The Angel of the Owl House - Chapter 48 - OwlHouseAngel (2024)

Chapter Text

A new day arrived in the Divine Realm and Luz Noceda-Clawthorne, now the Seraphim of the Demon Realm at the incredibly young age of 15, awoke just as the sun began to rise. Yawning and stretching, she looked around at her surroundings; Lazuliel’s living room, where she and her friends and siblings had all passed out in one huge cuddle pile of blankets and pillows following a late night of games and fun for her birthday. Only her Mami and Lazuliel were not present, having gone to bed earlier to leave the kids to their fun, as well as Masha, Rebecca, Gray, Una, Dex, and Fyra, who’d been invited to the party but hadn’t stayed the night since the humans had school the next day, requiring them to go home in the late evening. Besides, the humans weren’t really meant to be in the Divine Realm anyway and were only allowed because everyone pretended they were Witches and the Angels refused to look into it further so as not to upset Luz.

Luz smiled as she remembered her birthday; when she’d awoken, she’d been in a state of deep depression and self-hatred, ready to sacrifice herself in order to save her friends, unwittingly playing into Raguel’s hands. The mess with the Collector and Belos had been painful and stressful, but it had led to Luz hearing just how much her family loved her, forcing her to face the good she’d done for the world and acknowledge that yes, her helping people had led to others getting hurt, but it was not her actions that caused the hurt; it was the cruelty of others. While Luz still felt some responsibility for that, she was not willing to just give up! She’d save everyone no matter what, and be a protector of the Demon Realm, and now the ambassador maintaining peace between the Demon and Divine Realms.

Following her ascension and the hatching of Stringbean (who still slept coiled loosely around Luz’s neck), things had been much better and even with the pending trial of Raguel and the hearing of Belos, Luz had enjoyed her birthday greatly!

Amity had taken her to a super nice restaurant for lunch, and despite how fancy it was, it was still cheap due to the Crest Union’s attitude to pricing things, so they hadn’t even used all the money Lazuliel had given them. So after a wonderfully romantic meal, the two had gone to get ice cream in the park where they’d first met Lazuliel the previous day, and had been met once again by all the Cherubs enjoying their weekend play. They had treated all the Cherubs to ice cream, and both girls ended up the proverbial Belles of the Ball as Luz’s new Seraphim nature and Amity’s natural magnetism for kids made every Cherub in the park flock to them. So many showed up that they feared they’d run out of money to let them all have an ice cream, but the nice Angel running the stall had decided that the girls’ money had instead been to buy a “Free Ice Cream for All Cherubs Day”, so all the kids got one. Luz had been delighted, especially as she got to see Amity be swarmed by all the little Cherubs again, giggling so happily as she cuddled with a bunch of Crest Kindness ones that looked just like Luz. Luz herself had been cuddled to within an inch of her life, especially by the Cherubs who’d seen her the day before and were awestruck by her ascension and absolutely in love with Stringbean (who along with Ghost was a big hit).

Eventually King and Samael came to join in too after Amity called Camila to let her know where they were. The two had a blast playing with the Cherubs, especially Samael who was accepted as just another one of the kids and whose incredible magic let him do all kinds of fun things and facilitate fun games. There had almost been an incident where one Cherub boy recognised Samael’s magic as the thing that had caused all the trouble that morning, but the Star Child had just said he was sorry and had fixed everything, after which none of the kids gave it a second thought.

When the party was finally prepared, Luz, Amity, King, and Samael had returned to Lazuliel’s apartment to find the rest of the family waiting for them, along with the Cabin Seven Crew and the three remaining Basilisks. The apartment had also been completely decked out with balloons, banners, games and entertainment, snacks and food, a huge cake, and a veritable mountain of presents from everyone. Luz had nearly cried with joy as everyone cheered out a “Happy Birthday!” and had insisted on hugging every single person, even the Basilisks (who along with the Cabin Seven Crew were amazed by her ascension).

From there she’d been sat down and handed present after present, with most of them being handmade and/or a joint gift between multiple people. Hanu, Treble, and the Basilisks had bought her some Divine Realm Candy with money lent to them by Camila, since they didn’t know Luz well enough to get anything more personal and hadn’t expected to be invited. Luz appreciated it all the same and thanked them earnestly. Lazuliel, whose gift was also a bit last minute, had bought her a Divine Communication Mirror, meaning Luz now had the cellphone equivalent of all three realms! It was useful, since cellphones didn’t work outside the Human Realm (without an open portal anyway) and scrolls had similar problems outside the Demon Realm. Then it came to the Cabin Seven Crew, who’d gotten Luz a joint gift of two weekend passes to Disney World in Florida (apparently Masha’s Uncle worked there, so had gotten them an awesome discount), meaning Luz and Amity would be able to go on a weekend date there anytime in the next year, which excited Luz a lot.

Then it had come to the Hexsquad, and many of their gifts were made with their own hands, and just about all of them made Luz cry. Hunter and Lyra had carved a wooden bangle together, which would not only serve as a growth spot for plant spells like Willow’s own bangles, but also had a Vision Stone embedded in it. Vision Stones were created through Divination Magic, and contained the magic of the maker (in this case Lyra) and the Celestial Bodies it was made in the light of (being a full moon and midday sun). The Vision Stone would allow a person to lucidly dream so long as it was activated before the user went to sleep, and while it was traditionally a tool to help make Divination easier for beginners, it was also the perfect way to guarantee good dreams, something Luz had struggled with due to her depression in recent months.

Skara had gifted her a combination spell book and song book, in which she’d written out several original songs she’d composed, as well as several Human Realm songs that she’d turned into spells with Bardic Magic. The book detailed what they did, and was written in the style of a spell book from the Good Witch Azura (Luz had a copy of such a book in her room in the Human Realm). Boscha’s gift had been a shocking surprise and had made Luz bawl like a baby when she received it; it was a Combat Potioneer’s Belt that had belonged to her Papi when he was in the Demon Realm. It had been broken at some point and fallen into disrepair over the last decade, but Boscha had found it in the basem*nt of the Noceda House and bought it from Camila (who’d actually snuck the money Boscha gave her back into the three-eyed girl’s wallet) with the intention of repairing it and gifting it to Luz. She’d worked hard to repair it and make it as good as new, and included pouches of ingredients from all three realms. Luz had immediately put it on over her Divine Regalia, and was surprised to find the heartfelt gift actually merging with it just like her Witch’s Wool Cloak had, making the belt invisible but still functional. Luz had then tackled Boscha to the floor and hugged the daylights out of her, crying happily the whole time.

Gus and Matt’s joint gift had made her cry too; it was a special locket shaped like a small winged heart that Matt had made with his metallurgy skills, and which had been embedded with a Concealment Stone. However the stone had been modified to project an illusion in front of Luz rather than over her. The illusion was like a family photo of Luz and her closest relatives; it depicted Luz in the middle, holding hands with Vee on her left while her Mami and Mom both stood to her left with big smiles, while King hovered on her right side, also holding her hand, with her Papi and Dad stood side by side on her right just as her Mothers were on the left. It was the family photo they’d never gotten a chance to take, and all of them were smiling happily together. Naturally, Luz had cried like a baby and hugged the boys, thanking them over and over.

Willow’s present was less magical but no less personal and important; it was a copy of a scrapbook she’d been making, and included pictures and notes from all the different adventures and trips that they’d taken since becoming friends, starting with the day Luz and Willow met and ending with a new page at the very end that showed a Seraphim Luz smiling brightly besides Amity. Each of her Hexsquad friends also had a page dedicated to them, which included a note they’d written about how important Luz was to them. Luz had cried once more, and then been given a lot of water by her Mami, who joked she’d get dehydrated if this kept up!

Amity had handed her present over sheepishly; it was a brass ring (which looked golden) with a small purple stone embedded into it and the message; “I gave my heart to you and have known Paradise every day since.” was engraved along the band. Amity had made the ring herself with some of her father’s manufacturing techniques, and the purple stone was actually a crystallised abomination that could create a small arrow of light that pointed towards its paired stone, which Amity had put into the feather jewellery she always kept on her person, meaning Luz would forever be able to find Amity whenever she wanted. Amity had also confessed she had been working on another present, but it wasn’t ready just yet, but Luz was too busy wanting to kiss her to care. They shared a sweet moment together, and Luz decided that she would be giving Amity a ring of her own once they were a little older.

