Episode:
6: Undaunted Eclipse
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In his efforts to get home, Adam pushes himself to the brink of collapse. A new hope for him materialises in the form of a legendary sorcerer.

Nowadays, every chance that Adam got, he was in the Butterfly Family library. He felt this was the most appropriate place to be, if he was to research magic, and figure out a way back home. Considering he had no official role in the castle, he felt it made sense to keep him busy. Especially when Star was off on her princess duties and Marco was off either with her or fulfilling other squire obligations. Often, he'd have nothing to do during that time, so he figured it was only logical to get back to work figuring this stuff out.

Not only that, but it allowed him to study magic to a wider degree. As his skill in magic was steadily increasing, Adam began to experiment with more complex magic. Having already spotted his weakness in Creation magic, he was trying to emphasise practice on that.

However, other things had also progressed. Research of Arybailos was essentially complete. A browse through the library in the Lucitor Castle, back when he was in the Underworld a couple weeks ago, had done wonders for his understanding of the primordial demon. From what he understood, Arybailos was an ancient devilish entity with immense power, commonly referred to as the God of Demons. Allegedly, he spited Lucifer by consuming the Immortal Flame and usurping ultimate infernal might.

Now, he'd been able to figure out the magic behind borrowing some of his power.

Runes were an effective way of imposing magic within a localised area. They could be of any size – though the larger they were intended, the higher the skill requirement.

Fortunately for Adam, this rune he was making only needed to work within a very small area, mainly encompassing the caster only. Once created, the rune would bind to the caster and maintain its effects no matter how far the user was from where it had originated. It was a loophole for unlimited range, but it could only work on, so far, the person who created the rune only.

Runes created this way often required Dark magic, and these types of runes were known as seals. Seals were a dark alternative to runes - by nature, they utilised Dark magic instead of Light magic. As a result of that, they often involved some kind of pact or exchange with the forces of magic to grant such intense power.

The caster's mana was not affected by the rune once it had been placed. Effectively, the rune could last indefinitely until the user chose to remove it. Or if another, more powerful spell-caster negated its effects.

This seal would, when created, grant the caster a fraction of Arybailos's power for a period of time. Strictly speaking, it would use the Immortal Flame that Arybailos's soul bound to, essentially redirecting some of it onto the user. It was only a small fraction, but certainly enough to bolster Adam a great deal. A Dark Alteration spell with immense power and even greater possibilities.

Adam called this spell, "the Seal of Arybailos". In order for the spell to work, he had to create a seal containing Underworld language that would allow him to tap into the Immortal Flame. This was actually the easiest part of the whole process of creating this spell.

For such an apparently beneficial spell, it would seem logical to make its use commonplace.

Not quite. Such Dark magic required some kind of balance to yield such a powerful effect. The spell could only be maintained for as long as the user could manage – which usually wasn't long.

That was because, for as long as the Seal was active, it would drain your soul. You had to plead your soul to magic to do it, and this meant that you were essentially trading a part of your soul for temporary power.

Fortunately, as soon as the Seal was removed, the rest of the caster's soul would come screaming back to them. Provided you didn't keep the spell up for too long, that is. If you tried to maintain the rune for too long, your soul would be completely drained.

This was precisely why Adam had kept the creation of the Seal of Arybailos to himself. Star certainly would not approve of him making a spell that would slowly kill you. Adam could understand the reservations she'd have behind it, but that negative effect was necessary and ultimately inconsequential. So long as broke the seal before it was too late, he'd be fine.

Yet, for all the research and effort he'd put into it, Adam had not yet been able to successfully cast the Seal of Arybailos. Quite frustrating, really. It worked on most fronts – the seal could form correctly, the incantation he wrote was effective, and he could genuinely feel the magic working.

However, there was a particular snag about the whole ordeal. He hadn't been able to complete the connection between him and Arybailos. Adam had to keep practicing the spell in order to transfer his magical essence across dimensions to the demon. Ironically, he wasn't powerful enough yet to cast the spell that would (temporarily) make him more powerful.

It wasn't a major setback. It just meant that he'd have to be patient and keep trying.

Right now, though, Adam was not practicing the Seal of Arybailos. Today, he was researching dimensional travel and wormholes in space-time. He hadn't searched the entire library, but he had picked out the first few books he could see about the subject matter.

Of course, Adam knew he wasn't going to find anything about travelling between multiverses. After all, it was clear that the mere suggestion of alternate multiverses independent of the current one was entirely alien. After all, it was hard to conceive existence beyond the boundaries of our own plane of existence.

