All characters from Disney and other properties are owned by their respectful owners. The OCs made here are written entirely for the story. Enjoy this fic.

And Happy Holidays

Chapter 127: The Roots of Evil

At the Looking Glass Ruins, Terra was with the Guardian of the Ruins, who was defeated by her hand. She began to look around.

"Oh how much I've yearned for this," she said as she walked around the Ruins. She turned to the Guardian. "You must be wondering why am I doing this? What could I gain by betraying Belos? Let me tell you…"

She cleared her throat as she began. "When I joined Belos, I initially thought that I would benefit from serving someone so powerful while also being able to hide the Tarot Guild's activities and, sooner or later, potentially find Belos's weakness if he ever became a threat to me. But soon I became disillusioned with him, so I sought even more to learn his secrets and find out what kind of witch he is… and that's when I learned of the Inner Demon."

"Hmmhmmhmm(The Inner Demon)?" the Ruins Guardian asked, looking alarmed.

"Why yes! That Inner Demon!" Terra declared, grinning at the thought. "Belos used to be obsessed with the Forest of Fear back in the day, trying to destroy it several times, but ultimately failing. I thought there was more to it and I eventually learned that the Forest was haunted by an entity called the Inner Demon, an entity that I decided to pay a visit to. Apparently, he had been a thorn in Belos's side for quite a while. That made him interesting to me and I was of interest to him because of my depravity." She tapped her finger to her chin as she continued. "He told me all about our dear old Emperor, about how that devil was Belos's greatest failure and how Belos himself was the biggest con artist to grace the Isles. Apparently, he was some human witch named Philip Clawthorne who is responsible for bringing the Inner Demon to the Isles in the first place. I know, shocker isn't it?" She smiled when she saw the Guardian's reaction to that. "Now… you're probably wondering why I couldn't have just revealed this to the rest of the Isles… but honey, a secret like that is far more valuable when fewer know it. And Belos couldn't know that I knew who he was, that would paint a target on my back."

She went to look up at the statues before touching the Galdorstones. "So keeping my mouth shut and making myself irreplaceable, I continued serving under Belos while secretly running the Tarot Guild and working with the Inner Demon under his nose. We've made a pact together and created a plan. A plan that required secrecy." As she pointed this out, a vine handed her a book and she looked through the pages. "Part of the plan was to keep feeding victims to the Inner Demon, so that he could grow stronger. So I found the perfect method for providing the Inner Demon with children that he could feed on." She turned to the Guardian and raised her finger up. "Glandus!"

"I had the Tarot Guild strike an arrangement with Glandus, turning it both into a means to recruit new witches and a farm for misery and despair. Enough for the Inner Demon could gorge on! I even secretly arranged for some former scouts and Emperor's Coven members like Grease to be employed as Glandus's teachers. With my help, the Inner Demon became stronger and the mists of the Forest of Fear began to expand. He even grew powerful enough to turn that Oscorne kid into the Grim Goblin, using him to create even more misery and despair in the Isles."

The Guardian's eyes widened in shock as Terra made a sadistic crackle. "I also learned the full details about the Day of Unity, and how Belos planned to drain me of my magic." She stopped laughing, suddenly giving a stone-cold look. "I did not appreciate the false advertisement, it did not sit well with me at all. But I had to play along, at least long enough for me to carry out a plan of my own. I had my Tarot Guild prepare underground bunkers stocked with supplies and I even made a deal with the Alchemist so that I could use the Yokai Realm if I needed to. So before the Day of Unity, I and the Inner Demon are going to have the mists and darkness spread to all of the Isles! Allowing the Demon to consume Belos, his loyalists, and all those I deemed weak! Survival to the fittest, that's my decree!"

She looked excited when saying that. "My followers would wait out this judgment day in their bunkers and when the mists eventually receded, they would claim the Isles and usher in a new era! And with my role in sacrificing the Isles to the Inner Demon, I will become just like him! Forever young." But then she frowned again with slight annoyance. "However, thanks to a certain green vixen, the Tarot Guild is no more. Wiped out by the one I had high hopes for!" She grumbled under her breath. "So I had to make some alterations to my plans. But even without my Guild, I will rule the Isles. Sure, it'll be lonely, but it'll be my realm for the taking." Her vines sprouted to grab a Galdorstone, handing it to her. "And I shall use these Galdorstones to complete my plan in giving myself a power boost!

She looked at the blue orb in front of her while grinning. "It's a good thing that I knew how to find this place, thanks to a certain Glandus student that I had Sonya to torture the information out of!" She turned to the Guardian again, patting his cheek. "And you'll get a front row seat to bear witness to the start of the end of the age of Belos! Now… enjoy the show…"

She went to the center of the Ruins and placed her book down. She held the Galdorstone and looked into the orb as she started… to sing.

"When a woman acquires a certain age. And the men who adored you no longer swoon," Terra began. "It pays to avoid the sunlit days, and live by the light of the kindly moon…"

"But the moon grows old, just like us all, and her beautiful years are done." She grew a flower from her hand and saw it wither away. "So now she prays through the endless days, to take revenge… on the sun."

Music started to beat as she swayed her shoulders and bounced her body. The Guardian watched this while noticing his feet turning to wood, making him panic. The mists were already spreading.

"When I was a girl at my Demon's side, the dreaded Inner Demon, revealed to me the secret signs, the mark of an evil woman," Terra sang while looking at the Guardian, grinning at his fate. "That demon was no dummy, did terrible things that were scummy, and often the stiffs that he would drive, would look better dead than they did alive!"

The Guardian screamed through his gag as he was transformed into wood, leaving a horrid expression frozen on his face.

"I studied well, I learnt the trade, I thought my looks would never fade, if I could find that recipe, to give eternal youth in me!" she sang as a cauldron in front of her started to spread out a fog, "It was always my ambition, to use the Demon's tuition, and gain some small remission from the vagaries of time!"

"But every little ray of sunshine robs me of my youth, who to blame? Who the one? Who to curse? You know the only one to blame, would be my enemy of the sun!"

As she danced, coming out from the fog were spirits, spirits that gathered around Terra as she brought out maracas. The spirits started to sing along with her in a chorus.

"Snuff out the light! Claim your right! To the world of darkness!" Terra and the spirits sang. "Snuff out the light! Neophytes! Of a world of darkness!"

She danced with the spirits, the spirits of the Inner Demon's victims, while looking at herself in the Ruin's mirrors. "Inner Demon, turn me on, every wrinkle soon be gone!" she sang while feeling up her wrinkled face. "I could squeeze myself with glee, the promises you made for me!" she declared to the Inner Demon while green mist spread out.

"I've really stopped at nothing, murder, treachery and lying, whatever it takes to keep my looks, you really can't blame a girl for trying, Ha!"

"Snuff~ out the light! Claim your right! To a world of darkness!" the spirits sang at the statue as the mists spread throughout the forest and Terra sliced apart some of the memorial statues in the Ruins. "Snuff out the light, neophytes, of a world of darkness!"

As she grew more powerful, plants grew around her. The carnivorous ones started to swing in tune as they used various things as instruments, playing the samba-like music as Terra performed her ritual. The ghosts and plants with eyes followed their mistress as they gathered around her in a circle.

"Snuff~ out the light! Claim your right! To a world of darkness!" they all sang as Terra watched the mists rise up into the sky. "Snuff~ out the light, here tonight~"

"Apparitions of eternal darkness, spiraling in circles through the night! Creatures of beguiling blackness, no more squinting in the light!" Terra and the chorus of ghosts sang as the waves of the mists and illusions spread around as the spell was cast "Bats and owls and coiled sea dragons, crocodiles and carrion beasts! Swirling in the growling darkness, join us in the coming feast!"

"Spectre wraith and apparition, spirit demon phantom shade! Salamander serpents, dog-faced devils, dance and watch the dying sunlight fade!"

After the performance, the dark clouds began to block out the sun…

At the Park home, Amity and Boscha stood outside.

"Luz said to meet up here," Amity said as they walked to the entrance. She looked back at Boscha with concern. "Are you sure you're alright doing this, Boscha?"

"Y-Yeah, I am," Boscha responded, her eyes red from crying. She had her hair down and still looked very upset.

Amity knocked on the door. Opening it was Willow, who looked relieved to see them. "Amity," she said as she looked at Boscha. "Boscha…" She rushed over to give Boscha a hug.

"I… I'm trying to keep it together," Boscha replied, hugging Willow back while Luz walked up to them. Amity went to hug Luz.

"Luz! Are you alright?" Amity asked with worry. "When we heard about you being at the Plant Coven…"

"Don't worry, I'm… fine as I can be," Luz responded. After hugging Amity, she turned to Boscha. "Boscha…. I'm so sorry…" She looked down and closed her eyes, but Boscha went to hug Luz, much to the Clawthorne girl's surprise.

"I'm not angry at you, Luz," Boscha promised her. "Belos is the one to blame."

Luz hugged Boscha back as Eda and the Parks came over along with Gus and Perry, the latter being supported by the Parks. "Hey Boscha, how are your folks holding up?" Eda asked.

"They're dealing with it in their own ways," Boscha responded while looking down. "When Luz contacted Amity, I decided to tag along. It sounded urgent, so I wanted to be here."

"Well, we're glad that you're here, Boscha," Gus responded as Boscha turned to him and Perry.

"Mr. Porter, you're really back," she said in shock Amity turned to him.

"We're so glad that you're safe, Mr. Porter," Amity told him respectfully.

"Thank you, girls," Perry responded with a smile. "I'm just glad to be back."

Amity and Boscha were led into the living room, where Amity noticed that her mom and Lilith were also there, along with Hunter and Kitsuni. "Mom? Lilith? You guys are here too-" She then spotted, much to her shock, Kadabe and Dolly, both looking nervous when they saw Boscha. "Wait… Dolly and Kadabe?!" she reacted as Boscha turned to notice the two as well. "Holy… what are you two doing here?!"

"Yeah, that's what I like to know too…" Boscha grumbled, looking not too fondly of the two.

"Oh geez…" Dolly said nervously, hiding behind Kadabe.

"Boscha! Oh, wow… um, didn't expect to see you here," Kadabe admitted. "You're not still mad about what happened at Glandus…?"

"What do you think?" Boscha asked as she narrowed her eyes on her.

"Alright, she's still mad," Kadabe said while stepping back.

"So why are they here?" Boscha asked, not taking her eyes off them.

"They'll explain it soon, we are just waiting for someone else to show up," Hunter replied while walking over to her. "Boscha… about your brother…"

Boscha sighed. "You don't have to apologize, Hunter. I'm not blaming for their-"

"I don't believe that he's really dead," he revealed, making Boscha pause.

"W-what do you mean?" she asked.

"I mean, I checked on him earlier this week and he was alive," Hunter confirmed. "I think that Terra may have been telling the truth about killing some of the rebels, especially since I don't remember seeing Witch Rick in the Conformatorium…" He shot a quick apologetic look at Luz. "I am really sorry for not looking into that, Luz." He then turned back to Boscha. "But if he really was killing rebels, why would he wait until just now to kill Boris? It doesn't make any sense, plus Terra is hardly the most reliable source of information."

"That could mean…" Amity realized, her eyes wide.

"That the Thians are still alive?" Hunter asked, nodding. "They were last I checked." He looked down. "I am not trying to defend Belos, but I-"

Boscha suddenly hugged him, much to his surprise. "Thank you," she whispered, shedding a few tears. "I hope you're right…"

"Me too," Hunter whispered.

"Well, he wasn't one of the Heartless that we had to fight outside of the Conformatorium," Luz admitted while walking over with something in her hand. "But… your mom was there."

Boscha scowled slightly. "Don't call that witch my-" she started to say as she turned toward Luz, only to pause when she saw what was in her hands: pieces of a shattered mask. "What… what happened?"

"She fought me and my mom," Luz explained. "I shattered her mask and she seemed to turn into one of those creatures we were fighting. Heartless, they were called. Actually, I don't know exactly what happened to her, but what I saw after I broke that mask… it wasn't Nicole. It didn't even seem to recognize me anymore."

Boscha was still looking at the pieces of shattered mask. She sighed. "Well, I can't be angry at you for this either, Luz. Whatever happened to Nicole, that witch brought it on herself."

There was then a knock on the door and Gilbert went to answer it, looking surprised when he saw who it was. "Alador?"

Amity immediately turned her head toward the door. "Dad?" he asked, spotting him with Snope.

"Hey, Gibert," Albert responded. "Snope was paying me a visit when he got a call from Luz and I decided to come along, see what was going on and if I could help."

"Luz said that it was very important for us to meet up," Snope said as he and Alador came inside. He spotted Amity and smiled. "Amity, glad to see you're doing well."

"Hey, Professor Snope," Amity responded, still surprised to see him and Alador here. She was now really curious to hear what this was all about.

"Alador…" Odalia and Lilith said as Alador noticed the two as well.

"Odalia… Lilith," he replied, his tone awkward. The three had trouble looking each other in the eye, the atmosphere filled with awkward tension. After all, this was the first time the three of them had been in a room together since… well, since the trial.

"Wait, did you call everyone here?" Amity asked Luz.

"Unfortunately, not everyone's here… a lot of our friends can't leave their families and we don't have time to wait for all of them," Luz said while going over to the window. "Just look."

Amity went to the window and saw that dark clouds were forming in the sky, slowly blocking out the sunlight. "That… doesn't look good," she admitted.

At the Healing Coven, the Brookes family were still in Calypso's room. There, Nina felt her fur rising up as she lifted her head, feeling a chill. This was noticed by Skara while she, Slasher, and Scabrina were still by Calypso's bed.

"What's wrong, Nina?" Skara asked her.

"I… I felt something in the atmosphere," Nina responded while looking out the door, seeing through the window in the hall at the dark clouds in the sky. "We werecats can sometimes sense when the weather is changing… but this is no storm."

"No storm?" Slasher asked her while looking out at the clouds. He frowned. "I don't like the looks of it."

"It's the end of the world, is it?" Scabrina asked them, looking scared.

Meanwhile, LOWTH were still in Bonesborough, helping out the civilians who had been caught in the battle. Drillborg grabbed Morton as the rubble he was trapped under were lifted by Minos and Florella.

"Thanks," Morton told them.

"If you're injured anywhere, go to Mr. Healer for check up," Florella told him while Morton headed over to Mr. Healer, who along with Wonder Witch were healing the injured.

Beocrow brought over another injured witch while looking up in the sky. "Um… is it going to rain today?" he asked.

Potion Ranger checked her helmet. "No… this isn't just your usual weather."

Donna looked up in the sky, growing concerned about what was about to happen…

At Geist's bar, Emira had chosen to stay at home with Edric and Geist while they, along with Acorn and Ghost, saw the dark clouds from the window.

"What's going on out here?" Edric asked.

"I don't know, but I don't think we should go outside," Geist responded.

Emira frowned and looked down, growing increasingly concerned while thinking about Amity being out there. "I need to call Viney…"

At the Potts home, Viney had gotten a call from Emira.

"Yeah, I'm seeing this too, Em," Viney replied while looking outside from her window. "Yeah, I'm with my folks right now. We're staying inside, don't worry," she responded over the crow while turning to look at her mom and Atkin, who were both watching the crystal ball in the hopes for an explanation.

At the Jeepers residence, Jerbo and his family watched the dark sky.

"Is it the end of the world?" Porco asked.

"We're gonna die, are we?" Roden asked while looking terrified.

"No, no one's going to die," Jerbo replied. "This may look bad, but hopefully it'll settle down… right?"

"Alright, everyone in the cellar," spoke their mother as she and her husband grabbed as much of their stock as they could. "If this is the end of the world, we're gonna survive like how the previous Jeepers family lived."

"Luckily we had our own crawlspace installed," Jerbo's father responded as the family got prepared.

The Barkowskis looked through their windows as they saw the dark clouds in the sky. Barcus gave a concerned look and let out a scared whimper. There was something in the air that just felt… off.

"This is Mewstic, recording what may be my last podcast," Mewstic said while recording for her podcasts.

"Really? At a time like this?" Mrs. Barkowsi asked her daughter.

At the Smith residence, the house had become automatically secured when it sensed the things happening outside. Summer used her crystal ball to look outside and see the dark clouds.

