The Angel of the Owl House

by OwlHouseAngel

Luz Noceda is a young half-angel girl living with her angel mother in the Human Realm. Her attempts to be good always backfire, and after one too many mistakes, her mother sends her to Camp Reality Check. But a chance event leaves Luz in the Demon Realm, where she meets the Owl Lady, who teaches her that in a chaotic world like the Boiling Isles, Luz might be the perfect angel.

14. EP 14: Angel in Love

The Angel of the Owl House

Season 1: The Demon Realm

Chapter 14: Angel in Love

The weekend after Skara's party passed quickly, with very little happening. Luz had fallen deeper into love sickness towards Amity following her being kissed on the cheek(completely unaware that Amity was in the same boat), and Eda had made the whole situation more embarrassing by teasing Luz, then sitting her down for "The Talk". Naturally, Luz had already had this talk with her Mami, but Eda wanted to make sure Luz knew how things worked for witches and the majority of Biped Demons, just in case it differed from humans and angels. As it turned out, there was almost no difference between the three similar looking races and their reproductive habits, with the exception of witches and demons being able to have children regardless of the genders of the parents, thanks to magic.

Eda had also tried to help be Luz's wing-woman, but the young angel steadfastly refused to even consider pursuing Amity, much to the confusion of the Owl Lady and Luz's friends. Only Rasiel seemed to understand Luz's reluctance, but he refused to tell the others, saying it was a personal affair for Luz and only she could tell them.

After spending Saturday on that, Luz had screwed up the courage to call Amity on Sunday to ask how things were going at home. Willow had assured her that things had been okay, but Luz wanted to hear from Amity herself. The mint-haired girl had sounded flustered when she finally answered Luz's call, and the young angel had been much the same, but they eventually calmed down and got comfortable talking to one another. Despite their mutual crushes making things difficult, the two girls were also very good friends, so they were able to keep their cool so long as neither got too caught up in their hearts.

Amity happily reported that her Dad Alador had talked to her following the party, and had actually reassured her that she'd done the right thing regarding her mother. Things were not going well between the Blight Parents, and Odalia had defaulted to acting like her family were just co-workers and employees, keeping a strictly professional relationship. This meant that Odalia was treating Amity and the twins about the same as always, but was being noticeably more diplomatic and less demanding, offering rewards for obedience rather than thinly veiled threats. It was still an unhealthy situation, but it was better than before. Odalia was also apparently pretending the entire confrontation never happened, and was using a concealment stone to hide her atrocious hair and her injuries (as she was too proud to go to a healer or hairdresser and risk the incident being exposed).

Thinking about Odalia had made Luz think about her own mother, and how much she missed her. Camp Reality Check would be finishing on Sunday in about five weeks time, so Luz would be seeing her again soon, and the girl was both looking forward to it and dreading it. There was no way her Mami wouldn't be mad at her for running away to the Demon Realm… Even if the experience was positive and her Mami ended up being proud of what she'd achieved (like Luz dearly hoped she would be), she would still be furious that Luz had effectively lied about being at camp for three months! As it was, Luz feared that she and her Mami had grown kind of distant; her Mami rarely texted her any more, and Luz felt too guilty to initiate it, knowing she would be lying through text. Lying non-verbally may not burn her throat, but it still made her heart ache with guilt…

Between her feelings for Amity and her fears regarding her Mami, Luz had taken every opportunity to distract herself with studying, working with Eda, or playing with King.

The beginning of a new week found Luz sitting in the Owl House living room with King and Rasiel. King was using her cellphone to watch amusing videos on the internet while Rasiel watched from over his shoulder, while Luz sat on the floor and tried to translate more of Philip Wittebane's diary.

"I've almost got this entry finished!" Luz said happily, "And it's a good one too!"

"Good job, Luz." Rasiel complimented, looking up from the cat video King was watching, "I apologise that I can't be of help. I may be able to understand spoken Common, but I can only read Runic and Angelic Script."

"Wait, you don't know how to read Common script?" King asked.

"No. In the past, the only written language in the Demon Realm was Runic, though when read aloud, it's still basically just Common, though an archaic variant. Common script likely comes from the Human Realm." Rasiel explained. "I've been picking up some Common script with Luz at Hexside, but it's difficult to practice without a physical body to hold books and turn pages."

King and Luz made noises of understanding, then Luz finally translated the last part of the diary entry she was working on. She cheered with delight; "Finally! The last few entries were so dull, but this one is a real doozy!"

"Ooh, what does it say?" King asked excitedly.

Luz picked up her written translation and summarised it; "Philip was trying to find a power source for the portal he was making, and discovered Titan's Blood. He went to Eclipse Lake on the Knee to find some, and after he finished there, he stumbled upon the ruins of Caplacier!"

"The place where we found Rasiel! What else does it say?" the little demon said, abandoning Luz's phone.

"According to this, he discovered the ice glyph in a snowflake and was able to use it to pass the trials in the temple and discover the Black Tomb! But no matter what he did, he couldn't make it react. Even using a glyph on it like King did gave no results." Luz said, before humming; "I guess that confirms it was my angel side and not my human side that the tomb reacted to. Rasiel, do you remember any of this? It would have been about 350 years ago."

The ancient angel spirit tapped his chin; "It doesn't ring a bell. After the temple was abandoned, there were occasional visitors; mostly explorers and teenagers from the nearby city, but none of them stood out."

Luz frowned; that was a little disappointing. She quickly perked up however as she finished her summary with something Rasiel and King were both sure to like.

"While he couldn't get into the Black Tomb at the Caplacier Temple, he wrote that he'd heard rumours of another Black Tomb somewhere else on the island, in an ancient fire temple!"

"Another tomb!? That means another piece of me!" Rasiel gasped.

"And another elemental temple probably means another glyph! I'd wager my good horn that we'll find the fire glyph if we go there!" King added, "Where is it, Luz!?"

"That's where the entry ends. I'll need to keep translating to see if he found the fire temple." Luz said, "But maybe we can discover it for ourselves? The Ice Temple was in a cold place, so the Fire Temple is probably somewhere hot, like a volcano."

That made sense to King, who immediately ran for a book on the Boiling Isles' geography to try and find such a place. He was extremely eager to find yet another new glyph. However Luz was more focused on the glyphs she already had, including the ice glyph she'd yet to master.

She didn't understand why she'd failed to bond with the ice glyph so far; she definitely understood what ice stood for magically; Fluidity, Change, and Protection. She'd never been adverse to change, and liked to consider herself able to adapt fluidly to the situations going on around her! And of course, she understood protection very well! She'd frequently acted to protect her friends from different dangers! In fact, Luz was kind of surprised that she hadn't bonded with the glyph during the whole confrontation with Odalia… Was she still missing something?

Luz wasn't able to think on this for long, as almost as soon as King got back with the book, Hooty suddenly slammed open his door.

"Hoot hoot, Luz! Time to fill up that darling little head of yours with…" he began to retch, eventually vomiting up Luz's school books and satchel, "… Mm-mm, delicious knowledge!"

Luz sighed; she really needed to find a way to keep the excitable House Demon from eating her things…

Willow and Gus, who'd come to get her so they could walk to school together, then peeked through the open door, both looking disturbed by Hooty.

"Please hurry!" Gus urged.

"The more I look at him, the more uncomfortable I get." Willow shuddered as Hooty hooted again.

"Be right there!" Luz promised. "Sorry King, but I better get going. See if you can find potential temple locations while I'm gone, okay?"

King nodded, then giggled as Luz kissed his head. She then gathered her books into her satchel and called Rasiel back to her ring, before joining her friends and leaving for Hexside. She was a little nervous since it would be the first time she saw Amity since the party, but she was also looking forward to seeing the girl again.

She and her two friends chatted casually as they walked, and when the arrived at Hexside, they found gold banners and balloons shaped like yellow abominations everywhere. Luz oohed and ahhed at the decorations; "What is all this? Is there some kind of occasion I don't know about?"

Willow gasped; "Oh yeah! I always forget that you're half human, so you wouldn't know!"

"Know about what?" Luz asked eagerly.

"Only the social event of the season!" Willow grinned.

"Yeah! Welcome to your first-" Gus began, only to be cut off by a pair of medical workers suddenly rushing past with a stretcher, making siren noises with their mouths. Everyone turned their attention to the two as they ran over to Rogier and put him on the stretcher.

"You need to come with us!" one of them said, "Your disease is advancing!"

Luz gasped softly and began preparing a Healing Lotus to try and help, but Willow pulled her hand back with a smile, gesturing for her to keep watching.

Rogier said; "Is there a cure, Doc?" with fake worry.

"Only one." The doctor said ominously, before his entire demeanour went from serious to cutesy; "Finding the perfect date to Grom!"

Luz blinked in surprise, as Rogier was wheeled over to Skara. "If that's the cure then…" he pulled out a literal beating heart with the word "GROM" written on it in what appeared to be blood. "Skara, will you go to Grom with me?" he asked, smiling with a faint blush.

Skara screamed with happiness, tossing her books into the air and jumping onto the bat-like boy's lap; "Of course I will! Or whatever." she said, adding the last part to not seem too eager. Obviously the scream right before kind of undermined that, but it was still sweet and the rest of the watching students smiled and cheered for the pair.

Luz cheered too; it was kind of an elaborate proposal, but it was still adorable! And given that Skara had spent half of her birthday party dancing with Rogier, it wasn't too big of a surprise either. As the excitement began to die down and everyone returned to their business, Luz turned back to Willow and Gus.

"Wow, you guys have your own version of Prom on the Boiling Isles? That's so cool!" Luz smiled. She'd never attended school dances back in the Human Realm, though she had helped prepare a few of them (some of them even without mishaps!) Luz always liked the idea of them, but they were always the kind of events that one was expected to take a date to, and Luz simply never felt comfortable doing that. While she had found plenty of boys and girls attractive, she'd never felt the urge to do more than look at them or be their friends; something like a date was way different, and not something she thought should be done casually or with someone you didn't really like.

"Yep! It's always a pretty fun party! Even I had fun at last year's Grom, and I was still considered a loser!" Willow smiled.

"Really? Who did you go with?" Luz asked.

"No one, silly! Grom isn't just for couples! Everyone goes and has fun!" Willow explained, before grinning coyly; "But I bet you have someone you want to ask to Grom, don't you?"

Luz blushed; "I… uh…"

As if summoned by the universe to make Luz's blush intensify, Amity suddenly walked around the corner and accidentally crashed into Luz, sending them both sprawling to the floor. Luz ended up flat on her back, and Amity landed on top of her, her books scattered around them. Both girls groaned, then looked into one another's eyes and blushed bright red. Their brains froze as their hearts sped up to supersonic speeds, and while both girls knew they needed to get up, neither truly wanted to, instead wishing to continue their contact. However once their brains started working again, both panicked.

"L-Luz! I'm so sorry!" Amity cried, leaping off of Luz as quickly as she could. "I can't believe I fell for you… I MEAN ON! I CAN'T BELIEVE I FELL ON YOU!" she yelped, somehow getting even redder.

"N-No, it's fine! It was great actually!" Luz blurted out, before realising what she'd said; "I MEAN! GREAT THAT I CAUGHT YOU! NOT THAT YOU FELL!"

Willow and Gus watched the two with big grins; they wished they had popcorn. The two girls blushed and giggled nervously, then stooped to pick up Amity's books together. They accidentally bumped heads and that started a full minute of panicked apologies and reassurances from both of them, before they stepped back and tried again.

As Luz was picking up the books, she noticed a small pink note amongst them and grabbed it. It had been a bit crumpled by the fall, so Luz was able to see the last few words written in Amity's elegant handwriting; "to Grom with me? Amity."

Luz felt her heart lurch painfully, which only grew worse when Amity spotted the note and snatched it back. So Amity had someone she wanted to ask to Grom… that realisation hurt Luz more than she ever would have imagined. Still, she forced a smile on her face and tried to assuage the bitterness growing inside her by jokingly saying; "M-Man, you've got some quick grabbers!"

"Sorry, it's just… it's… private." Amity said, averting her eyes before shyly adding; "Um, how much did you see?"

"Just the bottom bit. You want to ask someone to Grom, right?" Luz asked, her smile becoming even more forced.

Amity blushed and nodded, still unwilling to meet Luz's eyes. The poor angel's guts twisted; so Amity already had someone she liked… that was an unpleasant revelation, but Luz should have known. A girl as amazing as Amity probably had every cute boy and girl in the school clamouring to go out with her; someone like Luz didn't stand a chance.

"T-That's…" Luz struggled to find the words to say without lying or hurting Amity's feelings. "… I hope you get the answer you want. You deserve it." she eventually settled on.

Amity finally looked Luz in the eye, and the sparkle of hope Luz saw there just tore at her heart. But she swallowed that pain down; Amity was one of her best friends, and Luz would always support her, even if it wasn't her who held Amity's heart! Besides, Luz had already decided not to act on her own feelings, so she had no right to get in Amity's way.

Before Amity could verbally reply, the sound of the school intercom silenced everyone.

Principal Bump's voice then filled the school; "Attention Hexside students, this is your Principal speaking."

"Oh man, this is it!" Gus whispered fearfully.

"He's announcing who'll be this year's Grom Royalty!" Willow added, looking just as apprehensive. In fact, as Luz looked around, she saw that everyone was tense and nervous. This didn't feel like excitement or anticipation; it felt like dread!

"This year, I have the privilege to bestow our highest Grom honour to… oh dear."

The dread felt across the school grew even worse, to the point that even Luz was beginning to feel it, despite not understanding what the big deal was.

Principal Bump eventually composed himself and continued; "This year's Grom Queen will be… Luz Noceda!"

Luz gaped; "Me!?"

Willow, Gus, and Amity all gasped and looked at Luz with horror, while the other students around began muttering as they looked at her. Luz was really starting to freak out.

"Why do I get the feeling that being Grom Queen is something bad…?" she asked shakily.

"Luz Noceda, please report to my office so I can inform you of the… situation." Bump finished, before turning off the intercom.

Luz didn't even have a chance to react before Amity grabbed her hand. "We need to get you to Bump NOW! Hopefully he'll be able to sort this out!"

Any protests or questions Luz had died in her throat at the feeling of Amity's soft hand in hers, and she allowed herself to be dragged off to the Principal's office, with Gus and Willow following closely behind. They arrived in record time, and Amity didn't even bother to knock before barging in.

"We're here, Principal Bump!" Amity said, notably not releasing Luz's hand.

Principal Bump looked up from the strange black crystal ball he'd been staring at to face the four students with a regretful expression. "Very good. Now, would I be correct in assuming that you've got no idea what's going on here, Luz?"

"That's right." Luz nodded. "I only heard about Grom a little while ago. What's the big deal with me being Grom Queen? And why me anyway? Was there some kind of vote I didn't hear about? That's usually how it works with Human Proms or Homecomings."

Principal Bump sighed and used a cloth to cover the crystal ball on his desk, then invited the students to sit. Once they took their seats, Bump began to explain; "Grom is not a simple party, young Luz. It is a tradition dating back to the day my classmates and I destroyed Fibul Academy and rebuilt Hexside on top of it. The dance party is something I added after becoming Principal, to make the whole affair less… upsetting for the student body."

