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.

31. EP 10: Oracle of Angels

The Angel of the Owl House

Season 2: The Human Realm

Chapter 10: Oracle of Angels

Hunter walked through the Emperor's Castle, searching for his Uncle to report on the status of his most recent mission. To his immense frustration, he'd been doing borderline grunt work ever since the disastrous mission to capture the Bat Queen's Stray Palismen, as his Uncle had been disappointed in his failure. Hunter could have avoided this, since it had been his idea to claim the Palistrom Trees from Head Witch Terra Snapdragon, but he had instead given credit for the idea and success of that mission to his sister, since she'd been even more terrified of disappointing the Emperor than he'd been. They'd have split the credit, but raw Palistrom Wood was not the same as actual Palismen, so it had only abated the Emperor's wrath a little… Hunter had a new scar on his leg from Belos' subsequent loss of control, brought about by his anger exacerbating his illness.

He considered it worth it though, even if his sister felt she should have shared the burden. After all, Hunter now had Flapjack, a Palisman of his own that he was keeping secret… purely for research purposes of course. Hunter felt that if he studied Flapjack carefully, he might be able to help Belos without the sacrifice of Palismen!

Eventually, Hunter found his way to one of his Uncle's workshops in the bowels of the castle, where simplistic Abomaton Mk I's were assisting the Emperor with constructing… something. Hunter had no idea what it was and briefly kept out of sight as he watched his uncle work. The man was growing frustrated over whatever it was, and that certainly wasn't helped by the inferior Abomatons.

"Blasted things… I must push Darius to work harder on reconstructing the Mk II's. These early models are worthless!" Belos growled, using his staff to blast one to dust after it bungled something. Hunter gulped; Odalia Blight had largely fallen out of favour with the Emperor following the botched showcase and the betrayal of her family. The only reason Belos was even keeping her around was because the Abomaton Mk I's her newly refurbished factory could build were still good for extra muscle, and because she was one of the few voices in Bonesborough that was still on the Emperor's side following the betrayal of the Alembics over a week ago.

Hunter tried to creep closer to get a better look at what his uncle was working on, though clearly he wasn't as quiet as he thought.

"Would you like to see my work up close, Hunter?" Belos said, turning to look where Hunter was hiding.

The boy gulped and stepped out of the shadows; "I didn't mean to hide, Emperor Belos." he lied.

Belos, still wearing his mask (though without his hood, so his long greying hair was visible), chuckled at him and beckoned him over to look at the table he was working at. A blueprint was laid out on it, showing diagrams of a new and improved Portal Door.

"You're constructing a new portal?" Hunter questioned.

"Indeed. The Owl Lady is infuriatingly difficult to keep a hold of. She has been captured and subsequently escaped from myself, Head Witch Terra, and Head Witch Vitimir, never being held for more than a day. We need the Portal Door before the Day of Unity, but at this rate…" Belos sighed angrily; "… well, I will continue to have her pursued, but I can no longer afford to count on her capture. So a new door is required… though constructing one is proving difficult."

"Maybe I can help!" Hunter asked excitedly, "What do you need?"

Belos looked at him and the boy promptly quietened down. "I have all the materials I need except for one; Titan Blood. But you have no need to worry about that; Kikimora is accompanying Head Witch Osran on a search for Titan Blood at the Knee."

"Kikimora? Why send her? Why not me and my sister? We can do it! We're far more powerful than her!" Hunter argued.

He received a warning look that promptly shut him up, as Belos put a hand on his shoulder; "You and your sister are important to the Titan's plans; the best thing you can do for now is complete the safe tasks I have given, or remain in the castle like your sister. Now speaking of tasks, report on your last mission."

Hunter stood at attention as he switched to a more formal demeanour; "The damages done to the Alchemist Atelier have been fully repaired, and Head Witch Hettie has reported that Head Witch Vitimir has made a full recovery. His mental stability has been called into question, but he is otherwise fine. Bounties have also been issued for Morel, Callisto, and Boscha Alembic for their betrayal of the Coven, as well as Bounties for the individuals known as Barcus, Rom, Howlena, and Morton. Sadly all are based in Bonesborough so attempts to capture them have stalled."

Belos hummed; "So yet more Witches and Demons have succumbed to the Owl Lady's influence."

"Head Witch Vitimir also passed along a request for something called a "Blood Silk Ruby". I'm not sure what it is, but his subordinate said he desperately needed it to recreate a potion that was sabotaged by the rebels." Hunter said.

"A Blood Silk Ruby? I gifted him one once years ago, as thanks for a service he performed for me. They are a kind of small organic stone that forms from a blood clot in the heart of a Goliath Ash Moth. They are next to impossible to acquire." Belos stroked his chin beneath his mask; "What could he be brewing with that…? No matter, I will not be spending resources to acquire one for him. Thank you Hunter, you may go."

Hunter opened his mouth to argue and try to convince Belos to let him help with the Titan Blood mission, but he already seemed to be in a bad mood and the boy had no desire to patch another wound, so he bowed his head and walked out of the room.

Unbidden, the words Luz and Gus had said back in their last encounter echoed in his head; "Belos gave you that scar, didn't he? And the knick in your ear too."

"Dude, I felt how thin and bony Silver was when I carried her earlier, and the bags under your eyes are obvious. I don't think he takes good care of you guys even without his sickness."

Hunter shook the memory away; his Uncle was a good man who wanted what was best for everyone! He wasn't going to doubt him! With nothing else to do, Hunter decided to head to his sister's room, which was right next door to his. He knocked on the door and waited until she opened it, putting a mask over her face as she did. It was only the mask version of her Silver Sentinel helmet, so Hunter could see her pointed ears and short brown hair sticking out from behind it.

"Hey Sis. I'm back from the Shoulder. How've you been doing?" Hunter asked.

"I feel weak and pathetic…" she signed, "My magic is low and Uncle won't give me a new staff. He says he wants me to stay safely in the castle for now… I think he's mad at me for failing to bring him any actual Palismen."

She invited him into her room and shut the door behind him, activating some silencing enchantments she'd carved into the wood and stone. "Speaking off, how is your leg?"

"Healed up fine, though it scarred." Hunter confessed. His sister clenched her fists angrily, so he continued; "But speaking of Palisman; someone wants to see you."

He opened his cloak and Flapjack flew out with a cheerful tweet, and landed on Silver's shoulder. She immediately made a delighted noise and began petting him, much to Hunter's amusement and Flapjack's pleasure.

"I think you like him more than I do." Hunter joked, ignoring Flapjack's indignant complaint inside his head.

The two sat together for a while as siblings, chatting and venting their frustrations to each other while playing with Flapjack. Silver listened to Hunter complain about being kept from the Knee mission, and scowled behind her mask upon hearing Kikimora being assigned to it instead of them.

"That conniving little monster has been plotting to take back her position from me since I got it. Mark my words, she'll try to replace us both if she succeeds in getting Titan Blood! And Uncle is so annoyed with us that he might just let her!" Silver signed dejectedly.

Hunter frowned, then suddenly smirked as a thought came to him; "Well then, maybe I should make sure she doesn't succeed… and snag the Titan Blood while I'm at it!"

"What? You're going to sneak out?" Silver asked.

"Sure! If I get the blood for Uncle, he won't be mad at me any more! And it'll keep Kikimora replacing either of us! It's perfect!" Hunter grinned, holding his hand out for Flapjack. The Palisman turned into a staff in his hand, as he opened Silver's bedroom window to fly out.

"Wait!" Silver rapidly signed, pulling him back; "What about me? Let me come with you!"

Hunter shook his head; "You can't, not in your current condition. It's too dangerous!"

"And it's less dangerous for me to be stuck in a castle of backstabbers without someone to protect me? Uncle won't give me another staff, so what will I do if something happens while you're gone!?"

"You can use my staff! Uncle doesn't know about Flapjack, so he gave me a new one to complete my most recent mission with." Hunter said, quickly handing Flapjack to Silver then rushing to his room and grabbing his artificial magic staff, then rushing back to give it to Silver. "There, now you can defend yourself just fine!"

Silver gripped the staff, but before she could try to argue that now she could go with him, Hunter had already taken Flapjack back and was flying out the window, using an illusion to disguise the Palisman as a broomstick and himself as a regular scout; "I'll be back before you know it! See you later, Sis!"

And with that, Hunter disappeared into the distance with a flash of golden magic. Silver watching him disappear, gripping the staff he'd given her even tighter.

"Oh no you don't! We're a team, brother! I'm coming with you whether you like it or not!" she thought, promptly sinking into the shadows.

[Meanwhile]

Luz found herself sniffling as she waited for the meeting of the CATTs to start. Her nose had felt stuffy ever since returning from school the previous day, though she'd felt a little off for a few days before that. She chalked it up to worrying about the situation with her Mami back in the Human Realm, as Luz's recent adventures had really stressed the woman out.

It had been a full ten days since the rescue mission to the Alchemist Atelier, and it had been a fairly quiet time for Luz and her friends. The day after the encounter with Vitimir, Luz had gone home to her Mami as she did every weekend, taking Amity with her to help give her the confidence she needed to tell her Mami about what happened. Camila had been pleased to hear about Luz helping Mason and Luna (though less so with Hooty messing things up a bit), but she'd gone completely ballistic upon hearing about Vitimir and his plans. Luz was certain that if her Mami hadn't thought it would hurt her daughter more, Camila would have forbidden her from ever going home. She'd never seen her Mami so angry, or heard her use such bad language! Luz, Vee, and Amity had all been left blushing by the time she was done! The rest of that weekend had been spent with Camila smothering Luz, and asking Amity to pass along her thanks to Boscha for stopping Vitimir from taking away her daughter.

It had made things a bit tense and uncomfortable, but Luz couldn't blame her Mami for being concerned. Plus with all the smothering, Luz did get to spend more time with Vee and show off her new wind glyph powers!

When they returned to the Demon Realm, Luz and Amity had learned that Boscha and the new CATTs recruits were settling in well. Boscha was fitting into the Hexsquad surprisingly well; bantering with Willow and surprisingly getting along well with Matt. She'd gone out to dinner with Skara while Luz and Amity were away, and it had apparently gone great! The two weren't dating yet, but just about everyone that knew them were already betting on how long that would take to change. Meanwhile Morton and the Alembics had started working with Eda and Luna in the CATTs' potions lab, while also slowly studying new types of magic now that they'd burned off their sigils. Their actions had inspired many others too, and Luz had needed to work with the CATTs' other healers to help fix up several people who'd taken drastic measures to remove their own sigils. It was mostly the formerly petrified witches that did this however, as the others kept their sigils so they could keep up their covers in the Coven system. Raine had also gotten their sigil removed too, though they weren't that interested in learning other magic types.

The week that followed was a relaxed one, with Luz and the Hexsquad not having to do anything but go to school and help out with minor things on Digale Island. As such, they'd spent a lot of time hanging out together and training their magic. Luz had trained with Eda and Eber, as well as working with King to practice her new wind magic. Amity trained with Lilith and Darius, and helped her father with his work for the rebels too, becoming a lot closer with all three of her mentors. Willow spent a lot of time with Hanu and Jerbo, the three working to refine their Plant Magic together. Gus did the same with Edric and Emira, as well as Viney who had begun taking a bit more interest in illusions since her girlfriend was a part of that track. Matt was also studying illusions with Gus now, and had actually begun to multi-track to broaden his horizons, especially since he'd finally pushed Leia down to the number two spot in the construction track! He was also receiving some mentoring from Steve and Mason, when the two men had some spare time away from their covens. Skara was training hard with Raine and had become their fourth apprentice, alongside Katya, Derwin, and Amber. Lastly, Boscha had begun taking lessons in transmutation, the most advanced Potions Magic art from Luna Miphari, while also (begrudgingly) learning a bit more about plant magic from Willow (since the Plant Element was a component of Potions Magic).

Another home visit had followed the relaxed week, and Luz had taken King and Rasiel back home with her. It was a lot more chilled out than the last visit since nothing big had happened, and without any major distractions taking her attention, Camila had been a lot more focused on the fact Rasiel was basically a living god to Angel kind. Thankfully that ended pretty soon when it became clear Rasiel was actually a fairly normal person, albeit slightly old-fashioned in the way he spoke and acted sometimes. Camila and Rasiel became fast friends, and would share tea as the kids played video games or watched movies, then share harder drinks once the kids had gone to bed. Camila was quite glad to have an adult friend she could drink with; she had human friends, but she tended to be casual with her magic when tipsy, so couldn't drink with them.

Now it was Tuesday, and Luz had come to Digale Island with Amity so her awesome girlfriend could have some training with Darius and Luz could attend the leadership meeting.

Sniffling again, Luz cast a healing spell on herself to clear her sinuses and make herself feel better. She'd cast these spells a lot today, as the feeling kept coming back. Luz just figured she had to keep casting them until whatever was causing them was fully shaken off.

King, who had been sitting with her and playing a game on her old DS, looked up at her. "You okay Luz? You've been sniffing a lot."

"Yeah, I feel fine. Just a little off. It's nothing to worry about though." Luz reassured him as she looked around the meeting room.

The meeting room was a simple one within the fort that had been built in Digale Village to function as the CATTs HQ. It contained a big table with a map of the Boiling Isles on it, and had some chairs and a refreshments table, but it was otherwise pretty sparse. A lot of "official" CATTs property was kept intentionally spartan, so as not to waste their limited resources, the majority of which went to helping the oppressed across the Isles, especially as the Rebellion escalated. Luz and her friends hadn't been the only ones going on adventures after all…

Only a few minutes later, Raine arrived with Katya, and greeted Luz and King with a smile, asking how the former's day at school had been. Eda and Lilith showed up right after, followed swiftly by Mason and Luna, then Eber and Steve, and finally Darius and Amity, whom the Abominations Head had decided to make his secretary and assistant during the meeting.

"Alright, we're all present and accounted for. Let's begin the meeting." Darius said, taking a seat at the table. The others took their own seats too and one by one, they each began giving their reports.

It was largely simple reports on skirmishes, successful and failed missions to disrupt the Emperor, negotiations with sympathetic factions across the isles, the continued development of Digale Island, and the goings on at the castle and other information gained through espionage. Overall, Luz got the impression that the CATTs were slowly gaining ground, but were still far from being able to topple Belos. Short of a decisive victory in battle against the man himself, they were in this fight for the long haul.

"… and that concludes my report on negotiations with Latissa. They're slowly coming around I think, but the Emperor's Coven is really cracking down their control there. It's building anti-Belos sentiment, but also making them afraid to stand up and rebel."

"Should we go and try to liberate the town? If we manage it, the CATTs will have liberated pretty much the whole Right Arm!" Luz suggested, feeling anxious to go out and do something useful after a week without any major adventures.

Darius shook his head; "Not until we develop counter measures for the Amber Pustules. Even Eda and Raine were easily captured thanks to those things. Your friend Willow is already working on it with our few Plant Witches, but progress is slow. However, I do have some news to report."

He cast a spell to cause a little abomination to appear on the map, directly on the Titan's Knee.

"Belos has gotten impatient. With the Day of Unity approaching in a few weeks time, he's given up on capturing the Portal from Eda and has decided to construct his own from scratch. To accomplish this, he needs Titan Blood and has sent Kikimora and Osran to the Knee to find Eclipse Lake and recover some blood." Darius reported, shaping the abomination into a mini replica of Kikimora.

"Wait, Belos can just make a portal now?" Eda crossed her arms.

Luz frowned; "Come to think of it, Philip Wittebane talked about constructing one in his diary, which Belos has read. I always thought Eda's portal might be the one Philip made, so if Belos remembers the instructions, he really could make one of his own!"

"Why hasn't he done so then? He's been after Eda for years; you'd think he'd get the hint and give up before now!" King said.

Luna frowned; "Belos is a stubborn monster. He likely didn't want to admit that someone had bested him."

"Whatever the reason, we can't let him succeed in getting that blood!" Raine declared; "We should send a team to the Knee to sabotage their expedition and claim any remaining blood for ourselves."

Steve raised his hand; "I volunteer. As a Coven Scout, I could sneak into their midst and sabotage them. Steve could do with going on a real mission!"

"I'd like to go too!" Luz quickly volunteered, before she began coughing. Her throat suddenly felt kinda scratchy, making the others watch her with concern.

"You okay, Owlet? You're not lying about wanting to go, right?" Eda asked with concern, thinking the coughing had been brought on by the burning sensation of lying.

Luz shook her head vigorously and cast a healing spell on her throat; "No, I'm not! Why would I? I really want to help! I think I just strained my voice in my bard classes today." she said truthfully. Her throat had started feeling a little odd around that time.

"Oh, I've been there!" Katya said sympathetically, "And I volunteer to go too!"

"I'm all for Steve and Katya going, but why send you too, Little Light?" Darius asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Osran could use Oracle Magic to detect Steve and Katya! If I'm there with them, my angelic magic would cause interference." Luz argued.

"But wouldn't that also tip Osran off that you're there?" Raine pointed out.

Amity piped up; "Not exactly. A few different things can interfere with Oracle Spirits; salt and angelic magic are just two of those things. There's no way for an Oracle to tell what's causing the problem without seeing the cause, so if Luz stays out of sight, Head Witch Osran might assume it's just a salt deposit in the Knee, or something else. Wild Carbuncles also like to live in old Titan Veins and they can mess with Oracle Spirits too."

Seeing as Amity was the only witch with any Oracle skills present, the others had no choice but to believe her.

"I say we let Miss Luz go along. She hasn't failed a mission so far, even with the odds against her. And she is technically our most powerful member." Mason said.

"If Luz is going, I want to go too!" Eda declared; "It's been too long since we got to go on an adventure together!"

Eber shook her head with a bark; "Owl Lady is needed. Eber has plans to attack airships! Prisoner transport from Palm to Castle. Need flyers."

Eda scowled; "Dang it… that's important. What about you, Lilith? Can you go with Luz too? I don't like her going with just two others as back up; no offence to Steve and Katya."

The two waved it off, understanding the mother's concern, but sadly Lilith shook her head; "I've got an interview for a new job after this at the Bonesborough Museum. I can't keep freeloading from Mom or the CATTs; I need to earn my keep. I'm sorry."

The Owl Lady huffed, then declared; "Fine! Then Boots and King can go with Luz!"

"YES! Finally! I haven't had any fun since the desert! It'll be great to use my magic on scrubs I can actually beat up!" King cheered, hopping onto the table and doing a little happy dance.

Amity also smiled brightly; "I'd love to as well! I can use some of my new skills that Darius has been teaching me!"

Darius frowned, but decided there was no point in arguing. He could argue that it was wrong to send three kids into the fray, but all of them had proven themselves several times over by this point and the rebellion really couldn't afford to bench such powerful fighters. Even the 8 year old King had been able to go toe to toe with the Silver Sentinel back in the Simmering Shoals.

"Alright. All those in favour of sending a team of Steve, Katya, Luz, Amity, and King on this mission?" he asked, raising his own hand.

Everyone else in the room raised their hands too, making it unanimous. Luz and King both cheered and exchanged high-fives, then Luz ran to hug Amity. Steve and Katya grinned at their enthusiasm as well, each looking forward to working with the excitable kids.

