Hunter shifted in bed before the sound of his scroll vibrating woke him and Flapjack up. The blonde boy rubbed his eyes and he grabbing his scroll and opening it to see a message from luz.
"Hey, me, kim,Maria, Lilith, Chris,lucy,Lincoln,deon,King,Emily,rover, left to get some info on deon and King's family and we might be gone for a while.with love luz," Hunter read.
Flapjack chirped and landed on Hunter's shoulder. The blonde boy climbed out of bed and walked to the living room where kakashi and dani was sitting on the couch. He rubbed his arm awkwardly before clearing his throat. The two older witches turned to him.
"Oh! Hunter, you're awake," dani said.
"How are you feeling, kid?" Kakashi asked.
'Oh yeah, I'm fine! I just went into the mind of my father seeing that he is actually a psychotic witch hunter who is planning to wipe out the entire population and that my body is a clone of my uncle,'"I'm feeling okay," Hunter answered.
dani nodded.
"I take it you're wondering where the others are?" she asked.
Hunter held up his scroll.
"i got a message knowing what happened," he said.
"Right. Well, do you want something to eat? You slept almost the whole day," kakashi said.
Hunter shook his head.
"I'm not really hungry," he mumbled.
"If it's okay, I'd like to go to school. To clear my head," he said.
"im going to watch over you. If nechros is looking for you, if shadow coven squats hidden when you're walking out in public," dani said.
Hunter nodded and dani turned invisible. Then hunter walked out of the castle.
Hunter was walking through Bonesborough with his girlfriend hiding in the mirror dimension. Hunter shoved his hands into his pockets as he sighed. Flapjack, who was hidden under his cloak, let out a chirp as he looked at the sky. Hunter looked up to see an shadow coven airship as Emperor's Coven Airship hiding under an illusions flying towards Hexside.
"What's going on?" Hunter asked himself using his sharingan.
Flapjack chirped and Hunter nodded. The only way to find out is to go check it out.
At Hexside:
the students were receiving their multi track uniforms. Walking out of the principal's office, Mattholomule looked at his new uniform. He still had the brown leggings for the construction but now he also had the blue sleeves for the illusion track. Matt smiled and walked off proudly.
The Blight twins came out as well. Edric had joined the Beast Keeping and Potions tracks while Emira had joined the healing track. The twins high fived and walked off. Inside the principal's office, Principal Bump was rummaging through folders in a drawer, and the illusion teacher looked back proudly.
"It's nice to see the kids embracing multitracks. I remember giving up everything for illusions," alice said.
Principal Bump nodded.in agreement.
"To be honest, I thought this would be more trouble than it's worth. But I haven't seen students this enthusiastic, ever," he said.
He was honestly glad emperor boles allowed multitrack classes.
In the Cafeteria:
amity,apollo,hunter,cabba,kale,caulifla,skara,Gus and Willow.
"I went by and checked out the Owl House. It was crawling with remaining not dead shadow Coven Scouts"Possibly. I was thinking of capturing one for information but…" willow started but got cut off.
"It's okay, Willow. They're tough. Not everyone can stand up to them," Amity said.
Willow squinted at her suspiciously.
what did this happen after i left for school Apollo asked.
Yes willow answered.
The school bell screamed and rang, signaling the end of the lunch period.
"Catch you guys later," Hunter said as he grabbed his stuff and left.
Amity grabbed her food tray and walked off with a decent expression on her face. Willow followed after her with a dejected look and the others did the same. Gus turned to willow.
"Hey, you should say something," he said.
Willow sighed and smiled.
"I'm fine. We just started hanging out again, and she needs time to get to know the new me," she said.
"You mean the real you," Gus corrected, winking at his friend.
Willow chuckled.
"Mm-hmm," she said, winking back at him.
She walked off. As the others walked off, Gus was picking up his lunch when he heard rattling from the trash bin. He turned around and saw a Kaijudo creature Skull Cutter come out of it with a half eaten sandwich. He gasped.
"Hey, Skull Cutter what are you doing here?" Gus asked.
Skull Cutter, dropped the sandwich and ran off. Gus pocketed his lunch, summoned his staff and chased after him.
"Wait, get back here!" he called.
Skull Cutter ran through the hallways as Gus followed him. Eventually, Gus ended up in the Paranoratorium, Hexside's closed theater. Gus landed on the ground and looked around, his staff drawn. Suddenly, someone came up behind him and Gus gasped. He spun around and swung his staff.
"Woah!" the person yelped.
They caught Gus's staff in their hand, stopping the attack. They dropped his staff and Gus stepped back and got into a fighting stance.
"Who are you?" he asked.
"Take it easy," the figure said, putting her hands up.
They walked out of the shadows showing marcy in a blue cloak. Gus narrowed his eyes.
"marcy why are you here,?" he asked.
"i definitely wasn't spy on the students cause this is a magic school Gus,marcy lied then A growl came from her's abdomen, making her blush in embarrassment. Gus stood up straighter.
Here eat this you look hungry gus said. summoned his lunch bag and tossing the bag to marcy.she caught it and looked inside to see an orange, an apple and a sandwich.
oh yeah here someone to look after you while you rest gus said as he used his gauntlet to open a portal and then aaarrrgghh came out.
Then the speaker started"Students, please join me in the gym for an important announcement." Principal Bump said.
aaarrrgghh stay here and keep marcy safe okay till i get back gus Said.
Okay wingman. aaarrrgghh said.as gus ran off then left
In the gym
all the students were gathering, and Emira and Viney were holding hands. On a stage erected in the middle of the room stood Bump and three hooded figures.
Principal Bump brought the crowd to silence before he began, "Uh, students, teachers, let me introduce the esteemed-"
But the middle hooded figure interrupted him, "Please, Principal Bump, I deserve no accolades." With a flourish the figure stepped forward and took off his hood. "Hello everyone, my name is wanda maxmoff(who was really Adrian Graye in disguise), Head Witch of the Illusionist Coven. With me today are nari who really (Terra Snapdragon under an illusion as well), Head Witch of the Plant Coven." At everyones worried muttered he continued. "Unfortunately, I'm not here with good news. The shadow's Coven has plans to stop multi-track studies, by inducting every Hexside student into a coven, before the Day of Unity." Everyone gasps in shock. Especially Viney, Barcus, Jerbo, Ed,Em and the other multi-track students.
Principal Bump quickly gestured to quiet everyone down, "Don't worry. No one's magic is going to be sealed away. Head Witch maxmoff has come to help, and with her fellow heads support they came up with a plan.
As Edric was led up to the stage, wanda(actually Adrian) started speaking again, "Before any Coven Scouts come by, I'm going to make illusions of sigils on your wrists. They'll be temporary, and harmless."
Edric, looking scared, started sputtering, "Whoa, whoa, whoa. Wait, wait, I just started the other tracks. Are you sure this is safe?"
wanda(Adrian) grins maliciously, "Don't worry, once a scout sees the fake sigil, they'll move on, and you can continue your studies in peace. Now hold still." Adrian drew a spell circle in the air and aimed it towards Edric's wrist. Gus realized this is a trap as he noticed Adrian's illusion flicker almost imperceptibly.
Gus gasped, "Stop! Don't trust him! It wanda it's Adrien grey He's hiding behind an illusion!"
Gus draws a huge spell circle, and aims it towards the stage. The illusion dispels and wanda is revealed to be a Adrian in disguise. Edric fearfully shields his wrist as Bump steps forward to protect him.
When suddenly, the real Adrian's voice can be heard, "Cut! Just... just cut."
From the bleachers in the gym, shadow Coven Scouts start appearing, to the shock and disturbance of the students. Some shadow Coven Scouts also appear on stage too, a few handling the lights, and a few handling vocals.
"All right, a couple of notes. Tom, that Adrian illusion was lacking a certain, hmm? You get me? Severine! That was really... poor work. You're on thin ice. Captain, the read of your last line was just a little... mm," said Adrian as he went from scout to scout and his fellow heads just looked at him in exasperation.
