The Angel of the Owl House

by OwlHouseAngel

Luz Noceda is a young half-angel girl living with her angel mother in the Human Realm. Her attempts to be good always backfire, and after one too many mistakes, her mother sends her to Camp Reality Check. But a chance event leaves Luz in the Demon Realm, where she meets the Owl Lady, who teaches her that in a chaotic world like the Boiling Isles, Luz might be the perfect angel.

35. EP 14: Enter the Gates of HECK

The Angel of the Owl House

Season 2: The Human Realm

Chapter 14: Enter the Gates of HECK

Exactly one week had passed since Hunter and Lucy's encounter with the Rebels in Cartilia, and the defeat of Hettie Cutburn. It had also been 3 days since Coven Day, and the live destruction of her petrified form. Ever since then, there was a horrible tension hanging over the castle and the other Coven Heads… seeing one of their own, traitor or not, being petrified and destroyed had made everyone wary, and the scouts and other castle personnel had taken to creeping about quietly, barely speaking a word. The Coven Heads had come for a few meetings, as Belos demanded constant updates on whatever he had each one doing, and they always arrived with grim faces and left even grimmer.

Belos himself was becoming colder, stricter, and less forgiving with each passing day, not helped by the fact his odd corruption was flaring up more and more without Palisman to soothe it. The fits had been getting worse, and many scouts who served around him had more scars to prove it. Lucy had managed to convince her Uncle to use Abomaton MK I's for his needs in place of scouts, since they could easily be replaced. This spared the scouts, but forced Lucy to keep buying more Abomatons from the thoroughly unpleasant and smug Odalia Blight. Belos had taken to chewing on woodchips made from the Palistrom Wood they'd confiscated from Terra Snapdragon; it seemed to take the edge off his condition, and combining that with a potion that Head Witch Vitimir derived from Palistrom Sap seemed to be almost as good as eating live Palisman. Both tasted foul however, and Belos' mood was just as foul as a result, and so Lucy had been too afraid to ask him about her father and his bloodline, so she still had no idea why Hettie had tried to kill her.

Hunter and Lucy were also finding themselves being split up a lot. The attempt on Lucy's life had made Belos paranoid, and he was once again confining her to the castle more and more, only letting her leave when Head Witch Osran asked to take her to his Coven HQ for lessons. On the reverse side, Belos' worsening condition and obsession with doing some strange work on the Portal had made him reclusive and so many of his duties were passed onto Hunter, keeping the boy very busy. Despite the added stress, Hunter actually thrived and frequently spoke for the Emperor in meetings with the Coven Heads… who weren't exactly thrilled about answering to a child. Darius was especially giving him a hard time whenever Hunter started acting like the Emperor did.

It was now Sunday, and another meeting of the Coven Heads was due to start any minute. Belos scheduled Sunday meetings for the afternoon, since he always sequestered himself on Sunday mornings so he could "Hear the gospel of the Titan".

Hunter walked into the throne room with Lucy not far behind him, and immediately took his place at his Uncle's right hand, while his sister took her place at his left. Hunter smiled upon seeing her; while she wasn't in a great mood thanks to being kept in the castle, her wings had regained a bit of their silvery shine and her lethargy had lessened, much to his relief. Belos greeted them both only with a subtle nod, while Hunter noticed Osran giving Lucy a polite smile too, which she returned. Soon, all the Coven Heads were present, including Healer Dorothea, who'd been named the new Head Witch of the Healing Coven following Hettie's betrayal. The woman always looked terrified in the Emperor's presence… unsurprising given how her predecessor was dealt with.

The meeting began as always with a brief recap from each Coven Head regarding their activities; Darius was still working on reverse engineering the Abomaton MK II's so they could be replicated, while working to advance the Abomaton MK I's. Severin was focusing on recruitment, and serving as the main representative of the Emperor's Coven within the neutral zone of Bonesborough. Eberwolf was keeping the beasts of the Isles under control, and overseeing the hunt for any fugitives outside the neutral zone. Mason was overseeing the reconstruction of areas damaged in fighting with the rebels, as well as the completion of the Unity Plaza up near the Titan's Head. Dorothea, new to her role, was simply getting adjusted to being Coven Head and managing all the hospitals on the Isles. Adrian was hard at work managing the Emperor's propaganda, as well as the various spies in areas where the CATTs and other smaller rebel groups had been causing trouble. Osran had largely been training Lucy in Oracle Magic, while also acting as the head of surveillance. Vitimir had been hard at work on remaking some potion that the CATTs had destroyed so he'd done little, but his Potions Coven was keeping the Emperor's Coven stocked with potions and explosives, so Belos made no complaints. Then there was Terra… who hadn't shown up for the meeting, or most other meetings either. She'd become a recluse since the attack on Spriggan Manor and had only shown up at the castle when Belos demanded her presence. She'd worn a veil to that meeting and looked sickly, making Hunter think the woman wasn't long for the world. To this meeting she'd sent one of her creepy Plant Scouts, who'd blandly reported that the Plant Coven was continuing their work to cultivate herbs for the other covens and keep the Isles' forests, jungles, and swamps under control.

Once they were all done, Belos (who now rarely wore his mask after Coven Day) smiled benevolently.

"You've all been doing well. The Day of Unity is fast approaching, and my work on adjusting the portal for our purposes is also going well. We will soon be ready; the only missing piece is our Rebellious Angel." Belos said.

"With your permission Sire, perhaps I could help?" Adrian asked; "I'm sure a little mesmerism would lure her out of Bonesborough, where I can catch her and bring her to you."

"Your loyalty is appreciated, Adrian. But I have my own plans, which I shall reveal in due time." Belos smiled; "Luz Noceda will come to heel. My only worry is how much suffering she'll bring onto herself before that. In the mean time, are there any other important things you wish to report?"

Hunter perked up, seeing his chance. "Yes, Emperor Belos. I would like to request that the Silver Sentinel be released from the castle so she can assist me with my efforts to recruit the youth of the Boiling Isles. I believe that having an Angel support me will massively increase my success."

Lucy smiled a little, even as she felt sorry for her brother. Just last Friday, their Uncle had been busy and asked Hunter to lead the Coven Heads in a recruitment meeting. Hunter had been proud and eager to show off his new cloak, which he'd stitched the old Golden Guard Sigil into (poorly). However the Coven Heads hadn't taken him seriously and decided to postpone the meeting despite his objections, and Darius had been rather harsh when Hunter objected. He'd taken Hunter's new cloak and claimed he didn't deserve to where the sigil worn by his old friend and mentor. In an attempt to prove he was worthy, Hunter had gone in disguise to both Glandus and St. Epiderm in hopes of recruiting strong students to the cause… it had been a dismal failure. The Glandus students had taken his recruitment attempts as a challenge, and since he was a "new kid", they tried to establish his place in the pecking order, which resulted in Hunter having to duel his way out of the school. Then at St. Epiderm, the rich and noble students had scoffed and said there was no point, since they all had cushy positions in their parents' covens all lined up for them, and the scholarship students had refused to rock the boat and "rise above their station" by joining the Emperor's Coven.

The result was a depressed Hunter, a lack of recruits, and a disappointed Emperor.

But his idea to add Lucy to his recruitment efforts had merit AND would get her out of the castle! It was a win-win!

Belos was not convinced however; "My Sentinel has other duties. She has already suffered an assassination attempt and must continue her training with Head Witch Osran. An Angel capable of Oracle Magic is unusual, and I will not have that potential squandered. Besides, if Luz really cannot be brought to heel, then your sister must be trained until she is strong enough to take Luz's place in the Day of Unity."

Hunter bit his lip and Lucy tried not to look too disappointed. However, they received help from a rather unexpected person.

"My Emperor, if I may…" Darius began, stepping forward; "Why not have the Golden Guard and Silver Sentinel run tomorrow's "Helping Enhance Coven Know-How" event? It's usually run by Terra, but with her health declining, we've been debating who among the Coven Heads should take over instead. It's a good chance to recruit young witches and demons into the coven, and it's held in Manubrium so it's safe and secure. Plus Osran could always assist them so as not to derail the Sentinel's training."

Hunter gaped, not expecting help from Darius of all people, while Lucy looked hopefully at her Uncle. Osran also stepped forward; "I believe this is a good idea, Emperor Belos. I've been meaning to ask you for permission to take the Sentinel out of the castle. She needs to practice using her magic in a place she is less familiar with, so she can better train her scrying abilities."

Belos stroked his chin and glanced back and forth at his young Elites. Both were looking hopeful, and they had been fulfilling their duties effectively… and the last thing he needed was to give them a reason to go into a rebellious phase when the Day of Unity was just under a month away.

"Very well. Hunter, Lucy; you will both report to the Manubrium Covention Centre tomorrow so you can manage the HECK event. I understand Terra has made it something of an inter-school competition? The Grand Prize this year will be a place in my coven. Bring me some strong recruits… and if those recruits should be from Hexside, then I'll want to see them personally. We can always use more spies inside Bonesborough." Belos decreed.

The two teens were ecstatic and barely stopped themselves from cheering. "We won't disappoint you!" they said together, both bowing to their Uncle. Belos brought the meeting to an end a short time later, and the Coven Heads departed. Hunter tried to speak to Darius to thank him, but the man had dismissed him casually by claiming to have work to do. Lucy's attempt to talk to Osran had gone better, with the old man smiling and patting the girl's hand.

"I'm happy to assist, my dear. I won't be in Manubrium tomorrow, so you can consider it self-study. Do try to enjoy yourself too though; I cannot see what lies beyond the Day of Unity, but it will be a major change. Enjoy the life you currently have while it lasts." Osran smiled, before walking off.

Lucy wasn't entirely sure what that meant, but she didn't cared; she was just too happy to be spending a day out of the castle again!

"Tomorrow is going to be great!" Hunter grinned, throwing an arm around his little sister's shoulder; "I'll show Uncle AND Darius that I can recruit the best and brightest that the Isles has to offer!"

[Meanwhile]

Unbeknownst to the Elites, HECK was also being discussed within Bonesborough. However it was of no interest to the CATTs (who'd never attack an event for school children); rather being a concern for the teachers of Hexside, who had of course been invited to send a team of students to compete. Since Hexside was officially neutral, there was no danger and the teachers really did want to send students to win Blue Ribbons for the prestige of the school, but therein lay the problem… a lot of their best students were members of the CATTs. HECK had ten main events, one for each of the Main Covens and each rewarded with a coveted Blue Ribbon. A Hexside student winning a Blue Ribbon was basically a declaration of how good Hexside was (and that student's teacher in particular). Logically, this meant they wanted to send their best students in each track, but they were limited to sending a maximum of five, so now the Hexside teachers were stuck trying to figure out which students could go without being wanted.

"So realistically, the ideal team to send would be Luz Noceda, Viney Leonis, Jerbo Nelumbo, Barcus, and Matt Tholomule. They cover all nine tracks between them." Professor Lavestra, the Illusion Teacher pointed out.

"But we obviously can't send Luz, seeing as she's the most wanted person in the history of the Isles." Principal Bump pointed out. "We also can't send Barcus thanks to that mess with Vitimir a few weeks back, and Councilman Nelumbo has already refused to let Jerbo take part in the event when I suggested it to him. He's afraid of sending his son out the Neutral Zone."

"Mr. Tholomule won't be able to attend either." Construction Professor Freed said with a heavy sigh; "His whole family caught the Fire Flu. He's been out of school since Thursday to help take care of them, but that ended with him catching it himself and there's no way he'll recover in time for tomorrow."

The teachers all groaned; that left only Viney as one of their Top Multi-Trackers. She'd easily sweep the Healing and Beast-Keeping events, and probably do pretty well in the Bard event too from Professor Beat's bragging, but that wasn't enough for Hexside! They wanted to win the majority of events at least!

"Do we have any other Multi-Trackers that are high in their class rankings?" Bump asked exasperatedly.

They were largely met with shakes of the head. The best Multi-Trackers besides the ones already unavailable were Amity Blight, who'd be in too much danger as the girlfriend of the Isles' most wanted person, Boscha Alembic who was also wanted by the Emperor's Coven, and Emira Blight, who could be safe but would only help them win the Illusion Event.

As they all wracked their brains, Professor Hermanculus raised his short arm. "I have a suggestion. What about our new Flyer Derby Team? Viney Leonis is already a member, as is Emira Blight. Plus it contains Willow Park, Gus Porter, and Skara Cadence; the top students in the school in Plants, Illusions, and Bardic magic respectively. With them and Viney, with Emira as a back up Healer and Illusionist, we're bound to win at least half of the events."

That was met with surprise from the other teachers, who hadn't expected Hermanculus to speak in support of either Willow or her team. The Friday that just passed had been the day of the school Club Fair, and Willow had tried to found Hexside's first official Flyer Derby Team. Hermanculus (being admittedly petty) had initially refused to allow its formation under the excuse that Willow was a quitter for abandoning his class. But she'd surprised him by rising to his challenge, putting together a successful team, and actually managing to defeat his own in an exhibition match. It had been close, but they'd won fair and square and won Hermanculus' begrudging respect. He now served as the club supervisor for them, and had offered his services as a coach too.

"I'm surprised at you Hermanculus. I see your recent loss has humbled you a bit." Bump grinned.

"Oh shove it, Hiernomyus! I can admit defeat! Besides, these students are all skilled and none have active bounties, since Miss Park's was rescinded. They have skill and teamwork, so they could win the Emperor's Coven event too. They're our best bet." Hermanculus yelled, hiding his embarrassment with his temper.

Bump nodded and looked to his fellow teachers to see what they thought. They all agreed it was a good idea, and Professor Lavestra (as Vice-Principal) volunteered to escort them to the event the next day. With that decided, Bump called each of the students' families (grateful that Alador's new signal tower now meant he could reach them on Digale Island) and asked them for permission, and each one agreed. Hexside now had its representatives for HECK!

[The Next Day]

Willow and her Team stood outside Hexside along with Professor Lavestra as they said their goodbyes to their friends, who sadly couldn't come to watch the events. The school day had ended (HECK was after school so the students didn't miss a day of learning), so their friends were seeing them off before going home themselves.

"Good luck guys! Kick butt for Hexside!" Luz cheered.

"You got it, Luz!" Gus grinned, the two exchanging silly finger guns.

"We'll be cheering you on from home. Luz and I are getting back to work on the portal! We've finally gathered most of the materials after all!" Amity added with a smile.

"No kidding! Eda's weird doomsday shed full of junk has actually turned out useful!" Skara added, before looking to Viney; "Glandus and St. Epiderm look down on Bards, so we'll take home that Blue Ribbon easy!"

Viney grinned; "You got it! Are you helping out with the portal too, Boscha?"

The three eyed girl nodded; "Yeah. Titan knows I have to make sure Luz and Amity stay focused and don't start making kissy faces." she said, gesturing over to the two.

"Pfft, if Skara wasn't going with Willow, it'd be her and Boscha that'd be too busy making kissy faces to be of any help." Amity muttered as Luz giggled.

Boscha scoffed and ignored them, then spoke to Willow instead; "You're the Captain of your own team now. That means you're officially in the big leagues now. I've been bringing home Grudgby Trophies since I joined the Banshees; let's see if you can match that with Blue Ribbons." she said, smirking challengingly.

Willow smirked back; "You're on, Boscha. We'll win today's big event, just you wait and see!"

"You go, Captain!" Emira cheered with a big grin. She hadn't expected to be invited to join Willow's Flyer Derby team, but her Viney had apparently recommended her when Willow had been desperate for a fifth member and Emira had jumped at the chance to spend more time with her girlfriend. Who'd have thought all those flying dates on the back of Puddles would work out in such a weird way?

"You rock, Sis! Show the Isles what the New and Improved Blight family are good for!" Edric cheered.

"Do your best! Show those St. Epiderm jerks what you're made of, Viney!" Jerbo also cheered, stood beside Edric.

"And the Glandus ones too. I predict success!" Barcus woofed.

Cat, Amelia, Bo, Jeb, and Rogier all gave their well wishes to Skara and Willow too, hugging the girls and wishing them luck.

At that moment, Gus's scroll appeared and he smiled upon seeing a Penstagram post from Matt; "Matt says good luck too, and apologises for not being here to see us off sooner. He also says that Steve almost burned the house down with a sneeze, so it looks like they're both still pretty sick with the Fire Flu."

Luz shuddered; "I'm glad I didn't catch that back during that Titan Trapper mess."

"Can't you sneeze fire anyway if you want?" Boscha asked with a raised eyebrow.

Luz responded by sticking out her tongue and making the fire glyph appear on it, allowing her to shoot a short stream of fire into the air. Professor Lavestra looked ready to scold her, but then Luz applied some other elements to change the colours of the flames, and soon the words "GO HEXSIDE!" were glowing above Luz's head in a mix of red, blue, green, gold, and silver flames.

Professor Lavestra had to at least applaud the showmanship. "Alright, we need to get going. It's a short flight to Manubrium but I don't want to be late! Everyone onto the School Bus."

Willow and her team nodded and obediently boarded the bus, which Luz discovered was actually more like a Dragon Boat. It was an enchanted Viking-style Long Boat with six draconic legs holding it up, a head and tail carved onto the ends, and a pair of draconic wings for flying. Luz had no idea why such a thing was called a bus, but she wasn't going to question it and instead just waved and cheered as the team boarded and Professor Lavestra took a hold of the boat's reigns, before steering the boat into the sky like it was a horse.

Just as the Professor said, the flight to Manubrium was a short one and they soon found themselves landing in the capital city and disembarking outside the city's Covention centre, which was a lot bigger and grander than the one in Bonesborough. Several other school buses had landed around the area too; far more than the Hexoleos had expected.

"Wait, how many schools are taking part on this? I thought it was just Hexside, Glandus, and St. Epiderm." Gus commented.

Professor Lavestra shook her head; "No, all schools are invited, including the smaller speciality schools. Not everyone can afford St. Epiderm, nor do they want to send their children to a school as combative as Glandus. However Hexside has a limit on how many students it can accept each semester so we don't end up overcrowded, and we give priority to Bonesborough residents. As such, other schools have cropped up around the Isles."

She pointed to one school where the students wore purple, desert-style uniforms with coloured armbands to denote their track; "Those students are from Pamilen, an Oracle Specialist School in Palm Stings." she then pointed to another set of students, who wore dark green uniforms trimmed in coloured fur based on their tracks; "And they are from the Phalagia College of Herbalists, and they specialise in Plant and Potions magic."

Willow remembered visiting the place once when her Papa took her on a day trip to Phalagia, over in the Swampy Toes; it had been a nice, but kind of run-down place. The Hexoleos looked around at all of the different schools with interest, wondering if they'd be challenging rivals. However Professor Lavestra didn't seem too interested in them. The three-eyed witch said; "Those schools are small and not very well funded. It's sad to say, but the students there will either end up running small family businesses, or becoming the rank and file of the various Covens. Most would be lucky to even join one of the Main 10, and will likely settle for the smaller secondary covens."

Emira hummed casually; "So they're not gonna be a challenge?"

"Probably not, especially if in any event outside their speciality. Pamilen will likely only do well in the Oracle Event, whilst big schools like St. Epiderm will stand out in all events, even though St. Epiderm specialises in Healing Magic." Lavestra explained.

"Bah, we'll show those snooty brats what real Healing Magic is, right Emi?" Viney asked, putting an arm around Emira's waist. The Blight Girl blushed and smiled flirtatiously in return.

"You know it, Kitten. Do you think we'll run into your cousin?"

"Nah, she's not a stuck up noble and there's no way St. Epiderm would send anyone else!"

While Emira and Viney were shamelessly flirting, Professor Lavestra went to get the students signed in for the event and collect their visitors badges, leaving Willow, Gus, and Skara to look around the outside of the Covention Centre and look at the other teams. The trio didn't know if they should feel disappointed or relieved at the lack of challenge, on top of feeling sorry for the smaller schools. Most of the students looked happy and optimistic, likely just glad to be taking part and having fun while visiting the capital, but Skara could tell that none of them looked to be fired up and aiming to win.

"If Boscha were here, she'd be mad. Most of the other students have already decided they're going to lose." Skara sighed.

Gus shrugged; "Well at least they seem happy rather than bitter. If they're not worried about winning, they'll probably enjoy the show a lot more."

"That's true." Willow said, pulling out a leaflet on the event that Principal Bump had given her. "It says that HECK stands for "Helping Enhance Coven Know-How" and is supposed to be a way for students to show off what they've learned in the various Coven Tracks, while also showing off for recruiters. But according to this, it was originally the IFWOT which stood for "Instructing Future Witches of Tomorrow." It used to be more like a training seminar of some kind… but it still had events and Blue Ribbons."

Skara snorted at the name; "IFWOT? That sounds even dumber than HECK! At least HECK is good for dumb puns like "We're in HECK!" or "Having a HECK of a time!" y'know?"

"Oh please don't make puns! I got stuck watching Luz, King, and Edric make dumb puns all day Saturday when they came to Dad's workshop for portal junk." Emira groaned, walking over to join the others.

"The new name is definitely cooler sounding, though I'm less eager about what it actually stands for. Why'd the name change?" Viney asked, before leaning forward and whispering; "Is it something Belos did to make his Coven System sound cooler?"

Willow giggled; "That sounds like something Eda would say."

She then turned back to the leaflet for an actual answer to Viney's question. As she was reading, Professor Lavestra returned and handed each of them a little blue disk to put on their uniforms, which signified them as competitors in the events and listed their names. She then led them into the Covention itself, where Willow was briefly distracted from her reading to gasp at the place with her teammates.

Unlike the Bonesborough Covention Centre, the Manubrium one was much larger and circular instead of rectangular, making it look like a giant domed colosseum. The inside had been divided into twelve wedges and a large circular area in the dead centre of the open space. One of the wedges was the entrance, while the one directly opposite it was a rest area with food and refreshments. The remaining ten wedges were each dedicated to a specific Coven Event, with Abominations, Beast-Keeping, Bardic, Construction, and Healing to their right, and Plants, Potions, Oracle, Illusions, and the Emperor's Coven to their left. The centre area was largely just an open plaza, though a stage had been set up there for announcements and the opening ceremony. The teachers were all herding their students into this central plaza, while Coven Scouts were all over the place. The actual events seemed to be managed mostly by representatives from the Covens themselves, but a few (like the Plant Coven and Healing Coven) were staffed almost solely by scouts, with only a few members of the respective Covens being present. From what little the Hexside Team could see of the events being prepared, it looked like it was be wild! Heck, there was a whole mini-wilderness constructed in for the Beast Keeping Event!

"Whoa… I can't wait to see what's gonna happen! This is gonna be awesome!" Gus said excitedly.

"It looks like we're on time too. The hosts are about to take the stage." Lavestra commented, seeing some people in white cloaks climbing onto the stage, which was decorated with a massive banner proclaiming "HECK!"

Willow ignored this for a moment and went back to her reading until the opening ceremony actually started, though she soon paled and pulled her teammates closer to her with some vines. "Guys, we might have a major problem!"

"What is it?" Gus asked.

"According to this, the reason the name was changed to HECK is because of Terra Snapdragon… who has hosted the event almost every year since!" Willow explained frantically.

Her teammates all paled; if Terra was hosting the event, she'd definitely see Willow! The CATTs had no idea why she'd not spoken up to ensure Willow's bounty wasn't rescinded, but a popular theory was that Terra wanted to get revenge personally! If that was true and she was here, Willow was in grave danger!

