Author's Note: Just a quick heads up for violence and blood in this chapter. Also, Devon nearly gets squeezed to death by our favorite unhinged octo-mer.

Things were getting sticky back in Octavinelle. A combination of the aura Azul was unconsciously emanating combined with the change in the immediate atmosphere when someone was getting dangerously close to exceeding their blot limit had caused the once clear blue water to turn murky and purplish-black to the point that it was getting harder and harder to see the actual dorm building with each passing second. Students, both those who lived at Octavinelle and those who were visiting as Mostro Lounge patrons scrambled every which way as they tried to avoid Azul.

The dorm leader walked through the frantic crowd with a manic grin on his face, reaching his arms out toward the students with abilities he wanted for himself; he was never more thankful for Jade's, ah, "research" concerning most of the student body (their magical specialties and talents included) or his ability to commit almost everything he read to memory than he was at this very moment. "You there-hand over your lightning magic! And you-give me your athleticism! Give all of your power to me!"

Both of the students he was speaking to tried to turn and run, but Azul managed to pull their power out of them. They screamed in a mix of fear and pain as a golden ball of magic energy was pulled from each of their chests and floated over to Azul where they immediately disappeared into his own body, causing the students to collapse to the ground.

"What the-?! What's Azul pullin' outta those guys?!" Ruggie exclaimed. "They're all collapsin' once he's done with 'em!"

"Looks like his Unique Magic can sap every power outta someone if he doesn't channel it through one of those contracts," Leona observed. "Looks like they function as some kind of limiter so he can't take too much."

"Yeesh," Ruggie shuddered. "Pretty terrifying, don't ya think?!"

"No kidding," Leona agreed grimly as they continued to watch Azul's rampage. "Using magic that powerful even once takes a pretty steep toll on a mage. At the rate he's going, he's gonna exceed his blot tolerance in no time.

The sound of rushing footfalls behind them caused them to turn. Jade and Floyd-back in their human forms-were running toward them as were the Ramshackle duo and their freshie squad. Everyone stopped dead in their tracks once they got a good look at the state the dorm was in. Jade and Floyd exchanged a quick concerned glance; it was easy to miss but if anyone caught it, they'd able to tell how concerned the twins were.

"Azul!" Jade called out, sounding nowhere near as calm and composed as he normally did. "What is the meaning of this?!"

"Seriously, what's goin' on?" Floyd demanded, looking around at all the collapsed students. "Dude, yikes."

Azul didn't answer them, but his crazed laughter told them everything they needed to know.

"This really isn't lookin' good!" Ace commented.

"This looks just like when Leona and the dorm leader…," Deuce trailed off, unable to finish his sentence, before looking of at Devon. "Azul's not going berserk, is he?!"

"If by "going berserk", you mean going into Overblot, then not yet," Devon replied. "Looks like he's teetering just on the edge, though."

Jack watched in horror as Azul drained yet another student's power away. "Is he… Is he sappin' people's powers by force now?"

"Eeep!" Grim squeaked as he moved to hide behind Devon, peeking out from behind her legs to glare at Leona. "This is all your fault, Leona! He's freakin' out like this because you were bullyin' him, weren't you?"

Leona heaved a long-suffering sigh, just wanting to be done with this whole mess. "Oh, so you're blaming me now? You and Devon were the ones who told me to turn the contracts to sand."

"One issue at a time here, guys! We can point fingers later!" Devon chided.

Their voices drew Azul's attention to where they were standing. His eyes lit up when he zeroed in on the twins. "Jade! Floyd! Aahhh, you've finally come back to me!" He shook his head sadly. "I've lost all of my contracts thanks to those fools! Can you believe that?!" The unsettling manic smile crept back onto his face. "So I'm going to need your powers now. Hurry up and give them to me!"

"Just a moment," Jade said sternly. "You know your Unique Magic cannot be properly controlled without a contract scroll. It's simply too powerful. You also know what will happen if you keep going the way you have been!"

"But… But I lost it all, Jade," Azul replied sadly, looking like a mix between a kicked puppy and a child that's been scolded by a favorite parent. "I've lost everything!" He laughed, but there was no humor in it; the poor guy sounded completely broken. "I'm going to revert back to my old self if I don't act now!"

Devon blinked, confused. 'What is he talking about? What does he mean "the way he was before"?'

"Ya know, you're actin' way lamer right now than you ever were back then, Azul," Floyd told him bluntly with a disappointed frown on his face. Jade sported an equally unimpressed look next to him.

