sure the ways of fighting them are not forgotten. Show no mercy upon them as they will show you none and believe me when I say this, they are happier this way. No we are not!
Kappas Avians, she can't even get the name right: A cowardly mean spirited sort. Easy to kill when they are grounded as their bones are hollow and they try to run first opportunity when they don't have an unfair advantage. There are a good number of them though and their ability to fly makes it so they can swarm you from above at a range. Try grounding them to force a fair fight and use archer snipers with testudo formation when on the battle field. (The image next to it looked like an evil version of Dennis if that was even possible.)
Frog men: Big burly beasts with hides and layers of fat acting like a triple thick Gambeson and bones that can take a beating. Their ability to jump is unmatched, they can navigate swamps with ease setting up ambushes, and their tongues make it so disarming works for only a matter of seconds before they retrieve their weapon. Polearms and crossbows are the best weaponry against them as is tight formations and avoiding swamps. Among the other varieties inparticular show these ones no mercy. (The image next to it showed an image similar to Buff Frog except it had no armor and seemed to be smirking while holding a skull)
Conjoincians: Limited fire control and acidic blood/tears make these creatures rather dangerous if you just rush in. Attack from a range to weaken them or use pikes and long spears to hit them from a safe distance so their blood doesn't hit you. I recommend going for the torso instead of the head as you need to destroy two heads in order to kill them. (What looked like a stereotypical demon but with two heads was gnashing its teeth as it stared at Marco.)
Marco decided to just skim through this section as it made him somewhat uncomfortable to read about creatures like his friends Alexis, Dennis, and Buff Frog being listed like monsters in a game like World of Warcraft. He shook his head trying to stay focused as he continued reading trying to see if there was anything in this section that could prove even remotely useful; he didn't expect much but he couldn't overlook a thing. Solaria listed the Monsters into two sections, common varieties and especially dangerous varieties worth knowing no matter what. There was even the occasional note from Star stating on how some varieties were now extinct thanks to Solaria's blood thirst, which sent a chill up Marco's spine every single time he read them. He came across creatures like Slimes, Felinides, Goblins, Giants, Jurogumo, Băieți, Wolf-kin, Size-shifters, Trigons, Squarriors, Kitsune, and… 'Wait… is that a section devoted to Septarians?' Marco thought to himself a bit shocked as he read the final entry.
Septarian: Perhaps the single most dangerous of Monsters out there, this is the only race that I would use the phrase bred for war on. They can go for days without food or rest, pocess the strength of ten men, and can run at nearly 45 miles per hour for hours on end. They can heal from any wound no matter how severe in a matter of minutes and can even completely regenerate from a single finger within a few months' time with all of their memories intact. They can live for centuries and retain knowledge and skills like sponges retain water never making the same mistake twice. They can master any form of weaponry, strategy, or environment in half the time a Mewman can AT THEIR SLOWEST. They are completely emotionless entities feeling no fear or remorse for their actions and will not hesitate in anything no matter how vile. In times of peace or diplomacy their silver tongues will make most people drop their guard so they can strike their targets at their most vulnerable. As generals of Monsters they can outmaneuver many a Mewman general more times than they are outmaneuvered despite Monsters' lack of discipline.
It is fortunate that there are few of these creatures south of the Kingdom of Gorge lest we be overrun by these powerhouses of Monsters. Aside from powerful magic their only weakness seems to be extreme cold which will put them into a state of temporary hibernation. NO PERMANENT SOLTION KNOWN TO FIGHTING THESE CREATURES. If you encounter them one on one and you don't have a spell to teleport them elsewhere or one powerful enough to blast them to bits, run.
Marco stared at the entry in shock as Solaria had come across as someone completely fearless yet here she was subtly admitting she feared Septarians. 'Well no wonder people in Mewni respect Toffee as king, if he was alone as king they'd likely be too afraid to stand against him.' Marco thought to himself remembering when he had fought Toffee during his initiation as a squire and had been tossed around like a rag doll. He shook his head and continued reading not finding much more in terms of spells or spellcraft except for a spell on how to destroy Rhombulus's crystals. He did feel a pang of sadness for Solaria at the end of the chapter as she seemed full of regret over the bloodshed even though she still viewed Monsters as degenerate beasts. Especially since the main solace in her life seemed to be her daughter Eclipsa… 'Wait, I think I met her after the school dance. She seemed nice.' Marco thought to himself smiling as he moved onto… Festivia's chapter?!
"Ok, I've never read this before and even I know that's not right." Marco thought aloud as he searched for some sort of indicator of what was wrong and found a note from Star.
