Episode:
13: The Morpheus Trap

Frustrated with failure, Adam decides to finally test the Dream Entrapment spell. Blue Glossaryck is the perfect test subject - he's completely mindless! Right? Red and Blue Glossaryck come to blows about what it means to be a Knight of Terms.

As it turns out, fractures in space and time were much harder to seal up than Adam had anticipated. Perhaps he shouldn't have been so arrogant, given that not even the Magic High Commission had figured out how to dent it. However, he held out hope for his own abilities, considering he was the only one who could cause a reaction in the shiny fissures.

Nevertheless, Adam enlisted help from others almost immediately.

Frankly, he felt forced to, since he couldn't do much of anything on his own. Not to mention the fact that Janna was constantly reminding him not to become too obsessed, lest he repeat the mistake of overworking himself. It was a trap that he acknowledged he'd fall into a lot more frequently if his friends weren't around to stop him.

'Alright, guys, this'll be the last test of the day.'

The four Ambassadors of Magic exchanged vigilant looks, before ultimately nodding. Adam walked away from the fracture and stepped through the line of Ambassadors across the room.

'Okay, so when I first opened the portal, it happened when I caused huge feedback of anti-magic,' he explained, pacing down the line of the Ambassadors. 'So I figured that if we do the opposite – cause a shockwave of magic – maybe that'll do something. And the only way I know to do that is to combine magic with my anti-magic.'

'What do you want us to do?' enquired one of them, Ambassador Colton.

'I want two of you to project a concentrated ball of energy at the heart of the fracture,' he said. 'The other two: I need you to stay back and be prepared in case something goes wrong. I'm going to contain it within a forcefield and crush it. That will create a positive feedback loop of exponentially increasing energy, leading into a shockwave of magical energy.'

'I care little for the science,' said Ambassador Trent disinterestedly, shrugging her shoulders. 'I just want to get the job done.'

Adam shrugged. 'Fair enough.'

He nodded to Colton and Trent, and they stepped forward, whilst the other two stepped backwards and surrounded the four of them with protective charms. A silvery bubble washed over them, just short of the space-time fracture.

'Ready?' prompted Adam.

Trent nodded. 'Aye.'

'Ready, Adam Butterfly,' Colton added.

''Globulus lucis!'' chanted the two Ambassadors in unison. A bright beam of white light shot out from their hands, combining together in a dazzling sphere of light. Adam held clutched hands out in front of him.

Barrier Force!

The white ball of light was instantly contained by a ruby dodecahedron forcefield.

Smacking his hands together, the warlock caused the forcefield to collapse inwards and crush the ball of light. A blinding shockwave of pearl-white light cascaded outwards from the sphere, ripping through Adam's Barrier Force and shimmering through the space-time fracture.

Squeezing his eyes shut, Adam held up a hand to block the stunning flash of light. Eventually, the light died down and he got a good luck at the effects the positive feedback had on the fracture.

A thousand-kilowatt smile beamed across his face. The glassy fractures began to retreat backwards, delicately sealing up along the network of light. However, Adam noticed the repairs began to slow down, as though an invisible hand was forcing them open.

The smile on his face began to fade. The cracks slowed to a crawl and swiftly reopened. It only took five seconds before all their efforts were reverted, and they were back where they started.

Adam let out a foregone sigh.

'Test negative.' He telekinetically moved a pen to write down a corresponding note in his notepad. 'Well, uh…thanks, everyone, for your help. I think we're done for the day.'

The sound of portals opening resounded through the air, followed by the noise of footsteps against the stone by the Ambassadors.

Adam went over to one of the stone coffins and sat on it, rubbing his brow in dissatisfaction. The Mewman supposed he should be at least pleased the experiment had an effect on the fracture, but it was only momentary. It seemed almost like fate itself was working against him. If he could figure this out, then mastery of intermultiversal magic was on the horizon.

'Excuse me, Mr Butterfly?'

Adam looked up to see that one of the Ambassadors, whose name he didn't know, was standing expectantly in front of him. She was a tall, thin woman in her thirties, wearing purple robes that Adam gauged were her uniform as an Ambassador for Magic. She had mint green hair, slightly poofy, and pale skin. Adam silently compared her to Eclipsa; they had the same colour hair and similar complexion.

He squeezed his eyes shut to will away his headache.

'Uh, yeah?'

'I'm…Astoria Wildfyre,' she introduced. 'I believe you met my brother, Argus? During the War Games?'

'I didn't know he had a sister,' remarked Adam, in surprise. 'What can I do for you?'

Astoria bit her lip reproachfully. 'Well, I just wanted to apologise on behalf of my brother for his actions.'

'You don't need to apologise for your brother,' he dismissed.

'Nevertheless, my family and I do not endorse his actions, and we're certainly appalled by them,' she persisted, bowing her head respectfully. 'Argus has…always been a competitive individual. Ever since he first got his magic, he started viewing himself as above everyone else.'

'Typical superiority complex,' muttered the Mewman unhappily. 'Please tell me that King Pacem got rid of that guy.'

'Pacem fired Argus from his position as Chief Ambassador not long after you left. They're still looking for a replacement for him.'

'And what about Prince Ignius? How is he doing?'

'Oh, quite well!' Astoria replied, beaming. 'There's been a marked improvement in his attitude since the War Games. I think whatever you said to him, he really took it to heart.'

'Good, I'm glad,' he responded, smiling. 'So…how'd you get involved in the family biz?'

'Well, not unlike yourself, Argus and I discovered our ability to cast magic when we were only teenagers,' she said, sitting on the coffin next to him. Adam shuffled in his spot to get more comfortable. Astoria smiled. 'Turned our dad's gemstone mines into gold; almost crashed the kingdom's economy. Mom and Dad were scared, so they sent us away to a boarding school and told us to never cast magic ever again. Can't say I listened to them…I did a lot of magic in my spare time. Argus joined me for a while, but…the more he practiced, the more he changed. Started seeing himself as above everyone else…formed his own little posse of arrogant cornheads; it was ridiculous. By the time we graduated, he was hardly my brother at all.'

'I'm sorry.' He received an appreciative nod from Astoria. She sighed and continued her story.

'After graduation, Pacem's dad, King Grawp, approached us, asking about our ability to cast magic,' she elaborated. 'Apparently, it was a rare thing that had been going on for about half a century, but something highly valued among the royal court. He asked us if we wanted to join his ranks of Ambassadors for Magic. The pay seemed decent, the hours manageable, so we accepted. Argus and I ended up having to work together after that. Not long after Grawp died and Pacem succeeded him, Argus was promoted to Chief Ambassador. I've been trying for years to break his prejudiced views. I don't want to give up, but he just simply refuses to change.'

'At least you tried,' said Adam, shrugging his shoulders. 'I think…these days, nothing's more important than family. Wildfyre's family to you, so I understand not wanting to give up on him.'

'Do you have family?' Astoria asked innocently. Adam looked away, crestfallen. He tried not to be aggressive about it. She didn't know his history. She wouldn't know.

'No,' he answered quietly. 'Lost them a long time ago.'

'I'm so sorry.' She put a tentative hand on his shoulder. 'So young…to lose your loved ones. I can't imagine the kind of pain you must have gone through.'