"Adrian. This is ridiculous. We let you play your little game. Now how about we get down to business. I have more important things to do today than this," sighed Terra.
The captain shook his head.
"I don't know what that means," he said.
Adrian winked at him.
"You'll figure it out," he said.
He then teleported beside Gus and grabbed his arm.
"Gus!" Amity and skara said.
"Let him go!" Willow growled.
Adrian ignored them as he looked at Gus.
"And you. Well, you just ruined any chance we had of making this, something," Adrian said.
Gus glared at him.
"You were gonna trick us into getting infected with staro parasite!" he said.
He tried to escape Adrian's tight grip but was unsuccessful. A coven scout handed Adrian a branding glove but instead of a coven sigil it had staro tech parasite on it which he put on.
"Uh, yeah. I work for nechros. Kind of my job. But let's make sure you can never use your little illusion tricks again…shall we?" he said, sinisterly.
Everyone gasped in horror. amity,apollo,hunter,cabba,kale,caulifla,skara, and Willow. moved to help Gus but were stopped by some coven scouts. Gus tries to escape Adrian's grip again as Adrian's gloved hand slowly reaches his wrists.
"No, no, stay back! I said…Stay…BACK!" Gus shouted, his words echoing.
Gus's eyes turned blue and he projected a wide illusion which kept shifting locations, confusing everyone. Everyone in the gym started running in different directions. Adrian looked at Gus, astonished.unknown to them in the Paranoratorium, aaarrrgghh's eyes glowed blue like gus he knows his best friend was in trouble and he knew where to go.marcy got on his back.
"How are you doing this?!" Adrian asked.
Gus tried to escape his grip again. Just then, aaarrrgghh and hunter passed through the illusion and approached Adrian You are pathetic little brats! aaarrrgghh approached him. "You are pathetic little brats! You can't defeat me! you worthless brute and I will not be bullied by—" Grabbing Adrien by the legs aaarrrgghh smashes him against the floor multiple times shutting him up.
"Puny witch." aaarrrgghh scoffs taking Gus,apollo,hunter with him they both disappeared away causing Adrien to whimper. Adrian recovered and then used an earring that looks like a mirror, drew a spell circle and steadied the illusion. However, this brought him and a few other scouts into the Looking Glass Ruins.
In the plant wing
Willow, Emira,kale and marcy are catching their breath.
"I just got a text from Ed. He, Bump and a bunch of others are in the Healing Homeroom. We should find our way over there," declared Emira
As they attempted to make their way, they found themselves cut off by Terra and her Coven Scouts.
"Hello there little sprouts. Why not make this easy for yourselves and just except the brands," cooed Terra.
Willow looked around at the two girls behind her. They were afraid. They needed someone to fight for them… like Luz did for her. In that moment it dawned on her. Terra, her scouts, even Belos were just bullies, and thanks to her friends Luz and Amity she knew how to deal with a bully. Willow straightened her back, planted her feet, and looked Terra in the eye as she calmly and evenly said, "No. Leave now and don't come back, or I will have to throw you out."
For a moment Terra just looked at the girl confused, but then she began to laugh before becoming deadly serious, "Oh, this sprout has fire. I hate to inform you but I am Terra Snapdragon. I am Head Witch of the Plant Coven.then she starts to transform in a bug-like plant creature with multiple tentacles with spikes and is brownish greenish and has four big green glowing eyes and a glowing mouth.also There is not a seedling, vine, or tree on these Islands that is not at my beck and call. I have tended to the growth of generations of young witches as they grew into their power, and like them you will know your place." With a subtle flick of her wrist Terra sent a barbed vine shooting toward Willow like a striking snake.
Emeira and marcy yelled out together, "Willow, watch out!" But Willow did not move.
Inches from Willow's face, her eyes lit up in a vibrant green and the vine stopped dead. Everyone simply stood witness to Willow's ascension. Like an arboreal goddess, roots and vines snaked around her like armor and lifted her off the ground.
From out of the wild creation of nature's wrath came Willow's voice, strong and uncompromising, "I know who you are. There was even a time I looked up to you, but that was a long time ago. Since you care so much about who we are, I will let you know your replacement is here. I am Willow Park. I was half-a-witch Willow. I allowed others to determine my worth, but not anymore. I am the head of Hexsides plant track. I am the captain of the Emerald Entrails. I stand shoulder to shoulder with the most courageous and powerful witches of my age, and if my friends Luz and Amity have taught me anything. It's how to prune an old…withered… weed like you. So show me what you've got, or run away and accept that you aren't queen around here anymore. That crown is mine."
Truly enraged at the gall of the young upstart standing before her, Terra lashed out with dozens of flytrap-esque growths with acid dripping from their maws like the heads of a hungry hydra.
Only to see them shrivel before the young witch or slam themselves into the walls beside her as Willow started slowly moving toward her. Terra tried throwing up a wall of thick vines to stop Willow's approach. Only to see her walk through them like they didn't exist, some even joining with Willow's already impressive armor.
As a last resort Terra summoned scores of spore rich flowers and had them dump it all into the air before Willow in an attempt to slow her down, but with a small gesture Willow condensed it all and shot it back at her and her scouts. In one fell swoop all of the scouts passed out and Terra was left feeling fear for the first time in a very long time. With one mighty swing of her arm Willow backhanded Terra into the wall, knocking her out as well, and with no more effort then swatting a bug Willow entombed each of them in vines and stone like hands and left them hanging on the front lawn off of a central stalk.
During the whole exchange Emira,kale and marcy just watched in awe. Emira of them remembering the old Willow. As the scared little girl her sister had always stood up for before their parents got in the way. For kale it was her sister who had been Boscha's favorite target for years that she was to scared to help her even after amity left. Both of them knew that girl didn't exist anymore. She had blossomed and woe betide the next bully that tried their luck because this Willow was not one to mess with.
As Willow shed her armor and smiled at the shocked pair she asked, "Too much?"
With a look the two girls smiled and gave a bow, "Not at all your ladyship and Queen of all things Green." At the comment all three broke out into uncontrolled laughter.
Throwing her arm over Willow's right shoulder Emira said, "Luz and Mittens would be proud."
While kale threw her arm over Willow's left shoulder while continuing to laugh, "your awesome sister."
With smiles and walking as one, the three girls made their way towards the healing homeroom. Unaware that the whole ordeal had been seen by one other person who slicked away to think.
Meanwhile.
aaarrrgghh,Apollo,hunter and gus were walking through the illusion
But then they heard a clicking sound.
Gus: What was that? Gus
Oh Titan it's here. Hunter said.
What? What's here? aaarrrgghh asked
They heard the clicking sound continue.
An Akumatized grimm. Guys be on your guard. This thing is tough. Hunter said.
Suddenly a green projectile shot down from above. Hunter deflected the attack with his staff. Akumatized grimm was but unlike the others this was more humanoid. It had an athletic build with a red body. It had bronze armor on it's chest shaped like an X from his shoulders to legs, as well as armor covering his thighs, knees and had pointed feet. It had shoulder guards with a spike sticking out as well as arm guards and metallic gloves, however the right hand was abnormally large, twice the size of his normal left hand and the claws were even sharper. The head was also bronze and was shaped like a star. He lacked a mouth, only glowing green eyes. It jumped down as he opend up his large clawed hand and growled at the four as four mecha vipers and three scouts accompanied him.
There he is! Get him! Scout said.
Akumatized grimm roared as he and his troops charged at the trio. Apollo stepped up and slammed his hand to the ground as large stone pillars, knocking away one of the scouts and two Mecha vipers. Akumatized grimm burst through one of the pillars and about to claw aaarrrgghh. He got out of the way and punched Akumatized grimm across the face. Witch Killer growled as his eyes began to glow and fired it's eye beams at him. aaarrrgghh poofed as it turned out to be an illusion made by Gus. Akumatized grimm turned to Gus,aaarrrgghh and Apollo and fired it's eye beams at the three as they poofed again revealing to be illusions. Witch Killer looked around and saw duplicates of of Gus,apollo and aaarrrgghh. Akumatized grimm stretched large hand out to claw all the illusions around the area.
