Luz flew up to the bubble, panicked and excited at finally finding King.
"King, oh Titan I'm so glad you're safe. We're here to get you out."
King slowly woke up, slightly groggy. When he saw Luz, he instantly became alert and his face filled with panic.
"Luz? You're back from the human realm? What are you doing here? I sent you to your realm to keep you safe! You need to leave. Wait, you said "we"? Who's with you."
Hunter flew up next to Luz and gave a slight wave.
"Hey King. Yeah, Luz and I snuck out from the base. We got back from the Human realm…yesterday I guess technically since it's past midnight, but less than 24 hours ago."
"No. No no no no no. Both of you get out of here before they come back."
"We're not leaving without you. I'm breaking you out." Luz said, pulling out a fire glyph to hopefully break the bubble.
"Luz, wait!"
The second the glyph hit the bubble, it disintegrated and a high pitched almost screeching sound began emitting from the bubble. Luz, Hunter, and King immediately covered their ears, but Owlbert and Flapjack began to get shaky before going back to being just wood.
Luz and Hunter began hurtling towards the ground. Luz quickly grabbed a safety hover glyph from her pocket and activated it just it time that she landed relatively softly on the ground.
A few yards away from her, Hunter was laying in the ground biting into his hand as he tried to not scream in pain. He couldn't pull out the hover glyph fast enough and slammed into the ground on his side, making his arm get shoved out of its socket. A rib cracked and began stabbing into one of his lungs. His arm felt like it had shattered. He was biting down hard enough that his hand began to bleed, but he felt focusing on that was better than screaming from the agonizing pain from the whole left side of his body.
Luz took the currently wooden Owlbert, put him into his palisman form and tucked him into her pocket. She crawled over to Hunter, trying to ignore the splitting pain in her head the screeching sound was giving her.
As she was a few feet away, she noticed Hunter's pin so the Collector couldn't see him was broken on the ground next to him.
Suddenly, the ringing stopped. Hunter and Luz immediately looked towards to door and saw the Collector coming inside.
Luz quickly grabbed an invisibility glyph and tossed it over to Hunter, turning him invisible. She was praying that the Collector wouldn't be able to see him since he was still invisible.
The Collector flew over to King, a massive smile on his face.
"Hey buddy! I told you that you can't move around too much or else the alarm will go off. Remember?"
"Oh, yeah. Sorry." King awkwardly said, "I was just trying to get a better view but slipped and fell. The jostling probably is what set it off."
"I was worried someone was coming to take you. Which, of course, would be impossible because only I can break this bubble."
"Yeah. It'd be crazy for someone to try."
Luz's heart was pounding in her ears, not daring to move and hoping Hunter could stay quiet despite how injured he could be. If the Collector could leave, they could go back to base and heal up Hunter with new information secure.
"I know! Off topic, you're my friend, right?" The Collector sweetly asked.
"Of course! I wouldn't have set you free if I didn't want to be friends."
"Do you think friends should lie to each other?"
"N-no. They shouldn't."
"Then why did you lie to me?"
With a flick of his wrist, Hunter was lifted up into the air. The Collector simply blew on him, and the invisibility vanished. It took everything he had to not scream in pain from the tight grip.
"Caleb! Or, wait, you're called…Hunter? Is that right? Yeah I'm pretty sure that's what Philip named you. May I commend you for being the first Grimwalker to betray Belos and make it out alive! Ooo but it looks like you aren't in great shape regardless. You bit through your hand? Surprised your brain let you. But hey, you aren't like most people so maybe that has something to do with it."
Hunter groaned from the pain and tried to escape the grip, letting out a scream as his movement caused his broken rib to stab further into his lung.
"Don't worry, when I put you with the rest of the players I'll heal you up. Before I do that, I need to ask. How did you get back here? Where's the portal?"
Hunter refused to say anything, just glaring at the being. The Collector sighed and tightened the grip, making him cry out in pain again as he found that not only was his shoulder dislocated, left arm and a few ribs broken, lung punctured, and right hand bleeding, but part of his hip was also broken.
"Look Caleb, if you don't tell me, I might play a different game with you. How do you feel about tag?"
Hunter's breath hitched as he remembered what they thought of as tag. Luz was filled with almost paralyzing panic as she tried to think of a way to stop them. As the Collector raised their hand and pulled Hunter closer, her heart was pounding, sending a pain through her chest.
"I'm-"
"Wait!" Luz yelled, throwing her pin to the ground as she stood up, getting the Collector's attention, "Don't play with Hunter. He's hurt. That'll make it less fun, right? I'm perfectly healthy and will be way more entertaining."
"Human! I knew someone else was here. You seem different. Have you modified your physical form since I last saw you?"
"I…let my hair grow out?" Luz said, confused slightly by the phrasing of the question.
