After Tarak escorted/carried King out of Bill's room and back down to the ground floor of the tower, the young Titan found quite a crowd waiting for him. It seemed like every Trapper in town was hanging out and eagerly awaiting for him to join them. Tarak set King down in front of the crowd and made a proclamation.
"My brothers and sisters; today is an auspicious day! For not only has the Grand Huntsman lead another of the lost Children to us, he has given us a rare gift!" he began grandly. "We all remember the harrowing events of the last month, in which two travelling witches were revealed to be Supreme Dragons!"
The crowd muttered darkly, some shivering in fear while others nodded bitterly.
"Well, we know the names of these beasts now, thanks to young King here! Not only that, but we learned why they had to regain their dragon forms at the Wellspring… King and his adopted family bested them in combat!"
Despite his inner anger towards these people, King couldn't help but feel a little bit proud as the crowd of Titan Trappers erupted into screams and cheers of amazement. Their individual shouts were lost in the cacophony of noise, but King made out a few key phrases;
"The kid's a battle genius!"
"Defeating not one but two Supreme Dragons!? That's insane!"
"Do you think it's a sign? Is the Final Hunt upon us!?"
Deep inside, King felt a painful mix of disgust and pride; he hated that their cheers made him feel good about himself. He hated that the validation of these people who descended from the slaughterers of his kin made him feel bashful. He hated it with every fibre of his being, and that hatred fed the flames of his anger. He wasn't totally able to keep the look out of his body language though and the crowd saw him stiffen and the dangerous gleam in his eyes. However it did not slow their cheers.
"Now that is the look of a warrior!"
"Is he going to teach us to be Dragon Slayers?"
"First Titan Trappers, then Dragon Slayers, and then finally Titan Slayers! The Final Hunt really is upon us!"
Tarak chortled and knelt down to pat King on the back; "Well King, would you like to say a few words? Give some wisdom to your people?"
King stiffened further; oh he had some words to say alright! But he had to be careful! If he blew his cover while Luz was still recovering, they'd both be dead! He was confident in his skills with the glyphs, but he wasn't confident enough to take on a whole clan dedicated to killing his race! Still, he'd planned on learning their secrets and weaknesses, and what better way than to get them to teach him while he sabotaged them! He wouldn't show them how to be Dragon Slayers (not that he really could on his own), he'd show them how to be a Dragon's Lunch!
Clearing his throat and channelling his old King of Demons persona as much as possible, King bellowed out; "Alright you lot! So you want to learn how to fight Dragons? Show me you're worth my time! I want to see what qualifies as training around here, so I know what I'm working with!"
The crowd roared in excitement, and several surged forward and lifted King into the air to carry him to their training grounds, where they began to show him the different training exercises they performed. The first was simple; using whatever weapons they liked on a series of Titan shaped mannequins, a few of which were full of candy (meant for children to practice with). King watched as the warriors of the clan eagerly attacked the dummies, shredding them to pieces while a few kids tore apart their own Titan shaped pinatas. King enjoyed the candy at least, but seeing them beating stuffed facsimiles of his people made his anger grow.
"This exercise is all about learning where best to strike at a Titan!" Tarak explained as he watched; "Adult Titans are quite resistant to magic; only powerful spells can get through their hides so we practice with weapons more than magic."
King snorted; "This is amateur stuff! You'll never take down a real Titan like this! Not even a Dragon!"
"Alas yes, we do not have the strength of our ancestors… we've not had a real Titan to fight us! But you'd be surprised; many a Titan's Avatar fell to these tactics before. Most of the fur pelts you see us wear come from these Avatars, and all of the skulls do. Slaying a Titan's Avatar while their soul occupies it is the only way; their full forms are just too big. How does one kill a continent after all?" Tarak said.
King hummed; so that was where they got their skulls… They came from the Titan's Avatars and not the full creatures. That was good to know.
With one bit of information learned, King got to work on his sabotage. He ordered a halt to the exercise and stepped forward; "This is all well and good for fighting itty bitty Titan Avatars, but if you want to kill a Dragon, you need to fight something way bigger!"
He pulled out some ice glyphs and while keeping them hidden in his palm, he used them to create a giant icy replica of Zara's Ice Wyrm Head. "Your first lesson on killing dragons! They can't use their breath attacks if their mouths are full! So when you see them charging it up, the best way to stop it is to jump right in their mouths!" he lied, jumping into the mouth of his sculpture. "If you're afraid of the teeth, then just tickle their tongues! They're super sensitive and they'll be laughing so hard that they can't close their mouths, giving you the perfect chance to blast them with magic down their throats!"
It was a brazen lie; only a fool would jump into a dragon's mouth and having a mouthful of people just meant they'd have a frozen or burned snack to chow down on once they released their breath attack. However the Titan Trappers didn't know this, and since King was the only one they knew to have faced a dragon, they had no choice but to believe him!
"Remarkable! No one would think of jumping into a dragon's maw! What an ingenious tactic!" Tarak declared, as numerous other Titan Trappers began jumping into the fake Ice Wyrm's mouth. A few began shooting fire spells where the real version's throat would be, but King stopped them.
"Don't use the obvious element! You should use the same element as the dragon!" he lied once more; "If they're charging a breath attack, hitting them with the same element will overcharge it and it'll blow up in their throats and do big damage! It's like their secret weakness! If you use the element they're normally weak to, you'll just make the breath a little weaker instead. Not worth it in my opinion." King said, crossing his arms imperiously.
Again, the Trappers bought his lie in an instant, and began shooting ice spells. In reality, those spells would help restore an Ice Wyrm's strength, dooming the fools even more!
After this, they moved to the next training method, which took place at the foot of a waterfall that flowed into a small lake. The water was boiling hot and the trainees had to sit on a small rock ledge beneath the falls, letting the boiling water run over them. King was actually kind of impressed by this one, until Tarak explained that the hide of a Titan was resistant to the Boiling Waters of the Demon Realm. That was a surprise to King, who'd always cowered away from the rain and sea… the only time he'd gone swimming was when Luz had used her ice magic to cool some water around Digale Island. Hesitantly, he'd touched the boiling lake and gasped, finding it hot but not enough to burn him. Amazed by this, he'd gone at sat under the waterfall for a full twenty minutes, shocking the Titan Trappers, who'd never managed more than ten even with their protective hides.