Next was her siblings’ turns, and Vee had made Luz a piece of jewellery too; it was a pair of earrings made from Vee’s golden scales, and which had been enchanted with some help from Camila to include a Happiness Spell, which would make Luz feel happier whenever she decided to rub them. The earrings were very similar in appearance to her Divine Regalia earrings (making Luz wonder if her regalia had intentionally formed itself in that way) so Luz easily made the gift a part of her regalia instead and hugged Vee closely. King’s gift (which Samael had contributed to at the last minute) was another Azura-style spell book, but it included all of King’s glyph combo research, with pages upon pages of different combos that were both useful and silly, and even a few that were dangerous. King had also created combos of several of Luz’s own spells, so Luz would not only be able to mimic his combos with magic, but if she ran out of magic for casting, she could still fight with glyph notes. King explained that the book had originally been an unadorned notebook, but Samael’s magic had transformed it into the spell book it was now. Luz had hugged both boys and kissed them on the foreheads in thanks.

The last gift came from Luz’s Mami, and it too was a book… or rather, three books. It was the journals that Camila, Manny, and Michael had kept, meaning Luz would be able to freely read about the lives of her parents whenever she wanted. The three diaries had been combined into a single one with each parent getting a section, and the final pages of each diary (which Camila and Manny had stopped writing in after Michael died) was a letter from that parent to the then-unborn Luz, revealing their hopes and dreams for her and the deep love they felt for her. Reading them and seeing how much her fathers loved her in their own words made Luz sob but also smile, and she’d tackled her Mami into a hug and told her how much she loved her.

Surprisingly, everyone had also bought various presents for Stringbean too, since it was technically her birthday as well. They bought her some toys, some treats, a book of animals from the Divine Realm that she could use for her transformations, a comfy little bed to sleep in, and a special expanded bag that could contain it all, fit inside Luz’s hair storage spell, and which would act as a cosy den for Stringbean when Luz was on the move. The adorable little Snake-Shifter had made sure to nuzzle everyone in thanks, and her little tail wagged back and forth like a puppy the whole time.

With the presents being an overwhelming success, and Luz happier than she’d been in a long time, the party was able to get going in earnest. It was a fun time full of games, hanging out, watching movies and cartoons from the Divine Realm, and eating more junk food than was probably advisable, with Luz loving every minute of it. It had been more than Luz could ever hope for, and she’d been sure to tell each of her friends how much she loved them, whilst mentally thinking about how she’d repay them on their own next birthdays!

The Cabin Seven Crew and Basilisks (sans Vee and Treble) had then been escorted home by Lazuliel, while the rest of the gang had bunkered down in a mess of blankets and pillows to watch some of Camila’s favourite childhood movies. They had all slowly drifted off to sleep together, in total bliss.

But that was yesterday, and today was a new day! Luz was the first one awake, and decided she would reward all her friends with a nice breakfast, so she used her new darkness glyph powers to mimic Lyra and sink into the shadows to escape Amity’s sleepy grasp, then emerged in the bathroom to wash up before she headed to the kitchen and began whipping up a light breakfast, mindful of how much they’d all eaten yesterday. The smell of coffee, tea, and toast had everyone regaining consciousness one by one, with Samael being the first since he didn’t really need to sleep much after spending so long imprisoned. Luz took the time to bond with the boy a little by showing him how to cook some simple breakfast food, and he was soon cooking up pancakes and French toast like a pro!

Everyone was soon awake, washed, and happily tucking into their breakfast, just basking in the light of the pleasant morning light. With Luz back to her old self, Stringbean’s curious exploration entertaining everyone, and Samael’s more playful curiosity, the general mood was happier than it had been for a long time. There was also a bit of anticipation in the air too, as any moment they expected to be summoned back to court for the trial of Lord Raguel and the hearing of Belos, who due to the danger he poses, would be having his hearing in front of the full court like Raguel had, rather than in a more comfortable setting like Luz had. While the gang weren’t too eager to attend these events, they had to before Luz could leave, so getting them out of the way would see them finally returning to the Demon Realm after a staggering 20 weeks away from it.

A knock at the door drew everyone’s attention, and Lazuliel went to answer it, her face falling into a frown upon seeing who it was, which made everybody nervous. She stepped aside to let their guests in, and everyone saw Lord Camael and Lord Barachiel entering the room with tired frowns.

“Good morning everyone. I trust you are well and you enjoyed your festivities yesterday?” Camael asked, forcing himself to smile.

“We did, thank you. But it looks like you two didn’t get any sleep. I’m guessing you’re not here with good news.” Luz said, getting to her feet.

Barachiel nodded; “You’re correct. I don’t want to waste either of our times by mincing words, so I’ll come out and say it; there will be no trials or hearings today. Lord Raguel escaped in the dead of night and is no longer within the Divine Realm, while our investigation of the petrified Belos confirms that your suspicions were true; Lady Luciel. There is no soul present within it, and attempts to track Belos’ soul have revealed that it too has left the Divine Realm. We currently suspect he managed to hitch a ride with Lord Raguel or one of his allies.”

Hunter and Lyra both leapt to their feet; “Belos got away!?” Lyra cried.

“Luz, did you know about this!?” Hunter demanded.

Luz shook her head; “I didn’t know, but I had a suspicion. It felt like Belos had given up too easily when he was being petrified. At that last moment, he didn’t seem scared or resigned, just annoyed. I’m sorry I didn’t say anything, but I didn’t want to ruin the mood when I had no evidence besides a gut feeling.”

Hunter sighed; “I guess I can’t fault you for that. Sorry for yelling… it just feels like every time we deal with Belos, he comes back! The Day of Unity, possessing Jacob, and then possessing you… each time he’s caused a lot of trouble.”

“I don’t blame you. But don’t worry; we WILL stop Belos! He’s going to be too weak to do much for a while; it took him months to come back the first time, and he’s got to be at least that weak now. He won’t be able to possess people with that much power.” Luz reasoned, having gotten a feel for what he could do while he was possessing her.

That eased the others worries, but as the others got to their feet to join the conversation too, Camila asked; “What about Raguel? How did he escape?”

Camael sighed; “We underestimated the Wings of Rani. We assumed most of their number had left for the Demon Realm already, but it seems we have quite the infestation of them. Some Wings of Rani members had infiltrated the Knight patrols at the Penitentiary and removed the sleeping spells and restraints on Raguel. They were already at the Divine Crossroads by the time the next patrol noticed Raguel was missing, and by then it was too late. Raguel and his rescuers fled through the Portal Gate that Hanu described in her testimony. We’ve temporarily deactivated all the gates in the Crossroads and closed our borders to ensure no more Wings of Rani can escape as we’re investigating.”

“Belos probably snuck out while stuck to the bottom of their boots or something.” Matt said derisively.

Luz nodded, then asked; “So what’s the plan now?”

“Originally, we’d planned to send a few of my knights with you as support against the Divider and the Wings of Rani, but we’ve no idea how deeply our Crest Orders have been infiltrated. All personnel have been recalled so they can be investigated one by one to ensure they aren’t spies. This is a huge undertaking that goes beyond just Gran Seraphia.” Barachiel explained; “I’m sorry, but we won’t be able to give you reinforcements for your mission, Lady Luciel.”

“I wasn’t expecting extra help anyway. Besides, with my family and the Hexsquad at my back, I have all the awesome back-up I need!” Luz grinned, making the others smile confidently.

“We’re glad of your confidence, especially as we now have to ask you to complete an additional mission. Raguel is bound to cause trouble between our realms, so it is part of your job as protector and ambassador to deal with him. While we are rooting out the Wings of Rani here, we need you to capture Raguel and return him to us for judgement. Also, if the Demon Realm aren’t in a position to punish him themselves, we would like you to capture and return Belos too.” Barachiel said.

Luz smiled and nodded; “You got it! In return, I’d like to ask that you give sanctuary to Samael here.” she said, putting her hand on the Star Child’s back; “He’ll be safer here with you.”

Neither Camael or Barachiel seemed bothered by that, with Camael even asking Lazuliel if she’d host Samael as she’d been planning to host Luz if she was reformed. However Samael objected.

“Wait, you’re leaving me!?” he asked tearfully.

“We’re going to the Demon Realm to fight the Divider; I thought you didn’t want to come.” Luz said.

“I don’t! The Divider is scary!” Samael cried, before looking sheepish; “B-But you and King are my new siblings and best-est friends! I’ve gotta be brave and protect you! So I’m coming too!”

King and the others looked over the moon; “You will!?” the young Titan asked excitedly.

“Yes! I’ll help you fight the real bad birdies, and get your Mommy back! I want to protect you! Plus I still feel kinda bad for what I did yesterday.” The Collector confessed.

“We already forgave you, but your help would be great! Only the Divider himself would be a threat with you around!” Luz cheered. She then turned back to her fellow Seraphim; “I take that back; we’ll take Samael with us.”

The Seraphim nodded, and Lazuliel said; “Well feel free to come back and crash with me whenever you want. I’d volunteer to join you, but I have a duty to the Cherubs in my care.”

“We appreciate the thought anyway, Laz.” Camila smiled.

King then raised a paw; “So does that mean we can go back to the Demon Realm right now?” he asked.