"We need to get Willow out of here! This isn't some important mission; it's a game! We can't risk her!" Skara said urgently, looking ready to grab the confused Professor Lavestra and explain the situation.

Before she could however, a silencing spell was cast over all the students, ensuring they stayed quiet as the Opening Ceremony officially began. The Hexside Team turned to look at the stage and saw two people in white cloaks and hoods, which were surprisingly short for Coven Scouts. The two looked up and revealed their identical gold and silver helmets, making the young CATTs gasp silently, with Willow mouthing "You've got to be kidding me!"

The Golden Guard summoned his staff (disguised as always) in a flash of lightning, while the Silver Sentinel's staff rose out of the shadows beside her. The two then threw off their cloaks and their helmets vanished in a flash of gold and silver light, revealing Hunter and Lucy in their true forms, including the latter's silver wings. The two then crossed staves and held them high, conjuring a golden crystal ball. Hunter then conjured a golden illusion of the Emperor himself, while Lucy released Shade from his stone and ordered him into the ball, which glowed a brilliant purple. All shadows touched by the purple light were suddenly sucked into a black orb in Lucy's hand, before the orb combined with the golden illusion of Belos, which Hunter and Lucy reshaped together with the shadows into a black and gold illusion of the Titan (though noticeably skinnier and scarier than how Luz had described him to her friends). The Titan illusion then let the golden crystal ball float between its hands, before lifting it high above its head as Hunter and Lucy caused the ball to let out light in the nine hues of the nine primary types of Magic. The illusion was then sucked into the crystal ball, which shattered into gold and silver glitter, marking an end to the brief show.

The silencing spell was dropped, allowing the students to erupt in noisy cheers while Hunter and Lucy took a bow. Gus cheered and applauded with all he had, and even cast an illusion of a rose that was tossed at the pair's feet. Lucy saw this and made eye contact with him, smiling brilliantly as she resisted the urge to wave at him. Gus was briefly struck by that smile; he'd seen Luz wear a similar smile many times, but it had never looked so… innocently adorable? Maybe it was just because Lucy was younger.

The rest of the team had clapped too, with varying levels of enthusiasm, and after seeing the rose, Hunter looked at them too. He made eye contact with Willow, remembering their brief joint adventure up on the Knee a week ago, but she responded by glowering at him, and he frowned himself, though there didn't seem to be much beyond mild resignation in either of their eyes. For Hunter, this was replaced by enthusiasm as he turned his attention back to the crowd itself.

"Welcome, Students and Teachers of the Boiling Isles! I am the Golden Guard, and my partner here is the Silver Sentinel! We will be your co-Head Proctors this afternoon! We hope you all enjoyed our little opening show! We felt it served as a good way to get your attention and show the kinds of skills that await you at the pinnacle of the Coven System; The Emperor's Coven!"

The Coven Scouts around the Covention centre raised their fists and gave a short cheer, before Hunter continued his speech; "This is our first year hosting the HECK, but with Head Witch Snapdragon still suffering poor health, the Emperor himself decided that we'd be the best people to help host this event! Now for those who didn't read the program, here is what we've got planned for the day; we have ten different events based around the Ten Primary Covens, and each school will be allowed to select up to two students to take part in each one. The student that wins the event will be rewarded with a Blue Ribbon for them and their school! However don't fret; each Coven has also set up smaller events and distractions to both entertain and give you a better idea of the magic used in that coven. You never know, you may learn some new magic and change which coven you're aiming for!"

There was some murmurs and excited whisperings, especially from the smaller schools. This was likely going to be their best way to study high quality magic outside of their schools' specialities! The Hexside Team were curious too, wondering what mini-activities had been planned for their own specialities. It could even be a good chance for them to pick up a few small spells from the other types, which especially excited Viney and Emira.

Hunter then spoke again to finish his speech; "Everybody do your best today, for the school team that wins the most Blue Ribbons will receive a grand prize that'll make you the envy of the entire Isles! With that, I officially declare HECK… OPEN!"

He raised his staff and then slammed the bottom down against the floor, creating an explosion of lightning which burst into golden confetti-like particles. Hunter was met with more cheers from his audience, while the Hexside Team politely applauded. The boy smirked slightly as he made eye contact with Willow again, and she rolled her eyes in response, but smirked as well when she turned away to head to the first event. Now that she knew Terra wasn't going to pop up and cause problems, Willow and her team felt a lot more relaxed.

Professor Lavestra herded the team over to the rest area to give them the plan; "Right, the scheduled times for each Coven Event are listed in the program. Does anyone other than Willow have theirs?"

The rest of the team pulled theirs out, making the teacher smile; "Excellent! Now I'll allow you all to split up and explore the event to your hearts' content, but we should decide who will take part in which events first. Remember, two people can join each one."

"Emi and I will naturally handle Healing." Viney said, "I'll also take Beast-Keeping."

"I'll try out Beast-Keeping too." Skara decided, "Then you and I can also dominate the Bard Event!"

"Gus and I can do Illusions." Emira smiled, "I could also do Oracle. I'm no expert, but I did inherit a little bit of ability from Odalia."

Gus nodded; "I can try Oracle too. My Dad's an Oracle, so I know a few tricks. What about you, Willow? Besides Plants of course."

Willow thought about it for a moment, then said; "I can probably do Plants, Potions, and the Emperor's Coven event. But that leaves Construction without anyone in it, and I need a partner for Potions and the Emperor's Coven. Plants too, though I'm not worried about that one."

"I'll team up with you for Potions." Emira decided; "Edric's pretty into them, so I know a thing or two."

"I can handle Construction. I don't think I'll win, but I have spent enough time with Matt to have an idea of how it works." Gus offered.

"Then I'll team with Gus for Construction too. I'm far from an expert, but I did sit in on a few classes back when I was using the Room of Shortcuts in the Detention Track." Viney said. "I can also team up with you for Plants, Willow. Doubt I'll be much help, but I also doubt you'd need it."

"Which leaves everyone doing at least three events except me, so I'll pick up the slack and team up with you for the Emperor's Coven event, Willow!" Skara grinned; "My Dad is a Coven Head! If anyone's got a chance there, it's me! Besides, Bard and Plant Magic are two that are great at imitating other types!"

"That sounds good to me. But what about Abominations?" Gus asked, looking to Willow.

Willow immediately excused herself from that one; "Sorry, but even if I was in that class for a long time, I was terrible at it! I'm the worst option."

"Emira, do you think you can give it a try? You're Dad's an abomination genius after all." Viney pointed out.

Emira grimaced; "I'll try, but don't expect too much from me. Amity got all the Abomination talent among us siblings."

"If you're doing Abominations, then let me do Potions. I learned a lot from Boscha after all, and I have the Sonic Alchemy trick." Skara volunteered. Emira didn't argue; that left her with four events instead of five, which suited her greatly.

That still left them with one person still needed for the Abomination event, but none of the team were eager. Abominations was a tough form of magic to use without proper instruction, and the only one who had any was Willow, who'd been awful at it. She was only one step ahead of Luz, who couldn't use it at all! The other three members of the team were probably equally skilled in it; Viney knew a little thanks to Jerbo, Gus could mimic Luz's Abominable Snowmen with his ice and water magic, and Skara's mother was in the Abominations Coven, and had tried to push her into that track when she was still in her life. Ultimately, Gus bit the bullet and volunteered.

"It may not be perfect, but the Abominable Snowmen spell should be enough to at least keep us from losing horribly." he said.

With that decided, everyone was in agreement and split up to begin heading to whichever of their events came first, while Professor Lavestra decided to simply go to whichever event was currently being held so she could cheer for her school team.

The first event was the Healing Coven Event, so it was Viney and Emira who walked with their teacher to the proper section of the Covention Centre. The Healing Coven had decked out their entire area to look like a hospital ward, with an operating theatre in the back and several booths designed to look like small clinics towards the entrance to the area. The booths held the smaller activities, which looked to be gamified biology lessons. One was a quiz where an Illusionist would make themselves look like they had some kind of horrible illness or injury, and the students had to correctly identify the problem based on the symptoms. A similar game beside it instead had the observing Healer inform the students of the condition the illusionist was faking, and asked them to suggest a treatment, with correct guesses dispelling the illusion, and incorrect guesses making the illusionist show what that treatment would actually do to them, often with gross or silly results. Other games, like hitting the correct body part of a mannequin with a spell were also being held, along with practical applications where Healers would teach minor healing spells to any willing student and let them practice on special mannequins known as Medical Flesh Golems; dolls made from cultivated tissue that basically functioned like a less morbid cadaver.

When Viney and Emira arrived at the event itself, they found themselves listening to the shameless bragging of two uptight St. Epiderm students.

"Naturally we'll be taking this ribbon with ease!" one of them boasted; he appeared to be an Elephant Biped Demon.

"Of course! St. Epiderm specialises in Healing Magic and we're the best in the school at it! As if we'd ever lose! The rest of you peasants might as well go home!" added his partner; a regular witch who'd caked her face in make up that included an unsettling amount of gold glitter. It wouldn't have surprised Viney if the glitter was from real gold!

"Dang rich people…" she muttered, feeling her mood souring… at least until Emira reached up and began gently scratching the back of Viney's head, right beneath her ponytail. That had the grumpy girl melting and purring in seconds.

The proctor for the Healing Event, a Rabbit Biped Demon dressed in the garb of a Combat Healer, approached the participating students and smiled. "Good afternoon, I am Healer Lapin and I'll be managing this event. The rules are simple; Medical Flesh Golems with varying injuries will appear on the beds around the ward and you are to treat them as quickly and effectively as you can. When a golem registers that it is in perfect condition, it will vanish. If a patient is incurable, you must tag them with these stamps."

He made a spell circle and summoned a small stamp in front of each participant. Viney looked at it and saw it was a black hand stamp. "Stamped Golems will vanish, but only correctly stamped ones will be added to your score. Medicine cabinets around the room contain cures that can be used if Healing Magic alone is not enough, and the Operating Theatre is open if you need to perform surgery on the patient. Whoever successfully cures the most patients in the space of ten minutes wins. Are you ready?"

Viney and Emira looked fired up, as did the cocky St. Epiderm duo and the grumpy looking Glandus kids. The other participants looked mostly eager to get going, though a few seemed down in the dumps.

"Begin!"

The next ten minutes flew by faster than Viney and Emira could ever have expected. They both ran to the closest patients and got to work, and it soon became clear that Viney was in her element! Using Healing Magic on herself to reinforce the muscles in her legs and let her move faster, she began racing back and forth between beds, fixing the dolls as quickly as she could. With her sharp eyes (made sharper with a little Beast-Keeping Magic), she diagnosed the common problems even before she reached the beds with those dolls, and fixed them up in a flash with simple healing spells; a quick numbing spell for the pain, then a spell to mend flesh or set a bone before knitting it back together. When she got dolls with sicknesses, she puzzled through what all the symptoms meant, then hurried to grab the correct medicine from the cabinets, though not before casting a few spells to help relieve the patient's symptoms. It wasn't enough to just cure them; she treated each doll like a real person who was suffering. She was slow to use her Black Stamp too, but a few dolls were simply too far gone for anything she did, forcing her to make them vanish. Then there were the ones who needed surgery; taking a doll from the frantic ward into the operating theatre was like moving into a different world in which all sound was muted. Only the St. Epiderm kids were using it, since the other students didn't have the confidence, and they were being completely silent and focused.

Viney may not like them, but she could appreciate their skills.

Emira was taking a much more slapdash approach, using her stamp readily. She picked a hospital bed near a medicine cabinet and stayed there, fixing whatever problems she could. If she couldn't do enough for the doll, she'd stamp it to make it vanish and make a new one appear. It didn't earn her any points of course, but it meant she didn't have to run around and it kept her from wasting time on patients she wasn't skilled enough to help. She'd only been formally studying Healing Magic for a few weeks after all!

The ten minutes expired and all the dolls disappeared as the observing Healers applauded and called the participants back over to Healer Lapin.

"Very well done, everyone!" Healer Lapin smiled happily; "You all did incredible! Every student managed to fix up at least five patients, which is wonderful! And most of you weren't too liberal with your stamps!"

He gave a little wink at Emira as he said that, making her chuckle nervously and causing Viney to giggle at her and lean over to kiss her cheek.

"Now, we're on a tight schedule today so let's get to the award ceremony! Our winner, with 74 patients healed, which is more than 7 patients per minute, is none over than… Hexside's Viney Leonis!"

Viney immediately let out a proud victory cry, before Emira grabbed her shoulders, whipped her around and kissed her fully on the lips. Professor Lavestra cheered happily, and the other students either applauded or glared angrily (no prizes for guessing which ones!)

Healer Lapin then walked over and handed Viney a Blue Ribbon with the Sigil of the Healing Coven in the centre, along with his congratulations and a personal message.

"I've worked with your mother, Meesha Leonis, back when I studied at the hospital in Bonesborough. She was a speed demon when it came to healing too! You're also the only student who didn't lose any points for harming your patient! Your mother will be very proud." he said.

Viney beamed at that and thanked the man for his kindness. However she didn't have time to rest on her laurels; she was taking part in the Beast-Keeping, Bard, and Plant Events too, and they were all back to back! That meant doing four events with barely fifteen minutes break between each! At least her specialities were the first two, so she'd be fresh and ready!

Emira, as an older student, was also handling four of the ten events, but her next event wasn't until the Illusion Event with Gus, so she decided to follow her girlfriend to watch her in the Beast-Keeping Event. The Beast-Keeping portion of the Covention Centre had been transformed into a miniature wilderness, which mostly consisted of a forest and an artificial mountainous area full of crags and short peaks. The only open space was the entrance area where the other activities had been set up, and even they had been turned into an almost-farm like area. The left side activity stalls were basically a glorified petting zoo, where students could get a good look at some different creatures and play with them a little (it was one of the more popular activities from what Viney could see). The right side was for more hands on activities, with Beast-Keepers keeping several docile animals in pens and teaching willing students a few spells to control the beasts and make them do some simple tricks or tasks. The beasts themselves didn't seem too bothered by it all, and looked to be having their own fun by messing with a few of the less confident students, to the exasperation of their keepers. It was at one of these pens that Viney and Emira found Skara, who was leading a pair of Tarantula Monkeys through a ballroom dance using Bardic Magic to sooth the ornery primates and compel them to dance together.

"Having fun?" Viney asked with a smirk.

"Naturally!" Skara grinned. She then noticed the Blue Ribbon on Viney's uniform and grinned wider; "Great! One ribbon down! Ready to get a second one?"

"You know it! Say goodbye to your new friends and we'll get going." the older girl said as Emira giggled at the dancing monkeys.

Skara obeyed and petted them, before joining Viney and Emira. The duo then left Emira to watch the event as they went to join the participants gathering at the edge of the faux-wilderness. Several large pens had been set up along the edge, but they were noticeably empty, while a gruff looking man from the Beast-Keeping Coven, whom was covered in scars, was stood with his arms crossed beside them, idly watching the participants assembling in front of him. Aside from perhaps a smaller school Viney hadn't heard of before, there wasn't actually a school that specialised in Beast-Keeping magic like St. Epiderm did with Healing or Hexside did with Abominations, but that didn't stop the Glandus students from looking confident. They didn't boast like the St. Epiderm students had, but they smirked condescendingly at everyone around them, their impressive brawn intimidating many of the younger students. Viney wasn't impressed though; her Mom was buffer than both and routinely showed her love by playfully rough-housing with her daughter, so these kids were nothing for her to be intimidated by.

Once everyone was gathered, the grumpy looking proctor uncrossed his arms and introduced himself; "Alright New Blood, I'm Keeper Roar. No, it's not my real name and no, I'm not going to tell you my real name. Now listen up; I'm going to give each of you a short list of five different creatures and you're going to go into the simulated wilderness behind me and find them, then bring them back. First one back gets more points. Don't rush in and act dumb though; these beasts have been trained by me personally so they won't kill or maim you, but that doesn't make them domesticated. Get hurt by them and you lose points. Hurt them and you lose a lot of points. Get them into their pens with both of you happy and whole, and you'll get the max points. But if you manage to, Titan-forbid, kill one of these beasts… consider yourself disqualified. And soon to be hospitalised."

Everyone gulped as the fierce man glared at them, then cast a spell that sent little origami birds from his pocket to each participant, with these birds unfolding into their lists of required beasts. Who got which list was random, but each was written to be as balanced as possible; three relatively easy beasts and two tougher ones. Viney read the list and was completely unconcerned; she was familiar with them thanks to classes and working with her Mom, so this would be a piece of cake! Skara was less confident, but she was sure she could tame the beasts… if she could correctly identify them.

"Alright, you've got 20 minutes! Now get going!" Keeper Roar, well, roared as he sent them all into the wilderness.

Viney immediately used some Beast-Keeping Magic to quiet her footsteps and cover her scent as she darted into the trees, letting her Cait Sith tail uncurl from inside her uniform. It helped keep her balanced as she ran with her torso close to the ground so she could look for tracks. She decided to go for the tougher beasts first; one was a breed of Lesser Dragon known Frilled Ember Drake, which was a very distant cousin to the Supreme Grade Fire Drake. This beast looked more like a traditional drake, being a four-legged wingless dragon, only with a prominent neck frill which functioned like extendable solar panels to gather sunlight and turn it into heat for its signature ember attacks. Such a beast wouldn't linger in a wooded area, so Viney quickly made her way to the craggy part of the wilderness and cast a spell on herself, giving her the heat vision powers of many common Demon Reptiles. This let her see the patches of stone that had heated up from the beast's foot steps, allowing her to swiftly follow its trail and find it snacking on some meat hidden away for it in a crevice between two rocks. The Ember Drake saw her and began charging a fireball, but with leopard-like speed, Viney darted at it and immediately leapt onto its back, using her tail to keep its snout shut while using one arm to hold its neck and the other to gently pet the dark red hair that lined its spine. That calmed the Ember Drake, allowing Viney to release its neck, then begin gently scratching the red scales of its back and the tan yellow scales of its underbelly and throat. Within minutes, the Ember Drake was wagging its tail like a puppy, and Viney was able to use some conjured bandages to make some makeshift reins and ride the Drake back to its pen.

The next difficult beast was only a little tougher; it was a Suiko, which was a more vicious and wild cousin to the Kappas. They had humanoid bodies similar in size and stature to a teenage witch, and were covered in tough scales. They were also foul-tempered beasts with sharp claws on their webbed hands and feet, and even finger-like claws on their knees, as well as tiger-like faces with equally tiger-like teeth. They preferred aquatic areas, where they'd catch unaware swimmers to devour them, so Viney began scouring the forest for a stream or pond. She found one fairly quickly by enhancing her hearing to listen for the sound of water, and arrived in time to find the Suiko scaring off a student from an unknown school. There were two of them and they both looked in a foul mood, with one having a cut on its face, likely from the student it just chased off. Viney dealt with it by summoning her Mandolin and clumsily playing a soothing song to keep the two Suiko relaxed while she approached and healed the injured one's wound. Once she'd done that, it was just a matter of gently taking the healed Suiko's hand and walking it back to its pen without angering it again.

It was an insanely easy event after that; Viney's last three targets were a Marrdreg, a Tarantula Monkey, and Giant Punk Ant, all of which Viney was able to track down and tame without much difficulty. The Marrdreg followed her obediently after she'd managed to touch its underbelly, the Tarantula Monkey happy sat on her shoulder after she'd found a fruit it liked, and the Giant Punk Ant followed after the little bundle of herbs that Viney found and tied to her tail like a lure. However as easy as it was, Viney was still surprised to find that she wasn't the first person to complete her list. One of the Glandus kids had beaten her to it, making her worry she'd lost the ribbon… at least until she saw the condition of some of the beasts the Glandus kid had brought back. It looked like he'd beaten them up and dragged them back the hard way, and any trace of cockiness or smugness over getting back first had been wiped away by Keeper Roar giving him the mother of all dressing downs.

Viney volunteered to help heal any wounds the beasts had sustained, and Keeper Roar happily accepted. This gave Viney something to do in the last five minutes before the 20 minute timer ran out. In that time, the other Glandus student and one of the St. Epiderm students completed their lists too, but no one else was able to do it in time, including Skara. The Bard girl had made a good effort though, and returned with two of her easier catches (a species of Petty Dragon known as a Winged Gecko, and a Two-Tailed Fox) as well as just barely wrangling in one of her harder catches before the finishing bell (a giant Centipede Demon known as a Skitter Hook).

Keeper Roar carefully examined every animal, then whistled sharply, summoning those that had escaped their hunters back to the pens, where he examined them too. Once he was done, he summoned the Blue Ribbon and unceremoniously handed it to Viney.

"Viney Leonis of Hexside wins. She came back second, but she and all her beasts were in perfect condition, so she gets the most points." Keeper Roar announced.

"B-But she's a Healer! She could have-" the Glandus Student who'd finished first tried to protest, but Roar glared him into silence.

He then turned to his beasts and yelled; "Sound off if you landed a blow on this girl!" he was met by silence from the beasts, before yelling again; "Now sound off if this girl hit you!" again, there was silence.

Roar turned back to the participants; "Any more arguments, Whelps?"

For a third time, he was met by silence. With a grunt he waved his hand at them; "Then get going. I've got to get these guys back to their homes."

With that sudden dismissal, the students wandered off. Viney and Skara headed back to where Emira and Lavestra were waiting for them, the latter congratulating the former.

"Good job, Viney! That's two ribbons just for you! If we keep this up, we'll sweep the competition!" Skara grinned.

"You didn't do badly yourself! Catching a Skitter Hook is not easy! You definitely lucked out on the Winged Gecko though; they're considered Petty Dragons for a reason!" Viney laughed, right before Emira captured her in a big kiss.

"Well done, Kitten! You were incredible out there! I think some of those beasties wanted to go home with you!" Emira beamed.

"I wish! A pet Ember Drake would be awesome! Too bad they don't do well with water so I couldn't bring it on Mom's boat. Anyway, Skara and I need to go to the Bard Event next!" Viney said.

Professor Lavestra looked at her Watch Demon; "You've got fifteen minutes before that event starts, so why don't you take a break."

"Great idea! I'm taking you to get a drink and a snack!" Emira declared, before dragging the other girl off, her tail still swishing back and forth happily. This left Skara alone with Professor Lavestra.

"Feeling confident for the next event, Skara?" the teacher asked as they began walking.

Skara stuck her nose in her air and laughed haughtily; "Of course! I'm the daughter of the Coven Head! I couldn't show my face back home if I lost here! Especially to St. Epiderm and Glandus! Raine and Matt told me those schools really look down on Bards, so I'm gonna blow them out of the water!"

Professor Lavestra certainly appreciated the girl's confidence, though she could tell Skara was more nervous than she was letting on. After all, losing here really would be embarrassing for the girl. Putting the very idea of that happening out of her mind, Lavestra walked with Skara to the Bard portion of the Covention Centre. It was decorated a lot more reasonably compared to the other areas they'd seen so far, but it was also a lot fancier; having been designed based on a Concert Hall. The entire area had been made to look like a miniature orchestra and concert stage, with expensive dark wood panelling and gold filigree that formed patterns resembling sheet music. Even the stalls with the activities looked fancy, having been designed to look like the private boxes used by rich people in theatres. The demonstration stalls were full of different instruments that the students could try out, while the activity stalls had Bards willing to teach students how to play a bit of those instruments, as well as how to turn regular music into Bardic Magic. It irked Skara a bit to see that there weren't as many students in these mini lessons as there had been at the last event.

