Chapter originally published on 10/06/2023


Chapter 7

Children of the Goddess

During her walk through the city, Amity comes across a rally of supporters of the Sacred Order.


After splitting from Hunter, Amity had been following one of the main streets towards the center of Türzumeer. She took this opportunity to give a better look at the city and its people.

These titanids didn't seem particularly different from the average citizen of the Boiling Isles. After an initial disorientation, Amity became accustomed to their… "uniformity"; in a way, it was as if the isles were populated only by witches, just with horns instead of pointy ears. The biggest difference was probably the lack of magic these people displayed in their actions, so to speak; she shouldn't be surprised by that, since apparently only a few of them had the ability to wield it.

It wasn't like they were helpless, though, as they seemed to have thrived nonetheless—their city was a testament to that. The magical machines they used—like William's gauntlet, those "cars" and the flying ships from earlier—and the factories not too far from their inn gave her the impression of industrious people who had learned to apply magic in their own way.

During her walk, she had a few more encounters with their machinery. From the safety of the sidewalk, she saw more of those cars speeding back and forth on the street; some were carrying people like the carriage that almost run over her, while others were more akin to carts. While passing by a building under renovation, she spotted a hulking humanoid creature carrying a heavy load of stone bricks. For a moment, she thought one of her father's abomatons had found its way to the Titan Realm, but on a closer look she realized it was some sort of golem made of stone and metal; it was almost like the final product of a joint project of the Abomination and Construction Covens. She guessed abominations weren't a thing in this world, and that titanids preferred their artificial minions to be sturdy and durable instead of malleable and versatile.

After walking for a while, Amity finally reached her destination. It was a rather large square, nestled near an intersection of many avenues; these converged into a single street leading to the citadel via a stone bridge.

It must've been a pretty busy spot of the city given how many people were there. In the middle of the square, placed over a stone pedestal, was a bronze statue of a crowned titanid man holding a spear. She couldn't read the plaque on the pedestal, but she guessed he must've been some historical figure of the kingdom.

Looking around, she noticed that many people were slowly converging towards a side of the square, where she saw a woman on a small wooden stage making a speech to a crowd. Intrigued, she followed the other onlookers.

Once she got closer, she took in the look of the woman on the stage. She had light skin, long auburn hair and blue eyes. She wore a black scapular over a white habit with black and gold trim, and a black veil; both were held tightly by a black sash running around her waist; the scapular and the sash were ornate with gold embroideries and a golden emblem. Squinting at the latter, Amity made out a sort of winged horned head with three eyes. By the way the woman was dressed and talking to the crowd, she looked like a priestess of sort, but since Amity wasn't able to understand what she was actually saying, she could only guess.

She tensed up a little when she spotted two soldiers flanking the stage. They were clothed with a similar color scheme of the priestess, the confirmation of their common allegiance coming from the same emblem present on their surcoats. Another small squad of soldiers were nearby, guarding watchfully the square and the people crowded there. They were equipped with breastplates, helmets, arming swords and pikes, and were clothed with dark teal uniforms and cloaks.

"…And as Her children, it is our duty to serve the Goddess," said the priestess, addressing passionately the crowd. "She's given us the Lightbringer, the bearer of the divine light with which we could finally fight back the darkness that has persecuted this world since the beginning of time.

"Her gift is the proof of Her love for us, a kindness that must be repaid. We must be Her sword, Her instrument of purification, Her means of return from the Great Beyond. Once she rises from her resting place at the foot of the Black Mountain, the Great Mother will lead us into a new world, a promised land of peace and serenity," she proclaimed with fervor. "Free from the menace of demons! Free from the corruption of witches! Free from petty conflicts and senseless deaths!"

Amity glanced at the spectators around her, taking in quiet murmurs and nods of approval. Glancing over her shoulder, she noticed that more people have come to listen to the priestess, surrounding her.

"Your sovereign has finally begun to see reason by welcoming the Sacred Order in your kingdom, so that we could cleanse your cities and your lands of the evil that lurks in the shadows, but we can't do this alone. Victory against darkness will come only if we work together, united as one." She then pointed at the crowd. "That's where you, the people, come into play."

The murmurs of the people around Amity became louder. Due to the language barrier, she was still clueless of what that speech was about, but she felt like the whole setting was strangely familiar. A religious figure escorted by soldiers giving a speech to a crowd… their attires and color scheme… their winged golden symbol. It was like…

Like a rally of the Emperor's Coven.

After a small pause, the priestess spread her arms open in a welcoming gesture, smiling broadly. "You finally have the chance to embrace the love of the Goddess! To bask in Her divine light and experience its glory!"

The people around the stage seemed captivated by the enthusiasm of the priestess; cheers and shouts of approval began to timidly emerge from the crowd.

"Join us in our holy mission! Ascend to Knights of the Goddess! Earn the gift of Light! And together, we shall smite the darkness and see the dawn of a new era. For the future of Titanidkind! For the Great Mother!"

The crowd erupted in cheers and applause at the end of the priestess' speech. Amity began to feel uncomfortable around all those people and feared someone would inadvertently bump into her and expose her, so she decided to leave.

After managing to find her way out of the crowd, she spotted other groups of titanids arriving from other sides of the square. Some of them were holding signs and banners—all written in Gutar, therefore still unintelligible—while others were seemingly chanting and jeering against the priestess, the knights and the people crowded near them.

The soldiers in teal tensed up and moved to intercept the newcomers. One of them pulled out from a leather pouch what looked like a small crystal ball and began to nervously talk to it.

Amity didn't need to understand Gutar to realize the situation in the square was becoming increasingly tense, and that she needed to get away from ther. She started to walk away, but the crowd listening to the priestess became aware of the arrival of the protesters.

Amity was beginning to fear for her safety as she was pushed left and right by the crowd of titanids rushing at the protesters, making it difficult for her to navigate out of that mess. Seeing as the way she had come from was blocked, she went to her right, towards the buildings lining the square. She was about to reach one of the alleys between said buildings, when she was intercepted by a small bunch of protesters that emerged from it. It was a group of five young titanids, not much older than Amity. One of them was holding a wooden sign with a crude drawing of the three-eyed emblem crossed out.

Spotting Amity trying to get away, one of them crossed her way and rudely pushed her back.

"Where you think you're going, friend of murderers!?"

Amity gasped and widened her eyes in surprise, both for being assaulted and for the nature of her assaulter. She was a tall girl with light tan skin, dark brown hair and hazel eyes. She was wearing a red kerchief on her head, a white blouse, a black long skirt and black shoes. What surprised Amity the most, though, was the girl's lack of horns and her pointy ears: she was a witch!

"Trying to sneak away, huh? Like we didn't saw you with the others?"

Amity didn't have the time to elaborate, for the companions of the witch approached her in a menacing manner. Panicking, Amity tried to get away, but she got blocked again by the same girl.

