Author's pre note
This took longer to write up. Like always, I rewrite certain scenes or add on to them... hahaha
Thank you guys for the likes, subscriptions and comments! I love how excited you guys are about this story, hahaha
I was surprised when I saw the latest third season special of the owl house and saw I was right with certain theories I had : ).
The revelations in the canon isn't really going to change the path I want to take the story to. I did change one thing that I had planned before cause I liked it in canon and you might notice that in the new chapter.
Welp, I hope you guys enjoy it~
Longer chapter than the others~
Chapter 6
Hunter teleported in an instant, thanks to his talisman's magic, in front of Belos before sending a yellow blast right at him.
Belos staggered back, the attack barely phasing him. He roared at Hunter and tried swiping at him with his hands, but the boy teleported to the right and sent another blast at him.
"Gus!" Vee shook the younger boy, who was staring with wide eyes at the way Hunter was attacking the enormous creature and avoiding any attacks by teleporting or flying out of the way.
The way Hunter didn't wait for even a second to protect the cops really made Gus admire the older boy, but also worry about him so much for risking his life like that.
Then again, Hunter trained to be a great warrior since he was created.
"Gus, come on, we have to help him," Vee shook him again, which made him snap out of his thoughts. "Let me try to drain him," she said once she got his attention.
"Right," Gus said, shoving down the anxiety he had down before jumping on his flying staff. "Hold on," he told her as she grabbed onto the end of the staff as they flew over to where Hunter was successfully luring Belos into the forest, away from the cops that were frozen with fear and in total shock at what they were seeing.
The cops weren't sure if they were hallucinating or if what they were witnessing was real.
A huge monster, looking straight from a horror movie, almost attacked them and was now fighting what seemed to be a young boy flying in a flying stick.
Yet…
It felt so real…
One cop, whose heart was pounding hard against his chest and hands shaking out of terror, raised their gun and began shooting at the creature.
"Hunter, look out!" Gus yelled at his friend, who flew back fast to avoid getting shot at.
Belos flinched and covered himself with his arms as the bullets struck him in multiple places, especially when the other cops joined in the assault. Belos launched towards them, landing on one of their cars, crushing it under his weight, before smacking one police officer hard, which sent her flying across the road.
"Audrey!" one cop called out in anguish at the way her body landed hard on the pavement road and just laid there motionless. He and the other cops were wide eyed as they also saw how the countless bullet holes that the monster was covered in were now closing slowly as if he was healing.
The beast straightened up on his legs before roaring at the cops, which sent them running off from him fast. Something landed on his back, stopping him from chasing after the police officers.
Vee tried draining the magic out of him, but she was cut off from using her ability as he rocked his body violently to get her off him. She did her best to hold on to his hair, ignoring the glowing eyes on his back that glared at her with hatred.
The monster impatiently growled when she didn't budge, so he made his arms twist back unnaturally and snatched her off him.
"Let go of her!" Hunter yelled as he made a magical yellow fist shot from the ground beside the car Belos was on before it nailed him on the head hard. Belos hit the ground, making him release Vee as well.
Hunter appeared right above Vee, grabbing her by the back of her sweater before teleporting them both higher in the sky from the scene.
Belos pulled himself back up from the ground to face multiple copies of Hunter on their own staffs surrounding him. Belos swiped and slammed his hands at the illusions when they began flying around him.
"Try to hold him down for me," Vee told Hunter as she jumped on Gus' staff when he flew over them.
Hunter dove down and landed ten feet from Belos. The illusions flew around a frustrated Belos who kept slashing at the copies. Gus and Vee hovered right above the beast.
Hunter launched magical gold like chains from his staff to bind Belo's arms tight against his body just in time for Vee to drop on the monster's back again and began to drain the magic out of him, blue energy pulled out of his body and got sucked into Vee's mouth successfully this time.
Belos let out a roar of anger as it struggled against his new restraints.
Gus' eyes glowed blue and with the amplifying tool, he shoved memories into Belos. Memories Gus had seen from the latter's mind.