The current book the Mewman was studying was called, "Dimensional Portalling and Metaphysical Planes". Not exactly the most exciting eye-catcher, but it was academic and informative. This was the sixth book he had read from the library so far, and the second in the five he'd picked out today.

Adam looked over at the next page and inspected closer at it. There was a diagram depicting space-time like paper, bending over to meet itself. Next to it, there was another diagram, showing space-time as paper torn in half and stuck together. The caption explained that dimensional travelling with scissors involved tearing a hole through space-time, while dimensional travelling with a caster's magic was like bending space-time.

Vaguely, he recalled Glossaryck describing a similar thing to him. He'd used the analogy to open a dimensional portal. Perhaps, a similar method could be used to open the intermultiversal portal.

Perhaps not, though. The most pertinent thing behind opening a portal between two multiverses was the idea of creating a dimensional bridge between them.

Concepts of dimensional bridges had been described in this book, too. It had explained that, strictly speaking, a portal wasn't one gateway – it was two. Both gateways opened with an imperceptible delay, the entrance first and then the destination. The space between them was called the dimensional bridge. This was what connected the two points in space-time.

With actual dimensional portals, you couldn't tell there even was a space between them. However, Adam remembered that, when he'd fallen into that wormhole, there was a long gap of time between entrance and exit. It had been a boundless, dark purple void, which the warlock figured was the dimensional bridge connecting the Negative Multiverse to the Positive Multiverse.

Dimensional bridges always closed after the portal closed. So that ruled out using the same bridge to force open the portal using that connection.

However, the mere fact that the dimensional bridge in that wormhole was longer than usual gave him something to go on. The teenager figured the reason behind that was due to connecting two points in space-time of two different planes of existence.

Connecting two different planes, he repeated, looking back at the diagram again.

The diagram showing dimensional travel with use of scissors had a curiously similar design to the way he just described a wormhole between multiverses. Perhaps the answer could be found in the physics behind the dimensional scissors. Maybe he was merely clutching at straws, but inventing a completely new area of physics wasn't going to be easy.

Adam turned over the page and read through the title. "Length of Dimensional Bridges". He sat up and straightened his back to read the passage.

"Dimensional bridges are typically indiscernible to the human eye," he read in his head. "However, several theories have been put forward that it is, in fact, theoretically possible for the bridge between portals to be longer than usual.

"Previously, a common notion was that, in order for this to occur, there must be great a distance in space-time between the two portals such that the link between the two is long. All current experiments point to the contrary: the distance has no effect as the wormhole can connect any point in space-time to another.

"A secondary suggestion is that the dimensional bridge may be connecting two points that are on different planes of existence. What is "different" about them is not clear, though it has been considered that these kinds of portals may connect different spatial dimensions or membranes. Realistically, however, it would be impossible to travel from a third-dimensional spatial membrane to a higher one, e.g. a fourth-dimensional membrane. [8]

"These theories remain mostly unfounded. No such evidence has been suggested as to the existence of these so-called "elongated" dimensional bridges. Nor has evidence been found for higher dimensions that these portals connect, and it is unknown if they are even detectable."

Adam sighed and thumped the table in frustration. Right now, the whole "longer dimensional bridges" was a dead end. Nobody knew how it was possible, but Adam had hoped that, maybe, he could build upon current ideas and theories to come up with the answer.

And yet, nothing. Zilch. Nada.

He sat back in his chair and stared at the rows of bookshelves at the back of the room. The Butterfly Castle had seemingly endless numbers of books, but he was starting to doubt if there really was anything inside to help him.

No. Adam shook the thought away as quickly as it came.

This library was massive. He'd only searched three books including this one. It was illogical to assume that this old book would have up-to-date information. Even though he had no idea if the books would actually help, it was worth trying. It was better than giving up.

He bent forward and skipped back to the contents page. Maybe there was –

'Ahem, excuse me, dear,' a jovial voice asked from behind him. The teen jumped and spun around.

A strange woman in a strange, gothic dark purple dress and a black, feather sun hat stood by the entrance to the library. She had pale skin and outrageously poofy teal hair, along with long deep black mascara and maroon lipstick. She looked centuries out of style for the time.

Out of all of that, though, the one thing that really caught his eye was the two raspberry-coloured spades on either of her cheeks. That kind of thing indicated one thing and one thing only.

