After Gus and Matt were left locked in their cage in the dark, neither of them said anything for a long time: both were too shocked to speak. Never did they remember having seen something so terrifying; Grometheus's descent had been nothing in comparison. That guy who until recently had seemed like just a nice old man had turned into something that would have been an understatement to call scary; Gus didn't have the faintest idea what kind of creature it was, but something inside him told him that he had met it before even if he couldn't remember when or where... and instinctively his body remembered it as something they absolutely had to escape from.

In the end it was Gus who broke the silence: "Let's get out of here... we gotta get out of here!" he exclaimed. "Matt! Hey, buddy! Are you there?"

But the crab was still totally catatonic; his eyes were wide and he was staring into the black void before them. "Matt! Matt!" Gus called out shaking him. "Matt, now's not the time! We need to leave before that monster comes back! It'll eat us too if we stay here!"

But Matt wasn't even listening. "Steve..." he whispered in a small voice. "He… he devoured him… he had…!"

Gus bit his lip. He didn't think he could understand what his friend was really going through. It must have been truly terrible to find the brother that he thought he had lost forever, only to see him die just minutes later. "Think of our friends, Matt! Think of them!"

Those words had an effect on the crab, who seemed to wake up from a dream. "Our friends...?"

"Yes!" Gus told him. "Think about them! They're here too! We need to warn them before that monster does something to them!"

Matt shook himself; his movements were jerky and he seemed to have become unable to walk normally, but a small light seemed to have rekindled in his eyes. "Yes... we must... we must warn the others... before it's too late!"

Gus knew that if he told Matt 'don't think about Steve' it would only have the opposite effect; telling a person not to think about something only made them think about it more. The best way to get Matt to come to his senses was to distract him by giving him something else to think about. Their friends were in danger, so he had to shake himself out of his stupor one way or another. "Okay... let's escape then" he said determinedly. "First question… do we still have our powers?"

He tried to conjure an illusion and succeeded fully; it seemed that he had retained the powers that the Collector had given him, albeit a little less in scope given that the illusions he was able to conjure were decidedly smaller. A smaller body probably equated to a smaller amount of available magic. "Matt, can you use your powers to open the bars?"

The crab tried to manipulate the earth around them, but he immediately froze in astonishment. "Gus... something's wrong" she whispered. "These bars... I think they're made of organic matter!"

It took Gus a few moments to fully understand what his friend had just said. "What...? Are you telling me... that this cage is alive?"

"Not just the cage" Matt replied. "I'm trying to get some dirt from the walls, from the floor, from the ceiling... but I can't even find a bit of soil". He trembled slightly. "It's as if this entire cave... is alive"

Gus swallowed and felt a shiver run through his body. It was at that point that he remembered a detail. "When we fell here… the hole that opened up underneath us looked like a mouth" he said. "Is it possible that... we are inside the body of some sort of giant worm?"

"You mean something swallowed us?" Matt asked. "It seems absurd..."

Both were definitely scared. "Well... one problem at a time" Gus said, and then he had an epiphany: "Wait... what magic do you think that guy used to transform us?"

Matt cocked his head to the side, not understanding. "Excuse me, what do you mean?"

"It just reminded me of… well, when we had amulets!" Gus replied. "Remember? Eda's magic couldn't really turn us into humans, and in fact we still possessed all the typical characteristics of arthropods! It took a djinn to actually transform us! So... if that creepy guy didn't use life magic to transform us, but he only put a curse on us, maybe the same thing is true in reverse! Maybe right now we still have the strength we had when we were human!"

Matt's eyes widened. "Do you think... we could break the bars?"

"Yes! This cage is made for arthropods, but if we still have the strength we had when we were humans, then we might be able to open it!" Gus answered him. "Come on, try to open a gap!"

"Why do I have to do it?" Matt asked unsure. Given the series of horrors they had already witnessed, he didn't want to know what would happen to him if he were caught red-handed.

"Because you're much stronger than me" Gus replied. "And because I don't have claws!"

