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.

46. EP 4: Ascension

The Angel of the Owl House

Season 3: The Divine Realm

Chapter 4: Ascension

When King had first awoken and found himself trapped inside a seemingly infinite white void, he had been worried about his friends and family back in the Divine Realm, who were now at the mercy of the Collector. That worry lingered, but the most prominent emotion he felt swiftly became boredom as he was stuck waiting around in the void with nothing to do. He tried flying as fast as he could to find the edge, but there was no edge to find; the void really was infinite! He'd tried making glyphs and roaring to bust his way out, but his roar had just echoed on into the distance, not hitting anything, and his glyphs failed to have any effect either. It was all pointless, and a combination of frustration and boredom filled him.

However, that all changed when a spot suddenly appeared high above him. King frowned and began flying up to see what this odd silvery grey spot was, but before he could get close, the entire void around him began to shift and he suddenly found himself in the middle of Gran Seraphia.

"Weh!?" King yelped in surprise as he looked around. He was stood in a vaguely familiar spot, only with a huge crater directly in front of him that exposed the under city that Lazuliel had said contained the power plants and waterworks of the humongous city. Confused, King looked around and saw that he appeared to be in the Gold District, which made him suddenly recognise what he was looking at! This was the site of the Patience Court, only now the whole estate had been ripped out of the ground to make the Collector's castle. King winced at the sight of the damage and hoped it could be fixed, then looked around to try and find out what was going on, how he got here, and what had happened to Luz and the others.

Upon looking at the rest of the city however, he gasped in horror.

Gran Seraphia was a total mess; most of the city looked to have been ripped apart and turned into building blocks for various giant toys, and what remained looked like it had been turned into doll houses by the same magic that turned people into Puppets. Even the Platinum Spire itself had somehow been toppled over like a giant jenga tower, leaving its pieces scattered throughout the city.

"What happened!? Did the Collector do all of this!? Where is he!? Where is everyone!?" King cried, before taking to the air and beginning to fly off towards the nearest location he thought he'd find them; Lazuliel's apartment. As he flew, he saw the Angels and animals of the city all turned into puppets, going about their days or playing games according to the Collector's will, each one moving and dancing around like a puppet on strings.

When King arrived at Lazuliel's apartment, he flew in through the balcony and immediately cried out in horror. All his friends were present, except they had all been turned into puppets. They were completely still, their eyes blank as they rested wherever they lay; Hunter and Willow's puppets were sat together and staring blankly out at the city from the balcony. Lyra and Gus's puppets were in the Rec Room, slumped over an unfinished jigsaw puzzle, with Matt's puppet staring blankly at an open book on his lap off to the side. Skara and Boscha's puppets were in the kitchen, their pots and pans full of plastic and wooden food, and Camila was laying face down on the sofa, a strange puddle of water beneath her face, which King feared was actually a puddle of tears. He didn't see Lazuliel, Hanu, or Treble anywhere, nor did Luz, Amity, and Vee appear to be present.

"What's going on!? Where are the others? Is the Collector with them!?" King cried.

His voice seemed to activate the Camila Puppet, whose head suddenly jerked mechanically towards him. Her mouth opened and a pre-recorded voice played, sounding like Camila's if she was speaking through an old fashioned radio.

"Well hello there King! Come to play again? Everyone is just where you and the Collector left them!" she said in a creepily cheery fashion.

"T-The Collector and I did this!?" King exclaimed.

"Oh boy did you! We played over and over and over… No matter how much we didn't want to…"

King startled backward; that last part had sounded angry and hateful, a tone he'd never heard his Tia Cammie direct at him.

"I-I don't know what's happening…!" he cried.

"Sure you do, silly! You unleashed the Collector on us and ruined everything!" the Puppet Camila said, sitting up. Tears began to leak down her face, even as it was forever frozen in a pleasant, happy expression.

King backed off; "N-No, I didn't want this! I was trying to save Luz!"

"Oh, would you prefer to play with Luz? Then that's just peachy with me! She's in her room right now! She's growing up fast! Go and look what you've done to my daughter!"

That last part was spoken with such vitriol that King actually stumbled backward and landed on his backside, before scrambling back to his feet and running to the bedroom Camila had pointed to. He didn't take his eyes off Camila though, and but she sat where she was and didn't move a muscle to do anything but follow him with her eyes. Even moving right behind her just caused her head to turn unnaturally far, as only a puppet could. King gulped and reached behind him to open the door, then flew backwards through it and slammed the door to finally break Camila's line of sight.

Sighing with relief, King then turned around and gulped as he was met by a horrifying sight; Lazuliel's guest bedroom had been redecorated to resemble the room of a little girl, and the centre of the room had a bed with a small lump in it, while the back of the room had a crib with an ominous sheet stretched over it. Kneeling on either side of the bed with their heads down were the Puppet Amity and Vee, who each slowly turned to face him.

"Here to play with Luz again, King?" Puppet Amity asked, speaking in the same way Puppet Camila had.

"That would be nice. It's her birthday today after all." Puppet Vee said, "We were just getting ready for her maintenance, to make her one year older and a little bit bigger."

"M-Maintenance!? What are you talking about!? She's a person, not a thing!" King cried.

The two puppets giggled; "Oh silly, we're not people now. You and the Collector made sure of that!" Puppet Amity said.

"That's right! We're just toys for your amusement! And toys don't grow up, so we need to fix Luz up so she's bigger, to match her age!" Puppet Vee said, before pointing to the covered crib; "Go and look and what you've done to her, just as you've done it to us!"

King shuddered; he didn't want to see what was in the covered crib, but he also couldn't help himself; he needed to go and look! He needed to see what the Collector had done! What he had done to his sister!

Gingerly, he flew over to the crib and yanked off the white sheet, before screaming at what he saw. Lying in the crib was the puppet form of Luz, only she was completely shattered and broken. Her eyes were missing, as were chunks of her hair and large pieces of her body too, revealing the hollow wooden interior. Even her clothing had been torn up and shredded, leaving the puppet looking like it had been chewed on by a large monster! King covered his mouth, feeling ready to be sick and turned around, facing Puppet Vee and Amity, both of whom were staring at him with blank puppet eyes.

"W-What's going on!? What happened to Luz!?" King cried.

"Oh don't worry about that! She got a little broken, that's all." Puppet Vee said, before her voice switched back to the hateful one; "I should never have helped you! If you hadn't unleashed the Collector… Luz blamed herself for all of it…"

"You broke her!" Puppet Amity cried, before her voice became pleasant again; "But it's okay! We know she's your favourite toy, so we made sure to fix her up just like the Seraphim were going to! Take a look!"

The two puppets pulled the sheet off the bed between them and revealed what the lump was. It was another puppet, who slowly sat up to reveal what appeared to be 9 year old Puppet Luz. She looked similar to how she had in the pictures King saw in Camila's house, only far worse! Her face and body were covered in cracks, and her clothes were patchwork versions of her previous Holy Raiment. It took a moment for him to realise, but King soon figured out why she looked like this; her older puppet self had broken, and its pieces were cobbled together to make this new Luz… this Reformed Luz.

"No… No no no no NO! T-This can't be happening!" King cried, clutching his skull and shaking his head.

"Do you not want to play with me any more, King?" Puppet Luz asked in a little broken voice. Hers didn't sound like a recording like the others… hers sounded real! "I know I'm ugly like this… and weak. I'm sorry I couldn't save you… but you can just break me again. You and the Collector can break me and rebuild me as much as you want. This is all my fault after all; if I had been better, you wouldn't have needed to bargain with the Collector to save me. Now everyone is doomed and it's all my fault."

"No! It isn't your fault! I wanted to save you for once! To save everyone! I couldn't let those Angels take you away!" King sobbed, tears beginning to stream down his eyes.

Suddenly, the bedroom door slammed open and the puppets of his other friends began slowly shambling in like zombies.

"Come play with us King!"

"You doomed us all!"

"Let's have fun!"

"Look at what's been done to us!"

"Everything is just swell! Forget the Demon Realm!"

"We'll never see our families again!"

"The Divider isn't our problem any more!"

"Eda, Lilith, Raine… we've lost everyone because of you!"

King shook his head and tried to block out what they were saying. He closed his eyes and covered his ears, whimpering as the guilt overcame him. This wasn't real! It couldn't be real! He couldn't have been in that white void for that long! It was a trick! An illusion! A nightmare!

"You tried to help but made everything worse… you should never have been born!" the Puppet Luz finished, as the others surrounded him.

King's sobbing suddenly stopped. That didn't sound right… it had been said in Luz's voice, but it was definitely not Luz that had said it! That was something else… something dark and twisted… something within himself.

The Luz he knew would never say such a thing about him. She'd probably say it about herself, but never him. He knew that as surely as he knew his name was King. Those words hadn't been Luz's feelings at all! They'd been his own, flung back in his face in a swarm of self-loathing. Was this how Luz had felt earlier, when trying to accept Reformation to save them all? Believing it was better to die (even if only in spirit) than continue on as the person she'd feared she'd become?

Understanding suddenly flooded King. He was being faced with his own guilt; his fear that releasing the Collector had ruined everything and broken Luz even further, because King knew in his heart that if Luz could blame herself for the Divider and Belos' bad deeds because she "helped" them, then she'd definitely blame herself for the Collector too since King had released him to help save her. But this situation wasn't Luz's fault, it was King's; a well-meaning action that had blown up in his face a little bit… And while King despised Luz's habit of blaming herself and taking all the responsibility onto herself, he could credit her for one thing; she never just let her mistakes go! She tried to fix them, even if the methods she chose weren't what anyone wanted.

King would do the same! He would not sit here wallowing in guilt, listening to these stupid fakes as they made him feel hopeless and broken! He would stand up and solve the problem he'd created! He would fix it, he would save the others, and he would save Luz! And now that he understood where she was coming from, maybe King could commiserate and help her get over her guilt! Maybe he could make her see how amazing she was, just as King knew how amazing he was! He was a super cool, super powerful Titan! The King of Sons, the King of Little Brothers, and yes, the King of friends to childish Sephiroth who needed a lesson on what was right and what was wrong! He was King, he was awesome, and even if he messed up, he had a ton of people who loved him!

"I don't care what any of you fakes have to say! I know who I am and what I've done, and I'm gonna keep being amazing and getting better! I am going to get out of here and save my friends, and we are gonna save our families and the whole world! And we'll do it TOGETHER!" King roared, that last word punctuated by a literal Titan Roar that blasted all the puppets away, causing them and the world around him to shatter and become a white void again.

King panted, catching his breath for a moment. As he did so and tried to think of how to escape the white void the Collector trapped him in, he noticed something strange. He was seeing coloured spots in his vision, which refused to shift no matter how much he blinked. Not only that, but he was getting a tingly feeling in his chest, not unlike the feelings he'd gotten at his tower on Titan Cradle Island, or when Luz had been stabbed on Titan Trapper Island. It was like magic was filling his veins, and making his heart beat a little faster, as well as making his blood feel warmer. The coloured dots solidified more in his vision, becoming less blurry until he could finally make them out properly. They weren't dots at all, but rings; four of them arranged in a triangle with three smaller ones as the points and a larger one in the middle. The large central ring was white, while the other rings were gold, purple, and yellow.

"Are those… glyphs? My glyphs?" King wondered aloud, eyes wide. He was afraid to blink, thinking they might vanish. The glyphs didn't look fully formed yet, being empty rings without the interior symbols, but based on the colours, King guessed they were light, darkness, and lightning… but the white ring completely eluded him. There was no white glyph among the others he'd seen, with even the element of light represented by gold. Did that make the white glyph a unique one? His unique one that his parents didn't have? Each Titan Baby is supposed to be born with three of their parents' elements and a fourth that neither had, but his parents had all eight elements together, so the only way for King to have one his parents didn't was for him to have obtained an entirely new, never before seen type! A ninth type of glyph!

"What could it be…?" King wondered aloud. With no markings to draw, King couldn't even try and make a paper glyph! However, when he focused on the new feeling in his chest, he found his paws beginning to glow with a white aura. "I… I think I can use that glyph's power even without knowing the symbol! It feels unfinished and weak, but the power is still there!"

King began to giggle excitedly; he'd grown up a little more (in spirit if not in size) and begun awakening more of his magic! Sure it was still kind of half-baked, but it was his! He began manipulating the magic with his will, copying what he'd heard his Mom and the other grown-ups telling the Hexsquad in their lessons. He couldn't shoot the magic, as it would dissipate as soon as it left his aura, but he could extend it to about an inch away from his body before it became unusable. It didn't seem to do anything to him when he tried to cast it on himself, nor did it do anything to a strand of fur he plucked off himself, so he was still no closer to figuring out what it did.

"Well whatever, it's still cool! I can't wait to show Luz!" King declared happily. "Now I just need a way out of here…"

He began to look around, and to his disappointment, the coloured rings in his vision began to fade away until they were gone completely. He could still summon up the incomplete white magic though, so he didn't care too much, and just got back to searching. At first glance there was still nothing in the void, but then King suddenly remembered something and looked up. The strange silvery grey spot that had appeared before the void turned into that nightmare was still present, flickering strangely. Feeling curious, King flew up towards it and soon realised what it was.

It was a replica of the Collector's mirror, just floating in the void. King blinked and poked it, finding that it didn't budge nor did it feel unusual. There was magic in it though that felt a little like the Collector's magic, but touching it didn't let King talk to the Collector. He tried to fly around it, but wherever he went, the mirror moved so it was always facing him. King was hesitant to break it, but he tried to use his Titan Roar on it, which didn't achieve anything besides making a loud "Weh!" echo through the void for a few seconds.

"Okay, what the heck am I supposed to do with this thing? Why is it here?" King frowned, getting frustrated. "It showed up before that nightmare, so it's gonna be related… the Collector must have made it too, since it's got his magic. My roar didn't work, but if it's got Sephiroth magic, then maybe a different kind of Titan Magic will work!" King theorised, conjuring the white magic again.

With no better plans, he touched the mirror with his white magic and grinned as he saw the magic automatically envelop the mirror in a white aura. The mirror began to glow brighter and brighter, until it finally flashed brightly enough to blind King, causing him to recoil. He felt a sudden rush of vertigo as the world around him shifted, before opening his eyes to find something completely different.

King was in the In-Between Realm, looking out through a crystal barrier at another of the Collector's mirrors, which this time showed him his reflection. Only it couldn't be his reflection, because the King in the mirror had no wings and was a bit smaller. King tried to look down at himself to see if he'd been de-aged, only to find he couldn't move at all. He couldn't move, speak, or even look in any direction but the one he was already facing. Heck, he couldn't even blink! It was extremely bizarre.

That feeling only got worse when he felt his body move on its own, pressing its hands against the barrier… only those weren't his hands; they were the Collector's! He recognised the pale yellow skin and over large sleeves, and now that he noticed it, there was a slight reflection in the barrier that showed the Collector's face!

Was King trapped inside the Collector's body!? But then what was with the barrier, and why was he in the In-Between Realm looking at a reflection of King?

King then felt his (the Collector's?) mouth begin to move as his body spoke on its own in the voice of the Star Child; "That's why you look so familiar! You're not a Titan Trapper at all! You're the baby of those two Titans! You're the Last Titan!" his voice cried with joy; "Finally! I won't be alone any more! I'll be free!"

King felt a rush of joy and relief flood him, emotions which must have belonged to the Collector. King watched as his mirror image stepped back in shock, looking terrified, and he suddenly realised what this was! This was the Collector's memories! King was experiencing the Collector's memory of when they first met, and feeling everything he'd felt!

"The Collector was so happy to see me. I can feel how much he liked me, even back then. He really did see me as his best friend, right from that first meeting…" King thought, at least having those to himself.

He snapped back to attention as he heard the voice of Tarak from the mirror, and the man himself suddenly appeared in its reflection. He looked awestruck as he began to praise the Past King; "You did it! You fixed the Huntsman's Talisman! You are a credit to the Titan Trappers!"

King felt a flash of annoyance that was not his own as the Collector scoffed softly, then began to cackle; "He's not a Titan Trapper, Dumb Dumb! He's an actual Titan! He's the last one we've been looking for!"

Again, the Collector was overcome with joy, but that joy soon melted into confusion and then horror when he saw Tarak's eyes harden as he began to draw a spell circle at King. Then there was surprise and amusement as the past King cried "WEH!" and sent Tarak flying.

That amusement then became horror once more as the mirror showed King facing towards him once more and begin to inhale. Frantic terror filled the Collector as he shouted; "No! Please don't! I don't want to hurt you, I just wanna be-!"

"WEH!"

That single shout silenced the Collector, who watched as the mirror in front of him shattered into countless pieces.

"… friends." the Collector finished, full of sorrow and disappointment. "I just wanna be friends. I don't wanna be alone any more…"

The total misery that filled King from the Collector's memories made him feel genuinely awful for the poor kid. King hadn't known he wasn't a bad guy back then, and had inadvertently hurt him deeply. It made it hard for King to feel too mad at the Collector even with the bad things he was currently doing… he wasn't malicious after all; he was just a kid.

King's sympathy for the Collector only grew as his eyes filled with tears, making it hard to see anything. Not that this mattered too much, as a sudden flash of light then filled King's vision and he found himself back in control of his own body. He startled awake, blinking owlishly and looking around at his surroundings. He was in some kind of huge playpen, with his friends' Palismen snoozing nearby and a barrier around him. He was also laying on a comfy pillow, which flashed as magic faded from it, confusing King. Looking beyond the barrier, he saw nine golden bird cages hanging in the air, each one holding one of his friends, who were whimpering as their eyes glowed with a strange orange shine.

"I-Is this real? Am I awake now?" King wondered, pinching himself. It hurt a little, but that didn't prove he was wake; plucking a hair out while testing his magic had hurt too!

He got his answer when a little hand touched his leg, and he looked down to see a shaking Pebbles looking up at him with tearful eyes.

"Pebbles? You're not asleep too?" King asked, getting a shake of the head from the little fella. "Is this real? Not another dream?" Pebbles shook his head, and tried to gesture to the other Palismen, though the poor thing looked to be about to cry. King picked him up and placed him on top of his skull to comfort him, then went over to the other Palismen, whom he began to nudge awake.

One by one, the other Palismen snapped awake, initially confused and groggy, but they soon began chirping, buzzing, snipping, and yowling as they pounded and scratched at the barrier to try and get to their partners. King could see this wasn't getting anywhere, but thankfully he still had his neckerchief and the glyph notes hidden inside, so he pulled out a light glyph and told the Palismen to stand aside. He then slapped the glyph over his mouth and roared into it, creating an intense beam of light to erupt from the note and strike the barrier. Unfortunately, the barrier wobbled and stretched like a bubble, but absolutely refused to pop.

"Okay, so busting out that way isn't gonna work. I wonder if I can tunnel down underground?" King wondered. He repeated the beam attack on the ground, but failed to even scuff the colourful floor of the playpen. "Well, guess not."

The Palismen gathered around him, listening as Pebbles squeaked away on top of his head, telling them what he'd seen. King couldn't understand though, and the Palismen couldn't communicate with anyone but their bonded partners… the only Palismen he knew who could speak was the Bat Queen!

"Come on King, think! I busted out of the Collector's weird dream world, so this has gotta be possible too!" the young Titan frowned, tapping his skull.

He then conjured his incomplete white magic again, coating himself in its aura. "This magic let me bust out. Maybe it's the Glyph of Jailbreaking! Mom would love that!" he joked to himself as he went to try it on the barrier. Before he could however, he heard a voice inside his head.

"Mr. Titan, I feel tingly!"

King almost tripped and fell face first out of sheer surprise. That unfamiliar, child-like voice had sounded like it was both within his head and coming from atop his head! Dispelling his magic, King reached up and held Pebbles in his paws; "Pebbles, was that you!?"

The little Axolotl Palisman nodded. King's eyes widened; "You can talk!?"

This time, Pebbles shook his head with a sad squeak, confusing King. But if Pebbles had spoken before, why couldn't he now? King thought about it for a second and realised the clue was in what Pebbles had said; he'd felt tingly! The only possible reason for that was the magic King had coated himself in! That strange white magic!

Deciding to test it, King held Pebbles to his chest with one paw, then made the other glow with the white magic and gingerly held a claw out for Pebbles to grasp. Pebbles' tiny hand touched it, and immediately King heard Pebbles' voice inside his mind and from the Palisman himself.

"The tingly feeling is back." Pebbles said.

King gasped; "This magic lets me talk to you! Wait, is it some kind of mind-reading magic? It let me link to the Collector's memories too!"

"Pebbles doesn't know. Pebbles is scared; the flying star boy took us all away and put us in here. I was scared without Matty, so I hid. Then the star boy came and put my friends to sleep, and put you in here with us. He forgot me though; he doesn't know Pebbles, and Pebbles is good at hiding." the little Palisman explained.

King hummed; "Before I woke up, did I look like the others?" he asked, nodding up to the caged Hexsquad.

Pebbles nodded; "Yeah, Mr. Titan's eyes were all glowy, and he made bad sounds like he was having a nightmare. Pebbles tried to hug him like he does with Matty, but it didn't work…"

"Don't worry about it Pebbles." King comforted him as he began to piece together a plan. That plan changed when he soon found the other Palismen all crowding around him; Clover and Melody and flown onto his horns, Flapjack and Waffles were roosting on his wings, Emmiline was clinging to one of his arms, Maya was gently grasping his tail in one of her pincers, and Ghost had wrapped her tail around his ankle. The clinginess confused King for a moment, before he realised what they were doing.

"You all want to talk with me too?" he asked.

He got affirmative noises from all of them, so the young Titan channelled his white magic into a full body aura once again. The aura automatically spread to each of the Palismen, whose voices he began to hear in his head and from the Palismen themselves. It was a strange feeling; like talking to someone on the phone when they were stood right in front of them. It didn't help that they were all trying to talk at once, creating a cacophony of noise that made King's head hurt. He stopped his magic, breaking the connection, then frowned at them; "One at a time! I can't make out what you're saying if you're all screaming at me! Ghost, you talk first!" he said, before activating the magic again.

Ghost preened smugly while the other Palismen made discontented noises. She then spoke in a regal, feminine voice; "This is an unusual experience. I usually only talk to Amity. This magic of yours feels a bit like my bond with her, only weaker and… exterior? Like the bond is only skin deep rather than a deep soul connection."

"A bond…?" King wondered aloud. He'd never bonded with a Palisman, so he didn't recognise the feeling, but if what Ghost said was true, it made him think. Was his white magic actually some kind of bonding magic, and that's why he was able to talk to the Palismen while using it, and how he was able to see the Collector's memories when he'd used it on that mirror inside his mind? He still needed information, but it wasn't the best time for that, so he turned back to Ghost.

"Do you know more about what happened after I was taken away by the Collector?" he asked.

Ghost nodded and told him about the brief fight and how that had gone, including Vee, Hanu, Treble, and Camila being made into puppets, the Hexsquad being locked in "Time-Out Illusions" within their cages, and the Palismen being put into the playpen. Flapjack then spoke up to add the part about the Collector putting King inside the pen with them, along enchanting a pillow to wake him, the magic of which had disappeared from existence once King woke up and its one purpose was deemed complete, while Waffles helpfully added the part about the Collector returning at one point and declaring nap time.

"That's where things become strange." Emmiline said in a regal voice; "We saw that he had Hanu's Puppet self with him before he put us to sleep, but Pebbles claimed she talked with the Collector and seemed to have a mind of her own. The two apparently had a plan to give all of you guilt-based nightmares so that the Collector could enter your minds and fight them, freeing you of the guilt and making you grateful to him."

"Yeah, and Pebbles said it seemed like Hanu's idea. But it doesn't sound like the Hanu I know." Clover buzzed in a feminine and nasally voice. "I think the Collector's puppet spell must have done something to her mind."

King frowned; "That's another problem to solve. So the Collector is using some kind of messed up therapy to get us to join him? It's cruel, but I can't deny that I do feel better after conquering that guilt nightmare. But I think I only managed it because I have Titan powers."

The Palismen all looked worriedly over at their partners, who were still whimpering and gripping their heads as they were haunted by nightmares. "We need to help them!" Melody cried, her voice as musical as her name would suggest.

"Mr. Titan can save them! Mr. Titan escaped his dream, maybe he can help Matty and his friends escape theirs?" Pebbles suggested.

"I might be able to do that." King began to theorise; "If I use this white bonding magic to get inside their heads like I did with the Collector… but I can't reach them from here. The magic won't stretch that far and I don't know the design of the glyph!"

The Palismen all went quiet for a moment, before Flapjack chirped; "Maybe you don't need to touch them directly. We're all bonded with our partners, so maybe you can use that magic to link with us, and then use our bond to link to our partners?"

King's eyes widened; that just might work! He didn't know for certain what this new power was or how it worked, but Flapjack's logic was sound! If it worked, he'd be able to save most of the Hexsquad, with only Luz not having a Palismen he could connect to. However, if King could get a handle of his power, maybe he could forge a connection with Luz by giving her his new glyph! He didn't know the design yet, but he might still be able to bestow it on Luz like his Mama and Dad!

"Okay, it's worth a shot. Waffles, let me try this with you first; Lyra's the youngest besides me, and with her working for Belos for so long, she's gotta be having some bad guilt." King said, taking Waffles from his wing and holding her in his hands, then gently putting their heads together.

Waffles accepted and closed her eyes as both she and King put all their focus into the bonds they'd made. King's focus was on the magic he was sending into Waffles, while Waffles' focus was entirely on her bond with Lyra, and the anguish and guilt she felt coming from it. It took a moment, but King felt a connection with Lyra form, and his eyes suddenly glowed completely white, while Waffles' did the same. The other Palismen looked over and saw Lyra's eyes were glowing white too now.

"It's working!" Flapjack chirped excitedly. "Everyone, begin focusing on your own bonds! We need to make this as easy and fast as possible for King!"

The other Palismen made noises of agreement and then closed their eyes and began to focus, keeping their physical contact with King. They went deep into their own minds to find and grasp the bonds with their partners, and ended up feeling a lot of the guilt their partners experienced within their visions. The Palismen tried to counter this with warm, reassuring feelings sent through the bond; it wasn't enough to counter the Collector's magical nightmares, but it at least took the edge off while King was working on saving another member of the group.

Unfortunately, their deep focus left them somewhat oblivious to the world around them; something they would soon regret.

Unbeknownst to anyone, a green ooze began to seep into the room through the gap under the door, as Belos returned. The Collector had kept him annoying close for quite a while, chattering away about some inane nonsense that he barely listened to as he gave false platitude whilst waiting for his moment to slip away. That moment finally came when the Collector found one of the other Puppets (the puppet of Luciel's pet Basilisk) and began to badger and pester it in an attempt to make the stupid thing speak, believing it would regain its mind just like "Hanu" had. Of course since that was a lie made up by Belos, there was no chance of that happening, but the Collector's distraction and the presence of a nearby window did give Belos the chance to remove himself from his puppet host and sneak away. He'd climbed out the window and then clung to the outside of the castle until he'd find a second window to sneak back in through, then retraced his steps back to the room containing his prize.

Now that he was back in the room, he cautiously extended his slime to the edge of the giant rubix cube platform and used it to pull himself through the empty space to reach it, then crept out around the oversized toys that littered the area, just in case someone had been woken since he last arrived. His caution proved useful, as he noticed the Palismen all huddled around the Baby Titan in their pen. Belos didn't know what they were doing, but he saw the Titan and one of the Palismen had glowing eyes, and the rest of the Palismen appeared to be sleeping while cosying up to the Titan, so he decided to tread carefully and avoid waking them.

Moving as silently as he could, Belos made his way to Luz's cage and leapt up onto it, using his slimy body to easily squeeze through the narrow bars. Once he was in the cage, he got a good up close look at the girl that had been both his most helpful ally and his most dogged enemy. Her eyes had the same orange glow as the sinners trapped in their nightmares, but she wasn't whimpering like they were; she was just sat there on her knees, totally silent and staring blankly ahead with a miserable expression. Her wings had dulled to a sickly grey like her Grimwalker copy's had before the Cutburn incident, but so long as they still functioned and the girl still had Titan and Angel powers, she could still be of use to Belos. He checked the backs of her hands and saw the glyphs of fire and ice there, confirming she still had some amount of Titan Power despite the memories he'd seen in Hanu's brain showing that she'd lost the light glyph.

Towering over Luz, Belos gently grasped her chin in one of his slimy mitts and forced her to look up at him. She stared unseeingly, and Belos gave an almost kind smile; "Time to finally do what you were born to, Luciel. The blood of Heaven and Wittebane will destroy the Fallen Angel Divider, the False Angel Collector, and all the sinners and monsters of the Demon Realm! Our destiny is at hand!"

He gently pulled her lips open and leaned closer; "This all began with you and I, Luciel. Now it can end with you and I."

With those final words, Belos poured his decayed form head first down Luz's throat, spreading through every part of her body, his essence filling the spaces between her cells and completely infecting her cardiovascular and nervous systems. The girl's body gave a weak resistance, trembling and convulsing to try and get him out of her, but it failed to do anything to stop Belos, as his will effortlessly overpowered hers. It was almost disappointingly easy; the girl's spirit had been broken long before he arrived, and as he dug his tendrils into her heart and mind, he began taking steps to solidify his control. He'd take no chances here; he'd waited too long and had too many setbacks! Luciel would be totally his now; he would make sure of it!

[Meanwhile]

Luz wandered silently through the ruins of Bonesborough, a seemingly never-ending stream of tears dribbling down her cheeks. She had no idea how she'd gotten here; the last things she'd remembered was being captured in one of the Collector's cages, then waking up a white void. She'd wandered in that void for a while, but then that too had been replaced with this hellish vision of Bonesborough. She'd first appeared in front of Hexside, and had rushed inside to try and find some friends or people she knew, or even just people to help. She'd found only the corpses of Hexside teachers and students, many of whom she'd known from her classes or just in passing. The teachers were withered and emaciated, looking like they'd been rapidly mummified, and each one was gripping their wrists, where a smouldering black wound in the shape of their Coven Sigils lingered. They were obviously victims of the Draining Spell… The students were a bit more varied; some had angelic weapons sticking out of them, while others had been turned into puppets and smashed. She'd even found a few alive, but they just sat there with insane smiles on their faces, continuously repeating that they were happy and in paradise, as nothing could upset them.

It didn't take much for Luz to realise these people were victims of either Belos, the Angels, the Collector, or the Divider.

With tears spilling down her cheeks, Luz had fled Hexside and run into Bonesborough, but the sight that met her there was just as bad, if not worse. She passed Barcus, an insane grin on his face and tears pouring down his face as he ate the body of Jerbo, who had an Angelic spear sticking out of his back. She then saw Viney's corpse, pinned to a wall with Angelic arrows with golden blood dripping from her mouth, and the corpses of several Angels around her, all with their throats bitten out. She then ran into Edric, smiling as he carried the head of his sister's puppet form in his arms as he wandered through town. Following behind him was Orthrus, turned into a puppet also and carrying the corpses of Alador and Darius, both of whom were drained to death by the Draining Spell. The sights only got more and more gruesome as Luz went, as all of Bonesborough had been reduced to a smouldering pile of rubble in the aftermath of a battle. Luz had tried to fly up to see more of the Isles, but quickly regretted that; she saw that the Boiling Sea was entirely gone, leaving a cracked dry wasteland for as far as the eye could see, and a perpetual eclipse now darkened the sky. The Collector's Castle now floated over the Titan's skull, though both it and the skull looked badly damaged. The forests of the isles were dead or burning, and every city she could see in the distance was little more than a plume of smoke. The ribs were broken and collapsed, and it looked like even the Knee was gone; blasted away by something immensely large.

The only living things for miles were Distorted Shadows that stalked the isles, murdering indiscriminately, the Collector's surviving puppets, the Divider's brainwashed and divided victims, and a few wild animals. Everything else had been destroyed and brought to ruin by war… a war between the Collector, the Angels, the Divider, the Demon Realm, and Belos… a war that Luz had helped start. That had brought fresh tears to Luz's eyes, and a sudden wave of weakness caused her wings to fail, making Luz fall from the sky. She was lucky enough to land on something soft, but when she realised that she'd landed on a pile of withered and drained corpses, Luz had screamed and scrambled off it, running madly towards the Owl House in a vain hope that someone she knew and loved would still be alive.

As she reached the town square, Luz found the first pristine and undamaged thing she'd seen since arriving in this nightmare… the last such thing in this world. It was a large golden statue of Luz, standing triumphantly beside an unmasked Belos in his Witch-Hunter Uniform, and standing on the corpses of Lyra and Hunter. A plaque on the statue's plinth read; "This monument commemorates the victory of Philip Wittebane over the evils of the Demon Realm, alongside his most valiant ally, Luz the Arch-Angel. Here they stand eternally over the Golden Guard that betrayed his creator and was slain by him in just retribution, and the Silver Sentinel, who was sacrificed to the Day of Unity. While the spell did not work as intended due to the interference of the Divine Realm, all branded sinners were given judgement. May all who see this monument give praise to Philip Wittebane, and the girl that brought him his victory."

In that moment, reading that plaque, the last vestiges of Luz's will shattered into a million pieces. This was the world she'd created; she'd helped Belos, costing Hunter and Lyra their lives along with every branded person on the Isles. She'd released the Divider, bringing war with him and breaking the Treaty of Division, which brought war with the Angels. The war had devastated everything, leaving nothing but an apocalypse in its wake.

Luz was no fool of course; she knew this wasn't real. She knew this was all some nightmare; the lapses in her memories made that obvious, as did the fact Belos' Day of Unity had failed… but the problem was this is the world that she very nearly created for real. If the Divider had returned too late to save people from the Draining Spell, but in time to stop the explosion, this is what likely would have resulted. And who knows, this could still be a possible future! Belos was still alive, the sigils were still in place, and now they all knew that magic existed that could move the moon into position for another eclipse! Who was to say he wouldn't find a way to repeat his plan? And even if Belos was a non-issue now and the Draining Spell was permanently off the table, that just left more people to war with the Angels, or be divided for the Divider's "paradise", or turned into the Collector's puppets. Taking one awful ingredient out of this mess didn't make the result any more palatable, especially since Luz helping Belos had led directly to all the others.

The young Arch-Angel truly felt like she had doomed the world and everyone she'd loved all because she was a failure as an Angel, a daughter, a sister, and a friend. That belief broke her and left her in her current state; wandering the wasteland of the world born of her guilt, while a buried part of her mind wondered if the outside world had followed suit yet.

With perpetually tear-blurred eyes, Luz wandered out of Bonesborough and into the woods leading towards the Owl House, beginning to see the remains of her friends as she walked. She saw a burnt corpse with Willow's glasses. She saw Gus, gibbering insanely to himself as he rocked back and forth against a tree, smiling madly. She saw Skara laying over the body of her father Severin, both skewered by an Angel's spear. She saw a skull nearby with three eyes, surrounded by Angel corpses and puppets that had been melted by acid. She saw the petrified remains of Matt, reduced to a pile of rubble. Every step brought another grisly sight and another stab of guilt.

Then the wind began to blow through the burned and withered trees, and Luz heard the voices of her friends whispering eerily.

"You promised to help us…"

"We've lost everything…"

"Our families are gone…"

"Our lives are ruined…"

"You shouldn't have come here…"

"You're a failure."

"A fake."

"You should never have been born!"

Every word was something Luz knew her friends would never say, but she agreed none the less, and she became more and more worn down with every step. She began to whisper; "I'm sorry. I'm sorry." over and over again. Still she trudged onward, until she arrived at the Owl House… or what was left of it.

The house was a ruin, having been blown to pieces from the inside by the looks of it. The door was missing, but Luz had to step over Hooty's long, snake-like skeleton to enter the clearing. To her left, she saw the rest of her allied Coven Heads and friends, all either drained to death, felled by Angels, or turned into puppets and broken, with most having been eaten partially after the fact. The culprit was Bat Beast Raine, whose corpse lay beside the pile, their throat pierced by a spear held in the hands of a puppet Katya. To Luz's right, towards the cliff, she saw Raven Beast Lilith still alive and feasting on the bodies of her parents, ignoring Luz entirely. And straight ahead, in the bombed out ruins of the house, were the blackened bones of the Owl Beast, with a tiny and familiar Titan skull inside it, where the beast's stomach would have been.

Luz felt her heart ache painfully and she tried to tell herself again that this was fake. That this hadn't happened yet… but the voice of doubt in the back of her mind just kept saying "Is it though? Or are we too late?"

At that moment, Luz watched as the doorway into the Owl House suddenly blurred and was replaced by the old Portal Door. Almost without thinking, Luz walked through it and appeared in the Human Realm… the sight that greeted her was the same as the Demon Realm; a hell-scape of war and corpses.

Numbly, Luz walked down the pathway from the clubhouse (which was another burnt ruin) and passed the dead forest. She passed Puppet Gray as she went, briefly watching the legless puppet drag himself along with his one remaining arm. When she reached her house, Luz peered into the window and found that it had been turned into the lair of Subject Zero, who was feasting on Masha and Jacob. Shuddering, Luz turned away and kept walking. She was like a zombie, too numb to feel more than guilt and self-hatred as she reached her destination; the old cemetery. A bridge of bones and corpses had been constructed, forcing Luz to literally walk on the dead to cross the water and reach the other side. Luz briefly noticed Rebecca floating face down in the water, and averted her eyes.

Finally, Luz reached her final destination; her fathers' graves. They were just as they looked in reality, with even her Dad's Palistrom Tree still intact. However two new graves now joined them; one bore the name Camila Noceda, and the inscription "Beloved Wife and Mother. Taken before her time due to the failures of the child she raised." The second grave belonged to Vee, and read; "The Daughter her mother deserved."

Luz fell to her knees in front of the graves and wept. She could do nothing but cry and apologise, knowing that the people she loved would forgive her even though she didn't deserve it. The real people weren't dead yet; Luz felt it in her gut. They were out there right now, probably fighting to escape their predicament and save the world… Luz wished she could help them, but she knew she couldn't. If she "helped", she'd probably make it worse. It was better if she just stayed here, in this hell. Here she couldn't hurt anyone or ruin any more lives.

