The Angel of the Owl House
Season 2: The Human Realm
Chapter 16: A Storm of Tears
Following the memorial service that the CATTs held for Manny, Luz found herself completely re-energised and raring to go. Her family and friends had taken the time to do such a nice thing for her that she fully threw herself into the CATTs and fighting to save the Boiling Isles, especially with the Day of Unity fast approaching and no one having any idea what its true purpose was. It was possible that Belos' plan to unite the Demon and Divine Realms and turn everyone in the former into an Angel was actually real and not just a cover, but many in the CATTs doubted it, so attempts were being made to try and discover the truth.
In the meantime, Luz was working hard on everything around her; she spent her mornings with Eda, King, and their family (which now included Dell and Gwen Clawthorne, who'd temporarily moved into a safehouse on Digale Island), her days in Hexside with her friends, her afternoons taking on missions for the CATTs, and her evenings working on the portal. While her schoolwork and relationships were still going as strong as ever, progress on the portal was slow going, even though they now possessed a new key made from Palistrom Wood. Her missions for the CATTs had also become more serious; after the incident at the Manubrium Precinct after HECK, many in the Emperor's forces were terrified of Luz and just the sight of her flying down from the sky was enough to send them running. Her bounty had been rendered functionally worthless, as none would dare try for it. Belos or the tag-team of Hunter and Lucy, or a combination of Coven Heads were the only ones who could pose a reasonable threat to her at this point, and the former never seemed to leave his castle, while the siblings were often sent on different missions that meant they were rarely together, which was also the case for the Coven Heads. Thanks to that, the various small Rebellions across the isles had been saved from extermination and many had joined up with the CATTs in gratitude.
But Luz wasn't the only one in the CATTs to have been hard at work; her friends were all training their magic or helping around Digale Island, occasionally going on missions of their own with the adults. Dell had also begun working to carve Palismen for those who'd never had one before, using a new Teleportation Circle Luz had made to travel with her to his Palistrom Grove every now and again. Gwen had also settled in nicely and had basically become the Mom/Grandma for everyone on the Island, working to cook hot meals and take care of everyone… at least when she wasn't giving information on the various Covens she'd joined and helping Eber whip her Beast-Keepers into shape! Viney had spent a considerable amount of time with the formidable woman!
Kikimora, who was now their sole prisoner in a cell beneath the CATTs HQ, had sang like a canary even before she was given Blabber Serum, happily giving the CATTs every scrap of information she could. Most of it was stuff they'd already known from other spies, or information that was out of date, but she did yield one crucial bit of information… whenever Belos thought no one was listening, he would speak with the Collector, a shadowy figure that Kikimora described as being from beyond the stars. That confirmed to Luz and King that Belos really had found the Collector's Mirror after Philip had unearthed it, likely with help from the man's diary. It also unfortunately appeared like Belos was being helped by the Collector in exchange for the Star Child's freedom. However, that could also be a good thing; Belos seemed to have given up on searching for Titan's Blood since he had a working portal now, so he didn't have what he needed to free the Collector, AND Luz and King now knew where the Collector was. If they could reach him and free him, then they could turn him against Belos!
Still, with no plans to try and raid the castle just yet, things fell into a comfortable routine for an entire week… but as the Saturday following the memorial service came, something happened that would send the war into its final stage.
It was a fairly chilly Autumn afternoon, and for the first time in a while, the entire Hexsquad was free and working together on the New Portal Door. They worked outside as usual so they had enough space, and Eda and Raine sat together nearby, plotting assaults on smaller Coven Facilities on the Titan's left leg. King was also present, though he was a little too small still to effectively help with the construction, so he was instead practicing with his glyph combos by having a mock-fight with Hooty.
"So this part goes here?" Luz muttered, picking up a piece of carefully constructed glass that looked vaguely like a blood vessel, and carefully threaded it into a hole drilled into the door. There was a satisfying click as it attached to the rest of the network of glass blood vessels they'd put into the half-constructed door.
"That looks about right. Once we have a Titan's Oculus and filled it with Titan Blood, these glass vessels will allow the blood to fill the door evenly and power it up." Amity replied, looking between Luz's work and the notes she was reading.
"We're only about halfway done with the glass… this is finicky work." Luz sighed, before calling over to Matt; "How is the next set of parts coming along, Matt?"
"We're almost done." Matt answered, using Construction Magic on some molten glass in a kiln he'd constructed, shaping it carefully while Boscha and Gus stood beside him, regulating the heat with fire and ice magic to make sure the tempering on the glass was perfect.
"Great job guys! Willow, how's the wood coming along?" Luz asked.
Willow was currently working with Skara, growing wood into the shapes needed for the door, while Skara used Bardic Magic to carve accurate channels through the door for the glass tubes to go into.
"Getting there. This door is like a jigsaw puzzle!" Willow said, sweating a little despite the chilly air. She'd been working herself extra hard to make up for her mistake at HECK, even though no one held it against her.
"I'd say Willow has about seven more pieces in her for today, and I can probably manage prepping another four." Skara added, not having Willow's impressive stamina.
The proper Portal Door had to be constructed piece by piece so all the proper internal components and glass tubes could be installed bit by bit. If the door was whole from the start, it would be a lot of hard work to feed the tubes through it, even with magic!
"Hang in their guys! Just a little more and we'll reach the target we had for today!" Luz encouraged, stepping away from the door so Amity could use her Oracle Spirit to check that everything was connecting properly from the inside.
The Hexsquad gave a little cheer and continued their work… at least until they heard a sudden commotion from inside the Owl House. Everyone looked up as they heard a distinct shout, followed by the sound of books falling over, a yelp of pain, and someone scrambling into the living room. Rasiel came flying out of the front door a moment later, tripping over himself as landing flat on his face with a groan.
"Ugh, that sucks…" he muttered as Eda laughed and helped him up.
"You good, Raspberry?" she smirked.
"I am." Rasiel panted, getting to his feet and trying to catch his breath.
"What's got you in such a mess?" Raine asked.
Rasiel held up his hand to ask them to wait a moment since he was still catching his breath, giving everyone a chance to gather around him. When he finally got himself together, he looked Luz in the eye and said; "I think I've done it. I think I've found a way to navigate the Primordial Wellsprings!"
Luz gasped, then grinned widely; "You have!? That's great! How do we do it!?"
"According to Arch-Mage Chinana's Primordial Almanac, a Titan's Primordial Wellsprings always form in the same spots; each foot, each knee, each hip, the base of the tail bone, the heart, each shoulder, each elbow, each palm, the joint of each wing, the throat, and the brain. These are spots were the five humours tend to naturally form together, and the network of primordial pathways that connect these Wellsprings is the same as the physical blood vessels that connect them! So if we entered the Knee with a method to avoid being swept up by the current, we could navigate to the other Wellsprings by following the path of the blood vessels!" Rasiel explained.
Luz and King both looked excited by this revelation, though Amity asked; "How does that work when travelling to the Titan's Bonded Mate? There aren't any physical blood vessels connecting them, since they're two separate Titans."
Rasiel smiled; "The Primordial Wellsprings of two Bonded Titans are connected via the Heart. So once we have a safe way to traverse the Wellspring, we can travel from the Knee to the closed Wellspring at the site of Orion's Heart, then from there to Cassiopeia's Heart, which should be the location of the next temple and the Black Tomb within."
Everyone cheered; they'd finally made progress on getting Rasiel's next missing piece back! It had been months since Volcarpalis, and the Ancient Angel was extremely excited to be getting another part of himself! If it was his wings, then he'd get his powers back and the rebellion would basically be over! There was no chance Belos could stand up to a real and healthy Ten-Winged Seraphim, even if he turned out to be what he claimed to be!
"So now we just need a way to navigate the network between Wellsprings without nearly drowning in the Titan's Humours. How long do you think that'll take?" Eda wondered aloud as she looked at her love.
Raine said; "Actually, we might be able to go as soon as tomorrow! Darius told me that Alador and Mason have been working on the issue in their spare time and they've pretty much finished the prototype. We could go and ask them right now."
"Then what are we waiting for? Let's go!" Luz grinned, flying up to the Teleportation Circle on the Owl House's tower. King followed her through the air, while the others ran through the house to catch up with her, leaving only Hooty behind to guard the house and the incomplete Portal Door. They were all soon warped to Digale Island, where they high-tailed it for Alador's mini-factory/lab.
Mason and his fellow Construction Witches had made Alador a fancy new factory not too long after he'd joined the CATTs, and Darius and his Abomination Witches had further assisted to make it cutting edge. It was smaller than the old Blight Industries Factory, but it was no less efficient in pumping out Abomination soldiers and tools to help bolster the CATTs. Luz and her friends ran in, finding Alador working on a new Abomination Airship with some help from Mason, as Edric mixed ingredients in a cauldron beside them.
"Whoa, where's the fire?" Alador asked as Amity ran to hug him.
"Dad, did you finish the project you were working on? The one for the Wellsprings?" Amity asked, looking up at him with hopeful eyes.
Alador blinked, then slowly nodded; "Yes, it's been done for a while now. Why?"
"Rasiel thinks he knows how to navigate them now! We just need a way to do it safely!" his daughter explained.
"You figured it out? Awesome!" Edric praised, stopping his stirring. He'd gotten into potions a lot recently, and was experimenting with an Abomination Potion that a person could drink to give them the ability to temporarily secrete Abominations from their skin like sweat. It still needed some work, but his Dad was supporting him and giving advice.
Mason nodded, stroking his beard; "It's impressive alright. Now we can finally put that project through its paces!"
"Indeed. Everyone follow Mason and I. Edric, stay and keep an eye on that cauldron; the abomination ingredients are still unstable." Alador instructed.
Edric gave a little grin and salute, then got back to stirring as Alador and Mason led the rest of them to a separate part of the factory. When they arrived, they find a large circular pool of water with a large brass orb floating in it. The orb had glass tubes and diodes filled with pink magic and abomination goo, as well as a large glass circle on the side that revealed the interior of the orb, which was decked out with red plush seating and a bicycle-like control device. Luz grinned as she examined it; it was like a giant Diving Helmet, or a Steampunk Poke ball!
"This is Project Wellspring; a small submersible that has been designed to withstand the currents of a Primordial Wellspring without being corroded or effected by the wild magic. We put it through several tests to make sure of its durability, and I'm 100% confident it will make the trip! As a bonus, it harvests magic from the Wellspring to fuel itself, so no onboard fuel required! Makes it much less likely to explode!" Alador introduced grandly.
"It's like a bathysphere! If we can lug this thing to the Knee, we'll be at Cassiopeia's Heart before we know it!" Luz declared.
"Then we can finally free Mama from the curse those Archivists put on her." King said, gripping his neckerchief tightly. They weren't just going to get Rasiel's next part after all; they were also going so Luz could fulfil Cassiopeia and Orion's request to destroy the Titan's heart.
Luz put a hand on her little brother's skull to comfort him while the rest of the gang were examining the submersible. Mason's expertise with submarines and Alador's inventiveness had resulted in a pretty impressive vehicle! There was just one problem…
"It's kind of small on the inside." Boscha muttered as she peered through the glass window. "No way will we all fit in this."
The others gathered around her to get a look too, finding she was right. There was room for maybe five people, not including the tiny King. That meant there was no chance of the whole Hexsquad coming along.
"Sorry, I couldn't make it much bigger without also making it a lot more cumbersome. It needs to fit inside Eclipse Lake, and the only way we'll get it in is through that hole in the cave ceiling that Amity told me about. Besides, making it bigger also exponentially increases the cost of construction." Alador apologised.
"It'd also mess up the weight balance and require more energy for propulsion, not to mention oxygen creation and CO2 scrubbing enchantments. This is the optimal size we can make it, so you'll just have to decide amongst yourselves who can go." Mason added.
Everyone began to exchange looks and consider who would be going to the Temple. Raine immediately opted out, since they wanted to stay on the Isles to manage the CATTs with the other leaders, and Boscha decided to abstain too since she was still the newbie of the team. Unfortunately, they were still fairly limited on how many extra people could go!
Luz needed to go to complete her promise and open the Black Tomb, which also meant Rasiel had to go so he could bond with his lost part. King would be going too, but he was small enough that it didn't matter, and Amity immediately called dibs on going too, since going to these temples with Luz had sort of become their thing. Plus, she was the only one present who had training in controlling her Dad's contraptions, so she'd need to be the pilot for the bathysphere anyway. That left two spots left up for grabs.
"I'm going." Eda declared without leaving room for argument; "I missed the last two temples, and I'm not sending my kids off to another one without me! Especially if Luz is going to have to destroy Cassiopeia's Heart to free her! That'll be tough on her and King, so they'll need their Mom for support!
No one dared argue about that. Besides, they had no idea what element this temple was built around, so they needed a strong witch that knew how to use all of them to some degree just so they can get through the trials!
Since Raine and Boscha had abstained, that meant the last spot was up for grabs for Gus, Willow, Matt, and Skara. Gus also chose to sit this one out, since he went to the Fire Temple, while Matt opted out since he'd already gone on an adventure with Luz recently when going to save the Petrified Victims with Mason. That left just Willow and Skara, who both wanted to go.
"I haven't gotten to go on a real adventure with Luz and King yet! You got to do stuff with her at my birthday party, and that whole Mandragora mess beneath the school!" Skara argued.
"No way! I've known her longer and I'm one of her best friends!" Willow countered; "Besides, you literally jumped in a hurricane with her a few weeks back when saving Treble! That totally counts as an adventure! AND you helped her fight the Greater Basilisk!"
The two girls argued over it for a few minutes, before King got tired of it and yelled; "Just play Rock-Paper-Scissors or something! We're not gonna get anywhere like this!"
The girls frowned, but agreed. Three rounds of Rock-Paper-Scissors later, and Willow was grinning triumphantly while Skara pouted.
"No fair…" Skara whined.
"It's totally fair. Besides, it's been too long since Luz and I did something cool together!" Willow countered.
Luz gave Willow a deadpan stare; "Willow, we hang out all the time! We went out to that cafe you like literally this morning, before getting to work on the portal."
"Which was fun, but this is cool and helps people! More so than making you take a break does at least." Willow grinned. The whole reason she'd dragged Luz to the cafe was because Eda wanted the little Angel to take a break again before she burned out.
"Well, no use arguing now." Amity smiled, patting Skara on the back in commiseration. "The team going on the trip will be Luz, King, Eda, Rasiel, Willow, and myself. But how are we going to get this thing to Eclipse Lake? Last I heard, the Emperor's Coven still controlled the area."
Raine piped up; "I'll need to talk to Darius about it, but we can send a small force with a number of airships. With Luz on our side, the wind won't be a problem so we can fly right up to the Knee, and she can probably drive the coven away from Eclipse Lake long enough to drop off the submersible and dive into the Wellspring. Then our people just need to hold the lake for long enough for you to return. It shouldn't be too tough with only two entrances that we can blockade."
Mason nodded; "You won't need a big force. Only a few squads of scouts were left to guard the lake according to the latest reports from Belos."
"Great! We can at least all handle that part!" Skara declared.
The others who weren't going happily agreed, though Boscha did look sceptical at her not-yet girlfriend. "Do you really want to help openly fight those scouts? Didn't your Dad have a real hard time keeping you off the wanted posters after HECK?"
Skara scowled; after the incident at HECK, her dad had been on the war path. She'd told him everything about what Adrian had planned to do with her and her teammates, and that Belos had given the orders, causing the usually soft-spoken man to go on a tirade and storm off to the Emperor's Castle. He'd returned a few hours after with a bloody knuckle (apparently he'd marched up to Head Witch Adrian and decked him), and then demanded answers from Belos. The Emperor had fed him a lie that Osran was lying about how far Adrian would have gone, and claiming Adrian misinterpreted his orders regardless, managing to calm Severin enough to retain his loyalty, but it was clear he was still suspicious. Unlike Willow (whose prior bounty was restored), Gus, Viney, and Emira, Skara had not received a bounty… likely Belos' attempts to keep Severin on his side. It was probably hard to find a replacement Head Witch this close to the Day of Unity after all.
"Who cares? Dad knows what I'm up to, even if he doesn't like it. I'm not sitting on the sidelines!" Skara declared.
No one could argue with that, and the plan was set; at first light the next day, they would all take the airships to the Knee and begin the assault on Eclipse Lake while the Temple Team jumped into the Wellspring!
The rest of the evening was spent preparing for the assault; Luz had to take the bathysphere and several airships through the Teleportation Circle (which had to be done one at a time) to get them to the Boiling Isles, while Eda and Raine recruited the most capable members of the CATTs to join the assault team beside the rest of the Hexsquad. Those members had all come through the teleportation circle too, and spent the night camped outside the Owl House, which didn't have enough room for them AND the Hexsquad inside. Thankfully they had state of the art tents made by Alador, so they spent the night in comfort at least, and Rasiel had worked with Hooty and pulled out all the stops to make them a grand dinner as thanks for their assistance.
At the crack of dawn the next morning, as the sun was just barely peeking over the horizon, everyone was treated to a nice breakfast, before they all boarded the airships. One had the submersible attached to the bottom, and it was this ship that Luz and the Hexsquad would be protecting alongside Eda, while Raine and the other Rebels handled the other four ships. With a fond farewell to Hooty and Lilith (who would be staying to help guard the house in everyone's absence), the CATTs began making their way to the Knee.
The trip was a fast one thanks to Alador tricking out the airships with some booster flame enchantments, and they found themselves undisturbed thanks to Gus leading a few of the other rebels in a mass illusion to make them all invisible. Even the winds around the peak of the Knee, which usually meant reaching it from the air was dangerous and difficult, posed no threat as Luz used her wind glyph magic to casually bend the air around the airships, giggling the whole time since she got to imitate the movements from one of her favourite TV shows.
With all that, the CATTs arrived in the sky directly above Eclipse Lake in record time and without being bothered or noticed. They saw from the sky that the entrances to the mines leading to the lake had been turned into a small series of outposts and camps, while three EC airships circled the skylight entrance. The five CATTs airships manoeuvred so they were flying in a circle around the EC airships, then Luz began the assault.
"NOW!" she cried, darting into the sky and immediately blasting the balloons of two of the EC airships, sending them crash landing into the snowy rocks below. They weren't high enough for the crews to be hurt, but Luz created an updraft to slow their descent just in case.
Gus and the others dropped the illusions hiding their own ships, and the rest of the rebels let out battle cries and began flying down with staves or flying brooms. This, combined with Luz's sudden appearance, scared the stuffing out of the scouts left to guard Eclipse Lake, and just like in Manubrium, many fled to escape the wrath of the Arch-Angel. A few tried to be brave and stay behind, but the instant they saw Eda the Owl Lady flying around in her Harpy Form and cackling, even they knew there was no point in staying to fight. The airship that Luz hadn't forced to crash gained altitude and sped away, and Luz, King, Eda, and the Hexsquad descended into the cavern of Eclipse Lake.
The inside of the cavern was largely the same as it was when Luz, King, and Amity had come here with Steve and Katya, but there were some ramshackle tents set up along the edges and a half-hearted attempt at a barricade set up at the entrance of the tunnel… a barricade that had largely been destroyed by the Coven Scouts fleeing their arrival.
"Dang, look at this place… I bet this is where the Emperor assigns scouts he doesn't like." Boscha commented as she looked around.
"Their defences are pathetic too. These barricades are basically just stacked rocks!" Matt frowned, using some Construction Magic to raise up some real barricades to help them defend the place until Luz's crew returned.
"Man, remember when a squad of Coven Scouts was an actual threat? These guys take one look at Luz now and they pee their pants! It'd be funny if it weren't sad." King commented. There was a slightly acrid smell in the air, meaning at least of the fleeing scouts likely had peed themselves.
"Luz is tough enough to go toe to toe with the Emperor now, and as much of a scumbag as he is, Belos is still strong." Eda commented; "It only makes sense these scouts ran, especially since Toil and Trouble over there was probably right about them being on some kinda punishment duty."
Boscha scowled at the name, while Luz and Amity were busy helping Raine. The Bard was piloting the Airship carrying the bathysphere now, and the girls were helping them line it up so they could drop it down the skylight and into the Wellspring, which was still swirling like a maelstrom even after all this time. The others were a little nervous that the bathysphere would get sucked in immediately, but as Raine lowered it down on a metal cable, they were relieved to see it bobbed and floated as if the lake was completely still.
"Whoa! Alador may not be able to pick a good wife, but he knows his engineering!" Willow laughed as she watched Amity remove the hook and clamps of the metal cable, allowing Raine to pull the airship back up again.
The others chuckled in agreement, then waited for Luz and Amity to land again. Luz had flown back up to retrieve Rasiel while Amity was disconnecting the bathysphere, so when she and Amity landed beside the lake, Rasiel was with them.
"This is it, everyone. I worked with Alador last night and he programmed a route through Orion's Wellspring passages into the bathysphere. All that's left is to make the trip!" Rasiel declared.
Amity reached into her pocket and pulled out a small remote, which she pointed at the bathysphere as she pushed a button. The glass viewing port and a large chunk of the brass around it swung open like a door, and a walkway extended out to the shore of Eclipse Lake.
"All aboard." Amity grinned, crossing first and taking her place on the bicycle-like control seat. Luz, Rasiel, Eda, and Willow followed her in and took seats behind her, while King sat on his Mom's lap.
Before Amity closed the submersible back up, Eda called out to Boscha, Skara, Matt, and Gus; "It'll just be you four in the cavern for now, but if you need back up then send up a flare! The other CATTs are dealing with the camps outside, but if they see a flare, Raine will send them to help. Also, try to make it look like Luz is still here! If they find out she's not, they might try harder to take the place back!"
"Aye-Aye Captain!" Skara and Gus grinned, while Boscha and Matt tried to act cool and aloof, despite both clearly being excited to be on a mission.
The Temple Team grinned and waved, then Amity began pressing buttons. The bathysphere closed up again and then thrummed to life like a car, vibrating slightly and humming with magic as it began absorbing power from the wellspring. The interior lit up, and a crystal ball descended from the ceiling and showed Amity a rough map of the route she'd have to take through the Wellsprings, just like a car's GPS. A scroll-like device then emerged from the front of the control bike and unfurled, revealing a ton of buttons and monitors that told Amity different pieces of information.
"Okay, oxygen production enchantments are active. Air refreshing enchantments are active. Lights and navigation all working properly. Engines fully powered… I'd say we're good to go! Everybody ready?" Amity asked.
She received a chorus of "Yeps!" and "Yeahs!", as well as a "We're good, Captain Boots!" from Eda.
"Alright then! Beginning descent in 3...2…1!"
Amity leaned clenched one of the handlebars and the bathysphere began to descent into the Wellspring. It was pitch black and eerily quiet at first, forcing Amity to switch on the exterior lights. Even with this, they couldn't see anything outside until there was a sudden flash of light, and they found themselves in what appeared to be a completely underwater version of the In-Between Realm.
"Whoa! This is just like where I met King's Dad back in my vision on Titan Trapper Island!" Luz exclaimed.
"I suppose it makes sense; the In-Between Realm bridges all portals. Every bonded pair of Titans must have their own little segment of it that connects their Wellsprings." Rasiel commented.
"So how will we know when we've reached the exit? This place all looks the same." Willow asked.
Amity hummed and told the others to brace themselves, then tilted back to make the bathysphere point upwards. Doing so revealed a whirlpool-like swirl of black liquid above them, glistening in all the colours of the rainbow, not unlike oil. The whirlpool was large and very noticeable; there was no way they would miss it.
"That must be what a Wellspring looks like from this side. If Rasiel's info was right, we just follow the path until we find one of those in the right spot." Amity said, tilting the bathysphere back down.