That had given King a dark impulse; he was tempted to tell the trappers that they should bear the water's heat without their protection to prepare them for the flames of a Fire Drake. However that felt like a step too far; if the idiots got themselves hurt by attacking a Supreme Dragon, then that was their own fault and he wouldn't lose a wink of sleep over it, but the idea of actively encouraging them to maim themselves made him feel gross inside. Besides, they may ask him to show them how it's done and unlike them, King couldn't actually take off his fur.
They moved on to the next exercise; blowing into a massive war horn as both practice for signalling over long distances, and expanding one's lung capacity to keep their breath in arduous battles. King stealthily used his sonic roar to make the horn release a massive sound, and then watched as other children tried to do the same. But watching them made the horrible feelings in his guts come back…
These were just kids being taught by their parents. They hated Titans and wanted to kill them because they'd been taught to; they'd never met a real one, or suffered any great losses because of them. Once that thought entered King's head, he couldn't shake it as he looked out to the horizon, to the Titan Bone Graveyard where countless colossal Titans had been laid to rest. Even the adult trappers that lived today had never (knowingly) seen a live Titan… they'd been taught by their parents, who'd been taught by their grandparents, and so on and so forth going back 5000 years!
Was it right for him to hate someone and want to destroy them for the crimes of their ancestors? If he did, was he any different than the Titan Trappers who wanted to kill him for what he was and not who he was?
"Ugh, I've been spending so much time with Luz that I've gone soft! A year ago I'd have been happy maiming all of them!" King thought with a pout. A King of Demons didn't need a conscience… but a young Titan did.
But even with that realisation, King's anger and hatred didn't fade… no, it focused on the person who was really to blame for all of this!
The Huntsman!
He had started this whole affair by targeting the Titans! He'd elevated a clan of witches into Titan Trappers! He was the guilty one! He was King's enemy!
And Bill had spoken to him!
As a plan formed in his head, King turned to Tarak and asked; "I've been wondering; you said that your Elder Bill talked to the Grand Huntsman right? Well how did he do it?"
Tarak stroked his beard; "He spoke to him through a Sacred Talisman; a mirror that appeared from the Primordial Wellspring one day, not unlike yourself! The Grand Huntsman was said to have been sealed away by the Titan of the Boiling Isles, and needs the blood of that beast's child to be freed!"
King frowned; Zachael's message said that the Huntsman had been driven off by his Mother, the Titan whose hand made up Titan Trapper Island.
"Can I see the Talisman? To pay my respects and all that junk?" King asked.
Tarak nodded; "I don't see why not. It is held in a shrine that any in the village can visit. Come."
He led King to a small temple built between the tower and the village itself. It looked like most of the other buildings in the village, being made from a giant turtle carcass, though this one was a bit smaller than the others. Tarak showed King inside, and the young Titan looked around and saw braziers of blue flame in the corners of the room, and numerous woven tapestries on the walls. Along the back wall was a small altar, and on the altar was a broken circular tablet. It was made of a dull, bluish material that King couldn't identify, and had a crescent moon symbol etched into it, which had been cracked down the middle when the tablet was broken.
King felt his stomach churn as he looked at the tablet, which Tarak had claimed to be a mirror, though it didn't look like it could reflect anything. "It's broken." he said numbly, feeling both relieved and disappointed.
"Yes, we can thank that Corpse King; Belos for that. He came to us one day and promised to free the Grand Huntsman if we joined his Empire. He also promised to find the last Titan for us! But he lied; we overhead one of his masked entourage talking about how Belos was lying so he could use us to promote his Titan religion! He was planning on taking us back to his little Empire so he could either convert us to his faith or destroy us to win more favour with his people." Tarak growled furiously. "When we confronted him, he fled and destroyed the Grand Huntsman's Talisman as a final insult!"
"Belos destroyed it?" King frowned. Why? Was he just being a jerk and knew it was important to the Trappers? And had he really come here to recruit, convert, or destroy the Trappers, or was that another of his lies?
"That's why we're so hostile to outsiders, especially those from the Carcass Kingdom. If you hadn't vouched for those three companions of yours, we'd have likely tossed them into the sea or back into the Wellspring. Or if we were feeling merciful, we'd let them use the Portal." Tarak said.
"Wait, you have a portal? Where too?" the young Titan asked.
"Oh yes, it's made from the missing finger of this Titan's hand. It formed a small island of its own not too far from the Boiling Isles. Our ancestors were shown how to build it by the Grand Huntsman, who taught us that even when dead, pieces of the Titans connect to each other through magic. That's why the Wellsprings are connected too." Tarak explained. "We use the portal to trade with other nations, since few will dare to come near that massive Titan Graveyard for fear of being cursed. That's just poppycock of course, but there's no reasoning with crazy."
King looked away from Tarak and stared at the broken tablet for a few moments as a question kept coming back to him; why was his mother's body split apart? A finger near the Boiling Isles, her right arm in the Maelstrom Strait, and a hand here at the edge of the world? What had caused this?
Seeing him staring at the tablet, Tarak said; "When we wish to pray to the Grand Huntsman, we light the tablet aflame with the holy blue fire. It is known as Lazulite Flame and is created by burning a blue mineral that fell from the sky inside Falling Stars. Some of us feel a connection when we do, but none but Bill has heard the Grand Huntsman's words and not since it was broken. I will leave you to pray; perhaps you will be the one to succeed Bill as the Grand Huntsman's speaker!"
With that, Tarak left King alone in the shrine and the young Titan walked closer to it. This mirror was his window to the Grand Huntsman; his chance to speak to the person that destroyed his people and helped orphan him, before Eda came along! This person had his answers… he just needed to find a way to talk to them!
Cautiously, King reached up and removed the two pieces of the tablet from the altar and laid them on the floor before kneeling down and putting them back together. It looked like it was in one piece again, without even a sign of the crack between them, but it was still broken; if just sticking it back together was enough to fix it, the Trappers would have already fixed it! On a hunch, King pulled out a fire glyph and used it to heat the edges of the tablet in hopes of welding the pieces back together. The glassy stone-like material rapidly began to glow red along the edges, and King pressed them together. However the material was just hot; it hadn't melted at all!