Sorry, Eclipsa's chapter couldn't be moved for some reason; Glossarick won't even let me read it for some strange reason as well. The chapter is located at the very back of the book if you ever figure out how to get him to unlock it for you. While you have it unlocked could you also bring up to this position for me please. J
Marco shook his head at this strange mix up and commenced reading Festivia's chapter hoping to find something to help him out with the wand.
"Sh-sh-sh-Shadow Clause?!" The ghosts looked at Star in shocked confusion at her sudden fear as the Shadow Clause members nodded with devious chuckles. "But you're supposed to be dead! Aside from Lord Mildrew mom killed you all… oooooohhhhhh." One of the members spoke up with an old woman's voice as the figures began moving towards the group.
"You're far from home mud-blood. Here we were waiting for Moon's and Willow's ghosts to come so we might annihilate their spirits to keep them from polluting the queens of the past, but here you are their most precious treasure wrapped up like a present." As they raised their weapons Danny stepped between Star and the Shadow Clause.
"Don't know who you are, don't know about your history, don't care in the slightest, you are not going to hurt a little girl just because of what her mom did to you!" Danny's fists glowed green with the other ghosts joining him and Dorathea speaking up.
"You dare to go to such lengths just to spite your enemies." She put her necklace on turning into her dragon from roaring at them with a now deep voice. "You will not hurt my friend!" Despite the intimidation performed however the figures just chuckled at the ghosts with the woman speaking up.
"My dears… do you not know who we truly are? The woman began rising in the air with her hooded cloak fluttering around her. "This is the power of Etheria, a true Butterfly." The woman threw off her cloak with a flash of pinkish-purple light revealing a Mewni in butterfly from with six arms, deep silvery rose colored skin with Butterfly wings to match, gray hair, turquoise-grey eyes, and star shaped Mewni marks glowing a greenish color setting off her image eerily. As Star and the ghosts stared up at Etheria Butterfly sister of Willow in shock she smirked at them bringing forth twin dueling swords made out of green light. "Now do step aside my dears and let us exterminate this pest that corrupts the Butterfly line." Sidney spoke to Star.
"Go and figure out how to open the door, we'll distract these bullies." Star hesitated looking between the door and her friends.
This allowed Etheria to shoot beams of lightning from her four free hands striking all of the ghosts and sending them reeling from the force. The other three figures charged forward with Lord Mildrew throwing off his cloak and rushing Star speaking up.
"You remember me my girl…" He was silenced however when a box scoped him up and shook him around like a die with the Box Ghost speaking up in an exaggerated tone.
"Do not dare to contend with the might of the Box Ghost pretty boy. I may be nothing but I can still defeat you." The box was slashed to pieces from the inside to reveal a battered Lord Mildrew with some sort of cutlass and parrying dagger speaking up a bit miffed.
"You my dear factory boy just made a big mistake." He leapt off the ground floating up to the Box Ghost who shot boxes full of items at Mildrew only for him to dodge and cut through them with ease as if he was dancing.
A whump occurred behind Star prompting her to turn and see Dorathea's dragon form had just been pushed to the ground by one of the Shadow Clause. He appeared to be an old man with steely grey eyes, an impressive handlebar mustache that was the same color, hair to match, and a lean but tough physic similar to Sir Lavabo. He was currently holding a war axe glowing a bluish color with some sort of kite shield that seemed the thickness of a heater shield that was glowing some sort of bluish color as well. He turned towards Star floating up in the air and smirked at her as he spoke.
"That blasted Johansen runt destroyed me shield, but I got it back as well as a nice axe." He flipped the war axe before bowing to Star. "Where are my manners, Lord Shcwartzhaffen is my name; and it'll be a pleasure to kill you girl." He righted himself and rushed from the sky to try and hit Star but Dorathea slapped him aside with her tail bellowing out.
"Leave princess alone!" She shot a line of flame at him which he flew at using his shield to plow through the flame as if it was wind.
As he struck Dorathea hard with his axe Star sensed something coming and dodged last minute nearly being sliced into pieces by a whirlwind of blades. Star didn't get any time to rest however as the one who struck at her continued to slice at her with two blades each seemingly made out of some sort of rose colored crystal. Star looked past his black hair to his crazed brown eyes seeing a man caught up in madness as he leapt at Star in an almost suicidal manner speaking up.
"I told Moon *hehe* she could not win, even if she killed me!" As he tried striking at Star some more a blast of grey energy streaked down blasting him back 20 feet with Sidney speaking up.
"Didn't I tell you to get to the door? Now get moving, we'll be fine!" Sidney flew past Star seemingly going ethereal before phasing into the man.