Luz frowned; "That's ominous. But I still don't understand."

Bump nodded; "Allow me to start at the beginning. When my classmates and I attacked Fibul Academy and proved too much for the students and staff to defeat, the Principal of Fibul did something drastic. His name was Grometheus, and he used a combination of experimental beast-keeping, abomination, and oracle magic to transform himself into a shape-shifting monster. He hoped to use that power to take on the form of our worst fears and drive us away. Unfortunately he lost his mind instead, and we were forced to seal him away where he stood. Now, every year on the day of the Summer Solstice, he leaks out of his seal and must be beaten back. But Grometheus appears to be totally immortal; he will reconstitute over and over, no matter what we do to him. The only way to defeat him is to beat him at his own game, so each year a student is selected to fight him and drive him back into his seal. This year, it's you."

Luz went pale; "I'm going to get eaten by a horrible monster again, aren't I?"

Her friends exchanged worried looks, while Principal Bump shook his head; "I don't believe that is the case. I think you may even be the one to finally destroy Grom for good."

Luz groaned and rubbed a hand down her face; this day couldn't get any worse! First she finds out Amity has someone she likes, and now she has to fight yet another evil monster!? Life really had it out for Luz today!

"How was I even chosen to be Grom Queen? You seemed surprised before." Luz asked.

"I don't understand the specifics, but Grom himself choses his target." Bump gestured to the black crystal ball on his desk "As Principal of the school and keeper of his seal, I'm able to see his choice, and this time it was you. I believe he chooses the opponent that will be the biggest challenge to him in his escape. If he can't beat them, he'll retreat to recover his strength in the seal for another year. But if he can, he knows the other students won't stand a chance." Bump explained.

Luz blinked, then looked to her friends; "Wait, I'm the biggest challenge to his escape?"

"Grometheus is partially made of oracle magic powered by his own spirit, and angelic magic can banish spirits from the living realms. It's why the spirits are so afraid of you." Amity explained, still holding Luz's hand. Neither girl were in a rush to change that arrangement.

"Which is why Principal Bump said you might be able to put Grom down for good!" Gus realised, "If you bust out that angelic power of yours, Grom will bite the dust and no one will ever have to fight him again!"

"That's true! Maybe it's not such a bad thing that Luz was picked." Willow added, now feeling a lot less worried. "Plus its the oracle magic that lets Grom read your mind and find out your deepest, darkest fears; since you're immune to it, you just have to fight a big black blob! You'll vaporise it in no time!"

Luz smiled, feeling a little more confident; "Y-Yeah! I can do that! I'll put Grom's spirit to rest and save the school! That's what a proper angel would do!"

Principal Bump smiled, glad that Luz was getting motivated. Sadly, he had to burst her bubble…

"Actually, Luz is immune to oracle magic because the spirits fear her and won't go near her for fear of being exorcised… but Grom has no emotions of his own any more. He is focused solely on the goal he had in mind when he transformed himself into his current monstrous state; namely hunting down and destroying every Hexside student. And since it's his own spirit that powers his oracle magic, he may well be the only creature in existence who can use oracle magic to effect Luz."

That put a dampener on Luz's enthusiasm; "Oh…"

Rasiel emerged from his ring with a frown, making Principal Bump gasp in surprise. He knew about the angel spirit (though not his true origins) as Luz had told him about Rasiel after the Basilisk incident. She'd told him so she could entrust his ring to the Principal during tests, so Luz couldn't be accused of using him to cheat.

"You've failed to explain why you even allow this blood sport to take place. You sealed Grom once before, why not do it again?" Rasiel demanded.

"We tried! During the first few years after his creation, we would send entire groups after him! Adult witches of great skill! But Grom FEEDS on fear! The more fear he faces, the stronger he becomes, which means he is at his strongest when fighting large groups. There were many casualties, and eventually it was decided to play along with Grom's strange instincts and send only its chosen student to beat it back. Against a single student, whose fears are usually limited and childish, Grom will be as weak as we can hope for." Bump explained. He honestly hated the battle part of Grom, which was why he'd started the tradition of hosting a dance around it; getting everyone in a good mood not only lessened the trauma, but also helped to keep Grom weak.

Rasiel didn't like that answer, though he was at a loss as to what else he could do about it; "Is there really nothing that can be done?"

Bump shook his head; "I'm sorry, but no. If Grom doesn't get his chosen opponent, he'll rampage and attack everyone and everything. The only exception is if someone volunteers to take the chosen opponent's place. I think Grom accepts that because he considers the substitute to be the chosen opponent's "Champion" who fights in their stead, and why would someone have a champion weaker than themselves?"

Amity frowned; so the only way for Luz to get out of this was to have someone volunteer? It was a terrifying prospect, but maybe she should take Luz's place! Sure she had fears she didn't want exposed, but Amity could handle that! She'd helped beat her mother! She'd made amends with Willow! Luz considered her one of her best friends! Most of Amity's fears were things she'd already overcome! The only one she hadn't was…

The note in her pocket felt like lead all of a sudden, and she hesitated.

When Luz had seen the note, she had smiled kindly at Amity and wished her luck… Amity had seen no signs of disappointment or jealousy. Luz had been happy for her… and if Luz was happy at the idea of Amity finding a date other than her, then surely that meant Luz wasn't interested. It was a crushing realisation that made her stomach twist and her heart ache; it felt like she'd failed before she'd even begun.

But even if Luz didn't share her feelings, she wasn't the type to scorn her for them! Luz was an angel after all, and Amity's best friend! And she didn't deserve to go through such a horrible experience.

"I-I'll volunteer to take Luz's place!" Amity said, cursing herself for stuttering.

Willow and Gus looked shocked, while Rasiel and Principal Bump looked intrigued. However Luz shook her head vehemently.

"No, Amity. It's got to be me. Even if its scary and terrible, if I win then Grometheus will be no more! I've got to do this! For Hexside and its future generations, and for you too!" Luz said determinedly, pushing back her fear as she gripped Amity's hand with both of her own.

"M-Me too?" Amity blushed.

Luz swallowed thickly as she fought back her own blush; "Y-Yeah! After all, if you take my place to fight Grom, you won't be able to ask that special person to Grom. You deserve to be happy, Amity; I want you to have a great night! So I'll be your wing-woman! I'll kick Grom's butt and you can get romantic with your crush!"

None of what Luz had said was a lie, but it still managed to physically hurt her to say it. Meanwhile Amity felt her spirit drop; so Luz was just being a good friend… she felt stupid for briefly getting her hopes up.

Literally everyone else in the room could see the reality of the situation, but none of them said a word; it felt wrong to intervene in the girls' affairs, especially to out them to their crushes. No, as infuriating as it was for them to watch, they would let Luz and Amity work things out for themselves.

Principal Bump ended the meeting there, and told Luz that Grom was that night, so she had the rest of the day to prepare for it. He even gave her the option to get out of classes for the day to prepare, but Luz had declined, reasoning that Hexside was probably the best place to prepare to fight Grom. Despite not viewing herself as much of a fighter, Luz was fairly confident in her actual prowess in battle; she'd held her ground against plenty of monsters since coming to the Demon Realm after all, and she was getting pretty good at magic if she did say so herself. But it was the "fear" part of fighting Grometheus that worried her. Luz knew she was afraid of a lot of things, but she had no idea what her greatest fear was. The unknown was almost the scariest part.

The fact that Luz was now Grom Queen had rapidly spread through the school so even those who'd missed the announcement soon found out, and whispers followed Luz for the rest of the day. In her bard classes, Skara, Jerbo, and Viney had promised to help her train, and had even tried to psyche themselves up and offer to replace her in the fight, though they were ultimately too afraid to follow through, not that Luz would have accepted anyway. They instead spent the morning filling Luz's head with as much battle magic as they could, with Skara teaching Luz a song that could help boost her courage, while Jerbo taught her about different plants that might be useful for her in combat.

During her construction track classes, Luz found herself being aided by the entire class, thanks to how tight-knot they'd all become while working together on the repairs and expansion. The repairs to the school had largely been completed, and what was left Mattholomule decided to handle on his own so the rest of the class could focus on helping Luz learn to fight. They tried to teach her how to make walls and barriers with stone to protect herself, but Luz still couldn't handle construction magic of that level, so they instead taught her how to create Power Glyphs. Again, her limited skill in this area of magic meant she couldn't produce very potent Power Glyphs, so her classmates ended up stuffing her pockets with ones they'd made themselves.

Then there were her Beast-keeping classes, where Viney focused on teaching her the weaknesses of some of the most horrifying beasts and demons on the Boiling Isles. She was also aided by Rogier, Skara's date to Grom, who was willing to help out his date's friend, and focused on teaching her how to use other beasts to her advantage. He offered to lend her some of his pet Marrdregs so she'd have an advantage against Grom, but Luz politely declined; she had strong feelings about making animals fight for her, and also worried that Grom would consider this an attack by a group and go on a rampage.

During breaks and lunch, Luz's three best friends, as well as Skara, Amelia, and the Multi-Trackers all came together to help Luz train some more, and by the time school was done for the day, Luz was feeling fairly confident. After school, her friends promised to stop by the Owl House to continue helping her after dropping their things off, giving Luz some time to talk to Eda and King before they arrived.

"I'm home!" she called as she walked into the house. Getting no response and seeing no signs of Eda or King, she began searching around. Rasiel popped out of his ring and phased through the ceiling, then came back down.

"They're in Eda's room." he told her.

Luz nodded gratefully and ran upstairs, knocking on Eda's bedroom door to announce her presence. She was answered by a yelp from Eda, making her frown and go inside. There she found Eda dressed in a brown tuxedo while King stood on her dressing table, using some pins and tailor tools to help fix the old tuxedo up a bit.

"Careful with those pins, King!" Eda frowned, rubbing her arm.

"Why am I doing this!?" King snapped back, a little green apron on that held his tools, "I don't even normally wear clothes!"

"You totally should. You're adorable." Luz smiled as she made her presence known; "Nice Tux, Eda. What are you getting all dressed up for? Got a hot date with Raine?" she grinned, waggling her eyebrows.

Eda snorted; "Nah, I'm chaperoning Grom tonight. So I have to look sharp."

"You always look sharp, Eda. Your usual red dress is killer." Luz complimented, giving Eda the finger guns.

Eda chuckled and ruffled Luz's hair; "Flatterer. I'll admit this thing isn't my usual style, but I can't stand out too much or all you kids will start feeling underdressed." she smirked.

Luz giggled and rolled her eyes, then looked to King; "Hey little bro, how did the search for hot places for the Fire Temple go?"

"Kinda meh, to be honest. There are tons of places like that on the isles, and trying to find one with ruins is hard. Plus none of the ones that do have ruins mention anything about temples or Black Tombs!" King complained. He then perked up; "But Gus called earlier! He wanted to say something to Eda, but he got distracted when I showed him my awesome glyph skills, and now he's asked me to Co-MC the fight with Grom!"

He held up a little poster he'd made of himself and Gus, standing back to back and wearing sunglasses, which advertised the fight with Grom. "We're gonna turn this blood-bath into a fun-bath!"

Luz smiled "Oh, so you'll both be there tonight? That's great!"

"Yep! And this'll be your first Grom! You'll get to see someone else being eaten by a monster for once!" Eda grinned, "So, have they announced the victim yet?"

Luz chuckled awkwardly; "Yeah… it's kinda… sorta… supposed to be… me?"

Eda and King both froze; "You!?" they cried together.

"Yeah, me." Luz said, crossing her arms as she felt a bit defensive over their reactions.

Eda frowned severely; "Oh no, we are not having that! We're going back up to Hexside to tell Bump and that sludge monster to pick someone else!" she said, beginning to march out of the room. She grabbed Luz's wrist to pull her along too, but Luz pulled free.

"But why, Eda? Don't you think I'm good enough?" Luz asked, feeling hurt. After everything else today, she didn't think she could handle her mentor thinking he was useless…

Eda hesitated upon seeing Luz's expression. The girl's self-esteem was dangerously low, so she had to tread carefully not to hurt her apprentice. The wrong words could crush her…

"Luz, I honestly think you could kick Grom's butt to kingdom come! I don't see that thing being stronger than Arboriel, and definitely not the Ice Wyrm. But it's not a matter of how strong or skilled you are, Luz." Eda said, kneeling down and putting her hands on the young angel's shoulders. "Grometheus is the Fear Bringer for a reason. He can and will bring out your deepest, darkest fears. It's what makes him so formidable! Without that power, I bet half of Hexside could beat him! But with it… there's no telling what he'll become. I just don't want anything bad to happen to you, okay? I mean what's the fun of seeing a kid get eaten by a monster if they're my kid?"

Luz felt a wave of warmth as Eda said that last part with a fond smile. "I-I appreciate that Eda, but I was the one chosen and I can't let anyone else suffer in my place. Besides, if I win then no one will ever have to face Grom again!"

Eda sighed; "I can't talk you out of this, can I?"

Luz shook her head; "I'm sorry, but I've got to do this. It's my duty as an angel to help others!"

Eda gave her a long look, before closing her eyes and admitting defeat; "Fine. Give me a minute to change, then meet me out front; I'll give you as much training as I can before the big fight!"

"Thank you, Eda!" Luz beamed, hugging the Owl Lady before rushing outside. Eda watched her go, then groaned.

"Today is going to go either really well or really badly… probably both." she complained.

"Do you really think Luz will have trouble? She's saved our butts multiple times y'know." King pointed out.

"Luz is a good girl, but I don't think she realises that it means to face your greatest fear. This isn't spooky or gross haunted house level stuff; this is true, paralysing primal fear!" Eda said as she began to anxiously change out of her Tux.

Eda had dropped out of Hexside while there were still older and stronger students there, so she'd never been selected to fight Grom herself, but she still remembered what it was like for those that were chosen. Back under Faust's time, it was treated more like a day at the gladiatorial games than a dance party, and it made the entire school anxious for days before and after. The fights themselves were always grim affairs; amusing to watch from a blood sport point of view, but the champions weren't the same for days, if not weeks, after the fights. Plus since it was a public affair, a lot of them had their most embarrassing moments shown to the entire school. Luz finally had friends and was starting to get confidence in her abilities and helpfulness, and Eda didn't want to see all that be broken by Grom. The memory of when she'd made Luz cry during the whole Tearful Tonic escapade still burned in Eda's mind; she couldn't bare the thought of something like that happening again!

Putting this out of her mind, she changed back into her signature dress and went outside with King, where she found Luz already in a kind of pseudo training with Hooty (in reality, she was just playfully dodging his attempts to hug her). At about the same time, Luz's friends arrived as promised; Amity, Willow, Gus, and Skara had shown up, as had the Blight Twins and the Multi-Trackers.

"Alright Luz, the battle with Grom starts at 7pm. It's now 3:30, so we have about 3 hours to train before we need to start preparing for the dance. Are you ready?" Amity asked.