"Hey! I'm talking to you!" she shouted in Gutar. Exploiting her height advantage over Amity, the unknown witch tried to grab her by one of the fake horns, but it flickered, making her hand go through it.

"Huh!? What the—?!"

"Get away from me!" cried Amity as she shoved the witch away, making her stumble. Frowning and gritting her teeth in anger, she drew a magic circle, inciting gasps from the young rioters that were about to lunge at her.

"You… you're a witch!" exclaimed the unknown witch, this time in Demonic.

"Yeah, so what?" Amity snarled, ready to summon an abomination from her ampoule if they tried anything funny. She glared at them, angry for being manhandled and forced to resort to magic in public despite William explicitly telling her to not do so.

"Stand back! Leave her alone," she ordered, gesturing to her companions. The witch's friends obeyed and backed away from Amity, who in turn remained wary of them.

"Calm down, we don't have anything against you," the witch said, raising her hands in front of her to put Amity at ease. "We're sorry, we didn't know you were a witch."

"You weren't supposed to know," replied Amity, dispelling the magic circle for good. She had kept her hand close to her body so that no one else could've seen her using magic.

"The heck were you doing disguised as a titanid at a templar's rally, girl?"

"Templars?" she cocked her head, confused.

"The bastards in white," she sneered, "don't tell me you don't know about them?"

She must be referring to that priestess and the knights, Amity guessed. "No, I'm not from around here." It was technically true, so at least she sounded sincere.

The witch scoffed at her lame explanation. "What, have you been living in the middle of nowhere for all of your life?"

More like in another world.

"Tressa, we need to go," said one of the young protesters to the witch, who was apparently known as "Tressa".

She told them to continue and that she would be with them in a minute, before turning again to Amity with a serious look. "Look, I don't know what's the deal with you and your disguise, but if you aren't here for the protest, you better leave before you get hurt."

As if on cue, the two opposite crowds came face to face in the square, hurling insults and jeers at each other. More soldiers in teal came to the help of their comrades, desperately trying to interpose themselves between the two factions to defuse the hostilities.

Tressa left to join her friends, but Amity chased after her.

"Wait!" she cried, stepping in front of her. "Who're the templars? Why's there a protest? What's going on here?"

Tressa gave her an annoyed look, clearly disliking being held back, but softened her features at Amity's genuinely oblivious tone. She guessed that she really came from a remote part of the countryside and was out of the loop.

"You see those guys in white?" she said, pointing to the priestess on the stage. "Those are members of the Templar Order. They hate witches and want others to hate us too."

Amity was taken aback by her words. William said that there were people in the West that despised witches, but he had never said anything about an entire organization against her kind.

"They let them come here to hunt white demons, but soon they'll take over the kingdom and start persecuting those like me and you," she continued. "That's why we're here, we can't let those murderers come in our kingdom and do as they please."

While Tressa was explaining that to Amity, a mysterious man was staggering his way towards the plaza from the same alley she and her friends had come from. He was covered in a ragged long-sleeved cloak, his face obscured by a hood that covered his bowed head. By the way he walked and moved haphazardly, he could have passed for a homeless drunkard, but if one took a closer look, they could have noticed the long and sharp blade-like fingers of his hands, his mouth locked into a slasher smile, the white crack-like veins that invaded his face, his darkened sclerae and his red eyes.

At the same time, the three templars were keeping an eye on the many groups of protesters who had come to confront their supporters. The two knights had their hands on the handle of their swords, while the priestess was trying to reign in her followers, pleading them to not give in to the provocations of the protesters. Then, they suddenly tensed up and began to furiously look in every direction, as if they felt something.

When the gaze of the priestess landed where Amity and Tressa were talking, her eyes widened and pointed a finger in their direction.

"Demon!"

After she shouted that word, many things happened in rapid motion.

Tressa looked up, surprised by the fact the priestess was apparently pointing at her.

Amity glanced behind Tressa, spotting a weird guy standing behind her. Her eyes widened in fright as she took in his red eyes and the crazed expression on his face.

Then, a tearing sound was heard.

Amity stared in horror as claws came out of Tressa's chest, her white blouse rapidly becoming stained with blood.

All Tressa could do was look down at the blade-like claws protruding from her chest and gasp desperately for air, before the light in her eyes died out and her head went limp. The possessed violently retracted his clawed hand from Tressa's back, letting her lifeless body fall helplessly to the ground.

Some people in the square realized what had happened and screamed in terror, alerting those next to them. Soon, many sets of eyes were on Amity, the dead teenage witch and her killer.

Amity nearly tripped as she backed away frantically, shaken by the gruesome display of violence. She saw wisps of light coming out of the fallen witch's corpse and converging to the possessed, who welcomed them with open arms. As she watched it happen, she recalled what William had told her the day before.

Is he… is he absorbing her soul?!

"At last, release," the possessed uttered ecstatically with an increasingly distorted voice as he absorbed the spiritual essence of the witch. After he was done, he suddenly hunched forward, his face twisted into a grimace and his hands clutching his chest. His body began to twitch and emit wisps of black smoke, his irises to burn bright red, his sclerae to fully blacken, and his skin to completely turn white as marble.

The soldiers in teal tried to rush through the panicking people to face the convulsing possessed, and so did the two white knights. Two soldiers managed to reach a still startled Amity and go past her, drawing their weapons and charging at the demonic spawn. They were about to attack the possessed, when his arm suddenly grew in size and swatted them away like flies.

A few moments later, the possessed fully transformed into a marmorean demon: his limbs, horns and body lengthened, making him grow nearly three meters tall and ripping apart his already tattered clothes in the process; his clawed fingers transformed into single-piece blades; the eyes and the nose on his head disappeared, leaving space to a bigger mouth filled with sharp teeth; his loss of eyes was compensated by multiple new red orbs that opened all over his body; a third horn grew on his forehead.

Amity was brought back from her fear-induced stupor by the furious roars of the demon. Mindful or her first encounter with a marmorean, she knew she couldn't face this one alone, more so because it would reveal her disguise in public. So, she turned and started running, following the other people fleeing the square.

More Weitebian soldiers lunged at the demon, determined to hold it back long enough for the frightened citizens to leave the square. The demon, in turn, fired a beam of fiery crimson energy from its maw at the fleeing people; like a pencil drawing a line on a sheet of paper, the demon dragged the beam across the square.

Amity had to skid to a halt as the beam hit the ground just a few meters ahead of her; the subsequent explosions and shockwaves knocked her to the ground. Seeing as the way was cut off by a wall of flames, she shuffled to the first cover she saw, which was the statue in the middle of the plaza.

Breathing heavily and with her back against the statue's pedestal, Amity had to look away and close her lids so as not to see the bodies of those unfortunates caught in the blast laying on the ground not too far from her. All she could hear were the screams of terrified people trying to find a place to hide, the crackle of the flames blocking her way, the roars of the rampaging demon, and the frantic beating of her heart.