"Man, it's a good thing Witch Rick had set up a stockpile of food for us to survive on," Morty commented.

"How's mom?" Summer asked him while focusing on the crystal ball.

"She's with dad, still dealing with the news about what happened to Rick…" Morty responded while looking down. "Honestly, I thought that if Rick ever died, he would have some kind of backup plan. That does sound like something he would do, right Summer?"

"Yeah, it does," Summer admitted, while frowning. Her crystal ball then flickered, causing her to frown and hit it. "Come on, come on. Ugh, I have been getting all kinds of interference on my crystal ball lately…"

At the Harwitch residence, Dog and Cat looked out the window at the dark clouds.

"This does not look good at all…" Dog said while looking terrified.

"And mom and dad are still at the Healing Coven," Cat added while looking worried.

"Is it night time already?" Moose asked as he walked up and saw the dark clouds. "Huh, guess it's time for bed then."

At the Regals, Amelia was looking fearfully up at the dark clouds.

"Mom, dad," Amelia said as she ran down the stairs and found her parents. "Are you seeing what's happening outside?!"

"We did," Harlan responded grimly. "First there was what happened at the Plant Coven, thank Titan I wasn't there when Terra went crazy. Then there was the breakout at the Conformatorium and now this…"

"I'm no oracle, but this isn't a good sign," Mary said as Amelia joined her parents while looking worried.

At Scooter Crane's orphanage, Ban, Jak, Socrates, and Beans had all gathered around the window with worried looks.

"Those dark clouds don't look friendly…" Ban said with a worried look.

"I knew it, it's the end times!" Beans cried out.

"But I haven't been adopted yet!" Socrates cried out.

"Well, guess I'll die an orphan then," Jak said in a defeated tone while looking up to Ban. "Nice knowing ya, Bandigo."

Ban tried to ease the tension. "Look, I'm sure that it's just that we're… having some bad weather."

"Nope, I just called one of my card buddies, it's the end times," Ms. Hicky said, much to Ban's annoyance.

At Hexside, Principal Bump and Julia Traveler stepped outside to look at the dark clouds as they blocked out the sun.

"What… what is this?" Bump asked in shock.

Julia gave a grim expression. "A bad omen…"

At the Owl House, King and Hooty had the house secured with traps they had set. Inside, King, Maurice, and Hooty were playing cards when they noticed the dark clouds outside.

"Those clouds don't look friendly…" King said. "Should I go check on Kay?"

"It's the end of times!" Hooty exclaimed in a panic.

At the old Clawthorne home, Dell, Gwen, and Blazer looked outside and saw the dark clouds.

"Is that… supposed to be normal?" Blazer asked, looking alarmed by the dark clouds.

"No… not it isn't," Gwen responded with a worried expression.

"Dear Titan…" Dell said.

Gavin had made it home and was now in his room… where he was burning all the letters he had written to his dad. One by one, he used a fire spell to burn the paper before throwing the ashes in the trash. He glared at each of them as he burned them before he noticed something outside his window.

"What the…?" he asked as he looked out, noticing the dark clouds forming overhead.

Outside the Shystream residence, Cross and Lindsay had made it back with Lindsay who had changed from her hero outfit to her civies.

"Lindsay!" Bloom and Colt shouted as they hugged their daughter. "We're so glad you're okay!"

"Mom… dad…" Lindsay teared up as she embraced her parents.

Aunt Dorothy turned to Emily and went to hug her. "Thank Titan that you're alright too, Emily. And thank you both for retrieving our Lindsay."

"It was the least I can do, Aunt Dorothy," Emily responded as Aunt Dorothy also embraced Cross.

"How are Hendrick and Uncle George?" Cross asked.

"Yeah, are they alright?" Emily asked as Jackie and Tracy stepped outside.

"They're fine," Jackie responded. "Some healing patches and bone mending spells should do the trick."

"We were so worried for you, Emily," Jojo said as he hugged Emily. "We thought you wouldn't come back…"

Emily looked down at Lindsay's little brother and patted his head. "I'm sorry for making you all worry. I just had to return in order to protect you guys."

"We understand, Emily," Colt replied, nodding. "We're just glad that you're okay."

This made Emily smile before Tracy spoke up. "Um, not to ruin the moment, but are you guys seeing that?"

Everyone looked up and saw what Tracy was referring to as the dark clouds formed in the sky over their heads.

The escaped rebels, along with Webstor and Ludo, followed Judd through the woods outside of Bonesborough.

"Ugh, can we agree never to speak about that again?" Amber asked the others.

"Come on, we gotta hurry, scouts will be combing the area soon," Judd said before he noticed the dark clouds up in the sky. "What the…?"

They all came to a stop and looked up at the dark clouds, each of them feeling a sense of dread…

Leonte, along with most of the BIG members, scouted through another part of the forest as they looked for Terra Snapdragon.

"Keep searching, team," Leonte told them as they looked around.

"If I were a psychotic plant lady, where would I be?" Alburno asked.

"A graveyard?" Joana suggested.

"Hey, are we expecting weather today?" Thunder asked while pointing up at the sky.

Barbara looked up along with the rest of BIG and they saw the dark clouds. "I got a bad feeling about this…"

Meanwhile, a figure was stumbling through the wilds of the Titan. He looked rather unkempt and unwell, with dirty clothes, an unshaven face, and eyes that looked more than a little crazy. The figure looked up at the dark sky and grimaced.

"Dark clouds… it's the end times!" Jacob Hopkins proclaimed.

At the Emperor's Castle, the SSE had returned with Scameron. As they walked on the bridge over the moat, they noticed the dark clouds up in the sky.

"Like, that does not look good," Korn said with a shiver.

"Yeah, this is looking alarming," Blondie replied.

"What do you make of this, Eve?" Linkin asked as Eve gave a determined look.

"I think… we should continue solving the case," Eve said, much to the gang's surprise.

"Really, Eve?" Sioux replied.

"Whatever that is about, I doubt that there is anything we can do about it," Eve said as she turned around, marching into the castle. "And it is no excuse to leave this mystery unsolved. Come on, gang, let's do what we do best," she declared.

"Wow, your leader sure is determined," Scameron commented.

"That she is," Sioux replied with a smile as they followed Eve.

Up on the balcony of the castle, Belos was looking at the dark clouds in the distance. He gave a narrow look at the sky while tightly gripping his staff.

"Snapdragon," he muttered with venom in his tone.

"I have no idea what is going on right now," Felicia said on her channel. "But I have heard that everyone should continue to stay indoors until these dark clouds pass." Her tone was solemn. "I would recommend that as well. Stay indoors, stay with your family, and pray to the Titan. I… I will try to keep streaming for as long as I can, to keep you all updated as the situation develops."

Back at the Park home, everyone was listening to Felicia. Luz sighed and turned to Kadabe and Dolly.

"Okay, you two can start explaining yourselves," Luz told them.

"Of course," Dolly nodded as she looked around nervously. She cleared her throat and began. "My name is Dollarama Tempus, but most call me Dolly. Most of you may know me and, well, are not fond of me. But there is something most of you don't know." She looked nervous about what she was about to say, but she knew she had to say it. "I used to work for the Inner Demon."

Everyone but Luz and Amity, who already knew, looked shocked and appalled by this reveal. "WHAT?!" Boscha, Gus and Willow shouted after hearing this. Even the adults looked taken aback.

"You worked for the Inner Demon?!" Willow exclaimed.

"Why in the Titan's crack would you work with that monster?!" Boscha demanded to know.

"Well… he offered to tell me how to be… young forever," Dolly said while the others looked at her in disgust.

"Being young forever? No wonder you act like a creepy child all the time at Hexside," Boscha said with a huff.

"I didn't want to grow old! I couldn't handle my teenage years," Dolly tried to explain.

"That is not an excuse for all the crap you've pulled," Gus told her.

"He's right, dear," Odalia told her, making Dolly wince. "Your actions ended up hurting a lot of witches."

"I know… and I even gave my parents to him," Dolly admitted in shame, shocking and disgusting the others even more.

"That is awful," Luz said, looking absolutely appalled. "Sacrificing your own parents to the Inner Demon? What is wrong with you?!"

Everyone continued to voice their disgust and anger toward Dolly, who was being absolutely battered verbally, until Odalia told them all to be quiet.

"Look," she said while looking around. "I know that what Ms. Tempus has done is unforgivable, but we should still hear her out," she pointed out. "We don't have to like her, and I certainly don't, but despite our own personal feelings on her, the information she has on the Inner Demon is important." Once everyone was silent, she turned back to Dolly. "Continue, dear."

"R-right," Dolly responded nervously. "As I was saying, after a while the Inner Demon betrayed me and I was stuck as a doll until Amity turned me back into a witch."

"Wait, Amity did what?!" Alador asked in shock while turning to his daughter, who chuckled nervously.

"Long story," she said.

Dolly continued. "Anyway, despite the betrayal, I'm still connected to him and I occasionally can get a vibe from him. Right now, I can tell that he's planning something and is about to do something really, really bad. And not just that, I managed to get the impression that someone else is working with him."

"Working with him?" Eda asked. "So he has someone to do the dirty work for him…"

"And this is where I come in!" Kadabe replied. "Greetings, I am Kadabe, and I knew about the Inner Demon because of my time at Glandus. He's quite the infamous fellow. I wanted to stop him, which is why I saved Dolly back when she was turned into a doll." She pointed to Dolly. "I initially thought that she could be useful due to her connection to him, but unfortunately I eventually came to the conclusion that the Inner Demon couldn't be defeated. So I chose to leave the Isles with Dolly rather than fight a losing battle… that is, until I received a vision."

"A vision?" Willow asked.

"Yes, though my powers work a bit differently than other oracles," Kadabe explained. "I am something of a seer and I have been ever since my parents died while we were on a family trip to the Knee. They were killed in an avalanche, Titan rest their souls. After they passed, I began to vividly experience visions. They happen at random and I can't always control them, but whenever they do happen they're always important, telling me what I need to do. Like they told me to find Dolly, betray Glandus and save you, Willow," she said, pointing to Willow. "And my latest one told me to not leave the Isles."

"What else did it tell you?" Alador asked.

"They showed me a way to defeat the Inner Demon and that I would need the help from the witches in this very room," Kadabe explained. "You witches are the key to finding who the Inner Demon is working with, so that we can stop his plans both in the mindscape and in this world."

"Well that's actually quite the coincidence," Snope admitted. "Because me and Luz were already planning on stopping him in the mindscape tonight."

"Yeah, I got the equipment to use against him," Luz said. "But if he has an accomplice, then we should stop them as well."

"Of course… which is where Mr. Augustus Porter comes in!" Kadabe shouted, pointing to Gus.

"Me?" Gus asked her.

"Yes! You!" Kadabe declared. "You have a gift, a spell that you used on Emily during the war."

"Spell?" Boscha asked, turning to look at Gus.

"Oh, I have this re-memory spell," Gus explained. "Whenever I'm in a stressful situation, I end up subconsciously casting an illusion of my memories. When Emily grabbed me, I ended up seeing her memories."

"Yes, and if you use your abilities on Dolly, you could use her connection to the Inner Demon," Kadabe explained. "You could look into the Inner Demon's memories through her, find out what he is planning or who his accomplice is."

"Huh, I had no idea that your son had telepathy, Perry," Alador commented.

"I didn't either," Perry admitted while looking at his son.

"I mean… I've never done this on purpose," Gus admitted while rubbing his arm. "I could try… but there is a risk. I could cause Dolly to relieve some of her past trauma if I looked into her memories, just like what happened to Emily." He turned to Dolly. "Despite what you've done in the past, I don't wish for you to relieve your own trauma."

Dolly thought about it before she gave him a nod. "I don't mind. If it means saving the Isles from that monster, then so be it."

"I don't know about this," Perry said in concern. "Gus, I don't want you to relieve the memories of the Inner Demon. Who knows how it could affect you."

"He's right," Lilith responded. "You don't have to do this, Gus."

"There has to be another way, like any other oracle spells?" Eda asked as the others grew concerned.

"Guys," Gus spoke up, tightening his fists. "I'll do it." He sighed. "We don't have time to explore other options. This might not even work, just… please let me try."

"Are you sure, Gus?" Willow asked.

"Yeah, I think you've been through enough," Luz pointed out.

"Which is exactly why I can handle this," Gus said as he walked over to Dolly and offered his hand. "Are you ready?"

Dolly gulped, grabbing his hand. "O-Of course."

Gus shut his eyes, slowing down his breathing as he tried to activate his spell. Though he had never done this intentionally before, he dug deep into himself, knowing how much was depending on him right now. Then he opened his eyes… and they were flashing blue.

"You're not getting any younger, you know-"

"If the Yellow Fever doesn't get ya, I don't know what will!"

"I am Philip, and I would like to offer you a little trip to another world…"

"The Boiling Isles as they call it. What do ya think-?"

"You! What do you think you're doing to those children?!"

Gus looked into the Inner Demon's past, seeing bits and pieces of it.

"Hahahaha! I am a god!"

"Hello, young one… come to the forest…"

"Oh, worried about your parents finding out? I know a good place."

"Those werewolves will be coming for you!"

"Admit it, things would be better off if you weren't born!"

Gus was sweating, experiencing the Inner Demon's centuries worth of memories… until he came to the recent ones.

"Who are you?"

"The Inner Demon… and I've noticed your depravity…"

"Glandus? Oh now that's a good buffet."

"This place would be perfect to enact our endgame… Terra."

Gus's eyes widened as he let out a loud gasp. He let go of Dolly while Hunter and Luz rushed over to prevent him from falling.

"GUS!" they exclaimed, grabbing him. Kadabe went to catch Dolly after she fell as well.

"Dolly, you alright?" Kadabe asked while comforting Dolly.

"Just… all that evil," Dolly said as she gulped. She started crying. "So many children…" She looked up to Snope, who noticed her giving a sadden look.

"Gus, are you alright?" Perry asked him, seeing his son looking overwhelmed.

"I… I'm fine, just…" Gus responded, his eyes were still glowing blue. Tears streamed from his eyes. "All of that evil and depravity he did for centuries," he mentioned as he wiped his tears. "But… I found out who he's working with…"

"Who?" Hunter asked while worried for Gus.

"Terra Snapdragon," Gus declared, much to everyone's surprise. "And I know where she is… the Looking Glass Ruins."

Everyone reacted to this, all looking shocked that Terra was in league with the Inner Demon. Well, some of them were more shocked then others.

"Of fucking course," Luz muttered.

"Terra… it's always Terra!" Vina exclaimed. "Does her evil know no bounds!?"

"So it appears that Terra Snapdragon is not only in charge of the Tarot Guild, but in league with the Inner Demon," Kitsuni summed up. "Making them the two biggest threats of the Isles right about now."

"I remember her behavior during the last Coven Head meeting," Hunter said. "Calypso had noticed that the mists from the Forest of Fear were spreading… and Terra seemed dismissive of the information… and there was this one Tarot Guild member who mentioned someone coming for me before killing himself… he was referring to the Inner Demon."

Everyone was silent for a moment, just letting all the information sink in.

"So what are we going to do now?" Sully asked.

"Should we bring this up to the Emperor's Coven?" Gilbert suggested.

"That's going to be a negative," Snope responded.

"He's right. The covens are in a disarray right now and time is too sensitive," Alador agreed.

"And I don't want anyone else killed," Lilith said while looking down. "Most scouts aren't evil or even bad, and they certainly don't deserve to be killed or injured by Terra or the Inner Demon."

"She's right," Eda agreed. "There are some good ones like Larry that don't need to get involved. Plus, a lot of them got hurt or killed already by either Terra or Nicole's Heartless parade."

"Yeah, and I've befriended some members of BIG," Hunter said while thinking about Scameron, Barbara, Thunder, and Joana. "I don't want them to get hurt."

"Plus, there's no way we can trust Belos or the Coven Heads," Eda mentioned. "They're not exactly the most reliable."

"So who should we go after? Terra or the Inner Demon?" Boscha asked. "We can't just stop two big bads at the same time."

