Instantly, Princess lunged for Hunter and Luz, whipping her tongue out to bind Luz while her fangs bore down on Hunter. The Golden Guard was shocked by the blatant attack and quickly used his flash spell to zip backwards into the ravine, where he had cover from Princess. He'd hoped Princess would then go for the rebels, but just as before when she was focused on saving her mistress, now she was focused on capturing Luz, so the dragon flew down into the ravine too, while Kikimora shot blasts of red and purple magic at the rebels.
Steve blocked them by raising the snow up and compacting it into ice, then leapt over the newly made barrier with Katya as the two rode through the air on the back of Katya's staff. Steve conjured some icicles and fired them towards Princess's wings, while Katya drew spell circles around her hands, then clapped them together to create an explosive sound wave that propelled the icicles even faster. They stabbed into Princess's wings caused her to crash into the ground inside the ravine. Kikimora snarled; "I will have your heads!" as she began shooting more blasts of magic.
Meanwhile, Amity had used her pink fire magic to melt a hole through the ice wall Steve made and flew down in pursuit of Hunter. As he saw her coming, he once again pointed his staff at Luz to make Amity back off, but before he could make any threats, he felt a sharp pain in his forearm. King suddenly appeared, having used an invisibility glyph combo to hide himself back before Amity had released Kikimora, as Hunter had overlooked him. He'd used the distraction to sneak over to Hunter, and had held onto his cape when he'd flashed away from Princess's attack, leaving him in the perfect position to bite the Golden Goof.
Hunter yelled and tried to shake King off, which gave Luz the opportunity to gather her wits enough to heal herself and erase the symptoms she'd been feeling. Now that her health had been restored (for however long it would last this time), Luz was able to flap her wings hard, imbuing them with fire magic to force Hunter to let go of her coat, then she spun around and grabbed King by the scruff of his neck with one hand and blasted wind at Hunter with the other, sending the boy flying back into the tunnel they'd unearthed just a few minutes ago. Hunter hit the tunnel wall hard enough to make his staff go flying, but it transformed back into Flapjack in mid-air and began flying back.
"Oh no you don't!" Amity cried as she hopped off her staff and ran towards them. She threw her own staff like a javelin towards Flapjack, and it turned back into Ghost in mid-air and grabbed the Red Cardinal Palisman in her jaws, holding him gently yet firmly.
"Flapjack!" Hunter cried, only for Luz to immediately bind him in some vines, before her symptoms began to return and she started feeling sluggish. With Hunter and his Palismen out of the way for the moment, Amity rushed to Luz's side to help her, while King decided to leave his sister in her girlfriend's capable hands and ran out to help Katya and Steve deal with Kikimora and Princess.
Rasiel flew behind him, and noted that the damage they'd done to Princess had already been healed. "Clasping Amphitheres are notorious for their rapid regeneration. You can cut off its head and it'll regrow the rest of its body within an hour! You need to destroy the head to kill it." Rasiel told King.
"Well then let's start with this!" King replied, grabbing a trio of paper fire glyphs from inside his neckerchief and slapping them on the ground in front of him. Each caused a fireball to pop out, and King blasted them with a shout of "Weh!" to send a flaming sonic roar blasting into Princess, burning her underbelly and forcing her to take flight. Katya flew above Princess, then while still in the air, she converted her Palisman Rumba back into tambourine mode and slapped its top hard, creating a powerful sonic boom down at Kikimora and Princess. The result had them nearly hitting the ground again, but before Katya could switch Rumba back to staff mode and fly away, Kikimora managed a lucky shot with her magic and shot Rumba out of Katya's hand, causing her to scream as she fell towards the ground.
"I've got you!" Steve cried, casting a spell at the ground beneath him to launch him towards Katya, catching her and allowing him to break her fall. The two were safe, but now they were prone right beside Princess's tail, and she whipped it down on them. King protected them by using his Monster glyph combo to summon a Titan Arm from the side of the ravine and had it grasp Princess's tail, essentially arm wrestling with it. King's magically created arm was the stronger one, and not only did it smash Princess's tail into the ground and break several of its fingers, but it was also able to grab the section of the tail beneath the hand and began spinning Princess around in the air like a lasso, forcing Kikimora to hold on for dear life.
Struggling not to throw up while holding onto Princess's saddle, Kikimora managed to get a shot off and hit the Titan Arm Construct with a purple bolt of magic, causing it to let go and send them both flying into the distance.
Kikimora and Princess recovered from their dizziness in time to avoid crashing, instead coming to a stop in mid-air. They looked ready to try and attack again, but then Kikimora looked behind her towards the Dig Site, where some of the scouts were beginning to head over to the ravine, having heard the sounds of battle. Outnumbered and outmatched, Kikimora decided to reverse those odds!
"Princess, to the camp! We'll gather the full force of the coven against these rebels!" Kikimora ordered.
Steve quickly cast a lightning spell to try and zap the two out of the sky, while Katya summoned Rumba back to her side and created a shockwave from her tambourine, but Princess slithered through the air and avoided both spells, quickly getting out of range.
"Uh oh. We'll never reach her before she gets to the dig site. We're about to be massively outnumbered." Steve frowned.
"What should we do? Try to flank them and sneak back in in disguises again?" Katya suggested.
"We can't! Luz is seriously sick! And we've got that Golden Goof to worry about too. They're in the tunnel over there." King replied urgently.
"Let's go make sure Luz is okay then. If we hide in the tunnels and block the entrance, we'll buy ourselves some time before the EC comes after us." Steve said, finally lifting his mask so his face could be seen.
The three of them then headed back to the tunnel entrance, where they found Amity nursing a clearly sick Luz while Ghost held onto Flapjack and glared at Hunter, who was glaring straight back. King quickly told Amity what was going on with Kikimora while Steve cast a spell to trigger a mini-avalanche, filling the ravine outside with snow, then sealing the tunnel shut with an earth spell. This plunged them all into darkness, but King activated the light glyph that Luz had carved into his medallion all the way back on the day they met, creating a soft light to illuminate the tunnel.
