Kaufetag 4, Fifth Lunar Disappearance, 50 CE | The Covention Hall

Lilith Clawthorne, despite what her sister would claim, was not a fool.

Just an hour before, she had walked on the ground that her protégé was now fighting on. Before her and Hieronymous' presentation, the Construction Coven had been entrusted with making sure that the stage was in perfect condition, and that included a perfectly level flooring. Now, though, small mounds were scattered along the ground. Mounds that Lilith knew were there for a purpose.

Lilith shook her head and clicked her tongue. Of course Edalyn would resort to such blatant cheating. Though her sister's mockery of the ancient rules was undoubtedly in character for the younger Clawthorne, Lilith was still astounded she would go about it in such an obvious manner.

Lilith was cheating as well, though. The two competitors had to be on a level playing field, after all, so if Edalyn was going to bend the rules, then Lilith would begrudgingly follow suit. Given, she was cheating in a more elegant manner, if that was even possible. Before the duel had begun, Lilith had stealthily placed a power glyph from the Construction Coven on the back of Miss Blight's neck. This would allow the young prodigy to cast far more powerful spells than normal, but it came at the cost of using up her magic much faster as well.

Well, that wasn't the only reason Lilith was also cheating in this Duel. She had let her competitive fire get the best of her when she had coerced Edalyn into the Duel. Ever since the two of them had been children, they had always been competing, either with each other or as a team against a common opponent. On the Grudgby field they had formed a formidable duo, leading Hexside on a winning streak that still had yet to be matched. When they weren't teammates, though, they were still fierce competitors, even over the most trivial aspects of life. Lilith still fondly remembered the day that she had finally bested Edalyn in a game of Hexes Hold 'em. There was nothing on the line that game. There were no stakes, yet the joy she felt when she played the winning hand was second-to-none.

Of course, there were also some moments where Lilith regretted having such a drive to win. There were some things that she wished she had never sought out, decisions she wished she had never made. Decisions that had ruined Edalyn's life.

That was why Lilith was cheating. She knew what would happen if Edalyn was inducted into the Emperor's Coven. Yes, she would be cured of her curse, just as Emperor Belos had promised, but she would also be trapped. The Owl Lady would never submit to being locked in the cage that is the Emperor's Coven. Edalyn's free spirit and need to cause chaos wherever she went would never fit in among the ranks.

Lilith loved her sister. Yes, she may have gone against every law on the books by refusing to join a coven, but Lilith would rather fruitlessly chase after Edalyn until the end of days than see her in the cloak of a scout.

So, as Luz Noceda and Amity Blight prepared to face each other, Lilith prayed to the Titan that this vacuously-conceived Duel would end with no victors and only a pair of cheaters.

Luz had no idea what to do.

Sure she had been in a few fights before, but she was exclusively on the receiving end of the attacks, never the offensive. Mamá had always told her that violence was never the answer to your problems, so Luz would always weather the minute or two the fight would last, doing her best to dodge the attacks. Eventually, the fight would be broken up by a teacher and both Luz and whoever was on the other end would get punished.

This fight was different though. If things didn't go exactly as planned, somebody was going to end up on a one-way trip to the nearest morgue. That wouldn't happen. That couldn't happen. Luz would make sure of it.

Old habits die hard, though, so as Amity summoned an absolutely massive abomination, Luz stood frozen in place. She would let the emerald-haired witch attack first and then do her best to lure her onto one of the (hopefully obvious enough) traps.

The giant abomination suddenly ripped its head off and tossed it at Luz. Thankfully, the head seemed to travel in slow motion as Luz's fight-or-flight instincts kicked in. Diving out of the way of the flying projectile, Luz tried to scheme up a way to get out of this fight with nobody dying.

Amity threw attack after attack at the basilisk. Luz ducked under a punch from the abomination and threw one of her own. Her fist went directly through the abomination's stomach, leaving a hole in the goop monster's abdomen.