"Doing nothing instead of fixing your mistakes again?" came a painfully familiar voice from behind her.

Luz's eyes widened, before her face twisted into a pained grimace as she stood up, then slowly turned around, coming face to face with Amity, wearing an expression of pure hatred and heartbreak. She was battered, bruised, and bleeding, which tore at Luz's heart.

"Amity…" Luz whispered.

"Oh, now you remember me! The girl who was a fool to love a monster like you! You fail again and again and again, costing all of us our happiness, and now you just sit their and wallow in self-pity instead of doing anything!?" the Fake Amity spat, tears in her eyes. "You're nothing but a coward that can't fix your own mistakes! I bet that's why you tried to accept Reformation at the trial! You were running away from your mistakes, but knew that if you just died like you deserved, you'd have to face your fathers in the afterlife! You knew they'd be disappointed in you! That your Papi would have been better off dumping you on the Crest Union to make something useful out of you, while he got to live!"

Luz bit her lip and looked away as fresh hot tears flowed down her cheeks. She knew in her heart that the real Amity would never say such things. That her Papi would never think such things… but she also felt it would be just punishment if they did. And even if this was fake, Luz's already broken heart pulsed with pain over it.

"I'm sorry… I tried so hard. But I just wasn't good enough. You deserved better." Luz whispered.

The fake Amity opened her mouth to speak, but someone else spoke first; a voice Luz hated more than any other.

"Deserved better? My dear Luciel, that wretched little succubus is not worthy to kiss the ground you walk upon." came the voice of Belos from behind Luz. The girl spun around, only to find herself suddenly wrapped up in tendrils of slime and then bound to the branches of her father's tree. The tendrils bound her at the wrists, each finger, her elbows, her knees, her ankles, and her neck, literally stringing her up in the tree like a puppet. More tendrils then bound her wings to the trunk of the tree, leaving Luz essentially crucified against it. That was when Belos' full shape emerged from the shadows, taking on the monstrous form that Luz had once encountered inside Belos' mind.

"You are an Angel; you rule over these sinners and deliver righteous punishment! You do not serve them!" Belos said, leaning close to whisper in her ear. "It is your service to them that has caused all this trouble. But now? Now it is time to repent… I told you Luciel; you would do penance and assist me whether you liked it or not. I will save your soul and make you worthy of standing before the Almighty once more, even if I have to use you like a tool."

Luz's eyes widened and she opened her mouth to speak, only for another tendril to wrap around her face and bind her mouth. She thrashed in her restraints, but they stretched and tightened, pulling her body completely taut. She could move her eyes but that was it, leaving her terrified and at Belos' mercy. This was different! This didn't feel like it fit with the rest of the nightmare!

Belos gently reached up with a slimy hand and pet her head affectionately, a gesture Luz was really starting to dislike when it came from people condescending her.

"Don't look so frightened, Luciel. You're going to help me save the world! Until then, just rest here in the depths of your mind. When you awaken, it'll be to paradise."

With that final sentence, Belos made another tendril cover Luz's eyes, robbing her of her sight. Now Luz could neither move, nor see, nor speak. All she had was her nose, which could smell nothing but blood, smoke, and decay, and her ears that could still hear the tormented whispers and cries of the people she'd failed, as well as the fake Amity's cruel words of hatred. Luz was completely and totally trapped and alone, entirely at Belos' mercy.

The broken Arch-Angel could do nothing; not even cry for help. Though a part of her didn't even want to. This was her fate… the fate of the girl that had tried to help everyone, and only doomed them instead.

[Meanwhile]

While Belos was in the process of possessing Luz's body, King was using his new magic and the bond between Waffles and Lyra to reach through the Palisman and into the Dark Angel's mind. At first, it felt like he was falling into a black void, but then suddenly a speck of light appeared and began to expand until King was blinded for a moment. When his vision returned, he found himself floating like a ghost above an unfamiliar scene.

He seemed to be floating in what he assumed to be Belos' throne room (though King had never seen it himself, and only recognised it by the beating heart of his father in the background). In the middle of the room was Lyra, dressed once again as the Silver Sentinel but without her mask. She was kneeling on the floor and sobbing with her head bowed as she was surrounded by three familiar figures. The first was Hettie Cutburn, who looked like she'd been petrified, shattered, haphazardly stuck back together, and had some of the broken chunks returned to flesh, making her look like a twisted Frankenstein's monster version of herself. The second was Luz, who was crying pitifully as she clutched a hand over a stab wound on her chest, while the other hand was held out towards Lyra and was clutching a broken portal key whilst also missing her pinky finger, causing the stump to bleed everywhere. The final figure was Hunter, dressed in his Golden Guard uniform (sans mask) and with the scars on his cheek and ear ripped open and bleeding profusely. He also appeared to be covered in other wounds too, making King feel awful for him.

That feeling didn't last long as he began to hear what they were saying.

"You shouldn't even exist! You are an aberration! An unnatural, unwanted creature that is born from the pain and deaths of other! If you're allowed to exist, you will just cause pain and torment! Look what happened to me because of you! You are a tool of mass extinction! Rot away in the shadows where you belong!" the fake Hettie screamed hatefully.

"Why Lyra? Why did you do this to me?" the fake Luz sobbed; "It wasn't enough that my own flesh and blood was stolen to make you, but you had to use my moment of weakness to rob me too!? And give my only way home to my greatest enemy!? How could you be so cruel, even when I tried so hard to be good to you! All the people you've hurt… I have to bear the sins of your creation now, since Belos made you from me! Do I not have enough of a burden!?"

Fake Hunter was the last to speak, and he sounded tired and disappointed; "You're just not good enough, Lucy. You were meant to be my partner, my equal… a replacement for Luz! But you're just a disappointment. I keep having to bear the pain of your failures… if you just disappeared, I wouldn't have these scars and wounds. How many times has Belos hurt me because I shielded you from his fits? How many of those fits were caused by you? Why couldn't you have just been better?"

Poor Lyra was in tears and trying to hold it together, but failing miserably. "I'm sorry! I didn't want any of this to happen! I tried my best!"

But the three Apparitions of Guilt just kept berating her, drowning out the girl's words. King glared and flew down at the Apparitions, which he attacked with a cry of "WEH!"

His roar knocked all three of them flying, allowing King to land in front of a shocked Lyra.

"K-King?" Lyra whimpered, wide eyes still full of tears.

"It's me, Lyra! I'm real, but these bozos aren't!" King declared; "The Collector trapped us all in visions of guilt, as some kind of messed up attempt at therapy. He was supposed to come save you from it, but I'm doing that instead!"

"It's all really fake?" Lyra asked with a bit of hope returning to her voice.

"Of course it is! I don't know about that Cutburn lady, but do you really think Luz and Hunter would think that way about you? This is just your own guilt making you feel bad! Luz doesn't blame you for Belos making you from her, and she forgave that whole mess with the key once she found out what happened! Plus Hunter would never blame you for Belos being an abusive scumbag!" King told her, "Now come on! You've got nothing to feel this guilty over! Stand up and kick their butts so we can save the others already!"

Lyra stood up and dried her eyes, feeling empowered by King's support. A strange sensation came over her and she suddenly felt a bit ridiculous; how could she have possibly believed any of this was real!? It was so obviously fake that it wasn't even funny! She glared at the fakes, who began shuffling back towards her, spouting their cruel accusations, but Lyra didn't listen to a word they said and instead called upon her Darkness Magic to banish all three of them into the shadows.

"King's right! I don't need to feel guilty just for being born, or for being victimised by an abuser! I'm choosing my own path in life!" she declared, feeling pumped up.

King cheered her one, then gasped alongside her as the vision of Belos' throne room disappeared and was replaced by a white void again, just like the one King had been trapped in. Lyra frowned; "This place again? Is there a way out?"

"There might be. Look up." King told her as he leaned back to look up above. Lyra mimicked him and both saw a version of the Collector's mirror, just like in King's vision.

"That thing must be the link between the Collector's mind and ours. If I use my new magic on it, we should be able catch a glimpse of the Collector's memories and then escape the illusion through it!" King explained.

Lyra blinked; new magic? She had no idea what King was talking about, but considering she'd seen him gain new powers before, back on Titan Trapper Island, she decided not to question it just yet. It was best to save that for later. Instead, she floated up through the void beside King until they touched the mirror together, and King used his white magic to connect himself, Lyra, and the mirror.

King and Lyra experienced the same thing King had done before; they were enveloped in a light given off by the mirror, and suddenly found themselves launched into a vision, where they were trapped inside the body of the Collector, experiencing everything he had.

Both of them were immediately hit by a wave of pure sorrow, as they found themselves unable to see anything, but able to hear the sobs of the Collector. They could feel his body curled up in a ball as it floated in the void, making King realise it was likely a memory of the Collector crying alone within the seal he'd been trapped in.

"This sadness is awful! Is this what the Collector felt for 5000 years, locked up all alone for something he didn't do?" Lyra thought, King hearing her clearly thanks to their link.

"I think so. I bet this memory is repeated a lot during his time sealed up… and the Divider sentenced him to four more months of it when he refused to let me free the poor kid. No wonder the Collector is so scared of going back." King replied. The level of misery and loneliness he was felling from the memory was heart-wrenching; he couldn't imagine what it was like being alone for so long.

Thankfully, this memory didn't last very long before King and Lyra experienced another flash of light, and King found himself snapping back to awareness in the waking world. He blinked a couple of times as the Palismen around him looked at him curiously, while Waffles looked excitedly over to the cage containing Lyra. Unlike King, it didn't look like she'd awoken yet, though her eyes still glowed a faint white and she wasn't whimpering any more.

"You did it, King! You saved my Lyra! She feels a lot better now." Waffles chirped.

"Yeah, but it looks like she's still in the illusion. I think not having any Titan power makes the illusion harder for her to escape. That's probably why it convinced her it was real too; the Collector's magic makes it seem more believable, but that doesn't work on me." King theorised.

Flapjack chirped; "Well so long as our partners aren't suffering, I'd call it a success. Now let's rescue Hunter next; I shudder to think what guilt is consuming him!"

King nodded, and let Waffles fly out of his hands before Flapjack took her place. Once again, he focused his new magic on the bond between himself and Flapjack, and then from Flapjack to Hunter.

This time, King arrived in the burned out ruins of his Grandpa's Palistrom Grove, where a pale and shaky looking Hunter, clad in his Golden Guard uniform, was being surrounded by a fake version of Lyra (who was in uniform and whose wounds were fresh and bleeding just like the fake Hunter in Lyra's nightmare), as well a fake Willow and an army of Palismen, all of whom were broken husks leaking green fluid from cracks in their burnt bodies. It was obvious that these Palismen were the ones eaten by Belos… and beyond the army of Palismen Husks was a smaller army of Witches and Demons, who either had arms withered away by the Coven Sigils on them, or were wrapped in chains. King didn't need to be a psychologist to work out what was happening here; those were obviously the Wild Witches and other Demon Realm residents that Hunter had unwittingly helped subjugate under Belos' orders…

Flying down, King began to hear the words of the fake Lyra and Willow.

"Why didn't you protect me, Hunter? You said you'd always be there for me, but I was hurt and you didn't save me. Our Uncle was so upset; I tried so hard but I knew you hated me! That's why I tried to run away, and why Uncle hurt me like this! Why wasn't I good enough for you, Big Brother?" the fake Lyra sobbed.

"How stupid could you be!? You worked for Belos for years and never realised how obviously evil he was!? He had you hunting people down for not joining his messed up Covens! He sent you to kill innocent creatures, and steal poor Palismen that you knew he would murder! Luz and our friends kept showing you the truth and giving you chance after chance, but you kept making excuses! How much suffering could have been avoided if you'd just listened from the start!?" fake Willow yelled, seemingly acting as the spokesperson for all the Palismen, Witches, and Demons. Probably because Hunter's mind would feel the most guilt if it came from Willow; the one person his own age outside his direct family that he felt a strong personal connection too.

Unlike last time, King didn't bother attacking the fakes, knowing Hunter needed to do that himself, like Lyra had done, to conquer his guilt. Instead, the little Titan just flew down and landed on Hunter's shoulder, surprising him.

"K-King!? You too!?" Hunter cried, growing paler.

"Nope! I'm real, the rest of this is an illusion. It's meant to make you feel guilty." King told him, cutting to the chase. He was going to have to have this conversation 7 more times today, so he wanted to get to the point.

"In illusion? But-" Hunter began, only for King to lightly bop him on the forehead with his paw.

"No buts! Don't listen to the garbage these fakes are spouting! I literally just came from Lyra's nightmare where she was blaming herself for Belos hurting you! Do you really think she'd blame you for him hurting her too!? You two are super close siblings who love each other, just like me and Luz; you'd never feel that way about each other or blame each other!" King scolded. "And as for the fake Willow; you were a kid brainwashed from birth to obey Belos! Sure he made you do bad things, but the fact you still began to have doubts even with the brainwashing is proof you're a good person at heart, not a bad one! Willow knows that too! Now stop listening to these freaky copies and blow them sky-high! Lyra is waiting for you and I've got seven more friends to save!"

Hunter blinked in confusion, but King's words and presence were enough to lift the Collector's scales from his eyes and make him realise the truth of the little Titan's words.

"W-What have I been wasting my time doing!? I need to get back to Lyra and the others! And Flap!" Hunter gasped, shaking himself out of his stupor and regaining a healthy colour to his cheeks.

"Dang right! Now blast these fakes!" King commanded.

"But I don't have magic without Flap or a blessing." Hunter reminded him.

King rolled his eyes; "This is your mind, Hunter! You can do whatever you want!"

Hunter's eyes widened. He then looked down at his hands and flexed his fingers while concentrating, causing lightning to arc between them. With a confident smile, he then threw bolts of lightning at the fake Lyra and Willow, causing them both to be electrocuted and reduced to piles of soot. He then gathered his magic and released a wave of electricity in all directions, destroying the fake Palismen, Witches, and Demons.

"I may have done bad things while working for Belos, but I've worked hard to be better and redeem myself! Even if I'm not there yet, I refuse to give up and wallow in guilt! And my sister and I will be as close as we always were; I won't accept anything less!" Hunter declared, yelling it to the sky for all to hear.

Of course only King was actually able to hear, but that soon changed as Hunter's guilt nightmare turned into a white void, where he and King found Lyra waiting for them.

"Hunter! King!" Lyra cheered, rushing over to hug her brother. "Thank goodness you're okay!"

"Lyra! I was about to say the same thing! You're not hurt, are you?" Hunter asked.

The girl shook her head; "My pride took a blow from falling for that tacky nightmare, but otherwise I'm fine. What happened to you though, King? We were watching that memory from the Collector and the next thing I knew, I was back in the void and you were gone!"

"I woke up in the real world again. I think the illusion the Collector cast on you all is keeping you trapped and you don't have the Titan Power to escape like I did. Instead you're getting dumped back here." King guessed.

Lyra nodded; "I think I get it. So we'll still need to find another way out of the illusion. Maybe if we get enough of us together, we'll have enough power to break out?"

Hunter looked confused; "I'm still not entirely sure I get what's going on."

"Well, if the same thing happens to you that happened to Lyra, you'll be dumped back here with her after we try and link to the Collector. Lyra can fill you in on the details while I'm rescuing the next person." King told him.

Hunter could accept that; if he and Lyra had been suffering guilt nightmares, the others were too and he didn't want to let them suffer while King explained everything to him. "Alright, so what do we do now."

"We find a replica of the Collector's Mirror. It should be… there!" King said, suddenly pointing to the mirror high above them.

"That wasn't there before you two showed up." Lyra frowned.

"The mirrors are the Collector's link to our minds. We shut yours when we raided his memories, but now that Hunter is here, his link appeared too." King said, giving his best guess and sounding pretty confident about it too.

"I still don't really get it, but I'll follow your lead." Hunter replied.

"Good! Fly up with me! This world is still part of your mind, so you'll be able to float around." King answered, before flying up towards the mirror. Lyra followed suit, and after a bit of coaxing, Hunter was able to will himself to fly after them as well, coming to a stop in front of the mirror. Without any preamble, King had Hunter and Lyra put their hands on his wings as he channelled his white magic and touched the mirror. Just like last time, they were all sent into one of the Collector's memories, finding themselves looking out through the Collector's eyes as the child flew around in the Demon Realm.

The first thing they noticed was a feeling of confusion from the Collector as he looked all over the place, scanning the expansive Boiling Sea beneath him and everything else in the distance. There was nothing anywhere nearby though, which began to give him a feeling of worry.

"Where are all my friends? I can't find them or the grown up Titans anywhere!" the Collector whined in frustration. "The Archivists couldn't have taken all of them away yet, could they? I need to find them before they all disappear! Or find where they disappear to!"

King and his companions felt spikes of apprehension; so this memory was of the Collector searching for his Baby Titan friends after the Archivists and Titan Trappers had already done away with them… That meant this memory could only be leading in one direction, filling King with fear.

That fear was realised when the Collector finally spotted someone in the distance, causing a spike of hope in the child's heart. The distant figure was clearly a Titan; monstrously large and with clearly defined wings even at this great distance. King wished he could warn the Collector not to go towards this person, but knew that it would be pointless; this was a memory and the past was already set in stone. All that was left was for King to watch his Dad's greatest mistake.

The Collector flew towards the figure and soon found himself directly in front of the colossal Titan; Orion. He looked almost exactly the same as he had in the In-Between Realm, only much larger, lacking any clothing, and with five fingered claws and a much skinnier build, to the point he looked a bit emaciated. He also had a wild and furious look in his eyes, which only grew worse as he looked at the Collector.

"You!" Orion spat, venom in his voice. "I've been looking for you, Collector!"

The Collector felt a bit of fear as some of his relief faded away. There was also plenty of confusion too; why was the Titan angry with him? Could he still be upset because his mate just broke? The Collector had watched from a distance with his magic as that other Titan battled his siblings and blew herself up to drive them away! It was so cool! But it probably also made this Titan mad… he'd lost his best friend, just like the Collector had lost all of his friends. Maybe they could help each other!

"Hey, Mr. Titan! I've been looking for you too! Or anyone really. All my friends disappeared thanks to my siblings, so I'm looking for more Baby Titans to play with! Do you know where they are? Like your baby! You had an egg growing in your chest when I last saw you! Where is it? I wanna play with your baby!" the Collector said cheerfully.

Orion's venomous look turned downright hateful, and he began to crackle with intense magic. The Collector backed off, feeling fear as he stared up at the Titan.

"You will never come near my child! Your evil siblings murdered the other children, and aided a pack of feral witches in exterminating our entire race! And now my beloved Cassiopeia…!" the Titan's eyes filled with tears; "She's gone forever…! Cursed to not even be able to pass on to the next life with her loved ones and ancestors! I've lost everything!" he began to sob, before gritting his teeth and focusing his colossal eyes on the Collector, who began to back away as terror filled him.

"And you… you helped them! You made us let our guard down, convinced us to give you access to our children! Then you just let those monsters take them away and murder them! You may not have lifted a finger to kill them, but their blood is on your hands!" Orion bellowed.

The Collector shook his head frantically; "N-No! I'm not a bad guy! I would never-!"

But Orion didn't let him finish, instead focusing all his magic between his palms and conjuring something familiar; it was the large orb prison that the Collector had been sealed inside within the In-Between Realm. The Collector's eyes filled with tears of fear as he turned and began to fly away at incredible speeds, hoping to escape. Sadly, it was completely in vein as he felt an intense vortex behind him, sucking him in. The Collector looked back, seeing that the seal on the front of the orb had become like a Black Hole made with Titan magic, and was pulling him in with incredible strength that the Collector couldn't counter. Orion stood behind the orb, looking exhausted as he used his very life essence to pull the Collector into his prison.

"I curse you, Collector! May your tears serve as mirrors through which you can forever see the world you'll never again be allowed to hurt! Pay for your sins!" Orion roared.

With one final scream, the Collector was completely sucked into the orb, and the Black Hole stopped. Terrified and crying his heart out, the Collector pounded on the inside of the crystalline orb, begging Orion to let him out and trying to explain that he was innocent. However he was totally ignored as Orion collapsed backward, his arms spread eagle and one leg pulled up so his right foot remained on the ocean floor and his knee rose high into the air.

"You'll be alone for eternity for what you've done… now be gone from this realm, and know the sorrow of the Titans!" Orion panted as the last of his life energy began to fade. With one final roar, which doubled as his last breath, Orion blasted the Collector's prison into the In-Between Realm, all while the Collector screamed and begged to be let out, that he was innocent.

King felt nothing but sympathy for the Collector; the poor kid had been looking for his lost friends and had run towards someone he believed was on his side, only to be falsely accused and imprisoned without even getting a chance to speak up and defend himself. King had obviously known this was the case, but the sight still saddened him greatly. He didn' totally blame his Dad; the poor guy had just lost his mate and his entire race, and truly believed the Collector was partially responsible, which was something he had good reason to believe. King also knew that his Mama and Dad had kept the Collector company after the Divider had refused to let the kid go free, letting his Dad help make up for his previous lapse in judgement.

Seeing all of this, and feeling the Collector's emotions, made King begin to understand the Collector better, and he began to consider what he'd say to the Collector when he finally saw him again.

The memory ended just as the last two did; with a flash of light and King snapping awake in the real world again. The young Titan looked over to Hunter's cage and saw the boy had stopped whimpering and now had white glowing eyes. A brief look to Flapjack confirmed that he could sense Hunter was okay too, which was a relief.

"Okay, no time to waste. I'll handle Boscha next." King said, since she was likely the person with the next highest guilt (besides maybe Luz, whom King didn't have a Palismen to connect to her with).

He reached back and gently took Maya from where she was carefully gripping his tail, and asked; "Ready?"

Maya didn't speak, merely nodding instead. King placed their heads together and used his new magic, sending him through Maya to Boscha's mind.

Boscha's guilt nightmare took place on the Hexside Grudgby field, and just like Lyra and Hunter's, it featured her surrounded by apparitions of those she felt guilty towards. Unsurprisingly, Boscha's apparitions were of Luz and Willow, two girls who'd been bullied and victimised by her in the past, as well as her girlfriend Skara, and a horde of other Hexside kids and Grudgby players from other schools that King didn't recognise, all of whom had likely been on the receiving end of Boscha's cruelty in the past, either from mean-spirited pranks or just her cutting tongue. He flew down to intervene in the scene, and listen to what was being said.

"You really think you can just decide you're good now, and everyone will forget what you've done!?" fake Willow snarled; "You ruined my life and destroyed my chances of being happy with your constant bullying! Didn't you think I was having a hard enough time without your added abuse!? But no, you just had to make yourself feel like a big winner by making me feel like an even bigger loser!"

"And you hurt me too, all because I had the nerveto NOT ditch my friends to join the school bully!" fake Luz said coldly, blood dripping from her nose and lip, just as it had when Boscha had hit her at the end of her first time visiting Hexside. "We all ended up fighting a plant monster because of you, which caused it to be unleashed on the isles and hurt others! Not to mention the fact you were going to sell me to the Emperor's Coven for not toeing your line! And then all that stuff with Vitimir; the man who murdered my Papi! I was almost twisted into that monster's daughter because you were an idiot!"

Naturally it was fake Skara's turn next, and she gestured to the beaten and bruised apparitions of Boscha's past victims; "Just look at all the pain you've caused! Did you ever truly think I could love you after you did all this? And worse, after you dragged me down to your level as well! You're a monster! Just saying you're sorry doesn't take back all the pain you've caused everyone!"

Boscha clenched her fists and grit her teeth, trying to suppress her guilt and misery behind a mask of rage. She seemed determined not to cry, but there were tears in all three of her eyes regardless.

King flew down and landed on her shoulder, startling her before he spoke up; "Don't listen to these fakes! Sure, you messed up and hurt a lot of people in the past, and it's true you can't take it back, but that doesn't mean you can't become better! And you DID become better! You worked hard to repay everyone you hurt; you became a good person at school, and in the Hexsquad! Heck, you were fighting for all the people of the Isles and their freedom! You deserve to cut yourself some slack for the stuff you did when you were a dumb teenager, especially when you've become better!"

Boscha's eyes widened; "Do you mean that? You really think I've been doing enough to make up for what I've done?"

"Yes! You were a jerk, and now you're not a jerk. Treating yourself like you're still a jerk won't make anything better! Now wake up and kick these fakes to the curb! We've got friends to save!" King demanded, pumping his little fist.

The three-eyed girl blinked hard, then shook herself as the illusion's hold on her broke. Boscha briefly blushed, feeling embarrassed to have been seen in such a pathetic state, but she shook it off and conjured some fireballs; "Oh I am DONE with this place! I may have sucked in the past, but I'm awesome now in all the right ways, and I won't let some freaky fakes tell me otherwise! Now get lost!"

With that final scream, Boscha threw her fireballs at the three fakes, burning them to ash in an instant. The instant the three main apparitions were reduced to ash, the rest of them disappeared too and the nightmare faded, leaving Boscha and King back in the white void again, where Lyra and Hunter were.

"Good job, King! That's a third of us saved." Lyra praised as Boscha looked around, confused.

"Wait, so this is the real King? Or is this another weird illusion." she asked.

"I'm real, and this void is part of an illusion. It's a long story and Lyra can fill you in while I save the others. But first, we've gotta get me out of here and see another of the Collector's memories!" King said, immediately looking for the mirror that had appeared when he and Boscha did, then flying up to it. Boscha was confused again, but ultimately shrugged and followed him alongside the others.

King put his hands on the mirror as his rescued friends put their hands on him, and a moment later his white magic flashed them all into another of the Collector's memories.

In this memory, the Collector had his eyes closed and one arm against a tree as he counted to 100, a feeling of anticipation and amusement coursing through him. He was clearly playing hide and seek with someone, and as soon as he reached 100, he turned around and opened his eyes, revealing a forest clearing with flowers everywhere, and trees as far as the eye could see. The Collector looked around with a hum, before looking up and seeing a full grown adult Titan; one with brown fur and a bull-like skull for a head, speaking with Cassiopeia, King's Mama. The two Titans stopped their conversation to look down at the Collector, before the unfamiliar Titan smirked and flicked her eyes over to the Collector's right. The Star Child looked in that direction with a giggle, then looked back at the Titans and waved, before running off in the direction the Titan had indicated.

He explored the woods for a few seconds, before he heard a giggle from a nearby bush. King felt a rush of excitement from the Collector, as the boy leapt into the bush and came face to face with a Baby Titan. The Titan was smaller than King, being maybe 4 or 5, and had silvery grey fur and a skull with curled ram-like horns. The Baby Titan squealed and giggled as the Collector booped them on the nose, then grabbed them and crawled back out of the bush.

"Found you! One down, four to go!" the Collector cheered.

"Aw, I thought that was a good spot… You're too good, Collector!" the little Titan whined in a childish voice.

"That's because I'm a big kid! It's okay though…" the Collector suddenly lifted the little Titan onto his shoulders to give them a piggyback ride; "… since I found you first, you get to ride on my shoulders until I find the others!"

The little Titan cheered and giggled, especially as the Collector made silly horse noises as he carefully ran through the woods in search of his other playmates. He felt so happy and carefree, like everything was right with the world… he had no idea he was being used as a decoy to make the Titans let their guard down, nor did he know his own siblings would either directly or indirectly murder his friends. It made King feel terrible for him, and even angrier at the Archivists; seeing one of the tiny lives snuffed out by them made their atrocities against his people feel even more real, and the fact they'd done it to their own little brother's friends just sickened him.

The memory didn't continue for the rest of the game, as King found the connection closing just a little while later, with the Collector and his friend skipping happily through the woods. A flash of light ended the memory, and King snapped awake in the real world yet again.

Without even pausing to catch his breath, King grabbed Pebbles from the top of his head whilst checking to see if Boscha was in the same state as Lyra and Hunter. Upon confirming she was and getting some pleased claw snapping from Maya, he used his white magic to link himself with Pebbles and enter his partner Matt's nightmare.

The world King arrived in was familiar, though only half of it was something he recognised. It looked like two different school hallways jammed together; one of them being Hexside and the other being one he didn't recognise, though considering the stark stone appearance and the fact this was Matt's nightmare, King guessed it was Glandus. Matt stood on the spot where the two schools intersected, wearing a surprisingly stony expression as he was surrounded by apparitions of Gus, Luz, Steve, and Bria. The apparitions were shouting their usual words of abuse and guilt, and while King could see the hurt in Matt's eyes, he could also see that he was resisting them.

"What's the matter, Matty? Not feeling so good now that you can't just run away and foist your problems off on other people!? I was left abandoned and alone because you were a coward that ran away!" fake Bria accused. "You think you can just go off and be a hero, like everyone won't remember what a spineless brat you really are!?"

"I just wanted to help you!" the fake Luz cried. King noticed that she was tied up by some strange worm monsters, which he guessed were the minions of the Detention Pit; "You asked for my help just to lure me into a trap that almost killed me and wrecked the whole school! How could you be so cruel!?"

"But you've always been cruel deep down, haven't you Matty?" fake Gus said mockingly; "You were too weak to be a good person, so you decided it'd be easy to just bully weaker people. You came after me and my friends just to get yourself some minions, and do to others what the bullies at Glandus did to you! It was also thanks to you that Bria and her goons were able to track us to the Looking Glass Graveyard, which caused even more problems! Luz and I had to deal with your messes AGAIN! And you have the nerve to call us your friend!?"

Matt's lip quivered, but he refused to look directly at Gus and clenched his jaw instead. King was marginally impressed; he hadn't expected Matt of all people to resist the guilt so well!

Of course, fake Steve was the one whose words hurt the most; "You've always been disappointing Matty. I was so happy to get a little brother, only to end up with you? A bullying little worm that couldn't ever hope to live up to me! And yet you managed to steal my Palisman away from me!? Pebbles is rightfully mine, but I make one mistake and he goes to you, even after your thousands of mistakes!? It isn't fair! If you'd had any honour at all, you'd have refused to bond with Pebbles and let me take him back!"

The boy bit his lip, looking to be on the verge of breaking. King chose that moment to finally intervene, flying down and hovering in front of Matt's face. The boy's eyes widened, and King immediately noticed that they were clearer than the others.

"King? Are you real?" Matt asked shakily.

"I'm real, Matt. I'm guessing you know this is all fake then?" King replied.

The boy nodded; "I may not be as good as the real Gus, but I still multi-track in Illusions. I pegged that something was wrong right away. I know my brother, and I know Gus and Luz; they wouldn't say things like this to me."

"That's right! This is all your own guilt haunting you. You've gotta move passed it and destroy these apparitions! Just remember, you may have done something awful, but you turned your life around and did a lot to help all of us. And Steve and Pebbles are both super proud of you! Now snap out of it so I can tell Pebbles that you're okay!" King demanded.

Matt chuckled; "Still giving orders like a king, eh? Well fine; I'll listen! Now that I know it's safe to wipe these fakes out, I think I'll try this!"

He cast a spell at the ground, causing it to soften and become like quicksand, leading to the apparitions sinking into it and being consumed. As they sank, Matt regarded them coldly; "I know I was pathetic in the past, but I'm not any more! I've got real friends, and I'm gonna protect them and everyone else from bullies! Even the stupidly powerful godly ones! Even if I can't beat them alone, I'm gonna try and do the right thing, just like my real Bro would do!"

As he said those final words and the fake Steve was fully consumed by the quicksand-like floor, there was a flash of light and the nightmare faded into the white void. There they were met by the other freed Hexsquad members.

"Matt, good to see you're okay. We'll fill you in on the situation in a little bit, but first we're flying up there." Hunter told him, pointing to the mirror that had appeared above them.

Matt looked bewildered, but King grinned; "Leave it to you to make this efficient, Hunter! Follow me!"

The group floated up through the void to the mirror, and just like last time, they were all thrust into one of the Collector's memories. This one was immediately different from the others, as they found the Collector feeling nervous and a little excited as he stood in a strange room with a spiralling tower of books in the middle of it. The architecture reminded King of the floating castle the Collector had built, making him wonder if this place was another Archivist-made place elsewhere. The Collector was floating around at the foot of the tower of books, while four other figures were present in the room with him. All four were figures similar to the Collector, but taller and older looking, leaving King with no doubts of who they were; the Archivists.

The first figure, the smallest one besides the Collector himself, was laying on a floating bed that orbited the tower of books, looking annoyed. This Archivist appeared to be about 16, and looked remarkable similar to the Collector, with the same white hair and the same colour eyes. However unlike the Collector, who had pale yellow and blue skin, this Archivist had pale blue skin with a darker yellow crescent moon on the right side of his face, making it look like he had a similar version of the Collector's markings, only with a more pronounced crescent and the yellow part being darker while the blue part was paler. He also didn't have the star shaped freckles, and his white wavy hair was longer and tied into a wolf knot hairstyle. His outfit was similar to the Collector's too, only in two different shades of green; a lighter sea foam green and a darker forest green, with waxing and crescent moon symbols on each side. His pants actually tucked into some large boots he wore, and his sleeves were properly sized for his arms. He was also holding a cap just like the one the Collector wore too, only with a green crescent moon dangling from the back of it. This Archivist also appeared to have been roughed up a bit, having a few scuffs and marks that bled golden blood.

The second figure was a young woman who appeared to be no older than 18. She was sitting on top of the spiral of books, writing in a huge tome on her lap. All the Archivists seemed to have similar faces, though this one's had more delicate feminine features compared to the others. Her white hair was tied into two pigtails behind her ears, and her skin was pale red and lilac. Her facial markings were based on a shooting star, with a red star over her right eye and its trail curving over her forehead and down the left side of her face, which was entirely red as a result. The rest of her face was lilac, as were her visible hands and ankles. Her outfit was in the same style as the other Archivists, only the lower half was a skirt that went down to above her ankles, and was half blood red with pale red comets, and half pale red with blood red stars. She wore the same cap as the Collector, only in her own colours and with a red star dangling from the back.

The third figure was androgynous, with no clearly defined gender. They appeared to be a full grown adult version of the Collector, and was currently sitting quietly off to the side, sitting on a floating crystal ball. Their hair was long and curly, and left to cascade down their back, while their clothing was an oversized robe version of the Collector's outfit, which left their hands and feet totally obscured. The robe was split between a burnt orange and a pale blue colour, with the burnt orange side having pale blue coloured planet shapes, and the pale blue side having burnt orange ringed planet shapes. Their cap was in the same colour scheme and had an orange ringed planet dangling from the back. Strangely, most of their face was obscured by their cap, which had been pulled down over their eyes, leaving only the bottom half of their face visible. The left side of their face was a similar skin tone to Luz's, while the right side was orange. It was split perfectly down the middle and extended down their neck, though how far down the split went was impossible to see.

Finally, the last figure was an adult woman, that looked like a more mature version of the figure sitting on the tower of books. She had very long hair that reached down to the back of her knees, which lacked any of the waves or curls that the others had, instead having silky and straight hair. Unlike the others, who had fairly slender builds, she was tall and muscular, with a somewhat lean frame. Her skin was two-tone just like the others, only hers was half pale yellow like the Collector's, and half golden. The golden half left her with a sun-like shape around her left eye, with golden sun rays spreading across the rest of her face, with the space between them being pale yellow. The skin of her hands and legs were pale yellow too, making gold the less common colour. Her outfit was similar to the other figures too; it was a version of the dress worn by the other female figure, though she wore an additional open robe over the top. The dress was white with golden suns on one side and gold with white stars on the other, whilst the robe she wore over it had the same design but inverted the colours. Lastly, she wore the same style of cap as the others, only in her signature colours and with a yellow star hanging from the back of it. This final figure was floating in the air in front of the pillar of books, looking down at the Collector with an unreadable expression.

King could feel the Collector's apprehension as he spoke up.

"What do you want, Keeper? Got some more stupid junk for me to collect?" the child asked sullenly, crossing his arms.

The Crescent Moon Archivist growled in a voice that sounded like the Collector's, only deeper; "Mind your tone, brat!"

The Yellow Star Archivist: The Keeper, raised a hand to quell her younger brother. "That's enough, Huntsman." she said softly, her voice rather pretty but otherwise dull and emotionless. The Keeper then smiled at her youngest brother, making the Collector both happy and cautious.

"You have been complaining that you want to play for quite a while now." she said, "Well, you've been working hard recently despite your complaints. You've collected a lot of things for the Archives, so I thought "Oh, let's play a game." Think of it as a kind of reward for your good work."

The Collector gasped in delight; "Really!? We can play!? All of us!?"

The Crescent Moon Archivist, whom King now knew was the Huntsman, grumbled under his breath but the Keeper silenced him with a look and nodded. "Yes, Collector. You undoubtedly remember that our brother's most recent hunt ended in failure and injury, hence why he's lounging about in bed. Well, we thought we could combine our game with something of a peace offering."

"Peace offering?" The Collector repeated.

"That's right. Let's play hide and seek. The four of us will go down to the Demon Realm and hide, and after you've counted for a bit, you'll come find us. It'll be a long game, since we'll be very good at hiding. It could take years!" The Keeper smiled.

The Collector gasped and looked up at his other siblings; "Scribe, Watcher; you're coming out too!? But you never leave the Grand Archives!"

The Red Star Archivist: the Scribe, looked up from her book with a sad smile; "Well, after Huntsman messed things up, Keeper thought it would be a good idea for us all to go and make peace with the Titans, the race that seems to be able to overcome our own abilities. We can all do our jobs while hiding from you as part of the game." she said in a soft, gentle voice.

The Ringed Planet Archivist: the Watcher, nodded along as they finally pulled their cap from their eyes to reveal that they had a ring marking on their forehead. They spoke in a smooth voice that didn't sound particularly feminine or masculine. "There are a few things worth collecting down there, but what we want most is for you to just play and make friends with the Titans, to let them know we're sorry."

