Following Grometheus' instructions, Odalia was preparing the ritual to summon the second of the Four Magical Rulers: the Collector, patron of life magic. Since she had been preparing for that for decades, at that moment she already had all the necessary ingredients; normally it would have taken numerous witches to stabilize the enormous amount of magic needed, but with Grometheus present opening a passage was quite easy.

"Life magic is inferior to dark magic, therefore my energy will be enough to open a passage. Then I will modify your body, witch, so that you can welcome the essence of the Collector inside you and call him into this world" Grometheus was explaining to her. "After that, he will show you how to summon the Great Archivist, and the Great Archivist in turn will allow you to summon Papa Titan. However, two more people who contain their essence will be needed for that"

"You don't have to worry" Odalia replied. "I have two other children. They are not witches, but I don't think it is necessary anymore"

Even if Edric and Emira were not witches, the problem didn't arise. She had needed a young witch just to be able to contain the essence of the first of the Four Magical Rulers to be summoned; but for the other three any body would have done. Grometheus would take care to adjust Edric and Emira's bodies to allow them to house the power of the other Four Magical Rulers; even if it wouldn't have been the same and they would never have been as powerful as Amity, they would still have acquired a fair amount of potential. If Amity would be empress of the world at the end of that night and she would be its most trusted advisor, Edric and Emira could at least play the role of members of the royal family.

"No, indeed. We will provide them with a source of magical energy so that they can contain the essence of the Great Archivist and Papa Titan" Grometheus said confirming her thoughts. The monster looked very pleased, but suddenly his one eye opened wider than before. "WHAT!?"

"What's the matter, my lord?" Odalia asked worriedly.

"Your daughter... her desires are starting to fall out of alignment with my essence! Something is wrong!" Grometheus said in a voice that sounded like a roar. "Go to her immediately and find out what's going on! If her feelings conflict with my essence, she might send me back!"

Odalia narrowed her eyes. "Don't worry, my lord. I won't allow it" she replied, and with a quick wave of her hand she called Ghost in her hand and jumped onto the broomstick, hurtling towards Bonesborough.

Eda and Lilith were flying in every direction trying to escape the dragon that was chasing them; fortunately there were two of them, which disoriented Amity, but nevertheless it was quite difficult to avoid her blows. Eda was especially having a hard time, since the dragon was focused especially on Luz. "Damn it! How do we stop this!?" she shouted as she dodged for the umpteenth time a very long tongue made of dark matter.

"We have to make her understand that what she's doing is wrong" Luz replied in a strangled voice. "The fragment of Grometheus' soul amplifies her darkest part: anger, jealousy, possession, desire for power, sadism... all those parts that would normally be almost hidden, are now all extremized to the maximum. But if her feelings stopped coinciding with these emotions... I don't know, I didn't get to the end, you interrupted me before I could!"

"Well, sorry we thought you were in danger and tried to save you!" Eda replied angrily. She didn't want to get angry with the puppet, but the situation they were in was testing her mental resistance and she didn't like that Luz kept scolding her for that mistake she made in good faith. "Stop wasting time and tell me what was happening before we intervened!"

Luz made an annoyed noise, but still she answered: "When I found Amity, she thought what she was doing was right. Her thoughts matched the emotions amplified by Grometheus' soul. But when I started talking and Amity stopped to think she was right, her true personality has started to resurface again. If we push hard enough we might be able to wake up the real Amity!"

"Okay, so should we just talk to her?" King said, and he yelled out loud: "Hey, Amity! Can we please discuss this civilly?"

"SHUT UP, YOU USELESS FURRY BEING!" the dragon roared, and clumps of dark matter emerged from her mouth, which she then spat at them, trying to hit Eda. "GIVE HER BACK TO ME!"

"It doesn't work" King said with a gulp.

"It's no use, she's focused on me right now! Damn, I usually liked it when she was jealous..." Luz murmured.

But Eda wasn't of the same opinion. "If she's focused on you, then we can lure her away! Lilith!" she shouted at his sister. "Let's go to the countryside! She'll follow Luz! We'll land her there!"

"Understood!" Lilith answered her with a determined nod.

"Wait, what do you mean you're going to land her...?" Luz tried to ask, but she couldn't make herself heard because the two fairies had started flying so fast that the sound of the air moving around them surpassed that of her voice.

Eda and Lilith flew towards the countryside, until they arrived over a large, almost completely flat field; there the two fairies separated and flew to opposite sides of the dragon, and they raised their respective wands. "Amity, sorry but it's for your own good!" Lilith screamed, and then together with Eda she recited a magical incantation; two immense beams of light hit the wings, and the dark matter they were made of dissolved instantly. The dragon plummeted to the ground and crashed into the ground with a thunderous crash.

"AMITY!" Luz, Edric and Emira screamed in unison.

"Calm down, she's fine. The Abominations that surround her are creating a shield for her" Eda told them. "Trust us. We know what we're doing"

The dragon stood up as if she had not just fallen from a height of at least fifty meters, and her front legs buckled; the fingers grew longer and the muscles shrunk, and at the same time the rest of the body thinned to pass more mass to two new gigantic wings that had taken the place of the upper limbs. In a few seconds, a large wyvern had taken the dragon's place and flew again in the direction of the two fairies, who, however, performed a different maneuver and once again burned her wings; for the second time Amity crashed to the ground, but again her body changed and became smaller, forming a griffin.

That's when Luz understood. "Do you want her to use more and more Abominations to create wings, so that she loses her protection?"