Barachiel nodded; “Yes. You are all free to depart today if you wish, though since we did ask you to stay an extra day, you’re welcome to do so if you please. However we will need to deport your friends come tomorrow, as originally planned.”

No one was too bothered by that; it was always the plan after all and they had no desire to stay longer when they could be saving their friends and family instead. Luz looked to her friends and had a brief discussion with them, in which they all came to the same decision; they would pack up and leave immediately for the Demon Realm.

Since Luz was pretty much already packed with all her things in her satchel or hair storage, she decided to talk a bit more with the Seraphim while the others got their things together.

“So, I know the plea bargain turned out different in the end, but will my friends and other Demon Realm citizens still have sanctuary here like in the original deal? Should they need it of course?” Luz asked.

Camael reluctantly shook his head; “I’m sorry, but no. No such clause existed in the renewed bargain. The Seraphim Council and the Free Cities have also unanimously agreed to fully close our borders. You’ll be the only one with a keystone that still works after today. We need to ensure the Wings of Rani can’t slip in or out while we investigate. We’re sorry… though if you call on me, I will meet you in the Human Realm to provide healing assistance; I can’t give any consumable supplies to you from the Union, but I can offer my magic and any supplies I can provide with my own money. You can consider that offer limited only by my considerable personal funds.”

Luz frowned, but she couldn’t exactly hope for more in this situation; the Union existed to perpetuate and preserve itself, so naturally it would take extreme measures to protect itself.

“Alright I appreciate that, Great-Grandfather.” Luz said politely, hiding her disappointment.

Camael smiled sadly, then as he saw the rest of Luz’s friends finishing up their packing, he decided to clear the air once more; “Before you go, I want to once again apologise to you in regards to your father. I know you can’t forgive me for choosing to preserve a resource over a life, but I still want you to know I’m sorry. I also apologise for my clumsy defence of my actions yesterday… I acted as was required of me as a Lord Seraphim, but I want you to know… I deeply regret the choice I made. If I could go back and do it over, I would, even if it meant breaking the oaths I made to the Union. To save one life is to the save the world entirely; you taught me that.”

Luz’s eyes hardened for a moment, before she took a deep breath; “I understand. I don’t forgive you, but I do accept your apology.”

Camael bowed his head; “You are kind. More so than I, despite being Seraphim of Crest Kindness. Blessings be upon you, Luciel… no, Luz. You will forever have my aid.”

With that, the Seraphim gave Lazuliel a polite nod and then excused himself. He didn’t say a word to Camila, which she appreciated since she didn’t want to hear it, and left to continue his duties elsewhere.

Shortly thereafter, everyone was packed and Samael helpfully stored everything inside his own personal pocket dimension, before the party went with Lazuliel and Barachiel to the Divine Crossroads, returning to the gate they had first used to arrive in the Divine Realm the day before yesterday. Luz opened the gate, then she and her friends turned to say their farewells.

“Well it wasn’t always fun, but this has been an experience I won’t ever forget.” Luz said.

“Indeed. You are one of a kind, Lady Luciel; if anyone can stop the Divider, it will be you and your friends. When the time comes for the final battle, you can call on my aid too.” Lord Barachiel replied.

“Mine too.” Lazuliel smiled, hugging Luz and then doing the same to Vee, King, and Samael. She waved to the other kids and then hugged Camila; “Take care of yourself, Cassie. And don’t wait over 15 years to visit next time!”

Camila chuckled; “I won’t, Laz. And you take care of yourself too; my daughters and nephews would be sad to lose their Tia Lazuli!”

The woman giggled and took a step back, then Barachiel addressed Vee and Treble; “Before you go, I should inform you that the Abyssal Basilisk we arrested has regained consciousness. We’re currently working on behavioural therapy to try and make her less hostile. It’s slow going, but our experts have high hopes. You can leave her in our care without worry.”

Vee and Treble smiled; “Thanks, Lord Barachiel. We’ll leave Zero to the Angels.” Vee said.

With their goodbyes said, Luz and the others finally walked through the portal together, arriving at the Transport Hub in the In-Between Realm. Luz closed the gate to Gran Seraphia while Camila began fiddling with the central apparatus to open the gate to the Boiling Isles. Samael shivered a little, feeling uncomfortable being back in the In-Between Realm, while King looked around, having hoped to see his parents’ souls.

“Did you want to go looking for them?” Luz asked kindly.

King thought about it, then shook his head; “No. I’m sure they’re watching us through the Portal Seeds, so if they aren’t already here then it’s because they’re far away from this spot. We shouldn’t waste more time waiting around, or risk getting lost. I’m sure I’ll see them again some day.” King decided.

“That’s a very mature decision, Sobrino.” Camila praised, making King preen a little as the gate to the Boiling Isles opened up.

“Right, one more step and we’re all home!” Luz declared, looking into the swirling gate.

The others nodded excitedly, but Amity pointed to the gate to Neo Haven; “Are you sure you don’t want to visit there first? It could make for a good hideout and base while we try and take back the Isles.”

Luz shrugged; “Maybe one day, but for now I’m fine. Besides, I don’t think it’d be big enough for a real base.”

Camila nodded; “All of us together would fill it up. If we’re going to be teaming up with the CATTs and other allies of yours, then we’ll need somewhere bigger.”

The others agreed, and Hunter turned to Luz; “Okay Luz, you’re the leader here. What’s our first move once we cross over?”

“We should emerge near Bonesborough, so we’ll start there. We’ll head into town, lay low, and do some recon. We’ve got to get allies and information so we can get an idea of where to start with saving the Isles.” Luz declared.

Her friends agreed immediately, and with a deep breath, they stepped one by one into the Demon Realm, with Luz going first.

They arrived in the ruins of Evelyn’s garden; her old garden gate being the repurposed portal gate, and Luz immediately breathed in the familiar smell and atmosphere; nostalgia just about smacking her in the face. The others were all basking in it, with Willow reconnecting with the red grass, Amity having fun making some easy abomination slime, Matt grabbing fistfuls of dirt, Boscha running around harvesting herbs and other common ingredients, Skara whistling to some nearby demon birds, Hunter using some Beast-Keeping magic to detect any creatures around them, and Lyra releasing Shade from his Oracle Stone for the first time in three days. Vee was less enthusiastic, since she’d never really felt at home in the Demon Realm, but her Mama held her hand and made her feel better as the older woman closed her eyes and took in her own feelings of nostalgia. Only Hanu and Treble didn’t really react, since they’d only been out of the Demon Realm for a couple of days.

“It’s all like I remember it.” Camila smiled, “Well, except that…” she pointed up the sky, which had been taken over by a massive distortion that showed the city of Gran Seraphia hanging upside down in the sky above.

The others looked up too, the distortion acting as a sobering reminder of their mission. Even Samael was entranced by it, though he also had a strange look on his face. He kept squinting at the sky, then looking down at his hands with a frown.

“You okay, Samael?” King asked, getting up from where he’d been rolling around in the dirt.

“I don’t know… the sky looks weird, and I can see a funny aurora. And my magic feels weird too.” Samael frowned. He snapped his fingers, but nothing happened, making him panic; “It’s not working!”

“What!? Your magic isn’t working!?” King exclaimed.

Immediately, the others tried to cast their own magic, but unlike Samael, their spell circles worked like normal. None of them could see any signs of an aurora either, making them wonder if this was a phenomenon unique to the Collector.

“I don’t get it, why aren’t my powers working!? It can’t be because we’re on King’s Papa; my magic worked on other Titan lands before!” Samael frowned.

“It must have something to do with the aurora only you can see. I bet that’s what’s impairing your magic.” Luz commented, casting some spells at the sky to try and dispel the illusion. None of them worked, though it did trigger Hanu’s memory.

“Hold on a second! I think I know what’s happening!” she exclaimed; “That time I followed Raguel, that Valkyrie Lady he met with mentioned the Divider putting up defences and countermeasures against the Archivists! He was leaving to find them, but left the defences in case they snuck past him.”

The others frowned; “So the aurora is this defence? And it somehow seals Samael’s magic?” Lyra said.

“It can’t seal all of it though. When he couldn’t use any magic in the fight with Belos, he looked really pale and weak.” Skara pointed out.

“Well, maybe it only sees the Archivist magic, and Samael can use other magic still.” Matt suggested; “You Archivists can use normal Angel Magic still, right?”

Samael nodded, drawing a spell circle like Luz did and conjuring a tiny star. “I can still do this, but it feels so small and weak! I’ll also need to recharge it the slow way if my magic runs out.” the boy pouted.

“What do you mean “the slow way”? Also, just how powerful is your Angel Magic?” Hunter asked.