Irritated, King decided he'd try again with the Lazulite Flames from one of the braziers, but as he was getting up to get the flame, he pressed his paw on the mirror by accident and burned himself. He yelped and pulled his hand away, then blew on it as he rummaged in his neckerchief for an ice glyph to cool the mild burn. However as he was doing this, he noticed something strange; the mirror was beginning to glisten and regain its sheen, while the heated parts had cooled immediately. King paused and stared down at it, and then noticed to his delight that the two pieces had partially reconnected! There was still a massive crack on both sides, but the very middle of the split had fused back together!
"Weh! How'd that happen!?" he whispered in surprise. He finally found an ice glyph and cooled his burn (while lamenting he'd given all his healing combos to Steve, so he couldn't fully heal the minor burn).
Not only was the mirror looking better, but it was also clearer, so King breathed on it to fog it up and wipe it clean, only for his breath to make the mirror glisten even more and the cracks to shrink. King's eyes widened; "Titan Breath! It's one of the five humours of a Titan, just like blood and bile!" he whispered excitedly; "It must have enough magic in it to fix this thing! I wonder if it can fix other things…"
He breathed on his burnt hand, but nothing happened. He then grabbed a light glyph and tore it in half, then breathed on that too, only to get no result once again. King pouted; so it wasn't that his breath had repairing powers, but that the mirror could absorb it and use it to repair itself… if it was made by his Dad to seal the Huntsman, then it probably used Titan magic to both repair and break the seal! He'd need to be careful not to accidentally release the Huntsman.
He continued to breathe on the mirror until the crack was fully repaired and the mirror was shiny enough to actually see himself in. Once it was shining brightly, King winked at himself and then went to pick the mirror up, only to feel a sense of foreboding as his claws brushed against the material. He didn't know what exactly, but something deep inside him was telling him not to fully lay hands on the repaired mirror, or something terrible would happen. Taking this into consideration, he decided to just talk to the Huntsman while his mirror was on the floor. Using a piece of his torn up light glyph, King made a makeshift match and lit it with the Lazulite Flame, then dropped it onto the mirror.
Instantly, the mirror caught fire as if it were made of wood, yet it didn't burn and little stars in all the colours of the rainbow began to flit around inside the azure flames. King gasped as he heard a childish laugh, and his eyes glowed for a moment as a shadow emerged from the mirror. The shadow whirled around the room until it settled on the altar and took the shape of a vaguely humanoid figure. The figure was somewhat abstract, with crescent moon-shaped feet and blocky limbs and fingers. Their body also seemed to be split into two; the left half of which was dark grey with black crescent moons, while the right half was black with dark grey suns. Lastly, the figure's head had some kind of cowl or hood, and their face was split in half too, with the right side being dark grey and shaped like a crescent moon and the left side being black and filling the rest of their perfectly circular face.
King gasped at them as the strange shadow person glanced back and forth; "Huh? What's going on here? Oh, did those weirdos finally fix the mirror?" the figure said in a childish voice, looking around at everything in the small shrine. He soon grew bored though and turned to King.
"Ooh, a new person! You're an itty bitty Titan Trapper, right? I wish you didn't wear those costumes though…" they said.
"Uh, Hi. Um, Grand Huntsman?" King greeted nervously. He wasn't expecting this shadow to come out of the mirror! He needed to tread carefully; if he said the wrong thing, the Huntsman might be able to call for help and expose him! Who knew how far from the mirror the shadow could go?
The Shadow nodded and got closer to King, circling around his feet; "So are you the one to fix the mirror? Even that creepy Bill couldn't do it! How'd you do it… Wait a second…"
He circled even closer, narrowing his eyes on King; "Something about you feels familiar… your costume looks just like that bully who put me in here! And your magic feels kinda like his too…"
King began to panic as the Shadow's eyes grew wider. He opened his mouth to exclaim something, but King acted fast and pointed to his medallion, flipping it over so the light glyph was visible.
"Is this what you feel?" King asked, activating it to create some extra light.
The Shadow gasped; "Oh, now I get it! You've found that bully's glyphs! But why would he show it to a baby Titan Trapper? He hates those guys!"
"Uh, maybe he just likes me?" King shrugged. It was a weak excuse but this weirdly childish shadow seemed to believe him. Was this thing really the Huntsman?
"Oh, cool! Be honest, do you really want to hurt Titans? Come on, you can tell me! I pinky swear!" the Shadow said.
Deciding to take a gamble and win the Shadow's trust and find out what was really going on, King knelt down and put his pinky against the Shadow's pinky. "Fine, pinky swear. And no, I don't want to hurt any Titans! I'm not exactly a fan of these Titan Trappers…"
The Shadow seemed delighted; "That's great! Finally, I've got someone I can actually talk to that isn't all "Grand Huntsman" this and "Kill Titans" that! Why do people even like Huntsman!? He's a jerk!"
King blinked in confusion; "So you aren't really the Huntsman?" he asked.
The Shadow giggled; "Nope! It's a big secret, but I'll tell you since we pinky swore." his shadow cleaned in closer to King as he whispered; "I'm not the Huntsman at all! I'm his little brother; the Collector!"
King gasped; this guy was the Collector!? Now he understood; Zachael's final message had left the Collector's fate ambiguous after his encounter with King's Dad, while the Huntsman had allegedly been driven back to the stars by King's Mama. So Papa Titan had sealed the Collector somehow!
"Collector? How did you end up here, and why does Bill think you're the Huntsman?" King asked.
"Oh, that's because I told a little fib…" the Collector looked sheepish; "I don't like fibbing, but the Titan Trappers only ever listened to my big brother, and since our voices are kinda similar, I was able to make them think I was him! I want them to find the Last Titan so I can finally get out of here! I need a Titan's magic to break that bully's seal!"
King felt his eye twitch; he didn't like this kid calling his dad a bully! Besides, even if he wasn't the Archivist King thought he was, he was still one of them and had lured the Titans into letting their guards down so their siblings could eliminate the baby Titans! How much innocent blood was on this kid's hands!?
He glared at the Collector, who seemed oblivious to his anger as he began to playfully move around the room, shapeshifting himself into different shadow puppets. King decided that even if this kid wasn't his main enemy, he might have clues about them!
"If you're the Collector, and you've tricked the Titan Trappers into thinking you're the Huntsman, then where is the actual Huntsman?" he asked.