"But what if we can?" Willow suggested. "Who's to say all of us should focus on taking down the Inner Demon? Or that all of us should face Terra? We have enough witches here to take them on both at the same time."

"Yeah, the old divide and conquer," Luz nodded. "They can't complete the plan if they're both distracted."

"Then we split into two teams to take them down," Lilith said.

"However, there is the issue with the mist," Gus pointed out. "Terra is helping to spread the Inner Demon's mist and… the Guardian of the Ruins already got turned into wood." He looked down, saddened about the Guardian's fate even if they knew him for only a short while.

"Wait, how did Terra survive the mist's effects then?" Willow asked.

"Maybe she's immune?" Kadabe pointed out. "Like, she could have made a pact with the Inner Demon. I've once read that witches who make a pact with a demon or spirit can become immune to their effects."

"As for us, I do know one way through the mist," Lilith said. "When I rescued Luz from the Forest of Fear, I used a temporary coating spell to protect me. Unfortunately, because I have no magic anymore, I can't perform the spell anymore."

"Great…" Eda said. "That could have been useful for anyone."

"Hmm, actually, I may be able to perform a similar spell," Kitsuni said as everyone turned to her. "I can channel a jutsu to place my chakra over those who want to face Terra. It can protect you from the mist, but only in a limited amount of time."

"How limited?" Amity asked.

"About an hour and twenty-two minutes," she answered. "We can use that time to make sure Terra is defeated for good."

Everyone nodded, but Alador seemed to just realize something. "Wait… who is this?" he asked, pointing at Kitsuni. She turned to look at him.

"Oh, I guess we were never properly introduced," she realized.

"This is Kitsuni, dad," Amity explained. "She is a substitute teacher at school and she's a Yokai from another realm."

"A Yokai?" Alador asked in surprise before rubbing his chin. "Interesting…"

"Okay, we're gonna need one team to go out and face Terra, and another to stay here and fight the Inner Demon in the mindscape," Luz announced, getting everyone back on topic. "Me and Snope will take on the Inner Demon. Any volunteers to come with us?"

"I'll go," Boscha said as she raised her hand up. "I have a score to settle with the Inner Demon."

"Same here," Hunter responded. "I'd like to defeat him as Captain Coven again."

"I'm coming too," Eda declared. "I don't want you kids facing off against him by yourselves, you could use an extra adult."

Amity sighed as she made her decision. "I've already faced the Inner Demon once, but I want to prioritize Terra," she told the others. "She helped to hurt my family and I want to get a chance to make her pay."

"And you won't be alone," Alador said. "Me and Odalia will help you fight her," he said, turning to Odalia, who nodded in agreement. The two shared small smiles with each other. It wasn't much, but it was still a step in the right direction.

"I would like to go too," Lilith said while standing up. "I want to go not just to help you, but during my time as Head Witch I failed to realize that Terra was behind the Guild's activities. So I feel like it is my responsibility to bring her to justice now."

"And I'm coming too," another voice volunteered.

Everyone turned to Willow, who had spoken up and was now standing up.

"Willow, are you sure you want to go?" Sully asked with a worried look.

"Terra has caused my friends and their families so much pain and grief," Willow explained. "Gus, Amity, and Skara have gone through hardships thanks to messing with their families and she has arguably hurt them just as much as the Inner Demon has."

"But it is going to be dangerous, honey," Gilbert pointed out.

"I've faced plenty of danger over the summer," Willow declared while crossing her arms. "Compared to everything that came before, Terra's just another weed that needs to be pulled out."

"Then we'll come too," Gilbert decided as he and his husband stood up. "We want to help take down Terra."

"Yeah, and we are not going to let you face her alone," Sully agreed.

"No," Odalia spoke up, surprising them. "Sully, Gilbert, we need witches to protect both the house and Perry Porter right now. We do need some responsible adults for this job, and you two do own this house…"

"She's right," Eda agreed. "You two are needed here, and to be honest, the last time you two faced a tough enemy like that ninja guy, you got whooped."

"But we want to help Willow…" Sully said.

"Don't worry, me, Odalia, Lilith, and Kitsuni will be there to protect the kids," Alador reassured them.

"And I can help protect the house as well," Kadabe offered. "After all, I don't think Dolly is in any condition to be going anywhere, so she will have to stay here. I don't think Gus is going anywhere either."

"What?!" Gus objected, trying to get up… only to have to immediately sit down again, his body still strained from the spell he used. "Yeah… you're probably right."

"So it's settled," Luz said while turning to the rest. "We all know our roles, so all that is left to do is… wish each other luck."

As everyone made their rounds, Luz and Amity hugged each other.

"Good luck, and be careful, Ams," Luz whispered in her ear.

"You too, Luz," Amity replied as Luz went to hug Willow and Amity went to hug Boscha.

Eda went over to Lilith, Odalia, and Alador, giving them bumps to their arms. "Make sure you protect those kids against Snapdragon, and Lily… claw her eyes out."

"I… might do just that, Eda," Lilith responded with a nod. "And make sure you protect Luz, Boscha, and Hunter as well, okay?"

"We'll do our best to protect Amity and Willow," Odalia promised while turning to Alador. "Are you sure you want to face her, Alador?"

"I'm positive," Alador responded with a nod. "She messed with my mind and helped isolate me from my family. Once she's gone, I am going to take the time to make everything right… including with you, Odalia," he told his former wife, who smiled at him.

"Good luck, Alador," Snope declared as he walked over to them, Al turning to him.

"You too, old friend," Alador responded, the two clasping hands. "And give the Inner Demon hell for me."

"I will," Snope promised. "And I will see you when this is over."

Willow was hugging her dads and they hugged her back. "Be careful, Willow," Sully said.

"Yes, try not to overexert yourself," Gilbert said.

"Don't worry, dads, it won't just be me facing her alone," Willow tried to reassure them, a look of determination on her face.

Lilith, meanwhile, walked up to hug Hunter and he hugged her back.

"Be careful, Hunter," Lilith told him. "But are you sure that you want to do this? Facing the Inner Demon again?"

"I do," Hunter responded with determination. "But you don't have to worry about me, Lilith. I'll be okay."

"Just remember to listen to Snope and do what he says. He knows a lot about the mindscape from his experience," she informed him.

"Don't worry, I will," Hunter replied with a nod.

The plan was then set into motion, Gilbert and Sully moving their dinner table for Snope, who held up a piece of chalk and began drawing on the floor, using a page from a book as reference material.

"I must apologize for ruining your floor, you two," Snope told them as he worked on the ritual. "It is a very nice floor and I am being a terrible guest right now."

"Hey, it's fine," Gilbert reassured him. "We have been meaning to clean up anyway."

"I brought with me some chamomile for everyone to drink up to prepare," Snope said as he held up a canister full of tea.

Luz, Eda, Hunter, and Boscha gathered around as they saw Snope working on setting up the ritual. "So Professor Snope has it against the Inner Demon?" Boscha asked.

"Yeah, he is pretty much his White Whale," Luz replied.

"Any particular reason?" Eda asked. "I don't think I know about his grudge against the Inner Demon."

"Yeah, this is my first time hearing about this as well," Alador said as he, Odalia, and Amity were curious about it while Kitsuni was prepping them up along with Willow and Lilith.

Snope sighed. "He killed my friends," he admitted as he finished drawing the incantation circle. "Hexside, twenty years ago, I had a group of good friends that I cared for dearly. Back when I was known as Shelly. One day, the Inner Demon got the brother of one of my friends, Goggles, and so we set up a plan in motion to defeat the Inner Demon… a plan that backfired. We were close to the Forest of Fear, trying to perform a ritual to banish the Inner Demon out. But one by one, I saw my friends turned into trees, and I was the only lone survivor."

All looked shocked by this, except for Luz and Lilith, who had heard the story before. "Titan…" Odalia said in shock. "We're so sorry that you've been through that."

"I can't even imagine losing your friends like that," Amity said while looking at her professor. "Professor Snope, you should never have gone through with that."

"Yeah, that is pretty messed up," Hunter said.

"It has been haunting me for years," he said while finishing up the circle. "I could have joined the Oracle Coven, but I chose to work in Abominations because it was my track at the time. Despite that, I was determined to find a way to defeat the Inner Demon, even if it cost me my sleep." He looked up at Boscha and Hunter. "Are you sure you two want to do this? I know that I can't talk Luz out of this, but the two of you… you're just kids. If the Inner Demon-"

"Has already hurt both of us," Hunter explained. "He kept me in a coma and he nearly drove Boscha to suicide. We know exactly who we are dealing with and we have already fought him before."

"Yeah, we're not going to be talked out of this either," Boscha said with a determined look. "And you don't have to be alone in this, Professor Snope. This is not just your fight."

"Yeah, I want to tussle against him for what he did to you kids," Eda added. "Lilith already got to fight him twice, so now it is my turn."

Snope considered this before nodding. "I have been trying to fight the Inner Demon alone for years, not wanting to lose anyone else to him. But perhaps… that was my mistake. Perhaps what I needed all this time was a little help…"

Kitsuni managed to complete covering her team with chakra. "Alright, we're ready to go look for Terra at the Ruins."

"Alright, let's move on then," Alador declared as he along with Odalia, Lilith, Amity, and Willow marched out of the house with Kitsuni.

"Good luck, guys," Willow told them as they left.

Snope placed his dream medallions on the floor while Luz, Eda, Boscha, and Hunter gathered around the drawn circle. Gilbert, Sully, Gus, Perry, Dolly, and Kadabe stood or sat off to the side, watching.

"Please be careful, Luz," Gus warned her.

"Don't worry, G-Man," Luz said as she looked back at Gus, giving him a smile and a wink. She was holding onto the dream snare. "I'll see you real soon."

They placed their hands on the medallion while sleepy nettle sage was burnt. "Alright, hang onto the dream medallion, drink your chamomile, and concentrate on going into the mindscape," he told them as the group held on to the medallions. "Just let yourself drift into sleep…"

The five drank their chamomile tea and yawned. They closed their eyes, and as Gilbert, Sully, and Kadabe stood by to keep guard over their bodies, they began to fall asleep…

Opening her eyes, Luz found herself in a gray corridor lined with doors. She sat up and looked around, seeing that Snope, Eda, Hunter, and Boscha were there as well.

"Is everyone here?" Eda asked them all.

"Yeah," Boscha replied while looking around. "Is this the mindscape?'

"It is," Snope confirmed. "Welcome to the mindscape, each door here is connected to someone's subconscious."

Hunter noticed how many of the doors were different. A lot of them were chained up, some more heavily than others, while others looked unlocked. "Why are most chained up?"

"The chained ones are the ones that the Inner Demon can't access," Snope explained. "Some minds are easier for him to enter than others and these minds are the ones with no chains. Usually they are the less developed minds, with children especially being vulnerable to him. But this is how I managed to follow the Inner Demon into your mind, Hunter."

"Oh… I guess that explains things," Hunter replied.

"So the Inner Demon is somewhere around here, right?" Boscha asked while looking around. "He could be behind any of these doors."

"How do you normally track him?" Eda asked Snope.

"This dream compass," Snope said as he held up the compass. "Always keep it in my pocket. Luz, do you have the device?"

Luz held up the snare. "Right here. Just automatically suck in the Inner Demon into this, and wake up with him inside this thing."

"And release him in the real world," Snope nodded as he held up his compass, leading the group to look for the Inner Demon.

They traveled through the corridors, Eda looking around at the doors. "I am surprised that there are no guardians or anything in this mindscape."

"The Inner-Selves of the subconscious are the guardians of their respective individuals. But when the Inner Demon has access to a subconscious, he will usually either weaken, enslave, or corrupt the Inner-Selves." Snope explains.

"Yeah, me and Willow learned that when we went to Amity's mindscape," Luz recalled.

After traveling around, Snope's compass led them to one door that they stopped in front of. Boscha and Hunter's eyes widened at the door in front of them. "No…" they both said as they saw the door's label.

'Gavin Nightshade.'

Meanwhile, the other team were looking for Terra after they managed to learn the location of where the Looking Glass Ruins would be thanks to Amity and Lilith. They were now just west from the Titan's skull.

"It should be around here," Amity replied as she led the group.

"So how did you two discover the Looking Glass Ruins?" Alador asked. "Many, including members of the Emperor's Coven, have been looking for this place."

"Well, it wasn't us who discovered it. Let's say Gus fell into a bad crowd once," Amity admitted. "They were the ones who found this place and this girl named Bria, the one who went missing for a while, tried to lure me, Luz, and Lilith here so they could capture us for Glandus. Long story short, we all ended up fighting that day…"

"If Terra learned of this place, she could have told the Emperor's Coven about it… then again, she probably just wanted the Galdorstones for herself," Lilith admitted while looking at the glowing energy that Kitsuni granted them to protect them from the mist. "This chakra… I am curious about this… type of magic."

"Yeah, we never learned about this in school," Odalia admitted.

"It is spiritual energy that you're feeling," Kitsuni explained. "We Yokais have this kind of energy that we channel through the mind, body and soul. You can say it's a type of magic to have, as it helps produce our jutsu."

"That is interesting…" Alador commented.

"Yeah… it feels natural," Willow replied before she noticed the plants that were growing around them. "Say Amity, is this the place?"

Amity looked around. "Yeah, but… the plant life here, it wasn't like this before."

Alador used his goggles, analyzing the nearby trees. When he tried to touch it, a flytrap popped out of the bark and tried to bite him, causing him to retract his finger. "This must be Terra's work."

"I don't like this…" Lilith said as she saw the forest plant life growing around them at a crazy rate, thorns sticking out.

"She's expanding the forest!" Willow shouted while using her plant magic to block the thorns.

"She's creating a fortress so she can finish her ritual," Odalia realized while summoning her ghost, the ghost helping defend them against the plants. Alador assisted by summoning and using his Abomination to fight back.

Amity brought out the Sword of Adam, donning her Abomi-Knight armor. She slashed at the growing branches and vines while also using her flame magic to burn through them. "We have to get through this and stop her."

"Easier said than done," Kitsuni said while using her own cloning jutsu to shoot fire arrows at the growing carnivorous plants.

Amity turned to her shadow. "Sam, I need you to scout out the area. Look for Terra in the ruins, see what she's doing!"

"On it!" Sam responded as she flew over through the forest to head down to the ruins.

Meanwhile, the other team had entered Gavin's mindscape. To their surprise, they saw that it was modeled after Glandus.

"Never thought I'd be here again," Boscha said with a worried look.

"So this is what Glandus looks like?" Eda asked while looking around. "This place really is medieval…"

"Maybe his memories are behind these lockers," Luz suggested, noticing that the hallway was lined with them. She then noticed Boscha and Hunter. "Are you two alright?"

"Not really," Hunter responded, just as worried as Boscha. "If the Inner Demon is here…"

"That could explain why Gavin's been acting up lately," Boscha said with concern.

"What do you mean?" Eda asked.

"Over the past week, Gavin started to… act up," Hunter admitted. "Angmar told us about how Gavin was acting really weird and how his mom was worried for him."

"Sarah also contacted me to ask me if I had noticed anything weird about Gavin lately," Boscha mentioned. "She said that during a stakeout they were on, she overheard him talking to himself."

"And when we confronted him about him going after Emily while she was with Lindsay, he lashed out at us," Hunter said while looking down out of guilt. "Especially when I told him that I freed Tito Jackwitch from the Conformatorium…"

"But we didn't realize that the Inner Demon was influencing him," Boscha said as she looked around. "Titan, we should have done more to help him. I should have realized something else was going on with him…"

Luz shared their concern. "Don't worry, once we settle with the Inner Demon, you guys can talk to Gavin about it and help him out," she tried to reassure them.

"Let's try to see if we can find Inner Demon or the Inner Gavin in his memories," Snope instructed as he went to one locker.

The others follow suit, Eda opening up one locker, which showed her a memory of Gavin talking with his mom, who Eda recognized. "Sheila?"

"There are no problems, I'm good with school," Gavin said, waving it off. "I did hear that Bump's coming back as principal, so that's good news."

"Okay," Sheila said. "How about we talk about your father?"

Gavin frowned, this was the second time he had been asked that. "We… haven't talked about him for a long while. I thought you still hated him."