Luz nodded; "I am! But Amity, should you really be spending this time with me? I'm grateful to you, but shouldn't you be asking your crush to Grom?" she asked worriedly.

The others all hid their expressions of amusement/exasperation, confusing Luz, while Amity blushed faintly.

"A-Actually… I basically got rejected." Amity admitted.

Luz gasped, and felt a surge of both joy that Amity wasn't going with someone else, and terrible guilt that she was pleased about that fact. "That's awful!" she eventually said, struggling to find the words to say that wouldn't be lies.

Amity averted her eyes; "I didn't get to really confess or ask them, but they made it pretty clear they weren't interested."

"That jerk! Want me to beat 'em up along with Grom?" Luz scowled, pumping her fist.

Gus had to cast an illusion over everyone just to hide the fact that they all face-palmed at her obliviousness. Amity giggled; "No, it's fine. They're a really nice person, and would never do anything to intentionally hurt me. They just… weren't interested in my like that."

Eda groaned again; "By the Titan, these two are killing me…" she muttered out of their ear shot.

Both girls were completely oblivious to the other's feelings! Luz couldn't believe that someone as amazing as Amity could be interested in her, so assumed Amity had a crush on someone else and was trying to be a good friend by supporting her! But Amity in turn thought that Luz was so willing to help her ask out someone else because she had no interest in her! After all, Amity couldn't comprehend why someone would be so willing to help their crush ask out another person, therefore Luz must not like her like that! Eda felt it would have been almost funny and cute, if her little apprentice wasn't essentially sabotaging her own happiness due to her poor self-esteem.

"They may be a good person, but they've gotta also be kinda blind if they don't see how amazing you are!" Luz frowned. Then an idea came to her; it was a horrible idea that filled her with guilt over her own selfishness, but the longing in her heart made the young angel shove that guilt aside.

"H-How about I go with you to Grom? Y-Y'know, as best friends!" Luz offered, her face getting redder by the second. She felt like scum using Amity's rejection like this, but this might be the only chance she'd have! A single fun night where she could pretend for a few hours that she was the one Amity wanted to be with.

"I-I'd like that. Let's go together! A-As best friends!" Amity agreed, a bright blush on her face to match Luz's own, as her heart was doing cartwheels of joy in her chest. Sure Luz was just being a good friend again, and Amity felt bad for taking advantage of that to go to Grom with her, but she still couldn't help but be thrilled. For one night, she could pretend that Luz really did return her feelings! Now if only they didn't have to worry about Grometheus…

With both girls feeling both overjoyed and guilty, and their audience ready to keel over from the spike in blood pressure they were getting from watching the two, the conversation finally turned back to what they were supposed to be doing; namely preparing Luz for Grom.

"Now, in pure combat skills you're probably as prepared as you're going to get. We're not gonna be able to make you much stronger in only a few hours, so we should instead focus on getting you mentally prepared." Eda said, taking charge.

"Right. So how are we going to do that?" Luz asked, still partially riding high on the knowledge she was going to Grom with Amity.

"Grometheus can read your surface thoughts and take on the form of what you're afraid of. But if it touches you, it'll be able to dive deeper into your head and pull out even your deepest, darkest fears. The most successful past Grom Royalty have beaten it before it got close enough to touch them, so we should aim for that too." Eda explained. She really didn't want to see what Luz's deepest fears were, especially since there was a good chance they might expose her identity in front of the whole school.

"So we basically need to start with your small fears and how to combat them." Amity continued; "What are you afraid of?"

Luz blushed a bit; "Some of them are kinda silly…"

"Then why don't we share our fears too?" Willow suggested, "That way you're not being embarrassed. For example, I'm afraid of Ladybugs."

Everyone gave her a strange look, especially the animal-loving Viney, making Willow add; "When I was four, I fell asleep with flower nectar on me one night and it attracted aphids. When I woke up, a whole swarm of Ladybugs were crawling all over me, eating them. You try waking up covered in little skittering beetles and not be freaked out!"

That explanation made her fear make more sense, and she got some sympathetic nods and a few cringes from those imagining the feeling. Luz felt a little more confident, so gave one of her own fears; "I'm freaked out by the idea of people's souls being trapped in animal bodies, especially cats." she said shyly, "It's from some really old Horror movie I saw in the Human Realm as a kid… Mom was watching it and I was supposed to be in bed, but I secretly spied on the movie."

"Oof, seeing scary movies and stuff when you're a little kid is rough." Viney said. "For me, I've got Claustrophobia."

From there, they each took it in turns to reveal some of their minor fears. Amity and the Twins shared the fear of their mother. Gus had a fairly standard fear of clowns, which were the one thing from the Human Realm that he couldn't stand. Barcus was afraid of thunder, and Jerbo was scared of spiders. Skara revealed her fear was disappointing her Dad and failing to become a great bard, as well as a lesser fear of needles. King confessed a fear of the boiling rain and the Owl Beast (having been partially traumatised by his experience during Eda's last transformation), and Eda herself also admitted being afraid of the Owl Beast, or more specifically, having King or Luz be hurt by it. Even Rasiel, who had once again hidden in his ring since Skara and the Multi-Trackers still didn't know Luz's secret, decided to reveal one of his own fears; the Divider, who had ripped him apart and sealed him away.

Thanks to their encouragement and sharing of their own fears, Luz was able to confess more of her own. Besides her fear of possessed cats, she was also afraid of Human Realm Dairy, since she was Lactose Intolerant and it made her really sick, and having all her friends see her as a screw up and abandon her. She was also afraid of a few other things, like her identity being revealed, but Luz couldn't reveal that fear without it coming true, so she kept it to herself.

"Okay, if those are your beginner fears, then let's start with those! Gus, you and the twins will make illusions of Luz's fears, while the rest of us will help encourage her to face them. Got it?" Eda said.

Gus, Edric, and Emira saluted and began creating illusions, conjuring images of weird tormented cats with human faces (which Barcus had to resist the urge to chase), abominations made of milk and cheese that tried to lunge into Luz's mouth, and replicas of all of Luz's friends, which insulted Luz as "Useless" and "a Screw-Up" as they gathered around her.

Luz found it strangely effective, if disquieting.

"Ugh, if you're not gonna be useful, then just disappear." taunted an Illusory Skara.

"Don't listen to that thing, Luz! You know I've got your back girl!" the real Skara countered.

Luz shot a light blast at the fake Skara, destroying her. The next illusion took the form of King, who was juggling the three glyphs he knew.

"If you don't hurry up and find me more glyphs, I'm going to find myself a better big sister!" Illusory King threatened.

The real King stomped his little foot; "I would never say that! Luz, destroy the fake!"

Luz did so obediently, and the fake was replaced by an image of Principal Bump.

"I knew it was a mistake letting someone like you into Hexside! I'd expel you, but I think it would be more fitting to feed you to the new Detention Pit!"

The young angel didn't even hesitate before destroying that illusion. This process repeated itself over and over, until Luz began to feel desensitized to the illusions. Sure the dairy and haunted cats were creepy, and the words of the illusions of her friends were unpleasant, but the knowledge that it wasn't real and her friends didn't think that way made her feel like she could power through it! The second hour of training was spent with Jerbo and Amity making abominations that Gus and the twins could cast the illusions over, meaning they could now touch Luz, giving her the goal of destroying them before they could touch her. She had a few close calls, but by using an illusion to give herself flying red boots then hovering with her invisible angelic wings, Luz could avoid just about everything, and use vines and other plants to help bind the abominations and slow them down.

It was surprisingly satisfying training, and Luz actually began to feel really confident! So long as she didn't let Grom touch her and discover her deeper fears, she'd be fine! The third hour of training was basically a big game of keep-away, with Luz dodging, diving, and pulling out every trick she had to prevent her friends from tagging her, since any Grom versions of them would have the same physical abilities, so she need to be prepared. She was just barely able to reliably avoid all of them by the time they needed to begin heading home to prepare for Grom, so Eda declared it a success.

"Well, we're pretty much out of time, but I'd say you're as prepared as we can make you. If you hit hard and fast, and avoid Grom touching you, then you'll win for certain!" Eda smiled.

Luz panted, slightly winded, "Thanks Eda. And thanks to you guys too." she said, smiling to the others.

"You're gonna kick butt!" Willow grinned.

"I can't wait to MC your fight! King, get your A-Material ready! The fight'll be over too fast for a slow build up!" Gus said, giving finger guns to King, who returned the gesture.

"All my material is A-Material! I'm the King of MCs!"

"Break a leg, Luz! I've gotta run! Rogier and I will be cheering for you!" Skara said as she left. The Multi-Trackers followed soon after, each wishing Luz luck too.

"The three of us are going to Grom together as friends, so we'll be there to cheer you on!" Viney said.

"Grom's got nothing on you after that fight with the Basilisk!" Jerbo added.

Barcus merely woofed, and Rasiel translated it as "I predict victory in love and battle."

Edric and Emira said there farewells by hugging Luz between them, then whispering in her ear; "Be good to our little sister, Luz." Emira began.

"You're more important to Mittens than you realise." Edric finished. Luz blushed and nodded, silently promising. The two then smiled at her, ruffled her hair, and left with the others, leaving only Amity and the residents of the Owl House.

"S-So… I guess I'll meet you outside the gym right before Grom starts?" Amity said nervously.

"Definitely! What colours will you be wearing? So I can dress to match." Luz asked.

"Dark purple, and a combination of light pink and reddish pink." Amity answered, already mentally picturing her and Luz as a matching set. She'd hated being made to match with her mother and siblings in the past, but she really liked the idea of matching with Luz.

Luz smiled; "Got it. And don't worry; once I beat Grom, I'll make sure you have the best night ever!"

Amity giggled; "I'm sure you will. I can't think of anything I'd rather do then spend the night with you, Luz."

With that, she gave Luz a kiss on the cheek just like she'd done after Skara's party, then promptly fled before anyone could see her scarlet cheeks. Luz watched her go for a moment, a luminescent blush illuminating her skin, then she turned to Eda.

"Eda, can you help me get ready? I want to look the best I can." Luz said in a small voice, feeling choked by too much emotion to speak louder.

Eda nodded; "You've got it kid. Let's go upstairs."

The Owl Lady then directed Luz up to her bedroom and locked the door, ordering King, Hooty, and Rasiel to stay out so they could have some "girl time". She sat Luz at her dressing table and began loosely brushing her curly hair.

"So, how do you want to do this? Boots is probably gonna go feminine; she's a girly girl, so do you want to go feminine to match her? Or do you wanna go masculine? You've got a cute tomboy thing going which I bet Amity loves, so it'd suit you. Or perhaps you want to mix 'em up? Hit her with the best of both worlds?" Eda asked.

Luz hummed in thought. She tended to go for both styles; she preferred girly clothes for the looks, but liked more tomboyish styles for comfort and practicality. The young angel had always been comfortable in her skin, and felt pretty lucky about that; she was a girl through and through, but also considered herself a tomboy. She never struggled with any kind of body image issues except for her wings, which had been a source of discomfort for her when they'd been the tiny wings of a cherub. But while she was comfortable in most things, she wasn't dressing up for herself, but for Amity! She needed to think what Amity would like best!

"It would help if I knew who Amity's crush was… then I could sort of copy their style." Luz whispered to herself.

Eda frowned, but shoved down the urge to just tell Luz the truth; it'd be better if Luz came to the truth on her own. The road of true love never did run smooth.

Instead, she decided to be indirect; "Let's go with mixing masculine and feminine. If you can pull off both, you might as well flaunt it, eh?"

"Okay; you're the expert so I'll go with your choice." Luz smiled, leaning into Eda's touch on her hair. If she closed her eyes, then it almost felt like the days she'd sit with her Mami and have her hair brushed.

Eda began happily working on Luz; she didn't have a lot of time before Grom was due to start, but the good thing about magic was that it made a lot of things very convenient, and hair and make-up were a part of that. As she worked, she found herself unconsciously humming a song that Raine had written years ago, which went by Raine's Rhapsody.

"I've heard that song before." Luz said, eyes still closed. "Raine was humming it at the party, while we were getting ready to sing our second song on stage."

"That's not a surprise. Raine wrote it when we were young adults. While we were dating, I played it with them from time to time. It's got some nice memories, and some not so nice ones too." Eda said wistfully.

Luz nodded silently; now that she'd met Raine and knew a little of their history with Eda, she understood why Eda had always been reluctant to talk about them and bardic magic. "This is kind of a personal question but… were you in love with them?"

Eda paused in her work for a moment, then nodded slowly; "Yes."

"Are you still in love with them?"

"That's… a difficult question to answer. My first instinct is to say yes, but… it's complicated. I miss what we used to have, but I don't know if I want to go back to that. We're both different people; 15 years changes a person." Eda answered honestly. She found it strangely easy to speak from the heart with Luz; the girl had a talent for touching people's hearts. But on the flip side, it was also easy for those that knew her to see her heart too.

"You're asking these questions because of Amity, aren't you?" Eda asked softly.

Luz finally opened her eyes, and the sheer vulnerability Eda saw there made her want to hug the girl. The little angel blushed sweetly and nodded; "I-I don't understand why I've become like this. I've been attracted to other people before. Other girls before. But I've never felt like this… Willow says its because I have a crush on Amity and I'm worried it's the truth."

"Worried?" Eda frowned.

Luz nodded, careful not to jostle her hair too much; "Angels aren't like humans or witches. Love for us is… different. Mami fell in love with Papi, but I don't know how it's supposed to feel, or how it's supposed to work."

"Well, how do you feel?" the Owl Lady asked gently. "Think about Amity, and tell me how you feel."

Luz put a hand against her heart as she pictured the mint-haired girl; "My chest feels tight, and my heart is beating so fast that it almost hurts. My tummy feels like I just chugged a gallon of milk, and my face feels hot like I ate the spiciest dish Mami could cook up! Being around her feels like flying through the air, then free-falling and catching yourself right before you hit the ground; it's stupid, and crazy, and dangerous but I can't help but love the thrill. I keep wanting to go back for more, even though it feels so overwhelming."

Eda chuckled; "Yep, I'm no doctor but I've got to officially diagnose you; Luz, you're definitely in love."

An almost imperceptible shudder went through Luz's body, and she only managed to reply "Oh." in an impossibly small voice.

Eda leaned down and hugged her from behind; "Being in love isn't a bad thing, Luz. I don't know why it's different for angels; but I'm guessing it's why you didn't want to pursue these feelings. But it's not bad. I'm sure of it. You should be honest with your feelings and ask Amity out."

"But she likes somebody else…" Luz said dejectedly.

"Maybe, maybe not. But she's not going to Grom with somebody else; she's going with you. I'm telling you Luz; if you confess your feelings to Amity, I'm sure it'll all work out." Eda said.

Luz wasn't so sure; she already felt guilty for taking advantage of Amity being rejected by her crush to swoop in and take her to Grom.

"Maybe…" Luz mumbled, not sounding too sure, but feeling too conflicted and embarrassed to want to continue the conversation. Eda accepted that with a sad smile, and chose to finish with one last statement.

