Episode:
15: Elementary

Adam and Star work to avert a terrible tragedy, but a horrific curse puts them at a disadvantage. TW: graphic depictions of violence and panic attacks.

Suddenly feeling confident, Draper marched his way towards Negative Hekapoo with the gait of a waddling penguin.

'Hekapoo!' Draper commanded, almost looking relieved. He pointed at Adam and Star. 'I now have two for two. These traitors…I don't have just this "Estrella", but her brother too. Both of them can cast magic.'

Negative Hekapoo's expression did not falter even slightly. She remained impassive as she attempted to walk past the Meriff. Astonished, Draper stepped in front of her again.

'The Empire should make good on their deal,' he warned gravely. 'Now that I have twice to offer, you must give me twice in exchange. I want your Empire's protection, to keep our town safe. Then I'll keep quiet about the Empire's economic issues. And you will make Polaria independent. That was the deal.'

She stared at him emotionlessly for several seconds. There wasn't a single microexpression on her face. She didn't flinch when she raised her hand and punched directly through him with a flaming hand of purple fire.

Instantly, Meriff Draper was encompassed in purple flames, incinerating him in an instant. He was reduced to a black, charred skeleton within seconds. Star's wand dropped to the ground with a small thud.

'You just got Hekapoo'd, SON!' exclaimed Hekapoo, pointing aggressively at the skeleton that was once Jackson Draper. She leaned over and stomped on his skull. 'That's for trying to sell us fake jewellery. Like we wouldn't notice.'

Star gasped quietly. She meant the necklace she'd made with her magic! The Negative MHC had identified it as fake! And now…they'd executed Draper for it. That and trying to become independent from the Empire. She conjured that necklace…so this was partly her fault.

Oh god…

'Huh…' Hekapoo remarked, as she spotted the wand on the ground. She bent down to inspect it, but it was quickly encased in a blue aura and shot away from her. The demon looked up to see that Adam had summoned the wand towards him with Levitato.

'That doesn't belong to you,' he warned, handing the wand to Star.

'Everybody, get inside!' Star ordered at the top her voice. All the residents of the town retreated desperately into their homes.

'I'll keep this brief: who the hell are you and how can you cast magic?' demanded Hekapoo, stuffing her dimensional scissors in her hair. 'You should know that it is illegal for any ordinary citizen to cast magic, or carry any articles of sorcery, or harbour any occult objects of a mystical nature.'

Adam remained resolute in his stance. 'We're nobody.'

'Leave this town, if you know what's good for you!' added Star.

'Star!' Adam whispered to her disapprovingly. 'This isn't the Hekapoo that you know. She can do things…that you couldn't even imagine. I wouldn't want to piss her off!'

'I would definitely agree!' Hekapoo concurred, projecting a blast of magenta flames at them. Adam grabbed Star and moved the pair of them out of the way. 'I'm warning you: don't fuck with me!'

Quick as lightning, Adam retaliated with a wave of magical water cascading towards the purple demon.

Unimpressed, Hekapoo dispelled the water with her fire, boiling it with her flames. Unfortunately, she wasn't able to evaporate all of it. A smaller wave of water dumped onto her hair.

'You ruined my HAIR!' cried Hekapoo, her eyes burning with intense rage and fire. She balled her fists into flames, and inexplicably, the entire town was surrounded by a border of flames. A giant wall of bright purple fire encircled them, several feet high.

'Woah!' Star exclaimed, as she leant away from the flame wall. It spat out a sputter of fire, but Adam pulled her out of the way of it in the nick of time.

'Don't let that her flames touch you,' he warned gravely. Star frowned slightly, but nodded, nonetheless.

''''''Hey! Jerkwads!''''''

Adam and Star turned to Hekapoo, to discover that there wasn't just one Hekapoo. Now, there were six of them, five clones plus the original demon. All of them looked particularly pissed.

'Star, set your wand to full power, now!' Adam instructed.

'I thought we agreed that was a bad idea!'

'We're in enough hot water already!' he cried. 'But don't use your Full Butterfly form!'

'Adam –!' began Star, as she fumbled with her wand.

'I'll take the three on the left, you take the three on the right!' he interrupted, as he cast Melting Point on the ground. The three Hekapoos struggled to move as the melted mud latched against their skin and pulled them down into the ground. As they attempted to burn their way out, tendrils of mud caught their hands and restrained them.

'What the hell, man!' complained one of them, attempting to raise her leg. Adam responded by firing a vortex of Tornado Torpedo at one of them, instantly blowing out the flame hovering above her head.

One of the Hekapoo clones instantly disappeared.

''CHEATER!'' accused the other two clones. Immediately, the flames above their heads intensified tenfold, making it exponentially harder to blow out with a blast of wind. They broke out of their restraints in moments, sending a combined stream of flames directly towards them.

Adam formed a purple forcefield out of instinct, blocking the fire with all his might. In spite of that, the sheer force of their flames sent him skidding backwards. He pushed back against them.

'Hailstorm Armada!' he cast, his grey eyes glowing intensely in tandem with his magic.

Thunder crackled in the air, as a giant plume of grey clouds materialised out of thin air above them. A large boom followed, before a stream of massive hailstones rained down from the heavens, pelting the Hekapoos whilst bringing no harm to Adam or Star.

'OW!' screamed one of the clones, melting the snow with her fire. Adam responded by throwing out a hand and launching a rapid-fire cascade of hailstones directly at her. Hekapoo was knocked several feet away onto the ground. The other Hekapoo gawped at this.