This time Star did not hesitate and ran for the door passing by the honor guard of statues as she tried to figure out how to open the door. Behind her Etheria tried shooting lightning at Star but Danny intercepted it with a glowing green shield. Etheria chuckled and went to strike again but Danny inhaled deeply and let out a ghostly wail that sounded like the end of the world. Etheria was struck by it and was blasted back hard enough to plow into the ground shattering rocks and causing her powers to seemingly shift in and out as if there was an error. Danny chuckled at that before being struck with blue lightning from Schwartzhaffen's axe with him laughing now. Danny got up from the blow only mildly burnt and mad as he rushed Schwartzhaffen full force shooting lasers at him. Schwartzhaffen chuckled as his shield blocked the shots and charged forward smashing Danny to the ground landing on Sidney and the man with the rose colored blades. "Sorry Michelangelo!" Schwartzhaffen called out before he was swatted by Dorathea who looked badly beaten but was still in the fight. She roared at him before random boxes began hitting both of them prompting them to turn and see the Box Ghost and Mildrew were engaged in the strangest of duels with neither of them gaining any ground.
As this was going on Star looked over the door thinking desperately over what could possibly open this door as not only was there no knob, but there didn't even appear to be hinges or a seam. 'Think Star, what could possibly be a part of family history that could be used here?' Star mulled to herself trying desperately to ignore the tension creeping in of her friends and family's enemies fighting each other in the background. She reread the inscription, looked at how the celestial features were aligned, gazed at the position of the butterfly; she had nothing to go off of though. She growled wracking her mind for something, anything that could be useful… 'Wait.'
"The Gift Giver bless you and keep you." Star reached up to a symbol of the Star and pressed on that feeling it shift as if being pressed inward. "Let his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you." She pressed on a symbol of the sun feeling the same depression. "May he look upon you with countenance and give you peace." She pressed on a symbol of the moon feeling it go in with the Butterfly outline glowing a rainbow color. "Oh, so it was a prayer to the cosmos itself that was the key. Good thing I actually remembered that from ancient Mewman Mythology."
Star chuckled as the door pushed itself back with a beam of light coming out of the butterfly to scan Star's face. As it did so her cheek marks lit up with the goat statues around her slamming their weapons into the ground several times in salute. The door then lifted up into the ceiling with Star smiling at the passageway being opened and looked back over her shoulder to see her friends still fighting the Shadow Clause.
"You guys can go now, I'm fine!" Star called out to them with Etheria speaking up.
"NO! Don't let her get inside that…" She was cut off however when Dorathea blasted her down in a wave of flame with Danny speaking up.
"Oh man the fight is almost over already?! I was just starting to have fun." He then blasted Lord Mildrew down with the Box Ghost wrapping him up in bubblewrap and speaking up.
"Go on Star, we'll see you soon enough." Star smiled and ran through the door with it closing behind her. As she did so Danny and the other ghosts took off to a safe distance with Schwartzhaffen slamming on the door with sparks flying.
"Come on, ye don't open fur Etheria yet ye open fur the mud-blood!" As he went to strike again however two of the statues placed their weapons between him and the door glaring at him. "Uhhhhh…" One of the statues then picked him up and drop kicked him away with the ghosts laughing at him and Danny speaking up.
"Next time try going for a worthy opponent sir Loserlot." The ghosts zipped away with Danny speaking to the Box Ghost. "Sorry about the presumption by the way, we cool?" The Box Ghost chuckled and replied.
"Yeah we're cool." As they zipped away Shcwartzhaffen got up glaring at the statues with Etheria coming in close speaking up.
"Cool and collected my friend, we did not truly lose this day." The other members looked at her oddly with Mildrew speaking up.
"Not lose? What are you talking about it was a disaster?" Etheria smiled as she replied.
"Did you hear what the ghost boy Danny said before we engaged; he had to come here from the realm Star was in. That means if there are ways to get in…"
"There are ways to get out." Shcwartzhaffen smiled as he brushed himself off as he spoke. "Perhaps this defeat is a gateway for a greater victory." At this Michelangelo spoke up.
"Then we must follow Danny and see how he got in here; perhaps duplicate it." The others nodded at his idea and took off following Danny. "Say Mildrew you didn't tell us, how was it on Mewni after we left?" He shrugged as he replied.