'I guess…the grief never goes away,' confessed Adam, lowering his eyebrows morosely. 'You sorta just…grow around it. Learn to live with it. I feel like…I have to keep moving forward, because if I look back for even a second…I think it might just kill me.'

'I'm sure your family would be proud of you,' she reassured. 'You saved the Butterfly Kingdom from an evil impostor, and you managed to secure peace between the Mace and Butterfly Kingdoms for the next generation. And now you're working to close this space-time fracture and prevent it from ripping apart the fabric of reality. You've achieved a lot so far, don't forget that.'

He sniffed and smiled a little. 'Thanks, Astoria. I think I needed to hear that.'

'Glad I could help.' She stood up off the coffin and summoned a portal to the Mace Kingdom. 'Same time next week, I expect?'

Adam nodded. 'You betcha.'

With that, Astoria left, and Adam was alone with only his thoughts to keep him company. He remained there for a few minutes longer, silently contemplating his own existence whilst staring at the shimmering cracks in reality laid out before him. Perhaps seeing the inner workings of space and time provided him some kind of perspective on life. It was like an ant upon seeing a humanoid person for the first time. Even if ants never seemed nonplussed around people that much.

Letting out another sigh, Adam got up from the coffin to leave. On his way out, he summoned his notepad into his hands from across the room. He opened a portal to his bedroom and stepped through it.

Swiftly, he was welcomed by his well-made bed and its soft, comfy pillows. A gradient of heat wrapped around him invitingly, pulling him down into a brief slumber. His mind began to mull over the event of the past few weeks, like a computer defragmenting data at the end of a long day.

Getting up at 6am to study the fracture with the Ambassadors was starting to take its toll on him. At least it was only Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. It was currently Sunday, and a part of Adam wanted nothing more than to sleep all day. Alas, his mind simply would not be put at rest.

It had been little over a fortnight since the ordeal with Tom and the Dímios. Tom had been in contact with Adam frequently since, mainly to share small talk to get to know him better. He was also providing updates about his journey to move on from Star, not that Adam ever asked for it. Tom had been grounded by his mother for his actions with the Dímios, so he'd been inundated with chores ever since. He never complained about Tom's updates; he mostly just listened to him, understanding that Tom probably needed someone to talk to in order to stay sane. There wasn't much else he could do apart from stay put and wait.

Meanwhile, Star seemed to have gotten over her break-up with Tom. That wasn't to say she had accepted Tom back into her life yet. That was going to take some time, and Adam honestly didn't blame her for that. However, her outlook on life had certainly improved. No longer did Adam have to worry about walking in on her crying in bed, or banging her head against her desk, or drowning in a bout of depression that quietly broke his heart.

Last week, Lilacia (Pony Head, as she insisted to be called) decided it was paramount to return to St. Olga's Reform School for Wayward Princesses to party and brunch with the other princesses. Apparently, nobody had bothered to retake control of the school after the inmates began running the asylum, and it was more or less a youth hostel. That being said, the robots had been reprogrammed and Pony Head had been ordered to pass some stupid exam before she could have brunch with her fellow princesses.

She was subsequently sent away for being incapable of adjusting to the school's new ways. [33] She returned to Cloud Kingdom to mope about it for a while before deciding to wait for Star in the Butterfly Castle.

Star had been unavailable at the time because she was out with Marco and Adam, waiting in line for Goblin Dogs. This wasn't the first time they had waited in line for them; Adam ended up being dragged along this time and he only mildly agreed that it was worth the wait. The Goblin Dog Truck shut early and tried to run away, and Star was so adamant in getting her precious Goblin Dog that they quite literally chased the truck through the entire multiverse.

When they got back, Lilacia was still moping in Star's bedroom about no longer being "connected" with her "sistahs". Star managed to convince her try again and the four of them travelled to St. Olga's to help her reconnect with her princesses. Somehow, they succeeded, and Pony Head got to have her brunch with the other princesses. Marco and Star joined them, but Adam was denied entry since he wasn't a princess, but he didn't really mind. After that, he went home to work on his personal spellbook.

Speaking of spells, Adam suddenly had an idea. He knew he needed to keep his mind occupied. The warmth of the bed had since faded, and he longer felt very sleepy. What better way than to test one of his spells?

Adam slipped off his bed and walked over to his desk drawer. Waving a hand, he cast the Unlocking Spell and unlocked the drawer, pulling it open and retrieving his spellbook.

On the first page he flipped, he found the Dream Entrapment Spell. A small illustration of a dream catcher lay on the page next to the section which detailed the effects of the spell. He had never found a test subject for this spell, so he'd never been able to test it. Maybe if he could find someone or something to test it on, he'd be able to see it for himself.

Star would probably be mad at him for holding onto the spell for so long. She hated it. She thought it was cruel and twisted to subject someone to their worst nightmare; she'd made that clear months ago when he first mentioned the spell to her. Perhaps Adam was being hypocritical; he had chosen not to use the Truth Binding Spell but still remained convinced by the necessity of the Dream Entrapment Spell. However, a part of him still felt compelled by the Truth Binding Spell, and he also firmly believed that the use of the spell as a torture tool was excellent.

It wasn't like he was planning on casting this spell at every opportunity! He was going to use it where he saw fit, which Star argued was arrogance to think that such an act was for him to decide. In his eyes, though, since he had made the spell, it was his judgement when and why it should be used. Eclipsa thought it was a good spell, too!

He shook his head. It didn't matter what Star thought. Not to him. He reminded himself that for all her strengths, Star was still naïve and frequently failed to see the bigger picture.

Not like it really mattered what he thought about the Dream Entrapment Spell. He still didn't have anyone to test it on.

As if to answer his troubles, his bedroom door was kicked open. He groaned indignantly.

'Star–!' he began, ready to lecture her on how to open a door the right way.

'Globgor!'

Adam turned to see Blue Glossaryck bouncing into his room on his hind legs like a petulant frog.

Adam groaned. 'Oh, not you.' The little blue man-dog jumped onto the spellbook on his lap.

'Globgor! Globgor!' he cried, bouncing up and down on his book. Adam attempted to swat him off the book, but he simply jumped out the way of his hand. He rolled his eyes.

'What do you want?'

'Globgor?' said Blue Glossaryck questioningly, inspecting Adam's spellbook. Before Adam could even react, Glossaryck swiped it from his hands and hopped off his lap. He held it tight to his chest. 'Globgor!'

Adam leapt instantly off the bed to point at him accusingly. 'Hey! Give that back!' As he attempted to swoop down and snatch the book from his hands, Blue Glossaryck dodged him again.

'Globgor!' the blue man yelled angrily, before running out of the room.

'Hey!'

Adam bolted out the room after him. Glossaryck was already halfway down the hallway and didn't seem to be slowing down in the slightest.

'Get back here you little blue dog!'

Adam chased him through the hallways of the castle, almost crashing into a huge set of plates being carried by some poor servant. Once he got close enough for Glossaryck to come in sight, he opened a portal and jumped through it, landing right in front of him.

'Got ya!' he cried triumphantly, trying to seize the book from him. However, Glossaryck was unfazed, dodging him effortlessly, jumping off the walls and past his head. 'Dammit!'

Adam broke into a sprint after him again. To pour salt into the wound, Glossaryck began ripping out pages from the book and scattering them on the floor. Sighing, he hastily swiped the pages from the floor as they came and stuffed them into his pockets.