The pale haired girl put that out of her mind too, and focused instead on the task at hand. She walked down to the orchestra pit of the stage, where the participants were due to gather. A Bard she didn't recognise (likely to avoid bias towards her) was standing quietly at the conductor's podium, while a table with four empty seats had been set up beside him. There was nothing on the stage itself besides a microphone and some speakers, making Skara wonder just what she'd have to do. She looked at her fellow competitors and frowned; none looked fired up or gunning to win… a victory here would feel less impactful without real competition!

Sadly, by the time all the participants arrived (including Viney, who had a few new lip marks on her cheeks and neck, to her embarrassment), it didn't look like that competition had shown up. Not a single student was wearing uniforms with the red of the bard track… The previous events had people from outside that event's coven and track, but they still had at least a few people from that track too! But the Bard Coven Event had Skara and Viney alone.

Skara clenched her fists; fine, if the other schools weren't willing to send a single Bard to HECK, she'd blow them all out of the water and show them what a real Bard could do!

Once all the participants had gathered, the Proctor stepped forward and introduced himself; "I am Conductor Tenor and I will be overseeing this event, as well as one of the five judges. Allow me to introduce the others."

Four people emerged from behind an illusion, suddenly filling the seats beside Tenor. Viney recognised all of them; Healer Lapin, Keeper Roar, and the Golden Guard and Silver Sentinel. Since the former two had finished proctoring their own events, and the latter two were the co-hosts, they must have been asked to judge this contest alongside Conductor Tenor. Lucy smiled politely at Skara, while Hunter eyed her slightly suspiciously but otherwise kept his expression neutral.

"This event will be simple. You will each step onto the stage and perform a single Bardic song lasting no longer than one minute. You will then be given a point score out of 20 by each of the five judges, for a maximum of 100 points. Your score will be determined by both your skill in music and the effects of the spell you cast. Instrument choice will have no bearing on your score, so there is no need to play multiple instruments or try to play your most complicated one. Does everyone understand?"

Skara and Viney both nodded, while the other participants murmured their agreement. There was no set order for the performances, so Skara decided she would go last so she knew what her competition would be. There was some hesitation on who would go first, but eventually the Elephant Demon from St. Epiderm stepped forward with a grumbled; "Let's get this over with…"

He took the stage and used his own trunk to trumpet out a passable tune which had the effect of firing concussive blasts at some mannequins that had been set up on stage, blasting them to smithereens. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't good either, and the judges reflected that with scores in the 8-12 range, giving the boy a final score of 54 out of 100. Skara was unimpressed, but the other participants actually looked to be amazed by such a simple song! They'd learn true skill soon enough.

And so Skara sat through about twenty other performances with instruments varying from triangles to pianos to cellos, spells from simple levitation to colour changing to minor elemental manipulation, and skill levels from actually pretty decent to ear-bleeding inducing awful. The highest score gained so far was 74 by a student from one of the smaller schools who'd clearly been put in piano lessons of some kind as a child.

When it was Viney's turn, she summoned her Mandolin and began playing a pretty good variant of the song Skara had once used to move people to her will while escaping the Greater Basilisk all those months ago. It was called a Dancing Ditty and had all the mannequins begin doing a merry jig with each other; the sort that one would expect from the deck of a ship in some pirate movie. It seemed to impress the judges too, though to Skara's trained ear, there were a few wrong notes and some slightly off timing. Still, for a student who'd only been playing for a few months, Viney was pretty good! She earned a score of 70, putting her in second place.

"Well, it looks like I'll be the bronze medal of this event." Viney said to Skara as she got off the stage; "Now go and dazzle them!"

Skara smirked, "Naturally! Sit back and enjoy the show."

The girl marched onto the stage and gave the judges and her audience a short bow, then immediately set herself apart by summoning Melody, her Cricket Palisman, instead of an instrument. With a single spell, Melody was transformed into a silver and red cricket themed harp, which Skara then began to play. The song she played was hauntingly beautiful, but it wasn't just the quality of her playing that amazed the judges, but the spell woven into it.

Skara was playing the Melody of Mesmerising, a song that basically functioned like a wide area illusion spell. The instant Skara started playing, magic spread from her harp to the air around her, forming a sphere of gold and red that expanded to coat the entire stage and the audience watching her too. The sphere created an illusion within it, replacing the stage with a resplendent ballroom of white marble and gold filigree. The audience then watched as Skara seemed to rise onto a podium, her uniform replaced by a beautiful red dress, as hundreds of illusory people appeared and began to ballroom dance to her tune. Each person was wearing a different suit or dress, and all had different masquerade masks on too, much to the amazement of the audience. Creating so many different details with a single spell was incredibly difficult and required incredible control and visualisation (though Skara was cheating slightly by instead recreating a memory from a real ball she'd been to years ago). Then at the halfway mark of her performance, Skara suddenly seemed to rise into the air, her dress turning white and her pale hair turning even paler as six angelic wings spread from her back. The dancers all had their clothes and hair turn white too, and each person grew a pair of angel wings and continued their dance into the sky, their masks turning gold. The judges and audience all gasped in amazement as the angels danced, and Viney grinned as she noticed two particular angels happened to look just like Luz and Amity (though the Luz illusion only had one pair of wings).

When the song ended, Skara floated back down to where she'd originally stood and took a bow, while all her illusory dancers did the same, before the entire illusion shattered into golden light. It was the best performance Skara could give in the space of one minute and with only one magical song, but it had been more than enough. She drank in the looks of admiration from the other students, including the St. Epiderm and Glandus kids who looked either amazed or begrudgingly impressed.

To no one's surprise, Skara won the event and the Blue Ribbon with a score of 98, having received perfect scores from Healer Lapin, Keeper Roar, and oddly enough, Hunter. She'd received 19s out of 20 from Tenor and Lucy though, which didn't surprise her; Tenor was a bard and would have known her performance wasn't totally perfect, while Lucy likely had the same ear for music that Luz did, being an Angel.

Still, it was a proud Skara who stepped out of the Bard Zone wearing Hexside's third Blue Ribbon.

"That was incredible, Skara! You could have won the Illusion Event with that one too!" Viney praised.

"But if I did that then Gus and your "Emi" wouldn't get a chance to shine! We can't all be so amazingly multi-talented." Skara said haughtily, playing up her snooty attitude to make Viney smirk.

"Well excuse me, Princess." Viney said, before both girls giggled.

Professor Lavestra gave her compliments to Skara as well, as well as praising Viney for doing so well. As it turned out, when it came to music, passion was as important as experience! After that, the next event was the Plant Event, so Viney began heading there to meet up with Willow, while Skara decided to take a break and tour the other Coven Zones, since she didn't have another event to take part in until the Emperor's Coven event, which was the last one of the day. Viney had asked if she wanted to come watch the Plant Event, but the girl had scoffed.

"Watching a competition isn't much fun when you know who's going to win." Skara had replied, before wandering off. Viney definitely couldn't argue with that as she and Professor Lavestra headed for the Plant Zone. She was only taking part due to each school needing two participants per event, so she had no expectations of beating the likes of Willow or actual trained Plant Witches, but seeing as she'd already won two ribbons for Hexside, she had no problem playing second fiddle to her teammates for a bit.

They arrived to find the Plant Zone looking exactly as one would expect; a verdant paradise of plants of all kinds. There was a forest section towards the back, similar to the Beast-Keeping Zone, but most of the zone was a pleasant meadow filled with plots of different kinds of flowers, including a few conspicuous flowerbeds that were full of a myriad of different plants; some small and delicate, some large and imposing, and even a few that moved like beasts. A lot were flowers Viney had only heard of, and even more were ones she'd never even known existed! She did notice that many flowers and flowerbeds had green rings of magic around them, likely to keep them docile. The booths and stalls set up for other students to enjoy also followed the usual theme, with one side being for demonstrations and the other for some hands on experiences. The demonstrations were a lot like the ones at the Beast-Keeping Zone, only with the students getting to touch and smell different plants, and in a few cases even taste fruits or vegetables from them. The hands-on displays were full of people teaching students various cultivating and manipulating spells.

However as Viney watched these mini-classes, she noticed something odd… they were all staffed by the Emperor's Coven, not the Plant Coven. After noticing that, Viney looked around and saw that only a small handful of Plant Coven Scouts could be found in the area, tending to the plants but not interacting with anyone, while the Emperor's Coven Scouts handled the students and their teachers. Viney knew about Terra's twisted treatment of her Coven thanks to Willow, but why were there so few of them at today's event? Come to think of it, Terra had been supposed to host too, but had missed it due to sickness according to the Golden Guard.

"Thinking about the coven members?"

Viney blinked and turned around to see Willow beside her, looking just as concerned as she was. "Yeah. It's a little weird, don't you think? I mean it works out for you, but still…" Viney frowned.

"When I noticed too I asked around with some of the other students here, and apparently most of the Plant Coven members stationed at Spriggan Manor have become recluses along with Snapdragon. She only leaves when the Emperor orders her to now." Willow said.

"Wow, did you, Eda, and Raine traumatise her that badly?" Viney asked.

Willow shook her head; "I don't think so… something is fishy about this. I think she's planning something big… Raine said she wasn't the kind of woman to let things go."

"I'll keep a close eye on the Plant Scouts, just in case they try anything funny. You focus on getting the Blue Ribbon, Captain." Viney said.

Willow grinned and the two girls went to join the other participants in the event while keeping an eye on the Plant Scouts. However, unbeknownst to them, someone was keeping an eye on them too.

Hunter had been observing each event from a discreet distance (save for his time judging the Bard Event) and he'd been paying special attention to the Hexside Students, all of whom were known friends of Luz and very likely members of the CATTs too. There was no proof in most cases besides the original report of Willow assisting the Owl Lady in raiding Spriggan Manor, and Emira's involvement in the sabotage at Blight Industries, but the former had been given an alibi and the latter had technically acted out against her mother and not the Empire as a whole… though Hunter had no doubts both were CATTs. In addition to watching them, Hunter also had access to their school records, as every participating student of HECK had their records sent to the event by their schools, so potential recruiters had a better idea of their skill levels, and Hunter had found the Hexside team's records to be… interesting.

They were sporadic and showed some strange things that would have been red flags under normal circumstances, but when each spent so much time with Angels and Wild Witches, their eccentricities seemed obvious.

Keeping his distance from both the students and the creepy Plant Scouts, Hunter watched as the Plant Event began, proctored by one of his own scouts. The scout randomly pointed each student to one of the flowerbeds full of different kinds of plant, then addressed them properly.

"Welcome to the Plant Event, students. We are here today to test your ability to identify, grow, and properly care for the numerous varieties of flora native to the Boiling Isles and the rest of the Demon Realm beyond it. Your task is simple; look at your flowerbeds."

The students obeyed, and then after ten seconds, the scout snapped his fingers and all the plants inside them disappeared in a puff of cyan smoke, revealed to be an illusion. All that was left was a plot of plain soil.

"I hope you remembered which plants you saw, because your task will be to grow them. You have 20 minutes to use Plant Magic to replicate the flowerbeds you were assigned to. Improvements can be made for bonus points, so long as your plot contains all the flowers you originally saw inside them. If you require seeds, you can find them in the forest or other gardens, though damaging other plants will see your score diminished. With that said, your time starts… now!"

Hunter watched with a small grin as the students all began running about, trying to find seeds for the plants they remembered. He felt sorry for them; he appreciated plants and had a love for trees and their thick, powerful forms, but he could never be a Plant Witch. Flowers tended to all look alike to him, and he wasn't so good at telling them apart by smell either. Then again, he wasn't even that good with trees! The only one he always recognised was Palistrom, which gave off a homey smell to him. He suspected it was due to association with his uncle and the Palismen he ate, but Belos smelled more like rot beneath a thick coating of incense.

"I wonder if my parents worked with Palistrom wood." Hunter thought, reaching into his pocket and lightly stroking Flapjack's head. "It would be Wild Magic… but I kind of like the idea. Carving living beasts from wood sounds incredible! I wonder if I'll be able to try it for myself one day… maybe once we're all Angels and Wild Magic is gone! Then there'd be no danger."

Flapjack tweeted quietly; "You should try it sooner rather than later, Hunter. It's your life, not your Uncle's. Live it how you please."

Hunter grimaced; Flap was a good friend, but his rascally streak extended to trying to convince Hunter to rebel against Belos in small ways, which was kind of counterproductive to his current goal of making the man proud!

Ignoring his friend, Hunter watched the Plant Event more closely, and was surprised to see one student who wasn't rushing about. Willow Park of Hexside, whom Hunter had met face to face just a week ago, was walking almost casually back out of the forest, carrying with her a few seeds. There was nowhere near enough to replicate her given flowerbed… was she planning to grow them in batches? Despite himself, Hunter found himself watching Willow almost exclusively as she carefully planted her gathered seeds, then used her plant magic to grow them as if she was coaxing some kind of small animal out of the ground. Her olive green eyes shone as her fingers weaved spell circles that helped the plants along. Her peach lips were pulled up into a gentle smile as she occasionally paused, checking how each plant was growing before continuing the process, occasionally withering them back to a smaller size before starting again. She looked utterly enthralled and loving as she worked with her plants, acting almost as if they were her own children. She wasn't just popping them out of the ground like many others were, but was instead growing them stage by stage and ensuring they were in perfect health. She freely touched and caressed even the dangerous plants, using some green magic to keep them calm and docile as she worked.

Hunter had never seen anything like it, but the twenty minutes seemed to fly by as he watched Willow work, totalling fixated on her. He would never admit it, but he squeaked a little at one point, when Willow pulled up her sleeves to show her thick and muscular arms. Shaking that thought off, he then noticed that Willow had grown a lot more flowers than the seeds she'd gathered earlier… had she conjured seeds with raw magic? If so, that was an impressive feat that showed a great deal of skill in Plant Magic, and a remarkable amount of refinement in her general magic use.

Before Hunter knew it, the Scout proctoring the event announced the end of the twenty minutes, snapping the boy's attention away from Willow and her little garden. He looked around at the others and found that while many were impressive, none looked as good or as complete as Willow's. Even Willow's own teammate, Viney Leonis, had barely managed anything approaching Willow's skill. Viney had managed to find and grow a lot of the easier plants in her flowerbed, and she was clearly in the top half of the group (beating out all other non-plant track students), but she wasn't in the top quarter. Hunter watched the proctor judge the flowerbeds, then just as he'd expected, the man handed Willow a Blue Ribbon.

"The winner of the Plant Event is Hexside's Willow Park! Congratulations!"

Willow smiled gratefully, but Hunter could see she wasn't surprised or relieved; she'd expected to win. That showed confidence, without any of the smugness that came with arrogance. He watched as Willow received the congratulations from her teammate and her teacher, before the trio left the Plant Zone with Hexside's fourth Blue Ribbon in a row. Hunter could see some resentment from the St. Epiderm and Glandus students too, but ignored them in favour of subtly following the Hexside trio and listening to what they had to say.

"So, I'm off to the Illusion Event next! Gotta cheer on Emi!" Viney said. "Are you gonna come too?"

"I'll pass for the moment. Those Plant Scouts have me freaked out. I'm going to get a drink, but wish Gus and Emira good luck from me!" Willow asked.

Viney agreed, and Professor Lavestra added; "You've got three events before you need to perform again, so rest up! At this rate, Hexside really will sweep this event! That'll make Principal Bump happy!"

"And show Professor Hermanculus that our Flyer Derby Team is good even off the pitch!" Willow said, pumping her fist.

Lavestra smirked; "Well you certainly proved him wrong on the pitch! He couldn't decide if he was angry or amazed after losing to you!"

Hunter's eyes widened; so the Hexside Team were just Willow's Flyer Derby Team? And they'd beaten one of their own teachers!? Hunter didn't know if he should be impressed or horrified by them outdoing an authority figure! Still, between what he'd seen and heard, and what he'd read in Willow's file, the Golden Guard was now determined to have a little word with Miss Park.

He waited until she separated from her friend and teacher, then followed her to the rest area and watched as she grabbed a drink from one of the snack tables. The girl took a sip and grimaced, making Hunter chuckle; the HECK committee was funded by the Emperor's Coven but it was low priority, so a lot of the snacks and drinks were off-brand and kinda sucked. Feeling it was a nice thing to do and might loosen the girl's lips a little, Hunter went and grabbed a couple of higher quality drinks from the rest area for the Coven Personnel, then came back to join Willow.

"Hey there, Miss Park. Fancy meeting you here." Hunter greeted, offering Willow the drink.

The girl's eyes widened slightly, and Hunter was briefly caught off guard by how they sparkled in the light passing through her glasses, before the girl frowned at him.

"The Golden Guard. What do you want?" Willow asked suspiciously, not taking the drink.

"Relax, I just want to talk. You've caught my interest, so I thought I'd ask you a few things." Hunter shrugged, before pushing the drink a little closer to Willow; "Here, a peace offering. It's better than the garbage they're serving here."

Willow took the cup but didn't drink any; "Right. If you're trying to bribe me into revealing all the "nefarious" activities that Luz is up to, then don't waste you're time. Even if I knew anything, I wouldn't rat out my friend."

Hunter smirked and leaned against the wall beside her; "Relax, I'm not planning anything like that. I wasn't going to ask about Luz or the CATTs anyway, though I'm sure you know more than you'd admit." he said, taking a sip of his own drink; "No, I was serious before; you've caught my interest so I want to know a little more about you."

Willow raised an eyebrow, then smirked teasingly; "Oh really? Does that line usually work when picking up girls?"

"W-What!? That's not what I'm doing!" Hunter spluttered, almost choking on his drink.

"Are you sure?" Willow asked, an infuriating smile still on her face; "Because you were watching me pretty intensely in that last event."

Hunter cursed; so she'd noticed! By the Titan, she probably thought he was a creep!

"L-Look, that wasn't why I'm interested in you! N-Not that you aren't kinda interesting in that way, but it's not what I wanted to talk about!" Hunter stuttered out.

Willow blinked and felt her cheeks redden slightly; she wondered if Hunter realised that he'd essentially just said he did find her interesting as a girl? She shook her head and took a sip of the drink he gave her, savouring the delicious flavour. Well if Hunter didn't realise, Willow wasn't going to point it out! Still, now she did feel a little warmed to him and he wasn't really a bad guy, he just had the world's worst uncle, so Willow decided to throw him a bone.

"Fine, your offering bought you a few minutes, so ask what you wanted to ask." Willow said imperiously, mimicking Hunter's usual demanding tone.

Hunter relaxed and smiled brightly, like a relieved puppy dog. Willow had to avert her eyes lest her face redden again.

"Great! It's actually you and your team I wanted to ask about! You see, I read all your school files after I saw you at the opening ceremony!" Hunter said, summoning Flapjack into his staff mode so he could summon a short stack of five files. Each file had one of the Hexside Team's names on it, as well as a picture of them. Willow cringed when she caught sight of her own; it was taken back when she entered the High School class, so she still had shorter hair, the pink uniform of the abomination track, and a nervous smile on a face splattered with purple goo. She looked a mess, and Willow hated remembering how awful she'd felt back then.

"The thing I'm most curious about is why the five of you were selected. I overhead that you're a Flyer Derby team or something like that, but that doesn't really answer why you'd be chosen. Of course, I know that many of Hexside's most powerful students probably couldn't come on account of them being in the CATTs, but it still begs the question; why you? Especially when…" Hunter trailed off, seemingly thinking better of what he was about to say.

Willow frowned; "Especially when… what?"

"W-Well like I said, I read your records. They're sporadic to say the least." Hunter replied, nervous that he'd offended the girl. She didn't look angry though, so he powered on, picking up the first file; "Viney Leonis, Daughter of Valtora Leonis of the Beast-Keeping Coven and Meesha Leonis of the Healing Coven. Transferred from St. Epiderm in Kindergarten, where she had a record of being accused of numerous pranks and misdeeds, though she was never punished. She ended up getting in trouble frequently for being involved in mixing magic, before the official Multi-Track program was instituted and has since maintained the top grades on the healing and beast-keeping tracks amongst all students of Hexside."

Willow scowled; "Viney's a good person and the best Healer and Beast-Keeper in the school. She earned those two Blue Ribbons fair and square."

"I'm not accusing her of cheating, I swear." Hunter assured her, before going to the next file; "Augustus Porter, Son of Perry Porter of the Oracle Coven. Skipped ahead two years due to exemplary grades in both Illusions and General Studies. Heads the Human Appreciation Society."

"He prefers Gus." Willow said.

Hunter nodded as he went to the next file; "I recall. Emira Blight, Daughter of Alador Blight, formerly of the Abomination Coven and current wanted rebel, and Odalia Blight of the Oracle Coven. She has a fairly mixed record; tied top of her class in the illusion track with her brother, but has numerous tardies and unauthorised absences, as well as a laundry list of disciplinary reports for pranks and other mischief. Recently started multi-tracking in Healing."

"Emira was kind of a last minute pick for my team. Viney asked that I give her a shot and she proved to be a skilled flyer." Willow shrugged.

Hunter had no comments there, so went on to the penultimate file; "Skara Cadence, Daughter of Head Witch Severin Cadence of the Bard Coven, and Amaranth Secuna of the Abomination Coven. Top student in the bard track and previously a member of the Hexside Grudgby Team; the Banshees, which she still plays for as an occasional substitute. Also has a fairly short disciplinary record mostly revolved around her involvement with Boscha Alembic and various bullying incidents and school-wide pranks. The prototypical lackey to the school bully."

"Hey!" Willow snapped; "Skara's done a lot to turn herself around! She screwed up, but she also made amends! I won't let you insult her!"

The boy put his hands up; "Whoa there, I'm not done. Skara's files note a marked improvement in her behaviour and disposition in recent months… starting with the arrival of a certain new student."

Willow's eyes narrowed as Hunter moved to the final file, and she knew very well what she was about to hear. "Your file. Or as I've taken to calling it; "A Tale of Two Willows". It's quite a remarkable read." he began, before opening the file; "Willow Park, Daughter of Gilbert Park of the Construction Coven, and Harvey Park of the Abomination Coven. Formally in the abomination track, which you entered after leaving kindergarten. You had the worst grades in the school when it came to abominations, even among the lower years, and you received frequent bullying. Your general education scores were also middling; barely enough to keep you from repeating a year or being shunted into a remedial class. This is the file of a girl going nowhere in life, and being pretty miserable at the same time."

Willow did not look away, her olive eyes boring into Hunter's crimson ones. She could tell from his expression that he wasn't mocking or pitying her; just giving an honest (and accurate) review of what she'd been like back then.

"But then, to my surprise, everything changes a few months ago. There is an incident report in which you stand up to your bullies, and are then transferred into the plant track, where you rapidly rose through the ranks to become the top student in not just your year, but all of Hexside. Reports of bullying cease almost overnight, your general education grades shoot up to above average, and you even briefly served on the Banshees as a starting player, though you did lose your only game due to the Smidge. Aside from that last bit of bad luck, I find it hard to believe these two sets of records belong to the same person." Hunter mused; "You changed."