"I know it can be hard to talk about your feelings. Titan knows that I was the worst at it before you came along and made me go soft!" Eda smirked, nudging Luz and making the girl grin bashfully, "But trust me on this; things fell apart between me and Raine because I couldn't be honest with them about my feelings and problems. I kept hiding parts of myself from them, and they couldn't take it any more. All relationships need some trust, even friendships. Think on that a little, okay? I don't want to see you turn into a lonely old lady like me."

Luz nodded slowly; "O-Okay. I'll try… but if I confess to Amity, then you've got to talk to Raine! Deal?"

Eda hesitated, then sighed and nodded; "Deal. The things I do for you kid… Speaking of, let me introduce you to the world of make-up! Mama's gonna make you look like you got promoted from angel to goddess!"

For the rest of the time before Grom was due to start, Eda worked on Luz's hair, make-up, and dress, and got her looking as gorgeous as she could. When she was done, King and Hooty both gaped at Luz's get-up, and Rasiel sincerely complimented her and called her beautiful. Luz thought Eda had done wonders and she looked great, but it was seeing how impressed the boys were that really lifted Luz's spirits; she was ready to face Grom and Amity!

Using a minor illusion to disguise Luz's outfit so Amity could be the first to see it, Eda quickly changed back into her suit then grabbed King and Luz and flew them to Hexside, leaving Hooty to watch over the house. Eda also took Rasiel's ring, so Luz could have some alone time with Amity without the ancient angel watching over them.

They touched down at Hexside and immediately headed to the gym, where they arrived just in time. They spotted Amity outside, and Eda and King hurried past her to get to their chaperoning and MC duties, each giving Amity a little salute and a quiet; "Go get 'em Boots!" as they rushed past. Luz slowly made her way over to Amity, her heart pounding like never before as she took in Amity's outfit.

Amity's Grom outfit consisted of a very dark purple waistcoat over a smart, pale pink blouse with short, puffy sleeves, and a dark, reddish pink skirt that went down to her knees. Her shoes were modest heels in the same colour as her waistcoat, and gave her a little bit of extra height. She also wore a new necklace shaped like a golden crescent moon on a lavender coloured stone, as well as her signature onyx earrings. Amity had a little make-up in the form of light mascara, very light purple eyeshadow, and some clear lip gloss. However her hair was completely different; instead of the mint green hair tied up into a partial ponytail that showed her chocolate brown roots at the front, she now let her hair fall naturally, and had dyed it an adorable shade of lavender, with a few visible strands of brown by her ears. On the right side of her hair was a small golden hair clip that had Luz's angel feather attached to it, sweeping back along the slope of her pointed ear. It had been turned pale pink with a mini-concealment stone embedded in the clip so no one would realise what it really was, but seeing Amity wearing her feather was doing something strange to Luz's insides. Amity looked absolutely gorgeous, like a cotton-candy haired goddess, and Luz could barely pick her jaw up off the ground.

"Whoa… it's different…" she said, completely stunned. "It looks really, really good!"

Amity blushed; "T-Thanks. Mom always liked it green, so I'd match her and my siblings, but I thought I could use a change. I've already reinvented myself a lot since meeting you, so I thought tonight was a good time to go that extra mile." she then noticed Luz was wearing what appeared to be her normal casual wear, and fought back a feeling of disappointment; "I guess you didn't get time to change with all the training?"

Luz smirked; "Oh this? It's just an illusion. Eda insisted that you should be the first one at school to see my outfit. Speaking of..."

She drew a spell circle to remove Eda's illusion, and the instant her true outfit was revealed, Amity felt her blood pressure skyrocket.

Luz's Grom outfit consisted of a pale cream version of Eda's signature red dress, only a tad looser at her hips and below, and without the torn skirts. It also had a purple rose in place of Eda's Bile Monitor. Over the top she wore a purple blazer, the same shade as her favourite cat hoodie, and for shoes she wore a white ballet flats with soles that Eda had turned the same colour as her blazer. The outfit's colours were a complementary contrast with Amity's; the light colour of Luz's dress contrasting the dark colour of Amity's waistcoat, while her more blue shade of purple blazer contrasted with the more red shade of pink of Amity's skirt. Finally, Luz's outfit was finished by some very light make up (mostly just a little mascara to bring out her eyes and foundation to give her face a healthy glow), and her hair (which remained the dark brown of her witch disguise) was given some magical extensions so it could be tied into a loose ponytail that cascaded over her right shoulder. Depending on the expression Luz pulled, the outfit and hairstyle would make her look like an innocent maiden or a suave and chivalrous noble; and Amity was greatly admiring both.

"Y-You look wonderful!" Amity smiled brightly, a faint blush on her cheeks. "You've never looked bad, but this is… you clean up nice!"

"Thanks! You look beautiful too." Luz replied, thanking her foundation for hiding her own crimson blush; "I didn't think you could improve on perfection, then here you are doing it. Fighting Grom is worth it to see you like this."

Amity nearly choked at that compliment, "Y-You can't say things like that while dressed up as nice as this! You're going to give me a heart attack!"

Luz giggled at what she assumed to be a joke from her best friend, "Hey, somebody's got to make sure you know how great you are! Might as well be me!" she said, before gently taking Amity's hand and using plant magic to give her a corsage of a purple rose, like the one pinned to Luz's chest.

"Thank you, Luz." Amity said softly, already making plans to have this rose join the one Luz had given her during the Inspection two weeks ago in being preserved between the pages of a book. Feeling like she had to give Luz something in return, Amity used abomination magic to make a little hair clip shaped like a crescent moon, which Luz placed in her hair on the left side of her head to mirror Amity. It would only be temporary, but Amity was already planning on constructing a permanent one as a proper thank you gift later.

After Luz had thanked Amity for the hair clip, Amity asked; "Are you ready? You'll be able to fight Grom while wearing that outfit, right?"

Luz smiled confidently; "Yep! I've got flat soled shoes so I don't trip, this skirt is a bit looser than its inspiration so my movement isn't constricted, and I've got spats on underneath so I won't accidentally flash anyone if I have to dive around or fly over people's heads."

The casual reveal of what was under Luz's skirt nearly had Amity fainting with steam coming out of her ears, but she managed to keep it in. "T-That's good. Now Gus was just getting started on hyping up the crowd, so let's go. And be careful; I know you're strong, but don't underestimate Grom. I want my Grom date in good enough condition to dance with after this is over, you got that?" she said, putting on a false stern facade.

"Your wish is my command, Princess." Luz smiled, giving a showman's bow before offering Amity her arm. Amity blushed and took it, and they walked into the fully decorated gym.

Luz looked around at everyone she knew and admired their outfits; Willow was giving people corsages and was dressed in a fancier version of the green, flowery dress she'd worn to Skara's party. Gus was currently up on stage in a teal Tuxedo, whipping the crowd into an excited frenzy alongside King, who had added a red bow-tie to his collar. Skara was wearing a white Tux with red shirt and accessories, and had linked arms with Rogier, also wearing a Tux but in the colours of the beast-keeping track. Edric and Emira were wearing yellow, with the former having a grey Tux and yellow shirt, and the latter having a cute yellow dress. The Multi-Trackers were stood together; Jerbo in a green tux with a purple shirt, Barcus wearing just a very dark purple waistcoat with a yellow bow-tie, and Viney wearing a cute blue dress with her hair down, and her orange, thorny scrunchie replaced by a similar looking hairband. Even Mattholomule was dressed up nice, wearing a dark brown suit.

As they entered the gym, Luz made eye contact with Gus on stage. The boy looked surprised by her looks, but smiled broadly before nodding to her and beginning the big show. The lights in the Gym went dark, except for a pair of spotlights that shone onto the stage.

"Well ladies, gentlemen, and assorted demons, it looks like the big moment has finally arrived! Allow me to introduce our Grom Queen!" Gus began, getting everyone in the room's eyes on him and King.

"You know her!" Gus said.

"You love her!" King added.

"It's… LUZ NOCEDA, HALF-HUMAN EXTRAORDINAIRE!" they cheered together,

A spotlight landed on Luz, illuminating her and Amity as the students cheered for her. She waved to them bashfully, then lifted Amity's hand to her lips; "Wish me luck." she said softly.

Amity blushed; "Good luck, Luz."

The two separated and Luz walked forward, the spotlight staying on her. A big red button on a black sentient lectern scurried onto the stage, and King used an ice glyph to lift himself high enough for him to slam the button with his little fist. The gym floor began to open up, and the students still stood on it rushed to the stands even as they continued to cheer. Once the floor was fully opened, Luz peered down and saw Grom's arena; a large chamber surrounded by pillars with little chains stretched between them. There was a ramp that led down into the arena, and two walls of weapons that rose up on either side of it. Luz examined the weapons (noting that several looked familiar to her, and appeared to resemble video game weapons, likely replicas forged by witches or demons who didn't know their real origins) and decided to pick a whippy rapier that looked like Ricard's Rapier from the Dark Souls series, as well as a simple kite shield, so she had a defensive option and a weapon that could be used to easily draw ice glyphs in the ground.

She then walked down into the arena, a confident smile on her face. There was no sign of Grom yet, so she stabbed the rapier into the ground and snapped her fingers to summon her ocarina, which she began to play a tune on. When it came to bardic magic, Luz was best with songs that effected one's mood, like the Ballad of Motivation, so the Chords of Courage (the song Skara had taught her that morning) filled her heart with bravery, while also numbing the fears of her friends watching up above.

As she played the final notes of the song, Luz noticed movement in the corner of her eye and swiftly sent her ocarina away, then grabbed her borrowed Rapier, spinning around just in time to see an amorphous black blob rise out of the ground.

"There you are, Grometheus! I'm going to end this nightmare once and for all!" Luz declared, scraping the point of her rapier through the ground to draw an ice glyph.

Grom immediately took the shape of several creepy looking cats with human faces, all of whom began screaming and crying for Luz to help them and turn them back. Luz shuddered, but activated the ice glyph to create a wave of icicles that promptly destroyed the creepy cats.

"And there she goes, folks! Using her glyph magic to start things off strong! Now my Co-MC, as our expert on glyph magic, how would you describe Luz's performance?" Gus commentated.

"Well Gus, I'd say Luz has really gotten the hang of the ice glyph! I'd say she's almost as good as me now, and I'm the King of Glyphs!" King replied, thriving on the attention he was getting from the audience. When Gus had asked King to help him MC, the little demon had been nervous, but MC did stand for Master of Ceremonies after all, and what was a Master of Ceremonies if not a King of Showmanship?

Down in the arena, Grom reconstituted itself and transformed into a giant milk and cheese abomination. Luz cringed at it, but then cast a plant spell on the ground, causing a giant carnivorous plant to rise up from the ground and slurp Grom up. Luz then waved a hand in front of her nose; "Phew, the scariest thing about you is how bad you smell!"

Grom once again reshaped itself, this time forming itself into a replica of Eda's Overloaded Owl Beast form, which promptly tore its way out of the plant Luz had created and began stalking towards her. Luz was surprised, not having expected this, and in the audience, both King and Eda winced at the sight of the beast. However this wasn't really Eda, so Luz had no reason to hold back against it.

She channelled her magic through her rapier and used it to draw a light glyph in the air, then thrust her shield through it to cause her shield to produce a massive beam of burning light, which promptly blasted a hole straight through the fake Owl Beast, causing its corpse to flop over and seep black blood from its wound. The face became closer to Eda's as Grom spoke; "You did this to me, Luz! You turned me into a monster and killed me!"

Luz took a step back instinctively, then glanced up. She saw the real Eda in the stands, giving her a kind smile, then turned back to Grom's fake with a scowl; "I'm not the one who turned you into a monster Grometheus, but I will be the one to put you down!" she growled, sending a light blast from her hand at Grom's head, vaporising it.

The audience's cheering grew louder, and Gus said; "Ouch! Looks like Luz doesn't take kindly to bad Owl Lady imitations!"

"Grom's gonna have to try harder than that!" King declared, laughing confidently.

From the black blood oozing from the fake Owl Beast, a series of replicas of Luz's friends and teachers began to emerge, crawling out of the ooze like zombies. Most of them were either injured and groaning for Luz to save them, or cursing her for being the one to hurt them in the first place. Luz actually felt their words stabbing into her chest; this wasn't what she'd been prepared for! She'd thought she'd be more scared of them finding her useless, but the idea of her actually hurting them in some way made her feel so much worse! It was rooted in her fear that an angel like her was supposed to despise and destroy demons; a fear that she would become the same kind of monster Zara the Ice Wyrm Witch had claimed she was.

"I-I know you're not real! And I am not the monster here! I wouldn't ever hurt my friends!" Luz cried, using a plant glyph from her feet to bind the Grom versions of her friends, then blast them with a light beam.

"Never hurt us? How much danger have you dragged is into. You unleashed the Mandragora by coming to Hexside!" Grom-Willow taunted, her body slowly turning into a Mandragora version of the real Willow.

"That wasn't my fault…" Luz destroyed Grom-Willow.

"You caused the Detention Pit to go wild and consume half the school!" Grom-Gus said, his upper body sprouting from a smaller version of the Detention Pit.

"Shut up…" Luz whimpered, blowing apart Grom-Gus.

"You nearly got us frozen to death by unleashing the Ice Wyrm!" Grom versions of Ed and Em said, their upper bodies taking the place of the left and right heads of a Cerberus, while a miniature Ice Wyrm took the place of the central head. It lunged at her and Luz barely dodged, though her rapier ended up crunched up in its jaws.

"Shut up!" Luz yelled, using light to create a continuous sword-like beam from her hand, allowing her to slice the creature's three heads of.

"You got me eaten by the Owl Beast!" Grom-King roared, taking on a massive and beastly form that somewhat resembled what Luz thought he'd looked like as the fearsome King of Demons.

"SHUT UP!" Luz screamed, dragging Grom-King's head down to her level with vines, then decapitating it with her light sword.

The audience wasn't cheering any more, and both Gus and King had gone silent, feeling their mouths go dry at the sight of Luz's genuine distress. Grom kept taking the forms of Luz's friends, shaped like monsters that Luz feared, and berating her for her sins and failures. A fake Principal Bump-turned-Greater Basilisk lamented not expelling her after she hurt his students, a version of Eda merged with Adegast complained that she was more trouble than she was worth. Skara blended with Odalia's oracle spirit belittled her for using her birthday party to start a fight that she dragged Willow and Amity into, and the three Multi-Trackers appeared as another basilisk hybrid, decrying her for almost getting them expelled or killed by convincing them to fight the fake Inspector.

"SHUT UP! SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP!" Luz screamed, no longer trying to fight smartly and instead just blasting light at Grom over and over, her eyes full of fearful tears.

When the smoke cleared, Amity ran out of the smoke with a fearful expression. "L-Luz!"

"SHUT UUUUP!"

Luz shot a blast of light through Amity's chest. Then, to her horror, Amity teetered on one step and began to bleed from the hole Luz had put in her… but she didn't bleed black like the others. No, she bled deep, deep red.

Like a real witch.

"W-Why? Luz?" Amity gasped out, before teetering over and landing in a heap amongst the pulsating remains of Grom.