As he turned the corner, he ran into someone and clattered to the floor. Jumping to his feet, Adam had only half a second to see who it was before he was running off again.

'Hey!' they cried.

'Sorry Kelly!' he yelled back, as he bolted off in the other direction.

It took the skilled placement of portals in order to catch up to Blue Glossaryck. The Globgor-loving little blue man was now charging through one of the courtyards, effortlessly bobbing and weaving through the gardeners and patrolling knights.

Meanwhile, Adam was far less agile. Much like a stampeding Warnicorn through an antique shop, the Mewman ended up crashing into just about everything in sight. Had it not been for that all-important ability to open portals at will, it almost certainly would have slowed him down.

Adam rattled off every spell he could think of to try to immobilise Blue Glossaryck. He dodged every single one of them, numerous hexes and jinxes whizzing past his head. Barrier Force, Chains of Captivity, Black Widow Calamity Cobweb, Natural Overload, Cold Shoulder Ice Storm, Levitato, Melting Point, and Ropes of Binding, and Glossaryck was hardly fazed by any of them. He even resorted to using some of Star's spells, including Starfish Tsunami and Winterstorm Hyperblow.

'Give it back, asshole!' Adam bellowed, making a mental note to watch his potty mouth when running around the castle. Moments before he passed a door, it opened, revealing a concerned Star Butterfly leaving her bedroom door.

'What's going on?' she asked, as he grinded to a halt before her.

'Blue Glossaryck stole my spellbook!' cried Adam, bursting into a run seconds later. 'Help me catch him!'

Star rolled her eyes and transformed into her Full Butterfly form in dazzling flash of yellow-white light. She flew through the air with the crack of her wings, catching up to Glossaryck in an instant. She pointed her wand at him.

'Pink Bubblegum Ball Trap!'

A hot pink energy beam shot out of the star crystal of her wand and caught Blue Glossaryck mid-leap in a pink ball of energy. For some reason, the blue man instantly stopped resisting and sat calmly in place with the spellbook loose in his hands.

'Thanks…Star…' Adam panted, stopping to catch his breath. He reached forward and grabbed the spellbook from Blue Glossaryck's arms, scowling at him as he took out the pages from his pocket that the blue man had ripped out. Silently, he cast a spell to telekinetically return the pages to the book, followed by another spell which stitched them back into place.

Star frowned curiously. 'Why did he take your book?'

'I dunno,' replied Adam. 'He just burst into my room and snatched it out of my hands.' He coughed. 'Well, um, thanks for catching him. He's a slippery one.'

'Oh, no problem!' she said ecstatically, beaming at him. She opened her mouth to say something, but a ringtone from her compact went off, interrupting her. Star smiled disconcertedly at Adam and took out her compact, opening it up to answer the call. 'Mom?'

'Star! I was just calling to inform you that your father and I will be leaving the kingdom for the rest of day to attend our reservation at Quoque Pretiosa.'

Star practically swooned. 'A romantic retreat? Aww!'

'Yes. Thank you, Star,' uttered Moon abashedly. 'I just wanted to remind you that you still have many duties to attend to and I do not expect you to slack on them just because I am not here. Understood?'

Star groaned. 'Yes, Mom.'

'Good. Don't burn the castle down while I'm gone. I will see you later, Star.'

'I'm not gonna –!' But Moon had already hung up. The princess sighed and turned back to Adam. 'Well, I guess I gotta go. Uh, you can bring Gloss back to his cage, right?'

'How do you know he won't run away again?' questioned Adam, folding his arms.

To answer his question, Star cancelled her Pink Bubblegum Ball Trap. Blue Glossaryck landed quite contently on the ground, happily sucking on his own big toe. She bent down to pick him up, looking up at Adam.

'See? Harmless. You just gotta be careful with him.'

Adam rolled his eyes as the princess delicately handed him the feral blue man. Before he knew it, he was holding Blue Glossaryck in his cupped hands, as Star hurried away to carry out her "princess duties". Had it not been for the phone call he had overheard with Moon, then he would have thought she was just trying to avoid dealing with Blue Glossaryck.

As Adam returned to his bedroom, the thought occurred to him that Blue Glossaryck was feral, and therefore of no consequence to anyone. It wasn't like he was going to suffer like a human would under the effects of a spell. Glossaryck was ethereal.

Adam supposed he had now found his test subject for the Dream Entrapment Spell.

Setting him down in the centre of the room, he sat down cross-legged in front of Blue Glossaryck. His cheek marks subtly began to glow purple. He felt his star-shaped scar begin to fizzle and burn. Calmly, Adam spoke the words of the spell.

'Build the dream, keep them blind, sew the seams, trap the mind. Build the dream, keep them blind, sew the seams, trap the mind.' He pointed his arms at Glossaryck, who had not moved, with the glowing star marks in his palms. 'Build the dream, keep them blind, sew the seams, trap the mind!'

Dark purple energy funnelled out his hands towards Blue Glossaryck, forming sharp beams of energy. Still, the man was impassive and ignorant. The beams stabbed through the air towards him, ready to pierce his mind. The energy beams came within a millimetre within Blue Glossaryck's head, before he abruptly dodged it.

His pink crystal gem glowed, and he formed a perfect pink forcefield, which collided with the beams of energy with a loud clang. Before Adam could process anything, he was blown backwards by a huge shockwave of energy.

The back of his head hit the bedframe with a loud smack. A great veil of darkness was pulled over him instantly, leaving him knocked out.

Echoes of reality called him back into consciousness a short while later. Adam let out a guttural groan and shifted upright. Something about this definitely wasn't right, but the mist clouding his mind was much too strong.

'Ugh,' he grunted, rubbing his forehead. 'What happened?'

'Two minutes, seventeen seconds.'

Adam blinked and jolted awake, banishing the fogginess of his mind away in an instant. He opened his eyes properly to see that Blue Glossaryck was floating in the air inches away from his face, looking rather miffed.

'Wha…?'

'Two minutes, seventeen seconds of unconsciousness,' Blue Glossaryck recounted, shaking his head in disappointment. 'Congratulations, you just tried to torture an innocent animal. Not even Toffee stooped that low.'

Adam shook his head in confusion.

'How are you able to talk?' He gestured at him fervently. 'Or y'know, act like a normal person?'

'You cannot figure it out yourself?' derided Glossaryck, folding his arms and lying on his back in the air.

'So…you were pretending to be lobotomised?' Adam guessed, receiving a neutral hum from the floating blue man. 'But why? For what purpose? And why yell "Globgor" all the time? What does that even mean? Unless…it was some kind of clue. Were you trying to warn Star about something?'

Blue Glossaryck raised an eyebrow.

'Do you know of any individual with the name Globgor?' he enquired curiously. Adam shook his head. 'Perhaps he does not exist in your multiverse. Globgor is the Prince of Darkness, the Monster King himself. And the husband of Eclipsa Butterfly.'

Adam blinked.

'She never told me his name,' he said, flummoxed. 'But how is that a warning? What were you trying to tell us?'

'I was trying to warn you lot of events to come. But it seems your own ignorance will be your downfall. As will your arrogance.'

'Hey! It might not be my fault,' he protested, folding his arms. 'Maybe the reason I haven't heard of Globgor is because he was killed in the First Great Monster Purge before he ever met my version of Eclipsa.'

