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.

39. EP 18: Hollow Hopes

The Angel of the Owl House

Season 2: The Human Realm

Chapter 18: Hollow Hopes

When Luz returned from Cassiopeia's Skull with King and Eda, she did so with a newly recovered Titan Oculus and a weird sense of relief. The trip to the skull had been weirdly easy; the seas had been calm, the journey had gone quickly with good company from her Mom, little brother, and Captain Valtora, and when they'd arrived at the skull, they'd found it completely devoid of life due to a lack of flesh for it to grow on… at least on the surface. The Primordial Wellspring (which had since gone dormant) was underwater, so only aquatic life had formed around the skull, leaving the eyes easy pickings. They'd only taken one eye since Luz remembered Orion missing an eye in her visions of him, and none of them wanted to blind Cassiopeia's spirit, but they'd been careful to create a large barrier of solid crystal over the remaining one to keep it safe. The only hard part of the trip had been that they didn't return until 24 hours after departing, and King mourning Cassiopeia for a bit… but the Little Titan had bounced back after letting himself cry for a little while. Now he was his cheerful, mischievous self again.

Of course when the Owl Family did return, they arrived to find Darius and the Blights crashing in their living room, now including their Grandparents. They'd also found Severin Cadence, whom Eda came very close to attacking without realising why he was present. It had taken a few minutes for Skara and Amity to explain the full situation and tell the stories they'd learned in Palm Stings, and they'd had to repeat the report in a proper meeting on Digale Island shortly thereafter, but the reaction from Luz and the CATTs had been positive.

With Nelle to help create Anti-Abomaton weapons, Colas providing Coven Head level Illusions, and Severin being the fifth Coven Head to defect to the CATTs, all three were quickly accepted by the rebellion (after the usual oaths of course). Nelle and Colas were set up in the Blights' home on Digale Island, while Severin would remain living in Cadence Manor with Skara, since it was still within Bonesborough and thus in the neutral zone. Before the day was done, Nelle had begun work with Alador and Darius (now as close as ever) to create Parasitic Abomination Grenades to deal with the Abomatons, while Severin had begun teaching the Bardic members of the CATTs. It was also less than a day after their flight from Palm Stings that bounties had been issued for Skara and ALL the Blights, with Amity having an especially high one and strict orders to be taken alive. It seemed Belos had given up on using her lack of a bounty to lure her out… Interestingly, no bounty or official announcement was made about Severin's defection; it was being kept a secret from the public to avoid more people turning to the CATTs, though the Bard Coven and Emperor's Coven had been made aware and sworn to secrecy, according to Eber. However who the new head of the Bard Coven was remained unknown.

On a more positive note, as soon as the reports had been made to the CATTs leaders, Edric rushed off to find Jerbo and Principal Bump. He found the latter first and arranged to begin multi-tracking as soon as the new semester started on Monday. Bump agreed happily, and now Edric would be joining Barcus in the potions track and Viney in the beast-keeping track! He'd then found Jerbo and asked him out on a date, which had shocked the other boy. Jerbo had confessed his own feelings for Edric in return, and admitted that he hadn't expected someone as "cool and handsome" as Edric to be into him too! The two were now happily dating, while their friends and family supported them, all overjoyed.

With the day after the Palm Stings adventure turning out to be almost as busy, with all the changes and stories being told, and the continuation of the Portal Construction (as well as Amity beginning work on researching a way to make Abominations with positive magic), and the relationship upgrade of Edric and Jerbo, everyone was extremely glad to take the next day, a Friday, off to relax a little.

However when Saturday came, it was back to work as always. The Day of Unity was just over two weeks away, and plans for a decisive blow either on or before the big day were being made. To help with this, Raine called a meeting of the CATTs leaders and elites, to discuss their current progress and decide their next move.

The meeting room at the CATTs HQ on Digale Island was occupied by Luz, Eda, Lilith, Raine, Rasiel, Darius, Alador, Eber, Mason, Luna, Osran, and Severin, as well as the surprise guest of Kikimora, who'd been let out of her cell and left in the corner of the room under restraints and silencing spells to keep her from interrupting or listening in on their plans. When Luz had arrived and seen her, Darius had explained they would be asking her more questions to learn what she knew about the Day of Unity, since they hadn't discussed it much when interrogating her the first time.

"Alright, thank you all for coming." Raine said as Severin, the last of the meeting's participants, walked in. "We all know why we're here. It's time to finally plan our final, decisive attack on Belos and his Empire. We'll start with progress reports. My work at negotiating with and uniting the different rebel cells has gone well, and with the sole exception of three small cells, all have joined us to take down Belos. They've all agreed with our short term goals for restructuring the isles and Coven System. The three remaining cells may pose a problem later though; one is too extremist, one seeks to replace Belos with the old Savage Ages system of nobility rule, and the third is very Anti-Angel and won't work with us unless Luz is driven out of the isles."

"Which isn't going to happen. These cells could be an issue later, but we'll deal with 'em after Belos is beaten." Eda said, before going into her own report; "I've been leading some of our people on missions all over the place, hitting Coven compounds, messing up their operations, and saving people. Never thought I'd see the day when the Owl Lady was praised as a hero, but here we are." she grinned. "We've done a lot to undermine Belos, and our civilian support is higher than ever!"

"That support has been very helpful." Lilith commented, leading into her own report; "I've been managing the logistics of the CATTs and Digale Island in particular. We've now reached a point where we are farming and mining enough resources to fully sustain our current population, whilst also maintaining a surplus of food and materials, as well as enough to trade with if needed. Plus donations from our supporters have ballooned our resources, and have been spent on expanding farming, mining, and construction operations. If all else goes wrong, we can support the CATTs and about 50,000 refugees without needing to expand or trade."

"That's a hefty number. I've heard of smaller rebellions and even some towns and villages breaking away from the Empire, but nothing on that scale. How big is this rebellion really?" Severin asked. He had no report of his own to make and was mostly invited to take part since he, Eber, and Mason all had insider information.

"At our last count, roughly 1/3rd of the Boiling Isles Population is either in open rebellion or covertly supporting the rebellion. About 1/6th has chosen to remain totally neutral, and the remaining one and a half thirds is still loyal to Belos." Darius answered.

Severin's eyes nearly popped out of his head; "A third!? I had no idea the Empire had lost that much support!"

"As he suffers losses, Belos has become desperate and doubled down on his crueller actions, driving support towards us." Mason explained. "I believe that he thinks that so long as the Day of Unity goes as planned, it doesn't matter what he does. Speaking of which; the Unity Plaza construction has been completed, but me and my coven have been kicked out of it. Belos is now doing something else there using Abomatons as construction workers. We've tried to investigate, but one of my guys was arrested for snooping around, so we've pulled back."

"And I've tried to investigate the plaza with my spirits, but Belos had salt rock used throughout the construction so Oracle Magic can't peer inside. However I have discovered that the Abomatons are only moving and operating excavation equipment." Osran reported.

"Belos is digging? Is he digging something up beneath the plaza? If so, why wait until so close to the Day of Unity?" Luz asked. "Come to think of it, why wait until so close before constructing the Plaza?"

"Probably to avoid people discovering what he's really doing. The longer the plaza is complete and the earlier before the Day of Unity that he starts digging, the more windows other people have to get involved. I suspect his plans won't be fully complete until the last moment." Darius finished.

Luz frowned, wondering what Belos really intended to do. His reported plan was fusing the Divine and Demon Realms, turning all the residents of the Demon Realm into Angels. Assuming Belos was who he said he was, it would make sense for that to be his plan, but Luz still had her doubts. She needed more information!

As she pondered this, the others gave their reports too. Alador reported that production of his abomination soldiers was going well (the CATTs sadly lacked the resources for full Abomatons), and so was the production of the Anti-Abomaton Grenades Nelle and Amity had invented. Eber reported the successful recruitment of many packs of wild beasts, who'd been ordered exterminated by Belos and had instead been hidden by the Beast-Keeping Coven. Luna reported that their potion stores were on track to being fully stocked, and the creation of Lightning Bombs to help deal with the Abomatons had also been going well. Lastly, Rasiel had reported his research into potential methods of safely entering and exploring the In-Between Realm to search for his missing piece… if the last tomb had his wings like he suspected, then finding them would end the Civil War in the CATTs favour immediately!

All in all, the CATTs were about as prepared as they could hope to be and the time for the decisive battle was upon them. They just needed to know Belos' true plan so they could pick their moment!

"I think we've done as much as we can. Let's talk to Kikimora." Raine declared. They received nods from everyone else in the room, and Darius promptly pulled Kikimora over and had Severin remove the silencing spells.

"Finally my turn to talk, is it? I've already told you everything of note about Belos and his Collector buddy." Kikimora scowled dismissively, even as she cooperated. Her cooperation had gotten her fairly well looked after; she was still a prisoner and kept in a cell, but at least it was a nice cell and she got decent meals… the CATTs treated her better than the Emperor's Coven treated their newbie scouts!

"We want to know more about his plans." Eda said, crossing her arms as she narrowed her eyes on the little Demon.

"I already told you just about everything I know about what he's doing or having the other covens do. What more can I tell you?" Kikimora scowled.

"The Day of Unity." Luz answered, making Kikimora huff.

"I'm surprise you of all people are against it, Angel. Or do you think all us lowly Demons are unworthy of joining your kind?" Kikimora snarked.

"If that was what everyone wanted, then I wouldn't be against it. But Belos is forcing this on everyone… and I don't believe he's telling the truth either. So tell us everything you know about the Day of Unity." Luz requested, remaining firm and polite.

Kikimora narrowed her eyes; "And what's in it for me?"

"Well, we're going to pump you full of Blabber Serum, so it doesn't really matter what you want." Luna Miphari declared, brandishing a bottle of the stuff. Kikimora grit her teeth and clenched her jaw shut; she wouldn't make it easy for them! She hated that stuff!

Opting to make this easier for everyone, Luz made an offer; "If you cooperate, and make an oath to cooperate with the new Boiling Isles Government we want to build, I'll release your pet dragon from petrification. After Belos is defeated of course."

Kikimora snapped her attention towards her; "You'd free my Princess? All for an oath and agreeing to drink a potion?"

"I will. What you tried to do to Hunter, Lucy, and Osran was awful… but what Belos wanted to do in return was no better. We ARE better than him, and Princess is an innocent and loyal beast. Our best Beast-Keepers have already enchanted her stone body so she is stuck in unconsciousness and won't suffer mentally for her ordeal. Help us stop the man who hurt you both, and we'll help you both in return." Luz promised.

The Claw Oni continued to stare at Luz, before nodding in agreement. An Angel couldn't lie, so Kikimora had no choice but to trust her. "Fine. Just don't try and make me answer any embarrassing questions."

She opened her mouth and allowed Luna to pour the Blabber Serum down her throat. Once she swallowed it and it began working, Luz said; "Tell us everything about the Day of Unity and what it is really for."

"I don't know much, nor am I certain of its true purpose. From what Belos told me and the Coven Heads, the ceremony requires the magic of an Eclipse, a pure Angel of sufficient power to act as a vessel, a portal to another realm, and the Coven System, or specifically the sigil system. Supposedly, the magic of the Eclipse will cause the Angel's magic to be magnified and then transferred to every marked witch and demon via the Sigils. This mass-blessing would turn everyone marked by a sigil into a Pseudo-Angel, similar to how the Titan Bile turned you into a Pseudo-Titan. The sigils would then reverse the flow of magic and the angelic blessings of all the Pseudo-Angels, combined with the true Angel's blessing and the power of the Eclipse would allow Belos to connect the portal to the Divine Realm. All that power would then expand the portal wider and wider, until it eventually tore open the border between our realms. No border means no separation, and the two realms become one. Supposedly, that process would then cause the Pseudo-Angels to become true Angels and Divine Magic to replace the Wild Magic of the Demon Realm." Kikimora explained.

The CATTs leaders and elites exchanged looks, then turned to Rasiel. "Is that possible?" Alador asked him.

Rasiel frowned and rubbed his chin in thought; "Theoretically… I originally thought the plan was impossible, but with it laid out like this… Eclipses are profound Celestial Events, and Angels are intrinsically connected to Celestial Bodies… with a properly prepared ritual, Belos' plan really could work, at least in theory. But it would only affect the branded witches and demons; those without sigils would be totally unaffected."

"So is that why Belos is so desperate to brand everyone?" Lilith wondered, looking down at the mark where her own sigil had once been. Since her magic was dependant on Luz's blessings now anyway, she hadn't worried about damaging it by burning off the sigil.

"That, and a minimum amount of people is probably needed for the second part, where their magic is sucked back into the Pure Angel Vessel… I'm guessing Belos would want to use Lucy as a back up if he can't get Luz…" Eda added.

"But if Belos is an Angel and hates witches and demons for what our ancestors did, why would he want to turn us into Angels?" Luna asked, "And what is with that bizarre abomination-like form he used back before he had me petrified?"

Darius shook his head; "None of that matters. All that matters is knowing the specifics of his plan so we know how to disrupt that plan. With the Day of Unity so close and the CATTs having won so many victories, Belos will be carefully guarding all the components; namely the Coven Heads, the Portal, and his back up Angel Vessel Lucy. Going after any of them will be difficult, and we can't be certain he doesn't have something else up his sleeve, especially with the Collector."

"Whose knowledge is also the last thing we need to complete my new portal. The rest should be done within the next couple of days." Luz chimed in.

Raine nodded; "Going after the Coven Heads, Portal, or Lucy will be tough without knowing where they are or what is defending them."

Eber barked; "Covens all have back-up Alphas. Too many traitors, too many losses. Emperor always has back-up Alphas ready now."

"Which limits us to Lucy and the Portal, both of which would be in the castle AKA the most defended place on the Isles." Mason frowned. "With the suspicion on Eber already, and Belos watching me because of my guy who was arrested snooping around Unity Plaza, he's not being forthcoming with his info."

"And being an Angel makes it impossible to use Oracle Magic to spy on him. I tried." Osran grumbled.

Luz wracked her brain for a solution, then asked; "What about the Scrying Potion Tia Lily made? That's not real Oracle Magic, right?"

Eda sighed; "Tried that already, Owlet. Belos sensed it and broke the connection."

"Dang…" Luz frowned; "If only we could just read his mind. We'd know the truth of his plans, what his defences are, and maybe even get the knowledge the Collector has to complete the portal!" she grumbled, realising he might have already told Belos since the Emperor had been trying to make his own portal before he managed to get Eda's.

A sudden silence filled the room as everyone stared at Luz, who suddenly looked sheepish. "O-Oh, sorry. I guess that was a stupid thing to suggest…"

"Actually Owlet, it's not." Eda said, beginning to smile again; "There is a spell to send someone physically into another person's mind. It's a mix of Healing, Illusion, and Beast-Keeping Magic, so only Wild Witches or members of the Emperor's Coven can cast it."

Luz gasped with delight; "Like you!"

"Like me." Eda nodded in agreement. "But there's a catch. The person whose mind we're entering has to be either consenting or in an enfeebled mental state. Maybe we could get Belos drunk or something."

Osran shook his head; "The man doesn't drink, but we don't need to worry about that. There is a ritual we can perform with that spell to invade a person's mind. All we need is a piece of the desired person, something like a hair would do, to make a specially brewed potion."

"The potion is no problem for myself or the Clawthornes. But is that really all we need?" Luna asked.

"Well the ritual also needs to be performed in the light of the Full Moon, and it has to be within a certain range, so we won't be able to do it on Digale Island. Let me see here…" Osran conjured a large tomb and began to go through it. He found the page he wanted and began muttering; "The range limit of the ritual isn't small, but it needs to be on the isles… does the radius focus on the caster or the victim…? Oh, it doesn't matter… So based on that it looks like…"

He snapped the tome closed and smiled; "Good news! Assuming Belos is in his castle, then we can perform the ritual on the east side of Bonesborough and still be in range. We can't move any further west than the Night Market though."

"The next full moon is tomorrow night, and there won't be another until after the Day of Unity. How will we get the hair in time?" Lilith asked.

Eber raised her paw; "Eber will get it. Emperor suspects Eber anyway; less risky if caught. Can sneak into Emperor's Den and steal hair."

Darius narrowed his eyes; "Tomorrow is a Sunday, and Belos always has a Coven Head meeting in the afternoon… we'd be cutting it close."

"Well it's either this, or we risk going in blind and assaulting Belos' castle to try and nab back my portal and the Munchkin." Eda declared.

Everyone began to look around and mutter to each other, debating the situation (except Kikimora, who'd been silenced once again and put back off to the side by Severin). It was a big risk for Eber, but it was the only method they had left of getting information from Belos now, especially as he wasn't allowing anyone but his Elites and Coven Heads get close. With the window to act so small, they couldn't afford to hesitate either, so Luz held up a hand and said; "I vote we do it. We need this information; a blind assault could cost lives and we can't ask our people to do that."

"I agree with Sparks." Raine smiled.

"I do as well." Rasiel added.

Eda and Lilith agreed too, and soon everyone in the meeting was in agreement. Despite this however, they all looked to Eber with serious expressions; "You're the one who'll be in the most danger here, old friend. Are you sure you're up to it?" Darius asked.

Eber grinned and snuffled like a happy puppy; "Eber will help! Must protect pack! Don't worry."

Still, Darius did worry; the last time any of his friends went to see Belos without him, one of them died and the other two fled the Isles…

Regardless, the decision was made and plans for the ritual were decided and the meeting was brought to an end. Kikimora was taken back to her cosy cell by Severin and Mason, then everyone broke up for the evening. The next morning, the CATTs began working on the plan while Eber got herself prepared for the "heist" at the castle.

Since most of Luz's friends were off with their families for the last day of the break, it was just Luz, King, Eda, Raine, Osran, and Darius getting things ready at the ritual site, while Lilith helped Luna make the first stage of the potion they'd need to add Belos' hair to. It was decided to hold the ritual in the isolated ruins of Evelyn's old home on the edge of the Bonesborough borders rather than the middle of the night market, as it meant there would be significantly less chance of someone unexpected stumbling into their ritual and getting sucked into Belos' mind.

They were just setting up some misdirection spells to keep wanderers away when Eber came towards them, noting the sun was high in the sky and thus the afternoon meeting at the castle would be called soon.

"All ready for the world's strangest ever heist?" Darius asked as she approached.

Eber woofed; "Eber will bring back gross hair prize!"

"It's still weird to think you'll be going inside Belos' head." King commented, still wrapping his head around the whole thing. "Why are we just using this to get intel when we could, oh I don't know… leave behind a big bomb or something and literally blow Belos' mind?"

Luz blinked; "You know, King has a point. A kinda murderous point, but still… why don't we just wreck the place? Would that not hurt Belos?"

"Oh, it would. But messing with mind-scapes is dangerous." Eda crossed her arms; "A person's psyche is really complex; there's no way of telling what messing with stuff will do. Destroying everything inside Belos' mind-scape could result in him becoming a feral beast and rampaging, killing who knows how many people! And destroying the mind-scape would also kill everyone inside it, so it'd be a suicide mission."

Luz cringed; "Oof okay, we're not doing that. I don't want to die in that tyrant's brain! Besides, if he really is a Ten-Winged Seraphim, then he himself can't be killed! His affliction may have weakened him a lot, but Rasiel remains a true immortal even with no power at all, so we don't want to risk making an unkillable rampaging monster."

Everyone shuddered at the idea of that, and Luz made a mental note to be very careful inside Belos' head. Shaking the thought off, Luz knelt down and gave Eber an Angelic Blessing, filling her tiny body with some extra power.

"Here, a little something to help you bust out if the worst should happen. Good luck, Eber!" Luz smiled.

Eber beamed, feeling the familiar rush and warmth of Angelic power. She'd been given a blessing once before by Cassiel, and the feeling was intoxicating and nostalgic. Feeling grateful, Eber opened her arms and allowed Luz to pick her up and cuddle her, which she did with a delighted squeal.

"So cute! I wish there were more people like you, Eber!" Luz gushed.

Eber blinked in surprise; considering the circumstances of her birth and how close she'd been to being killed for what she was by her own father, it was surprising to hear someone speak so positively of her. "Little Light is very strange. But very kind too. Eber will go now; Eber feels motivated!"

With that, Eber leapt out of Luz's arms and ran off into the forest, heading towards Manubrium and Belos' castle nearby. She heard the others shout their good lucks (and even heard King whine and demand cuddles from Luz too, out of jealousy), and it brought warmth to her wild heart. Eber had lost many members of her pack thanks to Belos… but she would not lose these ones! She'd make sure of it!

By the time she'd run all the way to the castle (taking care to make sure she wasn't spotted coming from Bonesborough, meaning she had to take a slightly roundabout path), the meeting was about to begin and Eber walked in as always. She was greeted by the usual Coven Scouts, who escorted her to the meeting in the throne room. There she found she was one of the last to arrive, though only a handful of the other Coven Heads were present.

Belos sat on his throne, flanked as always by his two elites. Eber paid special attention to Lucy, who watched her back with equal interest. Lucy had always been one to stare at her in meetings, while Hunter was far more neutral… however now that Eber could see Lucy's face, she knew that Lucy was much the same as Luz, and watched her out of an appreciation for her appearance. It amused Eber; the Little Light and Littler Shadow were quite similar in tastes as well as looks.

The other Coven Heads present included Mason (who'd left Bonesborough far earlier than Eber, since he'd had other coven business to attend to), the still terrified Healer Dorothea, Adrian of the Illusion Coven, and Amaranth of the Abomination Coven. Terra was absent again, having sent a Plant Scout to attend for her, while Vitimir and Odalia were also absent; the latter likely still licking her wounds. They'd sent proxies too, but there was no proxy for the Bard Coven, nor a new Coven Head. Eber had no idea who would replace Severan, but by the severe look on Belos' face, it was probably not a good idea to ask.

The actual meeting was fairly dull and run of the mill, since Belos was being secretive. He listened to each Coven Head (or proxy) give their report of their activities in preparation for the Day of Unity; Amaranth discussed Abomaton production, Eber had to report on clearing the roads to Unity Plaza of beasts, Mason helping maintain the roads now that the plaza was done, and so on and so forth. To Eber's frustration, there was little to no mention of the CATTs and no talks of battle strategies or war plans… it was almost as if Belos didn't see they were fighting a war! Was he so confident the Day of Unity would work out?

Regardless, the meeting ended after an hour of these reports. Belos dismissed everyone as he himself left for his workshop to do… something. Eber was tempted to follow and get a hair directly from the man himself while spying on him, but decided not to risk the mission and instead take the safe path. As the Coven Scouts were escorting her out, she requested to use the privy and was escorted to a private bathroom in the living area for the castle staff. The Scouts (still watching her for signs of betrayal due to her well-known friendship with Darius) waited outside the bathroom so she couldn't leave without them knowing, however this was no problem for Eber. She stealthily summoned a small badger-like demon known as a Mujina, which was famed for its shapeshifting powers. Eber had it transform into a replica of her, then silently opened the window and climbed out, using a pair of spells to give herself the climbing and camouflage abilities of a Chameleon. With these abilities, she easily scaled the outside wall of the castle until she found her way to the central tower, which supposedly served as Belos' private quarters. Peering in through windows, Eber searched for one that led into Belos' actual bedroom, but found none leading there. From what Eber could tell from the outside, Belos' bedroom was in the centre of the tower's top floor, with nothing but a circular corridor around it with Abomaton MK II's patrolling it. Clearly the man didn't want anyone sneaking into his private space.

Since Eber knew what the Abomatons could detect, she waited silently until the patrol moved away from the window she wanted to sneak in, then very carefully sliced open the lock with a claw she elongated and sharpened with magic. In one swift movement, she silently opened the window, climbed through, and closed it again before the next Abomaton walked past. She then climbed up to the ceiling and scurried across it to Belos' bedroom door. When the coast was clear, she sliced open a small section of the door with her claws and slipped through, replacing the sliced section so no one would see what she'd done.