'Insignificant pest!' she yelled, looking up at the hailstorm Adam had stormed. She threw her arms up and send a funnel of flames directly into the heart of it, her demonic magic negating the spell instantly.

The other Hekapoo rose from the ground, wiping some blood from her mouth. Adam smirked at them and flared his eyebrows threateningly.

'Oh, you'll pay for that one, kid!'

Meanwhile, Star was struggling against three Hekapoo clones of her own. They surrounded her in an instant, trying to burn her from all directions simultaneously. She rolled out of the way and raised her wand at them.

'Supersonic Leech Bomb!'

Her wand spat out a series of glowing green leeches, that adhered to the ground and the Hekapoos' dresses. There was a beeping rhythm that accelerated in speed until it reached a climax. Simultaneously, all the leeches exploded with a vociferous boom, sending the three of them flying backwards. Only one of them was able to save themselves, using her flames like a propellant to steady herself.

'Neat trick!' derided the still-standing Hekapoo, throwing several rapid fireballs at her. Star dodged them and responded by several energised cupcakes, but she disintegrated them with her fire. 'How'd you manage to make a copy of such a powerful magical artifact, anyway?'

'I'm just really, really smart,' declared Star. 'Rainbow Fist Punch!'

A technicolour rainbow stream of fist smashed directly through the hovering flame above the head of one of the other clones, just as they were getting up from the Glowworm Blast. The flame was immediately extinguished.

She glared at Star in dissatisfaction before disappearing. 'Really?'

She rose her hands, and large chunks of the ground split from the earth and rose into the air. One by one, they went flying in Star's direction, at speeds she could barely perceive.

'Laser Beam Blast! Laser Beam Blast! Glittery Heart Slap Blast!' chanted the princess at rapid speed, flailing her wand desperately to hit all the chunks of rock barrelling towards her. 'Citrus Stream! Ultra-Mega Panda Panzer! Guacamole Whack-a-moley!'

Whilst Star was desperately trying to contend with the endless barrage of rocks sent her way, she was none the wiser to the plan that Hekapoo's clones had devised. Although multiplying into clones divided up her power more and more, it didn't affect her intelligence. And she still had the speed of a cheetah.

One of the two Hekapoos Star was fighting swiftly recovered from the explosive leeches. She moved through the air with insane speed, appearing like a lavender blur in the night. She raised an arm and smiled devilishly to herself.

'Tag, you're it!' Hekapoo exclaimed, throwing down a flaming palm in order to smack her on the back of the head.

However, before she could complete the attack, arcs of powerful lightning coursed through her entire body. She screeched in agony as every cell of her being was struck with powerful, visceral electricity. Once the pain finally ended, plumes of smoke rose from her burnt skin, as the demon clone fell to the hard ground, unconscious.

All three conscious Hekapoos turned to see Adam, gulping for air, his hand outstretched and crackling with electricity.

'Hey, pick your own clones to fight!' complained one of Adam's Hekapoos.

The pair of them impelled a combined stream of powerful violet flames towards him. Adam strained to block the attack, creating a wide rectangular forcefield in front of him. In spite of the barrier, he was still pushed back immensely by the sheer force of the fire. His eyes widened in alarm as cracks began to form from the centre of the forcefield, slowly seeping across the rectangular surface.

Adam knew for a fact that he couldn't keep this up for much longer. He was already getting tired. Overextending himself by defending Star whilst maintaining the attack on the other clones had massively contributed to his fatigue. Hekapoo's clones themselves weren't particularly that strong, but they were impossibly resilient. No matter how many spells he hit them with, they always seemed to get back up. The only way to defeat them was to blow out their flame, which was quickly proving another arduous task.

Coupled with his current inability to open portals, Adam knew he had to think fast. If Hekapoo's purple flames were to so much as lick him, he would be utterly screwed.

There was one thing he knew had enough energy left to do, though.

I pledge my soul to the throes of magic…

His eyes began to glow, as did his cheek marks, glittering barely visibly through the disguise of his Glamour.

To enhance my power now automatic…

There was a low rumble in the ground that unnerved the Hekapoo clones slightly. Nevertheless, they continued to push their attack.

I prepare myself to become a ghost…

Grant me strength: the Seal of Arybailos!

The Seal of Arybailos flashed on the ground, burning its visage onto the grass. The octagram appeared on Adam's brow, just above his glowing slate grey eyes. Hekapoo raised an eyebrow.

'What the –'

She was interrupted by Adam, who threw back his arms and pushed back against their jets of conflagration. His forcefield threw them back; it was instantly ten, maybe fifteen, times more powerful than it had been before. The pair of them ceased their flames as the forcefield slammed into them, sending them tumbling backwards into the air.

'Ow…' said one of them, clutching her head. She blinked and looked up in time to see Adam's next move.

He duplicated himself, creating dozens of mirages of himself that spread across the crook of the lake. Ordinarily, he could only make eight of these guys before the exponential mana consumption overtook him, but now, he could make upwards of thirty. Neither got a good sight of which Adam was the real one, which was rather the point.

'Light Whip of Majesty,' he cast quietly. All thirty of his clones produced ropes of bright light from their hands. They wrapped around the limbs of the two clones, before pulling tight and restraining them with all his might. It was the Neon Whip Spell, rather than Ropes of Binding, for Adam wasn't too sure how the Ropes would fare against Hekapoo's magic fire. 'Chains of Captivity!'

He shot out at least a hundred large blue discs, which shot out a beam of energy that latched onto their limbs. Half of them targeting one clone, and the other half went for the other, again restraining the two clones with bindings empowered by the Seal of Arybailos.

