Luz sighed as she walked through the square of Bonesborough. The young teen stopped and sat before the statue of God Dragon, which was God Dragon himself. It was strange to think that beneath that stone shell was a slumbering guardian Shugod. Often times, Luz would come and sit by the statue, and just talk to God Dragon. She didn't know if there were others who did so, but Luz thought that speaking with him made the Shugod feel less lonely. Instead of having people just pass by and bow and reverence to him before going about their day.
She had said she was going to join the Emperor's Coven, and her talk with Eda wasn't any better. She said that in the heat of the moment, but the more Luz thought about it, she realized something. What other options did she have? None, to be honest. Luz wanted to continue learning about magic, to keep learning from all nine Covens. But Luz knew, realistically, that the only way for her to pursue her dream was to either become a Wild Witch like Eda or join the Emperor's Coven. While she didn't agree with the Coven System as a whole, nor did she approve of how they went after Wild Witches, perhaps it was a matter of changing it from the inside?
People had just gotten so used to the way things were, the Emperor included. Perhaps they needed to see a different way. And maybe, Luz thought, she was the one who could instigate that change. After all, the Emperor's Coven were the ones responsible for protecting the citizens and keeping everyone safe from threats both within and outside their country.
"What do you think big guy?" Luz asked.
Luz looked up at God Dragon, who remained silent. Which made the young girl sigh.
"I know it's not ideal, but maybe I can change things from the inside, right? It's not that far-fetched. The first human to ever join the Emperor's Coven, and the first to change everything inside of the Coven, and maybe even change the Emperor's mind. I think that might work," said Luz confidently.
The young teen looked back up at the statue of God Dragon, his stone eyes never blinking, his expression never changing. Yet, whenever Luz was around the statue, she couldn't help but feel that God Dragon does listen to her and might even be smiling at her encouragingly. Or it could just be her imagination and wanting to believe that the son of God Titan was actually looking out for her. Wishful thinking.
"Alright, well, I better head home for today buddy. I'll make sure to come by again soon. Sorry for unloading on you like that, next time I'll hopefully have a fun story to tell you."
Luz slung her backpack over her shoulder, and was about to start walking home, but she stopped when she saw God Dragon's statue shake a little.
"No way…did you move?! G-G-God Dragon, c-can you hear me?!" Luz asked frantically. "Oh man, oh man! I need to call someone! The Emperor's Coven! The Emperor! I need to–!"
That shaking of God Dragon's statue didn't stop there, Luz suddenly felt the shaking beneath her feet. She glanced about the area and saw that little things here and there were rattling. Windowsills with potted plants started to fall off and shatter upon the ground. Windows had small cracks forming, and in the distance, Luz saw several birds and griffons take flight from the trees and deep in the forest. If there was one thing that Luz learned from her mother, when it came to Beasts, it's that they were more in tune with the nature. That if there was an imbalance, or danger, they would be the first warning sign. So, when Luz saw the many different avian creatures of the forest suddenly bolt out of the forest itself, she knew immediately something was wrong.
And she was right.
The shaking quickly intensified, becoming a full earthquake. Luz stumbled back and forth several times before falling onto her rear, unable to hold her footing. She braced herself as best she could as houses started to crack open like eggs, along with the streets with fissures spider webbing into different directions. Windows exploded, sending shards of glass flying everywhere. People started to scream and panic as the rumbling continued and seemed to grow in intensity with each passing second. Many witches, demons, and humans who owned staffs hurriedly took to the air and remained up there to keep themselves from getting crushed by debris, while others were hurrying to those who looked as if they were about to get crushed or were desperately trying to find their loved ones as quickly as possible.
A huge piece of bedrock jutted straight up from the ground, piercing through a building and sending parts of the roof scattering into the air. One chunk of the roof was heading right for Luz. The young teen's eyes widened with fear before she feebly raised her arms and screwed her eyes shut, waiting for the inevitable impact, and getting crushed by the debris coming at her. However, before this debris could hit, something happened. It was faint, if you blinked you missed it. But before the debris hit her, for the briefest of moments, God Dragon's eyes flashed purple. The moment they did, the debris that was about to crush Luz exploded apart into dust and pieces the size of pebbles.
Luz flinched when she felt the pebble sized debris rain down on her, but when she opened her eyes, all she saw was dust. The violent earthquake continued, along with the screaming, and panicked citizens looking for cover. However, after what felt like hours of unrelenting shaking, it all stopped. The air was unnaturally still, and silence reigned throughout the area. Somehow, this was even more terrifying and unnerving than when the quake was happening. It was as if Gaea itself was holding its breath out of fear. Luz dared to stand up, her body was still unstable due to the quake messing with her equilibrium, but she managed to prop herself up against God Dragon's pedestal.