"Is that right? I suppose that makes sense. After all, I'm just a dumb, clumsy octopus who can't do anything on his own, right?" Azul replied, his voice still broken as he smiled at them bitterly. "That's why I need to take everyone's powers. I'll keep taking them until I'm the best version of me I can possibly be. A beautiful singing voice, powerful magic, all of it will belong to me!" He turned back toward the mass of students behind him. None of them had been able to leave the dorm since he was blocking the way to the mirror portal and nobody wanted to risk trying to make a break for it. "Hand your abilities over at once!"

The screaming began anew as every student in that crowd was drained of their magic and ink began dripping from the top of Azul's head more and more rapidly with every body that hit the ground.

"Eugh, gross! What's all that black gunk drippin' outta Azul?" Floyd asked. "That ain't ink, is it?"

"He's overused his Unique Magic. He's well past the threshold for his cumulative blot tolerance!" Jade replied. "If he keeps this up, he's going to go into Overblot!"

"Uhh… I think it's a little too late for that," Devon said as Azul continued to cackle maniacally, the ink that had dripped off of him now rising to form what was, unfortunately, becoming the all-too familiar Overblot dome. Once again, the current scenery faded away and was replaced with magical pen being covered in blot, its silvery-grey magic crystal turning black as night. As much as she was growing to hate the sight of this vision, she knew that it was a sign that her blessing was queued up and ready. She couldn't quite put her finger on it, but something felt different this time. She could feel her power bubbling up inside her the way it did during the previous two Overblots, but something about it was…bigger and hopefully better. If what Jade said was true, then Azul had already used up a good deal of his magical energy, meaning they had even less time to bring him back to his senses than usual. Any negative feelings or opinions she had of the dorm leader were quickly brushed aside when the gravity of the situation really sunk in for her. 'Don't worry, Azul. We'll bring you back to yourself. Can't have you dyin' on me before I get the chance to give you one nice kick in the shin for all the trouble you've caused me.'

"Give 'em hell out there, sis," said a familiar from somewhere in the void. Devon looked around, but wasn't able to see anyone there with her physically, but she knew DJ's voice when she heard it.

"We're with you," came Dominic's voice reassuringly as Devon was pulled back to reality.

The ink dome surrounding Azul had disappeared by the time Devon returned to her senses and his Overblot form had the starkest contrast to his regular appearance out all the ones she'd seen thus far. Evidently he'd reverted back to his merform because his legs had been replaced with eight powerful-looking tentacles, all of them an inky black on top with purplish undersides. His skin had turned the same greyish color that the other Overblot victims had and his light blue eyes now appeared to be glowing in addition to a violet ball of magic emanating from his left eye. Devon also noticed a spiky ink crown on top of his head and a golden shell on a chain around his neck. Her eyes trailed lower to get a better look at the shells that had (somehow) attached themselves to his sides when…yep, his merform had abs too.

"You pitiful, insignificant fools!" Azul shouted as his tentacles began to coil, ready to strike.

"What the heck?! What happened to his legs?!" Grim demanded.

"That is Azul's true form," Jade supplied as he and Floyd readied their magical pens as well.

"What's that thing behind him supposed to be?" Floyd asked, nodding toward Azul's blot incarnation: a monster that looked eerily similar to Ursula with an ink jar for a head, complete with a trident and everything. "Ain't no squeezin' something that big."

"Nevermind that right now. We need to focus on bring Azul back to his senses," Leona replied.

"Unless we all wanna become anemones ourselves!" Ruggie added. He turned to look at Devon. "Your eyes got that blue glow again a second ago. I'm hoping that means you can use whatever eleventh-hour superpower you used during Leona's Overblot to help snap Azul outta this too."

"Yeah, I can," Devon replied without any hesitation. She was surprised by how easily she was able to say it but between being able to feel her own magic getting more powerful and the added telepathic confidence boost from her brothers-a quick glance at her softly glowing Sending Stone told her that Dominic hadn't been joking when he said they were with her-, she'd never felt more ready to take on an Overblot. "We need to wear him down before I can use my blessing, though, and we don't have a lot of time so let's get to it." 'Getting close enough for my power to work is also gonna be a challenge with all those tentacles he's got, but I'll just have to cross that bridge when I come to it.'

