"And then that human girl appeared. Don't know if she's gonna stick around, but it'll be fun to have another friend in the Hoot House! Hoot."
Hooty was busy talking to a…well…he was talking to a fly that was just buzzing in the air. The insect, for some inexplicable reason, had been listening to Hooty talk for several minutes now, which made it question its short life choices.
"But, gee, there sure was a lot of noise and explosions earlier. Wonder what that could've been? Hey! Wanna speculate for hours and hours about what it could've bee – ACK!"
The fly had had enough with living and decided to fly into Hooty's mouth to end its life. Hooty smacked his lips for a moment and then tilted his head before smiling.
"Mmm, who knew friendship tasted so good."
Just then, a beam of purple light shot down from the sky right outside the Owl House. Hooty released a loud "HOOT!" upon seeing the light, and quickly shut his eyes. When the light faded, Hooty dared to open his eyes and was shocked to see that the human, Luz, was now lying on the ground and seemingly unconscious. Hooty blinked a few times before extending his body out towards Luz. The house demon pecked at her head a couple of times, which made Luz release a few groaning sounds.
"Huh? I didn't know humans could appear in blinding flashes of light. Cool!"
Hooty looked to the skies and spotted Eda flying in on her staff, with King nestled in her large bed of hair. The witch and demon looked absolutely downtrodden for some reason, but that didn't matter to Hooty. When they landed, Hooty extended himself to them and greeted the pair.
"Hi, Eda!"
"Not now, Hooty…it's…it's been a night," said Eda.
Hooty tilted his head and asked, "What happened?"
"A giant monster appeared at the Conformatorium…and…the human girl, she fell off the staff when we were getting away," King explained. "She's dead…"
"Huh? Oh, then, I guess that makes this human a different one?"
Eda and King both looked at the house demon with confusion. Hooty retracted himself a little and allowed them an unobstructed view of the unconscious human girl.
"LUZ!" Eda and King yelled at the same time.
"Oh, it's another Luz then?" Hooty asked.
"Quit, playing around, Hooty! Let's get her inside, now!"
Luz found herself in a dark abyss, for a second, she thought that she may've actually gone to the bad place this time. However, that fear was dispelled when she saw a flash of purple light. The light then took the form of, surprisingly, Ultrawoman Titannia.
"Whoa…uh…Titannia, you're…here," said Luz.
Titannia nodded her head.
"Does this mean we did it? I think we won, right?" Luz asked.
Titannia, again, nodded her head.
Luz released a sigh of relief, happy that she could destroy the monster before it could cause any further destruction to the island.
"Guess, that's it then. Thanks for saving my life and everything, but I guess this is it for us, huh."
Titannia shook her head in the negative.
"Wait? It's not? Why not?"
Titannia waved her hand, and suddenly, the abyss was filled with multicolored silhouettes of different monstrous forms. They stood in a circle, surrounding both Luz and Titannia. Luz looked upon the silhouettes with worry as she looked back at the Ultra.
"Are…Are you saying there are more Kaiju?" Luz asked, worriedly.
Unfortunately, Titannia gave a nod of confirmation.
"Seriously?! T-Then, what do I do?!" Luz asked.
Titannia floated closer to Luz and finally spoke, but it was only two words, "Wake up…"
Luz opened her eyes, and the first thing she saw was Hooty's face.
"Morning, Luz!"
"AAAAH!"
The Latina's first instinct was to punch the house demon in the face.
"Ow! I was just saying 'good morning'. Ow! Hoot!"
Luz sat up and said, "Shoot, I'm sorry, Hooty! I was just surprised was all. Wait…if you're here, then, am I back at the Owl House?"
"LUZ!"
The teen girl looked towards the archway and watched as King ran into the living room and jumped onto Luz's lap, throwing his arms around her neck as he gave her a hug.
"Whoa, King, it's okay, buddy. I'm alright," said Luz.
Eda was the next to enter as she leaned against the archway and sighed with relief. "You had us worried there, kid." The Owl Lady walked towards the other couch and sat across from Luz and King. "Seriously, though, I'm glad you're alive. Now, how the heck did you survive that?"
"Yeah!" King interjected, "You fell to the ground!"
"Well, not exactly, you see…" Luz paused for a moment. Was it really alright to tell them about what happened? It wasn't as if Titannia said that telling anyone about her was against some kind of rules or anything. Then again, there was a chance Eda or King might know something about Titannia. "Okay, guys, what I'm about to tell you going to sound crazy, but bear with me."
And so, Luz went into her explanation on how she survived her fall. How she followed an orb of light through a tunnel underground and wound up in a long-forgotten temple and found the ancient statue of the giant of light known as Ultrawoman Titannia. Then she explained how she and Titannia merged into one being, allowing Luz to transform into the giant so that she could fight against the Kaiju known as Demaaga.
"We flew up into the sky, and then, well, I can't remember what happened after that, but apparently, I somehow ended up back here," Luz finished.
King, Eda, and Hooty looked at each other for a moment, and then looked back at Luz.
"Yeah, I think you hit your head pretty hard," said Eda.
"Yeeeeeah, I don't see that happening," King added.
Luz stood up from the couch and exclaimed, "Hold on! You guys can do magic, have griffons that fly through the sky, and I'm sure a number of other things I haven't seen yet. And this is something you find hard to believe?!"
All three of them nodded at once.
Luz huffed and said, "Alright, everyone, backyard! Now! I'll show you!"
"Calm down, calm down. Okay, you can show us, follow me then."
