Belos's roar of pain was so powerful that it almost seemed to merge with the wind, and everyone put their hands over their ears to prevent their eardrums from exploding; the monster literally felt himself burning from the inside, and he could feel his soul cracking and splitting, and he had to summon all his magical power to resist. The light magic consumed his dark magic as if it were fire burning wood; the light of Luz's universe expanded to encompass everything, sweeping away the darkness and cold, filling it with nothing but heat and stars of all shapes and sizes.

Luz remained motionless at the center of her little universe, continuing to feel the hope, love and dreams of all the people who had chosen to believe in her, which continued to gather and form new stars and galaxies. Her gaze was focused on the dark soul of the monster that was possessing her, a panorama unlike hers full of shadows and cruelty, which however was continually being burned and consumed by all that light that she emanated.

"N-No…" Belos was stuttering, seriously scared. "Stop! You're going to destroy me like this!"

"Well, that was the plan" Luz replied impassively. "You won't hurt anyone again, monster"

"No... listen to me!" Belos screamed, and he almost seemed to try to get closer to her, pretending to give up, but Luz kept him away with her light: she knew well that if she let him come close to her, he would take the opportunity to hit her from behind. "You win! There's no need to kill me! I can give you whatever you want...!"

"What I want is for people not to have to live in fear that you will one day take away their family and friends like you did from me. What I want is for no more kids to be deceived and turned into donkeys because you want to have fun. What I want is for there to no longer be a cruel and destructive monster terrorizing the oceans and everyone who lives there" Luz answered him without any empathy in her voice.

"Okay, then I won't do it again!" Belos exclaimed trying to resist as he writhed in pain. "We can make a new contract here and now! I will refrain from harming anyone...!"

"I'd rather choose the safe option" Luz told him. "Every contract has a loophole, and you are immortal and will have plenty of time to find one. I'm not going to risk you succeeding"

"Then lock me inside you!" Belos screamed. Clearly he was now out of options and was saying whatever was on his mind. "Do what I wanted to do with you: take my soul and lock me inside yours! You will have control of your body again and all my magical power will be yours!"

"I don't need any more magical powers" Luz answered him. "I already have friends with magical abilities, a basilisk as a sister, a fairy as a second mother and a witch as a girlfriend. And even if none of them had magical powers, they would still protect me, just like my dear sweet mother always did, who even though she found herself dealing with magical things suddenly didn't hesitate to do her best to manage me"

"And she has me too" Stringbean said. "I chose her as my mistress, after all, and I am one of the oldest and most powerful magical scepters in the world!"

"I have enough magic even without you" Luz continued. "You have nothing to offer me"

"Nothing to offer you!? You don't understand, Luz! My power is unmatched!" Belos replied. "I am far stronger than anyone else in this universe! If you take my magic, you will be a goddess come to earth! If you refuse, you will be just like everyone else!"

"And what is so wrong with that?" Luz responded by raising an eyebrow slightly. "I like to be like everyone else. I'm not interested in being a goddess. I just want to be a real girl, who has all the wonderful experiences of a real person. And that's something you can't give me"

"Why!?" Belos screamed. "You're so naive! Do you have any idea how many people would want to be in your place!? Who would refuse such power!? Through my magic, you can do anything you want!"

"I can already do everything I want, no one limits me. I simply have to commit myself and not choose the easy and lazy way, like I did when my mother gave birth to me. If I will try very hard to achieve my goals, I will achieve them, and in the way with which real people do it" Luz replied.

"You could have everything! Fame, wealth, power! I can give you the ability to heal every disease, erase famine, change entire continents to your will! There could be temples dedicated to you in every corner of the world, and entire religions intent on worship you! You could solve all the problems you want with a simple thought!" Belos roared. "Why would you want to give all this up for nothing!?"

"Because what you offer me is only an illusion of happiness. A real life, made up of all its hardships and all its joys... that is true happiness" Luz replied to him. "That's your problem, Belos: you've forgotten what it means to be human. And that's what sealed your defeat!"

"A puppet that gives lessons on how to be human!? ARGH!" Belos thrashed in pain as his soul was burned again and again. "But... if you kill me now, you won't even have a real life! We are tied together now! I'm inside your body! If I die, you will die too!"

But Luz didn't bat an eyelid. "Yeah… I know" she said with a slight note of sadness in her voice, but her lips curved into a smile. "Sacrificing myself for others... I don't mind at all how human this thing is... no, how much of a real person it is"

Belos's eyes trembled. "How... how is this possible? How can a person accept dying for someone else while smiling like that? Don't you have any instinct for self-preservation!?"