King felt his gut twist, knowing full well that the Archivists were lying. The Keeper and Watcher seemed apathetic to the situation, seeing it as just part of their job, while the Huntsman looked eager to get revenge on the Titans that drove him off. The only one that seemed uncomfortable with the whole situation was the Scribe, who looked sympathetic of the Collector and upset with her other siblings. Interestingly, King also didn't spot any signs of pain from the Archivists as they lied, meaning one of three things: they didn't inherit that trait of Angels despite being Sephiroth, they were very good at hiding the pain, or perhaps they genuinely weren't lying and currently intended to really make peace with the Titans. Personally, King felt it was probably one of the first two options; the Huntsman clearly had no desire for peace and apologies.

The Collector looked up at his siblings with pure excitement; "So I get to make friends and play with them while looking for you as part of our game?"

The Huntsman scoffed; "Yes yes, does it really need more of an explanation? You go down there are see if the Titans wanna play! Just ask; you bother us about it often enough, I'm sure you can do this much."

A flush of sadness and embarrassment filled the Collector for a moment, before it was overshadowed by his joy at finally getting to go and make new friends. "Okay! You all go and hide and I'll count to 100! Then I'll come looking for you and make friends with all the Titans while doing it!" The Collector proudly declared, before covering his eyes and beginning to count.

The memory ended long before he reached 100, and it left King feeling bitter on the inside. The Archivists were the Collector's family, but they'd tricked him into acting as a distraction by using his desire to play as a tool of manipulation. It was despicable thing to do, and it made King hate the Archivists even more, while he began to feel his sympathy for the Collector rise even higher.

Awakening in the real world with the Palismen by his side again, King did his usual cursory glance to make sure Matt was okay, then put Pebbles down and grabbed the next Palisman he saw, which was Melody in this case. He wasn't thinking about an order to save his friends any more, as his desire to save them quickly had melded with his desire to hurry up and see the next of the Collector's memories. Each memory was older than the last, making King feel like he was slowly penetrating deeper and deeper into the Collector's mind, making his understanding of the Collector stronger than ever.

Without hesitation, he used his white magic on Melody and plunged into Skara's nightmare with practised ease, and found himself appearing above some kind of large hedge maze, with Skara in the middle. King didn't recognise the place, but he assumed it was the maze in the gardens of the Cadence Estate, given what Luz and his Mom had told him about Skara's birthday. Poor Skara was kneeling on the floor with her eyes shut and her hands over her ears, trying to block out the tormenting words of the apparitions, which took the form of her father Severin, her biological mother Amaranth, and Boscha. It seemed that unlike the previous four, Skara had no guilt towards Luz at least.

"You were always such a disappointment. It's why I had to toss your father to the curb and go out and make myself a new family! If you had just listened to me and done what I'd told you, abandoning your silly Bardic aspirations, we could have stayed as a happy family. Now your father is all alone, and it's all your fault." fake Amaranth mocked with a cruel smile.

"Being truly alone might be better than a daughter like you." fake Severin said cuttingly, "At least if I was truly alone, I wouldn't have been pushed into abandoning everything my family stood for, and all for a girl who had no natural talent for Bardic Magic! Sure you got skilled at it eventually, but it would have been faster and easier for me to just toss you aside like your mother did and started again with a new partner and a new child!"

"And let's not even get started on the stuff we did together. You claim to have always had a problem with me bullying people, but let's not forget that you sat back and did nothing, enabling me, if not outright joining in! Why is it I got stuck with all the blame and hatred when you were just as responsible! Not to mention you were the mastermind behind some of my more complicated pranks! I only became as bad as I was because I had you supporting me in my bad behaviour, but when it came time to pay for it all, you conveniently weren't on my side any more, and had the nerve to threaten our friendship to control me! You're as much of a bully as I ever was!" fake Boscha sneered down at Skara, her words penetrating through to her mind even though the girl covered her ears.

Poor Skara was sobbing through it all, and King hated to see it, so he was quick to fly down and use his roar to blast the apparitions back, giving Skara time to compose herself.

"K-King?" Skara whispered, her voice hoarse as she opened one eye at the sound of his roar.

"It's me, Skara. I'm real, and those three talking smack were fake! This is a nightmare illusion preying on your guilt!" King quickly explained. It was hard to rush the girl into destroying the apparitions in her current state, so he had no choice but to do this gently.

"I-It's all fake?" Skara asked, not daring to hope.

"Of course it is! Your Mom ditched you because she's the problem, not you! And there's no way your Dad and Boscha would blame you for that stuff! Your Dad always talked about valuing your choices, and you were the most important person in his life! He'd give up everything with a smile for your sake! And Boscha actually gets all sappy with you! You may have helped her do some bad stuff, but you're not at fault for her actions, and you made up for your own by becoming a good person too! Cut yourself some slack! And by the way, being a Bard as good as you are without natural talent is way more impressive than being a prodigy from birth! It shows how hard you've worked! Your Dad is definitely super proud of that, and so are the rest of us!" King said passionately. He still felt worked up from the last memory of the Collector's.

Skara's eyes glistened and she sniffed hard, before wiping away her tears. "Y-You're right."

"Of course I am! I'm the King of being right! Now destroy these fakes to escape the nightmare! Boscha is waiting for you!" King told her.

The Bardic Girl nodded and got to her feet, then glared at the fakes. There was a slight shake to her finger as she twirled it and conjured up some cutting gales, but she powered through her hesitation and sliced the fakes to ribbons. The wounds inflicted on them revealing nothing inside them; they were like hollow shells, which made Skara feel a lot better than if they'd been all bloody and gory.

"Take that! My Daddy is proud of me, and Boscha loves me! I've become better as both a Bard AND a person! And I don't care what my Mom thinks any more! So you fakes can suck it!" Skara snapped.

King grinned, seeing the girl return to her normal self just as the nightmare began to break apart. A flash of light brought them back to the white void, where the other freed members awaited them. The instant Boscha saw them, she ran towards Skara and scooped the girl up, twirling the giggling Bard around before pulling her into a deep kiss. When they finally pulled apart, Skara was panting slightly.

"Oh wow… I REALLY hope you're the real Boscha!" Skara joked.

"The one and only! And if any fakes said anything to you in that nightmare, I swear I'm gonna-!" Boscha began, only for King to interrupt her.

"We're on a time crunch here, Boscha. The longer we wait, the more our friends suffer! Fill Skara in later and follow me to the Collector's mirror." the little Titan ordered, getting surprisingly good at taking charge. The rest of the rescued Hexsquad members nodded, and they all followed him up into the air where the mirror had appeared again.

King lay his hands on it while the others put their hands on him, then with a pulse of white magic and a bright flash, King was once again in a new memory. This time he felt desperation and frustration as he saw the Collector in the middle of an unfamiliar town, in a world that looked a bit different from the ones King knew. The sky was purple, the clouds green, and the town around him looked to consist of huts entirely from hide stretched over bone pillars and supports. The Keeper was stood directly in front of the Collector, looking at him with exasperation, while behind her were countless people that looked like humanoid canines of different varieties, all of whom had been turned into puppets. At first King thought they were Demons, but they didn't look like any kind of Lycan or Canine related Demon King had ever heard of, which combined with the unusually coloured sky made King wonder if this was another realm altogether.

His attention was drawn back to the Keeper as she sighed exasperatedly; "Stop giving me that look, Collector. This is your job! You were sent here for a specific task, not to waste time playing with the locals! How are we ever going to complete the Archives if you keep wasting time?" she scolded. The Keeper never raised her voice or got angry, but the look of disappointment and annoyance on her face still made the Collector feel about two feet tall. "Have you already forgotten the last time, when you got distracted and we lost the relic because of it? The Watcher still hasn't found where it ended up."

"B-But that wasn't my fault! The stupid box was impossible to get because of that creepy red-eyed thing! Not to mention that bunch of big newts that attacked me! Besides I did do my job this time! I collected all the samples I was told to! I was just taking a break to make some friends…" the Collector said in a tiny voice.

The Keeper sighed; "How many times do I need to tell you not to do that? These people are mortals; their entire lifespan is barely a blink of the eye for immortal beings like us. They'll disappear before you know it and you'll only suffer heartbreak."

King felt the Collector's confusion; "I don't get it… if they get old and worn out, we can just fix them, like we do everything else! And why would that make them disappear anyway?"

Clearly the Collector still didn't understand the concept of death, and the Keeper didn't look eager to explain it. "Look, it works differently with organics. Please Collector, I'm doing this for your sake; you know how much it hurts when the people we love leave us, just like the Celestial did. And unlike her, these people will never come back once they go away."

The Collector felt a stab of misery at the mention of the Celestial, and his vision became blurry with tears. The Keeper gave him a sympathetic look and knelt down, putting a finger under his chin to make him look her in the eye.

"I know you'd rather play than work, but each of the us Archivists have our roles, including you. I am the Keeper, whom keeps the Archives and all my younger siblings in line. The Watcher uses their power to observe the other realms and find new knowledge, specimens, and relics to fill the Archives. The Scribe records all the knowledge we find, and the Huntsman collects living specimens for us to preserve. But you are the Collector; your job is to go out and collect the relics and items that the Watcher points out to you. You're a big boy now; you said it yourself before, so you need to work hard to help us complete the Archives. Do you understand?"

The Collector nodded weakly, a feeling of resignation welling up inside him. The Keeper smiled gently at him and ruffled his hair; "Good boy. Now let's go home; I'll turn these mortals back to normal once we leave the planet."

The Collector didn't argue, and allowed the Keeper to take his hand and lead him into the sky. A flash of light brought an end to the memory, returning King to the waking world. Now he finally understood what the Archivists were doing; they were trying to build a complete Archive of everything in existence, and had given themselves different roles to achieve that goal. Clearly the Collector didn't enjoy it much though, making King remember when he'd first spoken with the Collector on Titan Trapper Island. The Collector had mentioned them building the Archives, but King hadn't fully understood what he meant at the time… he'd also mentioned not wanting to be the Collector. Did that mean his title was chosen for him? And what was all that about the Celestial? According to Gabriel, that was the name of the second Sephiroth, who had created the Archivists. She had disappeared, and not even the Archivists seemed to know where she was.

King had so many questions, and only one way to get answers; to dive into another memory!

He put Melody down, did his usual check to make sure Skara was free from the nightmare, then grabbed Emmiline next and used his magic to dive into Gus's nightmare.

Immediately, King could tell this one was very different; he had appeared in the sky above some unfamiliar ruins, which considering this was Gus's nightmare, he assumed was the Looking Glass Graveyard. It certainly matched the descriptions Luz and Gus had given when telling him about the trip almost half a year ago… except for the layer of ice and frost that seemed to coat the place. Puzzled, King flew a little closer to the ground and saw that literally everything in the place had been frozen, from the ground, to the foliage, to the statues and the Galdorstones they carried. It was all totally frozen. There was also no sign of Gus, but King had no doubts this was caused by the young Illusionist, as he soon spotted three frozen solid apparitions; one of Lyra, one of Luz, and one of Gus's Dad; Perry Porter.

"Whoa… I guess Gus didn't want to listen to their guilt tripping." King murmured. He looked around and felt the temperature to his side suddenly drop sharply, causing him to instinctively roar in that direction. It was a good thing he did too, as it blasted away the wave of freezing magic coming his way.

"Wait! Don't attack me! I'm real, Gus! I'm not part of the illusion!" King yelled.

Gus poked his head out from behind a pillar and eyed King suspiciously, then took the Amplifying Mirror off his ear (where he'd taken to using it as an earring) and peered through it at King. Whatever he saw must have reassured him, because he beamed and stepped out of his hiding spot whilst putting the mirror back on his ear.

"King, you really are real! Thank the Titan for that! I thought you were another freaky fake coming to tell me all about how much I sucked and all that." Gus smiled, running over to give King a hug.

"Nope, I'm the real deal. I guess being good at illusions lets you resist whatever magic the Collector used to make these guilt nightmares seem so real. Matt was able to resist too, but he couldn't fight back." King said.

Gus nodded; "I almost didn't manage it either. But when those fakes started talking smack, I knew they couldn't be real and since I'd already figured out something was wrong, I was able to snap out of it. Plus I had a little help from this mirror." he said, flicking the earring.

King hummed; "Makes sense. I bet the only reason you haven't busted out of the nightmare already is because you froze it instead of destroying it." he said, turning to look at the frozen apparitions. "What did they try to guilt you with, if you don't mind me asking?"

"Nothing worth dwelling on. The fake version of my Dad blamed me for my Mom leaving, even though their relationship was only ever a relatively casual one. The fake Luz got on my case about not saving her and letting the others get zapped back when Callisto Alembic got Luz arrested. And the fake Lyra was yelling at me for not protecting her from Adrian and letting her suffer under his illusions for a bit while I was back at Glandus. It's all stuff I felt guilty over in the past, but I've gotten over it. No use crying over spilled milk, and besides, I'm a lot stronger now than I was back then. Gus the Master Illusionist isn't gonna break after a weak show like this!" he declared.

The young Titan grinned; "Wow, keep this up and Mom will need to find a new nickname for you, Goops!"

Gus laughed; "I hope so! It was starting to spread! I swear half the CATTs thought that was my real name! Now, you said the illusion won't end until I break the fakes, right?"

"Seemed like it to me." King replied.

The older boy nodded in response and marched over to the three frozen fakes and created a tendril of water with a single spell circle, which he then swung at the fakes to knock their heads off. The instant their heads were knocked from their shoulders, their heads and frozen bodies shattered into snow, and the nightmare disappeared in a flash of white. As usual, they both reappeared in the white void with the other rescued Hexsquad members, and Lyra immediately ran to hug Gus.

"Gus! You're okay! Thank goodness! Your nightmare wasn't too awful, right?" she asked worriedly.

Gus blushed faintly as he hugged her back; "Mine was no sweat. Better than all of yours I'd bet."

"Well we can swap stories while King is saving the next person. I want to see another Collector memory; we're getting deeper into them now and I'm sure we'll find a weakness if we keep diving into his mind!" Hunter said, looking like he was torn between separating Gus and Lyra, and letting them keep hugging.

They eventually separated on their own, and Lyra coaxed Gus into following her lead and floating up to the Collector's mirror as King flew towards it himself. Now that there were so many of them, it was harder for them to all put their hands on King at once, so they instead joined hands with each other and then only Hunter and Boscha touched King, each one grabbing one of his horns as he used his new linking magic to enter the Collector's memories.

This memory seemed to take place within a building similar to the Collector's castle, and featured the Collector walking down a long hallway with a look of boredom. The walls of the hallway were plastered in tapestries, showing several figures of different races. Each tapestry seemed to depict a specific race, with one adult and one child of each gender. They were portrayed as if they were in a biology textbook and lacked any kind of clothing, though the private areas were obscured by a strange blurring effect that seemed to move with the Collector's gaze, likely serving as a form of censoring magic to make sure his underage eyes didn't see any nudity. King briefly wondered if they were actually real people sealed in tapestries and displayed in the Archives, before he noticed plaques beside each one, which gave a bit of information on each one. The information included who the people in the tapestry were, and included their birth dates and death dates, meaning the Archivists had likely taken deceased examples for preservation.

King felt that made sense; it was an Archive after all, not a zoo. He just hoped the Huntsman hadn't been what killed them…

The Collector stopped a few times to look at some of the people in the tapestries, which varied from human-like species, to Demon-like species, and even abstract species that King couldn't even describe, but his distraction never lasted long and he eventually reached his destination; a large hall full of glass terrariums that contained various live plants. The Keeper and Scribe were both present, and while the former looked the same, the latter now looked noticeably younger, appearing to be around 14 years old (or whatever the equivalent was for the slow ageing Archivists). Seeing the two of them also made King realise that the Keeper looked bigger now, likely due to the Collector being smaller.

"Big Sis! Big Sis!" the Collector said, his voice sounding like a little kid's; "Big Sis, where is Mama? I've been looking forever and ever and I can't find her!"

The Keeper's face fell and the Scribe turned away, her shoulders shaking slightly, before she walked off. The Keeper watched her go with a sympathetic frown, then sighed as she knelt in front of the Collector and began petting his head.

"I don't know where she is, Child. The Celestial has left us in search of secret knowledge for the Archives. Not even the Watcher can find her now." the Keeper answered.

The Collector felt shock and sadness; "B-But Mama wouldn't leave us alone! She always comes back!"

"It has been months now, Child. You were napping for a long time… I know how much you hate it when she's not here, so I put you under a sleep spell until she returned. But she hasn't returned, and I don't think she will any time soon. I'm sorry." the Keeper said, and to her credit she seemed genuinely upset by the whole affair.

The Collector's heart nearly broke, and King felt his own breaking on top of it, especially as the little Collector, who must have been about 4 or 5 based on how much younger the Scribe looked, began to tear up. His voice wavered as he said; "B-But Mama promised she'd come back and play with me some more. She said she'd tell me stories! Why won't Mama come home?"

The Keeper closed her eyes and breathed deeply, clearly struggling with her own feelings; "I don't know. But the Celestial loved these Archives and its contents more than anything; she told me that herself before she left. I find it hard to believe anything could stop a True Sephiroth, so if she's not coming back then it must be because she chose not to come back."

King didn't miss the bitterness in that statement; the Celestial was the Keeper's creator or parent too, so being told she was less important than the Archives probably hurt her a lot. However the Collector's spark of hope made it seem like he hadn't realised the implication there.

"Mama loved the Archives lots and lots? T-Then if we finish it, she'll come home!" the Collector said, still tearful but now with a flash of hope.

The Keeper looked at him with searching eyes for a long moment, then shrugged; "I suppose she might."

"Then let me help! I-I'm a big boy now! I can do magic! I can help! The Huntsman is only a bit older than me and he's helping! I can too!" the Collector offered excitedly; "I-I can be the Player! I can find all the fun things and put them in the Archives!"

The Keeper chuckled at that; "That sounds more like you just want to play! But you know what? Five Archivists is better than four. Alright then; if you promise to work hard and take it seriously, I'll let you help us, like a big boy. Would you like that?"

"Yes! Please Keeper, let me help! I want to bring Mama home!" the Collector nodded enthusiastically.

"Good boy. Then from now on, your job will be to find and collect the relics and other items we send you to get. The Huntsman was supposed to handle it, but he's too busy making a spectacle out of his hunts, so we'll leave the live specimens to him, and the non-living ones to you." the Keeper said.

"Yes! I'm good at hide and seek, so I'll find all the stuff! Then Mama will come home!" the Collector beamed.

"Good. Then from now on, you are an Archivist. You are… the Collector."

With those final words from the Keeper, King's vision once again went white and he awoke back in the Palisman playpen, his mind burning with what he'd learned. So that was the moment that the youngest child of the Celestial became the Collector… he'd been a small child volunteering to help take on an impossible task out of a desperate desire to make his mother come home. Once again, King felt his understanding and sympathy for the Collector growing; if he had lost his Mom somehow, he'd do anything to save her! Heck, he'd helped attack the Conformatorium to save his Mom from petrification, and journeyed beyond the sky to free his Mama from her torment! To a small, friendless child, what could be more important to them than the only loving parent they've ever known? The Collector losing his mother also further explained his abandonment issues and fear of losing his new friends…

"I'm starting to think everyone we meet needs therapy." King muttered to himself as he gently put Emmiline on the ground. He didn't even bother looking to see if Gus was in the same state as the others this time, and instead just went to pick up Clover, who had been silently watching him alongside Ghost, waiting for her turn to save her partner. Mindful of the Bee Palisman's sharp proboscis, King put their heads together and whispered; "Almost there. Just a few more memories!"

His white magic surged, and King dove into Willow's nightmare, appearing inside an unfamiliar school that had been totally overgrown with trees and plants of all kinds. King didn't recognise the school, but seeing as it wasn't Hexside and Willow had no strong connections to any other schools, King guessed that this must be Fibul Academy; the old school that had been buried beneath Hexside and then converted into a part of it. Flying down to the base of a giant tree that dominated the room, King looked around for signs of Willow, but couldn't see hide nor hair of her.

He did find the guilt apparitions though, which took the forms of Luz, Gus, and her fathers; Harvey and Gilbert. They were surrounding a huge knot of wood, which upon closer inspection, King saw had been made from multiple roots wrapping around each other to form a wooden shell. King didn't need to be a genius to figure out Willow was inside the shell, likely hiding herself from the apparitions that haunted her. That didn't stop the apparitions from pressing themselves against the wooden shell, and spitting their poison into it for Willow to hear.

"Is this what you've become, Captain? Nothing but a coward that runs and hides? Or can you just not face that you sold us all our for a moment of pride!" the fake Gus snarled hatefully; "You were warned what winning HECK would lead to, but you still fought and defeated Hunter, instead of taking a dive! You let the rest of us sacrifice our pride for the sake of the team's safety, but when it was your pride on the line, you traded all of our lives for a pointless victory! Was proving you're not just "Half-a-Witch Willow" really worth all of our lives!? We almost died, and Darius was exposed, which led to Eber being exposed too, and Mason getting a spy enchantment put on his sigil, which let Belos know our plans and almost doomed the whole Day of Unity! And why!? So you could show off to your boyfriend!?"

"Tch, and you call yourself the "Mom Friend"? Yeah, maybe a Mom like Odalia!" fake Luz scoffed; "You act like you're able to look out for all of us, but at the times we need you most, you never measure up! The first day I met you, I got smacked in the face sticking up for you against Boscha! I helped rebuild your friendship with Amity even when Odalia put a knife to my throat! I helped you get into the Plant Track, even though I had just met you and fought a Mandragora to save you! And what have you done for me!? Why do I have to solve all your problems but you're useless to help with mine!?"

The fake Harvey and Gilbert spoke next, their hands joined together; "We tried so hard to support you and get you into a track that would actually help you achieve a worthy future, and yet not only did you fail at every turn and embarrass us, but you ditched it the first chance you got!?" fake Harvey began.

"And you made it look like all your failures were our fault! You made us feel like bad parents for not knowing why you were struggling, even though you constantly lied and hid your struggles from us! Did you not trust us? Did you not love your fathers enough to tell them the truth?" fake Gilbert finished.

King, landing on top of the shell of roots, just growled; "Oh quit your yapping! Willow will smash you all to bits in a second! Speaking off… Willow, time to come OUT!"

That last word was punctuated with King's Titan Roar, which cracked open the wooden shell enough for King to squeeze through and plop down onto Willow's head. The girl was hugging and burying her face in her knees while shuddering slightly, though she went still and peeked out when she felt King land on her head.

She reached up and grabbed him, then narrowed her tear-filled eyes suspiciously; "King?"

"Yes it's me. And before you ask, yes I'm real. This is a guilt illusion made by the Collector as some messed up form of therapy. Everything those apparitions say is hot garbage, and you should hurry up and smash them all so we can get out of here!" King said, crossing his arms.

Willow stared at him blankly for a minute, and King sheepishly added; "Sorry for being curt. You're the seventh person in a row I've done this with. I've only got Luz and Amity left to free after you."

"Wait, you came to save me before Luz!?" Willow asked, shocked.

"Yes. I would have saved her first, but I needed your Palisman and some new linking magic I've awakened to make this work. It's a long story, and I or the others will explain later, but for now we really need to go!" King urged her.

Willow bit her lip; "But what those fakes have been saying…"

"… is hot garbage, like I just said! Look, the only real mistake you made was beating Hunter at that HECK thing, right?" King said, exasperated; "But everyone makes mistakes, and it's not like you knew what would happen if you won! You just knew it'd be a prize you didn't want! It could have been a solid gold Belos statue or something! And like Mom and the others told you, if you hadn't won, then the Glandus kids would have been forced into the Coven instead!" King then crossed his arms and said; "And can you really look me in the eye and say you believe Luz or your parents would say things like that about you? You're Luz's best female friend! Her oldest real friend, from even before Amity! And your parents were the ones who felt guilty for putting you in a track you didn't want and not seeing how miserable you were. You didn't fail them, just as you didn't fail Luz!"

King offered Willow his hand; "Now come on. The rest of the gang need their Mom Friend! And you're the only one for the job! You don't want to keep your boyfriend waiting, do you?"

"Hunter isn't my boyfriend." Willow huffed, looking away with lightly blushing cheeks.

"You know, just because you didn't say the "yet" out loud doesn't mean I didn't hear it." King smirked. "Also, I never said his name."

Willow stared at King for a minute, before laughing to herself as her eyes regained some spirit and clarity; "I guess I should have expected the child of the Owl Lady to be tricky!" she giggled, before sighing; "I've been acting stupid, haven't?"

"Eh, don't feel bad. The Collector's magic magnifies your guilt when it turns it into these nightmares. It took Titan power or illusion skills to see through it without help. Now bust down this shell, kick those apparitions to the curb, and get us out of here!" King commanded.

"You got it, your Majesty." Willow smirked, getting to her feet and giving a joking bow. She then drew a pair of spell circles; one that lowered her wooden shell and one that conjured thorned vines that went slithering through the air towards the apparitions, which they quickly caught and shredded before they could say another word.

"Get out of my way! My friends need me!" Willow growled as she destroyed the apparitions, making King grin.

"And there's the slightly scary Willow I know! Next stop, the void!" he said.

Willow gave him a confused look, but a flash of light had them both reappearing in the white void, already surrounded by the others King had rescued. The plant witch had even more questions, but her first thought was to grab each of her friends one by one and check them over. Most of them just chuckled and assured Willow they were fine, while Boscha gently swatted her hands away with a glare that lacked any real malice. On the flip side, Hunter just went red and completely still as Willow patted him down for signs of injuries. When she found none, she smiled up at the boy;

"Are you sure you're okay, Hunter?" she asked, her cheeks a bit pinker than normal.

"N-Never better! B-But we should get going! We've still got two more friends to rescue, and three more Collector memories to see!" Hunter spluttered nervously.

Willow blinked; "Collector memories?"

"A story for later! Move it or I'm watching the memory alone!" King said, already having flown up to the mirror while Willow did her checks.

The Hexsquad scrambled to float up after him, with a bewildered Willow being pulled along by Hunter gripping her hand with a shy smile. "I'll explain in a bit; trust me, you're going to want to see and hear all of it." he said.

Willow certainly wasn't going to argue, and just gripped Hunter's hand a little tighter as the boy joined the others and laid a hand on King. The young Titan activated his new magic as he touched the mirror, and entered into a new memory.

Like the last one, the memory started in the halls of the Grand Archives, with the Collector feeling bored as he wandered aimlessly, occasionally stopping to look at the tapestries of specimens on the walls. None held his interest for long, and he kept walking until he discovered the Huntsman up ahead. The Huntsman in his memory was about the same age as the Collector was in the present, and looked eerily like him with just a different colour scheme to tell him apart.

"Huntsman!" The Collector called out to him, a brief jolt of excitement flooding him as he ran over.

The Huntsman groaned and looked towards the Collector like only a fed-up older brother could. "What do you want, Shorty?"

"That's not my name! Don't be mean, Huntsman!" the Collector (whose real name King still didn't know) whined. He then perked up again as he said; "Do you wanna play with me? Mama is busy and said I should find someone else to play with for now."

The Huntsman scoffed; "Of course Mother is busy! We're all busy! It's only little babies like you who get to lounge around playing all day! But unlike you, I'm a big kid now! I have a job!" he pointed to the tapestry he'd been working on, which contained the results of his latest hunt; a quartet of fish-like people that somewhat resembled Merrows, but with blue skin, red hair, shark-like teeth, and fins in place of ears, with no other obvious fish features. "It's my job to hunt down creatures for the Archives! And it's not easy either, since Mother and the Keeper forbid me from just capturing so-called "Intelligent" species… do you know how annoying it is to find fresh corpses for the Archives without killing them myself!?"

The young Collector felt only confusion, not knowing what a corpse was. King felt disgusted by the Huntsman's words and his attitude, though at least it confirmed that the Archivists didn't capture people and lock them up in the Archives. Though considering the Huntsman was the one behind the Owl Beast's imprisonment, King wondered if he'd caught and abandoned other creatures on his hunts.

"So does that mean you don't wanna play?" the Collector asked.

"Yes, it means I don't want to play. Now go pester someone else, you little brat!" the Huntsman spat, glaring hatefully at his little brother.

The Collector recoiled back a step, feeling hurt by his big brother's words. He began to tear up, which angered the Huntsman further, causing him to take a step towards the Collector. The youngest Archivist briefly felt afraid, before a voice echoed through the hallway.

"Stop, Huntsman."

The Huntsman and the Collector looked down the hall in surprise, seeing the Watcher marching towards them with the Scribe at their side. The Watcher looked to be around 16 in this memory, and was still completely androgynous, while the Scribe looked around 13. The Scribe immediately hurried to the Collector's side and hugged him, before dabbing his teary eyes with a handkerchief.

"There there, baby brother. It's okay; don't listen to that meanie Huntsman. He's just grumpy because things aren't going his way." the Scribe said soothingly.

The Huntsman growled; "I'm "grumpy" because I'm working my butt off for the Archives, but Mother only ever has time for the Keeper and the Brat!"

"She gives less attention to us because we are old enough to not need her constant supervision. She is giving us independence, not neglecting us! Have you actually asked to spend time with her, or are you just throwing a tantrum as usual because she cannot read your mind!?" the Watcher scolded. "Our youngest brother is still too small to be independent, and needs frequent attention to ensure he remains magically stable! If he were to become unstable, he could become a massive threat to us, the Archives, and all of existence!"

The Huntsman flushed; "He should be stable by now! The rest of us were! Why is his magic taking so long to stabilise!?"

"The Celestial says it is because he is perpetually around five other Sephiroth who use their magic frequently. He absorbs the excess instinctively, which is then added to his own magic and alters it. Apparently that's why he hasn't got his own form of unique magic like the rest of us do." the Watcher explained.

"So he's defective. I could have told you that in a lot fewer words!"

The Collector whimpered and the Scribe held him a little tighter; "The only defective thing here is your attitude!" she yelled to her younger brother; "Now get out and go do your job!"

The Watcher nodded and pulled a scroll from inside their overly long sleeve and handed it to the Huntsman; "Here is your next assignment. You're going back to the Evolution Realm."

"Again!? This is the ninth time!? How many new creatures are there now!?" the Huntsman exclaimed.

"About 120. However you'll only need to catch two of about 100 of the new species, since the others are genderless. Oh, and some new variants of older species have evolved too, so be sure to hunt them as well." the Watcher ordered.

"The Evolution Realm is ridiculous! That's got to be over 1000 new species cropping up since I first hunted there! This is going to take forever…" the Huntsman complained as he turned on his heel and stomped away.

The Watcher shouted after him; "I will be watching, little brother. There will be no sadism. Otherwise, I'll add you to the Archives for a few centuries!"

The Huntsman raised his hand to give a rude gesture, but the Collector's eyes were covered by the Scribe so he didn't see it. When the Scribe finally lowered her hand again, the Collector looked up at her with a bit of hope.

"Will you play with me, Big Sis?" he asked.

The Scribe winced; "I wish I could, Baby Brother. But I have to get back to work. Maybe next time, okay?"

The Collector felt a hot flash of disappointment, and looked towards the Watcher, who merely shook their head with a blank expression and walked off to continue with their own duties. The Scribe gave her baby brother one more quick hug and a ruffle of his hair, then stood up and rushed to follow her older sibling, her shoulders hunched a little as she refused to look back at the Collector.

The youngest Archivist was left alone in the hallway, feeling lonely and miserable as he slowly turned around and began trudging back to his room. The memory ended soon after with a flash of light, and King opened his eyes back in the real world again.

While this memory hadn't revealed much to King besides the dynamic of the other Archivists, it had still made him feel more sorry for the Collector. The Huntsman was as much of a bully and possible sociopath as King expected from that monster, while the Watcher and Scribe had been… odd. The Watcher had defended their brother, but never once said a word of comfort to him or really even looked at him, and while the Scribe (who seemed to be the nicest of the siblings) had genuinely seemed to care for her littlest brother, she had still ultimately left him alone and miserable to continue her work. It further hammered home that the Collector was just a lonely kid whose own family couldn't be relied upon most of the time. It also seemed to explain why he was so dogged about keeping his new friends with him, and "taking care of them" in his messed up way. He literally didn't know any better and was trying to help.

King was dragged out of his thoughts by Clover buzzing and flying out of his hands, and Ghost carefully trotting up to him and gently butting her head against his. King smiled; "One more Palisman and one more partner. Then we can see about a way to free Luz."

Ghost meowed in response, and King used his linking magic once again and was plunged into Amity's nightmare. He appeared inside a huge factory full of abomination machinery, which looked similar to Alador's workshop on Digale Island. King figured that it must be the old Blight Industries factory. Looking down into the maze of machinery, King soon found Amity in a similar state to how he'd found Willow, only without any bubble to keep the apparitions from spewing their nonsense right into her ears. She was surrounded by apparitions of Lilith, Willow, and unsurprisingly, Luz, and she was shaking violently as they filled her with guilt.

"You abandoned me, Amity. You were my only friend in the whole world, and you tossed me to the side like I was nothing! Like our friendship meant nothing!" fake Willow cried; "You say you didn't want to, but you're supposed to be smart! It would have been easy for us to trick Odalia into thinking we weren't friends! But you were too weak! Though you still found the strength to bully and belittle me along with your new friends! Did Odalia make you do that too, or were you just a monster looking for an excuse! And then you suddenly start trying to be my friend again, trying to be a good person like nothing happened, and all because you wanted Luz to like you!"

Fake Lilith spoke next; "Yet despite your own history as a despicable bully and all the forgiveness heaped upon you, you were certainly slow to forgive me! You treated me like scum for my own mistakes, even though I was trying to make up for them! You're nothing but a hypocrite that didn't try to change your ways until you realised you'd gone too far, and the Raven Beast nearly killed innocent people! You don't even have the courage to admit that you see me as a mother figure… though maybe it's a good thing you don't; you should just stick to Odalia! She's the mother you deserve, and the one you're most like!"

The last one to speak was fake Luz, and as King flew down to attack the apparitions, he knew this was the one that would destroy Amity emotionally.

"Why did you do all this, Amity? I thought you loved me, but you made me feel like a failure yet again. I just wanted to help, but you refused to let me. Was that really because you didn't want me to be disappointed? Or did you just not want to have to deal with my depression? Were my emotions such a burden on you? Am I not allowed to feel anything but devotion to you? Am I only allowed to find happiness when it's you providing it? Honestly, is it any wonder I tried to sacrifice myself to the Reformation for you? You made me feel like I couldn't even live in this world any more. You-"

The fake didn't get to say another word as King roared at her, blasting her away from Amity with his Titan power. Two more roars blasted the other fakes away too, and King landed in front of Amity and gently put a paw on her knee.

"There there, it's okay. This isn't real, Amity. Just your guilt being magnified by a nasty illusion." King said soothingly. He felt closer to Amity than the rest of the Hexsquad; partly because she was his future sister-in-law, and partly because she could arguably be considered his future cousin too, seeing as she was basically the daughter of Lilith in every way that mattered.

Amity poked her head out from her knees, her tearful gaze landing on King; "K-King?"

"Yeah Amity, it's me. And yes, I am real. It's a long story, but I've come to bust you out of this nightmare! All you've got to do is destroy these fakes and we're home free!" King told her.

Amity shuddered; "B-But how could I destroy them? After everything I did to the real ones…"

King sighed; "So what, it's better to sit here wallowing in guilt? The real Willow and Luz are waiting for you in the real world! You're one of Willow's closest friends, and Luz loves you so much it's almost sickening! Are you just going to refuse to go back to them because some fakes in your head are filling you with doubts? The real ones would deck these fakes with smile! And Aunt Lily would too! She'd probably ground you for ever thinking so lowly of yourself!"

Amity, despite still having tears running down her face, giggled; "Y-You might be right. Even when I was a brat or disobedient, Lilith was always nice to me. She only ever scolded me when I didn't take care of myself."

"You see? The real ones all love you and know how hard you've worked to be a better person! You had a pretty good excuse for how awful you used to be, but you never used it to worm your way out of consequences! You just accepted it and got better! That's pretty amazing! Now stand up, beat up these dumb fakes, and let's get out of here! After you, the only one left to save is Luz, and I just know she'll need your help!" King declared.

Amity slowly began to compose herself as King spoke, and that final statement galvanised her to action. "You're right! My family and my lover all need me! I won't make excuses for my mistakes, but I won't let them rule me either!"

She leapt to her feet and created two scimitars out of pink light magic; "You fakes may be my guilt and doubts personified, but I am done listening to you!"

With a surprising amount of skill with swords, Amity leapt at the fake Luz first and sliced her in half both length and width ways, quartering her and making her vanish in a puff of black smoke. Amity then threw one of her light blades into the fake Willow's head, destroying her too, before darting at fake Lilith and stabbing her in the heart, destroying the final apparition.

"My guilt will urge me to do better, not hold me back in the past." she said resolutely.

King beamed, impressed by the girl's display, before another bright flash of light destroyed the nightmare and returned him and Amity to the white void. As usual, the Hexsquad was present and rushed to make sure Amity was okay, while King looked up to spot the Collector's mirror always appeared in. He flew up to it and waited, bracing himself for what would likely be one of the last memories King would get to see from the Collector. He was joined a moment later by the others; Amity didn't seem too interested in finding out what else had been happening whilst Luz still needed saving, so she'd rushed through telling the others she was okay and making sure they were too, and had immediately followed them up to King and put a hand on his head.

"Okay guys, before we do this, I need to talk to you. I was able to reach each of you because I was locked up in some kind of playpen with your Palismen, so I was able to link to you through your bonds with them. But I'm not sure what'll happen next or how I'll get to Luz without her own Palisman, so I want to talk to you about the Collector." King said seriously.

Everyone except Amity nodded with grim expressions, all having either seen the memories themselves, or seen illusions of them made by Lyra (with help from Gus). They each felt some amount of sympathy for the Collector and wanted to resolve things peacefully (especially since they stood no chance in a fight with him). He had trapped them all in those nightmares as some misguided attempt at therapy… at helping them, and making sure they didn't all abandon him like his family did. He was in the wrong, but he was still a child that didn't fully understand what he was doing and why it was wrong. He needed good friends to help guide him and teach him what a real friend is.

"I'm mad at him for all of this. But he's just a kid." Boscha sighed; "I'm bad at this stuff, and it's not like I have any right to call someone else unworthy of forgiveness after what I did in the past. So I'll follow your lead, King. You are his "best-est" friend after all."