"I did. And I don't regret it. Papa made a mistake putting me in the abomination track; he was looking out for my best interests, but I simply didn't have the talent for it. After Luz showed up and the incident with the Mandragora happened, my parents and Bump agreed to switch me to the plant track. After what I did to Boscha and her gang, no one wanted to pick on me any more, and with my new confidence, my other grades improved too. Funny how much a person can grow when their sense of self-worth is allowed to bloom instead of being withered daily." Willow said, smiling triumphantly. She may have hated it, but she wasn't ashamed of where she'd come from, because it had been the seed from which her current self had grown!

Hunter's eyes shone and he gave her an earnest smile; "I'm impressed, Willow. Or should I call you Captain?"

"Call me what you like, Golden Guard." Willow said; "Now I'm assuming you were trying to make a point? Maybe about Luz showing up and changing me?"

Hunter shook his head; "She didn't change you; I can see that clearly. She supported you as you changed yourself, am I right?"

"That's what a friend does." Willow nodded in agreement. "I had Gus and Amity to support me too."

"Just as my sister and I have each other. I get it, believe me. But my point was why you'd form such a strange team of misfits. You're all so different and with less than stellar backgrounds in different ways. What brought you together and made you the Hexside representatives?"

Willow looked at him for a moment, before deciding there was no harm in answering. She told the story of Professor Hermanculus trying to shut down her team, only to agree to let it stay after Willow's team had beaten him, and how he'd then suggested them for HECK since they'd impressed him and most of the optimal students were unavailable. Hunter was shocked to his core by the idea of an authority figure rewarding a subordinate for defying them and defeating them! Such a thing was unheard of in the Emperor's Coven! Defying superiors was the fast track to an unwanted reassignment there, and in most cases, superiors took credit for their subordinates' work while passing blame for their failures off on them too. But it seemed this Hermanculus had taken his loss graciously and given Willow and her team their dues for beating him.

"The world outside the castle is bigger than I ever thought…" he muttered to himself. It bothered him a little how much these rebels were starting to get to him… it would be so much easier if this was a conflict between the Benevolent Emperor and Evil Rebels, rather than a good but flawed man doing his best for the greater good while fighting against people with fair reasons to be upset with his regime. Hunter wondered if negotiation was possible… if both sides just understood the other's perspective, would the civil war end and a different kind of unity be formed?

He shook those thoughts off and looked back to Willow; "I guess that explains why your team were made representatives for your school. But it doesn't answer my question about why you chose them for your team. Nothing I saw in their records paint them as great Flyer Derby players."

Willow smirked; "Not everything about them is in those dumb files! Gus is a natural speed demon now that he's found a way to fly that suits him. Skara is a strategic wizard whose Bardic Magic can control the flow of a game. Viney's the best healer in school and a tank that can power through almost anything. And even Emira, who wasn't my first choice, has a conniving mind and knows just how to get into her opponents' heads and mess with them. They're all great teammates, and like me, they're underdogs."

"Underdogs?" Hunter tilted his head.

Willow's smile became sad; "We've all been misjudged in different ways. Gus was a younger kid moving above his age group and got used by older students who took credit for his work while pretending to be his friend. Skara's a Bard and had some bad history with her Mom because she wanted to follow her heart, leading her to becoming dependant on a bully…" Willow grimaced, then sighed and added; "Though that bully has turned herself around lately."

Shaking off thoughts of Boscha, Willow continued; "Then there's Viney; chased out of St. Epiderm by snobs and bigots, only for her love of different magics to make her an outcast and "troublemaker". Even Emira was misjudged; seen as expendable and a tool by her own Mom, while her Dad barely acknowledged her… until he pulled his head out of his butt at least. She and her brother were basically just dolls for Odalia, and were tossed aside and forgotten when their sister was decided to be more useful. And then there's me… Half-a-Witch Willow. The biggest loser in Hexside. But we all changed and turned things around, finding friends who supported us."

Willow looked Hunter in the eye with fierce determination; "I wanted a team of underdogs who were like me; people who had something to prove to the people who doubted us, and who wanted to show the people that supported us that we were worth it. That's why I chose them all, beyond their practical abilities."

Hunter was struck silent by Willow's impassioned words, and as he looked her in the eyes and saw the determined smile appear on her face, he felt his heartbeat quicken. Unintentionally, Willow had touched on something deep within Hunter… old insecurities and doubts.

"I… I understand. You all struggled hard to reach the point you have. That is commendable, and even if we're on different sides, I have nothing but respect for you." Hunter said earnestly. "I know what it's like to be considered Half-a-Witch, and to fight tooth and nail to prove you're worth something, and to please the people who cared for you when no one else did."

Willow nodded sympathetically; "Luz told me that you didn't have magic. It must have been hard becoming Golden Guard without it."

Hunter raised an eyebrow; "What? Not going to accuse me of getting the position because I'm Belos' nephew?"

"No." Willow shook her head; "I get the impression that you wouldn't be so proud of your position if you'd got it through nepotism. And Belos is a lot of things, but I don't think he'd promote you without good cause; he doesn't seem the type to believe in nepotism. Plus Luz said you gave her a run for her money in your first fight. So no, I think you earned your position fair and square."

Hunter's eyes shone and he smiled; "Heh, maybe I should introduce you to Head Witch Darius and let him hear you say that! Maybe then he'd finally find me a worthy successor to his mentor."

Willow made no comment; she knew Darius had more of a soft spot for the Little Prince than he let on. The meeting they'd had before Luz went off to find the Time Pools proved that. So what was the man doing? Was he trying to demoralise Hunter into quitting so he'd be out of danger? Or was he perhaps trying to push him into improving himself by making him seem less capable? Darius was a crafty man, so Willow wouldn't put it past him, and Skara had told her about her own encounter with the man once; how he disliked the idea of children born with silver spoons in their mouth getting uppity and acting better than they were. There was definitely something going on between Darius and Hunter… still, talking to him like this did make Willow feel a little sorry for the boy. Maybe she'd ask Darius to lay off a bit when she next saw him.

Hunter drained the last of his cup and stretched; "Well, I got my answers so I'm satisfied. Though there is one more thing I wanted to know. What's the name of your Flyer Derby team? The records didn't mention it."

Willow groaned; "I haven't thought of one. I've been trying, but nothing I come up with sounds good!"

"Hmm, how about the Emerald Entrails?" Hunter suggested. He was met with a blank stare from Willow, so he shyly explained; "You know, because you're green and there's more to you guys than what's on the outside?"

Willow grinned; "I like it. Plus it lets everyone know that we've got guts!"

Hunter chuckled; "Well, I've got to get back to work. But it's been nice talking to you, Captain." he winked; "You know, you're not so bad for a rebel."

Willow sniffed haughtily; "Who said I'm a rebel?" she asked, before giving Hunter a coy grin; "But if I was a rebel, I'd probably reply that you're not so bad either… for a coven stooge."

She then drained her own cup and began walking away; "Nice talking to you, Hunter."

Hunter watched her go with a small smile, his heart beating a little faster. He was totally unaware that the girl walking away was feeling her own heart beat quicker too.

"The dark and troubled type. A real rose with thorns…" she whispered to herself, a sweet smile pulling at her lips.

[Meanwhile]

"And the winner of the Illusion Event is… Hexside's Gus Porter!" declared the Illusionist running the Illusion Event.

Gus smiled proudly and puffed his chest out to show off the new Blue Ribbon he'd just won. The Illusion Event had been a fun challenge, but nowhere near enough to stop Gus! His biggest competition had been Emira, who applauded him and slapped him lightly on the back.

"Not bad, Short Stuff. I thought I had you for a minute there." Emira grinned as Viney held an arm around her waist.

"You were the biggest challenge I had to beat! If not for you, the game would have been boring!" Gus replied with a grin. "I think we both did Professor Lavestra proud!"

Said Professor nodded very proudly, looking overjoyed by her two students' excellent performance; "You both did wonderfully! That's five Blue Ribbons in a row! Now we're guaranteed to tie at the very least!"

"Great job guys. That was a weird event!" Viney commented, looking back to the Illusion Zone they were just leaving.

The majority of the zone had been turned into a theatre with pale wood, and cyan curtains and upholstery, similar to how the Bard Zone was a concert hall. The booths for extra activities were also decked out to look like private viewing boxes, and where instructors and illusionists were teaching students what they could make with illusions, as well as how to make simple ones of their own and more importantly, a spell to detect simple ones. It was all stuff way below Gus and Emira's level, so they'd mostly just wandered around until the event itself, which turned out to be a massive game of Hide and Seek. The giant stage part of the theatre was turned into a maze with mirrors and clear glass sheets for walls, and their objective had been to find and tag other participants before they themselves were tagged, with the last one standing being the winner. Illusions were a tricky kind of magic (and not respected in Glandus), so Gus and Emira had blitzed through most of the participants with a few simple distraction illusions and invisibility spells. The St. Epiderm students had been a bit more challenging since they actually did value illusions, but they were still no match for the Illusion Genius Gus, or the Sly and Cunning Emira! The whole last ten minutes of the twenty minute event had been just the two of them tossing illusions at one another to try and find their opponent without being found themselves. Emira thought she'd caught Gus when she had her Palisman sniff out his deodorant, but by infusing some illusion magic into water vapour from a mist spell he'd conjured, Gus had managed to create even an olfactory illusion that lured Emira into a trap and finally allowed him to tag her.

"It was entertaining to watch. I'll have to speak to Principal Bump about making some of these events into games we can play at Hexside. Something like this would definitely help our students learn more and have some fun." Professor Lavestra smiled. "But it's on to the Oracle Event next and you two are both up again! Do you think you'll be alright?"

Gus and Emira nodded; Viney had taken on four events in a row, so they could manage two (or three in Gus's case). However now that the Illusion Event was over, the remaining five events were all ones that they weren't so confident in… they didn't have anyone who specialised in Oracle, Construction, Potions, or Abomination Magic, nor did they know what the Emperor's Coven event would entail. It would be all of them trying their hardest in events they weren't really equipped for. Still, they'd do their best!

They all headed to the Oracle Zone, though Viney excused herself to visit the Construction Zone instead, since that would be her next event and she wanted to brush up at the demonstrations before hand.

When Gus arrived at the Oracle Zone, he was surprised to find that it had been completely closed off from the rest of the Covention Centre with deep purple curtains, essentially turning the place into a giant indoor tent. Will o' Wisps that were floating around and glowing a soft blue were the main source of light, supported by crystal balls that hung from the "roof" of the tent and glowed purple. Smaller tents were set up at the front of the zone for the activities, which followed the same basic idea as the ones in the other zone; demonstrations and lessons. Fortune Tellers would read the fortunes of the students, while nearby Oracles showed them what could be done with spirits and tarot cards and the like. The bulk of the zone was made up of an oracle-themed flea market though, with hawkers selling their wares to random people who didn't appear to be staff, student, or teacher.

"A market? This is going to be a weird one." Gus commented.

"You're right about that." came a familiar voice.

Gus's eyes widened, initially thinking it was Luz sneaking up on him. But then he noted that the voice was higher pitched and sounded younger, giving him a good idea of who the speaker was… which was good, because when he turned around all he found was an unfamiliar girl. His sharp eyes traced over her, identifying her initially as a student form Pamilen, the Oracle specialist school, but he could see… seams. That was the best way to describe his ability to see through illusions; Gus could sort of see the seams in the illusions, were reality leaked through. It was something anyone could see if they tried, but few had his attention to detail.

"You're… Silver, right? Or I guess you go by Lucy now." Gus said, beginning to smile.

The unfamiliar girl smiled and took his hand to pull him to a dark corner of the market where they wouldn't be seen, before dispelling her illusion (which turned black and melted away like shadows) to reveal her true face. Gus had seen it on a Crystal Ball Broadcast and heard about it from Luz and Amity, but seeing the face of one of his best friends, but younger and with purple eyes and more scars was definitely a shock to the boy's system.

He shook off his shock quickly and began to closely examine the girl's face, noting that it was starting to redden a little. He felt bad about embarrassing her by staring so much, but he needed to memorise every single difference between her and Luz (the two really were scarily alike; Lucy looked like Luz did when she was Gus's age after all). He also wanted to make sure she looked healthy, remembering how skinny she'd been back in the desert and hearing about her recent run-in with Hettie. Thankfully the girl seemed well; her cheeks looked fuller and her colour was healthier (if a little red), and while it wasn't easy to tell with her uniform, Gus was pretty sure she filled it a little better than before.

"U-Um Gus? It's really me… you don't need to stare so intently." Lucy murmured, her wings beginning to fold in front of her a little, hiding most of her face from him.

"Oh right, sorry. Just wanted to get all the details memorised." Gus smiled, leaning back a little; "You and Luz do look crazy similar! Still, when you look close you see a lot more differences."

"It's just a shame they're mostly your hair, eyes, and scars…" he thought grimly. Seeing the prominent scars on her eye and over the bridge of her nose was bothering him a lot, especially since he knew they likely came from Belos during one of his weird fits.

"I'm glad you think so." Lucy beamed; "Sorry for dragging you over here in disguise; now that everyone knows I'm an Angel, I get hounded a lot by people wanting my blessing or favour. I didn't want them to see us talking and hound you too."

"That's nice of you. Thanks bud!" Gus grinned.

Lucy tilted her head adorably; "Bud… like a flower?"

"Nah, it's short for Buddy! You know, like a friend? It's a human thing; they shorten the names of everything over there." Gus said wistfully, wishing he could go back to the Human Realm for another visit soon. He was probably the one who wanted the new portal built the most (not including Luz of course).

The young Angel began to fidget as her face fell; "We're still friends? I thought that after what happened with the Portal Key…"

"Luz told us about what really happened. Your spirit did it without you asking." Gus cut her off, "I'll be honest, if it weren't for that then I'd probably have a harder time calling you my friend; robbing one of my best buddies when she's on death's door would be low, even for the Emperor's Coven. But it wasn't really you, so I can't hold it against you."

Lucy perked up a bit; "T-Thank you! I was kind of scared that I'd lost one of my only friends! I don't really have many, so I was worried."

That was certainly true; she had Hunter, Flapjack, Osran, and Shade as friends, but their relationships were different than it was with Gus. Hunter was her big brother, Flapjack was more Hunter's friend than hers, Osran was like a teacher and a grandfather-figure, and Shade was in a pact with her… Gus was her only friend without extra circumstances bringing them together. In fact, since he was basically on the opposite side of this civil war, their friendship was even more fragile and rare, but all the more precious to Lucy.

Gus nudged her with his elbow; "Hey now, cheer up! You're not a bad person, so I won't ditch you that easy! Trust me, I know what it's like to have fair-weather friends…" he said, scowling as he thought about the older kids who'd "befriended" him when he first skipped a couple of grades.

Lucy let out a sigh of relief; "Thank the Titan for that! I can't wait until all this is over and I can finally take you up on that offer from the desert! You know, to show me the fun stuff in Bonesborough? It's hard for me to go there now that everyone knows my face, especially since I can't lie about who I am very easily."

"I can agree with that! But why can't you come with me before the whole war thing is over? Bonesborough is neutral." Gus pointed out.

"It's just awkward… and I'm scared of running into Luz. Don't tell her I said this, but she kinda terrifies me!" Lucy confessed, shuddering a little.

Gus couldn't stop himself from snorting; it was hard to imagine Luz being seen as scary! He'd watched her cry her eyes out whilst watching a wedding being held between two CATTs back on Digale Island! He'd seen Alador pick her up by her hood like an errant kitten and gently toss her out of his lab because she kept wanting to push all the buttons! Luz was the epitome of Chaotic Good trying to pass herself off as Lawful Good, and aside from Belos and perhaps Terra and Vitimir, she didn't even want to hurt her enemies!

Still, Luz had confessed how she'd attacked Lucy upon seeing her in Hettie's office, Gus could see why Lucy would be wary.

"Luz said she's sorry about attacking you last week. She didn't know about what really happened with the key." Gus tried to defend.

Lucy shook her head; "Oh, I know that. It's more that she's scary because she's like the epitome of Angels! She's all light and powerful, while I'm all dark and still kind of weak, at least compared to her. It looks bad for an Angel serving the Emperor to be weaker than one fighting against him and the Titan's will. It's hard not to be intimidated, you know?"

That made Gus pause; so Lucy was less scared of Luz herself and more scared of what she represented… He could understand that. He was also tempted to say that maybe Luz's strength compared to hers was proof that Lucy was on the wrong side, but it felt cruel to exploit her insecurities to make her join his side. That wasn't what a friend should do.

"I guess I understand. But you really don't need to be intimidated; you're fine the way you are." Gus said honestly; "And it's nice hearing you actually speak. Your voice sounds nice!"

"I-It does? Thank you…" Lucy blushed, making Gus blink. Was she getting too warm? They were pretty close to a Will o' Wisp after all.

He reached out and took her hand, then began pulling her away from it, making the girl squeak in surprise. Gus paid it no mind, but before they could move more than a few paces, Lucy yanked her hand free and clutched it to her chest.

"Oh, sorry. I should have asked first. I just thought you were getting too warm." Gus said innocently.

"I-It's fine, I just… I'd rather not say." Lucy said, on the cusp of lying before thinking better of it; "But anyway, I didn't just call out to you so I could make sure we're still friends. I also wanted to warn you about something."

"Warn me?" the boy frowned.

"Yes. After the Plant Event earlier, I came across a strange meeting between students from St. Epiderm, Glandus, and most of the smaller schools. It was unusual and I heard Hexside brought up even though no students from your team were present, so I decided to eavesdrop using Shade." Lucy pointed to the purple Oracle Stone she currently wore around her neck. "He came back with some interesting information. The other schools are plotting against Hexside."

"Wait, they're plotting? I know the HECK is kind of a school pride thing, but isn't that a bit much?" Gus asked.

Lucy shrugged; "It's likely the mystery grand prize that the Emperor has provided; everyone wants it."

"So what's the plot? Only one school can win it after all, so why'd they all gang up on us?"

"Well originally, Hexside had 4 Blue Ribbons, so I overhead that to keep them from winning, the other schools would conspire so one of the other big schools would win one ribbon and the other would win the other five. Basically they'd sabotage you and help each other. But the plan was thrown out since St. Epiderm and Glandus couldn't agree on which of them would win the big prize; they agreed they didn't want Hexside to win, but that's all they agreed on." Lucy explained.

Gus scowled; "Dang, what's their beef with Hexside?"

"St. Epiderm sees you as low class, and Glandus sees you as weak. Meanwhile the other schools view Hexside as just a jumped up smaller school like them. Hexside wasn't considered a major school until it managed to overthrow and destroy Fibul Academy, so it's not as respected by some of the others." Lucy answered; "But the plan changed. Now that you've won a fifth ribbon, it's impossible for the other schools to get a majority and win the prize, so they all finally came to an agreement; they'll be helping Glandus win the remaining five Blue Ribbons."

"Because if two schools have five out of ten ribbons, then there's got to be some kind of head-to-head tie breaker, right?" Gus asked. Lucy didn't answer (likely unable to due to her role as proctor), but he could tell from her eyes that he was right; "And Glandus is the school most likely to be able to beat us in a head-to-head."

Lucy nodded at that part; "Glandus excels in combat magic of all kinds. In a straight fight, I'd normally bet on them to beat any other school… but Hexside is different this year. I think you could actually win. Which is why…"

She gulped, hesitating to finish her sentence. Gus smiled kindly, coaxing her with his expression until she finally said; "Which is why I want you to throw in the towel."

"Wait, you want Hexside to take a dive!?" Gus gasped, barely keeping his voice down, "Why!?"

Lucy bit her lip; "I can't tell you… but let's just say that the Grand Prize isn't something you and your friends would want. Please; it's better to let Glandus win."

Before Gus could question her further, the Oracle proctoring the event called out for all remaining participants to assemble. Lucy heard this and cast a spell to coat her in shadows, which soon became her previous disguise.

"You need to go. Please remember what I said." Lucy begged, before hurrying off and leaving a dumbfounded Gus behind. He frowned and tried to consider what she'd told him, but he didn't have time before the event began.

The Oracle Event turned out to be a kind of scavenger hunt within the flea market; each participant received a list of items and were told to find and acquire them within 15 minutes. The goal was obviously to use Oracle Magic to scry for the items and acquire them, but some items were notably not for sale by the Flea Market, which only accepted other items in trade rather than money anyway. They had to predict which items the sellers wanted and how best to quickly get them so they could make the trade, so it was all about mapping out the ideal sequence of trading… or using a well hidden Oracle Spirit to steal the items. Gus knew some Oracle tricks, but didn't actually know any Oracle Spells and so wandered around helplessly, while Emira was in a similar boat, though she was cunning enough to try and steal a few items… sadly she and Gus were doomed from the start. As part of the other schools' union against them, they'd spied on their lists, and everyone except the Glandus students were actively trying to get Hexside's items instead of their own, to keep them from winning. When the 15 minutes were up, Gus hadn't retrieved any items and Emira had only managed to snag three out of ten. That still left her in third place behind the Glandus duo thanks to the other students not hunting their own items, but it meant Hexside was dealt its first loss.

Emira and Professor Lavestra were both confused and frustrated, though not overtly disappointed since they hadn't expected to win the event even if the other schools hadn't worked together. Gus was quick to fill them in on what Lucy had warned him about, so Professor Lavestra decided to call the rest of the team together for a brief meeting before the Construction Event.

Gus repeated his tale a second time, and the others looked annoyed.

"So they're all gonna gang up on us? I guess we got lucky the five events we were good at came first." Skara mused.

"Or unlucky." Viney frowned; "If we hadn't been on such a hot streak, they'd never have come up with the plan in the first place. We might have won."

"But that's probably a bad idea, Kitten. Lucy warned us away from the Grand Prize, so it's probably something terrible or that we couldn't use, like an audience with the Emperor, or a tour of his castle or something." Emira said, nose wrinkling at the idea.

"With Lucy being an Angel, we can bet she was being honest. She wouldn't hurt herself lying just so someone else can win." Willow pointed out; "…unless she thinks the CATTs will use the prize in some way to hurt Belos. Something like an audience or a tour of his castle would be a good way to get through his defences. If that were the case, I could see her lying to protect her Uncle."

Professor Lavestra and Gus both shook their heads; "I don't think it's a good idea." the teacher said; "I say we take her warning seriously. We've already won half the ribbons; we've guaranteed second place at the least. That's more than enough prestige for the school."

Gus agreed; "Yeah, I don't think Lucy was trying to trick me. Didn't Luz say she basically got sick with guilt over the incident with the key? And that wasn't even her fault! I can't believe she'd try a trick like this."

That was a convincing argument, so Willow nodded; "Alright, then we'll let the other schools continue their sabotage, and then throw the tie-breaker. If Glandus wants the big prize, then they can have it." she declared, before putting her hand forward.

Her teammates put their hands in too, then Willow grinned; "1, 2, 3! GO EMERALD ENTRAILS!" she cheered, throwing her hand into the air.

Her friends did the same with a short cheer, though they all looked curious at the name; "Emerald Entrails? Finally thought up a team name for us, huh?" Viney grinned.

"Uh, kind of. A… friend… suggested it. Because I'm green and there's more to us than what's on the surface." Willow said shyly, twiddling her fingers nervously.

Her teammates were curious about her reaction, but they liked the name and cheered "Entrails, Entrails, Entrails!"

Clearly, the name was a hit!

With a plan in mind, the Emerald Entrails went about the rest of the events with only a casual amount of effort; they did what they could, but didn't bother pushing themselves to win. Not that the other schools would have let them of course.