The Collector stopped his little shadow puppet show and turned back to King; "Oh, he and my other older siblings all ran away to the stars after the Bully's best friend blasted them! I used magic to watch the fight from far away and it was so cool! That Titan was all like "Pow! Bam! Boom!" and kicked their butts! Our magic doesn't really work on Titans normally, so my siblings had to use a weaker kind of magic. We don't like using that magic though; it feels so small and dumb! It wasn't enough either, since that Titan beat 'em up real good!"
The young Titan was surprised; the Collector seemed actually happy about his siblings being beaten up! King couldn't even imagine being happy about Luz being hurt! "Do you not like your siblings?"
The Collector shook his head and crossed his arms petulantly; "They're my family, but they're no fun! Our oldest sister, the Keeper, is super strict and bosses us around! Then our next oldest sibling, the Watcher, is a dirty snitch who tells on me to the Keeper whenever I want to play instead of collecting stuff for the stupid archives! Then there's the middle sister, the Scribe; she's kinda nice but she does whatever the Keeper and the Watcher tell her to. Then there's the Huntsman who teases and picks on me; he says we've got the same kind of job but his is better because he hunts creatures instead of collecting stuff… Stupid Huntsman, I don't even want to collect stuff! I wanted to be the Player! But no, Keeper says we've got to fill up the stupid archives! It's so boring!"
King memorised those names; so they were the Keeper, the Watcher, the Scribe, the Huntsman, and the Collector, and their goal was to build something called the Archives? Or at least, that was the goal of the Archivists as a whole; one the Collector clearly didn't like. But that wasn't what King really wanted to know; he wanted to know what had happened to his Mama, who drove the others away!
"What happened to the Titan that defeated your siblings? We're on her hand now, but where's the rest of her?" King asked, almost afraid of the answer he'd get.
The Collector frowned; "Well the fight with my siblings was really cool, but it lasted a long time… like weeks! My siblings couldn't beat her, but she couldn't beat them either; we Archivists are super hard to hurt and heal real fast! We can't even die like the itty bitty spiders that crawl all over this realm… no offence."
"Uh, none taken?" King replied.
"So yeah, whenever she hurt my siblings, they'd just fix themselves up, so eventually she decided to cast this super big spell! One that would sacrifice her life! Something like that is powerful enough to hurt even us for a real long time, so my siblings tried to stop her. They worked together and cast a nasty curse on her with that weaker magic I told you about, and said that if she sacrificed herself now, she'd suffer forever. But she said she didn't care; she was a Mama and would suffer so her kid, the last Baby Titan, could live without my siblings coming after them!"
King felt his heart lurch as the Collector finished his story; "So she cast the super big spell and blew up! It hurt my siblings super bad and infected them with some of her magic so they couldn't heal until the magic was all gone. When they found out the Titan's mate was still around, they ran away and abandoned me! Then that big Bully came and trapped me in this stupid prison!"
A horrible feeling of grief entered King's heart and spread through him, making him want to cry. He'd known deep down that his Mama had died to protect him by driving off the monsters who wanted to hurt him, but hearing directly how she'd sacrificed herself still cut deep. The only solace King felt was that the reason his mother's body was scattered across the Demon Realm was because of her own choice to unleash a might explosion, rather than her being dismembered by her enemies or something equally ghoulish and macabre.
"Mama… you were really incredible, weren't you? Those monsters and their little army of trapper freaks wiped out almost all of us, but you fought all four of them and sent them packing! You were an awesome parent!" he thought, turning his back on the Collector so he could wipe his eyes. He'd have time to mourn his Mama properly later; right now he needed to make sure he didn't make her sacrifice in-vain!
The Collector eyed King curiously, then moved around him so he could see his face; "Hey, what's going on? Why are your eyes all shiny and glisten-y. I just told you an awesome story; you should be excited!"
"It's just a lot to take in." King forced himself to sound neutral. "So after Ma- the Titan died chasing away your siblings, the other Titan who became the Boiling Isles sealed you up. Then these Trapper guys found your mirror and you pretended to be the Grand Huntsman because…?"
"I needed them to find the last Titan for me, so I can be free! Oh, I can't wait to see them! I had so much fun playing with all the other little Titan Babies! I want to play with this one too! I hope they don't take too much longer… the Last Titan will be all grown up and become a boring adult if they do! I want to play with them while they're still cute!" the Collector whined.
The kinds of "play" King imagined the Collector wanted sickened him, considering the fates that awaited his fellow young Titans. He definitely wouldn't be playing any of his sick games!
Without realising it, King had been clenching his fists and grinding his teeth, which drew the young Archivist's attention. "Oh, are you mad that I want to play with someone else? Don't worry, I'll play with you too! You're the first person I've talked to in years who wasn't some creepy old guy! Plus that costume really does make you look like a Baby Titan! You look so cute! I hope I get out of here before you grow up too, so we can play before you become boring too!"
The Collector's expression then became confused; "But you know, that pouty face reminds me a lot of the Titan who scared off my siblings… and a lot like that mean old bully too!"
After everything he'd experienced that day (and the previous one); the stress about Luz's condition, the race for the Titan Blood, dealing with Kikimora, having to blend in with his people's murderers, and his mini-crisis of conscience, King was reaching the point where he just couldn't keep his temper any longer. His hatred, his grief, his fear, and his anger were all boiling over like the seas outside, and hearing the Collector; one of the people responsible for it all, continuously call his Dad a bully for sealing him away for his crimes, made King lose his last thread of self-control.
"STOP CALLING HIM A BULLY!" King screamed, stomping his little foot; "He's not a bully or a bad guy! He's-!"
The young Titan stopped himself, covering his snout with his claws, but it was too late. The Collector's eyes widened as he pieced things together, and his smile grew wider straight after.
"That's why you look so familiar! You're not a Titan Trapper at all! You're the baby of those two Titans! You're the Last Titan!" the Collector cried with joy. "Finally! I won't be alone any more! I'll be free!"
King backed up a step as his heart pounded; this was bad! It only got worse as someone came hurrying into the shrine.
It was Tarak, looking concerned; "Young King, is everything alright? I heard shouting and-" the Titan Trapper froze as he looked at the repaired mirror and the shadowy child that was emerging from it. His eyes then moved to King with awe.
