Traffic trundled overhead as they stood huddled together beneath the overpass of the Arcadian bridge that hung over the deserted canals. Having spent a few awkward minutes of watching Toby stuff himself back into the too-tight armour, the teens had then collected both Aaarrrggh and Vex (who had eagerly removed his elderly transduction), leaving Stuart to watch the store and in turn, the royals.

"I'll see your guys's super-out-of-this-world serators & awesome-ghostly-thermos, and raise you…the Horngazel!" Toby beamed as he held up a small burnt amber crystal that looked more like something you'd find in a witch's shop. Dan couldn't deny the crackle of magic that surrounded it, but it was no more than your typical crystal, leaving him to wonder just what the point of it was. By the looks on the siblings' faces, they too, were finding it hard to see the importance of such an object. Mindless of their disbelief, Toby happily spun on his heel and ran the tip of the crystal along the rock face behind them. The glowing trail that was left behind as the stocky boy hopped along, caught Dan's attention with childlike awe; even as Toby shuffled sideways along the wall to draw a lopsided semi-circle on the concrete.

"Pretty cool, right?" Toby grinned as Aaarrrggh simply placed a hand in the center of the marked area and the wall folded in on itself, breaking apart like glowing porcelain to reveal the entrance to Trollmarket.

"Lively!" Aja replied in kind.

"Kinda reminds me of the one back home" Dan hummed as his thoughts drifted between the large green ghost portal back in Amity Park and the last time he had been in Trollmarket. At least this time he got to use the front door."But blue"

"Yeah, but no one's allowed in your ghostly portals!" Toby replied as he began to lead them down the path.

"Not if you want to live" Dan returned as he took to the air, floating just above Vex's shoulder. Toby just petulantly pouted in the face of the ominous reply.

CLANG!

"Wha—?" His head jerked up at the sound of metal hitting concrete and he turned to face the noise only to find several Omens at their backs with weapons cocked & ready. His stomach dropped to his tail and his mouth ran dry like heavy cotton when he saw who stood there. "Oh no!"

"Morando's here already?!" Krel panicked when said dictator appeared from the shadows.

"Kill them all!" Morando ordered, instructing his minions to fire at will and charge after the group.

"Inside!" Aaarrrggh's tone brokered no room for argument as he placed himself between the androids and the children.

"Go! Go, go, go!" Dan frantically shooed as the troll physically pushed them inside, even as Krel's hands flew to his serator and Aja tensed, ready for a fight.

"Ack!" Toby yelped as Aaarrrggh lifted the stocky boy from his feet and slung him inside just as crimson laser fire lit up the entrance; with some of it sparking against the concrete, whilst some of it just barely missed his head. Both of the siblings were next, thanks to Vex's less than gentle ministrations, catching the halfa on the way and that left the troll & the Akiridion to dive in just as the concrete flew back into place. The last thing Dan heard was Morando's order to break through the door as it slammed shut behind them, sealing them in.

"Well" Dan hummed as he pushed Krel & Aja off of him, "That could've been worse"

BOOM!

"You just had to jinx it, didn't you?!" Toby sassed as he stumbled to his feet and the rock around them rumbled & roiled with the force of Morando's attempts to get inside.

"Hehe~Oops?" Dan smiled sheepishly before they followed the bronze boy further into his territory.

"We have to get to Gaylen's core!" Aja cried as they raced down the stairs; both siblings aboard the hover board, Toby atop Aaarrrggh's shoulders and Dan who simply floated down the center of the staircase, leaving Vex to bring up the tail-end.

"Will that entrance hold?" Krel worried as he held onto his sister's shoulders.

"Don't worry, there's no way they can get it" Toby reassured them even as the earth moved again beneath their feet and his fingers gripped tight to the troll's mossy fur. "At least, I don't think so"

A few harried moments later, the group found themselves at the foot of the stairs and looking out upon the desecrated trollish lands. Dan's breath ran cold, falling from his lips in a wispy breath of ice when he noted the presence of ghosts. He had thought they'd retrieved all of the souls the last few times he was there, but alas, it appeared not to be. He only hoped that they would not be too much trouble for them.