"I don't hate your father, Gavin," Sheila said. "Disappointed, yeah, but not enough to hate him. I cared about him just as you did."

Gavin gave her a questionable look. "Do you honestly think he cared about us?"

"Of course he does, Gavin," Sheila reassured him. "He kept those letters you sent him, didn't he?"

"I wonder if he actually read them," Gavin muttered.

"Baby, just calm down," Sheila said as she patted his shoulder, but Gavin shrugged her off as he stood up.

"Mom, do you want to know what I've learned?" he asked her. "There was someone around my age, he was someone close to dad. And dad treated him like a son."

"Gavin, calm down," Sheila said as she stood up.

"How can I be calm about this?" Gavin asked her. "I barely knew my father and apparently he had this really close relationship with Hunter. Maybe he even cared more about Hunter than he did me. A-And it makes me think about what kind of relationship I really had with him."

Eda winced as she closed the locker. "Damn… Sheila really has her work cut out."

Boscha opened one locker and saw a memory that was at LOWTH's headquarters. She saw all of the LOWTH members talking with Donna… and Nina.

"So is everyone really okay with this?" Gavin asked as they all turned to him, noticing his anger. "I'm not sold on this, are you guys all seriously comfortable with showing Nina our secret lair, showing her all our secrets?"

"Gavin, I know what you've said about Nina, but I can vouch for her," Donna told him.

"She's right, Gavin," Veronica said. "Don't forget that she helped us save Donna."

"Yeah, she has earned our trust," Beocrow added.

"Oh, she does one good deed and suddenly she's a new member of LOWTH and all of her past actions are forgiven?" Gavin pointed out, scowling. "Or did you all forget how she messed up and beat Boscha to a pulp during her orientation?!"

Boscha winced as Gavin recalled her time at Glandus and how Nina had hurt her. But she noticed that Nina winced at this as well.

"Gavin, I'm sorry for that." Nina apologizes, "I really am..."

Gavin just turned away. "You should tell Boscha that, not me."

Nina looked down. "You're right, I really should…"

Boscha simply closed the locker after this, since she didn't see the Inner Gavin there.

Luz went up to one locker and opened it, showing the confrontation between Matt with Bria, Gavin and Angmar.

Gavin stood beside Angmar as they watched Bria beating up Matt. "Oh Matty, you were really foolish in transferring schools away from us," Bria said as she punched Matt in the face. "That's for not calling, by the way."

Matt spat out blood. "Why would I… call you-" She grabbed him by the mouth as she spoke.

"Because you still owe me," Bria said as she scoffed. "If this is about the bus incident, get the fuck over it! What do you boys think we should do about him?"

"String him up a tree?" Gavin suggested.

"Make petty threats?" Angmar added.

"Yeah, I think I saw him with some students with him at the bleachers…" Gavin said, which made Bria smile.

Luz couldn't watch anymore as she closed the locker. "Holy shit," she said, disturbed by what she had seen. "Have you guys found the Inner Gavin yet?"

"No luck," Boscha responded.

"Yeah, he wasn't in the memory with his Sheila," Eda replied. "Though I will admit, she still looks great all these years later."

"Huh, I didn't know you knew his mom," Boscha mentioned.

"Yeah… we used to work in the same trade and… let's see if Hunter and Snope got any luck," Eda changed the subject before moving along.

Hunter looked around, finding one locker. He opened it, he saw that led to a building that he didn't recognize. There, he saw Gavin, along with Bria and Angmar as they were confronted by the former coven scout known as Craig.

"So not only did you three let Luz Clawthorne slip away, but you also lost Lilith as well," said Craig, who glared at the trio.

"B-But sir, it was-"

"I don't need to hear your excuses!" He smacked Gavin across the face and then turned to Bria. "I'm most mad at you, Bria. You three are lucky that I was able to use my remaining connections with the Emperor's Coven to bail you three out, but that doesn't mean that your failure will go unpunished." He turned around. "Tito!"

Hunter winced after seeing Gavin getting smacked, but then to his surprise he saw Tito coming to the scene.

"No… no please, give me another chance!" Bria begged.

"Too late," Tito said as he instantly slid over to where Bria was, bringing his knee up to hit her in the stomach. This caused Bria to cough as she fell over.

"Bria!" Gavin and Angmar cried out.

"Don't go easy on her," Craig told him and Tito nodded as he raised his left leg up. His tap shoes started to glow crimson red while Craig turned around.

Hunter listened to Bria's scream as he witnessed what Tito did to her. He was shocked as he saw Tito beat her to a point where she was forced to cry and beg for him to stop. He saw Gavin and Angmar's terrified looks and he decided to close the locker, not wanting to see more of this. Now he realized why Gavin and Angmar felt the way they did about Tito and why they were mad at him for getting him out of the Conformatorium. Honestly, he couldn't blame them.

He decided to move along, finding another memory. He opened the locker and saw Gavin talking to his dad as he tried to show off his Abomination to Darius.

"Check my Abomination out, dad," Gavin said as he drew a spell circle. "Abomination, rise!" as His Abomination rose from the cauldron and Gavin turned to Darius, a hopeful expression on his face. "Well, tell me what you think?"

"Hmm," Darius said as he looked over his son's Abomination, which was a bit off color with the eyes glowing dully. Darius was unimpressed. "Well, I have some notes on it. Such as the coloring looks a bit faded, and its eyes aren't lit in the right way. How many bones did you use for the arms to grow this big?"

"Oh, well… I wanted it to look strong," Gavin said while noticing how bulky his Abomination was. He also looked a bit disappointed by the criticism, his hopes of impressing his dad smashed.

"Well, maybe try not using that many bones in the clay," Darius advised. He noticed his son's expression. "Um… how about I share with you some tips on how to make it look better for your next attempt."

"Really?" Gavin asked, brightening up. His father nodded.

Hunter closed the locker, looking down with a heavy sigh. He then went to another locker, where he saw Darius and Gavin together again…

Darius and Gavin were sitting on a bench after getting some ice scream.

"How is the Abomination Coven, dad?" Gavin asked him.

"It's more of the same," Darius responded in a bored tone. "Some new recruits here and there. They are talented, but they're not exactly reinventing everything." He turned to his son, his face lifting. "But what about you? What have you been doing?"

"Well… I've been doing great," Gavin replied. "Glandus is still Glandus, but my grades are good. I entered a witch scout competition to see who has the fastest ratworm. I think I'm going to make the finals. Will you come to see me if I do make it to the final round?"

"I'll… try," Darius promised. "How about your friends? How are they doing?"

"Oh, they're doing fine," Gavin responded. "Matt was transferred to Hexside, but Angmar and Bria are their usual selves."

"Have you done any quests recently?" Darius asked.

"Well, Bria is still looking for a huge payday, but recently she took us to that Eclipse temple that all the teens seem to try out at some point or another," Gavin explained.

"The Escape Temple? I remember going there when I was your age," Darius commented, feeling nostalgic as he remembered how he, Alador, and Odalia once went through that temple together. "Did you win anything?"

"Nah, we didn't get past the second room," Gavin admitted. He looked down. "Bria didn't take it well…"

"Well, don't take it too hard," Darius reassured him. "I never completed that temple as well."

"Really?" Gavin asked in surprise.

"Believe it or not, but I have had my share of failures," Darius said before he got some ice scream on his nose. This made Gavin laugh and when Darius realized this he laughed as well.

Hunter smiled at the levity of the moment. When he closed the locker, he turned and saw Eda, Luz, and Boscha walking over to him.

"Any luck?" Luz asked.

"Nope," Hunter responded as Snope came out of another locker.

"He's not in there," he said. "Those indoor school brawls were very brutal…"

Hunter then opened another locker and he saw that the memory was set in Bonesborugh… during the Conformatorium break out.

"This one's recent," Hunter said as he, along with the others, entered, witnessed the moment Darius saved Gavin from fallen debris.

"Gavin…" Darius spoke to him.

"D-Dad?" Gavin asked, shocked to see his father. "You're… alive?"

"Dad?" Potion Ranger and Dr. Thriller asked, turning to each other in confusion.

"Darius is alive?!" Hunter and Boscha exclaimed in shock. Snope was shocked by this as well.

"Yeah, me and Luz learned about it yesterday," Eda admitted.

"That means… that time in the Bat Queen's forest," Hunter spoke quietly as he realized that the Abomination that saved him was indeed Darius.

"Are… alright?" Darius asked as he lowered himself. He seemed to be struggling with his words. "I… here to help. Protect you."

"Protect me?" Gavin said while looking at his father. "You… you were alive this entire time?!" his said with anger in his voice. "Where the hell have you been?!"

"Gavin, I… it's hard for me to explain things…" Darius said but Gavin wasn't having any of it.

"What happened to him?" Boscha asked.

"He's not whole," Snope indicated. "If I had to guess, his consciousness must've still stuck to some Abomination matter. So he is trapped in this form, barely able to hold himself together."

"Explain what? That you've constantly neglected me and always put your duties at the Emperor's Coven first? Or that you favored Hunter over me, your actual son?!" Gavin shouted to him. Darius tried to speak up, but Gavin wouldn't have let it. "How dare you show your face to me after all the grief you put through me and mom!"

"Gavin…" Darius was taken aback by his outburst.

Gavin was in tears as he glared at his father. "You never made the time for me, for our family! I wish… you should've stayed dead!" he shouted at him.

All were shocked when Gavin said that to him. Luz and Eda winced at this, while Boscha looked shocked and saddened for Darius. Hunter looked even more shocked, especially when he heard Gavin claim that Darius favored him over his actual son. Snope winced as well.

"I… I can't believe he would just talk to his dad like that after he saved him," Luz said. She paused. "Actually… I can believe it, especially if the Inner Demon has been in his head."

Eda sighed. "I feel bad for Darius… and for his son."

"Yes, after this we need to talk to him," Snope suggested.

"I mean, we tried but he did not take it well," Boscha admitted before she noticed Hunter being silent. "Hunter?"

"This… this is my fault," Hunter responded while looking down. "I looked up to Darius while I was growing up in the Emperor's Castle. He… Darius and I, we were close. Or I thought we were close. He told me about his son and I sought out Gavin after I believed that Darius had died…" He looked at the memory of Gavin with a saddened expression "I can't believe I made Gavin jealous."

Luz and Boscha turned to each other in concern before Luz spoke up. "Look Hunter, you didn't mean to do that to Gavin."

"Yeah, and from the sound of it, Darius does care a lot about the both of you," Boscha said, trying to make him feel better.

Eda then noticed that the entrance was nowhere to be seen. "Hey… what happened to the locker we came in from?"

This got everyone to pause while Snope looked at his compass. "Oh no…"

"HAHAHHAHA!"

"Shit! This is a trap!" Luz shouted as they listened to the demonic laughter.

"Indeed it is," spoke the Inner Demon as everyone looked up and saw his large hands separating the clouds above them as his face filled the skies. "Welcome!" he declared while towering over them and Bonesborough.

Luz, Eda, Boscha, Hunter, and Snope looked up, preparing for what comes next.

Meanwhile, Sam flew through the woods until she found the large gates to the Looking Glass Ruins. There, she saw Terra continuing with the ritual. She considered trying to stop Terra, but then some spirits spotted the shadow.

Sam noticed the spirits coming at her. "Wait!" she exclaimed as the spirits swirled around her and one punched the shadow, knocking her to a tree. "Ow! That hurt! Wait, shadows can get hurt by spirits?!"

Terra, while performing the ritual, noticed the commotion and saw that the spirits were fighting a living shadow. "A moving shadow? Wait…" she said as she realized who that shadow belonged to. "Oh this is good… dear old Amity Goodfellow is here! You can come out now, little Fae!"

Appearing in the Ruins was Amity, who teleported in. "Sam!" she shouted.

"Don't worry about me! Stop Terra!" Sam shouted while distracting the spirits.

Amity looked around and saw the Galderstones. Realizing that Terra needed them for her plans, she flew over to grab them… only to get wrapped in large vines. "AH!"

"Oh there you are, you little Fae," Terra said as she rose up, making Amity face her. "So you have returned!"

"You… you hurt my family, you bitch!" Amity snarled at her.

"Oh not that bullshit family thing again!" Terra waved it off. "Why do you care about your family so much? You're the one who abandoned them to live with those pesky Clawthornes-" Fire beams flew past Terra, causing Terra to gasp and turn toward Kitsuni.

"Let go of her, Snapdragon," Kitsuni declared while flying over with Odalia was Lilith. Alador came out from a large Abomination and Willow popped up from the ground.

"Oh Alador, you're here," Terra said with a grin before frowning towards Odalia and Lilith. "I should've checked in on you when I heard of your parents' demise…"

"As Coven Head, I order you to let go of my daughter and stand down!" Alador ordered.

"How about… NO!" Terra shouted as she launched her large thorny vines at them. In response, Kitsuni drew a flame circle to burn the vines into ash. Lilith used ice glyphs to shoot ice to cut the vine holding Amity. As Amity was let go, she disappeared and reappeared next to her group.

"Are you alright, Amity?" Odalia asked.

"I'm fine, just focus on taking her down!" Amity declared as she raised her sword up.

Terra launched her attacks, bringing out her vines and carnivorous plants from the ground. Willow summoned her own plants to hold off Terra's while Odalia shot purple flames from her oracle pendent, Kitsuni fired fire arrows, Alador turned his Abomination into a weed whacker, and Amity alternated between using her sword and using her flames.

Sam was still fighting off against the spirits, having some trouble as they ganged up on her. Thankfully, Odalia's ghost showed up to assist her, blasting the spirits away from the shadow and saving Sam.

"Thanks," Sam told the ghost.

"Let's handle these punks!" Odalia's mummy ghost responded before they began to work together to fight the attacking spirits.

Lilith, Amity, and Odalia used their fire magic to burn Terra's carnivorous plants, while Terra just laughed. "Trying to make a forest fire?! Just when I thought you couldn't sink any lower, Odalia!" she declared as Kitsuni appeared behind her, shooting flames at Terra. The former Plant Head summoned a large bush to block the attack. Lilith flew up in her harpy form to attack Terra with her claws, but Terra summoned large vine whips, swinging them around and managing to strike Lilith, Kitsuni, and Odalia, knocking them all down.

"Ah!" Odalia screamed as she felt the whip on her back.

"Mom!" Amity cried out while she flew away from the whips.

Willow sent some sharp thorns towards Terra, but the old plant woman summoned large branches to block the attacks. Willow tried to summon more plants, but they were easily crushed by Terra's larger and meaner plants. "Oh, you must be Willow, the one who killed Grease!"

"Why does everyone keep saying that?!" Willow shouted in annoyance as she sent more thorns towards Terra.

Terra used her vines to easily knock away the thorns before she saw Kitsuni and Amity appearing before her. The two shot fire spells at Terra, but Terra pulled herself back and summoned a large, wooden version of herself. The wooden Terra monster shot splinters at them. Amity used her Abomi-Shield to shield herself and Kitsuni, but the splinters hit Harpy Lilith when she flew in.

"GAAH!" Lilith cried out as she fell to the ground.

"Lilith!" Odalia cried out as Terra appeared behind her.

"Watch your back, Grunhar," Terra whispered before bringing out a razor leaf to scratch Odalia in the back.

"AAH!" Odalia cried out as she felt a sharp pain on her back.

"Mom! Lilith!" Amity cried out in shock, seeing Terra injuring them.

Terra used her vines to wrap around Odalia and Lilith, turning them into her captives. "How fitting, looks like you two lovebirds will be the first to die!" Terra declared before getting smacked away by a vine summoned by Willow. She turned to her with an angry look. "Rude!" she shouted as she sent several vines towards Willow.

But before they could reach Willow, Amity got in front of her, using her sword to slice through the vines, covering Willow while the Plant Track girl tried to reach Odalia and Lilith. Alador and Kitsuni charged in to try to save the two women, but Terra's wood monster brought its fists down, using its large fists to knock both Kitsuni and Alador away.

"Oh dear Al," Terra mocked as she looked down at Alador. "You were such an easy pawn to take advantage of, no wonder your former wife married you." She moved herself over to Odalia. "That day you sent that letter to him… I burnt it myself. And quite frankly, I'm disappointed in you, dear," she said, caressing Odalia's cheek before giving it a scratch. "I expected a capitalist like you to be black hearted like all the best capitalists, but instead you got all sentimental and wanted to 'fix' things with your family!"