Turning to the crystal ball that was displaying their route (which looked like a glowing map of a Titan's blood vessels, made with help from medical scans of King, and old records of Orion's veins), Amity cast a spell to mark their location at the Titan's Knee, then began to pilot the bathysphere forward down one of the tunnels that connected to the hip. It didn't take too long; the tunnels of the In-Between Realm were truncated compared to the full size of the Titan, but that also meant they bent and curved a lot more often due to the shrunken size, meaning it was a bit harder to navigate them with any speed. Thankfully Amity had training with controlling her father's creations and was able to reach the next Wellspring in record time.
This was a closed Wellspring, one found in the right hip of the Titan. It looked bizarre from this side too; taking the form of a pitch black sheet of glistening material that resembled obsidian. It was as if the liquid-like form of the other Wellspring had rapidly solidified as soon as it stopped swirling. The passengers on the bathysphere oohed and ahhed at it as Amity once again marked their new location on the crystal ball. Thanks to marking the journey's start point and current location, the enchantments on the crystal ball were able to calculate the exact size of the network of passages just by using the speed the bathysphere had been travelling at. As such, it adjusted the size of the map Amity had to follow and created a proper route through them for Amity to use.
"Alright everyone, now that the bathysphere is properly calibrated, we're gonna pick up the pace! Buckle up and enjoy the view!" Amity grinned.
"Oh trust me, I am." Luz giggled, being seated directly behind Amity and having been watching a certain part of her anatomy. Both girls kept their smiles even as they blushed a little, making the others chuckle.
Amity then leaned forward and kicked the bathysphere to its top speed, before shooting off through the tunnels. She swerved left and right expertly, her experience flying at high speed on Ghost helping her react in time to every turn as she sped along, keeping an eye on the crystal ball with the map. They soon went from the Right Hip Wellspring to the base of the Tail Bone Wellspring, and then up from there directly to the Wellspring of Orion's Heart. When they reached it (it being closed like the prior two), they found a massive tunnel that led downward, and the walls of which appeared to be swirling around in wave-like motions. This must have been the passage made by the Bond between Orion and Cassiopeia, connecting their hearts together, so Amity piloted the bathysphere into it and began to descend.
About halfway down the tunnel, all of gravity suddenly shifted upside down, freaking them out and signifying the moment they moved from Orion's Wellspring Pathways to Cassiopeia's. Amity quickly tilted the bathysphere around so they weren't all hanging upside down any more, then began to ascend out of the passage until they reached an identical replica of the previous Wellspring they'd just seen… with the sole exception that this Wellspring was active and swirling.
"It looks like we're here, and the Wellspring is open just like we hoped!" Rasiel grinned.
"Of course it's open! Mama and Dad both pointed us here!" King said; "They wouldn't have done that if it was closed, especially since Godric said the only way to get here is through a Wellspring!"
"Well, time to see where in the Demon Realm Cassiopeia's Heart ended up! Amity, take us up!" Luz directed.
Amity nodded and drove the bathysphere into the open Wellspring, plunging them once more into pitch-black darkness. For a few moments, there was no way for them to tell if they were ascending or moving at all, but finally they broke the surface of the Wellspring and arrived at their destination. Everyone got up from their seats and began to crowd around the porthole to try and see the surroundings they'd arrived in, but saw nothing around them but some kind of white crystal on the ground and yellow stone in the distance that looked just like the blue stone walls of Caplacier and the red stone walls of Volcarpalis.
"Yellow stone, huh? Yellow is the colour associated with the element of Lightning, and occasionally mistaken for the colour of the Light Element too. I think we can safely say this is the Lightning Temple, and that means this Lars person is likely a Supreme Dragon of Lightning, AKA a Thunder Wyvern." Eda said, before grinning; "Good thing I came along after all! I don't think Boots or Flowers know any Lightning Spells to get through the trials!"
"Certainly not any that'd be good enough." Amity agreed, "Well, no use putting this off!"
She pressed a button on her remote control to open the bathysphere up and extend the gangway, allowing the crew to disembark. Luz went first, her wings spread wide and her Holy Raiment active in case they were ambushed by something. She stepped barefoot onto the white crystal floor and hummed, finding it to be somewhat cold and felling a bit like a mix of ice and stone. Not only that, but there was a very subtle pulsing from the ground, which Luz found to be near-identical to her own heartbeat. "Weird…"
The others followed her and began looking around, finding themselves inside what appeared to be a cave of some kind, with two entrances on opposite sides of the chamber. The pathway ahead of them was leading to the Lightning Temple and was marked by a yellow stone passage, while the other path had a more conventional looking stone passage, which Amity examined and determined to just be regular stone.
"I'm guessing this path leads back to whatever settlement was built over Cassiopeia's heart. Probably by the same people who made the temple." Amity theorised.
"I wonder if there are still people living there. The other temples were either alone or in the middle of ruins. Also, is it just me or does the air here smell kinda weird?" Willow commented, sniffing the air.
The others followed suit and agreed; "Now that you mention it, yeah. It smells a little like King's breath." Luz said, not intending it as an insult. King's breath had a weirdly earthy musk to it… when he hadn't been eating garbage.
"Is it because of my Mama's breath? That's one of our humours, right?" King asked.
Rasiel nodded; "It is. It's strange that it's so prevalent here though. Titan Breath is basically regular air but with a higher oxygen content. Titan lungs were so efficient that when they inhaled and took in natural oxygen from the air, their magic would replicate the oxygen and fill their cells with it, while exhaling the original air, oxygen and all, now irradiated with a little bit of their power. The air here seems to be entirely Titan Breath…"
"Wait a second, back up a moment; I'm lost." Eda frowned; "Are you saying Titan's don't consume oxygen; they just breathe it in long enough for their lungs to use magic to replicate it?"
Rasiel nodded; "Essentially, yes. Remember, Titans are massive! Imagine how much oxygen they would consume with every breath, and then imagine that multiplied by a full population of a few thousand. The rest of the Demon Realm's ecosystem would be unable to replace it fast enough and everything would suffocate. Both Titans and the ecosystem have evolved and adapted around each other because of that."
"Crazy… every time I learn something new about your species King, I'm reminded how amazing you guys are!" Luz smiled at the little Titan.
"I thought the same about you Angels! Your society is all kinds of messed up, but Angels themselves are pretty cool! Now let's hurry up and get to that Black Tomb already! If it's got Rasiel's wings, we'll be able to see what a real Ten-Winged Seraphim can do!" King grinned, marching off towards the yellow stone path.
The others chuckled and followed him, quickly catching up. The yellow stone path led to a long tunnel that took almost a full minute to walk through, but when they reached the end, they gasped at what they found.
They'd emerged into an open courtyard of yellow stone, which hung in the air of a gigantic cavern… a cavern that thrummed and pulsated slightly as white crystal masses connected by similar crystal threads could be seen everywhere. It looked like they were in some kind of crystal cave, but the crystal looked to have formed in flesh-like shapes. The group looked behind them and saw that the Wellspring cavern was actually a massive version of these crystal masses, with thick tree-trunk like veins of crystal keeping it hanging in the air. The entire place was also illuminated by lamp posts with yellow bat statues atop each one, with the bats holding a glass orb of lightning as the light source.
Luz looked off the side of the courtyard to what she assumed was the base of the cavern, only to see an infinite void of blackness with little twinkling lights in the depths. She was about to suggest flying down to see how deep the cavern went, when she noticed something that looked like a crystal lens over the darkness. The lens appeared to be pulsating like the rest of the cavern, much to Luz's confusion, but before she could point it out, Willow screamed out.
"G-GUYS!"
"What is it, Willow?" Amity asked, running to her friend's side.
Willow was staring, wide-eyed and pale-faced, at the ceiling above. She pointed at something up there, and everyone turned to look. At first, Luz just saw another crystal lens, likely part of the one that seemed to coat the entire cavern, but then she noticed that there was a black void up there too, with some of the same twinkling lights… and something else too. Something blue and round, and very large.
As Luz registered what it was, she and the others joined Willow in gaping at it, their hearts pounding wildly at the realisation.
The blue and round thing in the ceiling? It was a globe… a planet. One that all of them recognised as the Demon Realm.
"I-Impossible! That can't be the actual Demon Realm, can it!? It's gotta just be some model!" Eda cried.
"I-I don't know! The black void and those twinkles… couldn't they be space and the stars!?" Amity retorted, looking ready to panic.
Luz gulped; "But that would me that we… that we…!?"
"Are now in the void of space." came a deep rumbling voice from behind them. Everyone spun around in shock, looking for the source of the voice. It was a familiar one, but something about it was different enough to keep Luz from recognising it immediately. In the distance, behind the massive crystalline structure that housed the Wellspring, two shadows darted up into the air and then made their way towards the group, before descending and beginning to float on either side of the courtyard.
One of these shadows was very familiar; it was Zara in the form of a gigantic Ice Wyrm, having regained her full power after her fight with Luz and her friends on the Knee. The other was unfamiliar, but it was obvious who it was. This being was a massive black scaled dragon, with gigantic wings made of pure fire on its back, a long tail, and arms and legs with powerful muscles. The dragon had dark red spikes running down its back, ending in a large dark red spiked mace on its tail and a set of impressively large red horns on its head that looked far more traditionally draconic than Zara's branched, almost antler-like ice horns. It also had red, magma-like veins running between its black scales, making it look like a volcano turned into a dragon.
"Wings of fire but not flesh… that's a Fire Drake!" Rasiel exclaimed.
Luz gulped, having seen only the skeleton of such a creature back in Volcarpalis. "That makes this guy Godric!"
"Indeed I am, Little Angel! Or should I say, Little Arch-Angel! It seems you have grown much since our last encounter." Godric replied, his voice being the one that had spoken before. He flew closer to the hanging courtyard and held onto the edge with his claws, allowing him to dismiss his wings and stop bothering the newcomer or his mate with their heat.
"I-I haven't grown anywhere near as much as you!" Luz exclaimed; "I-I see you got your powers back!"
Godric laughed; "I did! Not long after I left you at Volcarpalis, I found and reunited with my love Zara, who was also in her Witch form thanks to her encounter with you. We made camp near Eclipse Lake and attempted to reawaken the Wellspring so we could regain our power and make it here, but eventually we had to give up. We were drawing too much attention. Instead we flew to the Hand of the Lost Titan and used the active Wellspring there to regain our powers and terrify some Heretics who dare to call themselves enemies of the Titan! After that, we came here through the same Wellspring you did, in hopes of reuniting with our mate, Lars."
Luz, Amity, and King exchanged looks; that answered a lot of questions, namely why there were dragon scales near Eclipse Lake, why Amity and Lucy's clash was able to help reawaken the Wellspring there (it had already been nearly awoken by the dragons), and why the Titan Trappers had reported seeing Dragons not long before Luz and her friends arrived on their island.
"I'm happy for you. Both of you." Luz smiled, even as she nervously looked at Zara, who was glaring at her suspiciously. "B-But can we get back to the matter at hand? Like this idea that we're in space!?"
Literally as she said those words, her heart beat and the pulsating of the cavern become perfectly synchronised and the wind glyph on her right foot began to glow. Whispers then began to fill the air and Luz gasped and looked around. She could hear a voice whispering something, but she couldn't make out what it was saying… only that the one whispering also sounded like they were crying.
Her friends and family looked confused by her sudden change in demeanour, while Zara and Godric both stared at her intently; the former with distrust and the latter with sympathy.
"You hear it, don't you? The beating of the Lost Titan's heart, and her quiet cries." Godric said gently, leaning forward so his snout was inches from Luz.
Luz's eyes widened and King gasped; "W-What? Luz, you can feel Mama's heart beating?"
Godric opened his mouth to speak, but Zara hissed; "Be careful how much you speak, my love. The child may be the son of our Master, but you must be wary of the Angel."
"I see no reason to. Lars told us the truth, did he not? That the Archivists are who brought death to our master's people, not the Angels. Besides, I see that the Angel now bears all four of our Master's blessings, and one of his mate's too." Godric mused, noting the glyph markings on Luz's body.
Zara scowled; "She still seeks to open the tombs that we were ordered to guard! That is reason enough to be cautious!"
"Hey, not that listening to you two bicker about my kid isn't thrilling…" Eda said sarcastically, "...but can we get back to the point? Such as this stuff about heart beats, crying, and us being in freaking space!?"
The two dragons looked down at Eda, Zara scowling and Godric chuckling. "Of course! Forgive us, young one. I can answer your questions, but I think seeing it for yourself would make it easier to understand. Zara, if you please?"
The Ice Wyrm pouted but agreed to her mate's request, using her ice breath to construct a large platform made of ice, which she requested Luz and her team stand on. They did so reluctantly, then at Godric's insistence, Luz made a barrier around them. Zara then grabbed the ice platform as Godric conjured his fire wings, and the two took flight. From the air, Luz, King, and their friends could see the entirety of the area; the large temple of yellow stone that had been ahead of them on the other side of the courtyard, and an abandoned town of stone buildings that had fallen into ruin on the other side of the large crystal mass that contained the Wellspring. Some buildings had also been constructed in and around the smaller crystal masses, and were connected to the town with winding stone bridges and staircases. It was all quite impressive, with architecture very similar to the ruins at Caplacier, but from a distance it looked like a normal town and temple that had the ground beneath it decay into nothing, leaving it floating in the air. The two Dragons flew them over the town and to a set of massive tunnels that led out of the mysterious space cavern and directly into the void itself, which confused Luz. Surely if there was an open path into space, they'd have suffocated or been sucked into the vacuum.
Despite this, the Dragons flew through these tunnels and into the void as if they were still on the planet, worrying Luz and King. However Godric spoke up upon seeing their worry; "Fear not; Titan's Breath permeates the area and allows us to breathe, even here. It has formed a membrane of magic that keeps this place safe from the void as well. However the membrane is hard to detect and easy to pass through mistakenly, hence why I asked you to put up a barrier. My love and I can survive for a short time beyond it, but you might not; better to be safe than sorry."
The group exchanged curious looks, then looked back to the temple and town that they'd just left as it got further and further away. They were now outside the crystal shell that surrounded it, and as the distance grew and they could more easily see the full thing's shape, they experienced two startling revelations.
The first was that the strange structure seemed to be moving through space at a fairly high speed, as Zara and Godric had to continuously fly alongside it to remain within the membrane of air. The second, far more terrifying realisation, was that from a distance it was even easier to see that the entire thing was pulsing. The interior barely moved, making the pulsing feel like a slight tremor, but the outer shell actually pulsated in much bigger movements… no, pulsating wasn't the right word. It was beating…
As they reached the very edge of the membrane, as far as they could go from the temple without leaving the safe zone, the full shape of the place became apparent.
It was a gigantic crystal heart… the interior of which was divided into four chambers with masses of calcified and crystallised blood forming in each of them. The chambers were split up into the Lightning Temple's upper level, its lower level, and the upper and lower levels of the town, with the Wellspring having formed inside a mass in the very centre of the heart.
Luz and the others were shocked to their cores at the realisation that the entire place was Cassiopeia's Heart. However the most shocked was King, who was stunned into silence as he walked to the edge of Luz's barrier and put a paw against it, as if longing to reach for this part of his mother. Tears began to build in his eyes.
"Mama…"
Luz knelt down to hug him; "King… I'm so sorry."
Eda joined her, wrapping an arm around each of her kids; "We're here for you, King."
The little Titan sniffled; "I… we came here to destroy this. To set Mama free… I knew we'd find her heart here and I just… I guess it just hit me all at once." he wiped his eyes and tried to quell the conflict in his chest. "I'm fine, it just… it caught me off guard."
"King, it's okay to not be okay, you know that right?" Luz asked.
He nodded; "Yeah. Thanks Sis, Mom. But really, I'm okay. I prepared myself for this. I'm not backing down."
Amity, Willow, and Rasiel remained silent out of respect, but they each gave King a look of empathy. Zara also kept her silence, though seeing the Angel and the Strange Witch comforting the son of her Master did improve her opinion of them slightly.
Godric did speak however; "You are strong of heart, young King. Unlike your sister or our mate Lars, Zara and I cannot hear the voice of your mother emanating from this place, so this may be presumptuous of me to say, but I believe she would be proud of you. You have grown stronger and thrived with your new family, and I believe she would be overjoyed for you. The blessing she left on your sister's flesh is evidence of that." he said, gesturing to Luz's foot.
Suddenly, the wind glyph there glowed a bit brighter and Luz heard a voice in her head; the same voice she'd first heard on Digale Island while carving the Teleportation Circle.
"King… my son… I love you…"
Luz wasn't sure if it was because she'd bonded with the wind glyph since then, or because she was closer to the resting place of Cassiopeia's soul, but the Titan's voice had sounded a lot clearer than last time! It also wasn't garbled like it had been on Titan Trapper Island, which Luz suspected might have had something to do with the Titan Trappers or the Collector's mirror.
Putting that aside, she was quick to relay Mama Titan's message, making King get a little misty eyed again. He looked back at his Mama's heart and whispered; "I love you too… I promise I'll help Luz save you! We just need to get Rasiel's missing piece back first!"
Zara frowned; "So you intend to open the Black Tomb here as well… Lars expected that would happen after Godric and I spoke to them. It is their tomb to guard though, so we shall abide by their wishes."
"Lars told you to let us try and open the tomb?" Amity questioned.
Zara nodded, having a modicum of respect for the purple-haired girl following their last encounter on the Knee, in which the girl had fought valiantly. "They remain sealed in their stone form, but we are bonded and can communicate with one another's souls, so long as we are near. When we arrived here and met them once more, we exchanged stories. Lars told us the truth of the Collector and the Archivists, and asked that we do them a favour without interfering with your group should you come here."
Luz hummed; "Orion, King's Dad, did tell me that Lars found one of the Collector's mirrors once. Sadly they lost it in a Primordial Wellspring… That must be why they know Angels aren't the ones to kill the Titans, and that we're not evil."
"Wait, is that also how the Trappers found the Collector's mirror? There was an active Wellspring on their island, so maybe it ended up there when Lars lost it." Willow theorised.
King nodded; "I think you're right. Tarak said they found the mirror near the Wellspring. That has to be it."
"Okay, so that answers a lot of questions… but I still want to know why we're in space!" Eda exclaimed. "Seriously, how did this happen? How did a whole town and temple get built inside a giant crystal Titan Heart? And why is it crystal at all!? Also, how is it so freaking big!? I saw Orion's Heart in Belos' throne room after he captured me, and it was way smaller!"
The others all looked just as curious, so Godric replied; "Lars did not tell us the full story, but we know a few details. Let us return to the Temple Courtyard, then we can answer your questions. Continuously flying to keep up with the Lost Titan's Heart is becoming difficult."
Luz and her team agreed immediately, and waited until Zara and Godric flew back inside Cassiopeia's Heart and landed in their original spots in the Temple Courtyard. Luz lowered her barrier and they all hopped back onto the ground, letting Zara throw her ice platform at Godric, making him smirk as it melted on top of his head.
"So, now that we are here, I can answer your questions to the best of my ability, starting with how the heart ended up here and crystallised." Godric began; "It started when the Lost Titan battled with the Archivists. Lars told us little of the battle besides it being a stalemate for several days, until the Lost Titan realised she couldn't win and decided to give her life to ensure the Archivists never bothered the Demon Realm again. She prepared a spell to self-destruct her body, but was cursed by the Archivists. This curse was cast with magic closer to mortal magic than Archivist Magic, and so it was able to turn the Lost Titan's Heart into crystal, trapping her soul inside it. She sacrificed herself anyway and her crystallised heart was launched into orbit by the explosion, becoming a comet. And since it was crystallised, it never shrivelled up and shrank like her Mate's likely did."
Rasiel nodded sagely; "It makes sense… a Titan's heart continues to beat even after its owner has died. At least as long as the soul hasn't fully moved on. Orion's still beats because his soul waits in the In-Between Realm, as we know since he spoke to Luz there, while Cassiopeia's beats because her soul is trapped within. She can likely only reach out to us if we are on her body, and I suspect she's only able to speak to Luz specifically due to the blessings of her bonded partner…" he said, looking pointedly at Luz's glyph markings.
"Many centuries after the Lost Titan's passing, the Priests of the Titan Faith on the Boiling Isles sent devotees through the Wellsprings to find the Lost Titan." Zara continued the story; "We don't know the full history, but they found their way here and built the Lightning Temple of Pulvoltary, with the town being built thereafter to house the priests and other worshippers. Several generations later, myself, Godric, and Lars underwent the Rite of Ascension to become Supreme Dragons and were assigned to Caplacier, Volcarpalis, and Pulvoltary to guard the Black Tombs. And that is everything we know."
Luz, King, and Eda all went silent, while their friends watched them closely. Most of their questions had been answered, though in truth, aside from a few details, they'd largely known a lot of what Godric and Zara explained. The Collector had told King about his Mama's fate, and that should have been enough of a clue for how her heart ended up here. Plus his Dad had told Luz a lot of it too. The only thing they hadn't known was that the temple was inside the heart rather than near it, and that the heart was massive and crystallised.
Amity suddenly paled and asked; "Hold on a second… if Luz has to destroy Cassiopeia's Heart to free her, that would mean destroying the Temple and the town too… as well as the Wellspring! How would we get home!?"
Zara pointed at the Demon Realm; "Fly in that direction." she said with a deadpan expression.
"We can't survive in space!" Amity snapped back; "Dad's bathysphere could protect us, but it isn't designed for space travel!"
The others began to get worried too, but King piped up; "Hey, Mama and Dad both knew about Mama's heart and the Wellspring, and they wouldn't send Luz here to destroy it if there wasn't a safe way back home. Let's think it over while dealing with the temple, okay?"
"Good idea, King." Eda agreed. "We've talked enough; let's get these trials underway!"
"Yes! I've been looking forward to this! I finally get to see what these temples are like!" Willow grinned, the only one present to not have seen one. She was extra excited to be going on an adventure with two of her best friends, as not counting the Petrification Ceremony, this was the first time she'd gotten to go on an adventure with both Amity and Luz!
The others were cheered up by her enthusiasm and followed as she led them into the Pulvoltary Temple. Unlike the prior two temples, the surface level of this one was completely in tact, so they walked into a massive cathedral-like chamber. Within were rows upon rows of wooden pews, many of which were broken and rotted with age. Cobwebs could be found in every corner, and the distinct smell of decay hung lightly in the air, mixing with the smell of the Titan Breath. At the back of the massive chamber was a grand altar with an effigy of Cassiopeia's atop it, made of gold and jewelled with smoky quartz, topaz, brown jasper, and amethysts so dark they almost appeared black. Much of the floor in the chamber was covered in a beige linen carpet that had been partially eaten by bugs and time, but the patch behind the altar was a faded red that had likely once been a royal crimson. This patch was also moth-eaten, and the resulting holes revealed something metal beneath it.
Willow pulled the red carpet back and revealed a set of metal doors in the floor. "Is this the way into the trials?"
She reached to touch them, but Rasiel quickly caught her wrist. "Hold a moment, Willow. Caplacier had ice and Volcarpalis had tempered glass from heated sand, so Pulvoltary probably has its underground entrance protected by electricity of some kind."
"Oh, let me see." Willow replied, creating a simple leaf and dropping it onto the metal doors. Everyone watched as there was a crackle, before the leaf turned black and burned away, proving that Rasiel was correct.
"Okay, so no touching the door… how else do we open it?" King asked.
Willow just smiled and grew some of her grafted flowers; the Gummy Gold Bells. They stretched from her wooden bangles and their sticky and rubbery petals grasped onto the handles of metal doors and pulled them open without any trouble.
"There! Plant beats Lightning!" Willow grinned as her friends clapped.