Hunter had taken out the other scouts and Mecha vipers with plants vines to hold them down. He set his attention to Akumatized grimm. Akumatized grimm was having trouble trying to find aaarrrgghh,gus and Apollo, so then he reached his hand out and finger projectiles all around the illusions. Eventually he found the real aaarrrgghh,gus and Apollo. The three fell to the ground as Akumatized grimm was about to get them, but then he felt a vine wrap around his claw hand. He looked over and a vine wrapped his other. Hunter and shadow clone of him appeared from behind and aaarrrgghh ran punched hard then Akumatized grimm roared and fell to the ground.
Let's go! Hunter said.
The four of them ran from Akumatized grimm. He quickly got back up and broke free. He roared and chased after the four. They ran into a tangible wall to hide away from him. Akumatized grimm passed by but looked confused as he continued looking for the four. The scene then cuts to the four what looks like an illusion of Gus's room.
You guys alright. Gus asked.
Yeah, thanks. Hunter said.
Then they heard the growling clicking sound again.
He's getting close. Hunter said.
Quick this way. Gus
The four went through a fake wall and continued running.
They were running from akumatized grimm. They running through different illusions of rooms or areas Gus has been too. It was hard to tell where they were at or if they were getting farther away, but all they could here was akumatized grimm's clicking growl. They stopped in an illusion of what looked like the inside of the owl house.unknown to akumatized grimm followed them. Hunter saw him from behind and gasped.
guys Behind you! Gus yelled.
they turned around and saw akumatized grimm shoot a long rope with a spear blade on it from the palm of his hand. aaarrrgghh had no time to react as it was coming straight at him, about to pierce him through the chest. Hunter got up and he summoned an energy force bubble. Gus summoned captain cold's cold gun and fired at the akumatized grimm, freezing him.
The four of them ran out of the illusion and ended up in another area, this time looking like Willow's bedroom.
Phew, that was close. Thanks hunter... Apollo thanked.
apollo then saw Hunter sitting on the ground holding his arm. He got cut from the spear and blood was dripping down.
You're hurt. Gus said
no were good hunter said.
As Hunter,apollo,aaarrrgghh and Gus finish catching their breath before moving on,I'll site up a psychic link gus said.
As the four guys continue to make their way looking for everyone else they see Willow walking through the halls and stops as she notices them.
Gus shouts out, "Willow! You're okay!"
"Augustus! I've been looking everywhere for you!" Willow says as she slowly draws closer.
"Oh, don't worry. We're cool," reasurres Gus.
As she draws closer though, Hunter,apollo,aaarrrgghh and Gus look at her suspiciously, and Hunter summons his staff and apollo summons his sword and they teleports and in front of the two.
Hunter growls out, "Who are you? You're not the captain."
yeah nice try imitating my girlfriend apollo said.
Willow just looked on in fear, seeming to beg Gus for help with her eyes.
Gus only laughs at her, "Have you ever seen Willow play Flyer Derby? There's no way she'd be afraid of either of us."
As 'Willow' started backing away, Adrian's voice rang out again, "Oh, again? Cut!"
"Willow" is revealed to be Severine in disguise.
Severine! You had your chance and you blew it! Not that I'm surprised," Adrian groaned.
"But, I-I followed all your notes," Severine said.
"Well, he was still able to see through your shoddy performance. So, maybe you should've figured out the note inside the note," Adrian said.
Severine walked away with her head hung low. Adrian turned to the three teens and large troll
"And you four are making my job very difficult," he said.
Very clever. The Scout Captain:
Two more scouts entered the room joining him.
We can take him! Apollo said as he formed his stone fists about to fight. He ran at the captain but suddenly akumatized grimm appeared in front of him and kicked him across the head, knocking him out.
Gus and Hunter: apollo! Gus and hunter said in unison
the akumatized grimm punched Hunter in the stomach and hits him on the back of his neck as Hunter fell to the ground then aaarrrgghh charged to attack the akumatized grimm but the troll punched the akumatized grimm in the face then the akumatized grimm punched aaarrrgghh hard in lookers knocking him unconscious.
Hunter! aaarrrgghh! Gus shouted.
The Scout Captain formed a spell circle and plant vines wrapped up Gus. akumatized grimm grabbed hold of him and carried him with one hand just . Hunter watched but couldn't get up due to how weak he was.
Gus...no. Hunter groans.
Take him to Adrian. You two scouts kill the boy and the troll also break the ex golden guard's legs. Then take him back to nechros. Scout captain said.
Hunter couldn't get up as his vision was getting darker as the two scouts approached him and then everything went black.
then lycanroc came then came out oh his Pokeball and Light blue waves of energy start swirling around Aerodactyl. It then fires a light blue beam of energy from its mouth call dragon at the one of the scouts and dani appeared then fired by an echto blast at the other scout.
Skara,kale,marcy and viney saw them they went to the others help them especially carrying aaarrrgghh.
A couple of minutes later:
The next time Hunter opened his eyes, he saw Flapjack standing above him before being joined by Skara,kale,marcy,Viney,lycanroc and dani
"He's waking up!" Dani said.
Hunter sat up and rubbed his head. He looked around the room and was surprised to see that he was in a Healing Room. Barcus was licking a scar on one of his paws, Jerbo sat beside him, getting a gauze wrapped around his leg, Principal Bump was damping a wet cloth onto Mattholomule's arm, Emira had drawn a spell circle to heal Edric's scraped head,Willow was shown getting her arm healed by apollo And Aaarrrgghh was getting healed by cat. Hunter blinked before suddenly getting up.
"T-this..This is an illusion! Gus! Are you-Ah!" Hunter grunted.
He tried to stand but fell to the ground, groaning. Apollo and dani helped him up.
"Woah! It's okay. Try not to stand so fast," Viney said.
"This isn't an illusion. You're in the Healing Homeroom," Skara said.
Principal Bump approached Hunter with a distrustful look on his face,
"your friends saw you guys were hurt, and they help bring you all here," Bump said.
Hunter looked at Skara,kale,marcy and Viney with happy looks.
"do you know Where have the scouts taken my sweet Augustus?" Skara asked intensely.
I think I can help find him,it's a spell from "star butterfly"dani said lifting her right hand,closed her eyes then she began saying an Incantation: "I summon the All-Seeing Eye to tear a hole into the sky. Reveal to me that which is hidden. Unveil to me what is forbidden." Then a beam from her hand the a dark cloud appeared with, an eye showing gus with adrian,terra, the shadow coven guard and the akumatized grimm inside the gym
with Aaarrrgghh still out cold,well need help driving the two shadow coven dummies Graye,terra and their scouts out of the school," caulifla said.
Hunter and dani nodded.
if you need help i called for backup dani said as she used her sling ring to open a portal then alito,rio,kipo,cloak and nomura
we came to help kipo said.
Yeah let's kick some but alito said.
Let's go
Amity stood up.
he'll be in the gym. But he will be guarded. Viney said.
"That won't be a problem. Willow can bust through anything," she said.
Willow turned and gave her a smile.
"Well, I'm gonna need some help," she said.
alito raised his fist.
"You can count ua in," he said.
Everyone else agreed as they raised their fists as well. Principal Bump sighed,
"Let's come up with a plan," he said.
At the Gym:
The outside of the gym was enveloped in an illusion of a forest. Inside, the gym was enveloped inside an illusionof the Looking Glass Ruins as Adrian was pacing back and forth in front of a captive Gus who was being held by two shadow Coven Scouts.
