Episode:
4: Magic High Perdition
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Adam's about to sign away half his rights to a man-child in a purple speedo. Meanwhile, Star wants to learn more about Adam's past.

After one week of settling into Butterfly Castle, Adam still could not say with confidence that he was settled in. Every morning, when he woke up, he'd have to remind himself that he wasn't in the same Butterfly Castle. In fact, he almost had to mentally prepare himself for the day ahead. Everything in the air felt strange to him, as though some invisible force was repelling him from his surroundings.

Marco certainly seemed to find his morning routine infuriating. Adam went to bed later and got up early, and there were a few times he accidentally woke the young squire up. He couldn't really blame him for being upset about that. Many times, it seemed the room they shared wasn't big enough for the both of them.

Unfortunately, the Mewman was still trying to learn this Room Expansion Spell Star had. The incantation, "Sparkle Glitter Bomb Expand", immediately indicated to him that it was a spell the princess herself had made. Rather frustratingly, Adam was inept at Creation spells. He just couldn't wrap his head around actually creating something from nothing.

It was clear to Adam where his strong suits were. Alteration magic, Dark magic and Battle magic.

Dark magic was scarily easy to him, to the point that Star had to tell him to limit use of it. Practicing the Dark Arts was frowned upon; he was already aware of that fact. Ridiculous superstition, Adam thought. It had never made him "evil", nor did it serve any detriment to him. Nevertheless, he did as she asked and avoided using the magic when practicing with her. After all, he definitely didn't want Moon to know that he was most skilled at a field of magic that was invariably seen as evil.

Practicing magic with Star wasn't the only magic-related thing he'd been doing. Researching magic was something he was getting into. Not just travelling between multiverses, but knowledge that the Magic Instruction Book hadn't been able to provide him.

Namely, the creation of his own spells. The book made the assumption that its user was a princess with inherent magical talent. Obviously, Adam was no such individual. Glossaryck was sometimes around to help, but he seemed to be becoming more detached and more interested in making him figure it all out himself. Adam didn't know why, but he really did not care.

There were a few ideas for spells in his mind, but they seemed far too advanced for him right now. For some of them he had to take advantage of pre-existing magic, building on top of it, rather than starting from scratch.

One of the Underworld texts mentioned a deity called Arybailos, and he'd been trying to create an Alteration spell to…borrow…some of that magic. Not only could it be used to grant him the strength to create more powerful spells, but he could also use it to bolster his own magical ability, for a time. It would have to be a Dark Alteration spell, so he had to research the creation of it in secret. Star wouldn't be too happy to know he was creating Dark spells.

Research of Arybailos was slow, not that he minded. It wasn't the top of his priorities.

Number one: figure out a way to get home. Number two: get used to life in the Castle. Number three: figure out how to improve. And number four: master the creation of spells.

He was only a fraction of the way through the Butterfly Family library, so there was still a lot to go through. Adam had wondered if Glossaryck already knew everything that happened to be written in their pages. However, even if he did, Glossaryck couldn't make connections like a spell-caster such as himself could. Besides, the library was likely incomplete, and the pre-existing knowledge could be used as a stepping stone to any unknowns.

Whatever the case may be, Adam firmly believed intermultiversal travel was magic he could learn. If he could get here, he could get back. Action; reaction. Simple.

Unfortunately, on one particular morning out on the front lawn of the castle, Adam couldn't afford to have this on his mind. Instead, rather, he had to dodge a flurry of spells being sent his way, from one Star Butterfly.

'Super Mega Glitter Bomb!'

Adam coughed on a plume of shiny red glitter. Narrowly, he dodged a pink beam of cake icing.

'Tornado Torpedo!' Adam cried, throwing out his hands.

A powerful gale of wind fired out from his glowing star marks, blasting the glitter aside. It struck a pink forcefield in front of him. The Mewman opened a portal in front of him, as a huge battering ram (in the form of a whale), came flying towards him. The whale fell on Star, who managed to roll out of the way.

The training session continued on hectically. Star's spells were powerful even when she wasn't in Full Butterfly form. Adam's largely paled in comparison, but they weren't totally incompetent. One thing that he definitely had over Star was his portalling.

It was an effective way to redistribute spells he couldn't block by any other means. That being said, if the spell was powerful enough, then it could smash through the portal anyway. Though Star could open portals too, she didn't seem to be able to employ the same tactics as he could when using them. It looked as though she wasn't able to open portals fast enough.

Adam noticed as Star transformed into her golden Butterfly form and flew upwards. Daggers of fire rained down upon him. At first, he tried opening a portal up to her, but she merely blasted him through the gateway.

Dodging the infernal knives, he considered another way to get up to her. Glancing down at the height he needed to reach, Adam breathed to prepare himself. As his hands began to glow a purple aura, he leapt up into the air.

He found footing on a flat purple forcefield, allowing him to lift himself higher into the air. Another of his forcefields formed just a little higher, providing him more height. Adam began to scale the air up to the Butterfly, dodging the various spells she cast at him. Once again, he avoided looking down.

'Ah!' He yelled, as a spell nearly hit him while he was in the air. Instinctively, the warlock managed to block it with a wall of solid purple energy.

Solarian Blast! He chanted in his head, sending the beam of green light up at her. Obscurus!

The air was instantly enveloped in a thick smoke. Adam could see through it fairly well, since he cast the spell. Eventually, he scaled up to Star, who was currently rubbing the smoke out of her eyes.

Adam leapt forward and tackled her out of the air. Instantly, the magical princess began sinking to the ground, her wings preventing the fall from being too fast.

As they hit the ground, Star unleashed a wave of energy that threw him several feet away. Adam immediately jumped to his feet, his hands glowing purple as he pointed them at Star. Star had thrust her wand directly forward, the star-shaped crystal beginning to light up with a high-pitched powering up sound.

'Adam!' A voice called, breaking the concentration of the two teenagers.

Queen Moon stepped out onto the front lawn with a regal stance. She looked casually between the two of them.

'Mooomm!' Star complained. 'We're in the middle of something!'

'As much as I appreciate you taking your training seriously, Star, this is important,' Moon addressed with a serious tone. The girl sighed.

'Stalemate?' She proposed to her opponent, with a bright smile on her face as she walked up to him.

'Stalemate,' he agreed with a stoic expression.

'Ha, I guess that was stale, mate!' She joked awkwardly, playfully elbowing him. The warlock didn't laugh, or even change expression from his unflinching scowl. He simply folded his arms. Eventually, Star turned away in defeat and looked back at her mother. 'So what is it, mom?'

'Actually, this is about Adam,' she elaborated, prompting a look of surprise from Star.

'Me? Why?' He asked, unfolding his arms to pay more attention.

'We have a meeting with the Magic High Commission,' the Queen informed him. 'I am to bring you to them so they can…inspect you.'