Peeking from behind the pedestal, she saw the soldiers in teal trying their best to keep up with the white beast; given the evident advantage in strength and reach of the demon, and their apparent lack of magical capabilities, they were obtaining scares results. One of them managed to pierce the demon's body with a pike, but was promptly mauled by its oversized claws; three others would suffer the same fate shortly after. Amity put a hand on her mouth as she watched horrified the soldiers' mangled bodies fell to the ground, lifeless.

Finally, one of the templar knight managed to join the battle. His body and sword seemed to shine with a white aura as he assumed his stance. Then, as the demon became aware of his presence, he flash-stepped towards it—similarly to the teleportation trick used by Hunter—and slashed its side.

The demon howled in pain as the magic-infused blade proved surprisingly effective at carving a sizable portion of its side. The demon tried to counterattack the knight with its claws, but was intercepted a swing of his sword. The blade was still glowing faintly, and—to the surprise of the demon—actually stopped the blade-claws on their tracks, slightly indenting them in the process.

Empowered by the blow dealt by the knight, the Weitebian soldiers assaulted en masse the demon. Before it would get overwhelmed, the demon crouched on all four and jumped away, landing behind them; the other knight was there, thought, waiting for it. His sword was glowing bright, like it was made of crystals hit by sunlight, and seemed to have grown in size. The knight lunged at the demon and performed a downward slash, the blade emitting a crescent of luminous energy that travelled at high speed towards it. The demon tried to dodge, but the light wave managed to reach its target, cutting one of its arms and carving a deep gush in its chest.

From her hiding spot, Amity watched as the demon staggered under the barrage of what looked like attacks infused with magic—light magic, specifically. Despite the damage its body had taken, the demon didn't look willing to go down that easily. It aimed its maw at the knight in front of it and fired another beam of red energy, while he replied by bringing up his free hand and summoning a magical shield around himself. The demonic energy bounced off the shield, fracturing in multiple smaller strands that careened against the buildings around the square, exploding on impact.

Meanwhile, the priestess had been watching the battle from her stage, not intervening yet not fleeing. She made a disapproving sound as one of the fragments of demonic energy passed not too far away from her and crashed into the building behind.

"What a mess," she frowned, gazing at the death and destruction the demon had brought to the plaza. "But at least this one decided to make things easier by revealing itself to us in broad daylight."

She took a deep breath and closed her eyelids. "Wretched beast begotten by scorn," she began to chant, placing both her hands on her chest, "through divine judgement thou shall be reborn." A faint white aura began to form around her body.

The two knights were teaming up against the demon, using their light magic to move at unnatural speeds, slash at it and dodge its remaining clawed hand. From the corner of her eye, Amity noticed the priestess seemingly preparing a spell.

The outline of a third glowing white eye appeared on the priestess' forehead, along with a white magic circle beneath her with unknown symbols—the same that appeared when Grand Master Graham entered the crypt of the Great Mother. "May thy blackened soul be purged," seven spheres of light emerged from the magic circle and began to orbit around the priestess, "and forgiveness for thy sins be urged." The hems of her habit and veil began to flutter, as if wind had picked up.

One of the knights noticed the priestess was about to launch a spell and backed away. He sheathed his sword and raised his arms towards the demon, with his hands that began to glow faintly with a white aura. Then, beneath the demon, a white magic circle appeared, similar to the one summoned by the priestess. From it, multiple ropes of light emerged, ensnaring the demon by its limbs. The other knight understood what was happening and mimicked his comrade by summoning more light ropes to hold the demon in place, but not before gesturing to the Weitebian soldiers to back off.

"Welcome salvation within," the priestess snapped her eyes wide open, her irises a glowing white color. Then, with a grimace of righteous fury, she thrust her left arm to the sky and aimed the right one at the demon.

"Let the Light in!"

As she shouted those words, the spheres of light rose to the sky in a spiraling formation, for then spread out and descend at high speed towards the demon from seven different directions. Like comets, the spheres of luminous energy pierced through the demon's body with ease. Amity watched wide-eyed as the white beast was torn apart by the spell.

The priestess then spread her arms, and—like what happened with Tressa—filaments of black and red energy began to come out of the dissolving remains of the demon and converge to her heart. When she finished absorbing all the demonic energy, the priestess stumbled and gasped for air, like she had been holding her breath for a long period of time. Her eyes briefly glowed bright red, before gradually shifting back to white and finally returning to her natural blue hue.

As the battle came to an end, silence descended to the plaza, but it was soon broken by the remaining Weitebian soldiers cheering in victory, followed by the citizens that had taken refuge inside the surrounding buildings and were now slowly making their way out.

The two templar knights congratulated each other with a nod and went to tend to the fallen soldiers and townsfolks, while the priestess got down from the stage to join them.

Amity took that as her cue to leave the place. She rose to her feet and began to run away, not bothering to look at the destruction and the bodies of those caught in the explosions from earlier.

While she was on her way to her templar brothers, the priestess noticed Amity coming out from behind the statue and running away. She stopped on her tracks to give a long, hard stare at her retreating form, before resuming her march towards the knights.

"A marvelous move, Mother Paige," congratulated one of the knights.

"I can't say the same for you tin cans," she sneered, "that demon could've razed the city to the ground and you two would still be out there trying to reach it."

"We're sorry, ma'am. There were too many panicking people," the knight apologized. "We couldn't reach the demon sooner."

"The rhyming spell was unnecessarily over the top, though," grumbled the other knight under his breath.

"You have something to say, soldier?" she turned sharply to the complaining knight.

Under the cold gaze she received from the priestess, he froze on the spot. "N-no, ma'am."

She gave one last glare at the two knights, before walking over to Tressa's lifeless body lying nearby. She gently nudged the witch's head with her foot, tilting it to one side.

"Such a waste of youth," she tutted condescendingly, before sneering as she saw her pointy ear, "too bad you were a witch."


Hunter's spying mission was turning out a waste of time. After leaving the docks, William—who appeared rather displeased after his chat with the clerk—went to a weapon shop to get the parts needed to repair his magic gauntlet. After that, he simply began to retrace his steps, heading back towards the inn.

They were crossing the river on the same stone bridge, when they stopped abruptly as they heard what sounded like faint roars and explosions coming from the city center. Glancing at their left, they saw plumes of smoke rise to the sky from the northern half of the city.

Wasn't Blight headed that way? Hunter thought.

William seemed to have a similar thought since he resumed his walk at a faster pace than before. Hunter followed suit, and so did Flapjack above them before landing on his master's shoulder.

"What's up, Flapjack?"

He began to chirp in his ear.

"What? No, we still have to follow him," Hunter replied. "Blight's a strong witch. She can take care of herself." He didn't want to say it out loud in her presence, but he had to recognize her strength and talent; he experienced them first-hand during their fight at the Knee.