"I think you proved that already when you beat Hunter! But good job Willow." Amity laughed. Willow's smile fell for a split second at the reminder of her screw-up at HECK, but it was obvious from Amity's expression that she'd meant it as a friendly joke and not a jab, so the plant lover quickly regained her smile and led the others down the stairs into the main underground chamber of the Lightning Temple. They were joined by Godric and Zara… or rather, special illusory copies of them that they could see, hear, and speak through. Apparently it was a kind illusion magic adapted from the Titans' Avatar Magic.
As they arrived in the chamber, Eda looked around with mild interest, while Willow practically ran around the chamber, looking at everything whilst being mindful of tripwires and pressure plates, since she'd been warned of traps. The others hung back a little, since all of them had seen chambers just like this twice before. The main chamber had the exact same layout as the Ice and Fire Temples, only with yellow stone instead of blue or red. It was a long, wide hallway lines with pillars, with stone sarcophagi along the sides of the room. Aside from the colour of the stone, the carvings on them were also different, depicting bats instead of salamanders and snakes. Interestingly, unlike the sarcophagi at Caplacier that had been emptied, and the ones at Volcarpalis that had been opened so their Palismen could be stolen, these ones were all still sealed up tight; proof no one had come here in centuries. At the far end of the room were three doors, exactly as expected, which led to the three trial chambers for the Lightning Temple. Between these doors was the dais for accepting the ritual orbs, which took the form of a large glass orb with three stone bats surrounding it, their wings almost fully folded in front of their faces, leaving a gap just large enough to slide the Trial Orbs into once they were obtained.
"This place is amazing!" Willow grinned, paying special attention to the lights in the room, which were actually hanging bat statues holding glass orbs full of yellow electricity.
"These temples are pretty cool." Luz agreed, "Now we just need to go into each chamber, pass the trial, and bring the orb back here. Once we've got all three, we can go into the Ritual Chamber where the Black Tomb and Lars will be."
"Which means I'm up." Eda stepped forward, the only one present with decent lightning magic. She turned to the kids with a wide grin and said; "Pop Quiz; what are the three aspects of the Lightning Element?"
"Emotion, Intelligence, and Instinct!" Luz and King rattled off together.
Eda gave them each a thumbs up and a pat on their heads; "You got it! Fun fact, each of the eight elements has an opposite and equal partner. Fire and Ice are obvious, as is Light and Darkness, and Wind and Earth. But Plant and Lightning are also opposites! The reason is that the Plant Element, representing Regeneration, Restoration, and Life, is considered to also represent one's body, while Lightning represents one's mind." Eda explained, making the kids all smile with interest at the new knowledge. She then gave a show woman's bow and said; "This has been your Owl Lady Seminar of the Day! I accept payment in snails, Apple Blood, and live voles."
"Voles?" Amity repeated.
Eda went a little green; "The Owl Beast loves them and now I can't stop craving them too… The things I do for that feathery freeloader…" she muttered, making the kids giggle.
She then turned and faced the trial doors; "Okay, let's get this show on the road. Eenie meanie miney, that one!" Eda declared, before marching towards the door in the middle. She stopped at the entrance and said; "Who's coming with Mama Eda?"
"I'll sit the trials out this time, so it should be Willow, Amity and King." Luz decided, wanting to save her strength for when they reached the Ritual Chamber. She'd fought the first two Supreme Dragons and didn't fancy her chances of getting out of this without facing the third too.
"I'll take the first one then, so I'm not leaving my Batata alone for too long." Amity said with a wink at Luz. The Angel responded by blowing a kiss at her, making Amity blush while Willow and King pretended to gag. Amity and Eda then walked through the middle trial door, which predictably slammed shut behind them. They walked to the end of the dark tunnel, using their Palismen to light the way, and emerged into a small yellow stone room with three things inside it.
The first thing was on the opposite side of the room; it was a pedestal with a stone bat sat on it, clutching a yellow crystal orb. It appeared to be the Trial Orb, but it was lacking the usual elemental magic inside that Amity had seen from the others. Closer to the entrance was another pedestal with a metal ball attached to the top, and between the two pedestals was a large cube. Each face of the cube was split up into multiple squares with metal wires of varying shapes embedded into them, which looked like they could be slid around. Each face was missing a square too, letting Amity guess it was a sliding tile puzzle, just like the ones she'd seen Luz play with once during a visit to the Human Realm.
Eda also noticed the metal wires, and how they ran through the floor, connecting the two pedestals with the cube. It didn't take her long to figure out what she had to do, but she wanted to see if Amity could do it.
"So Boots, what do you think?" she asked.
Amity looked at the puzzle for a few moments, then said; "We need to line up the tiles on the cube to complete the circuit. We slide the pieces into the correct position and then cast lightning at the metal ball, sending the current through the circuit to charge the Trial Orb."
Eda grinned; "Not bad, kid! Now let's see if I can't cheat a little!"
Ignoring the puzzle altogether, Eda went up to the pedestal with the inactive Trial Orb, then shot a lightning spell directly at the metal cable that connected the cube to it, hoping to apply the charge directly. The entire cable began to glow yellow, before the inactive glass orb suddenly shattered like an overcharged light bulb, forcing Amity and Eda to dive out of the way of the crystal shrapnel.
Amity, who'd dived behind the cube, poked her head out cautiously and watched as a fresh orb regenerated onto the Bat Pedestal, ready for another attempt. Meanwhile Eda picked herself up from the floor with a groan.
"Well that didn't work." Eda huffed.
"Yeah, no kidding. We weren't able to cheat the trials at Volcarpalis either. I remember Luz and King were able to skip a couple at Caplacier, but that was because Luz could fly and King was too short for the traps to hit him." Amity explained.
Eda grumbled; "I guess the priests that built this place would be able to stop someone who flew or was too small from taking the trials, but they couldn't stop someone with lightning magic, since that's the whole point of the trials. Oh well, the Owl Lady isn't limited to one kind of cheating!"
Amity gave her a deadpan stare as Eda pulled a hammer and chisel out of her hair and cackled to herself as she approached the cube. Since they needed to align all five sides properly (the sixth side was naturally affixed to the floor), Eda decided that instead of trying to solve the puzzle, she'd just pry the tiles off and then stick them back on where she needed them to be. Why waste time with all that sliding around nonsense?
Sadly for her, that didn't work at all. The cube was made of the same yellow stone as the rest of the temple and proved basically indestructible, and Eda couldn't pry the tiles off. After five minutes of trying, Eda threw down her tools with a pout.
"The priests who made this place suck!" she whined.
"Or, you could just follow the rules and solve the puzzle properly. I'm pretty sure this is supposed to be the Trial of Intelligence, so a witch as smart as you should be able to solve it easily, right?" Amity smiled knowingly. Playing on Eda's pride was the fastest way to get her to do something after all… at least without involving Raine or her kids.
Eda groaned once again; "Ugh, fine… you know, you're really starting to remind me a lot of your Mom." she said, kneeling down to begin trying to solve the puzzle fairly.
She was immediately distracted by a little gasp from Amity, causing her to look up and see the girl had turned pale and teary-eyed. "I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean to-!" Amity began to whimper.
Eda nearly slapped herself; "Oh farts! Sorry Boots, I didn't mean Odalia! Titan no, you're nothing like her! I was talking about my sister."
Amity blinked, quickly recovering but still surprised. She was glad she didn't remind Eda of that woman, but she was still pretty confused. "Lilith? But she's not my Mom…" the girl said, her voice sounding a lot smaller and more unsure than before.
Eda snorted; "Yeah, just like I'm not Luz and King's? Face it Boots, Lily is your Mom. Between her and Odalia, which one cared about your feelings? Tried to teach you without forcing you? Listened to what you wanted? Took care of you when you needed it? Besides, I've seen you two talking before." she said, her smile growing; "You've slipped and nearly called her Mom a few times, and Lily always looks so dang happy. She loves you Boots, just like I love Luz and King."
Amity listened to Eda with wide eyes, wondering why she wasn't more shocked. Sure, she was a little surprised, but she mostly just felt happy. Lilith really was the one who was always there for her, even before when Amity was acting like a brat, or when Lilith was in the Emperor's Coven. She'd gone out of her way to care for Amity, and even when Amity had failed or disobeyed her, or even been rude to her, Lilith had only ever replied with kind words, reassurances, and quiet acceptance.
Odalia had threatened and demanded; Amity had been forced to obey or else. She'd been afraid to disappoint the woman out of fear she'd be hurt or lose some of her happiness… But Lilith was different. Lilith had encouraged and challenged, pushing Amity only as far as the girl could go, while offering reassurances when she failed and endless praise when she succeeded. Amity had been afraid to disappoint Lilith because she wanted the woman to think highly of her.
Heck, half the reason she'd been so upset at Lilith's actions leading up to the Petrification Ceremony had been because Amity had been so close to her and felt the betrayal keenly. But Lilith had worked hard to rebuild the trust she'd lost and had never once judged her or been angry with her over the rude treatment Amity had thrown her way. It had been a shocking relief to return to their mentorship after Amity had disowned her mother… Which hammered it home for Amity even more! She'd missed being Lilith's student… she didn't miss Odalia. She had good memories of Lilith, but none of the woman that had birthed her.
Eda could see the moment Amity fully accepted the situation, and grinned a little wider; "So, should I call you my niece or my future daughter-in-law."
Amity blushed and with a little smile, she looked Eda in the eye and said; "Both. One of the perks of being adopted into a family of weirdos, I guess."
Eda cackled in response; "Good answer! I'd say welcome to the family, but let's face it; you've been a part of it for months. Now help your favourite aunt with this puzzle, or we'll be here all day!"
Amity giggled happily and nodded, then began working on one side of the cube. Truth be told, Eda didn't need the help; she was smart enough to figure out the pattern she needed and how to move the tiles into that pattern fairly quickly, she just wanted to give Amity an excuse to help out and get it done faster.
It took maybe ten minutes for the two of them to arrange the faces of the cube so that the metal cables lined up properly, connecting from the first pedestal, across all five exposed faces of the cube, to the second pedestal. After giving Amity a moment to double check that everything was in the right place, Eda went over to the metal ball on the first pedestal and hit it with a lightning spell. She and Amity then watched as the lightning followed the cable, turning it yellow as it went, until it connected to the second pedestal on the other side of the room. The Bat Statue pulsed with electricity and the Trial Orb began to glow, before visible bolts of lightning began to arc back and forth inside the orb and a tiny figurine of a silver bat appeared in the centre, which the lightning was arcing from. The statue then released the orb, and Amity went and picked it up.
"That's the first trial cleared! Good job, Auntie." Amity congratulated, giving Eda a slightly teasing grin with that last word.
"Ha! I've created a monster!" Eda joked. "Come on, let's get back to the others."
The two walked back to the central chamber, and upon seeing the Trial Orb, the others applauded.
"Good job, Mom! Hermosa!" Luz cheered. "One down, two to go!"
Eda grinned, letting Amity keep a hold of the orb as the kids exchanged high-fives. Rasiel was watching quietly, as he and the illusory Avatars of the two Dragon Priests kept their distance from each other, but he nodded in acknowledgement. The man was clearly feeling anxious with a part of himself so close at hand… it should be either his memories which would give them answers on Rasiel's past, or his wings which would give them a huge boon in strength; either way, it was a big deal!
"Next is gonna be… that one!" Eda declared, pointing to the left door.
"I'll go with you for this one!" Willow quickly volunteered, "I want to see what these trials are like first hand!"
"You got it, Flowers. Come on." Eda said, leading the girl through the left door, which again slammed shut behind them. The two marched into the second trial chamber and frowned at what they saw.
It was another small room, like the last one, but this one contained only one thing; a stone statue on a plinth in the middle of the room. The statue depicted a female witch on her knees, with her face buried in her hands as if she were weeping. It was kind of creepy, and as someone who had been petrified once, it made Eda's skin crawl. She was fairly certain the statue had never been a person; it looked too roughly carved for that, but it reminded her of the statues that had once lined the path into the Conformatorium. Some of those statues had appeared to be weeping like this one… victims of Belos.
Eda nearly broke out in a cold sweat, but she shook it off. She was fine. She was flesh and blood, and so were all those victims. Luz had saved them from that fate. There was nothing to fear. Luz had-!
"Luz…" Eda whispered sadly as thinking of her daughter made her think more about what the girl had been through since coming to the Demon Realm. What she would soon have to go through for the sake of King. Adding King to the mix of her thoughts just made Eda's mood drop more.
"Dang it…" she muttered.
"Eda, are you okay?" Willow asked, concerned.
"Good enough, Flowers. Come on, let's see what this is all about." Eda said, marching forward to look at the statue. She couldn't see any mechanisms or any signs of a Trial Orb… though she did notice metal tips to the points of the statue's ears.
Willow looked at the plinth itself and noticed a bronze plaque on the front of it. She stooped to read it and frowned. "I think these are the instructions… but it's written in Runic. My Runic is awful, but I think I can make out… "Sorrow" and "Heart?" Sorry, but the rest is too faded." the girl replied, pushing her glasses up her nose a bit further.
"No problem, kid. I'm rusty, but I can read it." Eda replied, kneeling to look at the plaque. She read it, then scoffed.
"Ugh, it's bad poetry. "When in the depths of sorrow, turn to the heavens and its fangs will bring joy. This is the way to one's heart." I think we can take this as a sign that this is the Trial of Emotion." Eda said, getting back to her feet and cracking her back.
Willow frowned; "I've got no idea what that means. We're supposed to turn sorrow into joy, which I guess is making the statue change from weeping to something happy? But how do we do that? And what the heck are the fangs of the heavens?"
"It's talking about lightning." Eda explained; "In the ancient tongue, "Heavenly Fang" was the name of lightning, while "Heavenly Roar" was thunder. It wants us to use lightning magic on the statue. The metal tips on its ears are part of a mechanism."
"Oh, I see! So you need to zap it in the right way to open it? But what does that have to do with emotions?" Willow asked.
Eda pointed to her head; "Your emotions all come from the mush between your ears. Electrical signals bounce around inside your skull and tickle all the grey meat inside, making it secrete weird juice that makes you feel things. Or something like that; I'm not a Healer." she shrugged, before forcing herself to smirk, lest Willow wonder what had gotten into her; "Lightning is the element of Emotion, and skilled users are said to be able to influence a person's emotions by subtly stimulating their brains with small amounts of electricity, or read a person's emotional state just by sensing the signals inside their heads. It's a pretty rare skill; most people just use lightning magic to zap their enemies."
Willow nodded in understanding; "That's awesome! Who knew lightning magic could do all that!? I wonder if Hunter can…" she said, trailing off for a moment. She then snapped back to attention and shook her head with a faint blush on her cheek; "A-anyway, so the solution to the trial is to use lightning to make the statue's emotions change from sorrow to joy?"
Eda nodded; "I bet there's metal cables and stuff inside its head to simulate a brain. We need to manipulate lightning into the right current to make it open up."
"Do you know how to do that?" Willow asked.
"Nope!" Eda grinned, "But I'm not the most powerful witch on the Boiling Isles for nothing! If I put my mind to it, I can probably work it out! Willow, I need to borrow your noggin!"
"Can it stay attached?" Willow asked suspiciously, making Eda guffaw.
"Of course! Dead people don't tend to feel much, and last I checked, you haven't got my curse! Eh, sorry; you don't have the Owl Beast!" Eda corrected. She was trying to stop calling the Owl Beast a curse. She really needed to think of a name for her…
Willow took an apprehensive step forward and let Eda put her hands on either side of her head, feeling the slightest tingle of magic from the woman's long fingers. Eda had her eyes closed as little sparks of electricity darted from one finger to another every now and again.
"Okay Willow, serious time. I need you to feel joy. I've got to see how the signals feel in a real brain. Just… think of something happy." Eda ordered.
The Plant-Loving Girl closed her eyes and began to remember happy times. She remembered Skara's party, where she, Luz, and Amity had hung out after dealing with Odalia and rekindled their friendship. She remembered beating Professor Hermanculus in the Flyer Derby Game. She remembered seeing Hunter stand up to Darius in an attempt to save her and her friends.
Slowly, a smile crossed her face as the faces of her loved ones filled her mind. Eda's expression shifted ever so slightly, and a smile began to form on her face. "I think I can feel it… so that's how a brain looks when its happy… gotta try to remember that for later today." she whispered. She hadn't meant for Willow to hear, but the girl had and now she stared at Eda in confusion. Thankfully Eda had gotten a good idea of what the electrical signals for "joy" looked like by that point, so she was ready to pass the trial.
"Okay, here goes nothing…" Eda said, moving her hands back to the statue and putting her hands on its ears so she could send a lightning spell into the metal tips. She closed her eyes and used her control of the lightning to feel the mess of wires that coiled around inside the statue's head, simulating a brain. She started by completely filling the network with electricity so she could get a sense of its lay out, then tried to match the network with the map she'd made in her head after examining Willow. Once Eda was confident she had the two lined up properly, she began manipulating the electricity to strictly follow the path she wanted it to.
Suddenly, there was a loud click from the statue and its arms lowered down from its face, revealing an expression of joy carved into it, as well as the Trial Orb embedded in its chest. Eda cheered while Willow sighed with relief and took the orb, whereupon the statue covered its face again.
"Trial 2 is done! Now we've just got to handle the Instinct Trial! Thanks for the help, Flowers!" Eda grinned.
"No problem, Eda." Willow replied, before frowning; "Now about what you were saying a moment ago…"
The Owl Lady frowned; "What are you talking about?"
Willow crossed her arms; "You said you'd have to try to remember what the electrical signals for joy felt like inside a brain for later today. What did you mean by that?"
"Ah, don't worry about it. It's nothing bad, I swear." Eda said, faking a smile.
Willow frowned; "If it's nothing bad, then tell me. Because I've got a suspicion you're planning to use it on Luz or King."
Eda blanched and averted her eyes, which confirmed Willow's suspicion. "So you really were planning to use it on them…"
"Yeah." Eda sighed, leaning against the statue plinth; "You know why we're here. Getting Rasiel's Black Tomb opened is only half of it. Luz is also going to destroy this place… the heart of King's Mama."
A moment of silence passed between Eda and Willow as both ladies understood exactly what that meant. Even though it was necessary for Cassiopeia's sake, and it would free her soul to be with Orion again, the act was also only one step behind killing her. As the only ones capable of it, Luz would have to bear the burden of that act, and it would crush her… not to mention how King would feel about the whole thing. Plus both would feel terrible for the sake of the other; Luz would feel sorry for King losing his Mama a second time, while also drowning in guilt for doing the deed, while King would feel sorry for Luz because she had to do it, while feeling awful that the task had fallen to her in the first place, because he couldn't do it himself! It would be like an infinite loop of sorrow, with them both feeling worse because the other felt worse!
"I… I packed some potions in my hair before we left the house this morning. Potions to numb sadness and promote joy. I'd hoped to convince the kids to have a picnic at the temple before destroying the heart so I could slip them the potions in their food, but I've been having doubts." Eda confessed. "Titan damn it all, after the Tearful Tonic incident, I can't bring myself to spike Luz with potions again… but she shouldn't have to face this! She was mourning her father just over a week ago! She deserves to catch a freaking break once in a while! And poor King… he's still so small and is stuck dealing with stuff no kid should ever have to face!"
The woman lowered her head; "Ugh, and here I am foisting my baggage off on you. I'm sorry Willow. I just thought that trick with the lightning might help."
Willow shook her head; "I get it, and truth be told, I agree with how you feel. It isn't fair on either of them. But I don't think forcing them to feel a certain way is going to help."
"You're right. I shouldn't have even been dumb enough to think it up. Becoming a Mom changes you like you wouldn't believe!" Eda chuckled sardonically. "I want to talk to them at least, before things go further."
"Why don't you take King on the next trial and talk to him then, while I talk to Luz? You know, let them talk to their Mom and their Mom Friend!" Willow grinned.
Eda snorted and grinned; "You're the Mom Friend?"
"I'm working on it! Who else in the Hexsquad could take the job?" Willow asked with a smirk.
Eda laughed; Willow did have a point! She was the most responsible member of their little team; Luz was too bad at taking care of herself, Gus was still young and navigating the change from being a child to being a teenager, and everyone else in the group was still trying to rebuild themselves as the people they wanted to be. Amity, Skara, Boscha, and Matt were all people who'd done bad things in the past and were now in various stages of trying to live up to the new selves they had become or were starting to become. Meanwhile Willow had enough self-confidence to rise to the challenge, while being sure of herself and her morals, and kind enough to be the voice of compassion on top of the voice of reason. That compassion was doubly important when dealing with people trying to redeem themselves for past sins; Eda had learned that lesson with Lilith!
Still, Willow was just a kid herself still.
"You live your best life, kid. Just remember that it's okay for you to need a Mom friend too sometimes. Your Dads are great, but if you ever feel like you need some girl time, then you can come to me. I owe you a lot for helping out so much with Luz, especially after the Spriggan Manor mess." Eda told her, slapping Willow firmly on the back.
Willow smiled, appreciating that. "Thanks Eda. Dad and Papa are really careful to make sure I know they're there to support me. Plus my friends are all willing to back me up; that's why I want so badly to back them up too! Especially with my screw up a couple of weeks back."
Eda nodded sagely; "HECK was a mistake, sure. But we all make mistakes when our blood is running hot. Even Luz and King get like that sometimes!"
"My mistakes got Darius exposed as a traitor, and Osran too." Willow pointed out.
"And if you'd won, then Glandus' kids would have been taken instead. Darius would still have gone on the rescue mission and still been found out. However, it might have gone way worse! The Mini-Angel might not have gotten Osran involved if her buddy wasn't one of the kids being dragged off, and we'd have missed out on an ally! Or heck, Darius could have gotten hurt or even caught without Osran there." Eda reasoned. "It's good to think about your mistakes if you're learning from them, but otherwise you're just tormenting yourself."
Willow's eyes widened, surprised by Eda's arguments. She couldn't really refute them either, and they did make Willow feel a little better. "Thanks, Eda. You know, you'd make a pretty good teacher. You should see if Principal Bump is hiring." she said, adding that last part to tease Eda.
Eda responded by flicking her ear playfully, then saying; "Come on Flowers, let's get back to the others."
Willow nodded and the two left the trial chamber and returned to the central one, where they were met and congratulated for their success. After a brief explanation of what the trial was and how they passed it, Luz grinned and said; "That's Emotion and Intelligence down, so now it's time for Instinct! Who's going with Mom for this one?"
"King, of course!" Eda said quickly; "Come on and help your Mom do some weird stuff with lightning!" she joked.
King nodded and flapped his little wings to fly towards his Mom, though he did hesitate for a second; "Wait, maybe Luz should do this instead. She might find the lightning glyph! She did find the ice one while fighting Zara, and the fire one during the Volcarpalis Trials." King pointed out.
"It's possible, but I still haven't bonded with the earth glyph yet. I don't know if I can even find another glyph before I bond with the last one. I have tried." Luz said. More than once, if there was a thunderstorm on the Isles or Digale Island, Luz would sit and watch it as long as she had time, trying to see if the flashes of lightning would unveil a new glyph. None did, nor did staring at lightning spells or electricity from other sources. "Besides, I'm conserving my energy for later, remember?"
A sombre mood fell over the group again, and both Eda and Willow became more determined to have their talks with the unusual siblings.
"That's fair. Come on King, let's go! If we wait any longer, Rasiel is gonna get antsy." Eda joked. For his part, Rasiel had been perfectly patient even if the anticipation was getting to him a bit, though one look at Eda's expression made him realise this wasn't really about him.
King laughed and flew after his Mom as she walked towards the door on the right, leading to the final Trial Chamber. The moment they entered, the door slammed shut behind them like all the others, and Luz and the rest of the crew were left to wait around the dais again.
"Well this shouldn't take long." Luz commented.