"Alright, we should be safe now. Even if they dig through all the snow, they won't know where in the ravine the tunnel entrance is." Steve said, then turned to look at Luz.
The girl was panting and struggling to breath, her cheeks were flushed and her nose had turned a dark purplish colour. She was also sniffling and coughing, with every cough making her wince from pain in her throat. Katya knelt down beside her and carefully felt her forehead, which was damp with sweat. Luz had quite the fever, as well as a pounding headache and nausea.
Katya frowned and tapped a little rhythm on her tambourine, which caused Luz's body to glow red and gold for a moment.
"What are you doing?" Amity asked.
"The Ditty of Diagnosis. It uses magic sound waves like a sonar in a person's body to find illnesses and the like." Katya explained, carefully keeping her rhythm. When she was done, she frowned and shook her head.
"Bad news. Luz has the Common Mold." Katya said.
"I-Is that like a Cold? It feels like a really bad Cold…" Luz mumbled.
"I don't know what that is. But the Common Mold is a fungal infection that spreads rapidly in the colder months. Normally, you'd be bedridden for a day or two then bounce back. But you've exacerbated it." Katya frowned.
"What do you mean?" Amity asked.
Katya sighed; "Luz has been casting healing spells on herself to try and cure the sickness. But that doesn't work with the Mold; the spores replicate too fast and adapt to any magic cast on it. That's why we treat the symptoms but don't try to cure the Mold itself, and just let it run its course. Because Luz had been trying to cure herself, the Mold has adapted and worsened. It's one step away from evolving into a case of the Black Mold!"
The Demon Realm natives all gasped; the Black Mold was a lethal! It killed 60% of those infected by it! It's existence was why people didn't try to cure the Common Mold! If Luz caught it, her body would be overcome by white fungus that would drain her of blood, slowly becoming black, until she died and was fully consumed by the fungus.
"Is she gonna be okay!?" King cried.
"Luckily, we caught on to what was happening before it could get that far, but Luz is still fragile. She should pull through fine, assuming she doesn't use her magic too much and her body doesn't get roughed up." Katya said; "On the bright side, I know a few spells to treat the symptoms without bothering the Mold, AND since its now adapted to Luz's magic, the spores won't spread to us so we shouldn't get sick."
The others all sighed with relief, even Hunter, who'd been nervous ever since hearing Luz was sick. He knew something had been wrong since she'd never have gone down so easily otherwise, so he was happy to hear she'd be fine.
Katya then began casting the spells she'd talked about, tapping rhythms on her tambourine to cure Luz's headache and nausea, as well as sooth her throat and improve her breathing. The spells targeted the damage Luz's body did to itself to fight off the Mold, so the Mold itself didn't adapt further. Luz was still left feeling weak and with a stuffy nose, but at least now she felt like she could walk, or even fight if she had to.
As Katya worked, Amity looked at Luz with a worried frown; "Why didn't you tell us you were sick?" she asked, very upset.
"I really didn't know!" Luz said honestly; "I just figured it was a bunch of little things, like straining my throat in class or the cold air or something. I've rarely gotten sick; Mami always cured me of human sicknesses, so I only really suffered from them if I got sick at school or something."
Amity sighed; "You need to take better care of yourself, and be more mindful of your health!" she gently scolded.
"Sorry Hermosa…" Luz mumbled, feeling like she'd disappointed her girlfriend.
"It's fine, Luz." Amity said, stroking her beloved's hair; "I just worry about you. But what should we do now? Do we turn back? We've got the Golden Guard as a captive so the mission isn't a total failure."
"No!" Luz cried; "I can keep going! Katya's spells helped a ton, and I can take it easy. Don't let me be the reason we failed a mission!"
The other rebels frowned, seeing how desperate Luz was to continue. King and Amity both understood her desire to not be seen as a failure or a screw up after her time in the Human Realm, but both were also worried her condition would get worse and she'd be in serious danger! Steve and Katya were similarly concerned, while Hunter just wanted to avoid being taken prisoner back to the rebels, who'd do who knows what to him. Luz was merciful; her cohorts and manipulators might not be!
"Turning back probably isn't even an option." he said quickly, hoping to sway them. "Outside is going to be swarming with scouts. You'll never sneak by them all. Your best bet is to keep going deeper in and hope to find another exit. Heck, with everyone outside hunting for you, you might just make it to Eclipse Lake and take the blood before Kikimora can."
Steve frowned; "He's got a point. If Luz was healthy, we'd probably be able to break through their ranks and escape, but with her sick… It might actually be safer for us all to press on and find another way out."
"And we might as well complete the mission while we're at it. We'll need to make sure Luz hangs back though." Katya agreed.
Amity got a gleam in her eye; "I'll handle that." she said, before conjuring an abomination and having it pick Luz up and put her on her back, so Amity was carrying her in a piggyback. Luz squeaked in surprise, then blushed adorably, her ears fwipping up and down with delight.
"There. Now I can make sure you're all comfy, safe, and not exerting yourself." Amity smiled, like the cat that got the cream.
Luz blushed even brighter and nuzzled into Amity's back. "Aren't I heavy?" she whispered shyly.
"You're actually pretty light. I think you angels must have bones like a bird, because I could carry you around all day." Amity said with a wink.
Steve and Katya smiled at their adorable flirting, while Rasiel and King focused on examining Luz and making sure she was actually feeling better. Hunter just rolled his eyes and said; "Why didn't you just have the abomination carry her?"
Naturally he was ignored, and the abomination was instead turned into a bird cage to hold Flapjack, so Amity could turn Ghost back into staff mode. Seeing as the girls were now ready to go, Steve got them all into formation as they began heading deeper into the tunnel system. Steve led the way with King on his shoulder, since his collar was providing the light, while Katya followed behind and dragged along Hunter, whom she'd further bound with a magic rope of musical notes to insure he walked obediently behind her. Amity, Luz, and Rasiel walked together at the back of the formation, both to keep an eye on Hunter ahead of them and so Rasiel could monitor Luz's condition and alert Katya if she needed more healing spells.