The remaining zones were decorated largely as one would expect; the Construction Zone was designed like a construction site and had areas were students could watch a builder craft things, or could learn how to craft things themselves, as well as cast repairing spells. The Potions Zone was like a giant apothecary, and had the usual demonstrations on what some cool potions did, and small lessons on how to brew a couple of easy potions that largely just required putting the right ingredients in a cauldron in the right order. The Abominations Zone was designed like a mad scientist's laboratory, and again had the usual demonstrations of what could be done with Abomination goo, and a few short seminars on how to make the slime and shape it into usable items. Finally, the Emperor's Coven Zone had been designed to look like the interior of the Emperor's Castle, and demonstrations by Coven Scouts about what they could do with multiple types of magic. Interestingly though, there were no practical demonstrations of magic and instead there were some propaganda lessons and readings of scripture from the Faith of the Titan.

The Events themselves were fun enough to take part in, and the Emerald Entrails decided to make each event a kind of game of their own; they'd do the best they could with their limited knowledge and the sabotage of the other schools, seeing how close they could get to the winner's podium. Even without the sabotage, it was unlikely they'd have won any of these events, but it was still a fun challenge.

In the Construction Event, they were each given a blueprint and then told to construct the building on it, with there being some materials available to those who couldn't conjure their own. Some of the materials were intentionally damaged though, to ensure the participants had to try and repair them. Also, since Viney had already done four events and Willow only had three in total, Willow decided to substitute with Viney so the girl could rest, meaning it was a team of Gus and Willow taking on the Construction Event. Predictably, the other students swarmed the piles of materials before Gus or Willow could even move, and took every single thing even if they didn't need it. They didn't even leave the broken and damaged stuff! Despite this though, Gus and Willow did an impressive job; Gus used Illusion magic to make a perfect replica of the building he was meant to make, then mixed water magic with the miniscule amount of earth magic he'd been able to learn from Matt to create some very rudimentary clay, which he shaped into a rough shell of his assigned building. Willow had done something similar, but had instead grown trees and plants into a rough replica of the building she'd been tasked to create, which actually turned out pretty well. They'd still lost naturally, but they'd been far from last place, which seemed to frustrate Glandus even as one of their own took the Blue Ribbon.

The Potions Event was very similar, only with them having to craft a potion instead of a building. Again, the other participants interfered by snatching up all the ingredients before Willow or Skara could get any, but with Willow's Plant Magic, that was barely an issue. They couldn't make the potions properly without some fauna ingredients though, so Skara used a little of what Boscha had taught her to find substitute plants for Willow to grow and then tried to make up for the difference with Sonic Alchemy. The resulting potions were good enough that they almost won, but the Proctor docked them points for deviating from the recipe… still, they ended up in fourth and fifth place! The Glandus kid that won the event didn't know if he should be more frustrated by their high rank, or the fact they didn't seem upset about losing!

The Abomination Event was, predictably, an event to craft an Abomination and then have it perform set tasks, and as with the last events, everyone else took all the materials so Hexside had nothing to work with. Instead, both Gus and Emira had made Abominable Snowmen by mimicking Luz's spell, and they both did excellently, though were naturally docked a lot of points for not actually making the Abomination goo. However the Proctors had caught on to the other schools' plot and docked them all points for taking more than they needed and wasting the supplies.

Finally, the Emperor's Coven Event was a simplified version of a form of real EC training; a maze full of traps that they were all dumped into via random gates, with the goal being to reach the exit without going under the maze, over the maze, or breaking down walls. It was being proctored by Lucy, who watched the Hexside duo of Willow and Skara rather nervously, especially when the event began. Willow and Skara could have both potentially won the event if they'd wanted; the former could coat the maze in plants and use that to find the exit, while Skara could do the same with sonar, but they didn't get much of a chance to even try. They'd planned to just find each other in the maze and then get near the exit before pretending to get lost, but that was ruined when they were attacked by just about every other student in the maze right after they found each other. Part of the event meant the students could fight one another if they wished, so everyone but the two Glandus students were gunning to take out Willow and Skara.

Under normal circumstances, it would have been a fairly tough fight, but Willow had gone head to head with an elite from the Plant Coven and won, and Skara was considered a Bardic prodigy that could stand on the same level as even higher ups in the Bard Coven, so both were formidable foes. By the time Lucy announced that the event was over and Glandus had won, the girls had driven off most of their opponents, with only one student from St. Epiderm and a few from the smaller schools still daring to fight them. It looked like their work with the rebellion had paid off!

Still, with the ending of the EC Event, there was a buzz in the crowd of students and teachers. Hexside had won the first five Blue Ribbons in a landslide, while Glandus had won the second five, making HECK a tie between those two schools. There was some talk amongst the organisers about what they should do; some advocating for giving Hexside the Grand Prize since they'd had the overall higher rankings in each event compared to Glandus, while others felt it was unfair for that to be considered. Others believed Glandus should be disqualified since the other schools blatantly sabotaged Hexside, but Lucy had pointed out to these organisers that none of them had broken any rules of HECK, and their little plot could be seen as a positive sign of teamwork.

Ultimately, Hunter and Lucy were the hosts and head proctors, so they went away to discuss what should be done while the rest of the organisers told the students they could continue to take part in demonstrations and lessons at the various zones, but were to be ready to return to the Central Zone for an announcement on the award ceremony. The Hexside group deciding to take a short break in the Refreshment Zone, especially since they were already certain a tie-breaker event would be held, thanks to Lucy's warning.

After only a five minute break, an announcement echoed across the Covention centre, ordering all students back to the Central Zone for the verdict. Hunter and Lucy waited on stage for everyone to arrive, and after confirming all students were in attendance, Hunter stepped up to the microphone.

"Well everyone, this year's HECK has been quite the spectacle. You've all done well and are a credit to your schools and your teachers. However as you can expect, we weren't exactly prepared for the idea of two schools dominating the events so much that they each earned five out of ten ribbons! My partner and I had to have a serious discussion on whether or not we should share the prize between both schools!" Hunter grinned.

The Emerald Entrails gulped nervously as the other schools murmured; based on Lucy's warning, that would probably be bad.

Hunter waited a moment to let the murmuring quiet down, then continued; "Sadly, this year's Grand Prize, offered by the Emperor himself, isn't something we can give out so casually! Only the best of the best can claim it! And so to determine who the best of the best is, we have decided to host an eleventh event as a tie-breaker! Partner, if you would?" Hunter said, moving aside so Lucy could take centre stage and explain the final event.

"Hexside and Glandus will face each other in a Tag-Team Duel. The rules are simple; each school will select two students to enter the duelling ring, and then a 2 vs 2 duel will begin. At any point, a student may choose to tag out and be replaced by a different member of their team. We will also be placing a barrier around the duelling ring, and if a student is knocked through it, then they are considered out of bounds and are eliminated, and a different student from their team must take their place. This will continue until one team no longer has any students to fight with, leaving the other team as the winner!"

The Emerald Entrails exchanged looks; this worked out great for them! Since an opponent was only eliminated when tossed out of bounds, they could control the flow of the duel easily! They didn't want to win the event, so it would be easy to fake being hit by a spell and launched out of the ring, but they could still put on a good show by making sure it was close! Gus wondered if Lucy had asked for this kind of event specifically because she knew how easy it'd be for them to fake a loss… she was an Oracle now after all, so it was possible she'd predicted the outcome.

However, Hunter wasn't entirely satisfied. He'd watched the reaction of the Entrails and the Glandus team, particularly Willow's, and something about the casual relief the girl showed on her face made him frown; did she think this was too easy? Well, maybe he could make it more of a challenge! He and his sister hadn't exactly had much to do after all, and they could use the chance to stretch their legs.

Shooting a sly grin at Lucy, who reacted with confusion, Hunter stepped back behind the microphone and added his twist to the game; "Naturally, with it being 2 vs 2 duels and there being only five students in each team, things could end up being a little unbalanced. Plus, it would be unfortunate for one of the teams to get this far only to lose at the very last hurdle and get no reward, so as a little added prize, my partner and I will each be joining one of the teams! That way you get the honour of fighting beside a Hand of the Emperor, as well as making each team an even six members!"

The other schools all looked ecstatic at the idea of watching the Hands of the Emperor battling it out, while the Emerald Entrails gaped and looked to Lucy, who was pouting at her brother. Clearly she hadn't been told! If they weren't in such a public place, she'd be yelling at her big brother right about now!

Hunter was about to declare that he'd be in the Hexside team and Lucy on the Glandus one (he quite liked the idea of fighting alongside a certain Plant Witch), but Lucy got to it first.

"I will be duelling alongside the students of Hexside, while the Golden Guard shall duel alongside Glandus." she declared. This way she could help Hexside throw the match, and maybe get a little revenge on Hunter while she was at it. The boy pouted in response, but didn't make a fuss.

"With that decided, the EC Zone will be converted into a duelling arena, so everyone is to convene there in ten minutes time for the big event!" Hunter finished, as all the HECK personnel began rushing to the EC Zone to start the conversion. With a grin over to Willow, who smirked in response, Hunter went to oversee the conversion, while Lucy decided to head over to the Entrails to speak with them privately.

"Gus, you told your friends what I said before, right?" she asked quietly.

"Yup! Don't worry, we're not gonna win the event. We'll just put on a good show and make it close." Gus replied.

"That okay with you?" Viney asked. This was the first time she and Emira were meeting the Silver Sentinel without her mask, and both were a little thrown off by how much she looked like Luz. If they went to the Divine Realm and visited Crest Kindness, would there just be tons of Luzs all over the place? Emira kinda hoped so… the look on Amity's face would be amazing.

Lucy nodded at Viney; "It's why I put myself on your team before Hunter could. Don't worry, I'll let myself get taken out once Glandus is down to its last player… it'll probably be Hunter. He's strong!"

There were no denials there, though Willow did have a question; "What exactly is the Grand Prize anyway?"

"I'm sorry, but I'm not allowed to tell you. After Hunter saw Gus was here as part of the Hexside team, he made me promise not to tell any of you. He must have thought I'd tell him because we're friends." Lucy frowned.

"Well, he was technically right." Gus grinned at her, making Lucy fidget and blush a little.

"Breaking a promise isn't exactly the same as lying, you know. It shouldn't hurt you." Emira pointed out.

Lucy shook her head; "I don't care. I don't want to break a promise to my brother. He's always looked after me… I'd feel awful breaking a promise to him. Besides, it doesn't matter right? You're not gonna win the prize! Trust me, you wouldn't want to! But those Glandus kids probably would."

The Entrails once again exchanged looks; so it was something that wouldn't benefit the CATTs then. Lucy didn't look to be lying, and her expressions were too open for her to be hiding pain, so they had no choice but to believe her.

For the next few minutes, the team and their temporary new member chatted with one another (primarily consisting of Emira teasing Lucy and Gus warning the older girl off whenever she went a little too far). Once the conversion of the EC Zone was complete, everyone was summoned there to witness the final event of the day.

The maze had been completely torn down and the traps removed, and a large circular duelling platform had been built instead, as well as arena style tiered seating on either side of the platform, so everyone could watch the duels from a safe and comfortable distance. Upon arriving, the Emerald Entrails and Lucy were made to stand on the platform's left side, while Hunter and the Glandus team stood on the right side. A Scout Captain stood between them, acting as the referee for the duels.

"Good afternoon everyone! The Tie-Breaker Event is about to begin, so allow me to introduce our dualists! From Hexside, we have Captain Willow and her teammates; Gus, Skara, Viney, and Emira! With the added support of the Silver Sentinel; Lucy!"

The Entrails raised their fists and received a round of cheers and applause. The Referee then pointed to the other team; "And from Glandus, we have Captain Ukla and her teammates: Gobzo, Throak, Baran, and Mia! With the added support of the Golden Guard: Hunter!"

Willow watched as the audience cheered for Glandus (though it was noticeably no louder than it had been for Hexside, despite the plot the others schools had shared). She also recognised both Gobzo and Throak; the former was the rotund, fish-headed demon that had won Glandus their last Grudgby match against Hexside by catching the Rusty Smidge, while Throak had been the burly but nondescript witch boy that had been subbed into the game. Both had normal uniforms on now, marking them as members of the illusion and plant tracks, which was a surprise given Glandus' attitude towards illusionists. The other three students were new though; Baran was another burly witch boy who appeared to be Throak's twin, and was a member of the abominations track, while Mia was an extremely small Gnomish girl with wild white hair that resembled a dandelion, and whose uniform marked her as an Oracle. Lastly, Ukla was an androgynous looking girl from an amphibious race of demons born from the mixing of witches and Sahagins. She had purple skin, ears that resemble spiky fish fins, and a squid-like beak for a mouth, as well as yellow eyes and a magenta coloured Mohawk. She was a member of the construction track, and had a confident smile on her face as she summoned her flying fish Palisman. Everyone else on both teams summoned their Palismen too (with Lucy summoning her normal staff and Hunter disguising Flapjack as one too), and Willow saw that Gobzo had a raccoon, Throak and Baran had a frog and a toad respectively, and Mia had a tarantula.

"Captains, decide who will be your starting dualists!" the Referee ordered.

Willow nodded to Skara and Emira, while Ukla sent up the twins. The rest of the teams jumped down into the sidelines and the Referee moved to a little referee's podium on the side of the ring, before casting a spell circle that made a blue barrier rise up all around the ring, separating the fighters. It was the kind that would catch the person hitting it and slow them down before letting them pass through, so it would be safe to get blasted into.

With the barrier in place and the dualists ready to go, the Referee raised their hand and then declared; "BEGIN!"

The instant the word left the Referee's mouth, both Throak and Baran leapt at Skara and Emira, aiming to overpower the girls with their brawn and point-blank magic. The instant they got close, Throak's fist was coated in tree bark as he aimed a punch at Skara's stomach, while Barak coated his own fists in an abomination goo gauntlet as he brought them together and tried to slam them down on the top of Emira's head. Emira acted fast and used Healing Magic to create a dark blue barrier, blocking both blows while Skara switched Melody into Harp mode and began playing a simple tune. The tune enchanted Baran and Throak's feet and caused them to begin dancing on their own, forcing the two boys' upper bodies to follow along and move away from the girls. As soon as they were further away, Skara stopped playing her harp and began to whistle instead. Her whistling summoned the wind, creating a mini tornado around the boys that spun them around while Emira used ice magic to pour snow into the tornado, turning it into a blizzard to try and freeze the boys. It almost worked too, but they were able to summon vines and abomination slime to lasso themselves out of the tornado.

Once the two were free from the tornado, Skara and Emira stopped their spells to conserve magic, as Throak turned his wooden gauntlet into full wooden armour so he could charge at the girls, while Baran created a troupe of about six abominations to follow beside his brother while he stayed at a distance.

"Woody is all yours! I'll take care of the goop troupe!" Skara grinned at Emira, plucking a single string on her harp to create a gust of wind beneath her, rocketing her over the heads of Throak and the abominations. She then played a harsh note, sending a blade of Bardic Magic directly at the abominations, slicing the whole lot of them in half.

Meanwhile, Emira stood completely still as Throak charged her, aiming to shoulder smash her out of the ring. However the instant he hit her, Emira disappeared in a puff of cyan smoke, revealing herself as an illusion. Throak was so surprised that he almost ran straight into the barrier that would have disqualified him, but he just barely managed to stop himself and begin looking around for the real Emira, who'd made herself invisible.

"Quit hiding!" he growled, conjuring numerous flower buds all over his armour. The buds began to bloom and as they did, they released a huge cloud of pollen that not only filled the air and coated the duelling arena, but also stank to high heaven. Skara and Baran both gripped their noses and whined at the stench, temporarily distracted from fighting… yet the pollen didn't appear to settle on any invisible forms! "Where's that other Hexside Loser!?"

"Right here! And watch who you call a loser!" Emira suddenly yelled in his ear from her perch on the back of his armour. Before the boys had gotten out of the tornado earlier, Emira had switched herself out with an illusion, and the instant he began coating himself in wood armour, she jumped on his back. Since it happened before the armour was fully grown, Throak hadn't noticed the increase in weight as anything out of the ordinary!

The boy yelped in fear and tried to shake her off, forgetting all about his magic in his distraction. Emira held on tightly and laughed as if she was riding a bucking bronco, then just as Throak finally remembered he was a witch and began to cast a spell, Emira whistled sharply and her Palisman Russ suddenly leapt from the end of her staff and bit down on the boy's hand, making him scream. As he screamed, Emira coated her hands in cyan illusion magic and placed them near his ears, then once her trap was set, she leapt off his back and summoned Russ back to her hand in staff mode.

"Skara, switch!" Emira yelled.

"Got it!" Skara replied, using wind magic to blast away the stench of the pollen before riding her own staff at Throak. Baran tried to use abomination slime to grab her and yank her back, but Emira conjured some blue bandages with Healing Magic and lashed them across the larger boy's chest, making him yelp and move the slime to instead attack her. Emira dodged (she was used to such tactics from when she annoyed Amity) while Skara sent some more sonic blades at Throak to shred his armour.

"Annoying Bards! Go play your little instrument somewhere else!" Throak growled, extending a massive tree root from his chest armour to try and swipe at Skara.

Emira winced as Skara's eyes narrowed; now he'd done it!

Skara dove over the root as she continued to play notes on her harp, which coated her hand in gold and red magic. The root came at her from behind, but suddenly stopped as Throak was startled by Emira suddenly screaming in his ear again (or rather, her illusion trap from before going off and making him hear the sound of her scream in his ear). The surprise not only stopped him from controlling his root, but also distracted him long enough for Skara to get right in his face and slap her glowing hand against his chest.

In an instant, she blasted him with a massive sonic shockwave, sending vibrations through his armour that caused it to splinter and break apart, while the boy himself was wracked with tremors that left him unable to move and barely able to even think. He was utterly paralysed by the sound waves coursing through him, allowing Skara to switch Melody back into staff mode and smash the base of her staff against the boy's chin with one swift movement, sending him staggering back. The sound waves in his body stopped him from recovering or catching himself, and he ended up staggering straight into the barrier, before promptly falling through it and onto the ground beyond the ring.

"Throak of Glandus has been eliminated!" the Referee announced.

Baran gasped; "No! I'll get you for that you Bardic Brat!"

Baran slammed both hands into the ground and conjured a wave of abomination slime that forced both Skara and Emira to take to the air on their staves. Baran then re-summoned his own Toad Palisman, and shockingly, summoned his brother's Frog Palisman too.

"What the!? How'd he do that!?" Skara cried.

Emira frowned; "Twins on the isles have a tradition of carving their Palismen from the same branch. We're bonded to our own Palisman, but also have a weaker bond with our twin's Palisman too! And that's not all! If this guys is anything like Ed and I, then he can-"

The eldest Blight sibling was cut off by the two amphibious Palismen beginning to croak together, creating an ear-splitting cacophony that nearly deafened the Hexside girls. They covered their ears (and Emira banished Russ so his sensitive ears wouldn't be harmed), then watched in shock as Baran's Toad Palisman opened its mouth wide and the Frog Palisman jumped into it, being swallowed whole. The Toad then began to grow to a massive size, almost twice as big as an Abomaton Mk II, and stood on its hind legs like a person. Green and purple magic markings appeared all over its body, and Baran jumped up to sit on the Giant Toad's head, then used the abomination slime he'd conjured before to create simplistic armour for the toad, as well as a very large curved sword that looked a little like an over-sized Katana, like the type Luz had shown them in one of her anime shows.

Emira and Skara gulped at the giant toad as the former finished her sentence; "-he can combine the twin Palisman into a single form…"

Skara squeaked as she ducked beneath the Giant Toad's tongue, which suddenly whipped out at her; "Can't you call on Orthie then!? Orthrus would be real handy right about now!"

"Nope! There's a range limit to summoning our twin's Palisman! It's pretty short too; we'd need to at least be in the same town!" Emira yelped, dodging a slice from the giant katana.

Skara groaned; she hated slimy things and she hated abomination goop! Still, this Giant Toad was kinda impressive… there wouldn't be any shame in losing to it and they were planning to throw the match anyway. With that in mind, Skara braced herself and used Melody to fly up and try to get one final shot off on Baran himself, but as expected, the Giant Toad's tongue darted up and caught her, then tossed her at the barrier. Skara made no attempt to recover and hit the barrier, before being caught by Willow's vines and gently lowered to the ground outside the ring.

"Skara of Hexside has been eliminated!"

"You're up, Viney! It doesn't look like Glandus has bothered sending in their next guy yet!" Willow said, noting that all three remaining Glandus students (plus Hunter) were still stood on the opposite side of the ring.

Viney nodded and leapt into the ring, then immediately used her Wild Heart spell to take on her more beastly form. The spell also worked on her Palisman; Regant, turning him into a full sized lion with a long scorpion stinger for a tail and large draconic wings. Viney and Regant both ran on all fours towards the Giant Toad's legs, with Viney using her claws to slash one of its ankles while Regant stabbed the other with its stinger. The Toad croaked angrily and shook the pair of them off by leaping high into the air. The barrier reached all the way to the ceiling, so the area they could fight in also reached that high, allowing the Giant Toad to stick itself to the ceiling with its abomination slime armour, while grabbing its giant katana with its tongue, allowing it to still slice at everything in the arena.

Viney hopped on Regant's back, while Emira used Russ in staff form to begin flying up, evading the goo katana as well as the globules of abomination slime that Baran himself was conjuring and launching at the girls. The onslaught was relentless, and both Viney and Emira had to keep stopping their advance to conjure barriers, which Viney found difficult thanks to her Wild Heart spell impeding her mind with feral instincts.

"Dang it! If only I could use the Healing Magic variant that Hettie used!" Viney growled from Regant's back as her Manticore Palisman began shooting blobs of thick green poison from his stinger. The poison collided with the abomination goo being sent her way, melting it into useless sludge, but Baran and his Giant Toad could produce more slime than Regant could poison.

Thankfully, Emira had a plan; "Hey Kitten, think you can beat the stuffing out of this guy and his big toad if I get rid of his goop?"

"Probably. Do you think you can do that?" Viney asked, dodging a swing from the abomination katana.

Emira grinned; "I may not have Amity and Dad's talent, but I'm still a Blight! I've got a trick or two up my sleeve for dealing with Abominations! Starting with this!"

Emira combined ice and wind magic (both components of Illusion Magic) to create a thick flurry of snow. The wind was weak (so as not to impede her and Viney), but visibility was next to impossible for everyone inside the barrier thanks to the powdery white snow. Thankfully, Viney, Regant, and Russ all had amazing senses of smell, and could easily detect Baran and his Toad even without seeing them.

"Nice try!" Baran yelled as his Toad began to inhale, sucking in all the snow in a giant vortex, before blasting it all back out again with a massive exhale, clearing the flurry in one big breath. Viney and Emira were so shocked that they didn't react in time to the Toad stretching its tongue out and impaling its katana straight through Regant's body. The audience gasped at what was surely a lethal blow to the Palisman, and the Referee looked ready to intervene, but then Regant and Viney both disappeared in a puff of cyan smoke. Emira and Russ did too, revealed to be nothing but illusions that Emira had created while hidden by the snow flurry.