Flapjack tweeted again, more insistently.

"Are you sure? We don't know what dangers for palismans lurk in this city," he warned, looking left and right with narrowed eyes. "I don't want you to…"

He rolled his eyes and chirped again at his master with a tone of finality.

Hunter frowned, looking conflicted on letting him go search for the Blight girl. Eventually, under his familiar's insistence, he relented and gave a small nod to him.

"Alright then, go find her," he said. "We'll meet at the gates."

With that, Flapjack took off and flew to the other side of the city in search for Amity.

After giving a last glance at his palisman, Hunter resumed his stalking alone, following William until they reached the gates to the outer city. There was no point for him to continue, seeing as their escort seemed on his way to their base, so he opted to wait for Flapjack to return and then go search for Amity.

"C'mon, where are you?" he muttered anxiously, looking up for any trace of his familiar. He had to reunite with Amity before returning to the inn, or William would suspect something.

A few minutes later, Hunter's worries were put at ease when Flapjack returned.

He welcomed him back, letting him perch on his arm and report his sightings. They went to a small alley between a building and the walls, so Flapjack could report to his master away from prying eyes.


Not too far away from Hunter and Flapjack, Amity was taking a rest next to a fountain in a small public garden.

She was leaning on her knees, breathing hard and looking at the ground with a distraught look. She didn't know for how much long she had been running, or how much distance she had crossed; all she knew was that she had to get away from that square and the things she had seen there.

The life slowly leaving the eyes of that young witch.

The soldiers getting mangled by oversized demonic claws.

The innocent citizens being torn apart by the explosions and charred by the flames.

She felt her knees shaking and bile rising from her stomach as her mind kept dwelling on those images. Her close encounter with those corrupted titanids in the forest had already been unsettling, but this…

"Blight!"

She snapped her head up, spotting Flapjack flying towards her with Hunter in tow.

"Finally, where have you…" he trailed off as he took in her overwrought and disheveled state. "What the heck happened to you?"

She straightened as she faced to Golden Guard. She tried to come up with some words to reply to him, but her voice was caught in her throat.

Hunter squinted his eyes, noticing something reddish on her cheeks and forehead. "What's on your face?"

Effectively, she did feel something humid on her face, but with all the chaos in the square and her escape from there, she ascribed it as sweat or dirt. She raised one hand to her face and swiped her cheek with her fingers, only to gasp at the nearly dried up substance lying on her fingertips.

It was blood. Blood belonging to the witch from earlier, to be precise. The one that had been murdered right in front of her.

She rushed to the nearby fountain to look at her reflection in the water. When she leaned on the edge of the fountain basin, she saw many small red smudges across her face. The more she stared at her reflection, the more she remembered the demon's claws bursting out of the witch's chest; some of her blood must have gotten on her face. Before nausea would invade her senses, she began to furiously scrub her face with the water of the fountain, eliciting a few curious looks from passersby.

Hunter wasn't sure how to approach her in her distraught state, but he suspected she was involved in whatever he saw from the bridge.

"Blight, what happened?" he asked tentatively. "I saw smoke rising from the city center on the way back. Were you there?"

She still leaned on the fountain edge, too busy regaining breath to acknowledge him. She snapped out of her trance when Flapjack scampered next to her with a worried glance.

"I—" she gulped, the faint taste of bile still lingering in the back of her mouth. "I was in a square. T-there was a lot of people, and…"

"And what?"

"A marmorean demon appeared. He… it began to attack the people there, and…" she trailed off as her voice failed her.

Hunter's expression darkened as he listened to a shaken Amity. From her few words he got a general idea of what happened there.

"I see," he lowered his gaze, before looking again at her. "Are you—" he caught himself, "er, is the key okay?"

In other circumstances, she would have been irked that he worried more about the key than her conditions, but she let it slide this time. She pulled out the key, getting visual confirmation that it was still intact, and nodded at him.

"Uhm, we…" he mumbled, "we should return to the inn. William should be already there."


Hunter's claim was correct, for William was already at the inn, waiting for them.

After leaving his stuff in their room, he went down the lobby and leaned on a wall nearby the entrance door with his arms crossed and a frown on his face. He had already regretted having left those two alone in the city the moment they parted ways, and that feeling did nothing but increase the moment he saw that smoke rising to the sky.

He didn't want to hold them hostage, or even just make them feel like they were, but he couldn't take any chances when so much was at stake. He shook his head at what he perceived as a weakness on his part. He should've been firmer with Amity and Hunter and told them to return to the inn immediately instead of letting them go.

He bowed his head and sighed audibly; he was doing it again. By now, he should've known better than to get involved with the people around him, even at the cost of coming off as uncaring. Yet even though he constantly reminded himself that those two brats were just his ticket to the Demon Realm, he would never forgive himself if anything happened to them. He promised to escort them safely to the Hand, after all, and he was going to keep it. He just had to hold on a little longer…

"We interrupt this broadcast to announce breaking news."

He glanced casually at the reception, where one of the inn staff was listening to an ethervox. It was a contraption resembling an old radio and gramophone mixed together, capable of transmitting and receiving sounds at a distance through the magic in the air similar to human radio broadcasting.

"Chaos descended on Founder's Square this late morning, where a public sermon organized by the Sacred Order was disturbed by groups of anti-templar protesters."

At the mentioning of the Sacred Order, he gave his full attention to the machine.

They're here? he thought, alarmed.

"The City Watch was deployed to interpose between the templar supporters and the protesters, but the situation degenerated when a marmorean demon manifested itself. The templar knights present there intervened immediately, and, together with the City Watch, they managed to successfully terminate the demonic threat.

As he listened to the announcement, a growing feeling of apprehension came over William.

"Unfortunately, the demon had enough time to claim some victims and cause destruction. The first reports speak of at least thirty deaths between civilians and…"

William heard enough. He moved away from the wall and dashed out of the inn to go find the two teenage witches. He didn't have to go far, for the moment he left the building he saw them appearing around the corner.

"Kids!" he cried, rushing to them. As he approached them, he scanned them from head to toe; with the exception of Amity's sullen look, they seemed to be in good health. "Are you well?"

Hunter tensed up at his question. While they were on their way back, he planned to cover his "spying mission" by telling him they were in another part of the city and that they decided to come back to the inn when they heard the explosions.

"Yeah, we're okay. Why all this worry?" he asked, feigning ignorance.

"They announced it a few moments ago on the ethervox, a demon attack on civilians at Founder's Square," he explained. "Where've you been all this time?"

Hunter had no idea what an "ethervox" was, but he guessed it was some kind of transmission device, like crystal balls back home. "Somewhere in the north of the city, outside of the walls."

"In the north?" William raised an eyebrow at that. "As far as I remember, there's nothing interesting there."