Adam stopped for a moment to catch his breath, as he allowed the False Deployment spell to collapse, while keeping the power of Arybailos for a little while longer. He walked towards the restrained Hekapoos.

'This power…this magic…' uttered the second clone, 'it isn't yours! I can smell it! It's the Immortal Flame…or some strange variant of it! How the hell did you come to wield the power of Arybailos?!'

'That's classified,' he quipped, before using the Seal of Arybailos to enhance a wind funnel, creating a vacuum that snuffed out the flame of one of the second clones. She popped out of existence half a second later.

Now for other one…

As if things would ever be that easy. He turned to where the other Hekapoo had been, only to find they were gone.

Adam only had a few seconds to react when he felt intense heat on his back. He leapt out of the way in the nick of time, instinctively holding up his arms. Several unnatural pillars of rock jutted out of the ground at his command, blocking the fireballs from Hekapoo behind him. Adam willed the rock to liquefy immediately, before telekinetically moving the fluid through the air to solidify around Hekapoo's limbs. Unimpressed, the infernal demon increased her power, empowering herself with a bright magical aura, and breaking through the solidified rock in an instant.

'You're gonna have to try harder than that,' she derided, a wicked smirk stretching across her cracked lips. Adam smirked to hide his exhaustion.

On the other hand, Star seemed to be only getting started. Maybe that was because she wasn't trying as hard as Adam, wasn't putting as much punch into her spells, or perhaps it was because she was fighting non-lethally. Regardless, she was not draining her mana reserves as quickly as he.

By now, the Hekapoo that had been subdued by Adam's Brutum Fulmen had recovered.

'Sparkle Lightning Blast!' yelled Star, jumping over one of the Hekapoos. Evidently, she'd taken notes from Adam's methods, because she produced a powerful cyan beam of electric energy. She narrowly dodged the blow and used her telekinesis to redirect it back at the caster.

Star let out a gasp of pain as she slammed into the pole of the sign that bore the town's name. The metal sign buckled, breaking off the supports and landing onto the ground with a thud. Her wand tumbled out her grip.

'Interesting…' mused Hekapoo, as her other clone picked up the wand and inspected it. 'Your magic is very similar to Butterfly magic. Your spells…they're the same spells that Princess Star uses. Who are you, exactly?'

'And how'd you replicate a magic wand?' added the other clone, humming curiously. Star merely glared at them, not saying a word. 'Honestly, kid, silence ends lives. Just tell me what you know!'

'Dude!' the other Hekapoo complained, prompting the pair of them to turn away from Star. 'I wanted to say that!'

'You don't make the rules!' she argued, waving a hand dismissively at her. 'Besides, technically you did say it.'

'Ok, now you're just gaslighting me.'

'I don't think you know what gaslighting is.'

'You mean we don't know what gaslighting is!'

'Now who's "gaslighting"?'

'Dude, shut up.'

She sighed. 'You know, this is why Calysto doesn't call us back.'

Once the pair of them finished their little squabble, they turned back to their prisoner. Only then to discover that she was missing, somehow having escaped from their close vicinity.

'What the…where did she go?!' complained Hekapoo, looking around the lake area frantically. Her fellow clone looked around with her, before folding her arms in defeat.

'You know, this is your fault,' she derided unhappily.

'Our fault.'

'I swear to Arybailos…'

Before either of them could finish their train of thought, they were interrupted by a shimmer of light. There was a bright sting of light, before the pair of them were rapidly engulfed by a massive tsunami. One of the Hekapoos was overwhelmed immediately, her flame snuffed out in seconds. By comparison, the other Hekapoo was quicker on the draw. She was fast enough to boil the water around her before they could extinguish the flames atop her head.

When the waves subsided, there were only two Hekapoos left: the one Adam was fighting, and the one Star was fighting.

'Mind not taking my stuff?' quipped Star, as she bent down to pick her wand up off the ground. Hekapoo spat out a stream of saltwater, glaring up at her between her soaked bangs.

'Okay, you asked for it,' she decided, cracking her knuckles loudly. 'The kiddie gloves are off now, kid!'

Adam was in the middle of fighting his Hekapoo clone, when she inexplicably dissolved into a blob of purple energy that raced out of his vision. His Crystal Trap Attack was just a second too late, leaving a bunch of random crystals sticking out the ground.

He turned to see Hekapoo, combined into one person again, holding Star by the throat between her sharp nails. She was back to full power now, and there was nothing Adam could do to prevent it.

Before the warlock could react, Hekapoo grabbed Star and took flight, smashing her through several of the buildings of Polaria. Adam chased after them at the top of his speed, leaping through arcs of fire to get into the village. Hekapoo slammed her through wall after wall, crashing directly through Kelly's inn and the Meriff's Offices until they reached the centre of the town.

'I told you not to fuck with me!' bellowed Hekapoo, encompassing herself with a bright fiery aura. She unleashed a wave of bright magenta fire, setting the town around them alight.

'Star!' uttered Adam, just as Hekapoo was about to burn her alive. He aimed his arm down at Hekapoo. 'Calysto Beam!'

He produced a brilliant cyan beam of light that struck the infernal demon before she could react. She was knocked off her feet and sent tumbling back a few feet away. Adam rushed over to Star and helped her to her feet, acutely mindful of the flames that surrounded them.

'Ugh…that's a neat trick you got,' groaned Hekapoo, getting to her feet. 'Really packs a punch!'

She threw her arms forward, attempting to fire a blast of flames. Unfortunately, she was only able to summon a few embers that almost instantaneously fizzled out. Shocked, the demon stared at her palms.

