A/N: Thanks for your patience my friends! I'm trying to get these arcs all done before posting them, that way you can enjoy all the chapters and are not left waiting too long for the next chapter. With the uploading this chapter, there will be 3 more. So, one for Saturday, Sunday, and Monday.
Also, LUMITY IS CANON, AND I LOVE IT!
Sorry, had to get that out.
Now onto the reviews!
starwing1995: Sorry to say, but that's not entirely possible. Phantoms are pure evil beings, born from despair and darkness. Now if you know your lore, there is an exception to the rule.
Dr. KRC PhD: Your answer will be in this arc. Also, credit where credit is due, thanks for the idea of the scene in this chap.
OMCAC001: I'll make this known to everyone. I have figured out who the Secondary Rider will be, I have set up their powers, weapons, and final form, and I know who it will be. Since that goes into SPOILER territory, you all will find out together when they make their appearance.
WaterDragonMaverick: I'm glad you're enjoying this story. Rest assured we will see a different Phantoms. I've tried to pull from different mythologies so it should be a fairly unique set of monsters. And since I don't have to work around a person in a suit, I make them as inhuman as I want!
Now, onto the next arc!
The incident at Hexside caused ripples across the Boiling Isles, the appearance of the Phantoms was bad, but now the citizens of the island now knew that these creatures had the ability to perfectly mimic other witches, to the point that the parents of one Zera Westwood, had no idea their child was a monster. It was for that reason that Emperor Belos called for an emergency meeting of the heads of the Nine Covens.
Lilith was standing sentry at the doors to Emperor Belos' throne room, the halls were lined with Coven guards, all at attention and ready to receive their guests. That's when Lilith saw them rounding the corner, they all wore white cloaks, and each had a different insignia pin that represented their different Covens that held their cloaks in place. The first was an olive-skinned man, with emerald green eyes, his hair was various shades of purple, with the back knot made of, what appeared to be, an Abomination with a singular green glowing eye. The pin identified him as the head of the Abomination Coven.
The second was short and bestial, with tan colored fur on its face, and a brown colored, long mane. Its eyes were red in color, with yellow sclera. This being was riding a worm creature with sharp teeth lining the inside of its mouth. The pin of the Beast Coven was upon this one.
The third wore a mask and kept their hood drawn, making it hard to determine if they were male or female, this one had the pin of the head of the Bard Coven.
The fourth was taller than the others, wearing blue robes under their cloak, their eyes were covered with a blue cloth, and upon their head was a crescent shaped headdress. They wore the pin of the Healing Coven.
The fifth had a tall hat, a yellow cloth over their mouth, a long noise, red colored irises and yellow sclera. This being had the pin of the Potions Coven.
The sixth was a man with blue-green hair, and azure eyes. He had an earring of a mirror on his left pointed ears and had the pin of the Illusionist Coven.
The seventh was an elderly looking demon, with a long handlebar mustache, and claw-like hair. His skin was purple skin, black sclera, and pale blue irises. This demon wore the pin of the Oracle Coven.
The eighth was also elderly, she had long grayish green hair, two yellow horn-like protrusions came out from her head, and she had a hat that looked like a strawberry. She had the pin of the Plant Coven.
The ninth and final member of the Coven Heads was a gruff looking older man, he had a bushy gray beard, hazel green eyes, dark skinned, and bald. He had the pin of the Construction Coven.
Lilith knew them as Heads of their Covens, there were no other witches as skilled as they were at their crafts. Among their individual Covens they were powerful, but compared to Emperor Belos they were barely subpar, but then again, that was to be expected. Lilith was the head of the Emperor's Coven, and the literal poster girl for new recruits. Not to brag but she was sure she would be a match for any one of them, but as a group, that would be a tall order.
All nine of the Coven leaders were in the throne room, the large double doors slammed shut behind them, with Lilith taking her place at the Emperor's right side. The second-in-command, the demoness, Kikimura, stood at the left hand of the Emperor. The Emperor turned his head slightly, glancing over all the assembled leaders of the Nine Covens. After a moment, the Emperor spoke.