As Baran looking around himself for signs of an attack, Emira suddenly popped out of invisibility and landed on the Toad's extended tongue. Her hand crackled with blue electricity as she slammed it against the sticky tongue, using Healing Magic to make all the nerves in the Toad's tongue spasm and go numb. The Toad shrieked at the horrible sensation and dropped the goo katana, which became embedded in the ground below. The Toad then sucked its tongue back into its mouth out of instinct, dragging Emira into its mouth with it. A second jolt of magic to the nerves had the Toad's jaw opening, allowing Emira to crawl out and cast a pink spell on her hand, which she slapped onto the Toad's armour.

In an instant, every bit of abomination armour on both the Toad and Baran began to swell and bubble as if it was boiling. Emira leapt out of the Toad's mouth and landed on Russ, who appeared from his own invisibility to catch her. He then flew her away to safety as the abomination goo all exploded violently, causing the Toad to scream and both it and Baran to go tumbling to the ground, covered in fairly mild burns. Emira smirked as they fell; she may not be able to make a decent abomination, but she could use the self-destructing spell that her Dad created to destroy them!

Right before the Toad could hit the ground, Viney and Regant appeared from Emira's invisibility spell and leapt up to meet them. Regant stabbed it in the stomach with his tail, injecting an emetic poison, which combined with Viney's full force punch to the gut caused the Toad to violently vomit. Thankfully the only thing it spat up was saliva and Throak's Frog Palisman, but the separation of the two Palismen resulted in Baran's Toad losing its markings and shrinking back to normal size. Baran was able to use this moment to summon his Toad Palisman back to him in staff form, allowing him to avoid hitting the ground, but unfortunately he was now in range of Emira's final move.

Emira and Russ flew close to Viney and Regant, and the two girls created a sturdy barrier around themselves. Emira then pointed to the giant abomination slime katana still embedded in the floor and grinned. Baran looked at it too, then paled as it began to bubble. Emira had hit it with the self-destruct spell too.

Baran didn't even have time to scream or put up any defences; the katana exploded and launched the boy straight into the barrier while the girls were protected by their own.

"Baran of Glandus has been eliminated!" the Referee announced.

Viney and Emira cheered and landed back on the ground of the duelling ring, dropping their barrier. They both briefly cringed at the awful fishy stench that permeated the air though; had the Toad's saliva been that pungent?

Now that Baran was defeated, Glandus sent their next student up; the little gnomish Oracle known as Mia, who was almost small enough to ride her Tarantula Palisman even in animal form. Viney and Emira prepared to face her, but frowned when they saw she was alone.

"You know this is supposed to be two on two, right?" Emira asked, looking over to the rest of the Glandus team. The whole rest of the team was out there (including Throak and Baran, who were grumbling as a healer saw to their wounds), but that just confused the girls more.

Mia giggled and spoke in an extremely squeaky voice; "We don't need two of us to beat the two of you. Just one will do."

Viney and Emira scowled, feeling like they were being insulted by the little gnome girl… at least until they suddenly found themselves both being grabbed by something invisible and tossed at the barrier. Both girls were so surprised that they didn't react in time and hit the barrier. They were caught by their teammates outside, who all looked stunned by the sudden defeat.

"Emira and Viney of Hexside have been eliminated!" the Referee declared, looking just as confused.

"W-Was that some form of Oracle Magic? I didn't sense a spirit!" Lucy yelled.

Mia and the entire Glandus team (minus Hunter) burst into laughter, much to the annoyance of the Emerald Entrails. Gus narrowed his eyes, then gasped; "An Illusion!"

At those words, the Gobzo who was sat on the bench with his teammates disappeared into cyan smoke, and the real Gobzo appeared in the arena. He'd taken his place as soon as Throak had been knocked out by Skara, but hidden that fact with illusions. He'd also hidden himself from the noses of Viney and the Palismen by creating that awful fishy stench, which they'd mistaken for the result of the Giant Toad's saliva.

Seeing the surprise of the Hexside team, Mia giggled then gave a malicious grin; "I'll admit you Hexside losers did better than any of us expected; we'd thought you'd all go down like chumps to just Throak and Baran. But ultimately, you're still just losers. Hexside only exists as one of the "big" schools because all the students there couldn't afford St. Epiderm or prove themselves worthy enough for Glandus. Your school was literally founded as a refuge for losers! You should feel honoured that you managed to come this far!"

The Emerald Entrails all glared hatefully at the giggling gnome, while Lucy glared with disapproval. Mia's teammates were smirking along with her comments, with the exception of Gobzo (who still looked like he had nothing going on in his head), Ukla, and Hunter. Ukla in particular looked more annoyed with Mia than amused.

Willow turned to Gus and Lucy; "You two are up. I know the plan is to throw the fight, but I don't want us losing to Glandus themselves, so we're going to knock out everyone but Hunter, okay?"

Gus and Lucy both nodded and climbed into the ring, ready to duel. However as they both brandished their staves, Willow called out; "Make this round quick."

Grins spread across Gus and Lucy's faces and they nodded once again. Mia saw their grins and scoffed; "Don't think the pipsqueak stands a chance just because he's got the Silver Sentinel backing him up! He's still just a Hexside dwe-"

Before Mia could finish her taunt, Gus's hand suddenly shot out to his side and grabbed something no one else could see, his eyes glowing a soft cyan colour. In a flash, the "real" Gobzo disappeared in cyan smoke, revealed to once again be just an illusion. Gobzo hadn't revealed himself at all after the last duel; he'd just changed the location of his illusory clone. The actual real Gobzo had remained invisible and aimed to pick up Gus and toss him out of the ring like he'd done to Viney and Emira, but once Gus was aware of the illusionist's abilities, he kept his eyes focused and was able to detect the illusion and counter with his own. The real Gobzo became visible, with Gus's hand pressed over his face. A cyan glow had covered Gus's hand and now filled Gobzo's eyes, completely filling his brain with a nightmarish illusion. The illusion scared Gobzo so much that he let out a weird burbling sound and then turned on his heel and fled, leaping out of the arena of his own free will and running to hide behind his burly teammates.

"Uh… Gobzo of Glandus has been eliminated." the Referee replied, stunned.

Gus turned to grin at Mia; "You were saying? Also, kinda ironic to be calling me a pipsqueak, you know."

Mia went red in the face as the Glandus team were shocked. The audience began to chuckle at their expense, especially as Gobzo was so terrified that he was holding onto Ukla and Hunter for dear life, preventing them from tagging in.

Mia sneered and turned to glare at Gus; "Don't think I'll fall for your illusions too! I can see through them all with my Oracle Magic!"

Lucy smiled serenely and stepped forward; "Then by all means, bring out your spirit."

Mia glared at her and tried to summon her spirit from the stone around her neck, only to turn pale when she realised she couldn't. Her spirit was almost as scared as Gobzo was, and refused to leave her stone! Mia began to sweat bullets as she looked up at Lucy, who'd walked forward and now loomed over her.

"Having problems? Oh, that's right; Oracle Magic doesn't work on Angels." Lucy smiled, spreading her silvery wings out behind her; "How unfortunate for you. Do you have some other form of magic you can use?"

Mia gulped; she didn't. She relied heavily on Oracle Magic, and had risen high in Glandus' hierarchy through her mastery of it. But without her spirit, she was helpless. Lucy could tell by the look on the gnome's face that she was out of options, so decided not to waste time knocking the girl out of the ring. No need to hurt her body after all… her pride was a different story though.

Lucy stooped and grabbed Mia by the back of her uniform, like she was some stray cat, then had Shade grab the girl's Tarantula Palisman. The two then walked over to the section of the barrier closest to Glandus' team and tossed the girl and Palisman through it. In the end, despite all her trash talking, Mia had been defeated without casting a single spell.

"Mia of Glandus has been eliminated." the Referee announced, trying to keep her obvious amusement out of her voice.

The Audience didn't need to bother with that though and they promptly burst into laughter. Mia went beet red, especially as one student from St. Epiderm commented that she'd been the biggest talker, yet the one to achieve the least on both teams! Still, with Mia now eliminated, she could now use her Oracle Spirit to force Gobzo to let go of Glandus' final two members, allowing Ukla and Hunter to finally step into the ring.

Both brandished their staves, though Ukla looked at Gus and gave a nod of respect; "I apologise for my teammate's boasting. At Glandus, we value strength above all else, but I believe that someone with real strength doesn't need to brag, as that strength speaks for itself." she declared; "That said, I'll be going all out!"

Gus grinned; "Then let's have some fun! Lucy, mind if I leave your brother to you?"

Lucy nodded as she stared down Hunter; "It's been a while since we sparred… are you ready, Hunter?"

"You know it! Let me see what you've got, Lucy!" Hunter grinned, getting pumped up.

For an instant, all four duellists stood completely still. Then, in a single heartbeat, they suddenly burst into action. Hunter flashed towards Lucy with his hand pulsing with electricity, whilst Lucy dove into the shadows while leaving Shade behind to fight in her stead. At the same moment, Ukla got onto her staff and darted towards Gus, sand swirling around the tail end of her staff to propel her faster, whilst Gus rode Emmiline into the air as if he was surfing a giant wave, conjuring a fine mist with water magic as he went.

Ukla frowned at the mist, knowing the water vapour would soak into her sand and make it sluggish and hard to move, so she instead condensed it down into a single perfectly spherical ball in the palm of her hand, before shooting it at Gus like a cannon ball. There was even a burst of fire and a small explosion, as if Ukla really had shot a cannon from her hand. Gus swerved to avoid the cannon ball, but then to his surprise, Ukla flicked a finger and the ball suddenly changed trajectory and nearly hit him in the side of the head. He barely ducked in time, feeling the ball blowing through the top of his hair. Seeing this, he condensed his mist into a discus of ice and launched it at the cannon ball, slicing it in half before it then swerved and headed back at Ukla. It was spinning enough to become like a saw blade, but Ukla coated her hands in sand and caught the spinning disc between her palms, before crushing it and letting the fragments melt and drip down to the battle below.

She then tried to harden the sand into rock and launch it at Gus, but the boy twirled his finger and caused the fragments of his ice disc to become vapour again, which he then used with an olfactory illusion to make Ukla think she was smelling something foul. The girl gagged and instinctively tried to cover her beak, allowing Gus to hide himself with an invisibility spell. While hidden, he produced another illusion and then conjured some water in a torrent to hit Ukla. The girl had her eyes closed due to the fake foul smell making them water, so she didn't see this coming, allowing the water to hit her. However there wasn't much force behind it and since Ukla had Sahagin blood, the liquid was absorbed into her skin without bothering her at all, leaving her bone dry. However, absorbing the water also cleared her beak of the water vapour (Sahagins could only absorb proper liquids), freeing her from the olfactory illusion.

Now able to open her eyes without them watering, Ukla looked around for signs of Gus and noticed that she seemed to have been knocked awfully close to the barrier by the torrent of water. It hadn't felt like she'd moved much, but being in the air must have messed with her sense of movement.

"Unless…?" she whispered, before a shard of ice suddenly flew at her. It came from the side closest to the barrier, so she flew away from it, then conjured a large floating rock for her to stand on so she could use her staff to fight with properly. More ice shards came out of seemingly nowhere, but Ukla expertly parried two of them with her staff, then conjured rock around her hand to catch and crush the last one. All three shards had come from different directions, so Gus was moving around a lot while invisible, which could become a major problem for her if she didn't find a way to pin him down soon.

Twirling her staff, Ukla created a massive bronze spell circle which conjured an equally massive sandstorm around her. Such a tactic would reveal Gus's location, but it would normally dry her out too… luckily for her, she'd just absorbed enough water to keep her extra hydrated!

As predicted, the sandstorm buffeted Gus with sand, allowing his silhouette to be seen despite his invisibility. However the sandstorm also revealed something else to Ukla, making her smirk. "Clever boy… but not clever enough!" she yelled, casting a spell to condense all the sand onto Gus and trap him inside a statue of himself, like a form of pseudo-petrification. Gus allowed himself to become visible again as he used water magic to damp the sand, then once Ukla hardened it into stone around him, he froze the water into ice. The ice expanded within the stone, causing it to crack apart and allowing Gus to free himself, which Ukla hadn't expected.

Gus leapt out of the remains of the stone shell and took flight with Emmiline again, casting illusions to make dozens of clones of himself, though this was quickly countered by another sandstorm, which shredded the clones and left Gus disoriented and trying hard to stay stood on his staff. Seeing her opportunity, Ukla then darted at Gus by manipulating the boulder she was floating on. Gus tried to make a last minute ice barrier, but Ukla was as good with the demolition aspect of Construction Magic as she was the others, and a single palm strike with a Construction Spell was enough to destroy the attempted barrier and allow Ukla to finally knock Gus into the barrier.

However to Ukla's eyes, it looked like he'd nothing but empty air. Gus righted himself outside the barrier as the Referee declared; "Gus of Hexside has been eliminated."

"Dang, I thought that trick would work. How did you spot what I'd done?" Gus asked curiously, seeing as Hunter and Lucy were focused on their duel.

When he'd made Ukla close her eyes earlier, he'd cast an illusion that made the entire world around Ukla look like it had shifted forward a few feet, meaning she thought she was closer to the barrier when she was actually still where she'd been flying before. The weak water torrent had been to make her think he'd blasted her towards the barrier when she actually hadn't moved. Gus's goal had been to try and make her fly into the barrier on her own, because she thought it was further away than she realised, but it looked like his plan failed.

Ukla smirked; "My sandstorm didn't just reveal you, it kept passing through a chunk of the barrier like it wasn't there and hitting another part that you'd hidden."

"Aw man, I should have covered that detail. Oh well; good duel." Gus smiled, before going to join his friends. Ukla watched him go, frowning slightly as she felt like he'd gone easy on her… an Illusionist Genius who'd figured out to use water vapour for olfactory illusions would surely have figured out that she might discover the truth with a sandstorm… she'd used sand earlier in the fight after all! Gus also didn't seem too disappointed to lose…

Ukla's frown deepened; there was more to these Hexside kids than she realised.

Shaking that from her mind, she looked down to observe the fight between the Sentinel and the Guard. Or rather, the Sentinel's Shade and the Guard. Lucy herself had been hidden the entire time, instead directing her Spirit to claw at Hunter from the shadows. Hunter was playing along, toying with the spirit by using a conjured sword to fence with its claws, but it was clear the two weren't taking the duel seriously. They had nothing to lose or gain no matter how the duel turned out, so they were seemingly just playing. Ukla considered flying down to help Hunter, but then she remembered that Hexside's captain still hadn't been defeated and should have taken Gus's place.

Looking around, Ukla saw no signs of Willow; she'd disappeared from her teammates' side outside the ring… was she under an illusion of some kind, or has she just excused herself to the bathroom and hadn't entered the ring yet?

Ukla soon got her answer, as she suddenly felt something wrapping around her body… something inside her clothes! The girl shrieked and looked down her shirt to find tiny, ivy-like vines creeping around her skin, which she traced back to beneath her body. The little vines were emerging from the shadow Ukla was casting on her own staff, and had crept up into her shirt and was wrapping around her abdomen and snaking their way up to her throat and arms. She began to yank at them, but suddenly felt all strength leave her as the vines sapped her magic and the moisture in her body. Ukla began to get dehydrated and before she knew it, she barely had the strength to stay on her staff. Then she noticed the ivy creeping up her staff to her Palisman too, and realised they were being drained of magic as well.

Slowly, the girl descended to the ground before her Palisman could lose strength and plummet, but the instant she touched the ground, a new shadow was formed beneath her and a large vine shot out of it and grabbed her, tossing her from the ring entirely.

"Ukla of Glandus has been eliminated!" the Referee announced, just as Willow rose up out of the shadows and snapped her fingers, making the vines and ivy on Ukla disappear. The audience cheered; Hexside had now officially beaten all five of Glandus' students! Under normal circumstances, that would make them the winner, but Hunter was still active and fighting, though he looked mildly annoyed that his teammate was gone and he was now in a two VS one.

"Lucy must have pulled the Captain into her shadows the second Gus was eliminated. Well if she'd planning to double team me, I'll have to show her not to underestimate her big brother!" Hunter thought.

Spinning his staff in the air, Hunter drew a massive golden spell circle and began to channel a huge amount of lightning into his free hand. A bolt of this magnitude was far too dangerous to use on someone you weren't willing to kill, but thankfully that wasn't Hunter's goal, as he thrust his hand towards the ceiling and launched the lightning bolt into the sky. The result was a monstrously loud clap of thunder and a flash of light that would have made Luz proud, destroying all shadows in the ring. Lucy was forced out of the shadows she was hiding in, but to Hunter's shock, she appeared outside the ring!

"The Silver Sentinel has been eliminated! Both teams are down to their last member!" the Referee announced.

"W-What!?" Hunter gaped. How had this happened!? He'd been so transparent about what he was going to do! Lucy should have seen that coming a mile a way and jumped out before that! The shocked boy looked to his sister, who looked back sheepishly, giving a little shrug.

Hunter frowned; was Lucy having an off-day? He hoped she wasn't getting sick again…

The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end and Hunter just barely ducked in time to avoid the spray of seeds that passed through where his head had just been. He turned around to see Willow smirking at him, a Shooting Seed Pod growing from her wooden bangles.

"Just you and me now, Goldilocks! Let's make this last duel count!" Willow grinned, egging him on.

Despite his disappointment at the duel with Lucy ending so anti-climactically, Hunter couldn't help but smirk; if there was anyone from Hexside he wanted to duel besides the Arch-Angel, it was Willow.

"Don't disappoint me now, Captain!" Hunter grinned right back. He immediately conjured a machete-like short sword and electrified it with Lightning Magic, then flashed towards Willow. He aimed a slash at her bangles, but Willow ducked and pointed one of her bangles at Hunter as a new flower grew on it.

It wasn't one Hunter recognised; it looked a little like the Shooting Seed Pod on her other bangle, but the opening of the pod had petals like an Artillery Azalea. A short spray of seeds were launched his way, and Hunter just barely flashed out of the way in time, then watched with wide eyes as the seeds exploded like the seeds of an Artillery Azalea. It looked like Willow had found a way to combine two different plants!

"Grafting Plant Magic! Artillery Seed Pod!" Willow announced with a proud grin, tracking where Hunter was fleeing to and spraying more explosive seeds at him. Hunter yelped as he dodged around the ring to avoid the blasts, ultimately having to fly up high just so there was enough space between him and Willow that he could dodge without needing to rely on his magic any more. Thankfully for him, the explosions were kicking up a lot of smoke, and the first few near the ground had torn up the ring a little bit, leaving the ground uneven and covered in chunks of rubble he could manipulate.

Using his limited ability with conventional Light Magic, Hunter conjured a simple throwing knife imbued with light and tossed it at Willow. She dodged as he expected, but the knife released a massive flash of light as it hit the ground, blinding the girl and giving Hunter a chance to flash behind her. He aimed an almost lazy lightning-imbued palm strike at her back, but Willow summoned another of her Grafted Plants to protect her. This one looked like a Bouncing Bellflower, but with the golden colour of a Gummy Goldenrod. As Hunter struck it, the rubbery petals not only protected Willow from the lightning via insulation, but it also got Hunter's hand stuck on it, forcing him to abandon his glove to escape.

"I call these Gummy Gold Bells! I developed these after seeing your little lightning palm trick back in Cartilia!" Willow smirked.

Hunter was impressed, but not cowed. His plan had been to get on the ground and prevent Willow from immediately stopping what he planned to do next, and the Gummy Gold Bell got in her way just as it did his.

First, Hunter electrified his machete once again and stabbed it into the ground in front of him, causing lightning to arc out in all directions, hitting the knife he'd thrown earlier as well as several others that he'd tossed out using the smokescreen as cover. The result was a web of lightning that forced Willow to hide inside a giant Gummy Gold Bell just to avoid being shocked. This further obscured her vision as well as getting her briefly stuck, giving Hunter the opening to spin Flapjack in the air and draw a large spell circle, which caused all the rubble from the explosions to gather together in front of Hunter and form themselves together into a rough golem.

"Time to pick some flowers!" Hunter smirked, leaping onto his golem's back so he could control it more directly. He had it reach for the flower Willow was hiding in and pick it up, tearing it and Willow out of the ground and lifting her high into the air. Willow withered the flower to free herself from its stickiness, resulting in her landing on the Golem's fist. She then slammed a palm down on the golem's arm and caused vines to sprout in the gaps and begin to worm their way through the gaps in the golem's body. Hunter countered by conjuring another machete and stabbing it into his golem's head and using it to release lightning into its body, striking and burning the vines to a crisp before they could do much damage. Willow was impressed by the boy's quick thinking and jumped off the golem, using another vine to safely swing down to the ground. She then summoned Clover back to her hand and used her staff to conjure a huge swarm of Daggerdil leaves, which were razor sharp by nature.

"I don't have any light or wind magic, but that doesn't mean I can't use Razor Leaf too!" she declared, sending the swarm of leaves at the golem.

They struck faster than Hunter was prepared for, resulting in the golem losing a hand before Hunter released his spell on it, causing it to fall apart into rubble again. Hunter then flashed above the leaves and shot lightning down at them from Flapjack. Daggerdil leaves were a kind of organic metal, so the lightning tracked them like each one was a lightning rod, causing them to burn up into ash. Hunter then conjured a breeze to blast the ash back into Willow's face to blind her. This kept her busy as Hunter reassembled his golem again (with a slightly hollower body, to compensate for giving it a new hand), but when the golem was complete and Hunter sent it stomping into the ash to grab Willow again, he found she was missing.

"What? Where did she go?" Hunter frowned, looking around.

He suddenly heard a rumbling beneath him, and ordered his golem to dodge backward just in time to avoid an uppercut from a giant fist made of vines and tree bark. The owner of the fist emerged from the ground a moment later, revealed to be a humanoid construct that was about the same size and proportions as Hunter's golem, only with a body made of vines and coated in shells of bark and the giant petals of Bouncing Bellflowers, giving it protection from both blunt force trauma and Hunter's Lightning. Willow emerged from a flower that bloomed on the Vine Construct's shoulder, grinning as she did.

"I can do this too, you know! In fact it was something similar to this that got me into the plant track to start with!" Willow said confidently, remembering how she and Luz had first met all those months ago.

Hunter chuckled, beginning to enjoy this fight; Willow was skilled with Plant Magic! Perhaps almost as skilled as Terra Snapdragon! If she'd had that woman's experience too, Hunter felt like she'd be the strongest Plant Witch to ever live!

"Alright then, let's see whose is best!" Hunter declared, riding his golem forward to attack Willow's. His launched a stony punch at Willow's, but thanks to the vines that made up its body, it was much more flexible and leaned its head to the side, before countering with an attempted body blow to Hunter's golem. However since Hunter's golem wasn't as held together as Willow's, he was able to shift the rocks that made up its torso so that the plant construct's first went straight through its chest without damaging it. The rocks then packed around the plant construct's arm to stop it from pulling back, and Hunter then created a blade of lightning from the end of his staff and swung it down like a glaive, slicing off the trapped arm.

Willow's construct staggered back, coming uncomfortably close to hitting the barrier, but then Willow regrew its arm and had it leap forward and attack again. Hunter tried to part the rocky body of his golem to trap the construct's arm again, but this time Willow was prepared and caused spiky roots and thorns to sprout from the bark and vines of her construct's arm, which speared the rocks when Hunter tried to pull them back. Hunter panicked, not wanting to lose more of his golem's body, and in his panic, he wasn't able to react quickly enough to the construct's other arm punching forward and hitting his golem in the side of the head, sending it staggering backward.