"Yeah. But Luz, I was hoping to talk to you about something important while we wait." Willow said.
Luz tilted her head cutely; "Sure, you can always talk to me about anything! Did you want to move away from the others a little?"
Willow shook her head; "No, it's fine. Unless you want to that is; it's you I want to talk about."
Now Luz was a little worried; "I'm fine staying here… but what is it you want to talk about? Did I do something wrong?"
"No, of course not!" Willow exclaimed quickly. This talk wouldn't go well if Luz was already blaming herself for something! "It's just that… I wanted to talk about Cassiopeia's Heart."
Amity and Rasiel both went wide-eyed, while Zara and Godric began to pay more attention to the conversation. Luz's face fell and she sighed; "You're worried about me, because I'm going to have to destroy it, aren't you?"
Willow nodded sadly; "It's a pretty major burden on you. I know Cassiopeia can't be brought back to life, and this is the only way to end her torment, but destroying her heart is still like killing her and that's got to be painful for you. Especially with how close you are to King."
Luz's eyes were sad even as she smiled kindly; "Thanks for worrying about me Willow, but I'll be fine. I'm being honest too; it's gonna be hard and really, really suck… but it's the best thing I can do. I can't leave her to suffer when Orion asked me to save her, and even now, I can sort of hear the whispering in my head… she wants to be free of this, so she can join her mate and properly watch over King. I'd love to not have to do it, but Orion said only someone with Titan powers can counter a curse cast by four Archivists, which means me and my glyphs or King, and I can't expect him to do this! It'd break his heart more than me doing it already will!"
Willow, Amity, and Rasiel all looked at her sadly, knowing Luz was correct. As bad as it'll be for her to take on this burden, it would be absolutely horrible for King, and they had no other alternatives. There was nothing they could do to help…
"We'll be there for you, after it's all done. You know that, right?" Willow asked.
Luz beamed and hugged her; "I know! You're one of my best friends! I know you'll always have my back."
Willow smiled and hugged her back; "Dang right! But can you promise me something, Luz?"
"Anything." the Arch-Angel immediately replied.
"When this is over, I don't want you to pretend like your fine, or try to hold back your feelings because you think King has it worse or something. If you want to scream and cry, then please do it. You take too much on to yourself and try to hide your feelings because you think they'll bother us, but they won't y'know?" Willow said imploringly.
Rasiel and Amity immediately moved to stand beside Willow, each silently supporting her request. Luz opened her mouth to speak, but Rasiel crossed his arms and Amity looked so worried, while Willow's looked braced for an argument, making Luz stop and close her mouth again. These were her friends looking out for her just like she would for them… the least Luz could do was respect their wishes and look after herself better.
"Okay." she finally said, speaking softly; "I promise… Just… sorry. I guess I'm being silly again; I've got awesome friends, so I should rely on you all more."
The other three all looked so delighted and relieved that Luz began to wonder if she'd really been that bad when it came to being honest about her burdens. Then she remembered how she'd tried to hide her mourning her father so she wouldn't bother the others and realised that maybe Willow had a point…
"Thanks, Luz. Remember, even the most robust flower still needs to be cared for sometimes. Needing help doesn't make you weak or a burden. I mean, you don't think of me or Amity as weak, do you?" Willow asked.
"No way! With how far you've come since I met you, and how much Amity has done to become the awesome person she is, I'd say you're both super strong!" Luz replied.
"Well you've come just as far, if not farther!" Willow said.
"She's not wrong. From a stunted Cherub to an Arch-Angel in three months is incredible!" Rasiel agreed.
Amity nodded enthusiastically; "Not to mention the changes in the isles that you caused! You're amazing Batata, and you deserve to have someone to support you when you need to cry."
Luz smiled brighter and brought all three of them in for a group hug, as well as a sweet kiss for Amity. "You guys are the best. I know this is going to suck, but thanks to all of you, I know I can endure it! Now I just have to make sure King knows we're there for him too. He'll need the support as much as I do."
Willow grinned; "Oh don't you worry. I think your Mom is making sure he knows that right about now."
[Meanwhile]
Eda and King had followed the path into the final Trial Chamber, and were now looking around curiously. Like the last two trials, this chamber was fairly small and sparse; clearly the Lightning Trials didn't need as much space as the Ice or Fire ones. However they also appeared to be complicated… This chamber contained a pedestal with a glass ball on the far side of the room, with a smaller metal ball floating in the middle of it. Atop the pedestal was another stone bat, which was holding another uncharged Trial Orb. On the other side of the room, close to the entrance, was a large stone platform that had risen about a foot out of the floor and was circular. The platform had an inner circle made of stone, which looked just barely big enough to stand on, while the outer layer of the platform was made of some kind of dark metal, which looked even darker surrounded by all the yellow stone. Lastly, there was a line of about ten floating purple crystals between the platform and the Orb pedestal, and a metal rod attached to the ceiling directly above the centre of the platform.
"Well this looks complicated." Eda noted, "Small and compact sure, but more moving parts than the other trials."
"This has something to do with instinct, right?" King asked, remembering the last aspect of the Lightning Element.
"Yep. It looks like we need to do something to charge the orb… this didn't work last time, but might as well give it another shot!" Eda said, smirking as she conjured a lightning bolt and zapped it at the orb pedestal. The floating ball in the centre glass orb vibrated erratically for a second, then the entire glass orb began to crackle with the electricity Eda had shot at it, before it suddenly shot the electricity back out towards Eda. She yelped and ducked to avoid it, then groaned.
"Figures. Guess we gotta use the rest of this junk to solve it." Eda complained, getting back to her feet.
She and King began to walk around and prod everything in the room to see if they could figure out what they were supposed to do, eventually finding an answer when King clambered onto the platform and found the stone centre descending a little, as if he'd stepped on a pressure plate. Suddenly, the floating purple crystals began to move around, floating to seemingly random positions around the platform, taking different heights and distances and never staying still for very long. Eda and King watched them warily until one began to glow, then suddenly shoot a bolt of lightning at King.
"WEH!?" he cried, diving out of the way and off the platform entirely. The bolt hit the metal ring of the platform, which glowed very briefly as King was leaping out of the way. However the instant King was off the platform for a full second, the stone centre rose back up and the metal ring flashed, before the crystals returned to their starting position.
"What the heck was that!?" King cried.
Eda checked he was okay, and upon seeing he wasn't even scraped, she turned back to the puzzle. "It looks like stepping on the platform starts the trial and makes those crystals try to zap you. But when it missed, it charged the metal ring…" Eda mused, kneeling down to get a better look at the ring. On closer inspection, there looked to be small grooves all around the rim, spaced a little apart from each other.
Thinking about the trial and the theme of instinct, Eda soon came up with a theory. "I think I've got it. One of us needs to stand on the platform and dodge lightning so the bolts hit the ring and charge it up. Once the ring is fully charged, I bet it'll charge the Trial Orb." Eda declared.
"Just casually dodge lightning!? That's not easy! I only managed to dodge that first one thanks to-!"
King froze mid-sentence, his eyes growing wide; "… instinct!?"
Eda nodded; "Looks like it. Lightning is so fast as an element that if you don't hone your instincts, you can't work with it. That's what the trial is here to prove; if you can manage it!"
"Do you think you can do that?" King asked.
"Oh please, I've been running from authority figures my whole life! If I know anything, it's how to dodge! I'm a slippery little owl!" Eda grinned.
"like me when I'm covered in grease!" King smiled happily. "Okay Mom, go nuts!"
Eda laughed, remembering an occasion when Luz had first moved into the Owl House and had been tasked with giving King a bath, and the little guy had gotten himself greased up so he could escape her. King didn't even dislike baths that much; he'd just wanted to play with his soon-to-be sister!
With that fond memory driving her onward, Eda stepped onto the platform and felt the centre lower down, causing the purple crystals to begin floating around her. She crackled her knuckles and her neck, then smirked; "Let's dance!"
The crystals began to shoot lightning bolts, and Eda began to dance around them. She ducked, hopped, twisted, and squirmed through an increasingly fast and complex pattern of lightning, barely thinking at all. She relied solely on her honed instincts, with a little extra help from her tenant to disconnect her arms or head when she couldn't quite get out the way in time. Eda had even thought of cheating by detaching her feet and leaving them on the platform, too low to be struck by any bolts, but that thought had fled her mind the instant she'd first had to jump over a lower shooting bolt. The crystals were homing in on whatever was on the platform, so size didn't matter here.
It took almost a full minute of dodging for the metal ring to fully charge. Each bolt of lightning that hit it would cause one of the grooves to light up, like the battery icons on Luz's cellphone lighting up segment by segment. Eda did make a few mistakes and was zapped a couple of times, but she found that the bolts were relatively weak and didn't do much damage (they still hurt though) and they didn't reset her progress either, so Eda had powered through. Once every groove on the ring had lit up, the entire thing began to glow and electricity suddenly arced from the ring to the metal lightning rod hanging over Eda's head.
The woman smirked, expecting the rod to shoot its gathered electricity at the orb pedestal to charge the Trial Orb. However, it instead shot directly down towards her. Eda didn't have time to think or even dodge, however thanks to the instincts flooding through her from the trial, the Owl Lady found her body moving on its own, with only the minimum of thought from her. It was like the primal part of her had taken over, and rather than her thoughts directing it, her thoughts were more narrating to Eda what her body was doing without her input.
With lightning magic of her own dancing between her fingers, Eda's hand shot up and captured the bolt of lightning that descended towards her, allowing it to course through her flesh and blood as she shot the other hand out towards the orb pedestal. The lightning coursing through her shot out towards it, striking the glass orb just like her own spell had earlier, only this time it didn't come shooting back. Instead it filled the glass orb and arced between the metal ball in the centre and the crystal edges, creating a plasma ball-like effect, before the electricity then flowed up into the statue, and then into the uncharged Trial Orb.
King watched as a tiny bat figure appeared inside the Trial Orb, and lightning began to arch from it, signalling that the orb was now charged and complete. He hurried over to grab it while the crystals powered down and returned to their original floating positions, allowing Eda to tiredly step off the platform. She felt a lot more exhausted than she should be after the amount of dodging she'd done, but the extra difficulty of her body instinctively using channelled lightning magic to protect her from the electricity had worn her out.
With the final Trial Orb in hand, King ran back to his Mom's side as she sat herself against the wall to catch her breath.
"Mom! Are you okay? Are you hurt!?" he cried, already fishing through his neckerchief for a healing glyph combo. Eda smiled and patted his skull.
"I'm fine, King. Kinda tingly all over, but nothing hurts. I think following my instincts just led me to using muscles I didn't remember having! I'm gonna feel it tomorrow!" she joked, before grabbing King gently and sitting him in her lap; "Let's rest a minute. I may not be Luz, but I could use a cuddle buddy sometimes too."
King nestled into his Mom's lap with a smile; "Sure Mom. You did awesome today! You solved all three trials by yourself!"
"Well, not totally by myself. Amity helped with the Intelligence Puzzle, and I needed Willow to solve the Emotion one. Plus you did give me a big clue with this one too, so I'd say it was a team effort." she replied.
King grinned; "Now it's up to Luz to do her part in the Ritual Chamber, and we'll be done with this temple!"
Eda nodded, then softly added; "And how do you feel about what comes next?"
"Kinda nervous. The last two temples did end in a dragon fight. Luz is tougher now, but Rasiel said only Seraphim took on Supreme Dragons. If Lars wants to fight, it might be tough." King said, missing the real meaning behind Eda's question. Eda wasn't sure if he genuinely missed it or was intentionally avoiding it though.
"King, I meant what comes after the temple entirely." Eda said, keeping her voice gentle.
The little Titan went very still for a moment, then said; "Luz will destroy Mama's Heart and set her free, so her soul can be with Dad. Then they'll both watch over me from that In-Between Realm."
He'd spoken matter-of-factly, but it was clear he was struggling. Eda cuddled him a little tighter.
"And how does that make you feel?" she asked.
"You sound like my therapist." King snarked, forcing a chuckle.
"King." Eda sighed, "If you really don't want to talk about it, then I'll respect your decision. But I think you really should… this is a big deal. Cassiopeia is your Mama; this is bound to make you feel a lot of things."
She felt King begin to shake a little and began stroking his skull affectionately. Eventually, King said; "I-I'm confused. Mama is already dead… she sacrificed herself for me and the whole Demon Realm. I know that… Destroying her heart is all we can do for her. But I still feel… sad."
"That's normal, King. Even though it'll help your Mama pass on, you're still destroying a part of her. And there's also bound to be a part of you that thinks of her as still being here so long as she hasn't passed on. So doing something that makes her finally leave this world is bound to feel like she's dying all over again." Eda explained as best she could.
King let out a broken little sob; "I-It's not fair… I shouldn't feel like this! I didn't even know I had a Mama months ago, and when I find out I do have one, I also find out she's gone! And she died protecting me! B-But then I thought I'd gotten over that! That I'd moved on! But now this happened and all those feelings came back!" he cried. "I hate it, Mom! Why did it have to come back!? I thought I was done mourning!"
Eda tutted softly and kissed the top of her son's head. "Oh Baby, I don't think we ever fully stop mourning the people we've loved and lost. Take Luz for example; it's been a long time since her Papi passed away, but just last week she was mourning him and became so upset because she couldn't be with her Mami. Sometimes… sometimes things happen that bring all the old pain back, and all we can do is take it and try to let time and the people we love soothe it for us. It was you and Luz who soothed my old pains in regards to my family and Raine."
King sniffled; "I-I know… but Luz is another problem!"
"What do you mean?" Eda asked, certain it wasn't what it sounded like.
"Luz is the one who's gonna do it! I know she doesn't want to and she'll hate it, but she'll free my Mama because only the two of us can, and she'd never even think of asking me to. But I should be the one to do it! She shouldn't have to feel bad just because I can't hack it!" King cried.
Eda sighed; "King, that's not true. You're still only a child, and no parent would ever ask something so demanding and cruel of their own child. To be honest, I'm a little peeved that your Dad did ask Luz to do this, though I understand that he didn't exactly have other options. But answer me this King; if someone asked Luz if she'd rather you be the one to do it, do you really think she'd agree?"
The little Titan shook his head. He knew his big sister would never ask that of him. He also knew she was likely worrying about how he was feeling too… he wondered if she knew he felt guilty. If she knew he felt like this was a burden he should be taking on.
"I feel a lot of things." King sighed, going back to his Mom's original question; "I feel sad that this is all we can do for Mama. I feel angry that Dad asked Luz to do it. I feel guilty that I can't do it instead. But I also feel happy that I don't have to do it, which just makes me feel even guiltier! I'm afraid of how it'll hurt Luz, and I'm afraid of how I'll feel when it's actually done! I feel so many different things… it's confusing."
"Feelings always are. I can't stop you from feeling the bad stuff; trust me, I thought about it and even made some potions, but I know that's a bad idea; Willow convinced me of that. But I can and will be there to help you through it. Your sister will be too, and all of your friends. Because there's one thing I never want you to stop feeling, and that's the feeling of being loved." Eda said, holding King close to her heart as she stroked his skull and spoke softly in his ear; "Because you are. I love you, King. And so does your big sister, Titi Raine, Tia Lily, Tia Cammie, Cousin Vee, Grandma and Grandpa, and all your other friends. We all love you, just like your Mama and Papa. We will help you through this, no matter how much it hurts."
King smiled and closed his eyes, enjoying the feeling of his Mom petting his skull. As she did, he felt a slight tingling sensation… like static in the air, dancing over his skin. He didn't know where the feeling came from, but combined with Eda's words, he did feel a little better. The static wasn't the result of any spell though, nor any attempt by Eda to make him feel joy. This was just static, but it still gave King a strange form of comfort, as if his Mama was also cradling him in the only way she could. That thought made King feel a little better.
"Thanks Mom. I'm sorry for being such a baby."
"You are a baby. If anything, you act far too grown up for such a little guy! But that's okay; I love you just the way you are." Eda smiled.
King pretended to huff and pout at that, but he quickly broke and said; "I love you too, Mom."
The two sat together like that for a little while longer, just enjoying the hug and time together. Once the two were done and King had composed himself so the others wouldn't know he'd been crying, they began to head back out to the Central Chamber. As they left, King asked his Mom not to tell the others about their talk so they wouldn't worry about him, since he was smart enough to know everyone would be stressed enough as it is. Eda easily agreed.
The mother and son duo arrived back with the others, where King held the Trial Orb aloft.
"Final trial in the bag! Next stop, the Black Tomb!" King cheered.
Luz and the others cheered, while the two Dragon Priests looked moderately impressed. "For the same group to clear the trials in three different temples… you'd have made quite the acolytes!" Godric commented.
"That's because we work together and are awesome!" Willow declared happily, holding up the orb from the Emotion Trial.
"You know it!" Amity agreed, holding up the one from the Intelligence Trial.
"With this, we can move on. I can't help feeling excited! Whatever is in this tomb is bound to help answer some questions!" Rasiel beamed, starting to look antsy. Luz wasn't sure if it was because he'd been without a physical body last time, or if it was because he was thinking about what would happen after the tomb, but the Ancient Seraphim hadn't seemed as eager as he had been at the last tomb… even now, while he was clearly looking forward to moving on, he still seemed less enthusiastic.
Putting that out of her mind, Luz said; "Congrats, Mom! We owe this to you! Now let's get down to the Ritual Chamber!"
The others nodded and one by one, they approached the dais and slotted the trial orbs into the closed wings of the three bat statues surrounding the glass orb. Each of the bat statues then fully closed their wings around the trial orbs, making them disappear entirely and causing the bats themselves to turn a dark metallic colour as they began to spark with electricity. The three bat statues then turned so they were facing the glass orb and spread their wings wide enough for each one to be touching wing tips with another bat's wing, forming a ring around the orb. Lightning coursed between the three in a circuit, then each bat opened its mouth and shot a bolt of yellow lightning into the glass orb. The glass orb became a Plasma Sphere, similar to the one Eda and King had seen in the last trial and the stone part of the dais sank into the floor to reveal that the Plasma Sphere was sat on an iron post. The floor around the dais lowered slightly, then slid open to reveal a perfectly circular shaft leading deep below the chamber, with the iron post descending all the way to the bottom. From this iron post, bolts of lightning began to suddenly launch outward and hit the wall of the vertical shaft, causing a metal step to appear and then be magnetised to the central post. This continued for a moment until the Plasma Sphere ran out of juice and the bats stopped producing lightning, signalling the completion of the staircase.
Everyone present, except for Willow, was used to the extravagant passage ways into the Ritual Chambers of these temples, so they didn't react with anything beyond an impressed look. However Willow gaped; "That was crazy! Are all these temples that over the top?"
"Pretty much." Amity grinned.
Godric chuckled at Willow's gobsmacked look, while Zara felt the need to justify it; "These Temples were constructed to worship the elements bestowed upon us by the Titans. All aspects must reflect the grandeur and magnificence of our great benefactors, from whom so much life springs forth!"
"Wait, are there more Elemental Temples besides Caplacier, Volcarpalis, and Pulvoltary?" Willow asked.
"There is also a Plant Temple on the Boiling Isles, though it has no Black Tomb or Supreme Dragon to serve as its High Priest." Godric explained. "As I told your friends when they visited my temple, a Light Temple was planned for the Titan's skull, but it was never constructed due to the Titan intervening."
Luz and King exchanged looks; now that they knew one of the Collector's Mirrors had been hidden in the skull, it made more sense why Orion would use whatever methods he could to ward people away from there… He must have done it before realising the truth about the boy.
"Temples for the Lost Titan's Elements were also never finished. Only the Lightning Temple was completed, after which the First Head Priest of the Temple ordered all plans for the remaining three to be scrapped. Supposedly the Lost Titan commanded it." Godric finished.
Willow had listened to the full explanation, but her focus was entirely on that first part! There was a Plant Temple!?
"Did you guys know about the Plant Temple!?" she exclaimed, looking to her friends. Luz, King, and Amity all winced, giving her the answer. "Why didn't you tell me!? I would have let Skara come here and I'd have gone to visit that one!"
"Sorry Willow!" Luz said, "We only found out when Godric told us last time, and I was kinda kidnapped by Lilith right after that, so I never got to tell you."
"And we just plain forgot." Amity added.
Willow pouted for a moment, but bounced back quickly; "Well whatever. You had bigger things to worry about at the time. It's too late to swap with Skara now, so we should get a move on!"
Everyone could agree to that, and they all began the long descent down the stairs to the Ritual Chamber. As with the last temples, it took a whole minute to reach the temple's lowest level and the large door that awaited them, beyond which was a hallway flanked by little bat statues holding balls of electricity like light bulbs. The group walked to the end and found a small staircase that led up into the centre of the Ritual Chamber, and all of them braced for what could likely be a battle once Lars was unsealed. Taking a deep breath, Luz led them up the stairs into the Ritual chamber.
They arrived in a room that was near identical to the ones from Caplacier and Volcarpalis; a massive cylindrical chamber with the same stone as the rest of the temple making up the floor and ceiling, while the walls were made of the sealed form of the Supreme Dragon guarding the chamber. Oddly enough, the actual statue of the sealed dragon (taking the form of a Bat, since it was the signature animal of the temple) was significantly smaller than the prior two statues, and appeared to be just large enough to be holding the Black Tomb between its wings. The rest of the walls were completely covered (or perhaps made of) little stone bats modelled after the larger bat, each with their wings folded around themselves like they were sleeping. Luz and the others weren't sure what to make of this, but it was certainly eerie…
As with the last two temples as well (Luz thought the same person must have designed all of them, or rather that they'd all been built from the same design), there was an altar in front of the Black Tomb, and a ring of lights surrounding said altar, though unlike the braziers of blue and red flame from the other temples, these lights were brightly shining glass orbs.
Everyone looked around somewhat nervously as the illusory Avatars of Godric and Zara went to stand beside the Black Tomb. The Ritual Chamber looked immaculate, with no signs of corpses or anything else like they'd found at the Fire Temple.
"I guess that's a good sign…" Luz muttered to herself. "Well, we're not getting any more prepared! Everyone feeling ready for a fight if things go south?" she asked.
Her friends all nodded, all but Eda still feeling totally fresh and at full strength. Eda had expended a bit of her most recent blessing, but she had her back-up glyphs and her Harpy Form if she needed them. Seeing this, Luz took a deep, slow breath and turned to the Black Tomb.
"Okay, then this is the moment of truth. If this tomb has Rasiel's wings, then we're in the clear! Ten-Winged Seraphim are meant to be almost omnipotent, so even a Supreme Dragon won't stand a chance. If not though… this could become a bumpy ride." Luz said, approaching the tomb. "King and I will provide the Angel and Titan power, but we need one of you guys to open the last lock."
King stepped forward with his sister, while Amity, Willow, and Eda exchanged looks. The girls looked at Eda in particular, who was willing to accept that role; this tomb would be opened by the three Clawthornes present!
"Guess I've got one final job to do, eh?" Eda grinned nervously as she stepped up to join her kids.
Luz, King, and Eda all raised their hands, but just before they touched the Black Tomb, a voice echoed across the room, emanating from seemingly everywhere.
"Hold a moment, if you would." the voice said, soft and silky. It sounded vaguely masculine, but it was hard to tell, especially since it seemed to belong to the Supreme Dragon sealed in front of them, who was known to be without gender.
Luz looked up at the Bat statue warily; "… Lars?"
"Indeed, young one. I am Lars, High Priest of the Temple of Lightning, and sole companion to the Titan Cassiopeia. I would ask that we speak a moment, before you release the seal." the voice replied.
"Wait, if you can talk to us, doesn't that mean the seal on you is already broken?" Amity frowned, remembering that Zara hadn't awoken until Rasiel's spirit had tried to leave her chamber.