"...and yes, at first I thought that fooling children was a waste of my impressive talents." Adrian said as Gus ignored him. "But I realised that a true genius can find the art in everything he does and-" he looked at Gus and seeing him not paying attention; "Hey! Hey!" he growled, snapping his fingers in Gus's face. "Are you listening!? This is my monologue!"
"I noticed. That's why I wasn't listening." Gus snarked. Then Adrian glared.
"Ugh, this is why I hate working with brats!" the man growled. "But if you can't appreciate a proper monologue, then I'll get right to the point. These illusions are all your doing, correct? Made from your memories?"
"Yeah, I guess." Gus frowned. He'd prefer to stay silent, but with hostages at stake, he didn't want to antagonise Vernworth too much.
"I thought as much. Now tell me; how do you know about the Looking Glass Graveyard!" Adrian scowled angrily as he looked longingly at one of the statues; "I've been looking for the Galdorstones. They'd make great gifts for the Emperor nechros!"
"I couldn't tell you even if I wanted to." Gus lied; "a memory spell will activate If I tell you anything, my memory of where it is will be instantly erased before I get the words out. Sorry, but you'll need to find it the old fashioned way. I'm sure the "Great Adrian Graye Vernworth" can do it if a couple of kids could." Gus said mockingly.
Adrian growled in anger, then forced himself to take a deep breath to calm himself, before smirking condescendingly. "How droll. Well, I guess we'll do this the fun way!" he removed his earring again and showed it to Gus. "Do you know what this is? It's a handy little Magic Amplifier, tuned to Illusion Magic. Thanks to a little added Angelic Magic from the Emperor, it can do just about anything I want it to when it comes to Illusions! It can see through illusions, decode how they work and how they were cast, and massive increase the power of any illusion spells I cast with it. It can even dispel illusions no normal person could. Allow me to demonstrate."
The man put the earring close to Gus's face, revealing to the boy that the lens was actually like a two-way mirror, being see-through on one side but reflective on the other. Adrian turned the reflective side towards Gus and peered through the lens at Gus's glowing eye.
"Ah, I see… so that's how this illusion works. Your mind and magic reflects your memories onto the world around you. What a curious use of magic… with something like this, you could trap others in your memories too, or even inside their own. I'll have to try that later! But first…"
Adrian drew a spell circle using the mirror, and Gus felt a sharp pain in his head before his eye stopped glowing and the illusions around the entire school faded away, returning it to normal. "Marvellous; now my men can round up the rest of these urchins. As for you…" Adrian smiled sinisterly as he drew another spell circle and placed the mirror inside it; "If you can't tell me what I want to know, I'll have to sort through those little memories of yours… if you behave yourself and don't resist, you mind might even survive the experience!"
Gus cried out in pain as the sharp stabbing sensations in his brain began to intensify, as Adrian used Illusion Magic to forcibly read his mind. Magic like that was horribly unpleasant, especially when performed so roughly. It was tantamount to torturing him for information, only without Gus needing to actually give the answers himself.Adrian's spell broke and Gus felt his pain recede, though he was still panicking, his eyes flashing cyan as he tried to fight off the trauma-induced overload and keep his massive illusion from being recreated. Then Gus's illusion had been dispelled,
Adrian cackled madly; "This spell truly is a fine one, isn't it Boy!? You used it unconsciously project your memories onto the world, but with my extraordinary talents, I was able to refine it and use it to trap people in their own worst memories and nightmares! With this, I'll put an end to this whole charade myself!"
The Amplifying Mirror pulsed with magic and the sphere of magic rapidly expanded to coat the entire school, trapping everyone inside; Rebels, Scouts, Illusionists, Teachers, and Students alike inside their own horrible memories, paralysing them all with terrifying and heart-breaking memories. Immediately, wails from all those trapped inside the memories began to sound out across the school, and people outside the school saw only the blue sphere surrounding it and heard the horrible screams from inside.
Outside the gym.
the Scout Captain still guarding the the door. He looks to his left and see's Principal Bump and nomura walking towards him.
Gym is off limits. Head witch orders.scout captain said.
your criminal also this is my school and I'm still principal. Principal bump said.
It'd be wise to let us through.nomura said
Oh yeah? Scout captain chuckles
Principla Bump's palisman Ferwin comes off his head forms into his staff. nomura also forms what looks like a samurai sword.
Yeah. Principal bump said.
Behind him and illusion dispels showing the Hexside students, a few abominations and Viney's griffin Puddles standing with him ready to fight. The captain whistles and the rest of the scouts and bio vipers join him.
Get 'em! Scout captain said
Both sides began to fight. A Coven Scout attacks first, but Bump blocks him with magic. Two scouts and three dorodoros come at nomura, she gives them a stern look and at high speed slashed them with her sword. Another scout and dorodoro appears and attempts to attack Hunter, but he simply teleports behind them and he shoves the scout off and hits the dorodoro across the face with his staff. An abomination attempts to attack another coven scout, but he slashes it. Suddenly, Puddles lands on top of him, with Viney and Skara riding him.
She attacks and incoming dorodoro beside her, but a vine suddenly wraps Puddles's leg, causing both Skara and Viney to get thrown away. Emira immediately runs over and starts to heal Skara. Another dorodoro attempts to attack them, but he is suddenly countered by an abomination summoned by Amity who smiles at them and reply with a smile back. She runs off, controlling the abomination. Behind her, Edric and Barcus carry a handful of potions which they throw at the scouts and dorodoros. Jerbo is shown chasing after some of them with his own abomination,cabba,kale and caulifla fired kai blasts,rio froze two of the scouts,kipo speed punches one of the bio vipers with her paw like hands.clock summoned two dragon claws made of shadows on his hands slashes two scouts,Apollo Smoke Dash in at a coven scout then the acout began to cough then.guilmon spits a concentrated blast of fire from his mouth called Pyro Sphere at the scout. Mattholomule is seen defending himself summoning small walls which hit the incoming a bio vipers.But then one scout was coming at him from behind until he was punched in the face by alito.
Don't worry Mattholomule. I got your back. Alito said.
Thanks Mattholomule said.
Enough! I will not be cowed by a group of students! Scout captain said.
Then A mix of abomination goo,ice,a stone fist and vines suddenly hit his face; he is then trapped in a wall. Willow and Amity step forward as they call off their summons and pose together
Then how about just two of us? Willow said.
Nice one. Amity said.
go help well take the others hunter said as dani ice blast a bio viper.
As the others dealt with the remaining scouts then skara,apollo,Amity and Willow enter the gym to face Adrian and save Gus. But upon entering they see in the center of the room where Gus should be a large glowing orb surrounding him
What's going on? Amity said.
Gus is trapped in his head! And it looks like he's being affected by it too. Willow said.
the akumatized grimm heard the the two and turned around seeing the five and roared.
We'll hold him off. Skara save Gus willow told.
You got it
skara goes to Gus as Amity, Willow and a joined together to face against the akumatized grimm. Apollo stepped up first.
Don't worry Willow. I'll protect you. Apollo said
the akumatized grimm acted first as he stretched his clawed arm about to slash him until Willow pulled him back with a vine and formed more to hit the akumatized grimm against the wall.
No,apollo I'll protect you. Willow said.
Apollo had a surprised look on his face and blushed seeing how strong she was. the akumatized grimm got back up and roared. His eyes began to glow and fired his eye beams at the them.
The attack was caught in a ball of abomination goo made by Amity. Remembering her lessons with Luz she formed some abomination goo into a light glyph and flashed it at the akumatized grimm. It blinded him for a moment but he stretched his arm at hit Amity to the ground. He regained vision and approached her, but then he stepped on something. He looked down and it was some more abomination goo.
Gotcha.amity said.
It turned out a large fire glyph made of abomination goo. It activated as it bursts into flames. the akumatized grimm was flown into the bleachers all singed. He got up and growled at her. His eye beams fired at her but she dodged the attack. He fired at her again as still dodged.