The others nodded, with even Amity surprisingly agreeing despite not seeing any of the memories or being told about them yet. When King looked at her in surprise, she just shrugged; "What? You guys wouldn't be saying that stuff without a good reason. And besides, we all know Luz will want to help him. Despite what she might think, she hasn't steered us wrong so far, and neither has her little brother!" Amity said, before smiling at King; "And for the record King, I think you've grown up a little more. I bet your Dad, your Mama, your Mom, and Luz are all really proud. You saved all of us King."

The little Titan felt a rush of warmth filling his chest; "W-Well, I am King after all! It's my duty as a benevolent overlord to make sure my important subjects are all happy and healthy!"

The Hexsquad smiled; King really had come a long way. He was still just a child, but he was growing up!

Feeling embarrassed by the praise, King turned away from the Hexsquad and put his hands on the mirror; "Come on. Let's get this done; we've all got some things to say to the Collector, and we need to save Luz! I think we've got some stuff to say to her too, after what she said at the trial…"

Everyone nodded sombrely and joined hands as King activated his magic one more time and sent them all into another memory. It immediately became clear to the young Titan that this memory was different; the Collector's emotions felt a lot stronger and more complex; like a plethora of different feelings all blended together. There was contentment, curiosity, and amusement, as well as many others King couldn't identify, though the feeling came with strong nostalgia.

The Collector was crawling around in a large playpen very similar to the one that he'd placed King and the Palismen in out in the real world, and he was babbling to himself, clearly only a very small child at this point in his life. He wasn't even able to walk or talk yet, but he definitely already had his love of play, as King watched him slowly and clumsily pick up blocks and assemble them into little piles, before knocking them down with a giggle. He was having a great time, though he was soon interrupted by a new presence entering his playpen. King was almost overwhelmed by the feelings of excitement he was getting from the Collector, though when the Collector actually looked up at the newcomer, all King felt for himself was confusion.

The person appeared to be a woman and was dressed in a Divine Regalia very similar to the Keeper's outfit, only without being split between two colours and instead simply having it be largely white with some golden details. Aside from that, King couldn't really describe the woman at all, as her features were all blurry and hard (if not impossible) to make out. Her hair seemed to be white with loose curls, and her eyes appeared to be a dark shade of gold, but even that detail was uncertain thanks to how blurry she was. Given all the context clues from the Collector's other memories, King had no doubt that she was the Celestial; the Sephiroth that created the Archivists and then went missing, making this woman the Collector's mother. But then why was her face blurry?

"Could it be… could it be that the Collector doesn't remember his mother's face!?" King thought.

That realisation nearly broke King's heart, especially when combined with him feeling the young Collector's emotions. He watched from behind the child's eyes as he crawled over to the Celestial, who knelt down and held out her arms. When the Collector was just a little ways away, the Celestial spoke in a soft, soothing, and melodious voice.

"There's my strong little boy! Do you think you can walk the last few steps?" she asked lovingly.

The Collector became determined, and slowly pushed himself onto his feet and straightened up, staggering around on his unsteady feet. He took some tentative steps and came within inches of the Celestial's outstretched hands before losing his balance, but instead of falling over onto his backside, he was caught under the arms by the Celestial, who cheered for him as she gently tossed him in the air and caught him again.

"Well done! Whose my little man? You are! Oh yes you are!" the Celestial cheered, cuddling the Collector to her chest and kissing his cheeks, making the Collector giggle delightedly.

"You're going to grow up big and strong, just like your siblings! You may be like an adorable little Cherub now, but you'll be amazing one day! Then all of us can complete the Archives as a family!"

King still couldn't see the woman's face, but he got the distinct impression she was beaming down at her child as she said those words. It seemed she truly adored her son, and doted on him a lot! But if that's the case, did something change to make her leave? King had a hard time imagining she would just abandon her children… and come to think of it, why did she stop trying to make more Sephiroth? She'd been trying to find out what happened when all ten were assembled, but had stopped at five kids, leaving eight Sephiroth all together…

He wouldn't be getting any answers in this memory though, and it didn't last much longer either. A cry of "Mama!" from outside the room drew the Celestial's attention, and she tutted good-naturedly; "Oops, it looks like your big brother wants me too! Let's go see what he wants together?" she said to the Collector, who babbled happily. The two headed towards the door, and as they passed through it, the memory disappeared in a flash of light and King once again awoke in the real world.

"That was… weird." King said, flopping onto his back. He felt a little tired from using his new magic so much, but he also felt overwhelmed by the shockingly intense and pure emotions felt by the Baby Collector. He wished there had been a mirror or something in the memory; the Collector had said the Baby Titans were cute like King was, so King wanted to see what the Collector had looked like as a baby too.

The Hexsquad's Palismen all crowded around King again to make sure he was okay, and the little Titan eventually sat back up and looked over to Luz's cage. The rest of the Hexsquad had stopped whimpering and now just had white glowing eyes, while Luz was also completely still, though her eyes were closed so it was impossible to tell what colour they were glowing. She didn't look distressed, though she was a bit clammy looking and her fingers twitched oddly every now and then, much to King's confusion.

"Luz looks okay. Maybe a little off, but otherwise fine. Maybe breaking all those other nightmares made the Collector give up and cancel the spell? Or maybe Luz broke out on her own like I did? She could still be in the void because she doesn't have as much Titan magic as me, but then why didn't she appear in the same void as the others?" King wondered aloud. "Maybe because I didn't link her void with the others with my white magic?"

King didn't know, so he flew as close to Luz as the barrier around the playpen would let him. He tried pressing his magic into it, but the barrier was more Angelic Magic than Sephiroth Magic, so King couldn't break through it with his Titan powers. With a frown, he landed back on the ground with the Palismen and extend his magic to them so he could understand them.

"Okay guys, I don't know how much longer the Collector will leave us here, so I need to find a way to get out or bring him here. Any suggestions?" he asked.

Most of the Palismen had no idea, but Ghost just meowed; "Well when I'm inside and I want Amity to let me outside, I just meow at her. If she won't let me go outside, I scream until she lets me out. It usually works."

King snorted; he remembered Amity complaining about Ghost screaming to be let out at night sometimes… at least until Luz had introduced her to the concept of the cat flap, which had been installed in every door of the Blight House on Digale Island.

"That's not a bad idea. Here, let me try something." King said, rummaging through his glyph notes. He found a barrier glyph note and then bundled all the Palismen together and activated the barrier on them to keep them safe, before turning away; "I hope this works!" he said, before beginning to unleash roar after roar. The roars were as magically weak as he could make them, but the shock waves were still dangerous, hence why King protected the Palismen with a barrier. They echoed through the room and even into the hallway outside, where King hoped they would reach the Collector. He continued to roar over and over again, making more and more noise (even shaking the barrier around the playpen), until after about five minutes, he finally got the result he was hoping for.

The doors to the room suddenly burst open and the Collector flew in at high speed, landing on the giant rubix cube right beside the pen with a worried look on his face. He began looking around frantically, pausing for a moment as he saw the white glow in the eyes of the Hexsquad, before turning to see King and the Palismen watching him.

"King! You're awake!" the Collector exclaimed, shocked; "I, uh, thought your nap would last longer."

King snorted; "You mean you thought I'd be stuck in that guilt nightmare until you came to rescue me, right?"

The Collector flushed, looking ashamed of himself. "I'm sorry King, but I didn't know what else to do! I wanted to keep you all safe with me, where we can play and have fun! Hanu told me this would help you all feel better, and make you like me more…"

King frowned; "Oh right, I forgot about Hanu. Where is she? Pebbles said her puppet form was acting weird."

"She was helping me find the other puppets in our game. I left her behind when I heard you roaring; I thought you were in trouble! But I don't know what's wrong with her; she stopped talking to me a little while ago and acts like a normal puppet now." The Collector replied, sounding both guilty and upset over "losing" Hanu.

King had no idea what was going on with Puppet Hanu, but he was sure the real Hanu wouldn't have suggested something so strange. It just made no sense! But he would put that aside for now; he had more pressing issues.

"Alright. Collector, I promise I won't be mad about what you tried to do. I also know my friends won't get mad either; I already broke the nightmare illusions on them, and I think Luz broke the illusion on herself. If you let all of us go, I promise we'll sit down and talk about this, so we can help each other and still be friends, okay?" King offered, speaking gently so as not to upset the Collector.

The Star Child's eyes widened as he landed in front of the barrier close to King. "You really won't be mad at me? You'll still be my friend?"

"Yes, Collector. I saw some of your memories through those links you put in my friends' heads, so I understand your point of view more now. I understand why you did such a mean thing to us. But you've got to let us go and let us talk it all out. Okay?" King said, putting his hand against the barrier.

The Collector looked tearful and ashamed as he cautiously put his hand against King's, the barrier popping and releasing King and the Palismen in the process. King beamed at the Collector, who felt a little better to see his friend still liked him. With a snap of his fingers, the Hexsquad were all awoken from their illusions, and the bottoms of their cages slowly lowered to the ground before disappearing, letting the teens out. Their Palismen immediately ran into their arms for a reunion, then Amity ran over to Luz, who was slowly and gingerly getting up, a strangely blank look on her face.

"Luz! Are you okay?" Amity asked, trying to throw her arms around the young Arch-Angel. However to everyone's shock, Luz backed off a step and put her hand up to stop Amity's approach.

"L-Luz?" Amity stuttered, shocked by the look on Luz's face. Her expression was still somewhat blank, but her eyes were dull and lifeless, almost like she wasn't really conscious. It was bizarre, and she was also still clammy looking.

"I don't really want to be touched at the moment, Amity." Luz said in a dull voice, little better than a monotone.

"O-Oh… I'm sorry." Amity stepped back, trying not to look hurt. "Are you okay at least?"

"Yeah, you seem really off. Like you're not yourself." Willow frowned.

Luz looked away from them all; "The nightmares were… unpleasant. I'm more surprised all of you are fine." she said.

"King managed to awaken some kind of new power. It's this weird white magic that lets him link himself to other people." Lyra explained.

Luz and the Collector both looked to the young Titan, the former raising an eyebrow and the latter looking excited; "Really!? That sounds amazing!" the Collector gasped.

"Uh, yeah! I think it's my unique glyph, the one I developed because my parents had all eight elemental glyphs between them. I don't know what the glyph looks like though; it's still not complete yet from what I could see." King explained.

The Collector beamed, and Luz at least looked marginally interest, putting her hand against her chin, but her reaction was otherwise a lot more restrained than King and the others had expected. How awful had her nightmare been that it had effected her this strongly? Or was it a mix of that and her depression?

King leaned close to the Collector and whispered; "Hey Collector, how exactly did that guilt nightmare spell work?"

The Collector whispered back; "I just made it so that the people in the illusion ended up somewhere connected to their guilty feelings. Then their own minds would conjure these scary guilt creatures."

"So the more guilty a person already feels, the worse the illusion would be, right?" King gulped, knowing that his sister had been drowning in guilt even before the Collector's illusion. She was probably feeling worse than ever now! King and the others would need to find a way to help her, but first they needed to deal with the current problem; the Collector and his actions.

Luz, apparently getting fed up with all the worried looks, turned to glare at the Collector; "What do we do with him?" she asked, her voice cold enough to make even the Star Child shiver in fear.

"Whoa, Luz! I know you're really upset right now, but the others and I agreed to talk with him and solve this problem peacefully!" King said, getting between his friend and his sister; "That's okay with you, right?"

Luz stared at the Titan for a long moment, before a strange smile stretched across her face; "Of course, King. I'll trust you to do whatever you think is right. If we can stop the Collector without violence, then I'm all for it." she said, suddenly sounding a lot more enthusiastic. Still, there was something a little bit creepy about her smile that was making King and the others' skins crawl.

"R-Right…" King replied, before shrugging off his sister's current weirdness and giving his attention back to the Collector. "Let's sit down for a bit, so we can talk about all this."

The Collector, feeling scared of Luz and of upsetting King and his other friends while they were giving him friendly and sympathetic looks, nodded and snapped his fingers to make chairs for everyone. They all sat, except for Luz, who began to fly around a little to stretch her wings (which were noticeably still grey and dull).

"Okay Collector, I'm gonna be honest with you; what you did to us was not okay. And what you did to a lot of innocent Angels was not okay either. But I also want to say I'm sorry; even though I promised before that I would save you no matter what, I only let you out so you would save us, and you did which I'm super grateful for, but I was still just using you like your Archivist Siblings and Belos did. It was mean of me do to that, and I'm sorry. But for the record, I still would have freed you even if you'd refused; I'm not that mean!" King said, deciding to balance scolding the Collector with thanking him and apologising, to help numb some of the sting of being scolded by a friend.

It seemed to work, as while the Collector still looked guilty for what he did, he also seemed happy that he'd helped King. "It's okay King! I'm just so happy you let me out! And I'm sorry too… that trick with the guilt illusions seemed like a good idea at the time; I thought it would help! But I guess it was really mean too. I'm really sorry."

King smiled; "I forgive you, since it let me unlock a new power and understand you better! What about you guys?" he turned to the rest of the Hexsquad.

The others all smiled and nodded too, all of them fully aware of all the memories now, even those they hadn't been there to see. While the experience had been emotionally harrowing, they couldn't deny feeling a lot better now that they destroyed the guilt apparitions. They couldn't exactly thank the Collector for that, but they didn't want to condemn him for it either. The only one who didn't acknowledge King's question was Luz, who seemed to be content just flying around and stretching her wings, as well as testing out her magic. Given how her wings had turned grey and the light glyph had disappeared from her chest, they couldn't blame her for testing out her abilities to see what she could still do.

The Collector beamed at their forgiveness; "Great! So we're all real friends now? We don't have to pretend? You won't try to trick me or ditch me, or disappear?"

"If we disappear, it won't be because we wanted to. I think we can all promise that." Lyra smiled gently.

"But we really would like to be friends. While you went too far, you did save our friends from a really bad spot. I think we just need to take some time to get to know you more; to know what you like, and for you to know what we like." Willow agreed.

"We won't lie to you or try to abandon you. That's not how friends act." Gus promised.

The Collector looked totally overjoyed, and actually began to float out of his chair again; "Finally! Does that mean we can play now? I've got TONS of games I wanna play! I was trapped for thousands of years, so I made a really long list!"

"We can't play yet, Collector." Hunter crossed his arms; "We still need to fix all the damage you've done."

"B-But all I did was make a cool clubhouse out of those mean birdies' dumb court." the Collector said sullenly.

"Yeah, and terrorised the city with your weird minions, turned tons of innocent people into Puppets including some of our friends, AND basically decided to take over the city and possibly the Divine Realm as a whole? That's pretty bad." Matt pointed out.

"They were gonna hurt King, and Luz! And all of you! I didn't do anything bad…" the Star Child pouted, not looking totally convinced himself.

King sighed; "Yes you did, Collector. You tried to do a good thing, but went too far. We're not mad at you, but we still can't play until all the problems are fixed. It's hard to have fun when we're worried about our friends, family, and innocent people. Could you have fun playing if you knew I was in danger and only you could save me?"

That seemed to get through to the Collector, who finally looked like he was beginning to understand. He obviously wouldn't be able to enjoy himself with his games if King was in trouble. Floating back down into his seat, he hunched his shoulders a little as he asked in a small voice; "What should I do?"

"I think a good start would be turning Camila, Vee, Hanu, and Treble back to normal. And the rest of the innocent Angels that your minions transformed." Boscha answered.

The Collector nodded; "I can do that. I suppose I should say sorry to them too…"

"That would be good. Second, you should turn this castle back into the Patience Court and fix it back where you found it. This castle is cool, but it doesn't belong to you. Stealing is bad." Skara said.

"But my job was stealing stuff. Not many people would let me just have the stuff I was told to collect." the Collector frowned.

"Thou shalt not steal." Luz suddenly chimed in, her strange dull eyes boring into the Collector from across the room; "If you stole from the Angels, you must redeem yourself by returning what you took."

Strange choice of words aside, the Hexsquad all agreed with Luz, so the Collector sighed; "Fine… can I at least build a new clubhouse in the same spot after I return this one?"

"You'll need to ask the Seraphim; this is their city. We're gonna have to have a long talk with them before this is over." King sighed, not looking forward to that. The Collector didn't appear to be looking forward to it either, but that wasn't surprising.

But then it came to the hard part; convincing the Collector to either come with them back to the Demon Realm to defeat the Divider, or at least letting them go without trying to stop them again.

"This is the last thing, Collector. You're not gonna like it, but it's really important." King began as everyone braced themselves; "We need to go back to the Demon Realm and stop the Divider-"

"NO!" The Collector yelled, startling all of them as he leapt to his feet; "No, you can't go there! You can't go near him! I-I won't let you!"

"Collector, I know you're scared of him but-" Willow was cut off by the Collector shaking his head.

"You can't go near him! The Divider is scary and I can't beat him! He's not like me or my siblings! He's big and strong and basically invincible! No one can beat someone like him!"

"We don't have a choice, Collector! We need to go back!" Amity yelled.

The Collector shook his head and began to fly around in slow circles, as if pacing in the air; "You can't go back! You're my friends, but I can't protect you from him! He'll make you disappear, just like the Archivists made my Titan friends disappear!"

"The Divider won't kill us." King said, trying to soothe the Collector.

It didn't work, as the Collector had an expression of pure terror on his face as he replied; "I know. The Keeper told me about him… he didn't kill anyone once he started trying to make his paradise. But the people he caught still "disappeared". He makes them puppets, but they're different from mine. He makes them weird, like they're still people but with big bits of their brains pulled out." the Collector began to hug himself, shaking in fear. "Please… you're my friends but I can't fix you if he catches you. I can't let you go! I won't let you go!"

He moved his fingers as if preparing to snap his fingers; "Please don't make me do this. I don't want to lose my friends."

King and the Hexsquad all stared at the boy's tearful face; he was once again looking out for them in his own way. But that didn't change the fact that they needed to go home! They needed to save their families and friends, and the isles as a whole!

"Collector, we understand that you're scared-" King began, only to be interrupted.

"No you don't! You said you understood me now, but that was just another fib! If you understood, you wouldn't be trying to leave me alone and go back there!" the Collector denied.

King shook his head; "We do understand. We saw your memories; we know how you feel."

"We know how it feels to be used and discarded by someone you thought you could trust." Lyra said, thinking of Belos.

"We know how it feels to do bad things because we believed we were doing the right thing for the good of others." Hunter sighed, remembering his tenure as Golden Guard.

"We know how it feels to end up hurting and tormenting people who don't deserve it, because it feels like just a game." Boscha confessed, remembering her bullying days.

"We know how it feels to try and control those weaker than you, because you yourself were controlled by someone stronger." Matt said, thinking of his plot to take over the HAS.

"We know how it feels to be at odds with people you love, because you feel in your heart that you're right, while the people you love disagree." Skara sighed, thinking of her struggles to convince her Dad to turn on Belos.

"We know how it feels to be weak, and think you're helpless to help the people you care about." Gus added, reminiscing to his brief crisis of confidence after Luz had been arrested at the Grudgby Game.

"We know how it feels to think we're not living up to our parents' expectations." Willow said sympathetically, as she remembered how she'd felt while failing at the track her fathers had put her in.

"We know how it feels when your siblings and mother don't necessarily have the best intentions for you, and potentially even use and abandon you." Amity said, her mind going back to how contentious her relationship with her siblings had become before they reconciled, and obviously how messed up the whole situation with Odalia was.

King finished; "And we know how it feels to feel like you're all alone. And how you're so desperate to save the people you love, that you'll do stupid things that might even hurt them or others. We know all about it Collector."

The Collector's arms dropped to his sides and tears began to fill his eyes; "I-I just want to protect my friends… all my other friends disappeared… I don't want any of you to go away…"

King got up and hugged him; "I know Collector. We don't want to go away either. But all of us have people we love held in the Divider's grasp. We've got to stop him, no matter what. I know it's scary and I know you don't want to go too; you don't have to, as we're not gonna treat you like some weapon… not again. But we need to go and try to help. We want to protect the people we love, no matter what. That includes you now too, you know."

The Collector began to gently cry, hugging King with all he had. The rest of the Hexsquad smiled, and most of them joined the hug, with only Boscha, Matt, Hunter, and Luz not being a part of it, though all but Luz at least gave the Collector some comforting gesture. Matt patted the Collector on the back, Hunter put a hand on his shoulder, and Boscha took off his cap and playfully ruffled his hair, making the child giggle even through his tears. Luz just averted her eyes and went back to practicing her powers again. When the Collector had composed himself again and the Hexsquad let go to give him a bit of space, the Star Child had a faint blush on his face as he made a sheepish expression.

"I've not been a very good friend, have I?" he asked softly.

"It's okay; you just didn't know how to be a good friend yet. We can teach you." King smiled.

"A-And I don't have to go with you to fight the Divider? I just have to let you go?" the Collector asked.

"That's right. Once we've cleaned up this little mess, we'll work something out with the Seraphim so Luz, Amity, and King can all go home. Your power will be helpful with that. Then we'll go kick the Divider's butt somehow, and once it's safe, we'll come get you or you can come join us." Hunter told him.

The Collector sniffled, then wiped his eyes and gave a sweet smile; "Thank you. And I'm really sorry I was being so mean…"

"We forgive you. Sometimes good people can do bad things; they just need a little kindness and forgiveness. Trust me, a lot of us did bad things to others, and now those others are our friends!" Skara beamed.

The Collector perked up; "Kindness and forgiveness… Okay! I'll remember that!"

The Hexsquad all smiled at him, before Amity said; "Alright! Then we should get to work on fixing everything up! We'll be by your side the whole time to support you."

"Okay! I guess the first thing to do is leave my clubhouse so I can put it back the way it was." the Collector said. The others nodded and all took to the air with either their wings or Palismen, then flew out of the room with the Collector, and then out through the closest window so they could descend back to the ground outside the Divine Crossroads. As soon as they touched the ground, the Collector snapped his fingers to have his castle begin disintegrating and snapping back to it's original shape; the Patience Court. He also snapped his fingers to summon all his star minions back to him so he could give them new orders; "Broadcast a message to the whole city: "I'm sorry for all the trouble. I'll fix everything and turn everyone back to normal." After everyone has heard it, you can disappear." the Collector ordered.

The star minions then flew away, and a moment later, the Patience Court was back the way it was, as if nothing had ever happened to it. The Collector and the Hexsquad took to the air once again to escort the huge estate back to its spot in the Gold District, were the Collector carefully slotted it back into place and snapped his fingers to reconnect everything to where it was supposed to be. The whole process, including reconstruction, flight over, and return had taken about ten minutes, and now it was impossible to tell by sight alone that anything had even happened! Once the star minions were gone and the puppets returned to normal, there would be no evidence that any part of this unfortunate situation had ever happened. Once that was done, the Collector said; "I'll turn the bird- I mean, I'll turn the Angels back to normal now too. And your other friends too."

"Thank you, Collector. Let's start with our friends, then turn the Seven Seraphim back to normal one at a time, so we can talk to them individually and convince them to let us go." King suggested.

The Collector nodded and snapped his fingers, causing the puppet forms of Camila, Vee, Treble, Hanu, Lazuliel, and the Seven Seraphim to appear in front of him. He grouped the first five together, then quickly poked each of their foreheads with his magic, destroying the crescent marks and causing the spell to be undone, turning them back into people in puffs of smoke and sparkles.

The Angels and Basilisks immediately began looking around in confusion, while Hanu fell to her hands and knees, looking very pale and sickly. She also had some strange scar-like markings around her eyes, which worried everyone, including the Collector.

"W-What happened? What's going on?" Camila asked worriedly, looking between the Hexsquad and the Collector.

"It's okay, Tia Cammie. We and the Collector talked it out and ended things peacefully. He's going to turn everyone back, then we're going to convince the Seraphim to let us go home." King explained.

"Phew! I was worried our plan had backfired horribly!" Vee smiled with relief.

"It still might have; the Seraphim aren't going to be too happy about this… still, they can't exactly do anything against a Sephiroth." Lazuliel commented; "You might have made an enemy of them, but I don't think they'd risk doing anything that would upset the Collector."

"Then that's good enough. This place has its nice parts, but the messed up parts of this world are a little more than I can stomach…" Amity commented.

The others all agreed, and even Lazuliel couldn't help but nod along, having similar feelings.

"Uh, guys? Hanu is really not feeling so good." Treble called out from were he was knelt down, rubbing the poor girl's back. One of her hands was over her mouth to stop herself being sick, while the other was rubbing her head.

Camila went to her side while the others watched from a safe distance; "Hanu? Can you hear me? How do you feel?"

"Urp, y-yes Ma'am. My head is pounding like a drum, and I feel really weak… I also feel like I just ate a pound of Snapdragon's special fertiliser… Urp, the inside of my mouth tastes like it too!" Hanu whimpered.

Camila cast a spell to help soothe her stomach and her headache, then asked Boscha to whip up a proper Stomach Soother, since potions worked better than spells when it came to the digestive system. As Boscha got to work with her Combat Potioneer Belt and some extra herbs grown by Willow, the bespectacled Plant Expert couldn't help but comment to lighten the mood; "If I didn't know what Snapdragon was like, I'd ask how you know what fertiliser tastes like!"

Hanu managed a half-smile; "B-Best not to ask. Let's just say that she was pretty literal when calling us by plant pet names."

"Gross." Gus shuddered. "But what's up with those marks around your eyes? They look like scars!"

Hanu shrugged; "I don't know. They feel a bit sore, but nothing I can't handle."

"Whether you can handle it or not, you shouldn't hide your pain." Lazuliel gently scolded as she applied a healing spell to numb the scars.

"How did this happen, Collector?" Skara asked, making sure not to sound accusatory.

The Collector shrugged helplessly; "I don't know! My puppet spell worked weirdly on Hanu. It was like she woke up and was herself again, but still transformed. She told me to use that guilt trip plan to help you and convince you to stay with me, but then sometime while playing Hide and Seek after that, she went back to being a normal puppet."

"I what!?" Hanu gasped; "But why would I ever say something like that!?"

"It was kinda weird… you said it was because you were having so much fun playing with me." the Collector replied.

Everyone exchanged looks; that sounded bizarre. "So you turned Hanu into a puppet, she started acting out of character, then suddenly went back to being a regular puppet. And now that she's back to normal, she's got scars around her eyes and is feeling really sick? Something is definitely up here." Boscha scowled, handing her completed Stomach Soother to Hanu, who chugged it down.

It took a moment, but the girl then sighed with relief; "Oh, that is so much better!"

"Good. Now do you remember anything from after you got hit by the Collector's spell?" Hunter asked.

Hanu shook her head and began to wrack her brain; "No, nothing like that. The last couple of days are a bit jumbled… I remember ending up in the Human Realm, the search for Treble's siblings, and then getting taken to the Divine Realm… then there was a hearing and a protest and…"

The girl's eyes suddenly widened so much that they nearly popped out of her head; "… and Raguel messed with my memories!"

"WHAT!?" the others all screamed, turning to Hanu with horrified expressions.

"Hanu, are you serious!? Lord Raguel altered your memories!?" Lazuliel exclaimed.

"Yes! It was when I followed him yesterday! He wasn't getting hot chocolate from the Human Realm! He was meeting with someone called Valkyrie, who works for the Divider! Raguel is a spy for the Divider and is on his side!" Hanu revealed.

Everyone gaped, with even Luz (who'd been keeping to the back of the group) looking surprised as they all looked between Hanu and the Puppet Raguel, stood off to the side with the other Seraphim.

"Lord Raguel was a spy for the Divider all along!? W-Was that why he agreed to our plea deal and refused to sign the Council's!?" Camila cried.

Hanu shook her head; "No, Ma'am; this whole arrest was his plan!"

She began to recount everything she'd heard; how Raguel had convinced the Council to arrest Luz and the others, and set it all up so Luz would be Reformed so her infant self would be handed over to the Divider by an angry and vengeful Lazuliel, the reason for his plan, and how he tricked Camael into giving a fake plea bargain to the Hexsquad, while making it look like they'd rejected a generous one to the Council. The whole explanation left everyone stunned into silence, almost unable to comprehend it.

"You mean this entire situation was set up just to Reform Luz so the Divider could make her his own obedient little subordinate!?" Amity growled furiously.

Hanu shook her head again; "No, from what I heard, the Divider threatened the Council to leave Luz alone. Raguel did this himself, thinking Luz might be able to convince him to stop what he's doing. Apparently the Divider has been having issues with his conscience!"

Matt smiled; "Really!? Then that's great news! If Raguel thinks the Divider could be convinced, then it might really be possible! We might be able to save the world after all!"

"But how did Raguel get away with this right under the Divider's nose?" Vee asked.

"He's not in the Demon Realm right now; he's supposedly off dealing with the Archivists." Hanu answered.

The Collector gulped; "My siblings could be in real trouble. They kind of deserve it for tricking me and making all the Titans disappear, but I still don't want them to get beaten up and sealed away!"

"That's a bridge we'll need to cross when we get to it." King said. Personally, if the Divider took care of the Archivists and ensured they couldn't come back and cause trouble, then he'd consider it a good thing! "But now that we know this, we can free all the Seraphim except Raguel! Once they know this was all because of him manipulating us all, they're sure to listen!"

Everyone nodded in agreement; they might still be able to salvage this whole situation without the Hexsquad becoming enemies of the Divine Realm! However, this did also make Lyra curious.

"Hanu, you said Raguel messed with your memories, so how is it you remember now?" she asked.

"I don't know. I guess whatever the Collector did to me must have undone the memory spells somehow." Hanu replied.

"I don't get how though. My spell shouldn't be able to do any of this! Unless you secretly have Titan Power or Sephiroth Power, it should have been perfect." the Collector frowned.

Hunter rubbed his chin and took a closer look at Hanu's new scars. "Something about these marks is familiar…"

"I thought so too. But what could it be?" Lyra murmured.

The others watched as the two racked their brains, before Hunter gasped; "Now I remember! That Hopkins creep had scars like these right after he was-!"

The boy went silent as he and his sister both paled. They turned to each other and began to mutter; "You don't think…?" Hunter began.

"He was supposed to be in the penitentiary, which was part of the building the Collector transformed…" Lyra continued.

"The Collector sent the guards and prisoners away though…"

"Would the Collector recognise him as a slime puddle?"

"He should, he worked with him often enough… but if he was locked up in something other than a normal cell, he might not notice…"

The siblings gulped and turned to the Collector; "Did you see Belos at all when you cleared out the Penitentiary?"

The Collector blinked; "You mean Philip? I haven't seen him since he broke my mirror back on the Day of Unity! Why?"

"Because he was supposed to be locked up in the Angels' prison and awaiting trial! If you didn't see him, then he might have gotten free when you rebuilt the place the first time." Hunter revealed.

The others were immediately on guard; "Are you saying Belos might be behind what happened to Hanu!?" Treble demanded.

Lyra nodded; "The scars on her eyes look like Hopkins' possession scars. If she was possessed as a puppet, then that would explain how "Hanu" seemed to go back and forth between being a regular puppet and a "conscious" one."

Gus's eyes widened; "It's also explain why she suggested that guilt trip thing! Belos knows how to manipulate the Collector, and he's sadistic enough to want to torment all of us!"

"S-So it wasn't Hanu, but Philip!? He lied to me again!" the Collector growled, stomping his foot; "Oh, I really don't like that dirty liar liar pants on fire!"

"B-Belos possessed me…!? Am I still possessed!?" Hanu shrieked.

"I don't think so." Hunter replied; "But we can find out. Treble, do you think you could sniff out Belos? You know the smell of his magic, and could pick it out from Hanu's."

Treble nodded; "Basilisks can always smell magic, though different kinds in the same place can be hard to pick out from each other, so I won't be able to follow a trail to track him."

"Forget that for now, we just need to be sure Hanu is safe." Lyra said.

Treble slithered over to Hanu and began sniffing her, detecting only the heavy floral scent of her own magic. However when he sniffed around her face specifically, he could smell some lingering rot around her scars. "I smell some of Belos' magic on her scars, but it's weak. I don't think Belos is still in there."

"That's probably why Hanu went back to being a normal puppet; Belos ditched her for some reason… probably to get another body." Amity theorised.

"So he could be in any of us!?" Skara cried.

"Treble, inspect all of us! Vee, you inspect Treble. If Belos is here, we'll flush him out." Camila said, already approaching Treble and her younger daughter so she could be proven Belos free. The rest of the group naturally followed suit, standing around in a circle so everyone could be watched for signs of possession while Treble inspected them. The only one who didn't was Luz, who scoffed and began to walk away.

"This is ridiculous. Belos is smart and we know his goal; he definitely went to the Crossroads to use a gate back to the Demon Realm! We need to stop wasting time and go after him!" she said testily.

Everyone turned to her in shock; "Luz! What's gotten into you? One of your friends could be possessed by Belos! Don't you care?" Camila said, shocked by her daughter's callous behaviour.

Luz groaned and rubbed a hand down her face; "I'm sorry Mom… I'm just not in a great mood. Between the trial, the nightmares, and now Belos… I just want to get this mess over with."

Camila blinked in surprise, and the others began to look suspicious; Luz never called Camila "Mom". That was what she called Eda; Camila was Mami! Was this really because of her mood, or could it be a sign of something more nefarious?

Not taking chances, Hunter and Lyra darted into action, with Hunter flashing to one side of her and pointing his staff at her, while Lyra leapt out of Luz's shadow and did the same on the girl's other side.

"Luz, stay right there and don't move. Treble, come inspect Luz for signs of Belos." Hunter ordered.

The others followed suit with Hunter and Lyra, pointing their own weapons and spells at Luz, who sneered angrily at them all. "What are you doing!? You're supposed to be my friends! My family! And you'd threaten me!?"

"If we're wrong, we'll apologise." Lyra said, not wavering for an instant; "But you've been acting off ever since we woke up, and I don't think it's just the nightmare! Plus Luz never calls Aunt Camila Mom!"

Luz grit her teeth; "While you're wasting your time accusing me, Belos is probably already laying waste to your homes!"

"That's strike three." Camila scowled, narrowing her eyes on her daughter; "Luz considers the Demon Realm to be her home; she wouldn't say "your homes" like that! She also wouldn't speak so rudely to her friends when they have a valid concern!"

"You're willing to gamble people's lives on my choice of words!?" Luz growled.

"You've got to admit, you're acting weird." Boscha narrowed her eyes; "Besides, Belos doesn't even know what gate to use even if he could find the keystone for it! He was knocked out when we came through, remember?"

"He was inside Hanu's body! He could easily read her mind!" Luz snapped, growing visibly more anxious and aggressive, which only put her friends and family more on guard.

Treble was hesitantly approaching her, fearing an attack, while Skara pointed out; "How do you know he could read the minds of someone he's possessed? The only people we know who were possessed by him are Godric, Hopkins, and Hanu! None of them said anything about that!"

Luz's eyes darted back and forth, seeing how everyone had their staves and spells trained on her. Even the Collector looked ready to act, having his fingers put together and ready to snap. Seeing that she was outnumbered and in a disadvantageous position, she took a deep breath, slowly raised her hands, and smiled serenely.

"I'm sorry. I'm just so wound up by everything that's happening that I wasn't thinking clearly. I assumed Belos had read Hanu's mind since her memories were restored by his meddling. Forgive me." she said softly.

Her attempt to look serene and peaceful actually put everyone more on edge though; Luz wasn't the type to downplay it or make excuses if she thought she'd made a mistake after all. Still, the group largely lowered their staves a bit as Treble got close enough to begin sniffing Luz for signs of Belos' magic, with only Hunter and Lyra remaining fully geared to attack and defend if needed. This proved to be the right thing to do, as just as Treble was within arm's reach of Luz, several things happened in very quick succession. First, Luz's serene smile became a very out of place cruel smirk, while Treble's eyes widened as he caught the scent of rot and corruption. Then Luz's hands darted towards Treble; one going for his throat and the other preparing a spell as the now clearly possessed girl tried to take him hostage. However thanks to Hunter and Lyra being prepared, they had also acted the instant they'd seen Luz and Treble react; Lyra immediately pulled Treble into the shadows, causing him to slip out of Luz's reach right before she could grab him, while Hunter flashed towards the girl and shoulder slammed her, knocking her back a step.

Seeing both the attempted grab and the spell Luz was trying to cast, the rest of the group cast spells of their own, all of them creating restraints of different kinds. Amity used tendrils of abomination slime (thankful that they were easier to make again now that she was in a magic saturated world), Willow and Hanu made vines and tree roots, Gus froze the girl from the neck down, Matt forced her to sink into the ground a little, bogging her ankles down in softened earth, both Camila and Lazuliel conjured spectral bandages to add to the restraints, Vee opened her mouth and prepared to inhale Luz's magic (being joined by Treble when Lyra released him beside her), and even the Collector helped by snapping his fingers and conjuring some pink sparkly ribbons to bind Luz. The possessed girl was basically cocooned from the neck down with no way out.

"Well, this is unfortunate. I'd really hoped to escape discovery until I got back to the Demon Realm. It seems I underestimated you." Luz smirked, completely unconcerned.

To the horror of the girl's friends and family, rotten tears began to flow from her eyes and down her cheeks, while the irises of her eyes turned the same ominous glowing blue as Belos', and two antler-like horns poked out from the sides of her head, resembling Belos' old mask.

"Belos!" Camila snarled; "Get the hell out of my daughter, or I swear I'll…!" she began to say some very colourful swearwords and threats in Spanish, which made Vee blush crimson while the others either went pink or looked confused, depending on how much Spanish they'd learned in the four months they'd lived with Camila.

Belos, who understood Spanish thanks to having access to Luz's mind, just laughed; "My my, is it any wonder that Luciel fell from grace when she has a mother who says such things?"

"Cut the garbage you Mouldy Sack of Griffin Dung!" King cursed; "Give it up and let Luz go! There's nowhere for you to escape too!"

"Yeah! Let Luz go, you big bully!" the Collector agreed.