Luz screamed in horror; not only was Amity bleeding red, but she was wearing her Grom outfit instead of her casual clothes or school uniform like the other fakes had been. Did that mean she wasn't a fake!? Had the real Amity come down to help her!?

"No! No no no! Amity!" Luz cried, tossing aside her shield and running to the girl, deaf to the shouts of those above. All she could hear was her heartbeat thundering in her ear, and all she could see was Amity's bleeding form. She dropped to her knees beside the girl and carefully cradled her while preparing a Healing Lotus. "Just hold on, Amity! I'll fix this!"

"Y-You can't…" Amity gurgled, blood leaking from her mouth, "Just like you can't fix any of your other screw-ups!"

Luz paled as she realised she'd been lured into a trap, and the blood leaking from Amity turned black. She tried to back away, but Grom-Amity's hand shot out and gripped Luz by the throat before the fake got to its feet. Grom-Amity smirked cruelly as she held Luz aloft, her grip so strong that Luz couldn't pull herself free. Luz was forced to summon her wings (thankfully hidden by her concealment stone) to hover and stop herself being choked.

"Did you truly think I'd care for you after all your mistakes?" Grom-Amity asked mockingly; "As if I could! You nearly cost me my job at the library, and dragged me into your fights with the Mandragora and Ice Wyrm! How many times have I nearly died because I met you!? Not to mention that any chance I had at building a better relationship with my Mom is now lost because of you!"

Luz tried to shake her head as guilt flooded her, and Grom-Amity's eyes glowed as she used her contact with Luz to fully dive into her thoughts and discover her deepest fears. "Honestly, you're so pathetic… Why would I ever love a failed angel like you!"

With that, Grom-Amity tossed Luz away, ripping off her hidden concealment stone as she did so. Luz slammed hard into the ground in the middle of Grom's arena, coughing and gasping desperately to get some more air into her lungs. But as soon as she could breath again, she froze as she fully registered everything that had just happened. Her concealment stone was gone, revealing her white hair and angelic wings to everyone attending Grom, all of whom had gone eerily silent. Those who knew her identity already had gone pale, while those who hadn't began to exchange shocked looks.

"Luz is… an angel!?" Skara exclaimed, the first to find her voice.

"Those wings… they're definitely angel wings! She really IS an angel!" Rogier added beside her.

Gasps and muttering filled the room, and Luz felt a deep, chilling dread creep through her bones. Her secret had been discovered! She'd been unveiled as an angel in front of the entire school!

"N-no!" Luz gasped, hiding her wings and casting an illusion over herself to make her hair brown again. But it was too late; the cat was out of the bag. And that wasn't the only secret Grom-Amity had spilled… she'd revealed to everyone that Luz feared the idea of Amity rejecting her! Her crush had been outed right in front of Amity!

Luz dared to look up and find the real Amity, who was staring back at her with wide eyes and her hands over her mouth, looking utterly horrified. That tore at Luz's heart; it was over! Amity wouldn't even want to be her friend, let alone anything more after this was done!

"LUZ! LOOK OUT!" Eda suddenly cried.

Her warning came just in time, and Luz was able to dive out of the way of Grom-Amity, who'd turned her lower body into a giant, abomination version of Ghost. "Aw, are you all broken up inside because you know you never stood a chance with me? You only got to come to this dance with me because the person I actually liked wasn't interested! You're less than a rebound date, you pathetic angel!"

With a scream of rage and sorrow, Luz gathered as much light energy as she could muster and turned it all into a massive ball, which she promptly dropped on Grom-Amity, vaporising it. The creature cackled as it was burned away, and once it was gone, Luz was left alone in the silent arena.

She panted from exertion, and tried to hold back the tears and sobs that threatened to overtake her. She looked up at the audience, all of whom were staring at her with shock and awe. But to Luz's tear-blurred eyes, they looked judgemental and angry; Luz was an imposter and they'd never accept her now. Even her friends who knew already would be forced to reject her, and Amity would never forgive her for using her rejection to get her to come to Grom with her.

Desperately, she looked to the real Amity; "I-I'm so sorry…"

Amity felt her heart break for the girl she loved, and who it seemed loved her in return. Under any other circumstances, that revelation would have her practically singing to the heavens with joy, but she couldn't enjoy that now that she saw how bad Luz was hurting! Her secret was out, and she was in the middle of a traumatising situation, fearing rejection from not just Amity, but everyone else too.

And as Amity saw more of Grom emerge from the ground behind Luz, she knew it wasn't over yet.

"Luz, look out!" she yelled.

Luz flinched, then spun around to face Grom's latest form. She watched with horror as the black goo formed a very familiar figure; that of her mother, Camila Noceda.

"Mija…" Grom-Camila said, shaking her head with a look of pure disappointment on her face. She was in her full angelic form just like Luz, further hammering home to the audience what Luz truly was.

"M-Mami!?" Luz couldn't help but gasp. She knew it wasn't real, but she was in such an emotional state that she was barely able to act rationally.

"Mija, why did it have to come to this? Why couldn't you have just listened to me? You could have been a good girl and been the angel you were born to be, but instead you had to become this." Grom-Camila said scathingly, "I sent you away so you would finally learn and stop being a disappointment to me, but instead you ran away to this place; the antithesis of everything we angels stand for, and now you pretend like you're one of them! You even had the gall to fall in love with one of these monsters!"

"They're not monsters!" Luz cried, "They're just people, like us! They aren't evil and the Demon Realm isn't a living hell!"

"Are you going to chose them over your own mother, Mija? Your own people?" Grom-Camila asked, a look of disgust on her face that felt worse than a slap in the face.

Luz whimpered; "King, Eda, Willow, Gus, Skara, Viney, Jerbo, Barcus, Edric, Emira… Amity… They are my people!" she cried, "I want them to be your people too!"

Grom-Camila sneered and began to grow larger, her wings splitting until she had ten of them despite the real Camila being a regular angel; "You disappoint me, Luz. You are no daughter of mine! If you insist on being like these monsters, then I will put you down alongside them! That is the true duty of an Angel!"

With that, Grom-Camila attacked, summoning up more Grom ooze to form tentacles and bestial constructs to try and savage Luz. The young angel threw her hand out to cast a blast of light magic at her fake mother, but she hesitated. Her heart hurt so much, and she could barely breath. She began to hyperventilate, her fear overwhelming her. With a frightened sob, she took to the sky and flew out of Grom's arena, smashing through one of the gym's windows and flying away into the night sky. Grom, still focused on defeating its chosen foe, took flight and pursued her, all the while spewing insults in Camila's voice.

"Grom is escaping!" Principal Bump yelled.

"We need to go after them! If Luz goes down, then Grom will begin destroying everything!" Eda said urgently, summoning Owlbert so she could fly after her terrified apprentice. King immediately ran to join her, hopping onto her staff and tossing aside the microphone; he would help save his sister!

The two then took off and flew away in pursuit of Luz and Grom, leaving the students of Hexside to stand there, stunned.

"W-What do we do now!?" Willow cried. "Should we go after her too?"

"We can't." Gus frowned, "Grom will get stronger if he feeds on all our fear. That's why he needs to be beaten in a one-on-one fight."

"You two don't seem as surprised about Luz being an angel as the rest of us." Skara said, crossing her arms; "Did you already know?"

They nodded slowly; "We discovered the truth when she got eaten by the Detention Pit. It's why the pit went so crazy." Gus explained.

"Edric and I also found out by accident during a trip to the Knee." Emira added.

Skara and the Multi-Trackers then turned to Amity, who was still in shock. She could only nod numbly, showing that she knew as well.

Skara groaned; "Oh Luz… why didn't she tell me? Didn't she trust me?" She wasn't angry, but she was frustrated; perhaps if she'd known, she could have done more to help her prepare. The Multi-Trackers felt the same.

"She was afraid." Viney said sadly, "Being outed as an angel was one of her worst fears, and now it happened in front of the whole school, along with her crush! She's got to be in a really bad place right now…"

"Yeah, and did you hear the things the copy of her Mom was saying? Does that mean Luz is scared that her Mom will reject her if she finds out that Luz is friends with Witches and Demons?" Jerbo frowned.

Willow fidgeted; "Luz really loves her Mom, but her Mom is also scared of our world. She apparently told Luz stories about how terrible this place is, though she never actually came here herself."

Barcus woofed, and Jerbo translated; "Barcus asks how Luz's Mom could be afraid of this world if she's never been here."

Amity was the one to answer, her voice sounding numb; "Something happened between angels and the Demon Realm in the past. We don't know what it was, but it left the angels afraid of us, and before the Emperor came along, witches and demons were afraid of them too. That's why Luz was afraid to tell anyone; wild witches think of angels as monsters and want to destroy them, and coven witches might try and hand her over to the Emperor."

"S-So what do we do!?" Skara cried, "We need to help her and stop Grom! I don't care if she's an angel, Luz is my friend!"

"I-I don't know…" the sight of Luz's terror and sorrow was seared into Amity's mind, and she felt paralysed and weak, powerless to save the girl she loved.

But that feeling of powerlessness made her angry. Luz, the girl who had done so much for Amity, was deathly afraid of being mocked and rejected by her. Somehow, she'd gotten it into her head that she wasn't good enough for Amity and not the other way around! And because of that, Amity had watched as a mirror image of her taunted Luz and drove her to terrified tears, before outing her secrets!

This wouldn't stand! She would find Luz and set her straight, and teach Grom what it meant to be afraid! Amity Blight would make sure everyone knew; you did not mess with her Luz!

Snapping her fingers, Amity summoned Ghost in staff form and took flight; "I'm going after Luz!" she declared. She then shot out through the broken window, while the rest of the school watched on. A few cheered for her, and others began rushing out of the gym to try and follow her and witness the fight that was about to occur. The twins summoned Orthie and Russ too, and immediately straddled them, ready to take off. Emira grabbed Skara and pulled her onto her staff behind her, and Edric did the same with Willow and Gus.

"We're going after them too! You guys summon your staves as well!" Emira instructed the Multi-Trackers.

Viney winced; "We don't have Palismen yet. We don't have easy access to Palistrom Wood like the Blights do, and our parents haven't been able to afford it."

Emira scowled; "We can only carry a max of two people each… Ed, you take Willow and Gus; I'll take Viney and Skara." she then looked to Jerbo and Barcus; "Sorry guys, but we might need Viney's healing."

"We understand. We'll run and try to catch up! Now go, our angel friend needs help!" Jerbo said, Barcus woofing in agreement.

Willow, Gus, Skara, and Viney held on tight as the twins took to the sky and flew off after Luz, Eda, and Amity. They weren't sure how much help they could be in an actual fight without making Grom stronger, but they could at least make sure Luz knew they still supported her!

Meanwhile, Luz was flying as hard and fast as she could, fleeing towards the cliffs on the edge of Bonesborough. She wasn't thinking straight; her mind consumed by manic fear of Grom and the consequences of what had just happened. Now the entire school knew she was an angel! They'd tell their parents and friends, and then it would spread until everyone on the Isles knew the truth! They'd hunt her down like a rabid animal, and depending on who caught her, she'd end up dead or taken to Belos! If Belos really was an angel, then who knew what he would do with an angel child who sided with Witches and Demons!? He might try to kill her as a failure, like the Grom-Camila was threatening, or worse, he might use her as a pawn to capture Eda!

A sudden blast of magic shot towards Luz and struck her in the back, making her scream and crash land into the woods, where she skidded painfully towards the cliffs, just barely avoiding falling off of them and into the Boiling Sea. She whimpered as she got to her feet and tried to heal herself, then screamed in terror as Grom-Camila touched down in front of her, trapping Liz.

"Why do you run, Luz? Can't you face the consequences of your betrayal? You turned your back on all of Angel-Kind, and now you won't even face your own mother!" Grom-Camila roared.

Luz curled up into a ball and tried to cover her ears; "Y-You're not her! You're not my Mami! S-She'd never hate me! She'd never hurt me! She'd never…!"

Never send her away…

A fresh wave of pain filled her chest, and Luz sobbed; "Please… I give up, I don't want to do this any more! Please… somebody… help me!"

Grom-Camila fused together with the monsters and tentacles it had created to help chase Luz down. The result was Grom-Camila's upper body sticking out from the back of a giant black mass shaped similarly to a Cerberus, with the upper bodies of Arboriel, Zara the Ice Wyrm, and the Basilisk Inspector serving as its three heads, and Adegast's tentacles serving as its limbs. On the end of each tentacle was a version of one of Luz's friends, all of whom whispered their disgust and hatred for Luz.

"This hurts me more than it hurts you, Mija. But an Angel who sides with Demons cannot be allowed to live!" Grom-Camila declared, preparing to fire a blast of magic at Luz.

However before it could follow through with the attack, Eda and King came flying in on Owlbert. King stuck some ice glyphs to the underside of Owlbert's staff, making them fire icicles down on Grom like an icy air strike. Eda helped, using her own ice magic to turn the last icicle into a particularly massive one, which impaled through Grom-Camila and pinned it to the ground. King then jumped off of Owlbert and landed on top of the icicle (which was flat on top) and used his claws to carve a giant light glyph onto the top of it, which he then activated. It produced a massive amount of light that shone into Grom's body through the icicle, which acted like a prism. The light also refracted through the smaller icicles stuck in Grom's body, making the creature scream as it was blinded.

Eda then used this opening to blast golden fire down on Grom-Camila, destroying the part that actually looked like Luz's Mami as Eda screamed; "Spicy Toss!"

Grom recoiled, trying to reshape itself around the ice and fire while still blind, and Eda landed behind it, with King jumping onto her shoulder; "Stay away from my family, you misshapen excuse for a monster!" Eda spat.

Grom roared in anger, and Luz looked up with tear-filled eyes; "Eda! You were right! I'm not good enough for this!"

"Luz, it was never that you weren't good enough! It's that you shouldn't have had to face this thing in the first place, not with such an important secret! I should have explained that, instead of making you feel inadequate; I'm sorry, Luz." Eda said, preparing another spell circle; "Now leave Grom to Mama!"

"No! Leave Grom to me!"

Amity suddenly came shooting out of the trees atop Ghost, and flew to stand protectively between Luz and Grom. "Stay away from my Luz, you walking nightmare!"

Luz blushed, her heart feeling lighter as Amity came to her rescue. Grom snarled, and spoke in a demonic voice; "DON'T INTERFERE!"

Amity scowled and slammed the end of her staff against the ground defiantly; "Grometheus, I challenge you on Luz's behalf! I will take her place and fight you as her champion!" she declared.

Luz, Eda, and King all gasped, as did the Twins, Viney, Willow, Gus, and Skara, who'd just arrived and were now stood with Eda, ready to back her up.

"A-Amity! No! This whole thing is my fault!" Luz cried.

Amity turned back to her with a smile; "I won't run away from this, Luz. You were fighting this thing for our sakes, so I'll fight it for yours! Besides…" she turned back to Grom so Luz wouldn't see her blush; "… facing my fears here and now will be good practice… because when this is over, I want to talk with you. About your feelings… and mine."