The two duellists exchanged looks from the tops of their creations, Hunter frowning as Willow smiled. Hunter was at a disadvantage; he could disassemble and reassemble his golem to easily dodge blows, and its rocky body could hit harder, but that was its only advantage. Willow's construct could dodge more easily thanks to its vine skeleton making it flexible, she could regrow damaged areas, manipulate the shape of its body in ways Hunter couldn't match, and the rubbery petals of the Bouncing Bellflower served as not only good insulation, but also a way of reducing the impact of his golem's blows.

Even with these disadvantages though, Hunter still gave a good fight. The two creations threw punches and kicks, turning the Witches Duel into an impromptu cage match between two elemental magic automatons. Both fighters were using their staves to primarily control their creations, while occasionally using Plant and Lightning Magic to take pot shots at each other whenever their creations got close enough and they had a clear shot. The two stood almost rooted to the spot as they exchanged blows, and Willow couldn't help but laugh.

"This is like that Rock 'em Sock 'em Robots game that Gus bought from Eda!" Willow said, having a shocking amount of fun.

"Oh yeah? And how does that game go then, Captain?" Hunter asked as his golem landed a solid hit to the plant construct's head.

Willow almost fell off her construct's shoulder, then grinned wide as she replied; "It goes like this, with me knocking your head off!"

Twirling her finger to create a green spell circle, Willow suddenly grew a large tree out of the ground behind her, causing it to shoot out of the ground at an angle and hit her own construct in the back, propelling it forward after Hunter's last blow had sent her staggering back. As the construct was launched forward, Willow used Clover to massively swell her construct's arm as it swung for an uppercut. The increased size, the unexpectedly quick counter attack, and the extra speed kept Hunter from reacting in time, and Willow's construct landed a devastating uppercut, knocking the head of Hunter's golem straight into the ceiling. Hunter had avoided getting smacked in the face by the golem's head as it flew up, but he'd leaned back too far and ended up toppling off his golem, only barely avoiding a painful landing on the ground below thanks to Flapjack.

Once he'd floated safely to the ground, Hunter tried to have his now headless golem continue its attack, but Willow had her construct tackle it, smashing it into the ground and causing the rubble that made its body to scatter everywhere. Her plant construct then glowed green and disintegrated into raw plant magic, which spread across the entire ring, coating it in moss and grass that grew so thick that each chunk of rubble was covered, keeping Hunter from easily rebuilding his golem.

Hunter drew a spell circle around himself with Flapjack, which killed the grass and moss growing directly around him. He then drew a second circle and began to charge a large amount of raw golden magic into a ball floating on the end of his staff. Once it was charged, he would unleash a blast of magic that would hopefully be enough to finally send Willow out of the ring and end the duel in his favour.

Willow saw this and decided that if Hunter wanted to end things like that, then she would respond in kind. She began to channel raw plant magic to the end of her staff, creating a green ball of magic that grew to match the size of Hunter's. For a moment, the two looked up and locked eyes; both realising the duel was about to end.

With a battle cry, Hunter thrust his staff forward and fired the golden beam of magic straight at Willow. She immediately returned fire with her own green beam of magic, and the two blasts collided in the dead centre of the ring. The force of their collision gave off a shockwave that pushed the audience back in their seats, and for several seconds, there was a stalemate as both witches used all the magic they had at their disposal. One moment, Hunter's beam would overpower Willow's and inch closer to her, and then the next Willow would force it back and turn the tables, before the two equalised and the struggle was even once again.

Both were filled with feelings of exhilaration, enjoying the sensation of pushing their magic to the limit. Willow and Clover were the stronger team, each having magic of their own to fuel the blast, but Hunter and Flapjack held their own with skill and experience. Flapjack was an unusually powerful Palisman and had almost as much magical power as Willow and Clover did, and thanks to his years of experience with an artificial magic staff, Hunter knew how to maximize the power of every drop of magic. Slowly, Hunter began to overpower Willow and as his beam crept closer and the girl realised she had nothing more to throw back, a voice in her head sighed.

She'd done enough; she'd done her absolute best and come pretty dang close, but she'd lost. There was nothing to be ashamed off…

But as Willow looked up, her olive eyes locked on Hunter's ruby ones, another voice inside her said; "No. We are not done!"

Throwing caution to the wind and forgetting everything but the opponent in front of her, Willow allowed Hunter's beam to overtake hers a little more so she could use a bit of magic to cast a spell on the grass and moss she'd coated the ring with. All of it melted into green light and flooded into her, converting plant matter into raw magical power, and with this massive windfall, Willow was able to blast back against Hunter with all her might. The added power was too much for Hunter to counter and to his shock (and no small amount of amazement), his beam was completely overpowered and Willow's blast struck him in the chest and sent him flying backward. He hit the barrier and passed through it, before being caught by Mia's Oracle Spirit.

Willow's beam dissipated and the girl collapsed to her knees and panted as she heard the Referee stutter out; "T-The Golden Guard has been eliminated! The winner of the Tie-Breaker Event is Hexside!"

The audience burst into roaring cheers and cacophonous clapping, all of them practically losing their minds that a seemingly normal girl from Hexside had managed to actually beat the Golden Guard; the Right Hand of the Emperor! It may have been a severely restricted duel that ended very differently than a real battle, but it was still a tremendous achievement! Even St. Epiderm and Glandus' teams couldn't help but be amazed.

Willow panted tiredly as she listened to the sound of the cheering crowd. She'd done it! She'd beaten Hunter! She's won!

The girl suddenly froze as horror came over her… she hadn't been supposed to win! She was supposed to put on a good show and then let Hunter knock her out of the ring! But Willow had gotten so caught up in fighting him that she'd forgotten the plan and actually gone all out! Now everyone was cheering for her and her team, the winners of the Grand Prize none of them wanted! Willow could barely bring herself to look over to her friends, all of whom looked shocked and worried, while Lucy had gone very pale and looked terrified. Even Professor Lavestra was looking concerned as the Referee called the Hexside students up onto the duelling platform.

Hunter, for his part, was just as shocked that he'd lost… he'd known Willow was strong, but he'd not expected to get knocked out of the ring like that! He was a little disappointed, but also weirdly happy for the other girl. He climbed back onto the platform to congratulate her and finish his hosting duties, but the girl's pale face concerned him.

"Are you okay, Captain?" Hunter asked kindly.

"Y-Yeah." Willow swallowed thickly; "Just… adrenaline, you know? I wasn't expecting to win… sorry about that last hit. I got a little carried away."

Hunter grinned and slapped her on the back; "I get it! The come down after an exciting fight can be intense in its own way! But seriously, well done!"

The boy then gestured for Lucy to come over to make the final announcement with him, but he saw her pale face and frowned. "She must have used too much magic… Is that why she lost so easily before? I don't remember her doing anything strenuous today. Still, best I let her rest more." Hunter thought, deciding to handle the Award Ceremony himself.

Summoning a microphone, he smiled brightly; "Well everyone, that was an amazing series of duels! Hexside and Glandus both gave it their all, as did Lucy and I, but it looks like it was Hexside that came out on top! The stiffness in my shoulders is testament to that!" he joked, getting a laugh from most of the crowd; "Now it my great pleasure to announce Hexside as the winners of this year's HECK event! Give them all a round of applause!"

The crowd did so, and so did the Glandus team (at Ukla's urging). The Emerald Entrails tried not to let their true feelings be too obvious as they waved at the applauding crowd and took a bow, though they all looked nervous and Willow looked (and felt) ready to throw up.

Hunter applauded too, then spoke once more; "And as the winners of this year's event, they are the recipients of the Grand Prize, provided by the Emperor himself! And that prize is… a place in the Emperor's very own Coven!"

Now the Emerald Entrails all went as white as sheets as the audience went even wilder. The Entrails looked at Lucy, who had apologetic tears in her eyes as Hunter continued his announcement; "That's right! These five promising new recruits will all be immediately inducted into the Emperor's Coven! You guys have got a promising future ahead of you! I'm looking forward to working with you! Plus now you'll be away from Bonesborough and those nasty Rebels!" Hunter smiled, completely missing how distressed the new "recruits" were.

Viney, the only one able to maintain some degree of composure due to her experience as a Healer and a Beast-Keeper, just chuckled nervously; "T-That's a wonderful prize!" she lied, "But we really should go home and get the approval of our parents first! We are all underage after all!"

"Oh, don't worry about that!" Hunter smiled, "The Emperor obviously knows below legal aged witches and demons would be taking part today! That's why he made a special exception for the winner of today's event! No parental approval needed and your age doesn't matter! You can start your scout training right away!"

The Entrails began to look panicked; refusing could be tantamount to exposing themselves as rebels in the middle of the Capital City, whilst surrounded by Coven officials! Maybe they could pretend to accept, then make a break for it back to Bonesborough without getting caught?

Sadly, that option was taken from them when the Referee, now acting as a regular Scout Captain again, signalled to their troops. Every Coven Scout in the place suddenly swarmed the stage, and picked up the five winning students. They snatched the staves from their tired hands, then each student was hoisted onto the shoulders of two scouts, who began to take them away. It looked to the audience like the winners were being carried out triumphantly, but in reality they were basically being apprehended. Professor Lavestra tried to protest, but the Scout Captain dismissed her by saying they had received their orders straight from the Emperor.

Lucy watched with horror, while Hunter frowned. "What's the meaning of this, Captain? I gave no such orders and the Emperor didn't tell me anything about this!"

The Scout Captain replied; "The orders were given by Head Witch Vernworth, with a letter of authorisation signed by the Emperor. In the event that Hexside students won the Grand Prize, we were to apprehend them, confiscate their Palismen, and take them to the Precinct so Head Witch Vernworth can pick them up and take them to the Illusion Coven HQ. Their minds need to be thoroughly checked to remove the Owl Lady's brainwashing."

Hunter blinked; brainwashing? Of course! That was why they were so against the Emperor! Like Luz, they must have been poisoned against him by the Owl Lady! She'd had free run of Bonesborough for years, so Hunter wouldn't be surprised if the entire town had their minds messed with! Edalyn Clawthorne was a skilled potioneer… maybe she'd spiked the town's water supply? That had to be it!

Lucy was less convinced, but this was a direct order from her Uncle (admittedly given via Adrian). She couldn't defy him… and maybe he was right? He was wiser than she could ever hope to be and had lived for countless centuries as an Immortal Grand Seraphim! Surely he knew what was right. Lucy had to believe he was right! Even if deep in her heart, it felt so, so wrong.

The two Elites followed the scouts and their prisoners outside and watched as they were loaded into a cart. Hunter saw how upset they all looked and decided to try and cheer them up.

"Listen, I know this whole thing is scary, but you don't need to worry! Once Head Witch Adrian pokes around in your heads and undoes the Owl Lady's corruption, you'll all be back to being loyal Imperial citizens! Then there won't be any delay in branding you with coven sigils and taking you away from your friends and family forever. Hooray!" he grinned. That last part was a joke of course, but the Entrails didn't seem to appreciate it… in fact, they looked kinda mad.

Lucy face-palmed; Hunter was an amazing fighter and a great Golden Guard, but he had about as much skill in social situations as he did in using magic without a staff…

The Entrails glared furiously, and Skara (who was treated a little gentler due to her father's position), managed to rip an arm free from the scouts long enough to punch Hunter right in the face, giving him a black eye and knocking him flat. She screamed like a feral animal as the scouts grabbed her again and tossed her into the back of the cart with her teammates. Lucy picked her brother up from the ground, eyes full of tears as the cart drove away.

"Well that wasn't fun." Hunter complained, conjuring a bit of ice and a handkerchief to dab his black eye with. He noticed Lucy's miserable expression and smiled kindly; "Hey now, don't make that face. I'm okay! Something like this is nothing. And they may be mad now, but they'll come around once Head Witch Adrian fixes them! Then we can all be friends!"

Lucy didn't answer; she wasn't so sure. None of this felt right…

Seeing his sister still needed some time, Hunter gave her a hug and a ruffle of her hair, then said; "I'm going to follow them to the precinct and try to cool them off a little. Come along when you feel up to it, okay? I'm sure Gus would be happy to see you."

With that, he walked off and Lucy was left to stand alone outside the Manubrium Covention Centre, feeling nothing but doubt. She hated that she felt that way… she was loyal to her Uncle! He'd saved her life! She owed everything to him, so how could she doubt him!? Why couldn't she be like Hunter, who never seemed to have these doubts!?

Lucy was briefly snapped out of her funk by the sight of Professor Lavestra hurrying out of the Covention Centre. She looked around, but upon seeing Lucy and no sign of her students, she frowned. Lucy briefly told her what had happened and where the Entrails were being taken, after which she saw Lavestra summon her scroll and run off, no doubt calling the students' parents… or perhaps the CATTs? Maybe she was warning them that some of their members had been captured? Lucy didn't know, and she walked away so she wouldn't find out. She didn't want another confrontation right now.

Instead she grabbed her Oracle Stone and said; "Shade, please connect me to Head Witch Osran. I need some advice…"

[Later]

Hunter was still rubbing ice into his black eye as he watched the Emerald Entrails being placed in a cell back at the Manubrium Precinct. He'd tried to insist on more comfortable accommodations, but the Scout Captain had said it was standard procedure with violent suspects, and Skara's punch had ensured they'd stay in a cell until Adrian came for them. Still, Hunter had at least been able to take temporary custody of their Palismen, so they wouldn't immediately be taken to Belos. He was hoping to deliver them personally, so he could appeal to his Uncle and convince him that it wasn't necessary to eat them now that he had a passable alternative.

All but Willow were glaring at him as they watched him place their Palismen in a cage, making him sigh; "Okay, listen; I'm sorry about the whole cell thing, but did you really have to punch me, Skara?"

"Are you kidding? You're handing us over to the Head of the Illusion Coven so he can brainwash us into Belos' minions!" Emira snarled.

"No, I'm handing you over so he can undo the Owl Lady's brainwashing! Trust me, you'll understand soon enough." Hunter smiled. No use getting mad at people not in their right minds.

Viney groaned; "How deluded can you be!? After everything you've seen Belos do, how can you not get that we rebelled of our own free will! We don't want to be a part of his creepy coven! When will you understand that!?"

It was at that moment that Lucy returned, her eyes ringed with red to the concern of Hunter and Gus. She'd clearly been crying, but she kept a neutral expression as she looked to the scouts still in the room with the Entrails' cell.

"You're all dismissed. Go about your duties elsewhere." she ordered softly.

The scouts looked amongst each other, confused. Then one brave man stepped forward and said; "Lady Sentinel, we have orders from the Captain and Head Witch Adrian to-"

"And those orders have been countermanded by the Left Hand of the Emperor and an Angel in service to the Titan!" Lucy growled, spreading her wings out and allowing magic to flood them, making them glow silver as her eyes glowed purple, and the shadows at her feet rippled. The scouts all flinched back, then without another word, they bowed their heads and left. Lucy watched them go, and then as soon as they were gone, she released her Oracle Spirit to act as a look out, then approached the Entrails' cell.

To the shock of everyone, she bowed her head to them and said; "I'm so, so sorry… I should have just broken my promise to Hunter and told you what the prize was, then you probably wouldn't be in this mess."

Gus shook his head; "Lucy, you tried to warn us and you played along with out plan to throw the duels. You did everything you could."

Lucy opened her mouth to disagree, but Hunter cut in; "Wait, you "warned" them not to win? They were trying to throw the duel!?"

Lucy nodded, and looked back to Gus; "I called Head Witch Osran and asked for advice… but he said your recruitment and Head Witch Adrian's actions are all orders from the Emperor and I can't go against him… he said all I could do to try and make this right before it's too late is apologise."

The Entrails, as upset as they were, accepted the girl's apology. She really had tried to help them after all and it wasn't her fault things had gone wrong… their team should have been more overt about throwing the duel and letting Glandus beat them easily. Or they should have surrendered and let Glandus win without even the duel, claiming they were too tired to fight. But they'd been proud and hadn't wanted their hated rivals to win… they'd wanted to lose only to the Golden Guard so they could say Glandus had only won because of the Right Hand of the Emperor…

As the saying goes, Pride cometh before the fall.

"Thank you for trying, Lucy. We understand." Emira said kindly.

"Well I don't." Hunter scowled, stepping forward; "You're joining the best coven there is! You can keep all your magic, you get free room and board, and you can even play Flyer Derby on your day off! Well, this year's day has already passed, but next year is only 52 weeks away!" he tried to sound cheerful, but his words weren't reaching them as they scowled back at him. "Come on, it's not even going to be that long! Once the Day of Unity is over, members of the Coven will become the nobility of the new world! Skara, Willow; you saw what the old nobility was like in Cartilia; you must know you can do a better job!"

Skara growled; "Get it through your thick skull that we don't care! We don't believe Belos' lies and none of us want this!"

"You will eventually, once Head Witch Adrian fixes what the Owl Lady did to your brains. Trust me, once this is done we can all be friends!" Hunter smiled.

"We aren't brainwashed, Hunter! And friends don't stab each other in the back!" Gus argued.

"Sure they do! The Coven Heads do it all the time back at the castle!" Hunter said dismissively, not getting it at all. He'd been raised to believe what Belos wanted him too, and that left him a lot more sheltered than he liked to think.

The boy looked to Willow, who'd been silently facing away from her friends this whole time. Hunter smiled at her; her lack of argument and the fact she'd gone all out and won the event despite her team's plan must mean she was on board with him!

"Captain, you're on my side right?" he asked expectantly.

Willow shook her head miserably; "This is all my fault… I thought I'd changed. I thought I'd gotten better. I thought I'd grown… but I screwed up. Just like Boscha at her worst, I put aside the feelings of my friends and teammates and focused entirely on winning against you without even thinking what it could mean. I got carried away and made a bad call out of stupid pride… and now… I've ruined things for all of us. Adrian will brainwash us into pawns of the Emperor… and it's all my fault!"

She fell to her knees and began to sob as Skara and Gus moved to comfort her, each muttering that it wasn't her fault alone and that they could have all done more to stop this. That their pride had led them here as much as Willow's. Viney and Emira instead glared at Hunter, who was stunned into silence. Seeing Willow, who'd been so strong and confident, break down in tears over this whole affair had struck him like a bolt of lightning straight to the heart. He looked at Lucy for some kind of answer, but all his sister could do was lower her head and send a shadowy hand into the cell to pat Willow's back; a small comfort.

Hunter could do nothing but watch as his heart troubled him. This… this wouldn't matter, right? It was just the Owl Lady's corruption, right? Adrian would fix them! This was the right thing to do...

… right?

The boy watched on in silence, before a giant mass of abomination slime seemed to emerge from the ceiling of the cell and engulf the five Entrails, before it and them were sucked into the floor and vanished. Hunter and Lucy both gasped; that was Head Witch Darius' magic! They turned just in time to see the Palismen cage disappear in the same manner, and then ran outside to see what was going on. They were shocked to find the Entrails bound in abomination goo and sitting behind Head Witch Darius, who had arrived via airship, and who was currently arguing with both Head Witch Adrian and Head Witch Osran, who had arrived with their own airships.

"I won't tell you again, Darius; I was ordered to take these brats back to my coven so I could turn them back into loyal citizens of the Empire. Are you defying the Emperor's order?" Head Witch Adrian demanded.

Adrian Graye Vernworth was a pretentious witch obsessed with his appearance and vanity. He appeared to be purely a witch, but he had a long lion-like tail sprouting from his tail bone, which ended in a tuft of tan fur. His complexion was pale and perfect, and he had cornflower blue eyes and a slicked back and curled hair style that made him look extra pompous. His outfit consisted of light cyan shoes, a teal bodysuit with gold accents on the cuffs and thighs, and a cyan and gold waistcoat with tan fur on the shoulders and a mirror pendant on the chest, as well as dark blue fingerless gloves. His body suit even extended down his tail, ending with a cyan coloured bead, and he wore a strange mirror-like earring on his left ear.

He was currently glaring at Darius, but he looked away to glare at Osran instead; "And you! What are you even doing here, Osran!? This has nothing to do with you."

The Elderly Coven Head stroked his moustache as he replied; "The Silver Sentinel called me, saying she had a bad feeling about this whole affair. As an Oracle in training, her bad feelings should not be ignored, so I decided to try and view the immediate future of these events, and no matter how many times I did, it ended in your demise, Adrian. Naturally, I came to make sure you were safe."

Adrian's eyes widened as he began to look around fearfully; "My demise!? By what means!? What kills me!? Them!?" he pointed at the captive Entrails.

"In one future, yes. In another, I saw you devoured by those Palismen after they broke free. In a third, I saw you assault Darius out of anger and trigger a duel ending in your death. In a fourth, Belos himself executed you, though my visions surrounding the Emperor are always clouded, so I know not why. The worst was the Arch-Angel of Bonesborough attacking you though; at least I assume it was her, since I witnessed you turned to ash and bone by a beam of light." Osran explained, smiling casually.

Adrian shrieked and looked up at the sky for signs of Luz, before backing away from both Darius and the imprisoned Entrails, including their caged Palisman. He began demanding Osran give him more details of these potential futures so that he could avoid them, distracting the man completely. Darius turned to the Entrails to have them subtly board his airship so they could depart to safety, but he was distracted by Hunter rushing up to him like an overeager puppy.

"Darius, I did it! It wasn't how I planned, but I did my job at HECK perfectly and got us some strong new recruits!" he smiled brightly.

Darius narrowed his eyes; "Yes, yes, very good." he said dismissively. He then drew a spell circle and conjured the cloak he'd taken from Hunter a few days ago. "Take this and quit bugging me."

Hunter gasped with delight as he accepted the cloak, looking at the sigil he'd stitched on its back. The stitching somehow looked worse than he remembered it, and something inside him twisted a little. "I can wear this proudly now, right?"

Darius frowned, some unknown emotion flashing in his eyes; "Can you, Golden Guard?"

For some reason, that title sounded like an insult when Darius said it, and Hunter found his doubts returning full force, especially as he looked between the cloak and the expressions of the Emerald Entrails. Could he wear this proudly? Could he wear this symbol while starting to feel doubts about the man who'd bestowed upon him the title that went with it?

Hunter looked over to Lucy; the one person he could always read and understand, and saw her fidgeting like she was trying to think of something to say. He could tell she was trying to think of an argument to make Darius and the other Coven Heads let the Entrails go. His sister truly felt strongly that this was wrong… and Hunter was starting to feel that too.

Swallowing his pride and his lingering doubts, Hunter shook his head and thrust the cloak back at Darius. "No, Head Witch Darius. I don't deserve to wear this."

The man raised an eyebrow; "And why is that?"

Hunter's mind raced for a second, before he replied; "Because I failed in my mission. These five are belligerent, disobedient, and insolent! They are unworthy of joining the Emperor's Coven! Just as I am unworthy to wear that cloak. I recommend these five be dumped back in Bonesborough where they belong."

Lucy and the Entrails all stared at him, each beginning to smile. He averted his eyes from them, only looking briefly at Willow. The girl's olive eyes, still ringed red from her tears, seemed to regain a bit of their spark as a soft smile spread across her face. It was the gentlest, most earnest smile Hunter had seen from her… and it set his heart ablaze.

Darius, eyes wide with surprise, began to smile as well. Perhaps there was hope for the Little Prince after all. He might be less of his Uncle's Nephew than Darius had thought!