"You did it! You fixed the Huntsman's Talisman! You are a credit to the Titan Trappers!" Tarak praised.
The Collector began to cackle childishly; "He's not a Titan Trapper, Dumb Dumb! He's an actual Titan! He's the last one we've been looking for!"
Tarak's eyes grew wide as his pupils shrank into pinpricks, focused fully on King. Tension filled the air (which the Collector seemed oblivious too), and in an instant; King knew what was about to happen, so he was prepared for it. Tarak suddenly started drawing a spell circle, but before he could finish, the prepared King screamed; "WEH!" at him, blasting him straight out of the shrine with a cry of pain.
The Collector finally seemed to realise what was really happening as King turned to him and his mirror, inhaling for another scream. The young Archivist tried to yell; "No! Please don't! I don't want to hurt you, I just wanna be-!"
"WEH!"
King's roar blasted into the Collector's mirror as he screamed for the young Titan to stop. The mirror shattered into countless pieces, while the Collector's shadowy form vanished with a one last pleading cry. King panted for a moment to catch his breath and think about what he'd just done; he thought he'd be satisfied destroying the Collector's only way out of his prison, but something inside him twisted with guilt. The Collector's final scream had sounded so hurt and desperate, and King had to keep focusing on what the odd star child had helped cause just to stop himself from regretting the decision. But some small regret remained all the same.
He didn't have long to think about this however, as he immediately heard shouting from outside the shrine. Now that he'd been exposed as a Titan, he needed to get to Luz and the others and get off of Titan Trapper Island, or else they might all be killed! Thankfully he knew about the portal now thanks to Tarak, so he just needed to find his sister!
He ducked behind the now-empty altar and used a plant glyph to summon a large carnivorous plant beneath him, which swallowed him then tunnelled underground, spitting him out behind the shrine building. King pressed himself against the wall to hide, and saw the Titan Trappers already rallying to capture and kill him. He heard Tarak screaming orders to them.
"Don't let the Titan escape! Someone find Bill! And grab the monster's sister and her lover! We'll use them as bait to lure the Foul Beast back!"
King then heard the voice of that old crone, Denasu; "The girl woke up and ran off a minute ago, chasing after some apparition only she could see! Her mate and Rakusa followed her, heading towards the Fingers!"
"Elder Bill is there too, with the other three. He was showing them to the Rising Mines!" yelled an unfamiliar Titan Trapper.
"Then the Titan must be heading there too! To the Mines!" Tarak ordered.
King remained in his hiding spot until he saw just about the whole village gather together and begin heading towards the fingers jutting up towards the sky in the distance. King dearly wanted to run the other way, but Tarak was right; he needed to get to the others which meant he had to go to the Mines! Thankfully he had another idea; one that would distract the Titan Trappers and let him rush on ahead without them pursuing him!
Using an invisibility glyph combo to hide himself, King then ran to the Titan Trapper's giant war horn, where he used a monster glyph combo to grab it with a giant hand, then promptly threw it at their armoury nearby, making it land right in front of the door. King then slapped several fire glyphs inside the armoury and the horn itself, and blew into the horn with the full power of his Titan roar. The result was a monstrously loud "WEH!" and a gout of flame that would have made Godric proud. The flames engulfed the armoury, setting the whole thing ablaze with fire hot enough to reduce the bones of the building to ash and the metal weapons to molten iron. It even ignited a few crates of explosive potions, which exploded like fireworks and created an eruption of flame that blasted up higher than even the village tower.
King quickly made himself invisible again, and then just as he hoped, he heard the horde of Titan Trappers come running back into the village.
"The Titan is still here! Spread out and find him!" he heard Tarak order.
Smirking, King ran from the village for real this time. Now he'd be able to find Luz and Amity while the Trappers searched for him in the wrong place!
Running as fast as his little legs would carry him, King thought determinedly; "Hold on Big Sister, I'm coming!"
[Meanwhile]
Lucy walked alongside her brother as they followed behind Osran and Bill, heading away from the village to a place that Bill called the Rising Mines. They were being escorted by a few Titan Trappers wielding spears, who certainly looked big, burly and threatening, but were otherwise silent. In fact, Lucy and Hunter were mostly silent too, instead listening to Osran and Bill blather on. They'd gotten about five minutes away from the village before the two old men had needed to stop and take a short break to rest their weary legs, and Hunter had made the mistake of looking mildly annoyed, and the two elders were soon complaining about the disrespectful nature of today's youth. That had led to a conversation about how things were in "the old days", and the two were enjoying a trip down memory lane as they spoke about things from long before the Empire or any of the other living Titan Trappers.
"…of course, using Oracle Magic to perform Necromancy was a lot more common back then. It's been outlawed in the Isles now, thanks to me petitioning Emperor Belos. There was pushback of course, especially as the Empire was still young, but the destruction of the town of Clavice by a Necromancer and his undead army ended any sympathy!" Osran finished.
Bill spat on the ground; "Bah, nasty business! Raising corpses is creepy! Make use of the things by all means, but stuffing a soul back in 'em and waking 'em up!? That's just wrong! I guess even your Corpse King can get some things right."
Hunter grit his teeth and his hands clenched around Flapjack's staff, while Lucy put a hand on his shoulder and signed; "Calm down, Brother. A senile old man talking nonsense shouldn't get you so upset."
Hunter sighed and signed back; "I know, but it feels like all I ever hear these days is about how awful Uncle is! Sure he's not perfect, but he tries his best! Doesn't that count for anything?"
"It does, but there's no point trying to convince some people. This old coot is set in his ways! Though I wonder how old he actually is… he sounds older than Osran, and he's supposed to be over a century old!" Lucy countered.
"Well since they're so interested in talking about the past, let's ask them!" Hunter signed, before switching to speaking; "Head Witch Osran, Elder Bill; which of the two of you is the oldest?"
The two old men looked over their shoulders at him, before both got a smug look in their eyes. Osran smiled and stroked his moustache as he proudly said; "I believe that would be me; I am over 130 years old, and one of the oldest living people on the Boiling Isles!"
Hunter and Lucy both looked surprised; they'd known he was over 100, but didn't think he was that much older! However the Titan Trappers didn't even bat an eye, and Bill chuckled. "That's adorable! I've got scars older than you! Then again, I've got scars older than your homeland!"