Several witches, demons, and humans slowly got to their feet as well, with the ones who were taking refuge in the air descending to come and help.
But their nightmare had only just begun.
Red light suddenly shot out of the ground as a crack formed. Another quake began as the crack grew larger and suddenly snaked its way out in the distance, cutting a glowing red path as the earth on either side of the fissure rose in jagged edges, while the ominous red light continued to pour out from it. Luz felt a deep sense of terror and dread as she looked into that light, something was wrong, this wasn't something natural. Honestly, there was no way this was natural, the Boiling Isles never suffered earthquakes that weren't deliberately caused by Construct Coven or Plant Coven witches when they cast their spells. No, this was different, something unnatural had caused this to happen, and unfortunately, only one word came to her mind when thinking about unnatural things.
"Khaotic…"
No sooner had she uttered that word did a single arm jut out from the red fissure. At first, it was one, but then two more joined it, followed by five more, then seven more. Within the span of a minute, Luz and everyone around watched as creatures lifted themselves out of the fissure and onto solid ground.
They all looked same, standing at five feet, eleven inches. With unnaturally long arms and legs. They wore a jester's uniform, that was a mixture of red, yellow, white, black, and blue. Whimsically macabre patterns were stitched into their vests, while their sleeves and pant legs had horizonal black and white stripes, the sleeves led to rounded puffy shoulder pads that black glitter sparkling all over them. The creatures had four fingers, black as night, and each finger was a sharp pointed claw. Their shoes were normal enough, black jester shoes with a white puff ball at the tips. Their faces, however, were more terrifying. They had jester caps, one side was black and had a white metal bell, while the opposite side was white with a black metal bell.
Their faces were covered by harlequin masks, divided into white and black, with sharp red eyes. But after a moment, it was revealed that the masks weren't masks, they were their faces. Evidenced by how the area where their mouths would be starting to form a horizontal line, and a moment later, the line split open and became their mouths. The creatures had an unnaturally wide smile, showing off their sharp teeth, and when they opened their mouths to laugh and guffaw, a red glow could be seen coming from inside their mouths.
These were the creatures of legend, the beings that the ancient kings of old had vanquished, the beings known as the Khaotic.
One of the Jester Khaotic looked right in the direction of a group of witches and demons. The monster chuckled menacingly before doing a slight-of-hand trick, and produced jagged obsidian dagger weapons, holding them between its fingers of each hand. With a swift throw, the Jester Khaotic released its daggers. The daggers sailed through the air and crossed the distance between the monsters and the Boiling Isles citizens. That's when Luz watched as eight people were skewered by the daggers, most of them hitting vital areas like the heart, throat, or head, and fell over dead as blood began to pool around them.
This seemed to serve as the attack signal as the rest of the Jester Khaotic began to attack. Many of them jumped into the air, their legs extending as if springs as they launched themselves and got in range of the flying witches, demons, and humans. Some of the Jester Khaotic threw out their arms, which also stretched out like their legs. Once they managed to grab hold of a target, their arms retracted, bringing that unfortunate soul towards the monster before the Jester Khaotic opened its mouth and used its sharp teeth to…
Luz turned away, she couldn't watch, but she could hear the squelching sounds, and the screams of pure agony and terror as the monsters began their ruthless slaughter of everyone within arm's reach. She had to get out of here, she had to find her mother and father, and get somewhere safe. As Luz readied to bolt out of this dangerous situation, she spotted a child. He wore the gray uniform of her school, putting them in the baby class. He was a demon with a large mouth for a face, and red in color. Luz remembered this child, he was the son of the Conformatorium's warden, and the same child who attended Amity's reading corner in the library.
BRAXXES!
One of the Jester Khaotic seemed to spot the child and smiled at him. Braxxes quivered in fear as he curled up on the ground and began crying for his father to save him. The Jester Khaotic seemed to relish his cries for his father, savoring his fear and desperation.
"No…No…NO!"
Luz, abandoning all reason, drew her magi-tech wand, and drew a spell circle. A yellow fireball sparked to life out in front of her, and within seconds she shot the fireball right at the Jester Khaotic. The Jester Khaotic was about to attack, but suddenly felt an explosive force against its back, causing it to stumble forward. The monster turned around to see who was stupid enough to fight back against it, but it was quickly assaulted by bramble vines that wrapped around its arms and legs. Luz drew a third spell circle and shattered the parts of the ground around her.