With her infiltration successful, Eber looked around at Belos' bedroom. It was… strangely plain. It looked like most of the other residential rooms on the lower levels, only with a slightly more expensive set of furniture. The bed and attached bathroom looked to have been barely used, and Belos' scent was very weak in the air… it was almost like the man barely used his own room. Did he prefer to sleep elsewhere?

Shaking that thought off as unimportant to her mission, Eber began sniffing around for the place in the room that Belos' scent was strongest, and ended up going into the bathroom. There she found a few grooming implements, such as a straight razor and a worn hairbrush that looked to be hundreds of years old… there was also the profound stench of rot throughout the room. Eber shuddered at the smell and picked up Belos' hair brush, plucking a long hair from its bristles. She sniffed it carefully and confirmed that it was definitely Belos' hair, then tucked it into one of her wristbands before putting the brush back where she found it and retracing her steps to get out of Belos' room and the tower entirely. She then snuck all the way back to the bathroom window she'd escaped from and swapped places with the disguised Mujina, which she banished back to the pocket dimension it had been summoned from.

A moment later, she emerged from the bathroom and allowed the scouts to escort her out of the castle. All in all, it had only taken her ten minutes from the moment she entered the bathroom to the moment she exited again, hair in hand. It was with a bit more pep in her step that she walked out of the castle and began heading home. She walked slowly and casually at first, to make sure she didn't draw the suspicion of anyone watching, though she planned to run the instant she was out of sight.

However, unbeknownst to Eber, she had already caught the suspicion of someone… two someones in fact. Hunter watched her departure from his bedroom window, and as she reached the end of the drawbridge, Lucy rose up out of Hunter's shadows.

"So, how did it go?" he asked without turning.

"Perfectly. The noise and scent cancelling spells you cast on me worked like a dream. Your Beast-Keeping Spells tricked the Head Witch of the whole Coven!" Lucy smiled as Waffles fluttered over to perch on her head. "I tailed Head Witch Eberwolf from the shadows, and your suspicions were confirmed."

Hunter sighed disappointedly; "So Eber is a traitor? What did he do?"

"Snuck into the Emperor's private quarters and stole a hair." Lucy answered.

Hunter turned and gave her a weird look; "You're kidding me!"

"I wish I was. Eber sniffed it a lot… Come to think of it, I'm not sure if that makes them a traitor or just a really creepy fan. Should we alert Uncle?" Lucy asked.

Her brother hummed in thought, and Flapjack came over and perched on his shoulder, chirping something to him. Hunter frowned, then sighed again; "You've got a point… if Eber is a traitor, then Uncle will do something drastic. We all remember Head Witch Cutburn. I don't want Eber's life on my hands, especially if he is just a creepy admirer. But on the other hand, if he wants a hair for something more nefarious, then we can't ignore it. We should follow him and see what he's really up to."

Hunter and Lucy both knew this was slightly foolish logic; Eber had broken into a secure part of the castle, and no matter the motive, they should warn their Uncle… but thanks to Belos' recent foul mood and the way he'd treated Hettie, they really didn't want to risk it. They'd handle this themselves.

With that in mind, they turned their Palismen into their stave modes, then Hunter applied scent and sound cancelling spells on himself, before Lucy took them both into the shadows to pursue Eber covertly. They had just caught up to Eber as she was leaving sight of the castle, at which point she began to book it westward, taking a very convoluted route through the forest, as if she was actively trying to shake pursuers. Lucy struggled to keep up with her via the shadows, especially as the chase became rather long. By the time they realised they were heading towards Bonesborough, it had gotten rather dark outside…

"It's night time already… the meeting ran long, and it gets dark earlier now that we're in Winter. We'll need to be careful in the dark." Hunter thought.

Eventually, Eber crossed over the border into the neutral zone of Bonesborough, and Lucy promptly pulled herself and her brother out of the shadows and hid behind a tree near the border. "Do we keep going? If Eber is doing something bad, we won't be able to meddle past this point without breaking the truce agreement!" Lucy pointed out.

"It doesn't matter. Uncle was willing to break the truce when he sent us after Dell Clawthorne, and if Eber is going to do something sinister with his hair, I'm sure Uncle will forgive us for breaking it now." Hunter replied in a whisper. "Now let's keep going before we lose Eberwolf's trail!"

Lucy gave an unsure frown, but followed her brother regardless. They crept through the forest and soon found themselves near the same ruin where Lucy had bonded with Waffles. It brought fond memories to Lucy's mind, but Hunter urged her forward and so they crept a little closer, until they discovered what was waiting within.

Six figures were stood around in the ruins, all wearing warm winter cloaks with their hoods up to keep out the bitter evening cold. One of these figures was very small, even more so than Eber who had joined them. One was just a little taller than Eber, and one was about the same size as Hunter, while the rest were all adults. They were talking about something, but neither Hunter nor Lucy could hear their quiet voices thanks to the wind, so they crept closer yet again.

As they hid behind the ruins of the old garden wall, they felt their hearts seize as they watched Eber hand Belos' hair to one of the figures, who added it to a test tube with a strange potion inside. With the hair and a bit of magic, the potion began to glow gold as another one of the figures began drawing a large golden spell circle on the ground, clearly as the basis for some sort of ritual. Another of the figures then conjured a recorder of some kind and began to play it, causing the ritual circle to expand. It now included a secondary circle within the first one, as well as smaller tertiary circles around the first two, forming at the cardinal directions. The figure with the potion then placed it in the centre of the circle as another turned their fist into a hammer-like form and raised it high, ready to smash the potion.

With no doubts left in their minds that Eber was a traitor and this was some evil ritual, Hunter leapt out to stop them, forcing Lucy to leap out too to back him up. Both pointed their staves and the shocked figures, their Palismen disguised as artificial staves just in case.

"Halt! For crimes against the Emperor, you are all under arrest!" Hunter announced.

"H-Hunter!?" exclaimed a very familiar voice.

Hunter and Lucy both went pale as the figure that was around their height pulled down their warm hood to reveal the surprised face of Luz Noceda-Clawthorne.

"L-Luz!? Did you get taller? W-Wait, if you're here then that means Eberwolf really is a traitor!" Hunter yelled.

"Great deduction, Golden Goof." one of the adults said, pulling off their own hood to reveal Eda the Owl Lady.

One by one, the other four figures did the same, revealing Raine as the one with the recorder, Darius as the one about to smash the vial of potion, and King and Osran as the two shorter ones.

"Grandpa Osran! What are you doing here!?" Lucy cried.

Osran smiled at his honorary granddaughter, despite the less than ideal situation; "Good evening, Lucy. You've caught us at a rather inopportune moment."

"We're about to raid your Uncle's mind and discover his true evil plan!" King happily declared.

The siblings gaped, and looked around in shock. Darius groaned and pinched the bridge of his nose with annoyance, while Eda smirked and Raine smiled nervously. Luz was looking at the two with an uncharacteristically calculating look too, which made them both very nervous. However none of that mattered… they had a ritual to stop!

"We won't let you do this!" Hunter declared, using a lightning flash spell to zip towards the potion vial and grab it. The others surged to stop him, but Lucy draw a spell circle and summoned a wave of darkness to knock everyone away. Everyone was caught in it except for Luz, who cut through the shadows with a light beam of equal strength, and Eber who simply leapt over it and jumped at Hunter's hands. Eber grabbed the vial from Hunter whilst knocking Flapjack's staff out of his hands, causing the Palisman to flap around angrily. Lucy used a shadow tendril to snatch the potion from Eber's paws and pull it towards her own hands, but Luz cast some kind of Construction Spell on herself to increase her strength, allowing her to grab the shaft of Waffles' staff and yank it out of Lucy's grip, tossing the staff away. Waffles turned back into a bird and joined Flapjack in protesting and trying to get back to their partners, but Raine's Palisman Rena leapt up and caught both birds; grabbing Flapjack in her mouth and Waffles between her forepaws. Lucy cried out upon seeing this and reached for them, drawing a spell circle with her free hand, but Luz suddenly shot bronze beams of light from one of her fingers, which hit Lucy's hands. The girl's hands turned to stone, making her scream in surprise and horror.

Unfortunately, this backfired unexpectedly, as the potion vial slipped out of Lucy's loose stone grip, causing it to hit the floor and shatter. Everyone froze as the potion began to shine brightly, and it's golden glow filled the entire spell circle. The only people still on the circle were Luz, Eber, Hunter, and Lucy, so all four were caught in the light while the others were momentarily blinded and recoiled instinctively. The light grew and swelled, forming into a bubble around the four people on the circle, before finally sucking the four of them together and shooting up into the sky like a firework. The light then exploded and vanished, as the four people within were sent to their destination.

Being warped into someone's mind was a disorienting experience; it felt like a wild and very shaky roller coaster rider that squeezed one through a tiny tube without even strapping them into the ride first. It was uncomfortable to say the least, and the four travellers found themselves waking up dazed and briefly confused on a cold tile floor. Hunter was the first to leap to his feet and grab his sister, pulling her to safety so he could examine her stone hands, while Eber got up next and watched the pair of them carefully. Luz was the last to stand, blinking confusedly as she looked around at everything.

They appeared to be in a very long, dimly lit corridor modelled on the interior of Belos' castle. The walls were made of gold bricks, and the floor was a chequered pattern of black and white tiles. Along the walls were large, stylised paintings of various events, all featuring Belos.

"W-We did it. This must be the inside of Belos' mind!" Luz gasped, looking around. "Osran said these paintings are his memories… they're kinda creepy." she mused, looking at the four directly around them. One seemed to show Belos from before he was Emperor, leading people away from a burning town. The next was of him surrounded by adoring followers. The third showed him stood in his current Emperor outfit, looking like a giant that towered over the isles, and the fourth showed Belos facing off against a six winged Angel Luz, who bizarrely had chains around her limbs and neck, binding her to a smirking representation of Eda, hiding in the shadows behind her.

Luz shuddered; "Does Belos really believe his own lie so much that its influencing his memories?" she muttered.

"Of course not! That's not how Mind-Scapes work!" Hunter snapped; "You're just too brainwashed by the Owl Lady to see that! Now undo what you did to my sister's hands!"

Luz frowned and transformed her clothing into her Holy Raiment, revealing her new glyph marking to Hunter and Lucy; "I think not. Without your staves and with Lucy's hands petrified, you two are helpless."

Eber barked; "What do we do, Little Light?"

"Well, we came here to expose Belos' true evil plans, and part of that was to help us catch Lucy so she couldn't be used as the Angel Vessel in Belos' Day of Unity plot. We can keep a hold of her, and drag these two with us through Belos' memories. We'll finally show them how evil Belos really is!" Luz grinned.

Hunter sneered and threw himself between his frightened sister and the rebels; "I won't let you take her! And our Uncle isn't evil!"

Eber barked again; "Little Prince and Little Shadow have doubts. Eber sees them. They share secret looks in meetings. Their scents are of fear around Emperor. You fear him. You doubt him."

Luz nodded; "Eber's right; surely after all you've seen, you realise Belos isn't what he paints himself as! He's a bad guy!"

"H-He's an Angel chosen by the Titan!" Hunter retorted.

"So am I!" Luz shot back, "But unlike Belos, I'm not currently rotting away with a curse, or petrifying and shattering people!"

Hunter scowled as he raised an eyebrow and gently took one of his sister's wrists before raising it up so Luz could see Lucy's petrified hand. Luz blushed a little; "W-Well I'm not fully petrifying them, and definitely not shattering them! I promise I'll undo that later."

"C-Can it be now, please? I promise I won't attack you! I can't beat you and Head Witch Eberwolf on my own anyway, and Hunter has no magic without Flap! Please turn me back; this is scaring me!" Lucy whimpered.

Luz gasped, and immediately undid the petrification on Lucy's hands, and the girl sighed with relief and clenched her fingers together. "Thank you…"

"You're welcome. Look, we don't want to fight or hurt you; so how about we all just stay calm and start looking around?" Luz suggested.

Hunter narrowed his eyes; "Why should we cooperate with you? You're invading our Uncle's mind! We don't want to go traipsing through his memories!"

"Eber thinks that might actually be good idea." the diminutive Half-Demon woofed with a smile; "Little Prince and Little Shadow can see memories for themselves. See Belos is evil. Once they see truth, they can join rebels!"

"We'd never do that! Uncle isn't evil!" Hunter yelled, before his expression became one of doubt; "He's just… sick and desperate. He wants to save everyone and build a new paradise for them! He's so desperate to help people that he's done things a little questionably, but still, his intentions are good!"

Luz frowned; Hunter and Lucy were clearly struggling with their loyalty to their uncle and their doubts over some of his actions. She really didn't want to fight them again, so instead she came up with a different plan, based on Eberwolf's words.

"Well then, why don't we make a deal. We'll all look at Belos' memories, and if they show that he's really a good person that became misguided and corrupted, then I will go with you to see him and we'll try to work something out. Perhaps I can heal his corruption now that I'm stronger." Luz suggested, shocking her companions. Eber was about to protest, but Luz continued; "But if those memories show that Belos is evil, then you two have to surrender to the CATTs and be our guests until the war is over. We won't hurt you or force you to fight, but you won't be able to hurt us either. Deal?"

Hunter, Lucy, and Eber all stared at her in surprise for a moment, but before they could speak, Luz's scroll suddenly appeared and began ringing. The Arch-Angel looked at it and saw it was a call from Eda.

"Huh, Belos' mind has Scroll reception. Neat." Luz commented, before answering; "Hi Mom!"

"Owlet! Thank the Titan you're okay! Did the ritual work?" Eda asked urgently.

"Yep. Eber and I are in Belos' brain now. Hunter and Lucy got dragged along too, but they're okay. We're working out a truce deal at the moment." Luz explained.

"Right, because those two never try to break those…" Eda muttered sarcastically, before continuing; "Well listen, we've got those kids' Palismen out here, and we're taking care of them so they don't run off. We've also still got the potion to pull you out guys out of Belos' mind. Since the range limit on getting someone out of a mind is a lot bigger than getting them in, we're going to head back to the Owl House and wait there. That way we'll be prepared for those kids when we yank you all out."

Luz smiled, then turned to Hunter and Lucy; "Good news, your Palismen are okay. Mom and the others will take care of them until we leave."

Hunter sighed with relief, while Lucy beamed; "Thank you! Tell Waffles I say "I love you!" please!"

Luz giggled and nodded, then looked at Hunter with a grin; "Want me to tell Flapjack you love him too?" she asked.

Hunter blushed; "Yes please…" he mumbled.

"Mom, tell Flapjack and Waffles that their partners send their love. I'll call you when we're ready for an extraction." Luz said. She heard Eda pass along the first message, then heard some happy chirps and cries of "Aww!" from the others outside. She turned back to Hunter and Lucy; "I can't be sure, but I think they said I love you too. So that's nice."

Lucy beamed while Hunter just looked like he was questioning his entire life up to that moment. Eda laughed on the other side of the call, then said; "Okay Owlet, I'll let you get to the mission. I'll call back if I don't hear from you for a while. If you don't answer, we'll yank you right out of there, got it?"

"Got it Mom! Talk to you later!" Luz smiled. The call ended and Luz put her phone away. "So, we have a way out whenever we need it. Now about that deal…"

Hunter crossed his arms; "It's ridiculous to even consider. But I am loyal to Uncle and know he's a good man, so I'll take your bet! And when the truth of Uncle Belos is revealed, you'll be coming with me to the castle."

"I don't really know what to think. I want to trust Uncle too, but I'll be honest… he's been scaring me a lot lately. I hate having to hide Waffles from him too." Lucy mumbled, fidgeting shyly; "I want to see the truth of who he is, good or bad, so I'll agree too."

Luz and Eber both beamed; "Great! Never thought you tailing Eber would turn out to be a good thing!" she looked to Eberwolf and held up a hand for a high-five; "Girl, gimme five!"

Eber laughed and jumped to slap her hand, while Hunter looked shocked; "Wait, girl!? Isn't Head Witch Eberwolf a man?"

"Oh right, you didn't know. Yeah, Eber's a lady." Luz said casually. Considering Hunter knew Eber was a traitor now too, neither she nor Eber saw a reason to keep her gender a secret.

Hunter gaped, then spluttered; "O-Oh! I'm so sorry for calling you a guy this whole time!"

Eber waved him off, not bothered or insulted, though she noted that Lucy didn't seem surprised. Maybe she was more like Luz than just her looks…

"Putting that aside, let's get to these memories! Mom said we just have to jump inside the portraits to view them." Luz said, beginning to look at all the memory paintings. "Now what's a good one to start with…"

The four of them began to look around, trying to spot signs of anything that could prove Belos' virtue or villainy. Hunter's eyes were immediately drawn to one of the four paintings Luz had looked at earlier.

"Look at this memory, Luz." Hunter called, beckoning her over. The portrait was one of Belos from before he became Emperor, leading a large crowd of frightened witches away from a burning town. The Belos in the painting looked different; his robes were white and grey, with gold detailing. The looked more humble than his present day robes, but Luz also noted that they looked like an odd combination of a Holy Raiment and an old fashioned Human Realm Priest's frock.

"You know, unfettered wild magic wiped out our family. Everyone knew too much and got themselves hurt. That's why Belos took in the survivors and dedicated his life to making the Coven System!" Hunter declared, before moving to the next painting, which showed adoring crowds flocking towards Belos. Luz found this painting reminding her unsettlingly of similar paintings in the Human Realm, only with a different religious messiah in the central role.

"It's why he's so well-liked! Of course, he has to keep his angelic nature a secret for now, but considering the other side of his family was wiped out for being Angels, is it any wonder? That's how Lucy lost her mother…" Hunter frowned.

Lucy nodded sadly; "We still don't know how we relate to Uncle exactly. We just know relatives of his ended up marrying witches. Some eventually bred with Witches so much that they lost their angelic blood, resulting in Hunter and his family. My mother was from a different branch of the family, but still married a wild witch. We know how that turned out…"

Luz and Eber watched the two sadly, knowing they'd both lost a lot, only to be taken in and mistreated by Belos. If only they could realise how abusive Belos' behaviour towards them truly was…

Hunter continued to chatter on, talking about how the Coven Sigils protect witches and demons from their own magic going wild, and how that makes the Titan happy. Luz was sorely tempted to argue against him, especially his insistence that Belos was well-liked (so well-liked that a third of the Isles wanted his downfall), but she decided there was no point; he would just believe her wrong and brainwashed until he saw hard evidence. Instead, Luz gently pressed a hand against one of the portraits to try and enter it, only to find it resisting her like a regular painting.

She exchanged a confused frown with Eber, who was as surprised as she was, until she heard an excited gasp from Hunter. Luz and Eber turned to see what he was looking at, finding it to be a painting of Hunter in full Golden Guard uniform kneeling before Belos, who was seemingly knighting him with his staff.

"Remember this, Lucy? This is the ceremony where I officially took up the mantle of the Golden Guard!" Hunter said proudly.

Lucy smiled and nodded, spotting herself towards the edge of the painting. She was already the Silver Sentinel, having been given the title as soon as Belos took her in. As far as Lucy knew, she was the first and only one to hold the title, though she suspected Belos had made it up to give her something to do and keep her face hidden.

As Luz and Eber took a look (the latter noting herself in the picture too), Hunter proudly declared; "You know, I'm the youngest scout to ever be promoted to the rank of Golden Guard! I never found out what happened to the last one."

"He died." Eber barked sadly, before she could stop herself. Hunter froze and turned to look at her, while Lucy frowned.

"I-I know he passed away." Hunter said softly; "All Golden Guards have died in service to the Emperor. We're his last line of defence after all… We don't retire, so there's only one reason for a new one to be promoted." The boy hesitated for a moment, then looked to Eber; "D-Do you know how he passed? Or anything about him? Uncle never…"

"His name was Michael." Luz said, remembering Darius' story. "He was Darius' mentor… he was also friends with an Angel named Cassiel, and someone else named Em. Darius said that the three of them went to visit Belos, and then something happened. Michael died, Cassiel and Em disappeared from the Boiling Isles, and Belos told everyone a fake angel had tried to assassinate him, killing Michael in the process. That's all we know."

Hunter and Lucy stared at Luz with wide eyes, before the former looked down sadly; "I see… I wonder if this "Em" person was the fake angel, and used Michael and Cassiel to get close to Uncle… I guess I won't know unless we find the memory down here."

Luz also hoped to find that memory; this would be her chance to finally see Cassiel in person and learn the truth of that incident! Maybe it would give Darius some closure!

Meanwhile Lucy looked back at the portrait and commented sadly; "I remember Darius looking sad on that day. He must have still been mourning his friend."

"Yeah." Hunter said, feeling something in his throat; "I guess that's also why he was always so hard on me. I think I misjudged him in more ways than I thought."

Luz was about to comment when she and Eber both heard a soft crying somewhere down the hall. It sounded like a little boy, but that should be impossible! No one but them were supposed to be inside Belos' Mind-scape! Unless it was the Inner Belos… Eda and Osran had told Luz a bit about mind-scapes while they were preparing the ritual, and Luz knew that a person's "inner" self could also form in there, manifested from the person's thoughts and emotions.

Curious, Luz followed the sound of crying while Eber kept an eye on the others. Luz eventually found the source of the crying hiding behind a pillar, and gasped softly at the sight of what was undoubtedly Inner Belos. He looked very different however; rather than a tall and imposing Corrupted Angel Emperor, Inner Belos appeared to be a little boy with a purple aura around him. He looked to be no older than 9 or 10, and was dressed in ragged, old fashioned clothes consisting of dark shorts with suspenders (one of which was broken) and a simple white shirt with elbow-length sleeves. The outfit looked like something Luz had seen in history class back in the Human Realm, but most bizarrely, the little boy's face was covered by a crude wooden replica of Belos' mask. It kept his face totally hidden, but it didn't hide his messy hair, which appeared to be dark in colour.

"Belos?" Luz muttered, confused. Was this really Belos? But if he was, why did he have dark hair despite being an Angel? And where were his wings? Could he have hidden them? Could his hair have been dyed to hide his identity? Or did he perhaps have the same affliction that effected Luz and Lucy in their youths?

Countless questions swirled through Luz's head, not least of them being why Belos' inner self was a small child and weeping behind a pillar. Before she could investigate however, she heard a startled bark from Eber, causing her to turn to see what was going on. At that moment, the little Inner Belos ran away into the darkness, while Luz ran back to the others.

"Uncle!" Hunter smiled, looking at something emerging from the shadows in the opposite direction. Luz gasped as she saw a second Inner Belos step out from the darkness, looking much more like she'd expected! He appeared to be in his proper Emperor disguise, though he also appeared to be made of darkness, with little white specks that resembled tiny stars all throughout his silhouette.

"W-What is that? Something feels really wrong here!" Luz whispered urgently as she approached Eberwolf.

Eber nodded, all the fur on her body standing on end as something in her instincts screamed at her. Something about this Inner Belos was unnatural! Lucy seemed to have picked up on it too, and her wings were looking ruffled just like Luz's. Only Hunter seemed oblivious and smiled happily as he approached the larger Inner Belos.

"Uncle, you're here!" he greeted pleasantly, before kneeling; "Emperor Belos, I beg for your assistance! The Arch-Angel Luz Noceda-Clawthorne has promised to join our side if we merely show her evidence of your true goodness! Please, show us the memories of your valiant actions, so we might bring her to our side as the Titan intended!"

Luz, Eber, and Lucy all kept their guards up as Adult Inner Belos stopped in front of Hunter, remaining eerily silent. Luz could sense something wrong with him, but couldn't quite figure it out… it felt like there was thousands of different magics all crammed together into one body. Did Belos' sickness stop all his different thoughts and feelings from fully merging together?