Then Luz got an idea. She remembered how Willow had said that abominations were essentially immortal and impervious to being hurt. That meant that if she got one of Amity's abominations to step on one of the traps, then it would be set off and then the duel would be over because Eda cheated and everyone could go back home and forget this ever happened. That was a good plan, right? Well, at least it was a plan.

Noticing a nearby trap, Luz made a beeline to put the mound between herself and the abomination. As the magical construct slowly ambled towards her, it made the mistake of stepping directly on top of the trap. A blast of fire sprouted from the ground, setting the abomination aflame. Unfortunately, though, the abomination was still alive, and it was now a flaming abomination trying to kill Luz.

The flaming abomination pressed Luz back up against the wall. Seemingly out of good options, Luz did the only thing she could think of. Diving between the abomination's legs and scrambling away as fast as possible, Luz tried to put as much distance as she could between herself and the mindless killing machine.

Quickly getting back to her feet, Luz stole a glance to see how Amity was doing. The witch looked shockingly pale, and she was sweating profusely. Still though, she kept the spell circle holding the abomination together active, although the circle was warping and shifting, as if Amity was struggling to hold it.

Turning back to the abomination, Luz saw that it was still dead set on sending her to an early grave. The abomination was still on fire, but it was moving slower now, its steps sluggish, arms dangling at its side.

Then the abomination stepped on a trap and exploded.

The explosion rocked the room, the Ka-BOOM echoing off the high ceiling of the theatre. Bits of abomination goop was flung everywhere, most of it still on fire. Crowd members scattered, dodging the flaming balls of goop as it rained from the sky.

Luz was thrown on her rear-end as a result of the trap going off. As she waited for her ears to stop ringing and the giant clouds of dust to settle, Luz saw Amity on the other side of the floor. The witch was barely able to stay on her feet. She staggered forward a few steps before collapsing to the ground face-first.

"Oh my God, Amity!"

Luz ran over to the fallen witch, careful to avoid setting off any of the traps. As Luz got closer, Amity seemed to regain a little strength, having enough energy to push herself up to be resting on one knee, though she did so through labored breathing.

"Amity, are you okay?" Luz asked, hoping she would get some kind of answer. She offered Amity her hand, which the witch took.

"I'm exhausted. I didn't know I could pull off a spell that big," Amity said between breaths as she got back on her feet.

"CALL OFF THE FIGHT!" Luz yelled to Lilith.

"This Duel will continue until only one of you is alive." Lilith said coldly, but the wavering in her voice betrayed her.

"You said this could end if one of us cheats though, right? Well then, I cheated! Is that what you wanted to hear? All of this was from Eda's traps. I'm a filthy, no-good cheater. Are you happy now? The Duel is over. You win, congrats." Luz threw her arms up in desperation as she ranted.

Lilith took a slow and controlled breath. It was time for her to reveal that she was also guilty.

"Actually. I cheated as well," she said simply.

"What? Oh there is a certain four-letter word that I really want to call you right now." Luz interjected.

"Miss Blight, please examine the back of your neck."

Amity slowly felt around, moving her ponytail out of the way. Suddenly, her fingers ran over a section that didn't feel anything at all like her skin. Finding the edge of the section, she pulled at it, feeling a sort of adhesive tugging as she removed the offending object. As the magic holding it to her neck gave way, Amity looked at what she held in her hand.

"That is a power glyph from the Construction Coven. I placed it during our talk just before the Duel began. I am so, so sorry, Amity. I let my emotions get the best of me, and I apologize. I never meant for you to get hurt." Lilith bowed her head, staring down at the ground.

Amity could barely respond. She stared at the thin piece of paper in her hand. She had cheated. Amity Blight, the best witch in all of the Abomination Track, former star of the Hexside Banshees, and overall perfect student, had cheated.

She dropped the glyph and ran.

"Amity!" Luz ran after the fleeing witch.