'What the hell did you do?!' Hekapoo demanded. She should have recognised from the start, really. She felt herself instantly get weaker the moment the spell had hit her, but in her arrogance, she had ignored it.

Adam did not respond verbally, instead he merely raised an arm and did a simple hand gesture. Glowing orange star marks flashed on his palms for a moment, and then Hekapoo was encompassed by a ruby cubic forcefield, trapping her in place without any room for argument.

Of course, Hekapoo responded by banging against the walls. For the moment, the forcefields were able to absorb the attacks.

'I don't expect that my Barrier Force is going to keep her at bay for long!' warned Adam, his legs shuddering under the pressure he felt from Hekapoo's blows against the forcefield.

'So what's the plan?' Star asked, tightening her grip around her wand.

'The plan is to get the hell out of here!' yelled back the warlock, squaring his stance. 'We still don't stand a chance against Hekapoo!'

'We can't just leave!' argued the princess. 'What about all these people? They'll die!'

'I know, Star,' Adam uttered. 'But it's either we stay, and everyone dies, or we escape, and at least some of us get to live!'

'We can't just run away!' she insisted. 'It's cowardly!'

'Maybe, but would you rather be a coward for a minute, or dead for a lifetime?' he pointed out. 'Look, we just need to weaken her enough to make our escape.'

'Yeah, and how do we –'

They were interrupted by a massive, vociferous rumble, followed by the shattering of glass. Adam and Star looked back to discover that Hekapoo had escaped the confines of the Barrier Force spell. And she was not happy.

'DON'T YOU FUCKING MOVE!' Hekapoo yelled, baring her sharp teeth with the most intense and fiery glare Adam had ever seen in his whole life. Calling it a glare was a mere understatement, for the sheer apoplexy that this one demon presented them with was enough blood-lusted rage to burn the heart out of the King of Underworld himself. The effects of Calysto Beam all but evaporated. Worse, in fact, for she was even more powerful than before.

Adam gave a quick nod to Star, and the pair of them pointed their arms at the raging demon.

''Solarian Blast!''

They both managed to produce a violent green laser that raced towards Hekapoo at frightening speeds.

But Hekapoo didn't care. She raised her hands and used her telekinesis to rip half the ground apart. With all her power, she raised a massive wall of rock between them, which absorbed the Solarian Blast without argument. Next, she willed the rocks to fragment themselves into tiny, sharp shards of death. She controlled their movement, sending all the sharp fragments hard and fast towards them in a blink of an eye.

Not even Adam could react fast enough. Star, however, was fast enough to think up a spell. She pointed her wand and cast it nonverbally, producing a massive block of ice that encompassed all the rocky projectiles at once.

Spotting her a smile for his gratefulness, Adam willed the ice to smash into hundreds of shards. He smirked to himself before mentally controlling the ice, directing them to shoot towards Hekapoo in the same manner as she had done to them.

'WHEN WILL YOU LEARN?!' cried the demon, before sublimating the icy projectiles within seconds. She glared at Adam between bated breaths. 'You think ice is my weakness? Seriously?'

'No,' said Adam, with a smile. 'I just needed to distract you.'

Her eyes widened for a second.

'Omega Blast!'

Hekapoo sensed the spell from Star behind her and reacted immediately. Faster than Adam had expected, for sure. She conjured a wall of flames behind her, blocking the stream of magic. Adam returned a Calysto Beam on the other side, but again Hekapoo blocked it with a massive wall of fire. To his dismay, the fire was much too powerful to be tamed by the Calysto Beam.

She pushed the walls of flames directly at their respective targets. Star managed to jump out the way in time, narrowly missing the flames spreading across the town. Meanwhile, Adam contained the fire within another Barrier Force, and instantly regretted it.

Although he prevented the fire hitting him, he could still feel the fire licking the insides of the cube. He screeched in pain, keeling over in agony. Adam had always silently wondered what it meant to receive Hekapoo's fire, but he never wanted to find out.

Through the pain, he summoned enough willpower to smack his hands together. The ruby cube folded in on itself, crushing the magical fire and snuffing it out entirely. The cube shattered a second later.

Adam leaned over, panting for air. Stupid move, but it was the only thing his feeble brain had provided him with in the moment. He couldn't attempt that again. Putting out Hekapoo's fire was notoriously difficult for a reason.

Star rushed over to him and helped him to his feet. He gave a silent look of appreciation as he caught his breath.

'HEY! We're not done yet!' yelled Hekapoo, flicking her dark purple bangs over her right eye.

Incensed beyond satisfaction, Negative Hekapoo empowered herself with her flames even more. She began to separate out into her clones, but as four became eight, and eight became sixteen, and sixteen became thirty-two, it was apparent that she was really pushing herself to the limits.

Dozens of Hekapoo clones encircled them about the flaming town, forming an impenetrable circle around them. There was nowhere to turn at this point; not a single chance of escape without being incinerated by Hekapoo's fire. Or worse. Death by Hekapoo fire was one of the worst ways to die, and the pair of them now had a front row seat to it.

''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''BLOCK THIS!''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''

All thirty-two Hekapoo clones projected a continuous stream of purple doom straight towards them. Star immediately conjured the most powerful Bulla Spiro forcefield she could muster.

'I can't hold this for long!' cried the princess desperately.

'Don't worry!' Adam yelled back, as he began to again cast the Seal of Arybailos on them.

Before long, the Seal appeared on both their heads, and Star instantly felt a wealth of mana and power overflowing from within her. She doubled the strength of the pink forcefield, then tripled it, before expanding it slightly to give them more space. And it still probably wasn't enough. Star knew she had to do something.