"Welcome to Heartstone Trollmarket!" Toby declared dramatically as he slid from Aaarrrggh's shoulders and the siblings disembarked from the hover board, pocketing it for future use.

"Feels like home" Dan mused as he floated over to a decrepit-looking stall that appeared to have housed a banner of holey socks at one point."But with less gargoyles"

"Your home sounds stranger and stranger with each story, ghost boy" Vex hummed, brow quirked.

"Yeah…well, you're not wrong"

"This is the most incredible place ever?" Krel asked skeptically as he stared out upon rows & rows of dead crystals that had long turned black alongside the shattered heartstone.

"Well, it was before the Eternal Night" Toby replied sadly as they began to pick their way over rubble and down broken steps into the dark caverns.

"Damp & creepy" Aaarrrggh commented uncomfortably, shoulders tense.

"With an aura of death & decay" Vex nodded. "I like it"

"Aw man, wait—wasn't this Bagdwella's place?" Toby cringed at the sight of the darkened store to their right. Again, socks hung like a limp banner across the entrance and rubble littered the ground like confetti. "And I thought the gnomes did some damage"

"Mmm" Aaarrrggh hummed as he bent to lick the stained ground."They pooped everywhere"

"Hur—Do you—hur—do you have to do that?" Toby gagged, hand over his mouth as he tinged green around the gills.

"C'me on, let's get to the suit-cryer" Krel shooed them on.

"Sad" Aaarrrggh mourned as Toby led the way and Dan flew upwards to inspect the oddly-shaped corpse which had captured his attention.

"We know what it's like to lose one's home" Aja replied sympathetically, placing her hand on the troll's arm with a soft smile. Across from her, Vex looked away as he tried to hide his wince at the reminder of his betrayal & Akiridion-5's ultimate downfall.

"But Jim, Blinky and the trolls are safe and that's what matters most" Krel added as he placed a hand on Toby's shoulder, who shared a similar expression to that of his larger counterpart.

BOOM!

"Ah!" Toby yelped, cowering beneath his arms as large chunks of stone suddenly fell from the somewhere above them and the earth moved again.

"But we might not be" Krel ended in worry as he crouched next to the armoured trollhunter in a similar position. Behind them, both Vex & Aaarrrggh were crouched over the queen-in-waiting like a shield. At first Toby had thought the dictator outside was the reason for the debris, but the sight of a horned chunk next to his feet gave him another idea.

"DANNY?" Toby called up through cupped hands when the rain had paused. "DID YOU TOUCH SOMETHING?!"

"…Sorry!" Dan's sheepish head popped out from behind a pillar far above their heads where a line of dead trolls had once stood.

"C'me on, man! Quit touching stuff!" Toby scolded the halfa as he floated down to meet them. "You're gonna get us killed!"

"It wasn't me! I was just looking, I swear!" Dan defended, frantically waving his hands in surrender.

"Is now really the best time for this?" Aja interjected before things could go too far.

"Fine, whatever, let's just pick up the pace" Toby scowled as he led them towards an arena at the end of the cavern. This time when the cavern rumbled, it was clearly the fault of the forces at the front door. "C'me on! We have to move!"

"Morando and his forces are drawing closer!" Vex agreed, bringing up the rear as their pace quickened.

"C'me on!"

"Where is this tooth-scraper?!" Aja cried as the path narrowed.

"This way!" Toby huffed as he led the way to an overgrown platform that lay frozen at an awkward angle, as if stuck halfway between positions. "It's up there! Ahh! Okay, maybe…the armour…was a…mistake—"

"Oof!" Krel huffed as Dan easily hauled the younger teens up onto the platform without much hassle. Behind them, both troll & Akiridion easily bounded up the large steps before they joined the teens upon the platform.

"—But…it looks…so good!"

"So where is the suit-cryer?"

"Step here" Aaarrrggh replied as he shoved a couple of pieces of stone aside and gestured to the footprints engraved into the stone.

HMM~WHIR! HMM~WHIR! HMM~WHIR!