"Er, I-I know, r-right?" he shrugged with a nervous smile. "I told her we were taking the wrong turn, but she didn't want to listen."

Amity didn't say a word, looking away despondently.

William frowned at her deflated demeanor. Now that he gave her a better look, she seemed quite disheveled. Her clothes had some dust on them, and a few strands of hair were out of place and… humid? They weren't telling him the whole truth.


During lunch, William kept an eye on Amity as she reluctantly nibbled on her meal without uttering a word. Hunter too seemed nervous and vague when questioned if they actually saw something that caught their attention in their little tour.

Once they finished eating, they went back to their room. After they were inside, William slammed the door behind him, startling the two teenagers.

"You two. Spit it out. Now," he ordered.

"Spit what out?" replied Hunter.

"Don't play coy with me, what really happened out there?" he glared at Hunter while pointing at Amity. "She looks like she just came back from a funeral."

Hunter clenched his jaw trying to keep a straight face to not betray his nervousness. "N-nothing, I don't know why she's like that."

He narrowed his eyes, clearly not believing him. "What did you do, Golden Guard?"

Hunter took offense at his accusation. "I didn't do anything!"

"It's my fault."

Hunter and William turned to the source of that words.

"He did nothing," Amity said, looking at him with an uncomfortable expression. "It's all my fault."

William looked puzzled at Amity, before glancing back at Hunter. There was confusion mixed with stupor on his face, too. He turned back to her. "What do you mean?"

"He wasn't there in that square," she revealed, "I was."

"What?!"

"I went to the bridge that leads to the isle, while I told him to go north," she continued, lowering her gaze. "It was my idea to split up."

Hunter's eyes widened in surprise at her words. She was lying to cover his back.

"Why did you do that?!" William accused angrily. "You said you weren't going to be alone!"

She raised her head to scowl at him. "I know what I said!"

William was taken aback by her tone. There wasn't just anger from being chastised; she seemed hurt. He softened his feature as he addressed her again.

"Amity," he asked more gently, "tell me what happened out there."

And so, she briefly related to him the events of her visit to Founder's Square, as the place was apparently known. She told him of the Templar Order's rally, her encounter with a young witch, her death at the hands of a possessed and the battle that followed when he turned into a marmorean demon.

Now William had a better idea of what she was going through. She had witnessed firsthand the murder of a fellow witch, one who could easily have been her schoolmate, and the slaughter of innocent people. Giving a quick look at Hunter too, he mentally berated himself for not realizing sooner: they might have been witches—quite strong ones for their age, he had to admit—but at the end of the day, they were still kids; they weren't supposed to experience such things.

"If I hadn't stopped her to ask what was going on, then that demon wouldn't have killed her," she muttered quaveringly as she replayed those scenes in her mind. "S-she died because of me…"

"Amity…" he called to her worriedly as he saw her eyes becoming humid. He wanted to reach out to her, but he wasn't sure what to do or say.

"All those people died," she gripped the fabric of her pants and bowed her head to hide the tears that were threatening to fall, "and I did nothing to help them."

"Amity," William called again, kneeling in front of her and gently holding her upper arms. "Look at me."

She lifted her head just enough to meet his gaze.

"Please, don't do it."

She remained silent, prompting him to continue.

"You're blaming yourself for the death of strangers, that says a lot for you," he praised her, before frowning with sadness, "but believe me when I say it'll just consume you."

Hypocrite, he heard his "other" sneer in his mind.

"You're saying that I did well to let them die? To run away and hide like a coward?!"

"And what were you supposed to do? Had you decided to play the hero, you would've revealed your disguise—or worse, you could've died fighting the demon," he retorted. "You would've never gone back to your world, and never reunited with your friends, your family and that human girl you care so much about."

That appeal seemed to slightly assuage her regrets. He understood where they were coming from, and kind of felt he was cheating by using those arguments, but he didn't know what else to do. He let go of her arms and stood up.

"Look, Amity," he paused, looking sideways and scratching the back of his head while he tried to find the next words. "I'm sorry you had to see those things, but unfortunately this is how our world works. Whether you like it or not, people will get hurt. It's no use to beat yourself up over something you can't control."

Hypocrite! Hypocrite! Hypocrite! chanted his doppelgänger. William had to use all of his willpower to not flinch.

"B-but… I could've done something…"

"It's not your war, and no one's asking you to be a hero," he said, interrupting her. "This isn't the first time someone's been killed by demons, and it won't be the last."

It pained William to see her like that. That feeling of helplessness was uncomfortably familiar to him.

"You'll already do a lot by allowing the Demonrealmers to return to their world with your key," he added, "so the only thing you should worry about is getting back to the Demon Realm, safe and sound."

Amity wiped away the tears from her eyes and looked away, disappointed at herself. She understood what he was trying to say and could accept his arguments, but she still thought she could've done things differently.

"Look on the bright side," William spoke again, this time in a slightly lighter tone and cracking an awkward smile, "you're still alive, so, uh, you'll have a chance to do better next time."

An awkward silence descended in the room at that last bit.

"You… don't seem very good at consoling people, you know?" Hunter commented after silently observing their exchange.

"Yeah, I know," William sighed dejectedly, somewhat agreeing with him. "I'm trying my best here."

Though still feeling down, Amity raised her head to meet his gaze and give him a small smile.

"It's still appreciated."


"Are you sure of this?" asked Peregrino.

He was seated at a desk in one of the guest rooms of the royal castle. Before him, Mother Paige stood at attention.

"I'm positive, sir," she nodded. "The girl I saw closely matched the description, though she had the horns of titanids."

"A disguise, obviously," he commented dryly.

Mother Paige put a hand on her chest and bowed her head, ashamed. "I'm sorry, sir. Had I been certain that girl was one of our targets, I would've ordered my Knights to chase after her immediately."

"Don't bother. You had to tend to the wounded after all the mess that demon caused," he brushed her apologies aside. "After all, we have to show to the locals that we care about them in order to win their hearts," he smirked, leaning back on the chair. "At least we have confirmation that they're here. Our joint patrols with the City Guard will take care of it."

She relaxed, glad that he didn't scold her for letting their target run away, and put her hands behind her back. "Master Peregrino, can I ask you something?"

"What is it?"

"Why these two young witches we're looking for are so important?" she asked, intrigued. "What's so special about them?"

He dropped his smile, donning a more serious expression. "Those three fugitives are in possession of… something extremely valuable to us. That's why we've received orders to catch the two witches alive, or at least not completely dead. I hope I quelched your curiosity, Mother Paige."

By the way he worded that last sentence, she understood it must've been something really important, something even a high priestess like her wasn't supposed to know.

"What about the third one?"

"He's someone that we lost track of a long time ago. His fate is of no importance to us," he commented dismissively, "though it's best we try to apprehend him alive as well. We don't know who's currently carrying our… treasure."