'You mean they're gonna run tests on me,' he discerned, not in the mood for beating around the bush.

'Well, yes, but nothing detrimental to you,' she assured him. 'They don't know much about you, yet. Only that you crossed multiverses. They won't harm you.'

'It's fine,' he assured. 'Hopefully, they won't be quite as…argumentative…as the High Commission from my universe.'

'Well, I wouldn't hold your breath,' she advised, an uncertain look bubbling in her eyebrows. The Queen turned to walk away, beckoning for the boy to follow.

'So I'll…see you later?' Star hollered at him, looking helplessly as the teenager walked away.

'Most likely,' he responded, with a neutral expression. The princess slouched, sighing in defeat at his lack of friendliness. He turned back towards Moon, catching up with her to walk next to her. 'So, where exactly are we going?'

'To the Bureaucracy of Magic,' the Queen answered, as they stepped into the castle. 'It's the headquarters of the High Commission.'

'I'm guessing it's in another dimension,' the Mewman surmised, to which Moon nodded.

'Your Majesty, I have the royal scissors,' one of her servants informed her. He was carrying the dimensional scissors in a cloth, kneeling to present it to her.

'Thank you, Manfred,' she acknowledged, reaching down and taking the scissors from him. Moon bent forward and opened a maroon-coloured portal directly in front of her. Stepping aside, she stared at Adam.

It took a second before he realised what she was indicating. Reluctantly, the Mewman took a step through the portal.

The sky was a nightly blue, but there were portions of it that seemed to glow bright white. Instead of stars, there were white rhombuses. The ground he now stood on was a cream tiled path, neatly polished and maintained. On either side, small decorative pools were carved out in irregular patterns, the two most immediate ones having flamboyant water fountains shooting up liquid into the air in lopsided "M" shapes. The far edges of the area seemed to come to a harsh stop, as though the entire region had been carved out of the ground.

The entire island he was standing on appeared to be floating, unsupported, in space.

Straight ahead, though, was the most striking feature of this dimension. It was an enormous skyscraper, piercing the space far above him with a bright light. It was hexagonal at the base, with numerous stairs at the very bottom, leading up to a trunk of stone with the same hexagon shape. It was adorned with yellowish-white curtains, stretched out evenly on all vertical faces. Two flags hung beside the main, crimson door, bearing a crest that Adam presumed represented the MHC. Some stone supports held up the triangular prisms resting atop it, which each had rhombuses with eight-point stars carved into them. A round tube rose up from the middle of the main base, like a chimney, tiled with stone bricks and supports. The tube narrowed at the top like a large spire.

At the very top of the building, there were numerous crystalline diamonds of different shapes and sizes. One central pink one dwarfed the others in size. He couldn't tell what they were for, exactly, possibly conference rooms. Whatever they were, they obstructed most of the view of the rest of the tower, but he could see through the small crack that it rose up even further above them.

'Woah…tall,' he remarked shakily.

'I presume you're not a fan of heights?' Moon said with a lightly comedic tone, as she stepped through the portal behind him.

'Yeahhh…I'm really not,' he admitted, scratching his scalp diffidently. 'Are we going to the top floor?'

'I'm afraid so.'

Adam tried not to think about how high up he was going as they began walking up the steps to the main entrance.

'Ah, your Majesty!' A turtle-like anthropomorph at the door greeted. He was wearing a discrete officer uniform. 'How are you?'

'I'm doing quite well, thank you, Sean,' Moon replied with a friendly smile.

'You must be here for the meeting with the Magic High Commission,' Sean surmised, eliciting a nod from the Queen. He leaned to his right and spotted the individual standing behind the Queen. 'And who is this?'

'Oh, this is Adam,' she answered, before the teenager himself could.

'Hi,' he said curtly.

'Are you sure he has proper authorisation, your Majesty?' Sean questioned sceptically.

'It's perfectly fine, Sean,' Moon assured.

'If you say so…' he relented, reaching forward to pull down a lever in front of him. The crimson doors to the Bureaucracy of Magic slid open, the red lights on the border turning red.

Passing Sean, the Queen and the Mewman walked into the building. It was pristine and royal, well-maintained, something rather impressive for its size. A regal red carpet rested on the ground, like a ground for them to follow.

'So why can't we just teleport to the top?' He asked curiously, frowning at Moon.

'We are forbidden to use magic here,' she informed him, pointing to a sign on the wall. It had a symbol of a classical magic wand with a star for a tip, crossed through with a red ban symbol. The words next to it read, "NO MAGIC".

'I'm part-magic!' Adam pointed out worriedly. 'Isn't that going to be a problem?'

'I shouldn't think so,' Queen Moon dismissed. 'Glossaryck, and the rest of the MHC, are entirely comprised of magic. It's never been an issue to them.'

'Hello, my Queen!' Sean hollered from across the room. He was standing next to a table covered in purple cloth. Beside him, there was a strange metal frame with white crystals adorning it, a concept Adam didn't recognise. It had a placemat in front of it with the vague outline of feet on it.

'Wait…but you were just…?' The Mewman stuttered confusedly, gesturing awkwardly back to the way they came. He dropped his puzzled look when he remembered this was the Bureaucracy of Magic. 'Offf course.'

As the two of them walked to the table Sean was standing next to, the receptionist spoke again.

'Please step through the Magical Detection Machine,' he commanded, beckoning them to come to him. 'Just this way!'

Moon obliged, stepping casually through the tall magic frame. There was a dinging sound, and the white crystal flashed green. As Adam went to follow her through it, Sean stopped him.

'Now, as you are a stranger to this establishment, I must ask,' he prompted, receiving an impatient nod from the warlock. 'Are you carrying any articles of magic, sorcery, or occult objects of a mystical nature?'

'No,' he replied pointedly, folding his arms.

'Then go on right through.'

Adam walked through the metal frame and turned to face it. However, it didn't make a noise. There was no "ding", but likewise there wasn't anything to indicate the opposite. Sean beckoned for him to step through the machine again, which he did, twice, but there was still no response from the detector.

'Hmm…' Sean thought aloud, peering in at the Magical Detection Machine. 'It must be faul–'

Abruptly cutting him off, the machine began to whirr and rumble uncomfortably. It began to sputter out smoke, before the white crystals shattered. The small plinths beside it, with the large crystals, then exploded into fragments of gemstone and ceramic.

'Uhh…' Adam said aloud. 'Um…whoops?'

'How did you manage to break it?' Moon wondered, staring at the smoking pile in sheer perplexity.

'That's…never happened before,' Sean remarked, before staring at it for a few seconds in silence.

'Well, if you don't mind Sean, we must be on our way,' Moon addressed, snapping him out of his reverie.