'Alright, that's it! I'm going Full Butterfly!'

'You can't!' he warned. 'You can't let Hekapoo know that you're a Butterfly! Right now, she just thinks you made a wand with similar powers. If she learns the truth, then you can bet your ass that Dark Star will spend the rest of her days looking for us. Trust me, you don't want that!'

'So what do we do?!'

'Expand the forcefield,' he instructed. 'I want you to expand the bubble until it explodes. That should block their fire and throw them off for a second.'

'"Should"?!'

'Just do it!'

Star nodded and pushed her wand outwards slightly. The bubble forcefield complied and began to expand in size exponentially. It pushed back the streams of fire the Hekapoos were firing. Eventually, it reached them and exploded, disrupting their stance for a solitary second.

'Skulls of Damnation!' cast Adam, spinning around in a circle. He fired out bright orange skulls of magic fire in all directions, hitting all thirty-two Hekapoos in an instant. He remarked in his head about the literalness of fighting fire with fire, but he kept it to himself. 'Pressure Compression!'

One by one, small pockets of air compressed themselves around the region of space next to the fire hovering above their head. They pushed in on themselves, almost like a black hole, until they finally reached a breaking point. All of them exploded, creating a sharp gradient of wind that instantly snuffed out the flames of all thirty-one clones, making them disappear at the same time.

Truthfully, Adam kicked himself for not having considered doing that before. There was no reason why he couldn't, he just hadn't thought to try.

Once again, Hekapoo was back to one person again. Although Hekapoo as one person was as powerful as all her clones combined, she was a helluva lot easier to manage than over thirty clones all at once.

Even still, despite being slammed into Kelly's inn by the force of Pressure Compression, Hekapoo was still getting up.

'Give up, while you still can!' she threatened, angrily wiping blood from her mouth. 'Look around you! I'm burning this place to the ground! There is no escape! You can see the fire for miles!'

'Yes, yes you can,' replied Adam, smiling wickedly. Star looked at him, slightly perturbed. 'I counted on it.'

Hekapoo frowned in concern.

'What do you m–'

She did not get the chance to finish her sentence. A loud fluttering of wings sliced cleanly through the air. It got louder and louder until it drowned out everything else. It was accompanied by a terrible buzzing noise, like a hive of wasps descending upon them. Star and Hekapoo looked up to discover a swarm of massive, winged insects descending onto the town. Their bodies were segmented in a silver exoskeleton, like an armour, that looked impossible to dent. Their compound eyes were large and bulbous, but displayed no other emotion besides cold, calculating hunger. A guttural buzzing noise echoed from within their fleshy mouths, which hid rows and rows of sharp, jagged teeth.

Deathmoths. They had been attracted to the bright flames that had now swallowed up the entire town.

'Didn't your mother ever tell to turn the lights off after dark?' Adam taunted smugly.

Hekapoo had little time to react before the swarm descended upon her. All she could manage to do was pull out her dimensional scissors from her hair. The deathmoths surrounded her in an instant, slicing into her and tearing off her flesh piece by piece. She screeched in agony as they tore her to shreds, leaving her mess of blood, skin and tatters of her dress. The swarm of deathmoths ultimately released her, before being scared off by a blast of sound from Adam.

Left behind was something less than human. Hekapoo's mangled, half-eaten corpse fell to the ground, attracting flies. Her flesh was ripped open, oozing blood, whilst the remainder of her guts spilled on the ground. The entire right side of her face had been entirely consumed, leaving an empty eye socket and the edges of her skull protruding out from her skin. The deathmoths hadn't managed to eat all of her, probably due to her magical resilience. Her two thick horns remained largely untouched, although the top of her right horn had broken off and several gaping teeth marks dotted the surface of the bone. Her dress was in tatters, looking more like a disused rag than an article of clothing. Any of her skin that remained was steeped in dark crimson blood, clinging to her clotting, melted flesh.

Her dimensional scissors dropped to the ground. Seeing an opportunity, Adam rushed over and swiped them. He wished he knew how to kill Hekapoo, but he could settle for snatching her dimensional scissors instead.

'Oh my god…' uttered Star, holding a hand over her mouth to avoid vomiting. 'She…she's…'

'She won't be down for long,' Adam told her, grabbing her by the arm. 'We have to go.'

'What? How? She's dead!'

'She'll heal.' He had to drag her away from the body to get her to break line of sight. 'We need to get out of here.'

When Adam finally broke her away from the horrific sight of Hekapoo's mangled dead body on the ground, Star finally saw it. The plain and obvious truth.

The entire town was ablaze, every nook and cranny of it burning to the ground. Every bit of fire Hekapoo had tossed, and every aberrant spell they had thrown, had contributed to the immense inferno that now engulfed the entirety of Polaria. Only a handful of spots were free from the fire, making it possible to avoid, but extremely difficult.

'Oh…oh god…I…' she stammered, her breath quivering in her throat. 'Adam…we…we can't just leave! All these people…we've got to help them!'

'There's nothing we can do for them now,' he told her grimly. 'They're dead already.'

'No they're not! If we can just get them out and…and treat their burns…we can save them!'

'No, we can't!' Adam insisted, dragging her across a path through the fire. 'I told you! Don't let her fire touch you!'

'Why?!'

He sighed.

'Because –'

'E-Estrella…?' a meek voice called from behind them. Star turned around to discover Flora, staggering towards them, clutching her arm. Once she reached them, her legs gave way and she collapsed.

