Hi! Welcome back to my mindscape! I hope everyone is having an amazing day, and I hope you all enjoy this chapter! |:D
(TW: More abuse and blood in this one, its definitely another darker chapter.)
Luz awoke to the familiar creak of the chamber door, her body instantly tensing with the anticipation of pain. Belos entered the chamber, his presence suffocating the air around her. His mask gleamed in the dim light, hiding any trace of emotion, but Luz could sense his sadistic delight in her suffering.
"Good morning, Luz," Belos said, his voice dripping with mockery. "I trust you had another restful night?"
Luz glared at him, her throat too raw to respond. Belos's eyes narrowed as he approached her, his steps measured and deliberate.
"We have much to discuss," he said, raising his hand so that the chains tightened once again. "Are you finally ready to tell me what I want to know?"
Luz let out a yelp for the pain, but shook her head. She had been through enough torture, no way was she giving up now.
Belos sighed, raising his hand. The whip materialized again, and without warning, he brought it down across her chest. Luz tried to scream, but all that came out was air, her throat too raw to make a sound. The pain was unbearable, each strike tearing at her already wounded flesh.
"Tell me where the portal is," Belos demanded, his voice cold and unyielding.
"Never," Luz thought, shaking her head..
Belos's eyes flashed with anger, and he struck her again, the barbs of the whip cutting deeper into her skin. Luz's world dissolved into a haze of agony, her mind struggling to hold on. He kept striking her for a few minutes, eventually stepping closer to look at her wounds.
"Luz," Belos said in a soft, almost comforting tone. "Your wounds are getting infected and you're losing a lot of blood. You can die because of injuries like this. We can stop this and get you all healed up, all you have to do is tell me what I want to know."
Luz' mind was blurry, she felt herself slipping in and out of consciousness, but she shook her head once more. She knew that she could outlast this, even if it was the last thing she would do.
Belos stepped forward, anger entering his voice. "I didn't want to do this, but you leave me no choice Luz."
He grabbed Luz' hand, slowly wrapping the whip around one of the fingers. "Now, this is your last chance. You can answer my questions… Or, I will start taking your limbs away."
Luz sucked in some air, the whip already piercing into her finger. She shook her head again. She wouldn't let him find the portal, she wouldn't let him get to the human realm… She wouldn't let him hurt her mother… Even if she lost her fingers or even her head, she would stop Belos.
Belos' eyes flashed with more anger than she had seen from him before. However, before he could do anything, the door burst open, and Adrian rushed in, his face pale with fear. "Your Majesty, I have terrible news to report."
Belos swiftly turned towards Adrian, the whip disappearing from his hands. "Adrian, who said you could come down here? Let alone enter this room. I am the only one who is supposed to be down here."
Adrian shrank back in fear, looking at Luz and gasping. "My lord, what are you doing to her?"
With a swift motion, Belos cast a spell sending Adrian flying into a wall. "What I must." Belos slowly walked towards him. "Now. Tell me why you are down here before I do even worse things to you."
Adrian groaned, sitting up against the wall clutching his head. "I came back to tell you that Lilith found out what was going on. She found out we kidnapped Luz, and that I am sure they will be launching an attack on the castle to get her back."
Belos sent another spell into Adrian's chest, making him cough up blood. "And how did that happen?"
Adrian tried to regain his breath. "They… They caught me, and I told them what they wanted to know. They were going to kill me."
Belos swiftly walked across the room and picked Adrian up by the neck. "You did what?"
Adrian gulped. "My lord, I can fix this, I will make sure my scouts and I add protections to the castle so that they never find her, please forgive me weakness."
Belos threw him across the room. "You are lucky that I am desperate Adrian, or else I would have killed you for just walking into this room. Now, go and prepare this castle. Also, make sure no one else comes into this room, I need as much time as possible."
Adrian shot up, sprinting out of the room. "I won't let you down My Lord."
Luz watched him go, staring back at Belos who was muttering curses under his breath. A new sense of determination had entered her. She let out a grin through the pain. Eda and everyone knew where she was, and she knew they wouldn't stop until they had rescued her.
Belos noticed her grin and turned towards her in anger. "Fine, it looks like we are running out of time… Looks like I will be using more desperate measures."
Belos started to draw on the floor with his staff, the floor beneath him being consumed by a large range of glyphs. After a while he turned to Luz, smiling mischievously. With a swift motion, he smacked his staff against the floor, igniting the glyphs. Luz watched as he was surrounded in golden light, which then shot towards her. She gasped in surprise and tried to duck out of the way, but her injuries and the chains stopped her. The golden beam hit her right in the head, knocking her unconscious.
Belos awoke with a start, his mind still reeling from the incursion into Luz's memories. He found himself in the clearing outside the accursed Owl House, its twisted architecture looming in the dim light of dawn. The house was a grotesque testament to the chaotic magic he despised. He walked towards the house. He had never actually been here before, but he had heard of gossip from scouts in the castle about it. As he approached the door he realized that there was no sign of the house demon that they had mentioned. However, there was a little girl sitting in front of the door holding some sort of action figure in her hands. Belos had studied mindscapes before. He knew that the inner self of the person's mind was usually a younger version of themselves, and also that they were the ones who possessed the mindscape.
Belos slowly took off his mask, approaching the small girl in front of him. "Luz? Is that you?"
At the sound, the tiny version of Luz shot up and after taking one glance at Belos, ran inside the house.
Belos let out a huff of anger. "Of course she would run."
Belos chased her inside the house, seeing her disappear up the stairs. He quickly navigated around the messy living room, chasing the child up the stairs. As he got to the top, he groaned. The hallway looked never ending, bedrooms on each side of the hall were lined with pictures of Luz' memories. He had lost the girl, and having no other choice he walked forward and opened one of the doors.
