Luz didn't know exactly how she was using Stringbean; most of the time she did nothing but just shake the scepter, yet this was enough for exactly what she wanted to happen to happen, almost as if through that her mind took on consistency and her thoughts became reality. All she had to do was think of flying and suddenly she found herself circling in the air, all she had to do was believe she could shoot a magical ray in Belos' face and that was what happened, all she had to do was imagine shields and swords and they appeared around her in ethereal form and did whatever she wanted. "Wow! This is even better than when King lent me his Titan powers!" she exclaimed with a smile. "I didn't think magical scepters were so amazing!"

"I'm a special model, don't forget that" Stringbean told her with a lot of pride in her voice. "I am amazing, not the magical sceptres"

"Well, my compliments then! If we weren't in a desperate situation where we risk dying and Belos using me to destroy the universe, I would jump for joy because you chose me as your master!" Luz told her.

"I already told you it's a transitory condition!" Stringbean answered her sheepishly. "Would you mind concentrating completely on the aforementioned desperate situation in which we risk dying? How can you still be jovial now?"

"Um... natural talent... I think" Luz told her blushing a little. "I mean, don't get me wrong, I can be depressed too, and it happens very often... but in situations like these you have to put on a good face, right?"

"Seriously, you're the weirdest person I've ever met, and it's not because you're made of wood" Stringbean commented in a tired voice.

"I can't disagree with that. But you're weird too since you're a rare piece, right?" Luz pointed out.

"Yes, but strange in all the right ways! I'm powerful, regal, ancient! You're just... weird! There's no other way to describe you!" Stringbean protested.

"You can beat around the bush all you want, it doesn't change the fact that you're weird too" Luz replied with a smirk. "So it's only natural that you wanted me as your mistress! As I told my girlfriend once, us weirdos have to stick together!"

Stringbean let out an annoyed hiss. "Maybe I was wrong. You're not weird, you're crazy"

"I am a puppet who wishes to become a real person, do you expect me to be sane?" Luz told her with a laugh, then she twirled the scepter in her hands and created what looked like ethereal spears in front of her: "Come on, let's serve Belos well!"

Camila and Eda were observing the puppet not far away, both with wide eyes. "Wow... she's really good" Camila commented looking at her. "Did you teach her magic?"

"No, not at all. It's the first time I've seen her use a magical scepter" Eda answered her truthfully. "And I've never taught her spells or anything like that... although it wouldn't surprise me that she read the books in my house when I wasn't looking. She's a very curious and studious girl, you know?"

Camila nodded. "I know how curious she is. And I have no doubt that she has also become studious" she said with a lot of pride in her voice.

Eda patted her on the shoulder. "If we make it out alive and go home, I'm sure you'll feel nothing but pride in that girl. She's amazing to say the least"

"I'm already feeling it now" Camila replied with a smile, but then her eyes widened: "WATCH OUT!"

Hunter was continuing to fight Belos, or at least, he was targeting him with the energy beams of his staff, aiming especially at his eyes and nose to cause him as much discomfort as possible. He knew that his blows had the same effect as throwing a bucket of water against a marble wall, but at least by doing so he could annoy him a little; after all, if a wall had a mind, it would have been downright angry if someone had thrown a bucket of water on it even if it hadn't caused it any pain. Gus's illusions and Flapjack's speed had guaranteed him to survive until that moment, but unfortunately for him Belos was certainly not naive: the attack pattern of his tentacles became more and more complicated and unpredictable, until the inevitable happened. Hunter was a second too slow at one point, and as a result was grazed by one; fortunately he was quick enough to summon some protections, but even with them he was thrown away like a grain of sand in the middle of a tornado. He plummeted towards the hand where Luz, Eda and Camila were also, and if he had hit it he would have surely turned to pulp, but luckily the fairy got in the way and used her magic to stop him before he crashed. "Are you okay, kid?"

Hunter fell to his knees and spat blood from his mouth. It was a pure miracle that all his bones were intact, but he still felt several cracked ribs. Flapjack and Gus climbed onto his shoulder worriedly. "Dude, I don't know how you survived" the spider told him. "I felt the shockwave even with your whole body shielding me"

"Urgh… don't worry, I've put up with worse" Hunter murmured. Eda was quick to use her magic to at least ease his pain a little, and he got back to his feet by leveraging his staff. "I can still fight"

Despite she was still very angry at him, Luz couldn't help but feel her wooden heart bleed at seeing Hunter like that. It was the first time she had actually seen him so hurt. Hunter had always been an unshakeable rock in her eyes, and she had never thought she'd see him in such bad shape. A part of her wanted to gloat at seeing him get a taste of his own medicine, but a much larger part was crying for him instead and was actually scolding her for even trying to think such thoughts. "W-Well, you certainly can't keep flying!" she said trying to appear indifferent. "Stay here with us"

"Yes... I think that's... a good idea" Hunter replied, finally getting back on his feet. "Where did you get that scepter, by the way?"