'Flora!' Star cried, catching her in her arms. She laid her down on the floor as the maid screamed in pain, tightening her grip on Star's clothes. Adam stood over, watching with a grim look on his face. 'I just…I need to look at the wound.' She lifted up her sleeve and gasped.

It wasn't an ordinary burn. That much was obvious. Flora's arm was streaked with a slash of glowing purple light, running up the side of her forearm and snaking up her bicep. It seemed to pulse with every passing second, until she noticed that the glowing mark was spreading. It slowly seeped up her arm with each passing moment, just fast enough to be noticeable.

'Adam! What the hell is this?!' she demanded, looking up at him frantically. The warlock glanced away for a second.

'There is a reason why you can't let the flames touch you,' he admitted despondently. 'Hekapoo's fire is cursed.'

'Cursed? What do you mean cursed?!'

'I think Arybailos gave it to her, as a gift,' he speculated. 'It's…they call it the Mark of Hekapoo. Whenever that fire touches you, it gives you the Mark. It's a permanent burn that slowly spreads across the skin over time.'

When he failed to elaborate further, Star jerked her head impatiently.

'And…? What does it do?'

'It hurts,' Adam stated bluntly. 'It causes pain. Pain that increases in strength exponentially over time. It might start out like a rash, but…ultimately it reaches excruciating, debilitating agony. At that point, either the victim burns to death from the Mark spreading…or they commit suicide to end their suffering.'

Star stared at him in shock, left utterly speechless for a few short seconds. It was only the sound of Flora's cries of pain that snapped her back to reality.

'W-What do we do?' she stammered. 'H-How…How do we get rid of the Mark?'

Adam stared at her with the saddest eyes she'd ever seen, but he said nothing. Star furrowed her brow into a deep glare.

'Tell me!' she demanded. 'Tell me how to remove it!'

Adam stared back at her.

'You can't.'

She blinked.

'Wh-What do you mean we can't? Y-You're lying! There…there must be something we can do! Some kind of magic that can heal her!'

'There is no known magic capable of removing the Mark of Hekapoo,' replied Adam solemnly. 'I'm sorry, Star, but the magic just doesn't exist. Lifting the curse is impossible.'

Star stood up and pointed her wand at Flora's writhing form.

'If the magic doesn't exist, then I'll create it,' she decided firmly. 'Pacifying Medicine Slap!' She produced a beam of light that struck Flora without harming her. When the dust cleared, however, the Mark of Hekapoo remained. 'Uh…Icy Regeneration Beam!' Again, she produced a brilliant blast of magic. However, the Mark of Hekapoo remained. 'Come on! Anti-Burn Anti-Learn!' Again, another beam of magic that yielded no effect on the Mark of Hekapoo.

Star cycled through numerous spells, many of which she created on the spot. However, the Mark of Hekapoo remained. It didn't even flinch in response to her magic, made no quiver against her might, made no acknowledgement to her attempts to remove it. There wasn't a single spell that yielded any effect. Nothing worked.

'WHY ISN'T THIS WORKING?!' she yelled. In a fit of rage, she threw her wand at a nearby wall. It rebounded and nearly hit her in the face, but Adam stopped it with a wave of his hand and a Levitato.

'AHHH! IT BURNS!' screamed Flora, rolling on the floor. 'IT FUCKING BURNS! HELP ME! PLEASE!'

'Get back!' Adam ordered, forcefully pulling Star away from her. 'We can't help her, Star! I'm sorry, but she's dead.'

'FUCK YOU!' She yelled at him, ripping her arm out of his grip. 'Flora, listen to me! You're gonna be okay. Just stay calm! I'll save you!'

'IT HURTS! OH GOD IT HURTS!' cried Flora, as the glowing burn stretched across her skin even more. 'OH GOD…PLEASE…JUST…JUST KILL ME! KILL ME! I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE!'

'Flora, I…I can't…' she hesitated, horrified.

'PLEASE, I'M BEGGING YOU!' pleaded the maid, tears streaming down her face. 'I CAN'T STAND IT! PLEASE KILL ME!'

'I…I…I…'

She felt a hand on her shoulder.

'Star –' he began.

'What do you want now?!' she yelled at him, sobbing. 'I'm not going to kill her, Adam!'

'I know,' Adam responded guiltily, surprising her. 'I'll do it.'

'You can't,' Star objected, breathless. 'You can't just –'

'Star, look at her. She's in pain.' He forced her to stare at her writhing body. 'We can't save her. I'll make it painless; I promise.'

Star sniffed and took a few pacifying breaths. Reluctantly, she nodded and let go of Flora's hand.

'Just…make it quick.' Adam nodded. She looked away and closed her eyes. 'I…I can't look.'

Adam sighed sadly.

'I'm sorry…I'm so sorry…'

Star refused to watch as she sensed the magic in the air behind her. She refused to listen to Flora screaming in pain until her throat went raw. And she refused to watch as a bright flash of light bore through her eyelids. She failed to avoid the sickening crunch of bone as Adam snapped Flora's neck.

Adam put a hand on her shoulder to indicate he was done. She broke her sobbing and took in a sharp breath. Reluctantly, the princess turned around to look at Flora's body on the floor.

She looked almost…peaceful. Her head was rested flat on the side, her bright blue eyes staring off into the distance. Her skin was as porcelain and pale as it was when she was alive, and her hair was still as neat and fluffy as it had always been. Her mouth was stretched into a thin line, slightly curved upwards, as though at peace with the world. A single tear slid down the side of her face.

Entirely silent, Star swallowed a gulp of air. Tentatively, she kneeled down and reached out to Flora. Adam was about to question what she was doing, until he saw her closing Flora's dead eyes.