At that moment, everyone's eyes were drawn to a spot behind the Inner Belos, where the child version from before had appeared. He was frantically miming and waving his hands, clearly trying to warn them of something. Luz frowned and prepared to cast a spell, but before she could, the Adult Inner Belos let out a monstrous screech and began to move unnaturally, as sinister blue eyes of varying sizes appeared all over his body.

"W-What!? Is even Belos' inner self a monster!?" Luz cried, conjuring a light sword and pointing it at the monster. The monster snarled and changed shape, becoming a vaguely humanoid creature that resembled a decaying corpse, still riddled with blue eyes and sporting Belos' long hair and the horns of his mask. It lunged at Luz, who waved her light sword at him, afraid of what might happen if she damaged Belos' inner self. Thankfully the act scared the creature enough to make it step back a bit, giving Luz a window to use a strength-enhancing spell again as she turned and bolted in the opposite direction, throwing Hunter and Lucy over her shoulder as she went. Eber followed immediately after, running as fast as she could while Luz began to fly.

"W-What are you doing!?" Hunter demanded.

"Running from the monster, you dummy! If we fight and defeat that thing, who knows what Belos will do in the real world! It could cause him to snap and attack everything!" Luz yelled back.

Lucy gulped and looked back, seeing Inner Belos chasing them. She began to shake; "It's just like when Uncle loses control of his sickness! If he catches us in that state, we won't get out of this unscarred!" she cried.

Eber barked urgently; "Little Light, fly low!"

Luz immediately began to fly close to the floor, and a claw from Inner Belos sailed through the air where her head had just been. Inner Belos had caught up unnaturally fast, and Luz didn't have enough room for fancy flying, especially with two passengers. Instead, she stabbed the light sword into the floor and then used it to swing herself around and fly back towards Inner Belos whilst coating one of her feet with ice magic.

"Time for a brain freeze!" she declared, holding Hunter and Lucy tightly as rolled forward through the air and slammed her foot against Inner Belos' face. The ice magic began to rapidly freeze the shrieking monster, and within seconds it was completely frozen solid.

Luz landed and put Hunter and Lucy down, all three of them shaken as Eber ran back over to them. "Little Light! You okay?"

"Yeah… but I don't know for how long!" Luz answered, eyes widening as the frozen monster began to shake and crack as it tried to escape.

Eber growled, ready for combat, but then suddenly smelled something familiar behind her. She turned and saw the Child Inner Belos over by the light sword that Luz had stabbed into the floor of the hallway. Normally it would have vanished after Luz let go of it, but it had instead gained a purple aura, as if it was being maintained by the magic of the mind-scape instead. The odd boy grabbed the light sword and caused it to turn into a wooden toy sword. He then slashed at the floor a couple of times, and despite the sword being wood now, it sliced through the floor easily and created a large hole leading to what appeared to be an empty void. The little boy then jumped up and down enthusiastically to get the others attention, before jumping into the hole.

"Did he just give us a way out?" Lucy asked.

"Only one way to find out!" Luz answered, just as the other Inner Belos broke out of the ice. With no time to waste, Luz darted down the hole and dragged the others with her. They found themselves screaming as they began to free fall through the void, but Luz grabbed them all in one of her crystal barriers and began to float down slowly.

Hunter looked around at the void and began to panic; "Where are we? Did we just get dumped into Uncle's subconscious!? There's nothing here!"

Eber shook her head and barked, then pointed down below them. The kids all looked to where she pointed and saw the ground far below them, which appeared to be covered in a dead forest. "Solid land! Let's investigate! I've got a hunch about what's really going on…" Luz declared. She flew them down into the dead forest, then dropped the barrier so they could all touch down safely.

This new area really was just a massive dead forest, with bone white trees as far as the eye could see, and thick sinister webs hanging from the branches. Many of the large trees also had paintings on them, though all were damaged and partially decayed. As Hunter and Lucy checked each other to make sure they were okay, Luz took a look at some of these portraits. The first two she saw depicted the Young Belos, revealing his face… which Luz thought was weirdly cute, like a little kid's should be. Both paintings also depicted Belos with someone else; a taller boy in similarly ragged clothes, but with pale hair in the same colour as Hunter's. The style of hair was even similar to Hunter, though the boy in the painting had the addition of a ponytail. Sadly, his face was impossible to see as that part of both paintings had been torn open. Was this Belos' relative or friend? The pale hair could have been an Angel's, but there were no signs of wings.

"Eerie… Strange to see Emperor as Pup." Eber grumbled softly. "What is happening in this one?"

Luz looked at the painting in question and was surprised to see that Belos and the other boy were churning butter. "They're making butter… do you not have butter churns in the Demon Realm? I mean, they are kinda ancient in the Human Realm too, so I wouldn't be surprised if you forgot."

Eber looked at Luz strangely; "Butter made with milk and magic. Why need barrel and stick?"

Luz shrugged; "No idea… where are they in this memory? Is that even the Demon Realm? It doesn't look like the Divine Realm, but who knows what that place was like over a hundred years ago. Come to think of it, I've got no idea how old Belos is…"

She looked at the other painting she'd spotted upon landing, which depicted the older boy carving Belos the same crude wooden mask that the Inner version was wearing. Gingerly, Luz reached out for the painting and gasped as her hand sank into it, as if she was putting it into water.

"My theory was right!" Luz exclaimed; "That hallway up there was full of fake memories! Those are all the lies Belos tells people! It's why we couldn't go into the memories; they weren't real! This must be his real mind-scape!"

Hunter's head snapped towards Luz; "What do you mean his "real mind-scape"!? Those memories up there couldn't have just been lies!"

"Then why couldn't we enter them?" Luz asked, crossing her arms.

"I-I don't know. Maybe his inner self locked us out of them! Uncle is probably furious with all of us now!" Hunter retorted.

Luz scoffed; "Really? What gave you that idea? Was it his inner self becoming a monster that tried to kill us!?"

Hunter and Luz both began to glare at each other, before Lucy grabbed Hunter's hand and Eber grabbed Luz's, calming the two teens. They were unusually tense due to the near-escape they'd just experienced, and were lashing out at each other as a result. As the two took a moment to calm down, Hunter noticed that large amounts of the ground in the dead forest seemed to be made of some kind of black ash. He stooped to get a closer look at it and found the blackened remains of a long-drained Palisman, which crumbled into ash as Hunter touched it.

Hunter's hand began to shake as old doubts plagued his mind once more. Lucy put a hand on his back to comfort him and calm his shaking, while Luz felt her anger give way to sympathy. She had to remember that these two had been indoctrinated from a young age; it wasn't going to be easy to change their minds or make them see the truth. She needed something irrefutable… and then she needed to be there for them when that irrefutable proof broke their hearts.

"I'm sorry for being short with you, Hunter. Let's get to looking through these memories; then we can settle this argument once and for all." Luz said, offering her hand.

Hunter huffed and refused to take it, though his eyes did soften; "I'm sorry too. Your offer to join us once we prove the truth to you was… appreciated, if misguided." he replied.

Luz smiled a little wider, and both Lucy and Eber sighed with relief. With their brief argument solved for now, they began to look around for a memory that might hold the proof that either side needed. Most of the memories in the area they landed in seemed to just be about Belos as a kid with that pale haired boy, and while Luz was tempted to look at them, they only had until the full moon ended to get what they needed, so it was best not to waste time. As they walked, Luz and Lucy struck up a casual conversation about their differences as angels; namely their opposite elemental affinities, while Hunter found himself walking awkwardly beside Eber.

"So… you're a traitor, and a lady. I guess you've surprised me twice today." Hunter commented dryly.

Eber gave a toothy grin and barked, knowing Hunter could understand her (he'd always been the one to interpret for Belos when Darius wasn't around); "Little Prince surprised Eber too. True name more apt than realised. Hunted a hunter."

Hunter raised an eyebrow; Eber seemed to be actually impressed by his tracking skills. "Well, I've developed an interest in Beast-Keeping Magic. I learned spells to erase my scent and silence my footsteps."

"Impressive, Little Hunter." Eber woofed, changing Hunter's nickname in her language; "Little Shadow is Oracle. Maybe Little Hunter become Beast-Keeper?"

"I hadn't really thought of it that much… I just…" Hunter hesitated, before deciding that since Eber was a traitor anyway, she wouldn't likely report him to Belos; "I'm fascinated by Palismen. They're like animals despite being made of wood, so I researched Beast-Keeping Magic to see how it effects Palismen. I… I want to be a carver of Palismen one day, when we don't need to worry about Wild Magic. I know Angels use Palismen too, so even after the Day of Unity happens, I can still become a carver! And to be a good carver, I need to know all about the different animals and beasts that a Palisman can become!"

Eber's eyes widened; so Hunter had developed a love of animals and fauna due to his love and fascination with Palismen? That was surprising, but also kind of sweet; Hunter clearly had a vision for his future in mind and was throwing himself fully into making it happen! And if he'd managed a couple of Beast-Keeping Spells that were good enough to trick even Eberwolf the Huntsman (a title she hadn't used much since learning of the Archivist of the same name), then the boy just might pull it off!

"Eber is impressed. Also little bit proud. Eber understands why Purple Brother so fond of Little Hunter." she commented.

Hunter's eyes widened and he gave a little gasp of surprise. "Darius…" he whispered.

Eber nodded; "Purple Brother cares a lot about Little Hunter."

"Would have been nice to know that before he turned traitor." Hunter said bitterly.

Eber whined, her ears drooping; "Purple Brother enemy of Emperor, not Little Hunter. No CATTs want to fight Little Hunter or Little Shadow."

"Why should I believe you? You could be lying to trick Lucy and I! You've all been really adamant about making us turn on our Uncle!" Hunter demanded.

"Why bother?" Eber asked with a shrug; "Little Light stronger than both Little Hunter and Little Shadow. Beat you up and capture you easily if wanted. But doesn't. Fight over Selkidomus, over Palismen, over Eclipse Lake, over Emerald Entrails, over Palistrom Wood… Fight over so many things, but always spare. Always give mercy. Why bother if Little Light not care?"

That made Hunter go quiet, especially as he looked over to where Luz and Lucy were speaking. Lucy was shy as always, but she admired the powerful Angel of Light that Luz had grown into, and Luz was being kind and supportive of her in return. Seeing them stood together like that made Hunter think they looked like sisters.

"Little Hunter and Little Shadow have good hearts. Everyone just wants to see good hearts used for good things." Eber finished.

Hunter bit his lip; he really was becoming so confused and full of doubts. Luz was nothing like Belos said she should be… she was rebelling against him and the will of the Titan! Yet she was also kind and wanted to help them despite them being her enemies. And then there were the likes of Willow and Gus, who'd touched their hearts in ways Hunter had never expected… Then of course there was Darius, who confused Hunter even more! The boy had craved his approval without really knowing why, only to finally get it when he did something against the Emperor… had Darius been playing him the whole time? Stringing him along until he became a rebel like Darius wanted, even if only for an instant?

Hunter ran a hand through his hair; nothing was as he felt it should be! Belos, Luz, Darius, Eberwolf, the rebels and the covens… it was all wrong! It made him doubt everything he thought he knew! The only thing in his life that was as it was supposed to be was his sister Lucy… but she looked to him for guidance and support! How could he give her that when he didn't know right from wrong any more!?

"Eberwolf, why did you and Darius become rebels?" Hunter asked, a hint of desperation in his voice.

Eberwolf went quiet for a moment, then looked Hunter in the eye and said; "Because of Angel Friend, Star Friend, and Last Golden Guard: Purple Brother's mentor."

Hunter's eyes widened again; was Eber referring to Cassiel, Em, and Michael? Did that mean Darius and Eber's betrayal had something to do with the Fake Angel Plot?

"What really happened with them?" Hunter asked.

Eber shrugged, here face falling; "Don't know. Last Golden Guard spent lots of time with Angel Friend… began to doubt Emperor. Eber and Purple Brother get doubts too; Angel Friend not like Emperor claims. But Last Golden Guard, Angel Friend, and Star Friend all become very close… Mates even. One day, go to visit Emperor for first time together. Don't know what happened, but Last Golden Guard died, Star Friend hurt, and Angel Friend become scared… they won't tell Eber or Purple Brother truth, say it too dangerous. But in fleeing, they warn with no words; don't trust Emperor!"

"So you and Darius think Uncle killed my predecessor, hurt this "Star Friend" Em, and terrified Cassiel enough to flee the Boiling Isles!? That's why you betrayed us!?" Hunter exclaimed. "But that's ridiculous! Why would Uncle ever do something like that?"

Eber narrowed her eyes on Hunter; "Eber thinks Angel Friend was given same offer as Little Light. Join Emperor, serve Titan like Emperor… but Angel Friend saw through lies, just like Little Light. Emperor tries to capture, Last Golden Guard and Star Friend protect… but one die and one hurt."

"B-But-!" Hunter tried to argue, but suddenly found his mouth going dry. He remembered what Belos had done to Luz… hitting her with red lightning to punish her defiance, and injecting her with Titan Bile to make her kill the Owl Lady. Belos had called it penance and a necessary cruelty… but after spending as much time with Luz as he had, Hunter was starting to have doubts about that. If Luz was just brainwashed, wouldn't it have been better to undo the magic of the brainwashing rather than hurt her? Or show her the truth just like Luz was now trying to do to him and Lucy? Why be so cruel to her when other options were available? Was it truly just the sickness he suffered from?

Could that same sickness have killed the last Golden Guard? Hunter didn't want to believe it, but the scar on his face twinged, and he found himself looking over to his sister and the scars on her face too.

"So you and Darius wanted to avenge your friend… I-I don't like that you betrayed the Empire after all the good the Emperor has done! But I understand why… if I didn't know about the sickness infecting him, and I saw the scars he left on Lucy, I might have tried to turn on him too. But I just know that when the Day of Unity comes and all Wild Magic is purged, the sickness will fade and Uncle will be the good man he was always meant to be!" Hunter declared, forcing himself to smile confidently, though it looked more like a shaky grimace to Eber's eye.

The Half-Direwolf gave Hunter a sympathetic look, then barked; "Eber hopes Little Hunter is right. For his sake."

The boy didn't know how to feel about that answer, but he didn't have long to think about it as Luz suddenly called out to him and Eber. "You guys, come over here! Lucy found something!"

Hunter and Eber rushed to catch up with the girls, and found them near a tangle of dead roots. Lucy was kneeling in front of it, while Luz stood watch beside her, trying to coax out whatever was inside. All four gasped softly as the Child Inner Belos emerged from the roots, still wielding the wooden sword that he'd made from Luz's light sword.

"It's you! Kid Belos!" Luz smiled.

"Thank you for helping us escape the other Inner Belos. I think I like you a lot more." Lucy said, reaching down to pet the boy's hair.

Kid Belos allowed it for a moment, before pulling away from Lucy and instead clinging to Luz's leg. "Eber is confused. Why two Emperors?" the Coven Head asked.

"I've read a lot about mind-scapes." Hunter began; "And as well as a person's consciousness forming their Inner self, I've read that strong emotions can also materialise."

"So one of the Belos we've met is the Inner self and the other is an emotion? Come to think of it, Mom did mention something like that while we were setting up the ritual." Luz said, tapping her chin in thought, before looking at Kid Belos; "If you're an emotion… maybe you're Belos' sense of guilt? It'd explain why you helped us, and why you're so small."

Hunter scoffed and was about to dismiss the idea of Belos having reason to feel guilty, but then the conversation he'd just had with Eber flashed through his mind, and he went silent. Instead Lucy made a suggestion.

"Maybe that monstrous version of Uncle is a manifestation of the corruption that's been eating away at him. We know it messes with his mind sometimes and makes him lose control…" Lucy gingerly rubbed the scar on her nose, "Then this little version of Uncle could be the true Inner Self, and he's so small because the affliction has been eating away at Uncle's mind too much! It'd also explain why this place is in such a horrible state, and why so many of these old memories are damaged."

Luz, Hunter, and Eber exchanged looks; it made sense, at least if one believed Hunter and Lucy's assurances that all of Belos' evil was caused by the corruption. The rebels didn't believe it of course, but it ultimately didn't matter; Kid Belos seemed willing to help them while Monster Belos wanted to kill them, and that was all they needed to know.

Suddenly, the mind-scape shook as the roar of Monster Belos echoed from above, causing the invaders to huddle together defensively, and Kid Belos to cling even tighter to Luz. When the roar ended and no one saw any other signs of Monster Belos, Luz knelt down to comfort the child.

"It's okay. We'll all work hard to protect each other. And maybe in the meantime, you can show us who Belos really is; good or bad." Luz suggested.

Kid Belos stared at Luz for a second, then slowly nodded. Luz smiled and was about to thank him, when Monster Belos roared again. He sounded closer this time, so everyone panicked a little, especially when Kid Belos grabbed Luz's wrist and began running off, dragging her behind him. The others chased after them, ending up coming to the real version of a memory painting they'd seen in the fake mind-scape; the one that showed Belos leading people to safety from a burning city. Kid Belos leapt right into the memory, dragging Luz with him. Eber leapt in right after them, while Hunter and Lucy hesitated. Invading their Uncle's memories, even for a good cause, felt like a horrible invasion of privacy… Another roar from Monster Belos, now even closer, ended their concerns as self-preservation kicked in, and they leapt into the memory.

When they all arrived in the memory, they found themselves in an old Savage Ages City that reminded Luz a little of the Bonesborough of the Past she'd visited with her Mom and Tia Lily. Kid Belos let go of Luz and ran off with a strange, otherworldly giggle, leaving the others to try and follow him deeper into the memory. He led them to some kind of makeshift stage in the town square, which was being surrounded by a sparse crowd of witches and demons. Kid Belos disappeared amongst the crowd, but as Luz and the others reached the stage, they heard some mutterings from the crowd.

"He says he can talk to the Titan." one man commented.

"The Titan's Dead! Even the priests at the temples say they haven't heard from his spirit in centuries! How is it possible for this guy to have heard him?" a woman beside him replied.

At that moment, Belos stepped out onto the stage, wearing the older outfit that made him look more like a priest. Now that it was right in front of Luz and not merely a painting, she could also see that his mask was different; halfway between the crude hand-carved version worn by his child self, and the golden one he wore in the present day. He also wielded a much cruder looking staff, with what looked like a round Carbuncle Crystal inside a glass ball, attached to the end of the staff and held in place by prongs similar to his mask's horns. As Belos addressed the crowd, Luz and her companions listened closely.

"Fellow Citizens, we are born into chaos. Our lives anger the Titan, and my own family has been hurt by the darkness of Wild Magic." he declared, his staff sparking a little and producing a thick black smoke to obscure him from his audience. Then suddenly, the smoke was blown away as Belos twirled his staff and conjured nine balls of light, one in each of the signature colours of the nine main Covens. "But I have been shown the healing light, and it shines in nine hues!"

The audience were intrigued and delighted by the light show, and began to mutter and grin at one another. Hunter looked up at his Uncle with hero worship in his eyes, then nudged Luz.

"Do you see? Belos is just like you! Always wanting to help people!"

Luz frowned, not so sure that a pretty light show constituted helping people. Sure it had entertained them, but Luz doubted the people were actually listening to his message instead of just watching the show.

Suddenly, explosions began to go off all around the stage, and people began to run and scream. Luz instinctively pulled Hunter and Lucy close to her to protect them all with a barrier, while Eber shot off in search of something she'd seen amidst the chaos. At the same time, Belos began shouting to the people.

"The Wild Witches! They have found me! Run!"

Belos then took his own advice and fled, rushing down the same alley way that Luz had seen Eber run down. Suspicion growing in her chest, she ordered Hunter and Lucy to follow her as she gave chase. The trio ran down the alley and found the portrait that would lead them out of the memory again, as well as Eberwolf. The tiny Coven Head was staring at something down the alley with an angry expression, causing Luz, Hunter, and Lucy to follow her gaze.

At the end of the alley was Belos, who was standing angrily over a previous Golden Guard. Hunter gasped upon seeing him; he was dressed in the Golden Guard mask and cloak, but the rest of his uniform was different; being a purple tunic with lilac laces on the torso, and a golden belt around the waist. He also had a ruff of some kind around his neck and worn over the cloak. It was a strange look, and wildly old-fashioned. There was also a sack of… something by the guard's feet, and behind Belos was a stack of crates hidden beneath a tarp.

"You incompetent fool!" Belos snarled at the Past Guard; "You nearly took my head off with that blast!"

The guard bowed contritely, and speaking in a voice that was eerily similar to Hunter's, he said; "I am sorry, Lord Belos."

Belos growled and in a flash of light, his angelic wings appeared from his back. Luz and the others gasped in surprise, seeing the ten majestic wings glowing softly… or rather, eight of them were glowing. The bottom two were dull and beginning to rot… clearly Belos' affliction had already set in at this point.

"Do not forget yourself again, boy. You have been failing me too often in recent weeks… do not think that being family gives you the right to disappoint me!" Belos snapped, before putting his wings away again now that he was done being intimidating. He marched passed the boy and said; "I'm off to the next town."

"Uh, but what about…" The Golden Guard pulled the tarp off the crates, revealing that they were full of bombs. "… the rest of these?"

Hunter and Lucy both went pale as snow as Belos coldly replied; "Put on a bigger show."

To the shock and horror of everyone watching, the Golden Guard seemed to deflate a little, then lit a match and ignited the bombs' fuses before he followed Belos through a door.

Luz and the others didn't stick around to see what the bombs did to the city, but given the flames depicted in the portrait, they didn't feel the need to. Besides, Kid Belos reappeared out of nowhere as soon as the previous Golden Guard was gone, and picked up the sack of items he'd left behind. The sack sounded like it was full of potion bottles as Kid Belos slung it over his shoulder and ran out of the memory. The others followed him out, reappearing back in the dead forest.

As soon as they stepped foot on the ash covered ground, Luz turned to Hunter and Lucy with a look of both vindication and sympathy. "Belos was lying." she said, "Wild witches weren't attacking him at all! He orchestrated that attack himself!"

Hunter shook his head defensively; "T-That's not what happened! That was probably just a… special technique? T-To get people to listen to his message! Like fireworks! It just got… out of hand. But it… it was for the greater good!"

Luz glared at him, unconvinced. Hunter didn't look convinced either.

"False Flag." Eber growled, "Belos used tactic as Emperor. Set up secret attack, used outcry for support. Made people agree with things they didn't before. Eber and Purple Brother found many cases. Create problem, sell solution, gain power."

Hunter clenched his fists and stared at the ground, while Lucy (who'd been in stunned silence so far) tried to come up with an excuse. She latched onto the sight of her Uncle's wings. "There was rot on his wings, right? You all saw? M-Maybe that's why he did it? The sickness had already gotten to him and made him do those things!"

Luz looked at the girl with frustration and sympathy. She put her hands on the smaller angel's shoulders; "Lucy, that wasn't some frenzy! He didn't just lose his temper and lash out! He bought bombs, ordered his Golden Guard to set them up to explode during his speech, and then ordered him to destroy the town with them! That was calculated! You can't claim his sickness made him do that!"

Lucy bit her lip and averted her eyes, unable to say a word against Luz or her Uncle. Meanwhile Eber began to mutter; "Emperor called Old Golden Guard pack. Voice was the same as Little Hunter's too… must be ancestor."

That made Luz frown too; Hunter had said just a little while ago that pursuing Wild Magic had gotten his family hurt, yet an ancestor was helping Belos fight against it? And Belos had said in the memory that his family had been hurt by it too… Had Hunter's family been hurt, then forgot about it for a few generations, only to be hurt again and wiped out, leaving Hunter behind? Something about that didn't seem right.

Sadly, she didn't have long to think about it as the slimy fingers of Monster Belos began to emerge from the memory they'd just left. He must have followed them in without them noticing!

"He's found us! We need to run!" Luz cried. The others panicked and ran with her, following Kid Belos as he giggled strangely and jumped into another memory painting. This was the one that showed him being admired and adored by people, so Luz was already bracing herself for something infuriating.