"Greetings, everyone. I had hoped to speak to you all a little closer to the Day of Unity, but a matter has arisen that requires our collective attention." Emperor Belos turned to Lilith and said, "Lilith, if you please."
"Yes, Sir." Lilith drew a spell circle in the air, and with a flick of her wrist she expanded it and revealed images of Wendigo, and clips from the social media postings of the young witches of Hexside of Wil-'O-The-Wisp. "These creatures have recently appeared on the Boiling Isles; they have identified themselves as 'Phantoms'. So far, they have shown themselves to be immune to conventional magic, or at the very least minorly affected by it."
Lilith switched the images and showed Kamen Rider Witch.
"The other new arrival is calling themselves 'Kamen Rider Witch'. Our experts have been able to determine that it's not the same word as 'common' the spelling is K-A-M-E-N, meaning masked in a human dialect. This Witch appears to be the only one able to effectively harm and destroy these Phantoms, utilizing, possibly, wild magic. But as of now that's undetermined."
With another flick of her wrist the images changed to show Zera Westwood on a side-by-side with her Phantom form.
"The incident at Hexside has shown that these Phantoms have the ability to not only look like someone, but also perfectly mimic their habits, mannerisms, personality, and memories. We spoke extensively with Ms. Westwood's parents, and to their knowledge they saw no differences in their daughter. She ate dinner the same as always, did her schoolwork, and spoke of the typical things that would concern a teenage witch of her age. I don't need to tell you how frightening this is."
Kikimura decided to chime in here. "These Phantoms can easily move about our society, we're currently working on detection spells to try and differentiate them from our citizens, but until then, we need to keep a vigilant watch."
"Pardon me," the Bard Coven head spoke, "But has there been any investigation that this might correlate to the mass kidnappings not too long ago?"
The other Coven heads began to murmur in agreement with this question.
"We have started looking into that as a possible correlation between the appearance of the Phantoms and the kidnapped people. Those who were kidnapped managed to return, seemingly unharmed. However, we can't be sure that these Phantoms are the ones who were kidnapped, or if they are able to masquerade as other demons and witches," said Lilith.
"For now, those who were returned after the kidnapping incident will be monitored for suspicious activity. Their names have been kept out of public knowledge, but the last thing we need is to cause our citizens to go and hunt down the kidnapping victims and dispense their own mob justice, we must keep order in the Boiling Isles," said Kikimura.
"So, you like us to keep an eye out within our own Covens? Keep our ears to the ground?" the head of the Abomination Coven asked.
Lilith nodded in confirmation of the Abominatio Coven leader's assessment. "That would be ideal. More eyes and ears will make it easier to root out these Phantoms, at the same time, we would also like to establish a capture order for Kamen Rider Witch."
"Pardon me," the head of the Healing Coven broke in, "but isn't it better to allow her to continue acting? As it stands, she has not harmed our citizens, if anything, she's saved them. If she is the only one capable of effectively dispatching the Phantoms, would it not be better to allow her to operate as she has been?"
Kikimura bristled at the suggestion. "Of course not! If this Witch uses wild magic, she is a danger everyone! Besides, we're still unsure if this is her doing or not! And if we manage to capture her, we might be able to replicate the kind of magic she's using to kill these Phantoms and arm ourselves with it."
Emperor Belos stood and made everyone go silent. "As it stands, this is the state of things. I will issue a statement shortly to ensure our citizens that the matter is under control, we mustn't cause any undue panic. In the meantime, keep vigilant, the Day of Unity will be upon us soon, and these creatures must be snuffed out of our society before then."
Everyone in attendance bowed to Emperor Belos' decree, and with that the meeting was over. The Nine Coven leaders walked out of the throne room, Lilith and Kikimura were about to do the same, but Belos' raised his right hand.