Star continued to kneel by Flora's side. She stared at the poor maid, trying to stop the endless flow of tears that fell down her cheeks and pooled on the ground. She was too scared to even blink, worrying that somehow Hekapoo would appear in front of her and incinerate her too. Like she could die any second.

She began to hyperventilate.

She felt herself losing control, and it scared her to her core. Her heart was racing, as though it was going to burst out of her chest any second. A wave of nausea rushed through her body, head to toe, causing her fingers to tremble uncontrollably.

She felt a sharp, fierce tightness in her chest. Her torso had instantly turned as brittle as chalk.

Her heart pounded in her chest, harder and harder, as though threatening to shatter it.

It was like the fracturing of glass, crumbling under the weight of the force pressed against it. Tears showered from her eyes without restraint, accompanied by a series of short, raspy breaths, taken up like she was a fish out of water.

The whole world seemed to fade away around her.

She couldn't hear the burning of the flames anymore, or the screaming echoing through the town. No, all she could hear was the sound of her own racing heartbeat. She couldn't breathe.

All the air in her lungs had been violently removed, and it was like she was standing in an airlock.

She gasped, gulping for air.

But no air would come.

She scratched at her throat in desperation, hoping by some vague measure that her lungs would start working again.

She couldn't even feel herself shaking, as her eyes glazed over with tears and her skin turned deathly pale.

Adam knew instantly that she was having a panic attack, but he couldn't exactly coax her out of it with the danger they were currently in. He couldn't very well tell her that she was safe right now, because she wasn't.

'Star…I'm going to move you, now. Okay?'

Whether or not Star could hear him through her derealisation, Adam didn't know. He figured he should at least let her know what was happening, as he used Hekapoo's dimensional scissors to open a portal. He used Levitato to gently levitate Star, hoping the experience did not disturb her too much, and he moved her through the portal.

The pair of them arrived on a hill overlooking Lake Polaris. Adam set her down on the grass, with her wand next to her. Star fell onto her side and hugged herself tight into the foetal position.

'Star, if you can hear me, I need you to listen carefully,' he instructed calmly. 'You're having a panic attack. It's okay…it'll pass. You don't have to try to fight it. Just breathe. Take a few deep breaths. You can handle it. You've gone through hell and back, you can deal with it. It's…it's scary, I know. I've been there. But it won't last long. And you're not alone. I'm here for you, okay? I'm here, and you're safe. I've taken you somewhere safe, so…just make yourself comfortable, okay? Take all time you need. I'm gonna give you some space now, alright? I'm not going anywhere far, I'll be right behind you if you need me.'

Although Star gave no verbal response, he thought he saw a shadow of nod in her demeanour. Adam stepped back and took a few deep breaths, hoping not to agitate the anxiety that was already pooling from within himself. He wanted desperately to hug her, but he knew better than to make her feel restrained right now. She might scream.

After about fifteen minutes, it seemed the worst of the symptoms had finally subsided. The princess rolled over to face him.

'A-Adam…?' Star called in a tiny voice that almost made him cry. Adam skidded over to her but slowed himself down when he saw her flinch.

'Hey…how are you feeling?' he asked softly.

'I'm…I'm…I…I don't know.'

'That's okay, just breathe.' He avoided actually touching her, no matter how much he wanted to give her a hug. 'Can you do something for me?' Star nodded weakly. 'Can you name five things that you can see?'

'I…uh…well, there's…there's you.'

Adam smiled. 'Yes. There's me.'

'There's also…the-the grass. I can see the grass. And…there's the sky, and a few clouds…and I think…I think I can see a, uh, a few mountains, in the distance.'

'That's good. That's very good. Now, could you name 4 things that you can touch?'

'Uh…I can feel the grass. I-I think it's wet. And…I-I have my wand. Just next to me. I can touch…my clothes, and my hair. Huh. Soft.'

'That's really good, Star. How about two things you can smell?'

'I smell…I smell mud. It…ugh, it stinks.'

'Yeah, I think that's me,' joked Adam.

'Yeah…heh, you. And…I smell…it smells like…roses. Flowers. I smell flowers.'

'Excellent. Just one last thing…can you name one thing you can taste?'

'Um…well, I taste…I think I can taste…' she stuttered for a moment. She grimaced. 'Ugh, what is that? Furniture polish?'

Adam failed to contain his laughter at her sense of humour.

'Are you feeling a little better now?' he asked cautiously. She took a deep breath and stood up by herself. Adam stood up after her. After another deep breath, she sighed.

'Yeah…I think so,' she answered blearily.

She turned to face the side of the hill. Adam moved to stand beside her, as the pair of them watched the bright, flickering magenta light of the town of Polaria, as it burnt to the ground.

'You were right,' lamented Star, after a long silence. 'I should have listened to you. In trying to help them, all I did was get them killed.'

'This isn't your fault, Star,' he consoled, pulling her into a hug. 'If anything, it's the Meriff's fault. He thought he could control the Magic High Commission.'

'And now he's dead. Incinerated. All because I had to stick my nose in where it didn't belong.'

'He died out of his own hubris,' Adam pointed out. 'You couldn't have known what he was doing. It isn't your fault. As much as I hate to admit it, I was wrong. You weren't wrong for trying to help them. It's in your nature. You'd never stand by and let innocent people suffer.'

'Wrong,' she denied, catching him by surprise. 'It is my fault. If I'd just stayed quiet, NONE of this would have happened!' She started to cry again, but fortunately, she wasn't having another attack. She beat against his chest in vain. 'It's not FAIR! I just wanted to help people. It's all I've ever wanted to do!'