Like a conductor at a concert, Luz waved her wand around, and commanded the small chunks of earth to break apart and form sharpened shards of stone. With wave of her hand, and a flick of the wand, Luz launched the first wave of stone shrapnel. Putting as much strength as she could into launching them at high velocity. The stone shrapnel hit its mark, pelting, and imbedding themselves in the Jester Khaotic as it caused the monster to hiss in pain.
Luz furrowed her brow as she waved her wand again and fired another round. The monster was once again pelted but had had enough as it managed to rip the bramble vines apart and changed its target to her instead. The Jester Khaotic produced its obsidian daggers and tossed them with the same speed and force as its comrades. Luz hurriedly erected a stone slab shield, but also hit the deck. Thankfully, that decision paid off as the daggers of the Jester Khaotic managed to easily pierce through the stone slab like a hot knife through butter.
The Jester Khaotic screeched as it jumped into the air and landed atop the stone slap, peering down at its prey as Luz looked up in fear at the monster. The Jester Khaotic watched for a moment as Luz prepared to form a spell circle, but the monster thrust out its right arm, making a spear hand gesture as its entire hand and arm pierced straight through Luz's chest. The monster smiled with wicked glee as it delighted in taking the young girl's life, however, its glee was short lived as a few seconds after piercing through her, Luz's body disappeared in a puff of smoke. The Jester Khaotic looked confused for a moment, but that was the least of its worries. There was a strange symbol carved into the stone slab it was perched on, it almost resembled a flame.
Luz appeared next to Braxxes, having used an illusion spell to make a copy of herself, and a second to bend the light around her body to keep from being detected. Now it was time for her next move. With a wave of her wand, the strange flame symbols she had carved into the stone slab glowed bright orange, and in the next moment, the entire stone slab burst into roaring flames that engulfed the Jester Khaotic. For some reason, unlike when she hit it with her fireball earlier, these flames seemed to be hurting the monster. It fell off the stone slab and started to flail on the ground, shrieking in pure pain and agony.
"Braxxes, are you okay?" Luz asked.
"N-N-No! I-I want my d-d-daddy," said Braxxes in a disturbingly deep voice for a child his age.
"Shh, shh, don't worry. I'll take you to your dad. He might be at the Conformatorium, so we just have to–"
Luz stopped when she heard the footsteps of another Jester Khaotic approaching them. The young teen quickly turned around and made sure to keep Braxxes behind her, using her own body as a shield. The Jester Khaotic didn't smile, this one seemed to regard Luz differently. Maybe it didn't take too kindly to how she just burned one of its own to death? Whatever the case, it was definitely giving her a death glare. Luz was told not to use those symbols unless she absolutely had to, that it was something that needed to be kept secret. But were these not extenuating circumstances? If the symbols, the glyphs, had a chance of being more effective than her normal spells, then it was better to do so and let the secret get out instead.
With little in the way of options, Luz gripped her wand tightly, preparing to draw another spell circle. However, before she could do anything, a bladed weapon extended and passed over her head before slicing off the Jester Khaotic's head, making black essence spill out from the severed ends before the Jester Khaotic's body hit the ground. Luz and Braxxes glanced over their shoulders just in time to watch as several Coven Scouts and Conformatorium Guards came rushing down the street and started to attack the Jester Khaotic. Among the gathered Scouts and Guards was the warden of the Conformatorium, Wrath. He wore a white, short sleeved shirt, with a black hood that covered his head and shoulders, black pants, and brown boots. He also wore a bird mask, like the others of the Emperor's Coven. His skin was a lavender color, and the short sleeves allowed him to utilize is demon physiology to morph his hands and arms into bladed weapons or tentacles, which he used to kill the Jester Khaotic.
After retracting his arm, and changing it back to normal, Wrath rushed past the rest of the Scouts and Guards and immediately fell to his knees before Braxxes, scooping him up into arms as he hugged his son tight.
"Braxxes! It's okay, daddy's here," Wrath assured.
Braxxes cried happily into his father's shoulder, taking comfort in his embrace.
Wrath's gaze fell on Luz. It was no secret that the two had crossed paths on multiple occasions, most of which involved Eda the Owl Lady. Luz even helped Eda out by setting her free when she fell into one of Wrath's traps to try and force her mentor into a date. Although they were technically enemies, right now, none of that mattered. Today they were all citizens of the Boiling Isles, and their home was under attack, and this enemy didn't care if you were a witch, demon, human, old or young, it would kill you all the same.