"Since this mission will require infiltrating the Emperor's Coven, Steve should be in charge." Raine declared; "Any objections?"

The kids shook their heads, and Katya winked at Steve; "I'm down with that. Think you're up for this, Hot Stuff?"

Steve grinned with a faint blush; "Oh yeah, Responsibility for Steve! We'll kick butt!"

With that decided and little else to report, Steve and his team headed to the bunkhouse Katya was staying in so she could get some appropriate winter gear for the Knee, then did the same at the Blight House, where Amity let her siblings know that she'd be going on a mission. Once two of the team were outfitted for the weather, they walked to the Teleportation Circle to get back to the Boiling Isles. As they arrived, they found Eda, Eber, and Rasiel waiting patiently for them.

"Eber and I are about to head out too." Eda said, giving her kids a quick hug; "And look, I know you can handle yourself Luz, but don't underestimate Osran even if his magic is useless against you. He's the ONLY Head Witch that the Oracle Coven has ever had, being there from the start. He's got tricks up his sleeves, so be careful."

Luz nodded, "I'll be fine. I- ACHOO!"

Luz's sudden sneeze startled her friends, though thankfully she'd covered her face with her hands first. When she pulled them away, her nose was a bit redder than it should be and she felt her nose become stuffy again. "Oof, am I getting allergies?"

She cast another healing spell on herself, clearing her sinuses once again; "Ah, much better! Thank the Seraphim for magic!"

Her friends all looked at her strangely, and Eda and Amity both had suspicious looks in their eyes.

"Are you sure you're feeling okay, Luz?" Amity asked.

"Yep! I feel fine." Luz replied honestly.

Eda and Amity exchanged looks; they knew Luz was being truthful, but they weren't fully convinced she was correct. It was enough to make them both nervous too, so Eda decided to be a little more protective than she usually would; her motherly instincts going crazy.

"Alright, I'll take your word for it. But I want Rasiel to go with you in Spirit Form, okay?" Eda said, shooting a questioning look at the Ancient Seraphim.

"That's fine with me. I can just leave my body in the Owl House as we pass through." he agreed.

"A spirit scout would be useful to have too. Welcome to the team, Rasiel." Steve grinned.

Eda wasn't done yet though, and reached into her hair and pulled out the Portal Key; "Take this too. If the worst should happen, retreat into the Human Realm with the portal."

"Mom, you're overreacting a little." Luz said, rolling her eyes as she took the key regardless and hung it around her neck, before tucking it into her school uniform.

"Maybe, but even if you've succeeded in all your missions so far, none of them have gone as planned. Maybe this is that famed Mother's Intuition, but I've got a feeling this is gonna be the same." Eda said seriously, before pulling Luz into a hug; "Take care of yourself and King. Come back to me safe and sound."

Luz chuckled as she returned the hug; "Careful Mom, saying stuff like that is considered a death flag in anime!" she joked.

Eda rolled her eyes and stooped to hug King; "Keep an eye on your sister." she whispered.

King nodded and whispered back; "I will."

Following that, Eda said her goodbyes to the rest of the team heading to the Knee, then once Lilith arrived, Luz teleported them all back to the Owl House, where Eda immediately left with Eber to intercept the prisoner transport, and Lilith headed to her job interview. Luz then went up to her room to change into winter clothing, while Rasiel went and laid down in his own room, leaving his body behind again so his spirit could enter Luz's ring. Since King didn't need winter gear and Steve's scout uniform was already insulated, they were now officially ready to head for the Knee.

"Alright, King will fly with me. Steve, you can fly with Amity or Katya." Luz said.

"Ride with me, Hot Stuff. I'll keep you warm." Katya winked.

"Are you always this much of a flirt?" Steve asked, grinning as he straddled her staff.

"Only with the cute ones." Katya retorted, making Luz and Amity both giggle as they all took off and began flying for the Knee. Steve wasn't aware of it, but he was actually a pretty desirable bachelor among the single population of the CATTs; he was kind-hearted, handsome, a fun guy, and pretty powerful to boot. He ticked all the right boxes for a lot of people, Katya included. She'd been attracted to him since they'd worked together at the Petrification Ceremony, though she'd been too busy with the CATTs to act on it until now.

Steve blinked, feeling like he was missing something here, but then just smiled brightly; "Oh yeah, compliments for Steve. Getting called cute by a pretty lady is a great way to start a mission."

Katya laughed; "Dang right! Shame all the prettiest ladies are taken or not interested! I mean have you seen the Clawthornes? Raine is a lucky Bard, and Lilith broke a lot of hearts by being Ace."

"Tell me about it. Is it weird to admit that I had the biggest crush on Lilith when we first met?" Steve said.

"No way man, I was the same with Eda! I had a huge crush on her after she and Luz busted me out of the Conformatorium! You'd think I'd have been more upset when I found out she and Raine were a thing, but honestly? I ship it so hard!" Katya gushed.

The others listened to Katya and Steve chatting as they continued flying to the Knee. Amity was smiling and giggling at their oddly adorable flirting and their mutual "I just love love!" attitude, while King rolled his eyes and pretended to gag. Luz ended up doing both, enjoying the shipping talk before she suddenly felt nauseous and gagged like she was going to throw up. The others looked at her with shock, as she cast another healing spell on herself to clear the nausea.

"Ugh, sorry about that. My stomach churned for a second there! I'm fine now though." Luz smiled reassuringly.

"You sure you're okay, Owlet Girl? That's like the third time we've seen you cast a healing spell on yourself." Steve frowned.

"I'm fine, really!" Luz replied, again being truthful. She really did feel perfectly fine; she'd just had a few funny feelings that were swiftly fixed! Nothing to worry about!

None of the others looked fully convinced, but it was too late to turn back now. "Maybe hearing about how we had a crush on her Mom made her feel grossed out!" Katya joked to lighten the mood.

"Maybe…" Steve frowned. "Still, make sure to tell us if you're not feeling well" he ordered.

Luz gave a little salute in agreement, and they continued flying in silence. They soon arrived at the Knee and landed over by Zara's old dragon skeleton, which still stood exactly where it had been left after Luz's last trip to the Knee. Hiding in its shadow, Steve pulled down his mask and gestured for the others to either put on disguises of their own with illusions or find a place to hide. Luz decided to use illusions to disguise them all as Coven Scouts, then followed Steve towards the old mine entrance a little further down the Knee. They soon arrived at the mining expedition, where they found dozens of scouts and Abomaton Mk I's digging into the old collapsed tunnels. They were being supported by witches and demons in dark purple robes and hoods, each of whom had a black face mask with a purple eye inscribed on it, as well as a crystal ball in their hands.

"Oracles." Amity whispered as they got close; "Luz, switch my illusion disguise to one of them."

Luz silently obeyed, hiding Amity behind the taller Steve so she was out of sight before changing her disguise. They then crept further in, and Amity secretly created a few abominations modelled after Abomaton Mk I's, which Luz completed with an illusion spell. Now they were blending in with the other digging teams.

Steve looked around and noticed Head Witch Osran and Kikimora, along with a Scout Captain, watching from a nearby hill.

"Dig faster, Scouts!" Kikimora yelled.

"Kikimora, Ma'am. These tunnels are old and unstable. Maybe we should slow down?" the Captain said cautiously.

Kikimora scoffed; "Not now, Captain! This is the perfect chance for me to show Belos that I should be by his side instead of those two brats! Once I bring him the Titan Blood, I will finally knock those two masked mites back down where they belong!"

"I understand, Ma'am. But if we're too hasty, we'll just collapse the tunnels again. Head Witch Osran, what do you think?" the Captain asked.

Osran's eyes briefly flashed purple as he stared into his crystal ball, only to frown at what he saw. "My vision has become clouded… there is a large hole in my scrying magic." he said sagely.

"A hole in your magic!? What nonsense is this!?" Kikimora spat.

"It means something is interfering with my spirit… Oracles, report." he ordered, his tone soft even as voice echoed unnaturally.

One by one, each of the Oracles looked into their crystal balls as the purple eye on their masks glowed, then each shook their head as they said some variation of "My spirit is not responding. Something is causing interference."

Amity played along too, and when Osran narrowed his eyes, Katya used some Bardic magic to disguise her voice, then quickly raised her hand and said; "I heard skittering and then saw a flash of something red just seconds ago, Head Witch. It was over by that tunnel."

Osran hummed and used one of his four arms to stroke his chin; "It must be a Carbuncle. We likely disturbed a nest of them. Their magic can confuse Oracle Spirits."

"What!? Scouts, find them and wipe them out!" Kikimora ordered.

"Belay that order." Osran quickly interjected; "They are harmless creatures if not disturbed. If you play with them for a bit, they'll leave you alone and may even leave their crystal horns as prizes. Such things are valuable."

Kikimora stamped her foot: "We aren't here to play, you old fool!"

"We aren't here to be cursed either." Osran retorted; "Killing a Carbuncle invites its curse upon you. It's why they are so rarely hunted despite their valuable horns. One would do well not to incur the wrath of a Divine Curse."

"Divine curse…?" King whispered from Luz's shoulder, hidden by her illusion.

Luz just shrugged and listened as Kikimora basically asked the same thing. Osran explained; "Carbuncles are also known as Angel Rabbits and are an invasive species in the Demon Realm. Ancient Angels kept them as pets and brought them from the Divine Realm. They bred rapidly until there was a large population."

"So that's why the Oracles are getting interference. The spirits don't work well with Divine Realm magic." the Scout Captain commented.

Luz's friends all looked at her questioningly, and she whispered back; "I knew they had Carbuncles in the Divine Realm too, but I didn't know the ones in the Demon Realm were the same creatures."

Before anyone could say or do anything, Kikimora suddenly ordered the Abomaton she was standing on to blast some magic at a random tree just a little ways behind her, startling everyone. The tree toppled over but nothing could be seen or heard from that direction, causing Osran to immediately yell at her.

"Must you act without thinking constantly!? What if you killed a Carbuncle with that blast!?" Osran demanded.

"Then the Abomaton would have been cursed. It's about all these hunks of junk are worth. Besides, I thought I heard an annoying voice…" Kikimora retorted. "And get off my back, Old Man!"

"Idiot! The Abomaton is a weapon, the curse would go to its wielder! Otherwise the Emperor would have just sent Abomination Witches to hunt Carbuncles!" Osran yelled; "And remember who outranks who here, you little imp! I am a Head Witch while you are barely above a Scout Captain!"

Kikimora and Osran continued to argue, while the scouts and Abomatons got back to work. Pretending to work too, Luz whispered; "Those two really don't get along."

"Not surprising. They're from opposite clans of Claw Oni, a species of Biped Demon." Amity whispered back as she pretended to be trying to read a crystal ball. "The Red ones like Kikimora are hot-headed, emotional, and aggressive, while the Blue ones like Osran are cool, logical, and calculating. The clans always butt heads, so they don't usually work together very well."

"Let's use that! Our mission is to sabotage their excavation, so we should capture one of them. With one of their leaders going missing, they'll have to abandon the dig to look for them!" Katya suggested. "If they don't get along, it should be easier to separate them then pick one of them off!"

Steve nodded approvingly; "Good idea. Let's aim to capture Kikimora; she'll be harder to catch since her magic will work unlike Osran's, but being high up in the Emperor's Coven means she'll know more about his plans and we can get more information out of her!"

The others swiftly agreed, and Steve told them his plan. Luz made the necessary preparations with Amity, then went with Katya and King to hide at the ambush spot, which was a small ravine that was right beside the mine tunnels. Once they were hidden in place, Amity went and stood in the largely empty base camp that the EC had set up, then watched as Steve approached Kikimora, who was still bickering with Osran.

"Ma'am, there's a call for you from the Castle." Steve said, bowing formally.

Kikimora huffed and turned her back on Osran; "Very well, lead the way." she ordered.

Steve led her over to Amity, while Osran muttered something about disrespectful youths and something about "back in his day." Once Kikimora reached the camp, she looked around from the top of her Abomaton and scowled.

"Well? What is this call?" she demanded.

"Forgive me, Ma'am. That was a ruse to separate you from the Head Witch. I didn't want him to overhear what I had to say." Amity said, her voice distorted by her illusory disguise.

"One of the Old Man's oracles? What do you want?" Kikimora snapped.

Amity gave a salute and said; "I wanted to report something. Shortly before the Carbuncles started disrupting our spirits, I was able to find a way into the mines. There is a cavern just down in that nearby ravine; it leads deep into the Knee through the Titan's Veins. I wasn't able to see how deep, but I believe it goes all the way to Eclipse Lake!"

Kikimora's eyes sparkled with greed, before she narrowed them on Amity; "And why would you tell me and not your Coven Head?"

Amity reached up to her mask and removed it (it was actually a wooden one that King had made with a plant glyph, before Luz covered it in an illusion) to reveal the change Luz had made to the illusion on Amity. Amity's face had been changed to that of a Red Claw Oni, not unlike Kikimora.

"The Head Witch hasn't made me feel very welcome in his coven, so I thought it better to help one of my own kind." Amity lied.

Kikimora grinned widely; "Thank you, Sister! You've done well! Stick with me, and I may just share some of the credit with you! See if we can't have one of our own clan finally replace that decrepit old fool! Now lead me to this tunnel!" she ordered.

Amity put the mask back on and nodded, then she and Steve flanked Kikimora and led her out of the base camp and towards the ravine that Luz, King, and Katya were hiding in. As soon as they entered it, Luz used some wind magic to whip up a gale from her hiding spot, while King used an Ice Glyph to generate huge amounts of snow, creating a mini-avalanche that quickly blocked the path out of the ravine.

"A freak wind caused an avalanche!" Steve said, pretending to gasp with horror.

Kikimora scowled; "I hate this freezing place! I want to go back home to Palm Stings…" she complained, then hopped off the Abomaton; "Go and clear that so we have a way back. I'll continue on foot." she ordered.

Amity and Steve exchanged hidden looks above Kikimora's head; they'd only blocked the path so she couldn't escape and reinforcements couldn't reach her if she called for them, but having her separate from her Abomaton worked too!

Steve led her to the very end of the ravine, while Amity hung back a little to keep an eye on the Abomaton, which was struggling to melt the snow with its magic blasts, thanks to King hiding under his invisibility combo and continuously making more snow with an ice glyph. Once Kikimora reached the end of the ravine, she looked around with a scowl, finding no signs of a cave entrance or tunnel.

"Well, where is this entrance you found?" she said impatiently.

"About that…" Amity said, drawing a spell circle and causing Kikimora's Abomaton to be torn in half and reduced to useless sludge; "… there's been a change of plans."

"What!?" Kikimora cried, as Katya, Luz, and King leapt out of their hiding places and surrounded her, all dropping their disguises (except for Steve). Rasiel even came out of his ring to make it look like Kikimora was even more outnumbered than she actually was. The little Demon's eyes narrowed on Luz, who was smiling even as she sniffled a bit; the cold of the Knee must have been getting to her.

"Hey Kiki. Long time no see." Luz grinned, sounding a bit off since her nose was stuffed.

"You! The Angel! Forget the Titan Blood; with you in my grasp, the Emperor is sure to promote me to his right hand!" Kikimora smirked.

"Nice plan in theory, but you're kinda outnumbered." Luz pointed out.

Kikimora sneered and tried to draw a spell circle, but Amity quickly bound her in some abomination slime from a pot on her hip, leaving the Demon helpless. "You wretched traitor! I'll have your head when this is finished!"

"That would be a lot more intimidating if you were, you know, actually intimidating." Katya smirked; "Let's knock her out and hide her somewhere, then we can finish our mission and take her back to base for interrogation."

Steve was just about to agree when King suddenly smelled something and began looking around, putting the others on guard. Then they all heard a tweeting sound, followed swiftly by a Coven Scout screaming as they tumbled into the ravine, apparently pulled over by something. They hit the snow face first and groaned as the rebels eyed him warily.

"A Coven Scout!" Amity growled, preparing a pink light beam.

The scout sat up slowly, keeping his mask on as he looked around at the bound Kikimora and rebels pointing staves and spells at him. Nervously, he gulped and raised his hands; "Uh, yes! I am but a humble scout! I surrender?"

Amity, Katya, and Steve looked bewildered, while Luz and Kikimora both narrowed their eyes. Luz wasn't sure if it was just the stuffy feeling in her head, but this scout sounded very familiar. King seemed to think the same thing as he reached up and slapped off the scout's mask, revealing that it was actually none other than Hunter the Golden Guard.

"I knew I recognised that annoying voice!" King glared.

Hunter actually looked a bit hurt; "Why does everyone say that…?"

"This is the Golden Guard?" Amity questioned, still pointing her light spell at him; "He is a lot… scrawnier than I imagined."

Hunter growled; "And you're the youngest Blight. A lot more treacherous than I imagined."

The girl rolled her eyes; "Scathing." she deadpanned, "I guess you weren't promoted for your skill with words."

Luz giggled and waved; "Hey Sad Bad Boy! Where's your sister?"

"At home in the castle. I decided to handle this on my own." Hunter replied, "And stop calling me that!"

Luz laughed at his angry pout, but her laughter quickly became a hacking cough. Her friends looked at her in concern, especially as her throat began to really hurt, making the coughing quite painful. It wasn't as bad as when she lied, but it was still unpleasant.

"Uh, are you okay?" Hunter asked, raising a concerned eyebrow; "You don't look so good."

The Arch-Angel cast another healing spell on herself to fix whatever was wrong with her throat, as well as clear her sinuses again. "I'm fine now. I guess my throat is still a little tired from class, and the cold air up here isn't helping. Also, is the air a little thin this high up too? Breathing feels a bit harder."

Amity and King exchanged concerned glances, as did Steve and Katya. But while they were all looking at each other or focused on Luz, Kikimora was able to wriggle enough to make a finger-shaped whistle fall out from her collar. She had to squirm on the floor like a bug to get it into her mouth, but once she did, she blew on it sharply, drawing all attention back to her. Amity immediately shot her light blast at the whistle, vaporising it as she used the abomination slime she'd bound Kikimora with to hold her in the air.

"Did that whistle get the attention of the other scouts!?" Amity asked urgently.

Luz quickly made herself invisible with an illusion and flew up a little to see towards the dig site, but saw no signs of a reaction from any of the Coven members. She sighed with relief and flew back down (feeling a little woozy after her sudden ascent).

"Doesn't look like it. Whatever she was planning didn't work." Luz said, becoming visible again and landing behind Hunter so she was ready if he tried to run.

Kikimora just smirked; her collar pulled down enough that they could see her mouth for the first time; "I wouldn't be so sure, Corrupted Angel!"

There was a sudden roar in the distance, and they all looked up to see something flying towards them from behind the clouds. As it got closer, Luz and her friends paled.

"DRAGON!" Steve cried, quickly casting a spell to pull three stalagmites out of the ground and launch them at the approaching creature.