Instead, she found something freezing as she and her companions emerged onto the snowy hills of the Knee. They watched as Kid Belos ran up the hill, where Luz spotted a crowd of nine witches (most of them wielding staves) stood together in front of Belos, who was still in his priest attire and stood on another hill above them. Kid Belos ran up to one of these witches and snatched some rope from her shoulder, much to Hunter's confusion.

"What's the kid doing?" he asked as they approached the crowd of witches.

Luz shrugged, then shushed him as she saw Belos begin to address the nine witches. Belos, sounding sorrowful and imploring, gestured behind him as he said; "Look at what Wild Magic has done to your city!"

The four intruders gasped in horror as they saw the ruins of Caplacier, still burning and smouldering in the background. This must have been the aftermath of its destruction and abandonment! Had Belos been responsible for it!?

Continuing his speech, Belos said; "Now imagine what it's doing to you! A city can rise from the ashes, but a soul…" he shook his head ominously, and the nine witches began to mutter fearfully to one another.

Belos then raised his staff, and another Golden Guard emerged from behind him. While Belos hadn't changed from the last memory, this Golden Guard was definitely different, now wearing a black tunic with a strange black collar around his neck, worn over his white cloak. The Golden Guard was putting on a strange grey glove with a golden tip on the index finger.

"I can make your magic pure again, as the Titan intended!" Belos declared, as the Golden Guard raised his hand and the golden finger tip began to glow.

Luz and Eber watched in horror as each of the nine witches pulled up their sleeves and offered their bare wrists to the Golden Guard, who went to each one in turn and branded them with a different sigil, until each of the nine had one of the nine different coven sigils (excluding the tenth, Emperor's Coven sigil). Once his task was done, the Golden Guard returned to Belos' side and the nine newly branded witches raised their arms proudly.

"Welcome… to your new covens!" Belos said grandly, though there was a sinister undertone to his voice.

Without warning, Belos suddenly summoned his wings and spread them wide, shocking both Luz and her companions, and the branded witches. The wings were more decayed that in the last memory; the two that had already begun to rot now looked blacked and disgusting with open wounds, while rot had begun to set in to a third wing too.

"A-An Angel!? He's an Angel!?" one of the branded witches cried.

All but one (the Oracle branded one, Luz noted) grabbed their staves and pointed them at Belos and the Golden Guard, but before they could do a single thing against either of them, thin glowing lines began to stretch from their Coven Sigils and spread up their arms and across their whole bodies, making them convulse, before their eyes suddenly began to glow in the colour of their sigils. One by one they began to collapse as their magic was sucked out of them through their sigils.

"He… He's draining their magic!" Lucy cried in horror.

"Not just that!" Luz growled, pointing to Belos; "He's absorbing it!"

Sure enough, the magic draining from the branded witches was sucked into Belos through his staff. He breathed deeply as power filled him, and the eye holes of his mask filled with light in the nine colours of the covens. His wings then began to shine in a rainbow of colours too, though the three rotten wings gave off only black wisps of corrupted magic. The magic flowing into Belos began to swell and grow, until an aura was formed around him. The Golden Guard braced himself with his staff, and Belos let out a cry of pain as all the magic he'd absorbed suddenly exploded out of him, creating a massive eruption of power that sent the Golden Guard and branded witches flying. Luz, not sure if memories could hurt them, once again grabbed Lucy, Hunter, and Eber and pulled them into a barrier to protect them.

For a few moments, the group inside the barrier could see and hear nothing, as the explosion kicked up snow and smoke that completely blinded them. When the smoke began to dissipate, Luz cautiously lowered the barrier and took in the scene around her, feeling bile creep up her throat at the sight.

Belos was on his knees, panting exhaustedly, but was otherwise fine. The Golden Guard was on the ground nearby, clearly battered by the explosion and slowly pulling himself to his feet. But the nine branded witches? They were scattered around the area, having been sent flying by the blast… and it was clear that at least a few of them had died, while the rest were seriously injured and on death's door, their sigils still glowing.

"By the Seraphim…!? What did Belos just do!?" Luz cried, feeling like throwing up.

The Memory Belos clambered to his feet, then growled at the Golden Guard; "Get up, fool! I warned you to put up a stronger barrier! Now go and check the test subjects!"

Hunter and Lucy watched with wide, shell-shocked eyes as the clearly injured Golden Guard dragged himself to his feet and began examining all the branded witches. Some he only looked at for a moment, while others he examined more closely, before straightening up (an act that looked painful) and returning to Belos' side. "Six of the nine are dead. The other three will not live much longer." Once again, his voice sounded like Hunter's… was he another relative?

"Only six? With that much magic? Was there a miscalculation with the Draining Spell?" Belos muttered to himself.

"Lord Belos, if I may… when you absorbed the magic, a lot of it seemed to leak out through your damaged wings. That may be the reason." the Golden Guard said.

Belos seemed to consider that for a moment; "Irritating… the corruption of this evil place has damaged me too much. If that is true, I won't be able to serve as the Angel Vessel for the Day of Unity… meaning I'll need a pure vessel. Which also means I'll need to wait for her to return."

Luz frowned; her? Had there been another Angel that Belos had known? One who'd left? Perhaps he was talking about Lucy's mother…

"But the strain of the blast was also a problem. My body is admittedly not in the best condition, but if I scaled that strain up to include the drain of all the magic on the isles, even a healthy Vessel might not survive! I can't risk killing her… it looks like I'll need to see if creating a replacement vessel really will be possible after all." Belos mused.

As Luz and her companions tried to wrap their heads around what they'd just seen, Belos turned back to the Golden Guard; "Gather the Palismen." he ordered. He then stood and watched as his clearly injured Golden Guard was forced to limp through the snow to gather up the staves of the fallen witches, taking them whether their owner was living or dead. Belos immediately devoured one of the poor creatures to regain his strength, then marched off without a word and without giving his Golden Guard a moment to rest.

Luz, Hunter, Lucy, and Eber stood there in the snow for a few moments, all of them stunned by what they'd seen. Eventually, they noticed Kid Belos beckoning them to follow him back out of the memory, and Luz and Eber were tasked with gently tugging the two elites back out into the dead forest. Once they were back, they all stood around in tense silence for a moment, unsure of what to say.

Hunter and Lucy could do nothing but stare at the floor in shock, trying to rationalise what they'd just seen with the mental image they had of their Uncle. He'd not only treated his Golden Guard (likely another relative, considering his voice) terribly, but he'd also just caused the death of six people and abandoned the other three to their inevitable demise, wounded and freezing in the snow. And when combined with the past memory too, it was likely he'd been behind the destruction of Caplacier, meaning he'd likely killed hundreds more and ruined the lives of countless others… why would he do such a thing? There had to be a good reason, right? Their Uncle, who took them in and raised them when they'd lost everything couldn't possibly be the monster Luz believes him to be…!?

… right?

As far as Luz and Eber were concerned, what they'd just seen was the proverbial smoking gun; proof beyond doubt that Belos was evil. Still, they had questions too; what exactly had Belos actually been planning!? He'd used the sigils to steal the magic from those witches and then turned himself into some kind of Angelic Bomb, amplifying and expelling the stolen magic in a large explosion. But to what end? If he did the same thing on the Day of Unity, with an Angel Vessel that didn't leak magic and with all the branded witches and demons on the isles… the resultant explosion would be catastrophically big, especially amplified by the eclipse.

A blast that big… it could potentially destroy the entire Demon Realm. Such an act would kill Belos too of course… unless he had a portal to another realm to escape through.

Realisation slammed into Luz like a freight train and she couldn't help grip her stomach as nausea filled her. "By the Seraphim… this is Belos' plan! His real plan! He's going to destroy the Demon Realm!"

Hunter and Lucy snapped their eyes towards her, while Eberwolf gulped; "Little Light?"

"W-What are you talking about, Luz!? What do you mean he's trying to destroy the Demon Realm!? H-He's trying to save it! From the scourge of Wild Magic!" Hunter cried.

Luz shook her head vehemently; "Hunter, you just saw Belos MURDER people! You saw him burn a town to get people to join him! How can you still defend him!?"

"He was just…" Hunter wracked his brain for an answer; "… just… perfecting Sigil Magic! Yeah, that's it! He probably needed to test the sigils on some consenting test subjects to make sure they could properly restrain Wild Magic! I bet he tried to absorb the Wild Magic from them to help them, only for it to explode out of him again because of the corruption! T-The past Golden Guard did point out it was leaking from his rotted wings!"

Eber growled; "Emperor complained that only six died! Left three survivors to die!"

"M-Maybe he's misremembering! Who knows how these mind-scapes work!?" Hunter cried, clearly growing more and more desperate.

"You said you did! You said you read all about them!" Luz pointed out angrily.

"Well maybe I'm an idiot! But Belos isn't trying to do something as stupid and evil as blowing up the Demon Realm! Why would he even want to!?" Hunter demanded.

"Revenge." Luz answered, "Belos told me that he lost everything to the witches and demons of the Demon Realm. He told me how Angels were massacred by them in the past! Maybe this whole plot is to get revenge by massacring the Demon Realm!"

"B-But-!" Hunter tried to cut in, but Luz wouldn't let him.

"Belos wasn't surprised by the blast, he was disappointed it wasn't stronger, and that it had strained him! That means he knew! He was trying to kill those people! It wasn't an accident!" Luz yelled.

Lucy, who was shaking with anxiety, finally managed to pipe up. "M-Maybe those nine people were evil? Uncle could have been using them specifically because they're bad guys?"

"How does Little Shadow explain Draining Spell and Bomb Plan then?" Eber asked, arms crossed.

Lucy shrugged weakly; "A big explosion could break down the walls between the Demon and Divine Realms, combining them together?"

"Y-Yes! That must be it! Uncle tested the Draining Spell and sigils on some evil witches so it wouldn't matter if they died! That way he could make it safe for the Day of Unity! And he was disappointed only six died in the blast because they were bad people and it showed the blast was nowhere near strong enough to do its real job yet!" Hunter rationalised, a shaky smile on his face as he threw an arm around his sister; "I-It all makes sense now! Just misunderstandings!"

Luz and Eber looked at one another, both thinking the same thing. This explanation didn't explain Belos' callous attitude towards his previous Golden Guards, nor the bombing of the first city (or probable destruction of Caplacier), but neither Luz or Eber felt it worth arguing. Hunter and Lucy were both blatantly grasping at straws in an attempt to justify their Uncle's actions. Deep down, the seeds of doubt that had been planted throughout their dealings with Luz and the CATTs were growing fast, and the growing pains were leading the two to resist it. Luz couldn't blame them either; she couldn't imagine what she'd feel like if she discovered the parent who'd raised her for most of her life had turned out to be a monster that had gaslit her into committing heinous acts.

Because that was the reality Hunter and Lucy didn't want to face, even more so than their only family being evil. Because if Belos was evil, then they had been happily doing an evil man's bidding, and all things they'd done had been for an awful cause. Finding out you'd been unwittingly leading the world to slaughter was a hard pill to swallow, so the two of them were in full denial. Luz and Eber pitied them greatly; Hunter was only 16 and Lucy was just shy of 13… they were just children, who shouldn't have to deal with any of this, especially from an abusive relative who convinced them he loved them, and his acts of abuse were a result of his corruption (which "flared up" when they disappointed him, conveniently putting the blame on their shoulders).

"Hunter, Lucy…" Luz began, only to once again be interrupted by the roars of Monster Belos. The four of them spun around to see Monster Belos charging towards them, shrieking and roaring like a wild beast, his bizarre monstrous form looking even more slimy and gangly that before. They turned to run as fast as they could, trying to find a new memory they could escape into. Kid Belos, who had been curiously absent during their conversation following the last memory, reappeared and beckoned them to run after him as he fled towards a specific memory. Luz and her companions followed him to it, and were shocked by what they found.

This memory was different from the others; rather than being embedded in a normal dead tree like the others, this one was embedded in a much larger tree, with little glowing stars and crescent moons all over it. The memory portrait itself depicted just the portal door, but above it was something completely unexpected; some kind of circular carving that had a portion of it turned into a pale crescent moon, while the rest was almost black. However the most unsettling part was the glowing smily face carved into the circle.

It gave Luz a horrible feeling, but she doubted that feeling was worse than being torn apart by the pursuing monster, so she followed Kid Belos into it, with Hunter, Lucy, and Eber jumping right in after her. They arrived in a memory of what appeared to be Belos' throne room in the castle, having emerged behind Belos' throne and beneath the beating heart of Orion. Luz briefly looked at it with distaste, hating that such a thing was being kept as a trophy by Belos.

Kid Belos ran off again, beginning to pick up random items that seemed to be scattered around the room, including an old arrow and an empty potions vial of some kind. Hunter was about to call out to the kid, when Belos' voice echoed across the throne room. His tone was one of danger, making both Hunter and Lucy briefly quake, while Luz and Eber joined them in peeking out from behind the throne.

"So let me get this straight; you achieved nothing beyond Lucy's partial ascension? An ascension defined by "Divine Darkness" and not light?" they heard Belos say, watching as the man (now in his Emperor garb), sat on the throne and spoke down to a slightly ragged looking Hunter and Lucy, as well as Osran.

Hunter and Lucy both gasped, the latter whispering; "This is the meeting after we returned from Titan Trapper Island!"

"When you handed over the portal, right?" Luz asked, still a tad bitter.

Lucy nodded ashamedly, and they all stepped out from behind the throne to watch the scene properly.

In response to Belos' angry words, the Memory Hunter weakly replied; "W-We did also discover the identity of the Titan's child!"

"Which I already knew." Belos snapped coldly.

Luz snorted and muttered; "Liar…"

"So all you did was foolishly reveal that fact in front of numerous scouts and a confirmed traitor." Belos continued.

That confused Luz and Eber, who looked to Hunter for an answer. The boy simply said; "Kikimora.", making the Rebels nod in understanding.

The real Lucy then cringed as her memory self piped up; "B-But surely it's a good thing that I can use magic now! I-I can continue maturing, and then I can take the place of Luz in the Day of Unity! We won't need to worry about capturing her!"

The glare Belos shot her in response made both versions of Lucy flinch, and Luz instinctively put a hand on her shoulder to comfort her, especially as she had to relive Belos essentially diminishing her in front of her brother and Osran.

"While I am proud of your ascension, my pride is tempered by disappointment with your disobedience. I restricted you to the castle for your own safety and you repaid me by disobeying and leaving, an act that endangered another Angel by forcing her to save you with a blessing! And more to the point, you almost got that fellow Angel killed, which would have doomed the Day of Unity! I require an Angel of far greater power than you possess! Your ascension may have granted you power of your own, but it is not enough!"

Luz and Eber's heart broke for Lucy as the Memory version meekly bowed her head in shame and uttered; "I-I'm sorry, Uncle. I just wanted to please you…"

"Had you merely obeyed me, I would be most pleased with you. But disobedience that leads to such… disappointing results… cannot be rewarded or overlooked. Return to your rooms; I will deal with you and Hunter later." Belos ordered, his icy glare making Memory Lucy wilt as the real one hugged herself.

"That jerk! He blamed you for what happened to me, even though it was my own fault!? If you hadn't been there that day, I'd still have made my sickness worse and still probably would have ended up on Titan Trapper Island, and still would have gotten stabbed! Only I would have died because you weren't there to save me!" Luz exclaimed, sincerely wishing she could punch Memory Belos. She was right too; Lucy's battle with Amity might have given the Primordial Wellspring the final push it needed to awaken, but chances are a battle with Kikimora or Osran would have had the same result. Lucy really had saved Luz's life (even if Luz had also saved hers first).

Lucy was shocked by Luz's outburst, and even more so when Eber nodded angrily; "Emperor is unworthy. Unworthy as Alpha, unworthy as uncle! Little Shadow and Little Hunter deserve better."

She blushed a little, and despite how awful reliving her Uncle's scolding felt, she did feel a little warm and fuzzy inside to hear Luz and Eber defend her. It also bothered her that two people who should be her enemies were making her happier than her Uncle had in a long time…

As the real Lucy was thinking this, the Memory Lucy had been staring into space for a few seconds as she spoke to Shade inside her mind. Naturally neither Belos nor the people viewing his memory could hear this conversation, but they did see her put her hand in her pocket and suddenly go very still. In a flash, she spun back around to face her uncle and kneeled once again.

"Uncle! I understand I disappointed you, but I beg you let me speak a moment longer. I have a gift that may make up for my failures." Memory Lucy announced.

Belos scoffed; "Do you have Luz Noceda stashed in your back pocket?" he asked sarcastically.

"No, but I'm in your brain now, you Expired KFC Bargain Bucket!" Luz snarked. Despite not understanding the insult, the sheer absurdity made her three companions snicker.

Memory Lucy shook her head; "No, but I have the next best thing." She then pulled out the Portal Key and showed it to Belos, who immediately leaned forward in his throne. Memory Lucy pushed the eyeball on the key and summoned the Portal Door beside her. "I give you the Portal to the Human Realm."

In an instant, it was like a switch was flipped inside Belos. While the Memory Hunter and Osran were gaping at the Portal, Belos basically jumped onto his feet and ran at Memory Lucy, snatching the key rather rudely from her hand. He immediately used it to open the Portal and look out at the Human Realm, which he stared at for several long moments. He took deep breaths of the air, before sighing and closing the door with clear reluctance. Belos then folded it back up into its briefcase form and approached Lucy.

"Lucy… you may consider yourself and your brother forgiven for all your failures. You have done very well, and made me very proud." he said, his personality doing a complete 180 and becoming kind and almost fatherly as he reached down to softly pet Lucy's head. The child looked so overwhelmingly happy, especially when Hunter then hugged her and Osran gave her a proud smile… but then Luz saw her expression become one of immense guilt, and saw the shine of her silvery wings begin to dull.

The Hunter, Lucy, and Osran of the memory soon stood and left, being dismissed by Belos. As they walked out of the room, Luz looked to the real Lucy and said; "I get now why you went along with Shade and handed over the portal. You know that a good person wouldn't have treated you like that, right? A real family doesn't withhold love or affection because you don't do what they want. That's emotional abuse… Belos was out of line."

Lucy blinked; "N-No. I messed up! He was right to be mad at me."

"Oh yeah, a parent or guardian can get mad at you for screwing up; I've made Mami and Mom mad plenty of times. But that doesn't mean they ever treated me like that! Belo didn't treat you like a disobedient child, but like a tool that didn't do what he wanted." Luz countered.

"That's not true!" Hunter yelled as he saw Lucy become conflicted; "Don't compare our family to yours!"

"Fine, you're right that all families are different, but answer me this Hunter;" Luz frowned at him; "Would you ever treat Lucy like that for failing you? Do you think she'd treat you like that for failing her?"

Both kids went silent, and Luz had her answer. "Yeah, I thought so."

"Little Light and Eber understand feelings. Pack is supposed to love and support pack… but nice pack do that always, not just when useful." Eber agreed. "Little Hunter and Little Shadow deserve better."

Lucy and Hunter felt their heart beats speed up a little bit, especially when Luz nodded in agreement. However that soon chanced when a strange childish cackling filled the memory now that Belos was alone. The watchers looked around, wondering it if was Kid Belos again, but instead of the odd little boy appearing again, they saw a literal shadow emerge from behind the throne.

"Ooh, you were mad for a second there!" The Shadow giggled, "I thought for sure you were gonna go all RARGH on those kids!" they said, changing shape into something eerily similar to Monster Belos for a moment.

Belos huffed in annoyance, though he smiled regardless, holding the Portal and Key in his hands. "Hello, Collector. You don't normally bother me outside of my lab. What's got you in such a good mood?"

Luz gasped; that shadow was the Collector!? Had he been freed already!? No, he couldn't have been; he was still a shadow like King had described him.

"I finally met the Baby Titan!" the Collector cheered; "He fixed the mirror that those stupid Titan Trappers had; the one you broke…" he said that last part with an accusing look.

Belos frowned worriedly, then made his expression go blank and shrugged nonchalantly; "I do apologise for that, Collector. But I couldn't risk them finding some proper Titan Blood and freeing you before you and I had completed our deal. The only payment I have to offer you is freedom after all."

The Collector huffed; "Well it doesn't matter. Those stupid Titan Trappers scared him off, and he broke the mirror again as he left. Still, he was just as cute as the others were! He got kinda mad at me because I said mean things about his Pops being a bully, but when I'm free and see him again, I'll say I'm sorry and then he can forgive me and we'll be best friends and play together! Can you use some of your toys to get him to come visit me soon? I don't want to wait until the Day of Unity…"

Belos shook his head; "No, Collector. My Covens are busy dealing with those infernal CATTs, and now that I have the Portal, they'll be focusing their efforts on capturing Luz. We still need her for the Day of Unity. Speaking of; she and your Baby Titan apparently consider each other to be siblings, and adopted children of the Owl Lady who had my portal."

The Collector gave a little gasp; "Wow, really? Now I really want to play with her! An itty bitty birdy and a Baby Titan! Hey, when you're done with her, can I have her? Pleeeease? I'll take good care of her!"

"No, Collector. A True Angel isn't something you can just treat as a toy or a pet!" Belos scowled; "Assuming I can ensure she survives being the Day of Unity's vessel, I will be returning her to her proper place in the Divine Realm. Speaking of which, I'll need you to help me with the Linking Spell again. The Portal Door will need to be reworked so it connects the Human Realm one last time, then to the Divine Realm afterwards."

"Yeah yeah, and once I've done that and we've had the big Day of Unity fireworks show, you'll free me. I remember the deal! But hey, if you're that worried about Luz getting broken, why not go with the original plan and use the back-up? She was willing and it looks like she got a little stronger." the Collector said.

Lucy went very still while Hunter growled under his breath, knowing the Collector was talking about his sister.

Belos scoffed; "Not strong enough to serve as a proper vessel. If I used her, she'd certainly die."

"Why do you care? Isn't that the whole reason you made her? So she could die instead of the Real Angel?"

Lucy took a sharp breath as her eyes grew wide, while Hunter gripped her shoulder in comfort. Luz and Eber exchanged horrified looks though, with Luz even mouthing the word "Made!?"

Their collective horror only grew as Belos replied; "Yes, but if she dies before the Draining Spell has completed its work, the explosion won't be enough to wipe out this realm. I need a living vessel of sufficient strength to be able to contain and regulate all that magic. Which means unless Lucy is able to mature a bit further into a full Angel, she's useless to me. Still, she helps keep Hunter loyal and obedient, and there is a little more time until the Day of Unity… she could surprise me and complete her maturation."

The Collector giggled; "And if she does, she can be the vessel and if she breaks from all the strain, it won't matter! But hey, if she doesn't break, can I take her at least? I bet she'd still be fun to play with, and it's not like she's a real Angel you need to take home."

Lucy shook her head in horrified denial; "N-Not a real Angel?" she whispered in shock.

"Don't listen to that thing. He's got no idea what he's talking about!" Hunter said soothingly.

But then Belos sent a spike through both their hearts as he replied; "If you insist. It's not like she'll be of any use once the Day of Unity is over. As it stands, with her being defective her uses are limited to running the day to day nonsense of the coven so I can take care of more important business… that and making sure Hunter doesn't betray me like his predecessors."

"You do seem to have weirdly bad luck with those things. The only girl you've made came out without any proper Angel powers, and the boys all end up turning on you eventually. This new boy is the only one who hasn't so far… maybe the girl really is the key to keeping him tame?" the Collector mused.

"Perhaps. Hunter is definitely easier to deal with than Michael was. All I have to say is "The Titan has big plans for you" and he does what he's told." Belos smiled. "Besides, we're too close to the end for making another one to be worth it, and while I'd love another shot at making a new vessel, I don't have enough materials… I barely had enough for the one I made."

The Collector cackled; "So that's the real reason you didn't just break 'em when you got mad earlier! I was wondering, since you always seemed to enjoy tearing the defective boys apart. You have fun with it, admit it!"