A Butterfly.

That would explain how he was able to hear her speak. The teenager didn't like to be disturbed, so he had created a rune spell – practice for the Seal – that would completely silence everything outside of its range for those inside its bubble. And vice versa. He called it the Total Silencing Spell.

From what the Mewman could tell, though, this woman had deactivated or removed the rune. After all, she was standing outside of its range.

When Adam failed to respond to her question, the Butterfly woman spoke up again.

'I was just wondering what you were doing in the library at this hour,' she explained, fidgeting with her fingers.

'Me? Oh, um,' he fumbled. 'I-I was just doing some important research.'

'Quite the bookworm, I see,' she teased, gesturing towards the pile of books on the table next to him.

'More or less, I suppose,' Adam replied awkwardly, not sure what to do. Reluctantly, he rose from his seat and walked over to her. Each of his steps were cautious and withdrawn. 'Um, I'm Adam. Are…are you a Butterfly?'

'I am,' the stranger answered curtly. Once the teenager realised she wasn't going to elaborate, he promptly raised his eyebrows.

'Which one?' Adam asked her.

Her voice seemed to waver for a second.

'Eclipsa,' the Butterfly answered.

Wait a minute, he knew that name!

'Eclipsa?' The Mewman gawked. 'Eclipsa, as in, the Queen of Darkness?'

Eclipsa sighed and looked down at the ground in melancholy.

'Yes, I'm afraid so.'

'That's…' he stammered. 'Perfect!' His face brightened immediately.

She looked back up at him, frowning.

'I'm sorry?' Eclipsa said, her eyes widening.

'You're the master of Dark magic, you can help me!' The teenager elucidated, smiling brightly. 'Ah, I should have spoken to you sooner. I can't believe it didn't occur to me!'

'Forgive me, dear, but I'm awfully confused.'

'It's a long story,' he said hastily, moving back over to the chair he'd been sitting in. Adam beckoned her to follow, which Eclipsa did with the same bewildered look on her face. Once she sat, he turned the book he'd been reading around to face her. Pointing to the page, the Mewman spoke up again. 'I accidentally travelled to this multiverse for another one; I've been trying to figure a way back.'

'What?' Eclipsa uttered. Seeing how confused she was, Adam breathed out to satiate his excitement.

He began to explain the circumstances of how he ended up travelling between multiverses. To her credit, Eclipsa mostly just listened instead of asking questions, which was refreshing. Other Butterflies – mainly Star – would be content to interrupt him constantly and bombard him with an array of questions before he could even finish explaining. Honestly, he hadn't known what to expect from the Queen of Darkness – he'd never met her, nor had he much knowledge of her Negative Multiverse equivalent.

She seemed quite nice, though. When he finished his story of how he got to this moment, Adam opened up the floor to any questions she might have. Inevitably, of course, she did.

'How exactly are you able to cast magic?' Eclipsa enquired. This was a question he'd expected, given that he had begun his story from the point where he was practicing with Glossaryck.

'I fused with a piece of the royal wand from my universe,' Adam answered, opening his right palm to show her his star-shaped scar. The Queen of Darkness inspected it closely.

'Fascinating,' she mused, tentatively holding the back of his hand and touching the mark with her other. Adam winced slightly as her touch on the delicate skin, but the woman didn't notice. 'Some kind of fusion between magic and Mewman. I've never seen this before. How interesting!'

'Yeah, Gloss said it wasn't possible in this multiverse,' the warlock added, as Eclipsa retracted her hands from his. 'I guess…different multiverse; different rules.'

The Queen of Darkness sat back in her chair opposite him.

'So, Adam, you need my help in returning home?' She recalled, her eyes focussing on him.

'Yes,' he stated politely. 'If…that's not too much to ask.'

'I'd love to help!' Eclipsa replied brightly. 'I wouldn't turn someone down in need.' Her face fell slightly. 'The only issue is, my dear, I'm not entirely certain how much help I could give you. This magic…I didn't know it even existed.'

'I didn't, either,' Adam pointed out. 'But I know it's possible. We've just gotta figure it out. And that would be easier with someone who has far greater skill and knowledge in magic than I do.'

'Why don't you ask your Glossaryck?'

'I tried. He doesn't really want to help.'

'No, I suppose he wouldn't,' she responded with a small hum. 'Glossaryck…exists on a different level to us. Chances are he won't help because he knows that you'll figure it out without him.'