"It doesn't concern you" Luz replied. "Gus, come on my shoulder. If you're going to be here anyway, I'd rather you be with me than with him"

The spider glared at her. "Luz, please, I know you're angry, but Hunter is on our side now"

The puppet bit her lip, a little ashamed, but still she said: "Well, I don't trust him"

"And I don't blame you for that" Hunter replied. "But please, stay behind me. If that monster has to grab someone, it's better for everyone that it's me and not you"

Luz's eyes widened slightly at those words; she and Hunter looked at each other for an instant that seemed infinite, which was however interrupted by Belos' thundering voice: "Look look, now do you also want to play at being a paladin, Hunter? As you wish. If it's a hero's death you want, I will give you it!"

Belos' eyes lit up even brighter than they normally were and blue and whitish lightning exploded from them, heading straight for Luz; Hunter immediately stood in front of her and raised the staff to create a barrier, and with all his strength he tried to maintain it, but was still sometimes hit by the lightning. When Belos' eyes finally returned to normal and the lightning faded, Hunter collapsed to his knees again, this time in an even worse state than before. "Throwing yourself in front of that puppet to protect her? It's so touching... and predictable" Belos commented with a bit of disgust in his voice.

"Hunter!" Luz exclaimed running to check on the boy. Who knows how he was still alive, but he had several burns and wounds on his body.

"Cough... sorry Luz... I'm afraid I'm in a really bad way this time" Hunter told her while spitting out some blood. "I'm afraid I won't be able to... defend you all to the best of my ability"

"Step aside. Think about recovering!" Luz exclaimed.

But Hunter shook his head and with an almost inhuman effort rose to his feet. "No... no breaks allowed this time. Don't worry about me... I was created... to be a warrior" he answered her with difficulty. "And at least… this time I'm fighting… for something I actually care about"

"Pathetic. See what feelings and emotions do, Hunter? They make you make incredibly idiotic choices" Belos said. "It is really sad for me to see that all my teachings have been useless"

"I don't know what you taught them, but it sure wasn't good teaching! Hunter is doing the right thing by telling you to go to hell! And man, I'm seriously having a hard time figuring out who I have to be mad at!" Luz answered him back.

"You poor fools. You stand no chance against me" Belos warned them. "Even if I choose not to show off my true strength, I can continue to fight for all eternity... but can you? The strongest among you are already barely standing"

But just then a quick speck flew between them. "Hunter isn't the strongest among us!" Amity exclaimed as she jumped off her broom right next to them. "And I won't let you hurt anyone here!"

"AMITY!" Luz exclaimed, hugging her almost suddenly. "You're fine! I'm so happy!"

"Yeah… sorry it took me a while, Luz. I had some… business to take care of" Amity answered her, then she looked back at Belos: "Like I told you, Hunter isn't the strongest here, Luz is the strongest! She has always been the one to resist all adversities, and to guide us towards the right path! She is the one who has allowed us to learn from our mistakes and become better people! She's stronger than Hunter, she's stronger than me, and she's certainly much, much stronger than you!"

Luz's face turned the color of a tomato, so much so that she almost didn't notice Lilith landing next to them and whispering something to Eda. Belos narrowed his eyes: "What noble words, truly touching. And tell me, little witch, do you think that nobility of soul will allow you to defeat me?"

But Amity looked at him with a mocking smile. "Defeat you? I certainly didn't come here to defeat you" she replied, and she grabbed Luz by the waist. "I just came here to pick up my awesome girlfriend! See ya, asshole!"

And suddenly something appeared in the sky: it was like a huge mass of whitish dust reflecting the light of the moon and stars, which fell on Belos as if it were ash from a volcano. "URGH! WHAT THE...!?"

"If Belos is vulnerable to things like tickling and itching anyway, then we can use that to our advantage!" Alador said. "Let's throw some itching powder on him! All it takes is for someone to make a wish using Darius' lamp, and we'll have enough to cover Belos' entire enormous body!"