"No, I don't think I will. For the first time since we met 400 years in the past, Luciel is actually being quiet and obedient. Of course, that could be because she's trapped in a hellish nightmare of your own creation, Collector. Tell me, little Titan, how is it you're able to call this monster your friend when he has done something so horrific to your dear sister?" Belos taunted.

The Collector flushed; "I-I didn't want to hurt her!"

"Well you did hurt her, very much. You should truly see the nightmare she's facing; the three Realms all devastated by war, her friends dead or driven insane, her beloved family dead, and the little Succubus that seduced her blaming it all on her. Poor Luciel has been well and truly broken! How else do you think I've been able to control someone so strong willed? And it's all thanks to you, Collector!" Belos smirked, making Luz's face look horrifying unnatural with such a cold and cruel expression.

Amity gasped in horror as she imagined her doppelganger verbally abusing her precious Batata, and the Collector went pale and nervously looked at the others, while King shook his head; "You tricked him! You made him think you were his friend so you could make him torment us!"

"Oh, and I suppose that makes his evil act better, does it?" Belos continued to taunt. The Collector seemed to shrink in on himself a little more.

"Don't listen to him. He's trying to get inside your head." Hunter told him, flashing to the Collector's side and putting a hand on his shoulder. The Collector smiled weakly, but Belos wasn't done.

"Ah, Hunter; my wayward creation. This is partly your fault too you know. If you'd finished me off back in the quarry, this never would have happened. What's the matter? Lose your taste for hurting people now that you don't have my orders to act as a convenient excuse? You were always so eager to please; you even brought me Palismen despite knowing what I'd do to them." Belos grinned mockingly.

Hunter clenched his jaw in anger, but refused to rise to the man's bait. Belos didn't need him to lash out though; he was more interested in the Collector; "Did you know, Collector, that part of what is tearing Luciel up inside is helping me steal the Divider's wings? Have you told your little friends that it was you who suggested it to me? You who told me what was in the Black Tomb at Volcarpalis, and how I could use it to steal some Angelic Power?"

The Collector went white as a sheet as everyone looked at him in surprise, with even King being shocked by the revelation. They'd known the Collector had told Belos what was in the tombs, but didn't know he'd actively given him the idea to open one! "Collector? You're the one who suggested Belos steal Rasiel's wings?" King asked, stunned.

The Star Child tried to speak, but the words wouldn't come, so Belos spoke instead; "Oh yes, he told me all about it! All I did was say I wish I could have more power like the blessing Luciel gave me, and he told me all about the Tomb and how I could use the Divider's wings for myself!

"I-I-!" the Collector stuttered, still trying in vain to speak. The others didn't look angry, but knowing that Luz was suffering the guilt of something he was at fault for was making it hard for the Collector to believe they weren't secretly growing to hate him. And worst still, Belos wasn't done!

"And more to the point, who do you think gave me the Draining Spell? The Collector was the one who taught me how to use it, how to create the Sigils, and how to create the explosive aftermath to wipe clean the Demon Realm! The entire thing was even inspired by the Titan that blew themselves to pieces to drive off his siblings!" Belos' icy blue eyes moved to King, whose pupils began to shrink as his eyes widened; "That'd be your precious Mommy, right little Titan?"

King began to shake with fury, while the Collector's terror reached a new height.

"I-I didn't know!" the Collector finally managed to choke out; "I-I didn't know what death was then! I-I thought the mortals would all just break, and that I could fix 'em afterwards! I didn't know I was really hurting p-people! I swear King, I didn't know!"

King took a deep breath and replied; "Collector, it's okay. You were tricked by someone pretending to be your friend, and you didn't know any better. Before I knew better, I thought I was a despotic overlord that tortured, killed, and devoured my enemies, and I was proud of that. But I grew up… you've grown up a bit too."

The others looked to the Collector and gave him reassuring smiles, showing that Belos' words hadn't turned them against him. However Belos didn't care about that; if they'd turned on the Collector then great, but the important part was that for a moment, their attention was not on him. Channelling Luz's glyph magic through his slime, Belos released an explosion of elemental magic from all over him, blasting away all the Hexsquad's restraints, and even destroying the Collector's ribbons thanks to Luz's Titan Power. He then began to fly away as fast as Luz's wings would carry him, heading to the Divine Crossroads.

"Dang it! Don't let him get away!" Hunter growled, leaping onto Flapjack's staff mode and flashing after the possessed Angel. The others followed suit with their own Palismen or flying under their own power, and quickly managed to catch up with Belos, who couldn't use Luz's full speed since her wings had been diminished by her guilt-ridden state. Hunter flashed in front of him and conjured a long chain whip, which he used to try and lasso Belos without hurting Luz.

Belos caught the chain and used the lightning glyph to send electricity through it to Hunter, who was barely able to avoid being shocked by using his own lightning magic. This bought enough time for the others to catch up though, and Vee immediately went to try and eat Belos' magic. A tendril of black and gold magic emerged from the sneering parasite, but as soon as it touched Vee's tongue, the girl gagged and spluttered whilst clutching her throat. Belos was making sure to blend Luz's Angelic Magic with her Titan Power, so every attack could be effective against the Collector and the Basilisks couldn't drain Luz's magic to end the fight peacefully.

Willow and Hanu tried again to bind Luz's body with vines to avoid hurting her, but Belos just burned them away with intense dark red flames, which he then blasted directly at the girls. Amity blocked it with a wall of abomination slime, which she then morphed into a giant hand to grasp Luz. However Belos used wind magic to create blades of wind that shredded the slime and managed to land a shallow cut to Amity's shoulder, forcing her to back off a moment to be healed by Camila.

Lazuliel then flew forward, her index fingers glowing with blue magic as she tried to jab the possessed girl with them, hoping to use an anaesthetic spell. At the same time, Lyra tried to use shadow tendrils to hold Luz still, but Belos easily destroyed the tendrils by covering himself in an aura of flame. Lazuliel powered through the flames and severely burnt one of her hands to deliver a jab anyway, and while it successfully caught one of Luz's thighs, all it did was numb the general area. One didn't tend to need their legs when flying, so one numb thigh was not enough to stop Belos.

Matt then whipped up a sandstorm to distract Belos, as Gus tried to trap him in an illusion while Boscha began working on a sleeping potion and Skara began playing the Lullaby of Lethargy. Belos responded by using Luz's earth glyph to control Matt's sand and condense it into three spikes of rock, which he blasted towards Skara, zeroing in on the sound of her music since the illusion was distorting everyone's position. Boscha had to stop her potion to pull Skara to safety, and Gus ended up blasted back and breaking his concentration (and thus the illusion) when Belos made the rocks explode, catching him with some shrapnel. Matt grabbed him before he could fall from the sky and rushed him to Camila for healing, while Amity headed back into the fray with a freshly healed shoulder.

Belos immediately used his slime to give Luz's right arm a pendulum-like blade, which he swung at Amity with the goal of taking her head off. Amity ducked, then destroyed the blade with a blast of pink light, but this caused Belos to scream in pain, with Luz's voice screaming too, making everyone freeze. They'd been worried about hurting Luz, hence why they'd used binding methods or not attacked the natural parts of her body, but if damaging even the slime caused Luz to feel pain, then defeating Belos would be a nightmare!

Amity's distraction from Luz's scream left her wide open and Belos darted at her, coating Luz's arm in a spike of slime to impale her.

"Die, Succubus!" he laughed manically.

"WEH!" King roared, blasting Belos with his Sonic Roar and sending him flying back. He'd kept the roar to a simple shockwave to minimise any damage, and when Belos caught himself and began flying back at King, it became clear he was totally unharmed.

Right before Belos was to attack King, the Collector joined the fray as well, snapping his fingers to make a huge rubbery barrier that absorbed Belos' blow, then sent him flying when the rubber snapped back.

"Leave this to me, King! I know just what to do to stop Philip!" the Collector declared, smiling determinedly.

"Go get 'em, Collector! Just make sure you don't hurt Luz!" King told him.

The Collector nodded and began to glow faintly as he flew towards Belos at high speed. The parasitic Witch-Hunter panicked and began shooting fire balls, icicles, and lightning bolts at the Collector in hopes of stopping his approach, but the Star Child just casually blocked it with a barrier or swatted the spells aside, totally unconcerned. Belos then tried to run, using sand storms to slow the Collector and wind spells to speed himself up, forcing the Collector to give chase and the others to follow as quickly as they could. Eventually the Collector caught up, and snapped his fingers to make his star minions move to intercept Belos, boxing him in and leaving him with nowhere to go. He began destroying the minions in an attempt to get through them to safety, but this proved in vain as the Collector grabbed his shoulder and forced him to turn around.

Belos immediately tried to shoot a point-blank attack right at the Collector's face, but the boy was expecting it and casually snapped his fingers to create a star minion between himself and Belos. It took the attack for its creator before disappearing, leaving Belos staring at the Collector, who did not look happy.

"That's enough, Philip! You've been really mean to my friends and me! I know just what to do with you!" the Collector said ominously as he floated closer.

Belos tried to cast another spell, but the Collector was right in his face and the boy's minions were at his back, pinning him in completely. The Collector raised his arms and Belos flinched, wondering if his entire plan would end here, so ignobly…

… then the Collector wrapped his little arms around the waist of Belos' stolen body, giving the man a hug.

Belos blinked, completely stunned by the random gesture, while King and the others, who'd been racing towards them, could do nothing but float in the air and gape. Seeing that Belos had completely stopped attacking or trying to run away, the Collector beamed up at him, thinking he'd gotten through to him.

"I get it now. It's just like everyone said; you just needed kindness and forgiveness!" he said, totally innocently.

Belos blinked once more, and his stunned expression slowly morphed into a smile. The Collector saw this and assumed everything was going to be okay now; that they could talk to Belos just like everyone had talked to him, and make the man see the error of his ways, letting Luz go and saying sorry for all he'd done. He turned and waved excitedly to the others, who were racing towards him as fast as they could, with Hunter even using his flash spell. However Belos and the Collector had flown quite far in their chase, so it took him a moment to show up; a moment that would change the course of their battle.

"Guys, look! I did it! We can all be buddies now!" the Collector called out.

King's yelled back with his Titan Roar; "COLLECTOR! RUN!"

The Star Child looked surprised, then noticed Hunter flashing towards him at high speeds. He was just about to ask what was wrong when he heard a cold and smug voice whisper in his ear.

"Naive fool."

The next thing the Collector knew was unbearable pain, as Belos blasted through his chest with a huge concentrated blast of fire, lightning, and wind, which he'd combined together into a kind of unstable laser attack. The Collector was completely impaled on the beam, briefly shocked into a state of near-catatonia as his body, which had rarely known pain or injury, was suddenly overwhelmed by it. A normal person would have been killed instantly, and as the Collector's internal organs were similar to an Angel's, Belos' attack had destroyed his heart entirely, with only his Sephiroth immortality preventing his demise. After a moment in which the Collector couldn't move, speak, feel, or even breathe, his mind snapped back to proper awareness as the shock wore off, and the pain finally slammed into him like a meteor.

The poor child let out the most blood-curdling scream that anyone present had ever heard, and began writhing in agony as Belos released his spell and caused the child to fall through the air, all of the star minions disintegrating into nothingness now that their connection to their maker was severed. The others screamed "NO! COLLECTOR!" as Hunter finally caught up entirely, though he was forced to stop heading towards Belos and instead flash downward to catch the Collector and then flash him over towards Camila and Lazuliel for healing.

"I leave him to you! Heal him! I'll stop Belos from escaping in the meantime!" Hunter yelled as he gently placed the boy into Camila's arms.

"We will! Don't let him get to any of the gates! There are bound to be keystones somewhere in the Crossroads, so make sure he can't find them!" Lazuliel warned.

Hunter nodded, and prepared to flash off, but Lyra dove into his shadow first; "I can't keep up with you in flight, but you're the only one who can catch Belos, so I'll hitch a ride in your shadow." she said, briefly looking over to where Belos was once again flying away towards the Crossroads.

"Take us too! We'll have a better shot at stopping him together!" Treble declared, holding hands with Hanu. Lyra nodded, and seeing as the rest of the group were staying to help the Collector, she took herself, Hanu, and Treble into Hunter's shadow, then the older boy once again flashed towards Belos. He was able to move faster than Luz's wings could carry Belos, but the Parasite had enough of a head start to make it to the Crossroads before Hunter could catch him, meaning they'd have to cut him off inside the Crossroads.

Meanwhile, the others descended to the ground and watched as Camila lay the poor Collector on the ground as he sobbed and writhed in pain. King grabbed one of the Collector's hands and held it tightly between his paws.

"Collector! Just hang in there, you'll be okay!" King comforted him.

"Hurts! It hurts, King!" the Collector sobbed, struggling to writhe around as much with Camila, Vee, and Skara gently holding him down while Lazuliel prepared numbing spells. She gently jabbed his neck to make it harder for him to feel anything below the waist, dulling the pain of the wound enough that she could apply another numbing spell directly to the area around the Collector's wound, which looked like a lightly smoking burnt hole straight through his chest. The Collector relaxed as the pain was reduced to a dull ache, but it was serious enough that even two numbing spells couldn't completely stop all the pain, and neither would last too long since such spells were emergency measures.

"Boscha, can you make a Pain Nullifying Potion?" Lazuliel asked as Camila began trying to heal the wound.

"Yeah, but I'll need help. A total nullification potion that can be brewed quickly enough needs some rare herbs AND fauna ingredients. I can make up for those with Sonic Alchemy, but not while brewing, so it'll take a while." Boscha replied, already getting started by summoning a small cauldron and preparing what ingredients she already had. Gus helped by filling the cauldron with purified water, while Willow and Skara stepped forward.

"I can grow the herbs if you tell me what you need." Willow said.

"And I'll perform the Sonic Alchemy. I still remember enough of our lessons together to be able to do what you need." Skara added.

Boscha nodded and told them both what she needed and when, then ordered Gus to help her control the temperature of the potion with his ice magic, since it would be tougher to make the potion effective if she couldn't keep the heat at a perfect level. She also recruited Matt to help prepare the ingredients, softening them as needed or refining them with his Construction Magic, leaving King, Amity, Vee, and the Angel Women to try and comfort the Collector as Camila and Lazuliel healed him.

The healing process was slow since Belos' spell had cauterised the wound, and while the Collector couldn't die, they were reluctant to be reckless with the healing in case they caused more pain. As the Angels worked, the Collector whimpered; "I-I thought I was doing the right thing…"

"We know, Collector." King reassured him.

"You did good. But Belos isn't like you or us. He's not a good person who did bad things out of ignorance, nor is he well-intentioned. He is a deluded, sick, evil little man who will hurt anyone and use anyone to get what he wants." Amity explained, trying to keep herself from freaking out over Luz's predicament. Her poor girlfriend must be suffering horribly, and Amity hated that she couldn't do anything about it!

The Collector sniffled, and Vee gently used a feather from her wings to dry his tears; "There there, Mama and Auntie Lazuli are both healers, they'll fix you up. And once the potion is done, you'll feel much better."

"I don't like this… is this how it feels when mortals get hurt?" the Collector asked.

"We don't normally get hurt this badly, but yeah." King replied; "Have you never been hurt before?"

The Collector shook his head; "Not like this. Before, my ouchies would all heal up super fast on their own, and they didn't really have time to hurt."

"I can smell Titan Magic in your wounds, which is probably what's stopping your Sephiroth powers from healing you." Vee replied, watching as her Mama got rid of the last of the burnt flesh and began the full healing process. As this was happening, the Collector weakly raised his free hand and snapped his fingers, producing a weak spray of sparkles, which made him cringe.

"My magic isn't working right… the Titan Magic is messing with it." he frowned. "I can use it a little, but I'm super weak now… I can't help you save Luz, which means I'll break the pinky promise we made!" he cried, looking to King.

"No you won't. It's not breaking the promise if you can't do it. Besides, you saved Luz from Reformation, which is the part that matters." King comforted him.

The Collector opened his mouth to speak, but he was immediately silenced when Boscha rushed over and jammed the neck of a small potion's vial in his mouth, forcing him to drink the still slightly warm potion. Camila had healed the hole in his chest enough that the liquid flowed through him properly and complete erased his ability to feel pain, making him sigh with relief and relax.

"Good boy. Just let me work; you'll be all better before you know it." Camila comforted him, petting his head with one hand and drawing spell circles with the other.

As this was happening, Amity turned to the others and said; "If the Collector can't use his powers properly, then we can't use his help, which means fighting Belos ourselves."

"But how are we going to do that? He's as powerful as he was on the Day of Unity and we can't risk hurting Luz! We also don't have a handy Draining spell to weaken him!" Willow pointed out.

"How would we even force Belos out of Luz? We've only ever seen him leave his hosts on his own! There might not even be a way to do it!" Skara worried.

Gus raised his hand; "Maybe we could use an illusion to trick him into thinking a stronger body is available?"

"I don't think illusions will work this time. Belos is totally obsessed with Luz! She's like the one thing he hasn't been able to control, and a control freak like him would never let that go." Matt reasoned. "Our best bet is to find a way to get Luz to force him out."

Vee hummed; "The things Belos said before did imply that he could only control her because her will was broken. If we can reawaken it and make her fight back against him, she could force him out herself."

King's eyes widened; "I could do that! If I can get close enough, I can use my new linking magic! It'll let me and anyone touching me go straight into Luz's head, just like we did with the Collector's memories!"

The Hexsquad all grinned; that just might work! They could all go into Luz's mind together and save her themselves, and make sure she knows that her real friends and family always have her back, and love her no matter what her guilt makes her think! There was only one problem though…

"How are we supposed to actually hold the jerk down long enough to get into Luz's head? Luz is stronger than any of us, and Belos is a lot crueller and more ruthless, so he'd use her powers in ways the real Luz would never imagine! We're lucky Luz somehow lost the light glyph, or he'd have shot those petrifying light beams at us already!" Boscha pointed out.

The others shuddered at the thought. Boscha also had a point; Luz was stronger than any of them, and it would take all of them fighting together and trying their hardest to defeat her… something they couldn't do without hurting her, which none of the group were willing to do. Luz had been hurt enough; they couldn't bring themselves to make her suffer any more.

"We all restrained him before, with the Collector's help too, and he still broke free… should we risk going back and trying to free some of the Seraphim? Even just Camael? One Seraphim would be enough to beat Belos, right?" Matt suggested.

Amity frowned; "We can't risk that! I don't trust them not to try and deal with Luz and Belos in one swoop by reforming them. Besides, I don't think the Collector can undo his spell in his current state."

Everyone looked over to the Collector, whom was now being slowly helped into a seated position by Camila and Lazuliel. He was pale and looked weak, though his chest wound was now fully healed and the pain potion in his system left him feeling comfortable at least.

"Easy there, baby. Do you feel okay? The new flesh will feel a bit tender, but is there anything other than that?" Camila asked softly, holding him close.

"I-I'm fine, Tia Cammie." the Collector replied shyly, not knowing how to refer to her and deciding to mimic what King called her. Camila smiled, thinking it was rather sweet, which encouraged the Collector to continue; "And I can still help!"

"Kid, it's good of you to want to help, but you need to rest. Let us handle things from here." Lazuliel said gently.

The Collector shook his head; "No! This is all my fault! Phil-no… Belos got away because of me. He was able to possess Luz because I did a bad thing, and I failed to stop him! I've gotta make it right!"

"Collector…" King whispered, feeling a little touched by how determined the boy was, despite him being visibly weak and struggling to stand.

"I can help! I can't fight… but I can help you with your other plan! I can get you into Luz's mind without needing to tie Belos down and touch him!" the Collector declared.

Everyone's eyes widened; "You can!?" Amity exclaimed.

The Collector nodded; "I put links between my brain and all of yours when I put you in those guilt nightmares. It was supposed to be so I could enter your heads when I was ready without having to come back from the game I was playing. King, you used your new power to get out of your other buddies' heads through those links, so if you link to me with it, I can link you to Luz!"

"That's perfect! We'll all be able to get into Luz's mind and help her fight back against Belos from the inside, as well as her guilt!" King beamed.

"Are you sure it'll work without your magic?" Camila asked worriedly.

The Collector nodded again, though he also winced; "I am, but without my magic I need to be a lot closer. Not touching close, but in the same room at least."

"Which means Belos will see us. If he senses us inside Luz's mind, not even an illusion will be able to hide us." Gus pointed out.

Lazuliel smirked; "Don't you worry about that. I was strong enough to take down a Quetzalcoatl, so I bet I can hold Belos' attention while you all save Luz! Plus my healing magic is top notch, and I have a decent reserve."

"I'm glad one of us does…" Camila sighed; "I used up most of mine already by healing the Collector, and the stress of all this means I haven't been able to regenerate all the magic I used on blessings yesterday too."

The Hexsquad grimaced; an Angel's mood greatly effected how much magic their body could generate… too much negativity would weaken them, just like what happened to Lyra after Titan Trapper Island, and what was currently happening to Luz.

"Well you'll be going into Luz's head with us, so you don't need a lot of magic. Now let's go! If we meet up with Hunter and Lyra, then they can join us in Luz's head while Hanu and Treble help Lazuliel hold off Belos!" King declared.

Considering the others were currently fighting Belos, King and the Hexsquad didn't want to waste any more time and immediately began flying for the Divine Crossroads, with the Collector being carried by Camila. They flew straight through the huge open doors into the Crossroads and found themselves in a war zone; Belos was flying around the Atrium, flinging spells at Hunter, Lyra, Treble, and Hanu, keeping them on their toes and forcing them to focus on defending themselves and each other rather than fighting back (which they admittedly weren't doing much of anyway to avoid hurting Luz). Hunter and Lyra were both visibly tired and beaten up, with their clothes scuffed and torn, and multiple superficial cuts all over them. Hunter also had one arm hanging limply at his side, either broken or left numbed, while Lyra was bleeding from her nose and mouth after taking a hard strike to the face. Hanu and Treble looked a little banged up, but much less so than Belos' former servants.

The Hexsquad entered quietly and managed to take cover inside a large help kiosk before Belos saw them. "Collector, is this close enough?" King asked.

"Just about. So long as he doesn't fly up too high, I think we'll be okay." the Collector answered, closing his eyes to feel for the link with his weakened magic.

Lazuliel didn't need to hear anything more; "I'll go join the fight, and tell Hunter and Lyra to retreat for some healing. You get ready to invade Luz's mind; I've got no idea how long we'll be able to hold Belos off, so be fast!" she said, before stealthily leaving the kiosk and flying up behind Belos. She lunged at him from a blind spot and managed to hit one of his arms with a numbing jab, causing the man to suddenly spin around and try to blast Lazuliel with fire. The woman blocked it by creating a huge cloud of flower petals, and while they burnt up immediately, they at least prevented the flames from touching her. She then blasted more petals at Belos, obscuring his vision and also filling his nose with a powerful floral smell, while he struggled to blow the petals away from him as they got caught in the slime protruding from Luz's body.

With Belos occupied, Lazuliel signalled the others to join her and then whispered the Collector's plan. Hunter and Lyra both nodded determinedly upon hearing it.

"We'll go help. We could do with some healing anyway… Belos with Luz's powers is a real threat! But will you be okay without us?" Hunter asked.

"I'll have Hanu and Treble as back up. With my healing, Hanu's pollen buffs, and Treble's plant travel, I'm sure we can keep him busy long enough! Now go!" Lazuliel replied, urging them onward.

"We'll be fine. You protected us so far, let us protect you now!" Treble said, clearly terrified but unwilling to back down. He had used his Basilisk shape-shifting to give himself some large bat wings, allowing him to fly while carrying Hanu.

Hunter and Lyra reluctantly nodded, but before they flew off, Hunter jumped onto Lyra's staff with her (she'd stopped using her wings after becoming exhausted) and handed Flapjack to Lazuliel.

"Here, Flapjack will help. He's the reason I was able to fight at all, so if he teams up with a High Angel, you're bound to have more of a chance!" Hunter said.

Flapjack tweeted his agreement, still in staff form, so Lazuliel accepted the Palisman; "Alright. Thank you both; I'll make sure you get him back safe and sound."

At that moment, Belos finally lost patience with the petals and released a huge burst of blue flames from all over himself, reducing the petals to ash. He then saw Hunter and Lyra about to flee and used his monster glyph combo to conjure a giant skeletal serpent with a Titan Skull for a head, which slithered rapidly through the air to bite the two. Lazuliel intercepted it by using Flapjack to flash into it's path and vaporising it's lower jaw with a powerful light spell, then touching her hand to the roof of its mouth and conjuring a huge amount of ivy, which crept across the entire thing's body and almost managed to get Belos. The parasitic monster growled and tried to shoot Hunter and Lyra down with a lightning bolt, but Treble got in his way, using his plant travel to leap into one of the trees in the atrium and leaping out of the vines on Belos' serpent, taking Hanu with him. Hanu then conjured some Sleeping Nettle pollen while Treble wrapped his tail around Luz's possessed body. He briefly considered trying to use his Siren Pollen to make Belos or Luz become temporarily infatuated with him, but considering Belos was likely willing to kill someone he loved regardless, Treble decided not to waste the time.

Belos used more flame to force Treble to let go and to burn away the Sleeping Nettle pollen, but they and Lazuliel achieved their goal; giving Hunter and Lyra the chance to retreat. Belos didn't see where they'd gone, and just scoffed.

"Cowards to the end. I'll deal with them later!" he spat. He then looked to Lazuliel; "High Angel, why do you side with Demons and Witches against your own people? Have you too been corrupted?"

"My own people? You? You're kidding right? You're a parasite! I may not be in Crest Kindness any more, but I was still trained as a healer and we were taught to remove and destroy parasites! No Angel in the Divine Realm would side with you, monster!"

Belos sneered; "Fool. I am trying to save the soul of this girl! I will save yours too, whether you like it or not!"

He then flew at Lazuliel, and their battle began.

Back with Hunter and Lyra, the young Dark Angel had used the dregs of her magic to move herself and Hunter through the shadows and into the kiosk with the others. They were immediately pushed gently into Camila's arms, so the woman could begin healing them. Sadly she didn't have enough magic to fully restore them, but she was at least able to heal the worst of their injuries, like Hunter's broken arm and Lyra's bleeding nose and mouth.

"Thanks Aunt Camila." Lyra said gratefully, looking pale. "I'm glad you guys showed up when you did. I'm totally tapped! Luz is so tough!"

"She's at least as powerful as Belos was when he was using his new Grimwalker body on the Day of Unity. I guess Belos wasn't able to use the full power of the Divider's wings with his own body." Hunter commented.

"Considering the Collector is as strong as he is whilst being the youngest of the Born Sephiroth, if Belos had the full power of an ascended one, he wouldn't have even needed the Day of Unity!" King pointed out.

The thought of that made everyone shudder and peak out to look at the fight going on. With Flapjack in hand and the power of a High Angel, Lazuliel was doing well to hold Belos back and keep him from trying to escape or hunt them down. Hanu and Treble were doing their best too, but it was clear they were lagging behind and Lazuliel was spending a lot of time protecting them.

Getting an idea, Willow looked to her Palisman, Clover; "Do you think you could go and team up with Hanu for a little bit? She could use your strength."

Clover buzzed affirmatively, making Willow smile. Skara also liked the idea and spoke to her own Palisman; "What about you, Melody? Think you could back up Treble?"

Melody gave a chirp of agreement, and the two insect Palismen flew off to join the battle, transforming into staves as they flew into Hanu and Treble's hands, allowing them to fly separately. Belos looked angry, especially as now the fight became a little more even, though he was still the most powerful one present, allowing him to keep his cool.

"That'll help give them an edge. Now we go into Luz's mind!" Willow declared.

"Everyone, put your hands together." King told them as he held out a paw. One by one, the Hexsquad, Vee, and Camila all placed their own hands on top of King's in a short pile, while King took the Collector's hand with his free paw. He then began to channel his new incomplete magic through his body, linking him with all the others, whose own bodies began to glow a faint white from the aura of magic. Once they were all linked, King channelled his magic into the Collector, who focused on the connection he'd left within Luz's mind.

With a bright flash of light, all of them felt the world around them shift as their conscious minds left the physical world and journeyed together through the link into Luz's mind. They emerged into what looked like Gravesfield… if Gravesfield had become overtaken by death and decay. They arrived in the woods outside their clubhouse, and found that the clubhouse was a burnt ruin and the forest was entirely dead, with a strange sickly green moss and fungus infestation covering just about everything. The air was thick with the smell of smoke, blood, and decay, and all they could hear was distant screams of horror and suffering, which thankfully didn't sound like they were coming from Luz.

"What in the Titan's name is going on here!?" Skara exclaimed, looking around in horror.

"This is the nightmare that my spell and Luz's guilt created." the Collector frowned. "I can feel Luz's emotions a little bit… she's hurt on the inside. Really hurt. But I can feel Belos too; he's infected the whole place."

"We need to find Luz fast! But where could she be?" Amity asked, looking to King.

"I don't know; I always appeared right next to you guys when I entered your nightmares!" he told them.

"That's because everyone else had only a little guilt, so the nightmare worlds were really small. Luz has way more guilt, so her nightmare is bigger." the Collector explained. He tended to do magic through instinct, so he didn't know if what he said was the definite truth, but it sounded right to him.

Camila bit her lip, almost frantic with the desire to find and comfort her daughter. "There are only a handful of places she could be if she's not here. The house, her school, or the cemetery. All her guilt and negative feelings would be connected to those places!" she said.

"I'd wager it's the cemetery. We have to pass the house to get there anyway, so let's check them first." Vee said.

The others nodded and began running through the dead woods towards the Noceda Home. They arrived to find it destroyed and overcome by rot, but now that they were out of the woods, they could see the true state of the nightmare Gravesfield. The entire place was a vision of hell; it was overtaken with fire, brimstone, and more of that bizarre rot and decay. The decay was producing little monstrous hands and faces that resembled Belos, and in the distance they could see entire buildings consumed by rot, with giant monstrous hands reaching up to the sky. Everyone gulped, then rushed into the ruins of the Noceda House, which they tore apart in search of Luz, but found no sign of her.

"Okay, it's not the house. I suppose I should be glad that her guilt isn't focused here… but that means it's either focused on her school and her troubled past there, or the cemetery…" Camila fretted.

"The cemetery seems most likely, though I really hope she's not there either." Gus sighed.

"Only one way to find out…" Willow said, feeling as apprehensive as the others.

They left the house and rushed towards the old Gravesfield Cemetery, and they knew before they even got to it that they were correct about Luz being there. An ominous black wind swirled around it, preventing them from seeing inside without crossing through the wind, and the pond that had previously surrounded it had been drained and the resulting ditch expanded into a huge chasm, which went down so deep that the only reason the group could see the bottom was because of the glowing river of magma that flowed down there. Impossibly long spikes also stuck out from the pit, each one burning with a corpse either tied to it or impaled upon it.

The group edged closed to the chasm, but upon seeing the corpses burning on the spikes, they all paled and swallowed hard, feeling the urge to throw up. They recognised the burning bodies… many were their friends from Hexside, Bonesborough, and the CATTs; Amity's father and siblings, Willow's fathers, Gus's Dad, Skara's Dad, Boscha's parents, Matt's parents, his brother Steve, and Steve's mother, and even Darius and Osran. They also saw the corpses of countless Golden Guards, and mercenaries that matched the descriptions of those Belos sacrificed to get past Godric at Volcarpalis. The entire place was horrifying, showing just how toxic Luz's guilt had become to her mental health, to the point it had turned the inside of her mind into a literal hell-scape.

"C-Collector… please tell me this is only because of your spell." Amity pleaded.

The Collector, who was hiding his eyes behind his sleeves, shook his head; "M-My magic just makes the guilt turn into a scary nightmare! I-It would only make it worse if there wasn't enough guilt to make a nightmare at all. This is all Luz!"

Camila almost buckled to her knees, with only Vee and Hunter's quick reaction keeping her on her feet.

"By the Seraphim… is this what Luz has been dealing with? This is how bad she feels? How much she hates herself!? She thinks so poorly of herself that she feels like she deserves something like this!? Oh my poor baby… what have I done!? What kind of mother am I to let my little girl fall this far!?" Camila wept.

"Mama, this isn't your fault. You were doing your best and trying to look out for Luz's best interests. She'd never blame you." Vee comforted her. "She wouldn't blame any of you!" she then added, seeing the grief-stricken looks on everyone's faces.

Lyra swallowed hard, then nodded; "Vee is right. We didn't face our guilt just to be overwhelmed by it again. Luz has saved all of us in the past; it's time to save her!"

The two girls' words helped galvanise the others, and while they were still effected by what they were seeing, they refused to let it get in the way of helping Luz. Camila especially wiped her eyes and steadied herself; she wouldn't fail her baby by falling apart at the first hurdle! They all knew that whatever they saw inside that cemetery would be far worse, so they couldn't let themselves buckle so easily!

Using some plant magic, Willow created a bridge of reinforced roots to let them cross the chasm, while Gus doused it all in cold water to keep the flaming stakes from igniting the roots. They then crossed the bridge together and walked into the black wind, which Skara used her magic to force open, allowing them all into the cemetery proper.

If the Gravesfield outside the Cemetery was a vision of Hell, then this cemetery was the Devil's own throne room, as the wall surrounding the place had been turned into glistening black spikes that had unidentifiable corpses skewered onto it, like something the Orcs of Sauron would make in the Lord of the Rings. The graves were all desecrated and covered in rot and decay, with their headstones melted and broken, and the soil itself was disgusting and spongy, with every step on it causing an ominous purple ooze to leak out. Black stone pillars and spikes jutted out all over the place, and anything that wasn't rotten or covered in mold was instead on fire, with charred black skeletons groaning and moaning unnaturally as they tried to claw out of pools of magma, or escape volcanic vents of brimstone. However the most horrifying part was at the back of the Cemetery, where the graves of Manny and Michael were, along with the Palistrom Tree that grew from Michael.

The tree now looked dead and completely overtaken by Belos' rot, and Luz was hanging from it, her limbs and wings tightly bound, while her mouth and eyes were covered, all by tendrils of rot. The rot was creeping across her body, similar to how her possessed form looked out in the waking world, and stood in front of her were Apparitions of Camila, Vee, Manny, Michael, the entire Hexsquad, King, and Eda; the people she considered her dearest friends and most precious loved ones. All of these Apparitions had the Belos slime all over them, looking as if they were possessed too, making the Collector growl.

"That monster is messing with Luz's mind to make the illusion worse!"

The others all glared hatefully at their doppelgangers, while Amity shot blasts of light at Luz with incredible accuracy, blasting off the slime covering her mouth and eyes. The young Arch-Angel looked around blearily, her lifeless eyes tearing a hole in the hearts of those that loved her, especially when they fell on the real versions of her friends and family, whom she immediately realised must be real upon seeing the Collector with them.

"No… no no no! You can't be here!" Luz cried, "Please, run away! Get out of here! Before Belos takes you too!"

"We aren't going anywhere! We've come to save you, Mija!" Camila yelled.

"You can't! Please, just leave me! I couldn't live with myself if you trying to save me led to you becoming Belos' puppet too!" Luz begged, fresh tears beginning to stream down her face.

"No way! We aren't failing and we aren't leaving without you!" King declared; "Sorry sister, but you ain't getting rid of us that easy!"

Luz shook her head as she began to sob; "Please, don't do this…! Belos has all my magic! I've lost the light glyph, as even Orion gave up on me! Belos has infested the deepest corners of my mind! There is nothing of me left to save! So please…" she went limp in her restraints; "… just destroy me and take Belos down with me. Let my death achieve something good after a lifetime of failures!"

Her friends all reared back in shock, while Luz's miserable plea caused the apparitions to begin speaking again, spouting their poison into her ears.

"That's right; give it up. You're nothing but a failure… you should never have come home; Vee is the daughter I deserve! She doesn't disappoint me like you do!" Fake Camila hissed.

"You don't belong anywhere; you're tainted by the same blood as Belos. Is it any wonder you've caused nothing but suffering?" Fake Vee taunted.

"I should have let the Angels take you in exchange for my life; I died for nothing!" Fake Manny spat.

"You're rotten to the core, no matter how hard you pretend to be otherwise! A misbegotten monster that should never have been born!" Fake Michael agreed.

"The only way you'd have ever helped anyone would have been if I'd just harvested you for ingredients the day you first blundered your way into my life!" Fake Eda sneered.

"Even Dad knows you're worthless now, and stripped away the light glyph! Are you even still "Luz" without the light?" Fake King cackled coldly.

"Everything that has happened has been your fault! You helped Belos get Rasiel's wings! Your actions led to all this suffering! You've been the real villain this whole time!" Fake Amity accused.

"Our lives changed after we met you. You made us believe that we had futures, that you would help us… well that didn't last very long did it? You took away our homes and any chance we had at being happy, and now none of us have any futures!" Fake Willow snarled.

Fake Gus grinned mockingly; "Does it hurt to be shown for what you really are? A hypocrite!" his grin became a furious glare; "After we all worked so hard to help you get home to your mother, your actions left the rest of us separated from our parents! I'll never see my Dad again because of you!"

"Everything you've touched has turned to hell! I should have known you were nothing but trouble the moment the Detention Pit went crazy, and the moment our trip to the Looking Glass Graveyard became a freaking battle! You bring chaos and violence with you wherever you go!" Fake Matt accused.

"He's right! The moment you got involved with any of us, everything became a mess! You show up at Hexside for the first time? Boom! Mandragora unleashed! The second time? The Detention Pit goes haywire! The third? A freaking thought-to-be extinct Basilisk! I ended up almost at war with my own Dad because I was dragged into your war with Belos!" Fake Skara yelled.

"And while I may have been a bully, at least I learned from my mistakes and became better! What did you learn, "Hero"? How to ruin the lives of all those around you? My parents lost their jobs and were forced to join the Rebels just to survive, all because we needed to rescue you from that freak Vitimir! Like it or not, how many of our lives would be better without you!?" Fake Boscha continued Fake Skara's diatribe.