"I see," she nodded. "And after we have recovered this 'treasure'?"

"Isn't it obvious, dear?" he smirked. "Their souls will be offered as sacrifice to the Goddess to propitiate her return, like any other spawn of darkness we hunt."

At his reply, a cruel smile found its way on her face.


Amity, Hunter and William spent the rest of the day at the inn.

To distract Amity from the events of the morning, William offered her to sit next to him on his bed and let her have a look at his gauntlet while he proceeded with its maintenance. It ended up being a good call, for she took an immediate interest in the weapon's mechanisms. William learned how to repair it for the sake of not depending on others for its well-functioning; he wasn't a technician or a magic engineer, so he wasn't exactly qualified to give full insights on its inner workings, but her intuitions and comments were almost always on point.

Her surprising prowess with magitech—a broad term by which magical machines and everything related to them were known in the Titan Realm—incited William to pry a little, leading him to discover that she was the daughter of a talented abomination engineer.

While looking at the gauntlet, Amity noticed a peculiar arrangement of tiny symbols engraved on its energy circuitry. They were an assortment of curved lines, geometric shapes, straight segments, points and circles, eerily reminiscent of parts of the magic glyphs Luz used to cast spells; in fact, she was pretty sure she could almost draw one by rearranging some of those symbols. When asked about it, William explained those letters where part of the "Divine Script", a collection of graphemes discovered over the course of millennia that held power over magic. They were usually used as a way to turn inanimate objects into means to control and channel magic, embed passive spells and wards, and much more. Nobody knew for sure how many of them or how many combinations actually existed; what most magic scholars agreed on was that the script was somehow connected to the magic of the gods, hence its name.

What really struck Amity was how similar those symbols were to what she thought she saw on William's earring. This only cemented her suspicions about his identity.

All that talk about magical symbols drew the attention of Hunter, who had been relaxing with Flapjack on his bed until then. They ended up having a chat on the matter, with William discovering from Amity that her human girlfriend, Luz, managed to rediscover an ancient magical art based on the use of glyphs. Amity tried to draw one from memory to show him, but ended up producing a scribble barely classifiable as a glyph or even just a circle, much to Hunter's hilarity.

Hunter took the opportunity to take over the conversation and give a small lecture on the link between glyphs and the old elemental magic of the Savage Ages, only to be teased in retaliation by Amity for being a "wild magic closet nerd".

William would have simply rolled his eyes at their banter, but he took it as a welcome sign of "normalcy." Surely better than having her around as a broken mess.

Those moment of levity were about to end soon, though.

William was still seated on his bed, his gauntlet resting on his lap. He was about to tighten a screw when he glanced briefly at Hunter sitting across from him on Amity's bed; he looked like he was holding himself from saying something.

"Something on your mind, Blondie?" he said, refocusing on the loose screw. "If it's for this morning, I—"

"What's the Templar Order?" he blurted out. While they were walking back to the inn, Amity briefly told him of her misadventure in the square, hinting at the existence of an organization that reminded her of the Emperor's Coven. Intrigued, he wanted to know more of it.

Amity frowned at his question as she remembered what that witch had said regarding those people in white. She too was curious to hear what William had to say on them.

William had to admit he kind of forgot about them in the heat of the moment. He sincerely hoped to cross path with them as late as possible, if not at all.

"They…" he hesitated, looking up from his gauntlet to face them. "They're bad news."

Amity tensed up, giving a worried glance at Hunter who in turn seemed more confused than anything.

"Are we going to be in danger?" she asked worriedly.

"Not right now, but I wasn't expecting to find them here in Weiteben," he replied. "They'll try to stop us if they get the chance. You two because you're witches, and me… because I'm helping you."

"Because we're witches?" Hunter repeated, confused. "But… didn't they defend the people from the demon? What do they have to do with us?"

"Just who are they, William?" pleaded Amity. "It's true they want to kill witches?"

"Wait, what?!" Hunter turned sharply to her, alarmed. "You didn't tell me anything about this."

William sighed, putting down the screwdriver on the bed. Guess it was time for another brief history lesson.

"There's a lot that could be said about them," he began. "They started out as a demon hunting company more than six centuries ago in Western Gutania, during the last years of the Giraffes War."

Again with the giraffes, Amity noted.

"Six centuries?" said Hunter, perplexed. "You mean the giraffes have been around your world for at least four hundred years?"

William nodded. "Yeah, they appeared in Aurosia, then slowly made their way to Meridia until they reached the Hardlands, in southwestern Vesperia."

Something didn't add up. Amity and Hunter knew that the giraffes were freaks, even by Demon Realm standards, but they never went on a widespread rampage like William was implying.

"You talk like they burned cities to the ground and killed everyone in sight," Hunter commented skeptically. "We knew they were dangerous monsters, but they weren't like some sort of scourge of the gods."

"Heh," William chuckled. "It's funny that you use that epithet, because according to historical sources that's exactly what the horde of giraffes were called at the time."

"Weird coincidence aside," interjected Amity, "what made them such a danger for your world?"

"Perhaps the fact that at one point they turned into marmorean demons?"

Ah, that explains it. Amity's ears flattened in dread at the nightmarish image of a marmorean giraffe, a feeling shared with Hunter. Now they had a better idea of why the giraffes' arrival had been such a big deal to this world.

"As I was saying, the templars helped the Second Gutar Empire keep those monsters at bay after they spread into the nearby Morshlands," continued William. "What really made them stand out and gain popularity was the magic they wielded, though."

"I saw them in action," interjected Amity, "the spells they used cut through that demon like fleanut butter."

Briefly shuddering at the thought of butter made from fleas, William nodded at her. "They say their peculiar powers come from the 'Great Mother Goddess', a dead titan that lies in Western Gutaria. Their leader and all his predecessors claim to be the herald of its will and presence in the world, and to be able to communicate with its spirit from the Great Beyond," he scoffed at last part. "Can you believe that? What a load of crap."

Both Hunter and Amity widened their eyes in surprise at his words.

"Sounds familiar, huh?" he joked, taking in their astounded reaction.

Hunter, in particular, seemed the most affected, if his haunted expression was of any indication. When Amity told him of the weird people in white and their light magic, she said something about them reminding her of the Emperor's Coven, but he didn't make much of it. But this… It was almost like this world had a carbon copy of it!

"So it wasn't just an impression," Amity commented under her breath, "they really are like the Emperor's Coven."

"T-their leader can talk to the titans?" muttered an incredulous Hunter. "Is it true? You're saying that they even have their own emperor?"

"An emperor? Please," William waved his hand condescendingly at him, "that title belongs to only one person in this world, and definitely not Godfrey."

"Who?"

"Godfrey Graham. If he hasn't already died, he's the current grand master of the Templar Order," he revealed. "But yeah, he can speak to a titan… or at least, that's what he wants you to believe."