'With respect, Your Majesty, he just broke the Magical Detection Machine!' He exclaimed, folding his arms. 'He could be dangerous.'

'Trust me, Sean, he is not dangerous.'

'I will have to report this to the Magic High Commission, you know,' he pointed out.

'We're going to them right now,' Moon reminded him. 'I'll tell them. Besides, this' – she gestured at the broken machine – 'is sort of the reason we're having this meeting.'

Sean examined Adam up and down for a few moments before finally nodding.

'Okay then,' he allowed, jerking his head to his left to indicate Adam should move.

Nodding, Adam continued to follow Moon. Eventually, they reached the end of the hallway. By now, Sean had moved to a desk to their left, which said "1st Floor". The doors in front of them dinged, and slid open.

'Hello, Your Majesty!' Another Sean greeted, as the two stepped into the elevator. 'Which floor?'

'Top floor, please,' the Queen replied. The man leaned to the side wall and pressed the top, red button on it. A ding rang through the elevator capsule, and the button glowed green. The doors slid shut, and the elevator began to move.

'Soooo…why are there so many of you?' The Mewman asked, hoping to pass the time.

'I was cloned across the facility to manage all day-to-day requirements!' Sean replied brightly, straightening his posture in confidence. 'They decided I was so good at my job they just had to have more of me!'

'You're certainly hard to miss,' Adam muttered under his breath, though Sean still heard.

'Yep! I'm present on every single floor. On some floors, there's more than one of me, too.'

'Do you have like a…hive mind…?' He wondered, still taken aback by his raw enthusiasm.

'Oh, you betcha!' He said, his bright smile never wavering. 'I know what all of them are thinking, every minute of every day! It drives me insane!'

'Oooookay, good to know.'

A long silence followed, punctuated by awkward glances between Adam and the two other people in the elevator. He stared up at the floor indicator above the doors in front of him. Tapping the floor impatiently, he watched as the lights changed to the next one, and the next.

Eventually, another ding sounded and the doors in front of him slid open. Moon stepped through, prompting Adam to follow behind the Butterfly Queen. The elevator doors snapped shut behind him, and he was now confined on the top floor of the Bureaucracy of Magic.

'Hello!' A voice welcomed. Another Sean was standing behind a desk to the right, smiling brightly at him. Emblazoned on the desk were the words, "Top Floor". 'Meeting just through there!' He pointed to the crimson double doors in front of him.

'Thank you, Sean,' Moon acknowledged, walking towards the doors. Adam eyed the lobbyist sceptically as he followed the Queen. As he heard creaking behind him, he broke his line of sight and walked into the meeting room with the Queen.

It was a long, rectangular room, containing a distinct rhombus motif. A half-cylindrical skylight bulged from the roof, the glass stained pink and purple in sections. The walls were mainly a maroon colour, though there were a few decorative stone struts against the wall that were bleached white. Metal sconces were attached to them, a blue-white flame burning from each of them. A few ribbons and decorative curtains rested on the walls, along with a few diamond-shaped pieces of décor. The rhombus motif persisted with chandeliers dangling from the walls, which were more diamonds suspended from the ceiling by rope. On the left wall, there was a long rectangular window, covering the majority of the length of the room. Rhombuses were etched into its design as well, stained pinkish purple. The window brought in a mystical purple ambience in the room, like magic had been vaporised and allowed to permeate the meeting room.

'I see you've finally arrived.'

Adam's attention was immediately brought centre stage. The majority of the room was consumed by a long brown table with multiple chairs around it.

At the far end of the table, there were three radically different magical individuals.

One of them was a horned female in a fiery orange dress. She had pale white skin, running jagged like spikes across her arms. A small black crown rested on her head, which had a floating flame suspended above it. Her hair was long and crimson, one of her bangs covering one of her eyes. The other eye was a pale orange, with a darker orange iris and small eyelashes. If Adam looked closer, he could see she even had fangs.

That had to be Hekapoo, he realised. She had been the first person to speak.

She looked almost identical to her parallel multiverse counterpart. The Hekapoo of his reality wore a purple and black outfit, her horns following a similar colour scheme. She had dark purple hair, in the same style, and a glowing purple flame above her head. Her fur was also a pale, sickly shade of purple, he recalled.

Next to Hekapoo was a muscly humanoid figure with a diamond for a head. The only indication of his countenance was the long black slit that represented his eye. Rather than actual hands, he had dark green snakes with wide eyes and pronounced fangs. All the clothes he wore were a small hooded cape and matching maroon underwear. One of his "nipples" was in fact a small diamond, and the other was covered over with a plaster.

Adam rolled his eyes at the sight of him. Rhombulus.

From what the All-Seeing Eye had shown him, Rhombulus was a malicious, immature child who enjoyed crystallising everything that posed even the slightest threat. From his folded arms and impatient stare, Adam surmised the only difference between his Rhombulus and this one was the colour scheme. Rhombulus in his multiverse had a blue torso, pale green crystal and black apparel. Only a slight difference, but the most easily noticeable.

Resting on the table in front of them was a picture of a humanoid goat. Lekmet, he recalled. Judging by the small shrine next to the picture, the Mewman quickly surmised that he was dead in this multiverse. Adam wasn't sure how he felt about that. He wasn't sure Lekmet even did anything in his reality; his role was always unclear.

Finally, to the other side of Hekapoo, there was a translucent crystal ball sitting on the table. Inside it, there was a floating skeletal head. Omnitraxus Prime, obviously.

Omnitraxus, superficially, was very similar. The only difference he could notice was that his glowing green aura was a navy blue in this reality. From what he recalled about Omnitraxus, he was large enough to engulf galaxies. He was the one who maintained the space-time continuum, and presided over the entirety of it.

It quickly transpired that, if there was anyone here worth talking to, it was Omnitraxus. Hekapoo might be able to provide some help, given her control over dimensions and interdimensional travel. Rhombulus, however, was largely a brute with muscle instead of brains.

'I arrived as soon as possible,' Moon spoke, catching him out of his thoughts.

'Didn't seem like it to me!' Rhombulus exclaimed, scowling at the Queen.

Rolling his eyes, Adam tried not to look like he had been profiling them in his head. The Queen walked around the table and took a seat. She looked up at the warlock and gestured to a seat at the opposite end to the MHC.

'Take a seat, Adam.'

He complied, moving over to seat himself on the chair she had indicated him to.

'So, you must be Adam,' Hekapoo surmised, narrowing her eyes at him. 'You've caused quite the pandemonium recently.'

'Well, that wasn't my intention, Hekapoo,' he replied with the same passive aggressive tone she had used. Her eyes widened as he used her name. 'Yeah, I know who you are. I know who all of you are. Hekapoo, Omnitraxus, Rhombulus. You exist in my multiverse, too.'

'"Your" multiverse,' the flaming entity parroted back to him. 'We find your claims particularly outlandish.'