"Thank you for protecting my son," said Wrath.
"No problem," said Luz with a smile.
"We're evacuating everyone to the Conformatorium. Aside from the castle, it's the next best heavily fortified structure in the area. Come with me, I'll take you and Braxxes there," said Wrath.
"Thanks, but I have to find my Mom and Dad first!"
"They're probably there already, and as a parent, I know they'd rather have you somewhere safe than out looking for them."
Luz understood his reasoning, she also knew that her father was more than likely going to be deployed as part of the Rescue Coven to help get people to safety. But her mother was probably at the clinic, and unfortunately, that red fissure was in the same direction as the clinic.
"…I'm sorry, Warden Wrath, but I have to at least find my Mom!" Luz exclaimed as she drew a spell circle and created a smoke cloud.
When the smoke cleared, Wrath saw that Luz had already run far into the distance, following the red fissure. He wanted to go and bring her back, but he had his own child to worry about.
"May God Titan and God Dragon watch over you, human, and my the Shugods help us all today…"
The entire town was in chaos, Luz could hear many explosions, and saw several Emperor's Coven airships flying in to attack the Jester Khaotic that were killing everyone in sight. Luz managed to dodge getting into another fight with a Jester Khaotic. Although her other type of magic seemed more effective against the monsters, she wasn't about to experiment and find out if it was going to work again. For all she knew, it could've been a fluke.
The Khaotic kept attacking, but Luz was getting closer to the Beast Clinic. Once there, Luz burst through the front door and cried out, "MAMÁ! MAMÁ WHERE ARE YOU?!"
That's when one of the walls was blasted open, revealing another of the Jester Khaotic. Luz immediately drew her wand again, unfortunately, she was going to have to use that magic that her mother taught her or else risk dying. The Jester Khaotic spotted her and didn't even hesitate to attack her, but before Luz could do anything, the Jester Khaotic was suddenly attacked by a large beast. The monster completely blindsided the Jester Khaotic, throwing it to the ground as the beast raised its razor-sharp claws and began tearing into the monster, painting the walls and floor with the creature's black blood.
Luz just remained where she was, frozen at how vicious the attack was, and worried if the beast was going to attack her next. Once the mauling was done, the demon beast turned its glowing yellow eyes onto Luz.
"Hey there, big guy…I'm not going to hurt you," said Luz.
"LUZ!"
"Wait…"
From the shadows, Luz saw a brown furred demon beast. It was female, with a long dark brown, spikey mane that ran down its back. It had five long black claws on both hands, sharp fangs, a short muzzle, and pointed ears. The demon beast seemed awfully familiar to her, and after a moment, she figured out why.
"MAMÁ?!" Luz exclaimed.
The demon beast's body glowed for a moment before it became shorter in stature and became human. The demon beast was in fact Camila Noceda, who had used her Beast Keeping magic to change her physical body into that of a fearsome man-beast to protect her daughter. The mother and child ran to each other, with Luz leaping into her mother's arms as Camila held her daughter tight against her.
"What are you doing here?!" Camila asked.
"I saw that the fissure came out this way, I wanted o make sure you were alright!"
"Oh, mija, you shouldn't have. You should've headed to safety!"
"I know, I know! I'm sorry, but I couldn't just stand by and do nothing," said Luz.
"Aye, just like your father. Okay, but now let's go before…"
There was some rustling of debris from behind them, and that's when Luz and Camila saw another pair of Jester Khaotic.
"Mamá, let me try something!"
Luz took out a piece of paper from her pocket, when she did, Luz used her wand to draw a spell circle in the air. The piece of paper in Luz's hand had a strange symbol in it. It was a glyph symbol, and it resembled a flickering flame, the exact same one that Luz used on the last Jester Khaotic. Luz crushed the glyph paper in her left hand as she concentrated, activating the glyph as it began to glow an orange red within her fist. The young teen thrusted her left hand forward, opening her hand as she willed the flame in her hand to bellow forth, but when the flame passed through the drawn spell circle, the flames intensified and grew bigger. The roaring flames caught the Jester Khaotic off guard as they were completely engulfed by them, carrying the monsters out of the building before they slammed into the wall of the adjacent one before exploding from the power of Luz's fire blast.
"God Titan…how did you know that would work?" Camila asked.