Luz blinked, unsure as to what exactly Amity meant. A part of her wanted to assume the worst; that Amity was going to formally reject her, but a tiny part of her, the part that dared to hope, whispered the opposite.

Grom had gone still at Amity's challenge, then slowly shrank down and took the form of Grom-Amity again, though unlike the version that had fought Luz, this one was dressed in her school uniform and still had her mint-coloured hair.

"Trying so hard to change, are we? Don't delude yourself; you and I are the same person we always were. A bully and a monster!" Grom-Amity mocked, conjuring up a series of black coloured abominations made from Grom goo. They surged towards Amity, but she twirled her finger and summoned some real abominations of her own and sent them forward to counter the Grom versions, while the real Amity shot a pink fireball at her doppelganger. Grom-Amity mirrored her, cancelling out her spell, then reaching into her school uniform and pulling out a purple stone.

"You've gotten soft and weak. Let me show you who we truly are; our mother's daughter!" Grom-Amity smirked cruelly, creating an oracle spirit with Grom goo and making it fly out of the purple stone and attack Amity. The real Amity gripped her necklace and used her own oracle magic to summon a real oracle spirit to counter Grom's.

"I'm not blind to my own fears!" Amity snapped, "I know I'm not the same person I used to be! I'm not a bully any more! Willow and I are friends again! And I am NOT MY MOTHER!" Amity roared, focusing all her magic. Grom had taken the form of her old self, the person Amity was afraid she could slip back into being, and that meant it could do everything Amity's old self could… so Amity had to fight back with something only the new Amity could do!

"I learned to be a good person by watching the best person I know! Now let me give you a taste of something else I learned from watching them!" Amity declared, drawing a pink spell circle, which then turned into a ball of pink light, looking like an ordinary light spell. However Amity then grabbed it in her fist, then opened her palm in Grom's direction while forcing magic out through the light. The result was a powerful light beam, just like Luz's, only coloured pink.

The light beam blasted through Grom-Amity's fake oracle spirit (while the real oracle spirit made itself incorporeal to avoid being hurt) and pierced the doppelganger's heart, making it cry out in pain.

Luz and the others all gasped in shock. "T-That's my light magic!" Luz exclaimed.

"Not quite. It's technically a super-focused fire spell… I'm not an angel, so I can't do what you can, but that doesn't mean you can't inspire me to be like you in my own way!" Amity said proudly.

Luz's heart fluttered, but she didn't get a chance to speak before Grom-Amity regenerated enough to attack again, absorbing one of the fake abominations to replace the parts of itself destroyed by Amity's light blast. It glared at the real Amity as it summoned a new fake oracle spirit.

"You see!? This "new you" is just a pathetic shadow of the person you're trying to imitate! How long before the facade disappears and you're forced to finally accept the wretched creature you really are!?" it taunted. "Don't even try; you're too weak willed to keep it up anyway! You'll give up soon, just like you gave up on Willow!"

"NEVER!" Amity roared, casting a spell that caused her conjured abominations to detonate, destroying Grom's fakes and stunning the monster long enough for her to create another of her pseudo-light blasts. This time, instead of turning the initial light ball into a beam, Amity massively expanded it then had her oracle spirit take it and shove it into Grom's chest so Amity didn't have to touch it directly. Amity then created a tiny ball of fire on her finger tip and shot it at Grom, making it strike the light ball in the creature's chest, causing it to detonate and utterly destroy Grom-Amity, sending chunks of it everywhere.

"How's that for "too weak" you fake!" the lavender haired girl mocked.

"Mittens, don't let your guard down! It's not done yet!" Edric yelled to her, seeing the chunks of Grom still pulsating.

Amity looked down and ordered her oracle spirit to begin gathering it all up, and trap it inside a purple barrier. Once all of Grom was contained, Luz could use her real angel magic to destroy it once and for all, and end this scourge on Hexside and the Boiling Isles!

Of course, it wasn't ever going to be that easy. As her spirit worked to gather up the pieces of Grom, a single one managed to crawl beneath Amity, obscured from her view by her skirt, and reach up and touch the girl's ankle. Amity gasped as her eyes suddenly glowed, Grom reading her deepest fears just as it had with Luz earlier. When it was done, Amity staggered back in surprise and her spirit rushed to help her, abandoning its task and allowing the shard of Grom to recombine with the rest of it and take a new shape.

Luz and her friends watched with wide eyes as Grom transformed into a doppelganger of Luz, only dressed in her school uniform and sporting a hideous smirk that looked severely out of place on the young angel. Grom-Luz then imitated Luz's plant magic, using a healing lotus to restore all the pieces of itself that had been destroyed by Amity and the real Luz, before having a giant carnivorous plant swallow her and then dive into the ground, before emerging outside of the solid purple barrier Amity had made to contain her.

"No…" Amity gasped, already afraid of where this was going.

"Did you really think I'd let you contain me, Amity Blight? Did you truly think I'd become yours?" Grom-Luz asked mockingly, her voice so much like the real thing's that Amity instinctively shook her head to deny it.

"You were so happy to lie to me, weren't you? Let me think you were in love with someone else to toy with my heart, then acted like you were doing me a favour by going with me to the dance. But it was all just a game; you manipulated me and tried to make me dance to your tune, just like your mother tried! I bet you're happy that my secrets were exposed! You're happy that I was humiliated, because you got to swoop in and pretend to be the hero!" Grom-Luz roared, now imitating Luz's light magic to fire beams of her own at Amity.

Amity squeaked and dived out of the way, using Ghost to summon up some more abominations to block the blasts, as she ordered her oracle spirit to go back into her oracle stone. Amity doubted that Grom-Luz's magic would be able to exorcise her oracle spirit like a real angel, but she didn't want to take the risk. Her abominations held up to a few beams each, but they soon began to melt into slurry as more and more of their bodies was destroyed, forcing Amity to switch tactics. She used the ice magic Eda had taught her on the icicles King had made earlier, which were still in the ground, and turned them into a wave of snow that she shaped into a giant hand that could raise up behind Grom-Luz and capture her.

The hand succeeded in grasping Grom-Luz, but it then summoned replicas of Luz's wings and used its slime to draw ice glyphs on each wing, freezing them and turning them into blades of ice that should shred through the snow hand. It then melted its wings back into Grom goo and reshaped it into a replica of the Bat Queen Staff, which it used to fire a stream of black flame down on Amity.

Amity countered by turning the remains of the snow hand into a tightly packed barrier of snow and ice, which she hid behind while turning one of her abominations into a falchion of abomination goo, before using the steam of the rapidly melting ice wall as cover to sneak away. Once Grom-Luz succeeded in melting through the ice barrier, it found that Amity was missing and began looking around for her, while Amity suddenly flew at her from behind using Ghost, and swung her falchion at Grom-Luz's neck.

The doppelganger noticed her at the last moment and turned to her, eyes filled with fear as it cried; "Amity!?" in Luz's voice.

Amity hesitated, and Grom-Luz smirked, using that moment to turn the fake Bat Queen staff on the lavender haired girl. Thankfully, Amity was able to slash her falchion at the fake staff just in time, destroying it. It exploded with black fire, and Amity yelped as the flames licked at her skin, singing her bare arms slightly and destroying her falchion but otherwise not doing too much damage.

The girl descended back to the ground, as did Grom-Luz, who began preparing a light blast. It was a sizeable one too, and Amity barely had time to draw a spell circle with Ghost before the doppelganger's attack was bearing down on her. Amity answered Grom-Luz's light blast with a beam of pink light from her staff, struggling to match its power but still refusing to back down.

Watching the fight, Luz felt dread and terror, but for Amity and not herself. The others were cheering and shouting their support of Amity, but Luz felt her own throat go dry. Amity was getting hurt and facing one of her fears, all because Luz couldn't handle it! The young angel hated it!

"A-Amity! Please, you need to run! You don't need to fight my battles for me!" Luz cried.

"This isn't about fighting your battles for you! This is about protecting you! I can't stand by and let this monster hurt someone I love!" Amity yelled, gritting her teeth as she held Ghost firm against Grom's assault.

"S-Someone you love!?" Luz squeaked, beginning to blush. A hint of hope entered her voice, despite her attempts to squash it down.

"Of course! Do you think I'd agree to go to Grom with someone I didn't like!? Have you not listened to a single word that Grom has been spouting at me!?"

Luz spluttered; "B-But your crush-!?"

"It's you!" Amity cried, "It's always been you, you dumb, oblivious, adorable little angel!"

She pressed her shoulder against her staff to keep it firm as she took a hand off it and reached into her skirt pocket to pull out the pink Grom note from that morning. She tossed it to Luz's feet, and the girl numbly picked it up and read it.

"Luz, will you go to Grom with me? Amity." she read aloud, "B-But I… you… why…!?" Luz tried to get the words out but failed every time. "I thought your crush rejected you!" she eventually managed.

Amity laughed sardonically, despite her situation; "So did I… when you were so willing to be my wing-woman and help me confess to someone else, I assumed it was because you didn't see me like that. I didn't want to make things awkward between us by confessing to you after that!"

Luz began to tear up; "But… why me!? You're amazing and pretty and cool and talented, while I'm just a screw up! I've caused you nothing but trouble!"

"No you haven't!" Amity yelled, "Ignore everything this stupid nightmare said and listen to me, Luz Noceda! You saved my job at the library even though it nearly cost you the answers you were after, and you stopped my siblings from posting my diary everywhere and humiliating me, which means you also saved my relationship with them!"

Amity took a step closer to Grom, pushing back against its imposter light magic with all her might.

"You didn't drag me into any battles! You saved my life from the Mandragora twice and are the reason I was able to meet Ghost! It was me who got you involved with the Ice Wyrm by taking you to the Caplacier Temple Ruins in the first place! And my Mom is the one who ruined any chance of me improving my relationship with her! Not to mention you lied and suffered to save me from that stupid bet at the Covention! You've done so much for me, and it infuriates me that you can be so amazing yet still think so little of yourself!" the lavender haired girl declared, taking another step forward.

"A-Amity…!" Luz began to cry, overwhelmed with conflicting emotions.

"You act like I'm so amazing, but I was just a bully when you came into my life! Every good thing that has happened to me in the last two months has been because of you! You are a wonderful person and the best angel ever, and I want to spend every day of my life making sure you never forget that! I've changed because of you, Luz! And you've changed too! You're not the screw-up you think you are!" Amity yelled, unleashing as much magic as she could to finally overpower Grom, causing Grom-Luz to be burnt by the flames and skid backward.

"And I want to protect you, just like I know you'd protect me!" she finished, spinning Ghost in a giant circle to produce a monstrously huge blast of pink light, comparable to some of Luz's strongest blasts. Luz felt her heart beat faster as she watched the girl of her dreams fighting valiantly on her behalf. Part of Luz hated that Amity had to face her own worst fears to save her, but the other part was so happy that Amity really returned her feelings, and was frankly entranced by just how beautiful Amity looked, her hair seeming to glow in the light of her magic as her eyes were fiery and full of determination. Amity looked as beautiful and powerful as any angel, and the idea that this amazing girl could have feelings for someone like her made Luz want to sing to the heavens with gratitude.

Grom-Luz struggled against Amity's most powerful spell, but it was soon overwhelmed and screamed as it was consumed by the light, along with quite a few trees. It was almost defeated then and there, but it was able to fission off a piece of its body to prevent itself from being totally defeated. Grom had absorbed so much of Luz and Amity's fear that it had grown incredibly resilient, and it began to reform and take on a new shape.

Exploiting Amity's fear of becoming her old self again or Luz beginning to hate her wasn't working any more, so it decided to latch onto the last of Amity's major fears; Odalia Blight.

Grom-Odalia glowered at Amity, who was panting from exerting herself so much with that last attack.

"Honestly, look how weak you are now. You turned your back on your own family, and now you're exhausted after one tiny spell. Well, it's time to remove the stain on the Blight Family name!" Grom-Odalia hissed, summoning up a group of five Grom goo oracle spirits.

Amity, still worn out from her big spell, paled at the sight of them and found herself instinctively cringing away from the fake of her mother. The fake her and fake Luz were upsetting, but Amity could face them easily; they were cruel, irrational fears that she knew deep in her heart would never come to pass… but Odalia deciding she was a failure and choosing to get rid of her? That was a fear she could definitely see happening! Heck, it was halfway to happening already!

The fake oracle spirits attacked as one, and Amity managed to muster the strength to splatter three of them by focusing a ball of flame on the end of her staff and swinging it at them, but the fourth one managed to turn incorporeal, imitating the power of a real oracle spirit for a moment, before becoming physical again and punching Amity hard in the face, knocking her backward while the fifth oracle spirit grabbed her staff and yanked Ghost out of Amity's grip.

"Ghost!" Amity cried, recovering from the punch and trying to draw a spell circle. Before she could finish though, Grom-Odalia made her left arm turn black and swell up, before extending it towards Amity, grabbing her and binding her arms to her sides. Amity struggled against Grom's grip, while Ghost yowled as the two surviving fake spirits transformed themselves into cage that trapped the Palisman inside.

"Time to wash away the stain on the Blight name! And what better way to do that, than with some nice hot water!" Grom-Odalia sneered cruelly, before tossing Amity off of the cliff and casting her down into the Boiling Sea, her arms still bound to her side by Grom goo.

"NO!" Edric cried, already flying forward on his staff.

"SIS!" Emira yelled, just a millisecond behind her brother.

"AMITY!" Luz screamed, throwing herself after the falling girl without a second thought while Grom-Odalia cackled behind her.

The instant Luz was falling, she flapped her wings hard to catch up to the falling Amity, but in the instant she reached her top speed, the young angel came to a horrifying realisation; she wasn't going to be fast enough.

Even at her top speed, Amity would hit the Boiling Sea a good few seconds before Luz would catch her, and long before the twins could reach them. Without some form of protection against the heat, Amity would be boiled to death, or at the very least severely burned!

Luz flapped her wings as hard as she could, blasting light beams from her feet in an attempt to rocket herself forward, but it still wasn't enough! She threw her left hand out in a vain attempt to catch her falling love, and time seemed to slow around her.

"I need to save her! Amity did all this to protect me! I need to protect her!" Luz thought desperately, her heart filling with a familiar burning sensation.

"Come on! Fly faster! I'm not the screw-up I used to be any more, right!? Amity said it herself! We've both changed! We both want to protect each other! So please… fly faster! I want to… no, I need to! I NEED TO PROTECT AMITY! I WILL PROTECT MY AMITY!"

The burning in her heart overflowed and flooded her body, coursing through her veins like a wild fire and surging through her wings and down her left arm. The image of the ice glyph shone brightly in her mind's eye, and Luz's entire body was engulfed in golden light.

Edric and Emira reached the cliff just as Amity was about to hit the scalding water below, while Amity herself looked up at Luz as she was consumed by light. The girl closed her eyes, fully expecting that to be the last thing she ever saw. The light that was Luz shot down like a shooting star, just barely colliding with Amity before both hit the water, sending a huge spray of boiling water skyward, alongside a massive plume of steam.

"NOOOO!" Emira screamed in horror. She nearly flew into the sea after her sister, but a horrified Edric managed to stop her just in time.