But the memories had no effect on the creature as he tried to throw his body back to the ground so he could crush the girl. Hunter did his best to hold Belos back, but he was sent flying forward to the ground hard, breaking the hold on his magic. Vee yelped as she lunged herself to the side just in time to avoid Belos slamming his back down.
She quickly dashed to Hunter, who quickly gathered himself and teleported by Vee before beaming them both on top of the freight truck.
Gus flew over to join them while his illusions vanished.
"Are you guys okay?" Gus asked with concern.
"Yeah, I think so," Vee said, slightly breathing faster than usual. "But… that magic of his felt so… off," she said to the boys as she grabbed onto her stomach, feeling it ache.
"We need the others," Hunter said with his hands clenching his staff hard as the three teens watched Belos twist his body unnaturally to get back on all four. "He's too powerful for the three of us."
Gus looked down at his amplifier tool. He couldn't believe the memories he had placed into Belo's mind didn't hold him.
He looked up with annoyance before noticing Belos grab his head with both hands, rocking it. He moaned for a bit. Some blue light shone in his black sockets before they dimmed to almost nothing, leaving the other blue looking eyes across his body to be the only glow strongly transmitting out of his body. The monster released his head before snapping it toward where the teenagers stood.
Gus furrowed his eyebrows as he stared at the creature, recalling one memory he had seen only briefly in Belo's mind.
He had seen how Belos used to tear the talisman open and drain their natural magic to control his outbursts.
"Vee, what did you mean that his magic felt off?" he asked the girl, who looked at him with a frown.
"It's hard to explain it, but… when I absorb magic, usually it feels and tastes good, yet… when I absorbed him just now, it tasted… rotten," she tried to explain. "I never tasted anything like that before."
Vee had told them before how delicious magic tasted when she absorbed them, which made Gus think of something with this new information and old that may relate to Belos' situation.
Currently, Belos seemed like he was out of the picture and instead some sort of mindless beast had taken his place. From the little snips of memories Gus had seen of Belos, it seemed like the beast form was like a curse. Gus wondered if maybe the magic that Belos had drained out of the talisman became rotten over time, which led him to continuously drain more 'pure' magic to help him control the rotting magic.
But now… without the talisman's 'pure' magic to help Belos fight the rotting magic, possibly taking over him, he was out of their reach, unless…
"I think I have a plan that might work," Gus said. "We might have a chance against him."
"What is it?" Hunter asked, stepping in front of the two when Belos was again approaching them with a defensive stance.
"You guys trust me, right?" Gus asked his friends, who looked at him with confusion. He continued with a serious look at them. "I have a plan, but it will only work if you guys trust me. And whatever you see, Hunter, just ignore it for now. I will explain later."
"I don't know if I like the sound of that," Hunter admitted, as he hated being kept in the dark with plans.
"What do you want us to do?" Vee asked without hesitation.
"I need you to absorb more of that magic of his," Gus instructed Vee who seemed hesitant. He looked at Hunter. "And you do your best to keep Vee safe while I distract him and also try to hold him down as well for a bit."
"Hum… sorry Gus, but… that's exactly the same plan as we just did and looked how that ended!" Hunter said impatiently, throwing his hands up in the air.
"It's kind of the same plan… but this time I'm pulling us all into the illusion, too."
Hunter didn't seem so sure what to do, but the determined looks from Gus and Vee made him sigh in defeat.
"Alright, let's do this," Hunter said as the three jumped off the freight.
Gus held on to his amplifier tightly. His eyes flashed a powerful blue light that expanded around them and engulfed Belos as well. Blue images of buildings, trees, and bushes flashed around them.
The illusion made the monster look side to side. He couldn't see the teenagers anymore, nor the uniformed humans.
Hunter and Vee looked around as they also lost sight of Belos.
"It's okay," Gus said. One of his eyes was glowing blue, while the other was his usual brown. "He's still across from us." He took a deep breath and closed his eyes, using the amplifier tool to have better control of his magic. "I just need… to focus…" he said through clenched teeth before their blue surroundings shifted to reveal Belos to them again. Which made Belos also spot them, making him dash at them.
"Come on…" Gus said, his eyebrows furrowed with concentration. Hunter grabbed on to him and Vee to teleport them, but before he had the chance to do so, tons of figures appeared between them and Belos, making Belos abruptly stop. Their surroundings shifted to what seemed to be a small town with wooden outdated brown houses.