They initially walked in mostly silence, with the only sound in the dark tunnels being Luz and Amity whispering to each other and giggling. Hunter, who was walking right in front of them, quickly grew tired of this and decided to try and start a conversation with the rebels in front of him.
"So… who exactly are you guys? I don't think I've seen your faces before." he said casually.
"Not surprising. We scouts aren't allowed to show our faces on missions. The EC likes us to be faceless drones; guess it makes them feel better about throwing us into a meat grinder or whatever else Belos wants." Steve said, sounding surprisingly bitter about it. He'd been talking to his therapist about letting out his built-up negative emotions in a healthy way, and part of it was allowing himself to actually show when he was upset by something.
Hunter flinched; "Come on, it's not that bad! I did everything the scouts did! Being the Emperor's Nephew didn't get me any special treatment…" No, if anything it made things harder for him, and painted a bigger target on his back.
"Not too bad?" Steve repeated; "Little Dude, I get that Belos is family and you want to stand up for him, but do you even remember the stuff we had to do? The duels? The mazes with the traps? That time we were left alone up on one of the Snowy Ribs? Not to mention Belos taking everyone's Palisman…" Steve clenched his fists and took a deep breath to calm his temper. Showing negative emotions was fine, but letting them rule you wasn't; he wasn't going to take his anger out on a kid.
"Did Belos let you keep that little guy, or did you just not tell him you had him, because you knew what he'd do to the poor thing?" Steve then asked, pointing to the cage with Flapjack in it, which was hanging from Katya's staff.
Hunter didn't answer, instead looking down. That gave them all the information they needed to hear though. Steve looked away from Hunter and kept walking in silence, the tension around him palpable. King, trying to be supportive, swished his tail so it was on the back of his neck; a comforting gesture Steve seemed to appreciate. Luz watched him sadly, knowing part of the reason for Steve's bitterness was Pebbles. As happy as he was for his Palisman and his little brother, Steve was still upset over giving Pebbles up.
Feeling awkward, Hunter apologised; "I'm sorry. You had your Palisman taken too, didn't you? The only one who was allowed to keep their Palisman was Lilith, but I never knew why."
Steve looked back at him again, seeing a genuine look of regret on his face. He sighed and said; "It's fine; I appreciate the apology, but it was ultimately my fault. I chose to send my Palisman away rather than let Belos take him, but that still means I chose to abandon him when I could have just joined a different Coven. I'm not going to blame Belos for my own decisions, especially when he's already done more than enough to make me realise he has to be stopped."
"That's… actually kind of admirable." Hunter said, feeling a bit of respect for the man. Honestly, even if the Palisman thing had been his only grievance, Hunter would have understood why Steve turned on the Emperor. He didn't agree of course, but then he understood that his Uncle was acting with the greater good in mind. However listening to Steve did give him an idea; perhaps he could find out why the rebels were actually rebelling! If he could turn them away from their foolish, short-sighted actions, then maybe he could weaken the Owl Lady's forces and perhaps make Luz start to see the wisdom of Belos!
With that new plan in mind, he looked to Katya and asked; "What made you choose to fight the Emperor?"
The woman gave him a baleful glare; "Oh I don't know, maybe it was the fact they tried to ruin my life because I wouldn't let one of their members have their way with me!"
Hunter recoiled at the venom in her voice, and the others in the group looked on sympathetically. All except King (who was too young to understand such things) had heard about the incident that caused Katya to become one of Raine's apprentices; she'd told them all herself, taking pride in how she'd helped get justice for herself and her fellow orphans. It wasn't the most pleasant of stories, but Katya found strength in owning it, and in how she'd risen from those dire times to become one of the more respected members of the CATTs, as well as a founding member (even if she wasn't a leader).
"What are you talking about!? If one of my subordinates dared to do such a thing, then you've got to tell me! I won't allow anyone to do something so heinous!" Hunter declared earnestly.
Katya raised an eyebrow; "Oh yeah, I forgot you're the new Coven Head now that Lilith wised up and ditched the bonehead. Easy to do, since you're just a half-pint. Though I guess the CATTs' toughest member is a half-pint too, so I can't judge."
She shot a smirk at Luz, who weakly protested; "Hey! I'm at least a full pint! No, two full pints!"
"Batata, I think you're missing the point." Amity giggled, making Luz pout. The girl was a little loopy from the Mold; Katya's spells had taken the edge off so she could stay coherent and mostly aware of her surroundings, but she was still a bit… off.
Katya laughed at Luz's comment, then addressed Hunter again; "You can relax kid; nothing that happened to me happened on your watch. I wouldn't be talking to you if it did. Though I bet plenty of horrible things like it are happening under your nose… and would you even believe someone outside your coven if they came and told you one of your people was victimising them?" she asked, eyes boring into Hunter.
"Of course! I would at least investigate! The Emperor's Coven is supposed to preserve the order of the isles and ensure everyone's happiness!" Hunter defended himself.
"Spoken just like a brat that grew up in a castle." Katya scoffed, "Order and happiness? The only order and happiness your pals care about is their own. Your own coven mate was willing to kill you to advance, and my friend here says that's pretty common." she said, gesturing towards Steve.
"Kikimora is hardly the face of the Coven! And growing up in the castle was hardly the life of luxury you think it was. I earned my position through hard work!" Hunter said seriously, glaring at the woman.
The Bard could agree with that at least; the scars on the boy's face were clear as day, as were the bags under his eyes. "I'll give you that kid. Maybe you had it rough too after all."
The sudden 180 in tone made Hunter's head spin; these rebels were so strange! They had serious hatred for his coven, yet they didn't seem to have a particular problem with Hunter himself. He didn't understand it… but he wanted to. He truly believed in the Coven, and he wanted to know why others didn't!
"Can you tell me more? About what happened to you?" he asked.