"Hold, Lilith, I wish to speak to you, alone."
"Of course, my Emperor," said Lilith.
Kikimura was visibly agitated, and Lilith knew it. The little demoness always sought to be Emperor Belos' right hand, but she was always passed over in favor of young prodigies like Lilith, and the Emperor's other favorite. If it wasn't so sad, Lilith would have pity for Kikimura, but she didn't, as the demoness was an even bigger thorn in her side than her sister Edalyn was.
Once Kikimura left the throne room, Belos' said, "For the time being, I'm suspending your mission of bringing your sister into our Coven. This is a threat that I need everyone's attention on."
"Oh…I see," said Lilith in surprise.
"However," Belos stated quickly, "Don't think that ending this scourge in any way is a substitute for our deal. I still expect you to bring the Owl Lady into my Coven, and when that happens, I will cure her. Ending this scourge is one of your duties as part of the Head of Emperor's Coven."
Lilith bowed her head slightly and said, "Of course, I understand my Emperor."
School was still closed down for the rest the week, the Parent Creature Association was currently in talks with the Emperor's Coven and Principal Bump about the safety of the students and whether or not the kids should be allowed back to school. Given that a student was a monster in disguise, it caused some to be a little weary. But this turned out to be a blessing for Luz as it allowed her to get some practice in. She had been leaving the Owl House on the pretense that she was going to meet up with her friends, some of those were true, but other times she was out training.
Like today. Luz had wandered deep into the woods, making sure that no one would see her. Once she was at her spot, Luz took off her shirt and revealed a tank top underneath, and after hiding behind a large rock she removed her leggings and shorts for some slinky basketball shorts. Now changed, Luz entered her fighting stance, she did a few quick palm strikes, followed up by a roundhouse kick. She rolled onto the ground and did a sweeping kick, followed by a palm uppercut, leading into an elbow strike.
Wizard may've transferred his fighting prowess and techniques into her mind, but Luz knew that if she wanted to be ready for the next attack, she had to train her body. Even though her body underwent a transformation that made her taller and older, Luz knew that she couldn't just rely on that. If she wanted her Kamen Rider form to get stronger, than she needed to get stronger in her civilian form first. Luz ran at a tree and amazingly began to scale it, at least until gravity started to take hold, then Luz vaulted off the tree, flipped in the air, and landed on the ground, superhero style. The rustling of leaves caught Luz's attention, she got ready, but paused when she saw Willow.
"Hey, Willow, you're right on time!" Luz exclaimed. "Was it hard to get here?"
"No, but I did have a hard time explaining to Gus that I didn't want to hang out today. And my dads were a little worried, so I told them I was going to the Owl House to see you," said Willow.
"I'm sorry for having you lie, Willow. But I can't risk letting anyone else know my secret."
Willow nodded her head. "I understand. So, why did you want me to meet you here?"
Luz smiled and said, "I want you to help me with my training. There's only so much I can do just pretend fighting on my own. So, I want you to be my sparring partner!"
Willow nervously rubbed her arm. "Luz, I know I work out a lot, but I'm not a fighter. I could learn some things, but I think you'd easily beat me."
Luz shook her head. "No, no, you don't have to fight me directly. I mean use your magic to summon some vines or something. Attack me from different directions and make me have to stay on my toes."
The young witchling tapped her chin as she considered Luz's proposal, but after a few seconds she sighed and nodded her agreement. "Okay, but how hard do you want me to come at you?"
Luz took a few steps back and slipped on a ring.
[Connect, Please.]
Luz created a portal to her left and reached into the pocket dimension. After drawing out her hand, she was now holding the WizarSwordGun. "Come at me like you mean it, Willow. It's not training otherwise."
Willow looked reluctant but trusted that her friend knew what she was doing. "Alright then…" The plant witch drew two spell circles with her hands, and then slammed both her hands against the ground.