Hunter and Vee were confused as they saw countless adults holding pitchforks and torches. They wore attire that looked out of time and some males had weird looking tall hats.
"Hum…" Hunter let out, not sure what he was witnessing.
"Now, guys!" Gus said out loud.
Hunter teleported Vee and himself on Belo's back. Vee began absorbing the magic as Hunter restrained Belos once again with gold magical chains as he held on by Belo's hair.
Belos roared at them and tried shaking them off, arms struggling against the binds, and after some frantically tugging, he broke free from the restraints.
Light in his blue eyes glowed a bit more, making Gus move forward with his plan.
"A monster!" one of the woman illusions jabbed a finger at Belos, screaming with fear and hatred. Which, surprisingly, made Belos completely stop where he was.
He stared at the mob that stood before him.
"Kill the monster!" someone from the mob yelled.
"Burn him!" The rest of the mob raised their weapons up and screamed too before they ran at the creature.
Belos backed away from the mob, intimidated, before he tried swiping at them if one got too close to him.
His colossus hand went through the humans, but that didn't stop him from trying to attack them multiple times, but after a while he realized they were illusions. His body began shrinking slightly, which made him reach out on his back to pull the teenagers off him.
Hunter used his staff to blast the limbs away to give Vee more time to drain the magic.
Gus saw more blue light come back to the dark sockets of the beast.
"Got you," Gus said under his breath. He closed his eyes to focus and made the human mob vanish.
He replaced them with one figure, standing alone directly in front of Belos.
"Philip!"
The creature stopped trying to pull the teenagers off and snap his attention at the new illusion.
Hunter, wanting to see what made Belos stop struggling, looked over the creature's shoulders and saw the new illusion that Gus made, which made him stare with utter confusion.
The new illusion Hunter was seeing was of a preteen, looked like the spitting image of him except it was a younger, scarless human version of him.
And it had made Belos stand there in complete silence, tense like a rock.
"Come on, Philip, let's go home," the illusion said with a warm smile, reaching out a hand to the creature.
The monster continued staring without making one move or sound. The moment the illusion made a step towards him, though, made Belos let out a defensive growl.
The illusion of the boy looked sad for a moment, but then gave out an understanding smile.
"It's okay, Philip," the illusion said. "I'm here now…" it said before closing the distance between it and the creature.
Belos backed away more, roaring at the illusion to back off, completely forgetting how his magic was being drained out of him.
The blue light got stronger in his empty sockets while the illusion continued to reach him.
The creature grabbed onto his head and shook it side to side violently. Both from his magic being drained out of him, and from what it was seeing in front of him.
The beast roared in what sounded like agony as his body lost its form, distorting into a blob,
"Don't stop yet, Vee!" Gus called when his friends jumped off the creature. Vee realized she could still drain the magic from Belos from a short distance and continued to do so by sucking it with her mouth.
Slowly, the blob of goo shrunk and formed the shape of a human, laying on his side, holding his head. Belos was back into his human form, except for the fact he had horns sticking out and his arms were green like the same substance that his beast's form was made of. His long hair was matted and messy, some strands struck on his cold, sweat-drenched face.
Gus saw how deadly pale Belos looked.
"Okay, stop!" Gus called to Vee, which made her stop draining the magic from Belos and fall to her knees.
Gus stopped the surrounding illusions while Vee grabbed her stomach as she looked deadly pale herself.
"Guys…" she groaned weakly. "I… don't feel that good…" Her stomach made a weird, loud growling sound.
She turned away from the group before she puked a huge dark substance.
Concern flashed across Hunter's and Gus' face, making them run over to her. Gus was already regretting making Vee drain the possible foul magic. What if it somehow messed her up as it did to Belos?
Vee stopped puking and looked up at the two boys weakly. Both hovered over her with worry.
"I don't think I want to do that ever again," she said, with cold tremors running through her body. "That magic… it's just bad… but… I do kind of feel better now…" she tried to assure them as she didn't enjoy seeing them worry over her so much. Once she looked less like a ghost, her friends grabbed both of her hands and helped her up.