Katya thought about it for a moment, then shrugged; she wasn't ashamed of her past and it might help pull Belos' wool out of the kid's eyes to see how others lived. "Sure. I grew up in an Orphanage in Manubrium; don't know if my parents died or abandoned me, or even what their names are. All I ever knew was the orphanage; I was a real little tomboy back then too. You might not believe it, considering the bombshell I am now!" she smirked as she stretched her body, showing her curves even through her thick furs. Everyone but King and Rasiel blushed, more than able to appreciate her physique.
"But that was before Witch Puberty. It hit hard and fast; I was one of the unlucky ones to have it all happen in a few hours." the others winced in sympathy, "I went into my room as a little tomboy, and came out looking like this. Suddenly everyone around who liked women was looking at me… including the caretaker of the orphanage." Katya said, her expression darkening.
Hunter paled; "Oh no… I heard this story. The caretaker of the orphanage in Manubrium was replaced a few months ago. Lilith went on the warpath after getting evidence of his crimes, and he and several accomplices ended up in the Emperor's dungeons. They're still rotting there from what I've heard."
"Good. But getting it that far was a royal pain, thanks to your twisted coven." Katya scowled; "The Caretaker was in your coven, and he was always a terrible person! I did his job for him most of the time and looked after the other kids, since I was the oldest one there. That's why I know spells to take care of sicknesses and stuff like it; if I didn't learn them, the kids would have suffered because Titan knows that man wasn't going to lift a finger! But once I came out of puberty looking like this, he basically said that I could be his woman, or I could get kicked out. Naturally I chose to live on the streets."
"That's terrible. It must have been difficult for you." Hunter said sympathetically; "Didn't you try to report it?"
"Of course I did, but who was there to report it to besides the EC? They wouldn't believe some street urchin over one of their own, and when I got too persistent in trying to convince one guard, they almost beat the stuffing out of me! I barely got out of there!" Katya growled at the memory; "And yeah, living on the streets was tough, but I was in the bard track at Glandus. Bards and Illusionists have a bad rep at Glandus, so if I didn't get tough then I'd get creamed. Thankfully I was only living on the streets for a year before I graduated and got to join the Bard Coven and live at their HQ. I thought my problems were done then, but that jerk from the orphanage wasn't done yet."
The bound boy gasped softly; "He came after you!?"
"In a manner of speaking. Back then, there was actually a different second in command at the Bard Coven. Raine was the Number Three and Head Witch Cadence was Number Four, while this creep was Scooter's would-be successor. His name was Deamus Zamort; a genius Sitar player and stone cold monster. He also just so happened to be buddies with the guy from the Orphanage, and thanks to him badmouthing me, Zamort hated my guts the instant I joined and put me on grunt work for months. I was even banned from playing my tambourine!" Katya said, getting angry just from remembering it.
Hunter frowned; he remembered Deamus Zamort. He was one of the men charged and imprisoned in the orphanage scandal, along with the caretaker Katya was talking about. His arrest was a big scandal in the Bard Coven and he'd been essentially blacklisted and erased from the history of the coven. Scooter Crane refused to even speak his name, and just about everyone pretended that Raine and Severin had been his only apprentices.
"Thankfully, I met a dear friend while languishing there and she brought me to Raine's attention. I told them everything and they insisted on helping me try to place a formal report against the Caretaker, as well as Zamort. Naturally no one at the coven believed me, and since Zamort outranked Raine and I, he hushed up our report to it never got to Head Witch Scooter. Raine tried to talk to Lilith, but they weren't on good terms so she wouldn't talk to them, and then Zamort started making threats. Raine didn't take that lying down though; they challenged Zamort to a witch's duel!" Katya grinned, fondly remembering that day.
"No way! Whispers was infamously timid! They really challenged Zamort to a duel!?" Hunter exclaimed.
Luz beamed proudly; "Titi is strong!"
"They are! Even Mom listens to them!" King agreed.
"Dang right!" Katya smirked; "Zamort gathered the whole coven so we could watch as he "taught the upstart a lesson". And we did watch… we watched as Raine coldly and systematically tore him apart. It was brutal; Raine didn't shout or taunt or even say a word; they just stalked around Zamort like he were a wounded Echo Mouse facing a Winged Serpent, playing their violin the whole time. By the time they were done, Zamort was a weeping mess and Raine was untouched."
Hunter opened his mouth to express his disbelief, but shut it quickly. He remembered watching Raine fight Belos briefly when helping Luz escape the palace. They were powerful and ruthless when they chose to be, and had the potential to be one of the most powerful Coven Heads… had they not chosen the path of rebellion.
Instead he said; "So Zamort was defeated and kicked lower down in the ranks?"
"Yep. Scooter heard what he'd been doing to me, and so while Raine made me their apprentice, Zamort took my old job doing grunt work. He got his revenge though; he and his EC buddies filed trumped up charges against me and got me thrown in the Conformatorium. Want to know what the formal reason for my arrest was? Writing works of Sedition. Want to know what those "works of Sedition" were? Fanfiction! Of food falling in love!" Katya yelled, still upset with the injustice even long after she'd escaped. "I'm a fugitive because of fanfiction!"
Hunter spluttered; "B-But that's completely unfair!"
"Welcome to the average Emperor's Coven experience. I was resigned to accepting my fate, but Luz, Eda, and King busted me out and gave me back my self-confidence." Katya smiled, winking at Luz over her shoulder.
Luz giggled and said; "That was my first day in the Demon Realm! Heck of a first impression!"
"The Owl Lady really got her talons in you fast!" Hunter muttered darkly.
Katya heard but ignored him as she continued her story. "I took the other escapees back to Raine and my friends, and since we'd already been planning a rebellion to get some justice, they joined up with us! We formed the Covens Against the Throne and our first order of business? Kidnapping the creepy caretaker who started the whole mess! We filled him up with so much Blabber Serum that it was practically coming out of his ears, and he sang like songbird. Then we dumped him and the evidence he'd given us in front of one of Lilith's favourite haunts. He was arrested and Lilith went after every single one of his friends involved in his little conspiracy, including Zamort. You know the rest. And that's my whole sad little story and reason for rebelling. Satisfied, Half-Pint?"