Eda, King, and the others were frozen in shock; Luz and Amity had both gone beneath the waves, and there was now no sign of them. Even Luz's light was gone, having disappeared into the inky blackness of the sea. King, Willow, Gus, Skara, and Viney all ran to the cliff-side, screaming for Luz or Amity to surface, begging for them to be okay, while Eda stood in place, shell-shocked. Within her, the Owl Beast howled furiously, but Eda was able to keep it contained by focusing on one crucial detail; Grom was still in the form of Odalia.

If Grom had defeated its opponent, then it would have immediately begun rampaging to destroy Hexside and inflict its nightmarish revenge on everyone who had ever attended the school. The fact it wasn't could only mean one thing: Amity was still alive! And if Amity was alive, then Luz had to be too!

With that thought in mind, Eda ran over to the cliff and shouted down at the sea.

"Don't keep us waiting, Luz! Hurry back up here with Amity and kick this creep's butt! Do you really want to spend your entire first date dealing with this ugly thing!?"

The others looked at her with surprise, but then they noticed something strange. It was hard to see in the dark, but the Boiling Sea beneath the cliff-side wasn't bubbling any more, and the steam it was giving off looked less like evaporating water and more like mist. Hesitantly, Edric flew down a bit and ran his hand through some of this mist, his eyes widening as he did so.

"I-It's cold…!?"

Emira gasped and flew down to join him, daring to dip a finger into the sea itself. She flinched when she felt that it was icy cold, and actually looked to be freezing slowly, forming a thin layer of ice with some slush underneath it.

"The Boiling Sea is freezing!?"

As soon as Emira said those words, they all saw a bright blue light forming below the water, on the seafloor. As it was so close to the cliffs, the sea wasn't that deep, and the blue light began to get brighter as the source of it raced for the surface. Edric and Emira flew back up to the others, worried what the blue light could be, then gasped as the shining source of that light blasted straight out of the water and high into the sky, revealing itself to be some kind of glowing blue sphere.

The sphere was a deep sapphire blue and made of countless hexagons of ice fitted together like a giant puzzle. This sphere floated high above the sea and cliff side, then slowly began to disintegrate as the icy hexagons dispersed into a flurry of powdery snow, which then shaped itself into a giant spear shaped a bit like Ghost's staff form. The spear then shot forward and impaled through Grom-Odalia, making it scream in pain as it was pinned to a tree a good few feet from the cliff side. With the ice gone, the light that had shone through it was now its regular golden colour, and it began to fade to reveal a pair of familiar faces.

"LUZ! AMITY!" their friends cried with happiness, seeing Luz flying there with Amity held like a princess in her arms. Both were bone-dry and unburnt despite their dip in the Boiling Sea; in fact, Amity didn't look any different at all. However the same couldn't quite be said for Luz.

For the most part, Luz was unchanged, but there were three crucial differences. The first was that Eda's magic on her had disappeared, meaning the magically added hair extensions were gone, leaving Luz's hair at it's usual length, though still as pure white and curly as ever. The second was the source of Luz's new ice barrier; the ice glyph now shone from the back of her left hand, and blue lines now stretched from it to the wing joints on her back. But it was the third change that was the most striking; Luz's two magnificent angelic wings had multiplied, becoming four wings instead. Each wing joint now had two wings sprouting from it, with the new ones (the lower ones) being ever-so-slightly smaller, but no less majestic.

"What happened? Did Luz just grow two more wings!?" Willow exclaimed, narrowing her eyes as she tried to focus on the girl flying above them.

"I can see the ice glyph on her arm! She must have finally bonded with it!" King cheered.

"Good job kid! Get your girl!" Eda yelled with a grin.

"They're alive…! Amity's alive! Oh thank the Titan! Thank the angel!" Emira cried, all the stress of the last few moments causing her strength to fade. She was close enough to the ground that she didn't worry about falling out of the sky, but Viney still rushed to catch her, just in case.

"Whoa there. Take a deep breath, Emira. You're gonna be a little shaky as the stress leaves your body. Just relax, okay?" Viney said softly, carefully lowering Emira to the ground but not letting her go. Emira blushed, finding she rather liked being held by the deceptively muscular girl.

Edric flew down to check on his twin, then promptly burst into noisy tears; "Bwah! I was so scared we'd lost our Mittens!" he sobbed, a smile on his face despite him ugly crying. Orthie and Russ howled along beside him.

"Well this is one heck of a development, folks!" Gus grinned, once again commentating now that he knew his friends were alive and well.

"I am totally confused… how did Luz suddenly change? Why does she have more wings now!?" Skara asked. She was truly relieved that Luz and Amity were safe, but she had only just learned Luz was an angel, so she had no frame of reference for all the crazy things that just happened.

She was just as confused when Rasiel emerged from Eda's ring, and looked up at Luz with undisguised pride. "Take heed, Witches and Demons! You have born witness to the ascension of a new High Angel! Hail to you, Luz Noceda, High Angel of Crest Kindness!"

Up in the sky above them, Luz felt her new wings and saw the markings on her arm and smiled, but then she looked at Amity held in her arms and smiled even brighter. "Are you alright, Amity?" she asked softly, a faint blush on her cheeks.

"Never better." Amity breathed, blushing brightly as she enjoyed being held by Luz, "You saved me and bonded with the ice glyph! My Hero!" Amity said, throwing her arms around Luz's neck and hugging her tightly.

Luz giggled; "It's only thanks to you that I could do either of those things. You reminded me that I truly have changed; I'm not the screw-up I always thought I was… and I dearly wanted to protect you. But I also realised that you've changed into a better person too, and you protected me in turn. I guess understanding both sides of change and protection is what finally allowed me to bond with the ice glyph and save you… and now I've got four wings! I really became a High Angel… oh man, I'm a higher ranked angel than Mami!"

"Change and protection, huh? Well, you definitely had a big change back there, and protected me in the process!" Amity chuckled.

As they were falling, Amity had felt her death approaching, but when Luz had begun to glow, she'd watched as two new wings formed on Luz's back and she suddenly sped up and reached out to Amity just as she was feeling the hot steam of the Boiling Sea on her back. Amity was pulled into Luz's arms before either could hit the water, then Luz's left arm had glowed and the icy barrier had formed around them, keeping the Boiling Sea from touching them as they sank below its waves.

Grom-Odalia snarled up at them, reminding everyone that it wasn't over yet, though both Luz and Amity glowered at it for ruining their moment. Luz descended to the ground and put a mildly reluctant Amity back on her feet, then turned to face the Fear-Bringer.

"Time to finally put an end to this thing!" Luz declared, watching as Grom once again locked onto her and took the from of Camila again. It opened its mouth to spew more vitriol at her, but Luz pointed her left hand towards Grom in the shape of a finger gun, and the light and ice glyphs appeared overlapping each other at the tip of her finger. A thin ray of light shot from the light glyph and turned blue as it passed through the ice glyph, then hit Grom-Camila in the mouth, freezing it shut.

Luz then turned to Amity; "Let's do this together."

"Really?" Amity asked, a mix of hope and worry in her voice; "If I help you, won't it just make Grom stronger by giving it two people's worth of fear at once?"

"How could I be afraid with you at my side?" Luz asked sweetly, lifting Amity's hand to her lips. "May I have this dance, my Champion?" she asked, pressing a kiss to the back of Amity's fingers.

Amity blushed and nodded with a warm, loving smile; "It would be my pleasure, my Hero."

The two came together, Luz putting a hand on Amity's shoulder while Amity put one on Luz's hip as they joined their other hands together and began to dance.

Grom snarled as it morphed around the ice Luz had struck it with; "DON'T INTERFERE!"

It took on the shape of a giant and monstrous Frankenstein's Monster-like amalgamation of Camila and Odalia, with both women's head on its shoulders, oracle spirit-like bandages all over it, torn and mangled looking angel wings, and Grom goo pulsing out from the stitches holding the parts of the two different women together. It was disgusting and definitely terrifying, but Luz and Amity took courage from one another and danced forward together.

Amity spun Luz, allowing the angel girl to make a spell circle with her feet on the ground, creating a pillar of ice that raised them high into the air, causing the charging Grom to crash head first into the pillar. It cracked and began to tumble, but Luz took the lead and used her wings to have them both dancing gracefully through the sky and to the ground behind Grom, whom they momentarily ignored in favour of the Grom goo cage that held Ghost.

Luz dipped Amity, and the witch girl drew a spell circle with both hands, creating abomination goo below the cage, which formed into abomination hands that gripped the cage's bars, ripping them apart and allowing the Palisman to escape. Ghost jumped onto Amity's shoulder as Luz pulled her out of the dip and brought their bodies together again. Ghost then showed her gratitude to Luz for saving her partner by rubbing against her face, before hopping off and running over to join the rest of the audience, clearly deciding that a staff would just get in the way of Luz and Amity's dance.

Grom screeched and the fake Odalia head vomited up a Grom goo oracle spirit at the girls. Luz responded by twirling Amity out towards it, as Amity used the rotation of her body to draw a spell circle around her, which formed into her pseudo-light spell and blasted the fake spirit to smithereens, while also shooting through it to the source, blasting the fake Odalia head off of Grom's shoulders. Grom then tried to use its fake Camila parts to cast a blast of magic towards them, and the two girls responded by repeating their last step, only with Amity twirling Luz instead. Luz didn't draw a spell circle, and instead raising her the back of her left hand towards the incoming blast, channelling magic into the ice glyph and causing a shield of sapphire blue ice hexagons to appear hovering over the back of Luz's left arm. Without the light shining through them and obscuring the design, everyone could now see that each hexagon had an identical snowflake design in the centre.

Grom's blast smashed harmlessly against the barrier, then Luz whispered into Amity's ear, making the lavender haired girl giggle before doing as Luz asked. She created some abomination slime from her finger and painted a plant glyph with it on the back of Luz's shield. The two girls then put their hands on it together, activating it and causing a massive burst of vines to send the shield rocketing forward Grom. Luz used her left hand to draw a spell circle, and the hexagons that made up the shield each transformed into an icicle mid-flight, causing Grom to be smacked by dozens of razor sharp spikes of ice, each with a vine now frozen into the end. The spikes pierced Grom's body, and the attached vines used the spikes like needles to sew themselves throughout Grom, then root it to the ground.

With the monster now unable to move, Amity whispered her own idea into Luz's ear, and the angel girl smiled brightly.

"We're going to end this nightmare together!" Luz declared, as she prepared to assist with Amity's plan.

Amity used abomination slime to form a giant longbow that both girls had to hold with one hand, while using their other hands to pull back the bowstring.

"You shouldn't have underestimated us, Grom!" Amity declared, using more slime to make a long arrow, complete with arrowhead and fletching.

"For we are the Good Witch Amity!" Luz continued, channelling her magic through the bow and arrow.

"And the High Angel Luz!" Amity smiled, watching as Luz created an ice glyph in front of the arrow.

"Champions of Hexside!" A plant glyph appeared in front of the ice glyph.

"Heroes of the Bat Queen's Forest!" a light glyph appeared to join the other two.

"And Warriors of Peace!" they declared together. "NOW EAT THIS SUCKA!"

Luz and Amity released the arrow, and it shot forward with incredible speed. It flew through the ice, plant, and light glyphs one after the other, being imbued with their magic, then slammed into the very heart of the trapped Grom.

The arrow sank into Grom's chest, and the magic inside it began bursting out in streams of light, ice, and plant life. Grom roared and thrashed around, losing its shape and becoming a black amorphous blob once again. Then, bit by bit, the light overcame it and the black goo turned pure white, with veins of green and blue flowing through it. Finally, Grom let out one final roar, before slowly exhaling in what sounded almost like a sigh of relief. The creature then went silent, and its body twisted and grew, until it transformed into a massive tree. The tree was unlike any other in the Human or Demon Realms, and resembled a giant cherry blossom tree with unique pink starburst shaped flowers that appeared to be made of crystal, making each one look like a finely crafted little jewel.

"It's beautiful…" Amity gasped, looking up at the flowers and watching the petals slowly dancing in the wind.

"Yeah, the most beautiful sight in the world…" Luz agreed, her eyes on Amity and not the tree.

Suddenly, a tiara appeared on each girl's head, consisting of a golden band with a pink crystal flower similar in appearance to the ones on the tree. Once these flowers appeared, their friends cheered, as did Principal Bump and every student from Hexside that had been attending Grom, all of whom emerged from the trees. They had arrived while Luz and Amity were still beneath the Boiling Sea, and had hidden to avoid distracting them from the fight, but now they were cheering uproariously, and both Jerbo and Barcus ran to join Viney and the rest of their friends, making sure everyone was okay.

"And there you have it folks!" King declared, borrowing Gus's mic, "Give it up for your Grom Queens, Luz and Amity!"

Luz and Amity blushed as the cheering intensified, and they both gave a bow to the audience. As their friends cheered for their victory, the tree that they'd turned Grom into suddenly began to shine. The pink crystal flowers glowed softly, and light could be seen going from them and into the tree's branches, before combining together in the tree's trunk. That light then emerged from the trunk, revealing itself to be a transparent, softly glowing spirit. The spirit belonged to a demon with pitch-black skin and a face resembling a bulldog, with horns in place of ears. The demon spirit was also wearing robes that looked very similar to Principal Bump's, only with a red stole around their shoulders instead of blue.

"Who is that?" Gus wondered.

Principal Bump gasped; "That's… Principal Grometheus!"

"So that's Grom's true form, huh? Luz's angelic magic must have purified whatever he did to himself." Eda mused.

The Spirit of Grometheus looked around blearily, then sighed with deep relief; "It's over… my long nightmare is over…" he looked to Luz and Amity; "Thank you. I spent so long trying to find a champion that could finally destroy me, but I only ever managed to be re-sealed."

"Well you're free now. You can finally move on." Luz smiled gently.

"You are kind, young one. I am sorry for the pain I caused you… I was not myself." Grometheus apologised, bowing his head.

"I understand. It wasn't your fault; you turned yourself into that thing to protect something you cared about. I can't be mad at you for that." Luz said honestly.

Grometheus chuckled; "You are too kind. In my time, angels were feared as crusaders who would slaughter us if they ever returned to the Demon Realm. But clearly, there are those among you who are different. I am proud to have met you, Luz the High Angel, and you as well, Good Witch Amity. Now please, send me on my way; I have lingered long enough in this world."

Luz nodded and created a light glyph in her right hand, then gently placed it over Grometheus' chest. Focusing on her angelic magic, Luz willed her light to fill every bit of the spirit's form, then dispersed it. Grometheus' spirit transformed into millions of little balls of light and began to flutter away into the sky, leaving behind only a whispered "Thank you." before vanishing completely.

"Goodbye Grometheus. You and Fibul Academy won't be forgotten." Luz said, feeling a mix of melancholy and relief as she watched the last wisps of the old principal's spirit fade away.

Principal Bump led the students in a moment of silence for Grometheus, then smiled as he approached Luz and Amity.

"You girls have finally brought an end to the nightmare of Grom. You have my thanks!" he said, putting a hand on their shoulders. "So much so that I won't even get upset about the window you broke, Luz." he whispered with a wink.