The three saw the puke was just a blob of greyness, with smoke radiated from it.
They then returned their attention to the man lying on the ground, panting, shaky hands on his head still.
He did nothing but lay there before his thoughts finally made sense and a wave of pain came crashing in.
He curled into himself, feeling as though he was struck hard by some sort of giant beast. His whole body was radiating in agony, his head especially throbbed painfully.
He opened his eyes, which were slightly grayish, and pulled his hands off his head, ignoring the horns that were sticking out of his head. He noticed he wasn't inside a cage anymore but was surrounded by what seemed to be a road, countless trees, and some sort of mechanical contraption just lying there on the side.
Slowly, he sat up, ignoring the way his body begged him to not move. He continued to be confused as he took in his surroundings again.
He also looked down at his green arms and tried to shift them to look more human-like, but he found himself unable to.
The last thing he remembered before he had fallen asleep was Luz and her annoying friends were demanding answers from him. They wanted to know how they could go back to the Boiling Isles.
Then, that middle-aged woman, Philip guessed was Luz's mother, had the gall to threaten him too.
He grew frustrated as he couldn't remember anything else after the woman left him alone at his childhood home.
So many questions ran through his head.
Like, how did he end up out here, out in the open?
Why was his body in so much pain and stuck in what seemed to be half beast mode?
He spotted three familiar children walking in his direction. Two of them pointed their staff at him as they approached him.
He glared at Hunter, mostly with pure hostility and hatred, bearing his sharp fangs at them.
"Don't… come..an..y..clo.. ," He struggled to say with a rough, beast like tone. He tried standing up, but his knees buckled and made him crash back down on all four.
Suddenly, he shut his eyes hard as memories of his brother, sad looking, lurked in his head while countless voices began praying in unison as well in his mind.
He slammed two fists against the sides of his head, to shove the memory away, to stop the voices, but then very spotty memories that he didn't recall happening came rushing in.
He vaguely saw in the strange memories how apparently, he had broken out of his cage, fought Luz's friends back at his house. How he had run out into the forest before the metal-like carriage crashed into him. How Hunter and the other two kids fought him and how he was also struck by other humans in uniform with guns.
Those memories…
They couldn't be his.
He felt as though someone had just implanted them against his will.
There was no way he had acted out like a mindless beast.
Yet…
He remembered, after Luz had made him mad, how he lost control of himself in his cage.
No thoughts had crossed his mind when he had slammed his body against the cage and had struggled to break free.
He had somehow lost… himself in a blinding rage.
'You're losing it…' a voice hissed in his head.
Philip's fists pressed hard against his head. His heart slowly pounded hard against his chest as a certain fear he had in recent years was once again crossing his mind.
He desperately fought hard to take deep breaths to control his racing heartbeat and to maintain his thoughts from racing.
But… gradually he was losing himself.
He was failing to calm down.
'Monster…' a dark voice said again before it continued to strangle him inside. 'The devil has tainted your soul… Just like it did to your family.'
Philip found himself hyperventilating, desperately trying to get air into his lungs, but he found himself unable to. His chest felt as though it was being stabbed with a knife, making him curl into himself.
'You are worse than them now…'
"Hey, it's okay, just take in deep long breaths," Philip heard someone say close to him, making him swipe at them with frustration.
Hunter pulled Gus out of the way from getting struck by Philip just in time.
"Hey!" Hunter snapped at Belos, who continued to have a hard time breathing. "He's trying to help you!" Hunter glared at the man before giving Gus a look for the stunt the latter had just pulled. "Are you crazy?" he lectured the younger boy.
"It's okay," Gus gave him an assuring, yet hesitant, smile. "I got this." He was about to kneel again next to the trembling man, but Philip pulled away from them, feeling too vulnerable now, falling to his side.
The way Belos was having a severe panic attack made Gus remember the few memories he had seen of the latter in his dark years before he traveled to the Boiling Island. One of memories that plagued Gus' mind was the way some horrible man whipped a young Belos into repeating some sort of verse that was called a 'prayer' for hours.