"I understand what you must have went through. It was wrong; you never should have had to go through all of that." Hunter said earnestly; "I promise to watch my coven like a hawk so it never happens again, but a few bad apples shouldn't turn you against the whole bunch! There are good people in the Emperor's Coven too!" he argued.
"Of course there are. But those good people aren't the ones in charge. So long as people like Belos rule us with an iron fist, the rebellion is going to keep going. Do you know the conditions they suffer through in the Plant Coven? Or the twisted stuff Vitimir had planned for Luz?" Katya said, pausing to turn and face the tied up boy properly. "Did you know that all of the prisoners in the Conformatorium were there for stupid reasons or no reason at all? The real criminals got sent to the Emperor's dungeons, so everyone in there was an innocent who was victimised! You can't sit there and talk about the good people inside the system when the system itself is rotten to the core! A rotten tree bearing a few healthy fruit doesn't change the fact the tree itself is beyond saving!"
Hunter stared back at Katya, realising in that moment that he'd never truly convince her or any of the CATTs. This wasn't just about the Owl Lady or her corruption; these people had real problems with the Coven System. They'd been victimised, and had stood up to fight back against and change the system that had hurt them… as misguided as Hunter thought they were, he couldn't help but feel some sympathy and respect for them. He loved to follow rules and order; he'd been raised to do just that… but when the people tasked with maintaining that order were instead creating discord, was it any surprise that the people rebelled against it?
"I… I understand what you're saying. But I can't give up on Uncle! I know what he's doing is righteous! You'll see! Once the Day of Unity comes, everything will be restored to how it should be!" Hunter argued.
The Rebels all looked at him with a mix of annoyance and pity. Just as Hunter's arguments weren't going to sway them, their own arguments weren't going to undo 15+ years of indoctrination. There was no point in trying to convince him; Hunter would need to be slapped in the face with the truth of Belos before he believed it. Luz didn't blame him though; it was hard to see your caregivers as anything but people who knew what was best.
Rasiel noted that Luz's condition was beginning to worsen again (she was sweating noticeably), and turned to Katya; "I'm sorry to interrupt, but Luz could do with some more restorative spells."
"Dang, the Mold is aggressive! Sparky's body is working hard to fight it off! Hold her still, Amity; I'll make her feel better." Katya said, handing the ends of Hunter's restraints to Steve, as well as her staff and Flapjack's cage, so she could see to Luz.
The Angel child sighed with relief as Katya began playing songs to fix her up, though she did pout a little at Katya calling her Sparky. Katya, Amber, and Derwin had all adopted the nickname from their mentor's nickname for her; Sparks, and while Luz thought it was kinda cute, it also sounded like the name of a pet puppy. She'd said this to her Titi's apprentices/all-but-adopted kids and they'd all immediately smirked and began to exclusively call her that, much to her annoyance.
As Katya was getting to work, Rasiel turned to Steve and said; "We don't know where we're heading, so I'll scout ahead. I'll phase through the walls until I find Eclipse Lake, then backtrack to you."
Steve nodded; "Got it. We've been going in a straight line for a while, but it'll be useful to know what path to follow if we reach any branches."
Rasiel was just about to head off when Hunter yelled out to him; "Hold on a second! Who are you exactly? You look like some kind of Angel! I saw your wings back in the fight, and while I couldn't count them all, I know there were at least six! But you're also kinda… see-through?"
"Oh? Am I the next person you seek to understand and turn away from my nefarious rebellion and back to the side of the Glorious Emperor Belos?" Rasiel asked with a raised eyebrow.
Hunter frowned; "Well I do want to know about that too, but can you blame me for being curious? A ridiculously handsome angel man walking around without a shirt on is kinda distracting!"
"Ridiculously handsome, huh?" Rasiel grinned as the others smirked.
Hunter blushed; "I, uh, didn't mean to say that part…"
"You're not wrong kid! Rasiel broke a lot of hearts when he turned out to be Ace!" Katya smirked.
"I'm flattered, Golden Guard. It's always nice to be seen as attractive, even if I don't care for such things." Rasiel teased, "And I have no interest in sharing my life story with you either. I am fighting against the Emperor because I wish to help Luz and my friends. I have no deeper reasons."
With that, he floated through the wall of the tunnel and went off in search of Eclipse Lake. Once he was gone, Katya (who was still working on Luz) smirked over at Hunter, who was using the break to sit down.
"So… ridiculously handsome? Seriously?" she teased.
Hunter flushed, then smirked; "So… Food falling in love? Seriously?"
"I like food and I like love! Don't judge me!" Katya snapped.
Luz, Amity, and Steve all laughed at her indignant expression, while Hunter just looked smug, relishing his minor victory. King rolled his eyes, too young to really think of love and attraction as anything but kinda gross. Katya finished making sure Luz was doing alright, then they all hung around together until Rasiel returned. It took him about twenty minutes to finally come flying back and when he did, he was clearly not happy.
"Alright, I have some good news, some bad news, and some news that could be good or bad depending on how you look at it. What do you want to hear first?" he said.
"Give us the good news; we could use some." Steve said.
"I found Eclipse Lake and we'd only have to clear either an old cave-in or melt some thick ice blocking another path to reach it." Rasiel replied.
"Okay, so what's the bad news?" Katya asked.
"The Emperor's Coven will likely be able to reach it soon too, as a squad of scouts has found another way in. We're a little ahead, but they're not far behind." he answered. "I couldn't see Kikimora or Osran though."
"Shoot! We can't easily deal with them while Luz is sick." Amity scowled; "What's the other news?"
"From what I could see, Eclipse Lake looks to have dried up. I didn't look too deep, but there was no Titan Blood that I could see, besides a few caverns of Fool's Blood. That means the EC's mission is doomed to fail, which is good… but I didn't look to see if there was any blood soaked into the lakebed, so there could be a deposit there, meaning their mission would succeed." Rasiel said, wincing slightly as he cursed himself for not looking. He'd rushed to get back to the others so they wouldn't lose their lead on the coven, and by the time he'd realised his mistake, it would just waste more time to go back and check.