The earth beneath Luz began to rumble, making Luz enter a fighting stance as she switched her weapon to sword mode. Suddenly, large vines burst forth from the ground around her, each one riddled with sharp thorns. Oh, nice! "I'm going to come at you Willow, use your vines to keep me away!"
With the terms of the training stipulated, Luz charged straight ahead for Willow. The large vines began attacking Luz, one of them slamming down over her, Luz jumped and slashed the vine with her weapon, cutting it half. Another one came at her from behind, but Luz switched the WizarSwordGun into gun mode. She turned around in midair and blasted the vine to pieces, but at the last second a third one came at her from behind, smacking her in the back and sending Luz flying into the ground before coming to a rolling stop.
"Luz! I'm sorry, are you alright?!" Willow asked.
Luz groaned but managed to get back to her feet. "I'm fine, Willow. Like I said, this is training, if you don't act like it's real then it doesn't count!"
With that declared, Luz switched back to sword mode and ran at Willow. More vines broke free from the ground and started to lash out at Luz like angry vipers. Luz slashed the ones she could and dodged the ones she couldn't. One of the vines' thorns slashed Luz across her right arm, making the Latina wince from the pain. But she pressed on, switching between gun and sword mode as the situation called. She vaulted off some of the vines and rolled under others. One of them burst from the ground right in front of her, but Luz dropped and slid across the dirt like a baseball player sliding for home plate. When she was behind it, Luz slashed the vine, chopping it down like a tree before continuing.
Willow was close now, but that's when her luck stopped as another vine struck from the ground and wrapped around her left leg. Luz fell forward, dropping the WizarSwordGun in the process. Luz hurriedly took out a ring and placed it against her buckle.
[Small, Please.]
A magic circle passed over Luz, and she suddenly became as small as a mouse. Tiny Luz cancelled out the spell and returned to her full size, but when she did another vine came at her, a big one. Luz decided to counter this with another ring.
[Big, Please.]
A magic circle appeared in front of Luz, the young teenager thrust her right arm through it, and on the other side her hand and arm grew to the size of a giant, just big enough to grab the vine with her bare hands. That was a mistake.
"OW!" Luz yelled as she released the vine.
Willow called off the vines and rushed to her friend just as Luz retracted her hand from the circle. "Luz, what's wrong?!"
Luz opened her right palm and showed some puncture wounds that were bleeding a little. "I grabbed it without thinking."
"Oh, Luz, I'm so sorry!"
"No, Willow, it's my fault! I should've thought better than to use my bare hands on a thorny vine," said Luz.
"Okay, can we stop for now?" Willow asked.
Luz could tell that Willow was upset that she was hurt by her, with that in mind, Luz smiled at Willow and said, "Yeah, we can."
The two girls sat by a tree; Willow had brought a first aid kit just in case. The bespectacled witch dabbed Luz's hand with some disinfecting solution which made her hiss in more pain.
"Sorry."
When that was over, Willow wrapped Luz's hand in some bandages. Luz flexed her hand a bit and said, "Good as new."
"I have to say, your rings are amazing. It's like your glyph magic was given a serious upgrade," said Willow.
"I know right?! Sucks that I can't use 'em or people will know that I'm Witch. I kind of already stand out for being a human using glyphs to cast spells, if they saw me with the rings, they'd definitely know I'm Witch," said Luz.
Willow watched as Luz reached into her backpack and took out a candy bar. "You sure you don't want something more than that?"
"Sugary foods replenish my mana faster, I learned that from Mr. Soma," said Luz.
"Mr. Soma? Ah, right, the 'wizard' who's now in your head, I forgot."
"He doesn't really live in my head…" Luz thought for a moment as she tried to think of the best way to phrase it. "It's like if Gus used one of his illusion copies, but it only appears in my head."