Eda decided to humor the human as she led them all out the backdoor and into the backyard area of the house. Once outside, Luz walked out ahead of them, trying to put as much distance as she could between the house and herself so that she wouldn't accidentally crush the structure when she transformed. Once Luz was at, what she believed to be, a safe distance from the Owl House, the Latina closed her eyes and concentrated. The memories that Titannia downloaded into her mind were still there, so it didn't take her long to summon the Titannia Spark and Mystic Guard.
From where they were standing, Eda, King, and Hooty saw two flashes of purple light coming off of Luz's left arm.
Now that Luz had her transformation items, she flipped open the Mystic Guard and took out Titannia's card. With one swift motion, she inserted the card into the Titannia Spark, making the gemstone on top of it shine with life.
{/|\} AWAKEN THE POWER WITHIN! {/|\}
"Uh…Eda, I don't think Luz was joking…"
"I'm, uh, starting to think your right…"
"Arise, Guardian of Light! ULTRAWOMAN TITANNIA!"
Luz thrusted her left arm into the air as sparkling purple light erupted from Luz, obscuring her body from sight.
{/|\} ARISE, TITANNIA! {/|\}
When the light finally faded, King, Hooty, and Eda gasped, mouths agape, at what they saw.
"HOOT!"
"WEH!"
"Whoa…"
Titannia had her hands against her hips, standing proudly, and a bit smugly, upon hearing the surprised gasps of the three Demon Realm residents.
"HA! Told ya I'm Titannia!"
"Huh, I thought she'd be taller," said Hooty.
"Hyah?"
Titannia, or rather Luz, just realized something major. She wasn't looking down on them, that is to say, she didn't grow tall at all. If anything, Titannia was the same height as Luz was, maybe a couple of inches taller, but certainly not her giantess height.
"WHAT?! H-How?! Is this thing broken? Why didn't I go giant?"
Titannia looked at her body, she was transformed, and she felt powerful, but her height hadn't changed at all.
"Okay, think, Luz, think. What did you do wrong? Is this like that Unison Dance thing from Dragon Claw Z? Did I pose wrong? Did I put the card in wrong? Eda, King, Hooty, did you see anything wrong with what I did?"
Now, Luz was saying all this, but what they heard was…
"Hyah, hyah! Hyah. Hyah? Hyah?"
Eda and King immediately went to Titannia, inspecting her body as they just listened to her to her make strange sounds.
"Holy Titan, Luz, you really did turn into Titannia!" King shouted excitedly.
Eda poked the side of Titannia's arm, it had a strange feeling to it. Not quite skin, but some other type of organic material that she hadn't ever encountered.
"Guys, can you understand me? Great, they can't, can they?"
Just then, the Color Timer on Titannia's chest started to blink red, causing Eda and King to move away from her.
"Ahh! What's happening?!" King asked.
"Luz, are you okay?" Eda asked.
Titannia waved her hands as if to tell them to be calm, and after a few more seconds, Titannia's body glowed again. Her form disappeared into particles of purple light, leaving Luz standing in Titannia's place.
"Huh, that was a lot shorter than last time," said Luz.
Eda walked up to the Latina and said, "Okay, I think we need to go over all this, one more time."
Far away from the Owl House, an investigation was underway. After the battle between Demaaga and Titannia, the Emperor's Coven had been dispatched to the combat zone. There were also witches sent to begin reconstruction on the damaged portions of the Conformatorium, as well as the town of Bonesborough. The foot soldiers of the Emperor's Coven, the Coven Scouts, were busy surveying the initial point of awakening for Demaaga. They had traced its trail of destruction right back to a mountainous area, where it seemed as if the creature had just burst out of the landscape.
Leading this investigation was the Head Witch of the Emperor's Coven. She wore a white cloak, similar to the rest of her subordinates, and wore a grayish-black dress. Her hair was raven colored and flowed down her back. Her skin was pale white, with black lipstick coloring her lips, and her eyes were an icy teal color. She stood before the hole in the mountain where Demaaga emerged from, watching as her Coven Scouts were examining it and taking whatever samples they could.
"Head Witch Lilith," one of the Scouts called out.
Lilith watched as the Coven Scout approached her and asked, "Report, Steve."
"Ma'am, the survey team's confirmed it. Whatever this thing was, it was here the whole time," said Steve.
"Impossible…Are they sure?" Lilith asked.
"They found indentations in the rockface, as if the land grew around it. That's not something that happens overnight, at least from what they said," Steve informed.
"Did they say how long it's been here?"
Steve flipped through the report and stated, "Well, from what they could determine, and this is just preliminary, but it looks like…thousands of years, ma'am. There are layers of rock and sediment that show this thing may've been around either during or before the Hecktaticous Era."
Lilith's eyes widened with shock. An ancient giant monster that predates the fossil record of the Boiling Isles, and what's more it wasn't dead. Somehow, it had been asleep for all these thousands of years, just resting in the land itself, right beneath their feet.
"So many witches and demons have explored these lands, traversed these regions, and yet, not a single one has ever come across this creature," said Lilith.
"Guess that's a good thing. I don't think any of us could've done a thing to stop it, either back then or now," said Steve.
Lilith turned around and glanced towards the trail of destruction that led to the Conformatorium in the distance.
"The real issue here is what made it wake up in the first place."
"That giant woman probably has something to do with it. From what the reports say, the giant appeared from under the Conformatorium," said Steve. "Come to think of it, that monster was heading in that direction. Maybe it was looking for her?"