"Impossible. The Boiling Isles are 5000 years old." Hunter said dismissively.
"And I'm 5017!" Bill shot back. "I saw your Boiling Isles back when it was still a living Titan! It's mighty roar blew out my eardrums!"
Hunter, Lucy, and Osran all gaped at him. Hunter shook his head in disbelief; "There's no way! Most witches and demons don't live for more than a century! Head Witch Osran is unusual for living so long! How could you be five millennia old!?"
"The magic of the Huntsman, of course! I didn't meet him in person before he was sealed away, but he gifted two blades to every Titan Trapper, which were handed out by our Elder; a Blessed Blade and a Cursed Blade." Bill drew a spell circle and summoned a pair of blades; one of which was a smooth dagger with a luminescent blue blade, and the other of which was a jagged and serrated knife that appeared to be made of some kind of black metal, with swirls of red within the tempering. He held the blue blade aloft; "This Blessed Blade gives the wielder all the remaining life span of whatever they kill with it! With it, I've hunted beasts and monsters to survive for 5000 years! The Cursed Blade was designed to kill Titans in their Avatar forms. The curse is a rare one that nullifies restorative magic! Healing is impossible so long as the smallest fragment of the blade remains inside the body! Sadly I never got to use it…"
Lucy edged away from Bill as she eyed the Cursed Blade. She could sense the curse inside it, and it made her feel sick to her stomach. Hunter was almost as uneasy at the idea of Bill essentially stealing lives to preserve his own and actually wanting to kill Titans, and Osran just noted that the spirits he had in various hidden oracle stones on his person reacted negatively to the Blessed Blade…
"I can see by your faces that you're in awe! This is the power of a real God, not some corpse!" Bill boasted, before sighing; "Shame the others were lost… that evil monster hunted down and destroyed all of them! The only reason I kept mine was because they thought I was just an apprentice who'd yet to earn my own knives!"
"Monster?" Hunter repeated, "Do you mean the Titan again?"
Bill shook his head; "No, but the next worse thing! His little winged lackey! That evil Angel!"
Again, the Coven Trio found themselves being surprised; apparently Belos wasn't the only Angel to have a run-in with the Titan Trappers. Hunter found himself looking nervously towards his sister, who had gone a little pale; they'd made the right decision hiding her and Luz's identity as Angels. If these Trappers hated Titans and Angels, they might have tried to murder the two of them on sight!
"You had a hostile run-in with an Angel?" Osran questioned, hoping to get more information from Bill.
"You got that right! Our clan always thought those feathery freaks were weird! Back in those days, you'd sometimes find a couple of them living on Titan Archipelagos. They would always try to take over the people nearby and change their way of life, or avoid other people as much as possible! We Trappers left them alone at first because we didn't know that they associated with the Titans!" Bill spat. "But that monster Zachael changed that!"
"Zachael?" Hunter repeated.
"That's the guy!"Bill exclaimed, seemingly forgetting that he'd been the one to say his name first; "He served your Boiling Isles Titan! The Elders at the time nicknamed him the Pale Nightjar! After the Huntsman was sealed away, most of the Titan Trapper Clan went in pursuit of the last known Titan, your Boiling Isles Titan, in hopes of slaying him. I was 17 and part of the first raiding party to get within sight of the Titan! But before we could even get close, the Titan roared and deafened us, then when we were vulnerable, the Pale Nightjar swooped out of the sky and decimated our raiding party! He killed all but me and destroyed our weapons. He gave me this!"
Bill pulled up his robe to reveal his hairless torso, surprising the trio who'd assumed it would be furry like the rest of him appeared to be, while also showing off a large scar across his chest.
"He then said that because I was so young, he'd spare me; he healed my ears and then the wound enough that I wouldn't bleed out then sent me back to the Clan with a warning; "This Titan and his child will not have their slumbers disturbed by the likes of you! Tell your people to stay away, or be burned by the Light of Zachael!" I returned to the Clan as the sole survivor. I was also the only one to ever return from a hunt for that Titan, and the only one to see the Pale Nightjar and live to tell the tale! That, and the fact I was the only one to keep my Huntsman Knives, were why I became the new Elder! I must live at least until the day I see the final Titan hunted down and offered to the Huntsman, so he might be freed!"
The Coven Trio exchanged nervous looks; today had been a day of revelations for them! The Titan had sealed a God somehow, and really did have Angels serving him like Belos claimed, AND had a living child somewhere in the world! This needed to be reported back to the Emperor, but first they needed the Titan Blood so they weren't returning as failures! Lucy was especially determined, though she was curious about Zachael; he was one of her kind… perhaps he was even an ancestor of her and Belos! Neither of them had ever seen the Divine Realm after all, so they must have descended from settlers and missionaries, and Zachael's servitude to the Titan fit the bill for what Belos had told her.
Thankfully, during their talk with Bill they had arrived at their destination; the Rising Mines, which turned out to be the middle finger of Titan Trapper Island. It was the tallest of the fingers and now that they were close enough, Hunter and Lucy could see tunnels dug throughout it, as well as walkways and small structures built around the bone heading up to the finger tip. It was obvious at a glance that it was a mining operation, and a base camp had been established around the bottom of the finger, as well as several others set up at higher altitudes along the length of the finger.
"Here we are, the Rising Mines. We've been mining this thing for years, extracting all the materials we need to keep our community going. We trade Titan Bone and other stuff like it to some nearby countries that were founded on normal land and not Titans." Bill explained. "It's also where you'll find your vein of Titan Blood, assuming it's still flowing."
"You don't know for certain?" Osran frowned.
"The Blood is powerful, but it is taboo to use the magic of the Titan for ourselves, so we never really used the stuff for anything but mixing war paint, and the vein is high up and precarious, so we stopped bothering to harvest it." Bill said casually.
Hunter and Lucy couldn't believe it; did these Titan Trappers really not know the power of Titan's Blood!? The sorts of things they could do with it!? That was insane! The most potent magical material in the known world, and they used it as war paint!?
"These guys are killing me…" Hunter whispered.