Before the group had any time to form a solid strategy beyond 'hit him a whole lot until Devon can use her mind-link power', Azul's tentacles stretched out and began slamming into the ground around them, effectively scattering them as they all moved to get out of the way. It became clear rather quickly-if his cackling was any indication-that the normally methodical Azul didn't actually have a plan beyond trying to crush them with his extra limbs or having the blot incarnation behind him attempt to skewer them with its trident. Fortunately, it didn't seem that anyone was having trouble dodging him so far and since Azul wasn't thinking strategically at this point, it never occurred to him to try and herd them all into a corner before striking at them.

"This isn't gonna work, Dev. We can't keep dodgin' him forever!" Grim pointed out as he used his fire magic on one of the tentacles, causing it to retract. "I don't think any of us have managed to get a single good hit in on him. It doesn't even seem like he can feel-"

"Hold that thought, Grim," Devon interjected when she noticed the same tentacle Grim had just scorched coming back for them. She glanced at the staff in her hand, recalling how she'd somehow turned it into a scythe on Halloween. She'd been practicing with Riddle whenever they both had time to spare and while she had been able to get it to transform again easily enough, it didn't always turn into what she was hoping for. 'Okay,' she thought, trying to remember what Riddle had taught her, 'keep your mind clear and visualize what you want the staff to turn into…' She pictured a hammer in her mind, something to bash the tentacle away without doing any serious damage to it-she didn't want Azul completely broken, after all. The staff began to glow with her signature blue aura…and promptly turned into a spiked flail. It wasn't anything at all like what she had in mind, but she didn't have time to try again. She swung the spiked ball at the end of the flail around a few times before bashing it against the approaching tentacle.

Azul screamed in pain at the impact and finally turned his attention away from swiping at Leona and Ruggie to focus on whatever it was that hit him. As soon as he caught sight of Devon, his eyes widened for a moment as if he'd just realized she was there before his expression twisted into the most menacing snarl she'd ever seen on a person, his eyes darkening with rage. "You…" It could barely be heard over the sounds of the chaos around them, but that single word dripped with so much anger that it immediately froze Devon in place. He began hauling himself toward her, a constant chant of "You, you, you, YOU!" leaving his lips as the burnt tentacle wrapped around her tightly before she had the chance to move away, causing her to drop her staff in the process.

"This all because of you!" Azul spat at her as he slammed Devon into the side of the dorm building, the force stunning her and preventing her from crying out despite the immense pain in her back and neck. "It's your fault that everything I've worked so hard for is gone!" He slammed her into the ground this time, the force of the impact leaving a small crater behind when he lifted Devon back up, smirking when he saw blood flowing out of a newly-sustained cut on the side of her head. "What's wrong, Devon? Where's that smart mouth of yours now?!"

"Damn it…," Ace grumbled as he and the others watched helplessly while Azul continued to alternate between slamming Devon into the ground and the dorm building. He glanced at Leona. "Can't you use your Unique Magic or something, Leona?"

"And do what? Turn Azul to sand? Sorry freshie, but I'm not about to do jail time for murder," Leona declined, though his thrashing tail indicated that he was just as worried for Devon as Ace was.

"Besides, there's no guarantee Devon wouldn't be turned to sand too if he did," Ruggie added.

Jack growled low in his throat before rounding on the twins. "Hey, Azul's your boss, right? Isn't there some way you two could talk him down?"

"Nah. Sounds like a total pain," Floyd replied. "'Sides, there ain't no way he's gonna listen to anyone now."

Jade nodded. "I'm afraid I must agree; Azul is too far gone to be reasoned with at this point. Considering how fixated he is on Devon at the moment, I suggest we use this opportunity to strike before he remembers we're still here. She might get a little roughed up but-"

""Roughed up", nothin'!" Grim shouted. "He's gonna kill her if we don't do something!"

Ruggie's ears twitched as an idea came to him. "Grim's got a point, ya know," he said as he gave the twins a side-long glance. "And think of how bad that would be for your lounge's prospects if he ends up killin' someone in front of so many witnesses." He gestured toward the crowd of students Azul had been sapping magic from. Many were still unconscious but there were plenty staring at the octo-mer in fear. "I'd say you can kiss any chance at opening a branch location for Mostro Lounge goodbye if this keeps up."

Jade and Floyd exchanged a quick look before Floyd let out a long, dramatic sigh. "Fiiiiine."

"Azul," Jade called as he and Floyd took a cautious step closer, "I think it's time you let Devon go now. Roughing her up is one thing but at the rate you're going, she's not going to last much longer."