'Liar!' Rhombulus yelled, receiving a glare from Hekapoo.

'I'm not lying,' he disputed staunchly.

'The only way we can be certain of that is through the Box of Truth,' Omnitraxus Prime pointed out.

'That won't be necessary,' Moon interjected. 'I have seen for myself that Adam is telling the truth. He has his own Book of Spells, with his own version of Glossaryck.'

'So we've heard,' Hekapoo said. 'But that doesn't mean –'

'Actually, I have considered this,' Omnitraxus interrupted. 'It is…possible that there are…realities beyond my perception.'

'What do you mean?' The fiery woman asked, folding her arms. 'If he was from an alternate reality, you should be able to see it. You preside over all of space-time!'

'Not quite,' he corrected. 'I can view alternate timelines, but not alternate multiverses. I have not been able to find any such timeline that matches this "Adam". It is highly probable that he existed beyond my scope. A parallel multiverse, perhaps.'

'And you didn't mention this before?!'

'I couldn't be certain of what I had considered. I was going to use today's tests to determine as such.'

Hekapoo opened her mouth to argue, but Moon spoke first.

'Now that we've cleared that up, can we move on to what we are actually here to do?'

'I second that,' Adam hollered, folding his arms discontentedly at their lack of productivity.

'Well, first things first,' Hekapoo began. 'Can you explain how exactly you managed to traverse across multiverses?'

'I opened too many portals at once,' the Mewman answered. 'Sorta…weakened the fabric of reality and tore open a singularity that sucked me in. I ended up, well, here. In this multiverse.'

'You opened portals?' She repeated. 'With dimensional scissors?'

'With magic.'

'Magic?!' Omnitraxus echoed. 'How did you cast magic?!'

'I…learnt it?' He replied uncertainly.

'How?!' Rhombulus demanded, slamming down on the desk.

'Red Glossaryck described it as a "Mewman-magic metamorphosis",' Queen Moon informed him. 'He fused with a piece of his Star's wand.'

She nodded at him, and Adam lifted his right hand at them to show the star-shaped mark burned into it. Hekapoo leaned forward to get a closer look.

'Strange…' she mused aloud.

'It's evil!' Rhombulus bellowed, jumping up to point his two snakes at him. 'We should crystallise him right now!'

'You will do nothing of the sort!' Moon barked.

'You haven't even run any tests yet!' Adam argued pointedly. 'Why are you so quick to jump to "evil"?'

'I know evil when I see it!' Rhombulus claimed stubbornly.

'Rhombulus!' Hekapoo silenced. 'If you can't be civil, I will send you to the Timeout Corner!'

Rhombulus groaned, but tacitly agreed. Muttering numerous disparaging comments under his breath, he folded his arms and stared down at the ground.

'So this "metamorphosis"…it's granted you the ability to cast magic?' She asked, receiving a nod from the Mewman.

'It's kind of like…my arm is my wand. It works pretty much the same way.'

Hekapoo scratched her chin in thought for a few moments.

'What happens if you dip down, then?' She pondered.

'"Dip down"?' Adam repeated, furrowing his brow. 'I don't know what that means.'

'Those with natural magic don't need wands to cast it,' Moon explained. '"Dipping down" is what we call it when one learns to do as such.'

'I'm not…naturally magical,' the teen pointed out. 'I'm just a Mewman. I'm not in the royal bloodline or anything. It's more like I just stole a wand and started using it.'

'I wouldn't say so,' Omnitraxus pitched in. 'As Moon said, you fused with the wand. You bonded with the magic. It sounds to me like you've made yourself naturally magical.'

'That's largely unsubstantiated,' Hekapoo pointed out. 'We'd have to run tests first.'

'That's what we're here for,' the Queen reminded them. 'To run tests to understand both Adam, and the multiverse he hails from.'

'He'll have to sign the form,' the infernal woman stated almost apathetically.

'Form?' Adam asked, his ears perking up.

In response, Hekapoo lifted up a closed fist, and suddenly, a long roll of parchment appeared in her hand from orange flames. It was so long that it rolled all the way across the table to where the young man was sitting. Scanning the long document, he read some of it aloud.

'I hereby consent to allow the members of the Magic High Commission to carry out experiments upon me which may cause discomfort or…DECAPITATION!?'

'That most likely won't happen,' Moon assured him vaguely. The use of conditionals in her assurance did not ease his mind all too much.

'Are you gonna sign it or not?' Hekapoo prompted him irascibly, snapping her fingers. A fiery quill was summoned to his hand in an instant.

Sighing, Adam scanned down to the bottom of the scroll and signed his signature on the blank space. As soon as he did, the parchment disappeared in a flash of burning flames.

'Let's get started, then,' Hekapoo declared. At the snap of her fingers, the table disappeared in orange fire. In its place, a plethora of magical equipment and laboratory desks appeared.

Adam breathed out to brace himself for this.

Marco watched disinterestedly as his best friend paced irritably around the room.

'And then I made a joke, and he didn't even flinch!' Star relayed to him, animatedly flailing her arms in frustration about it. 'I said we'd see each other again, and he was all like "most likely".'

She did an especially crude imitation of him, deepening her voice to a ridiculous degree. Letting out a pointed groan, she grasped her head between her clenched fists.

'Argh, I don't get it!' She moaned. 'I've been trying to make him laugh all week! He's…emotionless!'

'You gotta be fair, Star,' Marco said, interrupting her exasperation session. 'You do have the same face as someone he hates.'

'I know, but he said it would be wrong to judge me on that!'

'Maybe not consciously.'

'You don't think he's even aware he's doing it?' The princess posited to him. Marco folded his arms impartially.

'You said he had a lot of grief because of Dark Star,' he reminded her, leaning back on his chair and resting his feet on her desk. Star rolled her eyes at him.

'We're not calling her that!'

'Do you have a better name?'

'…uh…'

'Eeexactly,' Diaz said confidently. 'Anyway, he has all that…trauma that Dark Star caused. Maaaaybe it's hard to look at you for him sometimes. You can sorta get why he might be a little…frosty.'

'When did you become a psychologist, Dr Diaz?' Star questioned humorously, a grin curling at the corners of her lips. Marco held up his hands in surrender.

'Hey, I just want you two to get along so he can learn that spell faster,' he claimed, shrugging his shoulders. 'Then I won't have to share my room with a guy who screams in his sleep.'

'Marco, you know he can't control that.'

'Well he controls how long I sleep!'

'Ugh, are you gonna help with this or not?' Star asked, folding her arms.

'Help you with what?'

'I gotta make him laugh!' She persisted. 'He's gotta find something funny, right?'

'How am I supposed to know his sense of humour?' The Latino inquired, staring blankly at her.

'I've seen him laugh at some of your jokes, Marco!'