Yes, Belos had committed too many terrible things, just like many humans on earth had done to innocent people, but…
Gus couldn't help but feel his heart clench at how beaten down Belos looked at the moment.
The teenagers jumped slightly back when Belos slammed a fist to the ground, and gradually, the violent shaking slowed down and they could finally hear him taking in slow, deep breaths.
Philip's shoulders relaxed as the stabbing feeling in his chest vanished and all he could feel now was his whole body filled with pins and needles, temporarily giving him some relief from the pain his body was experiencing earlier.
His long messy hair blocked everyone the look of relief he had now that he could breathe properly.
The teenagers stopped focusing on Belos for a moment when they heard sirens coming from down the road. They saw a few more police cars reaching to where the three cops were attending to their fallen comrade and an ambulance that Gus had seen in a television show stopped by, too.
"This is bad," Vee said with wide eyes to her friends. "We need to leave now."
Gus and Hunter looked at one another before glancing back to Belos, who was curled up, silent.
"Well, we can't leave him here," Gus said to Hunter. "We need him to help us find our way back to the Boiling Isles," he reminded him, when he noticed Hunter seemed hesitant to bring Belos with them.
Hunter clenched his teeth, annoyed.
Gus was right…
They needed to go back to the Boiling Isles, and only Belos possibly knew how.
Hunter eyed Belos, the anxiety he had for the man was coming back, and the way how Belos looked so weak was making Hunter feel sick to his stomach as well. But he did his best to shove those feelings down as he grabbed one of Belo's arms hard.
Belos flinched for a second before he looked up to see who had touched him before he snarled and tried to swipe at him with his free arm.
Hunter used his staff to smack the attacking limb away easily.
"Oh, no you don't," Hunter said, maintaining a tight grip on Belo's arm. "You're coming with us, even if you don't want to." He yanked Belos into a sitting position, much to Belo's hisses filled with pain.
"You… impu…dent…child," Belos managed to growl at the boy before he tried to yank himself free.
"Philip, stop," Gus said sternly, making Belos freeze in place.
Belos hated to admit it, but someone calling him by his actual name completely caught him off guard.
"We need to get out of here now," Gus said. "We aren't safe here, especially since you hurt one of their own." he pointed in the direction of the police officers who were now running towards them, hands gripping their guns.
"Put your hands up!" one cop snapped at them, pointing his weapon at them.
Gus quickly used his magic amplifier tool to make them appear as if they vanished and then made replicas of them seem like they had gotten up and ran towards the forest, the opposite direction from where they had come from. The police officers fell for the illusion and chased after the copies, yelling after them.
Now that the cops were currently distracted, Gus looked down at Philip.
"I-'m…no..t…goin…" Philip tried speaking but felt as though his mouth wasn't cooperating well. Forming words was such a challenging task for him right now.
"You don't have a better option right now," Gus said in a serious tone, guessing what Philip was going to say. "The way you look right now, you aren't one of them, and you know how humans handle 'monsters'."
Philip glared daggers at him for calling him a monster.
Gus didn't cower. The boy stood his ground as he returned a little of the glare back, but just for a second before he softened his gaze at the older man.
"You're safer with us than out here," the boy said. Gus walked to Philip's other side before continuing to reason with the man. "Especially since you don't seem to have much control over your 'beast' form now."
Philip felt his heart skip a bit at the boy's words.
Not having control over his cursed form…
Fear that overwhelmed him minutes ago threatened to grasp at him again.
'Even they see it…' the dark voice hissed in his head.
"We should hurry," Hunter said, ignoring the way his friend was trying to keep Belos calm, as if trying to have him cooperate with them instead of dragging him back to the forest.
Philip tensed when Gus grabbed his other arm, but gentler than Hunter did.
"We can talk more later, but for now, let's go before my illusions vanish," Gus said.
Philip wanted to snap at them, slash at them, bury them ten feet underground, but he was too exhausted and in pain to struggle, mentally and physically. He clenched his teeth hard and couldn't help but let his head fall forward in defeat.
Both boys took the lack of struggle as their cue to help him up on his shaky feet and lead him back into the forest as fast as they could. Which was hard to do since Philip's legs threatened to give out every three steps, but eventually they were off the road and out of human sight so Gus could release the illusions he had run around.