However before he could say anything in response, the Abomination Head's attention was drawn over to Adrian and Osran, who were still talking, the former getting more agitated with the latter's vague responses to questions about his death.

"Okay, I get why attacking a fellow Coven Head in anger could lead to my death, but w-why would the Emperor execute me!? I am doing his will!"

"Not any more." Darius cut in smoothly, pulling a roll of parchment from inside his abomination slime hair. He handed it to Adrian with a smirk; "The Emperor rescinded the order. It appears that he and his two Hands are of the same mind and believe recruiting students from Hexside is just inviting trouble from the rebels. The Day of Unity is close at hand after all; he wants no unnecessary risks."

Adrian took the scroll and read through it quickly as Darius watched. After Professor Lavestra had reported what happened back to the school and the CATTs, Lilith had written new orders for the scouts in the Emperor's own handwriting, which she'd learned to mimic back when she'd done most of his paperwork for him. The orders were now for Darius to take custody of the children and drop them back at Hexside to avoid unnecessary conflicts with the CATTs, and had even been stamped with the Emperor's seal, a copy of which Lilith had in her possession ever since before she fled the Emperor's Coven.

As Adrian read the new orders, Darius went over the plan in his head. Only himself, Eber, or Mason could be used for this due to their Coven Head status, so if word of the fake orders got back to Belos, which they almost certainly would, questions would be asked. Darius intended to lie and say the orders were passed along by a scout, but since there was no guarantee it would work, Darius had been selected to complete this task since his abomination transformation and movement abilities made him the most likely to escape with his life should he be discovered. This plan was also safer than trying to launch a rescue mission in the middle of the capital city, with the Emperor's Castle so close by… such a thing was possible with their current strength, but why take such a risk when safer methods were still available?

However, he was fairly stumped by Osran… he had no doubts Lucy had called him; the two had been close since the Titan Trapper incident, but for him to come and seemingly try to help prevent Adrian from completing his mission… what was the man's endgame?

Darius was drawn out of his musings by the sudden laughter of Adrian. The man seemed thoroughly amused by something, making Darius scowl.

"Something funny, Adrian? Or have you finally lost your mind as well as your fashion sense?" Darius snarked.

Adrian smirked at him; "Oh, I'm in my right mind or not. But you must not be… after all, you're betraying the Emperor!"

Hunter and Lucy both gasped and backed away from Darius, while the watching Coven Scouts began to ready weapons and spells, waiting to see what Adrian was talking about.

"You really have lost your mind, haven't you Vernworth? That is an official order written in the Emperor's own hand and marked by his seal. You receive that and dare to call me a traitor?" Darius growled. "Perhaps this is how Osran's vision of your demise comes about?"

"Oh, I have no fear of that now that I know what to expect. With all these scouts and Osran as back-up, I'll be able to trap you so deep in an illusion you'll never know what's real again! And speaking of what's real; these orders are certainly not! You see…"

Adrian reached into his waistcoat and pulled out another scroll, which carried the Emperor's orders for him. He unfurled it, and while Darius couldn't make out the words from this distance, he could see the seal at the bottom… a seal that now looked like the Emperor's mask, but with the sword and wings of the original seal sprouting from it.

Darius cursed and Adrian smirked; "See your error, do you? The Emperor has changed his seal! You never bother reading official orders and only take verbal orders so you wouldn't notice, but ever since Lilith absconded with a copy of the old seal stamp, the Emperor replaced it with a new one! And since Lilith is the only one who has that old seal now AND can copy the Emperor's handwriting, that means you're working with her! Which makes you a traitor and one of the CATTs!" Adrian declared triumphantly.

Darius scowled as he looked around; just about every scout in the Manubrium Precinct was now approaching with their weapons drawn, and he also now had Adrian and Osran to deal with, on top of Hunter and Lucy (who both looked shocked to their cores by his reveal as a traitor). It was disappointing timing too… the Little Prince looked like he was just about ready to pull his head out of his behind! But Darius had bigger things to worry about; he could try and escape with the kids using his slime, but his range was limited when taking so many people and Palismen… He could also release the kids so they could help him fight, but that would just put them in danger and they'd still be at a disadvantage since the kids were tired from HECK.

"What to do, what to do…?" he thought, keeping calm.

To his surprise, it was Osran who made the first move. He conjured a large Oracle Spirit from the crystal ball he always carried around, then ordered it to strike at his fellow Coven Head. However to the shock of everyone, the fellow Coven Head it attacked was not Darius, but Adrian! The large spirit shrieked like a banshee as it swiped its claws at Adrian, making the man scream in a very unmanly fashion as he tried to dive out of the way. He avoided the brunt of the attack, but the claws still managed to scrape his back, damaging his clothes and leaving very shallow cuts in his skin, while also ripping open the seat of his pants and exposing his underwear, much to the man's mortification. If everyone wasn't so surprised by Osran's brazen attack, they'd have been laughing at Adrian's dramatic scream and visible underwear (which amusingly had little blue love hearts all over them).

"What are you doing, Osran?" Darius asked, stunned.

The old man sighed; "Finally retiring, so it seems. I lied when I told Adrian what I saw in his future… but I did not lie about looking into the future that lead from these events. Had he succeeded in taking these children back to his Headquarters, he would have brainwashed them into slaves of the Emperor. It would have permanently erased their original personalities and made them nothing but obedient drones."

Hunter and Lucy both went a little green at the idea; "N-No… is Adrian a traitor too!?"

"No, boy. This would be done on your Uncle's orders. Adrian is ambitious, but an act like this earns him nothing. Belos wants mindless servants with insight on the CATTs… he would have questioned them and they would have answered, only to die as a result of an Oath they took to keep the Rebels' secrets." Osran informed him; "I decided that enough was enough. Belos has given me plenty of reasons to doubt him, and the brainwashing, enslavement, and second hand murder of five children is just the final, very large nail in the coffin of my loyalty. Darius, I am with you!"

The (now former) Abomination Head grinned; "Well isn't this a surprise. Never knew you had a conscience, old man!"

"Y-You'll pay for this!" Adrian spat, getting to his feet; "Kill the traitors and seize the students!" he ordered, before hobbling over to hide on his airship. The man wasn't badly hurt, but he was a drama queen and a weakling when it came to anything physical, so no one was surprised to see him running like a coward.

The Coven Scouts all nervously approached the two Rebel Coven Heads, both of who prepared their own spells to fight back with. Darius freed the kids and their Palismen, allowing them to stand and fight too, evening the odds a little more. There was a brief stand-off between the two groups, with Hunter and Lucy not entirely sure what side they were on after hearing what Osran had just said. They couldn't fully believe what Osran had told them; not without proof anyway, but they also couldn't risk capturing the Entrails if he was telling the truth! Rebels or not, Hunter and Lucy didn't want them to die!

Thankfully, there would be no battle. Osran's spirit started to get agitated after a few seconds, then shrieked and hid inside its Oracle Stone. Lucy briefly thought it was reacting to her, but she wasn't using any magic at that moment, and Shade was also shuddering inside her stone.

Then, a massive beam of light descended from the sky above the Manubrium Precinct. The beam was monstrously large and silver in colour, and as it descended from the clouds, it suddenly split into dozens of smaller silver beams, which wove through the air and struck each individual scout. Their weapons were destroyed in an instant, and they themselves were blasted over with enough force to knock most of them out in a single hit. The remaining scouts, injured but conscious, looked around in terror for the source of the attack.

At that moment, a swirling gale filled the air and the clouds above the precinct parted, like the eye of a storm, and revealed two things. One was an airship bearing the emblem of the CATTs (a black cat's head with golden eyes and white owl wings), and the other was Luz, in her Holy Raiment with her six wings spread wide. Her eyes were glowing softly in the evening light, and the scouts below began to shake in fear.

"I-It's her! It's the Arch-Angel!"

"S-She took out half the precinct with one spell!" one of them shrieked.

"Half the precinct in one spell… that's a good idea." Luz declared, before suddenly whistling sharply. She closed her eyes, using Bardic Magic to turn the whistle into a sonar so she could detect all life inside the precinct. Once she knew who and what was inside, she smiled and conjured another monstrous beam of light, though this one was golden in colour. She blasted it down on the Precinct, vaporising half of the building that happened to be empty thanks to the scouts being outside.

The scouts could only stare in horror at the smouldering crater that had once been half a building, as well as the numerous unconscious bodies of their fellow scouts around them. This was the power wielded by an Arch-Angel… the power of one on the same level as the Emperor!

"R-RUN!" one scout screamed, before fleeing into the city. The rest of his companions soon followed suit, as did any scouts or EC personnel in the remaining half of the Manubrium precinct. Adrian poked his head out from his hiding place on his airship and screamed at the scouts to come back and do their duty, but then Luz looked in his direction and he shrieked like a little girl, before ordering his guards to take the airship into the air so they could retreat too. Luz considered shooting them down and taking Adrian captive, but her showy destruction of the precinct and the defeat of so many scouts with her silver light had actually winded her a little, so she decided to let the man go for now and focus on securing her friends.

She flew down to join Darius, Osran, and the Emerald Entrails, and gave the latter group a big hug.

"Hey guys! Glad to see you're all okay!" Luz greeted.

"Yeah, thanks to you and Darius! And I guess Osran and those two as well." Willow replied, looking over to Hunter and Lucy, who hadn't fled and were still half-heartedly pointing their staves at Darius, looking conflicted.

"Yes… it seems I've been exposed as a traitor." Darius sighed; "As have you, Osran. I don't suppose I could convince you to join the CATTs? Having a second Coven Head on board would be an excellent boon."

Osran smiled; "I'll agree happily. I allowed myself to be deluded by Belos for too long. But we should go elsewhere; it won't be long before Belos learns what happened here and comes looking for us with a larger force."

"Good idea. I kinda want to get home too and let Dad know I'm okay." Gus said, getting murmurs of agreement from the others.

"Your parents are all up on the airship." Luz replied, pointing to the airship she'd arrived with. "Raine didn't like sending Darius on his own with the fake orders; they said too much could go wrong, so we all came along too for back up. A good thing too!" Luz explained.

"Indeed. I'll have to thank Raine, though Edalyn won't let me hear the end of this, I'm sure. Be a dear and tell whoever's flying the airship to pick us up outside of town in a few minutes; I think Osran and I need to have a little talk with the Hands of the Emperor." Darius said.

Luz nodded and flew with the Entrails up to the airship, leaving Darius, Osran, Hunter, and Lucy on the ground. Before the young Elites could make a move, Darius used abomination slime to swallow them all up, then spit them out in a forest clearing outside of town.

The instant they arrived, Hunter grabbed Lucy and flashed away a few paces; "W-What are you doing!? Why did you kidnap us!? Why did you betray the Emperor!?" he demanded.

Darius sighed; "You just heard what Osran said about Belos' plans, and yet you still ask that?"

Hunter frowned; "I-I can't be sure he's telling the truth! He's a rebel now!"

"Yes, he is… but you started having doubts too, didn't you? After all, you tried so hard to get recruits to prove your worth and get your cloak back…" Darius held up the cloak Hunter had returned to him; "… and yet when you got what you wanted, you rejected it and tried to save them instead. Don't try and lie that those five were unfit to be recruits, like you did in front of the scouts; you became fond of them and didn't want to see them forced into something they hated. Right?"

Hunter bit his lip; "I… I just felt that something was wrong."

Darius smiled kindly; "You stood up to me and risked the Emperor's wrath, because you knew what was happening was wrong. Your conscience overpowered your loyalty. I'm impressed. And you…" he turned to Lucy, who straightened up a little; "You called Osran because you felt it was wrong too, but couldn't bring yourself to defy your saviour, right? That was brave, in its own way."

He then twirled his finger and caused two scrolls to appear; "You've made friends, finally. You're what? Sixteen and Twelve? It's about time you made proper friends, and ones outside the castle at that. Consider these a gift to celebrate the occasion." Darius said, giving a scroll to each of them.

Lucy accepted hers happily, bowing her head and thanking Darius, while Hunter eyed it suspiciously. "I-I shouldn't take this… you're a rebel now!"

"It's not bugged if that's what you're afraid of." Darius smirked; "But do with it as you please. Along with this."

He returned Hunter's cape, and used Abomination Magic to redo his poor stitches into something actually respectable. Hunter accepted the scroll and cape with wide eyes as Darius ruffled his hair; "If you keep following that conscience of yours, I think you'll make your predecessors proud. Look after yourself and your sister, Hunter. Next time we meet, we'll sadly be on opposite sides."

With that, Darius turned and walked to the other side of the clearing, where he could see the CATTs airship coming to pick them up as requested. He'd taken the kids out of the city so he could have a private talk with them, and so Hunter and Lucy could honestly say they'd been kidnapped and escaped when they returned to Belos. No use forcing the kids to be rebels; it had to be their choice.

Meanwhile, Osran approached Lucy and smiled kindly; "You did very well today, Lucy. It might not be what the Emperor wanted, but by trying to help those kids avoid Belos' "prize" and then calling me, you truly did save them from a terrible fate. I know you might not believe me, and Belos will certainly deny it should you ask him, but it is the truth."

Lucy's eyes began to glisten with emotion; "Head Witch Osran…"

"I'm not a Head Witch any longer, though I shudder to think who Belos will have replace me. Instead, you can call me Grandpa if you'd like. You could do with more family members who care for you and your brother. Besides, all my actual descendants are far too snobbish and up themselves to bother spending time with this old man. Whatever you decide, I'll always treasure the time we spent together. Teaching you was a delight, my dear." Osran smiled, reaching up to pat the girl's hand.

Lucy sniffled; "Grandpa Osran… I'm so confused. I can't believe the things you said about Uncle, but I can't believe you'd lie like that either! I don't know what to do!"

"I understand. But you know you can trust your brother, just as he can trust you. Trust in each other and your hearts, and decide for yourself what you should do. No one else can make that choice for you. And even if we're now on opposite sides of this war, you can always come visit me in Bonesborough. I'm sure I can find a quiet spot to continue our lessons. I'll even make tea, and those little ghost shaped cookies you love."

Despite herself, Lucy giggled and hugged Osran. He returned the hug and then began to slowly hobble over to the airship, which had landed now. He turned back only briefly to smile at Hunter; "Darius is right about you, Lad. I've met many Golden Guards, and I think they'd be proud of the man you're growing into. Now be sure to protect your sister! I'll give you a scolding that'd make your ears ring if she gets hurt on your watch!"

Hunter nodded seriously, even as he felt so strange inside. Today had been so confusing… why were the people on his own side making him doubt his life so much, while the enemy were the ones reaffirming him? He put a hand on his sister's shoulder as she cried and waved to her Grandpa, wondering if she was feeling the same things he was.

They watched together as Darius and Osran boarded the CATTs airship, then surprisingly, Willow and Gus hopped off and came running over. The two Elites had no idea what the two wanted, but Gus was smiling and Willow had a strange expression on her face that Hunter couldn't identify.

Gus ran right up to Lucy, beaming at her unabashedly. "Lucy! Sorry to bother you again so soon, but I couldn't leave without thanking you properly."

"Thanking me? For what?" Lucy frowned.

"For trying to warn us about the prize! And for calling Osran! None of us knew he was gonna turn rebel, but him showing up really helped save our butts! And I know this could all land you in hot water with Belos, so it means a lot that you tried to help, especially since we're rebels." Gus explained. There was really no hiding that fact now… though it was admittedly an open secret by this point.

The young Angel blushed; "B-But my warning didn't help… and I didn't know Grandpa Osran would show up. I called him because I felt guilty and wanted advice on what I should do… it was for selfish reasons. That doesn't deserve thanks."

Gus tilted his head; "So? You still tried to help, and it not working wasn't your fault. Sometimes trying is enough, y'know."

"Back in the castle, it doesn't matter how hard you try… if you don't succeed, then nothing you did mattered." Lucy mumbled.

"Well this isn't the castle, and I say you helped a ton! So put her there!" Gus grinned, raising his hand for a high five. Lucy just stared at him, touched by his words and a little confused by the gesture. The boy chuckled and whispered; "Slap my hand, it's a human thing!"

Lucy weakly slapped his hand in response, and Gus smiled so widely that Lucy could feel it infecting her, and she smiled too. Then, unable to help herself, she hugged the boy with both her arms and her wings, wrapping him up tightly. She seemed to realise what she'd done and let go with a squeak, but Gus just put his arms around her shoulders and hugged back, blushing a little himself, but still smiling. The two eventually separated, both laughing and blushing nervously, but smiling all the same.

Willow and Hunter watched the two for a few moments, the former smiling at the joy of one of her best friends, and the latter puzzled by his sister's reaction to the friendly boy. Lucy seemed to like Gus a lot… Hunter didn't realise they'd become such good friends!

"So… I'm guessing you want an apology for everything I said earlier." Hunter eventually said, turning to Willow. "A part of me still thinks the Owl Lady brainwashed you, and Osran is lying to try and make Uncle look like a bad guy… but another part of me thinks that something is wrong about this whole situation. Still, I'm sorry for being callous and not understanding how you and the other Entrails felt."

Willow shook her head; "I didn't come for an apology. What happened today was my own fault… I enjoyed bantering with you, and when we duelled, I got so into it that I forgot the plan and endangered my whole team. Darius and Osran were exposed because of me, and my team were almost brainwashed, enslaved, and murdered because I screwed up. Even so, everyone forgave me… both back in the cell, and on the airship. They all said they understand that the adrenaline of the duel got to me, and that by winning I was actually saving those Glandus kids from being forced to join the coven, since the CATTs might not have moved to save them quickly enough… But it doesn't change the fact that I know in my heart that I did something wrong… just like you knew in your heart that what Adrian was doing was wrong."

Hunter nodded slowly; "I guess we both made stupid decisions today. For the record, I'm sorry for my part in all of this. I… I'm going to have a talk with Uncle, and ask him about all of this. I know that deep down he's a good man trying to do the right thing; I just want to understand how all this results in that."

Willow stared at the boy for a moment; he really did believe his Uncle was good… Hunter's faith in Belos was as unshakeable as Willow's was in Luz. She could understand why, given what she knew of him, but she still felt compelled to try and make him see the truth. Hunter was already taking the first step of starting to question things, so Willow decided to tell him a little story of her past.

"Do you remember how awful my records were, from when I was in the abomination track?" she began. Hunter nodded, wondering where this had come from. Willow continued; "Well I didn't choose that track. My Papa was in that track when he attended Glandus, and he felt it was the track with the best opportunities… Abomination Witches are highly sort after and well respected after all. He did it thinking he was doing what was best for me… but he was wrong, and it ended up hurting me a lot. The bullying and confidence issues I had all stemmed from that decision, and the fact I was pretty useless at everything but Plant Magic."

Hunter frowned; "That must have been difficult."

"It was. If it weren't for Gus, I would have been completely alone in the world. Then when Luz came and everything changed, I was finally able to tell my Papa the truth. I'd never said anything because I was scared of disappointing him and hurting him… and in the end, Papa was hurt. But he was hurt because he'd been hurting me all this time. We were both doing something we shouldn't have because we thought it was what was best for someone we loved." Willow explained, before looking Hunter in the eye; "But the reason I'm telling you all this Hunter, is that Papa thought he was doing what was best, only for him to be wrong. I want you to think about if Belos is doing the same; could what he's doing be wrong… and would he be willing to change if he realises he's hurting people… hurting you. Because if he knows and doesn't care, or refuses to believe he could be wrong no matter how much evidence there is against him… then maybe you should reconsider the kind of man he really is."

The scarred boy could do nothing but stare back at Willow, trying to comprehend what she was telling him. He wanted to say she was just trying to exploit his doubts to turn him against his Uncle, but he didn't feel like Willow would do such a thing. No, the comparison to her situation with her father seemed to be less about Belos' actions towards the isles, and more about Hunter's relationship with the man.

"I… I'll keep that in mind." Hunter conceded, having too much going on in his head to say anything more at the moment.

Willow smiled; "I'm glad. I also wanted to thank you for standing up to Darius for us. He may have been on our side, but you didn't know that and it was very brave. Despite everything… I'm glad I got to know you better today."

Hunter smiled in return; "Yeah, me too."

"And who knows; Gus and Lucy seem to be pretty happy over there, so maybe we can be friends too? I could use a new player on the Emerald Entrails! Emira's not really that into it; she's just doing it as a favour for her girlfriend, so I'd be willing to give you a shot… on your next day off that is." Willow said with a cheeky grin.

Hunter blushed; he really loved that grin.

"I'll be sure not to let you down, Captain." Hunter replied, a faint blush on his cheeks.

Willow blushed too and turned to walk away, looking back over her shoulder just long enough to wink and wave at the boy, before returning to the airship. A few moments later, she was joined by Gus, while Hunter and Lucy stood together and watched as the airship took off. The two had a lot to think about, but no matter how their next talk with Belos went, they wouldn't regret today and the friends they'd made. The Civil War was starting to become complicated for them though; neither side looked evil to them… they needed to talk to their Uncle.

Meanwhile, as the CATTs airship took off and headed to Bonesborough (Darius' airship had been abandoned in Manubrium, since it belonged to his coven anyway), the gathered kids sat with their parents. Emira sat beside her father as he piloted the ship, both muttering quietly about the day's events. Viney was sat between her boisterous Mom Valtora, and her calmer Mama Meesha, who was a 5ft 11 Snow Leopard Cait Sith wearing a pretty white dress with a blue hood to denote her job as a Healer. The girl was recounting her day as Valtora listened with a proud grin and Meesha gently groomed Viney's hair. Willow sat with Gilbert and Harvey and talked quietly as they asked her several pointed questions about Hunter. Gus was going through a similar, more light-hearted experience with his dad Perry too, who grinned while asking about Lucy.

The only one without parents' present was Skara, so she sat with Luz, Darius, and Osran as they discussed the latter's defection.

"So you've been having doubts about Belos since learning about King being a Titan?" Luz asked after listening to the man's story.

"Indeed. He made up some excuses about knowing all along and pretending not to so people wouldn't think a Titan favoured the rebels, but I'm old enough to know when someone is trying to scam me. He tried to hide his surprise when we told him by using redirection, but I'm not so easily fooled. I'm unable to scry on him or predict his future, but I can predict the futures of those around him, and after Lucy called me in such distress and told me what was going on with Belos' "prize", I had to look into the future of those children." Osran explained.

"And what you saw was horrifying enough to make you finally turn on Belos." Darius finished. "And now you want to join the CATTs?"

"Want is a strong word." the elderly Demon replied; "I want to retire and have nothing to do with this fight. But so long as Lucy and her brother are still being used by Belos, I can't just sit back like some old fogey. So if you promise not to hurt those two, then I'll sign up with the CATTs and help however I can."

Luz smiled brightly; "That's great! You'll need approval from Mom, Raine, and our other leaders, and you'd also need to make an oath, but it shouldn't be a problem! With your help, we'll be one step closer to beating Belos and saving everyone! Hunter and Lucy included!"

Osran smiled; Luz was an interesting girl. His only experience with her had been the sickly child he'd met back at the Knee and on Titan Trapper Island, but now that she was in good health, he could see just how similar and yet how different she was from Lucy. In their faces and their core natures as kind-hearted and helpful young ladies, the two were nearly identical, but the rest of their beings were like night and day… or like light and shadow.

The old man chuckled. He had a feeling that spending time with Luz would make him miss his new grandchild very much. Still, it would be worth it to make a happy future for the Little Shadow and her loving big brother.