"I carved it into a stone slab I used for a shield, and when I set it off, the flames managed to burn them to ashes. It was more effective than my regular spells, which makes me think that our family glyphs can hurt them!" Luz exclaimed, excited at confirming her theory about the glyph magic.
Camila's brow furrowed, as if she was pondering something.
"Mija, when this is over, there's something I need to tell you about the glyphs. Something important, but for now, let's go. Now that we know the glyphs are effective against them, we should be able to make it to a shelter more easily," Camila stated.
Luz had always wondered why her mother told her to never use the glyphs unless it was an emergency, and only as a last resort. She had to admit, it was different from how witches, demons, and humans used magic in the Boiling Isles. Of course, she knew that Tír na nÓg had its own way of using magic as well, but from the little that her mother told her, the glyphs were something special. So special that they couldn't be shown to other witches or demons, not even other humans. The glyphs had been in her family for generations, again, according to her mother, but their origin had remained a deeply guarded secret. However, it seems this Khaotic attack has pushed her mother into revealing that secret earlier than she probably wanted to.
The mother and daughter duo ran out of the partially demolished clinic. Camila reached behind her back and took out a shaft. She flicked it once and automatically made it extend until it had transformed into a magi-tech witch's staff. The Beast Keeper mounted the staff and reached her hand out to her daughter. Luz quickly took that hand and held onto Camila from behind as they ascended and flew in the direction of the forest.
"Where are we going?!" Luz asked.
"We're going to the Owl House! It'll be the safest place with your Aunt Eda there!" Camila answered.
"Do you think Dad will go there too?"
"He's part of the Rescue Coven, mija. He'll more than likely…be out there helping everyone get to safety…or help people who are trapped under debris. For now, we'll just have to pray that the Emperor, the Covens, and the Coven Scouts can stop this invasion," said Luz.
"I don't get it, why did the Khaotic come back? And why haven't the other nations come to help us?!" Luz questioned.
"…I hate to think about it, but either they don't want to help us…or…"
Luz's eyes widened as she said, "Or they're getting attacked, too."
Both mother and daughter really didn't want to think about that. Honestly, the first scenario was better, but only by a small margin. Because if there were simultaneous attacks happening in the other three nations, then that meant that help wasn't coming for a long, long time. And there was also the risk that one of the other three might fall from their invasion.
"And the rulers can't even form King-Ohger from the legends! God Dragon is still asleep, but at least Scientia, Amphibia, and Tír na nÓg have their guardian Shugods to help them," said Luz.
"Just pray, Luz, pray that we can hold them off long enough to–!"
Suddenly, a powerful explosion went off in front of them, throwing both mother and daughter back towards the town. Luz, thinking quickly, drew a spell circle and summoned Abomination slime to appear. She didn't need it to form a golem, all she needed for it to do was transform into something that would soften their landing. Thankfully, Luz managed to do this, allowing both herself and her mother to land on the huge bed of slime. The Abomination slime exploded out in all directions, coating some of the buildings and ground.
Luz groaned, despite the slime cushioning their fall, the landing still hurt. The young teen groaned painfully as she rose to her feet, at the same time, Camila winced. Luz looked in her direction and watched as her mother started to limp.
"MOM!" Luz rushed to her mother and cried out, "I'm sorry! I should've made the Abomination slime thicker!"
"It's alright, Luz. It was either this or broken necks," said Camila as she patted her child's shoulder. "You…You…Oh no…"
Luz felt a chill run down her spine, noticing that her mother's gaze was fixated on something behind her. Five Jester Khaotic started heading towards them, all of them wielding obsidian daggers, and ready to use them. Luz narrowed her gaze as she drew her wand and took out one of her glyph papers, this one had the image of triangle, with a vertical line running through it, and at the top of the line was a circle and another triangle at the top of the circle. The design almost resembled a bird. Wasting little time, Luz drew another circle, and crushed the paper in her hand. Light began to shine within her closed fist until Luz thrusted that same hand through the circle, opened her palm, and released a beam of pure light straight for the five Jester Khaotic.
Three of the five had the good sense to dodge the incoming attack, but the remaining two were not so lucky. The photonic beam engulfed them, making the two Jester Khaotic screech in pain before their bodies were reduced to ash. The three remaining Jester Khaotic began leaping between the roofs in a zigzagging pattern, making it hard for Luz to even aim at them. One of the Jester Khaotic threw its dagger at Luz.