And silently, the kids hoped the man in the truck ended up okay as they left the road behind…
Luz sat on the bottom of the steps of the stairs quietly, in the basement of the abandoned old house while Willow and Amity finished up building their new prison there.
Luz had found the basement when she lingered bored in the house, while Willow filled the hole that Belos had made in the house with some strong roots. Luz had torn down a wallpaper that seemed to be peeling off from one wall to reveal a door that led to a basement. Once she and her friends noticed how spacious the basement was, they decided to build the new cage there.
The basement walls, floor, and the ceiling had a thick layer of the substance that Amity's abominations were made of, and thick roots covered that substance. The new layers in the room made sure not to cover the lightbulb that hung on the ceiling.
"I'm not sure… if holding him with roots and abomination clay will work," Amity said to the other two girls in the room. "He got out of it last time."
"If we have Vee drain his magic, I think we should be fine holding him like we were doing before," Luz said.
"That's true, but the real question is, how are we going to make him tell us how we can go back to the Boiling Isles?" Willow asked.
"I'm guessing having Gus look into his mind is not on the table," Amity said with a frown as she remembered how terrified Gus was after looking into Belos' mind earlier that day.
Luz's lips pressed into a thin line, fingers drumming on her knees as she did her best to think how they could make Belos talk.
"Asking him nicely isn't going to work either since, well, he hates us witches," Amity sighed. "And he's obviously one of the most stubborn beings in the universe if he carried out his plans for 400 years to kill all witches… so I doubt we can change his mind in helping us…"
"So… looks like we're stuck at the moment," Willow said, making Luz shut her eyes hard, placing her fisted palms on her eyes as she remembered the sad look King had before he let go of her hand. Before he had forced her to go through the magic portal, leaving him and Eda behind…
"Girls!" The three girls in the basement snapped out of their deep thoughts when they heard Camila called out from the first floor. "They're back!"
Quickly, the three ran upstairs and were ready to storm outside to help their friends with forcing Belos into his new cage, but they stopped in their tracks with utter confusion as they saw Hunter and Gus helping an almost human Belos into the room.
Vee walked in after transforming back from a giant wolf; she had to carry Belos the rest of the way back so the boys could fly on their staff. She looked slightly gray to Luz and had slight dark circles under her eyes, still feeling terrible from draining Belos' magic earlier.
Camila gasped in shock at Vee's state and rushed to her side.
"What happened, mija?" she asked with complete worry.
Hunter and Gus released Philip when his legs gave out, falling to his knees. His arms were wrapped around his stomach, as his breathing was rough and fast. With eyes shut tight, gritted teeth, and a face pale, he leaned forward, forehead against the wooden floor. His body shook with violent tremors as it slightly destabilized for a second, his body almost turning into black and green sludge.
Amity and Willow pointed their staffs at him to bind him, but Gus quickly jumped in front of a struggling Philip.
"Wait, don't!" he yelled. "He's trying not to lose control!"
The three girls in front of him gave him puzzled looks.
Philip managed to keep control of his unstable body, but was left panting, drops of sweat dripping down off his forehead.
He ground his teeth in pain as he forced himself back on his knees only, glaring weakly past Gus, directly at Luz, where she stood across the room from him, glaring back at him.
"We have a serious problem." Gus was the one to speak up in the silence hanging in the room. "And please listen before you guys try to kill each other, cause you're going to want to listen to this," he said in a serious tone.
Luz hands clenched into fists, fighting down the urge of having her friends attack Belos.
From Gus' intense face, he really wanted them to listen to him, so she stood her ground and hoped with all her might that whatever the problem was, it would not keep her from going back to the Boiling Isles and save Eda and King.
Author's After Note:
Saw the one thing that reminds you guys from the recent canon? hahaha
Also, Hunter for sure still feels something for Belos, and no worries, you guys will see that later. For now, he's for sure trying his best to well, be a great soldier but for his friends right now
And don't worry about Gus. He isn't naively dumb, in case anyone thinks he's being too nice to Belos
For those who rather read this story in archive of our own, no worries, I've posted this story there too.
Please leave a comment : )