"You… don't know me…" Odalia hissed at her.

"You're right, I don't… nor do I care to know this version of you," Terra sneered while her vines continued to wrap Odalia's body up, all the way to her neck. "Perhaps I should twist your body up and try roasting you." She then turned to Lilith, doing the same to her. "A battle like this makes me famished for steak and chicken, roasted with butter!"

Lilith and Odalia screamed and grunted while they felt the vines tightened. Terra smiled in glee, ready to make the kill… but she couldn't due to the flames summoned to burn the vines and sever her connection to them. "WHAT?!" she exclaimed as Kitsuni popped up to grab the two, getting them away from Terra. "Oh, the flippin' fox!"

Kitsuni rushed them to the side, giving Alador, Amity, and Willow the chance to check in on the two. "Mom, Lilith, are you two alright?" Amity asked.

"The pricks hurt…" Lilith said while some scratch marks appeared around her wings, arms, legs and stomach. "But I'm fine."

Odalia winced, feeling the large gash on her back. "It's not bad, is it?" she asked.

Alador looked at her back and was shocked to see the large slash. He looked up at Terra, who was controlling her wood monster again. "All of you have become such painful pests… so I'm going to do to you what I do to all pests: squash them!" she shouted.

Alador narrowed his eyes at Terra and summoned his Abomination, sending it at Terra's monster. The Abomination pounded against the creature, ripping the wood monster apart before continuing its charge toward Terra, who spotted the Abomination coming at her. But before the Abomination could reach her, she used thorny vines to shred the Abomination apart while taking a step back to avoid getting goop all over her.

Alador glared at her in anger, remembering how it was her who released his parents from retirement. How it was she who gave him the tea to make him more submissive and easily influenced, how she gave his parents the means to control and hurt him. She used him. And now she was trying to hurt and even kill his ex-wife, Lilith, his daughter, and his daughter's best friend. No, he wouldn't stand for this. He wouldn't stand for this at all.

His eyes glowed purple as he brought out his Abomination matter from his canister on his back. They formed into large fists with spikes. As Terra launched more of her attacks, Alador responded by punching through the plants. He was unleashing his fury towards Terra, punching at a more rapid rate. Terra was taken aback by his sudden burst of rage and she moved back, turning to run before a wall of flames blocked her path, conjured by Lilith's fire glyphs.

"I'm starting to think you don't want me to escape," Terra grimaced.

"You're not getting away this time, Snapdragon," Lilith said, having managed to get up. She flew above the former Plant Head while charging her electricity and shooting lightning from her hands, "This is for Vina!"

Terra ducked underneath the lightning as it hit the ground behind her. She fell over and saw flames shooting out at her from Odalia's pendant and Kitsuni. Raising herself up from the ground, she rose her plants to defend herself with, but they each got incinerated by the attacks. This was becoming overwhelming for her, so Terra once again tried to escape from them. Willow's own large vines were launched towards her to block her path while Terra tried to escape through by dodging and weaving between the vines. "Too many… I have to-"

SCHTICK!

Terra paused as she saw a sword rammed through her chest. The one who did it was Amity, who stabbed her through the back with the Sword of Adam.

"It's over," Amity told the old witch, who just simply laughed. "What…?" Amity asked in confusion.

"You think you have me, dear Goodfellow?" Terra asked while twisting her head to face Amity, smiling creepily before she melted into a pile of goo.

"GAH!" Amity shouted as she stepped back, away from the melted Terra. "That… that wasn't her!"

"What?!" everyone exclaimed as Alador went over to where his daughter was to look at the goo.

"This… this was a body-double," Alador realized. "She had us fight a double!"

"Correct, Alador!"

Everyone turned to the Ruins's cemetery, where they saw a lone Terra coming out of the mist. "It's how I escaped the Plant Coven, by leaving a body double to keep the Coven Heads and the Emperor's Coven busy. You can thank your parents for the kind gift."

"Well it's just you now!" Amity declared.

"Oh really?" Terra asked as she smirked confidently. Suddenly, popping up from the ground were more body duplicates of her. The group looked shocked to see so many Terra clones rising from the ground or appearing behind the statues, surrounding the heroes. "Come now, did you really think that Arthur and Destiny would only build me one duplicate?"

Back in Gavin's mindscape, the heroes were looking at the larger Inner Demon towering over them.

"Well what do you know, if it isn't some of my old dinner buddies!" The Inner Demon laughed at them. "Ooh, and some fresh meat for the grinder!"

"You… you're the Inner Demon!" Eda exclaimed. "You're the one who has been plaguing these kids' minds!"

"And you must be the Owl Lady," the Inner Demon responded. "I've been dying to meet you, you had a lot of issues growing up, but you were so hard to access due to your little Human World trips! But I do know a lot more about you now, thanks to all the time that me and Raine spent together."

"Don't say their name!" Eda growled.

"Hey, you bastard!" Snope shouted towards him. "We're here to put a stop to yours and Terra's plans once and for all!"

"I'd like to see you try, Shelly!" the Inner Demon taunted him.

"The name is Sheldon now, asshole!" Sheldon screamed while the Inner Demon used his large hand knocked over a building, causing it to fall towards the heroes

"Gang way!" Boscha shouted as everyone ran from the falling debris. The building crashed down behind them, which sent them into a rumble.

"Crap, he's grown stronger!" Hunter shouted.

Luz flew up to face the Inner Demon, who was in the process of destroying Bonesborough and trying to crush the small witches beneath his feet. She brought out the dream snare and tried to take aim at the Demon. "Gotta get him still…"

"Oh no you don't!" the Inner Demon shouted as he smacked Luz across a few buildings, causing her to drop the dream snare.

"LUZ!" Eda shouted as she changed into her Harpy form and flew towards her daughter, who had crashed back down on the ground. "Luz! Are you okay?"

"Y-Yeah, I'm-" Luz got up to feel her head, only to realize she wasn't holding the dream snare anymore. "Crap! The dream snare! I don't have it anymore!"

"What?" Eda asked in shock. "Oh crap, maybe it's still around here somewhere."

"I dropped it from the air, mom," Luz pointed out as Eda helped her up. "Chances are, it broke when it fell! Aw, fucking hell, I messed up!" she shouted while Boscha, Hunter, and Snope ran up to them.

"Luz, are you alright?" Hunter asked.

"No, I dropped the snare," Luz said as the Inner Demon laughed upon finding them.

"I found you!" the Inner Demon declared, his eye upon them. "I knew you'd all fail, many have tried and failed to off me over the centuries… and you are no different!"

Snope gripped his fists tightly as he summoned his Abomination. "Everyone! We have to keep the Inner Demon busy until we find the snare!"

"Even if it could break, would it break in the real world?" Boscha asked, before everyone moved to avoid the large boot from the Inner Demon.

"We'll just have to find it first!" Hunter shouted while pulling out an ice glyph and using it to shoot ice from his hand, freezing the boot. The Inner Demon kicked himself free from the ice while the others split off. Eda and Luz flew up while Boscha ran with Snope to the left and Hunter ran to the right.

Eda held up three glyph cards and threw them at the Inner Demon as they turned into flames. The Inner Demon swatted them with his hand and grabbed an arm-shaped building, swinging it at Eda and Luz. The two dodged while Luz used her fire and ice spells against the Inner Demon .

"Don't you see how pointless your attacks are!?" the Inner Demon declared. "To me, you're nothing but flies! Barely appetizers compared to the rest of the Boiling Isles, which I will consume once Terra completes the ritual!"

Boscha and Snope worked together to shoot their attacks at the Inner Demon. Snope used the Abomination matter to fire large fists to distract him while Boscha cast flame spells at him. When the Inner Demon looked down at them, he was then hit in the head by a block of ice making him look up and see Luz.

"Get out of the way!" Eda shouted as they ran away from the Inner Demon.

"I think we should turn up the volume," Maya told Luz, who nodded in agreement.

"Hey, you old goat-fucker!" Luz shouted at him as the Inner Demon saw her flipping him off. "Eat this, bitch!" She gave a huff and a puff before she then used her mighty scream of rage. "WEEEEEEEEHHH!"

The sonic scream hit the Inner Demon. "GAAAH!" he screamed as he was pushed back, causing him to crash into some buildings. While it didn't kill the Inner Demon, it did seem to do some damage.

"WEEEEEHHHH!" Luz/Maya screamed at the Inner Demon and they kept screaming at him while he was down. The Inner Demon tried to get up, but they used their screams to keep him down on the ground while the others looked for the snare. However, even though the Inner Demon was down, he still had a few tricks up his sleeve…

"Is the snare here?" Eda asked while they looked for the snare.

"Not here," Boscha said while looking through the rumble.

"It's not here either," Snope responded.

"Well, it has to be here somewhere and I don't know how long Luz will be able to keep him busy," Hunter said as Boscha noticed something dashing behind him.

"What was that?!" Boscha shouted as she pointed behind Hunter.

"What's what?" Hunter asked as he looked where Boscha had pointed.

"I thought… I thought I saw something," Boscha said with a worried look.

"You think it could be the Inner Gavin?" Snope asked before he noticed someone behind Eda. "EDA, BEHIND YOU!"

Eda turned around and her eye widened in shock as she dodged the sword that came within seconds of stabbing her. She looked up to see who held the sword… Emily.

"Tricks?!" Eda and Boscha exclaimed as they saw Emily in front of them. Though she looked more faded than usual and she was in her Glandus uniform.

"No… that's a mindscape version of her," Snope mentioned as he noticed something dash over and landed in front of them.

"Nina?!" Boscha exclaimed, seeing the mindscape version of Nina, also in her Glandus uniform. Appearing alongside her were the mindscape versions of Tito, Grease, and Mr. Cooker with his launcher. "What… what are they doing here?!"

"The Inner Demon… he must've summoned them from Gavin's memories!" Hunter realized, looking worried when he saw Grease.

"Just remember, they're only memories, not the real versions," Snope declared while forming his Abomi-weapons. "We can't let them stop us from looking for the snare!"

Luz kept screaming at the Inner Demon, stopping briefly when she noticed her friends facing against the mindscape versions of their old enemies. "So you couldn't fight us without getting some help, huh?"

"Oh, I can fight you by myself just fine," the Inner Demon declared while getting up. "And you know you're going to fail, don't you? You are going to let everyone die, just like how you let those rebels die. Just like how you let Boscha's brother die. Just like how you let Beel Zatar die!"

Luz just simply glared at him, feeling anger swell inside her. "You like to hear yourself talk, don't you?"

"I am a god! I'm allowed to boast!" he declared while sending a punch towards Luz, who dodged his giant fist.

"Really? Cause that's not what I heard," Luz said while dodging his punches. "Cause I know your story, about how you're some human nobody who grew old, came to the Boiling Isles thanks to Philip, and made a little deal with an actual god…"

"Oh? So you've heard about that story?" The Inner Demon asked while punching a building.

"Are you and the Horned King in some kind of alliance or something?" Luz asked while flying over him shooting fire spells at him. "He's the reason why you're trapped in the mindscape, and going around hurting children!"

"Ha! That is true, the Horned King granted me this power… biggest mistake he ever made," the Inner Demon declared. "He offered me immortality if I obeyed his instructions and so I took that opportunity before Philip and Adam could stop me!" he boasted. "After the Horned King shared his power with me, he hoped that I would help him feed. Can you imagine that? Me, now a god, forced to be a servant!" He slammed his arm at another building while attempting to hit Luz. "Unlike Belos, I serve no one! And since the Horned King never bound me to him, I can hunt freely and feed off the youth without having to share my power with the one who created me!"

Luz saw his hand was about to slam at her and she let out another scream, making him take a step back. "So you don't work for the Horned King," she muttered. "But do you have a name other than the Inner Demon? It's kind of a mouthful."

"I… actually don't even remember my original name," the Inner Demon admitted. "It was such a long time ago… I hardly even remember my human life. But it is insignificant, don't you think?"

As they continued to fight, Luz cast flames again at the Inner Demon who simply put them out by blowing at them. "So what is your deal with Terra then?"

"Talkative, aren't you?" he asked while bringing his hands together to hit her. Luz ducked down while his hands clapped, sending a soundwave. "A god needs followers, and the offer of youth and immortality can be very tempting. Of course, I would never make the same mistake that the Horned King did and give Terra too much power. Snapdragon is far more useful to me than Dolly could ever hope to be anyway."

"Did she know about Puck?" Luz had to ask.

The Inner Demon chuckled. "Please, if I had told her about Puck and sending your friends to the Human Realm, she would've barged in to try to steal your portal door a long time ago," he pointed out. "I could have given her the portal key when I first retrieved it where you had thrown it, but I'm not stupid. I didn't want to risk her betraying me."

"Well… what are you even going to do after you wipe out the Isles?" Luz questioned him as she tried to keep him talking and distracted, buying the others as much time as she could. "Surely, you must have realized that covering the entire Isles means you will have no more food."

"Who said I was going to stop at Boiling Isles?" the Inner Demon pointed out with a chuckle. "After all, there's still the rest of the realm for me and Terra to take…"

"The rest of the Demon Realm…?" Luz asked in surprise.

"But of course, if I still had Puck, I could've used him and the portal door to find a way to escape the Demon Realm and spread my power to other realms… including the Human Realm!"

Luz was shocked by this, almost too shocked to notice the hand that was about to hit her. She flew out of the way just in time.

Back at the Ruins, Amity's team were shocked to see all so many Terras around them.

"Just what we needed," Lilith grimaced. "More Terras."

"Wondering which one is the real me?" one Terra asked.

"It could be me, dear," another said, raising her hand up.

"Oh no, probably me!" another claimed, close to Odalia, who shot a fire spell from her pendant, knocking her down. Then another Terra wrapped herself around Odalia who struggled to get her off. Kitsuni helped out by knocking the Terra off of Odalia, throwing her on her back. But then vines sprouted all around them as the Terras summoned them, forcing everyone to get ready to defend themselves.

Willow used her plant magic to wrap up some Terras while Alador used his Abomi-fists to punch another Terra clone. Lilith used her lightning abilities to blast them. "How do we know which is the real one?!" Lilith asked before getting dogpiled by some Terras who were trying to pull her wings off with their vines. "Gah!"

"Come on! Try to find out which one is the real me!" the Terra duplicate cried out as Kitsuni kicked a few of them and burned another, melting some down.

"They're quite persistent," Kitsuni said.

"These things are similar to Arthur's Abomi-goblins," Alador realized while summoning extra-Abomi-arms from his back fight off against the Terras. "But I never could fathom that they'd use plant magic to merge with these Abominations!"

Amity, while using her Abomi-matter to form ice glyphs to freeze the clones, looked around at all the Terras, noticing that most of them were on the ground. "Wait a minute," she said as she noticed something when she blasted one clone down. Looking down, she saw that this Terra clone doesn't have feet. Rather, they had roots. "Guys, these duplicates don't have feet!"

"No feet?" Willow asked while taking down another duplicate, noticing the roots connected to the ground. "Of course, they're rooted!" she shouted while blasting another Terra duplicate with her thorns. "Wait, Terra has to be controlling them all at the same time, right?"

Lilith shook the Terras off while Alador held up more with a large Abomi-fist to disconnect them from the ground. He looked around, noticing that the Terras were fighting less precisely. "That does explain why they aren't unleashing their full power!" Alador realized. "They're less formidable than if she was just focused on controlling one clone. She has to extend herself more and that means these clones are less powerful individually."

"They are weaker then? Hmm, good," Odalia said as she used her ghost to attack the Terras, the ghost breathing purple flames to burn them alive.

"AAHH! I'm on fire!" "What a world!" "Remember me!" all the Terras screamed as they melted down as they were set aflame.

Lilith used her claws to slash at the clones, beheading a few of them. She then shot lightning through dozens more, electrocuting them into burnt crisps and turning them to dust. Kitsuni used flame balls formed from her tails, shooting each of them at the Terra clones, burning them to the ground. Lilith brought out ice glyphs and slapped them to the ground, forming ice spikes that killed more Terras by piercing and shredding them apart, leaving a bloody scene.