The Dragon easily weaved around the projectiles and landed in the ravine so it could glare down at the occupants. They stared up at the beast with horror, as it was quite a terrifying sight even for a dragon! It was an Amphithere (meaning it had a long snake-like body as well as wings), but that was where the common aspects of it ended. The dragon appeared to be constructed from hands and fingers, matching Kikimora's Claw Oni appearance; it was teal coloured with two four-fingered hands clasped together to form its head, with fangs on the inside of each finger along with a sharp black talon on the ends, and a barbed tongue coming from where the palms meet. The finger nails of the thumbs served as the creature's eyes, and were red and terrifying. The dragon's wings also took the form of giant hands with thumbs on its shoulders and six webbed together fingers making up the brunt of the wings. Lastly, it had dozens of little finger nubs serving as centipede-like legs, and it had a giant hand on the end of its tail too, plus odd purple pustules on its back and horns on the hands that made up its head.

"A Clasping Amphithere! That's a breed of Lesser Dragon." Rasiel said, eyes narrowed; "It's a strong beast, but only a beast! It lacks intelligence or any kind of breath weapon. Compared to the likes of Zara and Godric, it might as well be a literal worm."

His words snapped the others out of their shock and they all focused on the dragon, ready to team up and defeat it! Kikimora (whom Amity stuck to her back like she was in a baby sling) screamed to the dragon; "Princess eat them all! But keep the Angel alive!"

Luz and the others blinked at the name "Princess", but they were soon distracted by it snarling and lunging at Amity, aiming to free its mistress first. Amity leapt back and blasted its open maw with a pink light blast from her staff while using her other hand to control some abomination slime and turn it into a simple sword to parry the creature's surprisingly hard tongue. The beast powered through the light blast, but it was quickly sent smacking into the side of the ravine by a double sonic blast from King and Katya, the former using his roar and the latter using a magically empowered slap to her tambourine. The impact stunned it for a moment, giving Luz and Steve a window to act; the former growing roots from the ground to try and bind Princess's body to the ground while Steve manipulated the earth beneath them with some Earth Magic to try and bind its jaws shut.

However their focus on Princess meant they'd taken their eyes off of Hunter, who hadn't yet been restrained. Seeing his opportunity to perhaps capture Luz, who clearly wasn't feeling too hot, he summoned Flapjack into his hands in staff form and immediately flashed towards Luz, tackling her to the ground. He then grabbed the back of her winter coat and tried to flash away from the others before they could react. Luz was disoriented and felt her head spin from the sudden rapid movement, but gathered her wits enough to release a burst of wind from her entire body, blowing Hunter away from her and causing them both to go tumbling into the snow at the top of the Ravine.

"Luz!" Amity cried, preparing to go after her, only for Princess to worm its finger-maw out of Steve's attempted muzzle and devour it, before chewing through Luz's roots to attack the youngest Blight. King tried to stop it with another roar, but Princess slithered through the air to avoid it, then backhanded him into Steve, making them both fall down. Amity was then forced to dodge a whip-like lash from Princess's tongue, before creating an abomination to hold the tongue and gum up Princess's mouth. She then summoned her Oracle Spirit and ordered it to wrestle the creature's tail and keep it occupied while she tried to get to Luz. Princess wasn't one for being ignored though, and even with its jaws and tail occupied, it could still fly and move, so it slammed its body toward Amity, cutting off her attempts to fly towards Luz.

Seeing this, Luz yelled out; "Hermosa, I'm fine! I can handle the Golden Goof! You worry about Princess!"

At that moment, Hunter darted towards Luz from where he'd landed, intentionally firing blasts of yellow flame into the snow around Luz to kick up steam and smoke clouds to obscure her vision. Luz used her wind magic to easily blow it all away, then shot a light beam at Hunter. He flashed to the side, trying to get around Luz's flank, and she tried to follow him, but the fast movement made her head spin and she found herself swooning. Her eyes were seeing double and everything felt like it was wobbling, making it hard for her to stay on her feet. She staggered a bit, then tried firing another light beam. Luz thought her aim was true and she'd hit Hunter, but she'd mistakenly aimed at one of the doubles that her messed up vision had produced, giving Hunter the window he needed to get behind her and hit her in the back with a bolt of magic.

Luz screamed and fell forward in the snow, shakily casting a healing spell to try and fix whatever was wrong with her. It worked for a few seconds, giving her a chance to stand up, but the effort made her nauseous and the poor girl nearly collapsed again, ready to throw up. Hunter watched her with a frown; she was clearly not in good health, and he felt pretty rotten fighting her in this state…

"Oh well. Once I get her back to the castle, Uncle can fix her up; body and soul." he decided.

While this was happening, Amity and the others were still dealing with Princess, who was surprisingly slippery for something so large. After it had cut off Amity's attempts to get to Luz, it had attempted to maul her to free its master, eventually chewing up Amity's abomination and swallowing it to free its maw. It then turned to bite at the spirit holding its tail, but Rasiel flew up and distracted it. Princess wasn't smart enough to realise Rasiel was just a spirit, so each time she attempted to eat him, he just phased through her mouth and flapped his astral wings in her face. This left her wide open for Katya and Steve to launch a combo attack, the former user Myla's Requiem to begin growing crystals on spears of rock that Steve was pulling out of the wall of the ravine, creating razor sharp crystal spears that he could launch at Princess. Kikimora (who could see what was happening behind Amity thanks to being strapped to her back) screamed for Princess to evade the spears, and Princess immediately took to the skies to escape the projectiles, them went barrelling down on Amity again, mouth open wide and all its teeth and talons pointed right at the girl.

King tried to stop it by firing off a sonic shout straight into Princess's open mouth, but he was a moment too late and Amity had to rapidly summon her spirit back to her and have it sweep herself and King out of the way at the last second. Steve and Katya also had to dive out of the way as Princess couldn't stop fast enough and ended up crashing through the wall of the ravine, exposing a collapsed mine tunnel and a nest of Carbuncles.

These were small white furred creatures that resembled rabbits, having the ears and hindquarters of wild rabbits, but also having a puppy like torso and fore-paws, a head that resembled a Fennec Fox, and the eyes and tail of a cat, not unlike Ghost. They all had red crystals on their heads too; the adults having sharp, unicorn-like horns while the babies and juveniles had little smooth pearl-like crystals instead.

"Huh, guess there really was a tunnel over here! The Carbuncles must be why the Oracles didn't find it…" King commented, watching the creatures flee further into the tunnels.

He didn't have long to observe them however, as Princess soon came roaring out from the tunnel. Unfortunately for her though, crashing into the ravine had resulted in a lot of loose rock and rubble, which Steve manipulated into a sandstorm to disrupt the Dragon's attempts to fly to her master's side. With Princess roaring and trying to escape the sandstorm, Katya had an opening to play another Bardic Song on her tambourine, opting for the Rondo of Rending, which created red and gold discs of magic (like the cymbals on her tambourine) that Katya shot at Princess. It severed one of the fingers that made up Princess's right hand-wing, causing her to roar in pain and crash land, hitting the ground not far from where Luz and Hunter were fighting.

The witches got onto their staves (King hitching a ride with Amity and Steve with Katya) and darted over to it. King jumped off as they flew over Princess, and tossed a paper wind glyph beneath him before unleashing a sonic roar on it, creating a massive hurricane roar that blasted the dazed dragon straight into the ground so hard that it resulted in a crater. It also broke his fall, so King landed safely on Princess then hopped off so Amity could bind it thoroughly with abominations.

"That's one problem taken care off! Now to help out- LUZ!" Amity suddenly cried, looking back towards the edge of the cliff overlooking the short ravine. Luz was panting on her hands and knees, looking pale and extremely sick, while Hunter stood over her menacingly, his staff crackling with yellow electricity.

"Get away from her!" Amity demanded, running with King, Katya, and Steve, while Rasiel floated along beside them. Seeing them coming, Hunter hastily grabbed Luz by the back of her coat and forced her into a kneeling position between him and the rebels, while pointing his staff at her threateningly.

"Hold it right there. I don't want to hurt Luz, but I won't hesitate if you give me no choice!" he said seriously.

Amity growled and grabbed Kikimora from her back, then made a knife with abomination slime and held it to her throat; "If you hurt Luz then I'll hurt your colleague!" she threatened.

Hunter snorted; "Go right ahead."

"Do you think we're bluffing? We'll do anything to protect our own!" Katya yelled, ready to fire off a spell of her own with her tambourine.

"I'm sure you will. I just don't care." Hunter said casually; "Kikimora hates me and the feeling is mutual. If our positions were reversed, she'd hurt Luz out of spite just so you'd hurt me in return. I literally lose nothing by letting you kill her."

Kikimora sneered at the boy, but noticeably didn't act surprised or deny his accusation. Amity held the knife a little closer to the Demon's neck, but Hunter didn't even raise an eyebrow. Instead he said; "The only way for Luz to get out of here unscathed is to do as I say. I'm feeling generous, so let Kikimora go and I'll take Luz and leave without a fuss. If you kill her, I'll still be leaving with Luz, but I'll also be sure to alert Head Witch Osran and the others about you." he looked down at Luz, whose head was beginning to droop down as her condition got worse; "I suggest you decide quickly, before Luz keels over entirely."

Amity grit her teeth furiously, but she and the others already knew they were in a no-win situation. Their hostage was useless, and with Luz clearly sick, she hadn't been able to stand up to Hunter despite the difference in power between them. Reluctantly, Amity withdrew her knife and dumped Kikimora to the ground, recalling all her abomination slime in the process, which freed Kikimora and her pet dragon Princess.

As the little demon was getting to her feet and brushing the snow off herself, Hunter grinned; "You're welcome, Kiki. I'll let you get on with your hunt for the Titan Blood; I've got something much better to bring back now."

Kikimora fumed; it was humiliating to be saved by the Golden Brat! And for him to piggyback on her mission and claim a bigger prize!? That was unacceptable! As the rebels were distracted by the brat, Kiki walked over to Princess and drew a spell circle, summoning a saddle onto her back. She climbed on, as if to fly back to the dig site, but then suddenly yelled.

"Princess! Devour them all and claim the Angel! I won't let that brat take my prize!"

Instantly, Princess lunged for Hunter and Luz, whipping her tongue out to bind Luz while her fangs bore down on Hunter. The Golden Guard was shocked by the blatant attack and quickly used his flash spell to zip backwards into the ravine, where he had cover from Princess. He'd hoped Princess would then go for the rebels, but just as before when she was focused on saving her mistress, now she was focused on capturing Luz, so the dragon flew down into the ravine too, while Kikimora shot blasts of red and purple magic at the rebels.

Steve blocked them by raising the snow up and compacting it into ice, then leapt over the newly made barrier with Katya as the two rode through the air on the back of Katya's staff. Steve conjured some icicles and fired them towards Princess's wings, while Katya drew spell circles around her hands, then clapped them together to create an explosive sound wave that propelled the icicles even faster. They stabbed into Princess's wings caused her to crash into the ground inside the ravine. Kikimora snarled; "I will have your heads!" as she began shooting more blasts of magic.

Meanwhile, Amity had used her pink fire magic to melt a hole through the ice wall Steve made and flew down in pursuit of Hunter. As he saw her coming, he once again pointed his staff at Luz to make Amity back off, but before he could make any threats, he felt a sharp pain in his forearm. King suddenly appeared, having used an invisibility glyph combo to hide himself back before Amity had released Kikimora, as Hunter had overlooked him. He'd used the distraction to sneak over to Hunter, and had held onto his cape when he'd flashed away from Princess's attack, leaving him in the perfect position to bite the Golden Goof.

Hunter yelled and tried to shake King off, which gave Luz the opportunity to gather her wits enough to heal herself and erase the symptoms she'd been feeling. Now that her health had been restored (for however long it would last this time), Luz was able to flap her wings hard, imbuing them with fire magic to force Hunter to let go of her coat, then she spun around and grabbed King by the scruff of his neck with one hand and blasted wind at Hunter with the other, sending the boy flying back into the tunnel they'd unearthed just a few minutes ago. Hunter hit the tunnel wall hard enough to make his staff go flying, but it transformed back into Flapjack in mid-air and began flying back.

"Oh no you don't!" Amity cried as she hopped off her staff and ran towards them. She threw her own staff like a javelin towards Flapjack, and it turned back into Ghost in mid-air and grabbed the Red Cardinal Palisman in her jaws, holding him gently yet firmly.

"Flapjack!" Hunter cried, only for Luz to immediately bind him in some vines, before her symptoms began to return and she started feeling sluggish. With Hunter and his Palismen out of the way for the moment, Amity rushed to Luz's side to help her, while King decided to leave his sister in her girlfriend's capable hands and ran out to help Katya and Steve deal with Kikimora and Princess.

Rasiel flew behind him, and noted that the damage they'd done to Princess had already been healed. "Clasping Amphitheres are notorious for their rapid regeneration. You can cut off its head and it'll regrow the rest of its body within an hour! You need to destroy the head to kill it." Rasiel told King.

"Well then let's start with this!" King replied, grabbing a trio of paper fire glyphs from inside his neckerchief and slapping them on the ground in front of him. Each caused a fireball to pop out, and King blasted them with a shout of "Weh!" to send a flaming sonic roar blasting into Princess, burning her underbelly and forcing her to take flight. Katya flew above Princess, then while still in the air, she converted her Palisman Rumba back into tambourine mode and slapped its top hard, creating a powerful sonic boom down at Kikimora and Princess. The result had them nearly hitting the ground again, but before Katya could switch Rumba back to staff mode and fly away, Kikimora managed a lucky shot with her magic and shot Rumba out of Katya's hand, causing her to scream as she fell towards the ground.

"I've got you!" Steve cried, casting a spell at the ground beneath him to launch him towards Katya, catching her and allowing him to break her fall. The two were safe, but now they were prone right beside Princess's tail, and she whipped it down on them. King protected them by using his Monster glyph combo to summon a Titan Arm from the side of the ravine and had it grasp Princess's tail, essentially arm wrestling with it. King's magically created arm was the stronger one, and not only did it smash Princess's tail into the ground and break several of its fingers, but it was also able to grab the section of the tail beneath the hand and began spinning Princess around in the air like a lasso, forcing Kikimora to hold on for dear life.

Struggling not to throw up while holding onto Princess's saddle, Kikimora managed to get a shot off and hit the Titan Arm Construct with a purple bolt of magic, causing it to let go and send them both flying into the distance.

Kikimora and Princess recovered from their dizziness in time to avoid crashing, instead coming to a stop in mid-air. They looked ready to try and attack again, but then Kikimora looked behind her towards the Dig Site, where some of the scouts were beginning to head over to the ravine, having heard the sounds of battle. Outnumbered and outmatched, Kikimora decided to reverse those odds!

"Princess, to the camp! We'll gather the full force of the coven against these rebels!" Kikimora ordered.

Steve quickly cast a lightning spell to try and zap the two out of the sky, while Katya summoned Rumba back to her side and created a shockwave from her tambourine, but Princess slithered through the air and avoided both spells, quickly getting out of range.

"Uh oh. We'll never reach her before she gets to the dig site. We're about to be massively outnumbered." Steve frowned.

"What should we do? Try to flank them and sneak back in in disguises again?" Katya suggested.

"We can't! Luz is seriously sick! And we've got that Golden Goof to worry about too. They're in the tunnel over there." King replied urgently.

"Let's go make sure Luz is okay then. If we hide in the tunnels and block the entrance, we'll buy ourselves some time before the EC comes after us." Steve said, finally lifting his mask so his face could be seen.

The three of them then headed back to the tunnel entrance, where they found Amity nursing a clearly sick Luz while Ghost held onto Flapjack and glared at Hunter, who was glaring straight back. King quickly told Amity what was going on with Kikimora while Steve cast a spell to trigger a mini-avalanche, filling the ravine outside with snow, then sealing the tunnel shut with an earth spell. This plunged them all into darkness, but King activated the light glyph that Luz had carved into his medallion all the way back on the day they met, creating a soft light to illuminate the tunnel.

"Alright, we should be safe now. Even if they dig through all the snow, they won't know where in the ravine the tunnel entrance is." Steve said, then turned to look at Luz.

The girl was panting and struggling to breath, her cheeks were flushed and her nose had turned a dark purplish colour. She was also sniffling and coughing, with every cough making her wince from pain in her throat. Katya knelt down beside her and carefully felt her forehead, which was damp with sweat. Luz had quite the fever, as well as a pounding headache and nausea.

Katya frowned and tapped a little rhythm on her tambourine, which caused Luz's body to glow red and gold for a moment.

"What are you doing?" Amity asked.

"The Ditty of Diagnosis. It uses magic sound waves like a sonar in a person's body to find illnesses and the like." Katya explained, carefully keeping her rhythm. When she was done, she frowned and shook her head.

"Bad news. Luz has the Common Mold." Katya said.

"I-Is that like a Cold? It feels like a really bad Cold…" Luz mumbled.

"I don't know what that is. But the Common Mold is a fungal infection that spreads rapidly in the colder months. Normally, you'd be bedridden for a day or two then bounce back. But you've exacerbated it." Katya frowned.

"What do you mean?" Amity asked.

Katya sighed; "Luz has been casting healing spells on herself to try and cure the sickness. But that doesn't work with the Mold; the spores replicate too fast and adapt to any magic cast on it. That's why we treat the symptoms but don't try to cure the Mold itself, and just let it run its course. Because Luz had been trying to cure herself, the Mold has adapted and worsened. It's one step away from evolving into a case of the Black Mold!"

The Demon Realm natives all gasped; the Black Mold was a lethal! It killed 60% of those infected by it! It's existence was why people didn't try to cure the Common Mold! If Luz caught it, her body would be overcome by white fungus that would drain her of blood, slowly becoming black, until she died and was fully consumed by the fungus.

"Is she gonna be okay!?" King cried.

"Luckily, we caught on to what was happening before it could get that far, but Luz is still fragile. She should pull through fine, assuming she doesn't use her magic too much and her body doesn't get roughed up." Katya said; "On the bright side, I know a few spells to treat the symptoms without bothering the Mold, AND since its now adapted to Luz's magic, the spores won't spread to us so we shouldn't get sick."

The others all sighed with relief, even Hunter, who'd been nervous ever since hearing Luz was sick. He knew something had been wrong since she'd never have gone down so easily otherwise, so he was happy to hear she'd be fine.

Katya then began casting the spells she'd talked about, tapping rhythms on her tambourine to cure Luz's headache and nausea, as well as sooth her throat and improve her breathing. The spells targeted the damage Luz's body did to itself to fight off the Mold, so the Mold itself didn't adapt further. Luz was still left feeling weak and with a stuffy nose, but at least now she felt like she could walk, or even fight if she had to.

As Katya worked, Amity looked at Luz with a worried frown; "Why didn't you tell us you were sick?" she asked, very upset.

"I really didn't know!" Luz said honestly; "I just figured it was a bunch of little things, like straining my throat in class or the cold air or something. I've rarely gotten sick; Mami always cured me of human sicknesses, so I only really suffered from them if I got sick at school or something."

Amity sighed; "You need to take better care of yourself, and be more mindful of your health!" she gently scolded.

"Sorry Hermosa…" Luz mumbled, feeling like she'd disappointed her girlfriend.