Odalia, Lilith and Amity looked at him in amazement, and agreed that he was indeed right. "But... this won't hurt him in the slightest" his daughter pointed out.

"It won't hurt him" Alador answered her. "But it will be annoying enough for him to distract him enough to take your girlfriend and everyone with her and escape into the sky. Of course, after everyone is already gathered on the airship and ready to escape. Then the Collector can open a portal for us safely and we will escape"

"The plan isn't that far-fetched" Lilith said, thinking carefully. "Any of our physical or magical attacks would be useless against Belos... but if Darius creates a giant mass of itchy dust and we use our magic to rub it against his skin, we're sure to cause him a lot of discomfort"

"If we decide to do this, it will take exceptional timing" Odalia added. "Everyone else will have to be on the airship, the Collector will have to be free and someone will have to go get the puppet and the others. If we get the timing wrong then we could all end up crushed. Imagine if Belos, in order to get rid of the dust, spun around on himself and let us crushed everyone to the bottom of the ocean"

Alador and Lilith bit their lips; Odalia was definitely right, there were a lot of things in that plan that could go wrong. But Amity didn't even think much about it and said: "Okay, let's do it, today we're only doing crazy and potentially lethal things, one more doesn't make any difference. I'm going to get Luz"

She was already about to jump on top of Ghost when Odalia stopped her by holding her by her donkey tail. "Where do you think you're going, miss?" she told her. "Your girlfriend is right before Belos' eyes. It's a terrible idea to go there. Let your fairy godmother save her"

Amity gave her a rather dirty look. "Luz is MY girlfriend"

"And you are my daughter" Odalia replied. "And letting you get in Belos' face is not something that..."

"EXCUSE ME!?" Amity roared. "Now I am your daughter!? Not your ticket to world domination!?"

Odalia fell silent. "Mittens, I already told you I'm sorry..."

"I don't care!" Amity yelled at her. "Get this into your head: you have no decision-making power over me, okay? Both you and this cowardly inventor have forfeited the right to call yourselves my parents! Don't call me Mittens, that's the nickname I only let members of my family call me to, and you are not such! You made my childhood terrible, and even now your ghosts continue to torment me! Do me the courtesy of shutting up and minding your own business, and woe betide you if you tell me not to do something using any parental authority you don't have!"

Odalia was somewhat taken aback by hearing so much venom in her daughter's voice, unlike Alador who was now used to it. On the contrary, her husband narrowed his eyes slightly, and despite knowing that this was neither the place nor the right time, he asked her: "What do you mean that our ghosts still torment you?"

Amity bit her lip, realizing she'd let it slip, but then she shook her head; she was too tense at that moment to be able to contain herself, her head was exploding and she was unable to think rationally. "Do you really want to know? Well, here you are: I don't know what to do with myself now! For all my life my only goal has always been to please my mother and make my father notice you! And now that you two finally are out of the way, I don't know what I want to do anymore! I have no dreams for the future, I have no aspirations, I have nothing! I can't even go back to being a normal girl because whether I like it or not I am now the most powerful witch in the world, and I'm afraid of what I could do with this power! I can no longer live peacefully, and when I finally managed to find a minimum of tranquility in an amusement park, it turns out to be the back of a giant monster that plans to use my girlfriend like she's an evening gown! And right now I'm actually about to EXPLODE!"

She said the last word with a decidedly stronger intensity than she intended, and both her eyes and her hair lit up and emitted magical energy. She really looked like she was about to pop like a balloon. She had definitely experienced TOO MANY emotions for just one day. She just couldn't take it anymore. She probably would have started hurling jets of dark magic in every direction if Lilith hadn't stood in front of her and put her hands on her shoulders, beckoning her with her eyes to calm down. With the last bit of sanity she still had left, she breathed deeply until her heartbeat returned to some semblance of normality.