Lilith patted Steve on the shoulder as she said, "A very astute observation, Steve. If we want the answers as to why the monster even woke up in the first place, I think we need to find out who or what that giant is."
"Alright, shoulder pats for Steve."
With that thought in mind, Lilith and her trusted subordinate, Steve, took an airship back to the Conformatorium. They found a team of witches working to close the hole, but upon her instruction, were told stop until they had investigated what was in the hole. They brought some of the witches who specialized in the moving of earth with them as they descended the large whole in the airship. All ten of them made balls of light which illuminated the hole as they lowered further and further into the hole.
Finally, after several minutes, they found the bottom. Upon landing, all ten witches disembarked from the ship and made even more balls of light. The lights started to push back the darkness and allowed them to see what was hidden by it. Lilith gasped, before her was a huge altar, and all around them were paintings that seemed to depict an epic struggle between the giant and large monsters.
"Steve…"
"Yes, Head Witch Lilith…?"
"We need to get another team down here…NOW!"
After explaining, again, Luz sat on the couch and waited for their response. Now that they had the added proof that Luz could in fact turn into Titannia, it placed a whole different context on her story, and the battle between herself and the Kaiju.
"So, this 'Titannia', she's you? Or you're her?" Eda asked, confused.
"We're just fused, I think. I don't really know why, but Titannia needs me in order to fight. But when I transform, it's not like she takes control of me. She just feeds me the knowledge of how to fight into my brain. Which is how I knew how to fight or use any of those awesome attacks and fighting moves," said Luz.
"And you're sure humans can't do that kind of thing?" King asked.
Luz sighed and responded, "For the tenth time, King, no. Humans cannot transform into giants. Although…"
"What?" Eda questioned.
"Well…There are legends and folklore in my world about giants, but you also said that our legends were born because some of the Demon Realm leaks into the Human Realm. But even if that were true, the only ones similar to Titannia would be mythological gods," Luz pondered aloud.
"Well, we have giant demons, but none of them come close to the height of Titannia, the biggest ones only stand about two stories, at most. Not the colossal thing you turned into," Eda explained.
"Yeah, and none of them can fight like you did, or shoot beams of light out of their arms," King added.
"And you're sure you guys don't have any legends or stories about giants like Titannia?" Luz questioned.
"Kid, trust me, would we look so shocked if we had legends like that? Heck, we don't even have any legends or stories about that monster you fought!"
That was true, Warden Wrath, Eda, King, they all said they never saw a Kaiju before. And the looks on their faces when they did see it were sure enough proof of that. There was still so much that Luz didn't know about the Kaiju, and about Titannia.
"Okay, well, with all that said and done…" Eda got up from the couch and took out the portal door key from her hair. "I think it's time you went back home."
"Wait, what?! You're sending me now?!"
Eda gave the Latina and confused stare as she said, "Why not? Luz, you almost died out there, and it would've been my fault. I should've sent you home the moment I found you, but instead I used you and put you in danger. I don't mind danger, but only when it's my butt on the line. I dragged you into our mess, and you nearly got killed 'cause of me. Now, it's time for you to go home."
Luz stood up now and quickly said, "B-B-But there's still so much we don't know! That I don't know! Like, who or what is Titannia? Why was there a Kaiju sleeping in the ground, and, the big question, am I like this forever? I can't go back yet, Eda."
Eda had to admit, the human girl had a point. Despite the fact that the monster was destroyed, she still retained the power to transform. Even if it wasn't into the giant, Luz was still able to change. That was a lingering question.
"Okay, but where do we even start with the answers? I guarantee you, there aren't any books in the library about what you turned into," said Eda.
"Well, there is one place we might find answers," said Luz.
Eda raised an eyebrow in confusion for a moment, and then it struck her.
"No way, we aren't going."
"But that underground temple is where I found the statue. Where Titannia and I merged. There were paintings all over it, but I didn't really take the time to look at them because of, well, the big Kaiju that was about to kill people," said Luz.
Eda scratched at her head as she said, "It's not that I don't think we might find something there, it's just that…"
"It's crawling with Coven Scouts right now," King answered.
"Huh?"
King walked out of the room, and a few seconds later, he returned with a crystal ball. The little demon placed the crystal ball on the coffee table and gave it a tap. After a moment, the crystal ball glowed and began to display a person inside. He looked African American, with a yellow vest, and white shirt underneath. The man wore glasses and held a mic to his right hand, and behind him were several people moving about in a big operation.
{This is Perry Porter, coming to you live from the Conformatorium. Last night, two giant creatures fought just outside the town of Bonesborough, and now, the Emperor's Coven is investigating the appearance of the monster and the giant. Currently, they seem to be concentrating their investigation on this spot where the female giant emerged from.}
"Wow, you guys have your own cable news. Cool! But I still don't get it," said Luz.
"The Emperor's Coven is all over that site. We won't be able to get to it with them crawling all over the place," Eda informed. "If we're going to do this, then we'll need to be sneaky about it. A lot sneakier than how we got into the Conformatorium."
"Yes, another break-in!" King exclaimed.
Eda gave the little demon a stern look as she said, "Not this time, King. We'll need to move fast, so, for now, you'll be staying here."
King groaned in annoyance at being left behind, but Luz came over and gave the little demon a pat on the head.
Far in the distance, near one of the huge rib bones of the Titan. The land began to shake and rumble. Part of the rocks that formed the mountain around the giant rib bone fell away, revealing two glowing orange eyes.