'Then that's encouraging, I guess,' the Mewman supposed, rubbing his chin in thought. 'Your skill in magic – especially Dark magic – is unparalleled. If there's anyone who can help, it's you, Eclipsa.'

'I'll try my best,' she promised him.

'I don't suppose…you could teach me?' Adam wondered gingerly.

'Teach you?'

'Yeah, like, teach me magic,' he elaborated. 'It's easier to learn from a mentor, especially from someone who can relate to being the student.'

'Hmm, well,' Eclipsa wavered, unsure how to phrase what she wanted to say. 'I'm not against it, but I expect Queen Moon would be.'

'Then we won't tell her,' the Mewman immediately suggested, as though it was an easy solution.

'Adam, Moon doesn't exactly trust me,' she told him, shifting in her seat. 'I don't want to do anything to make her trust me even less.'

'I don't get why she doesn't trust you,' the warlock criticised, sitting back in his chair. 'Yeah, you have a penchant for Dark magic, but c'mon! Knowledge isn't evil, people who use it for evil are.'

Eclipsa hummed in agreement.

'All knowledge is good knowledge is what I always say,' she replied happily. 'You see, it's not simply because of the Dark magic. Three centuries ago, when I was the Queen of Mewni, I ran away.'

'Ran away? Why?'

'I was in an arranged marriage to an oaf, King Shastacan,' the Queen told him, sighing. 'And I fell in love with someone else. I ran away from my duties to be with him, because they all wanted him dead.'

'Was that because of your…infidelity?' He didn't want to use that word, given the negative connotations of it, but it was the only way to describe it.

'No,' Eclipsa answered cautiously. It was then that he realised that the Queen of Darkness was holding an important bit of information back. 'I fell in love with a Monster. The Monster King, to be exact.' She looked down. 'The Mewmans weren't exactly a fan of that.'

'Typical. Monster prejudice,' Adam spat in disgust.

'I'm glad you don't see them that way,' she praised, nodding at him respectfully.

'My adoptive parents were Monsters, actually,' he revealed to her. Eclipsa's eyes widened.

'Really?' The woman said in surprise. Adam nodded in confirmation. 'That's lovely. What were they like?'

'Well, my mom was definitely the one in charge,' he answered nostalgically. 'She really knew how to command discipline, even from Dad. And then she'd read me bedtime stories every night. Meanwhile, Dad would try and scare me to sleep, but he always failed miserably. He loved going out to play with me, though, so I'll always remember him for that.'

Eclipsa could sense profound grief for him, and instantly connected the dots. His parents were dead. It was probably a long time ago, which, though it meant he had more time to move on, it also meant it happened to him when he was quite young. Adam hadn't divulged many details about his life or the Negative Multiverse, so that was all she had to go on.

'It's truly awful how some people view Monsters simply as brutish barbarians,' she mulled sadly. 'Yet, even if I took out the detail about the Monster King, though, people were furious that I abandoned my duties as the Queen. I imagine Moon doesn't trust me with any responsibility right now.'

'Well that's stupid.'

The Queen of Darkness looked up at him in surprise.

'You don't judge me for what I did?'

'Of course not!' The Mewman scoffed, folding his arms. 'You didn't even want to be married to Shastacan – you were forced into it. And then you fell in love with someone. Not some "evil" Monster, just someone. Nobody respected what you wanted. If you cage a person for long enough, eventually they'll break free. What you did was out of love. What could be evil about that?'

Relieved, Eclipsa smiled brightly at the teenager.

'You know, it is nice to speak to someone who doesn't already hate me.' Adam shrugged his shoulders abashedly at the praise. 'You've changed my mind. I don't care what Moon thinks, it would be a shame to miss out on teaching such an exceptional student!'

Admittedly, he wasn't so sure about him being "exceptional", but he figured now wasn't the time to be contrary.

'Thanks, Eclipsa!' Adam acknowledged brightly. 'I really appreciate it!'

He thought about telling her about the Seal of Arybailos, but the Mewman decided not to. He didn't really need her help for that part, considering all that was required was practice. Not to mention he wasn't sure how even Eclipsa would feel about the spell that drains your soul. She might consider it too dangerous and tell him to stop, something he definitely couldn't afford to do.

'You know, if Queen Moon really does find out,' Adam considered. 'It's my fault, not yours.'

'I think the blame can be equally shared, my dear,' Eclipsa assured him, waving a hand dismissively at the comment. 'But let's cross that bridge when we come to it, shall we?'