No sooner than Krel had stepped into the footprints, did the floor at their feet ignite in a blue crystalline light that illuminated the engraving on the floor. "Ooh, nifty!" Dan hummed, flinching back slightly when the stone at their feet suddenly erupted upwards with a great grumbled groan to reveal the promised soothscryer that was hidden below.

"Very foreboding" Krel complimented whilst his sister was seemingly at a loss for words at the sight of the open-mouthed stone warrior before them. "How does it work?"

"You just stick your hand in and it'll tell you if you're a trollhunter, or where Gaylen's core is or maybe it'll bite your arm off" Toby rushed out, the words almost slurring together in their hurry to be released. "Honestly, I'm not sure. But, hey, you have like four of 'em anyway!"

"And I would like to keep all of them, thank you" The king-in-waiting chuckled nervously as he tucked his aforementioned hands into his pits in the hopes of protecting them from the looming soothscryer or the bronze boy who wanted to lop off his limbs. Dan, meanwhile, was far more interested with the energies that he could feel floating about inside.

"C'me on, Krel" Aja shrugged, pulling her brother over to the foreboding statue with a little help from Toby, who dropped to his knees to act as a step for the two. "Uh…?"

"Together?" Suggested Krel, receiving a shaky nod in reply. Part of Dan felt himself fill with worry (or was that Mother?) as both pairs of offered hands neared the churning stone teeth with eyes clenched shut & teeth gritted in trepidation. The other part of him was intrigued by the lingering souls inside that had him breathing out a wisp of cool air.

For a moment all present held their breaths as they waited to see what would happen. Would their limbs get lobbed off? Would stone pierce flesh? Would it show them Gaylen's core? So many questions whirled about and then with an almighty clank the teeth stopped.

"Uh…?" Aja blinked, turning to her brother with questions glimmering in her eyes.

"Well" Krel licked his lips, "That was underwhelming"

So of course, that was when the soothscryer chose to spring to life with a whoosh, illuminating the cavern in a brilliant blue that blinded those present. "TOBY! WHAT IS HAPPENING?!" Aja demanded as he and his sister dropped back down a level, in an effort to protect their eyes.

"NO IDEA, BUT THAT DEFINITELY NEVER HAPPENED FOR JIMBO!" Toby replied as he blinked repeatedly to clear the stars dancing across his vision. For all the dramatics that swept through the cavern,

"Fascinating" Krel chuckled as the orb playfully danced around him. "What is it?"

"It's a soul…" Dan breathed, eyes gleaming as he reached out to cup the little blue light close to him.

"Well, then who is it?" Toby persisted.

"No clue" Dan hummed with a shrug. As Dan's hands carefully caressed the little orb with a comforting purr rumbling in his chest, he silently worried that this little one was one of the Tarron parents who had forced themselves out of their bodies and followed them all the way down through the twisting caverns; though the soul gave him no indication about who they once were despite the memories flashing across the surface.

"But—but you're the King of the Dead! How can you not know who that is?!"

"151,000 souls go into the Ghost Zone every day" Dan quirked an unimpressed eyebrow at the bronze-clad boy "That's 105.2 souls per minute—1.75 souls per second and you expect me to know the names of every single one?"

"Well, no, I guess not…" Toby slumped over, a little defeated as the orb zipped from Dan's hands and proceeded to tug & push Krel over towards the dark cliff drop not too far away.

"What is it doing now, ghost boy?" Vex grumbled as they neared the edge.

"I think they want you to follow" Dan hummed, head tilted to the side as he watched the orb pepper the king-in-waiting with numerous pushes and buts, like an overeager puppy.

"Well then, let's go!" Aja smiled as she tore off after the dancing wisp, "C'me on! It's getting away! Keep up!"

Over boulders and under stalactites, they chased after the little blue orb. If they weren't currently on a time limit or fearing for their (undead) lives, then the game of Chase might've even been considered fun. At least until they reached the lip of the cliff edge that overlooked a pit so dark and deep Dan had thought at first he was staring into the pits of Tartarus. It made him shiver to think what kind of monsters could be hiding in the void below.

"No, no, no, no!" Krel panicked as he skidded to a stop mere centimetres from the edge as he watched the orb descend without hinderance. "Whoa-ho-ho!"