"The seal binds my body, but not my mind or magic. Through my mastery of Lightning Magic, I can feel your presence and speak to you within your minds. I have also chosen not to slumber like my beloveds did. I have waited for someone to come here." Lars explained.
Luz hummed; so that's why it sounded like their voice was coming from everywhere! They were talking inside their heads!
"Well, nice to meet you Lars. I guess you know what we're planning to do?" Luz asked.
"Yes. You will open the Black Tomb and claim another piece of the Divided Seraphim. After hearing my beloveds' stories and speaking with Lady Cassiopeia, I have come to the decision that I will not attempt to prevent this." Lars said.
"You won't?" Rasiel blinked.
"Correct. Lady Cassiopeia has agreed to allow the tomb to be unsealed."
"That's great! But why? Is it because she knows Angels aren't bad guys?" Amity asked.
"That is part of it. In truth, the Black Tombs were created long before Lord Orion or Lady Cassiopeia were born, and have been passed down from Titan to Titan since their creation. Lord Orion inherited his tombs from his parent, as Lady Cassiopeia inherited hers from her own. However the reason the Titans protect the tombs has been lost to time. All that was known was that they each contained a piece of a powerful Angel."
Rasiel felt strange upon hearing that; why had the Titans passed down his entombed pieces? Why had they possessed them in the first place? Their power was also needed to open the tombs… had a Titan aided the Divider in tearing him apart and sealing him?
Shaking that thought off for now since no one around had an answer for him, he spoke up; "I thank you for not stopping us."
"You are welcome. But what I truly wished to speak of was what comes after. Lady Cassiopeia knows your intention, young Angel. You seek to destroy this place and free her from her torment." Lars said.
Luz's face fell and she nodded; "Yes. That's what I want to do."
There was a moment of silence, followed by Lars saying; "Do you understand the magnitude of this task? You will not be able to turn back once you walk this path. Can you live with any regrets that may come of this?"
"I think I'd regret doing nothing a lot more than destroying Cassiopeia's Heart. Orion asked me to do this, and I owe him, Cassiopeia, and King far too much to walk away!" Luz declared.
There was another moment of silence, and then Lars said; "I see. Then do as you wish. I will not get in your way."
They then went silent, leaving everyone with the distinct feeling that something big was about to happen. With that in mind, Luz, King, and Eda stepped up to the Black Tomb and slowly placed their hands on it. Just like back in Caplacier, lines of colour spread from their hands to the centre of the Black Tomb's frontward face, forming three concentric rings of colour. A red ring formed from Eda, a blue one from King, and a yellow one from Luz. These rings then sank into the tomb and rotated in different directions, like the combination dial of a safe, before all three turned pure white. This whiteness then spread to the rest of the tomb, turning it into a totally white cube. There was a jolt of static that made Eda and her kids recoil from it, then the sunken sections of the tomb sprang back out and the entire thing began to glow and disintegrate.
Everyone shielded their eyes from the bright light, then when the light faded, they quickly looked to see what had been sealed inside. What they saw was a some kind of crystal ball, similar to the one that Rasiel's spirit had been sealed inside, only instead of a simple purple aura, it was glowing in multiple different colours; namely red, blue, green, yellow, silvery grey, and a bronze-like orange.
The group looked at it questioningly, with even Zara and Godric being confused. Was this a crystal ball containing Rasiel's memories? For some reason he couldn't quite identify, Rasiel doubted it… but then what was it?
Slowly, he approached the orb and reached out to touch it. The instant his finger made contact with the orb, it suddenly shattered and six balls of light came shooting out and began to spiral around Rasiel, each one shining in one of the colours the crystal ball had been shining it. Luz and the rest of the team watched with interest, then gasped as the balls of light flew into Rasiel's body at varying points. The red orb hit his right hand, the blue one hit his left, the silver one his right foot and the bronze one entered his left, while the green orb hit him in the stomach and the final, yellow orb crashed into his back. Those spots of his body glowed brightly for a moment, then when the light faded, everyone saw that markings had been left behind…
Glyph Markings.
Rasiel gaped down at his own hands as everyone else stared at him, their eyes wide and their mouths hanging open. Amity, Willow, Eda, and King then looked to Luz's own glyph markings, and back at Rasiel's again. They had almost the same glyph markings!
Upon closer inspection, the glyphs on Rasiel's body were of a different design than the ones on Luz's, having come from Titans other than Orion or Cassiopeia, but the colouration and locations were almost identical! Fire and ice glyphs on his hands, a plant glyph on his stomach, and a wind glyph on one of his feet! The only one he was missing was a light glyph on his sternum, though Rasiel happened to have two glyphs Luz didn't; an earth glyph on his other foot, and a lightning glyph on his back, between where his wings were supposed to be.
"What is this!?" Rasiel exclaimed; "Why do I have these!? And why were they removed from me when I was sealed up!? What's going on!?"
"We expected his wings or his memories, since those are the only things we knew he was missing…" Eda muttered, her mind racing with the meaning of this revelation.
"But those two things are still missing! If there's only one more tomb left… what the heck is going!?" Luz cried, as confused as everyone else.
Zara and Godric were shocked too; "Those marks cannot be taken by force; a Titan must have blessed you! And as there are six markings, you must have had at least two Titans give you those." Godric explained.
"B-But why!?" Rasiel growled, more confused than ever; "I have no personal memories at all! Everything in my head is either from after Luz freed me, or completely impersonal information with no clear origin! Why did I have these markings? Was I like Luz? Did I need them to survive? Or was I a normal Angel already?"
King piped up; "Luz got a lot stronger whenever she got a Glyph Marking… four of them turned her from a Cherub to an Arch-Angel, so if you were an ordinary Angel or higher before you got them, then these six might have turned you into a Ten-Winged Seraphim!"
Rasiel nodded, seizing onto that idea to help him focus and calm down. "Based on how much power each glyph gave Luz, and the amount of power that divides the different classes of Angel… I believe I was likely already a Seraphim before I gained these glyphs. They must have been what allowed me to evolve… A Cherub gaining all eight possible elemental glyphs could grow strong enough to be a Seraphim, but a ten-Winged one is far beyond what glyphs alone can manage."
"We've got no way of knowing for sure." Amity sighed, "Can you at least do magic with those glyphs?"
Rasiel closed his eyes and focused, then sighed; "It doesn't look like it. Even Luz's glyph markings still need to blend with her natural magic and use her wings. Without mine, I'm powerless still."
He even tried slapping the glyphs on his skin to see if that would work, but nothing happened. It seemed glyph markings didn't function the same way as normal drawn glyphs… A shame, but he supposed it saved him constantly having to slap himself to use their powers. If he'd wanted to use the lightning one like that, he'd have had to slap his own back and even though he didn't tend to wear a shirt, that would still be a pain!
Amity frowned; "Every tomb we open gives us more questions and fewer answers… but I suppose we only have one left to open, and then you'll be whole again."
"And even if it wasn't what any of us hoped, you do still have a piece of yourself back again! That's a good thing, right?" Willow added.
Rasiel smiled and nodded; "You're right. Thank all of you for your assistance! I'd hoped I'd be more useful after this tomb, but I will still do all I can to aid you all." he said, bowing politely to Luz and her friends.
"It's fine, Rasiel. You've been plenty helpful! We didn't come after the tomb just so we could use you! We did it because you're our friend!" Luz reassured him, making the Ancient Seraphim smile.
"Thank you… and at least one good thing has come of this…" he reached out with his right hand and held Luz's right hand too, their respective fire glyphs clearly visible. "It proves that we are alike in more ways than just our race. I wonder if it was destiny that the two of us should meet… Regardless, know that no matter what happens, you will always have a friend in me."
Luz beamed at him; she really appreciated that, especially with what she would soon have to do.
Before anyone else could say another word, the staircase leading down and out of the Ritual Chamber was suddenly closed off, leaving no way out of the room. The electricity in the glowing glass balls then shot into the air above the altar, forming a single massive spark, which then shot into the giant bat statue that had once held the Black Tomb between its wings. Lightning bolt-shaped cracks appeared in the stone, and it began crumble and flake off, revealing the true form of the creature within.
They were a dragon, as expected, and took the form of a Wyvern, with two legs and two wings for arms. The Wyvern's scales were all yellow, with a paler tan yellow for the underbelly and throat, and a darker, more conventional yellow for the rest of their scales. Their wing membranes were a stormy grey, as were the horns atop their head (which were jagged like lightning bolts) and the spikes than ran down their spine, ending at their tail which had a pair of lightning bolt shaped spikes on the end that formed an almost spear-like tip. The Wyvern's eyes were also yellow, and the claws on their feet and on the little hand-like appendages on their wings were the same stormy grey as their horns. All of this would normally have made the Wyvern pretty terrifying, but two factors limited how scary they were; the first was their expression, which seemed almost serene and calm as their eyes flickered between Luz and King. The second, which was the more unusual factor, was their size… the Wyvern was weirdly small!
While Zara and Godric's dragon forms had been large enough to fill the Ritual Chambers of their temples, this Wyvern was around the same size as Princess, Kikimora's Clasping Amphithere.
"Huh… I thought they'd be bigger…" Eda said, speaking all their thoughts aloud.
Luz briefly looked scandalised that her Mom had sassed the Supreme Dragon, but relaxed when the Wyvern chuckled.
"If I were larger, it would feel far more cramped in here." they said. "Now allow me to reintroduce myself; I am Lars, High Priest of the Temple of Lightning, and the Guardian Thunder Wyvern. A pleasure to make your acquaintance."
Luz bowed her head politely, while Amity, Willow, and Rasiel nodded, and King and Eda just stared at Lars.
"It's nice to finally see you in the flesh!" Luz smiled, "So… what exactly did you want from us? We've still got something to do before we can all go home, and we need to figure out how we're gonna do it…"
Luz still wasn't sure how she was supposed to destroy the heart without also losing her way home… Of course, she could send the others back through the Wellspring with the bathysphere, but that would still leave her stranded! Perhaps making a barrier and filing it with air using wind magic would let her survive the void of space long enough to fly back down to the Demon Realm?
Lars nodded sagely; "Yes, I am aware. That is part of why I am speaking to you now; there are things that Lady Cassiopeia wished me to impart to you. Thanks to her unique position of being sealed here, and my unique position of having her blessing and living here for so long, I have been able to speak with her much over the centuries. Even with my position however, it still takes weeks to decipher even her shortest whispers, and so I shall pass on the messages she has requested of me."
Luz's face fell, and King stepped forward to stand with her, looking hopefully at Lars; "What did Mama want to tell us?"
"Answers, which may bring understanding and closure." Lars said, bowing their head to the young Titan. "I take it you know of how your mother came to be in this state?"
King nodded grimly; "She self-destructed herself to hurt the Archivists enough so they'd run away. But they're sore losers and found a way to seal Mama's soul inside her heart to try and scare her out of doing it. She didn't listen and sacrificed herself anyway. I heard this all from the Collector."
"So you've met the young Archivist?" Lars asked.
"I talked to him in a mirror on an island of Titan Trappers, made out of Mama's left hand." King scowled, before ashamedly adding. "I destroyed it… I didn't know he wasn't a bad guy yet…"
Lars' draconic face took on a strange expression of both relief and sorrow; "So that is where the mirror ended up…"
"It was one you'd lost, right?" Luz asked.
The Wyvern nodded; "Indeed. But this story should be told in order, and you especially will want to hear what I have to say next, young Angel. For it explains why so many came to hate your kind."
Luz's eyes widened and her friends edged a little closer to her, with Eda standing between her and King, and Amity holding her hand.
"You see, a Titan is immune to the magic of the Archivists. The two are natural opposites, and Lady Cassiopeia once mused that she believed Titans were bred specifically to deal with the Archivists' species. However, a Titan is still vulnerable to other magics, and the Archivists are nothing if not cunning. I do not know if it is a natural ability they possess, or if it was something they'd found and archived, but when Lady Cassiopeia did battle against them, they fought back with Angel Magic." Lars explained.
"What!?" Luz cried; "They used Angel Magic against her!?"
"Among others. Demon Magic was used too, but Angel Magic was the source of the crystallising curse. It is akin to petrification, binding one to a form of living death by turning their heart to crystal and imprisoning their soul. No Demon or Witch possesses magic like this, and so when the Faith of the Titan discovered Lady Cassiopeia's Heart and began construction of this temple and the monastery town nearby, the High Priest at the time deduced that it had been Angels who slew the Lost Titan. And as no other beings were known to possess enough power to kill them and the Titan Trappers had been gone for centuries by this point, the Faith of the Titan came to the mistaken belief that your people killed our Gods."
Zara averted her eyes from Luz, having believed the same until recently, when Lars set her straight. However Luz was too shocked to notice, her shoulders slumping.
"I-Is that why there was so much hatred towards Angels before Belos came along? Everyone thought we'd killed Cassiopeia!?" Luz whispered to herself, horrified beyond measure.
Lars neither agreed nor disagreed; "It was likely a contributing factor, especially to the mistreatment of Angels on the Boiling Isles. But animosity between Angel and Demon Kind had existed since even before Lady Cassiopeia and her Mate were born. The origin of that hatred is beyond my knowledge. I told you this primarily to help you understand why my beloved Zara treated you so cruelly. While her duty compelled her to protect the Black Tomb, your species should never have been a factor."
He bowed his head and apologised, and a blushing Zara bowed as well, muttering an apology without making eye contact. She seemed genuinely sorry, but she was also proud and didn't like having to admit a mistake. Luz accepted it easily, understanding that it was just a misunderstanding and not really Zara's fault. The young Arch-Angel was more concerned by the idea that so many of her people had probably suffered at the hands of those who hated them for something they didn't do… Belos himself had justified his actions by pointing to things the Demon Realm had done to their kind! Could all this have been set in motion because the Archivists used Angel Magic in an act of spite!?
Luz shook her head dejectedly; "Even now, 5000 years later, we're still dealing with the mess the Archivists caused…"
Lars nodded; "Indeed… it is why I went on a journey to discover the fate of the last Archivist; the Collector. Lady Cassiopeia knew not what happened to him since her soul was cut off from her mate, and so I went to find him in hopes of freeing my Lady from her ordeal. But freeing my Lady was not solely for her sake, but also to free myself from the role my fellow priests and I have been serving since the construction of this temple; the restraining of Lady Cassiopeia's Sorrow."
"Restraining her Sorrow? What does that mean?" Eda asked.
"It is both literal and metaphorical." Lars responded, making Eda scowl.
"Well that makes things nice and clear." she said sarcastically.
"It is because a Titan's unrestrained emotions carry magic of their own. Rage, Joy, Terror, Sorrow, Love, Hatred… all become powerful magic when felt by a Titan. Normally their body contains this power and manifests in things like their roars and glyphs, but without a body, those emotions are free to leak out and their magic causes strange effects based on the deepest desires of the Titan. Restraining her Sorrow literally means restraining the overbearing magic released by her immense sadness, lest it effect the world below." Lars explained properly, remaining totally neutral. "As a result, I empty myself of all emotion so I may contain her sorrow. I feel only echoes of love for my mates and nothing more, which is why I wanted to find a way to end this curse."
The others gulped; they couldn't imagine what it must be like to throw away all their feelings so they could bear another's sadness. They supported each other and felt empathy for one another, but they couldn't do something like that!
"Why is it so important to bear it? Can't you let it go? What effects can it really have?" Amity asked.
"Before the construction of this Temple, Lady Cassiopeia's heart streaked across the sky like a comet, emitting a blue light of sorrow that would bring stories to life. When she passed over the final resting place of her Mate, Lord Orion, this light would grow stronger and her cries would be heard across the land… it happened each year, and when it did, every book on the Boiling Isles would come to life." Lars said.
Realisation hit everyone (except Rasiel) like a lightning bolt. A comet that brought books to life and cried!? That could only be…!
"The Wailing Star!? We're standing on the Wailing Star!?" Willow cried in shock and horror.
"No way! This can't be the Wailing Star!" Amity shook her head, refusing to believe it; "The Wailing Star's magic only ever effects the Bonesborough Library, not the entire Isles! And the light if gives off is green, not blue!"
She should know; she still vividly remembered her adventure in the library with Luz! It had been that night that made her and her siblings start getting along better!
Lars shook their head and explained; "The light was blue in the past. Once the temple was built and the High Priests began taking in her sorrow, the Wailing Star stopped shining unless flying over the Boiling Isles. But when it did fly over, Lady Cassiopeia's sorrow would be too much to bear and it would leak out, producing a much weaker effect. The combination of the Sorrow's natural blue hue and the yellow magic of the Lightning High Priests caused it to appear green. The light shouldn't be powerful enough to still work though, so something about your library must strengthen it."
"It all adds up!" Luz said, turning to Amity; "Could there be something there that makes the magic stronger?"
Amity frowned and tapped her chin; "Come to think of it… the library is supposedly built over the Primordial Wellspring in the Titan's right elbow. The spring is all dried up, but maybe it still has some sleeping power that reacts with the Wailing Star? Like how the Wellspring at the Knee reacted to Lucy and I fighting over it."
"It would make sense. I doubt there are places with lots of books built on any of the other Wellsprings." Rasiel reasoned; "If it weren't for the Bonesborough Library, the modern era might not even know about the magic of the Wailing Star… of Cassiopeia's Heart."
King listened to all this with a sad frown; hearing how his mother's soul essentially wept over his father's grave every year when the Wailing Star flew past made his own heart feel like breaking. It reminded him of Luz and her Mami visiting her Papi's grave… Luz seemed to see the comparison too, and stooped to pick up King and hold him in her arms, comforting him.
He smiled appreciatively, even if the smile didn't reach his eyes, then turned back to Lars. "Why exactly does Mama's Sorrow bring books to life? It seems random." he asked, already bracing for an answer he wasn't sure he wanted to hear.
Lars stared at King for a moment, then averted their eyes as they answered. "Your mother told me that it is because of one of her greatest sorrows… that she never got to tell you stories due to her death. Titans don't use books, but they pass their stories on through the oral tradition. She couldn't do that for you, and that deep regret bled into the magic of her Sorrow. Now that magic brings books to life, so they can tell you their stories themselves."
There was dead silence in the wake of that explanation, though King could have sworn he heard a shattering sound… though perhaps that was just his heart. He felt like he had something lodged in his throat that he couldn't swallow, and his heart almost physically hurt. His eyes began to fill with tears, and he barely managed to choke out an; "O-Oh…"
Luz held him a little tighter, and Eda immediately pulled them both into a hug; today was rapidly becoming a major emotional roller-coaster for her kids. It was bad enough they had to go through with destroying Cassiopeia's heart! Did they really need the extra heartbreak!?
Zara and Godric both lowered their heads out of respect, while Lars did the same; "I am sorry for distressing you, young one." they said.
"I asked. Not your fault." King muttered, his words muffled after pushing his face into his sister's shoulder as his Mom pet his head.
Changing the subject, Luz said; "So to stop this whole horrible ordeal, you went to try and find the Collector?"
Lars nodded; "Lady Cassiopeia bade me do it, so I did. She had suffered for 4000 years, half of which was spent trying to convince prior High Priests to abandon her temple and search for the last Archivist. I was the first to listen, as I missed my mates. I scoured the Boiling Isles I had been born on and eventually joined an archaeological expedition that hoped to find a forbidden artefact. At the time, this artefact was called a "Moon Mirror" and they were largely destroyed by prior Priests of Caplacier and Volcarpalis on orders of the Titan. However this expedition found one buried near the Heart of the Boiling Isles. It was then that I learned why the mirrors were considered forbidden, as they served as windows into the prison of my quarry; the Collector."
"And he's the one to tell you the truth about what really happened between his siblings and Cassiopeia." Luz said, eyes downcast.
"Correct, though not straight away." Lars said; "The mirror was wanted by the archaeologists, but they themselves were considered heretics and hunted by some others of my own faith. I stole the mirror and fled, pursued by both sides. I eventually fled into a Wellspring, and while inside the network that connected them, I spoke with the Collector and learned everything. I was quite shocked to learn the Angels were innocent; I'd assumed the Archivists were just a group of them, rather than a different race entirely. But I was even more shocked to learn that the Collector was innocent himself. He was the one who told me that only an Archivist like himself, or someone with Titan powers could undo the curse cast by his siblings, and so I planned to bring him to the Temple of Pulvoltary to free him."
Luz exchanged a look with the still emotional King. His Dad had told Luz that it was a Supreme Dragon finding one of the Collector's mirrors that caused him to realise his mistake in sealing the poor child; since Lars had learned all this inside the Wellsprings that connected Orion and Cassiopeia, Papa Titan must have been able to listen in on that conversation! It would also have been that conversation that revealed what happened to his beloved mate beyond her dying in battle. Everything was starting to fall into place!
"How did you lose the mirror?" Eda asked.
"I was followed into the Wellsprings by some of the Zealots that pursued the Archaeologists. Priests of the Faith of the Titan were taught spells to traverse it, and they attacked me. I was mildly injured and lost hold of the mirror entirely… I know not where it went until recently. Injured, pursued, and empty-handed, I returned to Pulvoltary with the Zealots in pursuit. When I arrived, I tried to tell everyone the truth, but only about half of the people living here believed me. The other half believed the Zealots and thought I had become a heretic. A civil war broke out in the town, which eventually devastated the population. The survivors fled back to the Boiling Isles and I remained alone here. I returned to the temple to lick my wounds and heal, and tell Lady Cassiopeia all that I had learned. I had intended to rest a while to heal, then go in search of another of the so-called "Moon Mirrors" but by the time I was strong enough, I found that all Wellsprings on the Boiling Isles had closed up. I couldn't get through, and the only one that remained open was in the left hand of Lady Cassiopeia. That place was home to defilers who sought to kill the Titans, so I avoided the place and returned here. I had no other options but to once again fulfil my duty and await the coming of someone who could do what I could not; free my Mistress from her Sorrows." Lars finished, looking fixedly at Luz.
"And that person is me." Luz said sombrely.
Lars nodded; "I learned of your coming from Lady Cassiopeia. Thanks to you, she and Lord Orion were able to properly connect with one another again. It wasn't until you were able to gain a blessing from the two of them that they were able to communicate at all, using you as a bridge to connect them."
Luz hummed in understanding; "That must be why Cassiopeia allowed me to find her glyphs… and since I bonded with it, and the four glyphs of her Mate, I have Titan Power to free her. And Orion asked me to do it and finally put an end to all of this…"
There was another nod from the Thunder Wyvern; "Yes, young one. Few are lucky enough to hear the voices of the Titans. My own mates have not had that honour despite possessing Lord Orion's blessing."
"Why are you telling us this?" Luz asked. She appreciated knowing as much of the truth as possible, but she didn't understand why Lars wanted to tell them such sorrowful stories. "Because I was already going to do what I had to and free Cassiopeia. Were you just trying to convince me not to back out?"
She received a shake of the head in response, and Lars seemed to consider their answer for a long moment before replying honestly; "To ease your soul." Lars answered simply; "To make you realise that the burden you are taking on is not without its blessings too, even if you are not the one to receive them. You are saving Lady Cassiopeia's soul from her millennia long torment; I want you to understand fully what that means… and give you extra motivation."
Luz and her friends suddenly had a bad feeling… why did Luz need extra motivation? Seeing them all tensing, Lars stretched their wings out and loudly declared; "Your strength of heart is commendable, but that will not free my mistress from her curse! Face me in battle, and show me you are strong enough to destroy Lady Cassiopeia's heart."
Luz braced herself, having half-expected this, while her friends all frowned in anger and annoyance; "What use is there in fighting you!? Let Luz do what she came here to do, which you claim to want!" Rasiel yelled.