Samael answered by causing ten small white wings to emerge from his back, revealing that even as a Born Sephiroth, he truly did still have the wings of an Angel. They were small and cute, being Cherub sized, making many of them coo in response. “I can recharge like Luz and Tia Cammie, using my wings. I don’t like letting them out normally, since it really hurts if something hits me there. As for my power…” he tapped his finger to his chin; “I think my Angel Magic is about the same as Luz’s? Maybe a little weaker since I don’t have Titan Magic.”

Luz hummed; “So you’re about as powerful as a Seraphim. That’s good; even with the Anti-Archivist Aurora, you’re still super powerful and helpful! We’ll have to see if we can find a way around the aurora later, but until then, just do your best Samael.”

The Collector gave a playful salute and began to flutter around with his wings, able to fly despite their tiny size.

Now that the brief side track was resolved, the group began the short trek through the woods towards Bonesborough. Luz used an illusion to disguise herself as her old witch disguise to avoid drawing extra attention, and Samael similarly hid himself under an illusion of a dark haired little boy with the same skin tone as Luz. Vee had also transformed into her Human disguise, and Treble had followed suit by disguising himself as a brown-furred Macaque Demon similar to Hanu. They briefly stopped at the Clawthorne House and Dell’s Palistrom Grove, but the house was abandoned, and the illusions hiding the grove were gone, though it appeared that some witches from the Plant Coven were tending to it in Dell’s absence, likely given that assignment by the Divider. The Coven Witches weren’t ones Hanu recognised, meaning they were either the masked scouts or members Terra had judged unworthy of serving at Spriggan Manor. They seemed very happy, humming and chatting casually as they worked. The Hexsquad considered talking to them, but their excessive cheerfulness seemed unnatural, making Hanu and Treble suspect that they’d been Divided, so they opted to leave them alone. They continued the walk to Bonesborough and upon arriving in the town they found it to be… eerily normal.

It looked like most things were the same; people went about their business, went shopping, operated market stalls, swept the streets, chatted, or sat outside cafes, among other things. The only visible differences were that some of them seemed unnaturally happy, marking them as the Divided, and the presence of some Knights. These knights came in two varieties; standard Angelic looking Knights that appeared to just be animated suits of armour, and more Demon-like Knights with brass armour that resembled a steampunk version of the other Knights. Aside from these Knights, there was no sign of any Angels or extra security, so the Wings of Rani were either elsewhere or simply didn’t come out in the public eye.

“I know I should be glad that everything looks normal, but this is honestly weirding me out a little.” Gus said, looking around. It was the uncanny valley effect; everything looked like it should, but there was just enough that was subtly off, making them all feel uncomfortable.

“I think we’re being watched too.” Willow muttered, noting that a few of the knights were observing them, as well as some metal birds roosting around the place.

“Those birds aren’t real animals or Demons.” Hunter whispered; “We need to tread carefully.”

“Then let’s all act casually and look around.” Luz said softly, plastering a fake smile on her face as she began walking towards the centre of town. As soon as she and the others stepped out into the open, they finally noticed one major difference in the town; the presence of a new building right where the Bonesborough Library was.

To Amity’s relief, the library appeared to still be in place, but a large tower had been built into it, sticking out from the middle of the library. The tower was made of black, obsidian-like stone of some kind, but was also made in the usual Angelic style with plenty of stylised golden filigree. It was also quite tall, easily towering over any other building in Bonesborough. None of the gang had any idea what it could be for or why it was built into the library of all places, but it seemed people could still freely enter the library itself, so they began walking towards it to check it out.

Before they could enter however, they all heard a familiar voice.

“Luz? Amity? Everyone!?” cried Principal Bump, looking between them all with a mix of surprise and joy. The Hexside Principal had just been walking down the street, followed by an abomination holding some coffees on a tray, when he’d suddenly caught sight of them.

“You’re all here!? You’re alive and well! Oh thank goodness!” the old man said, hurrying over to them; “I just came out on a coffee run! I had no idea I’d be running into all of you! Where have you been? And who are these new people with you all?” Bump asked, taking note of Hanu, Treble, Vee, and Samael. He then noticed Camila and did a double take; “I-Is that…!? Cassiel!?”

Camila smiled; “It’s been a long time, Principal Bump. I need to thank you for looking after my daughter while she attended your school.”

“Daughter!? So Luz really is your child! She told me she wasn’t.” Bump said, giving Luz a look.

“In my defence, I didn’t know at the time.” Luz said, before becoming mindful that more and more people were taking notice of their group, drawing the attention of more of the Knights.

Bump noticed too, and looked around sharply, causing several people to look away quickly. A few just smiled happily and waved at him though, making Bump shudder; “We have a lot to talk about, but not here. The Knights won’t act unless you’re accused of breaking the law, but the Divided might report you to the Overseer and we do not want her knowing about you yet.”

“We can go with you to Hexside. We need information on the current situation.” Luz replied.

Bump nodded, and gestured for them to follow him, leading them back to Hexside. Upon arriving, they found many of the Hexsquad’s classmates were going about their classes as normal, and all were shocked and happy to see them, though they didn’t dare approach and speak to them, as there were knights guarding the halls too. They recognised Rogier, Leia, Jeb, Cat, and Bo; the latter three of whom looked desperate to talk to Boscha and Skara, but didn’t dare disrupt the “order” of the school. Boscha and Skara mouthed a “Call you later” to them, which made them feel a little better, before Bump brought the whole gang into his office and activated some hidden enchantments that ensured no sound from inside the room could get out.

Once that was done, he finally spun around and began hugging his missing students, making sure to embrace Luz, Amity, Gus, Willow, Matt, Skara, and Boscha, before also hugging Camila; “It is truly so good to see you all! The last we heard of you, the Divider was claiming you’d all been sent to the Human Realm to rest after the Day of Unity.” Bump explained, finally taking a seat behind his desk; “And Cassiel… I never imagined you and I would meet again.”

The Aged Principal was about to ask about Em, but seeing as he knew Luz’s Papi had passed away, he was able to put two and two together and decided not to bring it up. Instead he asked; “What in the Titan’s name actually happened?”

Luz sighed; “That is a very long story. I’ll give you the cliff notes version.” she said, before going into a very quick explanation of being sent to the Human Realm by the Divider, learning the truth about her parents, the battle with Belos and Zero in the Human Realm, the trial in the Divine Realm, and finally Luz’s ascension and new job, which Luz explained after dropping her illusion to reveal her new Seraphim form. Bump just sat back in his chair, taking it all in as he removed his Palisman Frewin from his head and began petting the imp to relax himself.

“You really do attract trouble by the cart load, don’t you Luz?” Bump eventually said with a fond shake of the head; “Considering you’re the daughter of FOUR different rebels, I shouldn’t be surprised.”

“It’s a talent.” Luz joked, “But the point is, we’re all here to help! We’re going to defeat the Divider and take back the Isles! And to start, we need to find out what’s been happening and get the CATTs back together. Any information you can give us will be really helpful.”

“I’ll do my best.” Bump said, “I guess I should begin with the Day of Unity. After that Draining Spell was stopped, the Divider sent all of the CATTs back to their headquarters and closed the only way out, trapping them there. He then began cleaning up the isles, creating those Angelic Knights and confining everyone in their home towns or Coven Headquarters. He used barriers to keep us trapped. Then the Emperor’s Coven scouts began working for him, only some of them had been divided already, turning them into those smiling, happy minions of the Divider. He went through all of the main nine covens and did the same to them, converting those who’ve done bad things into his Divided minions. Then he apparently went to the CATTs headquarters and crushed them after they attempted to stop him. I don’t know the full details, but I do know he divided anyone who defied him, and forced everyone else to obediently serve him, returning to the Isles with them. For some reason, he didn’t divide all the CATTs or the arrested Coven Heads, at least at first, but I don’t know why.”

The gang exchanged worried looks; so some of their allies and old enemies were now loyal servants of the Divider, while some managed to avoid his powers… that could be helpful information in the future.

“Okay, so what happened next? What’s with the tower in the library?” King asked.

“And where are our families?” Amity added.

Bump frowned; “Next, the Divider declared himself “Lord Protector” of the Boiling Isles and sent out these law books that he’d written. All people of the Isles are required to obey the laws, or those Knights or brainwashed Coven Scouts will arrest them. Only one punishment exists on the Isles now; Division. The Divider began using the Construction Coven, rapidly building those towers in the spots marked by Primordial Wellsprings, and Angels began appearing all over the place, becoming known as the Divider’s enforcers; the Wings of Rani. Unlike the knights, they are intelligent and use magic, making them a lot harder to resist… I’ve seen multiple small rebellions against the Knights, but they’re always crushed when the Wings of Rani arrive. As for the towers themselves, they’re called Union Pillars. I’m not sure what they’re for exactly, but the people who are arrested are all sent to the closest one, before returning as the Divided. They’re watched over by an Overseer, who controls the whole local area, like a Governor. Two months ago, all the pillars in the isles shot some magic beams into the sky, and it tore open that massive portal in the sky, showing that bizarre city which you say is the Divine Realm?”