Willow nodded, she kind of understood what Luz was saying, but some of this still went over her head. She just found out that her best friend was the hero who saved her, not once, but twice. And after talking to Luz, she found out that there are more Phantoms on the island, two were gone, which left twenty-eight to go. It scared Willow when she thought about how close she was to becoming one of those Phantom monsters, but thanks to Luz, that was no longer an issue. Her "Inner Phantom" was destroyed and would never come back, which meant she was no longer a target for the Phantoms. Unfortunately, the wasn't the case for the rest of the Isles.
And poor Zera…
"Luz…are you sure there was no way to save, Zera?" Willow asked.
Luz stopped munching on her candy and sighed heavily as she hugged her legs to her chest. "No, there wasn't. Mr. Soma told me that a Phantom destroys the soul of the person it's born from. They can have the memories, quirks, and mannerisms of that person, but it's all an act. Just a way of throwing you off their track. I should know…I felt it…I almost got erased."
Willow put her hand on Luz's shoulder, she couldn't imagine the kind of pain she must've endured when that happened. "I'm sorry you had to go through that."
Luz smiled at her friend and said, "Don't worry, it'll take more than that to keep me down. Because that's how I managed to bring my Inner Phantom under control and now I can use magic because of that."
"Hmm, but are you really sure that they're gone forever?"
Luz thought about that, so much so that she called upon her inner mentor. The world became monochrome, and Wizard appeared in front of Luz. "Mr. Soma, is there any chance that someone could've become a Phantom, but still managed to stay who they are?"
Despite not being able to see his face, Luz could tell by his body language that the question seemed to be unpleasant to him. "There once was a person who was called, Sora. He was a hairdresser, and as it turns out, he was there on the same day I was during the Sabbath ritual. However, when his Phantom emerged, Sora didn't fall into despair. He managed to stay who he was even after transforming."
Luz's eyes widened. "Wait, so it is possible?! Why didn't you tell me?! I might've been able to–!"
"But." Wizard interrupted. "That's only because his heart was evil."
Luz looked at Wizard in confusion.
"Sora was a serial killer, Luz. He delighted in despair and the act of killing. Sora had renounced his humanity long before he ever became a Phantom, he was a monster to begin with. Because of that, the Phantom and Sora merged as one, allowing Sora to remain who he was, but with all the powers of a Phantom."
That honestly scared Luz, the Phantoms were already monsters, but if someone was a monster to begin with then they could become ten times worse as a Phantom.
"I'm not sure who the other people were before they were transformed into Phantoms, but if any of them were evil to begin with, then they'll be even more dangerous than the other Phantoms. Be careful of these, Luz."
Wizard disappeared, returning the world to its colorful state. Luz collected herself, but not before Willow noticed the slight distress in Luz's eyes.
"Did you just talk to Mr. Soma?" Willow asked.
"Y-Yeah…I asked him the same question you asked me," said Luz. "Turns out that some can still be who they are even if they become a Phantom. The only catch is, it'll only work for people who are completely evil inside to begin with."
Willow gulped. "Oh…that's…wow…"
"Yeah…wow."
Night fell upon the Boiling Isles, some of the people were warned to be vigilant due to the recent reveal of the Phantom menace. However, there were some who didn't take these warnings too seriously, case in point, was the young demon girl, Luna.
She had gone out to get some things from the market for her family as a note signed by her mother was left on the door, she was advised to be careful, but Luna was in the Oracle Track. If there was trouble, she'd be able to see it coming. Although, there was a monster hiding amongst them at school, and neither she, nor any of the Oracle oriented witches managed to see that coming. Luna decided not to think about, most Oracle readings required concentration on a specific target. Now that Luna knew what she was looking for, she could see it coming. Which was also why she held her crystal ball close.
After getting the few ingredients for her mother, she headed back home. However, as she walked, Luna couldn't help but feel something watching her. The demon girl turned around but spotted no one.
"Calm down, Luna. You just need to get home, just another block and you'll be fine," she said.