"Good," Azul growled as he slammed Devon into the ground again. Fortunately for her-as fortunate as her situation could be, at least-, it seemed that the tentacle Azul had her wrapped up in was actually padding most of the impact. The pain was still excruciating and Devon was fairly certain she'd end up with either whiplash or a concussion if it went on for much longer, but she was reasonably confident that Azul was doing more harm to his own body than to hers.

"But think of how the Mostro Lounge's reputation will suffer if you end up taking her life," Jade reasoned.

"What does that matter now?!" Azul shouted. "My power… My omnipotence… All of it's gone now," He glared at Devon again, "thanks to this little bitch!" His tentacle reared back as if to slam her into the building again when a thought struck him and he turned to the brothers with a sly smirk on his face. "Although…if you really want me to let her go, I suppose we could make a deal."

"If I was talkin' to the regular Azul, I might've considered it," Floyd replied. "But you? Nah."

"I couldn't agree more," Jade concurred.

Devon saw something move out of the corner of her eye and despite the throbbing pain in her head, she turned to take a look. Her eyes widened in horror when she saw her staff rocketing toward Azul as the Wisps tried to intervene and she feebly shook her head in a futile attempt to get them to keep their distance, but Azul snatched the staff out of the air with another one of his tentacles the second it was within his striking range.

"Well, well," Azul said with another unsettling smirk on his face. "I wasn't expecting your little friends here to come to me on their own, Devon." The shell necklace around his neck began to glow as he prepared to take the Wisps' powers for himself. "Taking the power of even one Wisp will boost my own magic exponentially. I may not have my contracts anymore, but I guess this will do for a consolation prize."

"Not so fast!" Deuce shouted as he readied his magical pen. "Come forth, cauldron!"

Azul shouted in pain once again as Deuce's cauldron slammed down on the tentacle holding the staff, his grip loosening just enough that the staff could slip out of his grasp and move back over to the group. The Wisps inside pulsed worriedly at Devon, but as much as they hated being unable to help their human, the Wisps exited the staff, ready to bolster the other mages' magic as they had done during Leona's Overblot.

Evidently Devon wasn't dying fast enough for Azul's liking because he left his blot incarnation of Ursula to use its trident to keep the others at bay while he refocused his attention on the blue-haired girl. Slamming her around wasn't sparking joy for him any longer-though he did enjoy the sight of the blood on her face from the cuts she'd sustained-so he decided to change things up a bit. A second tentacle reached up to wrap around the first before they slowly began to tighten their grip. He then noticed that Devon's eyes, which had flown open when she felt the second tentacle wrap around her, appeared to have a slight purple glow. He hadn't been too focused on her face initially so he couldn't be sure how long they'd looked like that, but he quickly wrote it off as a trick of the light and got back to taking a page out of Floyd's book.

Devon's eyes widened in terror as she realized what was happening and she tried to cry out, but the pressure on her middle from being constricted as well as how dazed she still was from the earlier abuse she'd taken made it impossible. She could feel her ribs beginning to fracture and could just barely make out her friends voices calling out, but she was helpless to do anything to fight back. It wasn't long before her vision began to grow hazy and blur as she fought to pull in a breath and it grew harder to hold her head up with each passing moment. Her thoughts drifted to her brothers as everything began to grow dark. 'Sorry, guys. Looks like I really bit off more than I could chew this time…'

"Please tell me you're ready to make a move now, DJ. I can't watch another second of this," Dominic said, his expression dark and his eyes glowing his signature purple. He'd been watching the battle though Devon's eyes from the beginning and was mildly surprised to find that it was playing out in front of him like a movie instead of seeing through something akin to a slideshow of snapshots like he usually did. He was even more surprised when DJ informed him that their Sending Stones were glowing and a thin stream of magic was connecting them, apparently allowing DJ to see the battle as well.

DJ looked down at the magical energy that had been crackling around his clenched fists from the moment Azul grabbed Devon. He remembered the tingling in his hands from the first time he'd manifested his power-back when he'd accidentally used it to keep a football from hitting Mason in the face. Try as he might, he hadn't been able to get it to happen again since but now it was practically leaping out of him. It felt much stronger than last time too and between this and Dominic's apparent new-found ability to 'share' the visions he saw, he felt ready for anything. "Oh, hell yeah. Step back, baby bro." He slammed a fist into his palm, his expression the picture of tranquil fury. "I'm about to pay that octopus back with interest."

"Sorry, guys. Looks like I really bit off more than I could chew this time…," Devon's voice echoed in their minds.