Adam nodded in agreement at the proposition. He almost fidgeted in his seat in excitement.

Just over two weeks had passed since Adam had met Eclipsa and began training under her. Truth be told, he considered it to be going jolly well. Eclipsa was a good teacher; she was able to simplify complex ideas while simultaneously not making him feel stupid. It really helped when casting magic to view it from a different perspective. She was also quite an ebullient, empathetic person, so she was very good at encouraging him to keep trying at his spells.

Eclipsa's academic look on magic often meant she taught him things that others (namely, Moon and Glossaryck) had not been willing to teach him. Namely, Dark magic was on the syllabus – something he was especially interested in.

The Queen of Darkness saw little harm in teaching him these spells. After having given his full allotment of annoyances at Star and Moon for their disapproval of Dark magic, it was refreshing to have a teacher who had no such reluctance.

The only downside to her teaching was that she could seldom take a practical role during training sessions. For all her power and strength, Eclipsa could cast very few spells without a wand. She had spent her youth relying on it, never having found herself without it. It was more than just a shame, it was also concerning. Both Star and Dark Star had dipped down, and Dark Moon probably had too. Eclipsa was supposed to be the most powerful witch ever, her potential surpassed only by Star's.

How was he supposed to battle the Dark Butterflies when his power hardly compared?

There was a workable solution for that.

Now, Adam was working on a few different ideas for spells. He had already created a few new ones already, mostly all simple Battle magic.

However, some were more complicated. There was this "Truth Binding Spell" idea, which was pretty straightforward and self-explanatory. This one was only a theory at the moment, but Adam hadn't worked out the arithmancy or technicalities yet.

At times like this, Adam wished he were a Butterfly. The royal line had gifted individuals, like Star and Moon, who could simply create their own spells without putting much thought into it. The only limit was their own imagination.

Meanwhile, Adam had to figure out the intricacies for the more complex spells. Simpler spells he'd made – like Evaporation Matrix and Ropes of Binding – were far easier to make. Anything that had a higher mana requirement had to be thought out before they could be made. The mana-magic ratio, incantation, caveats and casting requirements all had to be determined and maximised for the most effective result. At least when he first actually made the spell, all he'd have to do is use the incantation and the spell would work.

Another idea he'd had was to combine the Psionic Wandering Spell with the Dreamless Sleep Spell to create what he termed the "Dream Entrapment spell". This spell would trap one or more targets in their own dreamscape – often the subject of their worst nightmares. Quite a torturous spell, but it was intended for his worst enemies.

Trapping Dark Star or Dark Moon in their worst nightmares might be even better than killing them. He wondered what exactly their greatest fears would be. No, better to leave it to when he actually created the spell. A part of him salivated at the thought of inflicting that kind of mental torture on them, and then he could kill them in the most painful ways he could imagine.

Admittedly, his mind was so often distracted by the many applications of the spell that he hadn't actually managed to create the spell yet.

Eclipsa thought the Dream Entrapment Spell was a jolly good idea. She only warned him to use it on someone who truly deserved it. Curiously, she hadn't heard of the Psionic Wandering Spell, although she had a similar mind-entering spell of her own. Initially, Adam had thought that Star wasn't aware of it because of her own ignorance, but Eclipsa didn't know about it either. He figured it was a spell unique to the Negative Multiverse.

It seemed a lot of new spells were in that book.

One night, in the basement below Eclipsa's tower, Adam was practicing spells under the Butterfly's tutelage, when the subject came up inexplicably.

He had just successfully cast the Black Widow Calamity Cobweb. Eclipsa chose this one to teach him today because having a spell to non-lethally incapacitate targets was good. That could be either due to their relative innocence or because he needed information from them.

Then Eclipsa spoke up.

'Adam?' She addressed awkwardly, shifting on the spot. He straightened his stance and turned to look at her. Seeing the tentative look on her face, the Mewman frowned.

'What's up?' He asked, wiping some sweat off his brow.

'I read through that Book of Spells of yours,' she revealed, looking down at the ground. 'I have to say, some of those spells are…perverse. Necromancy? Mind control? Mind-melting spells? Torture curses, twisted transmutation, soul absorption...spells to regrow malformed limbs? Spells to sever limbs? A soul-trapping spell? These are the tools of the devil.'

'You can't expect spells from the Negative Multiverse to be all sunshine and roses,' he pointed out, folding his arms.