Luna drew a small spell circle with her right hand and aimed it at the crystal ball. The ball shimmered, filling with a cloud of sparkling magenta smoke. Luna focused her thoughts on "Phantom" and waited for the crystal ball to show her if those creatures were after her. However, nothing appeared, it only showed the surrounding area, but no Phantom. Luna should've taken this as a good sign, but she still couldn't shake this uneasy feeling that she was being stalked.
Quickening her pace, Luna hurried along. She could see the lights of her home; it wasn't much further now. But just as she was about to get there, a shadow appeared out of nowhere and whisked her into an alleyway just off to her right. The demon teen struggled against her captor, dropping both her crystal ball and bag of groceries. The assailant was too strong, even when she was kicking and striking at them, they showed no response to her efforts.
"Now, now my dear, this will only hurt for a moment."
"LET ME GO! LET ME GO! HELP! SOMEBODY HELP ME!" Luna screamed.
The assailant grabbed her by the chin and forced her to look up at them. "Look into my eyes…" he said.
The mysterious being's eyes shined red in the darkness of the alley, Luna kept struggling, doing everything she could to get away. But the moment her one eye fell upon the glowing orbs of her attacker, she stopped. No more screaming, no more struggling, just stillness. The attacker removed his hand from Luna's chin, and as if through some unspoken command, Luna used her right hand to tug at the collar of her shirt, exposing more of her neck.
From a rooftop adjacent to the alley, the Phantom general, Set, watched on as the assailant continued his deed. He watched as Luna went limp in the attacker's grasp, and after another moment, the attacker released Luna, gently guiding her down to the ground princess style.
"I know you're watching me up there," said the attacker.
"You go against Lady Tiamat's orders, you are to find Gates and increase our ranks, not do as you please!" Set stated.
The Phantom flashed Set a toothy grin. "I'm different from the rest of you, so I don't take orders from you. I'll have my fun as I see fit. Until we meet again."
The Phantom disappeared into the shadows, leaving Luna where she was. Set growled in anger at the defiance of his fellow Phantom and vanished in a cloud of black smoke and red lightning.
Deep in the bone caves of the Titan, the Phantom Pantheon gathered. Tiamat remained in the shadows, her five pair of eyes peering at the other three Phantom generals.
"Witch has destroyed another of our brethren," said Tiamat.
"We should hunt her down before she has the chance to do any more damage to us!" Typhon insisted.
"We still don't know who she is, nor do we have a full understanding of her abilities. It would be wise to wait and see what else she's capable of," said Ahuizotl.
Ifrit spat at the idea. "And in the meantime, we sacrifice more our fellow Phantoms."
Ahuizotl snarled at Ifrit. "If they weren't strong enough to defeat her, then they weren't worth bringing into this world!"
"ENOUGH!" Tiamat's eyes glowed as her voice echoed in the cave, putting an end to the argument. Her five pairs of eyes looked over the gathered Phantoms again and she paused. "Where is Set?"
As if on cue, the black and red garbed monster appeared in a chaotic cloud of black smoke and red lightning. "Apologies, Lady Tiamat, but we may have a problem."
"A problem?" Tiamat asked.
"It would seem one of our Phantoms has gone rogue."
Typhon looked down at Set and asked in an incredulous tone, "What do you mean 'went rogue'?! Who would dare go against us?!"
"They're not so much going against us, so much as they are doing what they want. We may end up losing potential Gates thanks to this rogue Phantom," Set explained.
Ifrit beat his right fist against the palm of his left claw and chuckled. "I'll take care of 'em."
"No." Tiamat ordered. "This will be an opportunity for us to see what else Witch is capable of, just as Ahuizotl said. Keep an eye on this rogue one, but let Witch have them."
Set bowed to Tiamat, but then asked, "And if this rogue Phantom is able to defeat Witch? Or if he attacks a Gate?"
"If a Gate is in danger, stop him. If he is successful in defeating her. Then you will congratulate them, right before you destroy them for going against my orders."
"As you wish, Lady Tiamat."