"It's fine, Luz." Amity said, stroking her beloved's hair; "I just worry about you. But what should we do now? Do we turn back? We've got the Golden Guard as a captive so the mission isn't a total failure."

"No!" Luz cried; "I can keep going! Katya's spells helped a ton, and I can take it easy. Don't let me be the reason we failed a mission!"

The other rebels frowned, seeing how desperate Luz was to continue. King and Amity both understood her desire to not be seen as a failure or a screw up after her time in the Human Realm, but both were also worried her condition would get worse and she'd be in serious danger! Steve and Katya were similarly concerned, while Hunter just wanted to avoid being taken prisoner back to the rebels, who'd do who knows what to him. Luz was merciful; her cohorts and manipulators might not be!

"Turning back probably isn't even an option." he said quickly, hoping to sway them. "Outside is going to be swarming with scouts. You'll never sneak by them all. Your best bet is to keep going deeper in and hope to find another exit. Heck, with everyone outside hunting for you, you might just make it to Eclipse Lake and take the blood before Kikimora can."

Steve frowned; "He's got a point. If Luz was healthy, we'd probably be able to break through their ranks and escape, but with her sick… It might actually be safer for us all to press on and find another way out."

"And we might as well complete the mission while we're at it. We'll need to make sure Luz hangs back though." Katya agreed.

Amity got a gleam in her eye; "I'll handle that." she said, before conjuring an abomination and having it pick Luz up and put her on her back, so Amity was carrying her in a piggyback. Luz squeaked in surprise, then blushed adorably, her ears fwipping up and down with delight.

"There. Now I can make sure you're all comfy, safe, and not exerting yourself." Amity smiled, like the cat that got the cream.

Luz blushed even brighter and nuzzled into Amity's back. "Aren't I heavy?" she whispered shyly.

"You're actually pretty light. I think you angels must have bones like a bird, because I could carry you around all day." Amity said with a wink.

Steve and Katya smiled at their adorable flirting, while Rasiel and King focused on examining Luz and making sure she was actually feeling better. Hunter just rolled his eyes and said; "Why didn't you just have the abomination carry her?"

Naturally he was ignored, and the abomination was instead turned into a bird cage to hold Flapjack, so Amity could turn Ghost back into staff mode. Seeing as the girls were now ready to go, Steve got them all into formation as they began heading deeper into the tunnel system. Steve led the way with King on his shoulder, since his collar was providing the light, while Katya followed behind and dragged along Hunter, whom she'd further bound with a magic rope of musical notes to insure he walked obediently behind her. Amity, Luz, and Rasiel walked together at the back of the formation, both to keep an eye on Hunter ahead of them and so Rasiel could monitor Luz's condition and alert Katya if she needed more healing spells.

They initially walked in mostly silence, with the only sound in the dark tunnels being Luz and Amity whispering to each other and giggling. Hunter, who was walking right in front of them, quickly grew tired of this and decided to try and start a conversation with the rebels in front of him.

"So… who exactly are you guys? I don't think I've seen your faces before." he said casually.

"Not surprising. We scouts aren't allowed to show our faces on missions. The EC likes us to be faceless drones; guess it makes them feel better about throwing us into a meat grinder or whatever else Belos wants." Steve said, sounding surprisingly bitter about it. He'd been talking to his therapist about letting out his built-up negative emotions in a healthy way, and part of it was allowing himself to actually show when he was upset by something.

Hunter flinched; "Come on, it's not that bad! I did everything the scouts did! Being the Emperor's Nephew didn't get me any special treatment…" No, if anything it made things harder for him, and painted a bigger target on his back.

"Not too bad?" Steve repeated; "Little Dude, I get that Belos is family and you want to stand up for him, but do you even remember the stuff we had to do? The duels? The mazes with the traps? That time we were left alone up on one of the Snowy Ribs? Not to mention Belos taking everyone's Palisman…" Steve clenched his fists and took a deep breath to calm his temper. Showing negative emotions was fine, but letting them rule you wasn't; he wasn't going to take his anger out on a kid.

"Did Belos let you keep that little guy, or did you just not tell him you had him, because you knew what he'd do to the poor thing?" Steve then asked, pointing to the cage with Flapjack in it, which was hanging from Katya's staff.

Hunter didn't answer, instead looking down. That gave them all the information they needed to hear though. Steve looked away from Hunter and kept walking in silence, the tension around him palpable. King, trying to be supportive, swished his tail so it was on the back of his neck; a comforting gesture Steve seemed to appreciate. Luz watched him sadly, knowing part of the reason for Steve's bitterness was Pebbles. As happy as he was for his Palisman and his little brother, Steve was still upset over giving Pebbles up.

Feeling awkward, Hunter apologised; "I'm sorry. You had your Palisman taken too, didn't you? The only one who was allowed to keep their Palisman was Lilith, but I never knew why."

Steve looked back at him again, seeing a genuine look of regret on his face. He sighed and said; "It's fine; I appreciate the apology, but it was ultimately my fault. I chose to send my Palisman away rather than let Belos take him, but that still means I chose to abandon him when I could have just joined a different Coven. I'm not going to blame Belos for my own decisions, especially when he's already done more than enough to make me realise he has to be stopped."

"That's… actually kind of admirable." Hunter said, feeling a bit of respect for the man. Honestly, even if the Palisman thing had been his only grievance, Hunter would have understood why Steve turned on the Emperor. He didn't agree of course, but then he understood that his Uncle was acting with the greater good in mind. However listening to Steve did give him an idea; perhaps he could find out why the rebels were actually rebelling! If he could turn them away from their foolish, short-sighted actions, then maybe he could weaken the Owl Lady's forces and perhaps make Luz start to see the wisdom of Belos!

With that new plan in mind, he looked to Katya and asked; "What made you choose to fight the Emperor?"

The woman gave him a baleful glare; "Oh I don't know, maybe it was the fact they tried to ruin my life because I wouldn't let one of their members have their way with me!"

Hunter recoiled at the venom in her voice, and the others in the group looked on sympathetically. All except King (who was too young to understand such things) had heard about the incident that caused Katya to become one of Raine's apprentices; she'd told them all herself, taking pride in how she'd helped get justice for herself and her fellow orphans. It wasn't the most pleasant of stories, but Katya found strength in owning it, and in how she'd risen from those dire times to become one of the more respected members of the CATTs, as well as a founding member (even if she wasn't a leader).

"What are you talking about!? If one of my subordinates dared to do such a thing, then you've got to tell me! I won't allow anyone to do something so heinous!" Hunter declared earnestly.

Katya raised an eyebrow; "Oh yeah, I forgot you're the new Coven Head now that Lilith wised up and ditched the bonehead. Easy to do, since you're just a half-pint. Though I guess the CATTs' toughest member is a half-pint too, so I can't judge."

She shot a smirk at Luz, who weakly protested; "Hey! I'm at least a full pint! No, two full pints!"

"Batata, I think you're missing the point." Amity giggled, making Luz pout. The girl was a little loopy from the Mold; Katya's spells had taken the edge off so she could stay coherent and mostly aware of her surroundings, but she was still a bit… off.

Katya laughed at Luz's comment, then addressed Hunter again; "You can relax kid; nothing that happened to me happened on your watch. I wouldn't be talking to you if it did. Though I bet plenty of horrible things like it are happening under your nose… and would you even believe someone outside your coven if they came and told you one of your people was victimising them?" she asked, eyes boring into Hunter.

"Of course! I would at least investigate! The Emperor's Coven is supposed to preserve the order of the isles and ensure everyone's happiness!" Hunter defended himself.

"Spoken just like a brat that grew up in a castle." Katya scoffed, "Order and happiness? The only order and happiness your pals care about is their own. Your own coven mate was willing to kill you to advance, and my friend here says that's pretty common." she said, gesturing towards Steve.

"Kikimora is hardly the face of the Coven! And growing up in the castle was hardly the life of luxury you think it was. I earned my position through hard work!" Hunter said seriously, glaring at the woman.

The Bard could agree with that at least; the scars on the boy's face were clear as day, as were the bags under his eyes. "I'll give you that kid. Maybe you had it rough too after all."

The sudden 180 in tone made Hunter's head spin; these rebels were so strange! They had serious hatred for his coven, yet they didn't seem to have a particular problem with Hunter himself. He didn't understand it… but he wanted to. He truly believed in the Coven, and he wanted to know why others didn't!

"Can you tell me more? About what happened to you?" he asked.

Katya thought about it for a moment, then shrugged; she wasn't ashamed of her past and it might help pull Belos' wool out of the kid's eyes to see how others lived. "Sure. I grew up in an Orphanage in Manubrium; don't know if my parents died or abandoned me, or even what their names are. All I ever knew was the orphanage; I was a real little tomboy back then too. You might not believe it, considering the bombshell I am now!" she smirked as she stretched her body, showing her curves even through her thick furs. Everyone but King and Rasiel blushed, more than able to appreciate her physique.

"But that was before Witch Puberty. It hit hard and fast; I was one of the unlucky ones to have it all happen in a few hours." the others winced in sympathy, "I went into my room as a little tomboy, and came out looking like this. Suddenly everyone around who liked women was looking at me… including the caretaker of the orphanage." Katya said, her expression darkening.

Hunter paled; "Oh no… I heard this story. The caretaker of the orphanage in Manubrium was replaced a few months ago. Lilith went on the warpath after getting evidence of his crimes, and he and several accomplices ended up in the Emperor's dungeons. They're still rotting there from what I've heard."

"Good. But getting it that far was a royal pain, thanks to your twisted coven." Katya scowled; "The Caretaker was in your coven, and he was always a terrible person! I did his job for him most of the time and looked after the other kids, since I was the oldest one there. That's why I know spells to take care of sicknesses and stuff like it; if I didn't learn them, the kids would have suffered because Titan knows that man wasn't going to lift a finger! But once I came out of puberty looking like this, he basically said that I could be his woman, or I could get kicked out. Naturally I chose to live on the streets."

"That's terrible. It must have been difficult for you." Hunter said sympathetically; "Didn't you try to report it?"

"Of course I did, but who was there to report it to besides the EC? They wouldn't believe some street urchin over one of their own, and when I got too persistent in trying to convince one guard, they almost beat the stuffing out of me! I barely got out of there!" Katya growled at the memory; "And yeah, living on the streets was tough, but I was in the bard track at Glandus. Bards and Illusionists have a bad rep at Glandus, so if I didn't get tough then I'd get creamed. Thankfully I was only living on the streets for a year before I graduated and got to join the Bard Coven and live at their HQ. I thought my problems were done then, but that jerk from the orphanage wasn't done yet."

The bound boy gasped softly; "He came after you!?"

"In a manner of speaking. Back then, there was actually a different second in command at the Bard Coven. Raine was the Number Three and Head Witch Cadence was Number Four, while this creep was Scooter's would-be successor. His name was Deamus Zamort; a genius Sitar player and stone cold monster. He also just so happened to be buddies with the guy from the Orphanage, and thanks to him badmouthing me, Zamort hated my guts the instant I joined and put me on grunt work for months. I was even banned from playing my tambourine!" Katya said, getting angry just from remembering it.

Hunter frowned; he remembered Deamus Zamort. He was one of the men charged and imprisoned in the orphanage scandal, along with the caretaker Katya was talking about. His arrest was a big scandal in the Bard Coven and he'd been essentially blacklisted and erased from the history of the coven. Scooter Crane refused to even speak his name, and just about everyone pretended that Raine and Severin had been his only apprentices.

"Thankfully, I met a dear friend while languishing there and she brought me to Raine's attention. I told them everything and they insisted on helping me try to place a formal report against the Caretaker, as well as Zamort. Naturally no one at the coven believed me, and since Zamort outranked Raine and I, he hushed up our report to it never got to Head Witch Scooter. Raine tried to talk to Lilith, but they weren't on good terms so she wouldn't talk to them, and then Zamort started making threats. Raine didn't take that lying down though; they challenged Zamort to a witch's duel!" Katya grinned, fondly remembering that day.

"No way! Whispers was infamously timid! They really challenged Zamort to a duel!?" Hunter exclaimed.

Luz beamed proudly; "Titi is strong!"

"They are! Even Mom listens to them!" King agreed.

"Dang right!" Katya smirked; "Zamort gathered the whole coven so we could watch as he "taught the upstart a lesson". And we did watch… we watched as Raine coldly and systematically tore him apart. It was brutal; Raine didn't shout or taunt or even say a word; they just stalked around Zamort like he were a wounded Echo Mouse facing a Winged Serpent, playing their violin the whole time. By the time they were done, Zamort was a weeping mess and Raine was untouched."

Hunter opened his mouth to express his disbelief, but shut it quickly. He remembered watching Raine fight Belos briefly when helping Luz escape the palace. They were powerful and ruthless when they chose to be, and had the potential to be one of the most powerful Coven Heads… had they not chosen the path of rebellion.

Instead he said; "So Zamort was defeated and kicked lower down in the ranks?"

"Yep. Scooter heard what he'd been doing to me, and so while Raine made me their apprentice, Zamort took my old job doing grunt work. He got his revenge though; he and his EC buddies filed trumped up charges against me and got me thrown in the Conformatorium. Want to know what the formal reason for my arrest was? Writing works of Sedition. Want to know what those "works of Sedition" were? Fanfiction! Of food falling in love!" Katya yelled, still upset with the injustice even long after she'd escaped. "I'm a fugitive because of fanfiction!"

Hunter spluttered; "B-But that's completely unfair!"

"Welcome to the average Emperor's Coven experience. I was resigned to accepting my fate, but Luz, Eda, and King busted me out and gave me back my self-confidence." Katya smiled, winking at Luz over her shoulder.

Luz giggled and said; "That was my first day in the Demon Realm! Heck of a first impression!"

"The Owl Lady really got her talons in you fast!" Hunter muttered darkly.

Katya heard but ignored him as she continued her story. "I took the other escapees back to Raine and my friends, and since we'd already been planning a rebellion to get some justice, they joined up with us! We formed the Covens Against the Throne and our first order of business? Kidnapping the creepy caretaker who started the whole mess! We filled him up with so much Blabber Serum that it was practically coming out of his ears, and he sang like songbird. Then we dumped him and the evidence he'd given us in front of one of Lilith's favourite haunts. He was arrested and Lilith went after every single one of his friends involved in his little conspiracy, including Zamort. You know the rest. And that's my whole sad little story and reason for rebelling. Satisfied, Half-Pint?"

"I understand what you must have went through. It was wrong; you never should have had to go through all of that." Hunter said earnestly; "I promise to watch my coven like a hawk so it never happens again, but a few bad apples shouldn't turn you against the whole bunch! There are good people in the Emperor's Coven too!" he argued.

"Of course there are. But those good people aren't the ones in charge. So long as people like Belos rule us with an iron fist, the rebellion is going to keep going. Do you know the conditions they suffer through in the Plant Coven? Or the twisted stuff Vitimir had planned for Luz?" Katya said, pausing to turn and face the tied up boy properly. "Did you know that all of the prisoners in the Conformatorium were there for stupid reasons or no reason at all? The real criminals got sent to the Emperor's dungeons, so everyone in there was an innocent who was victimised! You can't sit there and talk about the good people inside the system when the system itself is rotten to the core! A rotten tree bearing a few healthy fruit doesn't change the fact the tree itself is beyond saving!"

Hunter stared back at Katya, realising in that moment that he'd never truly convince her or any of the CATTs. This wasn't just about the Owl Lady or her corruption; these people had real problems with the Coven System. They'd been victimised, and had stood up to fight back against and change the system that had hurt them… as misguided as Hunter thought they were, he couldn't help but feel some sympathy and respect for them. He loved to follow rules and order; he'd been raised to do just that… but when the people tasked with maintaining that order were instead creating discord, was it any surprise that the people rebelled against it?

"I… I understand what you're saying. But I can't give up on Uncle! I know what he's doing is righteous! You'll see! Once the Day of Unity comes, everything will be restored to how it should be!" Hunter argued.

The Rebels all looked at him with a mix of annoyance and pity. Just as Hunter's arguments weren't going to sway them, their own arguments weren't going to undo 15+ years of indoctrination. There was no point in trying to convince him; Hunter would need to be slapped in the face with the truth of Belos before he believed it. Luz didn't blame him though; it was hard to see your caregivers as anything but people who knew what was best.

Rasiel noted that Luz's condition was beginning to worsen again (she was sweating noticeably), and turned to Katya; "I'm sorry to interrupt, but Luz could do with some more restorative spells."

"Dang, the Mold is aggressive! Sparky's body is working hard to fight it off! Hold her still, Amity; I'll make her feel better." Katya said, handing the ends of Hunter's restraints to Steve, as well as her staff and Flapjack's cage, so she could see to Luz.

The Angel child sighed with relief as Katya began playing songs to fix her up, though she did pout a little at Katya calling her Sparky. Katya, Amber, and Derwin had all adopted the nickname from their mentor's nickname for her; Sparks, and while Luz thought it was kinda cute, it also sounded like the name of a pet puppy. She'd said this to her Titi's apprentices/all-but-adopted kids and they'd all immediately smirked and began to exclusively call her that, much to her annoyance.

As Katya was getting to work, Rasiel turned to Steve and said; "We don't know where we're heading, so I'll scout ahead. I'll phase through the walls until I find Eclipse Lake, then backtrack to you."

Steve nodded; "Got it. We've been going in a straight line for a while, but it'll be useful to know what path to follow if we reach any branches."

Rasiel was just about to head off when Hunter yelled out to him; "Hold on a second! Who are you exactly? You look like some kind of Angel! I saw your wings back in the fight, and while I couldn't count them all, I know there were at least six! But you're also kinda… see-through?"

"Oh? Am I the next person you seek to understand and turn away from my nefarious rebellion and back to the side of the Glorious Emperor Belos?" Rasiel asked with a raised eyebrow.

Hunter frowned; "Well I do want to know about that too, but can you blame me for being curious? A ridiculously handsome angel man walking around without a shirt on is kinda distracting!"

"Ridiculously handsome, huh?" Rasiel grinned as the others smirked.

Hunter blushed; "I, uh, didn't mean to say that part…"

"You're not wrong kid! Rasiel broke a lot of hearts when he turned out to be Ace!" Katya smirked.

"I'm flattered, Golden Guard. It's always nice to be seen as attractive, even if I don't care for such things." Rasiel teased, "And I have no interest in sharing my life story with you either. I am fighting against the Emperor because I wish to help Luz and my friends. I have no deeper reasons."

With that, he floated through the wall of the tunnel and went off in search of Eclipse Lake. Once he was gone, Katya (who was still working on Luz) smirked over at Hunter, who was using the break to sit down.

"So… ridiculously handsome? Seriously?" she teased.

Hunter flushed, then smirked; "So… Food falling in love? Seriously?"

"I like food and I like love! Don't judge me!" Katya snapped.

Luz, Amity, and Steve all laughed at her indignant expression, while Hunter just looked smug, relishing his minor victory. King rolled his eyes, too young to really think of love and attraction as anything but kinda gross. Katya finished making sure Luz was doing alright, then they all hung around together until Rasiel returned. It took him about twenty minutes to finally come flying back and when he did, he was clearly not happy.