He then stretched his claw arm at her. She dodged at it instead came at Alex, who caught his arm. He began to twirl the akumatized grimm around. He then tossed him to the ground and lets go. the akumatized grimm roared at apollo but then a vine rose out of the ground and wrapped around the akumatized grimm's neck. He used his clawed hand and cut the vine only for more to come from behind him and again wrapping his neck, arms and waist. the akumatized grimm is pulled down underground. A large piranha plant flower emerges from the ground, with Willow sitting on top of him. The piranah plant mouth scrunched up in disgust and spits the akumatized grimm out.
No good Petey? Willow said.
Petey nods.
Sorry, I'll get you something better later. Willow said.
the akumatized grimm roars at Willow and raised his claw hand up at her, but then it was covered with abominatin goo. He looked over at Amity who shot his eye beam at her. It was however blocked off by an arua shield. Apollo using thunder punch at the akumatized grimm. the akumatized grimm tried to get back up, but seem to be weakening. Willow appeared behind him with large stone gauntlets on her hands and swat him up in the air. Amity form some abomination goo into a spear and shot it at the akumatized grimm's chest, impaling him.
Whoa, nice shot.apollo said.
the akumatized grimm fell to the ground. He slowly got up with the spear still in the chest, but then electricity formed around his body as he let out a dying roar. He fell to the ground and bursts into flames.
Great job. Willow said.
Thanks. Amity said.
The two girls high five.
Ahem.apollo said.
Oh, you too Alex. Couldn't have beaten him without you. Willow said.
The two high five Alex as he nods with appreciation.
Inside gus mind.
The rapid shifting hurt Gus's eyes so he closed them for a moment, but when he opened them again, he found that the hexside rooftop had been replaced by what appeared to be the Looking Glass Ruins… or at least, something that resembled it.
The "ruins" now appeared to be pristine, as if it had been recently built, and it now had silver filigree and crystal ornamentation all over it, replacing the ivy and overgrown foliage that had taken up the place before. The Galdorstones were also notably missing, but instead the statues held large mirrors that appeared to be giant versions of Adrian's Amplifying Mirror. The sky above was also like a kaleidoscope of blues and purples, constantly shattering and changing to new mind-bending patterns. It was a beautiful but shocking sight, and when Gus hopped on Emmiline and flew up high to try and get a better look of the place as a whole, he found that the entire "ruins" was floating in the sky above an endless sea of what appeared to be silver.
"W-What the heck!?" Gus cried as he landed again; "Did Vernworth use his mirror to mimic what I did earlier, and cover the entire city in an illusion!?" he wondered aloud, walking around slowly with his staff at the ready in case the man jumped out of nowhere. He tried to dispel the illusion or see through it, but the former didn't work at all, and the latter just caused everything to turn black, as if there was nothing but void beyond the illusion.
"I've never see anything like this…" Gus whispered to himself. He approached a statue and gingerly reached forward to touch it, then gasped as his hand actually made contact with stone, silver, and crystal. "I-It's real!?"
"Not quite!" bellowed Adrian, his voice seemingly coming from everywhere. Gus felt the ground beneath his feet rumble, before a massively oversized version of Adrian emerged from the sea of silver down below. He looked exactly as he always did, but scaled up and with a noticeably more muscular physique with a slightly more handsome face.
The titanic Coven Head stared down at Gus with a mocking grin, then slammed his palm down where the boy was standing, forcing him to yelp and fly out of the way, just barely managing to slip into the gap between the man's fingers before they hit the ground. He then immediately flew up into the air to stop Adrian crushing him by squeezing his fingers together.
"W-What is this!? Is this really just an illusion!?" Gus cried in a panic.
"Ha! Do let me know if you figure it out! It'll be a fun fact to learn before you get turned into jelly!" Adrian mocked, as he pulled his hand back and swatted at Gus.
The young man just barely escaped again, flying as fast as he could with his staff whilst also propelling himself along with a jet of water from each hand. As soon as he dodged Vernworth's left hand, the right came swinging at him and Gus retaliated by again flying away, but this time aiming the icy cold jets of water directly at the incoming hand. Adrian yelped in surprise at the freezing water, making Gus grin. If the giant Adrian could still feel things, then he was just a much bigger target now!
"Let's see how you like this!" Gus yelled,He immediately felt a massive surge of power and an aura of cyan magic and tailed beast chakra covered him Then, surfing on his staff, Gus flew around in a massive circle, creating a spell circle roughly the size of the gigantic Adrian's head.
The spell circle shattered into a huge blizzard of snow and ice, which then combined together into a massive icicle. In the real world, something like that could easily destroy most modest sized buildings, so Gus carefully aimed it at Adrian's chest and then launched straight at him. The Coven Head's eyes widened and he recoiled a step, before suddenly snapping his fingers and causing a massive burst of cyan flames to ignite the icicle. Gus gasped seeing his ice somehow burning and evaporating into nothing, being completely destroyed before it got anywhere near Vernworth's chest.
"What!? How did you do that with illusion magic!?" Gus demanded, totally shocked.
"I control everything here! Welcome to the world as it could be; designed by the great Adrian Graye Vernworth!" Adrian grinned mockingly, before laughing maniacally as he snapped his fingers again. The Looking Glass Statues suddenly came to life and sprouted stone dragon wings, which they used to fly up at Gus and begin trying to bludgeon him with their mirrors.
Gus was quick to begin dodging and flying around, using the remains of his Power Glyph boost to bind them with water tendrils or freeze them solid, but nothing he did kept them trapped for long. Adrian would just snap his fingers and the ice and water would disappear as if it were never there to begin with.
Gus began to panic; how could he beat a giant version of a Coven Head in a world he had complete control over!? How was this possible with just illusions!? Before he could even begin to think of a hypothesis, Adrian snapped his fingers and created a storm cloud, which shot a bolt of lightning at Gus. The boy narrowly dodged it, but then one of the mirror wielding statues batted it back at him again, forcing him to evade once again.
This continued until they boxed Gus in, forcing him to try and make an ice mirror around himself to block the lightning, but the instant he did, Adrian snapped his fingers once more and the ice vanished, allowing the bolt to strike Gus.
The poor boy screamed in pain and fell to the ground as he convulsed from the electricity, though thankfully Emmiline was able to swoop down on her own and catch him before he hit the ground. With no other ideas, Gus weakly cast an invisibility spell around himself and Emmie, praying to the Titan that it would work. To his immense relief, Adrian's expression became one of annoyance, and he began to wave his large hands, whipping up a powerful gust of wind to blow Gus and Emmiline away. Emmie flew her partner to a secluded spot behind a statue plinth, where the wind couldn't reach them. Once they were hidden, Emmie turned back to her animal form and clung to Gus's shirt, looking up with concerned eyes.
"Gus!" she said, somehow speaking out loud instead of into his mind; "Are you alright!?"
"I really hate getting zapped!" Gus hissed, keeping his voice low lest Adrian hear him. "What's going on here? What is with this weird illusion!? I don't understand!"
Emmie shook her head; "I don't know. It's confusing! But all of this feels real, not like an illusion."
"Vernworth can't cast any kind of magic besides illusions; even the Coven Heads are branded with sigils. Could that Amplifying Mirror be powerful enough to let him warp reality with illusions?" Gus asked, face filling with doubt even as he voiced the thought. No, something that powerful couldn't be possible! Besides, if Adrian could do something like this, why hadn't he done it already? He should have been able to easily ensnare and brand every student in Glandus without even a need for trickery and his dumb fake Adrian plan.
"It has to be something he couldn't do before… wait a moment!" Gus thought, his eyes suddenly widening as the pieces began to come together. Before the world had changed, Adrian's mirror had shot spells at both his own forehead AND Gus's, then suddenly they appeared in this illusion world. Adrian was able to control the space completely, and for some reason, Emmiline was able to talk out loud… putting all that together, Gus figured it out.