Luz threw open the doors of the theatre, looking around to see if she could see a trace of emerald hair. She saw a flash of it turn a corner off in the distance, so she followed and hoped Amity didn't have some secret body double.

Luz found Amity seated on the cold, linoleum floor and sat down next to her.

"Hey," Luz started.

"What? Have you come here to gloat or something?" Amity replied, her voice breaking.

"No, I swear. It's just… I'm sorry. I know that probably doesn't mean much, though."

"Yeah, well is that apology going to restore my chances of getting into the Emperor's Coven? I cheated. They don't take cheaters."

"Well, I don't know if you noticed, but we both cheated in the Duel, which means we both lost. We can be, like, Loser Buddies or something."

That last remark got a small giggle out of Amity.

"That sounds like a comic that Ed would buy," the witch said with a laugh.

"We'd be the worst superheroes ever. 'How will the Snakeshifter and Emerald Enchantress battle their way out of this sticky situation? Find out in the next issue of Loser Buddies!'" Luz did her best impression of one of those cartoon narrators, putting on a crazy accent for extra effect.

Amity guffawed. "I'm sorry, 'Emerald Enchantress'? That's an awful name."

"What, can you think of anything better?" Luz questioned.

"I… err… uh… no," Amity stuttered out.

"Then Emerald Enchantress it is," Luz said.

"Fine," Amity replied begrudgingly.

The two sat silently for a moment before Luz remembered something.

"Say, Amity, do you want to see some magic?"

"Sure? But don't you not have a bile sac?"

"Nope," Luz replied simply, pulling out her notepad and pencil. "I don't need one."

She quickly sketched out the light glyph, having the design already memorized thanks to countless repetitions over the past few days. She tapped the glyph with the eraser-end of her pencil and watched the paper crumble up into a ball, before turning into a sphere of pure light.

Amity looked at the floating light with amazement in her eyes.

"Incredible. I've never seen a spell cast like that before. How did you figure that out?"

"It's a long story," Luz explained, drawing out the 'o'. "There was a storm, and Eda turned into the Owl Beast, and I cracked my phone, and… Let's just say that I'm really happy I can draw a perfect circle."

"Are there any other spells you can cast with your little drawing thing?"

"Nope, the light spell is the only one I've found so far. There's got to be others, though."

Suddenly, a bell chimed three times, loud enough to echo through the entire Covention Hall.

"Oh crud, I need to get going." Amity said, quickly climbing to her feet. "I have to prep for one of Mother's presentations, and I can't be late this time. Bye Luz!"

As Amity ran off, Luz waved goodbye, even though the youngest Blight wouldn't see it.

"Bye, Amity," Luz said quietly.

"Hey, kiddo. Whatcha doin' back here?" Eda asked. Luz looked up and met eyes with the Owl Lady.

"Amity and I, we were, uh, chatting."

"Sure, kid. Well, let's find King and bounce."

The two did eventually find King. When they finally caught him, the tiny demon was in the middle of huge group of Covention-goers, all of them fawning over the demon.

"Yeah, that's right. If you join the King Coven, you get to give me an hour of tummy scratches each day for the low cost of 5 thousand billion snails," King proclaimed.

"King! What are you doing?" Eda shouted, forcing her way through the crowd.

"I'm being a good business-demon, like you," he replied, clambering his way on top of a nearby table to get away from the crowd.

"Everybody scram!" Eda yelled.

The crowd scrammed.

"Really King, you think they're all gonna give you 5 trillion snails a day? That's more than my bounty, you goofball. If you're gonna scam 'em, don't do it so blatantly."

"So you're saying I should give them a discount of 5 thousand snails?" King asked hopefully, hopping down form the table.

Eda chuckled. "Yeah, that's totally what I'm saying. Now let's go. This place reeks of conformity."

As the trio walked out of the Covention Hall, Eda pondered the idea of having her own coven.

"Ya know, the Eda Coven does have a nice ring to it. Wait, no, even better, I've got it. How do you two want to be inaugural members of the Bad Girl Coven?"