"Ah!" Aja gasped, her toes only just barely hanging over the edge.

"That looks" Vex swallowed audibly. "Deep"

"How do we get down there?"

"We don't!" Toby replied, shaking his head. "That's The Deep! If you go down there, you face your deepest fear!"

"That sounds familiar" Dan murmured under his breath as he recalled the very place in which the Soul Shredder would send whomever was cut by its blade.

"Why would anyone want to do that?" Krel spat out as the orb resurfaced and wildly gestured for the Akiridions to follow.

"Long story" Toby waved off. "But Jim made it out alive…unfortunately, he's the only one who has"

"We don't have much of a choice" Aja sighed. "We have to find Gaylen's core before Morando!"

"I'll go" Krel offered, though Dan could hear his core racing a mile a minute even as he spoke. "You and Varvatos need to fight whatever's coming"

"…Right" Aja swallowed with a nod, as she plucked her hoverboard from her pocket. Clearly she wasn't happy about it, but she knew that her little brother was right as per usual. "Here, take my hoverboard"

"If I'm not back in five mekrons, all of you come after—AHHH!" Krel cried as he was pushed over the edge and consequently ended up surfing down the cliffside on the hoverboard with limbs flailing.

"Vex!" Aja snapped as she turned on the unperturbed commander.

"…Just giving him some incentive" Vex shrugged as if pushing the young king-in-waiting over the edge into a dark pit that showed you your deepest fears was just another Tuesday.

"You can't just—" Dan started to reprimand him when his ghost sense went off, letting out a rather large mist of icy breath fall from his lips and cool the air around him. "Wait—what was that?"

GRR!

"Oh! I got a bad feeling 'bout this!" Toby groaned as he took note of the amount of frost which had gathered upon Aja's crown thanks to Dan, and everyone fell into battle-ready stances as they returned to the main stage.

"Again, I ask, what was that?" Aja persisted as the growls continued to echo about the chamber, only this time they were accompanied by great thumping footsteps that almost rumbled the ground upon which they stood.

"It does not sound like Morando or his Omens" Vex replied as his grip tightened around his serator.

"Gumm-Gumms" Aaarrrggh growled as the figures finally emerged from the dark to reveal the great lumbering forms of long-dead trolls.

"Aw man!" Toby whined. "I never thought I'd see these guys again! Let alone in zombie form!"

"Friends of yours?" Vex asked.

"Not anymore" Aaarrrggh replied as he picked up a large incisor and flung it across the room, taking out a line of Corrupted who sat perched upon the upper levels. But still they kept coming.

"How the heck did they even survive?" Toby asked, hacking off the head of one and then dancing out of reach of the falling stone, least he be crushed beneath it.

"Sorry!" Dan called as he blasted a few to stone, "I thought I got all the Corrupted earlier!"

"They're yours?!"

"What is a Corrupted?" Aja queried as she parried a blow. "Ugh! They smell worse than Stuart!"

"They're unstable souls who've been consumed by their emotions; turns them violent—makes them into poltergeists and monsters"

"Can't you just—hurk! Yeah, that is definitely zombie troll breath—can't you just call 'em off?"

"They're Corrupted!" Dan retorted as if that explained everything, "They don't listen to anyone!"

"Not even the King?"

"Not even the King"

"It's been five mekrons!" Aja worried as Vex helped her back to her feet, "Where's Krel?"

"We must trust the king-in-waiting" Vex replied confidently, though he too, was concerned. Krel wasn't exactly one for being unpunctual. "In the meantime, enjoy the resplendent combat!"


Corrupted, as a rule, were creatures of predictability only in that they were forever unpredictable. One was never the same as the other, each one powered by their own ever-consuming emotions, and if they were magically inclined…well, you'd better hold onto your breeches. They were also the ones you tended to see appear on TV. Every ghost had their own obsessions, sure, it was what kept them grounded—anchored—and sane, for the most part. But some obsessions were far too dark and wild for the light of day; like Pariah Dark's. His obsession had been revenge and so in most cases, he'd gone looking for trouble just so he could justify his 'revenge'. His reputation more than spoke for itself. In comparison, his own obsession with space seemed almost childlike in comparison.