Hunter went green as Belos merely smiled and gave an unconvincing; "Of course not. It hurts every time he chooses to betray me."

With that, Belos began to walk out of the throne room and the Collector disappeared back into the shadows, likely returning to the lab that Belos had mentioned. Lucy and Hunter remained frozen in place, both ashen faced and staring straight ahead with a thousand yard stare. Luz and Eber looked at them with sympathy, and after seeing a giggling Kid Belos jump back out of the memory, they were eventually able to coax the two out of the memory and back into the dead forest. Luz held their hands as she pulled them out of the portrait, while Eber kept a keen eye out for Monster Belos.

Once they were out, Luz put her hands on their shoulders and gently asked; "Hunter? Lucy? Can you hear me?"

Both nodded their heads, and Lucy whispered brokenly; "A fake Angel… that's what Uncle called me. A fake Angel… I'm just a failed back-up. I only exist so a "real Angel" doesn't die in his big plan… A plan that will kill everyone in the Demon Realm."

Hunter flinched, while Luz grimaced; it looked like her theory after the last memory had been true. The Day of Unity wasn't meant to unite the Demon and Divine Realms! It would use the Draining Spell built into the Coven Sigils, and the boosting power of the Eclipse to suck all magic from the Coven Witches into an Angel Vessel, which would then cause all that magic to explode out of them in a monstrous blast big enough to kill every living thing in the Demon Realm, all while Belos fled to the Human Realm with the portal. The Angel Vessel would likely survive the blast itself, being in the eye of the storm from what Luz could see, but the strain of containing and then releasing that much magic would be potentially lethal, and since Belos didn't want to see a real Angel die for his plan, he'd found a way to "create" a fake Angel… Lucy.

But what did that mean? How did Belos create her, or Hunter for that matter? His words implied he'd created all the Golden Guards, and then killed them when they betrayed him… but how? Were Hunter and Lucy actually his children, and that's how he created them? Did he claim to be their adoptive uncle so as to avoid people finding out!? And how exactly was Lucy a fake Angel!? Was it related to the so-called "Cursed" red eyes? Was Lucy considered a fake because she was born different than most Cherubs, having no magic of her own at first?

Luz shook these questions off for the moment; they weren't important just yet. The important thing was getting Hunter and Lucy to safety; Belos was clearly willing to kill them, and without Luz or Lucy, he didn't have the vessel he needed for his big plan.

"Hunter, Lucy; I know that everything you just saw and heard must be traumatising, but you need to listen to me. You can't go back to Belos or the Castle; it's too dangerous, both for you and the world. You can come home with me, and stay at the Owl House, or the CATTs' hideout! You'll be safe there, and the others will understand once we…"

Luz trailed off as she noticed Hunter staring at a series of memory portraits in the distance. She turned to look at them, then gasped. Eber looked in the same direction, hissing hatefully at what she saw.

The portraits were all of different past Golden Guards, and the moments of their demise. The one from the first memory, with the purple ruff, was shown being blasted by Belos' signature red magic. The second one, from the Draining Spell test, was shown turned to stone and crumbling away. There were a few others too, some with longer hair, or different outfits… all dying from the same cause…

Belos.

The roots of the trees holding these portraits all had broken Golden Guard masks entwined within them, while the shattered remains of their artificial magic staves could be found nearby.

"Emperor is a monster… pure evil to the core! Can't be allowed to exist! We must destroy him!" Eber growled, her eyes becoming slits as she stared mournfully at the memories of death and murder. Two of the portraits were noticeably different however… one showed what appeared to be a person's arm reaching out from beneath some soil, with bizarre tubes connected to it, while the other showed a Golden Guard with two other figures, though all three had their faces scratched out.

Eber's growl seemed to briefly snap Lucy out of her shocked self-deprecation, causing her to look over and see all the portraits showing the deaths of prior Golden Guards, and the broken masks. Seeing this caused something to snap within her, and she snarled as her wings flared out angrily behind her.

"Belos killed them all… he killed the previous Golden Guards! They found out the truth about him, and he killed them! B-But now he'll know! He'll know that Hunter knows!?" she cried, before gripping Hunter's hand, grounding him back in reality; "I won't let him do it! I won't let him kill you!

Her words and touch allowed Hunter to snap back to reality too, and he gripped both of her hands in his own; "I'll protect you too! I don't know what all that fake Angel garbage was about, but I won't let him hurt my little sister! I don't care what anyone says; you're real! I won't let anything happen to you!"

Luz and Eber felt their moods lighten a little bit; Hunter and Lucy were still deeply hurt and trying to come to terms with what they'd just learned with all their prior denial disappearing from their minds, but they were also drawing strength from each other, focusing on protecting their sibling instead of spiralling into self-doubt over who and what they really were.

"I think we've got everything we need from in here." Luz said softly; "Belos' true intentions have been exposed, and we know how the Day of Unity is going to work. I doubt there's anything more we can learn here."

Eber nodded grimly, while Hunter and Lucy held each other tightly, unsure of what to say or do now that they knew the truth. Luz summoned her scroll to call Eda and ask for an extraction, but just as she did so, Kid Belos appeared again and snatched it from her hand.

"Hey! What do you think you're doing!?" Luz growled as Kid Belos ran away. "Get back here you little gremlin!"

The Kid Belos just giggled creepily and ran past her, snatching up a Golden Guard Mask along the way and then running off into the dead woods. Luz quickly gave chase, followed by Eber, Hunter, and Lucy, and soon found herself in a strange clearing. In the clearing was a ring of rope, like a giant snare trap, with arrows and potion bottles attached to it at regular intervals. A red flame that looked a lot like Belos' artificial magic was burning in the middle of the ring, and as Luz caught up to Kid Belos, she saw him snap the Golden Guard Mask in half and dump it into the flames.

Without stopping to think, Luz grabbed Kid Belos and tossed him away from the flames, causing the boy to run off again, while Hunter leapt into the circle and used his cloak to put out the fire, then stomped the embers with his boot. Luz's scroll was abandoned beside the circle too, much to their confusion.

"Why did he do that?" Luz wondered as she stooped to pick up her scroll.

"I don't know why Belos does anything any more…" Hunter muttered in reply.

Eber nodded in agreement, then hissed as she felt her fur stand on end. Something was coming towards them… something that looked like wisps of rot and slime. Everyone gasped as they watched the slime begin to grow and enlarge within the circle, forming into Monster Belos right where the flame had just been. Monster Belos shrieked in apparent agony as he fell onto his hands and knees, then began to speak out in countless different voices.

"Get away from him! Danger! Danger! Run!" they shrieked.

"W-Wait… what's going on!? Is the Monster warning us away!?" Lucy cried in horror.

Luz looked at the Monster and saw the slime that formed it beginning to reshape itself, forming countless small animal heads all over its body. These animal heads each spoke out in a different voice, urging Luz and the others to flee.

"Are those… Palismen!?" she uttered, completely stunned.

"Monster wasn't part of Emperor at all!" Eber cried, shaking in fear despite trying to put on a brave face.

"The real Inner Belos… has been with us the whole time!" Hunter realised, spinning around to see Kid Belos, who began to laugh louder and louder, his creepy giggles becoming sinister and almost manic laughter. Kid Belos then raised the wooden sword he'd made from Luz's light sword and slammed it down on a length of rope connected to the circle, making red magic spark through it and activating the arrows and potions that had been placed around it. The arrows shot into the Monster, piercing its slimy flesh, while the potions exploded against it and stunned it. Finally, once all the projectiles were used up, the rope itself glowed completely red and snaked around the monster, binding it tightly and causing it to fall to the ground in pain, as all the Palismen inside it shrieked and cried.

Luz gasped and knelt beside the creature, trying to comfort it while Lucy and Eber both drew spell circles and faced down Kid Belos. The boy stopped his sinister cackling and began to warp and change, his purple aura turning blood red as he grew larger, eventually transforming fully into Emperor Belos as they all remembered him, though notably without his mask. Luz gulped at the sight of him; it was the first time she'd seen Belos in person(?) without his mask.

The true Inner Belos stretched and sighed, then looked up at the intruders with a malicious smile. "Hello Luz."

"Belos!" she snarled, conjuring a light sword.

The man rolled his eyes; "Oh no need for all that drama. I have no intention of hurting you, Luz. In fact, I have a lot to thank you for."

"You want to thank me!?" Luz asked, flabbergasted.

"But of course! I owe you a lot! Let's start with your most recent helpful deed; helping me finally catch this thing." Belos said, trying to approach the writhing mass of rot and animal heads. Luz stood in his way and brandished her light sword, making Belos frown and step back; "Honestly Luz… you don't need to defend them. They're just an Amalgamation of weepy little Palismen souls. Their whining has been nagging me for centuries. But thanks to you distracting it, I was able to go through my memories and gather the necessary focus to finally pin it down. Now I can destroy it once and for all."

"I won't let you! They've suffered enough because of you!" Luz growled.

Belos scowled, his eyes narrowing; "Destroying them is a kindness. They are so twisted up together that they can't even move on to the afterlife any more. I'll destroy the souls and put them out of their misery, and as an added benefit, the corruption they've inflicted on me will finally stop getting worse."

"No you won't! I'll save them! I don't know how, but I'll find a way to separate their souls again! You won't hurt them any more!" Luz declared, her six wings spreading out behind her.

Belos responded by summoning his ten wings, which were even more rotted than when Luz had first seen them. They were disgusting, and clearly on the verge of rotting away completely! He then raised his hand, causing rotten slime to emerge out of the ground beneath Eberwolf, catching her completely by surprise. He dragged the bound Coven Head to his side and lifted her to his face with a cold grin.

"I suspected you were a traitor the instant Darius betrayed me. I'm glad to see that having you watched by my elites led to such a wonderful result. Now I'll make use of you one last time, Mutt!" he said, before turning back to Luz. "This is my mind; I control everything here. You stand no chance of beating me, Luz Noceda. But I still owe you a lot, so I'll forgive your transgression… if you stand aside. I've waited too long to purge that filth from me; delay me any further and I'll kill this mutt." he threatened.

Luz paled, while Lucy began to try to slowly edge out of Belos' line of sight so she could attack him from behind. Her attempt was interrupted by Belos suddenly squeezing Eber hard enough to make the poor Demon yelp in pain, one of her ribs being cracked by the pressure.

"Lucy, be a good girl and stay still. You're dealing with people far above your paltry abilities; just sit back and watch." Belos ordered, not even looking at the girl. He instead kept his eyes firmly on Luz. "I'm waiting, Luz… Eberwolf has more ribs I can break."

"H-Hold on a minute! We can talk about this!" Luz pleaded. Belos just raised an eyebrow, before squeezing Eber again, making her yelp in pain and cracking another rib.

"My patience and good will are wearing thin, Luz. If those Palismen Souls aren't removed from me in the next minute, I'm going to leave Little Eberwolf a sack of crushed meat and broken bones!" he threatened.

Luz began to panic and Hunter and Lucy both exchanged looks, unsure of what to do. They had so much they wanted to say to Belos, but now that he was right in front of them and planning to do something horrible without even trying to hide it? Their confidence had taken a heavy hit.

Racking her brain for a possible solution, Luz looked at the suffering mass of Palismen Souls. If she let Belos purge them, not only would he no longer be as burdened by corruption, but it would also mean the ultimate destruction of all these innocent souls! They wouldn't be able to move on to the afterlife and be with their former partners, or find peace after their partners gave them to Belos! A painful death by devouring and then being reduced to oblivion was a fate Luz couldn't bear to leave them to.

"W-What if we separated them all first? Wouldn't that mean they can pass on? They don't need to be destroyed! Please, Belos!" Luz begged, dismissing her light sword.

Belos smiled, his grip loosening a bit. He liked seeing her finally starting to become obedient. "I suppose such a thing is possible, though it would take far more time than I'm willing to waste on this refuse. And I'm certainly not going to sit here for a week while you do it. Either I destroy them now, or you do; Luz. Just think of it as mercy; surely oblivion is better than this?" he countered.

Luz paled then nodded shakily and turned to the Palismen Amalgamation, while her companions looked on in horror. She couldn't change Belos' mind, she knew that… but she could make sure he never hurt these poor creatures again!

Kneeling beside them, Luz reached out and gently pet some of the Palismen heads, who even now cried out and told her to run. As she pet them, Luz felt her resolve weaken; these poor creatures had suffered so much… she couldn't let Belos hurt them more, but she couldn't consign them to the void either! But so long as they were within Belos, she had no choice; she needed to get them out or Belos would kill Eber! Luz couldn't even fight him in here, as even if she won, the Belos in the real world could lose his mind and go on a massacre! All her power meant nothing in battle here… but perhaps she could find another use for it.

After all, if Belos could absorb these souls, maybe Luz could do the same? It would undoubtedly weaken her (not that she could fight right now anyway), but it would give her a chance to untangle the mess of Souls so they can be released one by one, finally passing on. Perhaps she could even carve new bodies for some of them with Dell's help? And Hunter's too, given the hateful looks he was shooting his Uncle. Plus, if the souls corrupted Luz in the same way they did Belos, she would be an unworthy vessel and the Day of Unity would be ruined! Or at the very least, Belos won't be able to hurt Lucy since she was his only back up.

Putting her hands together as if in prayer, Luz lowered her head and whispered to the Palismen Amalgamation. "Please, I want to save all of you! I can put you out of your misery if you want, or I can try to give you a second chance at life or afterlife! I'll take you into my body, and we can work out a way to untangle you all after Belos forced you to be twisted together."

The Amalgamation went still, and the part that still looked like a monstrous version of Belo's face looked at her with its shining blue eyes, as if searching her for signs of deceit or deception. Seeing none and sensing her pure intent, the Amalgamation nodded.

"Take us… into your… body, Angel. We will… trust you…"it said in a thousand whispered voices.

Luz smiled and then put her hands onto the Amalgamation's body and tried her best to relax. As she did so, the Amalgamation gave one last loud roar, then seemed to pounce on Luz. It's slimy body began to pour itself into Luz's body, focusing not on her mouth or nose, but on the glyph markings that decorated her skin. The Amalgamation's twisted form fused into Luz's glyph markings, causing Orion's four to turn a dull grey, while Cassiopeia's wind and earth glyphs (plus the lines that connected them to Luz's wings) also turned an almost greenish shade of grey. Luz's golden eyes dimmed to a dull amber, while her pure white wings turned grey, like Lucy's had been when they'd lost their silvery shine. Luz then collapsed to the floor, gasping for air and spasming as waves of pain shot through her. It felt like she was being injected with extremely thick and stinging liquid at each of the marked points, and a painful burning filled her as it felt like her veins were being stretched open to accommodate the new fluid inside her. It was excruciating, but the worst part was the emotional pain and the voices in her mind. Thousands of other creatures' emotions began to flow into her, making sorrow, fury, hatred, terror, disgust, and a small amount of gratitude and relief build within her mind. The voices of the Palismen also screamed out in a cacophony of thanks, demands, and rabid screams. It was all too much, and Luz was borderline catatonic as she tried to adjust to the horrible new experience.

Belos gasped and tossed Eber aside so he could rush forward to try and stop what was happening, but as he did so, Lucy suddenly conjured a knife imbued with shadows and threw it at the back of Belos' head. The man spun around at the last moment to block it; then growled and turned his arm into a torrent of slime and sent it speeding towards Lucy. It struck her hard and smashed her against a tree, causing her to slump over in a daze. Hunter (who'd caught the mildly injured Eber a moment before) put the Coven Head on his back and rushed to his sister's side.

"Lucy! Are you okay!?" he cried.

"That hurt… but I'm okay. Forget me, Hunter; Luz needs your help more than I do." Lucy replied, wincing as she hid the extent of her injuries.

Meanwhile, Belos had returned his focus to Luz and was now hovering over her. "Foolish little girl! Do you have any idea of the harm you could have done to yourself!?"

"I… I stopped you… from hurting them… again…!" Luz choked out, her every word feeling like sludge crawling up her throat.

"Tch, you fool! You could be corrupted now, just like me!" Belos snapped.

"G-Good… now you can't… kill Lucy! You need… a vessel!" Luz retorted, managing a pained smirk.

Hunter and Lucy both gasped, equally touched and horrified. Meanwhile Belos was just annoyed; "You possibly got yourself corrupted to save some dead Palismen and a fake Angel!? How much has your mind been rotted by witches and demons!?"

"She's not a fake! Just because her magic is dark, and she was born stunted doesn't make her any less of an angel! I was born stunted too! I was just like her before I came to the Demon Realm!" Luz spat, recovering a little. The pain had dulled and the Palismen screams had died down a little as they seemed to wrangle themselves so Luz could think coherently. Shakily, Luz tried to cast a healing spell on herself, only to find that neither the glyphs, nor her natural magic was answering her call. She could still feel it flowing through her, but it was being clogged up and fed upon by the Palismen, who seemed to be consuming her magic to feed and purify themselves.

Belos' eyes widened in surprise, then touched Luz's face. He was practically grabbing it, making her shudder and causing Eber to snarl and leap at him. However Belos almost lazily whipped his other arm behind him, turning it into a slime tendril that smacked Eber out of the air and made her writhe on the ground, her injured ribs now in greater pain. Luz called out to Eber as Hunter moved to defend the Half-Demon, but Belos paid them no mind as the red aura of his inner self spread to Luz. She felt her whole body tingle strangely, before Belos released her and the aura vanished.

The Emperor wore an unsettling smile as he stood up again; "It seems that either your innate Angelic Purity or the fact you didn't actually devour the Palismen has caused you to evade corruption. In fact, your blood and magic is now purifying those twisted souls… intriguing! From the moment we first met, I knew you were special." Belos declared.

Luz blinked in confusion; did Belos sound nostalgic? He'd first met her back towards the end of August, and it was nearly the end of November! How could he be nostalgic for something that happened only about three months ago!?

Before she could question it, she suddenly felt herself yanked into the shadows by Lucy, and then pulled out again beside the younger Angel as well as Hunter and Eber (the latter being weakly patched up by Lucy's limited healing magic).

"You really are becoming an annoyance, Lucy." Belos said, turning to her with a glare; "I have let you live despite your earlier defiance solely because I can still potentially use you as a vessel for the Day of Unity. But that will change if you continue to annoy me."

Lucy instinctively flinched and began to quake with fear, while Hunter stood defiantly between her and their Uncle.

"How could you say that!? How could you say or do any of what you've done!?" Hunter cried, actual tears beginning to build in his eyes. "We loved you! You were the man who took us in when we had nothing! We did everything you wanted as best we could! And you… you used us in a plot to destroy the world!? Why!? What did you do to the other Golden Guards!? To our family!? It wasn't Wild Magic at all, was it!?"

Belos approached him with an unimpressed sneer, then flicked a lock of Hunter's hair, making the boy flinch. "What a shame. I had hoped you'd stay loyal… you never doubted me like the others, and you looked so much like him that I could almost convince myself you were really him reborn."

He gave a theatrical sigh before smirking as Hunter's eyes began to overflow with tears. "I've been making them for almost 400 years, and yet I've still never made a perfect Grimwalker… how bothersome."

The word Grimwalker was like a shot through the heart for everyone listening. Luz felt her insides churn whilst Lucy and Hunter stopped all shaking… they seemed to completely freeze, like time had stopped on them. It took every scrap of willpower the stunned Hunter could muster to weakly say; "What?" in a broken voice.

"Oh come now, did you not listen to a word my past self said in that last memory? I made you. You and your predecessors." Belos grinned mockingly. He then looked at Lucy and smiled coldly; "And you're not the only one, Hunter."

Tears began to trickle down Lucy's cheeks as she realised the implication, while Luz suddenly felt several poignant memories returning to her.

She remembered Hettie's words that day in the hospital; "Grimwalkers are essentially clones born from corpses and graves." and "It requires many esoteric ingredients, including Palistrom Wood."

Another memory flashed through Luz's mind.

Curious, Luz went to the microscope and took a subtle peek at the sample inside, which happened to be Lucy's. There was nothing strange on the surface… at least until Luz noticed something green inside each red blood cell, as well as something else she vaguely recognised from science classes back in the Human Realm.

"Is that… a plant cell?" she frowned.

Luz began to feel sick as she pieced things together, and Hettie's voice again played in her mind.; "Grimwalkers are and always will be aberrations. I don't care how "perfectly" they are made; they are not natural born creatures but the result of necromancy. They are an affront to life and must be destroyed." and "I'm sorry, but I need to do this for all our sakes. The Dark Angel must die!"

"By the Titan…!?" Luz gasped as everything fell into place. "Hunter and Lucy are Grimwalkers! That's why Hettie wanted to kill Lucy! She found out during the examination! And that's also why she has plant cells in her body; because Grimwalkers are made of Palistrom Wood!"

Eber's jaw dropped as Hunter's arms dropped to his sides and his legs began to shake, struggling to support him through the shock. Lucy had become catatonic too, barely even registering Belos' pleased grin.

"Once again, you prove yourself superior to my so-called "Elites." You're quite right, Luz; Hettie's hatred of Grimwalkers led her to try and kill Lucy, disrupting my plans and almost exposing my secrets! You're also correct that a Grimwalker's body is primarily made from Palistrom Wood; one could consider them to be humanoid Palismen if you really think about it." Belos chuckled; "A shame I couldn't feed on them, though I did try with a few of the early Golden Guards. Perhaps that was because of the other ingredients involved; you might remember some of these Hunter."

Belos leaned down grinned cruelly as he recited some ingredients; "Stonesleeper Lungs…"

Hunter's mind flashed back to the day he got the knick in his ear; he'd been sent with Lucy to hunt and kill a Stonesleeper on a small archipelago to the south of the Isles.

"Selkidomus scales…"

Lucy felt like vomiting as she remembered their first fight with Luz, as she protected a Selkidomus on the Simmering Shoals… they'd left that mission with some shed scales…

"A Galdorstone…"

Both of them looked almost green with realisation as they recalled their infiltration of the Looking Glass Graveyard. They'd stolen a stone on the same day Luz and Gus had visited the place!

"And of course, the most important ingredient; the Bone of Ortet. Do you know what that is, Luz?" Belos asked, smirking as he looked from his traumatised "nephew" to the repulsed Arch-Angel.

"Hettie told me." Luz whispered, her mouth feeling like a desert. "She said it was a bone from the person the Grimwalker was meant to r-replicate."

"Yes; a bone of the original. Would you like to know who I made these two from?" Belos asked, his faux-kindness only repulsing Luz and Eber even more.

Luz said nothing; she expected that Belos planned to tell her whether she wanted to know or not! With her magic out of commission, Hunter having no magic, Eber being wounded, and Lucy simply being no match for Belos, especially in his own mind, there was no way to fight him. The best they could do was try to distract him long enough for her to contact Eda for an extraction, or keep him talking long enough for Eda to get worried and pull them out. Thankfully, the latter didn't seem like it would be too difficult; Belos was enjoying his power over them, and the horror his words were inflicting.

"Let's start with Hunter, shall we? He and his predecessors were all made from the same mold after all! He is based off of my own older brother; the only family I had in this world… until he was taken from me." Belos said, his smirk briefly falling as anger overcame him. "You see, my brother and I once lived together in peace, protecting a quaint little town from the darkness and chaos that sought to corrupt its people… but when an Evil Witch came to town and began spreading her vile taint, my brother went to chase her off, only to be enchanted by her foul sorcery…"

Luz felt as if she'd just been struck by lightning as awful recognition filled her mind. This story was familiar… scarily familiar! She had heard it once before, as well as another version… two different sides from two different people.

"N-No…!" she choked out, feeling like she was going to throw up.

"I chased my brother and the Sorceress from our home in the Human Realm, and spent years of my life trying to hunt them down so that I could free my brother. Alas when I finally found him, the Witch had defiled his body as well as his mind, and was actually with child! I tried to snap my brother out of her control, but her grip was too strong and she made him attack me! She forced us to fight each other for our lives, until I finally had no choice but to save him… by slaying him."