Lucy nodded sympathetically, watching as Bill went up to a large circular stone platform with a small horn on a stick beside it. He ordered one of the other Trappers to lift him up high enough so he could blow into the horn, which caused a platform suspended from the tip of the Titan's curled finger to begin lowering down. Once the wooden elevator platform was lowered onto the stone platform, Bill got on it and invited Osran and Hunter to join him, alongside one of his Titan Trapper guards. However the other guard stopped Lucy from following.
"Weight limit. Only four people allowed at a time." he said gruffly.
Lucy frowned, unable to communicate back to the man, but Hunter piped up instead; "In that case, let Lucy go up instead of me. I'll just fly up with my staff."
He would have offered to take Lucy up on his staff so the other guard could ride the elevator, but he had a feeling it was wiser to separate Bill from some of his protection, in case things went south. He wouldn't put it past the old coot to get angry when Osran failed to find a Titan for him.
He then stepped off the platform and got onto his staff, beginning to hover. Bill huffed at the sight; "Palismen, eh? Palistrom Wood is rare in these waters, so we don't see those very often. Well whatever; get on already, girly!"
Lucy obediently got onto the elevator and the guard who'd stopped her previously blew into the same horn Bill had used, signalling for the Trappers up on top of the finger to begin turning the crank to have it rise up through the air with Hunter flying along beside it. It didn't go all the way to the top of the finger, but it did stop close enough for the Coven Trio to see the crane that was built atop it, and the Titan Trappers operating it, as well as a frankly terrifying looking rickety walkway that they used to get up there. It was at that moment that Lucy also realised that they were now stood suspended above the clouds, kilometres from the ground with no obvious way down besides skydiving. One of the Trappers operating the crane then blew into a horn on his waist, which signalled some other trappers to extend a short wooden drawbridge out to the elevator, giving them a way off. Bill and the guard marched off confidently, and Lucy followed a tad more reluctantly with Hunter landing beside her. However Osran clung to the rope safety rail on one side of the bridge, slowly shuffling to the other side.
"Head Witch Osran, are you alright?" Hunter asked.
"I am not a man why enjoys heights!" Osran said, sounding far older and more fragile than normal. "Especially when I am not on solid land and not in full control of whatever is beneath my feet!"
Bill rolled his eyes, and Hunter just hummed and kept walking, but Lucy frowned and hurried back to Osran's side, taking one of his hands to help him walk a little faster. They finally reached the walkway built along the edge of the top most finger bone, and headed into the finger itself, whereupon Osran sighed with relief. Every step on the bridge and walkway had bounced slightly, so he was extremely glad to be on solid ground again!
He looked to Lucy and patted her hand affectionately; "My thanks for the aid, my girl."
Lucy smiled warmly, glad to have helped, then stood and walked beside Osran as they continued into the mine tunnel. The tunnel was actually very similar to the ones she'd seen at the Knee, and it was clear it hadn't been used for a while; the magic lamps were dim and dusty, and there were cobwebs and the sounds of small creatures skittering about coming from all directions.
"There isn't much up this high besides the blood vein, so we stopped bothering to mine up here." Bill said casually; "It was too much trouble to lug what we found back down to the ground. Typical that the stupid blood comes from this high up!"
"It has to." Hunter said, "Usable Titan Blood is usually found at high altitudes, because the thinner air slows the rate of coagulation. If you find Titan Blood at lower altitudes then it's either very fresh or there is a huge amount of it."
"Nerd." Silver signed with a smirk. Hunter responded by flicking her ear, which did nothing to dampen her amusement.
Bill ignored their antics; "What do you weirdos even need this blood for anyway? What does that Belos guy want with it?"
The trio briefly looked at one another, silently debating if they should tell the truth or come up with some lie, but ultimately they decided there was no need for secrecy. "The Emperor needs it to make a portal to another realm."
"A portal to another realm? What in the Huntsman's name does he want with something like that?"
"Who can say? The Emperor doesn't feel the need to answer to us." Osran replied, not wanting to share details of the Day of Unity.
Bill huffed in response and continued to march through the tunnels, until they reached one that was full of strange, bulbous blue stone. "This is the blood vein." Bill said, then impatiently added; "Now grab some so we can get to the predictions!"
Osran, Hunter, and Lucy examined the walls, each of them frowning. This was all Fool's Blood; coagulated Titan Blood that usually signified a decaying vein. Not only was it dangerous to touch, but it was also useless as all the magic in it had faded away. Osran turned to Bill and explained this, and the Elder growled.
"What do you mean useless!? You asked for Titan's Blood and this is Titan's Blood!"
"This is Fool's Blood. It's useless to us and harvesting it would likely bring down the tunnel and the whole top of the Titan's finger! We'd all die for a useless material!" Hunter argued.
"Fine! We'll go deeper in! There has to be some fresh blood somewhere! There was tons of it when we first found this vein!" Bill snapped, stomping further down the tunnel. Osran and the siblings followed him, but no matter how deep they went, they still only found Fool's Blood, which made them increasingly nervous especially as Bill grew more impatient. They were terrified he'd do something stupid and set off the Fool's Blood, burying them all!
Eventually they reached the end of the tunnel, were there was evidence of a small spring of Titan's Blood which had long dried up, leaving an extra large deposit of Fool's Blood. Bill stomped his foot in frustration upon seeing this, and his guard (who was more level-headed) grabbed him and pulled him away before he could disturb the blood.
"Why is it all dried up!? It was flowing normally not that long ago!" Bill raged.
"Grand Elder, this mine shaft was abandoned 40 years ago…" the Guard corrected, only to get a withering glare from the Elder.
"Well then what do we do now!? If we don't get that blood for them, they won't get the Titan for us!" the Elder yelled, beginning to pace around.
Osran raised a hand; "Allow me to scry for the blood with my Oracle Magic. If there is any fresh blood on this island, my magic will find it."
Bill perked up; "Really? Then do it! We wasted our time coming up here!"
"Perhaps not. There could be an undiscovered vein within this tunnel. But first, I need privacy; scrying requires focus and it is difficult to do that when surrounded by rowdy teenagers." Osran lied. He needed to get Lucy out of the way so he could use his Oracle Magic properly without her angelic interference, but with the enmity that the Titan Trappers had for Angels, Osran also needed to make sure not to expose her to them in the process, so he came up with a reasonable excuse to get her AND Hunter out of the way.
Bill crossed his arms; "I'm not leaving! I'm not some rowdy brat, and I don't trust you not to try and pull a fast one!"