It was nighttime in Bonesborough, but the Conformatorium was lit up like a Christmas tree. Work crews were busy in the rebuilding of some of the damaged parts of the tower and walls, and to parts of the city as well. Most of the light was concentrated at the giant hole where Titannia emerged from, along with the trail of destroyed land and trees where Demaaga came from. There were a couple of Coven Scouts heading towards the worksite, but suddenly stopped when they spotted someone suspicious.
"Oh no, it is I, Eda the Owl Lady. Walking around this restricted area," Eda announced in a monotone.
One of the Scouts turned to the other and asked, "Uh, what do we do about that? I mean, she's technically in a restricted zone, but do we even bother?"
"Hmm, you know what, let's get her! Have you seen the bounty on her! If we turn her in, we can both retire early!" the female Scout replied.
With their plan agreed upon, the two Coven Scouts ran towards Eda. The Owl Lady ducked into an alleyway, with the two Scouts on her tail.
"Sleep spell!"
A moment later, a flash of blue light went off, followed by two thuds. There was some rustling coming from the alley for a few minutes before both of the Scouts waltzed out of the alley. Although, the clothes for one of them were a bit baggy.
"Uh, Eda, I don't think this'll work," said Luz.
"Huh? Oh, yeah, that's a problem. One sec." Eda drew a spell circle and within a few seconds Luz's uniform resized itself to fit her. "There ya go."
"I love magic," Luz commented as she flexed her hands inside of the gloves.
"Just follow my lead, kid."
The newly disguised duo headed to the main worksite, passing through several checkpoints without any of the other Coven Scouts so much as batting an eye. Or if they were, it was kind of hard to tell due to the bird beak helmets they were wearing. Once they neared the big hole, they looked down at it and saw how the bottom was lit up.
Eda whistled and said, "Dang, kid, you really made a big entrance."
Luz chuckled nervously as she rubbed the back of her head.
The Owl Lady spotted another Scout and said, "Hey there fellow Coven Scout. The two of us were called in to go down that big hole and help out with the, uh, stuff going on down there."
There was a long pause, and for a moment, Luz thought that they may've been found out. But then the Scout sighed.
"Must be new recruits. Alright, head that way towards the lift with the rest of the relief crew," said the Scout as he pointed towards said lift.
"Thanks, handsome," Eda replied as she clicked her tongue and made a finger gun gesture.
"Uh, thank you very much!" Luz added as she followed behind Eda.
Eda and Luz managed to squeeze into the lift with the rest of the Coven Scouts, and together they descended down the long chasm. After about thirty minutes they arrived at the bottom of the hole where several Coven Scouts were busy at work. Some were taking photographs of the paintings, while others were using excavation tools, digging in specific areas while others were collecting samples here and there. Once the lift came to a stop, the doors opened and allowed them all to get off.
One of the Coven Scouts was waiting for them and said aloud, "Alright crew, name's Steve, and today you're going to be helping us out with digging this place up. We've divided this place into different sectors in order to keep things orderly. That being said, until further notice, everything you see and hear here is hush-hush."
They were all given different sectors to go to, and thankfully, Luz and Eda were in the same one. Once they arrived, Luz and Eda were given the task of cataloging the different pictures that were taken of the wall paintings. Which worked for them as Luz was wanting to have a look at them anyway.
"So, what you think?" Eda asked.
Luz looked over the photographs of the different cave paintings. In each of them, it showed Titannia battling Kaiju, but there was something else. There were portions that had faded away, and others that were cracked and chipped due to centuries of neglect and the shifting sediment and rock.
"Looks like Titannia's been around for a bit, but…I don't know." Luz glanced towards the altar where Titannia's statue used to be. "The ancient demons and witches of your world thought it was important to build this temple around Titannia's statue, to tell her story. But you'd think that there would be more if something as important as this was here."
"Well, is this triggering anything? Titannia's inside you, right? Is she getting any kind of déjà vu?"
Unfortunately, Luz couldn't sense anything of the sort.
Maybe Titannia's still recovering. If that's the case, then this might not be enough to make her remember, thought Luz.
"EXCUSE ME!"
The Scouts, along with Eda and Luz, turned their gaze towards the center of the chamber and saw the leader of the Emperor's Coven glaring down at a small demon woman. She wore a white coat with gold edges, her skin was a deep crimson color, with a turquoise claw-like hand acting as her hair and covering one of her eyes. The collar came up so high that it covered her mouth and nose, masking most of her visage. She was holding her hands behind her back as she looked up at the Head Witch, seemingly unfazed by the other woman's incredulous expression.
"I did not stutter, Lilith. The Emperor has ordered that you wrap up your investigation of this temple in the next forty-eight hours, and then have it filled," said the demon woman.
"Kikimora! You cannot honestly expect me to believe that the Emperor wants this all destroyed! This is the historical find of the century! A lost piece of the Demon Realm's history is here! And you expect me to think that the Emperor wants it buried!"
"I came here on his majesty's behalf to personally deliver that message to you, but if you don't believe me, by all means, go and have an audience with him yourself," Kikimora stated.
"Oh, believe me, I will! Right now!" Lilith held out her left hand, and a moment after, a staff made of white polished wood appeared in it. The staff had a raven figure carved at the top, which Luz figured was this Lilith woman's little animal friend like Eda's. "Steve! You're in charge of this site until I get back! I want no stone unturned! Everything gets cataloged, photographed, and sampled! I want enough to recreate this topside if need be!"
"Yes, ma'am!" Steve saluted.
With her orders given, Lilith mounted her staff and quickly flew up and out of the chasm.
