- Epilogue -

One cannot tell the time once inside the Grimhold. A magical device in the form of a nesting doll that was created to imprison powerful Morganians. One evil sorcerer/sorceress on each layer. Maxim Horvath, the leader of the Morganians, was there inside himself, on the outer most part layer of the doll.

He couldn't tell for how long was he imprisoned there, but it didn't seem to matter. With him inside, no Morganian must have even dared facing off with Balthazar Blake to free him. Not even giving so much of a thought about Morgana, who was herself inside the doll, in the inner most layer.

And then, it happened.

There was some sort of force creeping into the doll...A sort of power...Energy. It was energy. And it was coming from outside. From outside the doll. The outside world.

Maxim Horvath snapped open his dark eyes for the first time in years, sensing the sudden surged of energy around him, quickly taking over the inside of his prison.

He stood up and looked around what seemed to be a form of metaphor of what it was like inside his part of the Grimhold. The light inside was dim, but other than that, the entire place was filled with mist. He couldn't possibly be mistaken. Someone must be touching the Grimhold at the moment, someone who's probably a sorcerer, because the Grimhold can only react like that to a sorcerer's ring.

The energy filled the inside of the Grimhold, as Horvath once again closed his eyes. The energy felt like as if it was filling the inside of him. Then, the mist gathered all around Horvath, covering him in white and cloudy form. It was carrying him up, higher, until Horvath was turning into small insects of black color. Cockroaches, more likely. And through an opening, which had cracked open, revealing light, the cockroaches swarmed out of it.

Once outside, the cockroaches gathered in one place, climbing on top of one another in a disgusting form. They slowly formed two pillars, which met in the middle at a certain height, and then it grew higher. The image of a man can be seen, at least six feet high. Suddenly, the colors of the insects were changing into something else - it was clothing! Clothing of a fashionable sort. Fine clothing. Some parts were turning into skin. Human skin.

Horvath took a sharp breath of fresh air of the outside world. Finally he was transformed back to his true form.

The last bit of cockroach disappeared as it transformed into a part of his lower lip, as he touched it ever so lightly with a finger form his gloved, open hand.

His dark eyes flickered around his surroundings, and for the first time, he noticed the boy who had been watching him take his form in silent horror and disgust.

Horvath was removing his gloves while still clutching his cane with one hand, when he asked the boy who was still looking up to him, "When am I?" His tone was so casual, as though what happened was very ordinary. Or as if nothing happened at all.

"N-New York City..?" stammered the boy in response to him.

"Not where," Horvath said to the boy, a touch of annoyance in his voice. "A year." He then threateningly held up the glowing part of his cane to the boy, a venomous look in his eyes that more likely says he intends to kill the boy. "You, are wasting my time."

But before he could do anything awful to the boy, Horvath was carried high up above ground by some invisible force till his back met the roof, which was glass. With his hands and legs outstretch, his cane a mere inches out of reach, it wasn't long before he saw his old-time rival, Balthazar Blake having an Encantus under one arm, entered the scene from below with a hand held up high toward him...

A/N: That would be all, folks! You guys probably already know what happened next, right? ;)