Luz and the others nodded, so Bump continued; “When that portal-like thing first opened, thousands of Angels came flying down and all joined up with the Wings of Rani. Then a couple of days ago, they activated the pillars again and we briefly saw the Human Realm, but it hasn’t happened again since and those distortions were never very big, and they closed quickly. Though occasionally, the pillars will also shoot brief black beams into the sky too, but they only last a few minutes and we can’t see what they do.”

“I bet that was the work of Raguel, trying to set up reasons for the Union to arrest Luz for his plan to Reform her.” Hunter theorised.

“It sounds right. Those black beams are probably what causes the Distorted Shadows. If the Pillars are where people are Divided, then their negative aspects must be trapped there too.” Lyra said, “Which means the shadows are probably manifestations of the divided parts of people.”

“It’d explain why they look the way they do. But you don’t think destroying the shadows permanently destroys people’s Divided traits, do you?” Willow asked worriedly.

Luz frowned; “We’ve got no way of knowing yet, so we’ll just have to hope.”

Bump nodded, then continued; “As for your families, I’m afraid I don’t know much. The Alembics aren’t in town, and neither is Severin Cadence. The Tholomule family were also moved out of town by Steve after a failed rebellion, though I’m not sure where. The Parks and Mr. Porter are still in Bonesborough though, and not Divided as far as I know. I also know that the Blight Twins were taken in by Viney and the Leonis Family, and are currently in hiding. As for Edalyn, Lilith, Raine, and Alador… I’m afraid they’ve all been Divided and split up across different Pillars and Wings of Rani bases around the Isles.”

Willow, Gus, and Matt were relieved, while the others were apprehensive, especially Boscha and Skara, who had no idea if their families were safe or not. Hunter then asked; “What about Darius and Eber?”

“And Osran too? Or any of the other Coven Heads?” Lyra added.

Bump frowned; “I’m sorry, but aside from Mason, all the CATTs leaders were Divided. Mason was only spared because he ordered the CATTs to stand down to save them from Division after the rest of its leaders were Divided. At least that’s what I heard from Viney before her family went into hiding. All the Coven Heads, both Divided CATTs and Belos’ former loyalists, now serve the Wings of Rani in various roles, with most of them acting as Overseers at the various pillars.”

“Wait, the Divider is using our allies as his Overseers? Why? Isn’t that dangerous for him?” Matt asked.

“Maybe he’s confident we can’t undo his magic?” Vee suggested.

“I don’t know, but I suspect it was a method of controlling the Isles with minimal fuss.” Bump said, “It’s easier to rule over a place when your subordinates are already respected by the people. The CATTs are respected for stopping Belos, while the Emperor’s old loyalists are believed to have been tricked like everyone else, so they’re still mostly respected by the people who don’t know what they’re really like.”

“The whys don’t matter too much right now. What’s important is that most of our friends and allies are scattered across the Isles, or even under the Divider’s control!” Luz scowled; “That’s going to make things more difficult. But we’ll just have to rescue them all!” she declared determinedly.

Her friends and family nodded determinedly, but before they could begin to plan their next move there was an urgent knock on Bump’s office door. Bump cast a spell at the door, and it opened on its own, revealing Professor Lavestra, the illusion coven teacher. She hurried into the room and took one look at everyone, her three eyes widening in response.

“So it’s true!? You’re all really back!? I thought there had been some mistake…” Lavestra said, panting a bit.

“Professor Lavestra! It’s great to see you!” Gus greeted, stepping forward along with Matt.

“Augustus, Matt! I’m so glad to see you safe and sound! But I’m sorry; you need to get out of here! All of you!” Lavestra cried urgently.

Everyone was immediately on guard, while Bump got to his feet; “What is it, Ellie?”

“A contingent of Knights have come to the school and are searching it for Luz Noceda-Clawthorne, King Clawthorne-Noceda, and Amity Blight! They’ve had reports that you’re all here and want to arrest you!” Lavestra answered hurriedly. “No one is admitting to seeing you, so they’re searching the school from top to bottom; it’s only a matter of time before they get here!”

Amity blinked; “Wait, why me? Luz and King make sense with their Titan Powers, especially if Raguel is around, but why arrest me specifically?”

Lavestra was about to answer, but heard a noise behind her and turned to look. She spotted a full squad of fifteen Brass Knights coming towards her, led by one of the Divider’s Angelic Knights.

“There’s no time, they’re here! Get out through the window, I’ll try to hold them off!” Lavestra cried, turning to face the approaching Knights.

Bump went to join her; “Head to the Ash Moth Desert! You’ll find allies there! Now go!”

Luz didn’t even hesitate; “Heck no! We’ll handle these Knights!” she declared, before equipping her staff and removing her illusion to take on her full form. She then flashed out of the office between the two teachers and stopped in front of the incoming Knights.

“So, I hear you’re looking for me. Care to explain why?” Luz asked with a confident smile.

Bump and Lavestra, stunned by Luz’s new appearance, were gently pulled back into the office while the rest of the Hexsquad went out to join Luz, each of them wielding their staves. Camila kept the rest of their group back to guard the teachers and to serve as back-up if needed.

The Angelic Knight stepped forward and declared; “On orders of Lord Raguel, Right Hand of the Divider, the individuals known as Luciel “Luz” Noceda-Clawthorne and King Clawthorne-Noceda are to be taken into custody. In addition, on orders of Bonesborough Overseer Odalia Vespan, the individual known as Amity Blight is to be taken into custody. We are authorised to use force if required; do not resist.”

Amity glared furiously at the Knight; “Overseer!? That foul witch is in charge of this town now!?”

“I was just about to tell you before they showed up.” Bump admitted; “Odalia wasn’t Divided, since she surrendered to the Divider. Originally, Darius was the Overseer of the local Union Pillar, but after the Divider left a while ago, Odalia suddenly replaced Darius.”

Amity grit her teeth, and even her friends felt nervous at the anger and hatred wafting off her; “Of course she did! That disgusting woman would sink to any depths to get power, even cosying up with the Divider! I swear I’m gonna give her a piece of my mind that she won’t ever forget!” the lavender-haired girl snarled.

The others gulped and took a step back, while Luz giggled nervously; “I-Is now a bad time to say that you’re weirdly hot when you’re mad?”

That comment managed to snap Amity out of her fury, making her blush a little; “If you think I’m hot now, just wait until I actually get my hands on Odalia!”

Luz giggled and made a playful “Meow!” at her beloved, before twirling her staff and turning back to the Knights; “Well, I don’t want you to waste your energy on these Knights when you’ve got a bigger witch to fry, so let me take these guys out. I want to test out some of my new powers!”

Since she’d not had a proper fight since bonding with either the lightning and darkness glyphs, Luz hadn’t had a chance to really use those powers. She’d practised with her lightning magic while in the Human Realm, since it was the last piece she’d needed to properly study Beast-Keeping Magic, which she’d refined alongside Hunter and her Mami at the vet, and also found some fun combos with her other elements. Combining lightning and light created yellow beams of light that functioning like electricity and could zap and paralyse people, while with fire it made super hot plasma, with water it made storm clouds, with plants it created “intelligent” plants that could obey simple orders, with wind it allowed Luz to move at the speed of sound, and with earth it created magnetism.

Luz began the battle with the Knights by immediately combining lightning and darkness together, creating a bolt of black lightning that struck the Angelic Knight in the chest. Instantly, black lightning shaped cracks began to spread through the Knight’s armour, expanding outward like the spiderweb cracks of broken glass and causing the armour to rust and rot, until the Knight finally collapsed into a pile of rusted shards of metal, revealing nothing inside it. Interestingly, the leather straps of the armour and the cloth cape were not damaged, so it seemed the black lightning only worked on either metal or inorganic materials.

In response, the remaining 15 Brass Knights pointed their fists at Luz, their armour reshaping itself into magic arm cannons. Luz and the others immediately recognised that ability; it was just like the Abomaton MK II’s!

Luz quickly twirled Stringbean and created a powerful crystal barrier to block the barrage of rapid-fire blasts from the Knights. “So, these things are Abomaton Knights? MK III’s maybe? I’ll bet 100 snails that Odalia is having Darius make them.” she commented as she waited for the barrage to stop. However the barrage didn’t stop at all; the Abomaton Knights were being clever and firing in rapid volleys, with them alternating who was firing and who was charging to ensure Luz never had a free moment. That would have been bothersome normally, but Luz had some new tricks up her sleeve!

Using the same magic as Lyra, Luz dove into the shadows and emerged behind the Abomaton Knights, who didn’t realise what had happened until Luz was already attacking them.