"Ooh, wow, she is ticked," said Eda.
"Do you know her?" Luz asked.
"Eh, in a way, yeah. But never mind that right now. You heard what they said. Let's look around as much as we can before something else happens."
"KIKIMORA!"
"Too late," Eda groaned.
One of the Scouts was coming down the lift but was in so much of a hurry that they fell over, scrambling to get to her.
"What is it you hangnail?" Kikimora asked in annoyance.
"Ma'am! We just got a report! Another monster was spotted in the skies! And it was heading this way!" she said.
That caught the attention of everyone in the chamber as they quickly surrounded the Scout and Kikimora.
The demon woman looked up at the Scout and said, "What do you mean 'another one'?! And it's flying?!"
"We got word from the Latissa station, they saw something huge fly over the city," said the Scout.
"And you're certain it's heading this way?" Kikimora asked.
"If it keeps its current heading, they believe so. But it might change course! For now, they're trying to keep pace with it in the airships!"
Luz and Eda heard all of this, but the human girl knew what she had to do. She glanced around the area and spotted the same tunnel she used to get to this chamber when she was led by the ball of light. Carefully, Luz backed out of the crowd of Scouts, with Eda following her. Once they were near the entrance to the tunnel, Luz broke out into a sprint as she ran down the tunnel. Eda summoned her staff and quickly got on it as she flew next to Luz.
"What are you doing?!" Eda asked.
"You heard them! Another Kaiju is heading this way! I have to go out and do something about it!" Luz stated.
"What about getting info on Titannia?"
"It's not going to matter if people die in the process! I'm not just going to stand by and let another monster rampage like the last one!"
Eda sighed frustratingly as she drew a spell circle and wrapped Luz in a golden aura of light. With a flick of her wrist, Eda put Luz on the back of her staff.
"Then hang on, I can at least get you topside so you can change!"
"Thanks! Head down the tunnel and there should be a cave, and above that should be a crack where I fell through the first time!"
"On it!"
The monster flew through the skies of the Boiling Isles, on a clear course for the town of Bonesborough. The Kaiju had armored scales all over its body that were navy blue in color. Along the scale armor were rounded nodes that glowed bright orange and had yellow points of light in the center of them. The creature had two arms and legs that seemed to be a collection of six thin legs kept close together. The monster's body was covered in spikes, with the ones running along the back of its long neck curved into the shape of blades. Its head was also armored and had four glowing orange eyes. It possessed a bisected mouth that had razor sharp teeth at the top of its jaw, and along both segments of its lower jaw. Behind the monster were twin tails that were spike tipped, which undulated up and down as the monster flew. The Kaiju's chest had more glowing nodes, but they were slanted, giving it the appearance of having eyes on its chest.
DINOZAUR: THE ANCIENT IRON-SEVERING MONSTER
The airships bearing the insignia of the Emperor's Coven followed the slow flying monster, about ten in total, with some flying above it and others flying on either side of it. So far, the monster had not attacked, but that didn't mean it was not going to soon. The airships occupants noticed Bonesborough in the distance, and if the monster was heading there to wreak havoc like the last one, then it was going to cause a lot of damage to the town and many people would be killed. Bearing that in mind, all ten ships communicated with each other, and decided to commence an attack while they were still in a forest region with no civilians around.
The airships got into attack formation, with some of the Coven Scouts onboard drawing huge spell circles and channeling their magical energy into them. Once they had built up enough of a charge, the Scouts fired their spells, releasing large blasts of concentrated magical energy. Unfortunately, when compared to the huge size of the flying monster, the beams of magical energy looked like little more than a weak firecracker hitting a brick wall. Nevertheless, despite knowing that it was futile, they had hoped to at least make the monster change its direction.
The monster's four eyes shifted back and forth between the airships before releasing an annoyed roar. That was the only warning given as some of the nodes from its body glowed and fired off something that looked akin to a missile. They were wrapped in a kind of organic armor, with flames blasting out beneath them as they flew through the air. The Organic Missiles managed to find at least three of its targets, hitting the airships and blasting them out of the sky. The flaming wreckage fell out of the air and to the ground below where they exploded a second time. The remaining salvos hit the ground below, randomly destroying parts of the forest, with one of the Organic Missiles zooming over Bonesborough and exploding against the giant rib bone in the distance.
The monster slowed itself down, allowing the airships to fly ahead of it. Once they were in range, the Kaiju opened its mouth bisected mouth. There was a high-pitched screeching sound ringing through the air when it did this, which made the Scouts on the ships wonder if it was trying to initiate some kind of sound-based attack. However, that theory went out the window when one of the ships was suddenly sliced in half in the blink of an eye. The Coven Scouts were flung from the ship as the two halves of the ship plummeted to the ground below. Then another ship was slashed in half, followed by a third, a fourth, and fifth ship.
Realizing that they had no way to see what was attacking them, and the fact that they had no way of realistically causing damage to this monster, the remaining airships flew ahead to try and warn the town and evacuate as many of the citizens as they can on their vessels.
In the distance, Eda and Luz were flying through the air. The Owl Lady and human teen witnessed the destruction of the airships, which made Luz grip the staff tight out of anger, knowing that that monster just killed those people.
"Eda, climb up as high as you can!" Luz requested.
"You're gonna do something crazy, aren't you?" Eda asked.
"Yeah!"
"Alright then!"
Eda angled the staff straight up, making them fly higher and higher to the point that the town looked small below. Once Luz was sure they were high enough, she patted Eda on the back.