"Alright, I have some good news, some bad news, and some news that could be good or bad depending on how you look at it. What do you want to hear first?" he said.

"Give us the good news; we could use some." Steve said.

"I found Eclipse Lake and we'd only have to clear either an old cave-in or melt some thick ice blocking another path to reach it." Rasiel replied.

"Okay, so what's the bad news?" Katya asked.

"The Emperor's Coven will likely be able to reach it soon too, as a squad of scouts has found another way in. We're a little ahead, but they're not far behind." he answered. "I couldn't see Kikimora or Osran though."

"Shoot! We can't easily deal with them while Luz is sick." Amity scowled; "What's the other news?"

"From what I could see, Eclipse Lake looks to have dried up. I didn't look too deep, but there was no Titan Blood that I could see, besides a few caverns of Fool's Blood. That means the EC's mission is doomed to fail, which is good… but I didn't look to see if there was any blood soaked into the lakebed, so there could be a deposit there, meaning their mission would succeed." Rasiel said, wincing slightly as he cursed himself for not looking. He'd rushed to get back to the others so they wouldn't lose their lead on the coven, and by the time he'd realised his mistake, it would just waste more time to go back and check.

"So if there is no blood, we can just sneak out of here… but if there is blood, it would mean failing our mission. And we've got no way of finding out…" Steve sighed; "I'm guessing Luz and the Carbuncles would stop you from scrying for the blood with your spirit, right Amity?"

"Sorry…" Amity sighed.

Hunter, listening to all of this, shook his head in denial; "There has to be blood! There has to be! Belos needs it to make the key for his new portal!"

"There's blood in the key?" Luz muttered in reply, clutching the key through her coat. Hunter noticed the slight gesture and his eyes widened; did Luz have the key with her!? Perhaps this mission wasn't doomed to fail after all! If only he could get free…

Steve, who was the leader of the party, rubbed his chin in thought as he weighed their options. Finally he made a decision; "We should press on. If the EC gets their hands on Titan Blood, it could be a disaster for the CATTs; we need to make sure there's none buried beneath the lake."

The others agreed, including Hunter, so they all began walking again, this time with Rasiel leading the way while Steve held Hunter's leash and Katya guarded Flapjack while bringing up the rear so she could monitor Luz's health. They opted to take the path that led to the ice wall, since Amity had strong fire magic and King was good with his fire glyph, making it much easier to melt through that then it would be to get through a caved-in Titan Vein! Since Titan Veins contained such powerful magic, only non-magical means could be used to mine into them, so they'd have had to clear the cave-in by hand.

After clearing the ice wall (which made Luz, Amity, and King feel a sense of Deja Vu), they found a small cavern that looked like it had recently been carved out. There was no sign of a lake or even a dried up lake bed though, so they clearly hadn't reached their destination yet.

"Look at the walls here! It looks like something clawed this place out! It couldn't have been the Carbuncles, right?" Katya exclaimed.

"I didn't get a good look when I scouted this place earlier… I have a feeling I know what made this cave though." Rasiel said, pointing to something in the corner of the room. It was a large nest of some kind, made of what appeared to be cyan blue hair, white scales, and serpentine shed skin. Amity, Luz, and King gasped at the sight of it.

"I'd never forget scales like that! This must have been made by Zara, the Ice Wyrm we met months ago!" Amity exclaimed.

"That thing had a name!?" Hunter yelled in surprise; "And didn't you kill it? It's bones are still outside, and this cave looks more recently carved out."

"We didn't kill her." Luz said; "It's a long story, but Supreme Dragons are actually servants of the Titan who ate a Dragon's heart and the five humours of the Titan to become super powerful! They can shed the bones of their dragon forms to turn back into witches, so Zara is still alive."

"She must have come down here searching for Eclipse Lake too. The Primordial Wellspring it contained would have been what she needed to recover her strength… sadly it looks like she left empty handed." Rasiel said, kneeling beside the nest of scales. King hopped off Steve's shoulder to take a closer look too, and noticed some red scales mixed in with the white ones.

"Look at these! Do you think Godric came here too?" he asked.

"He must have done! He did say he'd go looking for Zara after leaving Volcarpalis." Amity replied, stooping to take a closer look while being mindful of Luz on her back.

"I hope he caught her before she left! It'd be nice if they're travelling together." Luz commented.

Hunter blinked; "Sorry, but who's Godric?"

"The Fire Drake that guarded the Fire Temple at Volcarpalis." Luz replied casually.

"Luz fought him in single combat and won." Rasiel helpfully added. "That was right before Lilith caught her."

Hunter went pale; Luz had fought and defeated a Fire Drake before she'd become an Arch-Angel!? And his Uncle was an even match for her!? Luz and Belos were clearly even more powerful than he'd given them credit for!

Naturally, none of the others felt the need to mention that Godric had been in witch form and so not at full power; it was funnier to let Hunter assume.

"Well at least now we know where the ice wall came from. Eclipse Lake is right ahead." Steve said, before looking back to the others; "Katya and I will go ahead and check for the Titan Blood; you kids can stay here and rest, while Rasiel scouts out another exit from the tunnels."

"Good idea. I'll begin the search immediately." Rasiel said, walking through a nearby wall to begin looking for the closed way out of of the tunnels.

Once he'd walked off, Katya handed Flapjack's cage to Amity, while Steve tied Hunter's leash to a stalagmite he raised out of the ground with some earth magic, before they both headed through the straight tunnel towards Eclipse Lake. Luz was feeling okay for now, so Amity let her down from her back so the two could chat face to face, while King kept a sharp eye on both Hunter and Flapjack, assisted by Ghost. Hunter watched him straight back, still not sure what he was… he'd insisted he wasn't a bird, so was he a dog? A rat? Some kind of goat? He had the horns for it…

As he was debating asking King exactly what kind of demon he was, Hunter felt something pulling at the abomination slime behind him. He looked over his shoulder, expecting it to maybe be a playful carbuncle, but then blinked in surprise as he saw a pair of gloved hands emerging from his shadow on the cave wall, as well as the upper half of a very familiar silver mask. It was his sister! He was sorely tempted to demand to know what she was doing there, but opted to keep silent so as not to expose her; if she got him free from his restraints, then they could maybe catch Luz while she was weak! If she had the portal key on her, they'd be bringing their uncle both of the pieces he needed for the Day of Unity!

He pretended to be scratching his cheek on the wall behind him so he could watch what Silver was doing without King noticing. She had given up on trying to pull away the abomination slime and had instead conjured a small knife that she began using to cut through the slime, imbuing the knife with a black and purple darkness magic aura to add a decaying effect to hasten the process. The instant she fully cut through the slime, a lot of things all happened at once.

The slime, which was somewhat elasticated, snapped off of Hunter like a rubber band, drawing everyone's attention. Leaping to his feet and with his hands now free, Hunter snapped his fingers to summon Flapjack to his hands out of the cage, turning him into staff mode immediately. King had been watching him and shot a sonic roar at him almost instantly, and while it hit Hunter head on and should have sent him smashing into the cave wall, Hunter had been able to activate his flash spell and zip away a short distance before he could make impact. As soon as he reappeared, he tried to fire a lightning bolt at Amity, hoping to zap her and kidnap Luz while she was stunned, but since Silver wasn't aware of his plan, she grabbed his ankles from inside his shadow, then pulled him in, making him disappear with a startled yelp.

It took a second for the kids to properly register what had just happened, before Luz gasped; "That was the Silver Sentinel! She must have been following us the whole time!"

"They won't leave without the Titan Blood, so they must have gone after Steve and Katya!" Amity said, getting to her feet and pulling Luz onto her back again.

"After them! They're strong together, but if we can separate them then we can catch them both!" King declared, running on all fours in pursuit of the pair. Amity switched Ghost to staff form and flew after them, scooping up King as she passed him and headed into the tunnel.

From Zara's cave campsite, it was a short, straight tunnel leading directly to Eclipse Lake, and thanks to their haste, Amity and the others arrived just as Hunter and Silver were leaping out of Steve's shadow, the former aiming his prepared lightning spell at the back of the man's head.

"Steve! Watch out!" Luz cried, firing a bolt of light magic towards Hunter. Her shout had ensured he saw it coming, but also made him pause in attacking Steve so he could turn and fire the lightning back at Luz instead, causing their spells to collide and create a small explosion of light and electricity. Steve spun around and coated his fist in stone before punching at Hunter, forcing the boy to flash out of the way, while Katya ducked the swing from Silver's knife and whistled a tune to coat her palm in wind magic, which she blasted into Silver's stomach and sent her flying into the wall of the giant cavern of Eclipse Lake. She hit the wall with a groan, dropping her knife in the process, then immediately sank into the shadows and re-emerged from her brother's, brandishing the staff Hunter had lent her while holding her ribs with the other hand.

Amity gently put Luz down on the ground and summoned a pair of abominations to guard her, then went with King to stand beside Steve and Katya, who were staring the duo down. As she did, she took a good look at Eclipse Lake… or rather, what had once been Eclipse Lake.

It was a massive cavern made from one of the Titan's capillaries, which had burst open sometime after he'd passed away, resulting in the current cavern. Pieces of the tiny (by Titan standards) blood vessels were scattered around the cavern, looking like dead trees made of blue rubbery flesh. Parts were sinking into the ground as well as the slightly muddy soil that had once been the bed of Eclipse Lake. The crater that had once served as the Primordial Wellspring was still present (and all but Luz were standing in it), but there was no sign of blood at all; it had all dried up or been stolen years ago. There was also a large hole in the ceiling that led to the outside, letting in a bit of the evening light.

As Amity was looking around, she noticed some Carbuncles peeking out from nests and tiny holes dug around the cavern and into the remains of the Titan's veins, all watching to see what was happening.

"So your partner showed up to save you? Sorry to say that you wasted your time." Katya said, pointing her staff at the Emperor's elites; "The blood really is all dried up. My buddy here already scanned deep down with Earth Magic and its nothing but mud and some deeply buried Fool's Blood."

Silver tensed, but Hunter put a soothing hand on her shoulder as he smirked; "Thanks for the concern, but our prize is right over there." he pointed his staff towards Luz. He then whispered to Silver; "She's sick and weak right now, AND she has the Portal Key. If we're smart, we can get everything Uncle needs for the Day of Unity! We just need to nab her and escape."

Silver looked at her staff and felt the magic inside it; Hunter had used it only a little since Belos gave it to him, and Silver had used a fair bit of magic to pursue him to the Knee then stealthily follow him through the shadows, so there wasn't a massive amount left. Still, if she was conservative then she should be able to help her brother fight!

Amity just glared and replied; "You'll have to go through us!"

"That can be arranged!" Hunter declared, before flashing towards Luz at high speed. However before he could reach her, he suddenly found himself going off course and reappearing atop a strange black pillar that Steve had summoned with his magic.

"That flash of yours uses lightning magic. so a lightning rod is just what we need!" Steve grinned, before throwing a punch at the boy. He was so far away that Hunter was confused as to why he'd bother, but then the rocky gauntlet Steve had coated his fist in flew off on its own and slammed into Hunter's gut, making him groan. Silver jumped into the shadows and tried to reach him, but Amity disrupted her by creating a flash of light, destroying all the nearby shadows and forcibly ejecting Silver through her own shadow. Amity then whirled around and swing Ghost at the girl, cladding the Palisman in light to make her into a light glaive.

Silver countered with a similar tactic, coating the head of her artificial staff in shadow magic and creating a spear-like blade of darkness, which clashed against Amity's staff. The light and dark magic colliding began to react, and Amity quickly pulled Ghost away from the clash before the magic exploded. Silver managed to avoid it by sinking into the shadows at the last moment, but Katya borrowed Amity's trick and made a flash of light with her tambourine, destroying the shadows and forcing Silver back out, where the Bard girl could hit her with another Bardic Spell. The song she performed was the Ballad of Beetles, and conjured a giant green beetle construct similar to Katya's Palisman, which flew at Silver and rammed her with its horn. Thankfully for her the horn wasn't sharp, but it still sent her flying.

Hunter growled as he recovered from being winded, and shot a blast of yellow fire at Steve's lightning rod to melt it just as King hit him with another sonic roar. The boy felt his flesh rippling, but with the lightning rod gone, he was able to flash away before he hit the wall and caught his sister, the flashed back away so they could regroup.

"Don't let them team up! Keep them separate!" King yelled, immediately throwing down a Monster Glyph Combo to create a giant Titan Head, which opened beneath the Silver Sentinel and aimed to trap her in its maw. She tried to sink into the shadows, but Amity once again stopped her with a flash of light, while Steve conjured and fired a metal rod towards Hunter, which would once again serve as a lightning rod to disrupt his flash teleport spell. Hunter countered by blasting the rod with fire, but this meant Silver had no one to pull her out of King's trap in time, and she was promptly captured inside the conjured Titan Head.

"Sis!" Hunter cried, only for Amity to force him to flee away from his trapped sister by conjuring a pair of abominations and making them leap on him. With the second lightning rod already gone, he was able to flash into the air, where he roared in anger and sent lightning arcing from the end of his staff and into the abominations, causing them to rapidly heat up and melt into slurry. At the same moment, King yelped in shock as dozens of spears suddenly impaled outward from his conjured Titan Head, each one glowing with purple and black magic that began to decay the Titan Head.

As the flesh rotted away, exposing blue magic instead of blood and gore, the Silver Sentinel became visible within the growing gaps of the skull that was left behind. She was panting, an aura of darkness around her as her eyes glowed purple behind her mask. She then conjured a massive war hammer, then infused it with shadow magic before swinging it hard, shattering the skull that was left behind and sending bone dust and fragments in all directions, before the remains of King's conjured monster vanished,

"Sis, are you okay?" Hunter asked urgently, flashing back to her side as the rebels were shocked by the display of magic.

Silver began to sign shakily; "I'm tired, but I can keep going. Let's capture the Angel quickly and get out of here."

Hunter nodded, and both elites raised their staves, causing the spears Silver had created to rise up and become infused with electricity on top of the shadow magic already coating their points. The two then launched them at the rebels, forcing them all to block; Steve by raising a stone wall, Katya by slapping her tambourine to create a shockwave, King by conjuring a wall of ice, and Amity by summoning back the abomination that she'd tried to use on Hunter. Katya was fine, as her shockwave knocked away the spears aimed at her, but the combination of decaying dark magic and electrifying lightning magic allowed the other spears to plough through the other's defences. King was thankfully small enough that he was able to avoid most of the attacks, but Steve took a few glancing blows and the electricity from the spears made him scream and convulse. Amity was just barely able to throw herself to the floor to avoid the same fate, but then discovered several of the spears had been aimed at Luz; or more specifically her abomination guards.

The electrified spears splattered the abominations and decayed the slime to the point of becoming unstable, giving Silver the window she needed to descend into the shadows and reappear from Luz's shadow, ready to grab the girl and drag her into the darkness with her. Luz held her off with a powerful flash of light, but the returning symptoms of her sickness meant the flash gave Luz a searing headache. She was unable to defend herself again, but she'd bought Amity enough time.

"King! Protect Luz!" Amity yelled, conjuring an abomination arm and having it pick King up and toss him at Luz and Silver. She wasn't fast enough to get there in time on her own, so throwing King seemed like the best plan she had.

It turned out effective too, as King slammed head first into Silver's chest, winding her with his hard skull and cracking a rib. He was a bit dazed, but he immediately followed up with a "WEH!" that released a sonic roar and blasted Silver skyward, where Amity was able to send her Oracle Spirit to grab the girl's ankle and toss her at her brother, who had been attempting to get past Katya while she used dispelling songs to disable his flash spell before he could use it.

Hunter didn't try to avoid, instead catching his sister and cushioning her with his body. They both tumbled over, but Hunter quickly recovered and helped Silver to her feet; "We need to rethink our strategy. Two VS four is not in our favour." he commented, noting that the witches were all focused on them, while King was now protecting Luz.

"I don't have a lot of strength left, but I'm sure I can beat Blight if I can just fight her one on one." Silver signed; "If we bring her down, we'll be able to use her as a bargaining chip to escape."

Hunter nodded; if they could defeat just one of the CATTs then they could get out of there. They could also potentially force Luz to give up the Portal Key; there was no way the CATTs would allow her to trade herself for any of them, so the key was the only prize they'd likely be able to escape with.

"I'm with you. The Dog won't leave Luz's side, so I can distract the older two while you deal with Blight." Hunter signed back as Amity, Katya, and Steve stared them down, each one readying magic. "I'll attack first and draw their attention, then you go for Blight, okay?"

Silver nodded, and the instant she did, Hunter activated his flash spell and dashed at Katya. She'd been readying another Dispelling Discord, which stopped his spell part way through, but his momentum still carried him directly at her, where he swung his staff at her. Katya hadn't expected that and so wasn't ready to defend herself, but Steve got between the two and blocked the blow with his own body, which he'd used a Construction Spell to harden at the cost of slowing him down a bit. As Hunter's staff collided with Steve's hardened abs, it created a mighty thunderclap that surprised everyone, giving Silver the opportunity to slide into the shadows. Amity caught on quickly and released another bright flash of light to destroy the shadows, but just like last time, Silver ended up popping out behind Amity.

She conjured a knife and threw it at the pink-haired girl's face, but Amity tilted her head to the side to dodge it, making it embed itself into the ground behind her. This was what Silver wanted however, as she snapped her finger to cause the knife (which had been infused with shadow magic) to suddenly explode, forcing Amity, Katya, and Steve to dive out of the way, separating them. Hunter then began fighting Steve and Katya, using short bursts of high speed lightning flashes to make it hard for Steve to hit him and to force Katya to keep using her Dispelling Discord to stop him completely running rings around them. It created a stalemate between the three, and kept the older CATTs out of the way while Silver faced down Amity.

"Just you and me, huh?" Amity commented; "Fine! I won't let you near my Luz! I'm taking you down!" she declared, brandishing her staff which was glowing with pink light, as a scimitar of abomination goo formed in her other hand, and both an abomination and her Oracle Spirit flanked her, all glaring at the Silver Sentinel.

The Sentinel responded by causing the shadows at her own feet to move and change, spelling out the words; "Bring it on."

Immediately after this, Silver tapped her staff against the shadows and caused them to leap off of the ground in the form of black blades of darkness, each one glowing with a purple aura. Amity tried to parry one of these blades with her abomination scimitar, but found that the decaying power of shadow magic disrupted her abominations and caused the sword to melt, meaning she'd have to use it conservatively. Instead she created a barrier to block the rest of the shadows, and while they started decaying that too, similar to Eda's Harpy Mode, Amity was able to use the barrier like a magnifying glass as she fired a beam of light from Ghost, blasting it straight at Silver.