Amity sliced down another Terra, cutting her in half with her sword, while Willow initially punched some Terras with large, grassy fists she summoned out of the ground before she managed to summon her own carnivorous plants to bite chunks of Terras into pieces. Amity formed an Abomi-javelin to throw and stab through several more Terras, pinning them down to the ground. Willow brought out large, thorny whips to strike at the Terras while Amity used her now flaming sword to chop and burn through the Terras she had pinned.

Odalia stood by Alador's side, blasting more Terras with her pendant while Alador slammed Terras down with his Abomi-fists. He then formed an Abomi-chainsaw, using it to slash and mulch a few Terras down to pieces. When they saw more clones coming, Alador and Odalia drew spell circles and combined their flame attacks, burning through a bunch of the clones.

It went on until every last Terra duplicate had been sliced, diced, burned, or crushed. One Terra duplicate's head fell off to the ground. "Oh, now I know how Patrick feels," she commented before the head melted away.

"Did we get them all?" Willow asked while looking around at the melted Terra bodies.

"I think so, though I don't think we got the real one," Lilith responded while looking around. "But I'll admit, this did feel good."

"Yeah, killing Terra over and over again felt… cathartic," Alador admitted.

"After all the grief she's given us, it really did," Odalia agreed.

"But where is the old goat?" Amity asked, looking around for Terra.

"Well, glad to hear how you all really feel about me!" her voice shouted.

Everyone turned to see a large carnivorous plant sprouting up from the ground. Coming out of its mouth was the real Terra, who was glaring at them… but also smiling.

"I can't believe that you all enjoyed killing me over and over again so much! It really hurts my old, withering heart," Terra complained as she faked tears. "But while you all were fighting and killing my wonderful body doubles, I snagged myself these wonderful stones!" Terra had the vines hold up all the eight Galdorstones.

"Oh no…" Amity realized.

"I think it is only fair," Terra said. "That since you enjoyed killing me so much, that I get to enjoy killing you!"

Meanwhile, in Gavin's mindscape, while Luz was fighting the Inner Demon, the rest of the team fought off the Glandus doppelgangers.

Grease roared as he punched through a building, trying to target Hunter and Boscha who were ducking inside. However, he was tackled by Eda in her Harpy form, who slashed at him while slapping a plant glyph onto him. This caused him to get entangled. Snope used his Abomination magic to shield himself from Cooker, who fired at him with his Abomi-zooka. Snope's shield turned into his Abomination, who ran up and hit Cooker.

"I don't know how these kids manage to take these guys down the first time," Eda commented while strangling Grease with the vines. However, he tore through the vines and managed to grab her wings as she tried to fly away, throwing her down to the ground.

"The more negative Gavin's emotions are, the stronger these memory doubles will likely get!" Snope shouted as he ordered his Abomination to knock Grease off of Eda. He turned and saw Emily coming at him with his sword, but thankfully he summoned a second Abomination who grabbed his limbs and moved him out of the way. Cooker fired at him several times, but Snope used his Abomination to avoid the blasts.

With Hunter and Boscha, the two were busy dealing with Tito and Nina. The Tito doppelganger delivered many kicks that Hunter and Boscha had to dodge, which damaged and broke the walls and structures around them. Boscha saw the Nina doppelganger lunging at her and she quickly used a flame spell to force her back. She glared at the Nina doppelganger, remembering what the real Nina did to her.

"They're not making things easier for us," Hunter said while dodging another kick from Tito. "Even if they're not real."

"Yeah," Boscha said as her eyes glowed yellow. "And since they're not real, I'm not going to pass this chance up…"

Suddenly, a flaming aura burst around Boscha, surprising Hunter and even the Tito and Nina doppelgangers. She unleashed a roar as veins popped out around her face as her hands glowed yellow, forming into fists… before she pounded the Nina doppelganger straight to the face.

"THIS IS FOR GIVING ME HELL, FANGS!" Boscha shouted as she began beating the crap out of the werecat doppelganger, hitting her over and over again.

Hunter looked at the Tito doppelganger, who looked back at him, the two sharing an awkward stare.

"I'm not even going to touch that," Hunter said, pointing to Boscha and Nina. "You?"

The Tito copy shook his head.

"Good," Hunter said as he slapped down an ice glyph to the ground, causing the Tito copy to be sprung up in the air by a pillar of ice. As Hunter spotted Tito starting to come down, he thought quickly and began to use the glyph cards to form a trap.

As Hunter was setting it up, the Tito doppelganger crashed down through a sidewalk. Once he was up again, he delivered a kick towards Hunter, sending him flying. "GAAH!" he shouted as he was knocked through the doorway of a building… and into the memory corridor. Hunter sat up while rubbing his head, realizing where he was now. "Oh man…"

The Tito doppelganger turned to Nina and Boscha, trying to decide if he should get behind them or not. But as he turned, he stepped on something that glowed, causing him to look down and realize that he was standing on a glyph combo…

Boscha wasn't paying attention as she was busy beating the pulp out of the Nina-clone. "THIS IS FOR ORIENTATION DAY! THIS IS FOR HUNTING ME DOWN WHEN I TRIED TO SKIP SCHOOL! AND THIS IS FOR MAULING ME DURING THE WAR!" she shouted while not noticing the explosion behind her that sent the Tito-clone flying.

Meanwhile, Eda and Snope were still lighting the other three memory doppelgangers. Eda slashed Grease across the face and flipped over him as he tried to slam his fists down on her. Cooker tried to aim his weapon at her, but Snope wrapped his Abomi-ooze around Cooker's arms and pulled him back to deliver a Abomi-boot kick to the chin. The Emily-copy tried to stab him again, but Eda flew in to block the attack with her claws.

"I don't want to hurt you, kid," Eda told the Emily-copy. "Even if you're not real."

The Emily duplicate just screamed at Eda as she swiped her sword at her, causing Eda to step back. Emily began swinging madly at Eda, forcing her to dodge the deadly blade. Eda pulled out some light glyphs, but Emily sliced the cards in two before she could activate them. Then the Emily clone managed to slice Eda's side, making the harpy witch wince.

The owl witch looked up at Emily with concern, realizing that Emily wasn't going to give up until she struck Eda down. So she picked up two ice glyphs and threw them on the ground for the Emily-copy to step on.

"Sorry, kid," Eda said as the Emily-copy was then frozen into the ice.

"GAAH!" the Emily duplicate screamed as it was encased in ice, freezing her into an ice statue.

Snope, meanwhile, looked at Grease and Cooker, who were both teaming up against him. The Abomination Professor just sighed and commanded his Abomination. "Abomination… get in."

The Abomination split into two being the two halves slid into Grease and Cooker's mouths. It forced itself down their throats, the two copies giving shocked looks before Snope rose his hands up.

"Enjoy your lunch?" Snope asked before his hands closed while his eyes glowed pink.

This resulted in both Grease and Cooker sprouting purple spikes out of their bodies. The two exploded in a bloody fashion as the Abomi-ooze sharpened, killing the two duplicates with no mercy spent.

"Damn, brutal way to go," Eda commented while walking up to Snope, who just shrugged.

"Eh, they're not real and it isn't like I have any personal connection to them, not like you guys," Snope responded.

Eda spotted Boscha running up to the two adults. "How'd you guys deal with your fight?"

"Oh, I got some issues let out in mine," Boscha replied as behind her was a knocked out and beaten Nina laying in a crater in the ground. "Have you guys seen Hunter around?"

"Wait, we thought he was with you," Snope pointed out as the three looked around for Hunter.

"Where did he go?" Eda asked, suddenly very worried.

"Hunter?" Boscha called out to him as she looked around. "Hunter! Where are you!?"

She was answered by a growling noise. The trio turned their heads and looked up as they saw the source of the growl…

Growing up from the ground was a large, purple ooze that towered over the group. They watched as it took shape and form, with dozens of green-glowing eyes on its body and sickle-like limbs. Its face forms into that of a monstrous version of one witch that Eda and Snope knew too well…

It is a monster version… of Darius.

"Darius?!" they exclaimed as the Monster-Darius roared at them.

Hunter was looking around Gavin's mindscape. He was about to climb back through the locker leading him to his recent memory, but then he heard the sound of crying.

"What?" he asked as he decided to look around to look for the source. He ran through the hall, making a turn as he heard the crying getting louder and louder. Eventually he spotted someone…

A young Gavin. The younger version of him was a small boy who wore a purple striped shirt, blue shorts and red sneakers. He was in his fetal position, crying into his knees.

Hunter began to slowly and carefully approach the younger boy. "Hey… hey, are you… the Inner Gavin?"

At the Ruins, things were not looking well for Amity's group…

With the powers of the Galderstone, Terra Snapdragon's eyes glowed lime-green as she laughed maniacally. "Come and try to take my power away, little sprouts!" she shouted while taking down the Abomination conjured by Alador. She knocked him away as well, causing him to hit a pillar and fall down on the ground.

"Dad!" Amity shouted while she and Willow split off while Terra sent out a blast of seeds that hit the ground like bullets.

Lilith used an ice glyph to create a wall to block the seed bullets, but they hit through the ice, Lilith ducked down and protected Odalia from the shots, the seed bullets managing to graze her backside and wings. "Ack!"

"Lilith! Are you alright?!" Odalia asked her.

"I'm… fine," Lilith reassured her, despite her back bleeding from the seeds that pierced through.

Vina, who was unable to intervene in the battle, looked worried for Lilith as she looked around and saw everyone struggling to fight against the crazy plant witch. Kitsuni jumped up to duplicate herself while sending fire arrows at Terra. Snapdragon blocked the attacks using even larger vines before lashing out at Kitsuni and her duplicates, striking them with thorns.

"AAH!" Kitsuni cried out after getting hit by the thorns. As she fell down, her body glowed until left in her place, was Todd. "Ugh…" he groaned.

"Huh, this is surprising," Terra said after seeing Kitsuni changing back to Todd. "But who cares, you all are going to die anyway!" she shouted while attempting to crush the unconscious Todd, who was thankfully picked up by Sam, thus the vine missed him.

Sam carried Todd to an Abomination dome Amity had set up, where she placed Todd alongside Alador. "Thanks for saving them, Sam," Amity said while she and Willow were inside.

"They're too injured to fight," Willow said as she checked on them while Amity kept the dome up. They saw thorns hit through the dome, but not pierce completely through, as Terra began to wail on it.

"Oh you think you can hide from me?!" Terra shouted as she tried to break the Abomi-dome.

Odalia saw that the kids, Alador, and Todd were in trouble. She turned to Lilith, who was getting up. "Lilith, are you sure you want to fight?" she asked in concern.

"I… I promised Eda," Lilith said while struggling to get up, ignoring the pain.

Odalia frowned, thinking about what she could do. "Vina is still with you, right?"

Lilith looked at Vina. "Yes," she confirmed.

"Then I might have something that could help us out," Odalia said as she tried to remember the spell. "I cast this spell to this spirit, to be able to feel and others to hear it!" Odalia shouted while drawing a spell circle, a purple blast hitting the spirit.

Vina started to feel a white light shine around her. She looked down at her hands. "Did it work?"

Terra paused, hearing a familiar voice as she turned around. "No… it can't be!"

"It worked!" Lilith realized as Vina grinned.

"Oh this is going to be good," Vina responded before she flew towards Terra. "Time for payback, you old bitch!"

Terra was still surprised to see Vina. "I… I thought you were dead!" she shouted as Vina went to grab Terra by the throat, knocking her off from her plant.

"You… it was you who killed me!" Vina declared as she flew around, trying to smash Terra against a statue before Terra managed to kick the ghost woman away from her. "You poisoned my flask while I wasn't looking!"

"Oh, so you figured it out?" Terra shrugged while twirling her fingers, creating a tree for her to land on. "You were a threat to my goals, so I had to ax you off. Let's be honest, dear. Neither of us liked each other. You always wanted to have me removed from the Plant Coven."

"That's because you deserved it!" Vina declared, her eyes glowing while she radiated spiritual energy. "I always knew that you were bad news! I knew that you would cause stress and grief for everyone! I don't know why Belos trusted you!"

"Because I offered him control!" Terra responded while launching her vines at Vina. But thanks to her ghostly form, Vina moved around as she blasted Terra with ghostly fire. Terra tried to dodge, but the blast hit her, making her fall from the top of the trees and hit the branches. "Oof! Ow! Eek!"

Vina lowered herself down as Terra landed in the bushes. She glared at her as Terra continued. "If it weren't for me, Belos wouldn't be where he was today! You were just jealous because he favored me…"

Vina's eyes kept glowing as she began to move around objects, launching them towards Terra. "You had him bewitched somehow. Tell me, did you use him like you did to Alador? Make him drink your nasty tea to control the other Coven Heads?!"

"Please, I didn't need my tea for him," Terra said while avoiding the objects and launching more large vines from the ground to attack the spirit, who dodged them. "But of course you can't fathom that. There was a reason why he kept me around while nobody misses you, Vina!"

"That's a lie!" Vina declared while raising her hands to shoot fire towards Terra.

"Oh, but it isn't!" Terra declared while dodging the flames. "I mean, everyone who actually knew you knows that you were just an old spinster witch who hated everyone around you. Who would miss that?" She looked around, spotting Lilith nearby. "Actually… perhaps there is someone who missed an old bat like you…"

Vina's eyes widened when she realized what Terra meant. She watched in horror as Terra summoned another large vine and sent it straight to target Lilith. "NO!" Vina shouted while flying towards Lilith.

Lilith's eyes widened as she saw the thorny vine heading towards her. She couldn't defend herself, or move. She was too injured. She was about to be struck down where she stood… when she was suddenly moved away from the attack, causing the thorny vine to miss her and hit the wall of the Ruins instead.

"Huh?" Lilith asked as she looked up and saw her savior. "Vina?"

"Like I'm going to allow my former apprentice to die on my watch!" Vina declared while hovering down and setting Lilith back to the ground. "Are you alright, Lilith?"

"I'm… fine," Lilith said while in shock until she noticed that Vina's spiritual body was starting to sparkle… and fade. "Vina… you're…"

Vina looked down, seeing herself fade as her hand disintegrated in sparkling light. And she suddenly realized what was happening and more importantly why it was happening. She had chosen saving Lilith over trying to kill Terra. She had shown that she cared about Lilith, something that she had always been too proud to admit. And now…

"Well what do you know," Vina said while seeing the rest of her body disintegrate into light. "It wasn't my killer that I needed to settle with after all… it was you." She made a light scoff as she looked up at Lilith. "It was always you."

"Vina… I…" Lilith said as she looked at her former mentor.

"Take down Terra for me, Lilith," Vina told her before she completely faded away from the realm of the living, leaving Lilith to stare at the empty space Vina had just been in. Her old mentor was just… gone.

"She… she moved on," Odalia said while walking over to Lilith.

"YAHAHAHAHA!" Terra laughed at this as she rose back up while Lilith and Odalia glared at her. "Isn't that just great! I've managed to get rid of Vina! Twice!"

Lilith gave a snarl at the plant woman…

Hunter walked over to the Inner Gavin, who looked up at him with a tear-stricken face. "Who… Hunter?" he asked.

"Y-Yeah, it's me, pal," Hunter responded while sitting beside him, but Gavin just stared at the ground.

"Why are you here?" the Inner Gavin asked with a mutter.

"Me, Boscha, and everyone else were looking for the Inner Demon… but we were also looking for you," he responded with a look of concern. "What were you crying about?"

"Like you'd understand," the Inner Gavin muttered.

"Well, I can't understand if you don't tell me," Hunter pointed out. "Does it… have anything to do with… Darius?"

Inner Gavin wiped the tears from his eyes. "I'm angry at him, but I'm also angry at myself. There was nothing I wanted more than to impress him, to show him my worth." He looked down to his knees while Hunter just thought about how familiar that sounded. "But I wasn't good enough for him. I'll never be good enough for him."

Hunter was quiet for a moment, thinking about what he could say. What he should say. He let out a sigh. "Gavin, listen. The problem isn't you… the problem was never you. It's your dad, he's the problem."