'Hmm…I glimpsed some of your history when that portal first opened,' Glossaryck revealed, rubbing his chin. 'I was not particularly pleased with what I saw. Do you ever get tired of the endless bloodshed?'

Adam rolled his eyes and stood up. He began to walk over to the door at the back of the room.

'I'm gonna tell Star about you,' he threatened, swinging open the door and stomping out. Blue Glossaryck smirked to himself.

'You may not want to do that!' There was a suspicious hint of mockery in his voice.

When he was met with a firm "shut up" from Adam, Blue Glossaryck opted to chase after him. He caught up to him in seconds and trailed next to him, floating nonchalantly in the air beside him.

'Quite the experiment you had planned there,' he teased. 'Do you consider yourself a professional?'

'I'm not above making mistakes. Stop trying to make fun of me.'

'You're making it very easy for me,' he mocked, laughing to himself. 'You've certainly had some questionable teachers, from what I've seen.'

Adam stopped. Glossaryck stopped with him. 'What's that supposed to mean?'

'This multiverse is only big enough for one Glossaryck,' Blue Glossaryck said, a dissatisfied glower on his face. 'Literally. The world created only one of me for a reason. Your "Red" Glossaryck is far too callous and pompous for my liking.'

Adam could hardly process the lack of the self-awareness in that last statement.

'Red Glossaryck is the main reason I'm still alive,' he argued, restarting at a frustrated pace. 'He was an excellent teacher. He's the one who made me into an actual warlock – not some…amateur, running around throwing spells everywhere.'

Glossaryck raised an eyebrow, unconvinced.

'Really? Are you certain that is not exactly what you are?'

'Look: I know I'm no "master of the arcane arts", but I reckon I've gotten pretty decent over the years. I can fight Star to a standstill so I must be doing something right.'

'Do not hold your breath.'

Adam was about to ask him what he meant by that, when he turned a corner and discovered something alarming. A body lay slumped on the floor in the middle of the hallway. It took him a mere moment to identify who it was.

'Marco!' he cried, running over to him. He sat down by his side and attempted to shake him awake. When his efforts proved fruitless, Adam frantically checked his pulse. 'Unconscious…but alive. Oh corn…'

Without much time for thought, Adam picked up Marco's unconscious form and hurried him through a portal. He arrived in the castle infirmary, the medical bay, within seconds and placed him carefully down on the nearest available hospital bed. Glossaryck followed insouciantly behind him.

He scanned Marco's body for any physical trauma, or even the slightest blemish, but he soon gave up. Adam was no medical expert, so perhaps he needed to consult someone of greater authority and experience.

'The answer to your problem lies in front of you,' informed Blue Glossaryck. Adam shot him an annoyed glare.

The door to the Head Nurse's office was in the same room as the medical bay. Adam ran over to it and knocked on the door. He waited tensely for an answer. When nobody responded, he knocked on it again.

No response. Adam hastily opened the door and stepped inside.

'Matron Nefcy?' he called, nervously walking towards the chair facing a desk at the back of the room. He spotted a head on the back of the chair, confirming that a person was definitely sitting there. 'M-Matron Nefcy? I need your help.'

Tentatively, Adam reached out towards the back of the chair. In one swift motion, he spun the chair around and recoiled back in fear.

Matron Nefcy was lying unconscious in her chair. At least, he was pretty sure she was unconscious. A check of her pulse confirmed his suspicions, much to his relief. He levitated her with his magic to move her out the office and onto a bed next to Marco.

'What the hell is going on?' Adam wondered aloud, holding his hand behind his head. 'Two people happen to be unconscious at the exact same time, in close proximity to one another. This can't be a coincidence. Somebody must be behind this.'

'A sea of answers surrounds you, but you cannot see them yet,' Glossaryck told him cryptically. 'To find the true cause, you need only look inwards. You must reveal the nature of this affliction.'

'What do you mean?'

Glossaryck rolled his eyes.

'Cast Octarinis on Marco.'

'Oh, uh, okay,' uttered Adam, embarrassed. He waved a hand over Marco's unconscious body, silently casting the spell.

A series of dark grey and purple seals appeared over his body. They were all the same design, only in different colours. True to its effects, the Rune Revealing Spell didn't tell him directly what spell it was; it only represented every spell with a sigil. Every spell had a unique sigil that Adam more or less had had to memorise.

This one was new. He had never seen this sigil before, but it contained the image of a laughing demon. It was not something that filled him with confidence.

Everything about it screamed malefic. Evil. Like a subtle threat, aiming for his senses.

Worried, Adam cast the Rune Revealing Spell on Matron Nefcy, too. The exact same seals appeared on her body as well. It confirmed his suspicions: they were both under the effect of a spell, and it was the exact same spell.

A spell which causes them to go unresponsive. Unconscious. Almost like they're…sleeping.

Adam's eyes widened.

'Oh no.'

Blue Glossaryck made an exclamation of excitement.

'Bingo!'

'It's the Dream Entrapment Spell!' Adam cried, holding his hands up to his head in shock. 'It…It backfired!'

'Oh, it backfired, alright,' he confirmed, folding his arms. 'Across the entire kingdom. Everybody currently present in the Butterfly Kingdom, aside from you and I, are caught in an endless, inescapable nightmare. A nightmare you caused.'

'No…no, it's-it's fine, I created a counter-curse.' He waved his wand over Marco. 'Free the mind, relax the dream, be so kind, to break the seams.'

A few tense seconds passed, but nothing happened. Adam desperately repeated the spell, but again, nothing happened. The floating seals on Marco's body did not waver.

'It's not working!' he yelled frantically. 'The Dream Entrapment Spell's effects have been…intensified. That's why Octarinis showed so many seals. They've been stacked on top of one another so much that the counter-curse doesn't even work anymore. But how would…?' He gazed at Blue Glossaryck, who seemed to be avoiding his eyes, and suddenly the answer hit him. 'You. This is because of you.'

Blue Glossaryck raised his eyebrows promptingly, but he didn't say anything to deny his allegation.

'When you deflected the spell, it got caught in your own magical aura,' Adam identified, wagging his finger accusingly. 'You caused its effects to increase exponentially, until it ricocheted throughout the entire kingdom.' Again, Glossaryck said nothing to deny what he had claimed. 'Ha! And you keep mocking me for causing this, but you're also to blame! Maybe you should hold your breath, huh?!'

'Arguing will not solve anything,' he said impatiently, rolling his eyes. Adam folded his arms angrily. Blue Glossaryck smirked and whizzed around his head. 'You know…your Negative Multiverse's magic is quite fascinating. I never would have seen a Mewman-magic metamorphmagus in my very long lifetime, but now I have. Interesting.'

He reached out to poke him in the face, but Adam swiped his hand away.

'Yeah, well, if you're so "fascinated", go ask Red Glossaryck,' the warlock dismissed. 'I've got the issue of a Dream-Entrapped kingdom to deal with.'

'I think you will need me.'

Adam scoffed. 'Doubt it. I think I'll sort this out on my own, thanks.'

'You plan to use the Psionic Wandering Spell to release the victims from your spell, do you not?'