The other girl sidestepped the blast since her shadow was currently trying to decay the barrier, and hopped on her staff and flew at Amity. She avoided the Oracle Spirit and went for Amity's abomination instead, landing on its shoulders (where her feet began to sink), then jamming her staff into its head so she could flood it with Dark Magic, causing it to blacken and crumble away to dust. Only the upper half decayed though, as Amity dropped her barrier and withdrew the rest of the slime to the pot on her belt. She also leapt onto Ghost and flew up high to avoid the resurgent shadow blades, and began channelling light magic through her Oracle Spirit.

The Oracle Spirit didn't like this, but since it wasn't holy light like Luz's magic, it wasn't hurt and in fact began to change. It's usual shape was like all Oracle Spirits; a wraith in bandages that tended to all look the same, with the exception of size and bandage placement. But as Amity's light infused it, the bandages faded and the spirit began to take on a form more akin to what it had been in life; a female witch-like figure. She was still not very distinct; her face was a silhouette with glowing pink eyes, and aside from pointed ears and long flowing hair (which also glowed pink), the spirit still appeared to be made of the usual Oracle Magic. However a ball of white light could now be seen in her chest as she flew at Silver.

Silver countered by infusing her staff with shadows to turn it into a black spear, which she tried to stab into the approaching spirit, but Amity's channelled light magic allowed the spirit to turn its long finger nails into miniature blades of light, akin to how Luz created swords and other things out of light magic. With this, the spirit was able to parry the stab, knocking Silver's spear aside with a backhand. The collision of light and dark magic once again caused a destabilising effect, but this time Silver was ready for it and fired the shadows from her staff at Amity, so when the magic exploded, it would hurt her opponent but not herself. Amity countered by capturing the projectile in a ball of abomination slime, which rapidly swelled up when the explosion happened, then decayed into nothingness from the after effects.

"Nice try, but I'm not a Top Student for nothing!" Amity yelled, running at Silver. She jumped in the air, coating Ghost in light to make her into a Light Glaive again, then blasted pink fire from the soles of her feet to launch herself at Silver. At the same moment, her Oracle Spirit lunged at Silver and began slashing at her with her claws, giving her two things to focus on. She dived under Amity's attack, descending into the shadows to escape her and the spirit, but then to her shock, Amity's Oracle Spirit reached into the shadows too and yanked her back out!

"No! Spirits like this are partly made of shadow and darkness magic! It can follow me!" Silver thought desperately, feeling more of her strength waning. But the light-infused spirit had still suffered side-effects from reaching into the darkness, as it's own hand began to destabilise just like other times light and dark magic clashed. Amity tried to stop this by willing her spirit to become incorporeal, but the effect happened too fast and the spirit couldn't make it's arm fade fast enough.

A massive explosion occurred, destroying the spirit's arm (at least until it regenerated on its own) and also blasting Amity back. She was able to protect herself with some abomination slime at the last minute, but the force of the explosion still sent her into the edge of the lake bed, where she hit her head and was promptly dazed. Silver on the other hand had managed to get away when the spirit released her to make its hand incorporeal, and she was just barely able to fly out of the way in time.

Seeing her opening, Silver switched tactics and began charging a spell on the end of her staff, before firing a bolt of purple lightning towards the prone girl. Amity's Oracle Spirit, currently one armed, blocked it with its body, resulting in it shrieking and convulsing, unable to turn incorporeal again to escape the electricity coursing through it. Its sacrifice bought Amity the time she needed to stand up, and she immediately helped it by using her own oracle magic to force it to become incorporeal, then return to her so she could pump more magic into it, restoring its lost arm.

Clenching her fists in agitation as she got closer and closer to running out of strength, Silver used her magic to summon one of the spears she'd made earlier, and infused it with both shadow magic and her dark purple lightning magic, before blasting it towards the Oracle Spirit at high speed, using a bit of wind magic to kick up a purple, shadow-like gale to accelerate it even further. She aimed it at the core of light magic Amity had infused into the spirit's chest, but Amity snapped her fingers and the spirit actually discharged all it's light magic, focusing it into the core in it's chest, then blasting the whole thing out towards Silver in a mighty blast of magic. It hit and vaporized the spear (causing a minor explosion as it destabilised the dark magic), and continued on towards Silver. Since it was a light beam, it was destroying the shadows long before it reached her, so Silver couldn't escape into them. Instead she had no choice but to drop to the floor and let the beam blast over her head, carving deeply into the other side of the lake. It had been so intense that it burned a several foot deep crevice into the edge of the lakebed!

Silver panted and got back to her feet, seeing that Amity looked a little bit winded now too. But the youngest Blight drew power from her Palisman, and channelled more light into her spirit to make it return to it's more witch-like form again. Then, to Silver's surprise, Amity manipulated her Abomination slime onto the corporeal form of her spirit, cladding it in a flowing dress-like robe, a cape, and a tiara with a crescent moon-like design. She also created a large staff with a simple orb on the end for the spirit to wield.

Luz gasped upon seeing it, having been watching the fight closely; "Hecate! She made her spirit look like Hecate from the Good Witch Azura! And it's the post-redemption arc Hecate too! So cool!" she gushed.

Amity smirked; "Anything to protect my Azura! Or should I say, Luzura?" she winked, making Luz blush. The girl then turned back to Silver and declared; "Give up now and I won't have to hurt you! But keep fighting and I won't hold back!"

The masked girl felt the exhaustion in her bones, and drained a little more magic from her staff, only for it to virtually splutter out. She was almost completely tapped, and definitely wouldn't be able to get home on her own now… but she had maybe one more good spell in her if she gave it all she had. Deciding to trust her brother to have her back, Silver decided to finish her duel with Amity with all she had!

Twirling her staff to create a massive dark purple spell circle, Silver then channelled all the remaining magic of the staff into her body, then into her right hand, which she placed palm out inside the circle. The circle shrank into her hand, and her glove began to decay and disappear as her bare hand turned pitch black from the shadows gathering there. A tiny ball of black and purple magic appeared in her palm, and as Silver slowly wrapped her fingers around it, every single shadow in Eclipse Lake began to move towards Silver, pooling together at her feet. Steve, Katya, and Hunter stopped their game of cat and mouse as they turned to watch what was happening, and to the surprise of everyone, the shadows (which now formed a massive black circle at Silver's feet) began to bubble like boiling tar.

Silver then raised her hand into the sky and the shadows rose too, melding together to form a figure. Amity had used light magic and abomination goo to make her Oracle Spirit look like Hecate, a figure she looked up to, so Silver did the same; forming the shadows into a replica of the Titan himself, complete with wings and tail. Since no one knew exactly what a Titan looked like while alive (save those who knew King's secret), Silver had made her Shadow Titan look skeletal, before it lunged at Amity and her spirit. The Shadow Titan dwarfed both Amity and her Hecate Spirit, but it truly was made of shadows made physical using dark magic, so Amity had exactly what she needed to deal with it!

Channelling more light magic into her Hecate Spirit, Amity caused veins of golden magic to appear in all its abomination goo accessories as it swung its staff up at the Shadow Titan. The end of the staff gave off an enormous flash of golden light, burning away much of the Shadow Titan but not destroying it completely. It's claws slammed forward, missing most of the evasive spirit while destroying the spirit's staff and tearing its robe, but as its claws impacted the ground, Amity revealed her own skill in Earth Magic (Earth was one of the elemental components of Abomination Magic after all) and caused the lakebed to soften and swallow the Shadow Titan's hand, trapping it. The Hecate Spirit then pointed its hands upwards and drew a spell circle of its own (using Amity's channelled magic), which it formed into another replica of Hecate's staff, this time made purely of light. The spirit flew up and jammed the staff up through the Shadow Titan's bottom jaw and into it's skull, then released an explosion of light magic.

As before, the clash of light and shadow caused a magical explosion that nearly consumed the entirety of Eclipse Lake. King used a set of plant glyphs to grab Amity, Katya, Steve, and even begrudgingly Hunter and Silver, and pulled them out of the lake and onto the shore along the outer edge of the cavern. Luz, pushing herself more than she should, then created a dome-shaped crystal barrier over the lake, just in time to contain the monstrous explosion.

The sheer might of the resulting explosion actually cracked Luz's barrier from the inside, and narrow beams of light and dark magic shot out from these cracks, before Luz decided to open the barrier at the very top, beneath the opening in the cavern roof, so the magic had somewhere to escape. This resulted in a massive beam of gold and purple magic rocketing into the sky. People all over the isles were able to see it, and for a long time afterwards, they would wonder what had caused the odd phenomenon.

But in the present, inside the cavern of Eclipse Lake, everyone was picking themselves up after being blasted off their feet by the eruption. It would have been much worse if Luz hadn't released the pressure upwards, but the blast had still dealt some damage to all of them. Steve was sore and bruised, Katya's Palisman Rumba had gotten a crack in him, Amity was exhausted, and King had been sent flying and was now stuck hanging from one of the tree-like blood vessels by his horns, which had gotten embedded in it. Then there was Hunter, Flapjack, and Silver; the former of whom was dazed as Flapjack pulled on his hair to try and get him up, while Silver was lying face down on the ground, apparently unconscious. Luz had it the worst though, as not only had she been blasted back, but using her magic had drained her strength even more and her body was struggling to fight off the mold even more.

"Ugh, that could have gone better…" Amity groaned, struggling to get to her feet. She briefly looked into the lake itself, and was surprised to find several patches of the ground were glowing faintly. The blast had destroyed much of the lakebed too, unearthing several old blood vessels that looked to be pulsating every so slightly. Amity dismissed this as the result of all the magic rattling around inside them from the explosion. Her Oracle Spirit had been complete vaporised, but she could already feel it slowly reforming inside the stone around her neck, so Amity didn't worry about it and instead turned to Luz.

"Batata, are you okay?" Amity asked as the other rebels picked themselves up.

"I don't feel so good…" Luz mumbled, looking pale.

Amity gasped and called out to Katya, who quickly came over to help.

"She hasn't made the Mold worse again, has she?" the girl asked fearfully.

Katya shook her head as she began casting spells to cure the symptoms again; "No; that only happens when trying to use magic on the Mold itself. But her body is using her magic to fuel itself as it resists the Mold, and using so much for that barrier has weakened her, so her condition is worsening. Thankfully it's not a critical situation yet, but we can't afford too many more incidents like that!"

Luz, who was starting to feel a little better thanks to Katya's treatment, sighed with relief as her symptoms subsided again. Meanwhile Steve helped pull King free from where he'd been stuck.

"I'm sorry about that. I wasn't expecting the reaction to be THAT big! That Shadow Titan must have had more darkness magic in it than I realised!" Amity said remorsefully.

"It's fine. King got us all to safety. Besides, I think that explosion knocked the fight out of those two." Steve said, nodding to Hunter and the Silver Sentinel.

Hunter had managed to get back to his feet, but he was clearly still dazed and potentially concussed, while his sister was just barely beginning to stir behind him. She slowly lifted herself up, but as she did so, chunks of her silver mask fell to the ground, broken by the explosion. She took deep, shaky breathes as she forced herself into a kneeling position, leaving more and more of her mask behind. Hunter had yet to see the condition of his sister's mask, and she was still too exhausted to register it either, but as she looked up and the rebels got their first glimpse at her face, they all went as white as snow.

"No way…!?" Katya gasped.

Hunter finally seemed to notice what they were all staring at and looked over his shoulder, going pale as he saw his sister's face.

"Sis, your mask!" he cried, hurrying to try and repair it and shield the girl's face from view. The rebels weren't going to allow that however; Amity immediately bound his arms to his sides with abomination goo while Ghost once again caught Flapjack, and Katya used her tambourine to blast out a powerful wind that blew off Silver's hood and the remains of her broken helmet, fully exposing her face to them all.

The girl looked at them all with wide, horrified eyes, and they looked back with just as much shock and horror. It was a face they all recognised… or at least one that was uncannily similar to one they recognised… and it was one of the faces who was staring back at Silver.

"You… you look just like me!?" Luz exclaimed, jaw agape as she fully took in Silver's unmasked features.

The Silver Sentinel really did look exactly like Luz, though perhaps a year or two younger and a bit skinnier, though that wasn't surprising since Luz had known the girl was underweight. Her skin was the same shade as Luz's (though currently it looked pale with a sickly pallor), her frame was just a skinnier version of what Luz was when she was 12-13 years old, and even her hair, which was cut short, resembled hers when she'd cut it a year before. It was short enough to have lost its curliness, but was still a little messy. But while she looked almost exactly like Luz, there were three key differences. The first was the hair colour, which was dark brown instead of white, similar to Luz's hair before she awakened her magic. The second was the colour of her eyes, which were a blood red that was closer to Hunter's own red eyes than any shade Luz had ever had. And third, and most rage-inducing for the rebels and Hunter alike, were a pair of scars on her face. Unlike Hunter, his sister wasn't missing a piece from one of her ears (though she did have simple black stud earrings) nor did she have Luz's eyebrow scar, but she did have a scar that ran down her right eye, starting just beneath the eyebrow and ending on her cheek. Her second scar was across the bridge of her nose, and while both had healed well and didn't look recent, Luz had a sinking feeling that her doppelganger hadn't gained those scars from her missions.

"Don't look at her! No one is supposed to see her face!" Hunter yelled, trying to get between the rebels and his sister even though he was tied up.

"I know what's going on here!" Katya exclaimed; "You're another Basilisk, aren't you!? Just like the one that impersonated me! You've been running around pretending to be Luz, haven't you! That's why you can't do magic on your own!"

Hunter and Silver both looked surprised by the Bard's accusation; one Steve also believed. "We know there are six of them in total, and only two are accounted for. It would make sense!" he said.

Silver shook her head desperately, while Hunter looked at the two like they were idiots; "She's not a Basilisk, you dolts! If she was, why would she wear a mask!? She could just shape shift and give herself any face she wanted! And if she was going to impersonate Luz, why give herself totally different eyes, hair, and facial scars!?"

That was a good point that the two adults couldn't refute. Luz then piped up, knowing the truth; "You're an angel like me, aren't you? From Crest Kindness?"

Slowly, Silver nodded and reached up to the clasp of her cloak, undoing it and removing it. The clasp had doubled as a concealment stone, and once it was taken off, there was a puff of cyan smoke from Silver's back as a pair of tiny little Cherub wings appeared. Amity, Katya, and Steve all cooed at the adorable, fluffy little appendages, while both King and Luz looked at them with nostalgia; remembering the wings Luz had when she first arrived in the Demon Realm.

Knowing that Silver (or whatever her real name was) was actually a Cherub from Crest Kindness like Luz, the others lowered their guard a bit, with Luz completely opening up. She smiled now that she was over her shock; "I've never met another angel from my Crest Order, except my Mom. I knew we were supposed to look similar, but I had no idea it would be this similar! It's pretty amazing!"

Silver's eyes widened at the acceptance, and began weakly signing. Luz understood what she was saying, but Hunter translated for the others.

"You're not disgusted by me? Even with these cursed eyes?" she asked.

Luz blinked; "Cursed eyes? I've never heard anything about that. But going by your eye and hair colour, and the fact you don't have magic of your own, I'm guessing you're in the same boat I was."

Amity frowned; "You mean she was born without magic, like you were?"

"Yep." Luz nodded, remembering her mother's story of her birth. "I'm guessing you're actually a half-angel?"

Silver nodded, still surprised. Hunter was just as surprised as he said; "We were always told that she had to hide her face, because if another angel besides Uncle saw her red eyes, they'd call her cursed and kill her. Uncle always said he was breaking a taboo by taking her in and caring for her. I always covered my face too, because it was a tradition of the Golden Guard, and because I wanted to support my sister."

Luz barely stopped herself from snorting; she'd never heard of any taboo surrounding red eyed angels! Her Mami and Rasiel had never said a word about anything like it, not even when mentioning that Luz had been unusual for having hazel eyes before her awakening as an angel. She suspected it was another of Belos' lies or delusions…

"I don't know anything about a taboo. If you really are a Half-Angel with a parent from Crest Kindness, then the other parent must have been a Witch or Demon, and like me you were born stunted, so your eyes and hair are like theirs. I had my Papi's eyes and hair colour before I came to the Isles and unlocked my powers." Luz explained. "I'm guessing you're related to Belos somehow?"

Silver nodded once again, and then signed to Hunter; "I'm going to tell them everything. Please help translate."

"Are you sure? You don't owe these rebels anything!" Hunter scowled, glaring at them.

The girl just smiled in response and nodded her head, then signed; "Two of them told you their stories too, so you could understand why they rebelled. Maybe if I tell them mine in return, they'll understand why we are loyal to Uncle, despite his flaws."

Hunter frowned, not liking it, but also not arguing; this was his sister's decision. "Alright… with you out of magic and me tied up, we can't escape anyway… I'll translate for you."

"Thank you, Big Brother." Silver smiled sweetly, before turning back to Luz and the rebels, and began signing, with Hunter saying the words aloud beside her.

"My name is Lucy, and like you said, I was born as the daughter of an Angel from Crest Kindness, my mother, and a Wild Witch of the Boiling Isles, my father." the newly introduced Lucy signed, making Luz gasp.

"Mother was related to Uncle Belos, though I'm not exactly sure how, and he tried to warn her frequently that she shouldn't be with a Wild Witch, after all the crimes they'd committed against angels. Father didn't know Mother was an angel you see, but she'd fallen in love with him all the same, and they had a child together. For three years, I was raised by them with Mother hiding my angelic nature along with her own. Uncle said I was cursed with red eyes and stunted wings because of Mother's sin of loving a Wild Witch…"

Luz and Amity both scowled, while King muttered darkly under his breath and Katya looked like she really wanted to smack Belos. Even the usually pleasant Steve has a look of anger on his face upon hearing that.

Silver continued signing though, seemingly lost in her own world as Hunter reluctantly continued translating.

"Uncle turned out to be right of course. I was cursed, and shortly after I turned three years old, Father learned the truth. I messed up and revealed my wings to him and he realised what Mother and I really were… he attacked us and murdered Mother. He'd have murdered me too if Uncle Belos hadn't come to my rescue, but he was too late to save me completely. I don't know what Father did to me, but when I woke up in Uncle's castle, I'd lost the ability to speak and all of my memories… if it weren't for Uncle Belos, not only would I be dead, but I'd also never have known what happened."

"Wait a moment, are you saying you don't actually remember any of this?" Amity asked.

Hunter answered for her; "Neither Lucy nor I remember our pasts. We both know our families were taken from us by Wild Witches, and we were taken in by Belos. We're related to him, though I'm not sure exactly how…"

"We're grateful to him. His illness makes it hard sometimes, but he cares for us. He raised us, trained us, and gave us a home and a family after we lost our original ones. He saved our lives! We know he must seem evil to you, especially you Luz, but he truly does want what's best for us all! The Titan has big plans for us, and Uncle Belos is the one who'll guide us through those plans!" Lucy signed with a smile, even as she still looked weak and sickly.

Luz (who was looking almost as weak and sickly even with Katya's help) found herself frowning severely; so that was why these two were so devoted to Belos! Neither Hunter nor Lucy felt like bad people to Luz, but they were definitely on the wrong side and Luz feared they were being lied to.