Hunter gripped his chest, looking to be on the verge of a heart attack. Meanwhile Luz was actively trying to stop herself from falling into a panic attack as Eber comforted her. "No no no!" she whimpered.

"I had to flee that day, injured by our battle and that Witch's evil sorcery, but I returned and recovered my brother's body…"

A memory flashed through Luz's mind, filling it with Evelyn Clawthorne's words; "The ghoulish little monster found Caleb's grave and stole his body. I don't know why… maybe he just didn't like the idea of him being buried by a witch."

"… and decided that if the Demon Realm was going to take my brother from me, I would use the Demon Realm's own power to bring him back. I used his bones to create Grimwalker after Grimwalker, all so that I would have assistance in my ultimate plan! The plan I formed with help from the Collector and his vast knowledge; the Day of Unity! A Day in which I could have revenge on this evil place and wipe out all the Witches and Demons that defile the Creations of the All-Mighty! Such is the duty of a Witch-Hunter!" Belos grandly declared.

"W-Witch-Hunter!?" Lucy cried.

"I-I was made… in the image of your brother? As a tool of genocide for a Witch-Hunter!?" Hunter gasped out, now in the middle of a full-on panic attack himself.

Belos ignored his two creations and smirked at Luz; "I don't need to tell you the name of my brother, do I? You know who I am now, don't you Luz? Do you remember my name?"

Luz shook her head violently as she broke down in sobs; "BELOS! YOU'RE JUST BELOS! YOU CAN'T BE HIM! Y-You just can't be…"

Her throat burned at the lie… a sign that she knew the truth, even if she didn't want to accept it.

Eberwolf began to snarl viciously as she pieced together what Belos was saying, remembering the story from the trip to the past via the Time Pools. However Belos just ignored her completely and remained focused on Luz.

"My brother Caleb was a good man who deserved a better fate. But you know that, don't you Lady Luz. Please do me a kindness and call me by my real name." Belos said, his smile becoming softer and more genuine.

"I-I can't…" Luz sobbed brokenly.

Belos sighed and snapped his fingers, summoning a large memory painting off to the side that everyone could see. However this one was different from the others, having the memories actually play within the frame like it was a TV screen of some kind. The first memory showed Luz dressed in an old-fashioned dress, standing with Eda and Lilith up on the Knee and smiling warmly at a human man.

"You're Philip Wittebane right? The Human?"

"T-That's how you knew about me when I first came here. It's why you destroyed the diary when you captured me! You'd written about meeting me…! I was the Angel mentioned in the part of the diary I never got to translate! It's why you had such an obsession with Mom, and why you made Tia Lily into your tool and let her keep her Palisman! You remembered everything from when we visited the past with the Time Pools! And the Palismen… you were eating them to keep yourself alive through all these years, weren't you!? That's part of what caused that rotting curse too! After all… a Human couldn't live for over 400 years without help!" Luz cried.

"H-Human!?" Hunter exclaimed; "You're not an Angel!? You lied about even that!?"

Belos snorted and suddenly turned his hands into slime and stabbed them into the ground. Tendrils of rotten slime then emerged from beneath Lucy, Hunter, and Eber and grabbed them all, lifting them into the air and tightly constricting them. Luz gasped and tried to attack the slime, but her body was still too weak and her magic wasn't working, causing her to just fall limply to her hands and knees.

"Belos, stop! Please, don't hurt them!" Luz begged. "Y-You still haven't told me the full story! H-Hunter and the Golden Guards are Grimwalkers of Caleb… but what about Lucy? Who did you make her from!? It must have been one of the other Crest Kindness Angels who lived here in the Demon Realm, right?"

She was buying time, and that was obvious to everyone, but Belos felt no threat from her. So he indulged her. He walked behind Lucy so the traumatised Dark Angel was being held between him and Luz, then gently grabbed the girl's face to force her to look at Luz.

"Do you like her? She turned out less than ideal with her lack of magic, which only gave way to dark powers. I had hoped she would be a replacement for the Angel Vessel in the Day of Unity, since I feared the strain would kill you, Luz. But it seems she's too defective for that." Belos said mockingly.

Lucy's eyes filled with hurt; her "Uncle's" words still managing to sting despite his blatant evil. Meanwhile, Luz just looked confused and angered by Belos' odd statement.

"Stop calling her defective! So she's a late bloomer and has different magic; I was the same! And of course I like her! She's my friend, despite all the stuff you forced her to do!" Luz yelled.

That made Lucy feel a little better, while Belos hummed; "So you were a late bloomer too… I suppose that would explain it."

"What do you mean that would-!?" Luz suddenly stopped mid-sentence as she realised what Belos was implying; "No… no no no no no! You didn't! You couldn't have…!?"

Belos grinned wider as he forced Lucy to look Luz in the eye; "I'm so glad you like her, Luz. After all, you know what they say… imitation is the sincerest form of flattery."

Lucy's jaw hung open as tears began to stream down her face faster and thicker than ever, while Hunter and Eber both went still in their bindings, completely stunned by the reveal.

"I… I am a Grimwalker Clone… of Luz?" Lucy whispered, her voice lacking all emotion. It was as if she'd almost shut down mentally, and was barely able to comprehend what was happening around her. "But how… you needed a bone from her…! How did you…!?"

Belos flicked his hand towards the memory portrait, which now showed the final few minutes of her meeting with Philip Wittebane in the past beyond the Time Pools. Everyone watched as Philip gave a bloodthirsty scream and pulled his knife out of Luz's grasp so he could try to stab Evelyn Clawthorne, a woman that Hunter and Lucy realised was very similar looking to Eda the Owl Lady. They saw Luz try to grab the knife to stop Philip hurting anyone, leading to Philip accidentally cutting Luz's little finger off. They were horrified to hear Memory Luz scream in pain as the digit was cut off, followed by Philip's panicked excuses and then his screams of pain as Lilith shot a spell at his hand to disarm him, before punching Philip in the nose and breaking it.

Philip had screamed and cursed the witches, then pulled out a glyph combo and vanished with it, taking Luz's severed finger and leaving some sinister words in her ears; "We will meet again one day, Luz Noceda. And on that day, I will sever the bonds that these witches have infected you with. Until then, farewell!"

As the memory ended, Belos smiled at Luz; "I did tell you we'd meet again. My Golden Guard at the time, Zachary, followed you and your loathsome witch captors to the Time Pools, allowing me to know you were from another time, and since you knew who I was, I knew you must have come from the future. I donated my diary to the Bonesborough Library, a place not far from where the Clawthorne Clan lived, to ensure you would one day come across it and learn of me. Of course, once you'd seen it, I had to dispose of it before you learned the rest of my secrets… I intentionally rewrote the whole thing to be as difficult to read as possible so you wouldn't get through it fast enough to know the truth before we met again. As for Lucy; I'm genuinely shocked you didn't realise sooner! I realise Angels of the same Crest Order look a lot alike, but for them to be this similar? Come now… I even named her after you!"

Both girls gasped; so that was the reason for their similar names!? Luz had become Lucy; a name adapted from her own, but modified to suit Belos' colonial Puritan tastes!

Luz shook her head, unable to stand as her weakness filled her; "From the very beginning, you've manipulated everything! All so we could meet again and you could use me for your genocide! You took my finger and used it to make Lucy, then you mistreated and abused her along with Hunter!?"

Belos chuckled; "It was rather difficult, but I did manage it. And can you truly blame me for being disappointed with Lucy? Your hands are so small that your little finger was only enough bone for one attempt, so I waited until roughly 13 years before the Day of Unity before making her and she comes out defective! Her wings were small and useless, she had no magic, and the only Angelic Ability she still had was the pain that comes with lying! It's why I removed her voice box… though her partial ascension restored it."

Luz and Lucy both went totally silent. Lucy hung limply in Belos' grasp, her will completely broken as she was forced to face reality; her entire life had been a lie. She'd never had a mother or father… she hadn't lost anything to Wild Magic. Belos had created her, taken her voice, trained, used, and abused her, and literally led her like a lamb to the slaughter, all so Luz wouldn't die in his genocide plot. Nothing about her was her own… she was literally Luz's shadow; a replica that paled in comparison to the original in every conceivable way. She had nothing… not even her own name.

In that moment, as her heart shattered into nothingness, Lucy remembered Hettie's attack on her and thought; "She was right… I shouldn't exist. I never should have existed."

As the light left her eyes, Hunter seemed to regain some willpower of his own and began thrashing in his binds; "LUCY! DON'T LISTEN TO THAT MONSTER! I DON'T CARE WHAT YOU ARE OR WHY YOU WERE MADE! YOU'RE MY LITTLE SISTER! NOTHING WILL EVER CHANGE THAT!"

The words reached her, but that one spark of joy was not enough to save her from the despair she was now drowning in. More than that, it annoyed Belos, who rolled his eyes in response and snapped his fingers. Hunter, Lucy, and Eber began to sink into the ground, dragged under by Belos' slimy bindings. Hunter and Eber both struggled against their binds, while Lucy didn't even try to move or escape, her will still broken. Luz, barely able to move, dragged herself forward and grabbed Lucy's hand and tried to pull her up with what meagre strength she could muster.

"No! Lucy please, don't give up! I don't care what Belos says; you're your own person! You're not just some defective copy! You deserve to live! Please don't surrender!" Luz pleased, tears dripping from her face onto Lucy's as she tried to pull her up.

Lucy's eyes regained just a little bit more life, before she brokenly replied; "You were born, not made Luz. Don't give that up for my sake."

Then before Luz could stop her, Lucy pulled a hand free from Belos' slime by decaying the slime with Dark Magic, then shoved Luz away before she could be sucked down into Belos' subconscious with her.

"My brother is all I have… I'll go where he goes… even in death." Lucy whispered, before finally disappearing fully into the ground.

"No! Lucy! Hunter! Eber!" Luz screamed, beginning to claw at the ground of the dead forest in a desperate attempt to dig them back up. But she only managed to hurt her fingers trying to dig through the stone and roots beneath the ash and dirt that covered the ground. When she finally realised the futility of her actions, Luz stared at the ground and sobbed… her friends had just been sucked down into Belos' subconscious, and she had no idea if they were even still alive, or could escape!

"Why…?" Luz asked in a broken voice as she looked up at Belos. "Why do all this? Y-You're not even a real Angel! You can't be doing this for them! So why!?"

Belos tutted and stooped to pet her hair, actually seeming to pity her. It made Luz's body shudder with disgust, but she didn't dare shove him away in her weakened state.

"I will do anything to save Humanity from evil." Belos told her.

"No! You're evil!" Luz spat.

Belos sighed; "And this is why I have to go so far… this place is like an entire world descending to the same depths of depravity as Sodom and Gomorrah! It's denizens are so foul and evil that they have taken an Angel, a being of pure light, and twisted you until you could no longer see the light of God. That sin can only be repaid with death! Like the Almighty did with Sodom and Gomorrah, I will cleanse this world in holy light! I will wipe it clean, like the great flood once did! And you… I will save you from yourself."

His hands moved to her shoulders and held her firmly, like a parent trying to get through to a rebellious child; "I am not without sin. Creating Grimwalkers, using the Titan Bile on you, and doing what I had to do to obtain the Angelic Power I now wield… all of these things will require penance, beyond even the penance I have already suffered in the form of the creeping rot. I can stand with you in your penance, Lady Luz. We will both suffer for our sins and be reborn anew in the light of Our Lord! Your eyes are dulled by the darkness of this realm, but soon you too will see the righteousness of what I must do. I swore to save you; and if I have to raze this living Hell to the ground to do so, I shall."

Luz shook her head weakly; "No… this isn't right… they aren't evil! I haven't been twisted by them! There are evil people in this realm, sure… but there are good, innocent ones too!"

Once again, Belos sighed; "I knew words alone would not break the Owl Lady's hold. It is why I tried so hard to make you kill her with your own hands; to make you claim justice for yourself and achieve some amount of redemption for the sins you committed under her watch. The Day of Unity will be another way for you to wipe clean the sins staining you. Should you embrace your destiny, I am sure God will ensure you survive."

Luz glared at him with all the fire she could muster, though her glare was tempered by the thoughts swirling around in her mind. The mention of him trying to force her to kill Eda, as well as his prior mention of the Titan Bile as one of his "sins", reminded Luz of something that made her pale even further.

It was a memory of a conversation they'd had in the past;

Philip reached into his pocket and pulled out a glass vial filled with a thick black liquid. "This is one of the ingredients I discovered to have a potent effect on the stability of portals; Titan Bile!"

Luz instinctively flinched away from him and the bile, remembering her experience with it at Belos' hands. Philip frowned upon seeing her reaction; "Is something wrong, Lady Luz?"

"Y-Yeah, I'm fine. I just… I didn't have a great first experience with Titan Bile." she frowned, rubbing her arms at the memory.

"Oh? What happened, if you don't mind me asking?" Philip asked.

"Well, let's just say that injecting Titan Bile into someone can turn them into a vicious, uncontrollable monster. I've seen it happen twice, and both times were really unpleasant." Luz said, intentionally hiding the fact she was the victim. She didn't want to give Philip reason to believe she'd been corrupted by evil magic or anything, though she did add; "I know it works on Angels too… it's really not a pretty sight."

Luz almost retched at the memory; "The Titan Bile… you knew what it would do before you used it on me, because I stupidly told you! And I knew because you used it on me…"

"Yes, it appears to be some kind of paradox… but then again, all your interactions with me in the past resulted in those. I suspect God allowed such deviations in his Grand Design so that we could achieve our joint destiny." Belos replied.

The young Arch-Angel scowled and shuddered; if only she'd kept her mouth shut! But that wasn't the only thing that bothered Luz. Belos had mentioned three sins he'd committed, and while he'd addressed the Grimwalkers (thinking of Hunter and Lucy made Luz's heart ache) and the Titan Bile, he hadn't mentioned the third; what he'd done to claim Angelic Powers and their wings.

"Why did you pass yourself off as an Angel? And how did you do it!?" she demanded, already bracing herself for the answer.

But nothing could prepare her for what she was about to learn.

Belos gave her a very strange smile, before he replied; "Why Luz, that is because of you. I did this because you inspired me, and gave me almost all the keys I needed."

"W-What!?" Luz cried.

The man nodded; "Oh yes. Remember in our first meeting? To help me fight against that wretched Evelyn, you gave me a Divine Blessing. It was the most glorious moment of my life up to that point; a literal piece of Heavenly Light bestowed upon me, a lowly human, so that I may smite the witch that dared defile my home. While it didn't end how I'd hoped, and I never did manage to slaughter that evil wench…" Belos growled at that, while Luz felt a small bit of relief knowing Evelyn hadn't met her end at his hands, "… I could never forget the holiness of that power! I knew that it was just what I needed to complete my mission. The glyphs were useful, but I didn't wish to employ hellish magics to destroy this realm; I feared that it was already corrupting me, along with the Palismen I was devouring to heal myself and maintain my life after Evelyn wounded me in our first encounter. But since you were gone, I had to find another source of Angelic Power, eventually settling on the idea of grafting the wings of a deceased Angel to my back."

"You sick monster!" Luz snarled; "You robbed the graves of Angels who were killed in the Demon Realm and stole their wings! How many did you defile, Belos!? You've had ten wings in every memory and even now! But they're rotting and decayed… did some of them drop off and need replacing!? Tell me!?"

Belos chuckled; "You still have some fire in you. I can respect that; righteous fire is a holy force! But you are mistaken. I only opened a single grave and took a single set of wings… and you gave me one of the three keys I needed."

At that moment, Luz could have sworn her heart actually stopped. Belos got ten wings from opening just one grave… one that needed three keys… and one of which she'd given him. There was only one possible answer.

"The Black Tomb…! At Volcarpalis…!" Luz gasped out.

Belos smiled and nodded, before turning one of his hands into slimy rot again and picking Luz up; "I think it's time for another look at my memories. You came all the way into my mind to learn about my plans after all; I should show you the one you were instrumental for."

Luz weakly struggled, but she couldn't hope to wriggle free without any strength or magic. She was forced to watch as Belos carried her to one of the more isolated dead trees in the forest, hidden behind multiple others. This tree was also notable in that it was blackened and burned, unlike the others that had gone pale in death. The memory painting attached to the trunk depicted Belos in his priest attire, holding a black cube in his hand as flames in the shape of angelic wings burned around him.

Without warning, Belos tossed Luz into the memory and she found herself landing with a groan on the hard red stone floor of the Volcarpalis Temple's Ritual Chamber. She slowly got to her feet as Belos entered the memory behind her, then began to look around. Since the Black Tomb and Godric had already been unsealed when Luz visited Volcarpalis back in August, she hadn't actually seen the chamber in its pristine state. The altar and braziers were exactly the same as before, minus Rasiel's corpse and the obvious battle damage, and there was no ash or scorch marks or evidence of brutally murdered people like there had been during Luz's visit. The walls, which had been plain volcanic rock when Luz had seen them, now took the form of a stone Salamander's body and tail, with it curled up into a circle and forming an almost ouroboros-like shape, only with the end of the tail poking into the side of the Salamander's neck as it turned its head towards the centre of the room. Within the Salamander statue's open mouth was the Black Tomb that contained Rasiel's body, looking identical to all the others.

Luz stared at the tomb, then heard a loud ruckus towards the centre of the room, where the tunnel to the rest of the temple could be found. Inner Belos nudged her towards it, so she walked down into the tunnel and saw Memory Belos in his priest attire (likely a good few years after his meeting with Luz, given his hair had become grey with very little brown) and still wearing his hand-carved and crude mask, which Luz now realised had been carved by Caleb, given the earlier portrait of young Belos sitting and watching an older boy make it. Memory Belos had the same staff as before too, and was accompanied by a different Golden Guard (this one had a scratch across the left eye of his mask, and wore lighter, desert-themed clothing beneath his white cloak) as well as dozens of other witches and demons.

The witches and demons were an eclectic bunch of rough and scrappy looking individuals, with no two looking quite the same, beneath the cloaks and masks they wore on top of their normal outfits. The cloaks were all white desert cloaks, while their masks were all bird-like and appeared to be hand-carved. They were clearly mercenaries of some kind, and Luz recognised a few pieces of their armour… she had found them warped and covered in soot when she came to the chamber herself months ago.

Luz thought she was going to vomit; every single one of these people was about to die a horrible, fiery death, and with Belos blocking her from the memory's exit, she would be forced to watch.

"I cannot tell you how frustrating it was to build this little pack of ruffians for this expedition." Inner Belos commented as his memory self led them towards the steps leading into the ritual chamber. "As soon as I left you that day, the Collector told me that the Black Tombs contained the bodies of powerful Angels, so I ordered my Golden Guard Zachary to recruit some people. Sadly "Philip" had been chased out of too many towns and had built a bad reputation… plus Zachary betrayed me and made off with the Collector's Mirror and my supplies. I had to hunt him down, build up the supplies he wasted, make a new Grimwalker AND rebrand myself as Belos, a humble priest of the Titan, before I could even begin thinking of hiring them! Such a hassle…"

Luz glared at him hatefully; "It'd probably be easier to recruit people if you didn't have all the personality and positive qualities of a Haemorrhoid!"

Belos rewarded her sass with a growl of annoyance, before wrapping her up in his slimy appendages again. Luz was really beginning to hate the feel of those rotten, clammy tendrils on her skin… Belos was keeping them out of her clothes (thank the Titan he wasn't that kind of degenerate) but since she was in her Holy Raiment, which left plenty of skin bare, binding her in any way let the tendrils brush over her flesh.

The man didn't say a word however, and merely forced her to watch the memory. Memory Belos approached the stairs leading from the tunnel to the ritual chamber with his Golden Guard and mercenaries behind him, the latter of which all stopped as Memory Belos and his Golden Guard turned to face them. Memory Belos took out a strange glove with a vial of golden liquid on the back, which pumped the glowing liquid through clear tubes that connected to the tips of Belos' fingers. The Golden Guard wore a similar glove, and Memory Belos handed him a vial of blue liquid.

"Insert it as I showed you, Jacob." Memory Belos ordered, and the Golden Guard named Jacob obeyed, slotting the vial into the back of his glove and causing the glowing blue fluid to flow to his finger tips.

Nodding in satisfaction, Memory Belos turned to his mercenaries. "My good people! We are ready to open the Black Tomb and acquire the legendary treasure within! With it, we will all live like kings!"

"We bloody better do!" one man growled, tossing a sack at Jacob which sounded like it was full of wooden items. "We trudge all the way through the desert just to solve some poxy puzzles and steal dead priests' Palismen? The reward better be worth it!"

There were murmurs of agreement from the other mercenaries, and Luz gulped upon realising that Belos really had stolen (and likely eaten) the Palismen of those long dead priests, just like the ones at the Caplacier Temple. As she thought this, the souls of those particular Palismen flared out angrily, screaming and crying for vengeance within the Amalgamation. It got so bad that Luz's magic began to react, and a golden aura began to cover her, with portions of it forming into the heads of those Palismen. The process was painful and Luz fell to her knees and whimpered, but it soon ended when Belos hissed angrily and moved his sludgy tendrils to smother the Palismen souls, forcing them to retreat back into Luz's body and quiet their howls.

The memory continued, and Memory Belos (visibly annoyed) simply declared; "Your patience will be rewarded! We simply need a third person to step forward and add their magic to ours! With three of us together, the tomb will open!"

He then pointed at the man who'd yelled at him; "How about you? You want this reward, do you now?" Memory Belo asked, an odd lilt to his voice. Luz felt her skin crawl; Belos meant for this man to be his shield against Godric, she just knew it! He was definitely petty enough!

Unaware of his imminent doom, the gruff man stepped forward with a scowl and went to stand beside Belos and Jacob. "Fine. What do I do?"

"Just follow my lead and touch the cube with your magic." Memory Belos told him. Without another word, Memory Belos and his group finally marched up the stairs to the Ritual Chamber, with Luz and Inner Belos following behind. They walked as one large rabble, and Luz suddenly understood why Godric had claimed they'd had no obvious leader; if she didn't already know, she'd never have known Belos was in charge of this group! He and his Golden Guard were just another pair of masked, cloaked intruders! Luz wondered if Belos had set it up that way so the unleashed Dragon wouldn't know he was in charge and go for him first!

Putting that thought aside, Luz watched as Memory Belos and his mercenaries approached and surrounded the Black Tomb, with Memory Belos himself putting his gloved hand on the tomb. Immediately, the yellow ring of light appeared on the Black Tomb's surface, and Luz realised that Memory Belos' glove must contain her blood. Jacob then did the same thing, making the blue ring of light appear with the Titan Blood in his own glove. There were murmurs from the mercenaries, a few of whom were growing excited. This included the man who had spoken up, who smiled greedily as he drew a spell circle and put his hand through it and onto the tomb. Luz watched as the final ring appeared and the tomb began to open, biting her lip to stop herself from instinctively calling out to the mercenaries and telling them to run. She knew they couldn't hear her and there was nothing she could do, but she desperately wished she could save them!

Just like the tombs at Caplacier and Pulvoltary, the Black Tomb turned pure white and began to glow, before disintegrating into particles of light and magic, which disappeared to reveal its contents; the body of Rasiel.

Rasiel looked almost identical to how Luz knew him; he wasn't emaciated or bleeding like he had been when Luz had first found his body, and his Holy Raiment (or what Luz assumed to be his Holy Raiment) had not yet become worn away by time. But most strikingly was the fact he still had his wings; ten glorious white wings attached to his back and folded around him like a cocoon. The Ten-Winged Seraphim's body seemed to be floating within a white aura for a few moments after the tomb disappeared, before the aura disappeared as well and he fell limply to the floor at Memory Belos' feet.