Belos was sucked in finding himself in a chaotic swirl of memories and emotions. As he went between each door, he navigated through scenes of Luz's life, each one revealing fragments of her struggles and triumphs. He saw her as she grew up, her troubles at school and in the human realm. But then, he found it. The day she arrived in the Boiling Isles.
Belos smiled. "Finally, maybe this can show me where the portal is."
Opening up the door, he stepped onto a sidewalk, seeing Luz standing across the way. The area around her looked blurry, but also strangely familiar to him. He looked around, but the feeling slowly faded away. With a shrug he turned back to Luz, who he saw was now chasing a tiny owl. He smiled and chased after her. Eventually he came upon a cabin. Hearing Luz yelling from the inside, he followed in and spotted the door. He let out a smile, but as he went towards it, he was kicked out of the memory.
"Curse the Titan," Belos swore. He needed to know where the portal was in the demon realm, not the human realm.
Belos opened the next door and watched Luz' first meeting with Edalyn the Owl Lady, and this told him what he wanted to know. As he watched the Owl Lady close the door, trapping Luz in the demon realm he smiled. The Owl Lady had the key to the portal, and she was on her way to the castle right now.
Belos continued through the doors, searching through her memories for more clues of where the Owl Lady might be storing the key, but he was unable to find anything. As he pushed deeper, he stumbled upon a particularly raw memory. As he opened the door he saw her. Luz sat alone in her room, tears streaming down her face. "I'll never be a real witch," she sobbed, clutching a glyph tightly in her hand. "I can't do magic like everyone else."
Belos' lips curled into a sneer. This was what he needed. Her self-doubt, her weakness. He latched onto this memory, feeding on her despair.
"You are nothing without these glyphs," he whispered into her mind. "Just a human pretending to be something you're not."
As he pressed further, intending to unravel more secrets, he was met with a powerful force. Memories of Luz's friends surged forward—Eda's unwavering support, King's playful encouragement, Willow, Gus, and Amity's tender affections. Their voices echoed in her mind, drowning out Belos's insidious whispers.
"You are a witch, Luz," Eda's voice rang out. "You've always been one."
All of a sudden, an older Luz popped out from behind Belos. She was dressed in some ridiculous costume, but as Belos turned around to try and block her, she hit him in his chest, forcefully ejecting him from her mind.
Belos's eyes snapped open, his face contorted with rage. He turned to Luz, who was slowly waking up herself.
"You insolent fool," he yelled, summoning his whip again. "You dare kick me out of your mind?"
He struck Luz again, grinning in satisfaction at the pain he was causing her. He wrapped one of her fingers in the whip, pulling and ripping it off. The scream Luz finally let out was more than satisfactory for him.
"So Luz, one finger down. Now, where does the Owl Lady hide the portal and the key?" Belos asked, slowly wrapping another finger in the whip.
Luz raised her eyes in surprise, eventually being able to croak out a single, "What?"
Anger boiled within Belos, ripping another finger off, blood slowly pooling on the floor below them. After she had finished screaming, Belos continued.
"There is no need to lie Luz, I have been in your mind, I have seen the Owl Lady with the key, I just need to know where she hides it." Belos said, anger in his voice.
Watching Luz shake her head again threw Belos into a fury of rage. He wrapped her whole hand in the whip, ripping the whole thing off. Belos expected a scream of pain but heard nothing. Looking up at her face, he realized that her eyes had rolled back into her head. Quickly he checked her pulse. It was still there, but it was faint.
"Curse the Titan," He gritted. He didn't want to kill Luz, he still needed her as leverage over the Owl Lady to get the key and portal from her. He quickly walked outside of the chamber spotting the Golden Guard.
"Golden Guard, I need you to run and quickly get as many healers as you can." Belos commanded.
The Golden Guard bowed and started to leave. "As you wish Uncle."
A few moments later, the Golden Guard returned, the castle's healers following in his tracks. As they all entered the room they gasped, seeing the condition in which the Emperor had left Luz.
"Uncle, what did you do to her?" Hunter croaked.
"What had to be done." He glared at the healers. "Now get to work and stop the bleeding, I don't want this one to die.
As the healers worked on stopping Luz' bleeding, Belos paced the room, getting even angrier by the second. The Golden Guard tried to calm him down, but after a while, Adrian burst through the door.
"My Lord, the attack has started on the castle, it seems like Luz' professors are attacking the front entrance. We haven't been able to locate the rest of them, but the castle has been laced with traps and illusion magic." Adrian said, bowing in front of Belos.
Belos' anger boiled over, and he turned on Adrian, who was kneeling next to him. "You failed to keep this contained," he hissed. "You brought this upon us."
Before Adrian could react, Belos raised his hand, and a burst of dark magic enveloped the unfortunate subordinate. Adrian's scream was short-lived as his body crumpled to the floor, lifeless. Belos stared at Adrian's corpse, a blank look on his face. He heard the gasps of the healers and the Golden Guard but ignored them. After a while of staring at the corpse below him, he turned and looked back at Luz, a memory coming back.
Belos let out a mischievous smile, her words ringing in his ears.
"I'll never be a Real Witch."
Sorry for another dark chapter! This will be the last one for awhile though. FUCK BELOS I HOPE HE EXPLODES!
(also everyone pour one out for Adrian, may he rest in pickles.)
NEXT UP: THE RESCUE!
Thank you for reading this chapter, I hope you all enjoyed it! If you have any ideas of how I can improve this fic, just leave a comment! If you love it so far, leave a Kudos! Next chapter coming soon to a mindscape near you!