Luz managed to see the dagger coming, and moved to avoid it, but not completely. The blade of the dagger managed to slice Luz over her left eyebrow, making the young teen release a sharp hiss of pain as the dagger lodged itself in the ground in front of her. Blood started to flow from the cut, which was now getting into her left eye and obscuring her vision.
"I…I can't see!" Luz exclaimed as she tried to grab another glyph paper.
The Jester Khaotic took this opportunity to attack as one of them leaped off the roof and was about to pounce on Luz. However, Camila, gritting her teeth in pain, got in front of her child. She clapped her hands together, and upon doing so, the sleeves of her shirt started to rip apart. Camila thrusted both of her hands forward, slamming both palms into the monster's chest as she braced herself against the impact. Her broken right leg cried out in painful protest of this action, but Camila fought against the outcry of pain as both of her arms started to glow.
With Luz's unobscured eye, she managed to see her mother's arms glow with the same glyphs she was using, which also included one that looked like a growing plant, and another that resembled ice. The moment her mother made contact with the Jester Khaotic, its back exploded with dozens of ice blades. The ice blades were stained with black blood, and the Jester Khaotic that they had come out of only made a short gasp before it fell to the side, dead. The second Jester Khaotic came at them from the left, but Camila quickly dropped to the ground and pressed her right palm against the street. The ground started to rumble, and for a moment Luz thought that the earthquakes were starting again. But that thought was quickly dismissed as a several thorny, bramble vines shot out of the ground and immediately ensnared the monster before they began to construct. In the next couple of seconds, the Jester Khaotic was crushed and skewered by the vines.
Camila heard movement from her right, and that's when she saw the last of the five-man Jester Khaotic team throw daggers straight at them. Before the daggers could hit, a stone slab rose and acted as a shield to block all eight daggers. Camila didn't wait as she pressed her hands against the stone slab, making the glyph markings on both arms glow before she broke the stone slab, and transformed it into dozens of stone arrows. The arrows shot straight towards the monster, passing through fire glyph circles that appeared in front of them, catching the arrows on fire. The last Jester Khaotic had no room to dodge as it was pelted with fiery arrows before falling over the roof and exploding behind it.
Camila began panting, as the glyph tattoos on her arms started to fade back to an invisible state. Luz was surprised, to say the least. She never knew her mother had the glyphs tattooed onto her arms, or maybe it was something she summoned?
"Mom…how did you do that?" Luz asked.
"It's a special tattoo ink, it only becomes visible when using specific magic. In this case, when using the glyphs. It allows me to better cast magic with them by using myself as the conduit," Camila explained.
"Whoa…cool! So, does this mean you're going to tat my arms up when I get older?" Luz questioned.
"Heh, mija, you – ahh!" Camila dropped to both her knees, the adrenaline having worn off, allowing her to feel the pain radiating from her broken leg.
"¡Mamá!" Luz shouted. "Hold on, I-I think I know a healing spell that can at least stop the pain for a bit!"
"It's okay." Camila looked upon the face her daughter, her eye, and part of the left side of her face was streaked with blood thanks to the cut over her eyebrow. "Close this wound first so you can see. Then, help me find my staff so we can get to the Owl House."
"Sure, okay! I'll…I'll…What the heck is that?"
Reluctantly, Camila looked in the direction Luz was, and that's when she spotted a figure floating in the sky. She couldn't make them out but noticed that there was a glowing orb in their right hand. The being floating in the air appeared to have a bored body language as it nonchalantly tossed the orb of energy in a random direction. Unfortunately, it was their direction.
Camila just watched as the orb began to grow and was about to hit the ground. She looked around, but couldn't find her staff, and Luz didn't have a staff yet. There was no one around, and if there was, they were probably running away right about now. Camila made her choice.
Without warning, Camila pushed Luz onto the ground. She immediately dropped to the ground as well, raised her hands, and then slammed her open palms against the street. Several small circles appeared underneath Luz. They were each one or more of the four glyphs of fire, plant, light, and ice. The glyphs released energy that became tethering lines, connecting one to the other. The glyphs continued to form, and then a barrier dome formed around Luz, made up of multiple connecting glyph symbols.
"MOM! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!"
"Protecting you. Luz, remember this, remember our family's magic. And no matter what, keep being you. Keep being the bright girl you are," said Camila.
"MOOOOM!"
The orb of light erupted at that moment, rapidly expanding as it exploded. A blinding light made Luz shut her eyes as the blast struck their location. The barrier that her mother erected seemed to shutter under the power of the blast, with the ground rumbling all around her. As the blast began to die down, the barrier shattered.