'If you could call that a laugh. It looked more like…a muscle spasm, to me.'

'Well, there has to be something!' Star said determinedly. After a few moments of contemplating it, her face lit up. 'I know what to do!' Marco sighed.

'What?'

'Well, he's started making himself at home,' she said. 'Y'know, he's brought some books up to your room; added some stuff…things like that. We can look through and get an idea of what sense of humour he has!' Star ran over and grabbed his wrist, dragging him towards the door. 'C'mon!'

The magical princess proceeded to haul Marco to his and Adam's shared room. The Latino barely had time to protest as Star barged her way through. Adam had placed a desk on his side of the room, having moved Marco's desk to the side to fit it.

'Get…this thing…open!' Star cried, groaning as she continuously pulled on one of the desk drawers.

'Star, I don't think we should be going through Adam's stuff.'

'Anything he keeps unlocked is fair game!' She argued, as she persistently tried to find something that was unlocked. All of the drawers seemed to have Locking Spells on them, but Star wasn't about to use the Unlocking Spell to gain access to them.

Peering under the desk, she spotted another desk drawer underneath. Curious, she grasped the handle and pulled it out. It was rough against the wood, but at least it wasn't unlocked.

'Oo!' The princess admired, staring down into the drawer. Reaching in, she found a worn old book inside.

The book was an ivory green shade, with worn gold borders decorating it. It had a hard cover, though the edges were scuffed and bent, the fabric twisting and fraying into small strands. The spine was compressed flat, though it clearly looked like it once was round. It too had golden lines running horizontally across it, evenly spaced apart. On the main cover, a title was emblazoned across it in bright gold text: "Ancient Fairy-tales of the Forgotten Lands". There was no given author on its cover.

'Huh. Is that from the library?' Marco wondered, bending down to inspect it.

'I've never heard of it,' Star claimed, staring down at it in confusion. 'And I've had Mom read me, like, every fairy-tale in the library.' Intrigued, she opened up the book to its content page. Her Squire sat down at her side.

'One More Day?' He read in confusion, peering in at the chapter titles. 'Mama, Please Don't Go? Terror of the Butterflies? The Great Monster Purge? The Last Hero? Star, these are…weird.'

However, the magical princess didn't reply. Marco looked up at her. The poor girl was shaking in fright.

'Star? What's wrong?' He asked her. Again, she didn't respond verbally. Instead, she dropped her finger onto the bottom of the right page. His eyes fell down to where her finger was pointing – in-between two chapter titles.

The Butchery of Moon the Malevolent. Just above it, there was another title. Star Butterfly's Last Breath.

'"Moon the Malevolent"? I'm pretty sure it's "Moon the Undaunted",' the teenager commented, hoping to break the long, tense silence that had filled the room.

'Marco…I…I don't think this is from here,' Star stammered, shaking the book in her hands. 'I think…this is…from Adam's multiverse.'

'What? What makes you think that?'

'Really, Marco?' She disparaged, scowling at him. 'It talks about a "Great Monster Purge"! Adam mentioned it once.' She paused to stare down at the bottom chapter titles again. 'Besides…what kind of Mewni book from around here would talk about us like this? Why would it…fantasize…about my death?!'

'Maybe you should put the book down,' he suggested, shutting the book in her hands. 'I think this is…a little too freaky for us.'

'I don't know,' the princess confessed. 'It's just…hard to think about, y'know? There's this other me, and she's…evil. Really evil. I just don't understand how someone like me could become someone like that.'

Marco sat down beside Star, putting a hand on her shoulder comfortingly. She'd been having moments like these all week, and he'd be damned if he'd let her suffer in silence. Especially when Tom wasn't around.

'But you're not her, Star,' he comforted. 'You're your own person, and so is she. You made your own choices and so did she. What does it matter if she looks like you?'

'It's everything that she looks like me!' The princess suddenly yelled. 'How could things have gone so wrong? What kind of hell does Adam come from?!'

'I don't know,' he admitted. 'But when we face that, we'll do it together. You don't have to be alone in this all.' Star began to take some calmer breaths. 'Dark Star – she is someone else, and not you. You're kind, selfless, funny, smart, dependable, confident, and compassionate and you're an amazing friend. You're nothing like Dark Star. You're better than her.'

She breathed out a more confident breath.

'Yeah, yeah…' the girl repeated to herself. 'Yeah, you're right. You know…I am pretty awesome.' She gave him a confident grin. Marco nodded humorously. Star playfully elbowed him. 'You're pretty awesome too, Marco.'

'Thanks,' he acknowledged sincerely.

'Once again, you helped me out of a funk!'

'That's what friends are for,' he replied, glancing down at the book, which was now on the floor. 'You wanna put the book away?'

The magical princess exhaled deeply.

'No,' she decided, picking the book back up. She stood up. 'If I hide this away, it'd be like I was hiding from her. And I can't do that. Not now.'

'Star, you don't have to –'

'Yes, I do,' she insisted, dumping herself on the side of Marco's bed. Reluctantly, he gave her a nod. 'So, which one do you wanna read?'

'I thought you were gonna read the one about your death?' The Squire questioned, frowning.

'What? Heck no, that'd be weird!' She exclaimed, a goofy look on her face. Looking down at the book, she opened it to the contents page and read the titles again. 'Hmm…you know, the Last Hero sounds good.'

'Alright, sure,' the Latino agreed, sitting down on the bed beside her.

'Oookay, page eighty-three…' she thought aloud, before flicking through the pages to find it. As soon as she got to the right one, she straightened her back. '"Once upon a time" – yep, definitely a fairy-tale. "Once upon a time, when the War of the Butterflies seemed to be coming to a close, one man stood up against a whole army. His name was Crankulus." Ha, Crankulus.' She giggled. 'I bet Crankulus was real cranky. Must've been lanky too, to be as tall as an army!'

The two best friends laughed with each other as they continued to read the fairy-tale.

Adam squeezed his eyes shut as a bright light shone into his pupils. He moved his head away in surprise.

'You're not helping,' Hekapoo complained. 'Quit being a wuss.'

Grudgingly, Adam agreed. Hekapoo was pointing some strange torchlight in his eye, inspecting every aspect of it. She had claimed she was "searching for magical traces", though he wasn't too sure she'd even be able to find anything. His magic was concentrated in his hand, after all. It was like his wand. Adam was convinced Hekapoo was just trying to inconvenience him.

Speaking of his hand, it was currently being inspected by Queen Moon. She was using a Magical Quantascope to get a closer look at the magic trace around his star mark. Adam couldn't really tell what she was seeing down it, but so far nothing appeared amiss. Then again, Moon was impressively apt at maintaining a completely stoic expression.

'Ugh, I got nothing,' Hekapoo complained. 'Fire it again.' Adam sighed.