He blinked. 'Uh, yeah. How'd you –'

'Fifth-dimensional being, remember?' Glossaryck reminded him, rolling his eyes again. 'A novel idea, but you'll be here all day if you try to do this for every individual in the Butterfly Kingdom. Not to mention the fact that it's much harder to draw a stranger out from their private thoughts.'

'Alright, so what's your solution?'

'We must release Star,' he enlightened. 'Once you do that, I can possess her wand and we can all combine our powers to open a powerful enough portal to the Realm of Magic. The Realm of Magic loves magic and anti-magic alike – causes a lot of positive feedback loops. We can use it as a relay for your little counter-curse and increase its power exponentially to reverberate it across the entire kingdom in one single instant. Everybody under the effects of the spell will be released.'

'Hmm…yeah, okay,' acquiesced Adam. He gazed at Marco. 'We'll still need Marco, though. He's much closer with Star than I am, so it'd be good to make sure he's with me when we try to break Star out of her nightmare.'

Blue Glossaryck nodded.

'That seems logical to me.'

'Well, it doesn't to me!' cried an eerily similar voice. Adam winced as he felt something fly past his head.

Red Glossaryck was floating in the air centimetres from his face, arms folded petulantly.

'Adam, heed my advice,' commanded Red Glossaryck fervently. 'You needn't waste your time on this human. You need only require Star for this, to free the kingdom from this spell. Rescuing Marco is unnecessary.'

'Hardly!' scoffed Adam. 'How am I supposed to coax Star from her nightmare without her closest friend?'

'You do not need to "coax" her out of the dream,' said Red Glossaryck. 'It can be forced.'

'I'd expect something so draconian coming from you,' Blue Glossaryck derided, scowling at him. 'To attempt that is far too dangerous. You risk tearing her mind asunder.'

'Unsurprisingly, the lesser of Terms plays it safe,' Red insulted. He turned back to Adam. 'Your ultimate objective remains to be to gain mastery of intermultiversal magic, so that you might get your revenge on the Dark Butterflies. You require Star and the Butterfly armies to do this. You do not require Marco Diaz.'

Adam glowered at him. 'Marco is my friend, Gloss!' he pointed out. 'I can't just leave him trapped in his worst nightmare!'

Red Glossaryck raised an eyebrow.

'Yet you are perfectly willing to allow the innocent Matron Nefcy to remain helplessly trapped?'

'Blue said it: it's harder to save a stranger from their nightmares than a friend. I'm gonna save her when I save Star. I need Marco to help me do that.'

'You do not require Marco Diaz. You are wasting time, energy and mana on him. It would be paramount to –'

'Do not listen to this crimson gremlin, Adam,' Blue cut in, his typically serene voice turning abnormally sour. 'He cares not for Mewman or human lives. My duty is to serve the Butterfly Family and its associated Kingdom, and that extends to the friends of the Butterfly Family. Marco is my friend also.'

'My duty is to Adam,' retorted Red. 'To assist him in his ultimate objective to depose and execute the Dark Butterflies. Meanwhile, what has my Positive counterpart done? Hid away, pretending to be something he is not. My world's Star would never have tolerated such ignorance.'

'I serve a greater purpose than cold-blooded revenge!' Blue Glossaryck argued, zipping close to his face. 'You are a fifth-dimensional being, a Knight of Terms [34], you should be above such petty interests.'

'For a millennium, I was forced to serve an empire that knows nothing but violence and bloodshed,' Red Glossaryck said disdainfully. 'Over those tiresome years, I learned one thing: the only way to fight fire, is with fire. I was required to lower myself down to their level. My siblings are gone. I am the only one left.' He waved his hand belittlingly at his blue counterpart. 'Do not attempt to lord yourself over me! At least I am not so easily enticed by the "allure" of chocolate pudding and petty mischief! You'd sooner pull pranks on Marco than rescue him from danger.'

'Do not pretend you are not fond of chocolate pudding as well!' Blue yelled back, huffing in dissatisfaction. 'If you must debase yourself to survive, then you can no longer consider yourself a Knight of Terms.'

Red Glossaryck lunged forward and smacked him back through the air with a blow from his crystal gem. The two of them crashed into a stone wall at the back of the room. A cascade of stone dust was kicked up by the crash, prompting a few shallow coughs from Adam. He ran through the cloud of stone.

As it began to clear, he saw Red Glossaryck holding Blue Glossaryck down with a light green hand of energy from his head crystal.

'You do not possess the authority to renounce my titles,' stated Red Glossaryck calmly, a deadly serious intonation in his voice.

'Both of you, stop!' commanded Adam, getting between them and pushing them apart. Red Glossaryck stared at him curiously, but nevertheless evaporated his green construct. Adam pointed his index finger indignantly at him. 'You are bound to me as my liege. You don't get to control me. And no right to pass judgement on me. Either you can help us, or you can stop bothering me. I'm saving Marco whether you like it or not. So…what's it gonna be?'

'If my words are going to fall upon deaf ears, perhaps I should take my service elsewhere!' huffed Red. With a loud pop, he dematerialised from view, leaving Adam, Blue Glossaryck, and a sizeable crater in the wall.

Adam let out a sigh. He began to cast a spell to fix the hole in the wall, but Blue Glossaryck did it for him with a snap of his fingers.

'Uh, thanks,' Adam said awkwardly, walking back over to Marco. He pulled up a chair and sat down it. He pointed an arm at Marco. A bright orange star mark glowed on his palm where his burn scar was. 'Wand of magic…' he paused when he felt something rest on his shoulder. He glanced over to see that Blue Glossaryck had seated himself quite comfortably on his right shoulder. 'What are you doing?'

'Well, obviously, I will be coming with you.' Adam blinked, before shrugging his shoulders in acquiescence. He supposed it couldn't hurt.

'Wand of magic, turn the cog, find the way through this fog. Make our minds open and free, show me now what I must see.'

A familiar flash of bright light enveloped both him and Blue Glossaryck in an instant. There was no room for argument left by the power of the Psionic Wandering Spell.

Inside Marco's mind, the first thing he felt was someone patting the side of his face. Well, it started out as a few harmless pats, but he was shaken awake by a loud slap to the face. His eyes flitted open and he sat up.

'Ow!' Adam moaned, rubbing his cheek. He stared at Blue Glossaryck, the aggressor. 'That hurt!'

'How else was I going to wake you up?'

Adam folded his arms at his diagnosis.

'You could try shaking me or something,' he suggested irritably, as he rose to his feet. The Mewman looked around curiously. They were in Star's bedroom. 'Huh…so where's Marco?'

'Get away from me!' someone yelled. Adam spun around in time to see Star, bursting through the bedroom door. She jumped behind her desk and struggled to move it towards the door.

'Star! Please! Just listen to me!'

It should come as no surprise to Adam that Marco was the one speaking. He trudged into the room with a heartbroken look on his face. He looked extremely pale, and his iconic red hoodie was torn, battered and dirty. Beads of sweat welled around his temples and eyes, threatening to drip down his face at any moment. However, what intrigued Adam the most was something quite different.

In the place of his right arm, there was a six-foot long tentacle trailing on the floor behind him. Glossaryck shook his head sadly upon the sight of it.

'Get away from me!' cried Star, shuffling over to her bed. She began throwing pillows at him with the speed of a sentry gun. It was then that Adam spotted a red blotchy bruise on her face.

Marco stood in place until she ran out of pillows to throw.