His Guard made no attempt to move either, and Osran didn't protest; "That's fine. I'm sure mature adults will be able to keep themselves under control while I work. But you two; wait somewhere out of the way." he ordered.
Hunter and Lucy could see what he was up to, so made a token protest to sell the appearance of being petulant teenagers, then turned and walked back down the tunnel towards the entrance. Once they were out of sight and Osran could no longer hear their footsteps, he summoned his crystal ball and transferred one of his more powerful spirits into it, making it glow with purple magic. Holding the ball with his two front arms, he then drew a spell circle with one of his back arms while conjuring a piece of parchment in the air with the other, which he prepared to write on with an enchanted purple quill, ready to record his discoveries.
Focusing on his quarry; fresh Titan Blood, Osran's spirit sent waves of unseen magic out from the crystal ball, using it as a magnifying tool to blanket the entire island in its magic, with only the salt filled ocean holding it back from going further. This magic acted almost like a magical sonar, and as it shrank back into the spirit and into the crystal ball, Osran's eyes glowed with purple magic and a full image of Titan Trapper Island appeared in his crystal ball. Only Osran could see the vision; Bill and his guard saw only the purple glow of the orb, and would see nothing more unless Osran allowed it; something he had no intention of doing. It took a few moments, but as the Oracle Spirit sorted through the responses it had received from its scrying attempts in search of its target, the image of the island began to shrink as it zoomed in. Osran smiled at this, as it meant there truly was usable Titan Blood within range! Two spots on the map were filled by white spots, where the Spirit's magic hadn't reached; one spot was very close to Osran, while the other was moving rapidly towards the mines from the village.
"One must be Lucy outside, and the other must be Luz. But why is she heading here? Should she not be resting?" Osran thought with a frown.
His thoughts were then distracted by the map zooming in even further, to the point he could see that the image was moving, meaning the Titan Blood was moving too. Osran peered at the map, which now showed a high view from the sky, and could just about make out a crowd of people on the periphery of the vision, which seemed to be pursuing something. Was one of the Titan Trappers holding some blood? Bill did mention using it for war paint… The vision zoomed in further, but Osran was confused to find that there was nothing there; he couldn't see a single thing… for a few moments at least, then the Owl Lady's strange pet/son suddenly appeared from an invisibility spell wearing off. The little Demon quickly pulled out an odd piece of paper and made himself invisible again, but Osran now knew he was there, and being chased.
For a moment, Osran thought this might be some Titan Trapper training, but the boy was fleeing in too much fear for him to believe that, and the Trappers were flinging dangerous spells and weapons wherever they thought he was, so he instead wondered if the boy had instead stolen their Titan Blood so the Covens couldn't get a hold of it. However Osran hadn't seen any blood in the boy's possession…
Drawing another spell circle, Osran sent out a "ping" of magic to illuminate the Titan Blood in the boy's possession…
...and promptly dropped his quill and almost his crystal ball too as he saw the result. King's entire body began to glow with purple magic within the vision, or specifically, his blood vessels began to glow. That left only two options; either King had drunk the blood to keep it from them and it had somehow filled his blood stream, or more likely, King himself was the Baby Titan the Trappers were after! The Son of the Boiling Isles!
Desperate for confirmation, Osran tried to "remove" King's mask within his vision, only for it's removal to let him see the raw flesh and blood vessels beneath, meaning it was a part of his body and not a mask. He then decided to use his magic to investigate something else; specifically Bill. He cast a scrying spell on him to make Bill's form appear in his crystal ball, then willed it to reveal his true face. Unlike with King, the skull he wore was revealed to be nothing but a mask and not a part of him, showing his true face was that of an exceedingly old witch with blue tattoos on his forehead and wild grey hair.
Osran's lavender skin went pale with shock at the implications of this; the Owl Lady and the rebels had the allegiance of the last Titan! The Son of the Boiling Isles! Did they know about it? Did King himself know? Had the other Trappers discovered the truth and that was why they were hunting him!? And more importantly… why hadn't the Emperor known!?
Belos had seen King clearly, tossing him into the condemned cage at the Petrification Ceremony to be turned to stone! He hadn't said a word, despite being in contact with the Boy's parent! There was no way the Titan wouldn't tell Belos that the boy was their child, not unless they had forsaken the child, but then if that was the case then why would the Titan help the people who were helping the boy? Suddenly, things began to become clearer to Osran; Luz had received a blessing from the Titan and ascended, gaining the power to save Eda from petrification, as well as the power to match Belos in battle, shortly after King had spoken to her and motivated her, keeping her from giving up. Was that not a sign that Luz did in fact serve the Titan? And then there was Belos' sickness/curse… it had flared up while fighting the girl; was that not potential proof that the Titan had turned its favour away from Belos?
Osran narrowed his eyes; something was not adding up here!
Bill, who'd been tapping his foot as he waited, finally lost his patience and said; "Well? Did you find it or not?"
Osran shook his head; "No. There is unfortunately no usable Titan Blood anywhere within range of my spirit." he lied. He didn't know exactly what was going on with King and the others, but he wasn't about to reveal the truth to a man who wanted to kill the boy! Even if he hadn't been a Baby Titan, King had still vouched for them and helped them out; Osran would return the favour.
Bill cursed furiously; "Then it really was a waste of time!"
"Yes, and the lack of usable blood in range also means there is no live Titans in range either, so even if the blood in this tunnel had been fit for purpose, I wouldn't have been able to find the Baby Titan anyway." Osran pointed out, as he began to walk back out of the tunnel; "But as we cannot complete our end of the deal either, I will take my young companions and then we shall take our leave immediately. Perhaps you could give us directions?"
"Fine fine, at least we'll get some of you outsiders out of our hair! I wasted my whole morning on this!" Bill griped. "Take your brats to the Portal Platform at the end of the pier to the south. That'll take you to the island's missing finger, then it's just a two or three hour trip to reach your Carcass Kingdom."
Osran smiled and nodded gratefully; now he had a way off the island! He just needed to get Hunter and Lucy, then rendezvous with Luz, Amity, and King, and they could get out of here! He was certain they wouldn't escape without a fight (since the others appeared to have been discovered anyway), but if they could at least get down to the ground before things kicked off, Osran would feel a lot better!