"Of course I have" Luz answered him. "I'm afraid of dying, just like you are, and I want to live just the way you want it. But I'm much more afraid of the people I love dying with me. I don't expect you to understand; like I said, you have forgotten what it means to be human... if you ever knew it even when you didn't have horns, tentacles and fins"

Belos' soul curled up on itself in a desperate attempt to defend itself from all that light that burned him so much, but still he let out a light grin when he heard the puppet's words: "Well, then know that if you kill me now, everyone will die!"

Luz's determined expression wavered for a moment. "What?"

"They're all over my old body right now, have you forgotten? The only thing keeping that old carcass together and afloat is my magic! Without it, it will break and sink right away!" Belos answered her. "All your friends will fall into the ocean, and right now the sea is very violent since I got particularly agitated! Of course, some could be saved, probably your fairy godmother and your little witch girlfriend will manage to fly away, but everyone else will end up under water long before they can get help! They will drown!"

Luz opened her eyes and mouth wide, shocked. "How can I know you're not lying to me?"

"Come on, Luz. Do you really think that a dead body weighing several hundred thousand tons could remain suspended on the surface of the sea, instead of sinking into pieces as it falls into that black abyss? And do you think that human bodies could survive while waves tens if not hundreds of meters high crash over them?" Belos asked her rhetorically. Although he was clearly still very afraid, he seemed to be regaining his confidence. "You've won now, I told you! Don't kill me, and I'll keep the people you love from going underwater! Let's make a contract right now, you can choose the terms you want!"

Luz stood still and silent for a moment, tightening her grip on Stringbean; her heart trembled a little. She wasn't afraid to sacrifice herself if it meant killing Belos, but she didn't want to let anyone else die. She had formulated that rather botched plan precisely because she wanted to make sure that her friends and family didn't get hurt, she had drawn up the terms of the contract she had made with Belos precisely to ensure that he couldn't touch them in any way. She couldn't let them drown.

On the other hand, however, she couldn't just free Belos either. That could have been the only chance to get him out of the way once and for all. If she didn't, everything that monster did in the future would have been her fault too. Any victim of his cruelty would have been blood on her hands.

Maybe she could find a solution? Maybe she could imprison Belos inside her, as he had proposed. She hated living with that parasite inside and in constant fear that he would break free, but perhaps if she had formulated a sufficiently efficient contract she could have prevented him from causing problems...

But just as she was thinking about this, a memory suddenly crossed her mind. The memory of a group of young pirates, a basilisk, her girlfriend, a cricket, a spider and a puppet on a ship, listening to one of them tell a story about a monster born in the distant past...

Suddenly she had enlightenment. Looking at Belos mockingly, she said to him: "It's rare to see you so compliant. What, you suddenly realized that you're not infallible?"

"Huh? What does that have to do with anything now?" Belos asked her confused.

"Nothing. I was just noticing that the self-proclaimed infallible god suddenly started begging!" Luz laughed heartily. "I admit you're right, and actually a contract isn't a bad idea, but it's really funny to see you so desperate! Come on, admit it, let me have some more fun!"

A furious growl came from Belos, but his survival instinct still got the better of his pride, and so he replied: "Okay, if you really want to hear it, I'm not infallible! Can we focus on the contract now!?"

"Of course, of course" Luz said with a strange light in her eyes. "Here are the terms: I will let you out and allow you to re-enter your real body, and you in return will save all the people who are above you at this time. Meaning, stop them from drowning. Oh, and of course you will have to refrain from any revenge against them"

"Luz, are you sure?" Stringbean asked her doubtfully.

"Yeah! You can't trust him!" the Collector told her worriedly.

But Luz just smiled at them. "Guys, I know you're unsure... but trust me, one last time. I know what I'm doing". She said this with such confidence that it was impossible not to listen to her, and so Stringbean nodded, and so did the Four Magical Rulers and all the souls contained in Belos' body.

The giant monster didn't care too much about this. "Okay! Let's make this contract! Just let me out!" he exclaimed with great apprehension.

"What a rush" Luz commented. "Deal!"

As soon as she said this, a new thread connected her and Belos, and then the monster seemed to be swept away, or rather, sucked into an opening, while Luz instead found herself spinning around as she emerged from that remote corner of her brain and became familiar with the outside world again.

Outside, Amity, Camila, Eda, and everyone else saw the giant body that Luz had become flail, and then a gush of black slimy liquid emerged from its mouth; it spilled to the ground and crawled toward the inanimate head of the giant creature they were standing on. More and more liquid came out, and as this happened the tentacles disappeared, the eyes lost their blue shade, the fangs went back to being very normal teeth. And finally, the giant body crumpled in on itself and with a final cough stopped expelling dark liquid, leaving only a puppet lying on the ground. "LUZ!" everyone shouted in unison, and immediately ran to help her.