"It looks great on you. Now, you said you want to play with me?"
"Yeah. I'm guessing tag?"
"Nope! I have a different game for you."
Luz started to get a bit concerned at the thought of having a game specifically for her.
"What do you want to play?"
"20 questions! I'm thinking of something right now, and if you can guess what it is by asking me questions, you win!"
"Okay, sure. Sounds fun." Luz paused to think of what to ask, "Question one: Is it a person?"
"Nope!"
"Two: is it a place?"
"No, not that."
"Three: is it a thing?"
"Yep! Gotta get more specific than that to win, though."
"Four: can you touch it?"
"Yeah!"
"Five: is it natural?"
"Sometimes."
"Sometimes?" Luz asked, only hoping to get yeses or nos.
"Yeah, it's only natural sometimes. 15 questions left!"
"Okay, six: is it natural in the Boiling Isles."
"Much more specific! Yes, it is."
"Seven: have I seen it?"
"Oh definitely."
"Eight: can I do it?"
"Yeppers!"
"Nine: could I do it back in the human realm?"
"Absolutely not."
"Ten: can you do it?"
"Yeah!"
"Eleven: can Eda do it."
"That woman who found my Owl Beast curse? No, she can't."
Luz thought hard, trying to think of what it was, knowing she only had nine questions left before she lost and not wanting to find out what losing meant in this situation.
"Twelve: does it come from the Isles?"
"Yep."
Luz started to get a thought of what it was, but had to make sure.
"Thirteen: are there ways to do it unnaturally?"
"Yeah, several actually."
"Magic. The answer is magic." She said confidently.
The Collector beamed in delight at Luz figuring it out. Their grip loosened slightly on Hunter, alleviating some of the pressure.
"I'm so happy for you. Now, I know you and Caleb came here to save your friend. If you can attack me using your magic, then I'll let you and Caleb go free."
Luz was hesitant, not knowing what the Collector was planning or if they'd actually let her and Hunter go. The Collector sighed at Luz's hesitation and lowered the bubble King was in down to only a few feet off the ground.
"I'm in a good mood, so if you do I'll also let King go. Just attack me with your magic before I can kill you and you get to leave with King and Caleb unharmed."
Luz still said nothing, just looking between Hunter, King, and the Collector.
"Titan, you're boring. If you don't want to start, I will."
They snapped their fingers and set off an explosion right next to Luz. She got blasted to the side and landed hard on the ground. The debris that flew out shot in all directions and cut Luz's arm and cheek, one piece even going through her pant leg and dug into her skin. She pulled herself up and started digging through her glyphs. The Collector groaned and took all of her glyphs, and Hunter's for extra measure, and burnt them all to a crisp.
"No help from your glyphs! That's cheating! You need to attack me using your magic!" The Collector whined.
"That is my magic! I don't know what you want from me!"
"If you aren't going to play, I'm going to play with Caleb instead. I'm still in the mood for tag."
The Collector pulled Hunter close, tightening their grip again making Hunter scream in pain, and raised a finger.
"Hunter!"
Luz began to run towards them, but the rock shard in her leg dug in deeper from the movement and she fell.
But as she did, her finger spun in a circle and a blast of fire shot at the Collector.
Just before it hit their face, they stopped it and tossed it over their shoulder setting the recreation of Eda's nest ablaze. The Collector lowered to the ground with Hunter and let him down. He groaned as he tried to sit up, but couldn't. Luz rushed over to him and carefully pulled him into her lap.
"Great job using your magic, human! As promised, you, Hunter, and King can go," The Collector said chipperly, popping King's bubble, "But, let me warn you, if you come here again I might not be in such a great mood, so don't count on me playing with you to let people go. Oh, and so you can't find me so easily I'm moving this and will disguise it. Don't want you to get a sneak peak of the game before it's time to play!"
King ran over to Luz and hugged her tightly.
"Hunter, we need to get out of here." Luz softly said.
He pulled out Flapjack who immediately went into staff form. Luz lifted Hunter on and got on behind him. She handed King Owlbert, who also turned back into a staff.
"I need to make sure Hunter doesn't fall off. You know how to fly, right?"
King nodded and they both got on the staves and flew out as fast as they could. As they left and looked behind them, the giant Owl House vanished. Luz felt guilty for all the people still trapped, but tried to just focus on getting back to the base. Luz and King flew high in the sky, getting a perfect view of the sun rising over the horizon.
"King, I'm so glad you're okay," Luz said, looking over to him, "I have so much to-"
"Luz. That's not important." King said firmly.
"I know we need to get back but it'll be a few hours and-"
"No. Luz. I'm glad you're back but there's something more important."
"What?"
"Luz, you had no glyphs when you attacked the Collector. You did magic."