"I will not abide a false hope, nor will I allow someone to bring further pain to my mistress! If you do not have the power to defeat me even for a moment, then you do not have the power to free her! So face me, Arch-Angel of Lord Orion! Show me your power!"
With that final bellowing demand, the rest of the Ritual Chamber began to rumble as the hundreds of stone bats that made up the walls all began to crack and reveal bolts of lightning, which came shooting at Lars. They infused their body, causing the Thunder Wyvern to slowly grow larger and larger, until all the bats were gone, leaving the chamber without walls at all and revealing part of the crystal mass it had been built into. Lars swelled to the same size as their mates and flew through an opening in the crystal mass so they could hover just outside, in the open air within the Titan's Heart. They turned around to make eye contact with Luz, who spread her wings out wide behind her, her Holy Raiment still in place.
"If this is what I need to do, then I guess I've got no choice!" she said, before flying out towards the Thunder Wyvern, who led her into the skies above the now-abandoned town of Pulvoltary. The others all took flight with their wings or staves, with Eda using Harpy Mode and lending Owlbert to Rasiel so they could pursue Luz and potentially aid her in the battle. However before they could do anything to actually help, the true forms of Zara and Godric suddenly awoke after dismissing their Illusory Avatars, and the two Supreme Dragons raced after them. Godric used flames to corral the startled group into one spot, then Zara trapped them in an orb of ice, which she partially coiled around.
"Hey! What's the big idea! Let us out!" Eda demanded.
"I will not. This trial is for the Angel alone. Her power is the only one that can destroy Lady Cassiopeia's Heart, so she alone must prove herself! You may calm yourselves; the girl will not be killed. Lars is not that kind of person." Zara replied neutrally.
"T-Then what happens if she loses!?" King cried.
"Lars will sacrifice their life in order to give their heart to the girl. She will be put through the Rite of Ascension and become the new Supreme Dragon of this Temple. With that added power, she will almost certainly be able to destroy the Heart… at the cost of her being forever bound to Lady Cassiopeia's will." Godric answered sombrely. "Keeping you out of the battle and putting the girl through the rite were the favours Lars asked of us. We will not refuse them."
"No! You can't!" King yelled.
"Don't make us fight you to bust out of here!" Eda growled, still in Harpy Mode and ready to use its decaying magic to bust out if she had to.
"I may not have magic of my own, but I still have glyphs!" Rasiel declared, brandishing his drawn glyphs; "Let's see how well you do fighting an immortal!"
"I'm not scared to throw down with a Dragon!" Willow yelled, "Come at me, you overgrown Gecko!"
Godric snorted while Zara looked horribly offended, but both went silent as Amity glared up at them, her eyes glowing a light pink as she struggled with her temper; "I won't let you take my Batata away from me! I'll turn you both into my next pair of boots if I have to!"
The two Supreme Dragons were marginally impressed; this group must truly love each other if they're willing to face two Supreme Dragons at the same time to save one of their own! Of course, it wasn't much of a threat; both were at full power, and there was no sun rise to weaken Zara this time… in the void of space, she could fight with all her strength, and Godric was newly refreshed himself! The group wouldn't stand a chance… not that they wanted to even let them try.
Thankfully, cooler heads prevailed… or one specific cooler head.
"Everyone, it's okay." Luz said to them, flying over to speak to them through the ice barrier; "I won't lose, I promise. I made a promise to Orion and to King; I will save Cassiopeia no matter what! I took down Godric as a High Angel, so I can definitely take Lars as an Arch-Angel!"
That was enough to calm her friends and family down. Or at least stop them from preparing to attack the Dragons. However seeing Luz stood in front of them with the massive Thunder Wyvern looming behind her still worried them; who knew what would happen to Luz if she was made into a new Supreme Dragon!? They didn't want to risk it! But Luz was determined, and so they had no choice.
"Big sis… I'm sorry." King cried softly, his paw against the inside of the barrier. Luz smiled kindly and put her palm against it from the other side.
"I can do this. Trust me." she said.
"We do, Owlet. Kick that dragon's scaly behind!" Eda replied, trying to put on a brave and confident face.
Willow and Rasiel did the same, giving Luz nods of support. Amity alone still looked worried as her eyes dimmed back to normal. Then a look of determination crossed her face and she held Ghost's staff aloft.
"Let Luz use my staff!" she demanded, glaring defiantly at the Dragons.
Zara looked over to Lars, who nodded his approval. Zara then opened a small hole in the barrier that Amity could put Ghost through so Luz could grasp her, and as the Arch-Angel did so, Amity grabbed her hand.
"Win, and come back to me." Amity begged. "I love you, Batata."
Luz held Ghost's staff tightly and nodded with a loving smile; "Aw, you're the real Sweet Potato! I promise, I will win. I love you too, Mi Amor."
Their touch lingered for a moment longer, then Amity reluctantly let go and the ice barrier was resealed. Feeling even more energised and determined, Luz flew closer to Lars and brandished Ghost's staff form, feeling Amity's and Ghost's bonded magic through it.
"I'm ready when you are, Lars!" Luz declared. She was going to win this and end Cassiopeia's long nightmare!
Lars smiled, a strange expression on their draconic face, then reared their head back; "Then face the thunder!"
They threw their head forward and roared, releasing the sound of a thunderclap from their throat as a huge stream of lightning shot out towards Luz. It was ridiculously fast, but Luz was thankfully still far enough that she was able to dodge, using her wings, Ghost, and some wind magic to fly at high speeds to the side. As she flew, she pointed her right hand at Lars and began conjuring and shooting fireballs at them. Lars allowed one to smack against the side of their face, testing its strength, before frowning and allowing the others to hit them too; the flames weren't strong enough to damage them through their scales.
Lars darted at Luz, moving shockingly fast for a creature their size, and right before reaching her, they performed a forward roll, slamming their tail down on top of her. Luz couldn't dodge in time, so conjured a crystal barrier around her. The barrier was just barely cracked by the impact, but since Luz hadn't had a chance to brace it, the barrier and her were still knocked out of the sky, crashing through a building below and creating a crater in the foundations of the abandoned city. The rubble obscured Lars' line of sight, so they began charging another breath attack to destroy it. Lightning arched between the spikes on their tail, which then slowly jumped from spike to spike as it travelled up their spine to their head, where it was seemingly sucked into their head via their horns. The huge amount of lightning made yellow light emerge from the thin gaps between the scales of Lars' throat, before they roared and released another thunderclap, along with a monstrously huge beam of yellow lightning, so large and so tightly packed that it looked like a laser blast.
The beam utterly vaporised the rubble below as well as everything else between Lars' mouth and the all-but-indestructible crystal of the Wailing Star. When the beam stopped, there was no sign of Luz, but no one believed she'd be defeated that easily!
Their faith was proven correct when a huge flower suddenly bloomed from the top of a nearby tower, with Luz emerging from inside it and immediately firing a beam of red magic from her hands. Lars hadn't expected her sudden reappearance to be so quick and just barely turned in time to turn the shot to his chest into a glancing blow to his shoulder, the red beam actually destroying the top layer of scales.
Lars looked to their mildly damaged shoulder, then back to Luz, who smirked up at them as she imbued Ghost with her red light magic, creating a blade of red light from the end of the staff, making it into a glaive. Adding a little wind magic to the mix, Luz swung the light glaive in Lars' direction, causing a red slash-like wave of magic to go flying at them. Lars evaded it by flying upward, then evaded the next few slashes of magic in a similar fashion, though one did managed to barely knick his left horn. Lars retaliated by charging a ball of lighting on their tail, similar to a plasma ball, and then firing it at Luz. She tried to destroy it with another slash of magic, but this caused the ball to destabilise and massively expand, creating a burst of electricity that made Luz flinch backward on reflex. This moment of hesitation allowed Lars to close the distance and get close enough to Luz that a strong flap of their wings created a gust that blew Luz off of the tower she was perched on.
Luz responded by conjuring a vine to anchor her to another building, then wind magic to divert the gust that Lars was producing back at them, actually managing to blow them over and cause them to flail briefly as they tried to right themselves and fly again before crashing. Now Luz had an idea for later, but first she needed to probe their defences some more!
With Lars momentarily trying to right themselves in the air, Luz used a plant spell to make her vine suddenly fling her at the dragon as she swung her light glaive down. Lars saw this coming at the last moment and parried the blow with the claws on one of their feet, though this resulted in an unwanted pedicure. Luz tried to go for another swing, but Lars released a burst of electricity from his body, making Luz yelp in pain as she was zapped. She fell out of the air but Ghost caught her, allowing Luz a moment to shake off the mild zap and recover. The Arch-Angel then fired a blue beam of light at Lars, trying to freeze them as she cried; "Ice Beam!"
Lars was hit in the chest and slowly began to freeze, but they managed to move out of the way after a moment and then slam the frozen part of their chest on the skyline of the city, breaking off the ice (and a few of their chest scales). Luz then fired another Ice Beam, but Lars countered by using their lightning breath, and the two attacks collided in the air and exploded, creating a cloud of snow and smoke.
Luz dove into this cloud and used it as cover to dive down and hide inside one of the abandoned buildings so she could catch her breath and plan her next move. Her elemental light beams seemed to be the best tactic so far, though her new and improved Ice Beam still couldn't freeze Lars fast enough to stop them breaking free. Originally, when Luz empowered her light beams with the ice element, they would change into a whole prism of colours, prompting her to call the original version her "Aurora Beam." However this was weaker, and the colours were a result of her not blending the elements properly, resulting in the ice refracting the light a bit, creating the pretty rainbow effect but weakening the impact and magic of the blast. Now that Luz had more practice, she'd refined it so the light and ice magic blended perfectly, making her blue Ice Beams. They were almost twice as effective at freezing things, but that still wasn't enough for a Supreme Dragon!
"I got Godric with a sleeping spell, but I don't think that'll work as well on something this big and strong… unless I combine some stuff! Let's mix some magic!" Luz grinned, suddenly coming up with an idea. It wouldn't be long before Lars detected her with their nose however, so Luz needed to take care of that first!
She cast a Beast-Keeping spell on herself that allowed her eyes to detect heat like the reptiles of the Demon Realm, as well as a second such spell to temporarily kill her sense of smell, before darting out of her hiding place to keep Lars from finding it. She then used an audio illusion to create delayed banging noise nearby to draw Lars' attention, allowing her to sneak up behind them while they blasted it with lightning breath. While Lars was blasting away, Luz launched herself at the Dragon's back and swung her light glaive at their wings, hoping to stop them from flying. However Lars had detected her through scent (which she'd half expected) and raised their tail to parry the blow, coating it with electricity to prevent the light glaive from damaging them.
Lightning began to crackle between the points of Lars' tail, eventually forming into a large lightning sword, similar in construction to Luz's light weaponry. Lars slashed at Luz with it, and she parried with her light glaive, but unfortunately the impact of their weapons caused a discharge of electricity, causing not only Luz to scream as she was hit by the voltage, but for Ghost to be hit too, resulting in her yowling in pain and turning back into her cat form, stripping Luz of her light glaive.
Gasping, Luz grabbed Ghost and held her to her chest as she conjured a shield of wood to block a follow up attack from Lars' tail blade. The wood was sliced in half, the edges burning from the blade of electricity, but this was what Luz wanted. Inside the wood were come conjured Skunkweed Seeds, which produced a noxious smell that was as poisonous as it was repulsive. Thanks to Luz killing her own sense of smell, it didn't bother her and she flapped her wings with some added wind magic to blast the gas back into Lars' face, making them gag and splutter, their eyes watering. Lars was large enough that this dosage of the gas wasn't enough to poison them, but the smell still kept them distracted. Luz used the smokescreen caused by the gas to create a pair of illusions; the first was of the gas itself, which Lars would continue to see all around them no matter how much they blew it away with their wings. The second illusion was one of Luz, appearing to be poisoned by her own gas and trying to escape Lars with a fake Ghost in her arms; that would keep Lars busy chasing something other than the real her!
Now that she was somewhat safe, Luz made herself invisible and returned to the house she'd hidden in, which she chose due to the large block of rubble that had ended up inside it from a roof collapse. Luz set Ghost down on an abandoned table and used her Crystal Lotus to heal the Palisman, undoing any pain caused by the electricity from earlier. Once Ghost was back in tip top condition, she switched back to staff mode and Luz used her alongside some red light beams and construction magic to turn the block of rubble into a decent sized cauldron of stone. Luz filled the cauldron with some conjured water, then began using plant magic to grow the ingredients needed for a powerful sleeping potion. It was a recipe that she'd learned from Viney and Barcus, as it was intended to put large Beast Demons to sleep for surgeries and other medical procedures, and thus had to be a lot more potent than just some Sleeping Nettles (which were still the primary ingredient).
Luz quickly brewed the potion, keeping an eye on Lars outside. They couldn't find the real her via smell with their nose filled with the foul stench of the Skunkweed, and the illusory Luz was keeping them distracted as well as Luz hoped!
Once the potion was fully assembled and just needed time to simmer, Luz used the bottom of Ghost's staff alongside some red light beams to carve a simple glyph combo that King had taught her into the floor of the abandoned house, with the cauldron of potion at its centre. The potion still needed a bit more time before she could begin her plan though, so she released Ghost and whispered some instructions to the Cat Palisman, whom meowed in agreement. With that, Luz used plant magic to make a fake Ghost staff out of wood, then snuck away as quietly as she could, so if she was discovered, Lars wouldn't destroy the trap she'd set.
Creeping through the shadows of the abandoned town, she noticed as Lars suddenly went still, no longer chasing the illusory clone. Suddenly, electricity began to crackle over their scales, before Lars roared and a huge orb of electricity formed around their body. This orb expanded outward and vaporised everything that it touched, destroying the top half of all the tall buildings in the town, as well as fully consuming the fake Luz and fake Skunkweed Gas. When the orb faded, Lars looked around and snorted, their nose releasing smoke as the residual gas inside their nostrils was burnt away. Luz's illusions had been dispersed by the attack and now Lars knew they'd been chasing a fake, so as soon as the smoke cleared from their nose, they'd hunt her down via scent. Luz decided to get ahead of that and used red light to make her fake Ghost Staff into a light glaive again, then launched herself up at Lars' underbelly.
She slashed up at them, but they caught the red flash of the glaive before it could get close enough to hit them, letting Lars easily shoot a bolt of lightning from their mouth to intercept it. Lars then recreating their lightning tail sword and slashed it at Luz's light glaive, but rather than try to parry it this time, Luz dodged and used wind magic to boost her speed and fly all the way up to Lars' head for another swing. Lars ducked and parried the glaive strike with their left horn, slightly growing the crack Luz had already left in it. Lars growled upon feeling this and rolled in the air to smack Luz with the side of their tail. She put up a crystal barrier to protect herself, but like the first time, this just resulted in her being smacked away like a giant pinball. Her barrier slammed into the outer wall of Cassiopeia's crystal heart, thankfully unharmed.
Luz dropped the barrier, then watched with dread as Lars lifted their legs and lowered their head, before beginning to create three separate lighting orbs; one in each clawed foot and one in their mouth. Lightning arched between these orbs, creating a perfect triangle of lightning, which Lars then blasted towards Luz with a flap of their wings. The triple Lightning Orbs were fast, so Luz quickly threw her light glaive at it, causing the two attacks to explode upon impact with one another. This also destroyed the fake Ghost staff, shocking Lars deeply (though the watching Amity knew it was a fake, still feeling the real Ghost and knowing Luz would never sacrifice her).
Luz once again used the smokescreen caused by the explosion to slip away with an invisibility spell, but Lars was actively tracking her with their nose now as well as using their ability to sense electrical signals to hone in on her nervous system, ensuring Luz couldn't repeat her last trick. He suddenly slapped his wings together, creating a monstrously loud thunderclap that actually hit Luz like a concussive blast, making her scream as was smashed into the side of a building.
"Ow ow ow!" Luz cried, casting a healing spell with one hand while wiping tears from her eyes with the other. She didn't have more than a moment to lick her wounds though, as Lars immediately shot a bolt of lightning at her. She blocked with a crystal barrier, then conjured a crystal spear and threw it at Lars with some extra help from some wind magic. The spear hit too fast for Lars to dodge or deflect it and it embedded itself in the side of their neck, where their scales and thick muscles thankfully kept the attack from being lethal. Lars took a moment to pull the spear out with their foot, and Luz used that moment to finish healing herself and then reached into her curly pony-tailed hair and pulled out her Lapis Ocarina. Thank the Titan that she'd finally worked out the kinks of Eda's hair storage spell! Now if only she could get her head around expanding the space more…
Lars saw this and scowled, blasting more lightning from their mouth as Luz began conjuring giant ice glyphs, which produced huge quantities of snow which Luz animated into a miniature army of her abominable snowmen. Each one had an ice glyph on their fists, which allowed the snowmen to turn their snowy fists into ice and launch them at Lars, who either dodged or zapped the projectiles. Luz felt herself begin to sweat as she manipulated the army; unlike true Abomination Magic, where magic was only needed to make the creatures and give them orders, after which they'd act on their own, Luz's fake snow abominations required her to constantly control them like puppets, making them difficult to use in large numbers.
Still, they did their job and distracted Lars, allowing Luz to conjured a huge burst of wind to slam into them, making Lars lose their balance and crash to the ground before they could correct themselves. Luz then had her Snowmen leap at Lars and begin forming themselves into snowy restraints which froze into ice chains. Luz then began combining plant magic with bardic magic, summoning huge vines from the ground by playing her ocarina like a Snake Charmer, growing them from seeds she'd hidden when she first got smacked into the ground earlier.
Luz knew the ice and vines wouldn't hold Lars for long, so she shot a powerful red beam at their head, making them dodge by lowering their head, which lasted just long enough for another vine to reach up and bind their jaw shut, then she created a series of illusory clones to disguise where she was, before joining them all in playing the Lullaby of Lethargy; the same sleeping song she'd used on Godric months ago.
Lars began to thrash in their restraints, slowly building up electricity to blast them off, but Luz starting her song was also the signal for Ghost to activate her glyph combo. This combo, using the ice and fire glyphs, simply vaporised the potion Luz had been brewing and released it into the air as a fine mist. Without stopping her playing, Luz used wind magic to blow this mist into Lars' face, and the combined power of both the lullaby and the sleeping potion began to have an effect on Lars. The Thunder Wyvern's movements slowed and their eyes grew heavy, making Luz smile to herself as she kept playing; she was so close! Once Lars was asleep, this battle was hers!
Unfortunately, few plans survive contact with the enemy, and Luz was unaware that Godric had in fact warned Lars of her tactics while telling them about their battle in Volcarpalis.
To the immense shock of Luz and everyone else, Lars' body suddenly glowed a brilliant yellow, then seemed to vanish for a moment as a huge bolt of lighting shot up into the air, before it reformed into the free Thunder Wyvern.
Luz gaped; that was the same rapid movement spell that Hunter used!
"That was close. You almost put me to sleep… not that it would have ended this fight. Unless you show me the power that can destroy Lady Cassiopeia's Heart, I will not surrender!" Lars declared, before roaring and causing a huge wave of sonic energy to blast away the remains of Luz's sleeping potion gas. Luz braced herself to stop herself from being blasted back too, but then Lars flew as far from her as they could get and coated their entire body in electricity, before suddenly flashing back towards her with the same rapid movement spell as before. They moved so fast that Luz didn't have a chance to dodge, and could only barely summon a protective crystal barrier around her… a barrier that shattered almost immediately upon impact.
Luz didn't even have time to cry out as her barrier shattered and Lars' body slammed into her in the form of a lightning bolt. Her body exploded with agony as she was sent flying at high speeds, before slamming through several buildings and crashing into ground. Her friends and family screamed in utter horror at the devastating blow; one that would have killed Luz if not for her barrier slowing Lars ever-so slightly, and her sturdy Arch-Angel wings cushioning her as she was sent backward through the buildings.
Even so, when Luz hit the ground, she could do nothing but lie on the ground and stare up in the air, her eyes wide and her mouth agape as she desperately tried to breathe. The actual impact from Lars had been pure lightning, which had thankfully fried her nervous system and killed her ability to feel pain. This meant she didn't feel the agony of her broken wings or the numerous other bones she'd broken as she hit the ground… her wings were cushioning, but they weren't able to completely nullify the impact.
Her first breath after the wind had been knocked out of her felt like fire in her chest, but Luz didn't scream. Tears streamed down her face as the pain began to return, but that just brought her out of her shock. Her eyes refocused on the Thunder Wyvern that now flew above her, watching to see if she would stand up… if she had the strength to keep going. Well… pain or not, broken or not; Luz wasn't going to disappoint him! She shakily lifted a hand and conjured her Crystal Lotus, which began to pour its healing light down on her, restoring her broken body. The amount of damage she'd had to heal was ungodly, and the amount of magic it consumed was just as severe, but it did its job and Luz's body was soon restored to pristine condition.
Slowly, Luz got to her feet and flew back into the air, panting as exhaustion set in. Between her failed plan and all the magic she'd spent on healing, she was almost out of power! She tried to summon her satchel to get one of the emergency power glyphs or Ambrosia potions, but grimaced when it didn't appear… It was too far away to summon with her current level of magic! The Wailing Star was currently flying over almost the opposite side of the Demon Realm from the Boiling Isles (it had been about five months since the library incident), which meant it wasn't possible for Luz to get much further from the Owl House and her satchel within it without leaving the realm entirely!
"That's not good…!" Luz thought, racking her mind for a solution. She needed to actually defeat Lars; a Supreme Dragon that normally only a Seraphim could match… and here she was fighting it at full power as a mere Arch-Angel. Still, there was too much at stake to back down!
"Okay, this boss fight has a phase two! Bring it on!" Luz cried, trying to pump herself up.
Lars smiled; "Impressive that you had the courage to stand back up. With you being a child, I expected you to cry and surrender. Perhaps you're made of sterner stuff after all. Let us continue!"
They immediately blasted lightning from their mouth, and Luz squeaked in surprise and terror as she dove out of the way just in time. She darted up into the sky, trying to ignore her exhaustion, and returned fire with a large beam of red light fired from both hands. It just barely clipped Lars' tail as they dodged, but the further drain on her magic made Luz droop.
"I'm weaker than I thought!" she thought desperately; "Maybe I can distract Lars for long enough to sneak away and brew a quick potion? No, I don't have enough magic left to grow all the plants, as well as make an illusion and clog their sense of smell! What do I do!?"
Lars didn't give her time to think more than that, as their tail soon slapped upward and struck Luz in the gut with the underside. This meant she avoided the spikes, but even with the relatively low amount of force they'd used, Luz was still winded and sent flying. She managed to catch herself with a cushion of wind before she hit the top of Cassiopeia's Heart, but now she was even more exhausted and felt like throwing up on top of that! Her knees shook as she landed and tried to stand straight.
Weakly, Luz raised a hand and fired a regular light blast at Lars' head, and they didn't even try to dodge, instead letting it hit their cheek and scuff their scales with a vaguely sympathetic look. "It won't be long now… forgive me for this, young Arch-Angel… but I will do what I must for the sake of my mistress!"
Their words were punctuated with a roar and a blast of lightning. Luz didn't have the strength to dodge or conjure a shield, so she took it straight on and screamed as the electricity arced through her. As her body sang with pain, Luz was dimly aware of her friends and family screaming and crying out to her, begging her to flee or for Lars to spare her. It was hard to tell… everything felt distant and fuzzy. Luz found herself once again staring up above from flat on her back, though she didn't remember when she'd fallen… her eyes drooped. She wanted to sleep.
Lars landed on the side of the building she was lying on, and their large head peered closely at her. The Dragon's eyes widened as Luz ever-so-slowly rolled onto her front and began climbing back onto her feet. She was shaking (was it just tiredness, or were her muscles still spasming from the shocks?), but she wasn't done. She refused to be done.