“Let’s see what wind and darkness makes!” Luz declared, using Stringbean to combine the two elements. The result was a thick purple miasma, which was clearly poison. The poison unfortunately had no effect on the Abomatons, but Willow decided to see how potent it was by growing some roots and having them grab the Abomatons’ arms. The roots thinnest parts immediately blackened and withered, while the thicker parts became extremely sickly looking; it appeared the poison wasn’t immediately lethal to larger lifeforms, but no one was willing to test it out!

Thanks to Willow’s roots however, the Abomatons didn’t get to immediately take advantage of Luz’s failed attack, so Luz hadn’t wasted her window and immediately cleared away the poison and went into her next combo. “Let’s see if earth and darkness is a better fit!” she yelled, releasing the magic. The result caused the Abomatons’ shadows to become brown like mud, creating an instant swamp that they began to slowly sink into. However, the real power of this combination was revealed when pitch black skeletons began emerging from the mud, grabbing the Abomatons and trying to drag them down deeper. It was pretty creepy and made everyone shudder.

“Oof, right… darkness is the element of death… combine it with earth and you get swampy graves and shadow bones!” Luz commented. She couldn’t use this combo easily against normal people, but at least it was useful against the Abomatons! Four of the Abomaton Knights were fully pulled under before the remaining eleven coordinated enough to take aim at one another with the cannons and began shooting, destroying the skeletons and the mud puddles, allowing them to pull themselves free. The four that were submerged was effectively dragged into the shadow world and bound in mud though, so at least they’d have some surviving specimens for Amity to experiment on when the battle was done.

Now free, the Abomaton Knights changed their formation, with five of them exchanging their cannons for swords of abomination slime, and shapeshifting their armour to a lighter, more roguish style. The five of them darted at Luz with much greater speed than before, forcing her to conjure a light sword and give Stringbean a light coating that made her into a glaive, allowing Luz to parry and block the sword strikes. One of the remaining Abomatons prepared a barrier spell, while the other five began a barrage of magic blasts from their cannons, with the barrier going up as soon as they needed to recharge.

Luz yelped as she dodged the first barrage by flying into the air, but then found that the sword-using Abomatons could also jump extremely high and extend their arms, so Luz couldn’t simply avoid them in the air. She blocked the second barrage by using shadow tendrils to grab an Abomaton and use it as a shield, causing the armour to be vaporised and the slime on the inside to spill out, along with a modified version of the previous Abomaton model cores. It looked a miniature brass bathysphere filled with slime, and with a magic barrier around it, making it triple reinforced. Luz sent it into the shadows for later study, leaving the slime behind to become inert and powerless.

“Okay, three combos down; four to go! Let’s see how plant and darkness magic combines!” Luz said, producing the two glyphs and unleashing their power. The result was creeping black ivy that rapidly spread over the knights she grew it on and began to suck out their magic, causing eerie black and purple flowers to bloom from the ivy in the process. It appeared to use the death aspect of darkness to drain the life and energy from something, then use the life aspect of the plant element to use the energy to grow flowers. Boscha wondered what those flowers would do in a potion, but Luz was more concerned over the fact that black ivy was still just as flammable as a normal plant, as some of the Abomaton Artillery Knights switched to shooting streams of green flame that burned the ivy away. It was too late for three of the Knights though, as once the ivy was gone, they collapsed into piles of magicless slime and armour.

“And then there were eight.” Luz giggled; “What should I try next? Ice or fire?”

“Go with ice! I wanna see what kinds of combos Lyra and I can pull of together!” Gus called out, unwittingly making Lyra blush.

Luz happily obliged, and combined the ice and darkness glyphs, causing a freezing cold mist to begin wafting from her shadow. Luz manipulated the shadow into tendrils to grab the arm of a sword-wielding Abomaton as it swung at her, then grinned as she saw the shadow rapidly freezing everything it touched, seemingly sucking all the heat out of whatever it touched just as the black ivy had sucked out the magic. This meant it literally froze things from the inside; something very effective on the Abomatons, whose slime crumbled into powdery snow-like dust. This left the remaining two sword-wielding Abomatons as nothing but empty armour and dust, reducing the number of knights down to just six, who were hiding behind a barrier as they calculated their next move.

Mimicking Skara and Severin’s anti-barrier technique, Luz hummed a short tune that imbued Stringbean with a powerful vibrating magic, which Luz used to smash through the barrier with a single swing. She then immediately went into her next elemental combo by fusing fire and darkness. Predictably, this produced a deep black and purple flame that seemed to be able to ignite anything, even traditionally non-flammable substances such as the liquid slime of the Abomatons. However, while the flames could ignite anything and heat it up, it was far slower to actually burn anything and the temperature was relatively low; enough to be very painful, but not enough to melt most metals, instead just heating them until they were glowing hot. One of the Abomatons attempted to sacrifice itself to smother the flames igniting another, but this failed entirely; it seemed no normal method would douse these flames either.

“You know, I’d have thought black flames would burn hotter, like in that Human Realm anime we watched.” Hunter commented.

“Darker flames are colder than brighter flames, dumb-dumb! Why do you think white hot is considered hotter than red hot?” Boscha smirked teasingly.

“Well excuse me for not being a pyromaniac!” Hunter huffed.

“Yeah, you’re more of a wood person.” Boscha laughed.

Skara gasped and swatted Boscha’s arm; “Boscha, you can’t say things like that! I’m pretty sure that’s offensive to Grimwalkers!”

“Grimwalkers? I was talking about his whole thing with Willow.” Boscha retorted.

“We’re just friends!” Hunter and Willow said together, blushing hotly while Boscha laughed and the others chuckled or lightly teased them (and Skara gave Boscha a kiss on the cheek as an apology for the misunderstanding).

Bump and Lavestra looked between the joking teenagers and Luz, who was casually taking apart the Abomaton Knights that had been the scourge of the Isles in recent weeks, whilst their jaws were gradually getting lower. They were totally unfazed, despite a team of 15 Abomaton Knights being an insurmountable force for even large numbers of witches!

“It’s times like this that make realise how old you kids make me feel…” Bump groaned, rubbing a hand over his face. He then looked to Camila with a deadpan look; “Cassiel, your daughter is an agent of chaos outmatched only by her other mother!”

As he said that, one of the Abomaton Knights that Luz had lit on fire was suddenly smashed into the wall beside his office door, before finally crumpling down into a pile of red hot armour due to the slime inside it burning away.

Bump stared at it for a moment, then continued; “But Titan above, am I glad her chaos is helpful!”

Lavestra nodded emphatically beside him, and Camila grinned; “If any words describe my Luz, it’s “helpful chaos!” By the way, I wanted to have a word with you regarding the whole “Detention Track” incident.”

Camila’s smile became dangerous and Bump gulped, though Vee came to his rescue by hugging her Mama’s arm; “Don’t be too mad at him, Mama. He said sorry in the end, right?”

Bump nodded enthusiastically, and Camila relented; “I suppose you’re right. I do still feel grateful to you for how accommodating you were of Em and I, and you did let Luz attend your school, so I’ll forgive you.”

The aged Principal sighed and wiped his forehead as Frewin at on his shoulder and snickered; “Phew! I thought I was in trouble there! Thank you, Vee; you’re officially my favourite Basilisk.”

Considering the only other ones he’d met were Treble (who he hadn’t spoken to yet), and Subject Zero (the less said about her, the better), Vee wasn’t sure that was a high bar, but she took the compliment anyway.

Everyone’s attention was drawn back to Luz, whose flames had just caused two more of the Knights to burn out, leaving only three left. Luz, who’d been playing/experimenting with the black flames whilst Stringbean sat on her shoulder, tapped her chin as she dispelled the flames.

“Okay, so black fire is pretty cool. Pros are that it can ignite things that normal fire can’t, and it can’t be doused without strong magic. Cons are that it is weaker than normal fire and I need to use my own magic to put it out or it burns forever. And then kinda neutral; it won’t spread on its own, which can be good or bad.” Luz commented. “Pretty handy stuff! But that leaves just one more combo; light and darkness!”

Camila, Lyra, and Amity immediately cut in as Luz prepared the spell; “Uh, Mija? Remember what happened when Lyra and I used that magic?” Camila asked nervously.

“Or when Amity and I clashed at Eclipse Lake?” Lyra added.

“Combining light and dark can be a bit explosive!” Amity finished.

Luz just smiled sweetly; “Aw, don’t worry! That only happened because the positive and negative energy weren’t balanced. I bet if I balance it properly, it’ll work just fine! But I’ll start small if it makes you feel better.” she reassured them. She then used the same amount of magic to make a light glyph and darkness glyph and overlapped them to create a pea-sized orb of light and darkness magic… which immediately began to destabilise.