'I understand that, but you're not thinking of using such magic, are you?' Eclipsa asked worriedly.

'No,' Adam replied, technically half-lying. He wouldn't make common use of them, but he'd certainly make an exception when it came to the Dark Butterflies. 'I read them to understand them, yes, but I wouldn't use them on people. There's no way I really could use them without the intent being for evil.'

'I just had to make sure,' she justified, receiving an understanding nod from her student. 'I know we spoke of magic not inherently being evil...but the intent of these spells cannot be good. The Butterflies from your world must be exceptionally evil.'

'They are,' he stated, clenching his fists. 'They rule over almost all of the multiverse. They've been running the show for centuries, and their magic means everyone's too afraid to do anything about it. They're cruel and sadistic – it's practically in their blood. All those spells you just listed? Yeah, they wouldn't have any qualms about using them.'

'How did you survive so long?' Eclipsa couldn't help wondering.

'As much as I hate to say it, being a Mewman helped a lot,' he confessed remorsefully. 'They tended to let me go because of that. Make no mistake, they see us as below them, too, but Monsters got the worst of it.'

'I can only imagine.'

'I don't have to,' Adam spat. 'For the longest time, the Monsters would hide in remote areas on Mewni. The Butterflies were so stretched across the entire multiverse that they figured they could just leave Mewni alone and save resources. So we hid away from them in plain sight.' He bit his lip. 'It was a small town called Salem. That was my home. We all had to rely on each other to survive so we had a strong community spirit. Everyone knew everyone.'

'What happened to it?' She asked cautiously, a strong sense of dread building up in her stomach.

'I don't know how, but they found us,' he elucidated. 'Not just my town, but all the Monster settlements in every dimension. They lay siege to all of them in one night. They called it the Second Great Monster Purge. That was...how I lost my parents. They died...right in front of me...when I was nine years old. They were murdered. By the Red Queen herself.'

'Oh, I'm…I'm so sorry, Adam.'

'Yeah,' he muttered gloomily, sighing. 'Whatever. Let's...let's just get back to spell practice.'

Eclipsa remained silent for a few moments, unsure what to say. Evidently, Adam wasn't the touchy-feely type, so she doubted he'd be receptive to any of her efforts to cheer him up. Perhaps what he really needed was a distraction.

Her eyes averted his, tracing every other aspect of the old basement room they were in.

'Yes, maybe you are right,' she admitted resignedly, walking over to a nearby bench to sit down. She fumbled through a hidden pocket to reveal a bar of chocolate inside. 'Would you like a bar of Snookers, dear?'

'Uh, no thank you,' he answered, looking away disinterestedly.

The former Queen hummed in response and opened the wrapper. As she began munching on the chocolate, her eyes drifted up to the antique grandfather clock sitting against the back wall.

'Oh my corn, would you look at the time!' Eclipsa realised, nearly choking on her bar of Snookers in shock. 'Perhaps you should get to bed. It won't be long before the guards start to suspect something.'

As if to answer her, Adam felt a wave of drowsiness through his entire body. The yawn he stifled seconds after did nothing to disprove Eclipsa's statement, either. He gave a reluctant nod.

'Yeah, maybe,' he confessed, rubbing his temples tiredly. Adam stuck his hand out in the air and opened a portal leading to his bedroom. Before he walked through, he turned back to his teacher. 'Goodnight, Eclipsa.'

'Goodnight!' She exclaimed brightly, waving goodbye at him with a smile. The Queen of Darkness watched as the teenager left, as the bright golden glow disappeared behind him. She hummed to herself. 'He's got to teach me how to do that sometime.'

The moment he arrived in his room, Adam practically collapsed on his bed. This had been the third time this week he'd felt his body give out, and it was seriously beginning to frustrate him. He had only ever the late evenings to sneak away and meet with Eclipsa. It just wasn't enough time to train, even if he were to take into account infrequent sparring sessions with Star.

He didn't feel like he was pushing himself hard enough, yet his body seemed to disagree.

Adam had fallen asleep fast. He didn't have any dreams, not that he'd remember them if he did. Instead, his mind registered mostly darkness, as though leaving himself in stasis until his consciousness willed himself awake.

He felt his patience wearing thin.

Adam felt he was doing everything he possibly could to improve his magic. Despite that, he didn't feel he had come very far from when he first arrived on this multiverse. Glossaryck had become unhelpful, only vaguely pointing him in the right direction with riddles and paradoxical speeches. It was good to spar with Star, as it gave him a minor indication of his skill level compared to Dark Star. Sometimes Moon trained him, helping him out with some spells, though she was oftentimes impatient with him. Training under Eclipsa was definitely helping, at least. She was a good teacher.