"Something like that" Eda replied. "If we tried to hit her directly we would risk hurting her. By hitting the extremities of her body instead we can weaken her without hurting her. If we continue like this, soon that enormous body of Abominations will disappear and we will be able to land and talk to her without risking being crushed"

"Are you sure? Mittens isn't stupid" Emira pointed out to them. "She will change her strategy as soon as she understands the trick"

"I don't think so" Lilith said in a rather grave voice as she watched her pupil take flight again. "Don't underestimate the madness that jealousy and possessiveness can bring. Now that Amity is completely controlled by these feelings, in her head there is only the desire to get Luz back. She no longer thinks anymore"

This prediction turned out to be true: Amity transformed first into a griffin, then into a winged serpent, then into a gigantic bird and finally into a bat, and each time the fairies destroyed her wings and made her fall; in the end, Abominations' enormous body was reduced to just a few tendrils of dark matter emerging from her back. That was the moment the two fairies finally landed in front of her. Luz ran towards her, even though she was held back by Eda: "Amity, that's enough! Look, I'm here! You don't have to..."

"You think you can make fun of me!?" Amity screamed as her eyes flashed red, and dark orbs began to form in her hands which then took the shape of spinning disks. "I won't let you laugh at me!"

"Amity, no one is laughing at… ARGH!" Lilith screamed as Amity threw the two discs at her and Eda, forcing them to fly away as they were like two blades that cut anything they touched, and unfortunately they started chasing them forcing them to fly back up.

Seeing the two fairies in difficulty, Edric and Emira stepped forward: "Mittens... Mittens, look at us! You shouldn't do this!"

When she saw them Amity abandoned her furious expression a little, and instead she started laughing. "Oh, you two!" she said in a sinister voice. "You always had fun behind my back, but now you don't laugh anymore, eh? Don't worry, I love you so I will be magnanimous. Bow down and honor me with love and respect, and I will allow you to sit next to me in sublime thrones and I will shower you with riches!"

"Mittens, you know we don't want… wait, how much riches are you talking about?" Edric asked her.

Emira punched him in the head. "What are you saying, you idiot!?"

But Edric didn't waver, in fact he winked at her: "Come on, sister, think about it! Imagine how many pillows we could buy, we could play a lot!"

It took Emira just a couple of seconds to understand her brother's intent, and she didn't hesitate to play along: "Well, you're right... damn, we could buy so many pillows for the whole town to play!"

"Exactly! It will be like when we played at our house, but better!"

"You say we're going to make forts again?"

"I think we'll create entire castles!"

As they talked, Amity's expression softened and became more and more nostalgic. "Yes! Yes, that's right, well done! You understand! Join me and I can give you all the pillows you want... and we can play together... and... and it will be just like... like...". Amity's face twisted into a grimace. "No... no, I shouldn't think about this! I must provide fear to my lord! But... but I want to play... no! No, I am not a little child! I am a witch! No... what am I saying? I don't..."

"What's the matter, Mittens?" Emira asked her. "Don't you want to play with pillows? Then maybe we could... play rugby! Yes, that's it! We can buy every rugby pitch in the world! Better yet, let's build a giant one of our own!"

"Urgh... shut the fuck up! Stop confusing me!" Amity shouted at her. "I want to do it! No, wait... I meant... what is...?"

"Well, if rugby isn't your thing either, we can just go to the beach!" Edric proposed.

This time Amity reacted in a decidedly more aggressive manner. "Are you trying to kill me!? I knew I couldn't trust you!"

"Oops... no, wait, I didn't mean that!" Edric said quickly, remembering that witches technically couldn't get wet. "What I meant was... we could... play on the beach! Yes, that's it! Maybe with a ball!"

"I liked it" King said, supporting the twins. "I remember you liked it too, Amity"

"But of course we will only do it if you want us to, Mittens. After all, you are now in charge" Emira told her with a smile. "So? Do you want to do this, or do you want to do something else? You want to have fun too, don't you?"

"Y-Yes..." Amity murmured, then she shook her head violently. "No! I don't have to have fun! But... but I want to... NO! Stop it! I'm not a kid...!"

"Um, Mittens, sorry to tell you this... but you are a kid" Edric pointed out.

"NO!" Amity screamed. "I... I am mature! I am grown and powerful now! I am a witch! I am the Fear Witch! I am no longer a little girl... I decide the fate of others, no one can decide mine...!"

"Then why are you acting like the slave of that monster?" Emira asked her rhetorically.

Amity was putting her face in her hands again, and seemed to be in the grip of a deep internal conflict; she could no longer think properly, her thoughts and emotions were completely misaligned. She tried to yell something again, but before she could a very familiar voice said: "Amity?"

Amity looked down and realized that while she was focused on her siblings, Luz had completely closed the distance between them and was now right in front of her, albeit at a lower level because Amity was still using her tentacles to dark matter to sustain herself in the air. The puppet and the young witch looked at each other for a long moment, and then Luz opened her arms as if to invite her to come closer. "Amity… can you hug me… please?"

For those who don't remember due to lack of due attention, Odalia when explaining her plan to Amity explained to her that the only truly problematic essence both to summon and absorb was that of Grometheus, given that it was the only one that had to be summoned and absorbed exclusively with the strength of mortals, while instead after having summoned Grometheus he (being a supreme being) would have taken care of providing everything necessary so that anyone could evoke and absorb the essences of the three remaining supreme beings and evoke them. As a result, Odalia can now both absorb the essence of one of them (precisely the Collector, who she is summoning) and in the same way Edric and Emira and any other mortal can do so, given that Grometheus is there to help them