Luz chuckled nervously, but she and Amity smiled happily as well. Principal Bump then turned back to the rest of his students; "In celebration of the final defeat of Grom, I declare that today will be celebrated in Hexside as a holiday, and a new school dance will be held each year on this day! After all, just because we no longer have Grom, doesn't mean we can't still have Grom, if you catch my meaning!"

The students cheered happily, and Principal Bump let them have their moment of happiness before deciding to address the elephant in the room. "Now, since I have you all gathered here, I have one more important matter to discuss. Obviously, thanks to Grom's nightmarish abilities, we now know that one of your fellow students is not Half-Human and Half-Witch, but rather Half-Angel."

Luz gulped nervously as the students went silent, though she took comfort from Amity holding her hand tightly and giving her a reassuring smile.

"To be completely transparent, I was aware of Luz's true nature on her first trial day at Hexside, and knowingly allowed her to enrol as an angel student. Hexside has no discriminatory policies against different species attending, including humans, angels, and various mixed species. All that being said, I would like to point out that Hexside does have a strict policy against discrimination itself. Any student caught giving Luz any kind of abuse over her angelic nature will find themselves facing disciplinary action." Bump said sternly, making sure everyone understood that bullying Luz for being an angel would lead to bad places for them. "In addition, Luz does not want her true nature to be spread across the Isles, as you no doubt guessed from her fears. As such, I am asking each and everyone of you to keep this a secret. Please respect Luz's privacy by not telling anyone about her secret, or discussing it around those who do not know. If you have questions, then I'm sure Luz wouldn't mind answering them, so long as they are asked in a polite manner."

Luz nodded, showing she was more than willing to help inform people about the truth of angels; it felt like fair repayment for all of them teaching her so much about what witches and demons were really like.

The rest of the Grom attendees exchanged looks, then largely nodded and agreed. A lot of them knew Luz from their classes and knew she was friendly, so they had no real wish to upset her. Those that were neutral or less accepting of her still found themselves wanting to keep their mouths shut; angering the girl who just took out Grom was a dangerous prospect, and that wasn't even including what the Owl Lady, the Blight Siblings, and the rest of Luz's friends would do if they started spreading Luz's secrets. The students all came to the conclusion that keeping Luz's secret within the school was the safest bet for everyone.

Bump saw the acceptance on their faces, and smiled. He then drew a series of spell circles, and from each one rose up some of the Grom decorations left at the gym. "Since it's a nice night and the defeat of Grom has left us with quite the centrepiece…" he gestured to the crystal blossom tree, "… I think it would be a nice idea to continue the party right here!"

That was met with cheers, especially when the band of enchanted instruments, food tables, and dance floor itself was summoned into the clearing. The plant track teacher, Professor Phil, helped make room on the cliff side by animating the trees and making them move away, while Professor Freed (the mouse-like demon that taught the construction track) made sure there would be no danger of students falling off by using magic to build a quick safety rail around the edges. Once all that was done, the actual dancing part of Grom was able to start again, and the students quickly got back to partying and enjoying their evening.

Luz and Amity found themselves surrounded by their friends, and Luz especially looked nervous as Skara and the Multi-Trackers approached.

"So… you're an angel, huh?" Skara said, "I guess that old wives tale about angels being great singers is true after all!"

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you…" Luz began, only for Skara to shake her head.

"I get it; it's a big secret. I'm not mad, just kinda frustrated? I feel like I could have done more to prepare you for Grom if I'd known!" Skara said, "But you won in the end anyway, so no big deal. And for the record, you being an angel changes nothing for me; you're still just Luz to me."

"I'm glad." Luz beamed, feeling a little more at ease.

"It's the same for us." Viney smiled, "We're surprised, and I've got to admit I'm super curious about your biology, but I'm not going to start treating you weird over it."

"Yeah. You being an angel is no different to us than Barcus being a demon. You're still one of us Magic Mixers!" Jerbo grinned, patting Luz on the back.

Barcus woofed, and Rasiel translated; "He says you've got nothing to worry about from him either. He suspected you weren't the average witchling, but kept it to himself to avoid being rude."

Luz smiled and hugged the three of them, and Skara too; "Thanks guys. I'm glad to know you accept me for who I am."

"You did the same for us." Skara grinned. She then looked at Rasiel; "But I still have questions, especially about this guy! He popped out of that ring, and I'm pretty sure he's the same guy who talked to me back when we were fighting the Basilisk."

Luz chuckled tiredly; "Yeah, that's Rasiel. He's kind of a long story…"

"A long story I can tell you all." Eda chimed in, "I think Luz and Amity are tuckered out, and could use some alone time to cool off. In the mean time, you can direct your questions to me! I'm something of an angel expert after living with Luz for so long!"

"Me too!" King declared, "I am an expert on demons AND angels! I am the King of Knowledge!"

Rasiel chuckled, "And I am the actual angel expert here, so I'll help correct them."

Luz's friends all laughed, especially as King gave Rasiel an offended glare. As the little demon and the ancient angel led the group away, Eda whispered to Luz; "We can talk later, but I want you to know I'm proud of you, Luz." she said softly, "Now go get your girl!"

Eda then nudged Luz and Amity towards the Crystal Blossom Tree, before heading off to join King and Rasiel. Now alone on the edge of the party, Amity gently tugged Luz by the hand and took her behind the tree, so they could sit against the trunk and look out across the sea. They both felt physically and emotionally exhausted after the battle with Grom, and both knew they still had to discuss their feelings, which had been outed in a rather spectacular fashion during the fight…

"So…" Amity began, unsure of how to really continue.

"Yeah…" Luz agreed.

They went silent for a moment, both blushing faintly. "Why was this so much easier when we were fighting Grom?" Amity muttered.

"I-I could try and dig up another thought-to-be extinct monster for us to fight? Maybe then we'll both be able to spit it out?" Luz joked.

Amity giggled, brushing her thumb over Luz's knuckles as they were still holding hands. She took a deep breath to collect herself, then said; "I guess this is kind of old news now, but… I have a big crush on you, Luz."

"W-When did it start?" Luz asked shakily.

"The day I found out you were an angel. I already found you interesting, but then I saw you suddenly darting through the air and being amazing… I started finding you really attractive. Then when I saw you helping the Palismen in the Bat Queen's forest, it hit me that I didn't just find you attractive… I realised I was falling for you." Amity confessed, working so hard to keep herself as composed as possible. "What about you? When did you start l-liking me?"

Luz's heart beat rapidly in her chest; "I-I pretty much thought you were super pretty and talented right from the start. Then when we were exploring the Fibul Ruins, I realised we had stuff in common and you weren't the bully I thought you were. Then I saw more of your soft side at the library, and saw you stand up to Lilith to protect the Palismen… it was a lot of little things. But I think the big "I'm falling for Amity" moment was when you saved me from the Ice Wyrm. Y-You called me your Luz, and it suddenly hit me how much I liked that idea."

Amity felt her stomach squirming; "O-Oh… But if you liked me, why were you so willing to be my wing-woman and set me up with someone else?"

"I… I was scared. I didn't think I was good enough for you and didn't even know if I could love you the way I should." Luz confessed. "Things like that are really different for angels, so I was confused."

Amity frowned; "I don't understand. From what you've said so far, it doesn't sound different than it is for witches and demons."

Luz frowned and looked out across the water for a long moment, trying to find the words she wanted to say. Finally she said; "Do you remember when I told you about the Crest Orders? Specifically Crest Chastity?"

Amity blinked, thrown off by the odd question. "I remember." she nodded, "They're the teachers, and in charge of helping look after kids, right?"

Luz nodded; "That's right. But there's more to them… a part I didn't tell you. They're also the matchmakers."

"Matchmakers?" Amity frowned.

"Yes. You see, I wasn't sure if my feelings for you were love, and if I could love you like I should, because in angel culture, love isn't a really a factor." Luz explained, making Amity gasp.

"Love isn't felt by angels!?"

"No, we feel it. It's just not a part of our culture. Mami told me that Crest Chastity monitors our population and the sizes of the Crest Orders, then matches angels up so they have a child that can help fill demands. If we need more people in Crest Temperance for example, they'll match together two angels who they believe can produce a child that will suit Crest Temperance. The chosen angels then come together, undergo a ceremony in which one of them becomes pregnant, then the father returns to their duties while the mother carries the baby to term. Once the baby is born, Crest Chastity raises them for their future role and the mother goes back to their own Crest Order and continues their life."

Amity looked utterly horrified; "You're basically forced to b-breed with whoever Crest Chastity chooses, then they take the baby away!?"

Luz nodded miserably; "We're technically allowed to refuse, but its apparently frowned upon socially. Cherubs are raised solely by Crest Chastity to serve the role they were born into, so we aren't raised by our parents. When I told you before that Angels don't "do" families, I meant it. We almost never know our parents, or siblings, or children, or anyone related to us by blood. Only Crest Chastity keeps those records, and just so they make sure we they don't match two angels who are too closely related. I'm an oddity because I was raised by my own Mami."

"That's absolutely horrifying!" Amity cried, feeling like she was going to be sick. "No love, no real family, born to fulfil a role and for nothing else… how can angels live like that!?"

"Thousands of years of tradition, I guess." Luz shrugged; "That's why Mami left the Divine Realm; she wanted to fall in love and have a real family, so when she completed her maturity and turned 18, she appealed to become a Missionary Angel and go to the Human Realm. Once she arrived, she basically went AWOL and decided to live as a human, finding love and eventually having me."

The young angel looked up wistfully; "All that is why I was scared that I wouldn't love you the way I should. I've only got my Mami's example and a bunch of human romance novels and soap operas to go off of… Not to mention that since angels only breed for reproduction, same-sex couples aren't a thing there either, and humans aren't as open about that as witches and demons. I've got all these feelings and I don't know if they're right or wrong…" Luz looked Amity in the eye, "All I know is that I've never felt this way about anyone else before."

Amity reached up and cupped Luz's cheek, and the other girl held her hand tightly, leaning into her touch. "Luz… I don't think there's any right or wrong way to love someone. Love isn't neat and tidy and uniform; it's wild and chaotic, and different for everyone. For example…"

She began to blush even brighter; "… the way I feel about you… it's like you fill me up with light whenever I'm with you. Every time we talk, I feel the urge to hug you or kiss you or just hold your hand. Touching you in even the most innocent ways makes me feel like I've got my hands on this irreplaceable treasure. When you're around, it's hard to focus on anything else… it's like you're the sun, and I can't get out of your orbit. And I wouldn't have it any other way."

Luz turned tomato red, doing a shockingly good impression of her crush; "Y-You really like me that much?"

"Yes, Luz. You've changed my life. I can't overstate how important you are to me." Amity said, leaning forward and gently kissing Luz's cheek.

Luz shuddered as a feeling like electricity coursed through her. She absorbed everything Amity had said, and focused on it; the girl she had come to love had spoken of her deepest feelings, so Luz would do the same.

"To me… you feel like fire. This beautiful, amazing, powerful force of nature. I feel warm around you, and my blood heats up at just the thought of you… but it's also scary. Like I'm going to get burned because I'm not good enough to be in your presence. The fact you're my friend and return my feelings? That feels like a star noticing a bug! You said I was like a sun, but you're like a supernova! But everything about the way I feel about you scares me!" Luz confessed, holding Amity's hand a little tighter. "I'm afraid of winning your heart, and I'm afraid of losing you too."

"You're not going to lose me, Luz. So long as you want me, I'll be there." Amity breathed, her heart hammering as she took in the raw emotion on Luz's face and in her voice.

"You don't understand. Witches only live for around 100 years on average. Maybe longer if they can use magic to extend their life spans… but even the lowest of angels will live for up to 1000 years, and now that I'm a High Angel, my life expectancy just tripled! I… the way I feel about you… I don't think even 1000 years is enough for me, but I'd only get to be with you for 100! The idea of having you by my side for that long, then losing you… It terrifies me. It scares me more than anything Grom could throw at me! That's why… that's why I couldn't bring myself to just suck it up and ask you out like you deserved. I was scared… scared of not being worthy of you, of not being able to love you like you deserve, and scared of losing you on top of it all."

Amity silenced Luz's worries with a finger on the angel's lips. She then smiled beautifully.

"I understand. I felt the same; how could a witch like me be worthy of an angel? How can I treat you the way you deserve when I spent so long as a rotten bully, moulded by my mother? How can I make sure I get to be with you still when you go back to the Human Realm? I was scared too… but if fighting Grom taught me one thing, it's that we've got nothing to fear if we're together."

Luz's lip quivered, and she sniffed hard before wiping away the tears that threatened to spill over. She then looked Amity in the eyes and said; "Amity, I don't know what my future holds, but I do know that I want you to be a part of it. I'd rather have you by my side for a single moment than spend the rest of my life regretting that I was too afraid to tell you how I feel… so…"

Luz took a deep breath; "W-Will you be my g-girlfriend?"

Despite expecting the question, Amity still squeaked and turned into a tomato. She felt like she was about to melt even as she nodded and smiled brilliantly; "Yes!"

"G-Great! But now I've got to pay you back!" Luz declared.

Amity looked confused; "Pay me back? For what?"

"First, for Skara's party…" Luz leaned forward and kissed Amity's left cheek, making the lavender-haired girl squeak with surprise and delight. "… second, for this afternoon…" Luz kissed Amity's right cheek. "… third, for just a moment ago…" she reached up and kissed Amity's forehead, making the girl feel weak.

"… a-and fourth…" Luz leaned in close to Amity, her voice quivering with nerves, "…for everything else."

Luz closed the distance, softly kissing Amity's lips. It was gentle, sweet, and fairly chaste, being the first real kiss for both girls, but it sent fireworks soaring through their hearts and minds, and for a few intimate seconds, nothing else in the world existed for them. It was just them, beneath the crystal blossom tree, facing the ocean, listening to the slow-dance music being played at the party behind them, and gently pressing their lips together.

When the two finally pulled away, both had scarlet cheeks, shining eyes, and a mildly stunned, lovestruck expression.

"Oh, crikey!" Luz gasped, before flushing as she realised what she'd just said. "I can't believe I just said that! Come on Luz, be cool next time!"

Amity giggled and gently cupped Luz's face again; "Oh no, I'm the cool one. You're the cute one." she flirted.

"O-Oh yeah?" Luz blushed.

"Yeah. Now I think it's time for some payback of my own! I only kissed you three times, and you kissed me back four… I need to even that out."

Amity then gently pulled Luz into another kiss, just as sweet as the first. When they pulled away, wearing the same expressions as they had after their first kiss, Amity smirked.

"Crikey." she said.

Luz snorted and rolled her eyes, and before long the night air was filled with the sound of two girls giggling together.

Luz and Amity would eventually leave their little spot behind the tree and rejoin the party, and they would spend the rest of Grom dancing in each other's arms, but in that blissful moment, they just sat and held one another, giggling and laughing away all the fear and apprehension that had built up inside them.

Neither Luz nor Amity knew what was waiting for them in the future, but whatever it was, they would face it together.