There was a long silence, and then to everyone's surprise it was Alador who stepped forward: "Amity, you're right. We haven't been the parents we should have been, and it's not right that you should think of us as such. We've lost the right to have any authority over you, and we have made your life difficult and continue to make it difficult for you. I wish all it would take was one conversation to change things, but we both know that it doesn't. Let me just say this: no be afraid of what you are now"

Amity turned slightly to look at him, and he continued: "You are the most powerful witch in this world, that's true; you can't get rid of that power, that's true; and you don't know what to do with yourself, that's true, too. But don't be afraid, because I can assure you that whatever choice you make, it will be the right one, and if it isn't, you will be able to make it right. Because this is you, Amity. You have a heart bigger than even my entire airship what you are now. Don't try to be just any girl: embrace what you have become and accept it, and be yourself. Make your decisions based on that, and don't be afraid of what you might do, but only what you won't do if you don't make the decision that your heart tells you from experience"

Amity was quite surprised by Alador's words. She was silent for a moment, then she murmured: "This is the first fatherly advice you've given me in over fourteen years"

Alador nodded. "I know, and it will probably be the only one I will ever be able to give you. But please... at least listen to me. And don't doubt your decisions. Don't think too much about it anymore, don't think with your head; just follow your heart, and don't worry about anything else"

Odalia had been listening to everything with her arms crossed, and she seemed very conflicted about what to say or do; but finally she closed her eyes and murmured: "Your father is right. So... if your heart really tells you to go to your girlfriend... do it. But at least take me or your fairy godmother with you..."

"Lilith will come" Amity said without even giving her time to finish, although she then added very softly: "But thanks for the approval"

Odalia didn't reply; instead, she took Alador by the arm and lifted them both up using the essence of the Collector within her. "We'll go warn Darius. We'll make sure everyone is on the airship and the Collector is ready, and then we'll make the itchy dust appear above Belos. You… be careful". And with that she turned to Lilith: "Make sure she comes back in one piece or I'll tear you apart"

"I would do it even without the threat, bitch" Lilith replied.

"Tsk. Fuck you, asshole" was the reply of the witch, who clearly didn't like the last comment, and then flew away with her husband.

Lilith smiled at Amity, clearly feeling her heart lighten. "For once they told you something right" she commented. "I know it's not usual for me to say this but... listen to them"

Meanwhile Odalia and Alador were flying away heading back towards the airship. "I'll leave you there with Darius and Raine, and I'll go find the Collector. You get the kids" she told him. And then she added: "If you had been so good at talking before, perhaps I would feel less disgust for you"

"I know. But as you have often said, I'm an idiot" Alador replied to her. "Don't worry about Amity. She knows what she's doing"

"Mph. I hope so" Odalia muttered, only to see the Collector take flight in the distance. "Mh. It seems like something is already happening. I really think the others are already at work... maybe we're lucky!"

"... this is how it went... sort of" Amity finished telling Luz. "And if the dust has appeared it means that the others are all safe and ready to escape, so... get ready!"

"What is this!?" Belos roared as the itchy dust covered him. "What the… it itches!"

The monster began to writhe and writhe, almost as if it were a hideous snake. Huge tsunamis surged around him as he tried to shake the itchy dust off of him. Some of it also entered his nostrils and he began to sneeze, generating winds of such violence that Luz, Amity, Hunter, Gus, Eda, Lilith and Camila were thrown away from his hand; as soon as this happened, Amity grabbed Luz and put her on her flying broom along with Stringbean, Eda took Camila and Lilith took Hunter and with him also Flapjack and Gus, and they flew upwards. Below them Belos began to spin, with so much force that it seemed as if the ocean was splitting; for a moment they feared the worst for their friends, but then they saw a familiar airship rising into the air and moving to a safe distance from the monster. "Yay! It worked!" Amity exclaimed.

"Yes!" Luz laughed, clenching her fists in triumph, and then she looked at Belos who was still sneezing and convulsing, and she shouted: "Goodbye, great monster of the seas! If you ever need a custom-made body again, don't count on me!"

"Yeah! Don't count on any of us!" Eda said with a hearty laugh. As she flew towards the airship she noticed a small figure coming towards her, and a familiar little owl landed on her shoulder. "Owlbert, that's where you were! What do you say? Oh, now that's news! Luz, the others have recovered everyone! Your sister's girlfriend and your old pirate friends are there too!"

Luz's eyes lit up and a wide smile formed on her face. It seemed like a dream to her... not only were they coming out of that nightmare, but Viney, Barcus, Jerbo and Masha were with her, and above all Vee and her beloved mother! It was all so beautiful. The Collector was already opening the portal in front of them: one last moment and then they would be safe, and they would all return home...

But suddenly the sea exploded as if a volcano had just erupted; a jet of blue light emerged from the waters and hit the portal directly, disintegrating it. Belos' head resurfaced and his murderous eyes focused on them; he was snorting and growling so loudly that it seemed as if thousands of tidal waves were occurring simultaneously. "I've had enough of this now!"

The clarifying chat for the Blight family was needed. And Alador finally did something right with his daughter. It was about time too