"My whole life has been nothing but following orders and being subservient to Belos… I never thought about making friends or going to school or being anything but what Belos wanted me to be. I suffered all his violence and abuse… and it's all because you helped him! You caused all of our pain by helping Belos! By giving him the tools he needed to survive and conquer us! The History of the Boiling Isles Empire is nothing but a long list of atrocities that can be laid at your feet, including my entire life, and that of my sister! Do you know what it's like to be the product of your failure!?" Fake Hunter cried.

Fake Lyra was the last one to speak, but she was no less cutting than the others; "Is it any wonder I spent so long feeling like a failure? Like a burden on everyone? How could I not when I had you as a template! I bet it didn't surprise anyone that I only stopped being a failure when I stopped trying to be like you! Now I'm the good one! I'm the success, while you're the one helping Belos! We're right where we belong, aren't we… Lucy?"

That final proclamation finally triggered a response, but it was not from Luz. It had instead penetrated through the shock-induced catatonia of one of her friends, and triggered an unexpected response.

"SHUT THE HELL UP YOU WORTHLESS FAKE!"

Everyone blinked in shock as the usually soft-spoken and shy Lyra suddenly exploded with fury whilst running forward. She had no magic to use after the fight with Belos, but that didn't stop her; she leapt straight onto her doppelganger's back, nearly knocking her over whilst gripping the fake's head. Then with a roar and a brutal twist of her arms, Lyra snapped her fake's neck, causing it to fall to the floor and disperse into black particles and rotten slime. Lyra panted for a moment as she composed herself and everyone stared at her in shock, but as soon as she got her breath back, she yelled at Luz with tearful eyes.

"Don't you dare believe a word of any of these fakes! Don't you dare believe any of us feel even remotely like these things say we do!" Lyra screamed; "I was never a failure or burden because I was trying to be you! I felt that way because I was failing to be you! I found happiness and acceptance because I chose to be myself, and I owe that to Hunter, Gus, and you! No matter how far I went or what sins I committed, you forgave me and gave me a second chance, and never once gave up on me! Even when you were angry and thought I'd stolen the Portal Key, you still let me explain and then protected me from Hettie! You tried to save me inside Belos' mind too, whilst also sacrificing yourself to save those Palismen Souls! You are not a failure, no matter what these freakish guilt illusions claim!"

Luz stared at Lyra with wide-eyed shock, while the others, galvanised by Lyra's words, began leaping forward to destroy their own doppelgangers.

Hunter ran at his fake and decked him in the face, knocking him down and then stomping on his head, crushing it and destroying the fake; "I am responsible for my own actions Luz! I may have been indoctrinated from the moment of my creation, but I still made my choices, which is why I ultimately rebelled! You may have helped Belos by accident by warning him about Godric, but you were trying to save lives! Belos alone is responsible for what he did! And to be honest, Lyra and I owe our existences to that decision, so we could never condemn you for it! Plus, like Lyra, you never gave up on me! You saved me from the Ash Moth even when I was the reason we were in that mess in the first place! You forgave us for all we've done; the attack on the Selkidomus, the Palismen, Eclipse Lake, HECK, and even your Grandfather's Palistrom Grove… you excused us for it all because of Belos' orders and brainwashing! How could you think we wouldn't forgive you for a righteous act that Belos abused to hurt people of his own free will!? You are our hero, Luz!"

Boscha was next, coldly tossing a vial of acid into her doppelganger's face, then blasting her through the heart with a flaming fist as she covered her face; "This freak has got no idea! I learned from my mistakes because you helped me! If not for you, I'd still be the same weak, pathetic bully pushing people around to make myself feel like a winner! My life would have gone on being a string of hollow victories against people who couldn't even fight back, and I'd have become a monster just like Vitimir and Belos! You saved me from that by showing me that I could be better! That I don't need to give up my strength, my desire to be a winner, or anything else that defines me; I just needed to stop being cruel! How many of our lives would be better without you? Absolutely freaking none!"

Skara whistled sharply to send sonic vibrations through her own guilt clone, then conjured a blade of wind to slice her in half, right down the middle; "And how the heck could you be blamed for the Mandragora or Greater Basilisk!? The former was released because Boscha and the rest of us picked on you and Willow, and the Greater Basilisk had NOTHING to do with you! If anything, you saved all of our lives on both occasions just by being there! You also made me feel better about myself, supported my dream of being the world's best Bard, and showed me I didn't need to follow along with Boscha's bullying out of fear of losing her! I became a better person and I chose to join the CATTs because I wanted to help others, inspired by you! Even Dad saw the truth in the end and chose to join us, making him and I closer than ever! I'm now dating Boscha and have all these great friends who also support my dream, because of you! You are my friend and I won't let anyone, not even you, say otherwise!"

Matt used Construction Magic to harden the skin on his fist, giving it a rocky texture, before using it to punch a hole through the head of his mirror image; "Skara is right; how can you be blamed for a lot of the things others did? Just because you did the right thing by trying to help people? I caused that Detention Pit mess because I was a gross little wannabe bully! You had every reason to hate me, but you still gave me a second chance! You helped me find my courage at the Looking Glass Graveyard, and it's at least partly thanks to you that I got to bond with Pebbles! Sure, things may go off the rails with you around, but when those rails were leading us all to a bad place, I'd say we're all a lot better off with you around!"

Gus conjured up a huge wave of ice, which he used to freeze his own clone into a block of ice, before snapping his fingers to make the ice shatter, destroying the clone too; "You're not a hypocrite either! Yes, we helped you try to get back to your Mami, but you've spent the last four months working yourself to the bone whilst racked with depression just to do the same thing for us! And you've helped us all out in tons of different ways! You made me feel good about myself when I was having a crisis of confidence, never made fun of me for liking Humans or getting the details wrong, and treated me like a real friend rather than just some little kid you could manipulate and use! I was only able to beat Adrian and save Glandus because you showed me how strong I could really be!"

Willow defeated her own doppelganger by grabbing her around the waist with thorned vines and then squeezing tightly to tear her in half, while the top half was pulled towards Willow's fist. The resulting punch just about popped the apparition's head like a shadowy and rotten grapefruit. "Our lives really did change after meeting you Luz, and you really did make me feel like I had a proper future where I could be happy! And not a single thing has changed that fact! You didn't take away our homes or happiness; you gave me the confidence that lets me fight for my home, and you made me happy! I love being your friend! I love all the times we hang out together! I love all your funny little eccentricities! And I love how you showed me the beautiful and powerful side of myself that I'd buried beneath poor self esteem! I don't regret a single moment of the time I've spent with you, and I want to spend even more with you too! You're my best friend, and I won't let anyone bad mouth you! Not even you!"

Amity knocked her fake to the ground with a fist coated in abomination slime, then blasted her head off point-blank with a pink light blast; "Luz, I love you with all my heart and never once thought you were responsible for any of the awful things that have happened! In fact, I can honestly say that you are directly or indirectly responsible for every single good thing in my life! It was you that gave me the strength to stand up to Odalia! You who helped me and the Twins get along again! You who stopped me from being a rotten bully! You who helped me reconcile with my Dad! You who helped me rebuild my friendship with Willow! You who helped me reach the epiphany that led to me bonding with Ghost! You who helped me realise I deserved a mother figure like Lilith! And most of all… it was you who helped me feel like I was worthy of being loved! You are my everything! My guiding light! And while you may be in the darkness now, I will do what you did for me and show you a way out! I love you more than words can say, Luz Noceda-Clawthorne! And I want you in my life for ever and ever!"

Luz's heart began to beat a little faster as hope began to blossom there. The guilt she felt was like an insidious weed though, and it tried to choke that hope before Luz could truly embrace it. She struggled in her bindings, wanting desperately to reach out to her friends, who were fighting these monstrous clones all for her sake, but Belos' slimy tendrils kept a firm grip on her. Her friends and family weren't done yet though!

Vee was the next one to destroy her doppelganger, using wind magic to catch her wings and boost her speed as she darted forward and wrapping her tail around the fake's neck, then snapping it with a squeeze. "Don't ever think you have nowhere to belong! You belong with me and Mama, and Tia Eda and King! You belong with all your friends and the people who love you! You're the one who taught me that! When we first met, you had every right to hate me for stealing your life and almost your Mama, but you didn't! You listened to me, healed me, and told me I had a place to call home! You and Mama gave me a family! You made me who I am today, letting me find tons of great friends and even a lover! I was born as an experiment for Belos, and yet now I have a happy life in large part because of you! Don't ever think you carry any part of his tainted blood; you have the blood of Camila Noceda, Manny Noceda, and Michael Noceda, who himself had the blood of Caleb Wittebane! You share nothing more than a mutual relation with Belos!"

King acted next, destroying both his own evil clone and Eda's by roaring at his clone and sending him horns first into the fake Eda, destroying her. He then unleashed another roar, this time managing to fire it in beam form just like he had while rampaging on Titan Trapper Island. The beam burned the fake King to ashes, then the real King yelled; "Mom loves you just as much as the rest of us! You changed her life for the better, and did the impossible to save her from petrification! She chose to take you in because she loves you! She chose to adopt you because she loves you! And I feel the same! Through every emotional moment of my life; discovering what I really am, the real fate of my Titan parents, and even saving my Mama from the Archivists' curse… you were there for all of it, supporting and loving me even when I acted like a little tyrant! It was you who made me happy to accept who I really am! It was you who made me King Clawthorne-Noceda, and saved both my mothers! And I know that neither my Mama or Dad would ever abandon you either! I don't know why you lost the light glyph, but if they'd truly abandoned you, then you'd have lost all of them! No one has given up on you, so don't give up on yourself!"

This left only the fake Camila, Manny, and Michael, and the real Camila took them out with extreme brutality. She didn't have much magic, but her hair was enchanted with the same spell Luz had learned from Eda, so the Angelic Mother was able to reach into her hair and pull out the dreaded Chancla, as well as a red baseball bat that she'd stored away for self-defence purposes. She struck against her mirror image first, backhanding her with the Chancla and then clubbing her over the head with the bat to destroy her. She then smacked the fake Manny with the bat, the fake Michael with the Chancla, and finished it off by dropping both, grabbing the heads of these imitations of her lovers, and smashing them together with brutal force, destroying them.

With all the apparitions now gone, Camila looked her daughter in the eye; "Luz, there has never been a moment in my life where I considered you a failure, or anything less than my beloved daughter. You are a treasure that I was lucky to birth, and the only failures involved were mine! I ran away from the Divine Realm so I wasn't forced to follow their restrictive way of life, but I was foolish and brought some of their mindset with me and ended up filling your head with the idea that your self-worth is dependant on how useful you are to others. I am the one who failed to give you the support you needed, and who failed to even give you a strong body. But even so, I love you with everything I have and always will! And I know your Papi and Dad agree with me; your Papi would have done anything to save you, even burning the realms to the ground himself, and your Dad would never think of you as a monster! You could do anything and I know he'd still love you! You were the light of their lives, and the light of mine too! You are not perfect, but no one is! I wish only that you could love yourself like all of us love you!"

Luz's bit her quivering lip as the emotions flowing through her got stronger and stronger, as the love she was receiving warred against the depression and guilt that gripped her heart. The words of the fakes still echoed in her ears, while the words of her loved ones began to slowly overpower them, causing Luz's heart to feel full, but conflicted.

"M-Mami… King… Amity… everyone… I-I don't know what to do. I feel so weak… I feel so pathetic! Like everything I do just ends badly. I tried so hard to be a good friend, a good sister, a good daughter, a good girlfriend… but it feels like everything I do just goes wrong and hurts the people I love the most! I've caused so much pain; my help led to Belos' empire and the freeing of Rasiel, who became the Divider again and caused an even bigger mess! Now we're on the verge of war or the entire world changing, and it's my fault! Worse still, I dragged King and Amity into this!" Luz cried.

King stepped forward; "No you didn't! Amity and I CHOSE to free Rasiel, just like you did! We knew the same things you did, had the same ability to open the tombs as you did, and actively helped solve the trials! Does that mean we deserve to be blamed for all of this too?"

"No! Of course not!" Luz gasped, horrified by the very idea.

"Then why are you to blame!? You didn't do anything different from us, but you're to blame while we're not? How does that make sense!?" Amity demanded.

Luz didn't have an answer for that and just went silent. Why did she blame herself but not them? Was it just because she loved them and couldn't consider them guilty? Or was it just her self-hatred rearing it's head again; the insidious little voice that had been in her head since her Papi died and she first thought; "Would this have happened if not for me?"

"And what about Belos? You say you're responsible for his actions because you told him about the Dragons, so he was able to prepare a defence. But why does that make you guilty of the things he did with the information you gave him?" Hunter asked.

"Hunter is right; if a healer saved the life of a sick child, and the child grew up to be an evil person, is the healer responsible for the evil deeds that child committed, especially if they had no way of knowing what would happen?" Camila asked.

Luz shook her head weakly; "N-No. But this is different!"

"Why? Besides it being you taking the blame." Boscha asked with a scowl.

"I should have known Philip was Belos! I'd encountered Belos before, so I should have realised! Plus it was unnecessary to tell him about the dragons!" Luz argued. However as soon as the words left her mouth, she realised how silly they sounded. The looks on her friend's faces proved that even further.

"You're kidding, right? How were you supposed to know that Philip, a confirmed human, was actually Belos, a guy we all thought was a messed up Angel, or at least some kind of Demon Realm resident!? People change a lot in 400 years, and if people can't tell Clark Kent and Superman are the same guy because of his glasses, then how were you supposed to see past that beard and 400 years of ageing!? Especially since there was no reason to even consider the two were the same!?" Gus demanded. "'Cause even my eye for detail isn't that good!"

Luz bit her lip, and Lyra pressed her; "Why did you tell him about the dragons anyway?"

"W-Well I wanted to scare him away from the tombs, so he wouldn't find out what was inside and change the future." Luz answered.

"So you were literally just trying to STOP him from doing the thing he ended up doing? And despite doing the only reasonable thing you could do in that situation, you're still somehow to blame for his every evil act?" Lyra questioned.

Luz averted her eyes, knowing she couldn't say anything to that. The logical part of her brain knew her friends and family were correct, but overpowering the negative feelings and depression that had built up through a life time of disappointments and personal failures (even if only she saw them that way) was not an easy task. She felt responsible… felt like she should have done better, been better.

The Collector, who'd thus far stayed back since arriving in the cemetery, shyly stepped forward and steeled himself to confess to Luz just what Belos had revealed to the others earlier.

"Luz, I'm so sorry. It was me who told Belos what was in that tomb. It was me who gave him the idea to take the Divider's wings, and me who taught him the Draining Spell, how to make the sigils, and how to use an Angel Vessel and the Eclipse to turn the Draining Spell into a huge bomb. It was even me who taught him how to make the Summoning Circle he used to trap you that day. He never would have gone to Volcarpalis if not for me… It's all my fault, not yours."

The young Arch-Angel stared at him, dumbfounded. "You? It was you who told him about the wings? You who made him go to the tomb?"

The Collector nodded; "Yes. And since I'd talked to that nice Dragon Lars, I knew all about the Dragons guarding the tombs. Even if you hadn't told him, I would have… you really didn't do anything wrong."

Luz continued to stare at the Collector with shock, then slowly looked to the others. They each nodded grimly, having heard the truth from Belos himself.

"I-It's not my fault…? What Belos did would still have happened if I hadn't told him?" Luz whispered numbly.

The Collector gave an ashamed nod, before gathering the courage to look her in the eye; "D-Do you hate me now, Luz?"

Luz blinked, then looked at the Collector for a long moment. She felt relief, some still powerful guilt, and hope as well, but she didn't feel anything bad about the Collector. He was just a little boy with incredible power, just like King; a child who didn't yet know right from wrong… besides, he'd been locked up for 5000 years over a crime he didn't commit, and had been tricked by Belos into thinking the evil human was his friend and only chance at freedom. Luz couldn't hate him for that.

"No, I don't hate you." she replied softly.

The Collector smiled with relief, but then his face fell into confusion; "Then why do you hate yourself?"

That question threw Luz completely off-balance. It wasn't asked as a trick question or something to make her see the hypocrisy of her guilt; it was a genuine question asked by a confused child, and that somehow managed to pierce through Luz's self-hatred even more.

Seeing Luz go quiet, thrown off by the Collector's question, made Amity, King, and Camila all smile sadly and approach her. Camila reached up and laid a hand on Luz's cheek, brushing away her tears with her thumb, while Amity shot at some of the tendrils binding Luz, managing to free one of Luz's arms while King fluttered in front of Luz.

"You've spent so much time loving and caring for us that you left nothing for yourself. It's unhealthy, Luz. Self-care is important; my therapist back on Digale told me that. I bet they told you too." King said, giving Luz a knowing look.

Luz bit her lip again; "I-I'm so confused… all my feelings are so twisted up."

"Then we'll untwist them together, out in the real world and with you free from Belos!" King declared.

He offered his paw, and the others all offered their hands too, with even the Collector shyly offering his after some silent encouragement from Vee. For the first time in a long time, Luz gave a genuine smile. It was shaky and fragile, but it was real, nearly making Amity weep with joy as Luz reached for Amity's hand. At the same time, the others prepared to remove the rest of the tendrils binding Luz (they were annoyingly resilient), but they should have realised it would never be that easy.

"Aw, how sickeningly sweet. All the little Witchlings pooled their efforts to once again pry their favourite toy away from the one trying to help her achieve her destiny… such a shame it won't work out for them."

Everyone froze as they heard Belos' voice emanating from all around them, as if every single thing in the nightmare was a part of Belos. Ominous glowing blue eyes began to appear in all the rot, including the tendrils binding Luz, and three new tendrils suddenly emerged from the dead Palistrom Tree, once again binding Luz's freed arm and covering her eyes and mouth, leaving her blind and gagged once again. She tried to thrash in her restraints while her friends rushed to try and cut the tendrils, but all of them were knocked back by large arm of rot that came swinging at them. Willow managed to save them all from being grabbed by having some vines pull them all out of the way, but as soon as they got some distance, they were all horrified to see the source of the arm.

Belos' rot and slime had begin to seep out of the ground and twist around the dead Palistrom tree, absorbing it and shaping itself into something huge and horrifying. It looked vaguely draconic and vaguely Titan-like, being the upper body of a large Titan-esque monster made of slime, with sharp spikes, glowing blue eyes, a draconic head with antler-like horns, and a huge pair of draconic wings that were full of holes, just like a Titan's. It was like a version of Belos' true monstrous form, but empowered by Luz's Titan magic. It was also massive, being at least 50ft tall, with Luz semi-merged into the central blue eye on its torso, where she was slowly sinking into the monster.

"Belos!" Hunter snarled; "Let Luz go!"

"No, I don't think I will. Your little pep talk was amusing to watch, but utterly pointless! My will has totally encompassed Luciel's own; I control this space entirely, and have cut off this tainted child's soul from the rest of her, leaving her magic totally at my command! Her willpower can never exceed my own! The will that allowed me to survive countless injustices and hardships in order to complete my holy mission cannot be surpassed! I will save the Angels and destroy the Demons, and I will use Luciel to do it, whether she likes it or not! But thank you for trying so hard… it gave me time to thrash those three fools outside!" Belos boasted, his voice still emanating from everywhere. The Monster Belos was just a part of him; the man's true self was in every speck of rot that infected Luz's mind.

Everybody paled, with Camila covering her mouth in horror; "Lazuliel, Hanu, and Treble…? They were all…!?"

"They still live, for now." Belos taunted. "An Arch-Angel with the extra power of a Titan truly is an incredible thing! I'd love for you all to see it in person as I treat those two monsters to their proper fates! I'd prefer to simply hang them and let you watch as they breath their last, but I feel a good old fashioned witch burning is in order! They were rare in my time, but always a treat!"

"You sick monster!" Amity snarled, shooting a light blast at the Monster Belos' face. Her attack blew a hole in her target, but it simply regenerated without any trouble.

"This isn't my real body, foul Succubus! This is just a projection within Luz's mind! The magic you use here is nothing but a manifestation of your will clashing against mine, and you will never surpass me! Now begone from here; I want you to see the fates of your friends with your own eyes! As for you Luciel… this time, I'll bury your soul within your own subconscious!"

With those final words, Belos began sucking Luz into his monster body even faster. She struggled as hard as she could, and the others rushed to try and save her, but grasping hands of rot began to emerge from the ground to catch and hold them down. The only one to evade their grasp was the small and agile King, who struggled to fly towards Luz. Skara managed to push him towards their trapped friend by whistling loudly and producing a powerful shockwave that knocked away the tendrils and slime hands, and blasted King forward into Luz's chest. The little Titan then immediately began trying to pull his sister free, but he lacked the strength and feared what roaring at Luz from this distance would do to her. If this version of Luz was just her soul, then damaging it could destroy her completely!

"No no no! Come on! We're so close! Fight him Luz! You can do it! Your willpower is still strong! Fight him!" King pleaded.

Luz struggled with all her might, but she couldn't summon up her magic or even much strength, resulting in her being almost totally submerged into the slime, with only her head and the top of her chest still free. King saw her rapidly sinking and decided on a final last ditch attempt to help by summoning up his white magic and channelling it into Luz.

"Please! Even if you don't have power of your own, you still have mine! Fight!" King begged.

Luz continued to struggle, a small white glow now emanating from a spot on her sternum, but nothing she did was enough. Right in front of King's horrified eyes, the girl was fully sucked into the Monster Belos, leaving her trapped in her deep subconscious and Belos with uncontested command over her body and magic.

"You have all delayed your judgement long enough! No more! Begone from this place, foul sinners! Your flesh will burn within the real world!" Belos roared, before unleashing an intense beam of black and red magic from the mouth of his monstrous form. It struck King and vaporised him, causing him to immediately snap back to consciousness in the real world. Since King was also the link keeping the others connected to Luz, everyone except the Collector was ejected too, while the Collector remained in a stupor, his mind being trapped inside Luz by Belos and his stolen Titan magic.

King quickly looked around and saw the others dazed and blinking hard, shocked to have been so unceremoniously ejected from Luz's mind. Upon seeing they were all okay, King prepared his white linking magic; "We need to go back! Everyone grab on again!"

The others were quick to obey, but before King could channel the magic into the Collector, they all heard Belos' voice, overlapped with Luz's, calling out to them in a mocking sing-song voice.

"Oh little sinners~! You might want to come out, or else you'll miss the last moments of your two Demon friends! Well, actually I won't start the show without you, so I'll just have to find some other way to pass the time… perhaps by seeing just how many pieces of them I can remove before they turn on each other and beg me to torture their friend instead?" he announced.

The Nocedas and Hexsquad all went pale and scrambled to leave the kiosk, leaving the Collector behind in his stupor, so they could be seen by Belos.

"We're here! Don't hurt them!" Camila pleaded, putting her hands up to show she was surrendering. She and the others looked over to the centre of the Atrium, where Belos had erected a barrier around himself, Hanu, Treble, and Lazuliel. His two defeated Demon foes were chained to pillars of rock that Belos had pulled out of the ground, while Lazuliel was laying on the ground, bound and gagged by Belos' slime tendrils. All of them looked to be in rough condition; Hanu was breathing hard and glaring hatefully at Belos while covered in cuts and bruises, poor Treble was completely unconscious and in a similar state, and Lazuliel was fairly beaten up too, though not as bad as the Demons. Whether this was due to Belos going "easy" on an Angel, or Lazuliel's healing magic was anyone's guess. In addition, both Melody and Clover were trapped inside cages of slime within mini-barriers at the feet of their temporary partners.

The Hexsquad and Nocedas were horrified to see the state they were in, while Hunter began looking around frantically for signs of Flapjack. His heart sank into the pit forming within his stomach as Belos caught his eyes and held up one of his hands, which held Flapjack tightly in his grip. The little bird was tweeting angrily and thrashing with all it's might, but Belos was unfazed.

"Looking for this, Hunter?" Belos asked mockingly. He squeezed the Palisman a little, making Flapjack let out a squawk of distress.

"Flapjack!" Hunter cried!

Belos smirked; "So that's the name of this little pest! And the reason you asked me what a Flapjack was all those months ago… You've been a thorn in my side for quite a while… now I think it's time to pay for your sins!"

Flapjack narrowed his eyes on Belos, and the others could do nothing but watch helplessly, standing no chance of getting through the barrier.

[Meanwhile]

Luz found herself floating in the infinite black void that was the depths of her subconscious, unable to do anything but wander aimlessly with nothing to see or hear but her own body and frantic breathing. She was totally trapped, with no access to magic, no way to find or fight Belos, and no way of helping her friends! The closest thing to magic that she had was the faint white glow on her chest that King had caused, but she couldn't use it or manipulate it at all. As she wandered in the darkness, lost and alone, Luz once again began to drift back into the grip of despair.

If only she'd been stronger, her friends wouldn't be in trouble. They could be fighting and dying to Belos at that very moment, and she was took weak to break free and help them! He was using her body and her magic, and there was nothing Luz could do about it!

"What do I do? I can't do anything by myself! Even all the things my friends praised me for were things I could only do because I had their help! Heck, I wouldn't even have magic if Orion hadn't given me his glyphs… one of which I've lost!" Luz muttered bitterly to herself, beginning to curl up into a ball; "I don't know what to do or how to escape. How can I help my friends like this…?"

"Are you giving up so easily?" came a semi-familiar voice.

Luz gasped and turned around, finding a small glowing horse floating there. She couldn't make out any details, only the silhouette of a horse surrounded by a glowing dark blue aura. Stepping out from beside the horse was a beaver silhouette with a bronze-orange aura. "Come on; where's the spirited young lady that was willing to do whatever it took to help others?" they asked, their voice somewhat familiar to Luz too.

Slowly, more animal silhouettes appeared, each with a different coloured aura and some of them being non-conventional creatures, such as a Boar with a unicorn-like horn, or a rabbit that had its rear half replaced by the front half of another identical rabbit. They began to surround Luz, though none of them made any aggressive moves, and Luz finally recognised them and their familiar voices; these were the Souls of the Palismen that she had absorbed months ago in Belos' mind! They'd been slumbering within her for most of that time since she'd helped untangle them from the amalgamation, but it seemed they were awake now.

"You guys! What are you all doing here!?" Luz cried, not sure if she was happy to see them or not. She was glad to not be alone, but worried that the souls were now trapped in her subconscious with her.

"We fled here as soon as Belos took your body over, so as to avoid being destroyed by him. He has no idea we're here, making us safe." a Baboon Palisman explained.

Luz sighed with relief; "I'm glad… at least I didn't lead you to your destruction too."

The Palismen Souls became agitated and swarmed Luz all of a sudden. They didn't hurt her, but they did knock her onto her backside and then surrounded her, essentially dog-piling her into a huge group hug.

"Enough of this, Luz Noceda-Clawthorne." a goat Palisman complained.

"Did you not listen to a word your friends said? The positive impact you've had on them and the world as a whole is far greater than the negative impact you've had!" growled a large wolf Palisman.

Luz bit her lip; "I did listen, but they all act like I'm some big hero for doing those things, when all I did was help them achieve those things for themselves! I can't take credit for their achievements!"

"Yet you can take credit for their failures, and the bad deeds of every villain you didn't succeed in stopping for good." grumbled a mouse Palisman. "That Collector kid was right; you hate yourself. We just don't understand why."

Again, Luz bit her lip as she tried to articulate the feelings inside her heart. It was true after all; she was so much harder on herself than others, expected more from herself than she did from anyone else.

"I just… I have to be better. I have to help… because I need to prove I was worth all the trouble. Mami raised me even through all the trouble I caused for her back in the Human Realm, Mom took me in and cared for me, King became my little brother, Vee became my little sister, Amity fell in love with me, and all my other friends accepted me as one of them… I need to be worth it. I need to prove that they were right to love me and care for me! That I deserved it. I… I was afraid…"

"Afraid you would lose them if you weren't good enough." a centipede Palisman finished for her.

Luz could only nod. Deep down inside, she felt like she knew why she felt this way; it had begun with the loss of her Papi and the first time she had thought; "Is this my fault? Would Papi be alive if I was stronger? If I wasn't weak and useless? If I had magic?" and it had all spiralled down from there. Her desperation to be a good Angel and help people, her own quirky nature, and her continuing lack of magic had led to her years of failure in the Human Realm, steadily undermining her confidence and building her depression and self-loathing until that fateful day before the Summer of last year, where she'd learned her Mami was sending her away to camp. Luz had only been able to see it as her Mami having had enough of her and sending her away to be "fixed", causing her depression and self-loathing to grow worse, as she realised even her loving and supportive Mami had grown tired of her failures. Luz had been deeply hurt, but had blamed herself and not her Mami.

But then came the Demon Realm, and within the first few hours she'd spent there, she helped rescue some political prisoners, defeated a corrupt prison warden, saved Eda and King, and bonded with the light glyph and finally awakened her magic! For the first time in her life, she had been useful! She had been worth something! And like any child in her situation, she had chased that feeling. She helped others, saved others, and received love and praise from new friends and family! She gained new power, being essentially sponsored by the God-like Titans, and she became a symbol of hope for the CATTs, and a leader of the Hexsquad! Even her Mami became proud of her once she'd seen how she'd grown! Plus she gained an extended adoptive family, and an awesome girlfriend! Luz had been happy, but there had always been that insidious voice in the back of her head that said "Am I worthy of this? Do I deserve this? Will I lose them all if I'm not good enough?" and as she grew to new heights of power, the expectations she'd had for herself got higher and higher. She needed to be perfect; her loved ones deserved nothing less.

And then it had all come tumbling down. The revelation that Belos was Philip Wittebane and Luz had unwittingly helped him (even if she now knew he would have learned about Rasiel's wings and the dragons guarding them without her input)… The reveal that Lyra was a Grimwalker made from Luz meaning every bad thing that girl had suffered was indirectly because of Luz... The fact that Rasiel, someone she'd loved like family, was actually an Ancient Being sealed away for trying to take over the world for the sake of his Paradise, and her releasing him had potentially caused a war between the Divine and Demon Realms (which could spill into the Human Realm) whilst also banishing her friends from their homes, forcing her Mami to care for them, getting Amity and King arrested along side her, and now being too weak to escape Belos' clutches. All of it built up on top of Luz like a crushing weight until finally, she'd broken completely.

"I only ever wanted to be good enough. To help people… to never lose someone again. But I failed… no matter how you look at it or how I try to excuse it, I failed. And the people I love most are paying for it." Luz whispered brokenly.

The Palismen Souls shook their heads even as they held her in their midst, comforting her with their embrace.

"You define your entire existence on how you can serve others and make them happy. And while making others happy also makes you happy, you've basically lost the ability to put yourself first… to decide what's best for you and not others. No wonder you cannot hear her voice." sighed a swan Palisman.

"Her?" Luz asked softly.

The Palismen Souls in front of her shuffled to the side slightly, revealing another silhouette that was different from them. Instead of a shadow standing out against the black void due to their aura, this silhouette was pure white and shaped like an egg, with an aura that shone in every colour there was. Luz realised immediately that this was her Palisman Egg; the one she'd failed to bond with and hatch yet.

"They're a girl…? They can speak, and I just can't hear them?" Luz questioned.

"She is, and she can. We can hear her voice, but she cannot hatch without a bond with you. But she cannot bond to you, because there is no part of you that thinks of yourself and what you want for yourself. Your entire life is defined by others; without others, you have nothing and you are no one. You've lost any semblance of the person you were before." a wise orangutan Palisman told her.

Luz blinked, then stared at the silhouette of her egg. "I… I have lost myself. Who am I if I don't serve others? Who is Luz Noceda-Clawthorne…?"

She closed her eyes and focused all her feelings inwards. She looked past the grief, the sorrow, the self-hatred, and thought about what she liked and what she wanted.

"I love the Good Witch Azura. I love video games and anime. I love playing with all my friends, and showing them the things I care about. I love exploring the Boiling Isles, and I want to see more of the Demon Realm. I want to see all my friends' dreams come true, and finally find a future for myself. I want… I want to be able to love myself like they love me. I want to save everyone from Belos and put an end to that monster once and for all! I want to get to know my little brother's new bestie! I want to finally confront Rasiel and make him stop his crusade! I want to spend the rest of Amity's life with her, loving her and having a family of our own! I want… I want to try living for my own sake, and not the sake of others. I want to find myself and be the kind of person that makes me happy. That's who I am." Luz declared, slowly getting to her feet.

As she did, she felt a warmth building in her chest, similar to when she bonded with the glyphs, but a little different. The silhouette of her Palisman began to glow brighter, and for the first time, Luz heard a soft voice; one that sounded a lot like hers had when she was a little girl.

"I can hear you, my other half. I can finally hear you!" the voice said.

Luz gasped and reached for the glowing egg, which floated into her palms. "I can hear you too…! Have you been trying to speak to me all this time?"

"Yes! I was trying so hard! You are my maker; my other half! I am your Palisman! You are me, I am you… it was so lonely without being able to hear you!" the Palisman said, sounding just like a little girl that wanted her Mama. Considering Luz carved the Palisman, she could very well be considered her mother!

"Are you ready to hatch?" Luz asked, filling with hope.

"I can feel the connection forming, but the bad man that hurt us is making it hard! Your willpower needs to be stronger!" the Palisman replied.

Luz frowned; "I don't have enough willpower on my own to overpower him… and I'm afraid of what I'll have to do to finally drive Belos out and destroy him once and for all!"

The Palisman went quiet for a moment, knowing what Luz was thinking. "I am your other half; I will walk down the same path as you, wherever it leads. But it is up to you to light the way."

Luz cuddled the egg to her chest; "If this doesn't work, my path will end today… are you sure you wouldn't rather bond with someone else?"

"I just said I would follow your path wherever it leads, even to the very end. I have faith in you, partner." she replied.

Feeling a new wave of determination, Luz stood up within the void and looked around at all the Palisman Souls; "I have no magic of my own right now; Belos stole it all… so I'll need to rely on all of you to help me. Please, lend me your strength so that I can stop Belos and save the people I love!"

She bowed her head to them, and one by one the Palismen let out a howl or battle cry; "We are with you, Arch-Angel of the Boiling Isles! Through the scourge of corruption and into the shadow of death, we will repay our saviour!" roared a tiger Palisman.

With that, the Palisman Souls (who'd gone into Luz's subconscious of their own free will and were thus able to escape it) worked together to blast a hole in the void through which a blinding light shone. Within that light, Luz saw the curious sight of the Collector's mirror and felt the magic King had given her flickering within her chest, coating her in a white aura. This aura spread to each of the Palisman Souls sharing her body, and as she reached out and touched the Collector's mirror, Luz found herself blinded by it.

For a moment, Luz could see nothing but blinding light, whilst also feeling a flood of emotions she knew were not her own. The emotions were intense and bewildering, feeling raw and primal, like the emotions of a wild beast or a very small child. She also felt tiny, as if she was a baby, and felt her little body being swaddled in warm cloth and held in gentle arms. An intensely nostalgic scent filled her nose, and Luz wondered if this was a memory of her birth. Then she thought about the Collector's Mirror that had appeared and remembered how the Collector had entered her mind too, and began to wonder if this was a memory of his birth.

It would explain the intense emotions, being those of a baby, and why she couldn't see; the Baby Collector likely hadn't been able to see straight after being born!

A soft, loving voice began to speak to her; "My little baby boy… I've waited so long to bring you into the world! Mama's here for you now, and you'll meet your four older siblings soon! I hope you all get along. Oh my baby, I can't begin to say how happy I am and how much I love you! I hope you grow up nice and strong, with lots of friends! You and your siblings are my greatest treasures, so I want nothing but happiness for you! But you'll need a name of course; you're far too little for a title after all! Let's see… how about the Angelic word for "Joy"? Turned into a name, that would be… yes, that's it. Your name will be Samael. Grow up happy and healthy, my Samael; I love you!"

Luz felt her heart swell; the Collector's real name was Samael, the "Joy" of his mother, the Celestial. A name given due to what he represented, and what he was always meant to both have and give. Luz felt her determination grow as the memory came to an end and she felt Samael's mind being released from her own; she hoped she would get a chance to tell the young Archivist all about what she'd just seen.

[Meanwhile]

Hunter and the rest of the Hexsquad watched helplessly as Belos smirked at them with Luz's face, hidden behind his barrier as he gripped Flapjack tightly in his right hand.

"Now, how should I repay you for all the evil your existence has brought, you devilish bird?" Belos asked with a cruel smirk; "You were the Palisman that foul woman created for Caleb! The proverbial apple of Eden that lured him into temptation and left him open to corruption! If it weren't for the obvious symbolism, I would devour you like the rest of your Palismen kin!"

Hunter's eyes widened slightly; so Flapjack had been Caleb's Palismen!? And now Hunter had inherited him… the thought made a spark of happiness flare within him, though it was smothered with fear of what Belos would do to his little friend! Hunter couldn't lose Flapjack! He just couldn't!

"Please Belos, just let him go! H-He can't do anything to you on his own!" Hunter pleaded, hoping to at least buy time. Willow and Skara had tried summoning their own Palismen back to their sides, but the barriers prevented them, and Skara couldn't use her barrier busting magic to get through the barrier without Melody! Not even another Palisman would work, as Skara would need to attune to a new Palisman's "tempo" and figure out how to turn them into an instrument she could play!

Belos ignored Hunter's pleas and began poking Flapjack's head with his finger, pushing just hard enough to make Flapjack chirp in pain. "Perhaps I should decay you into mulch? Or maybe find a way to petrify you, so you may live forever with the sins of what you've done? Perhaps I'll treat you to a dunk in some water and see if you can drown? Or should I slowly carve you apart? Personally, I'm partial to using you as kindling for the fire that'll roast your treacherous master!"

Flapjack just stared at Belos defiantly, refusing to be cowed. Belos didn't like that one bit and clenched his fist a little tighter, making Flapjack's body creak in protest, but the bird refused to give Belos the satisfaction of seeing him in pain again.

Belos grit his teeth, not getting as much enjoyment out of this without the bird's reactions, but he soon became distracted by a strange feeling. The Hexsquad all looked at him in surprise as he began to look around, then scowled and yelled; "I know you are awake now, Collector! I felt you escape Luz's mind! I don't know how you managed it with your powers so badly weakened, but I know you're awake! Come out nice and slowly if you don't want to hear the screams of little Hanu!"