Hunter put a hand on his chin and bowed his head in thought as he took in those new revelations. He was starting to think they ended up in some sort of parallel universe instead of "just" a new dimension. First there was William apparently looking like Amity's brother, now there were these alternate Emperor's Coven and Belos. What was next, an alternate version of himself? It was all so absurd.

"That girl from this morning," Amity began, "she said that these templars hate us. It can't just be for the giraffes, right?"

"That's only part of it," replied William. He grabbed again the screwdriver to finish his work on the gauntlet. "From what I know, they say the marmoreans are the manifestation of some indefinite 'dark forces' that supposedly killed off the gods eons ago. In their eyes, you witches are a more… devious incarnation of these same forces that aims to corrupt and destroy Titanidkind from within."

If it wasn't that these people seemed very serious about their beliefs, Amity would have burst out laughing at the absurdness of those claims. She was pretty sure she wasn't a spawn of "evil and darkness". Well, unless she regarded her mother as such… but that was another matter.

"This is—I mean," she struggled to come up with words to express what she felt about it. "The marmoreans we faced didn't care we were witches when they tried to kill us. How can they say we're the same thing?"

"Because the Goddess said so, with the templars' leader simply relaying the message to the masses."

Amity was left appalled by what she just heard. Hunter, on the other hand, looked away with a conflicted expression.

"T-that's it? D-do people seriously believe this nonsense?" accused Amity, incredulous. "This old guy says all witches are bad and people believe it? Just like that?"

William didn't seem fazed by her indignation. "From what you two told me, that's exactly what you islanders and your emperor have been doing for… for… uhm," he trailed off, grasping for word and turning to Hunter for help. "Say, how many years your Bellows guy has been in power again?"

Brought back to reality from his thoughts, Hunter glared at him for the nickname he had given to his uncle.

"It's Belos."

"Bellos, Mellows, whatever," he shrugged. "Now you see why I've found the story of your Emperor's Coven hilarious? It seems your titan and our dear 'Big Mommy' have conflicting views on the destiny of Witchkind."

"It's clearly a lie," scoffed Hunter, trying to defend the veracity of his uncle's doctrine. "Demons and witches came from the Titan. We're like its children in a sense. It wouldn't make sense for another titan to desire our death."

"And yet the templars claim we titanids are the true progeny of the titans through the Goddess, and you Demonrealmers are aberrations that must be eliminated," William rebutted. "From my point of view, it's your emperor's words against the grand master's."

"The words of a phony," Hunter frowned and crossed his arms. "I bet nobody actually saw this 'grand master' talk with his titan."

"Probably. But did anyone see Belos do the same with your titan?" countered William, leaning towards him. "Did you, Hunter?"

Hunter opened his mouth to answer, but no reply came out of it. Now that he thought about it, his uncle never wanted anyone around him when he communicated to the Titan, nor he shared some insight of how it actually worked. He always justified it as his uncle's need to have no distractions while he performed his duties as the Titan's messenger. He wouldn't have a reason to hide something, after all, right?

"I'll take that as a no," William went on as he took in Hunter's silent frown. "Of all the thousands of people that ever existed, only one person in the world is able to understand the will of divine beings that have been dead for millions of years," he added, implicitly referring to both Belos and Godfrey. "Don't you think it's strangely convenient?"

"Uhm, n-no, I mean," Hunter fumbled with his words, "maybe the Titan saw something special in Belos and decided to choose him?"

"Yeah, sure," scoffed William, "and I bet Belos said it, right?"

Since the two were ending up butting heads over Belos again, Amity tried to steer the conversation back on track.

"William," she called, "I get the exile of the giraffe here didn't leave a good impression of us and caused a lot of problems, but I still don't understand how people would just believe these templars without tangible proofs."

"Their magic is their proof," he replied. "People see how effective it is against marmoreans, so they assume it must be a gift from a higher being as they claim."

"Gift?" she repeated. "You mean this Great Mother gave that light magic to them? It's not their own?"

"Er, kinda? I'm not sure how it works. Apparently, through the intercession of the Goddess, the Grand Master can confer the ability to wield magic to those he deems worthy, or something like that."

Again, Hunter was the more affected by that new revelation, and for obvious reasons since he was magicless.

"He… he can really give you magical powers without a staff?" he asked in awe.

William wasn't sure what he intended by a "staff", but nodded nonetheless. "Unlike your Coven, the Templar Order gives magic instead of taking it away."

Amity glanced at Hunter. She could only imagine what it was passing in his head. Since apparently most of the titanid population was magicless, she supposed this 'gift' must be really alluring. Then why someone like William didn't join them? After all, ignoring for a moment the "witch hunting" stuff, they were supposed to protect the people from marmorean demons.

"You don't seem to believe in the Goddess or in the Order, though," she commented, noting his apparent distrust of the templars.

"Of course I don't," he replied piqued as he finished his work on the gauntlet. "There's no such thing as gift from the Mother, or a Mother at all. The titans are dead." As he spoke, his expression darkened. "They've simply discovered some new trick that they refuse to share with the rest of the world, passing it off as the bounty of a deity and granting it only to those who choose to join their ranks and do their bidding."

Amity and Hunter watched him lower his head, grimacing; his bandaged hands were squeezing his gauntlet so hard the metal was starting to creak. Sitting next to him on his bed, she could see his expression betraying rancor.

"They're just a bunch of fanatics and… and frauds!" he snarled. "It's their fault if… if…"

"William?" she glanced worriedly at him.

He gave a small gasp and glanced nervously at her, as if realizing to have said too much.

"I-it's nothing," he shook his head and got up off the bed to put away his gauntlet and the repair tools. "It's nothing…"

It was clear to Amity it wasn't "nothing". Judging by his reaction and words, she suspected that something bad happened between him and these templars.

"Is… everything alright?" she asked uncertainly.

After a few moments of hesitation, he turned to face her. "I'm well, Amity," he replied, giving her a strained smile to reassure her. He glanced at Hunter, who was looking at him with a perplexed expression.

"If it's of any consolation, Blondie," he called, drawing attention from him, "your emperor may sound like another lunatic to me, but maybe's not that bad. At least, he doesn't seem to see all witches and demons as filth that needs to be removed from existence."


Given the new things they had learned about the Titan Realm, Amity and Hunter agreed to William's suggestion to lay low until it was time to leave the city. That gave William the chance to relay what he discovered at the docks.

Unfortunately, all routes to Draconia had been suspended indefinitely because of an ongoing conflict. Apparently, the first available ship to Daimonia—the broader region to which Draconia belonged—was a cargo ship headed to Dielesipolis, a city in the region of Elefthery. The good news was that it was scheduled to depart tomorrow; the bad news was that going there would lengthen their travel by a lot.