Memory Belos knelt beside the body and began to pray, no doubt believing Rasiel really was a dead body that had been preserved with magic. Luz could see the gleam in his eyes behind the mask though, and knew he was thinking of the power the wings in front of him would grant. At the same time, the mercenaries began to talk.

"What in the Titan's name is that? Some corpse!? Where's the treasure!"

"I reckon that's one of them Angels! The weird feathery folk."

"Aren't they monsters? What's a dead one doing in a temple to the Titan?"

"I bet he was a prisoner who snuffed it years ago. The box probably preserved him or something."

"Who cares!? We came this way for treasure, not some stiff!"

"Morons, the lot of ya! Angel Feathers and Blood are worth a bleeding fortune! And this freak's got ten whole wings of 'em!"

"His skin ain't pale either… I think he's still got some blood in him!"

"And look at the gold on his clothes. I reckon they've gotta be worth a few snails!"

"So the corpse is a treasure after all!? Payday here we come!"

Inner Belos sneered at the display of greed, and for once, Luz found herself agreeing with him (which left her feeling dirty). However their talk soon came to an abrupt end as the sound of grinding stone filled the chamber. The staircase leading down to the tunnel out of the chamber was being blocked off, trapping the mercenaries inside. A few ran for it to try and stop it, but nothing they did could manage it and soon they were all trapped inside the Ritual Chamber.

The trapped mercenaries began to scream and shout at each other, demanding to know if someone triggered a trap, or if simply opening the tomb had caused them to be sealed into the room. They were arguing so loudly that none of them noticed Memory Belos or Jacob giving each other knowing looks before looking to the giant Salamander Statue, nor did they hear the tell-tale cracking of stone as the statue began to break open. It wasn't until the stone flaking off the Salamander head had completely crumbled away and the full Fire Drake head of Godric emerged from within it that they finally took notice.

A deadly silence filled the chamber as the horrified mercenaries stared up at the Supreme Dragon as he shook his body like a dog, sending rock flying from his body like water from wet fur. Some of the larger chunks of stone hit one unlucky mercenary and crushed them into a bloody smear. It was horrifying to watch, but as Luz saw Godric's large, fiery eyes narrow on the others, smoke leaking from his nostrils and the corners of his mouth, she couldn't help but think that dead mercenary was actually the lucky one. The silence was then broken as the mercenary who'd helped open the tomb (and thus one of the three figures closest to Godric) screamed in terror.

"Is that a-!?"

The man's words were cut off as Godric opened his mouth and bit down on the man. The dragon's teeth crunched down at the man's knees, leaving the bottom of his legs to flop to the floor while the still living and screaming mercenary could be heard inside Godric's mouth. Luz screamed in horror, expecting Godric to eat the man, but instead the Drake tossed the now-legless man into the air above the other mercenaries and blasted him with flame, reducing the hapless mercenary to blacked bones, molten armour, and a cloud of ash.

There was another moment of silence as everyone registered what they'd just seen, before Godric let out a fearsome roar, conjuring wings of fire as he did so, and the rest of the mercenaries screamed in terror. What followed was complete pandemonium as Godric attacked the mercenaries, initially overlooking Memory Belos and Jacob, who had paradoxically edged closer to the Dragon, dragging Rasiel's body with them so they were underneath him and out of his line of sight. The Supreme Dragon of Fire sent waves of fire at the people trying to used their magic to dig their way out through the now-volcanic walls that had been uncovered by his awakening, while turning his claws, tail hammer, and fangs on those who tried to fight him.

Luz whimpered and closed her eyes, unwilling to watch the massacre. Her hands were still bound to her sides though, so she couldn't cover her ears to block out the sounds. It was awful; she heard the mercenaries' screams as they died, the sound of claws rending through flesh, the crunch of bones and skulls within Godric's jaws, the sizzling of flesh and fat as people burned alive in dragon fire, and the terrified attempts to plead and bargain, all cut off by Godric's violent response. But the worst part was the smell… Luz could smell the cooking flesh of those unlucky enough to not be immediately incinerated, as well as the burnt stench of those who were. She smelled blood and gore, and even the acrid stench of those who'd soiled themselves in sheer terror. It was like a vision of hell that she couldn't escape from.

It was during this massacre that Inner Belos leaned down to speak in Luz's ear; "This is something else I have to thank you for. The Collector was the one to tell me of the Angel buried in this tomb, but he didn't know about the defences. If you hadn't warned me about the Dragon guarding this place, I likely would have ended up dead. Instead, that warning allowed me to gather quite the array of living shields."

Luz bit her lip hard enough to make it bleed as she remembered that conversation in the past; "You don't want to mess with the Black Tombs! Each one is guarded by a big statue that awakens into a super powerful Supreme Dragon if the tomb is disturbed! No one has opened the tombs and gotten away unscathed!"

"Yep! Super deadly! A lot of people have become lunch to those statue dragons!" Eda chimed in.

Golden blood trickled down Luz's chin as she realised that this was all her fault. She'd been desperate not to tell Philip about the pieces of Rasiel sealed into the Black Tombs and had told him about the dragons in hopes of scaring him off! She never believed he would be crazy or evil enough to still go after them, only with living shields to defend himself! But he had been… and thanks to Luz, he had lead dozens of people to their horrific demise all while surviving himself and stealing Rasiel's wings.

Forcing her eyes open again (which she found to be full of tears once more), Luz looked to where Memory Belos and his Golden Guard Jacob were still huddled over Rasiel's body. They'd dragged it back behind the altar of the Ritual Chamber so they and the body were out of Godric's sight as he massacred the mercenaries. She watched as Jacob guarded the pair as Memory Belos seemed to melt into a pile of green sludge, just like the slimy rotten tendrils his inner self was binding her in. Memory Belos then forced his slimy self into Rasiel's body, pouring in through his mouth and nostrils. Luz gasped at the sight.

"W-What are you doing to him!?"

Inner Belos tutted at her; "You didn't think dismemberment and grafting were my first idea, did you? I was certain that possessing and borrowing the body of the Angel was better than mutiliating it, so I attempted to force my way inside. Alas…"

Rasiel's body began to glow and Memory Belos found himself fully ejected from it, reforming in his human form with a now bleeding nose. "Blast it all! The Divine Power within rejected me!" he cursed.

Inner Belos nodded and said to Luz; "A Grand Seraphim like this is extremely powerful. The magic inside his body was immense, even compared to you. I didn't have the strength to possess him; his magic forced me out. I imagine it would take power on the same level, or power that perfectly countered his, to be able to overcome his strength and possess him."

Luz felt a wave of relief at that; she couldn't imagine the nightmare that would have occurred if Belos had managed to possess Rasiel's body! He might have gained access to the full godly power of a Ten-Winged Seraphim and laid waste to the Demon Realm! If their power was anything like legends suggested, there would be no need for the Day of Unity!

Her relief was short-lived however, as Memory Belos gained a dark look in his eyes as he turned to Jacob. "Keep the Dragon busy. I have no choice but to do this the messy way…" he declared, using his artificial magic staff to conjure a large cleaver, which caused Luz to gulp. Jacob clearly wasn't too thrilled either given the way he shook in fear, but he still obediently leapt out from behind the altar to do battle with Godric, who was busy killing the stragglers. Only about seven of the Mercenaries were still alive, and Godric was methodically stamping them out before Jacob conjured a jet of mud that he launched at Godric's eyes.

The Supreme Dragon roared in anger and turned his flames on Jacob, who spewed a torrent of mud from his staff to block and douse the flames. It seemed to work for a moment, but Godric was too strong and his flames soon overcame the mud, evaporating the liquid within it and causing the earth to crumble to dust and burn away. Jacob yelped and dodged out of the way, using his staff to fly and conjure spikes of rock to attack with, apparently having as much of an earth affinity as Hunter did lightning.

But as that hopeless battle was going on, Luz watched as Memory Belos rolled Rasiel onto his stomach and whispered a prayer and an apology, before chopping his cleaver down on Rasiel's wing joints. Luz cringed and closed her eyes again as Memory Belos carved the wings from Rasiel's back, spilling copious amounts of golden blood all over the altar and the surrounding ground. He was methodical in his approach and even summoned smaller carving knives to assist him, eventually succeeding in removing the wings and every single part of the joint. Since all the wings on the same side connected to the back via a single joint, Memory Belos only had to sever two joints as opposed to ten, and as soon as he was done, he turned his body back into his rotten form and used slime tendrils to position the wings over his own back. The slime leapt from his back and into the exposed bone, muscle, nerves, and blood vessels within the wing joints, binding them and filling them as they were merged into Memory Belos' flesh. The process looked excruciating for Memory Belos (must to Luz's secret pleasure), but by the time the grafting process was over, Memory Belos was able to turn back to his human form and control the wings like they were his own. They glowed with a dull, sinister red light similar to Inner Belos' aura, and Belos was able to put them away and summon them as he wished, his clothes already having been enchanted to let them pass through, since they'd also been enchanted to melt and reform with his body.

Memory Belos, now with his new wings, tried to test his new angelic powers by drawing a spell circle and having Rasiel's body levitate up and be placed on the altar, causing more blood to spill everywhere. The magic looked weak and stiff, and seemed to cause a strange red glow to appear on Memory Belos' right arm, but it still worked and Memory Belos promptly laughed and flexed his newly stolen wings. He then got a strange look on his face, and using one of the knives he'd conjured before, he severed one of Rasiel's pinky fingers and placed it inside a glass vial that he pulled from inside his robes.

"Why did you…!?" Luz began, before gasping; "You were going to try and make a Grimwalker of him!"

"Indeed." Inner Belos admitted; "I thought I could use a Grimwalker of this Angel as an ally, a new vessel for the Day of Unity, or even just a new body, since I expected to be able to possess it unlike the original. Plus, I needed to test if I could actually make an Angel Grimwalker before I wasted your finger bone on Lucy. The Grimwalker came out completely perfect; not a flaw in sight… aside from it refusing to wake up! It's alive but has no consciousness, and trying to possess it resulted in being rejected just like the original."

The evil man shook his head in irritation; "The only use I got from it was confirmation that an Angel Grimwalker was possible! Thankfully when I made Lucy, she had consciousness… even if she was defective in other ways."

Luz snarled at him and was about to yell that Lucy wasn't defective, but Inner Belos ignored her and turned his attention to the battle between Godric and Jacob.

Jacob had rallied the surviving mercenaries (of which there were four now) and spurred them on to fight together against Godric, combining their magic to cast large earth, ice, and abomination spells to try and douse the dragon's flames. They were evading claw and tail sweeps, flying over or blocking flames, or even using conjured pillars of rock to hold Godric's jaws open when he tried to chomp them between his fangs. At a glance, they looked to be doing quite well… but then Godric (who was completely uninjured despite the invaders' best attempts) looked over and noticed Rasiel's body on the altar, finally laying eyes on the thing he'd been sealed away to guard all these years. He also noticed Memory Belos stood behind the altar, testing his new magic with a manic look in his eye.

Realising he had no more time to play around, Godric began to actually put some effort into the fight. He immediately pulverised one of the remaining mercenaries by crushing them beneath his tail hammer, which he slammed down so fast and so hard that the poor victim was reduced to a red mist. He then flared his wings of fire out to his sides and flapped them forward, each one touching one of the survivors and causing them to scream as they were reduced to ash. Godric then lunged down to bite the last mercenary, who tried to hold his jaws open with giant hands made of abomination slime, though his efforts proved in-vain as the jaws began to slowly close around him as his slime hands tried and failed to push them back. With no escape and no desire to be bitten in half at the waist by the Fire Drake, the mercenary actually jumped up into Godric's mouth in a fit of manic terror. Godric's mouth then finally slammed shut and he looked briefly bemused by the desperate act… right before his throat began to glow and there was a brief scream from within his mouth. Smoke then billowed out of his nostrils and Godric opened his mouth, whereupon a blackened pile of demon bones fell out and clattered to the floor.

With every mercenary now dead, Godric turned his attention to Jacob, who screamed in terror and conjured the largest spike of rock that he could and shot it at Godric's heart with all his might. Godric responded by casually smashing it with his tail hammer while Jacob turned and ran towards Memory Belos.

"My Lord, please-!"

The poor Grimwalker's pleas went unheard, as Godric shot a stream of fire towards his back as he fled. Jacob was consumed in flames in an instant along with his staff, which exploded as the Carbuncle Gem atop it was shattered. The combination of Godric's flames and the explosion of the staff ensured nothing but ash remained of Jacob, with only his broken mask flying towards Memory Belos. The evil man stooped and picked up the mask, before sighing and putting it away in his robes.

"I always did like Jacob." Inner Belos commented as Luz swallowed thickly to stop herself vomiting; "He was one of the few to die before betraying me. He was a lot more agreeable than his predecessor Zachary… in fact, he was the most obedient before Hunter. It was a shame, but inevitable too. I named the next Grimwalker Jacob too, in honour of his memory… but then that one did betray me. Honestly, between the Angel Grimwalker that wouldn't wake up, all the Caleb Grimwalkers that betrayed me, and the Grimwalker of you that came out stunted and then evolved into a Dark Angel of all things, can you blame me for saying I have poor luck with Grimwalkers?"

"I think your morals are worse than your luck!" Luz snapped.

Belos was unfazed by her outrage and continued to watch the memory, now that Godric was focused on his memory self.

The Fire Drake roared and shot flames at Memory Belos, who responded by flying to the side and drawing a spell circle with his red glowing arm, which resulted in a red beam of light shooting towards Godric. The beam hit the Dragon head on and managed to do some minor damage to his scales, but nowhere near enough to pierce them or damage his flesh. Godric responded by swinging his tail hammer at Memory Belos at high speed, forcing the man to turn into his sludge form to dodge it, then dart around the room, using a combination of his staff, his stolen magic, and his decayed slime to animate many of the charred skeletons left behind by the mercenaries. Belos' gunk bound them back together as either brittle black skeletons (if they had enough bones left to form one), or monstrous constructs of black bone and ash, formed from the remains of multiple different mercenaries. Thankfully the constructs were literally just being puppeted by magic, so the souls of those who'd been slain weren't being pulled back and turned into the undead and tormented.

Memory Belos then set his bone minions on Godric, who was unsurprisingly disgusted by the display.

"Foul Angel! I will reduce you to ash!" he snarled, beginning to thrash around as the bone minions tried to climb up his body. He stomped many of them to powder, while smashing the others with his claws or tail hammer. Some managed to get onto his back, but Godric just jumped up and slammed his back into the ceiling, pulverising them too. It was brutal and caused fragments of black bone to go flying in all directions. Memory Belos hadn't expected his minions to do more than distract the Supreme Dragon however, so he just grinned and continued his plan.

Using some of the spilled blood, Memory Belos created numerous large glyph combos that Luz recognises as being the same as King's Monster Glyph Combo. However when Memory Belos activated them, the result was not Titan body parts, but the giant green worm monsters his present day self had conjured against Luz in their battle at the Conformatorium. Six of the monsters went slithering towards Godric; one going for each limb, one for his tail, and one for his neck. The one going for his tail was immediately destroyed when Godric's tail hammer crushed its head into green paste, but as Godric prepared to slash apart the ones going for his arms, the Worm Monster gunning for his neck actually managed to wrap around it and squeeze tightly, making Godric open his mouth to exhale sharply. The same Worm Monster then wriggled its way into Godric's mouth, trying to go down his throat and choke him from the inside. It was revolting, and Godric instinctively reached for the monster as it made him gag, but the other four worm monsters managed to bind his limbs and hold him in place.

Memory Belos grinned and used his stolen magic in conjunction with the light glyph (which Luz kicked herself for showing him) to cover his staff in light magic and turn it into a spear of light. With Godric momentarily indisposed, Memory Belos was able to fly forward and stab the spear into the scales he'd damaged with his earlier light blast, breaking through them and into the thick flesh and muscle beneath. Godric snarled in pain through a mouthful of worm monster, but as much as the wound stung. he was so large that even if Belos had gotten his light spear fully embedded into his flesh, it would be little more than a painful splinter.

Godric clenched his jaw and slammed his teeth together, cutting the worm monster that had been working its way down his throat in half. The bottom half flopped to the floor, still writhing and bleeding green goop, while Godric's throat glowed red hot as he charged his fire breath, incinerating the top half of the worm. He then spewed flames and a cloud of black worm ash down onto himself, destroying the worms binding his limbs as Memory Belos flew away at high speed. He wasn't used to his new wings yet though and ended up over shooting and almost flying into the wall of the Ritual Chamber. He'd also left behind his staff in Godric's wound, though the Fire Drake lowered his head and carefully grabbed it with his jaws before yanking it out with a hiss of pain.

"You will pay for that, Intruder!" Godric snarled, crushing the staff in his jaws and burning the remnants. This proved to be a mistake however, as just like with Jacob's staff, Godric accidentally shattered the Carbuncle Gem attached to it, causing an explosion of red magic in his mouth. It didn't wound him, but it did stun him for a moment, giving Memory Belos the opening to turn himself into his sludge form again (Rasiel's wings transforming too, to Luz's disgust) and dart into Godric's wound in an attempt to possess him.

Trying to possess a fire breathing dragon by going in through the mouth or nose was obviously a suicidal move, but Godric couldn't blast fire from his wounds, so they proved to be the perfect opening. Luz watched in horror as the area around Godric's wound seemed to rot too, and disgusting, decayed flesh began to stretch across his body like a twisted web. It even stretched over Godric's draconic face, causing his eyes to become the same creepy glowing blue as Belos' eyes. He thrashed and writhed, roaring in agony as he tried to stop Memory Belos' possession, and it seemed to be working; Memory Belos was struggling to make him move, though he had briefly caused Godric's flames to turn a sinister pale blue, while his two wings of fire split into ten smaller, skeletal wings of blue flame.

"I… will not… be… your puppet!" Godric snarled, eventually causing his entire body to erupt into a mix of blue and red flames. In an instant, Godric began to cough and choke, sounding like his natural voice and the echo of Memory Belos' voice were overlapping with each other, before he spat out a flaming ball of slimy gunk, which soon reformed into a panting and pained Memory Belos. However the effort of ejecting the evil creature had left Godric badly wounded, and his draconic body was scarred in all the places the slime had touched. He collapsed to the ground with a groan, seemingly dead as his flesh and scales burned away to reveal only the red boned Fire Drake Skeleton that Luz had seen when she went to the temple with her friends back in August.

Meanwhile, Memory Belos (looking worse for wear but otherwise alive) used his new magic to blast through the volcanic walls of the chamber, creating a tunnel through which he escaped Volcarpalis. Luz narrowed her eyes, while Inner Belos smiled and dragged her out of the memory and back into his mind-scape.

"I'm sure you must be quite surprised that I slew the Fire Drake. It was a challenge, but with God's will on my side, that devilish reptile stood no chance! Though you succeeded too, didn't you? When you slew the Dragon in the Caplacier Temple."

Luz shuddered, remembering when Belos had used Lilith to capture her after her own visit to Volcarpalis. He'd interrogated her about Caplacier, what she found there, and what she'd been doing at Volcarpalis… But he seemed to be under the impression he'd killed Godric and she'd killed Zara… He obviously hadn't connected the dots to the Fire Priest Luz had told him she'd fought, nor to the three Supreme Dragons nesting at Eclipse Lake.

"I wonder… you found a spirit in that Black Tomb. The spirit of an Angel… could he perhaps be the spirit of the Angel I unearthed and whose wings I grafted to myself?" Belos asked, eyeing Luz closely.

Luz began to panic even more; sheer adrenaline was the only thing stopping her from spiralling into a complete breakdown of tears and self-hatred over all the mistakes she'd made, and she couldn't make that worse by painting another target on an innocent and a friend!

"No. They're completely unrelated. That Spirit has since passed on to the Afterlife." Luz lied. Her throat filled with a painful burning sensation as a result, but she almost relished it… the pain eased the horrendous guilt that now clawed at her insides, and while a voice in Luz's head was screaming at her that this was horribly unhealthy, she ignored it.

Her mistakes in the past had led to Belos creating his current plan, creating Lucy only to use and abuse her, stealing Rasiel's wings (which was a huge deal for an Angel), and leading all those mercenaries to their deaths. It was just like when she was little girl living in the Human Realm all over again; she'd tried to help and screwed everything up… only now lives had been lost because of her, and the Demon Realm stood on the precipice of extinction…

…Hunter, Lucy, and Eber were forever lost in Belos' subconscious…

And it was all Luz's fault.

That realisation sat heavily within Luz's heart and soul, and she could do nothing but stare at Belos with dead eyes that perpetually leaked tears.

The sight seemed to unnerve Belos, who gently took her by the chin and forced her to make eye contact. She didn't resist or even blink as he asked; "Are you certain? Are you attempting to use double speak and half-truths to deceive me?"

"No. That Angel is long gone and will never come back." Luz lied in an emotionless voice. The burn grew worse, and Luz embraced it.

"I see. Disappointing, but expected." Belos said, naturally believing she was telling the truth. "Now I think I shall remove you from my mind myself. Then you'll appear where I summon you and we can pick things up right where we started following your last escape… If you obey me and assist with the Day of Unity like your destiny demands, I will name you as my new Coven Head and Golden Guard; it'll be nice to have a real person in that position for a change. Then when our holy mission is over, I can return you to the Divine Realm where you truly belong."

The man smiled at Luz; "You know I've already won, Luz. The Day of Unity can't be stopped now; you're too late. Just accept it and return to God's Light where you belong!"

Luz didn't respond and continued to look at him with dead eyes… all except for the slightest spark of defiance.

Belos frowned and released Luz completely, removing his slime tendrils. But Luz didn't try to escape; she just fell onto her knees and stared ahead. She felt utterly helpless; not only had Luz lost her three friends and companions, but she was completely at Belos' mercy! The Palismen souls still writhing within her meant she couldn't even use magic to fight back and defend herself, and she was totally cut off from her allies and in a place that Belos had total control over! There was nothing she could do!

In that moment of despair, as she was truly about to give up hope, Luz's scroll suddenly began to ring. It appeared beside her head and the face of Eda appeared on the screen as the Caller ID.

"...Mom?" Luz murmured, a bit of light returning to her eyes.

Belos snarled and immediately snatched the scroll with his tendrils, declining the call with a sneer. "The Owl Lady… ugh, I will not have her voice echoing in my mind!"

Luz stared at him, as within her something began to stir. Of course; she'd almost forgotten amidst her despair, but her Mom was waiting for her out in the real world! She'd said that if Luz didn't answer, she'd use the Extraction Potion to yank her out of Belos' mind! That meant there was hope! Luz just needed to keep Belos from removing her from his mind himself, which would result in her appearing in the castle. If she could keep him busy and distracted for long enough for Eda to get her out, then Belos wouldn't get his hands on her!

For a single dark moment, Luz wondered if she deserved to be rescued… she'd led Hunter, Lucy, and Eber to their demise (a fact she still hadn't had time to properly accept, let alone mourn) and many others had died because of the unwitting help she'd given Belos. Still, if she just gave up and surrendered to Belos, then he would make her into a puppet and use her to destroy countless more lives! Luz felt she deserved to be punished for her mistakes, but the rest of the Demon Realm didn't deserve to be caught up in that! With that in mind, Luz knew just want to do to keep Belos busy until Eda pulled her out; after all, what did a megalomaniacal zealot like Belos love to do most?

Talk about their brilliance and preach the twisted version of their faith!

"I'm still confused about some things." she said in a small voice; "Like that strange rotten slime body of yours and how you possess people. It doesn't make sense that you had magic as a human! Did the glyphs truly do that?"

Belos smirked; "Intrigued are you? I will say that despite the unfortunate side-effects and the general disgusting nature of it, this power has proven useful. It is the result of an unstable glyph combo and the Palismen I devoured. You see, while I was searching the Isles for Caleb and discovered the glyphs, I found myself wounded on many occasions and found picto-glyphs to be too slow and clumsy compared to the normal magic wielded by the denizens of the Demon Realm. I eventually discovered a glyph combo that could heal wounds, but it was imperfect and instead sped up my natural healing by also speeding up my ageing."