The others turned towards the kiosk where they'd left the Collector, and sure enough the Star Child emerged from it, looking groggy and confused even as he glared at Belos. He slowly approached the rest of the group, exhausted by what he'd just experienced. He'd watched King get ejected from Luz's mind and then all of her other friends and family popping out of existence, before he was dog-piled by slimy tendrils and held down in the cemetery of Luz's nightmare, unable to move until everything had suddenly disappeared in a flash of light and he felt his connection to Luz break, after which he awoke in the real world again. He'd hoped to gather his wits and then try to save the captives with what little magic he still had, but it seemed Belos was also aware that the nightmare had ended.

"So, you managed to remove the nightmare spell you cast. I didn't think you'd have the strength, but I guess I underestimated you." Belos scowled; "Too bad it doesn't matter! I am still in control!"

The psychopath shouted those words, obviously misinterpreting what had happened. He was also nervous; without the nightmare, Luz might be able to reassert herself! He had to end this quickly!

"Your little defiance has left me in the mood for something nice and direct! So as a special gift to you sinners, I will show you the death of the last dregs of Evelyn's existence!" Belos declared, holding Flapjack out as he elongated the slime on Luz's other hand until they became long claws. He then pointed the claws at Flapjack and pulled them back for a lunge.

Everyone gasped and screamed for Belos to stop, with Hunter screaming the loudest; "FLAPJACK! NO!"

Belos gave a twisted grin; "Goodbye, Evelyn!"

He thrust his claws forward, and the others all screamed out in horror. The man's slimy claws tore through flesh like tissue paper, and Flapjack was released from his grip, falling to the ground and landing amidst a pool of glowing blood.

The Hexsquad all stared dumbfounded at Flapjack's fallen form… before the little Palisman shook himself from the stunned state his fall had left him in and hopped back to his feet, before joining his partner in staring up at Belos with surprise. For Belos' claws had not sunk into Flapjack's body; they had sunken into his, or rather Luz's wrist. The glowing blood was the golden blood of the young Arch-Angel, and Flapjack (who hadn't been able to fly right away after being squeezed so tight) had fallen from Belos' grip when his hand went slack after the sharp claws stabbed through the muscle fibres providing strength to the grasping hand.

No one knew what to make of this, until they looked at Belos' face and saw it twisted in pain and confusion as Luz's left hand kept its claws impaled into her right wrist. His right eye remained a burning blue, but the left one had become Luz's signature gold again, and the horn on that side of her head had melted off.

"L-Luciel!? How are you able to-gah!" Belos yelped as several animal faces emerged from the various slimy parts covering Luz's body and bit down into her arms and legs, ensuring she couldn't move a muscle.

"I-I won't… let you… hurt… my friends!" Luz managed to choke out, struggling with all her might to force Belos back and take back control of her body. It was like trying to push a slowly advancing car though, and even with the Palisman Souls all rallying behind her and helping her, Luz was struggling. Belos still had control over her magic, and was absolutely not going to let her get it back while he lived. It was all she could do by herself to wrestle back control of her own mouth, and knock the attempted stab off course so it hit her and not Flapjack!

"Luz!" the others cried, running forward and pounding on the barrier. They began using their spells to try and break it down and get to her, but a barrier made with Arch-Angel magic was not easy to break, especially with Hunter having no magic, and the Collector, Camila, and Lyra all being tapped.

Hunter also yelled to Flapjack; "Flap! Are you okay!?"

Flapjack tweeted affirmatively, while Luz smiled weakly; "Heh, got out just in time! Ugh, but I don't have much time left!"

"Luz, can you drop the barrier!? If you can drop it, we can get in to help you!" Camila yelled.

Luz couldn't even move her body enough to shake her head; "N-No. I'm sorry! It's taking everything I have just to hold him still! Without the Palisman Souls, I wouldn't even be able to do this much!"

Seeing her chance, Lazuliel used a scalpel spell with her tongue to slice away the slime gag in her mouth, then was able to turn her head enough to aim another spell shot from her mouth, hitting slime binding her body and allowing herself to get free. She then hopped to her feet and used a scalpel spell on her fingers to begin trying to cut the Belos slime away from Luz. However as soon as she tried to cut it, more slime would just take its place, emerging from inside Luz's body and moving endlessly, leaving Lazuliel unable to pin it down and destroy it.

"Seraphim curse this guy! I can't get him out!" she growled desperately.

The slime gathering on Luz's right shoulder began to emerge and form itself into a crude version of Belos' monstrous head, allowing him to speak.

"You can't defeat me! My tendrils are in her very mind, heart, and soul! You can struggle all you want, but I will not release her back into the hands of you corrupt Witches! If you want me gone, you'll need to destroy Luciel too!" he snapped, before literally snapping at Lazuliel like a dog, making her stagger back. The heads of two snake Palisman Souls emerged from the slime on Luz's left arm and wrapped around Belos' neck to stop him trying that again, but that wouldn't hold him for long.

"There has to be a way! M-Maybe if we use an attack that Luz can survive but Belos can't!?" Boscha suggested. She and the others were all panicking, seeing Luz visibly struggling to hold Belos back. Even now, the heads of the Palisman Souls were being very slowly sucked back into the slime, which was also creeping further up Luz's body, covering previously uncovered sections.

"There's nothing Luz can survive that Belos can't, especially with him stealing her magic and making it his own!" the Collector cried frantically, snapping his fingers desperately to try and break the barrier with his magic, though it didn't work at all.

"Then what do we do!?" King yelled, his throat feeling hoarse after roaring at the barrier several times.

Luz struggled a little harder, then feel silent and closed her eyes for a moment. Her expression became one of regret, before she smiled earnestly and looked back at her friends; "You have all done enough… now it's my turn. I'll end this, once and for all… though I'll need your help, Lazuliel." she said, looking the woman in the eye.

"Anything you need, Luz. What do I have to do?" the High Angel replied.

Luz steeled herself, knowing this wouldn't go down well; "Before I lose myself to Belos entirely… before he hurts anyone else with my power or any other stolen power… I need you to destroy him. Completely and utterly."

"But how can I do that while he's inside you! You'll just… Luz, no!" Lazuliel gasped, realising what Luz was asking. Her friends and family realised it too and just about exploded.

"No!"

"Don't even think about it!"

"We can find another way!"

"There's no need for this!"

"Killing Belos isn't worth your life!"

King pounded his little fists against the barrier; "Luz, just stop! None of us want you to sacrifice yourself for us!"

Luz, tears in her eyes, smiled at King; "This isn't like earlier, King. I accepted Reformation because I felt I deserved it and wanted to punish myself for all my failures… but that's not what I'm doing now. I don't want to die… I want to live and be with all of you! But Belos' claws are dug in too deep. The only way we'll ever part is if he removes himself from me, and there's only two ways that'll happen; he flees or we die together!"

"S-So you're gambling your life on Belos ditching you at the last moment!? That's too dangerous! What if he chooses to die rather than give you up!? The man is insane! Luz, please think about this!" Camila pleaded.

"I have, Mami. This is the only way; if Belos chooses to die along with me, then I'll consider it a price well paid! At least I know I'll die saving the people I love most, and the entire Demon Realm from the tyrant that I unwittingly aided! This isn't penance for my sins… it's me taking back control of my life, even if the only thing left to control is how it ends!" Luz declared.

Amity shook her head as tears dripped down her face; "Luz, please. I love you! I can't stand to lose you to Belos! Let us find another way, I'll do anything! Just don't die…!"

Luz's heart wavered, and in that moment Belos tried to force back control, making Luz grimace and struggle even harder to restrain him. He managed to force her to pull the claws of her left hand out of her right wrist, causing fresh golden blood to spill to the floor. Luz winced in pain while her friends and loved ones cried out.

"A-Amity… I love you too. Since the day I first met you, I knew you were special. If I die, it'll be saving everyone from the monster that caused all of this pain and heartache!" Luz choked out, running out of time. "It's almost time… I've got no choice now! I've finally decided what I want! I want to save you all and help everyone! Not to feel useful or worthy, and not because I'm an Angel and it's what I'm "supposed" to do… but because it is what I want! Because it makes me happy to help others! I spent my life wanting to be good at something, and appreciated by people who cared about that something… well now I've achieved that and I'll give anything to protect it! I'll either live as myself in the way that I please, or I'll die as myself, and save others while doing it!" Luz declared, her powerful will flaring up enough to force Belos back again.

Everyone was stunned by her declaration; Luz didn't look or sound like she had at the trial! That was not the face or voice of a girl who'd given up and was throwing her life away! That was the determination of a young Arch-Angel who had decided that she would save what she loved no matter what, even if it meant dragging Belos kicking and screaming into the afterlife with her. The will to live was strong within her, but the acceptance of death was just as strong; Luz had decided on her path, and if she couldn't walk it on her terms, then no other path would be allowed.

She looked to Lazuliel and said; "You promised me yesterday that you would do anything and everything in your power to take care of me. I'm asking you to do that now. Destroy Belos… and me along with him. I will save my friends one last time, and entrust the rest to them!"

Lazuliel winced and refused to look at Camila or the others, who were still shouting and begging for her not to do it. Reluctantly, she raised her hand and channelled every bit of magic she had into a single spell circle, which prepared to fire the most powerful light beam the High Angel had ever attempted.

"As you wish, Luz. A promise is a promise…" she said softly, tears leaking from her eyes.

Luz smiled, while Belos began shaking violently; "Do not do this, Luciel! Are you really willing to die for the sake of sinners and monsters! For evil creatures who used you!?"

"No. I'm willing to die for my beloved, my family, and my friends! I am willing to die if it means saving the world from a true evil like you!" Luz declared, before yelling proudly; "I am Luz Noceda-Clawthorne! And you were right about one thing Belos; this started with you and I, and it'll end with you and I! Tia Lazuli, finish this!"

To a chorus of screams of refusal from Luz's loved ones and Belos' desperate last ditch efforts to dissuade Luz from this path, Lazuliel fired her spell and sent a colossal light beam at Luz, easily large enough to vaporise her. Time seemed to slow down as the beam got closer and closer to Luz, who forced herself to stay perfectly still no matter how much Belos tried to make her move. But then, at the very last moment, Belos realised that Luz was not bluffing and did what all cowards do; he ran.

Forcing himself out of Luz's body and draining every speck of magical energy he could in the process, Belos leapt out of the blast radius with ease, using Luz's magic to force his slime body to retake his old Emperor appearance. As he'd fled her body, he'd left her with one final mental message.

"You are truly lost now, Luciel. May God have mercy on your wretched soul! I will send your friends to hell with you!"

Luz's knees buckled as all her strength left her, and she faced her death coming at her in a flash of intense white light. As acceptance and a flurry of mixed emotions filled her, Luz felt a very familiar burning in her chest. It was more intense than any such feeling she'd ever had, and it spread to her eyes whilst filling her with warmth and power. She had accepted death…

"LUZ!" cried the collective voices of her friends and family.

… but she wasn't going to die for nothing! Belos was gone from her body, so now her path was once again her own to walk!

Scrounging together all the magic left within the Souls of the Palismen (who'd been subtly eating her magic while restraining Belos), Luz combined it with the magic King had left, pooling it in her chest. The burning sensation filled her right on that spot on her chest, where the light glyph had once been, and with every scrap of power and will left inside her, Luz was barely able to activate the lightning glyph and flash out of the way of Lazuliel's spell.

Everyone watching, including Belos, gaped in surprise as they saw Lazuliel's spell fade and found Luz standing alive and well (if exhausted) out of the beam's blast radius. The girl was shaking due to the stress on her body, and every patch of bare skin from her face to the patches exposed by her Holy Raiment was now marred by pale, ragged scars caused by Belos' possession, but she was still standing and wore a determined and defiant expression.

"LUZ!" her friends cheered with delight, most of them in tears of relief.

"Thank the Titan you're alive! You scared us all half to death!" Amity yelled, half sobbing and half laughing from all the mixed emotions.

Luz smiled weakly; "I'm sorry… I knew from the start that Belos was probably too much of a coward to let himself die, so I gambled everything on that one moment! Either he'd abandon my body and I'd be able to escape, or he'd choose to stay within me and we'd both die. Whichever choice he made, I would win! Though dying to put Belos down once and for all would be kind of a hollow victory!"

Belos' eye twitched; "It was all a lie!? You did that to trick me!?"

Luz shook her head; "Not a word I said was a lie! I was willing to meet my death if it meant saving the world from you! I love the Demon Realm and all its people; it is my home… which is why I've come to a decision!"

She straightened up a little and glared fiercely at the foul parasite; "I will become a guardian of the Demon Realm! I will protect it and its people from any that want to harm them! For I am the Good Angel Luz, Warrior of Peace!"

A smile stretched across her face; "I will live as I please, with the people I love, in the place that I love! And you Belos… when you meet your end, not even your own God will care to remember your name!"

The girl felt the burning sensation in her chest and eyes grow, and she felt something stirring within her ponytail. Something major was coming; Luz could feel it!

But before these feelings could come to fruition, Belos roared at Luz, practically frothing at the mouth.

"Over and over, you insist on abandoning the light of God and the righteousness of your own kind, for the sake of Demons and Witches and Sinners! And now you declare yourself a protector of all that is profane and evil!? Well no more! I have taken your magic to fuel myself, and I will use it as you should have!" the man bellowed, his rage making it hard to maintain his human form even with all the magic he'd stolen from Luz. He'd been able to steal only raw magical power, not Luz's glyphs or wings though, so he was limited in what he could do, but that still left him with a huge reserve of power, while Luz and Lazuliel were both basically out.

Belos rushed at Luz, driven into a frenzy by Luz's words. The girl was too tired and weak to move, but Lazuliel managed to gather up the dregs of her magic and sent a blast of magic directly at Belos, managing to blast a hole in his side. The man's slime-based body was still able to move however, and while he stopped his advance, he pointed his right hand at Lazuliel and opened fire with a blast of his own. It struck her hard now that she was too tired to dodge, sending her smashing into the barrier then crumpling weakly to the floor. Belos then shifted his left hand into a lance made of slime and shot it forward towards Luz's heart with incredible speed, using the same tactic that he'd used to mortally wound her father over 15 years ago.

"IF YOU REFUSE TO LIVE AS AN ANGEL OF HEAVEN, THEN YOU CAN DIE AS A DEVIL OF HELL!"

Luz weakly crossed her arms in front of her heart in an attempt to block the incoming lance, while her friends called out to her in desperation. But before the lance could hit her, Luz felt something blast out from behind her, as if a strong gust of wind had just tussled her ponytail. Then she and everyone else watched in amazement as a swirling mass of black and purple magic shot in front of Luz like a comet and blocked Belos' lance. There was a loud crack of a blade striking something wooden, and Luz watched as thin pieces of carved Palistrom Wood fell from the mass of magic. She recognised them immediately as the shards of her Palisman Egg… or at least, the shards of it's now empty shell.

"Luz's Palisman… it's hatching!" Hunter gasped in amazement.

"She found her own path and decided on what she wanted for herself. She was finally able to complete the bond!" Amity cried with joy.

Vee and King both cheered with delight and hugged one another, while the rest of the Hexsquad shouted and gave their own encouragements, all while Luz stared dumbfounded at the mass of magic swirling in front of her. Belos also looked completely stunned, though his expression became one of pain as the purple and black magic began to decay his slime tendril, forcing him to pull back his tendril with a yelp.

"My Palisman… You're finally here…!" Luz gasped.

As if reacting to her words, the mass of magic created a staff for it to sit upon, serving as an invitation for Luz to take it. With shaking hands, Luz grasped the staff and the swirling magic immediately solidified into a purple sphere with a black aura, which then became a golden sphere with a white aura, and back and forth until the two colours were swirling around inside the orb like a yin-yang emblem. Luz smiled and the sensation in her eyes and heart grew even stronger as burning magic flowed through her, originating in both her heart and her staff. The sensation swirled within her, and Luz felt the entire world around her fade away.

Luz, still holding her staff, now found herself once again in a white void with an endless ocean beneath her, just like when she'd bonded with the wind and earth glyphs. Only this time, the ocean was totally still, without so much as a ripple or wave. Slowly, the giant forms of Orion and Cassiopeia rose out form the water just as they'd done during Luz's other visions, and Luz smiled upon finally seeing them again after four long months… before her smile became an open mouth expression of shock as a third Titan emerged from the ocean.

This Titan was significantly smaller, being smaller than even Luz, and consisted of four swirling elements just like Cassiopeia had been during Luz's first vision with her. This little Titan was composed of golden light, dark purple shadows, yellow lightning, and a pure white magic that Luz recognised as the same magic King had used on her in her nightmare. Combining that detail with the familiar size and silhouette of the little Titan was all Luz needed to identify who they were.

"King!?"

The little Titan's silhouette rushed at her and hugged her around the neck, flapping his arms and wings, and wagging his tail with pure happiness. He felt strange to the touch, feeling more tingly and ethereal, like Luz was putting her hands on an Oracle Spirit, and it seemed he couldn't speak or make sounds of any kind.

"King has not yet built a strong enough connection through the glyphs to be able to fully manifest in you. However, you have partially bonded with his new unique glyph, and thus have a permanent, albeit weak connection to him." Orion softly explained, raising a paw from the ocean for Luz to stand on. He then moved her so she was right in front of his face, and his every breath tickled her. Cassiopeia moved to her Mate's shoulder and leaned close too, a large smile on her Titan face.

"King's unique glyph!? It's that strange white magic, isn't it? Do you know what it does or what it represents?" Luz asked.

"We don't. It has yet to full form since King is still too young. Our glyphs don't usually start manifesting until we are over 10 years old, and the fact this glyph is an entirely new one, unbound to the elements, means it may take longer than normal for it to fully manifest. It speaks to your bond with King that you were able to bond with an incomplete glyph, and that he was able to give it to you without even having mastered it himself." Cassiopeia smiled.

Luz, shifting King's manifestation onto her shoulder, put a hand over her sternum, where she sensed King's glyph would now be etched into her skin in the real world. The thought made her smile, before she suddenly felt guilt and looked up at Orion.

"I-I lost the light glyph. I don't know how or why it happened; at first I thought it was because you were mad at me, Tio Orion. But now I think it was something else… but either way, I lost your first gift to me, and the first glyph I ever bonded with. I'm sorry…" Luz bowed her head.

Orion chuckled; "You have no need to apologise, God-Daughter. The light glyph vanished from you because you lost the ability to connect to what it represented. While you retained an understanding of purity and purification, you lost the ability to feel positivity as you were consumed by negativity, and you lost the ability to understand the depths of the Aspect of Caring."

Luz blinked; "I lost the ability to care?"

"Not quite; you lost the true understanding of the aspect. And it is because you stopped caring about yourself; one can never truly understand that aspect while not caring about one's self, and in your depression, you lost that ability. When things with the Collector went south, you fell into new depths of self-hatred and lost what little care you still had for your own life; that and the negativity overpowering you led to you losing the power of my light glyph." Orion told her.

Luz nodded solemnly; "I understand. Does that mean I can re-bond with the light glyph?"

"You already have, dear one." Orion smiled; "You finally accepted that you mattered too, and have begun to feel positivity again. The light glyph will now reside within your right eye; for you have seen the light. And that is not all; I suspect you felt power swelling in both eyes."

"I did!" Luz gasped, a big smile on her face now that she knew she had the light glyph back. She put a hand over her left eye; "Does this mean I also bonded with the darkness glyph!?" she asked excitedly.

Cassiopeia nodded; "Indeed you did. Your journey through depression and negativity, your corruption at the hands of Belos, and your acceptance and facing of your own death have allowed the last of my glyphs to fully bond with you! In truth, I somewhat feared you would never be able to bond with it, as Darkness is the hardest element to bond with."

"Darkness represents Corruption, Negativity, and Death, right? I can see why that would be tough to bond with…" Luz frowned.

"To bond with Darkness is to face that which is abhorred by most living things, yet is intrinsically linked to all of it. You had to face Corruption, Negativity, and even Death itself without being totally consumed by them, and then step back with understanding and not rejection. You suffered greatly for this power, but now you have made it your own. Your eyes will see into the darkness as easily as they do the light; both powers are yours now." Cassiopeia finished with a bright smile.

Luz felt her heart swell and looked down at her hands while the King Manifestation wiggled excitedly on her shoulder. With the light glyph returned and the darkness glyph bonded with her, Luz was now in possession of all eight glyphs of Orion and Cassiopeia, and could now control all eight elements!

"After all this time… it's been almost a year since this first started, and now I have them all. Eight glyphs… or eight and a half, if you count King's incomplete one." Luz smiled, feeling tears of joy building up in her eyes; "I have to thank both of you so much for all you've done for me!"

The two Titans shook their heads; "No, Luz. You earned this; we entrusted you with the glyphs because of your kind heart and willingness to protect our son, and you have risen to the challenge every time. Even in the depths of your despair, you didn't give up on helping King and your friends… even if we're not too happy about you trying to sacrifice yourself!" Orion smiled, before giving Luz a look and waggling a claw at her.

Luz looked sheepish, but still smiled up at him. Cassiopeia then turned the girl's attention back to her staff; "But glyphs are not all you've bonded with; you've made a connection to your Palisman too! Time moves much more slowly outside while you are in this space, so you should take the moment to fully meet them! I suspect things will change a great deal once you arrive back in the waking world."

That was a fair point; Luz's hand had been wrapped around the staff of her Palisman this whole time, never letting go. It felt like a part of her body, far more than the Bat Queen's staff had back when she'd wielded her. The orb atop the staff was still swirling in purple and golden hues, neither side ever exceeding the size of the other, showing the perfect balance between light and darkness.

"My partner… I wonder what you really are? Whatever you are though, I love you, and so long as the form you chose is something you're happy with, I know I'll love it too!" Luz smiled, releasing the staff (which disappeared) and holding the orb itself.

"I saw lots of Palismen…" the Palisman's cute voice sounded in Luz's mind; "I bonded with all those other Palisman Souls as we pulled them out of the amalgamation together…"

Luz smiled, remembering how she'd used her Palisman Egg as a focus to help draw out and separate the souls in the amalgamate.

"… and they were all so interesting! I wanted to be like all of them! Dragons that roar and birds that soar! Otters and fish that swim in the sea, bats and moths that flap in the night, monkeys that swing, tigers that prowl… I saw so much! I want to be so much! Am I allowed to be everything I want to be…?" the little Palisman asked.

Luz smiled; "I am your other half, Cariño. I will walk down the same path as you, wherever it leads. That's what you told me, and I feel the same for you! If you want to be everything, then be everything!"

"My Luz… then I am…!"

The orb rose from Luz's hand and became a cloud of purple and gold, with white stars speckled inside it like a miniature galaxy. The cloud then began to shape into various animals as it moved around Luz. It became a tiny and adorable eastern style dragon, then a bird like Flapjack, then an adorable otter, and then a Koi fish that swam in the air, then a cute flapping bat, then a giant moth, before landing on Luz's shoulder as a sweet baby spider monkey, then jumping onto her other shoulder and becoming a tiger cub, before finally flying back into Luz's hands and settling on her final form; that of a cute little snake.

The Palisman's final form was a small snake with some cat-like features, including fur on her back, and cat ears atop her head, and a face that was part kitten and part snake. She had adorable little fangs poking out of her mouth and a clear crystal ball on the end of her tail, which glowed in the different colours of the elements to represent the Palisman's (and possibly Luz's) mood. Her eyes were a striking shade of purple, and her body was various shades of purple too; her soft underbelly was a pale pink/lilac colour, fading into purple scales, and then the dark purple fur, like a living gradient of light into dark. She also had a paler pink patch on her face, which covered the top of her snout and then extended into a heart shape between her eyes.

Luz took one look at the little Palisman and promptly burst into overjoyed tears as she squealed loudly; "You're perfect! Absolutely perfect! Oh gosh, I love you so much!" she gushed.

"How remarkable! It seems the connections she forged with the Palisman Souls, as well as Luz's own unique personality, has resulted in this little one becoming a Snake-shifter!" Orion declared.

Cassiopeia grinned; "There is an old legend about them. It is said that they are the ancestors of the Basilisks, and were born from the Divine Realm, not the Demon Realm… though considering we now know both realms were once one, that isn't a surprise. It is said that one Snake-shifter even became the Legendary Supreme Dragon known as the Omni-Coatl; a Quetzalcoatl Dragon that could use all the elements!"

Luz gasped; "I knew you were something special, Cariño! You're the best Palisman in the whole wide world!" Luz's smile then became a little nervous; "I was gonna call you Stringbean, but with a legend like that, maybe I should pick something grander…"

Her Palisman shook her little head; "No! Stringbean! I like that name! It's the name my Luz gave me! I don't want anything else!"

Luz beamed and sniffled, hugging the newly dubbed Stringbean to her cheek; "Then Stringbean you'll be! You can be everything you want, and I'll become the protector of the world I call home and all my friends! It is gonna be awesome!"

Orion and Cassiopeia smiled broadly, seeing Luz fully get her spirit back. The girl would undoubtedly still need therapy when all this was over, but she had moved past the worst of her depression and was now ready to try and move on with her life! She'd decided on a future for herself, had lost a great deal of guilt and self-loathing, and started on the path of some proper self-care!

The ocean beneath them began to rise as Luz's vision reached it's end, and she began to return to consciousness. Orion and Cassiopeia had just enough time for one more farewell.

"You will be fine from now on; don't forget what you've learned today, and I know you will achieve great things!" Orion praised.

"We will watch over you and King for as long as we can! Live long and thrive, God-Daughter!" Cassiopeia said, right before she disappeared beneath the waves.

"Thank you, Tio Orion, Tia Cassiopeia. I promise I'll use your gifts well! Now come on Stringbean, it's time to do what we do best; saving the people we love!" Luz declared.

Stringbean gave an excited hiss in response, wagging her tail orb like a happy puppy. The King Manifestation also threw his arms up in the air with joy, before all three sank beneath the waves. Luz's vision then became pure white and she closed her eyes.

They flew open once more, and Luz found herself back in the Divine Crossroads Atrium, holding the now fully manifested Stringbean in her staff form (she still looked adorable). Belos and her friends were all staring at her in shock and amazement, as her new glyph markings were fully visible. The golden light glyph shone within her right eye (though Luz couldn't see it) while the purple darkness glyph shone in her left eye. Then there was King's incomplete glyph, which had been engraved onto her sternum where the light glyph had once been, revealing itself as a new pure white ring without the interior symbol that a complete glyph had.

"Luz's Palisman is some kind of snake? It looks so cute!" Lyra gushed, "And is that the darkness glyph!?"

"She got the light glyph back too! It moved!" Amity cheered; "That means she has all eight now!"

"Plus that new one of King's on her chest!" Willow added.

"I was able to give Luz my incomplete glyph too!" King said, "And Mama and Dad told us all about it inside Luz's head; she got the darkness glyph AND rebonded with the light glyph!" he declared, remembering everything that his manifestation had seen in Luz's mind; "And that Palisman is a Snake-shifter!"

"Mija! Mija, are you alright!?" Camila yelled, having just seen Belos try to murder her.

Luz, feeling her magic rapidly rising after being replenished by her bonding, twirled her new staff with a smile and rose up into the air a little; "Everyone, I want to say I'm sorry for how I've acted recently. I allowed myself to wallow in misery and guilt, which didn't help anyone and didn't honour the memory of my fathers. I also want to thank you all; I've only been able to come this far and decide on my own fate because I've had your support! You told me about how much I did for you, but you all did just as much for me! Each and every one of you; Mami, Vee, King, Amity, Willow, Gus, Matt, Skara, Boscha, Hunter, and Lyra… you made me so happy that my heart can't contain it! I know that the Demon Realm holds a special place in all of your hearts; it's the world you found love, the world you were born in, and the world most of you still call home… it is the world I call home, the world of my Dad, and over half of my family! So I will protect it!"

She pointed Stringbean at Belos, who was totally stunned to see Luz resurgent and with her magic restored; "I will not allow you to destroy it Belos! So long as I breathe, you will never take another person's life! This I swear!"

She flew into the air as she felt her magic continue to rise past her previous limits. Her wings began to tingle and burst with power, while each of her glyphs glowed brighter and brighter. Lines of magic spread from all eight complete glyphs towards Luz's wing joints, causing her wings to begin glowing in all the colours of the rainbow. This rainbow coloured light expanded to cover her entire body and shone so brightly that everyone had to avert or cover their eyes, as even closing their eyelids wasn't enough to block out the blinding light. As well as the light, everyone could feel the intense rush of power building up within Luz, growing stronger and stronger by the second as Luz began to change shape within the light. Unbeknownst to the Hexsquad, eight orbs of coloured light emerged from Luz, one from each glyph, and shot towards them, phasing through the barrier like it wasn't even there. The golden light orb hit Amity, the green plant orb hit Willow, the blue ice orb hit Gus, the red fire orb hit Boscha, the silver wind orb hit Skara, the bronze earth orb hit Matt, the yellow lightning orb hit Hunter, and the purple darkness orb hit Lyra. All of them had the glyphs momentarily glowing on their chests, before fading away. None of them felt anything more than a rush of power, which they mistook as just a part of Luz's aura.

It took a moment before the light died down and allowed everyone to see what had happened to Luz, who'd undergone a fairly huge change. Firstly, the possession scars caused by Belos were now completely gone; healed by the transformation Luz had gone through. Secondly, Luz now looked much healthier, regaining her original skin tone after it had paled slightly in recent months, as well as regaining the weight she'd lost during her depression, giving her back her healthy and lean physique. Then there were her wings, which had regained their pure white colour, and now seemed to radiate holy power more intensely than ever. Her golden eyes seemed to shine more brightly as well, and even her Holy Raiment had changed shape.

The black earrings that Luz always wore had become golden diamond shaped ones, and the hairband she'd used to tie back her ponytail was now a golden ring. The white tank top of her outfit had now connected with the half skirt and sash around her waist, and had extended into a full sleeveless robe that trailed down to her ankles and remained open at the front, while the white shorts she'd worn beneath it had become skin tight. The sash hanging down between her legs, which had previously been ethereal at the bottom, now ended in a defined point and was edged in gold, while Luz's eight glyphs were now shining from it. A new emblem had also appeared on her chest, resembling an owl with its wings spread but in the style of a simple Angelic Crest, consisting only of a golden circle for its head and three golden triangles to represent its wings and body. A band of gold now wrapped her waist as well, and she gained similar golden bands on her biceps that were connected to long white sleeves that went down to her wrists. The bangles on her wrists had tightened and now expanded to include white and gold pieces of ceramic armour that covered the back of Luz's hands. Similar armour had formed pauldrons on her shoulders, and the bangles on her ankles had also tightened and expanded to include golden sandals to cover Luz's previously bare feet, and white and gold shin and knee guards to protect her lower legs.

The change was shocking and the new outfit beautiful… but it was no longer a Holy Raiment. It was now a Divine Regalia, worn only by the highest rank of Angels outside of the Ten Sephiroth. And naturally, to go along with the Divine Regalia, Luz's wings had grown larger and more numerous, as eight beautiful and shining wings now emerged from her back, and a halo of light now sat behind her head. This halo resembled a crescent moon on it's side, with a small golden circle in inside it, somewhat resembling a sun and moon.

Camila was in tears of pride, while Vee, King, and the Hexsquad all looked on with awestruck looks. Even Hanu, chained to a stake, and Treble (who'd regained consciousness due to the comforting light given off by Luz) could only gape in amazement, while Lazuliel actually dropped down to one knee and bowed her head in reverence at what she was seeing.

"Luz, my baby…!" Camila cried; "You've ascended once more! With your Palisman and all eight elemental glyphs, you have become a Seraphim!"

Luz, feeling the raw power flowing inside her, looked down at herself and her new regalia. The glyphs (excluding King's incomplete white glyph) had all vanished from her skin and eyes, but the instant she thought about their power, they returned; showing that while they weren't bound to her skin now, they were still bound to her very being.

"I feel amazing! Like I can do anything! So this is the power of a Seraphim…!" Luz whispered, letting go of her staff so Stringbean could fly around freely, slithering through the air.

"My baby! I'm so proud of you! So, so proud! I can't even find the words! Know that I support you and your dream; you'll be the best protector that the Demon Realm has ever seen! I know it!" Camila cried, cheering on her daughter's dream.

"Look at her, King! Look at our big sister! She looks so strong and cool! You helped make that happen!" Vee gushed, hugging King to her side; "And a Snake-shifter Palisman! I've gotta meet her! We're both like Snake-shifters!"

King chuckled; "I didn't do it; Luz did this all on her own! She's the Queen of Big Sisters! And even if her body is different, she's a real Titan on the inside! Even Mama and Dad think so; I know it!"

"Luz has officially bloomed! I'm with you Luz, and your dream! We'll protect the people we love together!" Willow cheered.

"Now that's what I call a show! I knew you'd be even more amazing once you got your confidence back!" Gus grinned, casting an illusion of an audience all clapping and throwing illusory roses at Luz's feet.

"Man am I glad I pulled my head out of my butt and made amends with you! Having a Seraphim for an enemy would suck!" Matt joked.

"Oh my gosh, I'm so happy for you Luz! Ooh, I wonder if being a Seraphim will make your voice even prettier! When we get back home, we'll need to hold a whole concert to introduce the new you! The CATTs and Isles would flip out!" Skara clapped happily.

Boscha crossed her arms with a smirk; "So you've become a big shot Angel now, huh? Good; if I'm gonna call you the leader of this motley crew, you better be worthy of it! You slip for even a second, and I'll take over the Hexsquad, so stay sharp, Luz the Seraphim!"

"Luz is a Seraphim…!" Hunter whispered in shock; "She has a staff…! I am SO glad that this didn't happen before Lyra and I realised we were on the wrong side! Congratulations, Luz! And thank you for saving Flapjack!"

"I can feel the power radiating from Luz! It might be stronger than even Lord Barachiel or Lord Camael! Is that because of the Titan Magic? I wonder if I'll become a Seraphim too one day…" Lyra said, completely blown away.

The Collector just looked stunned, unsure of what (if anything) he should say. Hanu and Treble were in a similar boat, especially since they weren't as knowledgeable of everything going on, but they knew they'd just watched history unfold in front of them.

"From a Human-Cherub hybrid to a full Seraphim in the space of a year, before even becoming a legal adult… this is unprecedented! You smashed the record for youngest ever Seraphim by literally centuries!" Lazuliel gushed, before realising something and getting even more excited; "Plus Seraphim cannot be sentenced to Reformation! The Council of Seraphim won't be able to do anything about it!"

The gushing, cheering, and support of her friends, and even the amazed looks from the silent ones, made Luz blush and beam at them. But it was the reaction of Amity that made Luz smile the most. Amity was in complete silence with her eyes wide, dilated, and sparkling, and her mouth hanging agape as she took in every detail of Luz's new form, especially her smiling face. Then Amity caught herself, put her hands together in prayer and closed her eyes;

"Titans, Seraphim, Sephiroth, God, Kami-sama, and anybody else that might be listening; thank you so much for blessing me with the most beautiful Seraphim girlfriend in the universe!" she prayed, totally earnestly.

Luz blinked, then burst into giggles, which made Amity realise what she'd just done without thinking, resulting in her blushing brightly and getting some playful slaps on the back from Willow and Boscha.

The merriment was short-lived however, as Belos finally let his presence be known again by screaming.

"NO! This can't be happening again! Why did you ascend!? How did you become more powerful as an Angel despite defying God's will!? Why won't he just smite you!? Is this all a test!? Does he insist I be the one to purge your evil!? Or is this all foul trickery! You're somehow stealing power from other Angels, aren't you!? The Collector must have done it when he turned the other Seraphim into puppets!" he ranted, actually frothing at the mouth as his humanoid body began to melt and his more monstrous form took over.

Luz scoffed as she turned Stringbean back into a staff; "Just because you're a parasite that steals magic from others doesn't mean I am! And if your God really does exist…" she smirked mockingly; "… I think he likes me more than you!"

That was a step too far for Belos, who snapped completely. He fully transformed into his monstrous form and gathered together all of the magic he stole from Luz, before firing it from his mouth as a giant beam. Luz considered dodging, but Hanu and Treble, as well as Clover and Melody were still chained and caged behind her. Instead, Luz decided to summon up her new darkness magic, creating a black shadow with a purple edge to emerge from the ground and swallow Belos' attack. Belos was totally stunned to see his attack so effortlessly dealt with, while Lyra chuckled as she realised what this meant, being an expert of Darkness Magic. Darkness Magic could be used to swallow up and erase any spells cast at the user, but it only worked if the magic used was a good deal stronger than the magic the enemy was using; meaning that Belos using all his stolen magic was still weaker than the casual amount Luz had just used.

This was the difference between an Arch-Angel and a Seraphim; it was like comparing a mangy house cat to a tiger in its prime.

"Nice try, Belos. But it's my turn now!" Luz declared. She twirled her staff to create a large spell circle, in which she overlapped the earth, light, and lightning glyphs to create a bronze coloured bolt of lightning that arced towards Belos and began to slowly petrify him.

"W-What!? No!" Belos screamed as he began to turn to stone.

"You condemned countless others to suffer in stone! I'll condemn you to the same fate, until the people of the Boiling Isles can decide your ultimate fate!" Luz declared, feeling this was justice.

Belos thrashed and writhed as his body slowly turned to stone. He didn't have long to act, and decided that he was going to have no choice but to sacrifice his current body and stolen power. With his one still free hand, he brought down his barrier so he could take back the magic he'd used to maintain it, then fired a beam of magic at Luz's head. The girl tilted her head to the side to avoid it, but unknown to her or the others, Belos had used that beam to hide a tiny bullet-sized portion of his slime, which hit the wall on the far side of the atrium. His consciousness remained within this bit of slime as his main body screamed and was fully petrified. Belos had been utterly defeated, but he was not dead yet! He'd come back once; he could do it again!