"After this, head to the town and try and get them to get safety or whatever you can do," said Luz.
With those words said, Luz released her hold on the staff and let herself fall backwards off of it. The wind howled around the teen's ears as she found herself in free fall. The first time this happened she was knocked off the staff by an explosion, but this time she did it knowing that she had a way to survive the landing. Luz held out her left arm as she concentrated, and within seconds the Titannia Spark and Mystic Guard appeared once again. The Latina took out the Titannia Card and looked at it for a moment.
"Please, let me become a giant again! We have to stop that thing!" Luz quickly inserted the game card into the Titannia Spark.
{/|\} AWAKEN THE POWER WITHIN! {/|\}
"Arise, Guardian of Light! ULTRAWOMAN TITANNIA!"
{/|\} ARISE, TITANNIA! {/|\}
A sparkling sphere of light erupted and surrounded Luz's body. The sphere grew bigger and bigger until it shattered apart, revealing the Guardian of Light, Ultrawoman Titannia. The Ultra warrior flipped around until she was right side up and started to hover in the air.
"Holy crap, you can fly! Sweet! Okay, now for that thing."
Titannia looked straight at the monster in the distance, and the moment she did, the name of this monster appeared in her mind.
"Dinozaur, huh. Alright, Dinozaur, let's rumble!"
"HYAH!"
Titannia flew straight towards the monster as full speed. Dinozaur spotted her and immediately fired off its Organic Missiles, unleashing a full barrage at the Ultra. Titannia took evasive maneuvers, ascending into the air as the missiles seemed to be tracking her. The warrior of light quickly charged her arms and placed them in an "L" formation.
"LUMINTIUM BEAM!"
Titannia fired her Lumintium Beam at the incoming Organic Missiles, destroying in them and setting off multiple explosions in the air. Dinozaur looked up, wondering if its attack managed to hit the Ultra, but before it could wonder if that was the case or not, Titannia dropped through the flames and smoke. She led with both of her feet as she struck Dinozaur in the back, sending the flying monster straight to the ground with a thundering boom sound echoing through the air. Titannia backflipped in midair and landed on the ground close to where Dinozaur landed and got into her attack stance, ready for the monster to rise.
Once Dinozaur managed to get back on its feet, Titannia charged in for the attack. However, Dinozaur opened its mouth, and that same screeching sound could be heard in the air again. Titannia stopped in her tracks when she heard the strange sound Dinozaur was making.
"What the heck is that sound it's making?"
Suddenly, Titannia was struck by something invisible as sparks flew off her body. The giant of light was struck again, this time at her left thigh, causing more sparks to erupt from the impact. Titannia quickly raised her arms up, in an effort to defend herself, but the invisible assailant kept striking her. It felt like a razor-sharp whip was lashing at her body, and unfortunately, like the fight with Demaaga, Luz could feel the impact and pain of it.
"AAH! That hurts! What is that thing doing?!"
For a moment, Titannia saw something. A glimmer, or more like a sheen off of something metallic. It looked long and was whipping back and forth. Deciding to get out of range, if she could, Titannia jumped backwards until she put a fairly wide gap between herself and Dinozaur. Once she had, Dinozaur stopped doing whatever it was doing as the screeching sound stopped.
"Okay, whatever that thing did, it stopped. So, if I can't get in close, I'll just attack it from here!"
Titannia made an "X" formation with her arms before holding them out to her sides, she raised her arms over her head before bringing them down, bending her right arm and resting her left forearm in the crook of her right, creating an "L" formation as her energy gathered to her right forearm.
"LUMINTIUM BEAM!"
The Ultra warrior fired another beam attack, but as the beam sailed towards Dinozaur, its mouth opened again, and that screeching sound was released. As soon as the beam got close, that same invisible weapon began rapidly slashing at Titannia's Ultra Beam attack. It was as if the beam was getting swatted at, like slapping water.
"You gotta be kidding me! This thing can mess with my beam! Huh…wait a minute…"
Titannia looked closer, and now with the added light of her beam attack, she could see it more clearly. Dinozaur was using some kind of extremely thin whip-like tongue. The shrill, high-pitched noise it was emitting was from the vibrations of that tongue oscillating at superspeed.
"So, some kind of high frequency whip weapon. It's vibrating so fast that it can cut through almost anything. No wonder it cut down those airships so easily, and why those hits hurt so much. Ugh, if you didn't have a tough body, Tee, we'd probably be dead."
Titannia stopped her beam attack, there was no point in continuing it if the monster was just going to cut it down. When she stopped, Dinozaur took the initiative and began releasing more of its Organic Missile salvos on Titannia. The Guardian of Light quickly began dodging the missiles, letting them explode harmlessly against the ground around her, however, there were some that were heading straight towards the town.
"NO!"
The Ultra warrior broke into a full sprint, tearing up the ground from her sudden acceleration. She managed to get out in front of the town and was prepared to use her body as a shield, but that's when Titannia made Luz aware of a defensive technique. Titannia slammed her palms together as lavender light began to spark between them. When the missiles neared, Titannia thrusted both of her hands forward.
"Grand Wall!"
A crystal shaped construct wall of light appeared before Titannia, expanding until it was large enough to protect not just herself but the town. The missiles exploded against the defensive wall and thankfully was holding up. Dinozaur began unleashing a barrage of its Organic Missiles, making it hard for Titannia to leave that spot for fear of letting the missiles strike the town behind her. The giant woman glanced down and noticed that there were some witches and demons looking up at her with some fear.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! GET OUT OF HERE!"