'Spectral Aim,' he cast with little enthusiasm. A single, glowing green arrow shot out of his hand and hit the archery target board towards its edge.

Hekapoo walked over and plucked the arrow out of the target. Bringing back to the desk Moon was working on, she handed it to the Queen.

'Take a look at this next,' she recommended. The fiery demon turned to look at Omnitraxus Prime. He was currently dormant, meditating to scan space-time. 'Have you managed to find anything about him, Omnitraxus?'

'He does seem to give off…a strange aura in space-time,' the entity mentioned, his two orbs for eyes glowing at her. 'It behaves much like magic…but it's different. Exotic matter, perhaps.'

'That would lend credence to him being from another multiverse,' Moon pointed out, staring directly at Rhombulus.

'I still don't believe it!' He exclaimed, folding his arms petulantly.

'His hand mark gives off a very faint trace. I can't see the magic very well,' the Queen said, as she switched over to looking at the spectral arrow. 'Hmm…this arrow looks strange under the Quantascope.'

'What do you mean?' Adam asked, leaping off the chair to get a look down the Quantascope. Moon allowed him to look down, and waited until he came back up again. 'Uhh, so…what's wrong with it?'

'It looks almost the same,' Moon explained, looking at Hekapoo. 'But it's the opposite colour to what it should look like under the scope.'

'Why?' Adam asked, confused. 'Isn't it just…magic?'

'I don't know,' Hekapoo admitted, reaching over to take out the arrow. 'However, I could try, liquefying it, or whatever.'

'Liquid magic, yes,' Omnitraxus agreed. 'It would be much easier to determine its nature if it's in its purest form.'

'How are you going to liquefy magic?' Adam inquired, entirely nonplussed.

'Mystical distillation should do the trick,' she decided, receiving an agreeing nod from Moon and Omnitraxus. Hekapoo moved over to a strange glass flask with a tube coming out of it, and dumped the green arrow inside.

'What's mystical distillation?' The Mewman asked, staring at the flask where his glowing arrow sat.

'You ask too many questions,' Hekapoo complained, getting into a square stance.

Throwing out her hands, she blasted the flask with a stream of bright flames. Adam jumped back in surprise, colliding Rhombulus square in the chest.

'Hey, get off!' The diamond-head yelled, grabbing him and pushing him away.

'Oh, quit whining you big dumb baby!' The Mewman retorted immaturely, pointing an accusing finger at him. 'You've been doing that all day!'

'What did you say to me?!' Rhombulus bellowed back, stomping towards him.

'I said you're acting like a child!' He repeated, the two of them meeting face-to-face.

'No I'm not!' Rhombulus wailed. 'You're acting like a child! You are a child!'

'Silence, the pair of you!' Queen Moon boomed over them, frightening both of them instantly. 'The process is almost complete. Please just be –'

'Rhombulus!' Hekapoo interrupted. 'Timeout Corner! Now!' She threw her arm over to the corner in question.

'But what about –'

'GO!'

Rhombulus grumbled, but ultimately agreed. Adam could hear he was muttering numerous grievances about him. And how evil he apparently was. The teenager opted not to call him out on it, though it still made him groan. The guy had been whining and moaning constantly about his very existence, insisting he was evil. In all honesty, Adam was surprised that these millennia-old beings had such a black-and-white view on the world.

'Got it!' Hekapoo announced. Adam turned to see her taking out a second flask from the mystical distillation equipment.

'Woah,' he remarked, stepping forward to get a closer look. The flask contained a bright, electric purple luminescent liquid. 'And that's…pure magic?'

'Not just pure magic,' Moon said, as Hekapoo took out a sample to test. 'It's your magic.'

'What?'

'Look, slowpoke,' Hekapoo addressed, folding her arms exasperatedly at him. 'That' – she pointed to the flash of magic she had set down – 'is your magical essence. Everything about you and your magic can be determined from that. Your potential, your skills, your alignment, anything.'

'Anything?' Adam parroted, gulping.

'Anything,' she said again, turning over to type into a computer. The screen displayed the word "scanning" on it.

"Anything" included Dark magic. They would know he'd been practising the Dark Arts! And they'd probably figure out he'd been trying to create his own spells – which were also Dark!

'Um, maybe we don't need to run that test,' he proposed awkwardly, scratching the back of his neck.

'Of course we do,' Moon disputed, folding her arms. 'It'll tell us everything we need to know.'

'That's what I'm worried about,' he muttered. 'Hekapoo, I'm sure there's absolutely nothing –'

'It's done!' She interrupted, prompting Moon to move over with Omnitraxus's crystal ball. 'Alright, mostly Light magic, so that's good.'

'Wait what?' Adam asked, moving over to read the screen. It showed a percentage bar, where green was Light magic, and red was Dark magic. Indeed, it showed that it was predominantly green. 'Er, I mean, yeah, of course. What did you expect?'

Ignoring the insolent boy's antics, Hekapoo read on.

'Hmm…not much talent; exceptionally low potential, Moon,' she gauged, making Adam slowly deflate like a sad balloon. 'Wow, you're really not that impressive, are you? Er…okay, you do have impressive skill with interdimensional magic. I don't think I've seen many Butterflies managing that.'

'So, I'm not that bad at magic?' Adam hoped, his smile brightening happily.

'Oh, no, you're horrendous,' Hekapoo assured him, with her brutal honesty. 'However…it's clear you've been practicing your skills pretty well. Who trained you?'

'Glossaryck.'

Hekapoo took one look at him before bursting into laughter. Her shrieks of humour echoed through the room for a solid few seconds before Moon intervened.

'Hekapoo! Compose yourself!'

'Sorry, it's just…Glossaryck doesn't train anyone,' she laughed.

'Red Glossaryck did,' he argued, folding his arms. 'For all you know he might work differently in my universe!'

'Ha, sure, buddy,' she dismissed, turning her attention back to the readings.

'Is there anything else, Hekapoo?' Moon asked.

'Well, it looks like…wait what?!'

Her loud yell made Adam jump.

'What's the problem?' He demanded, as Queen Moon bent over to look at the monitor.

'Look!' Hekapoo cried, pointing at some text on the monitor. 'It says that your magic is that of a Butterfly. For all intents and purposes, you are a Butterfly.'

'How is that possible?' Omnitraxus wondered. 'I can't detect any aura from the liquid magic.'

'The energy-magic spectroscopy displays patterns concurrent with Butterfly magic,' she explained, pointing to a diagram to prove her point. 'In theory, Moon, he could even unlock a Full Butterfly form.'

The Queen's eyes widened at that particular bit of information.

'Well, I did absorb Star's wand,' Adam pointed out. 'Maybe that gave me a little bit of her magic?'