As the tiny shard of Belos wormed its way out of the hole his attack had made in the wall and began crawling for its life into the shadows, Luz ended her spell and glanced at the ugliest statue she'd ever seen. Monster Belos did NOT make for a good decoration and she felt the sudden urge to shatter him. It wasn't even like he'd feel it; the whole reason she'd added lightning to her petrifying beam was because she wasn't as cruel as Belos and didn't want him to remain conscious within the stone. There was also something else about it that made her feel uneasy, but she couldn't put her finger on it.

Those thoughts vanished from her mind as she heard a cry of "LUZ!" and turned just in time to catch Amity, who had leapt at her. The two girls giggled as Luz twirled Amity around in the air, then placed her back on her feet and kissed her deeply, the two sharing a loving embrace at the same time. While they kissed, the others approached and began helping secure Belos and help their friends. Willow and Skara busted open the restraints holding their Palismen, while Hunter grabbed Flapjack and nuzzled him, so happy he was alive and safe. Gus and Camila went to check on Lazuliel (who was mostly fine), while Vee, Matt, and Boscha went to break the chains binding Hanu and Treble, then poured some healing and pain relief potions down their throats to repair some of what Belos had done to them. Through all of this, King was sat on the Collector's shoulders, covering the Star Child's eyes so he wouldn't see Luz and Amity making out, while the Collector giggled and reached up to return the favour.

By the time Luz and Amity finally parted, both of them blushing and panting, the others were all crowded around them with big grins.

"Well, I think I can now claim to be the first Witch in history to make out with a Seraphim!" Amity joked with a sultry wink.

Luz giggled with a blush, then hugged Amity again, before embracing her Mami. "I'm so proud of you, Mija. And I know your Dad and Papi are too." Camila said with a tearful smile.

"Thank you, Mami. And I'm sorry for scaring you and everyone else by asking Lazuliel to take me out along with Belos. I was 90% sure he'd flee and I'd be able to escape with help from the Palisman Souls, but there was still that small chance… and I'm sorry for what I did at the trial. I was trying to help, even knowing it would hurt you all. Please forgive me." Luz said, bowing her head contritely to her friends and family.

They all smiled, and Camila spoke for all of them; "We forgive you. We know that it was your depression and self-loathing that was speaking for you there. We're all just happy this ended without more heartbreak."

King nodded; "That's right! Besides, since Vee and I worked together to free the Collector, we knew you'd be saved in the end! Though we still need to clean up that mess… plus I want to hear how you wrestled control back from Belos!"

"I second that; you saved Flapjack with that after all! I was terrified I was about to lose him!" Hunter said, still cuddling the Palisman to his cheek.

"I'll tell you all about it. I want to hear about what happened while I was possessed too, since I didn't see or hear anything in the real world while Belos was possessing me. Though speaking of Palismen, let me introduce my own!" Luz grinned, holding out her hand. Stringbean coiled around her wrist and lay her head on the back of Luz's fingers, an adorable serpent smile on her little face as she flicked her tongue. "Everyone, this is Stringbean! Isn't she perfect?" Luz beamed.

Stringbean wiggled adorably, and everyone leaned forward to get a closer look. Her Mami, Amity, Vee, Willow, Skara, Hanu, Lazuliel, and the Collector all cooed at the cute little snake, while Gus, Matt, Hunter, King, Boscha, and Treble cheered with amazement when Stringbean used her shapeshifting powers to transform into a Cardinal like Flapjack. She kept her own colour scheme no matter what form she took, and the orb on her tail would remain so long as the form she took had a tail, but otherwise she could freely take on any animal form she wanted. Once the Witches, Demons, and Angels had been introduced and had a chance to pet her, Stringbean then flew down to meet the other Palismen, transforming into a replica of each of them and greeting them with their own tweets, squeaks, and chirps. The last one she introduced herself to was Ghost, and she transformed into a kitten and meowed at her. Ghost responded by picking Stringbean up by the scruff of her neck and pulling her close so she could begin grooming the newborn Palisman.

"Ha! Ghost has decided that Stringbean is her baby sister!" Amity giggled.

The others laughed too, especially when Clover and Flapjack began flying around Ghost, seemingly having a light hearted argument over who got to be the one to play with and look after their newborn friend. Ghost was winning, since their partners were lovers, and the cat was supremely smug about it. It seemed that Ghost, Clover, and Flapjack were the "adults" of the Palismen (being either the oldest or most mature), Stringbean, Waffles, and Pebbles were the "babies" (being the youngest by far), and the remaining trio of Melody, Maya, and Emmiline were content to watch from the sidelines and enjoy the show. The Hexsquad all laughed at the display, while all the others looked on with a bit of jealousy, wishing they could have Palismen too.

Eventually, Stringbean flew back to Luz and wrapped around her neck like a scarf, while Luz turned her attention to the injuries that Lazuliel, Treble, and Hanu had taken. Boscha's potions had healed a lot of the damage, but there was still some marks and bruises, and the ladies' clothes were damaged too (though thankfully not in an obscene manner), so Luz decided to stretch her new Seraphic powers. She effortlessly summoned a large Crystal Healing Lotus, which restored all three of them to perfect health in an instant, then used a simple repair spell rooted in Construction Magic to mend their clothes back to pristine condition.

"Ah, that feels much better. Thanks, Luz!" Treble smiled.

"You're welcome! You all fought hard against Belos, you deserve some care. Speaking of which…" Luz turned to the Collector, who was just soaking up the feeling of being around friends. The boy looked a little nervous as Luz approached him, but that feeling vanished as she knelt down; "Is it okay if I cast my magic on you? I should be able to fix your outfit, and remove the Titan Magic in your system."

The Collector gasped, then nodded quickly with a big smile; "Yes please!"

Luz placed a hand on the Collector's chest and felt the residue of her magic within him, which she promptly pulled out and absorbed using a combination of her new darkness glyph and a small bit of King's mystery glyph power. Once the magic was gone, the Collector sighed with relief as he suddenly felt his full strength return, then floated up into the air as Luz mended his clothes with a quick spell.

"That feels so much better! Thanks Luz! You're my best-est friend, after King!" the Collector beamed, hugging the girl around the waist.

Luz giggled; "Aw, I think you're going to be one of my best friends too! I can't wait to hear how you and the others made up and became friends! I owe you big time as well, since it was the link left by your magic that let me and the Palisman Souls bust out of my subconscious."

The Palisman Souls had returned to their slumber within Luz now that they were no longer needed, awaiting the day they could finally bring Belos to his ultimate judgement.

The Collector looked a bit bashful; "Yeah… about that. I'm really sorry for what I did to you, Luz. I was tricked by Belos, but it was still mean… will you forgive me?"

"Of course." Luz ruffled his hair, "But in return, I'd like to call you by your real name. Is that alright?"

That caught everyone's attention, especially as the Collector frowned; "I don't remember it… no one but Mama ever used it, and she's been gone a long time. My siblings just called me "Child" "Little One" or "Brat", at least until I became the Collector."

That was a sad thought; to forget your own name because no one uses it any more… well Luz, King, and their friends would change that!

"You're in luck then, Collector. Because I saw one of your memories as I broke free of the nightmare world, and I think it was the memory of your own birth! One you wouldn't be able to consciously remember." Luz revealed.

Everyone gasped, and the Collector looked at her with big shining eyes; "You know my real name?"

Luz nodded and replied; "Yes. You were named after the thing you brought your Mama, and what she hoped you'd bring to others. It is the word for "Joy" in the old Angelic language."

Camila and Lazuliel immediately smiled, knowing where this was going as Luz took the Collector's hand and shook it a little; "Hello, Samael. I hope we can be good friends."

The Collector… Samael… gave a watery smile as his eyes filled with emotions. "T-That's my name…? I'm Samael?"

Luz nodded, and Samael began to cry with a mix of joy and sorrow, feeling a new connection with both this young new Seraphim, and his long missing mother. "King freed me from prison, and you gave me back my name! You're definitely my favourite people in the whole wide world! I've decided; you two are my siblings now! The Archivists were mean and used me anyway!" he declared.

"Yeah! We can be best buddies and brothers! That's how me and Luz started out too!" King agreed immediately. "Can I call you Samael too?"

Samael nodded happily; "Yes! All of you can call me Samael, or Sam, or Sammy! I've got a real name now, so everyone's gotta use it!"

"Well, it's nice to meet you, Samael! It seems I've got myself a new nephew!" Camila smiled.

The others similarly greeted Samael, congratulating him on the return of his name. After taking that moment and resting a little more, Luz said; "Well, now that Belos is taken care of and we've got Samael fully on our side, we just need to clean up the last of the messes from this incident and return the puppet Angels to their true forms."

"And deal with that traitor Raguel, who set this all up and messed with my memories!" Hanu added.

This was news to Luz, who'd been possessed by Belos when that had been discussed, but she knew she'd hear all about it during their return trip to the Platinum Spire.

"Once that's done, we can hopefully bargain to get us back home to the Demon Realm, where we can finally save everyone! Not a bad way to spend a birthday!" Luz joked.

That made everyone blink in surprise; they'd forgotten in all the chaos that today was Luz's 15th birthday! All they'd done for it so far was wish her a happy birthday that morning before the trial!

"Aw man, I'm sorry you had to spend your birthday like this, Luz." Gus frowned.

"We had plans for a surprise party in the Clubhouse! We were getting it ready yesterday when the distortions in the sky showed up." Willow revealed, since they'd almost certainly not be enjoying that party now.

Luz smiled; "I had a feeling you guys were going to do something like that! I appreciate the thought, honestly. But this birthday is actually the best one I've had so far!"

Her friends looked at her in surprise, while Lazuliel commented; "Well I guess becoming a Seraphim and defeating that Belos punk is probably good reason to call it your best birthday so far."

Luz shook her head; "Actually, it's not because of that. It's because of all you guys! Before, my birthdays were pretty lonely. I had no friends, so it was just me and Mami, and Papi too before he passed away. But this year, I've got a ton of friends who worked together to snap me out of my depression spiral by telling me exactly how much you all cared! That's the best present I could ever ask for!"

Her friends and family beamed, overjoyed to see Luz now back to her old self. The wounds on her spirit caused by her guilt and self-loathing still lingered, and even some guilt remained over her mistakes, but Luz was done being consumed by them. She needed some therapy, but for now she was able to see the light as well as the darkness. She was healing, and had the support of the very people she had also supported. For Luz, this really was the best birthday she'd ever had; and it was not over yet, for the Seraphim awaited.

Luz and her family and friends exchanged stories of the last several hours as they all returned to the top of the Platinum Spire. Hanu told Luz about what she'd learned about Raguel being in league with the Divider, King explained to Luz about his new incomplete glyph (which now remained on Luz's body at all times, while the others could disappear and reappear at Luz's will), as well as how he'd saved the others from the Collector's Nightmare Illusion and how they'd all made up with the Collector, who was now using his true name of Samael. With Samael's consent, King had even told Luz everything they'd learned in Samael's memories, making Luz scowl at the thought of the Archivists. She reiterated that Samael had a new family with her, King, and the Hexsquad now, making him the newest Clawthorne-Noceda, with full approval of Vee and Camila, who called him their cousin and nephew respectively, similar to King.

After that, Luz had told everyone about the Palisman Souls helping her snap out of her self-hatred, and the talks she'd had with the still-unhatched Stringbean, and then the vision with Orion and Cassiopeia as she bonded with the darkness glyph and King's incomplete glyph. That had earned Stringbean some chin scratches and petting from Amity, who held Luz's hand tightly through the whole trip back to the spire.

When they finally returned to the spire, Samael snapped his fingers and summoned all the Angels that he'd turned into puppets (excluding the Seraphim and those who'd been transformed at the trial). He'd then spent a few minutes turning them back to normal one by one and then apologising earnestly, making it clear he was very sorry. Lazuliel had stood with him and explained the situation fully to any Angel that looked sceptical of the apology, which had shocked them all. The idea of a Cherub-like Sephiroth was quite a shock to them, and they were quick to accept the apology, especially when they looked at Luz and saw that she was a Seraphim. Once they were all freed, telling Samael they forgave him (Angels were thankfully an empathetic lot for the most part), they departed and were asked to spread the word that things were safe again and people could return to their lives.

The gang then flew up to the top of the spire, and by the time they reached it, the city of Gran Seraphia had fully returned to it's usual level of busyness. Once they arrived in the Union Council Chambers, Samael snapped his fingers to summon the puppet Seraphim Councillors and prepared to release them.

"Okay, this is going to be the moment of truth! We need to convince them to let Luz go! Is everybody ready?" Camila asked.

Most of the gang nodded, though they took the time to place Raguel's puppet inside a floating barrier of Samael's magic, as well as wrapping him in two different types of vines (provided by Hanu and Willow), abomination slime (from Amity and Boscha), and conjured chains (from Matt and Hunter), as well as ice, a secondary barrier of Bardic Magic, and finally some tendrils of shadow. He was wrapped up so tightly that he looked like a giant egg with only his face poking out from the front, making Luz giggle.

"Potentially a little overboard, but it works." she said, adding her own magic to all of her friends' restraints to make them even stronger. She then hid her own wings and transformed her Divine Regalia back into her human day clothes that she'd been wearing the day before; green sweatpants, a pink and white striped t-shirt, red and white sneakers with stars on the heels, and Eda's old Grudgby jacket. Stringbean shape-shifted into a beanie for Luz to wear too, and looked absolutely adorable in the process. She also wore a trip of pios around the "E" on Eda's jacket; one was a Cosmic Frontier Pin in honour of her Papi, one was a Golden Guard Mask pin that Matt had made for her with his metallurgy skills in honour of her Dad, and one was a Bi-Pride pin that her Mami had gotten her during one of her weekend visits before the loss of the Portal Key.

"Luz, what are you doing?" Amity asked.

"I'm gonna make a bit of an entrance." she answered with a smile. "Now let's get this started!"

Everyone nodded and the Hexsquad all held their staves at the ready just in case as Samael released the spell on Raphael, returning her to normal. The Seraphim of Humility staggered a bit as she got her bearings, then looked at the crowd surrounding her, the rest of the Seraphim, Thrones, Ophanim, and Arch-Angel Guards all trapped as puppets, and then Raguel's puppet self cocooned behind her. She then took notice of the Hexsquad with their staves out, and the Collector at the side of the young Titan, whom had slipped his restraints along with Luciel and Amity.

With a scowl, Raphael summoned her fennec fox Palisman to her in staff mode and said; "So, I take it you now plan to use the Collector to escape the punishment for your crimes, and are holding us all hostage to get your way." she said cuttingly.

"No, my lady." Luz said, bowing her head; "We will be releasing all of you no matter what, and I will take responsibility and submit to your judgement. We are just releasing you one at a time so that we may explain the situation without things getting… chaotic."

Raphael looked surprised; "So this wasn't some coordinated escape attempt?"

"It was not, my lady. Only my younger siblings King and Vee knew about the plan to release Samael the Collector and have him disrupt the trial. Speaking of which…" Luz looked to Samael and nodded reassuringly.

"I'm sorry, Miss Raphael. I shouldn't have turned you and your friends into puppets, or caused so much trouble… I fixed everything else I did already, I just need to let your friends go. Again, I'm really sorry…" Samael said shyly, poking his fingers together nervously.

"We're sorry too. We were just trying to save our sister; she made that plea bargain while depressed and we couldn't stand to lose her." Vee explained.

King didn't apologise, since he was still a little mad at the Seraphim, but he did add; "And it turns out what we did was for the best anyway! We uncovered a traitor in your council!"

Raphael's eyes widened and her grip on her staff tightened; "Am I right to assume it is Raguel, given the way he is restrained?"

Luz's group all nodded and Raphael grimaced; she didn't look too surprised oddly enough. Had she suspected Raguel already?

"Please tell me everything." she ordered, "I will require Everlasting Oaths from the non-Angels among you to ensure you're telling the truth."

They all agreed and Hanu, Vee, and King took the oaths since they would be the ones telling the story along with Luz, Camila, and Lazuliel. There was also a moment where they wondered if Samael would need to take an oath too, since it seemed that Born Sephiroth could lie without pain, though the child did confess that lying was still uncomfortable for him, making his throat feel sticky and gross.

Once the oaths were made, they told Raphael the full story of what had happened and what they'd learned, only leaving out Luz's Seraphim ascension and the hatching of Stringbean, since Luz still wanted to make her big entrance. When they were done, the woman had to return to her seat at the head of the Council table just so she could process everything.

"It all adds up now… Why Raguel stressed the importance of the investigation whilst refusing to agree to the plea bargains we suggested, and why he agreed to yours so easily! I bet he is responsible for the suspiciously timed and positioned attacks from the Distorted Shadows too; he was trying to make you look as guilty as possible to ensure Luciel was reformed and raised again as a loyal follow of the Divider… We've been played for fools from the very beginning!" she cursed.

"He was trying to make himself look like our ally while ensuring we got screwed over." Luz agreed.

Raphael groaned and rubbed a hand down her face; "This is going to be a big mess! One of the Council being corrupt will shake the entire Union! We'll need to replace him and prosecute him, and I don't even know what we're supposed to do with him after this! We can't reform Seraphim…"

"Perhaps now we can revive the others? If we put our heads together, we can resolve this." Camila suggested.

Raphael agreed, as did the others, so Samael released each of the other Council Seraphim (except Raguel). With each one, he repeated his apology and Raphael told them to stand down from any aggressive acts, causing Sophiel, Gabriel, Camael, Barachiel, and Uriel to take their own seats at the council table and listen to the story the others had told. Needless to say, they were all shocked and horrified, while Camael was apoplectic.

"That bastard! He looked me in the eye when giving me that fake plea bargain, knowing I would believe it was real and deliver it to Luciel! He used me as a tool and almost condemned Luciel to reformation! He cannot be allowed to get away with this!" Camael raged.

"And he won't be. A hearing and trial will be arranged for him so we can deal with him properly. Justice will be done." Gabriel said firmly, almost as angry that his people had been manipulated into this whole mess. "We also need to resolve Luciel's own trial, since it was interrupted. Given the Collector's apology, I assume he won't interfere again?"

Samael grumbled, while Luz patted him on the head and nodded; "He won't. As a show of good faith, he'll return everyone else to their true forms, except for Raguel. Right, Samael?"

The boy nodded, and at the gentle urging from his new big sister figure, he began to free the Thrones, Ophanim, and Arch-Angel Knights. As he did this, he wondered if Luz was actually like his little sister? She was younger than him chronologically, but based on how fast she matured compared to him, she was in a later stage of life… plus she was taller and acted more like a grown-up. He'd just consider her his big sister, like King did.

Once the Angels were restored and Samael apologised, the Council explained everything, and as expected, the Thrones were in a total uproar. They'd accepted the apologies of Samael (either because there was no harm done, no point in staying mad at the powerful Demi-God child, or they were still afraid), and were now furiously debating what they would do (and what they could do) with Raguel. They would need to speak to Raguel himself before they could decide what to do next, and Gabriel declared that they would immediately hold a hearing for him… though they first had to deal with the situation regarding Luz.

"Before we continue on to the hearing for Lord Raguel of Crest Charity, we must conclude the trial of Luciel of Crest Kindness." Gabriel declared. "We will treat these recent… interruptions… as an unconventional recess in the trial, and as thanks for their efforts in exposing the crimes of Lord Raguel, I vote that we absolve Vee Noceda and King Clawthorne-Noceda of their attempts to stop the trial by releasing the Collector. All in favour?"

The other five Seraphim raised their hands, making Gabriel smile; "The motion passes. Vee Noceda, King Clawthorne-Noceda; you are absolved."

One of the Thrones, the one that Lazuliel had struck with a spell earlier, stood and raised his hand; "For the record my Lords and Ladies, I would like to absolve Lazuliel of Crest Chastity for her assault on me. I do not wish to have charges pressed."

The Reformation Angel and Arch-Angel Knight that were attacked by Lyra similarly asked for the Dark Angel to be absolved, and in their authority as heads of the Court and Law Enforcement, Lords Gabriel and Barachiel announced that no charges would be pressed against Lyra or Lazuliel either, and since Samael really couldn't be charged or punished by the Union due to his immense power, he was formally absolved as well under the excuse that he was not a citizen and was still a child that was too immature to be held criminally accountable. Besides, since he'd fixed everything, there was no evidence of Samael's actions left, excluding memories.

With that done, Raphael once again took over as spokesperson and head judge of Luz's trial. Luz took her place back on the stand, feeling a little nervous but drawing comfort from Stringbean, while her friends and family were asked to stand back a bit. Amity and King were not made defendants again however, as Luz's plea bargain had already led to their absolution, along with that of Eda.

"Now we come to a difficult situation. Due to Lord Raguel's tampering, your trial has been unfairly manipulated. However you have also officially made and accepted a plea bargain and been sentenced. Moreover, no evidence has been provided that can overturn the conviction; you still committed the acts for which you've been tried. Do you understand?" Raphael asked.

"I do, Lady Raphael." Luz replied. Immediately, every one of the Angels could see the change in her demeanour… gone was the emotionally broken young girl that they'd seen that morning, and in her place was a proud young woman, standing straight and with eyes clear and free of malice or self-hatred.

"You understand then that Reformation is still the sentence? Unless you have some information that can change that fact." Raphael continued, giving Luz a hopeful look.

Luz smiled; "Indeed I do. As I understand it, the law forbids Reformation of Seraphim, correct?"

The Seraphim Council all nodded slowly, while the Thrones muttered curiously. "Yes, that is the case. Are you suggesting we suspend your sentence until you ascend to the rank of Seraphim?" Gabriel asked.

Luz's smile widened and her friends behind her looked positively giddy; "No need to wait at all!" Luz declared.

With that, Luz's body released a flash of light and her Divine Regalia, Halo, and wings were all back in place, and Stringbean had transformed back into her staff form in Luz's hand. The Angels in the room all gaped, while the Arch-Angel ranked Ophanim and Arch-Angel Knights all knelt to Luz out of respect for the newly ascended Seraphim.

"I am no longer Luciel, Arch-Angel of Crest Kindness." Luz began; "I am Luciel "Luz" Noceda-Clawthorne, the Seraphim of the Demon Realm!"

Her declaration, accompanied by all nine of her glyphs glowing on her body, sent shivers through everyone in the room, and one by one the Thrones stood up and put their fists against their hearts as a salute, while the six loyal Seraphim Leaders all stood up together and repeated the gesture.

"Well-met, Luciel, Seraphim of the Demon Realm." Camael beamed with tears in her eyes; "You are magnificent."

Luz smiled, and decided to throw the man a bone; "Thank you, Great-Grandfather."

The man looked over the moon, which gave Luz some seriously conflicted feelings. He was family and he seemed like a pleasant guy, but he'd still chosen to put his role as Seraphim above his family, and that had led to her Papi's death. It was hard to forgive something like that… If he had been malicious about it, or at least didn't feel the regret he did, Luz wouldn't even be giving him the time of day!

The other Angels were all excited by this development, and Raphael had a large smile on her face as she sighed with relief; "Well, I can thankfully say that now we can no longer legally perform the Ultimate Sanction on you. However since you did enter a guilty plea, we must still do something."

"Well, what was the original plea bargain offer? The one Raguel switched out?" Luz asked.

Barachiel spoke up; "Our original offer for a plea bargain, from before Raguel switched it out, was for you to have a 1000 year suspended sentence in which you could return to the Demon and Human Realms, so you could get your affairs in order before returning to the Union and serving as Ophanim to whoever Camael's replacement would be, ultimately becoming Seraphim of Crest Kindness yourself and remaining within the Union until your term was complete. King Clawthorne-Noceda, Amity Blight, and Edalyn Clawthorne would also be forbidden from entering the Divine Realm ever again."

Luz and her friends hummed; that was far more reasonable! She'd have been with all her friends and family until after they'd passed (with only King likely still being alive after 1000 years), then would serve the Crest Union for between one and two millennia, before getting her freedom back! It was still a punishment of sorts, but it was a just one compared to Raguel's intentionally awful one.

"If we could argue to let me visit King, Samael, and any descendants I and my friends might have in the Demon or Human Realms by that point, I'd definitely agree to that." Luz smiled.

Her friends were still a little annoyed that Luz was being punished at all, but since she was accepting this and seemed happy enough to pay this price, they decided to silently support her. Most witches only lived around 100 years, and even Camila and Lyra would likely have passed away 1000 years from now (assuming they didn't ascend), so they'd still get to spend their whole lives with their friend. Though the thought of her mortality made Amity frown; her life was so short compared to the now-immortal Luz… Her love would never die of old age, only dying if something managed to kill her… Amity was haunted by the idea that she would end up being nothing more than a happy blink of the eye in Luz's life.

The lavender-haired girl quickly shook those thoughts off though; she already had her research into such things in progress, and she refused to act morbid on Luz's birthday, especially since Luz had finally cheered up! She looked back at the Seraphim Council, who were quietly deliberating over what Luz had just said.

Finally, Raphael turned back to Luz with a small grin; "That offer was made before you declared yourself "Seraphim of the Demon Realm". Now that you've made your ambition clear, I think we can come to a new arrangement. We suggest the following: you will become the Crest Union's ambassador to the Demon Realm and prevent war and conflict between our realms, while also serving as the Demon Realm's ambassador to the Divine Realm. You will be the link by which we re-establish contact and maintain peace."

Luz blinked, then narrowed her eyes suspiciously; "I won't help the Crest Union expand into the Demon Realm."

"Your integrity is appreciated, and just what we like to hear. However we have no intention of expanding our reach. We merely wish to be able to send Missionary Angels to the Demon Realm without fearing for their lives. Not to conquer or influence anyone, but to understand their different cultures and perhaps adopt aspects of them into our own." Raphael explained.

"Wait, you want to adopt parts of Demon Realm life?" Willow asked with surprise.

Sophiel of Crest Temperance nodded; "Indeed. The Demon Realm is chaotic, wild, dangerous, and ever-changing. But that also means it is ever-advancing! By contrast, the Divine Realm is peaceful, orderly, and safe… but that has left us stagnating. Our society, magic, and technology has changed very little on its own, with most advancements coming from adapting Human culture. That is the true purpose of the Missionary Program; not to convert others, but to find safe and useful things that we can adapt into our own culture, while helping them in whatever ways we can in return."

"It also brings an influx of fresh DNA, to ensure our population doesn't become stagnant too." Uriel of Crest Chastity added.

Lyra smiled brightly; "You're not exporting your way of life, you're importing others! It's like reverse missionaries!"

"That's right. Due to our unfortunate shared history and the Archivists using their Angel Magic to help slay the Titan Race, the Demon Realm is fairly hostile to us though. That's where Luciel would come in." Camael said.

Luz looked intrigued; "So my job would be to maintain peace between the realms and make it safe for missionaries to visit? What about the other way around? Could Witches and Demons visit us too?"

"So long as they mean us no harm, I don't see why not. So, what do you say? Will you agree to this new plea bargain?" Raphael asked, smiling as she already knew Luz's answer.

The new Seraphim didn't disappoint. Luz gave the usual Angel salute, bowed her head, and schooled her grin into a solemn expression as she answered; "I accept your generous bargain, my Lords and Ladies. I will serve as the Ambassador and Peace-Keeper between our realms for as long as I live."

The Six Seraphim Councillors nodded, and Raphael rose to her feet and tapped her staff against the floor like a gavel. The other five Seraphim stood and mimicked that action, then Raphael announced; "Then we declare this trial adjourned. Luciel Noceda-Clawthorne of the Demon Realm, you are henceforth required to appear before the Council when summoned to give reports or receive orders in regards to your new duties. You will also be expected to attend Council Meetings involving our relationship with the Demon Realm. Your first assignment is as follows; secure peace in the Demon Realm by ending the occupation of the Divider."

"I understand and accept, my Lady." Luz beamed.

"Then you are excused. Though the Council would like to request that you and your friends remain in Gran Seraphia for the remainder of today and tomorrow, so you may give testimony in the Hearings and Trials of Lord Raguel and Belos." Raphael smiled, gesturing for Luz to leave the stand.

Luz bowed politely and stepped down from the stand, where she was immediately smothered with hugs by her friends and family. All of them, excluding Samael, were then shuffled off to sit together in the stands, while Raguel's puppet body was released from the mountain of restraints he'd been placed in and then chained up on the stand with golden chains produced by the Seraphim Councillors. Raguel's Palisman, a polar bear with a golden kangaroo-like pouch, was also found and sealed in a dormant state, before Samael released Raguel from the puppet spell.

The Seraphim Traitor blinked and began to slowly look around. He saw the hard looks of his fellow Council members, then saw the unrestrained Hexsquad and Collector, with Luz now in the form of a Seraphim with a staff in hand. He then noticed the angry looks on the faces of the rest of the Angels in the room, and the fact he was chained up tightly, allowing him to piece together everything that had happened.

"Ah… so I've been found out." Raguel sighed, resigned to his fate; "If I may ask, how was I discovered?"

"Long story short, Samael here accidentally released Belos, who possessed Hanu and accidentally broke the memory spell you cast over her." Luz explained. "I defeated and petrified him, becoming a Seraphim in the process, and Hanu told us everything."

Raguel sighed theatrically; "I knew I should have just erased the memories altogether, or sent Hanu off with Valkyrie and pretended she'd fled. I just didn't have the heart to do it. Oh well…"

"Considering you manipulated everything to put Luz through the Ultimate Sanction, I'd argue you don't have a heart!" Hanu growled.

"I have a heart; that you can believe. It is my heart that moved me to join Lord Divider and the Wings of Rani." Raguel freely confessed. There was a brief uproar as many of the Thrones, especially the older ones, condemned Raguel for his words, as his fellow Councillors looked on grimly.

"What are the Wings of Rani?" Luz asked, confused. "Why does that name sound familiar?"

"Rasiel screamed the name Rani when he first got his memories back." King reminded her, having told her this months ago.

"The Wings of Rani were the Divider's Cult. They worshipped him and his Paradise plan." explained one of the Thrones sitting nearby; "When the Divider was sealed, the Wings of Rani were disbanded and their members either accepted redemption and began working for the Crest Orders as Penitents, or they chose Reformation, refusing to give up their master's ideology. We thought they were all gone, but it seems the cult managed to survive to the modern day."

"So the Angels that we saw descending to the Demon Realm from the distortions in the sky must have been the Wings of Rani! There were tons of them!" Treble exclaimed, making the Angels around him very uneasy.

Raguel smirked, making Gabriel frown at him; "Lord Raguel, you may consider this to be your formal hearing. You stand accused of treason against the Crest Union, joining an illegal terrorist organisation, instigating the Distorted Shadow attacks, brainwashing of the minor Miss Manuella Hanu, and attempting to subvert the course of justice to unreasonably punish Luciel Noceda-Clawthorne, causing a near-miscarriage of justice."

"I am aware, and I freely confess. There is no point in denying it; yes, I am a member of the Wings of Rani and served as Lord Divider's spy within the upper echelons of the Crest Union." Raguel confessed, a casual smile on his face the whole time; "I gave him and his representatives crucial information on the defences and combat capability of the Union and Free Cities, and instigated the Distorted Shadow attacks to ensure you were kept busy. I conspired to ensure Luz was reformed so that Lord Divider would not be convinced to stray from his righteous path, and to hide my actions I altered Hanu's memories after she followed me. I also arranged the Distorted Shadow attacks yesterday to discredit Luz's friends and make them all look guilty, diminishing their testimony."

There was another uproar, but it died down quickly as Raphael raised a hand to silence everyone. "Since you have confessed, I think we can all agree to dispense with the usual voting and simply declare charges will be pressed."

The other Seraphim nodded, and Raguel shrugged in his chains; "So we're to have another trial tomorrow, are we? I wonder what you'll try to do to me; you cannot legally reform me after all, and anything short of killing me will be easily undone by Lord Divider. I have nothing to fear."

Raphael narrowed her eyes; "We will debate your punishment if and when you are found guilty at trial. Unlike you, we will not conspire to subvert justice, so despite your confession, a proper trial WILL be held. Until then, you are hereby suspended as Head of Crest Charity. As you have no Ophanim successor, the previous Head of Crest Charity, Lord Jophiel will serve as Interim Seraphim of Crest Charity until a new Seraphim from Crest Charity can be elected. You are to be remanded into the care of the Penitentiary under maximum security and sedation, with a full contingent of Knights to watch you at all times. Take him away!"

At her order, several Arch-Angel Knights approached and began preparing to lead Raguel away, though Samael acted first and put him to sleep; "The bad birdie can take a nap until his trial." the boy declared.

No one argued with that, and the court session was officially declared complete. The Thrones and Ophanim began to leave the room, many of them stopping to give Luz their congratulations on her ascension on the way out. At the same time, Lord Jophiel of Crest Charity was speaking with the Council in regards to his return as Interim Seraphim of his order; as a member of the same Crest Order as Raguel, he resembled the man, only older looking with the face of a thin and stern grandfather. He'd clearly been near the end of his life when he'd ascended to the Seraphim and stopped ageing. His Divine Regalia was also similar to Raguel's, only with simpler embroidery and the addition of some white and gold armour pieces, similar to Luz's Pauldrons. His halo somewhat resembled the shape of an Artist's paint pallet, only perfectly symmetrical. He held a staff in his hand that had a Salamander with a wavy horn atop it, it obviously being his Palisman.

The Council approached Luz's group with Jophiel in tow, and Gabriel addressed them; "We thank you for your cooperation in Raguel's hearing and the coming trial. We will hold it tomorrow, along with the hearing for Belos. Once you have given testimony at both and de-petrified Belos, we will be happy for you to leave for the Demon Realm to complete your mission and defeat the Divider.

"We also apologise for the distress that this situation caused you, Luciel. We pray there are no hard feelings." Uriel smiled kindly.

Luz returned the smile; "I'd be lying if I said I was okay with everything that's happened, but I'm tired of dwelling on past mistakes. I say let bygones be bygones and move on."

The others agreed with varying levels of enthusiasm, making the Seraphim all look relieved.

"Well then, we were going to offer theses as compensation for the trouble Raguel caused you all, but perhaps they can serve as gifts from us to you for your 15th Birthday." Camael said, handing over two items. The first was the keystone to the Portal Gates connecting Gravesfield, Evelyn's Garden, Neo Haven, and Gran Seraphia, while the second was a small card, which appeared to be made of platinum.

"The keystone is yours to keep and will allow you and your allies to freely travel between our Realms. The card is a gift card containing 100 Platinum, which I believe equates to 10,000 snails or dollars? Since we've asked you to stay here until tomorrow, please use this money to throw yourself a proper birthday party." her Great-Grandfather smiled.

"T-Thank you, but this is way too much!" Luz exclaimed, as her friends gaped behind her.

"It's also tradition to give gifts to new Seraphim, and since you became a Seraphim on your birthday, we combined that tradition with the usual birthday gifts, as well as the extra compensation for Raguel's actions. Do with it as you please." Jophiel spoke for the first time, sounding like a strict old man, though also having some kindness to him, reminding the Hexside students of Principal Bump.

"We could throw quite the party with this much money! Would it be possible to invite our three Human friends and three other Basilisks who are living with them in the Human Realm? Just for the day?" Vee asked.

"Of course." Raphael said, "So long as you all behave, you are free to spend the rest of the day as you wish."

The Nocedas and Hexsquad (sans Luz) quickly put their heads together; "It's already 2pm, so we'll need to be fast if we want to set this party up!" Camila declared, taking charge. "Laz, can you show us the best places for supplies?"

"You got it, Cassie." Lazuliel replied.

"Great! Luz, would you lend Vee the keystone for a bit, so she can go and collect Masha and the others from the Human Realm?" her Mami asked, secretly also intending to have Vee pick up Luz's birthday presents.

Luz nodded and handed the keystone to Vee and the platinum card to her Mami so she could buy the necessary supplies. Lazuliel then pulled out a small purse of about ten gold coins and handed it to Amity.

"Take the birthday girl out for a nice lunch while we get the party set up." Lazuliel said with a grin.

Amity happily accepted the coins and gave Luz a kiss on the cheek; "Looks like it'll be just me and you for a bit, Batata. I'll make sure you have a birthday to remember!"

Luz blushed; "I'm sure you will!"

She watched her Mami escorting everyone except Amity out of the room, with King and Samael excitedly chattering about their ideas for the party as they left. Luz lagged behind though, wanting to speak with the Seraphim about something first. Amity reluctantly gave her a minute alone with the Seraphim Council, and once she'd left the room, Luz turned to the Councillors.

"Okay, I just wanted to warn you about something… namely Belos." Luz began, getting surprised looks from the Seraphim.

"You petrified him, didn't you? What is there to be concerned about?" Barachiel asked.

"I don't know… this is just a hunch, which is why I didn't want to bother my friends with it yet, but I think there's a chance Belos is still free out there. He can survive as just a tiny bit of slime; if a piece of him was separated and he transferred his soul to it before he was petrified…" Luz trailed off, but the Seraphim got the message.

"… then he could still be out there somewhere, weakened but alive and free." Barachiel finished for her. "I'll send my people to retrieve his statue form immediately, then we can test it for signs of a soul. If there is a soul present, then we have no problems. But if the soul is gone, then we'll need to hunt Belos down."

"Put your Knights on high alert for signs of possession or corruption, and make sure anyone going through a Portal Gate is carefully checked for evidence of Belos." Raphael told the Diligence Seraphim.

Luz smiled; she'd done what she could, but she knew better than anyone that Belos was a cockroach; he had a habit of surviving things he shouldn't be able to! Perhaps her worries were unfounded, but it was better safe than sorry!

"We thank you for the warning, and we'll take all the countermeasures we can. Now go enjoy your birthday, Ambassador Luciel. The Heavens know you deserve it after the rest of today's events." Lady Sophiel said, gently slapping Luz on the back and making her stagger towards the door. Luz smiled and bowed politely to the Seraphim, then rushed out the door to meet up with Amity again.

Raguel, Belos, the Divider… that could all wait for tomorrow. Today, Luz would celebrate her ascension, the freedom of the Collector, and her brand new lease on life! She gave Stringbean a scratch under the chin, then went and kissed Amity on the cheek, before heading out for lunch with her. It was time to finally enjoy her birthday!