Luz watched as Belos conjured a replica of his staff and used it to draw the incomplete glyph combo in the ash that coated the ground. To Luz's surprise, the combo was King's Healing Combo, though it only included the ice and plant glyphs in the correct positions, while the light glyphs (which Belos hadn't learned until meeting her in the past) were substituted by fire glyphs. From Luz's limited understanding of glyph combos, this combo really would heal the patient by consuming their life force as fuel, literally ageing them as Belos had said.

"I foolishly carved this combo into my own skin so that I would always be able to heal myself…" Belos frowned, touching his chest and causing the combo to begin glowing red so it was visible through his clothes. "I realised the ageing effects too late, and also discovered that carving the combo onto my own flesh had resulted in my body becoming a channel for this realm's magic… it was sapping my life force even more every time I used it. But that is when I learned of Palismen Sacrifices! A forbidden art that ancient witches and demons used to sacrifice the Palismen of condemned prisoners or the already deceased so that their essence can be used for powerful forms of Healing Magic or to enhance a person's existing magic. I managed to acquire a Palisman from a deceased mercenary and devoured it, where upon I found the healing magic restoring my youth and the power of the Palismen fuelled the glyphs I'd carved into myself. And now that I had a power source for the combos, I decided… why not carve more?"

Belos pulled up the sleeves on one of his arms to show the intricate web of glyphs and connecting lines and circles that covered his skin. He then clenched his fist and the glyphs began to glow, which spread to the glyphs still hidden in his clothes, revealing that just about every patch of skin on his upper body and legs were covered in glyph combos.

"Every new combo I learned, I carved into my skin so that I would have the power to fight this realm's hellish spawn. It was painful, but I felt that was my penance for using their evil magic. And of course, I had to continue eating Palismen to stave off the effects of the faulty healing combo and power all these newer combos." he finished.

The idea of carving so many intricate markings on to one's own flesh was terrifying to Luz; it must have been agonising! If she didn't already have mountains of evidence that Belos was a psychopath, she felt this would have tipped her off.

"So eating all those Palismen to power the glyphs and your healing resulted in you being corrupted by them and rotting away into a sludge monster!? And you possess people by literally getting inside them and puppeteering them?" Luz asked, disgusted and horrified (feelings she was becoming unsettlingly used to).

"Correct. Each one I ate added its soul to that mess that you absorbed earlier, making it that much harder to control myself… still, it could have been worse; the rot would have grown too fast and eventually been too damaging for the Healing Combo and Palismen to counter if it weren't for you. When you taught me the light glyph, I was able to use it to complete the faulty combos, including the Healing Combo. Thanks to that, and the Angel Wings I obtained in Volcarpalis, I was able to reach an equilibrium; where the damage the rot caused and the healing powers of the glyphs and Palismen perfectly countered each other. The only problem was the extra Palismen souls… my thanks again, for solving those problems for me." Belos smiled, seeming to be actually grateful. "It's thanks to these acts of yours that I know you are truly good and pure beneath this realm's influence. Even without consciously realising it, you are doing God's work! You just need to accept it!"

Luz shook her head vehemently without even thinking, making Belos scowl; "T-That's not it! That's not what I'm doing!"

Belos opened his mouth to answer when Luz's scroll suddenly began ringing again as Eda tried to call her. Belos scowled and declined the call again, while Luz frowned.

"Y-You should really let me answer that. If I don't answer, Mom will worry and do something crazy!" Luz said, trying to hide her desperation.

"Everything the Owl Lady does is insanity. But you won't need to worry about it for much longer. Now I think it's about time to summon you out of my mind." Belos declared, his hands glowing red as he reached for Luz. A red light appeared around her and Luz felt something beginning to pull her up as the red light formed a bubble around her.

"W-Wait! Wait! T-There's still more I want to know! Like…" she wracked her brain for something to buy more time. Eventually she settled on Belos' ears and hair; "W-Why do you look like that! Your hair was brown before, and you had human ears, but now your ears are kinda pointy, and your hair is kinda ash blond? D-Did you dye it?"

Belos gave her a deadpan look; the blatantly foolish questions making him realise that she was trying to stall him. He scowled as his concentration was tested, but answered if only to shut Luz up while he performed the extraction spell; it wasn't an easy one to cast within his own mind and with only his glyph combos!

"I used my brother Caleb's DNA to alter my hair colour to further differentiate me from the Philip that people had come to know. As for the ears, I carved them into this shape… I refused to alter myself with Witch DNA to make them naturally, so I used a knife." Belos explained.

The red bubble Luz had been encased in began to rise up out of the Dead Forest, towards the fake hall of memories she'd first arrived in. Luz began to really panic, desperately trying and failing to cast spells.

"W-What about Hunter's ears? His were pointy like a witch's! Wasn't he meant to be a replica of Caleb?" Luz cried.

"Grimwalkers always have pointed ears; I don't know or care why but I assume it's an innate trait of magical people of all kinds, seeing as even Angels have them. Now enough questions! You can stall all you want, but you cannot escape your duty or your destiny!" the Emperor declared.

Luz struggled and pounded against the inside of the red bubble as she tried to think of another way to stall for time, but no shouted questions or insults worked! Belos would ignore the former and just glare at her through the latter, maintaining his concentration on removing her from his mind. The frantic Angel was just about to go above the treeline when she came up with one last ditch attempt to buy her Mom enough time to get her out.

"H-Hey Belos! Look out behind you!" Luz cried.

Belos' eye twitched; "I am not a fool, Luz. Please just let this happen with some digni-ARGH!"

A blade of shadows suddenly stabbed up through Belos' leg, making him cry out in pain and breaking his concentration. The spell to extract Luz failed, and the red bubble burst, causing Luz to fall to the ground. Her wings were too weak to fly after absorbing the Palismen souls, so Luz braced herself for a hard landing, but she was instead snatched out of the sky by a very familiar figure.

"E-Eber!" Luz cried with joy and relief as the diminutive Coven Head caught her and landed with ease, her magically enhanced strength letting her effortlessly carry the young Angel.

Eberwolf smiled at her as she placed Luz back on her feet, "Sorry Eber is late. Fake Emperor's deep mind was very dark! Difficult to escape!"

"B-But how did you escape!? I thought I'd gotten you all trapped forever!" Luz exclaimed.

"Eber escape thanks to them." Eberwolf said, pointing a claw to behind Belos, where Hunter and Lucy now stood. The former was wielding a spear conjured by the latter, and using it to parry slime tendrils and blades that Belos was swinging at him. Meanwhile Lucy, who'd been responsible for the shadow blade that stabbed Inner Belos' thigh, was using her shadow magic to create tendrils of her own to aid her brother in holding Inner Belos back. Both children looked utterly terrified and on the verge of throwing up, but they were still fighting out of sheer desperation, knowing that if they stopped for an instant, Belos would murder them. They were expendable, and they knew that now.

Luz was crying with joy to see them alive and safe, while Eber explained; "We end up trapped together. Little Hunter come up with plan; Deep Mind only darkness, so no shadow to move through… so create shadow, and only exit is outside of Deep Mind! Eber cast spell to give Firefly Light…" Eberwolf demonstrated, making one of her claws glow like the abdomen of a firefly, "...and that create shadow! Then Little Shadow move us through shadow world to here!"

"Thank the Seraphim! Listen, Mom has been trying to call me but Belos has been declining them on my scroll! Mom is hesitating to pull us out, so we need to grab my scroll and call her!" Luz declared.

Eber nodded; she didn't have her own scroll (she never carried it when going to meetings at the castle, since it still had the CATTs contact information), and she doubted Lucy or Hunter's scrolls from Darius would have Eda's rune sequence. That left Luz's scroll as the only option, and thanks to Lucy and Hunter's desperate attacks, Belos was completely occupied. With the natural stealth skills of a Direwolf, combined with a Beast-Keeping Spell to silence the sound of her footsteps, Eber silently moved into Belos' blind spot and darted at him. It was child's play for Eber to leap onto the arm that held Luz's scroll and promptly sink her teeth into it, causing Belos to once again scream in pain and release his grip on the scroll.

"Little Light! Call Owl Lady!" Eber howled, catching the scroll and tossing it to the young Arch-Angel.

Luz caught it and immediately pulled up her contacts to call Eda, while Belos roared and blasted Eber, Hunter, and Lucy back a step with a wave of red magic, before trying to rush towards Luz. He was quickly dog-piled by the trio once again and knocked to the ground.

"Wait a moment, Luz! Do you really want to leave like this!? Isn't there more you want to know!?" Belos asked urgently.

"We all know everything we need to know about you!" Hunter spat. Luz couldn't tell if he sounded more angry or heartbroken.

Luz found Eda's entry in her contact's page and her thumb moved to touch it, when Belos yelled; "Oh? So you know all about Cassiel then?"

Luz froze, her thumb hovering over her Mom's name in her scroll. She looked wide-eyed at Belos, whose body transformed into slime and slipped out of Eber, Hunter, and Lucy's grasp before darting towards Luz. He reappeared behind her, looking smug as he said; "Ah, so you don't know. Surely you want to find out more about her? After all, she is your mother."

Luz's jaw dropped, but before she could react, Lucy suddenly leapt out of Belos' shadow and onto his back, screaming incoherently in rage and terror as she used a conjured knife to stab him in the shoulders. She couldn't risk killing the Inner Belos, but she could at least damage him a little. Belos howled in pain and tried to throw Lucy off his back, but Eber then jumped onto his face and began clawing it, while Hunter ran over and tackled the man's legs.

"Don't listen to lies, Little Light! Call Owl Lady!" Eber commanded.

Luz shook herself; "R-Right!" She immediately tapped Eda's name and made the scroll call, holding the scroll to her ear. Unfortunately it seemed she'd called Eda at the exact same moment Eda had called her, so the call went straight to voicemail, making Luz panic.

"I don't have time for this!" Luz cried, hanging up and going to try again.

Belos, desperate to stop Luz from escaping, once again used his slime form to slip free from his three attackers and appeared beside her, gripping her wrist as he reformed. "Come now, you're truly not curious what really happened?"

"Let me go!" Luz demanded, trying to pull away; "Cassiel wasn't my Mom! My Mami didn't leave the Divine Realm until she was 18, and Cassiel was here for at least three years before that!"

Belos smirked, even as Eber and his rebelling Grimwalkers jumped him once again. This time he was prepared and managed to stay standing, though his hold on Luz did slip. "I wouldn't be so sure, Luz Noceda! After all, I met her when she was 19! Why don't I show you!"

He snapped his fingers and the same summoned memory portrait from earlier appeared from the ground. Unlike last time, there was no actual memory playing on it, but a single image did appear on the screen… It was one of the strange memory portraits from the grove of fallen Golden Guards, and depicted the image of a Golden Guard and two other people, all three of them with their faces scratched out. Luz was puzzled by it, until the memory portrait rippled and revealed a snapshot from the memory itself, revealing the proper faces and figures of the people within the memory.

The central figure was nearly identical to Hunter, being another Golden Guard, though he lacked Hunter's gap tooth, and his scars were different; he instead had a slash over the bridge of his nose (similar to Lucy's, but larger) and a scar on his bottom lip. He also had longer, fluffier hair that looked a little like a longer version of Lucy's (without going into the curls that Luz had) and lastly, one of his upper canine fangs was slightly too large for his mouth, so it protruded from his upper lip even as it was closed. He also looked to be older than Hunter, at around 21-22 years old in appearance.

Luz realised this must be Michael, Darius' mentor and the last Golden Guard before Hunter. But he wasn't the surprising person in the memory… he was stood between the other two, holding both of their hands and staring determinedly out from the frame. But as Luz looked at the two people he was with, she recognised them… and promptly dropped her scroll out of pure shock.

"I-Impossible… it can't be…!" she gasped.

The person on Michael's right was an Angel that was about 19-20 years old. She was female, and had a fairly average body type, being neither slender nor wide. Her skin was a shade darker than Luz's, and she had a single pair of white wings on her back, as well as long, curly white hair that she'd tied into a short pony tail. Her eyes were golden, and she was dressed in a pale lilac tunic with white sleeves, and a matching pale lilac skirt with white leggings beneath, and tan boots on her feet. It was a Demon Realm style outfit, but coloured to suit an Angel.

The person on Michael's left was a young man of about the same age as the Angel, though he shockingly appeared to be human, judging by his round ears. He had olive coloured skin, brown hair, and brown eyes, as well as a somewhat average build with a hint of muscle definition. His face was kind and gentle-looking, with a strong jaw and a somewhat wide nose, as well as some dark brown stubble that had yet to fully grow into a beard. His outfit consisted of a dark teal tunic with no sleeves (revealing his bare arms) and dark brown pants ending in black boots. He also appeared to have a Combat Potioneer Belt around his waist.

Seeing a Golden Guard, an Angel, and a Human together would normally be shocking for anyone, and it certainly surprised Eber, Lucy, and Hunter enough to make them stop attacking Belos for a moment, especially since Michael was obviously the spitting image of Hunter, and the Angel looked a lot like Lucy and Luz… but Luz was especially shocked because she knew who those two people were!

"M-Mami? Papi!?" she whispered, eyes wide and jaw agape.

She had seen pictures of her parents together many times at all different ages, and these two people were the spitting image of them! The Angel was clearly a Crest Kindness Angel, but she was the absolute spitting image of a young Camila, while the human with her could only be Manny Noceda!

Belos grinned; "I thought that might interest you! Allow me to introduce them! Michael the Golden Guard, Cassiel of Crest Kindness… and Emmanuel "Em" Noceda! Though I'm sure you recognised them quite well, Luz… given you are their daughter!"

Luz flinched and Eber's eyes darted between the portrait and Luz. "That Angel Friend and Star Friend! So… Little Light is their Pup!?"

"N-No! I-It can't be! You're just playing with my head! Y-You read my memories somehow! This is fake!" Luz denied, shaking her head vehemently. Her mother was named Camila! She'd never been to the Demon Realm! And there was no way her father had ever come here either! It was all a trick! Belos was just manipulating her!

"It seems Eberwolf recognises them too though. You know it's true, Luz; no matter how much you deny it." Belos said, grinning in satisfaction; "You can't believe how amazed I was when an Angel woman that was your spitting image walked into my throne room, along with a human man with the last name Noceda! I knew immediately that they were your parents! But of course, there is a fourth person in this picture…" the Emperor said, pointing to Cassiel's stomach. The woman had a hand over her belly; a gesture Luz hadn't understood until Belos pointed it out.

Luz's mind raced; Cassiel had supposedly left the Demon Realm 15 years ago, and with Luz being 14 and born in the middle of Spring, it was possible that her Mami had been pregnant with her at the time… so if Cassiel and her Mami truly were the same person, then it's possible Luz was conceived within the Demon Realm!

And given the way Cassiel was holding hands with Michael, who was also holding hands with Manny, or "Em" as he'd been called here… Luz didn't like to think of the implications; her mind couldn't handle it on top of all these revelations and traumatic experiences.

At that moment, Luz's scroll rang again as Eda tried to get through to her once more. For a moment, everyone was still as they looked at the scroll dropped at Luz's feet. Then Luz and Belos briefly made eye contact, knowing full well what was about to happen. The moment passed and everyone scrambled; Belos trying to sent a slime tendril at the scroll while Luz dove for it, and Eber, Lucy, and Hunter tackled Belos once more to try and stop him. Belos' tendril succeeded in wrapping around the scroll before Luz could grab it, but a shadow knife from Lucy sliced the tendril off, allowing Luz to grab the scroll while Eber cast a Beast-Keeping Spell that let her breathe fire like a Salamander, burning Belos and making him recoil as Hunter jumped on his back.

Luz immediately answered the call, and Eda's voice yelled out across Belos' mind; "Luz!? Are you there!? Are you and the others okay? The signal is really shaky, the calls keep being dropped! Do you need an extraction?"

"YES! MOM, PLEASE GET US OUT OF HERE! HURRY!" Luz cried.

"Right! Get Eber and those two brats! You need to be in contact with them or the extraction won't pull them out too! I'm beginning the countdown!" Eda yelled. "Five!"

"Oh no you don't!" Belos sneered, turning his arms into slime tendrils again and wrapping them around Hunter and Lucy's throats, pulling them into the air and strangling them. They both kicked in vain at their Uncle and Lucy tried to cast a spell, but Belos responded by slamming her into the ground to daze her before strangling her again.

"Four!"

Eber snarled and leapt at Belos' face with her claws and fangs bared, then began to slash and bite him like a feral animal, causing Belos to recoil and throw Hunter aside so he could pull Eber off and toss her aside too. Luz ran to catch Hunter and was knocked down with an "Oof!", which only got worse when Eber was then slammed into them.

"Three!"

"If you won't be of use to me, then you won't be of use to anyone!" Belos declared, pulling back his now free hand and forming the slime into a blade, which he thrust towards Lucy's throat.

"Two!"

Luz and Hunter both screamed; "NO!" and the Palismen souls within Luz reacted with her magic and emotions, and the Palistrom Wood that made up Hunter's body as the two were in contact, causing Luz's body to tingle. Luz thrust her hand forward in a desperate attempt to cast magic, and the Palismen Amalgamation suddenly shot a tendril of itself out through her palm. The Amalgamation looked different now; rather than resembling a monstrous Belos made of rotten slime with Palismen heads sticking out of it, it now appeared to be a version of Luz as a small child, made from what looked like melted gold. The Palismen heads were still present, but they formed strictly into the wings of the child Luz, and their eyes and the insides of their mouths glowed white instead of blue.

The hands of the Amalgamation grabbed Lucy, while the wings of Palismen heads flared forward and stopped Belos' blade by biting its edge and holding it in place. Some of them then roared in Belos' face, startling him enough that he tried to back away. However since he was still holding onto Lucy, and the Amalgamation was too, he found he couldn't back up any more without letting her go. Not wanting to risk being infected by the Palismen souls again, Belos let go of Lucy, who was immediately pulled to her brother's side, panting and holding her throat.

"ONE!"

The Amalgamation retreated back into Luz's body, and Luz made sure she, Eber, Hunter, and Lucy were all holding onto each other tightly. Belos snarled and lunged for them as Luz screamed; "NOW! MOM, PLEASE NOW!"

No sooner had the words left her mouth before a golden bubble formed around her and expanded to absorb Eber, Hunter, and Lucy. The bubble encased them fully and then exploded in an eruption of golden light as it shot its occupants out of Belos' Mind in an instant.

When the light began to fade and the feeling of movement stopped, the bubble burst and the four companions found themselves in the Owl House living room, surrounded by Eda, Lilith, King, Hooty, Rasiel, Raine, Darius, and Osran. Hooty and King immediately moved towards them, but Eda and Darius put hands out to stop them.

"Hold on a moment, don't crowd them!" Eda told them, before looking to Luz with a worried expression. "Owlet, are you all okay?"

Luz looked around numbly, while Hunter and Lucy just sat where they'd appeared, unmoving. All three had thousand yard stares and haunted faces, and they all looked pale at best or almost green at worst! It was disturbing to see, especially on kids! Only Eber seemed to be in a good enough mental space to actually stand and speak to the others.

"Things went bad. Emperor's Mind Self appeared. Eber is discovered. But we learned things… Young Ones will need help." Eber said grimly as Darius checked her over.

"I'm not surprised… we should never have gone ahead with this plan! Children should never have been exposed to that degenerate's mind!" Darius scowled.

"Did it come to blows? Eda kept trying to call Luz and it kept getting declined. We weren't sure if it was just the signal being bad or something, so we kept debating on if we should extract you guys. We didn't want to waste the opportunity, so Eda kept calling… but it looks like that was the wrong move." Raine said, frowning sadly at the shell-shocked children.

Now that the kids were out of Belos' grasp and in safe surroundings, the adrenaline began to fade and everything they'd just experienced slammed into them. Tears began to pour down Luz's face as she continuously muttered; "It's my fault… I'm so sorry… it's my fault…" while Lucy was shaking like she'd just been pulled out of ice. However Hunter became extremely jittery and his eyes darted in every direction, taking in everything and assessing it as a threat to him or his sister, but not seeming to really recognise anything beyond threat or non-threat. It wasn't until Flapjack and Waffles came flying down from the living room chandelier that Hunter and Lucy snapped out of their stupors.

Lucy stared at Waffles with tears in her eyes and a look of utter devastation on her face; "It was all lies… everything. I don't have a father or mother. I'm not a real Angel… I'm not even a real person! I'm just a doll… a defective doll…"

Waffles shook her head and landed on Lucy's head, then tried to gently peck her and lightly pull on her hair to try and snap her out of her funk, but Lucy was totally deaf to her tweets and chirps. Osran knelt beside her and gently said; "That isn't true! I don't know what you learned in there, but you are not a doll! You are a real person, with real feelings! Please my girl, let us help you."

He then tried to reach for her, but Lucy startled violently at his touch, causing Hunter to suddenly grab her and flash away to the other side of the room with Flapjack, his eyes wild looking.

"Don't touch her!" Hunter snapped, his staff crackling with electricity.

"Whoa there, calm down Little Prince." Darius said soothingly, slowly edging towards him.

"Don't call me that! Belos is-!" the mention of the man's name caused Hunter to pale again, and he suddenly looked as if he was somewhere else entirely. It was like he perceived the world around him as something completely different and he began to hyperventilate.

"H-He knows! He knows we were in there! W-We can't… We can't go back! He'll kill me! He'll use Lucy and throw her away! I can't… I can't!" Hunter's eyes darted back and forth as the Owl House around him became the Castle, and the CATTs slowly morphed into Coven Scouts. Darius appeared to change into Belos within his mind's eye, while Luz seemed to reach for him and Lucy with a hand slick with golden blood, missing a pinky finger.

"Give it back… give back what you stole from me!" he heard her hiss as she reached for Lucy.

"I-I won't… I won't let you take her!" Hunter screamed, and before anyone could stop him, he used Flapjack to flash away with Lucy, his lightning form zipping out through the same window Hooty was peeking through.

Luz, Darius, and Osran all gave chase, knowing Hunter was having a serious panic attack, but by the time they got outside, the duo were long gone. Darius didn't stop however and ran off towards Bonesborough to try and find them, while Osran summoned his enchanted flying book and went after them too. Only Luz stopped, falling to her knees outside the Owl House and staring off in the direction Hunter had fled, a broken look on her face.

While Eber ran off to try and help Darius and Osran, the others all knelt around Luz, scared to touch her in case they frightened her. Eventually King gingerly took her hand, and Luz looked at her little brother and then Eda.

"K-King? Mom?"

"We're here, Owlet. And so is your Titi and Tia, and Hooty and Rasiel." Eda said softly.

The instant Luz heard Rasiel's name, she looked at him and began to weep; "Rasiel… I am so sorry! It's all my fault! Everything that's happened; it was all my fault!"

Rasiel blinked in surprise, while Eda shook her head; "Luz, nothing was your fault! Belos was here long before you were! You aren't to blame for any of this!"

"I am…" Luz cried brokenly; "Mom… Belos is Philip Wittebane!"

Eda and Lilith went as white as snow, while Raine, Rasiel, King, and Hooty all looked shocked and confused.

"That can't be right! Belos is a Ten-Winged Seraphim, while Philip was just a human! How could he-" Raine began, only to trail off as everyone realised the same thing. Combining what Raine had just said about Belos, Luz's reveal of his true name, and her desperate, guilt-ridden look at Rasiel, they could only come to one conclusion. They slowly turned to look at Rasiel, whose expression morphed from shocked to utterly thunderous.

"My wings… Belos stole my wings…!"

Luz broke down into her Mom's arms whilst hugging King to her chest as tightly as she dared. All she could do now was cry…

"What have I done…? What have I done!?"

No one could say a word in response, as the full moon night was filled with the sound of a heartbroken Angel with too much on her shoulders.