Matt had to accept that that explanation was definitely valid, so he steeled himself and grabbed two of the bars. He used all his strength, and even planted his paws on the floor of the cage to give himself more push; he had to try very hard, but slowly the bars curved until they formed a small gap. "Yay!" Gus exclaimed as he stepped out of it, and then helped his friend do the same. "Matt, you're great!"

"Ugh… thanks," the crab replied. "Where are we going now?"

Gus fell silent. Yes, where could they go now? There was nothing but darkness around them. He wasn't sure if making light was a good idea, but they certainly couldn't proceed by groping, so he created the illusion of a torch to illuminate at least a little; what they saw was that they were in a sort of tunnel high enough for a person to pass through, which descended further and further downwards. "Well... it doesn't look like we have any chance of getting back there" he commented, looking at the ceiling, which was completely closed. "Let's go... this way!"

So they set off through the tunnel; but it wasn't long before they found a fork in the road, and then another, and then another, and then another. That place was a real labyrinth. "Damn! We'll never find the exit like this!" Gus grumbled annoyed as they came to yet another crossroads.

But Matt seemed more concerned about something else. "Gus... how far do you think we've walk?"

"Huh? Well, I think at least a few dozen meters. Why?" Gus asked him.

"Because there is no rock around us yet" Matt replied. "Only organic matter"

Gus froze at those words. He had forgotten about that detail. "But... so it can't be a worm or something. I mean... what creature has so many forks in its digestive tract?"

"I don't think we're in the digestive tract, Gus" Matt told him. He looked much, much more scared than before. "I memorized the whole route we took and I realized that... it resembles something we studied in school"

Gus didn't like his friend's tone at all. "And... what is it about?"

Matt swallowed. "Blood vessels. Those directly under the skin"

Gus froze. He couldn't believe what his friend had just said, but... thinking about it, the path actually matched a lot. "But... that's not possible! If these are blood vessels, and those close to the skin at that, the creature they belong to should be...!"

He fell silent before finishing the sentence, and Matt's look fully demonstrated that he too had already thought of that detail. To have blood vessels so large that a man could fit through them, the creature in question should have to be gigantic. "Let's not despair. Maybe it's dead" Matt tried to say. "I mean, there's no blood here, it's like the blood vessel of a dead creature. Or maybe I'm wrong... maybe it's all just a coincidence"

But Gus didn't share that optimism. His mind was running a marathon; what creature in the world could be so large? And furthermore, the organic matter in those blood vessels had moved to form the cage. Perhaps it had been Philip, and he could control it… but it was possible that that creature was still alive. "I don't like it" he said. "Let's keep looking. If this creature has blood vessels, there must also be skin pores somewhere that we could use to get out. Or maybe we get lucky and find a... well... a scratch"

So they continued and continued to look for a way out, but the further they went the more they risked to get lost; and as they descended the galleries became wider and more complex. It really looked like a circulatory system in all respects, with the difference that there was no blood; Gus hoped that there wasn't even an immune system, or at least that it didn't notice them and perceive them as a foreign body to be destroyed. It was only after a lot of walking that they noticed a light at the end of the tunnel. "What is that?" Gus whispered as he saw it; he and Matt exchanged a knowing look, and continued with extreme caution.

What they found made their blood run cold.

A small patch of ground had opened up, allowing them to exit; and this ground was burned, as if someone had opened it with an explosion. But that certainly wasn't the disturbing thing: what was truly terrifying was what was happening around. They were still in the amusement park, but now it had transformed into a huge tangle of tentacles and clawed legs that were grabbing thousands of fleeing shadows; from their position Gus and Matt couldn't see what they were, but hearing the desperate voices of the kids they had come with it didn't take them long to put two and two together. A terrifying laughter resounded in the air that seemed to be made up of millions of screaming voices of suffering souls.

Without thinking twice they immediately returned to the cave and left in a hurry. They only stopped when they ran out of breath. "We have to leave this island" Matt muttered with a trembling voice.

"Completely agree" Gus confirmed. "Let's find another exit, quickly!"