"This isn't real!" Gus gasped; "This is all literally happening inside my mind! That's why you can talk out loud here, Emmie! Because Palismen talk inside their partners' heads! Adrian's spell must have linked his mind to mine and created this imaginary world! He controls everything and can break the rules of magic here because it's all a fake world he made!"
Emmiline nodded; "It makes sense! I'm here too because our minds are linked! And he isn't really hurting you; it's all inside your head!"
"Which means…" Gus continued, closing his eyes and focusing. If this was all a kind of illusory mind-scape Adrian created within his head, then he wasn't just Gus; he was the Inner Gus, and that meant his body was how he perceived himself to be. He got hurt because he believed he could, so if he believed he could heal…
Gus felt the pain of the prior shocks faded away into nothingness and his strength return. He grinned; "It worked! Adrian can control this space since he made it and shoved it into my brain, but he can't control me directly! That's why he couldn't see me when I became invisible, or cast magic to change me directly!"
And since Gus's current self was a personification of his mind and not his physical body, his condition was based on whatever he thought it was! By focusing his mind and his own skill in Illusion Magic, he could change himself as he wished! He had to give Adrian credit though; using this tactic against a non-Illusionist would ensure almost an instant win for him! Heck, even most Illusionists would struggle to take back some control over this false mind-scape!
"Time to take back control, Emmie!" Gus declared, switching his Palisman back into staff mode. Focusing all his mental fortitude, Emmiline's own strength, Gus closed his eyes and began to send his magic and chakra down into the ground.
Adrian, who'd been grumbling to himself as he and his statue minions tried to find the boy, suddenly gasped as he felt his control over the false mind-scape quiver. He still had full control over it, but Gus's real mind-scape beneath it was beginning to tear itself away!
"Impossible! Did that brat really figure it out!? How is he doing this!? He shouldn't have the power to match my Amplifying Mirror!" Adrian cursed as he saw his illusory world begin to fray at the edges. His statue minions began to glitch and crumble, with several of them reverting to how they looked in Gus's memory of the graveyard, before falling to the ground inert. Adrian also found himself shrinking as his presence in the mind-scape became less all-encompassing and more limited. "I will not be outdone by some brat barely done with puberty!" the man growled, gripping his Amplifying Mirror and focusing on it to try and counter Gus's actions.
The two's magic warred with each other, pushing against one another like two opposing tides crashing into each other, with the form of the fake mind-scape changing to reflect that.
The sky became a whirlpool of the kaleidoscope sky and a normal blue sky, complete with white clouds, and the floating ruins descended into the sea of silver, which now formed a whirlpool of silver and crystal clear blue water with the ruins at it's centre. The ruins itself became a twisted spiral of land, with half of it being Adrian's idolised version of the Looking Glass Ruins while the other half reflected the form of Gus's true mind-scape; a tropical island with a mix of Gravesfield and Bonesborough architecture that took the form of Gus's idealised version of what he considered home.
The last of Adrian's stone minions either disappeared or returned to their plinths, while Adrian himself now found himself as a normal sized person (without his enhanced appearance) stood in the middle of the mind-scape, with Gus wielding his staff a few paces away.
"Huh… I thought I was gonna kick your mind out of my head entirely, along with your phony mind-scape. I guess my Power Glyph and your Amplifier made us an even match and ended up twisting your fake mind-scape together with my real one…" Gus mused, before grinning; "But that just means neither of us are in full control of this space, which makes it the perfect battleground for us!"
Adrian sneered viciously; "Don't delude yourself into thinking you're my equal, brat!"
"You're equal? Nah…" Gus smirked; "I'm better!"
Adrian snarled and thrust his hand towards Gus, causing a blast of silver flames to go shooting towards the boy. Gus's eyes widened and he dove down to avoid it, though he still felt the heat of it on his back as it passed over him. It seemed that even with Adrian's control over the space greatly reduced, he could still do things that he couldn't in the real world! It made sense, given the fact he was technically doing all this with his mind and not his body. The man's limit was his imagination… but that meant Gus's was too!
However Gus had his pride as a real illusionist; he wanted to make the impossible, possible! So he'd beat Adrian just like he would in the real world!
As the shadow Coven Head shot another blast of silver fire at him, Gus drew spell circles while laying on the floor in a press-up position. The resulting jets of icy water propelled him up and over the flames, and as the fire passed through the water jets, it produced a huge cloud of steam that blinded Adrian. Gus used this as cover to make himself invisible, and since the ground of his mind-scape was partly beach, he surfed through the air on Emmiline to avoid leaving footprints. He flew behind Adrian and immediately attacked by conjuring some arrow and launching them at the man's back. To Adrian's credit, he noticed the rush of wind that followed Gus's speedy flying and anticipated an attack from behind, so the ground between the two Illusionists suddenly shot up and formed a wall between them, blocking Gus's attack. Adrian then spun around and slammed his palm into his side of the wall, causing it to explode outward and pepper Gus with rocks.
Gus yelped in pain as the shrapnel cut and bruised him, but he wasn't about to be beaten that easily! The attack had knocked him off his staff, so he turned his fall into a backwards roll and summoned Emmiline back beneath his feet. As he did so, he focused his mind, causing his cuts and bruises to begin healing slowly. It required a great deal of focus so he couldn't do anything else at the same time, but at least it stopped the pain and made it easier for his Inner Self to move!
Unfortunately, this also gave Adrian an opening to act and he pulled the Amplifying Mirror from his ear and began drawing spell circles with it, creating four illusory copies of himself. Gus was certain these copies would end up firing some very real spells, so flew up as high and as fast as he could before they managed to begin casting. One of the Adrian clones tried to animate some of the tropical foliage, but it looked like he couldn't control any parts of Gus's real mind-scape, so he instead conjured vines from himself to try and tie Gus down while the other three clones shot silver fireballs, bolts of lightning, and spikes of rock at Gus. Gus used jets of water to counter the fireballs and propel him out of the way of the rock spikes, but the lightning bolts were tough to dodge alongside the vines trying to bind him, so Gus instead focused some of his water jets into a single large bubble around himself, which he froze into ice to form a barrier to block the lightning. The power of the lightning bolts shattered the barrier but thankfully dissipated at the same time, causing an explosion of snow that Gus once again used for cover to become invisible and try to sneak up on Adrian.
Mindful of the wind his flying would kick up, Gus surfed on his staff as slowly as he could until he was directly above Adrian and his four clones. They were in a diamond formation, with what Gus assumed to be the original directly in the middle of the four clones. However the ground they were standing on was also a mass of mud and damp sand thanks to the water jets Gus had been using, so the boy focused on these and caused tendrils of water to emerge from the wet ground to bind Adrian…
… only for him to poof into a cloud of cyan smoke as the central Adrian was revealed to be an illusion.
Gus's eyes widened as he tried to retreat, but since his spell had given away his location despite the invisibility, the real Adrian (who'd swapped places with a clone), reached up with a water tendril of his own and managed to snag the end of Emmiline's staff, yanking her out from under Gus and causing him to fall and land back first on the ground where the destroyed clone had just been.
"I've got you now!" Adrian smirked, trying to stomp on the boy as his clones all shot streams of fire down on him.
Gus was just barely quick enough to conjure a force field around him to stop the flames,then gus Snapping his fingers to summon Emmiline back to his side, Gus froze the force field into ice then intentionally shattered it to send razor sharp ice fragments in all directions, similar to what Adrian had done with the rock wall earlier. The three Adrian clones were immediately destroyed while the real Adrian shrieked as his clothes were sliced by the ice. He seemed more upset about his outfit than he did about the numerous tiny cuts and welts he'd received!
"Brat! I'll crush you!" Adrian snarled, conjuring a huge amount of rock around his fist to form a giant stone hammer. He attempted to literally crush Gus, but the boy rolled out of the way of the slow and cumbersome attack, then shifted Emmiline to her animal form and placed her on his shoulders. He then gave Adrian the finger guns with a cheeky grin.