'I promise, I'm not gonna hurt you!' Marco insisted, holding his non-tentacle at out in a halting motion. 'I don't know what happened! The arm…it just…took over! I'm sorry!'

'I can't trust you anymore, Marco!' the princess exclaimed in fright, hiding behind her bed. 'You-You're a monster!'

'No, Star, I –'

Marco never got the chance to finish his sentence, because he was blasted in the back by a beam of light. He was sent flying into a nearby wall, slumping to the ground like a heavy rock.

'Get away from my daughter, you peasant!' Moon commanded, as she charged into the room. Relieved, Star scurried away from the bed and into her mother's arms.

'Mom! I-I was so scared!'

'Shh, shh…it's okay, you're safe now…' she muttered into her daughter's ear. The Queen glanced at the two guards that entered with her. 'Take this vile monster to the dirtiest prison cell you can find.'

'Yes, your Majesty!' chimed the two guards, marching threateningly towards Marco. They picked him up with force, manhandling him with no care, dragging him out the room.

In a blink of an eye, Adam found himself somewhere else. He was in a dingy, dark prison cell in the castle dungeons. Exactly where Moon had instructed Marco to be. There was very little light available, only the soft pink glow of the Mewni sky radiating weakly through the thick jail bars in the window on the back wall. Adam couldn't see anyone yet, so he guessed he'd just have to wait for Marco to appear.

'What's going on here?' he asked Glossaryck. 'Why is Marco so scared that his arm's gonna turn into a giant tentacle monster?'

'Around a year ago, Marco broke his arm while training for a karate tournament,' the magical guide explained. 'Star, in her infinite wisdom, attempted to fix his arm with magic.'

'And she ended up giving him a tentacle arm?'

'A sentient tentacle arm,' Glossaryck amended. 'It tried to convince Marco to consume the bowels of his opponent, and, when he refused, it attempted to do so itself. Star eventually managed to reverse the spell, but not before the Monster Arm gave a warning that he would, one day, return.'

'Well, that's not ominous at all.'

'It seems Marco agrees with you,' he concurred, nodding at something behind him.

Adam turned around and saw that Marco had now inexplicably appeared in the corner, lying in chains on the ground. His tentacle arm comically had three different chains to hold him down. Adam glanced at Glossaryck with uncertainty, but he nodded wholeheartedly at him. The teenager walked over to Marco, recalling all that he knew about mind magic.

If he wanted Marco to see him, he needed to believe he could see him. Something along those lines.

As he approached the squire, though, he found that task more and more difficult as he heard the rasps of miserable sobs coming from him. He took a deep breath and approached the crying boy.

'Marco…?' he called. The boy in question winced and looked up at him in shock.

'Adam! I-I didn't mean it! I promise!'

'Relax, Marco. I believe you.'

The squire blinked, nonplussed. 'Y-You do?'

'Yeah, man. I know you'd never hurt Star on purpose,' Adam rationalised matter-of-factly. Marco smiled at him with a relieved look on his face, before his eyes darted to his caged Monster Arm and an alarmed disposition soon replaced it.

'Adam, you gotta get rid of this thing!'

The Mewman looked away guiltily.

'Marco, I can't.'

'Why not? Just cast the counter-curse!'

'Marco, I can't because –'

'Because you think I'm a monster.' He scowled intently at the ground. 'Everyone's scared of me now. I never wanted to hurt anybody. I just want Star to know I'm sorry!'

'Let me finish,' Adam commanded, instantly silencing Marco. He stared up at him, frozen. 'I can't cast magic here because this place isn't real. The only thing I can do is reverse the Psionic Wandering Spell. You're trapped in a nightmare, Marco. I'm here to get you out.'

'How do I know you're telling the truth?' the squire questioned fearfully, glancing at the tentacle arm.

'Are you kidding me?' Adam balked, raising his eyebrows. 'The real Star would never cast you out like that. You're her closest friend; she values you and your friendship more than anything else in the world.' He put a hand on his shoulder. 'If that tentacle arm ever did come back, then you'd be able to fight it. You're much stronger than that.'

'But not careful enough to avoid hurting everyone I care about,' he muttered sadly. 'I'm a liability, Adam. Just a weak human. Maybe it would be better for everybody if I just…offed myself.'

'Marco, you're the furthest thing from a liability,' he insisted. 'You're smart, you're quick on your feet, you're an expert in hand-to-hand combat, you're funny, you're kind and compassionate, and you're a good friend. Me, Star, Janna, Kelly, Jackie, Moon, River…we all know it. You're pure of heart, we know you'd never want to hurt us. Moon certainly wouldn't throw you in jail like this over a misunderstanding. You are certainly my favourite human. But don't tell Janna I said that.'

Marco stomached a smile at his little joke.

'I much concur with Adam,' declared Glossaryck. Marco didn't look up as the guide spoke, but he hummed in acknowledgement. 'You are a unique human, Marco Diaz. Despite having no powers, you never hesitated to jump into the way of monsters twice your size and beat them into a pulp. You are of great interest to me.'

'But…what if the Monster Arm comes back?'

'I've glimpsed your future, Marco, and you have little to worry about with regards to the Monster Arm. It is only if you allow your fear of it to control you, will you come within the firing line.'

'Yeah, and if you the Arm ever does come back, we'll be here for you,' Adam added warmly. 'You don't need to be afraid. We're never gonna abandon you. I didn't give up on Star when Dark Star kidnapped her. I'm not gonna give up on you.'

'Thank you, Adam. Really…thank you.' Marco let out a huge sigh of relief. 'I think…I think I'm ready.' Tentatively, he rose off the ground to his feet. Adam helped support him. 'I'm still a little scared of the Monster Arm coming back…but at least I know I have you all to help me this time. Maybe I'm not so useless.'

Adam smiled softly at him.

'I can get you out of here. You just need to believe.'

The squire inhaled deeply through his nostrils and steadily let out his breath. He closed his eyes and nodded to Adam.

'Let's go.'

Adam's eyes flashed, and his cheek marks glowed, as he and Glossaryck reversed the Psionic Wandering Spell. Marco felt his mind being drawn out of its gutters, guided to the forefront of his consciousness. A surge of energy coursed through his fingertips as he sensed the real world calling for his return.

Marco followed the light with intent.

Adam was pulled back to reality far sooner than Marco was. Nevertheless, he felt the squire's mind filling his physical body not long after he opened his eyes. It would only take a minute for him to regain consciousness. Blue Glossaryck hovered next to him, an inquisitive look on his face.

'You are a strange individual, Adam Butterfly.'

'Why does everyone keep calling me that?' he grumbled. 'Arybailos, Ignius, Carter, all the Ambassadors, and now you. It's just Adam.'

'Apologies, you have not reached that bit yet.'

'What? Whatever. Why am I fascinating?'

'You come from a reality bleeding with hatred, malice, blood and war. Lesser men would fall to much lower ideals. Most would go mad with the power they obtained, not you. You seem to be something new.'

'Hardly,' Adam scoffed. 'I just had a clear goal. Revenge. Something like that keeps you focussed, prevents you getting distracted. I guess it was just…how I coped with everything.'

'Yes, well, you could continue considering yourself lacklustre, but it will not become factual.'