"I… am not… gonna… fail!" she gasped out.
Lars stared at her, then closed their eyes with a pained expression as they began to prepare another breath attack. Luz tried to brace herself for the inevitable pain to come, but found that it didn't. Instead, a fireball came flying over from another rooftop and slammed into Lars' right eye, making them recoil in pain and surprise. The flames hadn't been enough to do real damage, but they still hurt, so Lars and Luz both turned to their source.
It was Ghost; the adorable and very clever Palisman was currently puffed up like an angry white ball of fluff, and had managed to launch a fireball by scratching a fire glyph into the rooftop. Ghost yowled and hissed furiously at the Dragon that dared to hurt her Bonded Partner's mate.
Lars turned to Ghost and opened their mouth, and for one terrifying instant, Luz thought they were about to attack Ghost! The Palisman wouldn't survive even one of Lars' weaker breath attacks unscathed, so without even thinking, she threw herself between the Dragon and Ghost, expending a herculean amount of effort. The sudden action made Lars pause, which gave Ghost enough time to leap over to Luz and turn into her staff form again, giving Luz a weapon and a little bit more magic. The lethargy Luz felt lessened slightly, and she became convinced she still had one good spell in her!
Shakily, she used Ghost to draw a large spell circle, which she then thrust her fist into as the circle enclosed into her skin, coating her hand in red light. Luz didn't have the strength to form it into a weapon or even shoot it as a beam, so it simply remained around her hand as she used the foot of Ghost's staff to roughly and rapidly draw a glyph. Lars watched for a moment as they charged up their electricity for a super-charged breath attack, then just as they'd finished and fired at Luz in the form of a highly concentrated beam of lightning magic, Luz tapped Ghost's staff against the completed glyph.
This glyph was the earth glyph she'd learned on Titan Trapper Island, and it allowed her to make a short pillar of rock beneath her feet, which launched her up and over Lars' beam attack. The beam destroyed the pillar and much of the skyline behind the building they were on, but it didn't matter to Luz as she was launched towards Lars' head. She didn't even have the strength to fly, so she simply opened her wings and allowed herself to glide at high speed right towards Lars' face. The dragon saw her coming, her glowing red fist reared back for a punch, and lowered his head to try and evade the punch. Luz didn't care though, and glided right at her target; the horn she'd damaged a bit earlier. With every scrap of might she still had in her body, she smashed her fist into it, causing the crack on the horn to grow larger and larger as the last of Luz's magic empowered her, until finally, there was a loud crack and Lars' left horn was snapped off entirely, making them roar in shock and pain.
Ghost (still in staff mode) immediately caught Luz and hastily flew her away to another nearby rooftop, where Luz staggered off and tried to find the strength to keep standing. Lars, now a bit lop-sided and briefly staring at where their broken horn had fallen, turned to face her with lightning crackling between his teeth.
"Impressive, little one. But you still haven't shown me the power I'm looking for! Will you continue, or will you submit?" he asked, a sympathy still in his eyes as he watched Luz really struggling to stay on her feet and conscious. Luz wobbled as she took a shaky step towards him and pointed Ghost's staff at him.
"I… won't… fall!" she said, determination being the sole thing that kept her standing.
Lars gave her a sad smile and opened their mouth to shoot more lightning breath at her. However as the breath was coming her way, Luz felt only exhaustion, determination… and a strangely familiar burning in her chest.
Just as it had once done when fighting Luna Miphari back at the Metatarsal Reef, Luz found the world around disappearing to be replaced by a white void. For a moment, she was terrified that she'd lost to the Supreme Dragon, but then she remembered her last visit to this strange place. Looking behind her, she saw the colossal form of Orion's upper body appearing from an endless sea. The Titan gave her a small smile and a whisper reached her ears.
"You are closer now… we have been able to lend you a little more magic. Enough that the connection is strong enough to speak to you, even while you're not on the verge of death." Orion said.
Luz smiled, feeling her exhaustion melt away little by little. "Does that mean I bonded with another glyph?"
Last time she'd come here had been when she'd bonded with the wind glyph; the moment of bonding had caused her connection to the Titans to grow strong enough for them to temporarily drag her to this shared mental space.
Orion nodded and pointed at Luz's left foot, which was glowing softly and tingling. Nothing had formed there yet, but Luz knew it would appear upon returning to the real world.
"It's been difficult. These moments where you bond with my mate's glyphs are the few where our connection is strong enough to overcome the Archivists' curse, allowing us to see each other face to face. Last time, I was able to fully form thanks to you having all four of my glyphs, but my beloved could only partially form due to you only having one of hers. But now you have two, and I can see the face of my love once more." Orion said, his voice still barely a whisper.
Luz gasped softly and turned around to see Cassiopeia arise from the infinite see behind her. Unlike last time where she had appeared to be a Titan-shaped mass of elements, she was now fully formed just like Orion.
Cassiopeia was just a little bit shorter than Orion, and had a slender, androgynous body type with much larger wings and a longer, fluffier tail. Her fur was a sandy gold colour compared to Orion and King's dark grey, and her skull was almost dog-like, but with long pronged horns that were akin to antlers. Her eyes were the same as King's and Orion's (or at least the eye he still possessed), and she had a large hole in her chest where her heart should be, the edges of which were crystallised like her heart itself.
"Cassiopeia…!" Luz gasped up at the Titan, who looked back at her with gentle eyes.
"Greetings, God-daughter. I am glad you were able to finally complete the bond with the earth glyph. Your show of strength, determination, and endurance allowed the bond to fully form and grant you more power. However you suffered to receive it, and will suffer more to bear the burden of destroying my heart… please, forgive me for what I've done." Cassiopeia said, bowing her head meekly. Her voice was little more than a whisper just like Orion's, but it was also softer compared to the deep and almost gruff voice of her mate.
Luz shook her head; "It's not your fault! It sucked pretty bad, but now I can save you!"
"It was my fault." Cassiopeia refuted; "I knew you didn't yet have the power to save me… After my Mate begged you to destroy my heart while you were very sick, I was able to barely call out to you through the Wellsprings and the wind glyph, leading you to a place where I could bless you with the earth glyph. From there, I knew you would find your way here, but without bonding with the glyph first, you would not be strong enough… so I gave my High Priest their final orders; to battle you until you were able to bond with the earth glyph."
Luz's eyes widened; so Lars had challenged her on Cassiopeia's orders, all so she'd show the necessary strength, determination, and endurance to bond with the earth glyph? She supposed it made sense, even if she didn't really like it.
"Please don't think badly of Cassiopeia." Orion said gently; "She was desperate, and awakening the earth glyph required a bit more effort. You already exhibit so much strength, determination, and endurance that something extraordinary had to be done to give you the final push."
"Which means pushing me beyond what I'd be able to normally deal with, right? I get it. I don't like it, but I'm not angry." Luz replied, before suddenly gasping as she realised something; "Wait a moment; this is what you were trying to warn me about when I bonded with the wind glyph!"
Her mind went back to that day, where the vision had ended with the silent Titans pointing to their hearts (which had been missing from Cassiopeia) and then pointing up at the sky. Cassiopeia's hand had even changed to be made of yellow electricity… she had been trying to tell Luz about her heart being in the sky, and connected to the Lightning Temple! So many things were beginning to fall into place!
"Yes. It was difficult to explain without being able to speak, but the power of five glyphs was just a bit too weak to form a speaking connection with two Titans at once. Even six is barely enough." Cassiopeia agreed.
At that moment, the sea that filled the void below them began to rise, and all three knew the vision would soon end. The Titans could slow Luz's perception of time to some degree so they could speak to her, but they couldn't stop it entirely and the bonding process was almost complete. Seeing this made Cassiopeia panic and call out to Luz.
"Please free me from this nightmare! Let me join my mate in the In-Between Realm! I beg you!"
Luz nodded; "I will, I swear it. I'll put an end to all of this!"
The water reached her and all three began to sink beneath the waves. Cassiopeia lifted her head enough to whisper a thank you, before all three disappeared into the waters. Luz floated there alone for a moment, unable to see either Orion or Cassiopeia any more. With determination still burning inside her, Luz relaxed as the world around her turned pure white, and she closed her eyes.
When they snapped open again, she found that not even a moment has passed in the real world and Lars' last lightning breath attack was still gunning towards her. Time still felt like it was moving at a snail's pace however, and Luz felt her magic suddenly surging back to full strength, and then beyond what it had once been. The burning warmth of her magic filled her heart and spilled forth through her veins, filling her entire body and pooling massively into her left leg, which tingled with power. Feeling ready to burst, Luz allowed her building magic to explode out of her in a blast of golden light, which collided with Lars' lightning breath and caused an explosion, sending smoke in all directions.
Lars recoiled, stunned by the explosion and momentarily blinded by the flash of light. They and their audience rubbed at their eyes to regain their vision, then Lars flew away from the building so they could flap their wings hard and blow away the smoke. When the smoke was gone, everyone got a good look at Luz, who stood strong in the exact same spot, only now she was clearly changed. The power of earth had filled her with new strength, and she was now a tiny bit taller than she had been a moment ago. Her wings were also shining a brilliant white as always, with seemingly a bit more lustre than before. But of course, the most obvious change was her left foot, which now had the earth glyph tattooed on the top in an orange-bronze colour, with matching coloured lines connecting to her wing joints, perfectly mirroring the silvery-grey ones on her right leg.
Seeing this, Lars smiled brilliantly and Luz's watching friends and family cheered.
"She bonded with the earth glyph!" Amity yelled with joy.
"Go Sis! Kick that thing's scaly butt!" King cheered.
"Rock their world, Owlet!" Eda added.
"Don't hesitate! You can do this!" Rasiel cheered.
"Come on Luz! Show 'em what you're made of!" the cheers finished with Willow.
Luz waved at them with a big smile, then turned back to Lars and pointed Ghost's staff at them. Bonding with a glyph; "I had a little talk with my Godmother. I know what this whole thing is about now. So let's end it for real!"
Lars nodded; "I quite agree! You have unlocked the power to finish my Mistress's torment! Now show me you know how to use it!" they bellowed, before charging electricity into their wings and launching two large waves of lightning at her.
Luz countered by performing a quick flip as she flew into the air, kicking forward with her left foot as she did so. A giant earth glyph appeared in front of her and suddenly conjured a ball of stone and earth, which completely blocked the lightning attacks. Luz then cast a spell at it to make it fly at Lars, shattering against their sturdy scales and stunning them.
Luz then decided to see what happened when she combined her different elements, starting with plant and earth! She attempted to apply earth magic to some vines she was conjuring, only to be surprised when she found colossal tree roots instead bursting from the ground and lashing at Lars, knocking them out of the sky briefly and then binding them when they attempted to try flying up again. It seemed combining earth and plant magic was like adding potent fertiliser to a garden; it magnified growth massively!
Lars used their lightning flash to escape the roots, then repeated their earlier triple lightning orb attack, which they fired at Luz. She countered by combining ice magic with earth, and which resulted in her conjuring metal instead. As earth magic was more like mineral magic (just as ice magic was also water magic), applying the aspect of change that was present in ice magic allowed Luz to refine it into proper metal. She used this to conjure a pair of giant metal rods (similar to how Hunter and Lucy could conjure weapons), and Lars' lightning attacks were immediately drawn towards them instead.
Seeing that ranged attacks would be drawn to the lightning rods, Lars then attempted to charge at Luz while coated in lightning, as they had done earlier. Luz responded by combining wind and earth magic to produce a sandstorm around herself, which not only blinded Lars and buffeted them with sand (which was very uncomfortable between their scales), but also knocked them to the ground thanks to the powerful winds. Luz then combined fire and earth to produce a ball of magma, though she dismissed this immediately since she had no intention of actually killing or seriously wounding Lars.
Instead, Luz conjured a large earth glyph beneath Lars and made the ground of the city's foundations rise up and encase Lars' feet and tail in stone, anchoring them to the ground and preventing them from flying away.
"This'll be the last one! I've got a feeling I know what it'll do too!" Luz declared, combining light and earth magic. The result was a bronze coloured ball of light in her hand, which she then fired a beam from, aimed directly at Lars' chest. As it went shooting towards them, Luz cried; "How's this for strength!?"
Lars, unable to move thanks to the stone restraints, instead tried to charge and fire a lightning beam from their mouth. They didn't have enough time to fully charge it though, so only a weakened beam shot forth and collided with Luz's spell. This weakened beam was no match for Luz's newly restored strength, especially as Luz used Ghost to draw a bronze spell circle over her other arm, magnifying the power of her beam attack. Slowly, Lars found themselves being pushed back until finally, Luz overpowered their weakened spell entirely and the lightning beam was completely consumed, allowing Luz's spell to hit Lars straight on.
It hit their chest first, and just as Luz had believed (and secretly feared), Lars' scales began to turn to stone bit by bit, petrifying them. Unlike Belos' version of the spell, or the Petrification Statue's, Luz's spell didn't hurt the victim and was also slower. Still, this just meant Lars had a moment of clarity as their body was turned to stone. In raw power, Lars was still technically more powerful than Luz, but she had made up for that difference through creativity with her spells… for the first time in the Thunder Wyvern's life, they were willing to concede defeat.
After almost one minute of constant firing, Luz finally stopped her spell and panted a little from the exertion. She looked down at Lars and was met by the sight of a stone Wyvern; her foe utterly petrified. For a moment, different feelings warred within her. She felt vindication that she'd passed the test and overcome such a powerful foe (she'd survived Zara, defeated Godric in his weakened form, and now managed to beat a full power Supreme Dragon! She'd come so far!), but she also felt revulsion and disgust at wielding the power of petrification, especially since it was the same power that caused one of her most traumatic memories… Luz knew she could undo the spell (and fully intended to), but that didn't stop the nausea that filled her.
Cautiously, Luz turned to her friends as well as the two remaining Supreme Dragons, dreading their responses. Her friends and family were cheering for her victory, but strangely, Zara and Godric were completely unconcerned. They seemed marginally surprised and even pleased by her victory, but they didn't react at all to the fact she'd turned their lover to stone. Luz wondered why that was, until she heard cracking behind her.
She spun around and saw cracks appearing in Lars' stone chest, and she briefly feared the battle wasn't over yet. However when the stone fell away from the Thunder Wyvern's chest, Luz could see that the inside of the stone was largely hollow now, and all she could see within was the yellow skeleton of a Thunder Wyvern. The cracking itself had been caused by a witch, who had crawled out from the dragon's rib cage and broken out of the stone.
This was the true form of Lars.
Lars shook themselves as they jumped down to the ground. They then yelled up to Luz and their mates, their voice magically enhanced. "This battle is over. I was defeated fair and square. Let us convene back in the Temple Courtyard!"
With that, they disappeared in a flash of lightning just like Hunter, zipping rapidly towards the courtyard they'd requested. Luz immediately flew after them, and so did Zara and Godric, bringing along the ice barrier that contained the others.
They all landed in the courtyard where they'd first reunited with Zara and Godric, who immediately released Luz's companions. King, Eda, and Amity raced each other to Luz's side, with King getting there first, followed swiftly by Harpy Eda and then Amity, whom Luz returned Ghost too. Rasiel and Willow followed behind, smiling broadly as they watched the others gushing.
"You were amazing, Luz!" Amity cheered, hugging her and then kissing her deeply. When their lips finally separated, Amity found herself blushing as she now had to look up at Luz! Her adorable girlfriend had always been about half an inch shorter than her, but bonding with the earth glyph had given Luz a growth spurt of about an inch, so now Luz was half an inch taller than her!
"You're taller than me now! No fair." Amity pouted. She'd kinda liked having her girlfriend be smaller than her… though the taller Luz had some very nice advantages too.
Luz smirked; "Maybe now I can finally be the cool one while you're the cute one, right Hermosa?"
Amity scoffed; "Oh no you don't! You can be as tall as the Titan and still be the cute one, Batata!"
As if to prove her point, Amity reached up and began raking her fingers lightly through Luz's scalp, making Luz blush and trill adorably. The Arch-Angel eventually got herself together enough to pull away from Amity's hands with a blush, before she could be further embarrassed by her awesome girlfriend.
"Seriously Owlet, you did amazing out there! I heard about the battle at Volcarpalis, but this was something else!" Eda praised, also taking the chance to ruffle Luz's hair (without making her trill).
"Yeah! I knew you could do it!" King declared; "Never doubted you for a second!"
"I'll admit to being pretty scared for you!" Willow confessed; "After you got smashed into the floor, I was ready to try and bust out and wrestle all three of these dragons!"
"Ha! I'd have paid to see that! I bet ten snails you'd have beaten at least one of them!" Luz grinned.
Willow rolled her eyes and playfully swatted Luz's shoulder, while Rasiel compared the bronze glyph on his foot to the one on Luz's.
"It looks like we now have the same number of glyphs! You're a lot stronger now; four glyphs made you Belos' equal in power, if not in skill. Six will surely make you strong enough that even the difference in experience won't stop you from destroying him!" he said with a confident smile.
Luz beamed and nodded; "We're so close to the end of all this! I can practically taste it!" her smile then faded and she turned towards where Lars had landed, her expression becoming serious; "But for now, we still have a job to do."
Her companions nodded, their own expressions turning serious as they joined Luz in approaching Lars, who was being largely concealed by the dragon forms of Zara and Godric fussing over them. Eventually the two moved away so Lars could step forward too, letting Luz get a good look at their true form.
Lars was a slender, androgynous witch with fairly pale skin and messy golden blond hair that was largely allowed to fall naturally over their back and shoulders, reaching between their shoulder blades. However part of it had been tied up into a loose ponytail, similar to Amity's old hair style, which proved a strange coincidence since Lars also had golden eyes, though theirs were paler and closer to yellow than Amity's. Like their mates, Lars' pupils were slitted and they had scales coating their arms and legs, starting at the elbows and knees and going to the ends of their fingers and toes. The scales were yellow like their dragon form, and the claws that tipped each digit were a stormy grey. A replica of their dragon form's tail swished back and forth from their tail bone, and they also sported the same horns atop their head (though noticeably not broken). Their outfit was an intricate set of ceremonial robes in almost the same style as Zara and Godric's, only coloured grey with yellow detailing, and lacking any kind of sleeves for the upper body, exposing Lars' muscular arms completely. Unlike their mates however, Lars' chest was totally covered, meaning there was no way to see if they had a glyph on their chest like Zara and Godric.
They bowed politely to Luz and said; "Well done, Arch-Angel. You proved your strength and defeated me, though I wasn't expecting you to petrify me. Why hold back on the lava attack if you were going to try and end me anyway?"
Luz shook her head; "I wasn't trying to end you. I can de-petrify people."
That made Lars frown; "Oh… well then I wasted my dragon form for nothing. A shame… well, at least there is a Wellspring nearby to restore it. Plus, this does allow me to more easily give you Lady Cassiopeia's reward for defeating me."
"Mama asked you to give Luz a reward?" King asked, looking curious as to what the reward could be.
Lars nodded, and Luz quickly explained; "It turns out that this whole fight and test was ordered by your Mama so I would bond with the earth glyph and gain the power needed to destroy her heart. If I hadn't, I probably wouldn't have had enough Titan power to do it."
The others were surprised by that, but didn't question it. They wondered if the threat to turn Luz into a Supreme Dragon had been real, or just further motivation… either could be true, which was a slightly scary thought, but they all decided not to question that either, if only to spare themselves a headache.
"Back to the matter at hand, what is this reward?" Eda asked.
Lars smiled and stepped forward, lifting their hands to the top of their robes and pulling them open just enough to expose part of their sternum. There on their flesh was a glyph marking, just like Zara's, Godric's, and Luz's, only this was one was yellow and had an unfamiliar design that Luz was sure was Cassiopeia's lightning glyph. It was glowing a soft yellow, and the moment Luz laid eyes on it, it suddenly flashed brightly and engraved itself into her mind. She flinched back as Lars covered themselves again, then blinked the spots out of her eyes.
"The lightning glyph… that's my reward?" Luz asked as her friends looked at her in shock.
"It is. Sadly it is all we can give." Lars replied.
"I… thank you. We were sort of expecting for me to find it here, I just wasn't thinking it'd happen like that." Luz said, smiling a bit as she bowed her head in gratitude.
Lars accepted the gesture with a polite nod, then frowned; "Now, I believe it is time to bring my lady's curse to an end."
"And I will, but we need a safe way home first. We came through the wellspring, and even if I send the others back through it, I won't be able to use it myself once I destroy this place." Luz replied; "I'd rather not die alone in the vacuum of space…"
Lars chuckled; "No need to fear. My lightning flash transportation spell will allow me to transport you to almost anywhere in the world. I can circumnavigate the Demon Realm in about one hour, so it shouldn't take more than half that to reach the Boiling Isles. I will use the wellspring to recharge before you destroy it, then I will deliver you back to your home."
Luz smiled with relief, then Amity piped up; "If you can do that, can you bring all of us and the bathysphere with you? I think we'd all rather stay to support Luz and King."
"It will require me to use more magic to transport all of you, plus my mates, but if I am freshly recharged then it shouldn't be a problem." Lars answered.
The entire team looked at them gratefully, and Luz decided to lead them all back to the wellspring. Upon arriving there (Zara and Godric having to wait outside since they couldn't fit into the crystal mass containing the wellspring), Luz took a deep breath and pointed a hand at the roof of the cavern. Channelling magic from all six of her glyphs, Luz created a swirling ball of magic in all the colours of her glyphs. It had lost any elemental properties due to how mixed up it was, but it still had the full Titan power she had within her, so when she expanded the ball above her, it consumed the ceiling of the cavern and the entire top of the crystal mass, exposing the wellspring to the open air of the Wailing Star. When her spell stopped, Zara and Godric peeked into the chamber through the new opening.
"It seems the trial was worth it. You definitely have the power now." Godric commented.
Luz nodded; "Yeah… I think it's time."
The others nodded sombrely, and Lars approached the wellspring, taking a brief moment to acknowledge the strange contraption that had brought Luz and her companions to Pulvoltary. Standing on the edge of the wellspring, Lars began to inhale deeply, the glyph on their chest glowing brightly enough for it to be visible through their clothes as thick streams of yellow magic began to pour out of the wellspring and then into the glyph or directly into Lars' mouth. They inhaled the magic greedily, their body beginning to crackle more and more with electricity with each breath, until finally their entire body was glowing.
In a flash, Lars zipped up into the air and their body suddenly exploded with lightning, which formed itself into the shape of a Thunder Wyvern before returning to being flesh and blood, restoring Lars' dragon form. The yellow dragon briefly nuzzled their face against the faces of Zara and Godric (the equivalent of a kiss in their current forms), then hovered over the bathysphere.
"Please get on board your strange vessel. I will carry it out of the Wailing Star and its bubble of Titan Breath. Arch-Angel, you will need to conjure us a ball of air so you and your companions don't die." Lars ordered.
They all nodded, and Amity opened the bathysphere up and had everyone hastily board it. However, Luz decided to instead latch onto the outside, so Eda joined her and King clung to her shoulders, refusing to let go. Once everyone was inside or attached to the bathysphere, Amity closed it back up and Luz gave the thumbs up to Lars, who descended and picked the vehicle up in their talons, using their tail to keep it steady. The three dragons and their passengers then flew away from the wellspring and out of Cassiopeia's heart, leaving Pulvoltary for the final time. Once they neared the edge of the pocket of air surrounding the heart, Luz used the wind glyph to produce a massive sphere of oxygen to keep them all alive, while Godric used his heat powers to keep them all warm.
With that done, Luz flew up to land on Lars' head as they flew to keep up with the comet-like heart. Harpy Eda flew up with her, and King was still on Luz's shoulder.