King clearly thought the same as he carefully climbed onto Luz's shoulder so he could whisper in her ear; "I'm not the only one who isn't buying this, right? Her looking like you, being from the same order and even having a similar name? It feels way too creepy! And her entire past is a story that Bonehead told her? Nuh uh, I don't believe it for a second!"

Luz nodded subtly as she whispered back; "I'm with you on that last part. Her name is probably just a coincidence, but the rest is definitely weird. Belos probably lied to manipulate her into being his loyal servant!"

She briefly wondered why Belos would even need her if he already had another angel in the form of Lucy, but then she realised that Lucy being stunted like Luz had been originally probably meant she was useless for his Day of Unity plan. If he needed uncorrupted Angelic Magic, then a magicless Cherub wasn't gong to be any good.

Amity leaned in to whisper; "You don't think she could actually be related to Cassiel, do you? She's not far from our age, which means she would have been born only a year or two after Cassiel disappeared. Could she be Cassiel's daughter and Belos kidnapped her somehow?"

Luz hummed in thought, then turned back to Lucy (who'd been silently watching them whisper); "Does the name Cassiel mean anything to either of you?"

Hunter and Lucy exchanged looks, then both shrugged and shook their heads. It looked like Belos had never mentioned her to them, so if she really had been Lucy's mother, the poor girl didn't know it.

Before any of the rebels could question the pair further, Lucy groaned and flopped forward, having to use her hands to catch herself and avoid face-planting the ground. She had grown paler and her eyes were becoming bloodshot as she broke out in a cold sweat. Hunter gasped in horror as he knelt beside her and noted the poor girl's laboured breathing and exhaustion.

"Is she sick too?" Katya frowned, coming to kneel beside the girl and treat her. Lucy may technically be an enemy, but she was still just a child! Katya couldn't ignore her if she needed help.

"No, she's out of magic! Uncle Belos didn't want her leaving the castle, so he hasn't given her any recently, so she's been surviving off of what was in the staff I gave her! But she used it all up!" Hunter explained urgently.

Luz, King, and Amity all frowned; just like Luz did before she came to the Demon Realm, Lucy needed magic from someone else to survive since her wings couldn't produce magic on their own to sustain her.

"She shouldn't be declining this quickly! She actually looks like she's about to die!" Amity cried.

"The staves we use are made with Artificial Magic. It can keep her going, but it doesn't work as well as proper magic!" Hunter explained urgently.

"So it stops the drain on her life force but doesn't actually restore it like real magic would." Steve frowned; "Can't she take some magic from your Palisman Staff?"

Hunter shook his head, beginning to really freak out; "Our artificial staves are designed so Lucy can absorb magic from them. We tried to do something similar with Flapjack, but it didn't work!" he looked to Luz with a pleading expression; "But you! You can save her! We heard the reports about you giving magic to the Owl Lady, Lilith, and Whispers! You can give Angelic Blessings! Please, give one to Lucy! Just a little to keep her alive!" he begged.

"Are you crazy!? Why would we help you? If we gave her magic, she'd just turn around and use it to try and capture Luz!" King argued.

"She won't, I swear!" Hunter pleaded, getting down on his knees in front of Luz; "She still needs a staff to actually cast magic, even with magic inside her!"

Luz knew that was true; when she'd been a stunted Cherub receiving blessings from her Mami, she'd still been unable to cast spells, and even giving Rasiel a blessing hadn't allowed him to cast without his wings. Giving Lucy some magic wouldn't let her fight back against her and the Rebels.

"Kid, I know you're worried about your sister, but Luz is really sick remember! Any magic she gives to Lucy is magic she can't use to fuel her body as it fights off the Mold! It would seriously worsen her condition!" Katya said, feeling sorry for the two teens but unwilling to risk one of her allies (and her mentor's precious niece) for the sake of an enemy.

"Would I die if I gave her a small blessing?" Luz asked seriously.

Katya grimaced; "No… but you'd feel a lot worse and even a tiny use of magic after that could leave you without enough to fuel your body at all, and that really could kill you!"

The moment Katya confirmed Luz would survive the blessing, Amity knew what her beloved was going to do. Hunter wasn't so sure though, and bowed his head to Luz with tears in his eyes; "Please! I swear that I'll take her home and leave you in peace! We'll retreat immediately and won't bother you again without a direct order from our Uncle! Just please save my sister! I-I can't lose her!"

Luz answered by allowing her Arch-Angel wings to flair out behind her as she conjured a ball of white and gold flames in her hands. The ball was as big as Luz could make it without risking her life by using too much magic, and the strain of creating it caused Luz to pale and collapse to her knees too, the glow of her wings dimming a bit. Still, she smiled and shuffled closer to Lucy so she could offer the blessed flame.

"Here. Just touch the fire and you'll feel better. It won't hurt, I swear." Luz said softly, even as her friends sighed with exasperation and Hunter looked like she was offering them the world. Lucy weakly looked up at the flames, uncertainty in her eyes. She lifted her hand to touch them, but hesitated.

Luz rolled her eyes; "There's no strings attached." she said, promptly pressing the fire into Lucy's hand; "I could never leave someone to die when I could do something about it. I was always going to save you."

She was being totally honest too; even if she knew there was a risk she could die, Luz wouldn't have been able to stop herself from trying to heal Lucy. She was an angel after all, and she liked to help people!

Both Hunter and Lucy gasped as the flames immediately engulfed Lucy in white and golden light. The most invigorating sensations flowed through Lucy's body as the flames burned and slowly sank into her skin, filling her wings and veins with the holy fire of Luz's magic. It felt so different from Belos', who'd always just had her drain magic from his staff; that had felt cold and stinging, like a needle being pushed into her heart to fill it with a burning sensation, while Luz's blessing felt like, well, a blessing!

Once the flames had fully sunken into Lucy's body, her skin regained its healthy colour and her little cherub wings had a soft glow to them. With a sigh of relief, Lucy was able to get back to her feet and begin stretching her body, feeling better than she had in years! Her throat, her wings, and her heart all felt pleasantly tingly too! It was wonderful!

Hunter looked ready to weep with relief as he tried to hug her without his arms, only succeeding in putting his head on her shoulder; "Sis! You're alright!"

"I am." she signed with a smile, before giving her brother a proper hug. She then helped Luz get back to her feet, though Amity and King both rushed forward to pull the weakened Arch-Angel back into their embrace, while Steve and Katya watched Lucy warily to make sure there was no funny business. Lucy made no attempts to stop them, and merely bowed her head to Luz.

"Thank you so much. After all the trouble I just caused you, you'd have been within your rights to let me die." she signed.

Luz, feeling awful, merely smiled and waved her off; "You're welcome. I was happy to help. Besides, we're both angels from the same crest order; that basically makes us family by angel standards! Plus I have a soft spot for the bad but sad boys and girls."

Lucy giggled while Hunter flushed; "Do you have to come up with the most annoying nicknames for us?" he whined.

"Considering she just saved your sister's life, I wouldn't complain." Amity smirked, making Hunter pout. Inwardly, Amity was actually relieved Luz had saved Lucy; the youngest Blight would have felt responsible if Lucy had died because she used up all her magic while fighting her!

Steve, who'd been quiet for the last few moments as he was moved by the sibling love, finally spoke up again; "So what do we do now? There's no Titan Blood here so our mission is basically a success. Should we head back before Kikimora and the coven get here? They can't be that far away now."

"We still need to wait for Rasiel to get back." Katya said, before noting the hole in the ceiling; "If only Rasiel had noticed that when he scouted this place out earlier, then he wouldn't have needed to go looking for an escape route!"

"Everyone makes mistakes; even ancient Seraphim spirits!" Amity said as she helped put Luz on her back again. Now that she'd used up more of her magic, Luz really needed to sleep if she was going to recover enough to fight off the Mold, so Amity decided to let her rest on her back. Besides, she enjoyed carrying her adorable girlfriend around! "But what do we do with these two when he gets back? Should we take them prisoner?"

King immediately nodded in agreement with that plan, while Steve and Katya weren't so sure. Taking Lucy captive would mean Luz would need to keep her alive with blessings, which would become an unnecessary drain on her magic. It would also mean Belos didn't have to provide those blessings, which would make life easier for him. On the other hand, taking the two elites prisoner could let the CATTs get some valuable intel and rob Belos of his two best assets.

Seeing them thinking about their fates, Hunter quickly said; "Look, I promised to take my sister and leave if Luz saved her. If you unbind me and free Flapjack, I swear we'll leave without trying to fight or anything like that!"

"You're okay with failing your mission and coming home empty-handed?" Katya asked.

"No, but it's better than not coming home at all." Hunter retorted.

Amity eyed the boy for a moment (she was avoiding looking at Lucy, as seeing a Luz-like face staring back at her made it harder for Amity to think rationally), and eventually said; "I say we let them go. It may not be the best move strategy wise, but it'd prove we're better than Belos!"

In truth, Amity was also worried about taking the two back to the Owl House or Digale Island, and then them escaping somehow. If that happened, then Belos and his coven would know about the CATTs' hideout, and potentially learn that Darius, Eber, and Mason were all traitors, on top of the releasing of the Petrified Witches he believed to be dead. Considering members of the CATTs had quite a few escapes from the Emperor under their belts, Amity wouldn't underestimate Hunter or Lucy's ability to match that feat.

"I agree with Hermosa." Luz said sleepily.

Hunter and Lucy both looked delighted, but before the adult rebels could make the final decision, they heard the sound of a roar coming from the hole in the ceiling above them. Having a sinking feeling, Katya hopped on her staff and flew up to glance through the hole and immediately gasped as she saw dozens of airships from the Emperor's Coven circling overhead, as well as a larger airship with the sigil of the Oracle Coven on the balloon, and Kikimora riding atop Princess alongside it.

Kikimora spotted her and grinned; "There's one of the rebels now! That beam of magic brought us right to them!"

Katya gulped and dived back down into the cavern; "We've got trouble! The EC is here! Amity and Lucy's clash showed them where we are!"

"Oh no! We're not in a position to fight right now!" Amity cried. Luz was down for the count and she was pretty winded too! Steve and Katya had seen better days as well! King was probably the only one fit for battle, and there was no way he'd be able to take down all those scouts and oracles, especially with Kikimora and Osran on their side!

Steve, as the leader of the team, decided to act; "Little Dude, whip me up a couple of those healing glyph combos." he said, looking to King.

The young Titan immediately handed over his entire stack; "Here! They're complicated so I can't make more on the fly, so make those ones count!"

"You got it! Amity, take everyone else back the way we came! See if you can find Rasiel too! Katya and I will hold off the enemy!" Steve declared, using an earth spell to launch himself up to Katya's staff, then using a pair of healing glyph combos to restore himself and Katya back to full physical health. The two then flew out through the hole in the roof and began an aerial battle with the entire fleet of airships.

They should have been outnumbered and easily overwhelmed, but not only did they have a lot more manoeuvrability thanks to riding an agile staff and not a cumbersome airship, but they also had the unexpected help of the Carbuncles, who came running out from their dens to climb up the walls and out of the cavern, where they began casting illusions and summoning up winds with their crystal horns. They were clearly unhappy with the Emperor's Coven encroaching on their homes and were not shy about sharing their displeasure! Their magic also interfered with the magic of the Oracles, further limiting their forces.

Still, Steve and Katya had no hope of actually winning and could only hold the enemy off for a short time, so Amity began carrying King and Luz towards the exit from the lake's cavern.

"What about us!?" Hunter cried, "Please, if Kikimora catches us like this, we're dead!"

"Relax, you're coming with us! Do NOT make me regret this!" Amity said seriously, snapping her fingers to release Hunter from her slime binding. She then summoned Ghost to her hand, releasing Flapjack and allowing Hunter to wield him once again.

With his Palisman back in his hand, Hunter seriously considered grabbing Lucy and making a break for it, but after Luz saved her life, he knew his conscience wouldn't let him, so he instead grabbed Lucy's discarded cloak and put it back on her, hiding her wings with the concealment stone in the clasp, then conjured a new temporary mask for her, just in case Kikimora got a look at her. This proved to be the right decision too, as an instant later Kikimora and Princess managed to slam down into Eclipse Lake through the hole in the roof, getting past Steve and Katya by sending waves of subordinates in to act as distractions.

From atop her Clasping Amphithere, Kikimora glared imperiously down on Hunter and Lucy, as well as the others, before looking around at Eclipse Lake. Parts of it were still glowing thanks to the magic eruption earlier, but the lack of any obvious Titan Blood had Kikimora's eyes narrowing.

"So, the Titan Blood is all gone!? That fool Osran predicted we'd find a source of it if we came here, but there's nothing at all! I'll be sure to report his failure to Emperor Belos!" she ranted.

Luz, Amity, and King all gulped; had Osran's prediction been about King!? He was technically a source of Titan Blood after all! Thankfully no one else present (not even Steve and Katya) knew that fact, so King was probably safe so long as Luz was close to him and able to stop Osran or another Oracle from scrying for his blood.

While they were worried about that, Hunter whispered to Amity; "Pretend you're my prisoner."

"What? Why!?" she whispered back indignantly.

"Because then I can claim I caught you and hopefully keep Kikimora off your back! Then you can "escape" when I take you out of here!" Hunter replied, not taking his eyes off of Kikimora, who had now turned back to him.

"Hunter…" Luz began, only for him to cut her off.

"I'm repaying you for saving Lucy. Besides, it would be bad for my sister and I if Kikimora got the credit for capturing you." he hissed.

Kikimora narrowed her eyes, seeing him whispering; "So, I finally caught up with you, Golden Guard! And your little partner is here too! Wonderful!"

Hunter brandished his staff (which he hastily concealed as a regular artificial magic staff using an illusion); "Kikimora! You almost killed me with that stunt of yours earlier! Thankfully for you, my partner and I managed to capture the Angel and two of her fellow rebels. We'll be returning them to the castle with them now; don't get in our way!" he said imperiously, before adding; "Unless you want me to tell the Emperor about your actions earlier!"

"Why wouldn't he tell him anyway!? That little creep tried to kill him!" King muttered darkly.

Lucy began to sign and Luz translated; "That's business as usual among the upper ranks of the Emperor's Coven. Without hard evidence, it's one person's word against another's and Uncle hates to be disturbed with such things. Kikimora has tried to kill each of us at least a dozen times. Hunter's threat is just to make her angry enough to be reckless."

As if to illustrate Lucy's point, Kikimora responded with a high-pitched growl and a flung spell. Hunter smirked and swatted it away with his staff, then flashed towards Kikimora, trying to smack her from Princess's saddle with an electrified strike from Flapjack. Princess protected her Mistress by raising her wings to block the swing, then flicking her tail at him, forcing him to flash between the fingers of her tail hand to escape. Kikimora spun around in her saddle and shot a ball of red and purple fire from her fingers right where she anticipated Hunter would flash too, and while she was ever so slightly off, the fireball did singe Hunter's cloak as it passed by him.

In response, Hunter flashed above Kikimora, then ripped off the cloak and tossed it, still smouldering slightly, over her head. She used the claws on her head to tear it apart and free herself, but the distraction had bought Hunter enough time to land on the back of the saddle and spin his staff to draw a spell circle and cast a powerful lightning spell down on both Kikimora and Princess.

Kikimora's ever-loyal mount protected her by shielding her with its wings, even as it roared in pain from the lightning. It's convulsions caused it to fall forward into the lakebed, making Kikimora roll off and hit the ground with an "Oof!"

Hunter smirked and conjured a quartet of spears, aiming to pin the little demon to the ground by piercing them through her sleeves and pant legs. His plan worked perfectly, at least until Kiki turned her head enough to let the hand on the back of her head open up and grab one of the spears, pulling it out of her sleeve and freeing a hand. She immediately used this hand to toss another fireball at Hunter, who swatted it aside while Kikimora got the chance to free her other hand too. With her arms free, she swiftly drew a large spell circle with both hands, creating a massive blood-red fireball that she tossed at Hunter at high speed.

His eyes widened slightly as he just barely flashed out of the way in time, then returned fire with some arcing lightning that homed in on the spears that still pinned Kikimora's legs. The lightning arched between the spears and jumped into Kikimora herself, making her scream and convulse. Princess, recovering from her own shock, roared and spun around, whipping its tail at everything in the lakebed. It aimed high enough to avoid hitting Kikimora (and King), but Hunter was knocked off his feet, and Amity and Luz ended up on the ground too when Lucy dived and dragged them down to safety.

They all quickly stood again, only to find that the spears had been broken by the tail whip too, freeing Kikimora, whom Princess picked up with her tail hand and deposited back in her saddle.

Kikimora pet the dragon's head; "Good work, my pet! Now hold still as I finish this gilded brat!" she ordered, stretching her body to draw the biggest spell she could in order to fire a massive red blast of pure magic directly at Hunter.

Seeing it coming, Hunter expertly twirled Flapjack and returned fire with the biggest stream of lightning he could manage, aimed directly at Kikimora. Their spells came ever closer to colliding, and everyone in the lakebed braced for the aftershocks until…

"HALT THIS NONSENSE!"

The sudden roared command made everyone in the cavern flinch, and Hunter and Kikimora's flung spells were both shot off course. However neither spell hit anything, as they were both suddenly sucked into a purple crystal ball that appeared in mid air between the two EC members. The crystal ball sparked with the magic it had absorbed, then fired it down into the ground in the middle of the lakebed, creating a glowing crevice right in the centre. Both Hunter and Kikimora looked up, the former with surprise and the latter with anger as Osran appeared, slowly descending into the cavern on a levitating book. Hunter and Lucy recognised it as the book he was always carrying around, though enlarged to be big enough to stand on.

"What is the meaning of this!? Why do you both fight each other when the Rebels are outside causing chaos!?" Osran demanded, his voice magnified with magic.

Kikimora sneered; "I was dealing with the brat who has interfered with and sabotaged our mission, whilst keeping me from capturing the Angel for Emperor Belos!"

"Liar! My Partner and I captured the Angel, her Dog, and the Blight girl! You were just trying to steal our accomplishment!" Hunter snapped.

Amity, deciding to see if she could get Kikimora in more trouble, innocently added; "And that was after she repaid you saving her life by trying to kill you, which let us briefly take you captive."

Kikimora glared hatefully at the two teens, while Osran looked thunderous; "You would dare defy the Emperor's will by sabotaging our mission with your petty vendetta!?" he growled at Kikimora, a surprising amount of strength in his wizened voice. He lowered himself all the way to the lake bed and stood between Kikimora, Princess, and the others, stepping off his book and shrinking it back to a normal size.

"Remember Kikimora, you were sent to lead the Emperor's Coven, but I was sent to lead you! Do not think to act so brazenly again!" Osran threatened, putting his foot down firmly.

"If you are here to lead, then why don't you lead our soldiers in defeating the rebels!? Or are two witches too much for you?" Kikimora goaded.

"Two witches and an entire colony of Carbuncles, which renders any Oracle Magic that relies on our spirits useless!" Osran corrected; "We are being outmanoeuvred which is precisely why I came to get you and your pet to assist us!"

Kikimora opened her mouth to retort once more, but something unexpected stopped her in her tracks.