"So if there is no blood, we can just sneak out of here… but if there is blood, it would mean failing our mission. And we've got no way of finding out…" Steve sighed; "I'm guessing Luz and the Carbuncles would stop you from scrying for the blood with your spirit, right Amity?"
"Sorry…" Amity sighed.
Hunter, listening to all of this, shook his head in denial; "There has to be blood! There has to be! Belos needs it to make the key for his new portal!"
"There's blood in the key?" Luz muttered in reply, clutching the key through her coat. Hunter noticed the slight gesture and his eyes widened; did Luz have the key with her!? Perhaps this mission wasn't doomed to fail after all! If only he could get free…
Steve, who was the leader of the party, rubbed his chin in thought as he weighed their options. Finally he made a decision; "We should press on. If the EC gets their hands on Titan Blood, it could be a disaster for the CATTs; we need to make sure there's none buried beneath the lake."
The others agreed, including Hunter, so they all began walking again, this time with Rasiel leading the way while Steve held Hunter's leash and Katya guarded Flapjack while bringing up the rear so she could monitor Luz's health. They opted to take the path that led to the ice wall, since Amity had strong fire magic and King was good with his fire glyph, making it much easier to melt through that then it would be to get through a caved-in Titan Vein! Since Titan Veins contained such powerful magic, only non-magical means could be used to mine into them, so they'd have had to clear the cave-in by hand.
After clearing the ice wall (which made Luz, Amity, and King feel a sense of Deja Vu), they found a small cavern that looked like it had recently been carved out. There was no sign of a lake or even a dried up lake bed though, so they clearly hadn't reached their destination yet.
"Look at the walls here! It looks like something clawed this place out! It couldn't have been the Carbuncles, right?" Katya exclaimed.
"I didn't get a good look when I scouted this place earlier… I have a feeling I know what made this cave though." Rasiel said, pointing to something in the corner of the room. It was a large nest of some kind, made of what appeared to be cyan blue hair, white scales, and serpentine shed skin. Amity, Luz, and King gasped at the sight of it.
"I'd never forget scales like that! This must have been made by Zara, the Ice Wyrm we met months ago!" Amity exclaimed.
"That thing had a name!?" Hunter yelled in surprise; "And didn't you kill it? It's bones are still outside, and this cave looks more recently carved out."
"We didn't kill her." Luz said; "It's a long story, but Supreme Dragons are actually servants of the Titan who ate a Dragon's heart and the five humours of the Titan to become super powerful! They can shed the bones of their dragon forms to turn back into witches, so Zara is still alive."
"She must have come down here searching for Eclipse Lake too. The Primordial Wellspring it contained would have been what she needed to recover her strength… sadly it looks like she left empty handed." Rasiel said, kneeling beside the nest of scales. King hopped off Steve's shoulder to take a closer look too, and noticed some red scales mixed in with the white ones.
"Look at these! Do you think Godric came here too?" he asked.
"He must have done! He did say he'd go looking for Zara after leaving Volcarpalis." Amity replied, stooping to take a closer look while being mindful of Luz on her back.
"I hope he caught her before she left! It'd be nice if they're travelling together." Luz commented.
Hunter blinked; "Sorry, but who's Godric?"
"The Fire Drake that guarded the Fire Temple at Volcarpalis." Luz replied casually.
"Luz fought him in single combat and won." Rasiel helpfully added. "That was right before Lilith caught her."
Hunter went pale; Luz had fought and defeated a Fire Drake before she'd become an Arch-Angel!? And his Uncle was an even match for her!? Luz and Belos were clearly even more powerful than he'd given them credit for!
Naturally, none of the others felt the need to mention that Godric had been in witch form and so not at full power; it was funnier to let Hunter assume.
"Well at least now we know where the ice wall came from. Eclipse Lake is right ahead." Steve said, before looking back to the others; "Katya and I will go ahead and check for the Titan Blood; you kids can stay here and rest, while Rasiel scouts out another exit from the tunnels."
"Good idea. I'll begin the search immediately." Rasiel said, walking through a nearby wall to begin looking for the closed way out of of the tunnels.
Once he'd walked off, Katya handed Flapjack's cage to Amity, while Steve tied Hunter's leash to a stalagmite he raised out of the ground with some earth magic, before they both headed through the straight tunnel towards Eclipse Lake. Luz was feeling okay for now, so Amity let her down from her back so the two could chat face to face, while King kept a sharp eye on both Hunter and Flapjack, assisted by Ghost. Hunter watched him straight back, still not sure what he was… he'd insisted he wasn't a bird, so was he a dog? A rat? Some kind of goat? He had the horns for it…
As he was debating asking King exactly what kind of demon he was, Hunter felt something pulling at the abomination slime behind him. He looked over his shoulder, expecting it to maybe be a playful carbuncle, but then blinked in surprise as he saw a pair of gloved hands emerging from his shadow on the cave wall, as well as the upper half of a very familiar silver mask. It was his sister! He was sorely tempted to demand to know what she was doing there, but opted to keep silent so as not to expose her; if she got him free from his restraints, then they could maybe catch Luz while she was weak! If she had the portal key on her, they'd be bringing their uncle both of the pieces he needed for the Day of Unity!
He pretended to be scratching his cheek on the wall behind him so he could watch what Silver was doing without King noticing. She had given up on trying to pull away the abomination slime and had instead conjured a small knife that she began using to cut through the slime, imbuing the knife with a black and purple darkness magic aura to add a decaying effect to hasten the process. The instant she fully cut through the slime, a lot of things all happened at once.
The slime, which was somewhat elasticated, snapped off of Hunter like a rubber band, drawing everyone's attention. Leaping to his feet and with his hands now free, Hunter snapped his fingers to summon Flapjack to his hands out of the cage, turning him into staff mode immediately. King had been watching him and shot a sonic roar at him almost instantly, and while it hit Hunter head on and should have sent him smashing into the cave wall, Hunter had been able to activate his flash spell and zip away a short distance before he could make impact. As soon as he reappeared, he tried to fire a lightning bolt at Amity, hoping to zap her and kidnap Luz while she was stunned, but since Silver wasn't aware of his plan, she grabbed his ankles from inside his shadow, then pulled him in, making him disappear with a startled yelp.