"I'm going to end this now. Are you ready, King?" Luz asked.
King shook his head; "No… I don't think I ever will be. But it's gotta be done, for Mama's sake. And… and I want to help."
"King, you don't have to. I can handle this alone." Luz said softly.
"But you shouldn't have to! This is my Mama and… I'm too weak to help her on my own." Luz wasn't sure if King was talking about actual power or just his resolve not being strong enough to bear the burden alone. Either one was probably true…
"But even if I'm too weak on my own, I can still help! I'm her son! I am the King of Sons! I need to do this." King declared, his voice on the verge of cracking with emotion.
Luz looked him in the eye, then silently nodded. King didn't want to do this… but he needed to, for his own sake and for his own closure. He couldn't let his sister bear this on her own, but he couldn't take the burden on his own either; so they would share it.
"I can't do much to help here, besides be a shoulder to cry on…" Eda said softly; "I've got no Titan powers. But I can still try and help in my own way." she reached into her hair and pulled out a power glyph from Mason and an Ambrosia potion made with Luz's blood. She gently placed the former on King's skull, filling him with a huge boost of power, then gave the Ambrosia to Luz to massively boost her magic for a moment.
Luz drank the potion and felt her magic multiply, her wings almost glowing gold with the extra power as her glyph markings shone brightly. Meanwhile King had an aura of power around him and flew off of Luz's shoulder to hover by her side. The two nodded to one another and held hands, then turned back to Cassiopeia's heart.
With tears in their eyes and a weight in their stomachs, Luz gathered all the magic she had and fired a blast of magic imbued with all six of her glyphs, while King cried out and released the most powerful Titan Roar he could manage. The coloured rings of King's roar seemed to surround and then merge with Luz's beam, transforming it into a colossal spear of magic that shone in all the colours of the rainbow. The magic blasted straight through the centre of Cassiopeia's heart, hitting the wellspring, and then blasting out the other side, piercing the Wailing Star straight through. There was dead silence, followed by Luz and King hearing a quiet sigh of immense relief inside their heads, before an explosion of magic erupted from the wellspring, where Luz, King, Orion, and Cassiopeia's magic were all twisted up together. The explosion of magic spread outward and consumed the temple, the town, and the entire heart in an immense orb of power. Despite the enormity of the explosion (it would have been clearly visible to everyone beneath them in the Demon Realm), not a sound reached the others through the vacuum of space. All they saw was the massive eruption of magical light before it faded away, leaving nothing behind. Not even dust remained…
The Heart of Cassiopeia had been utterly destroying, ending the legend of the Wailing Star and the Temple of Pulvoltary as well.
Luz and King panted as they stopped their attacks, and just stared ahead in shocked silence for a moment, before King whimpered, then let out a heart-wrenching sob. He began to cry in earnest, finally allowing himself to truly mourn his mother, who had given her life to save him and the world. Luz, beginning to cry also, pulled him to her chest and stroked his back as she embraced him, wrapping her wings around them both. Eda joined too, tears in her own eyes as she embraced her crying children and softly soothed them, encouraging them to let out all their pain and sorrow, and be proud of what they'd done. Lars and their mates had stopped flying, no longer needing to keep up with the Wailing Star, and each bowed their heads in a moment of silence. Since they were still inside Luz's air bubble, the others in the Bathysphere were able to come out and fly up with their staves (Rasiel was still borrowing Owlbert), and joined the hug, making sure to whisper words of comfort to both Luz and King, though primarily King.
This continued for several long minutes, until King's sobs slowly weakened into sniffles and the occasional whimper. He felt oddly conflicted; part of him felt awful from crying, as his eyes and nose felt wet and sore, and his throat felt strangely cloying while his head pounded… yet in his heart, he began to feel lighter and lighter, as if a weight he'd never noticed had suddenly vanished. He looked up to his sister and Mom, wanting to thank them for their support and sharing the burden with him, but as he did so, Luz suddenly looked up towards where the Wailing Star had been, her eyes wide.
"Luz?" King whispered, unable to speak louder in his current state. "What is it?"
"There's… something there." Luz whispered back, her own voice almost as hoarse as King's.
Everyone looked to where she weakly pointed, and noticed a tiny ball of light floating directly where the Wailing Star had just been. It was about the size of Luz's palm, and would have been dismissed as another star if not for the way it glowed in all the colours of the rainbow.
Instinctively, Luz reached towards it and the ball of light suddenly shot at her, hitting her straight in the chest. In an instant, Luz's eyes rolled back in her head and her vision went white, causing her to appear in the same white void as earlier.
"W-What? Don't tell me I bonded with the lightning glyph already!? I couldn't have, right? Sure this was emotional, but it had nothing to do with intelligence or instinct!" she exclaimed, looking around. There was no sign of Orion or the infinite sea in this vision, but the white void was undoubtedly familiar.
"That is not what this is, God-daughter." came a familiar feminine voice.
Luz gasped and turned to see Cassiopeia floating in front of her. The Titan was shrunken to be roughly the same height as Eda, and was not half submerged like last time, so Luz could see her full body and realised that she really did have similar bodily proportions to Eda too, only with a more androgynous torso. Noticeably, not only was Cassiopeia now able to speak at a normal volume, but the crystallised hole in her chest was gone. Seeing this, Luz made an educated guess.
"You're the Soul of Cassiopeia, right? Freed from the Archivists' curse."
Cassiopeia smiled brightly and nodded; "I am. Forgive me, but I used the glyphs I gifted you as a gateway into your body, allowing my soul to possess you for a short time. Have no fear; I will soon leave and pass on to the In-Between Realm, where my beloved Orion awaits me. I simply had to tie up some loose ends first… first of which is giving you my gratitude."
Luz suddenly found herself grabbed and pulled into a tight hug; "Thank you, Luz Noceda-Clawthorne. For freeing me from that nightmare, and for being there to protect and love my son! My little boy may be mourning now, but he will be happy again soon and that is because of you and your Mom, and all the friends who were kind to him. Until you have a child of your own, you will never understand how deep my gratitude is. I wish I could do more to reward you for what you've done."
"You don't need to reward me." Luz smiled, looking up at the Titan from the hug; she was very soft and warm. "I love King. I get to have him as my little brother! That's reward enough for me."
Cassiopeia's eyes softened; "You truly do remind me of Zachael. He had a lot of love and gentleness in his heart too, once he'd let go of his resentments. I suspect you are as stubborn too, so you'd reject any reward I tried to give." She chuckled and Luz didn't try to deny it.
"W-Well like I said, I do have King! And your glyphs!" Luz pointed out.
"That does not make us even." Cassiopeia smiled; "But perhaps I have something else I can offer you…" her smile became mysterious as she lifted a clear and poked it against Luz's forehead. There was a faint glow from the point of contact, and the image of a giant Titan Skull, appeared in her mind's eye, before the image zoomed out to show a map of the Demon Realm, with the skull still marked by a glowing point. When Cassiopeia pulled her claw away, Luz blinked in surprise.
"That was… the location of your skull?" Luz asked.
"Indeed. It is off in the far north and uninhabited. Not much can be found there, but you should be able to retrieve one of my eyes to use as the Titan Oculus of your portal." King's Mama smiled. "Consider it my final gift, at least until you're ready to receive my final glyph."
Luz beamed and hugged Cassiopeia a little tighter; "Thank you so much! With that in my hands, all I'll need is the Collector's help and I'll be able to finish the portal!"
Cassiopeia giggled and petted Luz's hair, before a sheepish expression crossed her face; "You are welcome. I still don't think it's enough to repay you though, especially since I need to ask another potentially outrageous favour."
She whispered the favour into Luz's ear, and the young Angel's eyes widened for a moment, before she smiled sadly. Wordlessly, Luz pulled away and nodded in agreement. She would agree to Cassiopeia's final request. The Titan beamed at her and embraced her once more, before Luz closed her eyes and allowed herself to be gently pushed aside.
Back in the world of consciousness, only an instant had passed and Luz's friends and family were eyeing her carefully, wondering what the orb that flew into her was. At that moment, Luz's eyes suddenly flew open and a brief pulse of magic pushed the others away, as Luz herself floated up to the edge of the air bubble. Everyone, CATTs and Dragons alike turned to stare at Luz in surprise as her body began to glow brighter and brighter, until it appeared to be made of pure light. Then that light began to grow and change shape. When the light finally faded, the form in front of them was not Luz, but rather Cassiopeia (sized down to roughly witch size).
Everyone gaped at her in shock, wondering what had just happened. Only King recognised Luz's new form, as something deep inside him stirred.
"M-Mama?" he said quietly, eyes wide.
Cassiopeia looked at King and the emotions in her eyes were as indescribable as they were numerous. If Eda hadn't been sure King was correct already, that look would have convinced her; that was a look a mother gave to their child.
"It is me, my baby." Cassiopeia said, slowly flying towards him. "I asked Luz if I could borrow her body for one final moment of life before I passed on. Her body contains Titan power and has been exposed to a Titan transformation before, so I was able to temporarily transform her. Do not worry, she will return to normal when my time is up."
She paused in front of King and slowly held open her arms; "Until then… can I have a hug from my baby boy?"
"Mama… MAMA!" King burst into fresh tears as he leapt at his mother, wrapping his little arms around her neck as she wrapped her arms and wings around him, just as Luz had done. "M-Mama! I-I missed you!"
It felt strange to say that, having never truly met the woman, but it was true all the same. Something within him really had missed her, even when he didn't realise it.
"Oh, my little boy… my beloved King! I missed you too! More than you could ever imagine! I've longed for this moment for 5000 years! The moment I could finally hold you in my arms! I only wish your father could be here too!" Cassiopeia sobbed, a huge smile on her face even as tears cascaded down it. "To see you, to hear you, to touch you… that thought has been all that kept me sane through that long nightmare! Now that I see you alive and well, surrounded by family and loved ones, I can truly say that it was all worth it!"
King looked shocked; "B-But you suffered so much!"
"A real mother is always willing to suffer with a smile for the sake of her children. Your Mom would do the same, right?" Cassiopeia giggled, looking over to Eda.
"Of course." Eda agreed, flying a little closer but not joining the hug; "It's kind of strange to be talking to a Titan possessing my daughter. Sorry, but the last time Luz turned into something like you, it wasn't a good time!"
Cassiopeia nodded; "I understand. I promise you that she feels no pain though. She is just quietly watching from behind these borrowed eyes. I need to thank you, Eda the Owl Lady, for being a mother to my son when I couldn't be."
"Aw, it was nothing. King is more than worth any trouble." Eda grinned, before becoming serious; "I'll keep protecting him and loving him like a mother should. I swear on my life, I will always be there for him."
"Mom…" King whispered, touched by her words.
Cassiopeia smiled and nodded; "I know you will. You're his mother too, after all. I know I can trust you to look out for him. Give my regards to his grandparents, aunts, and Titi too."
Eda promised to do so, and Cassiopeia turned to look at the others. Her eyes first fell on Willow and Amity, who both straightened a little under the gaze of an adult Titan. "You girls are among King's friends. I would like to thank you for all you've done too, and ask that you pass my thanks along to his other friends too." she then looked at Amity specifically; "Even when only borrowing this body, I can feel the love that my God-daughter feels for you. You may have a difficult road ahead of you; the life of a mortal witch is but 1% of an Arch-Angel's in length… but I believe this love will endure. I wish you luck on the path to come."
Amity nodded shakily; "T-Thank you. Truth be told, I'm a little scared of what'll happen in the future, when I'm old and grey and Luz is still young and beautiful… but so long as I can spend all the time I have with Luz, I want to live without regrets."
"Wise. I also suggest you take that attitude with your mother… your true mother. Remember, blood is not what binds such a bond; it is the love shared between mother and child that makes it real." Cassiopeia said, giving Amity a knowing smile that had all but the girl and Eda confused. Cassiopeia knew everything going on inside her heart, so the conversations held within the temple were known to her.
Moving on, the Titan next looked towards Rasiel; "Your assistance is appreciated also, Seraphim. I apologise for having any part in your imprisonment. I confess, I still don't know why your Black Tombs were handed down through Titan Bloodlines, but I am happy to see you freed if you continue to help my family. Your contributions helped save my child's other mother from a horrible fate, and as thanks, I have some information to give you."
Rasiel leaned forward eagerly; "Do you know where the last Black Tomb is!?"
Cassiopeia tilted her head; "Yes and no. I know it's rough location, but not the specifics. You see, only three of the four Black Tombs were placed in the care of three different Titan bloodlines. I am the last child of one, while my mate is the last child of the other two, which joined together long ago. Had things been different, my King may have ended up with all three in his possession! Our parents passed the tombs down to us, but they had no idea why we were guarding them. All we were told was that we had to protect them from evil people, and that the fourth tomb was judged too dangerous to keep in the Demon Realm. As such, it was cast into the In-Between Realm."
Rasiel began to rub his chin; "So the last one is in the In-Between Realm… based on the idea of it being dangerous, it must be the one containing my wings! But then what happened to my memories…" he mused, before shaking the thought off; "No matter. You have my thanks, Lady Cassiopeia. I consider King and his family to be close friends, if not family to me too, so have no fear that I will protect them and help them as much as I can."
Cassiopeia smiled; "I am grateful. I wish you luck in finding your missing piece, Seraphim."
With that, she turned to the three Supreme Dragons; Lars in particular. "The three of you have served me and my mate for over a millennia now. Your devotion is appreciated, and I truly wish I could reward you all, but alas I have nothing I can give but my undying gratitude."
All three bowed their heads as Zara solemnly said; "We may have been raised by the priests for this duty, but in the end all three of us chose it of our own free will. We could have walked away or abandoned our duty, but we took it seriously."
"Aye. We did our duty to the last. Would you have us now serve your son in your place?" Godric asked.
Cassiopeia shook her head; "No. You have all done enough; I hereby release you from your duty. Go and live your lives in peace and tranquillity, or however else you please. This is the only reward I have left to grant you. And to you Lars, who stayed by my side and did so much for my Mate and I by uncovering the truth of the Collector and helping Luz awaken the earth glyph, I wish you the greatest of happiness, and offer my heartfelt thanks. Know that I will never forget your service or your company."
Lars bowed their head as tears of joy streamed down their face. Free of their duty to hold back the Sorrow of the Wailing Star, Lars could once again feel all their emotions freely. "Thank you, Lady Cassiopeia. It has been an honour serving you."
All three Dragons once again bowed their head, and the Titan bowed her own right back, showing her deepest respects to the trio. Finally, she turned her attention back to King, and both wished she didn't have to. They knew this moment couldn't last forever, but neither wanted it to end.
"My son… there's so much I want to say, and nowhere near enough time to say it all." Cassiopeia said tearfully, cuddling him a little tighter.
"Me too… I wanted you to meet all my friends, and see all the cool glyph combos I made up! I can make more now that Luz has the lightning glyph too! And I wanted to show you my books on Demons! I made a whole bunch of them when I thought I was a King of them and I… I…" King's voice began to fail him; "I… I don't want you to go…"
Cassiopeia felt him tremble as he tried not to sob again, and she could feel the pain in her own heart, made worse by the fact she could feel Luz's emotions too. She pressed her skull against the top of King's, planting a gentle kiss on him.
"I know my child. I wanted to tell you stories; the stories my parents taught me, the stories of my time with your Papa and Godfather Zachael, the stories of my own adventures as a little Titan, and so much more. You take after your Papa in looks, but in personality, you're a lot more like me. My little tyrant phase lasted until I was over three stories tall! I was quite the little menace at times! But I don't have enough time… even now, I can feel my soul trying to move on. It isn't healthy for me or Luz to stay here like this… but I do have a little time left, and I'll spend it saying the most important thing I can."
She pulled King away from her just enough that they could look one another in the eyes while still hugging.
"Having you as our child made your Papa and I the proudest Titans to ever live. We were both so excited to bring you into the world, and if either of us regretted anything about giving our lives, it was that we couldn't see you hatch or be there in your life. But know that even with the consequences I suffered, I will never regret doing what I did and driving those monsters away. I would do it again if it meant you could live safely. I love you, my son. Even if you sometimes eat trash, or cause trouble, or act like a little tyrant, or make mistakes. I love you!"
Cassiopeia began to glow, and everyone knew it was time. She was moving on, and nothing could be done to stop it. The Titan could feel Luz trying to hang onto her soul with magic, wanting to buy her little brother a few more seconds.
"I love you! I love you!" she repeated, over and over. It was a mantra she wanted to ensure was embedded in her son's mind forever; he was treasured and loved, no matter what.
King wanted to sob and hold on tight. He wanted to beg his Mama not to leave… but he knew she had no choice. She'd lingered as long as she could, and now it was time for her to go and be with his Papa. He didn't want his Mama's last sight in this world to be him begging and crying, so despite the tears running down his face, he gave her the best smile he could.
"I love you too, Mama! I'll be okay, and I'll see you again one day, after I've lived a long life! Then we can tell each other stories! I promise Mama! So please… rest in peace! I love you!"
Cassiopeia smiled as brightly as she ever had, and just like her son, she kept that smile on her face even as she cried and continued her mantra of "I love you!", right up until her body fully turned into light and shrank back to the familiar form of Luz. When the light faded and Luz was once again herself, with tears filling her eyes just like the Titan that had been possessing her, the young Arch-Angel placed a soft kiss on King's head, and whispered.
"I felt exactly how much love she had for you, King. You were the world to her… seeing and holding you made her the happiest person in the universe."
King sniffled and buried his face in the side of Luz's neck; "I-I miss her, Luz!"
"I know, King. I know."
Unable to hold it in any longer, King once again cried. He cried with sadness, and with joy; equal parts mourning his mother's passing and celebrating her freedom. It was the most confusing, exhausting cry of King's life, and something he deeply needed.
Eda joined Luz once again in cuddling the little Titan, while quietly making sure Luz was okay after her possession. The girl suffered no ill-effects, and reported that Cassiopeia's soul was gone from her body, using her link to Orion's soul to move into the In-Between Realm where the two lovers could be reunited, and watch over their son together. The others approached to make sure she and King were okay too, but they kept a respectable distance since King was working through everything he'd just experienced. Eventually, the little Titan cried himself to sleep and remained nestled in Luz's arms as she and their friends and family all entered the bathysphere still in Lars' claws.
Luz politely requested a drop off at the Knee of the Boiling Isles, and Lars happily agreed to flash them all right to the site of the Primordial Wellspring. During the twenty minute trip from space to the Boiling Isles, Luz told Eda and her friends about what she'd experienced in her first vision with Cassiopeia, and then the second when her soul passed through her. Eda was already planning on a trip with Luz and King to collect one of Cassiopeia's Titan Oculi… once both had spent some time with the CATTs therapist and rested for a good few days at least.
When they arrived at the Knee, they found Raine, the rest of the Hexsquad, and the CATTs engaged in a siege battle with the Emperor's Coven. It was fairly evenly matched, as the Emperor's Coven had called in a lot of reinforcements, though they were being kept away from the Wellspring quite well by a combination of Raine and Skara. Naturally, the appearance of THREE Supreme Dragons alongside the Arch-Angel of the Boiling Isles and the infamous Owl Lady was enough to have most of the Coven Witches throw down their spears and run for their lives, and the few that stubbornly remained were quickly terrified into fleeing too when Luz showed off a little of her new strength by causing a minor tremor.
The Temple Raid Team then reunited with the Wellspring Guard Team, by which point King had woken up and was clearly not feeling up to much conversation. The bathysphere was reattached to the bottom of Raine's airship, and everyone boarded the ships to leave the Knee and head back to Bonesborough. However before they left, Luz walked to the bow of the airship and smiled up at Zara, Godric, and Lars.
"Thank you for all your help. If you're willing, we'd love to have you stay with us at our HQ. There's a lot of space, and a lot of caves we haven't fully explored yet. You could make a nice home together." Luz offered.
Raine nodded eagerly; "We could also really use your help with the CATTs. That is if you're okay with joining up."
All three shook their heads politely.
"We appreciate the offer, but the three of us would like to go and see the world." Zara said.
"We spent a millennia shut away in our temples, in service to the Titans. Now we are free and find we have a lot to catch up on." Godric nodded.
"And without meaning to be rude; we have no stake in your war. We have no bond or connection to the society you fight for, or the one you fight against." Lars added. "The world we lived in is gone… however I confess, I would like to see what the Boiling Isles has become since my journey through it centuries ago."
Zara and Godric agreed with that, so all three decided to remain on the isles for a while, taking over Eclipse Lake as their temporary den (so they could freely leave their dragon forms behind and have a place to recharge them). They would explore and keep their minds open, though made it clear they would not fight unless attacked personally.
Raine was a little disappointed, since their addition to the CATTs would have swung the Civil War fully in the CATTs' favour, but they couldn't begrudge them for wanting to stay neutral. In the end, they would respect the trio's decision.
With that final goodbye, the dragons dove back into the cavern of Eclipse Lake, with Zara freezing the entrance shut to keep out intruders. The CATTs then returned home, a successful mission behind them. Rasiel was making plans to get to the In-Between Realm and begin exploring it for the final Black Tomb, while Amity and Willow eagerly told the rest of the Hexsquad about what they experienced. Eda also told Raine and the adult CATTs, while Luz sat quietly with King. Raine and the others all approached King one by one during the flight home and offered him their condolences, which he appreciated. He wondered if the way he was feeling now was how Luz had felt a week ago on the anniversary of her father's passing. He looked up at his big sister and she silently smiled back at him, love and understanding in her eyes. He cuddled her a bit tighter, and she returned the favour.
The two spent the rest of the day together, and when it was King's time to go to bed, Luz decided to turn in early too, exhausted from the long day. As the two got ready for bed and settled into Luz's nest (King had shyly asked to sleep with her tonight), Eda walked into the room holding a book.
"Hey kids. Just coming in to wish you both a good night." Eda said, coming to sit on the edge of their shared nest.
"Thanks Mom." they said together, smiling tiredly. King then noticed the book and asked; "What's that?"
"Oh, well… I was thinking about your Mama and everything, and how she wanted to tell you stories and stuff. I get that you're probably a little old for bedtime stories, but I thought I could tell you one… if you'd like." Eda offered, seemingly becoming embarrassed by her own idea. It had seemed like a good idea when she thought it up; something nice to honour King's Mama, like the flowers for Luz's Papi.
King perked up a little at the idea and nodded; "I'd like that. Is it okay with you?" he asked his sister. Luz just smiled and nodded in reply, then budged over so she and King could nestle together as Eda sat in their nest with them. The Owl Lady cuddled close with them, then began to read the story in the book.
An hour later, Raine came looking for their lover and found Eda and her children sleeping soundly in Luz's nest, the book laying open on Eda's lap. The Bard smiled and took the book, before covering the trio in a blanket and turning off the light, leaving the little family to sleep warmly in each other's arms.
[Elsewhere]
The destruction of Cassiopeia's heart and her passing from the mortal realms was felt in more ways than just grief and mourning. With her passing, much of her magic had faded from the world, leaving only the glyphs and the magic inherent in the remains of her body, which would linger until her soul finally moved on to the afterlife entirely. However, this also meant that the magic she had used a very long time ago had also faded, and four individuals far away beyond the stars found their unhealing wounds finally beginning to close up.
The Titan magic that had infected those wounds was gone, and now they could finally heal again after bearing their wounds for 5000 years… in hindsight, that Soul Sealing Curse hadn't been their brightest move, but it had been one born of desperation. However now both it and its consequences were gone, and it was time to see what had become of the world they had once fled… from a safe distance of course. After all, only a Titan or someone with a great deal of their power could undo their curse… so something potentially dangerous must walk the Demon Realm. Something dangerous… but also very interesting.
A perfect subject for the Archives.