"Eh, tis a long and rather bloody story… to tell the truth I was possessed for most of it…"
Japanese Fantasy Music - Between Worlds (watch?v=EbftqekNkVY)
"Go into the wand he said, find the thing that doesn't belong he said. Seriously how am I supposed to do that if I'm not even in the wand?" Star spoke to herself while walking down a long corridor through a tunnel with no light as she felt her way along one wall looking for the exit. "Why did he even bring me along in the first place, couldn't he have just magically 'figured out' what doesn't belong?" After what felt like an eternity of feeling along the wall Star finally made contact with what felt like the end of the tunnel. She felt over the 'door' an found a handle after about 15 minutes of searching. "Finally, now what do I have to deal wi-"Star froze in shock as she gazed out from the door taking in her surroundings.
She appeared to be in some sort of maze that was constructed out of 15 foot bookcases open to the clear star filled twilight sky above. Star tentatively stepped out from the door with it closing behind her with a soft whump. After a few steps forward Star looked back behind her to see the door had disappeared leaving only more rows of bookcases. 'Welp, looks like I'm stuck in a library maze.' Star thought to herself as she began moving forward. As she walked through the maze she glanced at the shelves getting several random titles that made it seem like there was no order to the books. The art of forcing happiness, How to kick your subjects into shape, L'art de faire la fête, 1,000,001 comedic riddles, Landscape drawing for dummies, The knight's code: a beginner's guide, Basic mathematics, Monster hunting 101, etc. etc. and so forth. As Star continued to gaze at the surrounding shelves she felt a sense of peace descend upon her as she continued forward, like she was always meant to be here. She even began picking up the occasional book and skimming through it as she moved through the maze looking for some sort of exit, humming to herself ever so quietly .
After what felt like hours or minutes, Star couldn't really tell for some reason, she finally seemed to have reached the 'center' of the maze which appeared to be some sort of mixture of a glade and a reading/toy room. It was filled with rose bushes and yellow sun gladiolas giving the area a fragrant scent that went well with several ornate candle stands and stuffed recliners dotted around the glade that had books scattered all over the place. The main feature of the glade however was a reflecting pool in the very center surrounded by several rings of stones with images carved in them. Star moved over to the pool and looked into it with her relaxed smile faltering with a blink of shock.
"Marco?!" In the pool was an image of Marco reading the book of spells while writing down notes on multiple sticky notes and a white board. "Wait, why are you reading my book of spells; and for that matter how can I see you right now?" Star tried to wrap her head around the situation and was thoroughly confused especially when she say Marco begin to yell at... "Wait, did you touch my wand again?! Seriously I told you to never hold it again unless if you had no other choice." As Star fumed she unconsciously leaned onto one of the stone rings and felt something on the surface. "Huh?" Star looked down to see the image of a bunny's head carved into the stone that began glowing pink. Immediately the stone rings began shifting and moved around like rubix cube pieces until the stone came to rest at the edge of the pool on the other side. "What just happened?" The pool's image began shifting and rippling to reveal the image of a strawberry blond blue eyed girl who was wearing a frilly blue and pink dress and had the images of pink rabbit marks on her cheeks. "Wait, what happened to… hold up… is… that's Crescenta Butterfly?! Wait, why was I looking at Marco and now I'm suddenly looking at my Great-something Grandma?" Star stared at the image with the girl organizing a group of kids in a formal meeting with a mermaid of all people sitting next to her as if a second in command.
(end music)
"So if the Ultraparticale went through the subnauticus loop and did three spins of a cube… yes yes… Nacho write that down." Nacho nodded and used his snake tail to write some more on the white board that had been set up.
Marco had been reading for what felt like hours at this point as he had gone through Festivia's, Dirrehhennia's, Crescenta's, Rhina's, and Celena's chapters. As he read through those chapters, especially Rhina's, he hadn't found anything like what he was looking for but he had found some guidance tips on how to make your owns spells. He had begun rereading those sections that applied trying to pick stuff apart as best as possible though was having trouble understanding some of the concepts. 'It's like physics applies and yet doesn't apply to most of these situations, could you make up your mind!?' Marco thought to himself in exasperation as he continued to reread looking for answers that made sense. In fact it had gotten to the point where this part of Star's room looked like a conspiracy theorists study room with strings, a white board, and way to many sticky notes to count.