"Don't you worry, sis," DJ replied out loud, hoping their bond would allow his Sending Stone to relay his words to her. "Just leave everything to your big brother."

"Don't you worry, sis. Just leave everything to your big brother."

Never before had DJ's voice brought Devon such a sense of relief. She nodded to herself and lowered her head just enough to see that her Sending Stone was glowing brighter with each passing second. She didn't have enough time to wonder what was going on this time, though, because Azul staggered back suddenly as if he'd been hit, his grip on Devon loosening slightly as he did so. Devon shook her head to try to clear it and Azul staggered back again with a grunt of pain. Once her vision cleared, she could see that Azul was being struck-punched, more accurately-by something. She couldn't see what was attacking him but whatever it was was leaving behind a trail of pink…lightning? It didn't look like an attack any of the Wisps had ever used and as she looked toward her friends, she saw that looked just as surprised as she was. And if it wasn't anybody here that was causing this… 'Heh. Guess my power isn't the only one that's been growing.'

"What is the meaning of-urph?!' Azul thundered before being cut off by swift uppercut that caused his nose to begin bleeding and was quickly followed by a punch in the stomach from his invisible assailant. He glared at Devon and attempted to begin squeezing her again, only to be attacked each time he tried.

Down on the ground, Grim and the others were also trying to make sense of what exactly was happening.

"Okay, does someone wanna explain what's happening here? I know Dev had some kind of blessing or whatever cast on her when she was a baby, but this is nothing like what happened during Leona's Overblot," Ruggie recalled before looking over at Grim, Ace, and Deuce. "You three were there during Riddle's too, right? Was she able to do anything like this then?"

Deuce shook his head. "No, this is the first time this has happened. Devon's blessing is supposed to be that mind-link thing she does."

"Look at the way Dev's bracelet is glowin', though!" Grim pointed out. "And the color of that lightning… Her brothers were blessed too…" His eyes widened as the pieces fell into place. "I think… I think that might be DJ's power!"

"Hold up. I thought Shrimpy was tossed over here from another world," Floyd interjected. "How's her brother able to help her out if he's back wherever she came from?"

"We can worry about that later," Leona cut in. "We need to strike now while Azul's distracted with whatever that is."

Between DJ's invisible but painful onslaught and the sudden wave of magical attacks pummeling him from Grim and the others, it wasn't long before he lost his grip on Devon entirely and slipped out of his tentacles and plummeted toward the ground. Fortunately, she was almost immediately caught by Zephyr's wind magic and the green orb carefully lowered her to the ground where she braced herself against a nearby wall. Given how hard it was for her to pull in a breath and how painful and gritty her chest felt in general, she was sure at least one of her ribs had actually been broken this time. "Thanks, Zeph," she said as her staff floated over to her, her voice barely more than a whisper. She looked up at the trails of lightning as they continued smacking Azul around. "And thank you, DJ… I really owe ya big for this…"

"Dev!" Grim shouted as he rushed toward her on all fours. "Are you okay?"

Devon smiled weakly at her furry companion. "I will be, Grim. It'll take more than this to keep me down." Her confident statement was undercut by a wince as she tried to pull in a breath too quickly.

Grim watched his friend worriedly for a second before turning back to face Azul, using his fire to blast away another tentacle that was moving to grab Devon again. "Don't you worry, henchman! The Great Grim'll protect ya! You just hang back and," His voice grew softer, more vulnerable, "…and try not to keel over, okay?"

Devon's smile softened. "I'll do my best, bud."

"Why…?! Why does everyone always bully me?!" Azul wailed nearby, pulling Devon's attention back to him. He looked pretty thoroughly worn down now; he'd depleted quite a bit of his magic before he even went into Overblot and all the damage he'd sustained in the battle was taking its' toll. Devon had seen multiple sides of Azul today but she never expected to see him look helpless. He began to curl in on himself, allowing his blot incarnation to handle the fighting and as she looked closer, Devon could see tears in the corners of his eyes. "Is it because I'm just a dumb, clumsy, slow octopus?" Azul continued, now practically curled into a ball as his tears began to fall. "All I wanted was the power to get back at my bullies! I just wanted to prove that they were wrong…!"

'So that's what this is about…,' Devon thought, watching as Azul tried to hide himself in his mass of tentacles so nobody would see him break down any further. Her heart broke at the sight; Azul was one of-if not the most-successful students at NRC and now he'd been reduced to a sobbing child. She could practically feel the self-loathing and despair radiating off of him and it only made her sympathize with him even more. 'He's caused me no end of trouble…but not even he deserves to feel that way.' She felt a familiar warmth begin to bloom in her chest and an instant later, she was engulfed in a familiar blue aura. Any pain she'd been feeling vanished almost immediately and as she glanced down at her bracelet, she noticed the light from the Sending Stone beginning to dim.