"Hyah! HYAH!"
The citizens seemed afraid, and since she couldn't speak normally when she was Titannia, Luz was at a loss as to how to get them to move.
"HEY, GET A MOVE ON!" Titannia and the citizens watched as Eda the Owl Lady came flying towards them as she addressed the people. "SHE CAN'T HOLD THAT FOREVER! MOVE YOUR BUTTS SO TITANNIA CAN FIGHT THAT THING!"
Titannia vigorously nodded her head, showing that that was what she wanted them to do. Both the gesture and Eda's words were enough to get the people running out of the danger zone. Once they were gone, Eda looked up at the giant of light.
"YOU GOT THIS!" Eda yelled as she flew out of the area.
"Thanks, Eda! I'm not going to let this thing beat me! We will protect these people!"
"HYAH!"
Titannia propelled her Great Wall forward, making the remainder of the Organic Missiles explode against it, and shrouding the area between Titannia and Dinozaur in thick black smoke. Unfortunately, the excess use of her energy made her Color Timer start to blink red.
"Okay, lesson learned, be more mindful of how much energy I use. But how am I supposed to beat this thing? If I get too close, it'll just use that whip tongue. And at this distance, I'll just get blasted with missiles. Could really use an idea here, Tee."
Just then, Luz's mind flashed with the image of the snake tattoos on her arms, the mark of the Cosmo Beast Style: Striking Serpent Fist. The memory of a technique of this Space Martial Art shined brighter than the others, and the power of this memory flowed into Luz's body as she learned the technique.
"Okay, Tee, let's give this a shot!"
"HYAH!"
Titannia's body started to glow with purple light. As this happened, the tattoos on both of her arms glowed bright white as images of those snake tattoos appeared behind her. Titannia waved her hands around, gathering the energy that rose from her body to her flat palms. Once the energy had gathered, Titannia took her fighting stance as the energy transformed into two blades of bright purple light that surrounded both of her hands.
With the blades formed, Titannia jumped straight into the air as she flew straight towards Dinozaur. The Kaiju fired more of its Organic Missiles at Titannia, but as soon as the missiles neared her, Titannia slashed them with her hand blades in quick succession as she flew past them, igniting several explosions behind her as she continued on her path for Dinozaur. The Iron-Severing Kaiju opened its mouth and lashed out with its Dislocation Scooptaser. However, Titannia dropped out of the sky and landed on the ground a few meters away from Dinozaur as she started slashing the air out in front of her. Each swipe managed to counter Dinozaur's Dislocation Scooptaser, but Titannia didn't stop there. She charged in as she kept deflecting each hit from the invisible weapon.
Dinozaur was backing up, realizing that Titannia wasn't backing down from its attacks and was going full steam ahead. The two serpent tattoo images appeared on either side of Titannia as they hissed loudly before shooting straight into the hand blades and caused them to glow brighter and crackle with even more power.
"STRIKING SERPENT FIST: FANG BLADE SLASH!"
Titannia formed an "X" with her arms as the added power started cutting through the Dislocation Scooptaser. Once Titannia was upon Dinozaur, she slashed with both her hands, creating two large purple energy crescents that caused a huge amount of sparks to fly from Dinozaur. The beast took a few steps back as two purple glowing gashes formed on its chest, sparks continuing to fly from its wound before it fell to the side. Titannia turned her back to the monster just as a large explosion went off behind her, casting dark shadows on the giant of light as her Crystal Halo, Color Timer, and eyes shined in the night.
Once the flames died down, Titannia released the energy from around her hands. The Guardian of Light looked up and then jumped straight into the air. Titannia zipped around for a moment before disappearing in the form of a purple star in the sky.
Unlike last time, Luz reappeared at the edge of Bonesborough. She quickly threw off her disguise to make it easier for Eda to find her. That took several minutes as the town was still in a semi-state of chaos after the battle was over, but thankfully it was over. Eventually, Eda did manage to find Luz and the two of them headed back to the Owl House. King immediately clung to the human girl, a little shaken since he could hear the explosions and monster roars all the way to the Owl House. But after explaining and assuring that the monster was dead, King calmed down. The witch woman and teen human plopped onto the couch together, with King sitting between them, as they let out a sigh.
"Well, that was an eventful night," said Eda.
"Oh yeah…I just wish I could've seen more of that temple, though," Luz lamented.
"Unfortunately, if what that Kikimora woman said is true, it'll be gone in two days. And Lilith is going to be scouring that whole place from top to bottom before that happens. I don't think we'll be able to go back there again. Sorry, kid."
"I guess it's alright, for now. Nothing really triggered Titannia's memories. So, maybe there wasn't really anything there? Or if there is, that Lilith woman might find it."
Eda reached into her hair again and pulled out the portal key as she said, "Alright, well, what do you want to do?"
"You're asking me?" Luz asked.
"Honestly, I think sending you back home would be the better decision here. You got a family back in your world, and you should go back to them," Eda said. "But I'm leaving it up to you. This time, it's your choice."
Luz looked at the portal key, thinking hard on what she needed to do. But really, she knew what she needed to do.
"This is just me theorizing, but…I don't think this is the end."
"What do you mean?" King asked.
"Yesterday, a monster woke up. And today, another monster woke up and attacked. Those murals on the walls of the temple showed that Titannia fought against multiple Kaiju in the past. What if not all of them were destroyed? What if some of them just went to sleep?" Luz speculated.
Eda had to admit, that was a good theory, and a frightening one at that.