But just at that moment they heard something. It was like a rumble, somewhere between an elephant and a cow, and then a snap as if Matt had just moved his claws. Both arthropods froze and hid behind a wall; just in time, because an instant later a strange creature appeared and began to examine the area using eyes that emitted beams of light to illuminate the environment. Because of the darkness, Gus and Matt couldn't see it, but they both agreed that it looked like some sort of cross between a crab, a gorilla, and a deformed lobster, and made strange clicking noises as it moved. The creature scanned the area carefully, and then it moved away.

The two arthropods waited for at least ten minutes, and then they came out of their hiding place. "What… what was that?" Matt whispered.

"I think… the immune system" Gus replied. "I'm afraid it's looking for us"

Matt swallowed. "Okay. Which way did it go?"

"I think… that way" Gus replied, pointing to a spot in the tunnel.

"Perfect, then we're going in the opposite direction!" the crab exclaimed, and the spider wholeheartedly agreed with him.

The two continued further, and finally they found another point where the blood vessels seemed to ascend; and finally also a hole where the faint moonlight came from. "That's it! It must be a skin pore!" Gus exclaimed. "Matt, do you think you can make it bigger?"

"Urgh... I'll try!" was the response of the crab, which with great difficulty began to widen the hole with its claws to allow him and his friend to pass. The climb was not easy due to the extremely limited space.

"Hey! Watch out!"

"I'm doing my best!"

"Well, be more careful! I can't pass!"

"You're smaller than me!"

"And you're blocking my view!"

Eventually, with a lot of effort, they finally managed to get out. "Ugh! We did it, we're out!" Gus exclaimed happily.

They were immediately greeted by a familiar voice: "Gus!?"

The spider got back to his feet, surprised and happy at the same time. "Luz, thank goodness, we've already found you! We have to get away from...". He stopped when he noticed the appearance of the puppet, which had transformed into a donkey. "Uh... let me guess: you already know that this is no ordinary island"

"Guys, where did you go!?" Amity exclaimed when she saw them. "We didn't find you for hours!"

"Summary? That guy Philip is a fucking monster and he turned us back into arthropods" Matt replied to her. "And from what I see, with you he enjoyed making your ears grow instead"

"We traveled inside a complex cave system" Gus explained. "Although... Luz, I don't know how to explain this to you, but I think this whole island is alive. It's like there are blood vessels underneath us..."

"Because it's alive" King said, pointing out. "We are on Belos"

Gus and Matt froze. "We're on WHAT!?" they shouted in unison.

Luz nodded. "It's true" she confirmed. "He's using us like we're toys. We're just pawns to him"

Gus was already on the verge of hyperventilating; the mere memory of Belos and what it could unleash was enough to make him want to go back underground and deal with the crab-like monster... but it had to be said that if he did that he would only go from being on Belos to being inside Belos. "Okay... what's the plan, then?"

"We have to save our friends" Luz answered him. "We need to know where he's taking them... we're too exposed here though. Did you say we can go underground?"

"Yes, the inside of Belos is completely empty. There is no fluid or blood" Gus confirmed her. "But I doubt you can get into the blood vessels. They're wide enough for a person to fit through, but the only opening we've found is this one, and it's not exactly within your reach"

"Maybe yes instead" Luz said. "Amity, maybe we can't go back to being human because of the contract, but you can still do all your other magic. You can..."

"... shrink us? I think so" Amity told her, understanding where Luz was going with this, and immediately her magic enveloped her, the puppet and their friends, making them no bigger than a pin and making them go down the crack, to then bring them back to normal size as soon as they are at the bottom. "There, now we can continue in here"

"We know where to go to get to the park from here. We've been there before" Gus told them. "Come, let's lead the way. By the way, Luz... how come your hands remained normal?"

Luz looked down and saw that her left hand too was no longer a donkey's hoof but her usual hand. The transformation was indeed regressing... and very quickly considering that she had become a donkey just half an hour ago. "I'll explain it to you on the way. Let's go!"

Unknown to them, however, several small eyes hidden in the form of stones had observed the whole scene. "Amazing... amazing indeed! She's reacting so fast! It's definitely the right body!" Belos exclaimed with extreme excitement. "Okay... let's continue with the tests!"


Belos has eyes everywhere. Literally