Suddenly, the ground began to rumble beneath their feet, and large cracks began to form in the lakebed. Beams of light began emerging from the cracks, and the fragments of blood vessels that had been glowing began to swell and pulsate, almost like they were alive. Hunter and Amity frowned as they looked away from Kikimora and Osran and noticed the ground beginning to turn soft and spongy like mud, then both yelped and staggered as the shaking grew more violent and black liquid of some kind began leaking out from the lake bed. At first, they all thought it was Titan Blood but quickly changed their minds as they noticed the colour. Kikimora sneered at the stuff and had Princess take her back up into the air so it wouldn't get on them, while King similarly clambered back onto Luz's shoulder. Some of the liquid was on his feet though, and when Luz got a good look at it, she recoiled.

"That's Titan Bile!" she exclaimed; "Don't let it get in your system! You'll go on a rampage!"

The others all paled, and Osran once again got onto his giant floating book and began to hover above the slowly rising pool of bile, which was beginning to fill the lakebed. Amity and Hunter tried to get on their staves to do the same, but their feet had gotten stuck in the rapidly softening lakebed, and they couldn't pull themselves out properly thanks to the ever-worsening shaking. Lucy even lost her balance and nearly fell face first into it, only catching herself by grabbing her brother, who pulled her up and onto his back to keep her safe.

Finally, to make a bad situation even worse, one of the pulsated blood vessels burst and splashed blue Titan's Blood into the black bile, mixing the two liquids together. Hunter and Kikimora gasped, each wanting to get some, but it mixed with the bile too quickly and the whole lake began to glow. The rumbling grew worse as large spikes of white bone began to emerge from the lake bed, and more cracks opened up that released bursts of some unknown gas, causing the lake to bubble in places. As one of these white bone spikes rose from the lake beside him, Hunter grabbed onto it with Lucy still clinging to his back, and she in turn reached down and grabbed the collar of Luz's coat, dragging her and King into the air. Since Luz was also affixed to Amity's back, the pink-haired girl was pulled free from the mud as well, though Lucy squeaked in pain from all the weight she was forced to carry with one arm, only succeeding to keep her grip thanks to pure adrenaline.

"What's going on!?" Amity cried.

"Bone, Blood, Bile, Earth, and Breath… all the humours of the Titan are coming together here!" Luz gasped out as the liquid beneath them began to spiral and glow, forming a maelstrom.

"Eclipse Lake is supposed to be a Primordial Wellspring, but I thought it went dormant even before the blood dried up!" Hunter said in shock.

Lucy began to sign one-handed, and Luz translated since Hunter was preoccupied; "The spring has been re-awoken somehow!"

Osran, who was floating closer to the teens, commented; "That pillar of magic earlier… whatever caused it must have also pumped enough magic into the dormant wellspring to cause it to start flowing again!"

Amity and Lucy exchanged looks; their fight had reactivated the wellspring and got the Titan's humours flowing back in again!? This was their fault!? Or had Osran redirecting Hunter and Kikimora's last spells been the final tipping point?

"We need to get out of here, before the rumbling causes a cave in!" Amity exclaimed, trying to orient herself so she could start flying with Ghost.

Before she could, Osran flew closer and expanded his book a bit more, creating enough space for all the teens. He flew beneath Amity and called out to Lucy; "Release the Angel, Young Lady. I'll catch her and Miss Blight, and we can all get out of here together."

Lucy didn't need to be told twice; she let go of Luz's coat and the trio of Luz, Amity, and King fell onto Osran's book. Amity immediately pointed Ghost at Osran, but he just wagged a finger at her; "None of that, Miss Blight. If we fight on here, the book will burn and we'll all go tumbling into the Wellspring! Belos wants the Angel alive and I have no interest in abandoning a child, so respect your elders and sit their quietly." he ordered like a stern grandfather.

Amity blinked in surprise, but seeing as Osran was focusing on helping Lucy and Hunter onto the book as well, she decided not to comment and simply turned Ghost back into cat form to show her agreement, though she kept her guard up. Once Hunter and Lucy were safely on the book, Osran nodded approvingly at Amity as he said;

"I never thought I'd see the day that a child of Odalia Blight would be reasonable! The apple must have been practically thrown from the tree in your case!" he chortled.

"I'll take that as a compliment." Amity replied as Osran began controlling the book so it would rise out through the hole in the cave roof.

It was a slow process, since the book was technically overloaded, but Osran wasn't about to abandon any of his passengers. Amity was mentally preparing for what would happen when they got outside; if they could rendezvous with Steve and Katya, they might just be able to fly away before the Airships could give chase, letting the rebels escape.

Unfortunately, certain people had a different plan…

Kikimora, still flying atop Princess, watched as all her problems floated on one extremely flammable platform. She could get rid of the Golden Guard and Silver Sentinel in one go, as well as that tiresome old goat, Osran! Plus she'd get her revenge on Amity Blight for that trick earlier! The only downside would be the loss of the Angel… Unless she acted fast!

Ordering Princess to fly forward, Kikimora shot two spells at the group with expert aim. The first was a spell she'd learned to get more use out of the Abomaton Mk I's, and when it hit the abomination slime that Amity was using to keep Luz securely on her back; it caused the slime to expand and then burst like a balloon, sending Luz and King flying off of the girl's back. They ended up being launched towards Kikimora, where Princess's tongue lashed out and caught Luz, while King clung to his sister's leg. It also sent Amity smacking into Hunter, causing Ghost and Flapjack to fall off the platform and towards the maelstrom below. Flapjack tried to catch Ghost by the scruff of her neck, but then Kikimora's second spell hit. The second spell hit Osran's book and immediately set it on fire, rapidly turning it to ash and causing Osran, Hunter, Lucy, and Amity to plummet into the maelstrom, with a chunk of burning ash also hitting Ghost and Flapjack, causing them to fall into the spiralling wellspring.

"NO! AMITY! EVERYONE!" Luz screamed, struggling weakly against Princess's tongue around her waist. She was still too drained and sickly, but King wasn't! He quickly clambered up her body and tried to fire off a fire glyph at Kikimora, but she was faster and shot him with a bolt of magic, knocking off Luz with a scream of "WEH!?"

Luz screamed again as she saw her brother hit the Primordial Wellspring and begin being spun around inside it along with the others. They were being spun around and shaken up by the persistent tremors so much that neither Hunter nor Amity could summon their Palismen to them so they could fly out, seemingly dooming them all to drown.

Kikimora watched with satisfaction; "Even without the Titan Blood, I have the Angel and my enemies get to die horribly! I'd call this a success!"

Luz grit her teeth, but she didn't have time to waste on the hateful little monster! She knew that every spell she cast now would drain her energy to the point that she might not have the strength to fight back against the Mold that infected her, but if she did nothing, her beloved, her brother, and a fellow angel would all die, not to mention another teenager and an old man who'd just tried to save her life! She would not allow that!

"Sorry Miss Dragon, but I've got no choice!" Luz cried, creating a light blade from her hand and slicing off Princess's tongue. The dragon screeched in pain and Luz fell into the Wellspring too, using vines as she fell to lasso everyone inside it together. She tried to fly with them, but even at full strength she wasn't capable of lifting so many people with physical fitness alone, so she instead plummeted fully into the Wellspring and erected a barrier around them all, ensuring they wouldn't drown.

However, now trapped inside this spherical crystal barrier, Luz and the others could do nothing but spin around helplessly before finally reaching the centre of the Maelstrom and sinking deep into the murky depths. Luz, who struggled to retain consciousness after using three spells in her terrible condition, held King tightly in her arms and spread her wings to try and embrace everyone else in the barrier, before there was a flash of light, the sound of shattering crystal as Luz's barrier broke from her lack of strength, and they all found themselves once again engulfed in the blood and bile of the Primordial Wellspring. This was the last thing Luz experienced before passing out entirely, leaving her and the others to an unknown fate.

[Sometime Later…]

Amity Blight felt like she'd just been put through a Human Washing Machine as she slowly regained consciousness. Her body was sore and she felt exhausted, and her clothes were soaked in a noxious mix of Titan Blood and Bile, which stank to high heaven. Not only that, but she felt uncomfortably warm and could feel the sun on her face as she began to open her eyes. It was far too hot for the Knee, so Amity looked around blearily, sitting up and trying to process what was going on and where she was.

She seemed to be in some kind of large circular pit, like the cavern of Eclipse Lake only without the cave roof above her head. The ground beneath her was hard pale stone of some kind, and only a short distance away was some kind of lake filled with an extremely dark blue liquid, which occasionally bubbled as jets of gas escaped from inside it. The gas smelled just like the gas that had been emerging from Eclipse Lake when it was going haywire, and the smell of the lake was just like Eclipse Lake as well! Amity looked at the stone beneath her feet and wondered if it was Titan Bone, and the earth beneath the lake was Titan Earth. If it was, then this lake was another Primordial Wellspring! And an intact one too by the look of it.

The youngest Blight briefly wondered how she got there, before looking behind her and gasping with joy as she saw Luz and King passed out just a short distance away. Osran, Hunter, and Lucy were all lying nearby as well, and everyone but Luz were slowly stirring awake.

"Ugh, what happened?" Hunter groaned, rubbing his head as he got back to his feet; "I feel like I got chewed up and spat out by a Slitherbeast!"

"Nope, but we did get swallowed and spat out by Eclipse Lake! Now I don't know where we are." Amity said to him, rushing over to Luz's side to check on her, since she was the only one not getting up yet.

Lucy hopped up a moment later and stretched, before realising the mask Hunter had made for her was gone, exposing her face to Osran. The old Head Witch took one look at it, then hummed curiously; "Ah, so that's how it is. I had wondered why Belos insisted you stay masked. You're another angel, aren't you?" he said, still laying on the ground.

Lucy began signing, and Hunter translated for her; "Yes. You mustn't tell anyone!"

Osran waved off their concerns; "I know how to keep secrets. In truth I've long suspected it; I once tried to use my magic to see your face, but none of my spirits would allow me to. I suspected you either had a salt-lined mask or some connection to the Divine Realm."

The old man then began to try and get to his feet, his old bones creaking and groaning as he did so. The moaned in pain, especially as his knees and back cracked and sent him flopping back onto the ground; "Well, that's unfortunate." he complained.

Lucy hastily hurried over to help him up, while Hunter searched around and found Flapjack and Ghost, waterlogged but otherwise okay. He picked Flapjack up and placed him on his shoulder to rest, then petted Ghost in thanks, as the Cat Palisman had helped protect Flapjack by holding onto him in the Maelstrom. She purred her thanks, then ran over to her mistress.

"Is everyone alright?" Hunter asked.

"I'm too old for such rough treatment! But I'm alive at least." Osran complained.

Lucy smiled and signed to her brother; "I'm fine. Actually, I feel great! I haven't had this much energy in years!"

It was true too; the girl had a bounce to her step and a bright smile on her face. She looked healthier and more energetic than Hunter had ever seen her! She was usually shy, demure, and timid when not in battle, but here she was looking almost like an excited child!

"I wonder if you absorbed some Titan Magic from the Wellspring? Luz supposedly unlocked her own magic thanks to the Titan's blessing, so a dip in the Wellspring could have refuelled you too." Hunter commented.

At that moment, King finally got up and shook his fur to get the residual blood and bile off of him. "Gross, I'm gonna need to take a bath now! That Kiki creep really hates you guys!" he complained; "She almost killed you and dragged us down too!"

Hunter scowled; "She won't get away with it either! By nearly killing both Luz and one of the Head Witches, she almost sabotaged the Day of Unity! Uncle won't be able to ignore that!"

"We need to find out where we are and how to get home before reporting her though." Lucy signed.

"Indeed. Our first order of business should be getting out of this pit and finding out where we are. Kikimora destroyed my book however, so we'll need to rely on your Palisman, as well as the young lady Blight's." Osran said.

However before they could begin flying out of the pit, Amity screamed out to them; "Help! We need help! It's Luz!" she cried in a panic.

King immediately ran as fast as he could over to where Amity was cradling the still unconscious Luz, followed swiftly by Lucy and Hunter as Osran hobbled along behind them. When they reached Amity, the reason for her panic was obvious; Luz looked completely dreadful! Her breathing was laboured and her cheeks were flushed even as the rest of her skin had gone deathly pale. Every breath seemed to be painful for the girl, and as Hunter gingerly leaned down to feel her forehead, he gasped and recoiled at how hot it was.

"This is bad! The symptoms of the Mold are getting worse!" Hunter said urgently.

"She has the Common Mold?" Osran questioned.

"Yes, but she accidentally made it a lot worse by using a lot of healing magic on it! She stopped before the Mold itself could develop into a terminal illness, but between giving a blessing to Lucy and casting magic to try and save us from the wellspring, she's used up all her body's strength and now she can't fight off the sickness!" Amity cried, desperately using some ice magic to try and cool Luz's fever.

Osran frowned and began checking the unconscious angel's vitals. He couldn't use most of his magic on her thanks to her angelic nature, but he was old and experienced enough to know a few mundane methods that were similar to human methods. He checked her pulse and found it weak, then opened one of her eyes to see it rolled back and bloodshot. He then looked inside her mouth and cringed at how red and raw it looked, before finally having Lucy help Amity shift Luz into a sitting position so he could put his ear against her back.

"Her heartbeat is weak and it sounds like she has fluid in her lungs. Combine that with the fever and the young lady may truly die if she doesn't get treatment fast." Osran said gravely.

King and Amity gasped; "No! We need to save her!" the former cried.

"Dang it, Katya and Steve were left behind at the Knee along with Rasiel, and we don't know where we are! How are we supposed to get help!?" Amity asked.

Hunter switched Flapjack into staff mode and got on, along with Lucy; "Let's get out of this pit first. Once we know where we are, we can head to the closest settlement where they should have some medicine."

With no other choice, the others agreed. Osran got on Hunter's staff alongside Lucy, while Amity lifted Luz carefully onto her back while getting aboard Ghost, and having King sit on her shoulder and apply ice glyphs to Luz's head to keep her temperature at a reasonable level. They then flew up out of the pit, finally getting a good view of where they'd ended up.

Stretched out before them was the giant hand of a Titan, still largely covered in purple flesh-turned-earth. It was just a hand though, and they could see four fingers curled up into the air, each a monolith of white bone with some small amounts of flesh still clinging to the tips, like the snow caps of a mountain. Off in the distance was a massive number of Titan skeletons too, all apparently uninhabited; like some kind of Titan Graveyard. However the Titan Hand they'd appeared on did appear to be inhabited; old sail ships could be seen docked along the coast in several places, and fields had been cultivated in the palm. A small village with a prominent tower could also be seen in the centre of the Titan Palm, and some kind of platform had been built off the coast, connected to the rest of the island by a long bridge.

Amity looked down beneath her and saw that the pit they'd flown up out of was formed inside the stump of the Titan's missing fifth finger; the index finger. She had no idea where it had gone, but it had left behind a plateau of bone full of holes, one of which was the pit that contained the Primordial Wellspring.

"Another Titan Island!? How the heck did we end up here!?" Hunter exclaimed.

King stared at the hand in stunned silence, while Amity answered him; "We learned from the Fire Temple that Primordial Wellsprings can act like portals to each other. When we fell into it and got sucked in, it must have spat us out of another connected Wellspring. This place either has to be another active Wellspring of the Boiling Isles Titan, or considering the surroundings… one of it's bonded Mate's."

Hunter, Lucy, and Osran all gaped at her; "This hand belongs to the Titan's mate!?"

"Yeah… the Lost Titan." Amity said, before looking at King's face.

He was tearing up slightly as he stared at the hand beneath him; "Mama… This is my Mama Titan's other hand." he whispered in a tiny voice.

"Oh King…" Amity whispered back. She dearly wished she could comfort him, but she was afraid that it would clue the other three in that something was wrong. Seeing King upset could expose him as a Titan, especially with numerous Titan skulls in the distant graveyard, which could potentially make them notice the resemblance to King's own skull. Them finding out he was a Titan would be a disaster, and today had already been enough of a disaster! In fact, Amity wondered if it was still the same day? It had been early evening when they reached Eclipse Lake yet it looked to be around midday at the moment. Had they been passed out for that long, or was this new island somewhere far away enough that the sun looked to be in a different position?

"This is the discovery of the century! Another Titan!" Hunter exclaimed; "And the mate of our own Titan too! I wonder if the Emperor could speak to them too if he came here?"

"Who cares about that right now!?" Amity scowled. She then pointed to the village; "This place is inhabited, which means they might have medicine for Luz!"

King, remembering his sister, snapped out of his funk and nodded in agreement with Amity; "Let's go and see them!"

Osran and Hunter nodded, while Lucy gestured for Hunter to fly closer to Amity. Once they were side by side, Lucy took the clasp off her cloak and handed it to Amity, much to her confusion.

"Your concealment stone?" Amity questioned.

Lucy nodded and began signing, while Hunter provided a translation; "This isn't the Boiling Isles so there's no telling what their attitude towards angels is here. Lucy's cloak can cover and hide her wings even without the stone, but with Luz unconscious, she can't hide her own. The concealment stone will do it for her."

Sure enough, Lucy's Silver Sentinel cloak kept her wings out of sight even without magic (the concealment stone was only there in case the cloak got damaged), and she wasn't wrong; if the Boiling Isles only liked Angels because of Belos' lies about them serving the Titan (and more recently, Luz's heroics) then there was a good chance the people here would hate and fear them still!

"Thank you." Amity said, handing the clasp to King so he could carefully use it to tie Luz's hair into a short ponytail. Her wings disappeared under the illusion immediately, showing the stone worked. Luz's hair was still white of course, but that alone wouldn't out her as an angel, so the others felt she was as safe as she could be.

With that done, they began flying towards the village at top speed and touched down just outside before rushing in on foot. The village was quite different from any on the Boiling Isles; it consisted mostly of huts that had been made either from the bones and hide of giant monsters, or the shells and remains of massive turtles. The village was also largely arranged into a crescent moon shape, with a simple wooden fence around it and a stone archway as the entrance. Inside the crescent was a large white tower covered in spikes, with a golden metal sun near the top. It was strange and primitive compared to what the Boiling Isles residents were used to, and something about the tower gave King the creeps.

As they entered the village, Osran called out; "Excuse us! Please, one of our companions is very sick! We are in need of assistance!"

Slowly, the residents of the village emerged from their huts, and began to crowd around them, anger in their eyes. If that alone wasn't enough to make their little group nervous, their appearances where. King's eyes widened on shock and horror as he looked at a sea of people with skulls just like his. The villagers all looked to be Titans like King, something that made Amity gasp in surprise; they had skulls like King's, with differing horns and fangs, as well as fur and similarly clawed hands beneath thick robes and other clothing that was quite foreign to the Boiling Isles residents. However King knew the truth and remembered the warning given by the final message left to him by his godfather Zachael;

"skilled hunters capable of trapping and killing a Titan and wearing their skulls like grim trophies."

Osran, Hunter, and Lucy looked between these people and King, believing he was one of their species of Demon, while Amity saw King's horrified expression and whispered; "These guys aren't actually young Titans, are they?"

King shook his head and squeaked out; "Titan Trappers!"