The Inner Gavin looked up in surprise at Hunter, who tried to explain. "Look, I've been in your position before. There was nothing I wanted more than to impress the adults around me. I wanted to show my worth to my uncle. I convinced myself that I only had worth if I could be of value to my uncle, if I could live up to the legacy of my father. And Darius… well, he was this other adult figure in my life, but things were different with him. After all, there is more pressure with being the Emperor's nephew than just being… whatever my relationship with Darius was. I felt like I could talk to Darius in a way that I couldn't talk to my uncle. I honestly valued that relationship… but I wasn't his son. You were." He took another deep breath before he looked at the Inner Gavin. "Darius cares about both of us. He's protected both of us. But… he should've done more for you and your mom and what he did to the both of you… it was unfair." Hunter looked at his own robotic hand as he continued. "I've had to reevaluate a lot of things in recent weeks. And one of those things is Darius, who was by no means an evil witch… but he wasn't perfect either. He was complicated and he was flawed… and he hurt you and your mom. That was something neither of you deserved."

"We didn't…" Inner Gavin acknowledged.

"While he did care about you, perhaps he should've cared more, or perhaps showed that he cared more," Hunter pointed out. "But that is Darius's fault, not yours. Don't you ever blame yourself for Darius being absent from your life. He should have made more for you. He should have sacrificed some of his time at the Abomination Coven and the Emperor's Castle to be your father. It… it was a really crappy thing to do. And… I'm sorry," he apologized to the Inner Gavin. "I'm sorry for making you feel even more insecure about your relationship with your father, that was never something that I wanted to do."

"I was… afraid that he favored you over me, since he spent so much time at the Emperor's Castle and so much time with you," the Inner Gavin admitted.

"Which I didn't want," Hunter countered. "I never wanted to take Darius away from you, Gavin, even if I did enjoy our time together. But… I'm actually glad that I met you because of him."

"Really?" he asked Hunter.

"Yeah, I mean, you're really cool," Hunter commented. "You are better than you give yourself credit for." He looked down. "I am guilty of looking for a father figure in witches like Belos and Darius, but I shouldn't have to rely on their approval to be a great witch. And I certainly shouldn't have been so focused on trying to be like my father for them, especially since my father probably isn't my real father and I'm probably just a clone. I should have focused on becoming my own witch." He looked at the Inner Gavin again. "And you should focus on being your own witch as well. Don't try to be your father. And don't try to be who you think your father wants you to be. Just be… you. Because you by yourself are more than good enough."

This got the Inner Gavin to stop crying. "I… thank you, Hunter."

"How are you feeling?" Hunter asked him.

"I… I feel a lot better," the Inner Gavin replied as Hunter stood up and offered his hand.

"Come with me," Hunter said. "I think I need your help trying to get someone out of your mindscape."

The Inner Gavin looked at Hunter's hand. "But… what if I fail? What if the bad man gets me again…"

"Do you wish to get the bad man out of here?" Hunter asked him and the Inner Gavin nodded. "Don't worry, I'll protect you from him."

The Inner Gavin smiled at Hunter. "You know, I wish I could have met you sooner, Hunter," he admitted as he grabbed Hunter's hand and was pulled up, the two heading to the memory locker together. "Because I would have liked to have had a brother…"

At the Ruins, Terra continued to dunk on the heroes. Lilith flew around to try to attack, only to get slammed down to the ground by one of her plants, making her spit out blood.

"Lilith!" Odalia shouted as she tried to cast a spell, only for a vine to grab her and slam her away, causing her to crash into a tree. Terra laughed.

"None of you stood a chance!" Terra declared as Amity popped up in front of her with her flaming sword.

"HYAH!" Amity shouted as she swung her sword at Terra, who blocked it with her large vines.

"Oh, want to fight me, little Fae?!" Terra asked with a vicious look as she launched her thorns at Amity.

Amity summoned Abomination matter to form into spears to counter-strike against the thorns. But they broke as the thorns ran through them, which prompted Amity to fly up. She shot several flame spells at her but they even were dispersed thanks to Terra's plant magic being amplified by the Galdorstones. When a few vines got in her way, Amity used the Sword of Adam to cut through them.

She flew around as vines began chasing her. However, when she looked back at them, a large tree sprouted in front of her, causing Amity to crash into it and fall to the ground. Amity saw the vines grabbing her by the feet and Amity tried to slice them away, but her sword was taken from her by another vine as Terra got herself down to kick Amity in the stomach. "Agh!"

"It would be quick to finish you off," Terra declared before stomping onto Amity's stomach. "But I'd like to see you suffer!" she declared while raising her foot to stomp onto Amity's face… until Terra was hit by a vine. "GAH! Who dares…"

"I dare," Willow declared as she glared at Terra while sprouting her own vines from the ground. "Because this has to be stopped! You have to stop!"

"It's Willow Park, isn't it?" Terra asked as she twisted her smile at the girl. Willow sent her vines at her, but Terra simply swooped her hands with a spell circle, sending them back to the ground. "I heard that you had potential, but you're still a novice compared to me. A bit out of your league, I'm afraid!" she declared while sending fist-shaped vines to attack the Park girl.

Willow attempted to counter-spell, but the vines faked her out and circled around, wrapping Willow up. Terra lifted Willow up in the air and was about to slam her down to the ground, but Willow twirled her fingers and summoned a mushroom beneath Terra, launching her up in the air. Willow then broke free and drew spell circles to send larger vines to grab Terra, who created spell circles to bring out her own carnivorous plants to snap at the vines.

Terra landed on one carnivorous plant of hers while Willow used the vine to ride on. The two charged at each other, like knights jousting. Each witch summoned their own wooden joust, Terra going for the heart. However, Willow managed to shatter the joust with hers before throwing a fist at Terra. But Terra caught the fist with a vine, which threw Willow onto the ground. Before Willow could get up, Terra grabbed her neck and gave a dangerous grin. She was deceptively strong.

"You know, it has been so long since I killed someone with my bare hands," Terra declared with a laugh. "I've missed the feeling. But seriously, what's the point in trying to beat me? You are like, what, fifteen? Do you know how much longer I have lived than you? How much more experience I have than you? I have the green touch! The power of nature. I am the true mother nature, while you're nothing but a novice witch!"

"That… may be true…" Willow said as she grabbed Terra's wrists, trying to get her to stop choking her. "But… you made one vital mistake… you messed with my friends!"

And it was then that Willow's eyes glowed bright green. Willow could feel the plant magic within her grow as a line of green light glowed around her. She then started to move Terra's hands off of her neck… much to Terra's shock.

You got the Touch!… You got the Power!

"No…" Terra grunted as she tried to resist. She was still connected to the Galdorstones, so she attempted to use their power to amplify her against Willow. But Willow pushed her back by summoning green vines to punch Terra off of her. The elder witch looked up at Terra, as did Amity, Lilith, and Odalia who saw her. Their eyes widened when they saw Willow giving off a shining green light.

"What is this…?!" Terra shouted.

"Willow…" Amity said while Sam freed her. She watched as Willow stood up, plants growing at her feet.

(Yeah)!

Willow's hair was let down, revealing shining green long hair while her eyes continued to glow. She radiated a green aura as she donned a green robe and summoned her staff. Flowers sprouted from her hair and her muscles flexed.

Willow charged towards Terra, who was surprised by the girl's power. "Nonetheless, you still can't beat me!" Terra declared while launching her thorns at Willow, who waved her staff at them, causing them to move aside. She threw her punch at Terra, who attempted to block it. This punch was so great, it sparked a green blast around the forest.

At the Emperor's Castle, Belos was on a balcony when he and some scouts noticed a green blast of energy in the distance

"That came from… the west," he said as his eyes glowed.

Terra grunted as she was pushed back by Willow's punches. She snarled at the young witch. "I'm not going to lose to a child!" she declared as she summoned more thorns to launch at her. "I am connected to the Galdorstones, and you're not!"

"I don't need Galdorstones to be powerful!" Willow declared as the plant formed around her arms, creating large, green viney gauntlets. She formed them into fists and jumped up and swung her gauntlets down. They stretched down towards Terra, who tried to dodge them, but the fists collided with her face, sending her down to the ground.

Amity, after freeing herself, went to help her mom and Lilith to get out of the battlefield. "Come on, we should head to the dome," she said, taking them to her makeshift Abomi-dome.

"What about Willow?" Lilith asked before she turned to see Willow punching and beating the crap out of Terra.

"I believe she's got this covered, Lilith," Odalia said as Amity helped them to the dome.

Terra rolled over after the beating. She looked up to glare at Willow, but she had blood on her lip. "You… you can not beat me!" she shouted while summoning her carnivorous plants towards Willow.

Willow simply glared at the plants. A glare that was intense enough for those carnivorous plants to stop. They looked at Willow, seeing her scolding look before they retreated back to dunk their faces to the ground.

"WHAT?!" Terra shouted in shock, seeing her carnivorous plants scared of Willow. "How can you be afraid of her-" Terra was then uppercut by a wooden fist that sprouted up from the ground.

Meanwhile, Luz's team struggled to face the monstrous Darius. He sprouted purple ooze out from his mouth while Eda, Snope and Boscha were having a hard time dealing with him.

"Gah!" Boscha shouted while being covered in ooze as she dodged his sickles. "Gavin's dad is too powerful!"

"He wasn't, well, used to be the Head of Abominations for nothing!" Snope admitted while using his own Abomination to counter-attack the Darius Monster, but that Abomination was taken down by the Monster Darius after it sliced it in half. It tried to do the same to Snope, but Eda swooped in to save him.

"Taking down Darius is not easy, believe me I fought him before," Eda said while throwing ice glyphs at the Darius monster. The ice froze his sickle hand, but he shattered it. The arm grew another hand, this time it formed into an axe.

Boscha shot flames at the Monster Darius, which caught his attention. He tried to slam Boscha with his larger fist, but Eda flew over to grab her as well before she got smashed. The Darius Monster roared at them, its mouth shooting Abomi-gunk at them, the gunk hitting the surrounding buildings when it missed.

"How do we defeat a monster version of a former Coven Head?!" Boscha asked while seeing the Monster Darius coming at them.

"I think the only thing to stop him would be Gavin's inner-self," Snope realized.

"But we don't see him around!" Eda said while carrying the two as they flew away from the Darius Monster.

The Darius Monster then melted down to the ground, which Boscha noticed. "Hey, I think he's given up!"

"No…" Snope said as suddenly a large Abomi-hand sprouted up in the air. "LOOK OUT!"

Eda tried to fly to the side before the hand grabbed them, but then ooze was shot out of the hand, grabbing Eda by her talon. This caused her to let go of Snope and Boscha, who were caught by another ooze shot, all three of them being dragged into the body of the Darius Monster.

"Snope! Boscha!" Eda shouted while being held by the Abomi-fist.

"Eda!" Boscha cried out as she felt herself sinking into the purple body along with Snope. All three of them were being smothered by the ooze from the monster, who was trying to drown them.

Eda tries to free herself by flying away, but despite her struggles she was being pulled into the ooze. She turned to Boscha and Snope, helplessly watching them sink. Tears streamed from Eda's eye as she was pulled up to eyes, about to be smothered in the ooze…

"HEY, YOU!"

The Darius Monster heard himself being called out and he turned around, seeing Hunter with the Inner Gavin. "Yeah, right here!"

The monster snarled as his slimy body went over to the two. Hunter stood by the side of the Inner Gavin, holding his hand as the Inner Gavin didn't flinch at the monster. The Darius Monster charged toward them… only to suddenly stop and begin to shrink. As it shrank, its form began to change and instead of remaining a monster…

…it simply became Darius the Witch. Eda, Boscha, and Snope fell to the floor, covered in purple stains. They looked and saw Darius in his normal state as he looked down at his son.

"No way," Boscha said.

This was now how Gavin saw Hunter. Not as a monster. Nor as an ideal role model. He was just… his father. A witch. A flawed and complicated witch who made mistakes, but did love Gavin, despite his failures as a father.

This was Darius as he really was.

As that was going on, Luz continued her battle against the Inner Demon. She tried to scream at him again, but the Inner Demon swung his arms around, managing to knock Luz away.

"ENOUGH WITH THE SCREAMING, YOU LITTLE BANSHEE!" the Inner Demon shouted while Luz fell to the ground.

After the young Clawthorne fell and landed on the ground, she groaned while getting off a pule of rubble. She looked around and spotted something in the distance…

"Holy shit…" Luz/Maya said as they spotted, on a fruit stand, the dream snare.

"We have to get that dream snare," Maya said.

"Don't need me to tell me twice!" Luz agreed as they flew up and headed over to get the dream snare.

The Inner Demon began to chase after, causing more destruction in the process. "All of your efforts will be meaningless! The Boiling Isles will soon be consumed by my mist!" he declared. "How would any of you would ever hope to defeat a-"

"Oh, will you give it a rest?!" shouted Luz as she looked back at him. "You know, despite your boasting, we've already beaten you several times! Even if you're a god like you claim, so what? We've beaten a god before, you're nothing special!" She avoided his foot trying to smash her. "And despite your little team up with Terra… you're still alone. Keeping her in the dark is proof of that! You can't trust anyone you can't control, so you will never have anyone to really watch your back."

The Inner Demon glared and launched his fists at her. "That's because I don't need to watch my back!" he shouted.

"Yes, but you really should have been watching mine," Luz said as she glared defiantly at the Inner Demon and reached for something behind her back: the dream snare. She pressed the lever to open the canister and it began to suck the Inner Demon's fist in, causing it to drink.

"WHAT?!" the Inner Demon shouted as he tried to pull out but he couldn't. The moment the snare opened and got a hold on him, he was caught. "No… no… NOOOOOOO!" he cried out as his body shrank while being pulled into the snare. His large body swirled around and got sucked in as his head and boots were sticking out. "NOOOOooooooooooo!"

"All of that evil power," Luz declared as she completely sucked in the Inner Demon, trapping him in the snare. "In an itty-bitty little space."

Back at the Ruins, Willow kept wailing on Terra. Willow waved her staff to send out multiple thorny fists at Terra, who tried to use her power against Willow's, but Willow overpowered her and beat her down. This caused some of the Galdorstones to crack as their connection to Terra was strained.

Amity peeked out of the dome as the others watched Willow taking care of Terra. But then, they also noticed the mist fading away, as the environment around them started to feel less… dreary. Flowers started to bloom, the deadwood trees became brighter, and the environment around them just looked more… pretty.

"Are you guys seeing this?" Amity asked in awe as the environment around them flourished.

"Yes," Lilith replied, looking around the Ruins. "Almost as if the nature here is… healing."

Odalia noticed the spirits floating up to the sky, disintegrating into sparkles. "The spirits… they're moving on!"

"Luz did it," Todd realized as he and Alador had woken up. "She defeated… the Inner Demon."

Alador looked around and noticed that around Willow, the ground was blossoming with more grass from each step. As if the environment was healing… from her.

Terra noticed this as well. "Hey… Inner Demon, what's happening?!" she shouted while getting an uppercut from Willow.

"I don't know what's going on right now," Willow admitted as her eyes shone green again. "But I'm feeling really great! YAAAAHHHH!" she shouted as the green, magical energy burst around her, completely clearing the mist away while grass and flowers sprouted around.

"NO! It can't end this way!" Terra shouted while using the remaining Galdorstones she had until Willow raised her arms up to summon more of her own thorns, directing them at Terra. This made the elder witch flinch, but the thorns weren't aimed at her… they stuck the Galdorstones instead, shattering them to pieces!

"You won't be needing these anymore," Willow declared while shattering the last Galderstone.

"MY GALDORSTONES!" Terra screamed before she glared at Willow. "NO! I REFUSE TO BE DEFEATED BY A CHILD!" she shouted while controlling more plants to armor her up as she started to resemble a large plant monster. "I WILL NOT BE DEFEATED BY A HALF-A-WITCH!"

Willow simply gave Terra a blank tcare as the light reflected off her glasses. "Who are you calling half-a-witch?" She simply snapped her fingers and a much larger green fist sprouted from the ground, punching Terra. The old witch fell back to the floor. "Your time has passed, you old, autumn leaf."