Fighting with Star typically lasted for long sessions, and usually ended in a stalemate or defeat. So far, he had not actually won a fight against the Butterfly yet. Training under Moon was almost inconsequential; she was not a good teacher and she didn't want to teach him Dark magic. He was glad that Eclipsa had decided to train him, but he couldn't learn much if he kept collapsing.

Maybe there was a spell to enhance his vitality and remove tiredness. If there wasn't, perhaps he could create one. Glossaryck mentioned once that spells couldn't negate bodily functions though, so perhaps removing the requirement for sleep was out of the window.

The Seal of Arybailos could enhance his vitality, among other things. Unfortunately, his time was occupied by other things such that he rarely had time to practice the spell. At least he didn't have to worry about how he would actually make the spell, at least.

Just had to properly cast it. It was just one roadblock he had to overcome.

Somehow.

Some period of time passed. He wasn't cognitively aware if it had been hours or minutes. All he knew was that one moment he was out like a light, and the next, he heard a loud banging noise.

Adam reacted immediately, jumping from within his bed.

'ADAM!' A voice yelled. He turned his head blearily to see Star standing in the doorway of his room, having kicked the door open.

'Ugh, what?' He complained tiredly.

'You're late for breakfast!' The princess cried, running over and dragging him out of bed. She let out comical groans of exertion.

'Star!' He groaned, trying to resist her pull. To her credit, the Butterfly was exceptionally strong. Must be her lifestyle of beating people up. 'Star! Let go of me!' He managed to tear her arm off, causing him to thump on the ground. Getting up, he patted himself down. 'What time is it, anyway?'

'It's ten AM, Adam!'

'Wait, what?' He gawked, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. Breakfast was fifteen minutes ago! How had he woken up so late? He just thought Star was being an early bird, not that he actually was late!

'Yeah! Mom thought you'd ran off or something!' Star mentioned, flapping her hands worriedly.

Staring down at his dishevelled form, Adam scowled. He cast a Transmutation spell to transform himself into a more presentable appearance. Although he looked immaculate, the dark bags under his eyes remained. Those couldn't be removed or altered, unfortunately.

'Uh, are you okay?' She asked, just now noticing his parched, broken lips, bloodshot eyes and heavy bags under his eyes. He blinked.

'Fine,' he stated curtly, as they walked out onto the hallway. He nodded for her to lead the way.

After that, the two of them made their way to the dining room in the castle. Adam was entirely silent, his movements sluggish and beleaguered. Star wanted to ask why, but she figured the Mewman wouldn't answer him anyway. It was pointless trying to extract information from Adam; he was excessively caged.

When the two arrived at the dining room, Moon was the one to greet them.

'Good morning, Adam,' she welcomed with a slightly passive aggressive tone. 'I was wondering where you'd run off to.'

'I didn't run away,' he responded aggravatingly, as he sank down onto his seat.

'Are…you alright, man?' Marco asked tentatively.

Adam looked at him, as though debating whether to speak to him or not. The squire had become more receptive since his integration into the Butterfly Castle. He'd forgiven Adam for attacking Star, though it was taking longer before he would be willing to extend his trust. Adam opted to respond in kind, seeing no reason not to be fair to Marco back. He held no ill will against him, after all, and he didn't have any trauma relating to the young squire.

'I didn't get much sleep last night,' he confessed, rubbing his forehead.

'Perhaps you should get an earlier night's sleep,' Moon suggested placidly.

'It's not the time that's the problem,' he argued, aware that he was lying. 'I just couldn't sleep, okay?'

'Ooh, I know what to do!' Star declared excitedly. 'Ask Janna to hypnotise you! It worked for me!'

'Janna did what –?!' Moon began.

'I'm not gonna have Janna hypnotise me!' The Mewman snapped. All the people at the table stared at him, mouths agape. Adam sighed and bent down to take some of the food. On the tables today were some of Marco's Super Awesome Nachos.

'The boy is obviously stressed!' River hollered, flailing a meat drumstick. 'A good hunting trip should fix him right up!'

'Adam's not a hunter, Dad!' Star cried.

'Guys,' Adam spoke up. 'I'm okay. I appreciate the concern – I guess – but I don't need to be fixed.'