"Let me show you a little something I learned from a friend! Time to set Phasers to Stun!" Gus smirked.
He then began to shoot bullets of freezing cold water from his finger tips, firing them from each of his finger guns like he was a cowboy duel-wielding pistols in a shoot out. The water bullets were shot with enough force to bruise, and combined with how cold they were, Adrian quickly found his body getting cold and numb. The Coven Head fled from Gus as quickly as he could, dashing behind a statue from the Looking Glass Graveyard so he could get cover and try to cast a spell without having his focus ruined by the cold. However Gus was fast and followed him wherever he went, occasionally shooting at Adrian with one hand while shooting at the floor with the other, creating a trail of ice for him to slide around on.
"Get away from me, you persistent little-!" whatever Adrian was about to say was cut off by Gus managing to shoot a water bullet directly at Adrian's Amplifying Mirror, knocking it out of his hands. Gus wasn't sure if the mirror actually functioned inside the mind-scape, or if it only worked because Adrian believed it did, but regardless, Adrian was weaker without it. The man screamed in irritation and lunged for the mirror, but Gus supercharged some ice magic into his next two water bullets and actually froze Adrian's hands completely solid as he tried to grab the mirror, causing him to fumble it. There was a flash of blue magic as Gus then summoned his staff again and smashed it into Adrian's gut, knocking him back a few steps.
The winded shadow Coven Head fell to one knee and wheezed, but was able to force fire out from his frozen hands with pure concentration, melting them free. It appeared he truly wasn't limited by any of the rules of spell-casting in this space! This became even more obvious when Adrian screamed in anger and unleashed an actual explosion of magic, similar to Luz's light explosions.
Gus hadn't expected it and took the blast without any defences, causing him to be blasted straight into the statue Adrian had just been hiding behind. The poor boy was badly burned and had taken a mind-bending blow to the back of the head when he hit the statue, but at least he was still conscious and could try to scrape together enough focus to make his Inner Self's wounds heal a bit, albeit slowly.
Once he was able to think straight, Gus created some simple illusions; he made himself invisible then created illusory duplicates that ran off in different directions to draw Adrian's attention. Gus had even been careful to make sure they ran on the ice trails he'd left when sliding around, so Adrian couldn't tell they were fake by their lack of footprints in the mud and sand. Adrian took the bait and began chasing after them, certain that one of them was real (Gus had made sure they all looked pristine, but one acted as if they were injured and trying to hide it so the man would zero in on them).
With the man kept busy again, Gus tried to think through the next part of his plan; he'd taken back some control of his mind-scape and separated Adrian from his Amplifier, but while both had weakened the man greatly, he was still too powerful! He was a once a full Coven Head after all, and not a substitute or replacement like most of them were now… plus he was still inside a person's mind; the place where an Illusionist was at their strongest! There was simply no way for Gus to match his power!
"Okay, fight smarter, not harder. I'm not gonna win in a straight duel, so I need to find a way to take away Adrian's advantage… or turn those advantages against him!" Gus thought as a new idea came to him. The only way to win was to pull the wool over Adrian's eyes, but there was only one time he'd let his guard down around a fellow Illusionist… when he's certain he's already won!
The perfect plan began to formulate inside Gus's imagination, but true to his style of doing things, it was flashy, elaborate, and would require more magic than he could normally achieve on his own. Of course, as this was all happening in Gus's mind-scape, his spells weren't consuming real magic just as his wounds weren't real, but because they felt real, his mind made it all tire him out and hurt him just like reality; that was the power of the mind. Which meant just like when healing his wounds, he could make himself stronger by imagining he had more power!
That was a harder task than expected however; visualising himself healing was one thing, since that was a visible difference, but imagining himself with unlimited magic was something far more difficult. Thankfully, as Gus considered how to trick his own mind,He'd pulled a Power Glyph from his pocket and used it, getting the benefits of it, because he'd believed the glyph would be there and he knew how it was supposed to work!
"Which means if I reach into my pocket again, knowing it should still be there…" Gus slipped his hand into his pocket, then pulled it out and grinned, seeing the familiar Power Glyph just as he'd hoped. With that in hand, he peeked over to where Adrian's Amplifying Mirror had fallen, and his plan was ready to begin!
Meanwhile
Adrian had finally managed to chase down the injured Gus illusion (who'd given him the slip thus far by sliding around on the ice trails and weakly shooting fake ice blasts, which Adrian dodged assuming they were real), and struck him with a bolt of lightning, causing him to poof into cyan smoke. Adrian gasped at that, then growled as he realised he'd been tricked and turned to immediately destroy the remainder of the Gus Clones. Once they were all gone, he created an Alarm Bat from thin air and sent it to go and search for Gus, using sonar to track him even if he was invisible. Before it could even try to find Gus however, Gus found it and shot it out of the sky with an icicle.
"Saw through my illusions eventually, huh? Guess it's hard to tell what's real and what's fake when we're inside my mind!" Gus taunted; "But thanks for taking so long; it gave me all the time I needed to fully heal myself. Sure is nice to be able to fix any injury by just knowing the real me isn't really hurt. Shame it doesn't work in the real world."
Adrian sneered; "Finally decided to face me, have you? Your second rate illusions were good for a sideshow, but you're nothing compared to me! I'm the headliner! The main event!"
"Oh yeah?" Gus narrowed his eyes, spinning his staff to create a huge spell circle; "Then why don't you show me what you've got!"
he charged up a huge amount of ice and water magic, then sent a high-speed deluge of water right at the shadow Coven Head, filling it with ice shards for added damage. Adrian, no longer playing around, countered with a deluge of silver fire and lightning, which began to actually melt Gus's ice and evaporate his water. The flames were simply too hot and too intense, and after a moment, both Illusionists' elemental attacks cancelled each other out! Gus was totally floored by the overwhelming power Adrian could wield here, and he wasn't able to recover and react in time to defend himself against Adrian's next spell. The slimy man smirked viciously as he sent a massive bolt of lightning straight at the wide open boy, hitting him square in the chest and causing him to scream in agony as he convulsed. When the lightning finally stopped, Gus teetered back and forth for a few moments, his body steaming, before he finally collapsed face first into the mud. Cyan smoke poured off the boy's body, and Adrian was amused to see that Gus hadn't managed to erase the injuries on his Inner Self after all, and had just hidden them all with illusions.
Adrian smirked down at Gus's unconscious form, lying on the ground bloody and bruised. It had been more of a pain than he wanted to admit, but Adrian had still won in the end! As was to be expected; no a shadow Coven Head would lose to some brat! Not even one as annoyingly skilled as this boy… It was a bit of a shame too; if the boy hadn't been a useless, he'd have made a good understudy and protege for Adrian to mold into his eventual successor.
"A waste, but it doesn't matter. Once the promise succeeds and the shadow Coven Heads ascend to become roller of a planet and I'll will be eternally youthful. I'll never need a successor." Adrian snorted, before reaching for the Amplifying Mirror that had been knocked to the floor previously. It was annoyingly cold and Adrian was quick to draw a spell circle with it, causing his ultimate spell to be undone; dismantling his false mind-scape and causing Adrian to be sent back to his body in the real world in the process.
The world flashed with a bright cyan light that left Adrian blinking, but when he got his vision back a moment ago, he found himself stood on the roof of Glandus once again, with Gus now unconscious on the floor near where he'd been stood before being hit by Adrian's ultimate spell. His Inner Self losing consciousness had knocked him out in the real world too, resulting his staff had become inert as well. Adrian turned his nose up at the boy (who admittedly looked healthier since his physical body lacked any of the wounds he'd gotten in the mind-scape), before stooping down to pick up Gus's Palisman. The Head Witch frowned when he found her to be as cold as ice, and then reached down to touch the boy himself, finding him to be ice cold too. Then Adrian touched his own face, finding everything he touched to be freezing.