The alternative was to wait a few more days and take a passenger ship that would take them directly to Charleon, bypassing Daimonia altogether. William feared that with the templars around the city they would have to resort to the cargo ship, much to his vexation. When asked about it, William said he had to hide once on a merchant ship and that he hoped never to repeat the experience again, adding that "unlike your world, when they throw you overboard, the water is freezing".

Eventually, the sun set on Türzumeer. Squads of Weitebian guardsmen commanded by templar knights were seen scouring the city all day. Their patrol continued even at night, the light of their torches plowing through the darkness of the less illuminated parts of the city.

Our three travelers had a hard time falling asleep. As they tossed around in their beds, their minds were plagued by worries and doubts.

Hunter would lie if what he had learned about those "templars" didn't make him think. Despite sharing the same sentiment with William regarding the veracity of their claims, he couldn't ignore the similarities between the Order and his Coven. Like woodworms, these thoughts began to gnaw at his mind, prompting him to review his past experiences as a member of the Emperor's Coven. As he did that, he began to… notice things, small details that he usually ignored or didn't give much weight, like Belos' unwillingness to tell him more of their family, the effective dangers of wild magic, or what exactly the Titan had in store for him. It wasn't like he suddenly stopped having faith in his uncle, mind you, but he was beginning to have second thoughts on his actions.

Amity was still upset by what happened in the morning, and the revelation of a new enemy—the templars—did nothing but increase her unease with this world and her fear of what awaited them in the future. In particular, she was having a hard time wrapping up her mind about the idea of an organization seemingly dedicated to the destruction of her kind. Before she met Luz and began to associate with her, her friends and the Owl Lady, she had always been a young law-abiding citizen of the Boiling Isles. Work hard, and you will join the Emperor's Coven. Join the Emperor's Coven, and you will serve the emperor. Serve the emperor, and you will protect the isles from wild magic. What made you an enemy of the Titan was your actions, your unwillingness to adhere to the emperor's laws.

But here, at least for those templars and their "Goddess", someone like her was an enemy simply because of what she was. It didn't matter if she was a good person or the most vile and despicable monster: she was a witch, therefore she was filth. And the only thing you do with filth… is to clean it up. She was bewildered and outraged that apparently so many people here supported their ideas. Then again, as William noted, the people of the Boiling Isles were doing something similar with the Emperor's Coven and the wild witches, taking Belos' words as the truth, so she shouldn't be so surprised.

William wasn't even in his bed. Instead, he was seated on the windowsill, looking at the street below with a worried expression. The arrival of the Templar Order in the city jeopardized his plans. He knew there was a risk to cross path with them once they reached the West, but he wasn't expecting to meet them already in Weiteben. The kingdom had always refused to let them come in, so why did they change idea just now? What an unfortunate coincidence… if it was one in the first place.

He sighed, placing a hand on his head. The feeling of tightness in his chest and heaviness in his head that he had been experiencing for some time was getting worse. He could hear his voice more frequently and more loudly during the day, either whispering or shouting things at him. It got so bad he couldn't even relax in his bed and had to go to the window; he had noticed how both Amity and Hunter seemed to have some difficulty at falling asleep too, so he had to be careful to not disturb them with too much noise.

As he leaned against the window, watching the nocturne cityscape, his eyelids became heavy. Strangely, he felt "safer" tucked between the rather deep window sill and jamb than in the bed. Maybe he could finally get some sleep there.

"How much longer do you want to go on like this?"

Or maybe not. For fuck's sake, why he always had to show up when he was about to fall asleep?

Glancing at his left, William's eyes shot open in alarm at what he saw. Amity had her head slightly turned to her right; judging by her closed eyelids and her calm breaths, she must have finally fallen asleep. What concerned him was his doppelgänger sitting next to her on the edge of her bed, facing him.

"Time is running up for you. Do you really think you can keep your little charade up?" asked Not-William, cocking his head with a smug look on his face.

William clenched his jaw and glared at him. He really wanted to yell at his other to shut up and get away from her, but he couldn't afford to be heard by the other occupants of the room.

"Giving me the cold shoulder, huh?" pouted Not-William, disappointed that his "original" wasn't playing along. He glanced at the sleeping face of Amity, before looking at William with a mischievous gleam in his eyes.

"Will you also give our little princess the silent treatment when she inevitably finds out how much of a liar you are?" He turned to Amity and leaned on her, bringing a hand to her face to gently stroke her cheek; despite the back of the hand touching her skin, she didn't seem to notice anything. "Poor thing, she'll be so disappointed."

William kept glaring at his double, but refused to talk to him.

"If they end up not trusting you anymore," he continued, turning back to William with a grin, "then you'll have to kill them and take the key by force."

William closed his eyes turned away from him. He was just messing with him, there was no point in indulging him with his ramblings. He tried to go back to sleep, but he was startled when a hand slammed on the opposite window jamb. It belonged to Not-William, who had apparently moved across the room in an instant and was now looming on William with a cruel expression.

"But we both know it'll be useless, so why do you keep lying to yourself?" he sneered, "Wouldn't it be easier to just let go? To fade away and let me handle things?"

William looked at his doppelgänger with a scowl. His right arm started to twitch, but he grabbed it with the other to keep it in place.

"I'd rather die and take you with me to the Great Beyond," he finally spoke to him, his voice laced with venom.

Not-William didn't seem particularly touched by his words. "Ooh, how scary~" he smirked and threw up his hands mockingly. "I can't let that happen, buddy. We're in this together, after all."

William kept glaring hatefully at his double as he started to walk away. Not-William stopped beside him, putting a hand on his shoulder.

"Sleep well, partner."


Unbeknownst to the three travelers, a cloaked man on a crestbird was seen observing the city from a small hill not too far away from it. He was the same mysterious hooded figure from Rückendorf.

After taking one last look at the city, he resumed his ride towards its outskirts.


Author's Notes

So, William thinks Belos is somehow less bad than the templars. Ooh boy, if only you knew, Lil' Willy. If only you knew…

It seemed to me that Amity and the others had gotten off a little too easily from their encounter on the road to Türzumeer with the corrupted knight. I felt that she needed to experience firsthand why white demons pose a danger to the common people of the Titan Realm.

I must admit, though, that I have many doubts about the scene with Amity in the square and her reaction to its events. As I reread the chapter, I began to suspect that the people of the Demon Realm wouldn't be so disturbed by this kind of violence. I fear that I made Amity way too… "sensitive", I guess? I don't know, I feel like I could've done things differently, but then I'd have to rewrite everything and it'd have taken a lot more to publish this chapter.

Speaking of which, maybe it's me being desensitized, but I believe "Teen" is still enough and that there's no need to raise the rating to "Mature" for now. I wouldn't mind hearing your opinion on it. Actually, I wouldn't mind hearing more of your opinions in generals.

I want to take this opportunity to thank those that have been giving a chance to this story. I'm pleasantly surprised it actually managed to gain some following.

Until next time.