"Wait a minute, if that's true, what put them all to sleep in the first place? And what turned Titannia into a statue?" King questioned.
"A lot of questions, and not many answers," Eda commented. "And you might be right, kid. There could be more of those, uh, Kai-ju, sleeping undisturbed for the last few centuries."
Luz nodded and said, "And if that's the case, I have to stay here and fight against them. You guys don't have any kind of anti-Kaiju weapons, and right now Titannia and I are the only ones who can take them down. Plus…I really don't know what I'm going to do with the power to turn into a giant woman in my world. We don't exactly have any Kaiju walking around that I can use this power on."
"But what about your parents? You're telling me they're not going to be worried about you?" Eda questioned.
"I was actually supposed to be away at a summer camp for the next three months. So, why not let me stay for these three months and protect the Boiling Isles? And when camp's over I can make little trips back and forth between the Human Realm and Demon Realm with that door of yours," Luz suggested.
Eda pondered the idea for a bit. The Demon Realm was facing a threat from a forgotten era, and the only one who could really do anything about it was this human teenager sitting in her living room who happened to merge with the one being who could fight them.
"Alright, then from here on out, you're a new tenant of the Owl House, Luz."
"Yes!" Luz exclaimed as she fist pumped. "Oh, and to throw off suspicions about why you have a human living in your house, you can make me your witch apprentice!"
"Huh? My apprentice?" Eda asked, confused.
"I've always wanted to learn magic, to be hero like my idol, Good Witch Azura! Plus, who knows, learning magic might help me with my monster busting later?"
"Heh, okay." Eda stood up from the couch and turned to face Luz as she held out her right hand. "Then I hope you'll be ready to work, 'apprentice'."
Luz stood up as well and shook Eda's hand vigorously.
"Oh, you know it!" There was a popping sound and Luz stopped shaking Eda's hand. When she looked down, she saw that said hand was detached from Eda's arm. "AAAAH!"
King watched as Luz panicked and fell backwards onto the floor as he said, "Yeah, you're definitely gonna need to get used to that."
After that little freakout, Luz was set up inside, what had been, a storage room. She laid out her sleeping bag and put her backpack against the wall behind her, intent on unpacking fully tomorrow. She had slipped into a tank top and boxers for her nightwear and plopped onto her sleeping bag, feeling the exhaustion of the last couple of days finally start to hit her. Luz heard a knock at her door and sat up to see King standing in the doorway with this new stuffed bunny, Francois.
"Your sleep cocoon looks comfortable," King commented.
Luz smiled at the little demon and patted her sleeping bag in a silent affirmation for him to come and sleep next to her. King didn't hesitate to take her up on the invitation as he found a spot on the sleeping bag and curled up with Francois before dozing off. Luz figured the little demon was probably a little scared, considering that two Kaiju had attacked his home in the last two days.
He probably feels safer with me here, thought Luz.
The Latina took out her phone and noticed that her mother had texted her a couple of times, asking how camp was so far. A small pit in Luz's stomach formed. Her mother thought she was at summer camp, being taught how to be less weird, but instead, Luz stumbled upon a world where everything was nothing but weird. And now she had the ability to transform into a giant warrior woman.
The less she knows the better.
[Sorry for not replying right away, Mami. I've been adjusting to how things work here at camp. Like you said, this summer may not be how hoped it would be, but I think I'll like it here. Te amo, Mamá.]
Luz yawned loudly as she placed her phone next to her and drifted off to sleep. Wondering what adventures awaited her in this new world.
LUZ'S ULTRA NAVI!
"Welcome everyone! This is Luz Noceda! And this my Ultra Navi section!"
"And me, her co-host, the King of Demons! Where are my offerings?!'
"Calm down, King. I'll get you some offerings at the end of the segment, cool?"
"Really? Yay! You're all off the hook…for now!"
"Oh boy…Anyway, today's episode has left me with more questions than answers. I'm still bummed that I won't be able to see all those paintings about Titannia's past."
"Yeah, too bad another of those monsters showed up."
"Speaking of which, today's monster is this looker!"
DINOZAUR
"The Ancient Iron-Serving Monster, Dinozaur! This guy was a real piece of work. Not only can it fly, but it can also shoot out these Organic Missiles from the glowing spots on its body."
"And there were a lot of them."
"Oooh yeah, so many. But those are nothing compared to its nastier weapon, the Dislocation Scooptaser! A near two-dimensional tongue at that can vibrate at fast speeds. The tongue can extend to ten thousand meters in length but is only one angstrom (0.1 nanometers) wide."
"Say what?"
"Basically, it's tongue is so thin and vibrates so fast that it's practically invisible to the naked eye and can cut through nearly anything."
"Ah, now I get it! That must've hurt getting hit by that thing."
"Ugh, tell me about it. I can still feel the stinging sensation from those hits."
"And what about that attack you used to defeat it?"
"Oh, that was another one of the Titannia's Cosmos Beast Style. Striking Serpent Fist: Snake Fang Slash. By channeling the energy of her Cosmo Beast into her hands, Titannia can create blades of light like a snake's fangs over her hands and slash through her opponents like a hot knife through butter."
"Mmm, okay, I want my offerings to be breakfast related!"
"Now that you mention it, I haven't eaten anything since getting here. I could go for some breakfast too."
*BZZZT!*
"And that's it for this segment, see you next time!"
A/N: Couldn't find a good picture of Dinozaur, so this pic/render was courtesy of KaijuMaster201
kaijumaster201/art/Dinozaur-Ultraman-Mebius-Render-903854899