Adam opened his mouth to protest, but he heard groaning coming from the bed adjacent to him. He jumped from his chair onto his feet, waiting on the side of his hospital bed.

'Ugh…my head hurts…' Marco groaned, sitting up in his hospital bed. He held a hand to his head in pain, looking up as he noticed Adam standing to attention over him. 'Adam? What…happened?'

'You're back in the land of the living,' he replied warmly, as touched the centre of his forehead with his thumb. Immediately, Marco felt a calming, soothing blanket descending over his mind, lessening his headache instantly. A tiny bit of Restoration magic. 'Better?'

'Muuuuch better,' remarked the squire cathartically. 'So, Adam…you gonna tell what's going on?'

'I kinda…tried to cast the Dream Entrapment Spell on Blue Glossaryck and it ended up backfiring and now the entire kingdom is an endless sleep.'

'You tried to use BG as a test subject?' Marco repeated, folding his arms disapprovingly. 'Dude. He's like an innocent dog. I might have the nerve to call animal protective services on you.'

'Well, it seems "BG" isn't quite the mindless animal we thought he was,' Adam said, rolling his eyes. He pointed at something behind him.

Marco leaned over to see what he was pointing at, and sure enough, he saw Blue Glossaryck floating in the air a few metres away, looking entirely disinterested in the conversation.

'Glossaryck?'

'Yes, Marco?'

'You're…normal?'

'Normal is a subjective term, Marco.'

'You know what I'm talking about,' he retorted. He shook his head in confusion. 'Sorry, I thought it was Red Glossaryck talking to me back there. I didn't realise it was you!'

Blue Glossaryck narrowed his eyes. 'I'm appalled you cannot tell the difference.'

'This situation isn't entirely my fault,' Adam informed him. 'Gloss over here disrupted the incantation, deflected the spell, and caused it to reverberate across the entire kingdom. He made things worse by about a hundred times.'

'No hold on…why did you pretend to be brain damaged?!' demanded Marco, the thought just clicking into place in his mind.

'You and Star relied on me far too much,' Glossaryck claimed nonchalantly. 'You needed to become more independent. As such, I determined the best course of action was to nudge you in the right direction, so that you might become something greater on your own.'

'By yelling "Globgor" all the time?'

Blue Glossaryck's countenance did not shift even slightly.

'Yes.'

'And…why are you helping Adam?' asked Marco, scratching his scalp therapeutically. 'I thought your MO was only helping princesses – unless you were constantly bribed with pudding. Which you haven't been.'

'Oh, quite simple, really,' claimed Glossaryck, quite dubiously. 'Adam's anti-magic resonates as Butterfly, so he is on equal standing with one.'

'Hmm…' he hummed, looking quite sceptical. 'But you didn't need to follow Adam into my mind…what was that all about?'

A small bead of sweat ran down the side of Blue Glossaryck's head, but his expression did not falter. Adam rolled his eyes.

'Look, Marco, he may not want to say it, but Glossaryck sees you as his – mmpf!'

He had been cut off mid-sentence when his mouth was mysteriously taped over, following the brief flash of Blue Glossaryck's pink head crystal. Adam smacked his mouth in shock, trying to tear off the tape that had been conjured from nowhere.

'Adam here intends to locate Star, so that we might free her from her nightmare,' Glossaryck explained to him, as Adam continued to make muffled noises of fright. 'With Star, the three of us will be able to spread Adam's counter-curse across the kingdom, thoroughly reversing the effects of the spell.' Marco nodded. Glossaryck turned to Adam, who, by now, was simply glaring at the little blue man. 'Are you quite finished?'

Adam let out the muffled noise of a groan and nodded reluctantly. Glossaryck smiled brightly and the tape on Adam's mouth disappeared just as inexplicably as they arrived.

'You know, at least Red Glossaryck wouldn't have tried to silence me,' the warlock complained cantankerously.

'Are you ready to be cooperative, Adam Butterfly?' asked Blue Glossaryck, a slight twinkle in his eye. Adam sighed contemptuously for the umpteenth time, rolling his eyes more than a boulder down a hill.

'Yes,' he answered curtly. He turned to Marco. 'You coming?'

At his command, Marco leaped out of bed, crying, 'of course I am!'

Adam smiled. 'Thanks.'

'No thanks needed,' dismissed the invigorated squire. 'You barely had to ask anyway. As if I'm gonna let Star suffer through her worst nightmare longer.' In a blink of an eye, he was already by the door to the medical wing. 'Come on. Let's go.'

Blue Glossaryck trailed patiently behind the two of them as they walked down the hallway, avoiding the bodies of unconscious knights on the ground. Adam absentmindedly wondered what Eclipsa's worst nightmare would be, although he admitted to himself it was too private.

'Where is Star?' Adam asked Marco. 'Last I saw her, she was running off to carry out "princess duties".'

Marco sniggered, prompting a glare from Adam.

'What?' he asked curtly. 'Moon told her to.'

'And you thought that, just because Moon told her to, she would actually do it?' Marco joked, chuckling heartily. In that moment, Adam felt very stupid. Because Star Butterfly is known for doing everything that her parents tell her to.

'What do you think, then?'

'Well, the knights are having some sorta Battle of Brawns to determine who the strongest knight is,' explained the squire. 'I told Star, and she seemed very excited to take part. Y'know, given she's a warrior princess and all.'

'Typical,' concurred Blue Glossaryck, mimicking a typical fighting stance. 'Those meatheads certainly take pride in their competitions of masculinity. No doubt their nightmares entail losing that masculinity.'

Ignoring the little blue man derisive remarks, Adam shook his head and turned back to Marco.

'Where is this Battle of Brawns taking place?'

'The training grounds, just beyond the castle,' Marco answered, nodding to a hallway on the left.

Adam followed him through the castle, avoiding a number of Dream-Entrapped servants and knights on the floor. He grimaced at the sight of a poor servant who had been hit with the spell while carrying a comically high stack of plates, all of which were now strewn on the floor, smashed or discarded. Moon was going to have the time of her life when she and River got back from Quoque Pretiosa.

'In spite of existing in higher dimensions, I am still plagued by the worst creation in all of the multiverse,' moaned Blue Glossaryck. 'Boredom.'

'Are you gonna complain about this all day?' Adam asked him, glaring standoffishly into his magenta eyes.

'Perhaps I shall,' he retorted defiantly. He gazed over at Marco. 'You have met his version of Glossaryck, have you not? Quite the piece of work, he is. I have never met an individual as staggeringly pious as he, and I exist in five dimensions all at once!'

Adam halted, stopping Marco with him.

'Listen, Blue Lagoon,' he derided, wagging his finger in his face. 'Red is my mentor. Regardless of what you think of his views, he has helped me many times over the years. I'm not gonna stand here and tolerate you making rude comments about him behind his back. If you're really a "Fifth-Dimensional Knight of Terms" then perhaps you'd consider being a little more mature! Got it?'

Blue Glossaryck raised a curious eyebrow.

'Very well.'

Adam let out a sigh of relief and muttered a frustrated thank you under his breath. Blue Glossaryck either didn't notice or didn't care to notice. By the time they arrived at the training grounds, the magical guide had fallen silent. Marco and Adam inspected the scene.