“Oh… oops.” Luz gulped, right before the orb exploded. Matt and Willow were quick to put up a barrier of hardened stone and iron vines to protect them all, while Luz was just barely able to focus the explosion into a beam at the last second, blasting it down the hallway and vaporising the surviving Abomatons in the process… along with chunks of the walls along the side of the hallway, and the entire wall at the end, leaving a gaping hole in the upper floor of Hexside.

When the smoke cleared and Matt and Willow lowered their barrier, they found Luz coughing and wafting away the smoke whilst looking sheepish.

“Okay, so apparently I was wrong! Don’t combine light and darkness magic unless you really want to blow everything up! Lesson learned! Ehehehe…” the young Seraphim chuckled nervously.

Bump gave her a painfully deadpan look; “You’ve been here an hour, blown my mind with your abilities, and then blown a hole in my wall. I trust you can repair it? Or do I need to feed you to the Choosy Hat?”

King cleared his throat, “Uh, yeah… about that…” he said nervously, before pointing to something behind Bump. Everyone turned around and saw Samael stood there, trying to whistle innocently with his head totally inside the maw of the Choosy Hat. It was trying to eat him, but it wasn’t having any success thanks to Samael’s durability.

“Samael might have gotten bored while watching the fight…” King explained.

Poor Bump looked ready to cry in frustration, but thankfully Camila took control like only an experienced Mother could. She clapped her hands and then pointed to Luz and sternly ordered; “Mija, repair what you broke. I know you can do it.”

“Yes Mami!” Luz squeaked, getting right to work. She muttered; “Thank the Titan for Seraphim-level Construction Magic!” as she began shooting repair spells at everything.

Camila then turned to Samael and crossed her arms; “Samael, it’s rude to touch things that don’t belong to you without permission. Return that hat and apologise to Principal Bump.”

The young Sephiroth sighed; “Yes Tia Cammie…” before casting a spell to stun the Choosy Hat and remove it from his head, handing it back to Principal Bump. “I’m sorry…”

“Um, you are forgiven young man.” Bump said, somewhat bewildered. He went to put the hat back in the locked chest he kept it in (how had the little boy gotten into it anyway?), while Professor Lavestra just chuckled and looked at Camila.

“If you can handle all kids as easily as those two, I’d be surprised if Hieronymus didn’t try to hire you!” she joked.

Camila smiled; “I’m sure you’re exaggerating. Besides, I’m happy with my job in the Human Realm.”

“Yes, of course. An amusing exaggeration.” Bump said, subtly slipping some documents, which looked suspiciously like a job application, back into his desk.

A moment later, Luz poked her head back into the office; “I repaired everything and stuck the remains of the Abomatons in the shadows. There’s also those few surviving ones I caught in the Bone Swamp.”

Amity smiled; “That’s perfect, Luz! We can dissect them and find out how they work, and what weaknesses they have!”

“Why bother? Luz beat ‘em real easy.” Samael said.

“Yeah, but Luz’s magic is way stronger than ours. Sufficient power can overcome just about any defences these things have, but for the rest of us, we need to find weaknesses we can exploit.” Amity explained.

“We can’t make Luz and you do all the work.” King added.

Samael hummed and nodded, while Amity turned to Principal Bump; “I know this could put you in a risky position, but can we use the abomination track facilities?”

Bump nodded; “Of course. Professor Hermanculus and I can assist you as well. Right this way.”

He then escorted everyone away from his office and towards the abomination track hallway. As he walked, he told Professor Lavestra to make an announcement and send all the students home early for their safety; the defeat of the Knights would be noticed, and the next attempt would include more of them, so he wanted the students out of the crossfire. He trusted the Divider’s Wings of Rani to avoid collateral damage, but he didn’t believe Odalia would be as careful.

Most of the students had made a run for it by the time they actually got to the abominations classroom, though Jeb, Rogier, Cat, and Bo had lingered behind to finally reunite with Boscha and Skara, while the HAS members Capra and Eileen joined Bo in also reuniting with Gus and Matt, eager to hear all about their weeks in the Human Realm. As the Hexside students all reunited with each other, Amity, Luz, and the rest of their party went into the abomination classroom and were met by Professor Hermanculus.

“Amity Blight! You are a sight for sore eyes! And are those Boscha and Willow I hear outside?” he greeted with a smile, his abomination carrying him over to Amity so he could shake her hand.

“Yes Professor. And it’s good to see you! Though we’re not here for reunions; Luz here captured some Abomaton Knights and got some armour from others, plus an intact core. I’d like your help investigating them for weaknesses!” Amity explained.

The professor didn’t need to be told twice, and eagerly gestured for Amity and Principal Bump to move over to his desk, which another abomination swiftly cleared before it pressed a hidden button to turn the desk into a dissection table. At Amity’s signal, Luz had then released the empty armour sets onto the floor, as well as the disembodied core, before releasing a single one of the trapped Abomaton Knights onto the dissection table. It thrashed a bit in its muddy restraints, but the mud was tight enough to make its metal armour groan in protest.

“Marvellous! I’ve wanted to get my hands on one of these things since they first appeared!” Hermanculus grinned, rubbing his hands together. He then picked up a scalpel and a tool that looked like a cattle prod made from some kind of electrical shrimp attached to a metal skeleton arm. Amity similarly picked up a cleaver and bone saw, while Bump grabbed a second scalpel and some forceps.

“Luz, we’ll need you to stay close at hand to pacify the specimen should it act up.” Hermanculus ordered. Luz complied and moved to the unoccupied side of the table, while her Mami, siblings, Hunter, Lyra, Hanu, and Treble watched from a safe distance and kept an eye on the disembodied core, just in case it decided to act up.

As the dissection began, the Hexside students outside the classroom were still catching up. The Hexsquad had given a brief explanation of where they’d been, while their friends that had stayed in the Demon Realm told them a bit about what’s been happening.

“For the most part, it’s not too bad if you keep your head down. Classes are the same as ever, and so are sports and other things.” Bo said, being the only person to be both in the HAS and a part of Boscha’s gang; “Though discipline is a lot stricter now. Bullying and breaking the rules can get you in big trouble with the Knights. Minor infractions get you put in the Detention Track now, while major ones get you sent to the Union Pillar for Division!”

“Even kids are being divided!?” Skara exclaimed.

“It’s a lot rarer. We get way more leeway than the adults do, but it’s happened.” Capra explained; “A couple of bullies from the beast-keeping track got sent to the Pillar a couple of months back. They’ve been super nice ever since, but it’s really uncanny.”

Eileen then began to speak, needing Gus to translate for everyone; “The Detention Track is weird now too. It’s like a class on morals and the rules, and it lasts until you can prove to the teacher that you’re really sorry for whatever you did. It’s taught by one of those weird Angelic Knights.”

“And that Room of Shortcuts was completely taken over by the Knights too. They watch everything from there and pop out to bust people who break the rules. It’s next to impossible to get away with anything!” Jeb complained; “I tried to get a gum eyeball from Celine in class last month and the Knight just showed up and scolded me that gum in class was against the rules! It sucks!”

“We’re safe here though. We wouldn’t be having this conversation here if there was an entrance to that room around this hallway.” Cat explained. “Plus I think Luz took out all the knights inside already.”

The Hexsquad exchanged grim looks, then Matt asked; “Do you know anything more about the CATTs or where our families are? We know about the Parks, and Gus’s Dad, but not much about the rest.”

Cat nodded; “I heard that your brother Steve moved your whole family to some secret rebel base somewhere. They’re trying to organise a rebellion against the Divider, but nothing is working. I heard Head Witch Severin is an Overseer somewhere too, but I don’t know about any of the others.”

The others nodded in agreement, though Rogier did lean forward to whisper; “I know a little more about it. My older siblings, Amber and Derwin, both got Divided and sent some place else, so their friend Katya has been keeping me in the loop. She’s with Steve at the new CATTs base! I don’t know much more, but apparently Mason is their current leader and their base is somewhere in the Ash Moth Desert!”

That made the Hexsquad pale in shock; what could have possessed them to risk making their base there of all places!? Sure most people wouldn’t stand a chance against the Ash Moth, making it a pretty useful guard dog, but it was also just as likely to attack the CATTs as it was the Wings of Rani! Plus the Divider would still probably be able to take it down if needed!

“Steve is definitely gutsy enough to make a base there.” Matt admitted, Pebbles squeaking in agreement from his shoulder.

“Bump tried to send us there too when the Knights attacked, so he probably knows more.” Boscha said, before looking to her old gang; “By the way, where is Amelia? Did her family run off to the CATTs too?”

Bo, Cat, and Jeb looked at one another with nervous expressions, before Cat finally said; “We don’t actually know what happened to Amelia. Her parents took her out of school one day and then their whole family went missing. This was within weeks of the Divider taking over…”

“Most of the Plant Coven has gone missing. Only a few are still around, and all of them are Divided.” Bo said.