It took a second for the kids to properly register what had just happened, before Luz gasped; "That was the Silver Sentinel! She must have been following us the whole time!"
"They won't leave without the Titan Blood, so they must have gone after Steve and Katya!" Amity said, getting to her feet and pulling Luz onto her back again.
"After them! They're strong together, but if we can separate them then we can catch them both!" King declared, running on all fours in pursuit of the pair. Amity switched Ghost to staff form and flew after them, scooping up King as she passed him and headed into the tunnel.
From Zara's cave campsite, it was a short, straight tunnel leading directly to Eclipse Lake, and thanks to their haste, Amity and the others arrived just as Hunter and Silver were leaping out of Steve's shadow, the former aiming his prepared lightning spell at the back of the man's head.
"Steve! Watch out!" Luz cried, firing a bolt of light magic towards Hunter. Her shout had ensured he saw it coming, but also made him pause in attacking Steve so he could turn and fire the lightning back at Luz instead, causing their spells to collide and create a small explosion of light and electricity. Steve spun around and coated his fist in stone before punching at Hunter, forcing the boy to flash out of the way, while Katya ducked the swing from Silver's knife and whistled a tune to coat her palm in wind magic, which she blasted into Silver's stomach and sent her flying into the wall of the giant cavern of Eclipse Lake. She hit the wall with a groan, dropping her knife in the process, then immediately sank into the shadows and re-emerged from her brother's, brandishing the staff Hunter had lent her while holding her ribs with the other hand.
Amity gently put Luz down on the ground and summoned a pair of abominations to guard her, then went with King to stand beside Steve and Katya, who were staring the duo down. As she did, she took a good look at Eclipse Lake… or rather, what had once been Eclipse Lake.
It was a massive cavern made from one of the Titan's capillaries, which had burst open sometime after he'd passed away, resulting in the current cavern. Pieces of the tiny (by Titan standards) blood vessels were scattered around the cavern, looking like dead trees made of blue rubbery flesh. Parts were sinking into the ground as well as the slightly muddy soil that had once been the bed of Eclipse Lake. The crater that had once served as the Primordial Wellspring was still present (and all but Luz were standing in it), but there was no sign of blood at all; it had all dried up or been stolen years ago. There was also a large hole in the ceiling that led to the outside, letting in a bit of the evening light.
As Amity was looking around, she noticed some Carbuncles peeking out from nests and tiny holes dug around the cavern and into the remains of the Titan's veins, all watching to see what was happening.
"So your partner showed up to save you? Sorry to say that you wasted your time." Katya said, pointing her staff at the Emperor's elites; "The blood really is all dried up. My buddy here already scanned deep down with Earth Magic and its nothing but mud and some deeply buried Fool's Blood."
Silver tensed, but Hunter put a soothing hand on her shoulder as he smirked; "Thanks for the concern, but our prize is right over there." he pointed his staff towards Luz. He then whispered to Silver; "She's sick and weak right now, AND she has the Portal Key. If we're smart, we can get everything Uncle needs for the Day of Unity! We just need to nab her and escape."
Silver looked at her staff and felt the magic inside it; Hunter had used it only a little since Belos gave it to him, and Silver had used a fair bit of magic to pursue him to the Knee then stealthily follow him through the shadows, so there wasn't a massive amount left. Still, if she was conservative then she should be able to help her brother fight!
Amity just glared and replied; "You'll have to go through us!"
"That can be arranged!" Hunter declared, before flashing towards Luz at high speed. However before he could reach her, he suddenly found himself going off course and reappearing atop a strange black pillar that Steve had summoned with his magic.
"That flash of yours uses lightning magic. so a lightning rod is just what we need!" Steve grinned, before throwing a punch at the boy. He was so far away that Hunter was confused as to why he'd bother, but then the rocky gauntlet Steve had coated his fist in flew off on its own and slammed into Hunter's gut, making him groan. Silver jumped into the shadows and tried to reach him, but Amity disrupted her by creating a flash of light, destroying all the nearby shadows and forcibly ejecting Silver through her own shadow. Amity then whirled around and swing Ghost at the girl, cladding the Palisman in light to make her into a light glaive.
Silver countered with a similar tactic, coating the head of her artificial staff in shadow magic and creating a spear-like blade of darkness, which clashed against Amity's staff. The light and dark magic colliding began to react, and Amity quickly pulled Ghost away from the clash before the magic exploded. Silver managed to avoid it by sinking into the shadows at the last moment, but Katya borrowed Amity's trick and made a flash of light with her tambourine, destroying the shadows and forcing Silver back out, where the Bard girl could hit her with another Bardic Spell. The song she performed was the Ballad of Beetles, and conjured a giant green beetle construct similar to Katya's Palisman, which flew at Silver and rammed her with its horn. Thankfully for her the horn wasn't sharp, but it still sent her flying.
Hunter growled as he recovered from being winded, and shot a blast of yellow fire at Steve's lightning rod to melt it just as King hit him with another sonic roar. The boy felt his flesh rippling, but with the lightning rod gone, he was able to flash away before he hit the wall and caught his sister, the flashed back away so they could regroup.
"Don't let them team up! Keep them separate!" King yelled, immediately throwing down a Monster Glyph Combo to create a giant Titan Head, which opened beneath the Silver Sentinel and aimed to trap her in its maw. She tried to sink into the shadows, but Amity once again stopped her with a flash of light, while Steve conjured and fired a metal rod towards Hunter, which would once again serve as a lightning rod to disrupt his flash teleport spell. Hunter countered by blasting the rod with fire, but this meant Silver had no one to pull her out of King's trap in time, and she was promptly captured inside the conjured Titan Head.