As such, Dan wasn't particularly concerned with how long it was taking them to dispatch the numerous lumbering bodies that seemed to spawn from the shadows (had he really missed so many souls?), but that didn't mean he wasn't getting annoyed, especially as he skewered a few Corrupted with the Soul Shredder he'd eventually summoned. "Varvatos Vex has rarely seen this level of persistence from his enemies!" Vex complained as he chucked a body clear across the room with a grunt, only for it to be replaced with another. "Eurgh! Or bad breath!"

BOOM!

Though the explosion was far off, Dan's head still jerked up towards the noise, granting his current Corrupted an opening to knock him aside with all the gentleness of a concrete battering ram. It was only through the instinctual use of intangibility that he was able to cleanly pass through the pile of broken bodies and the wall that lay beyond, where he became stuck with his head jammed inside a particularly knotted crevice with feet flailing about like a dead ant.

PEW—PEW! PEW—PEW! PEW—PEW!

Laser fire covered the area which both helped and hindered the group's attempts to rid themselves of the Corrupted Gumm-Gumms. "Kleb!" Aja swore as she ducked just in time, only the tips of her hair becoming singed by the gunfire.

"Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh!" Toby panicked, racing after the queen-in-waiting as fast as his armour and his legs would allow.

"Varvatos Vex!" Morando purred, his voice echoing about the cavern. "You cannot keep me from Gaylen's core!"

"So, that's Morando, huh?" Toby hummed as he and Aja regrouped with the commander and the troll, close to the Deep's edge.

"The overgrown one and I shall hold them off" Instructed Vex as he was bookended by the two children. "Take the ghost boy and find your brother!"

"We're not leaving you!" Aja furiously refuted as Aaarrggh bellowed loud & true, letting a Corrupted's head sail towards the opening of the chamber where it connected with the doorway and buried them inside.

"We must keep Gaylen's core out of Morando's hands" Vex replied as he sheathed his serator for a moment so that he could pick both children up by their scruffs and toss them over the edge, into the Deep. "Get to your brother! MORE INCENTIVE!"

"How many times has he thrown you off of a cliff?" Toby pondered as he scrambled to keep a grip on both War Hammer and Aja.

"More often than I'd like" Aja admitted as they descended into the depths.


Back in the main cavern, whilst Morando blasted his way through yet another layer of earth and began to monologue like your stereotypical villain, Dan was finally able to pull himself free of the wall. Only after a few embarrassing moments when he forgot that he could just simply go intangible and walk through the wall, he eventually returned just in time to see Vex furiously fling Morando into the turning cogs off to the right. Unfortunately, the gears were either too corroded or he was too large to become fully crushed beneath them, though he did find himself stuck in a precarious situation.

This, however, did nothing to slow the onslaught of the Corrupted and the Omens. "Tch! We don't have time for this!" Dan hissed as he palmed Soul Shredder and flung it forward like a boomerang. Blade turned over hilt as the floral weapon easily slipped through body after body, bringing them to their knees as their souls/cores were ripped from their vessels and sent to the Ghost Zone. Soon enough, the blade came rushing back and Dan quickly plucked it from the air before it could pierce his own core. He could only hope that that had thinned their numbers at least a little.

"Ghost boy!" Vex greeted, relaxing slightly as Dan trotted over to the pair. "Where were you?"

"I got stuck…" Dan replied demurely, pointing back towards where he had been embedded for the last few moments as he sheathed Soul Shredder.

"Have to jump!" Aaarrrggh gestured to the Deep, meaning for the three of them to follow after the children who had already descended.

"Varvatos only jumps into battle, not into deep, deep darkness" Vex retorted. He looked like he'd rather be fighting Morando again that go in there.

"Hmm, you need incentive"

"Wha—AHH!"

"Hehe~" Dan chuckled as he watched the troll grab Vex by the shoulders and German suplexed him into the Deep, before he too, followed after. Swallowing his fear, Dan clenched his eyes shut and leapt out across the void. Wrapping his arms around his legs, the halfa followed after the pair with a gleeful call that he didn't quite feel. "Look out below!"