"Ugh... it's okay, guys, I'm fine" Luz told them albeit with a little effort, clearly very tired from the experience she just had.

"Luz, what did you… UH!?" Amity was already asking her, but she didn't have time to do so because the tentacles of Belos' giant body revived and grabbed all of them. "Damn! What is..."

"Stop!" Luz yelled at him. "Don't resist and let him do it. It's part of the plan!"

None of them were clearly in favor of being grabbed by a giant tentacle, but they listened to the puppet anyway and didn't react; and in fact the tentacles did not crush them, but on the contrary took them in a very gentle manner, even if few were able to hold back a retch of disgust. Belos let out a loud roar and his magic was released through the sound, and suddenly everyone could feel the seal that held them imprisoned to him break, a sign that they were able to leave the island again. Belos then released his magic again, and the stormy sea returned to being placid and flat as a table; at that point he sank his big paws into the water and pulled out the ship with which he had brought the boys from Bonesborough there, which had sunk following the cataclysm he had unleashed, and which was broken in several places, but Belos he broke Alador's airship into several pieces and used them to repair her until she was seaworthy again; after which he placed it again in the ocean and placed on it all the people his tentacles had grabbed. All the kids from Bonesborough, all the pirates, all the sailors, and of course Luz and all her friends and family, found themselves on the ship, able to leave again. "Wow… why did he do that?" Eda murmured.

"I told you, it was part of the plan!" Luz answered her. "Now, if I'm not mistaken, it should happen..."

But she didn't have time to finish the sentence because one of Belos' tentacles reached down and grabbed her, dragging her several dozen meters into the air. "Don't think we're done, you and me!" he roared angrily. "You forgot to include yourself in the contract! At least I'll get my revenge by reducing you to sawdust!"

"Hey! Leave her alone!" Amity screamed, and she, Eda, Lilith and Hunter were already about to take off, but then they noticed a detail: Luz didn't seem scared at all, on the contrary... she was smiling mockingly.

Belos noticed that too, and it only infuriated him more. "Are you mocking even now!? You stupid bad girl, I'll give you... WHAT!?"

Suddenly, a torrent of magical energy began to emerge from Belos' body, and several pieces of him began to break off; fins, tentacles, and legs turned to glowing ash that vanished in puffs of magical power. "What... what's happening!? Why is my power fading!?" Belos roared, and his gaze focused on Luz: "You…!"

In response the puppet burst out laughing. "What's the matter? Aren't you happy? Your dear sister-in-law's magic just broke!"

"No, impossible! Wait a minute...!" What Luz had made him say, and what she had made him do, returned to Belos' mind. "NO! TRICK!"

"What trick? I've always been honest with you! You would have noticed otherwise, my nose grows when I lie, remember? I didn't deceive you, it's you who apparently tends to forget some things if you get nervous!" Luz teased him. "Let me refresh your memory: the magic that the fairy Evelyn used on Philip Wittebane to transform him into the terrible monster Belos predicted that he would have remained so until he admitted that he wasn't infallible and saved at least a thousand people. Well, you admitted to me that you are not infallible, and then you saved all these people! The kids of Bonesborough, the pirates, all those I love... put together there are more than a thousand! Maybe you did it because you were forced to, but I don't think that free will was included in the terms!"

"NO! NO, THAT'S NOT FAIR!" Belos roared, and tried one last time to crush the puppet, but the tentacle with which he was holding her disappeared just at that moment.

Luz found herself falling into the void, but two familiar feathered arms grabbed her and dragged her back up. She didn't even have to look up to feel Eda's relieved yet very severe gaze on her. "Sorry. I got you all worried"

"Luz, I think I lost at least thirty years of my life today. Please tell me you stopped doing reckless things" Eda told her, but immediately afterward she hugged her tightly and gave her a small kiss on the forehead. "I'm proud of you, kiddo" she whispered to her.

Luz smiled back, and then she looked at Belos in front of them, who was getting smaller and smaller; his body split in several places, and from them millions of souls emerged, finally free and no longer imprisoned inside him. The sea monster could do nothing but scream in frustration as this happened. "I refuse to believe this! I had calculated every single outcome and victory was certain!" he roared as his eyes trembled in anger and desperation. "A god falling to the deception of a puppet!? WHAT KIND OF SICK FUCKING JOKE IS THIS!?"

And after those last words, the giant body lost all its features, turning into a sort of ball that shrank until it reached the size of a person, and then split, freeing a man with a thick brown beard, who fell into the sea and landed with a loud splash.

In case some of you don't remember the story of Belos and consequently also the punishment inflicted on him by Evelyn, go and reread chapter 50