The parts of the chapters that talked about the queens themselves were… interesting so to speak. Festivia was a definite party girl that would likely be at home on earth all things considered. She even just locked away all of the people of her kingdom in her castle while the 'Fire and Bone Wars' continued to rage outside and partied to block it all out. Star commented in this section that she found it odd how Festivia did so well as a queen despite being so immature. One interesting fact he discovered in the book was that both her parents, Eclipsa and Shastican, both died when she was an infant despite him having met Eclipsa not so long ago. He would have pondered that but his girlfriend and bestie was still trapped in the wand and he needed to figure out how to get her out. All things considered though he kind of like Festivia despite her immaturity and she did keep the kingdom running, unlike her first daughter Dirrehhennia. That girl was such a horrific slacker and slob Festivia of all people found her unworthy of the throne and passed it onto her sister. 'Heh, sounds like what would happen if Oskar was an heir to the throne.' Marco thought in wry amusement.
The next one up actually provided him some help, Crescenta the Eager. Now she seemed like a master ruler and an expert spell maker, which was helping him out, but after reading her chapter he felt like she was a bad person; narcissistic to be specific. She messed with Monster politics to set up the Avarius's as the leaders of a Monster confederation that was her puppet, condemmed any Monster Druid as a poisoner of Mewni, started the Guardians of Mewni to excessively harass Mewmans for not following 'social conduct', helped a group known as The Shadow Clause to set up a spy network to constantly watch the kingdom like a totalitarian state, and even had her own sister arrested when she came home simply because she smelled bad. Star commented on how the Shadow Clause has long since been defeated, the Guardians are now a good police force, and how the Monsters are now truly one with the Mewman kingdom with 'equal' rights and the Druids are now supported by the crown. She also spoke about how one should not try to use ANY of Crescenta's spells aside from Levitato or a spell to severely reduce the time needed to sleep, nicknamed The Sleepless Spell. This chapter did provide some advice on how to make a spell but it was limited as she kept on going on about how gifted and special and hardworking she was to make so many spells, numbering in the thousands supposedly.
Rhina's chapter was mostly uneventful in terms of occurrences but did have plenty of spell construction ideas that Marco had been trying to exploit. Of course this was even more difficult because she tried putting everything into riddles so he had to play Bilbo in 'The Hobbit' and try to figure out what was being said in the first place. He did get the idea however, through her reminiscing of a red thread around her wrist that was supposed to be a reminder of something, that even she was not entirely sure of what she was saying at times. The next queen Celena the Shy did have some advice for spell making as well but it was mostly involving potions and songs like what you would find in a Wiccan spellcraft book; even down to a Mewni equivalent of zodiac signs called the corn castle and a deck of tarot cards of all things. While her life seemed uneventful as well she actually seemed quite similar to Star in many ways with being shy and more introverted. Star actually commented that she really liked Celena's chapter as it felt warm and comforting to read it and Marco had to agree with her.
However none of that was his concern as he was trying to figure out how to actually use the advice given to him in the first place. He adjusted some of the string connecting two different drawings together to connect them to a third picture with a caption underneath it. He groaned in frustration and stamped his foot down turning his bag rimmed eyes towards the wand with a glare.
"I know it's my fault but couldn't you help me out?!" Nacho looked up in confusion seeing a rattled Marco staring down the wand. "Don't you stare at me like that, I know you possess all of the answers!" Nacho looked back and forth clearly concerned for Marco's wellbeing at this point. "Nothing, the book has nothing straightforward; act as a translator already!" He picked up the wand yelling at it. "Act as a translator al-" Marco was cut off when the wand suddenly sparked and flashed changing shape in Marco's hands prompting him to drop it. He stared at the wand, now shaped like Star's wand except pink with yellow sweeping swan's wings and a triple layered heart at the end with a pink heart shaped crystal at the center, before looking up at Nacho. "Did that just happen?" Nacho nodded cowering behind a pile of loose notes.
Glossarick had been running for what felt like hours with sweat trailing down his brow and finally he saw the end of his run at the top of the stairs. Giving out a gasp of triumph he went to leap for the door but he suddenly felt a 'shift' that made him lose focus and slammed into the door head first. He tried getting his balance again but the exhaustion from climbing made him unstable and he began falling down the stairs. "NononoNONOOOOO!" He scrabbled desperately at the stairs as he fell hoping to avoid losing too much progress.
Audience: Now its time for 'Guest Reviews'
Lord Demon: Not in this chapter, but perhaps in the future. *wink wink nudge nudge*
The Book of Eli: Yep, somedays you just can't get rid of bad guy! Of course I'd call back to Danyy Phantom, I love Danny Phantom. And you are right... get to it Marco!
Unamed/Turtle: I'm assuming you're the same guy, thank you for reading all the way through. I love all the comments you gave and what's more YOU FIGURED OUT WHAT THE OCTOPUS WAS DURING THE SCHOOL DANCE! I thought no one would get that reference to be honest, but you did! Keep on reading and commenting as I love it when people get involved like you just did.