"The boy did freeze my hands briefly in the mind-scape… did my body drop its temperature subconsciously as a result? I'll need to look into this later." Adrian muttered, before snapping his fingers and conjuring his Sigil Branding Glove; "Oh well, time to get this over with."
Grabbing Gus's cold wrist, Adrian branded him with a Construction Coven sigil, knowing that the brawny coven was the worst match for an intellectual Illusionist. He then carefully climbed back down to the Paranoratorium by sliding down the side of the ice pillar Gus had made earlier (which made his hands feel even colder). With his job in the Paranoratorium done, Adrian threw open the doors so he could leave… only to find himself walking straight back into the Paranoratorium.
Blinking in confusion, Adrian looked back and forth from the door way, finding that the room he was walking into was identical to the one he'd left, with the only difference being that the newly branded rebels and the tied up scouts weren't whimpering and crying due to bad memories, and their eyes weren't glowing blue. Instead they were all standing around blankly and in seemingly random positions… until they noticed Adrian and turned to him. A shudder of fear went up the man's back as he saw that each and every one of them had nothing but black voids where their eyes should be. Then the Coven Scouts and Illusionists removed their masks to reveal no faces at all; just black voids within their hoods.
"W-What is this!? Another Illusionist dares to face me!?" Adrian snarled, raising the Amplifying Mirror to his eye so he could see through it. He expected to be greeted by an image of a Glandus hallway… but instead he was met by something far worse… a grove in an old, poorly maintained wood. There was nothing inside it but old withered trees, dead leaves, and creeping vines that had grown over a pile of rocks. Adrian shuddered as he could actually smell the rot and stagnation from this disturbing scene.
Then he noticed that one of the stones in the pile was familiar… it was his own stone head. Adrian shrieked and dropped his Amplifying Mirror, which hit the ground and shattered into a thousand pieces. However Adrian could still see the vision of the grove, which slowly grew to encompass his entire vision. Unable to tear his eyes away from the scene, Adrian saw that the rest of the pile of stones were also parts of his statue, stood atop a plinth with a plaque. Daring to read it, the man almost wet himself in terror as he saw the words:
"Here rests the petrified remains of a Traitor. May his name be forgotten for all time."
This wasn't a broken and poorly maintained monument to him… this was Adrian's grave!? His petrified corpse, left shattered and forgotten, without even his name preserved.
The man felt his heart beat faster as it became harder to breathe. Angrily, Adrian marched towards the stones with a snarl of; "I won't be fooled by this!" only to kick it and then cry out in pain as he found they were very much real.
"N-No! Illusions can't be physical! Not in the real world! What's going on! I won didn't I!? I won!?"
"DiD yOu?"
A horribly distorted voice spoke from behind him and he spun around and came face to face with skara. Her eyes were empty and black, and her arm was burning with black flames, starting from the sigil he'd given her and spreading up her arm, consuming her flesh and leaving blackened bones behind.
"Do YoU fEeL lIkE a WiNnEr?"
that's what Adrian believed was happening.
Because in truth, Adrian was not petrified; he was frozen in ice and still within Gus's mind-scape, with the boy himself watching from a short distance, panting and wiping away the slight nose bleed he'd given himself with his complex illusions.
"Phew… the plan actually worked. I've never pulled off a show that complex, especially by myself!" Gus sighed, feeling a slight headache at the back of his brain. Emmiline, still clutched in his hand, turned back into animal mode and sat on Gus's shoulder to nuzzle with him and give her compliments for a plan well executed.
"Thanks Emmie, but I couldn't have done it without you!" Gus replied, and he meant that honestly.
His performance had begun just before he'd first knocked Adrian's Amplifying Mirror out of his hands; Gus had secretly switched the real Emmiline out for a replica made of ice, which he'd covered in an illusion so Adrian would assume it was real. Then when he managed to knock the mirror out of Adrian's hand, the real Emmiline (camouflaged so she couldn't be seen) scurried over and grabbed the real mirror whilst replacing it with an ice replica Gus had already made. She'd then slipped it to Gus, who'd used its power along with the Power Glyph boost he'd given himself to take full control over the false mind-scape Adrian had created and blended with his own.
Gus summoned trishula dragon of the ice barrier, the three tails isobu and actives his sharingan summons his susanoo(it like Shisui's from Naruto Shippūden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Revolution except it's Cyan blue instead of green) isobu fire a water bullet from his mouth,trishula fired beams of ice from its three heads the two blast combined trapping adrian in a large amount of ice and then gus used his a large drill-like sword then shattered adrian into pieces.
"Let's get out of here. Adrian is beaten, but we still need to free everyone trapped in their memories and finish driving the Covens out of Glandus!" Gus declared, getting an affirmative chirp from Emmiline. Raising the Amplifying Mirror into the air, Gus drew a spell circle with it and sent their consciousnesses back to the real world.
Gus's eyes flew open and he found himself back on the rooftop of Glandus. Adrian was still stood opposite him, and for a brief moment the Amplifying Mirror was still floating between them, shooting beams at their foreheads. The beams stopped and the mirror almost fell to the ground, but Emmiline caught it with her tongue and pulled it back to Gus, who felt a tiny rush of power from inside it.
"Wow… so this is the real thing's power. No wonder Vernworth was such a pain!" Gus muttered, before shaking that thought off and immediately raising the mirror and dispelling the memory-trapping illusion Adrian had placed on everyone.
Gus inhaled deeply and whistled, making Gus laugh. His blue eyes turned back to normal and the illusion finally faded completely. Hunter and Gus stood up to look around. Willow, Amity,apollo,skara,hunter and a few other students managed to subdue the Abomaton. Willow and Amity gave each other grins before turning around to see Gus.
"Gus!" Willow said.
She ran towards him and hugged him tightly.
"Aww, were so glad you're okay!" Willow said.
Gus hugged her back.
"Me too!" he said.
hunter,amity and marcy joined in the hug too
"gus"skara shoated running to him,tackling in to the ground hugging him.
I'm so glad you're okay skara said kissing him on the cheek.
Outside of the school:
the Coven Scouts who could still move prepared to leave. Two of them are dragging a traumatized and whimpering Adrian inside the ship along with the still unconscious Guard Captain.
"When Emperor nechros hears about this…" scout captain said but was cut off.
Principal Bump interrupted proudly, "I'm sure he'll be thrilled to learn two of his heads were defeated by a couple teenagers."
One of the scouts yelled out, "Severine! Get on that ship or you'll be walking back to the castle!" But Severine has finally had enough.
Severine just yells back, "You know what? It has been a rough year, and my self-esteem can only take so much! I quit!" She throws her mask to the floor, revealing her cat-like head and walks away. "I'm going back to the Tiny Cat Coven."
The whole school starts cheering and clapping as the ship finally leaves. Hunter and Gus watch it leave as they are approached by Willow and kale.
"I still can't believe you each took down a Coven Head," kale said in shock.
"Graye isn't gonna l be alright?" Hunter asked.
Gus just shrugs, "Uh... probably not?"
"Did you actually leave the shadow Coven?" Viney asked.
Barcus barks, saying, "The people crave the truth."
Hunter looks hesitant at first, but then looks at his friends; they both smile back.
Hunter starts, "Listen. Emperor nechros has been lying to everyone. The promise day It's much scarier than that."
Everyone has worried expressions on their faces upon hearing this.
Principal Bump calmly approaches Hunter, "Then you'd better get started.
Hunter,apollo,Willow,Emira, Edric,Gus,cabba,kale and caulifla look at him worriedly, but before they can continue another student runs up to them with a letter with a bard symbol on it.
After reading it Willow smiles, "We might not be in as much trouble as we thought. It looks like we might have some allies out there after all."
I want for just how strong Gus and Willow are when they've finally had enough. All in all despite the whining, I'm actually very proud of how this ended up