'That doesn't make any sense,' Hekapoo derided, scowling at him. 'If you absorbed the magic from a shard, then it's just magic. It wasn't connected to the original wand! It certainly didn't turn Ludo into a Butterfly.' She rubbed her chin in thought. 'Maybe…? No. Could be. Is it possible? Can't be.'

'What's not possible, Hekapoo?' Moon prompted her.

'Maybe the readings show he is a Butterfly because he's linked to one,' she suggested. 'Linked to Star, to be more accurate.' Hekapoo turned to Adam. 'Exactly how did that shard become detached from the wand?'

'Um…the Star from my universe cast the Whispering Spell, I think,' Adam remembered vaguely. 'She destroyed Castle Avarius. There were rumours though…about…'

'About what?' The demon prompted.

'There were rumours that when she…shattered the wand, she created another warp in space-time.'

'Another?!' Moon repeated, as her jaw dropped to the floor.

'In my world, the Butterflies had a crusade across the entire multiverse,' Adam elaborated. 'They regularly caused "issues" for the fabric of reality. They tended to get things all…mixed up. The space-time continuum is weaker over there because they keep scrambling it.'

'That's it!' Hekapoo cried, slamming on the table. 'When the…other…Star cast the Whispering Spell she unleashed a wave of Dark magic. Once she created that warp, it mixed with the Dark magic so that, when the shard was activated, by you, it created a link across space-time to here. To Star's wand!'

'Now that you mention it,' Adam considered, his mind flashing to numerous incidents in the past week. 'I've been able to…sense Star's magic. It happened when I was infiltrating the castle – I knew where to find her! And when we fought, I knew some of the spells she would cast! And she knew I was telling the truth about where I was from!'

'Those "magical instincts", I think she called it,' Moon recalled begrudgingly, folding her arms.

'Perhaps this is why you were brought to this multiverse in particular,' Omnitraxus pitched in.

'Maybe, but that doesn't explain how to get back,' Adam complained. 'And why would I get a connection to this multiverse? It could have been any other one, right?'

'One thing at a time, Adam,' the Queen cautioned, prompting a sad look from the warlock.

'This complicated magic has turned you into a Butterfly,' Hekapoo realised, staring at him. 'But there are a few things that don't add up.'

Adam frowned and promptly asked, 'like what?'

'For one, some of these readings are very weird,' she said, searching through them. 'The Quantascope registers your magic as on a completely different range. The readings on this machine claim your magic doesn't technically exist. And yet, it's able to compute your potential and your Light-Dark alignment. It doesn't make sense.'

'Perhaps if we used the Magical Barometer?' Queen Moon proposed, assuming a regal stance once again. After a few moments of thinking it over, Hekapoo began to nod.

'Yeah, that might be able to help.' The fiery demon moved over to one of the metal drawers and pulled it out. Reaching in, she produced a long wooden device.

Getting a closer look, Adam could see how intricate it was. A few knobs and switches were on it to adjust numerous settings. A small glass window in the shape of a rainbow covered a measuring meter. It had four distinct sections: a red one, yellow one, a green one and a purple one. The red one had the words, "completely ordinary" in small black; the orange one read, "average Mewman"; the green one said, "magic user"; and the purple one had the word "Butterfly" written on it.

'Okay,' Hekapoo announced, flicking a switch on the side of the Barometer. Adam heard the sound of electricity activating, and then the screen behind the glass lit up.

'Uh, where you gonna put that?' The Mewman asked cautiously, backing away from her slightly.

'Relax, kid,' she dismissed, scowling disinterestedly at the young warlock.

'It's harmless,' Moon assured him. 'It detects some of your magic. It's precise, but a little…outdated. However, it seems the more advanced equipment has failed us this time.'

Hekapoo waved the Magical Barometer in front of him. He heard blips on the device, much like those heard from a Geiger counter. Adam watched as the nonchalant look on her face morphed into that of blinding confusion.

'What the –?' She mused aloud in shock. 'This…this doesn't make any sense!'

'Let me see,' Moon ordered, grabbing a hold of the Barometer and studying it. Ultimately, she too drew back in shock. 'I don't understand…perhaps it's broken?'

'It's old tech, not broken tech,' Hekapoo deadpanned. 'It's fully functional.' She pressed a button to change something and showed it to her.

'I see…' the Queen said, looking at it again. 'It's working fine.'

'What is it this time?' Adam complained, before letting out a loud groan.

'Look at it when it's scanning Moon,' Hekapoo commanded, turning the screen around to show him. Sure enough, the pointer was vibrating comfortably in the purple section of the gauge.

'I don't get it, what's the problem?'

'The problem,' she said, rolling her eyes at his stupidity, 'Is that, when I scan you, this happens.' The demon pressed a button and showed it back to him.

Adam stared at it. The pointer was vibrating completely in the red section. The red section that meant he was "completely ordinary"!

'According to this Barometer, you're not giving off any magic,' Hekapoo told him. 'The red section means no magic. Just background radiation.'

'That doesn't make sense!' Adam exclaimed in shock.

'Yeah, no kidding it doesn't make sense, Captain Obvious!' The infernal woman scolded him. 'You're clearly giving off magic! All the equipment says you are, and you can't be casting spells without having a magical aura!' She stared down at the Magical Barometer. 'The blips you keep hearing are pulses of magical radiation, too. If it really were just detecting ordinary radiation, it would be completely silent.'

'He definitely has a magical aura,' Omnitraxus said. 'I can sense it…but as I told you before, it's different to normal magic.'

'Different, how, exactly?' Queen Moon asked him, frowning at the statement.

'It's hard to explain,' Omnitraxus claimed. 'It seems to behave the same, but its composition looks strange to me. It seems to warp space-time in a different way to how your magic does. It looks…like the opposite.'

'Opposite…' Hekapoo quoted. 'Opposite…hmm…' she stared back down at the Magical Barometer in her hands. 'What if I…switch the input terminals around?' She flicked a switch, turned a dial to the max and then held it in front of Adam. 'Oh, there we go. Look!'

Adam looked over to get a look as Moon did the same. He spotted the pointer, but this time it was vibrating in the purple section. Moon's reading had been closer to the end, whilst his was in the middle. However, it was undeniably in the Butterfly section.

'How does that work?' The Queen enquired, looking helplessly at Hekapoo. In response, Hekapoo switched the target to Queen Moon. This time, the meter pointer indicated her firmly in the red.

'When I switch the nodes, it picks his magic up perfectly,' Hekapoo described, switching back to Adam. 'When I do that, it shows Moon's magic as the opposite – in the red, like Adam's magic when it's on the default calibration.'

'So, my magic is…opposite to Moon's?' The teenager surmised, scratching his head.

'Not just my magic. It's all magic, isn't it, Hekapoo?' The Queen figured, giving her a serious look. Hekapoo nodded.