That was the end of the discussion at the breakfast table. Adam mostly tuned out the conversation from here, focussing mainly on eating and thinking about his current plans. He heard the Mace Treaty was coming up, something that he vaguely remembered having heard before. Nonetheless, he didn't take part in the conversations unless specifically spoken to.

Star noticed this.

He seemed more apathetic than usual. Unfortunately, the Butterfly understood that there was no point in bringing it up, or asking him if he was okay. Something had definitely been up with him recently: this had not been the first time he had seemed exhausted like this. Sometimes he looked like he could collapse at any moment. It was really concerning.

If there was one thing Star had learned about Adam, it was that she was not the person he would confide in. She was not the person to fish the truth from him, nor the person that he was likely to talk to when he needed someone.

In that moment, as Star mulled over Adam's distantness, the gears in her mind snapped into place.

If the teenager wouldn't confide in her, but perhaps there was someone that would.

Someone with a penchant for the occult.

[8] Don't mind my very cursory look at M-Theory in Quantum Mechanics!

Thanks for reading! Sorry about the rather abrupt ending there; the chapter was getting too long. This is the first part of this three-part episode. And it's got a lot in there.

The mechanics of magic and portalling was admittedly quite heavy in the beginning. It's all very important to the plot in not only this episode, but episodes down the line. Seals and runes were something I teased earlier in the story, so this is some of the pay-off for anybody waiting for that explanation. Seals and runes are considered a tertiary classification for magic. Primary classification is dark/light, and secondary is the schools of magic mentioned many times prior in the story.

I have an A-Level in Physics, so I know a little on quantum mechanics and elementary particles, so I've implemented that into this story. I know, I know, explaining the magic kills the magic - but I haven't really gone huge in the details, and I don't plan to explain absolutely everything.

I ofc want to leave some room for mystery. However, I treat magic as a fundamental force like gravity or electromagnetism, so it functions the same way. That's explained in the last chapter of this episode. This knowledge is what will allow Adam to become even more powerful in magic, create more intricate spells, and ultimately cast the Seal of Arybailos (which is the plot of the next episode). Essentially, this stuff contributes to the rest of the story, and integral to the plot, so I believe I'm more than justified in going into detail explaining how magic works.

The other thing that was explored in this chapter (in terms of magic) is the physics of dimensional portalling. Dimensional bridges will be the key behind Adam opening intermultiversal portals and getting back home. The length of the bridges is significant as, much like the story earlier showed, longer dimensional bridges indicate passage between multiverses. The most important thing about this is whether Adam can create dimensional bridges, or if he can just use pre-existing ones. It's a conundrum for him that he hasn't solved yet.

I guess this chapter mostly serves as set-up for future chapters, but I don't think this is necessarily bad.

I mean, Adam meeting Eclipsa was a historic moment for me. I hope I wrote her accurately. Adam admiring Eclipsa, and asking to learn from her, is very in character for him. Up until this point, Adam has avoided freely using Dark magic in case Moon found out. However, now that he's met Eclipsa - someone who embodies the same belief he does, that Dark magic is not evil and deserves to be studied just as much as Light magic - he's starting to embrace that belief again. He sees someone likeminded and that inspires him to be free, to follow the beliefs he wants, not what Moon wants. It's pretty significant character development (in my opinion). I think it also makes sense that Adam doesn't hate her, and views her as a stranger - because he doesn't associate her with any trauma (unlike Moon or Star), so it's easier for him to separate her from her Negative Multiverse counterpart.

Plus, Eclipsa appreciates his neutrality, because from her point of view, her reputation (which Adam knows none of) means that people who don't know her still hate her. Adam is one of the few people who sees her for who she is, without any preconception or predisposition of her that would make him biased. It's a breath of fresh air for her, and one of the reasons she's so open to training him.

One of my favourite moments in this chapter is the short part where Adam opens a portal and leaves, and Eclipsa comments that Adam should teach her how to do that sometime. Without a Full Butterfly form, that is. It highlights that, while Adam is largely the student (he is definitively not as powerful or as knowledgeable as Eclipsa), but he's not completely weak or pathetic. He largely has no talent in magic, but the one thing he can do exceptionally is portal magic. Even Hekapoo admitted three chapters ago that he was really good at it. It just reminds you that Adam still has the potential to be very powerful, despite what Hekapoo said.

Anyways, if you read all of this, you're a real pro. Thanks for reading, reviewing, favouriting and following! I'll see you all later!