"I think he's had enough, DJ," Dominic's voice echoed through their telepathic link.

"Yeah. I'd say this one's all yours, Devon," DJ agreed as the light faded away.

"Phew… It's about time the cavalry arrived," Ace commented, shielding his eyes against Devon's aura as she and Grim stepped up to join the others.

"Yeah sorry, I was a little busy tryin' not to get crushed to death," Devon quipped.

Azul immediately shrank back from the aura, his blot incarnation doing the same. "S-Stay back!" His eyes widened in fear as Devon reached her hand out toward him and her aura began engulfing him as well. The specter behind him began to writhe as the aura's purifying effect began to sever its connection to Azul and the poor octo-mer's expression grew frantic as he tried to will it not to fade away, desperate to hang on to the power boost it gave him. "P-P-Please, Devon… Please don't do this… I-I need that power-"

"No, you don't," Devon interjected, moving her hand in a chopping motion and severing the creature's link to Azul in one fell swoop, causing the giant Ursula to fade into nothing. "The price of that power is way too steep."

"Are you serious, Shrimpy? Why didn't ya just do that from the start?" Floyd grumbled, irritated.

"I don't think she was able to before," Deuce said. "During the last two Overblots, her aura just kind of overwhelmed those blot monsters, but this is something completely different."

"Yeah. This is nothing like what happened during Leona's Overblot," Jack agreed. "Her brothers-assuming they were behind whatever started beatin' the tar out of Azul earlier-didn't get involved last time either."

"Hmm," Jade hummed contemplatively, watching with an absolutely fascinated expression on his face as Devon reached out toward Azul again, her aura lifting both of them off the ground as something began to materialize in front of Devon.

"Wh-What are you going to do?" Azul asked fearfully, clearly on the verge of losing consciousness but too afraid of what he assumed was going to be Devon's retribution to let himself slip.

"There's no need to be scared, Azul. I'm trying to help you," Devon assured him patiently. "Just calm down for a minute, okay? If you give yourself a second to breathe, you'll be able to feel my intent through the aura."

Azul searched Devon's face hesitantly, looking for any signs of deception, only to be met with an encouraging smile. He closed his eyes and took a deep, shaky breath, his posture becoming more relaxed when he realized that she'd been telling the truth; there was no malice whatsoever in that aura, just a genuine desire to help him. Once he was satisfied, he opened his eyes and gave her a (still slightly nervous) nod to continue.

Devon's smile widened, the shape materializing in front of her finally taking a solid form. Devon's eyes widened as the large ornate golden key she'd been seeing and unconsciously drawing for over a month now appeared before her. Just like the last time it appeared to her, she reached out to take it and was mildly surprised to find that she was able to grip the handle this time as opposed to the key fading away.

"I'm guessin' this is also new?" Floyd mumbled.

The rest of the group-except Jade-nodded silently, none of them taking their eyes off whatever was happening.

As soon as Devon touched the key, three words appeared at the forefront of her mind. She knew what they were instinctively and she suspected she had known unconsciously for a while now. She took a deep breath of her own as she pointed the end of the key at Azul, the both of them looking at each other calmly before nodding simultaneously. She turned the key in an unlocking motion before finally uttering the name of her blessing for the first time.

"[Open Your Heart]."

Ending Notes: That's the third Overblot battle done and we've finally come full circle! I've been waiting to namedrop Devon's blessing since I started writing this bad boy. And to think this chapter went up...kinda sorta close to the triplets' birthday (3/18)! Happy belated birthday, Devon! You get to fight off a rampaging octopus as a present! And you've got a few broken ribs now but you're still alive so…that's something, right?

I hope the triplets' powers and how they're able to use them don't seem too confusing; everything always seems to make sense in my head but sometimes I feel like I can't get it to translate to print especially well. My plan is for Mala to explain more about how the blessings work, especially with the Sending Stones in the mix, but there's still a ways to go before she appears. It'll be before the next Overblot, though, I promise you that.

Up next is Devon's trip into Azul's mindscape and I could not be more eager to write it. I really want these two to be besties already.

Thank you all so much for reading! As always, feedback and constructive criticism are welcome. Geekinthepink, out!