'I know, I know,' he whispered soothingly in her ear. 'That's the kind of good person you are. You just want to help people. That isn't flaw. It's a strength.'

'Some strength.'

'I promise you, Star, we're going to make sure their deaths weren't in vain.' Adam reassured her by gently rubbing her back.

Star sniffed and let go, wiping away her tears.

'Thanks Adam. You're a good friend, you know. I'm…I'm sorry…about some of the things I said.'

'It's fine,' he dismissed. 'Besides, I think I've finally figured out how we're gonna get back home.'

She blinked.

'Really?' said the princess, taken aback. 'How?'

'Well…remember when I said we needed a space-time fracture to open the portal?' the warlock asked, prompting a nod from her. 'I suddenly remembered…I do know a fracture. When I first got my powers, it was when I found a fragment of Star's – Dark Star's – wand at Castle Avarius. She cast the Whispering Spell with such power that she literally punched a hole in the space-time continuum. That's how you and I gained our…connection. Through your wand. And if that magic could cross multiverses, it stands to reason that we can too.'

'Do you really think you can do it? Open an intermultiversal portal?'

'I designed a ritual for it, remember? I haven't tested it out, but I used the Seal of Arybailos to create it, so I have confidence. Even still…it involves ripping open a weak point in space-time to access the dimensional bridge. Doing that is probably a one-in-a-million shot.'

'Well…what do we have to lose?' Star pointed out, shrugging her shoulders. Adam smiled.

'Good point.'

'So…we're off to Castle Avarius, then? How long's that gonna take?'

'Not too long,' replied the warlock. 'Especially, now I've got these.' He took out the dimensional scissors he stole from Hekapoo.

'Hekapoo's dimensional scissors!' Star exclaimed in glee, grinning from ear to ear. 'Brilliant! Just teleport us there right away!'

'Eh…that might not be a good idea,' Adam disagreed, making her frown. 'By now, Hekapoo's recovered from her injuries and returned to Butterfly Castle. No doubt the Red Queen – and worse, Dark Star – know about two rogue sorcerers on Mewni by now.'

'Do you think…they've figured out who we are?'

'I doubt it,' Adam answered. 'The Glamours are still holding up. Still, two magic users on Mewni are enough for them to want to hunt us down. Hekapoo will know we took her scissors. She'll be on the prowl, looking for any portal signatures. The longer the distance, the stronger the signal. We need to make several shorter-range jumps over, say, a week, in order to avoid arousing suspicion.'

'So…we need to, um, to lay low?'

'Precisely.' He put an arm around her to draw her away from the sight of the burning town in the distance. 'Come on. Let's go.'

Whew, that was...dark. A lot of that was dark, but that's the Negative Multiverse for ya. The odds in the Negative Multiverse are rarely in the favour of the good guys.

It was always my intention to have Polaria to burn to the ground. But I also wanted to leave it ambiguous as to who died. Flora died, but that was the only death made explicit. Additionally, I've been setting up the fact that Adam and Star need dimensional scissors, and I planned for this to happen by getting it from Negative Hekapoo (the only person they could reliably get it from). Getting from Point A to Point B was what led to this whole episode, really. Having Hekapoo defeated by the deathmoths was a personal touch of mine, because deathmoths were previously mentioned in Chapter 33, but never made a physical appearance. That's why.

Halfway through writing this, I realised, "Hey, that's a lot of tragedy and trauma to be dumping on Star". So I extended the ending to include her panic attack, drawn from my own experiences with panic attacks. I hope it was realistic and handled well; I'd hate for it to be laughably inaccurate. Adam himself was on the verge of a panic attack too, but seeing Star in that state snapped him out of it long enough to bring her to safety and back to consciousness.

Negative Hekapoo's cursed fire does act a bit like the curse that the Solarian Warrior swords inflict, now that I think about it, but they are different. To clarify, it DOES kill if either too much of the fire touches you, or you're exposed long enough. It's just that the pain it inflicts is so unbearable that nobody ever reaches that far. If you're wondering where she got the curse from, it's implied in the text, so I'm not gonna spell it out. Show not tell, right? I'm itching to tell you, but I have to let you figure it out for yourself.

Above anything, I hope you liked the fight scene! Unsurprisingly, Negative Hekapoo used her clone ability. It's never made explicit in the show, but I always got the impression that the more she multiplies, the weaker each individual clone gets. I kinda had to do this, otherwise Star and Adam wouldn't have lasted five seconds with the cursed fire that Negative Hekapoo has. During the fight scene, I tried to be imaginative in parts, and bringing some spells from previous chapters back, whilst creating new ones. Pressure Compression hasn't been seen in a while, nor has Skulls of Damnation or Chains of Captivity. I forgot Chains of Captivity was a spell that Adam even made, even though there were times in previous chapters where he definitely could have used it.

Remember when I said this arc is dark? Yeah, well, this is probably the darkest it's going to get. I've still got some dark moments lined up (the entire theme is relatively bleak) but this is pretty much the most traumatic it's going to get for our characters. In case you think it's a little self-indulgent, at least know it won't get more self-indulgent than this.

I also wanted to show Adam's more morally grey side. He allowed the entirety of Polaria to burn to the ground (not that he could have really prevented it) so that it would attract the deathmoths (see Chapter 33) and rip Negative Hekapoo to shreds. Morally grey, of course, but it was probably the only way they could have won.

Anyways, I can't think of anything else I want to say, other than thank you all for your continued support, and I hope to see you in the next chapter, titled, "Dastardly Deeds"!