Various knights were littered across the ground in comical positions. Several of them were in various stages of undress in their armour, no doubt in the middle of being fitted when the spell struck them. Marco spotted Higgs on the ground next to her knight, Sir Stabby, her posse of squires close by. Her hand was currently being crushed by Stabby's heavy rear. Even in unconsciousness, Marco felt Higgs's resentment for her predicament radiating off her in waves.

The three of them stood on the outside of a large tent, looking like it came straight out of P.T. Barnum's circus. Marco remained still, inspecting the bodies of knights and squires on the ground. Adam leaned against the entrance of the tent, waiting for him to finish.

'Wow…' remarked Marco. 'I know you said the entire kingdom, but I'm surprised one little spell did all of this.'

Adam was only paying attention enough to give a disinterested response. 'Such is the power of the arcane arts,' he said.

'What is this spell even meant to be used for?'

Adam blinked.

'Torture,' answered the warlock, a remarkably blunt tone in his voice.

'Torture?!'

'Yes,' he groaned, rolling his eyes. 'You subject someone to their greatest fear and, eventually, they'll be willing to do just about anything to make it stop. Including telling me anything I want to know.'

'And you're just cool with that, are you?' spat Marco, his pupils dilating so wide he looked almost high. 'Why am I only now finding out about this?!'

'I actually made the spell months ago,' the Mewman divulged casually. 'I never managed to test it because I never found a suitable test subject.'

'Well, duh! Who in their right mind would want to be subjected to their worst nightmare?'

'Look, I thought about it for a while,' he justified, shifting in place against the tent wall. 'Star convinced me not to use the Truth Binding Spell for a while, but after Dark Star attacked us…I realised that I had to. Against my enemies, at least, it could be beneficial. I didn't plan to use it regularly. So I decided that the Dream Entrapment Spell was fair game, too. The ends justify the means, Marco. Because they have to.'

Marco shook his head in disbelief.

'Star's gonna be furious when she finds out.'

'She already knows about the Truth Binding Spell; she was even gonna use it, remember?' he pointed out, folding his arms. 'Besides, if I spent all my life worrying about what Star thinks, I'd never get anywhere.'

'But you value her opinion, I know you do,' he quarrelled, narrowing his eyes at him. 'You're putting your friendship with her at risk just because you're…obsessed, with making sure what happened with Dark Star never happens again. It's…dangerous, Adam.'

Adam looked away guiltily for a moment.

'Yeah, well…even a blind man has hindsight, Marco. All I can do now is try and fix my mistake.'

Without another word, he disappeared into the tent. Blue Glossaryck followed him inside. Marco stayed still for a moment, staring in his wake, until he worked up the courage to pursue after him.

When he walked inside the dazzling circus tent, he found a plethora of unconscious bodies on the floor, mostly knights and squires, with the odd servant here and there. Looking around, he spotted Adam in the centre of the room, with Glossaryck floating over his shoulder.

Alarmingly, it wasn't Star that Adam was currently inspecting. Star was behind him. It was Janna.

'Janna wasn't supposed to be here,' he lamented, as Marco walked over behind him. 'I took her back to Earth yesterday.'

Marco frowned sceptically.

'As if Janna would want to miss out on seeing a load of knights beating the stuffing out of one another.'

Adam sniggered, muttering, 'yeah, that's Janna, alright.'

Abruptly, he spun around and sat down, facing Star's unconscious body on the ground. Much to Marco's relief, she was still very much breathing, but she looked extremely pale and ridden with cold sweat. At a glance, it was obvious how high her blood pressure was right now.

'Alright, Marco, you're coming with me,' Adam decided, his eyes still trained guiltily on Star. 'Gloss? You stay put. I need someone to watch us while we're under.'

'As you wish,' agreed Blue, albeit reluctantly. 'I shall be ready to possess the wand the moment Star is released.'

Adam nodded, taking Marco's wrist. He reached out placed his hand on Star's forehead. His cheek marks began to glow. Having become bored of speaking the spell, he opted to perform the Psionic Wandering Spell nonverbally.

A bright purple light invaded Marco's eyes, battering his retina with an endless onslaught of luminosity. A distinct darkness pulled on his mind, dragging him out of his brain into Star's mind.

[33] Meteora didn't show up because in this timeline, Heinous didn't find out who she was in Monster Bash. She will find out who she is but only after this fic ends.
[34] This is in reference to the fact that Glossaryck's full name is "Sir Glossaryck of Terms".

That's it for another chapter! I hope you readers enjoyed it!

This chapter marks a significant departure from canon. That being that Blue Glossaryck's deception in pretending to be a wild animal is discovered here, instead of in Season 4. I never liked the retcon, nor the whole "rabid Glossaryck" idea, so that's probably why I subconsciously kept Blue Glossaryck out of the story. He only showed up in Chapter 8 of Volume I (iirc) and then never again, so here he is! As himself. And he gets into a fight with Red Glossaryck, something I really wanted to do for a while. The little fight they had in Chapter 8 was no accident; Blue Glossaryck never liked Red, that's why he bit him.

There was more to it than pudding, is what I'm saying.

I made Adam's character a little more morally grey to fit this episode - in that he thought it was just fine to use the Dream Entrapment spell on him without consent because (he thought) Glossaryck was mindless. The spell alone is pretty cruel, and Adam's also okay with it, too.

You might have caught the reference to Skooled! at the beginning. This is another departure from canon. As Meteora hasn't discovered herself, she doesn't crash the party at St Olga's, so Princess Arms isn't interrupted, and she sends Pony Head away. The rest of the "episode" just involves Pony Head trying to get accepted back in again but learning that she should just be herself. The line about Adam not being allowed in as he isn't a princess was actually an afterthought I put in later when I realised it wouldn't make sense for him to be allowed in.

As promised, this episode begins with the space-time fracture. Adam becoming bored and frustrated with lack of success leads to the whole situation happening when he decides to test out the Dream Entrapment spell instead. Adam's of course going to struggle with it - it's completely unfamiliar territory.

Introducing Astoria, Argus Wildfyre's sister, was something I intended to do since Argus was introduced. I never really gave any indication as to why he's such a prude, and I thought about it, but I figured it would simply bloat up the already-long War Games arc. As such, I decided to do some of that here, although I still didn't go into a lot of detail. I left it up to you to think about why he is the way he is, really. Astoria is going to become important later as well, so she's not supposed to be a one-off character. Considering she's part of the Ambassador squad that is helping Adam with his work on the fracture, you might have guessed that already.

FYI, ever since I introduced the Dream Entrapment spell, I wanted to do an episode where the whole kingdom is felled by it. Nice to finally to get around to it. Marco's fear was a no-brainer really, he's scared both of the Monster Arm coming back, and also that he isn't "worthy" of Star's love because he's a "weak and frail" human. I meshed that into one single nightmare. The next chapter is the last part of this episode, so I reckon it's going to be equally long. It will focus primarily on Star's fear...because her mind is a little different in how I'm going to handle it.

We're getting to the exciting parts again! Well, I hope ALL of this story was exciting, but I've finally reached episodes I planned that required huge contextualisation to even happen. The episode after this one is the start of an arc I have been wanting to write since the very beginning, and this current episode is one I've been looking forward to for a VERY long time. It's going to be emotional. It's gonna be exciting (I hope). And I'm really gonna love writing it!

Thanks for reading. I'll see you all in the next chapter, titled "Nightmare Palace"!