Terra got up from the ground, still glaring at Willow. "You think you can defeat me?!" she shouted as she stood back up. "NONE OF YOU WILL DEFEAT ME!"

"But I will."

Everyone, including Terra, froze when they heard Belos's voice echo around them.

Belos was here.

Everyone was silent for a moment as the realization sank in.

"We should bail," Todd suggested. "Now."

"I'm on it," Alador said as he prepared to use his Abomination magic to transport everyone, similar to how Darius was able to teleport everyone.

Willow smiled at Terra, who was shaking like a leaf. "Have fun," she said before running towards the others.

"Hurry Willow!" Amity shouted as Willow got underneath the Abomi-dome before she and Alador teleported everyone away.

Leaving Terra alone with the unseen Emperor.

Terra was frozen in place. She was afraid… very, very afraid. "B-Belos…" she said as she looked around for him in the Ruins. She thought she saw his shadow darting around, which spooked her slightly. Fear ran through her body as she realized that she was alone with the one witch she didn't want to see right now. "M-My liege… are you around here?"

"What do you think?"

"GAH!" Terra shouted as she turned to see the Emperor behind her. He wasn't wearing his mask and he was looking around the area. Terra was surprised by face, he appeared to be… calm.

He wasn't paying even attention to Terra at all, instead looking around the flourishing plant life that grew around the Ruins. He touched some of the carved stone, feeling the plants now growing from it. "I must admit, your young opponent has done quite well with this place. The Looking Glass Ruins… I've been meaning to come here." He looked down at the pieces of the Galdorstones and sighed. "And the Galdorstones… shattered before use."

Terra saw that Belos had turned his back on her. She wanted to escape but who knows what would happen if she did. But even this could be an opportunity. Even without the Galdorstones, she could still attack him from behind. So she grew out her thorns to strike at Belos… who raised his hand up to shoot large bursts of flames towards her, incinerating her thorn attack.

"GAAAAAAAAHHH!" Terra screamed as she was burned by the flame attack. The large burst of flames turned Terra's armor into ash and she rolled on the ground to put out the flames that were on her. She succeeded and then summoned more large vines to attack him. Belos simply turned his hand into a claw and slashed the vines to pieces while his face intensified into a glare.

"Did you really think you could get away with this?" Belos asked her.

"I… I…" Terra summoned a carnivorous plant monster and pointed at Belos. "FINISH HIM! DEVOUR HIM!"

Belos looked up at the plant monster with an almost bored expression. The monster opened its jaws to try to eat him… but Belos just raised his hand and instantly froze over the plant monster. Then he punched the monster into pieces. This got Terra to look mortified as Belos. "Are you done yet?"

Terra backed away, desperate to beat him. She unleashed large wooden stakes to try to jab and stab Belos from the ground. But Belos dodged them, his body moving around unnaturally before he pointed his finger at her and shot out a beam of lightning, hitting her feet.

"AAAAAAH!" she shouted as she fell down. She looked down to see the damage… and realized that her skins were now burnt stubs. "AAAAAH! MY SHINS! MY FEET!" Terra looked up at Belos with a terrified expression. "P-P-Please, Belos," Terra coughed weakly. "I'm just… a frail old witch. Y-You still need me for the Day of Unity…"

"I do, do I?" Belos asked thoughtfully, tapping his chin. "Hmm… I don't think everyone would sit well if I allow a child-murdering witch to roam free and partake in the Day of Unity."

Terra crawled back, glaring at Belos as she sent up more thorny vines at him, only for them to get burned to ash again. Despite her fear, she couldn't help but be in awe of his power. He didn't even need a staff to use to show how powerful he is. "Come on, Belos… you need all of the Coven Heads for the Day of Unity, don't you?"

"Oh, I think that I may have already found your replacement," Belos told her. "One much younger and potentially even more powerful than you are."

Hearing his mocking tone, Terra snarled at him as she raised her hand to cast another spell, only for a red claw to form from the ground and pull her hands down. "AAA! WAIT, BELOS, PLEASE!" she cried out as Belos demonstrated his own control of plant magic, summoning red, fleshy thorns made of teeth that started poking through Terra. "GAAAH!"

Belos coldly watched Terra being tortured. However, he then started to wince, grabbing his own face as he knelt down. Him using this power had cost him as scales appeared on his face and a piece of his flesh fell off…

He stopped the torture, Terra looking mangled up from the attack. She winced in pain due to the bloody holes she was now filled with. She looked up at Belos, noticing his change. "W-What are you…?"

"This? Oh, it is just my curse acting up again," Belos said casually as he stood up, revealing his cursed appearance. His face and body was more skeletal and deformed, constantly dripping a brown-and-green sludge-like substance. There were various blue eyes covering his body and on top of his head were two horns that resemble those of his mask. He much more closely resembled the Horned King now, though he managed to retain his hair and his blue eyes.

"Curse?" Terra asked. "I… I didn't realize you were… cursed."

"Yes, I am afraid that this is the cost of the deal I made with the Horned King when he agreed to save my life," Belos said while looking down at Terra. "You see, the Horned King learned from his mistake with the Inner Demon, so he made sure that I fulfilled his… needs."

"H-His needs?" Terra asked, trying to crawl away, but she was held to the ground.

"Yes… you see, Snapdragon, to prevent the curse from consuming me, I have to offer him souls for him to consume instead," he explained while hovering over her. "But not just the souls of Palismen… but the souls of witches as well." Terra shivered when she heard this. "Of course, I have been trying to avoid the latter when I can… but sometimes sacrifices have to be made…"

His arms turned into goop as he pinned Terra down. She screams as she saw Belos's eyes glow and his jaw open unnaturally.

'Devour.'

"No! Belos, please don't!" Terra begged as she struggled to get out of his grip. She looked at her own hands as the flesh started to melt off her bones. "No…. NOOO! NO, PLEASE, STAAP!"

'Devour!'

Terra gave a blood-curdling scream as her flesh started to melt off, exposing her muscles as Belos continued to drain her soul. "NOOOOOOOOOOOO!" she cried as her hair fell off from her scalp and her face melted with her eyes liquidated.

"DEVOUR!"

"Aaaack…." she gasped as her voice became hollow, the flesh melting and peeling away until there was nothing but bones. Her skull then crumbled to pieces, her dress withering into leaves. Terra's soul had been completely consumed by Belos, who watched her blood and flesh fade.

After that, Belos returned to normal. He felt his face and his scar, letting out a sigh. His curse had been dealt with for now, but he knew that this would not be the last time he would need to feed. "It's hard to find good help these days," he muttered while looking down at Terra's remains.

Back at the Park home, Amity's group had returned. They were all bruised and battered, but they were also alive. And they were triumphant. They went inside, where they saw that everyone was awake.

"Ams, Willow, welcome back!" Luz declared while holding up the snare, which contained the Inner Demon.

"Luz, you did it!" Amity replied with a smile as everyone went to hug each other, congratulating and welcoming them back.

"Are you alright, Lily?" Eda asked, seeing Lilith's injuries.

"I think I'm just gonna sit down," Lilith replied as she went to sit, still thinking about Vina.

Willow's dads hugged her. "Willow! We're so glad that you're back!" Gilbert declared.

"How are you? And how did you get your hair long?" Sully asked, noticing her new look.

"It's a long story…" Willow said while looking down, admiring her new look.

"So that's the Inner Demon," Alador said as he and Odalia looked at the demon in the canister.

"The same guy that has plagued the Isles for centuries," Dolly confirmed, already looking much better.

"I think you've caused enough trouble for everyone in the Isles," Odalia told the demon as she flicked the snare, making him cower.

"What about Terra? Did you guys handle her?" Hunter asked.

"We did, barely, but Willow here is the MVP for taking on that crazy witch," Amity said while Willow blushed.

"It was nothing, really," Willow responded with a wave. "She had it coming a mile away."

"You defeated a former Coven Head? Wait until Skara hears about this, captain," Boscha said with a proud look.

"Yeah! Way to go, Willow!" Gus declared while Perry nodded.

"I'm so proud of my little girl!" Gilbert said. "Defeating Terra for good." He paused. "But please don't do anything like that again."

"Well, I only wailed at her," Willow explained. "Belos showed up after the mist cleared, so we had to bail out of there."

"Meaning, Terra is now Belos's problem," Lilith explained. "And I doubt he'll keep her around after all the damage she did."

"I imagine this means a long news week," Todd spoke up, causing everyone to turn to him.

"Todd? What… what are you doing here?" Luz asked while looking around. "I thought Kitsuni would be here."

"Right, you didn't know about that," Todd said while scratching the back of his head. "It's a long story…"

"Well, we can save that for later, because right now, it's time that we release our catch," Snope said as he turned to Luz. "Would you do the honors?"

Luz nodded. "Stand back, everybody," she warned as she opened up the snare, releasing the Inner Demon from his imprisonment.

What landed on the floor was an old, pale human man with glasses, a bald head, and beard. His clothing was dirty and foul. He was very old and shriveled… and scared.

"What the… I'm… I'm out!" the Inner Demon said, looking around and realizing where he was. "Wait… I'm in the real world!" He felt his face. "I'm flesh and bone!"

"Welcome to reality, ya Stephen King wannabe," Luz told him.

"Geez, you smell like sulfur and a rotten egg mixed together," Eda commented.

"Guess you're not a god now, huh?" Dolly mocked him with a smile.

The Inner Demon got up and stepped back from them, noticing their angered expressions. "Wha… what are you going to do to me?" he asked in fear.

"Oh, we're not going to do anything to you," Luz admitted with a smile.

"You're… not?" he asked while shivering.

"Nope… cause I got a deal to keep," Luz said as the room was filled with the sound of… music.

"Bum-bum-bum, bum-bum bum, bum…"

The room darkened as they saw a shadow loom over the Inner Demon. He turned around to see that behind him was a large mask that had showed up out of nowhere, much to everyone's surprise. It was the mask… of the Baron.

"Hello, Inner Demon… are you ready?!" the Baron asked.

"R-Ready? For what?!" the Inner Demon asked as he was suddenly pulled to the ground by the shadows appearing around him. "No! Where are you taking me?!"

"Are you ready?" everyone sang to the Inner Demon as he was pulled toward the Baron's mouth.

"NO! What is this!? Is this Hell?! NOOOOOOOOOOO!" the Inner Demon cried, clawing at the floor in desperation. He looked up at the witches in the room. "Help! Someone! HEEELLLLP!" he cried, drums playing as he was dragged into the loa's realm, the mouth of the Baron slamming shut once the Inner Demon was in his mouth.

After a flash of lights, the lights were back on. Everyone saw that the Inner Demon was no more, as the Baron had claimed him.

"Whoa…" Boscha said in shock.

"Our debt's been paid," Luz said while turning to Lilith. "Looks like you're free from the Baron, Aunt Lilith."

"Yes, I am," Lilith replied with a smile. "Thank you, Luz."

The two hugged and Eda went to hug both of them while Snope went to sit down on the couch, tears leaking from his eyes as his felt this huge weight suddenly lifted from his shoulders.

"It's… it's over," Snope said. "It's finally over."

"Yeah, we won," Amity replied as she went to hug her parents, glad that the Inner Demon was gone for good. Her parents hugged her back.

For a moment, nobody else spoke. They just allowed themselves to enjoy this feeling of relief that washed over all of them. They had done it.

The Inner Demon. The Tarot Guild. Terra Snapdragon. All of it was no more.

"So… what now?" Kadabe asked at last, getting everyone to look at each other and ask themselves the exact same question.

What now?

At the Smith house, Summer was still looking into her crystal ball. She used some spells and incantation until it finally began to glow.

"Oh shit, did it work?" Summer asked as she saw smoke coming out of it.

"Oooo-*blech*-YEEAAAH!" shouted a ghost coming out of the crystal ball. Summer was taken aback as she saw the ghost of her grandfather covered in chains that were connected to money boxes and piggy banks. "Summer! It is I! Ghost Rick! For I was once Witch Rick, I have become Ghost Rick!"

"Oh my Titan, Grandpa Rick! I knew it!" Summer cried out. "But… why are you covered in chains? Is that a ghost thing?"

"Oh no, I did this to myself while I was waiting in the ghost realm," Ghost Rick explained. "Thought I could do a little comeback with a Christmas Carol parody. Of course, we already did that, but that was in October…" He looked around. "So um… what month is this?"

Hey guys, quick author's notes before trivia.

We had a blast writing for this chapter. Now we didn't have time for a Christmas special this year. But to make up for it, we've decided to have this chapter where two of the nastiest LC villains to be finally defeated for good. A good Christmas present for our wonderful readers.

This chapter is the true climax of the Tarot Guild arc, concluding the end of the reign of terror of the Inner Demon and Terra. The next chapter will be an epilogue that will begin to set up the final arc of Book Two… the Day of Unity arc. And of course, with Belos killing Terra was always meant to re-established him as the next big threat that the characters will deal with.

The body doubles that Terra has in this chapter is our way for you readers to enjoy seeing versions of Terra killed over and over again. A cathartics factor. Originally, we thought of Arthur and Destiny would build some kind of mech for Terra to use against the heroes… but we thought it wouldn't really be her style.

The part with Hunter and the Inner Gavin was when writing, we've come to realized that throughout the story, Hunter should have to view Darius as the flawed witch he is… because with all his faults, Darius can be neglectful. He is responsible for neglect towards his son, and his ex-wife does have the right to be mad at him. You could say it's because of his coven duties get in the way, it's not really an excuse for Darius's neglect.

Also we also wanted Gus to have an important role in Terra's defeat, despite him sitting out of the final battle. So even if it's small, it made a big difference, as we have Gus be the one to find out where Terra is.

And yeah, we've changed who would face the Inner Demon despite the trailer indicates. We've decided that some of the characters like Willow, Amity and her parents would want to face Terra while Boscha and Hunter are the ones helping Luz, Eda and Snope to face the Inner Demon.

Oh, and not to worry. You won't see Terra in Hell. Because the Horned King has consumed his soul. In a sense, Terra could've liked Hell, but it was too good for her. Now that's a punishment fitting for her...

Now for some trivia:

-"Snuff Out the Light" was the original song for Yzma by Sting and sung by Ertha Kitt, which was originally going to be used for the Emperor's New Groove's original version "Kingdom of the Sun". We thought of taking an opportunity to used this song as another of Terra's villain songs.

-The "You Got the Touch" moment for Willow's power up is inspired by the scene with Hot Rod becoming Rodimus Prime in "Transformers: The Movie(1986)"

-Snope explaining how Goggles lost a brother to the Inner Demon is definitely an IT reference.

-The Nina-Counterpart laying dead in the crater is a reference to the Yamcha death meme.

-Ghost Rick's return in chains is a Christmas Carol reference. Just thought it'd be a neat reference to make.

Now for the reviews:

61394: We enjoy driving down how insane Nicole would be, from a petty Karen to an unreasonable straight-up villain.

BlueKnight-X2: Nicole didn't become a Heartless, sort-of, she's a shadow of her former self.

Crash X Fusion: As said, she made a pack with the Inner Demon to make her immune. Gavin didn't listened to Terra, it was the Inner Demon who has been into Gavin's memories notified Terra about Emily's return. As for Clair, I don't think she disowned the name, I imagined she had a different surname before married to the Drakescales. And no, she along with Amelia's parents aren't trapped in the Plant Coven. By anime time, we meant like, an hour can measure up to however long we've had in-story.

Matteso585: 1) Yeah, probably tortured her. 2) Turns out she's not. 3) No spoilers. 4) He never was.

Franco Almiron: Glad you like.

Krypton Writes: What mysteries?

Spantidem7: 1) Just a witch. 2) Glandus got to them. 3) Nope. Luz still has some issues with Emily.

Shuffollower: Eh, Venoma doesn't really care how Wonder Witch got away. As for the names, well, not many superheroes have good names either. Like, most of 90s-made superhero teams don't really have good codenames like Dogwelder, Cynthia Reynolds really needs to change her codename, and if you've heard of the Whizzer… yeah, he should've seen those juvenile jokes coming. But that's the fun of superhero codenames, they can be seemingly bad but good.

Blue Tagg: Eventually.

Next chapter, the epilogue of the Tarot Guild arc, as the characters deal with the aftermath...