'I'm not sure how, or why, but it is.'

'I think I know how,' Omnitraxus interjected, his voice echoing over theirs.

'How, Omni?' Moon prompted.

'I think there is only one explanation for these anomalous properties,' the skull-head told him. 'Anti-magic.'

'Anti-magic?!' Hekapoo yelled.

'Yes,' Omnitraxus confirmed. 'His magic is on the same magnitude as ours, behaving much the same way. However, some of its properties are…well, opposite. The only explanation is that the multiverse Adam originates from possesses opposite magic. Or anti-magic, if you prefer.'

If the properties were opposite, then some of the readings must be too. Immediately, the warlock understood what had happened. The readings showed predominantly Light magic because the machine read his Dark as Light. Considering how much he'd practiced Dark magic over Light, it only made sense that that was the more common one.

The Mewman just hoped that the other people in the room wouldn't make that connection either. Otherwise, they'd find out he was up to some…particularly shady work.

'You might be right,' Moon decided, nodding warily. 'Adam may come from some kind of…Negative Multiverse, if you will.'

'Anti-magic? EVIL!' Someone bellowed.

Before Adam knew what had happened, half of his body was encased in unbreakable crystal. The members of the MHC turned to see Rhombulus, who by now had stood up, pointing his snake arms at the young teenager.

'Rhombulus!' Moon disdained. 'Free Adam at once!'

'No! He's evil!'

'He has shown no such nature!' The Queen argued, folding her arms.

'Let him go, Rhombulus!' Hekapoo demanded, stomping her foot down. 'He is a major magical breakthrough, and I will not have you damage our research!'

Adam wasn't sure how he felt about being objectified, but he knew it wasn't worth complaining. At least Hekapoo didn't want him crystallised, he supposed. Biting the hand that fed wouldn't be the smartest move.

'Ugh, fine!'

A second later, the teen was blasted with blue light. Slowly, the crystals shrank away and disappeared. It took a few seconds before he was completely freed.

'Thanks,' he acknowledged, primarily to Moon. 'So…anti-magic?'

'I've never seen anything like it,' the Queen admitted, her eyes flickering between the liquid magic flask and the Mewman himself.

'Is it dangerous?' Adam asked.

'Not from what I can tell,' Omnitraxus answered. 'It's simply the opposite. Luckily for you, it doesn't cancel magic out.'

'Some of these readings appear to be the opposite because the equipment reads your anti-magic signature as magic,' Hekapoo stated, picking up the flask of pure magic. 'It's hard to tell which ones are which. We'll have to run lots of tests of the course of your time here to determine the full effects of this "anti-magic".'

'This anti-magic…' Moon thought aloud. 'Perhaps this is why you broke the Magical Detection Machine.'

'You did what?!' Hekapoo shrieked, instantly enveloped in an aggressive fiery aura.

'Um…that was an accident!' The Mewman insisted, putting his hands up in defence.

'If your anti-magic is detected often in the opposite, then that must have happened with the machine,' Queen Moon deduced, rubbing her chin in thought. 'Instead of detecting any magic, it must have detected there being less than no magic. A null value like that would definitely break it.'

'You're paying for that,' Hekapoo threatened Adam, an infernal glower rigid on her face.

'I don't have any money!'

'Then get some!'

'How would I –'

'Both of you calm down!' Moon ordered disapprovingly. 'I will pay for the repairs, not you, Adam. It's not a problem.'

'…Fine!' The fiery demon woman relented, glaring out the window.

'So, uh…are we done here?' Adam prompted tentatively, being sure to keep his distance from the demon.

'For now, yes,' Hekapoo confirmed half-heartedly. 'Come back next week. It's going to take some time before we can properly analyse your anti-magic.'

'Well, thank you, Hekapoo,' Moon spoke up, batting an eye at Adam. 'We must be off.'

Adam gave a nod, and the two of them turned to go. As they did, the Mewman began to think over some of the information he had just been given. His magic was bound, in some way, to Star's wand. Realistically, what could he use with that information? Maybe there was something he could try.

I need to see Star.

Whew! 9000 words. I hope I kept you all entertained. Thanks for reading the ninth chapter of 'Star vs the Forces of the Negative Multiverse'! Sorry if the ending there seemed a little abrupt, but the chapter was already getting really long so I had to cut it off. Plus, the next part of the story is worthy of its own episode, given the events of this episode merely lead into the next.

Quite a lot of revelations in this chapter. The concept of anti-magic isn't hugely pertinent to the story, it's one of the minor areas. I'll tend to still refer to Adam's anti-magic as simply "magic", since the two are essentially the same, as it's just easier than drawing that distinction when it's not always relevant to the plot. However, it defines why some of the rules of magic and dimensions are different for Adam, such as the Negative Mewman spellcasters' ability to open portals without use of the ultimate magic form. I considered making it essentially the same as anti-matter, but that would mean it would annihilate real magic and that would make it hard for him to be present in the Positive Multiverse, so I opted not to.

Writing Rhombulus for this chapter was fun, and I think Adam's reaction towards him was very much in character. Adam is someone who takes a lot of things seriously, unless he's with friends with them, then he feels he can be more chill. So when he sees someone like Rhombulus, a guy with a disproportionate amount of power, he's naturally going to despise his immaturity.

Finally including the MHC was a long time coming imo, I had it in my head from the start that they would meet Adam and study him. It made sense to me that that's what they would do, after all, Adam is a huge magical breakthrough so they would definitely be interested in him. Hekapoo is of course the other major prominent character in this chapter, as she tends to take charge in most situations, while Omnitraxus is less important, though his position as existing over all of space-time is what led them to figuring out the nature of Adam's anti-magic.

The MHC from Adam's multiverse have a few differences which I will go into detail about when they show up. Lekmet is still alive

Also, we finally get the true reason behind those "magical instincts". They weren't simply a plot contrivance, although the concept does only exist to serve the plot. Nevertheless, when I first included the portions where Star and Adam were able to determine things about each other for no clear reason, I knew there needed to be an explanation. So hence, this chapter provided one.

One obvious bit of foreshadowing was Adam possessing magic output on the level of a Butterfly. He definitely got a humbling from Hekapoo. You can't really be surprised; Adam is just a Mewman. While Mewmans have heightened magical aptitude compared to a human, but he's not talented in magical at all because magic doesn't run in his blood. While the wand magic fusing with his DNA has given him the status of a Butterfly, he doesn't know how to use it inherently. It's more like he has the potential, but he's not talented. Everything he achieves will be through blood, sweat, tears and other bodily fluids.

That's enough rambling for now. Next chapter will be called 'Demon Days', which is the first part of an eponymous two-chapter episode featuring Tom and the spells from the wand like Narwhal and Spider With a Top Hat.

As always, thanks for views, reviews, favs and follows!