"Sis!" Hunter cried, only for Amity to force him to flee away from his trapped sister by conjuring a pair of abominations and making them leap on him. With the second lightning rod already gone, he was able to flash into the air, where he roared in anger and sent lightning arcing from the end of his staff and into the abominations, causing them to rapidly heat up and melt into slurry. At the same moment, King yelped in shock as dozens of spears suddenly impaled outward from his conjured Titan Head, each one glowing with purple and black magic that began to decay the Titan Head.
As the flesh rotted away, exposing blue magic instead of blood and gore, the Silver Sentinel became visible within the growing gaps of the skull that was left behind. She was panting, an aura of darkness around her as her eyes glowed purple behind her mask. She then conjured a massive war hammer, then infused it with shadow magic before swinging it hard, shattering the skull that was left behind and sending bone dust and fragments in all directions, before the remains of King's conjured monster vanished,
"Sis, are you okay?" Hunter asked urgently, flashing back to her side as the rebels were shocked by the display of magic.
Silver began to sign shakily; "I'm tired, but I can keep going. Let's capture the Angel quickly and get out of here."
Hunter nodded, and both elites raised their staves, causing the spears Silver had created to rise up and become infused with electricity on top of the shadow magic already coating their points. The two then launched them at the rebels, forcing them all to block; Steve by raising a stone wall, Katya by slapping her tambourine to create a shockwave, King by conjuring a wall of ice, and Amity by summoning back the abomination that she'd tried to use on Hunter. Katya was fine, as her shockwave knocked away the spears aimed at her, but the combination of decaying dark magic and electrifying lightning magic allowed the other spears to plough through the other's defences. King was thankfully small enough that he was able to avoid most of the attacks, but Steve took a few glancing blows and the electricity from the spears made him scream and convulse. Amity was just barely able to throw herself to the floor to avoid the same fate, but then discovered several of the spears had been aimed at Luz; or more specifically her abomination guards.
The electrified spears splattered the abominations and decayed the slime to the point of becoming unstable, giving Silver the window she needed to descend into the shadows and reappear from Luz's shadow, ready to grab the girl and drag her into the darkness with her. Luz held her off with a powerful flash of light, but the returning symptoms of her sickness meant the flash gave Luz a searing headache. She was unable to defend herself again, but she'd bought Amity enough time.
"King! Protect Luz!" Amity yelled, conjuring an abomination arm and having it pick King up and toss him at Luz and Silver. She wasn't fast enough to get there in time on her own, so throwing King seemed like the best plan she had.
It turned out effective too, as King slammed head first into Silver's chest, winding her with his hard skull and cracking a rib. He was a bit dazed, but he immediately followed up with a "WEH!" that released a sonic roar and blasted Silver skyward, where Amity was able to send her Oracle Spirit to grab the girl's ankle and toss her at her brother, who had been attempting to get past Katya while she used dispelling songs to disable his flash spell before he could use it.
Hunter didn't try to avoid, instead catching his sister and cushioning her with his body. They both tumbled over, but Hunter quickly recovered and helped Silver to her feet; "We need to rethink our strategy. Two VS four is not in our favour." he commented, noting that the witches were all focused on them, while King was now protecting Luz.
"I don't have a lot of strength left, but I'm sure I can beat Blight if I can just fight her one on one." Silver signed; "If we bring her down, we'll be able to use her as a bargaining chip to escape."
Hunter nodded; if they could defeat just one of the CATTs then they could get out of there. They could also potentially force Luz to give up the Portal Key; there was no way the CATTs would allow her to trade herself for any of them, so the key was the only prize they'd likely be able to escape with.
"I'm with you. The Dog won't leave Luz's side, so I can distract the older two while you deal with Blight." Hunter signed back as Amity, Katya, and Steve stared them down, each one readying magic. "I'll attack first and draw their attention, then you go for Blight, okay?"
Silver nodded, and the instant she did, Hunter activated his flash spell and dashed at Katya. She'd been readying another Dispelling Discord, which stopped his spell part way through, but his momentum still carried him directly at her, where he swung his staff at her. Katya hadn't expected that and so wasn't ready to defend herself, but Steve got between the two and blocked the blow with his own body, which he'd used a Construction Spell to harden at the cost of slowing him down a bit. As Hunter's staff collided with Steve's hardened abs, it created a mighty thunderclap that surprised everyone, giving Silver the opportunity to slide into the shadows. Amity caught on quickly and released another bright flash of light to destroy the shadows, but just like last time, Silver ended up popping out behind Amity.
She conjured a knife and threw it at the pink-haired girl's face, but Amity tilted her head to the side to dodge it, making it embed itself into the ground behind her. This was what Silver wanted however, as she snapped her finger to cause the knife (which had been infused with shadow magic) to suddenly explode, forcing Amity, Katya, and Steve to dive out of the way, separating them. Hunter then began fighting Steve and Katya, using short bursts of high speed lightning flashes to make it hard for Steve to hit him and to force Katya to keep using her Dispelling Discord to stop him completely running rings around them. It created a stalemate between the three, and kept the older CATTs out of the way while Silver faced down Amity.
"Just you and me, huh?" Amity commented; "Fine! I won't let you near my Luz! I'm taking you down!" she declared, brandishing her staff which was glowing with pink light, as a scimitar of abomination goo formed in her other hand, and both an abomination and her Oracle Spirit flanked her, all glaring at the Silver Sentinel.
The Sentinel responded by causing the shadows at her own feet to move and change, spelling out the words; "Bring it on."
Immediately after this, Silver tapped her staff against the shadows and caused them to leap off of the ground in the form of black blades of darkness, each one glowing with a purple aura. Amity tried to parry one of these blades with her abomination scimitar, but found that the decaying power of shadow magic disrupted her abominations and caused the sword to melt, meaning she'd have to use it conservatively. Instead she created a barrier to block the rest of the shadows, and while they started decaying that too, similar to Eda's Harpy Mode, Amity was able to use the barrier like a magnifying glass as she fired a beam of light from Ghost, blasting it straight at Silver.