Hey all! Not a chapter. Just a post for any that do not have accounts and have to manually check for updates. I am now beginning to post the sequel, 'The Weight of Betrayal'.

I would just like to thank all of you that have followed and favourited myself and my story so far. I wanted to respond to all of the reviews for the last chapter, but there are honestly SO many of them. It absolutely blew my mind! You are all amazing! I am glad that you all liked the sneak peaks I gave you, and I am impressed at how much insight into the chapter most of you gleaned from them. Also nice to see that I managed to catch a few of you off guard at first too, or even confuse you entirely. My wicked side does enjoy leaving you hanging, as you are all well aware of by now. Lol

To any new people reading this, if you have gotten this far, thank you! I sincerely hope that you found the story enjoyable, rather than a waste of many valuable hours.

Anyways, see you all in the next one! :D :D

_

*TriumphantFury here again! I noticed that people have been worried that I'm not reading reviews left on this story anymore, but I certainly am! To prove it, I will make use of this final page to respond to any reviews left on this story, though I do usually send PM responses to those that have accounts.

Lipstickeu: Wow, thank you so much for the reviews! I'm so glad that you've enjoyed this story. It's also always nice to know that I'm not the only one that feels Darkcup is almost a more canon Cup than the naively innocent pacifist that we see in HTTYD 2. He has been through so much, including being kidnapped, tortured, watched his friends suffer the same, and lets not forget that all of them have definitely killed before. I mean, I know they glance over that shit in canon cuz they are ultimately kids' shows, but it was also medieval times. War, rape, and pillaging was kind of a thing back then. I really enjoyed writing the unexpected twist into those two chapters, because it truly felt like it was merely going to be Stormheart revealing himself to the village. Never would people have suspected that the one really outed was Hiccup, but you're right - Astrid needed to see the truth of who her lover is. The village needed to realize who Hiccup is. This first story was pretty focused on Hiccup's evolution, but I assure you that the next story contains a whole lot of character development for Astrid as well. (And yes, many, many evil moments. Because I am evil. And that's why you love me :P) lol See you in the next one! :D

Randomretard42069: There is a chance indeed :P Nailed it :D

Guest: DragonSoul19: Thank you so much for the compliments and for the constructive criticism. I agree that in many fantasy worlds, the heroes are just WAY too powerful to be reasonable. That will certainly seem to be the case in this one as well. At least until the story progresses further. In earlier chapters, we are really only seeing a magical being battling against non-magical ones. That was always going to be like crushing ants, and it's supposed to be. As we move forward, the differences between opponents will become less and less exaggerated. I promise. As for the coming villains/characters, you will just have to wait and find out ;) PS: I absolutely love Gothi too. Kind of wish they had given her speech in the shows too, but still had her scribble just to confuse Gobber. Lol

Guest: Aww, thanks :D :D

Guest: I'm supposing by now you (and hopefully everyone else) knows that she certainly does. Thank the gods :P

Perseus Titanslayer: Ask and yee shall receive ;)

Guest: The Night Fury 1: I would have to agree with you there, and I honestly considered writing it that way instead. Having them all figure it out slowly, or for Hiccup to quietly spring it on Snot to wrong-foot him during the duel. It would have been absolutely hilarious. I also felt that either Ruffnut or Tuffnut, or both, would have likely been unable to keep their traps shut about who Hiccup was as soon as he had his mask off. It could have gone either way, but I think it still worked out. At least both Stoick and Snot (and everyone else really) were just as caught off guard as if Hiccup hadn't greeted his father right away. Glad you are enjoying the story, by the way :)

epiphany23: *reply part 2 :P* I absolutely love your enthusiasm! It really is making my day brighter. Lol. I'm glad you enjoyed both the story and the smut, and of course Gobber had to be in on it. (The story and the secret. Not the smut... I love Gobber and all, but... nope! lol) I recognize your possible typo and raise you one slight misread instead. If you look back, it does say that with a snap of his fingers, she was suddenly naked *from the waist up* ;) I will admit there are definitely some typos I have noticed and need to go back and fix, but thankfully that is not one of them. Thanks for pointing it out though :) I made extra sure to go back and clarify that I hadn't mis-typed it before responding. Anyways, hope you enjoy the sequel :D

epiphany23: Thanks for that! I really think I might be in love with Hiccup too. Lol. Also, thanks for the feedback on the smut. Honestly writing it has been the biggest challenge of the entire story (even more so than all the research). It would have been so much easier to just resort to crass language and write it like raunchy/cheesy porn, but I really didn't want to. Not with how much time I spent on wording and structuring the other scenes. So, once again, thank you so, so much for that :D

NF315: Spoiler alert! But yes, she is. Lol

macbean84: Wow, thank you so much. I'm really glad you loved this story, and that you are finding the next one to your liking as well. Your guess about the sneak peek was pretty bang-on, so congrats to that :)

Pableroski: Sorry for the late response here, but thanks for your review. I will not even deny that it is a pretty unique story. That was the whole goal for me was to write something that was different than pretty much anything out there. I'm glad that I was apparently able to accomplish that, and that I was able to pull you into the web I've woven. I guess I can only hope that you kept reading and enjoyed the rest of it.

LancealotRM: Haha. Aww, thanks :) Glad you liked it!

jimster3644: I know I responded to this on TWoB as well, but I just have to say... I still giggle about this review sometimes. Seriously, if I ever find myself getting writer's block, I may just run away to the mountains to hide out for a few years until the heat dies down...lol. Thanks again for the review, by the way. Even if it has me looking over my shoulder in dark alleys at night :P

Barleyguy: Well, I appreciate the review. I'm glad that I was able to pleasantly surprise you enough to make you stick with the story during the questionable moments. There is definitely a good helping of Inheritance Cycle as well as HttK references throughout the trilogy, but hopefully it is just different enough to keep people guessing about just where this one is going. I really hope that you have stuck with it and found it to your liking.

milkandclouds: Thank you so, so much for this review. I too am pretty terrible when it comes to leaving consistent reviews on stories, and I should really get on that I guess. Especially since I now realize just how much it brightens the author's day to hear that someone is enjoying their hard work. I'm so glad my story was able to pull you in and keep you hooked, and I sincerely hope that the next book in the trilogy is able to do the same thing.

shalomo: You're guess was pretty darn bang on. Congrats! :)