Boscha and Skara gasped in horror, while Gus and Matt looked worriedly at Willow, whose on expression became grim; “The whole Plant Coven…? What about the plant track here at Hexside? Or the other schools?” she asked urgently.

“Most of them are still around. Some got transferred to other tracks when rumours started flying, and some disappeared along with their families. Only those with parents or close relatives in the Plant Coven seen to have gone missing. Professor Phil is still around too, but he was Divided after going to investigate where his Coven friends were disappearing too and apparently causing a huge ruckus.” Cat explained.

The Hexsquad members scowled; something was seriously wrong here! If it weren’t for the fact that the Divider and his Wings of Rani seemed to be strictly against killing of any kind, they’d be worried that the Plant Coven had been hunted down and killed or something. As it stood, Willow couldn’t think of what caused the situation, besides perhaps Terra Snapdragon flexing her power… if Odalia was able to worm her way into an Overseer position, then Terra might have done too. They needed to discuss this new development, as well as the rebellion operating out of the desert, with Luz and the others before they could make any decisions.

They soon said their farewells to their old buddies, with Boscha and Willow both solemnly swearing to find Amelia and bring her home so long as she still lived, before heading into the abominations classroom to see how the experimenting was going. They found that the surviving Abomaton Knights had all been destroyed, and their cores had joined the other one Luz had captured as the three Abomination Experts went about their work. Bump was investigating pieces of armour, looking at strange symbols engraved on the inside, Hermanculus was experimenting with the slime itself using various beakers and instruments, and Amity was examining one of the cores, which had been completely drained of magic by Luz’s black ivy after she’d broken its barrier with Skara’s Barrier-Breaking magic.

“Guys, we hope you’ve got some good news, because what we’ve learned is a real mixed bag…” Gus said, before going into an explanation of everything their friends had told them.

Luz frowned; “So Amelia and the Plant Coven are missing? I can’t think of many people who’d be responsible for that… only two in fact.”

“Terra Snapdragon and the Mandragora, Arboriel.” Amity finished for her, looking up from her research.

“I forgot about the Mandragora! That’s a blast from the past!” Boscha exclaimed. “Anyway, we need to find them AND meet up with the rebellion in the desert.”

The others agreed easily; “You’re right. The sooner we meet up with Steve and Katya, the better. They’re bound to have more useful information.” Hunter said. “Finding out where the Plant Coven members are will be tougher though.”

“They aren’t at Spriggan Manor; the Divider basically gave it to me and the Basilisks, along with a few Coven Members who were all Divided already.” Hanu frowned; “Though come to think of it, there was a bit of a commotion about three months ago…”

Treble’s eyes widened as he remembered that too; “Oh yeah! One of Snapdragon’s elites came to the manor and tried to recruit Hanu back to the Coven! The guards wouldn’t let her in though; they said Hanu was not “eligible” or something.”

“Well that’s freaky. So how do we find them? They’ve gotta be in a place with lots of plants, right?” King said.

Willow nodded; “Probably, but wooded areas make up the majority of the isles. It’d be like looking for a specific drop of Apple Blood at the Apple Butcher.”

“Lyra, do you think you can help with Oracle Magic?” Gus asked.

Lyra shook her head; “The Wings of Rani are everywhere, and those Knights and weird birds are all made of Angelic Magic too. I can barely let Shade out of my Oracle Stone because it freaks him out so much.”

“My Spirits, Hecate and Odd, are the same.” Amity frowned. Hecate was the original spirit she’d gotten when she’d joined the oracle track (and named after the fight with Lyra back on the Knee), while Odd was the spirit that she’d snatched away from Odalia, having come with his name.

“We could try Divination?” Camila suggested; “Luz and I aren’t too good at it, but you’re amazing. Combine your talent with our help, and maybe Samael’s too, and we’re bound to find them.”

Lyra smiled; “That could work! But it’d take time and we’d need to connect to the Celestial Bodies of this realm; they’re different from the ones on Earth.”

“Then we should leave that for when we meet up with the CATTs and have a safe place to make the connection.” Luz said, “And heading to the desert should be our next move after this.”

Her friends all agreed, and Boscha turned to Amity; “Speaking of, how is the research going?”

“It’s a mixed bag for us too. The slime here seems to be virtually the same as the original Abomaton MK II slime, but with very minor chemical changes that I can’t figure out.” Hermanculus frowned; “It means the old Parasitic Abomination exploit won’t work, unless we can perfectly match the formula.”

“The trick to use Lightning Magic to make their armour seize up has also been rendered useless.” Bump sighed, showing them all the inside of one of the now-empty breastplates. It had a glyph combo carved into it, though the glyphs were different from Luz’s, with the exception of the light glyph.

“Those glyphs are familiar… I think they’re the ones the Divider has.” Luz frowned.

“That combo creates an insulated barrier.” King observed, being the de-facto glyph combo expert. “I came up with it after Pulvoltary. The Divider switched out my Mama and Dad’s glyphs for the ones on his skin, but it’s otherwise the same.” he then looked to Hunter; “It was meant as a defence against you, back when you were the Golden Goof.”

Hunter nodded; “Not a surprise. We were still enemies back then. So the combo prevents electricity from flowing normally through the armour?”

“Yes. It looks like the slime was programmed to activate it whenever it sensed a foreign current. It would immediately nullify the current and allow the Abomaton to transform itself as usual.” Principal Bump explained. “There are other combos too; cooling ones to make it easier to use its magic cannons, petrification ones for restraining prisoners, and a few other utility combos, like water generation. It’s basically a combination of normal Abomination Magic and Titan Magic.”

King and Luz both gasped; “Like the golems on Titan Cradle Island!” they said together.

“Weren’t those things a real pain? Making them with modern Abomination Magic mixed in too would make them a nightmare to deal with!” Matt groaned.

“They’re not just Abomination and Titan Magic either.” Amity grinned excitedly; “This core was made partially with Angelic Alchemy! A few of the techniques used were basically adapted from Angelic Alchemy! Now I know for a fact that Dad and Darius are behind these.”

“Why do you sound so excited? Isn’t this bad?” Vee asked, confused.

Amity shook her head, her smile growing wider; “No Vee, you don’t understand. The techniques used here? They’re mine! I first developed them when I began my research into Positive Energy Abominations! I’ve been experimenting with it for months, but only managed to find success in small amounts; I was missing the proper purified catalyst! If I can figure out what Dad and Darius used here, I can apply the catalyst to my more up to date research and finally complete my dream!”

“An entirely new, light based Abomination Magic…!?” Hermanculus gasped, with Bump actually dropping a piece of armour in shock. “Amity, that would revolutionise Abomination Magic! You’ve really found a way to make it work!?”

Amity nodded; “I just needed a purified catalyst to make the slime react properly. Traditional Abominations use negative energy ingredients like Titan Bonemeal, or intestinal enzymes from certain breeds of Beast Demon, but I found replacements for all but the primary catalyst. I wasn’t able to find a purified, positive energy catalyst in the three weeks between starting my research and getting stuck in the Human Realm, and there are no magical ingredients in the Human Realm. Dad and Darius must have found one to make these Abomatons work with Angelic Magic, which normally disrupts them. If I combine that catalyst with the refined techniques I created in my time in the Human Realm, then it should work!”

Hermanculus and Bump both stood there with their jaws hanging open, while Boscha and Willow (the only two who knew anything about Abomination magic) looked amazed.

“That’s my Hermosa! She’s a real genius!” Luz gushed, hugging Amity and kissing her cheek.

“It really is amazing. Though I hate to rain on your parade, but that doesn’t really help us beat them.” Willow pointed out. “Do you have any weaknesses discovered?”

Immediately, Amity, Bump, and Hermanculus grimaced, which made the others hearts’ drop. “Honestly, I’ve not found any weaknesses that can be properly exploited by everyone. Raw strength and power that can overpower their defences and restorative abilities could work, as well as some method of draining their magic like the Basilisks or Luz’s Black Ivy stuff, but otherwise we’re out of luck.” Amity admitted.

“By using glyph combos and some of Amity’s early research to incorporate Angelic Alchemy techniques, Alador and Darius have made these Knights practically foolproof. Their every flaw and opening is covered by an extra layer of defence. About the only ones who can beat them in a straight fight are Arch-Angels, Seraphim, or people with Anti-Magic capabilities.” Hermanculus said.

Everyone frowned and exchanged worried looks; that meant that their only recourse when faced with the Abomaton Knights was to have Vee or Treble eat their magic, or have Luz or Samael overpower and destroy them… and if faced with large enough numbers, Vee and Treble would be helpless and even the massive Seraphim level magic reserves of Luz and Samael would run dry with how much magic they’d need to use. Taking out 15 hadn’t really bothered Luz, but 150? 1500? That could be a bigger problem…

“So we’ll just need to be smart and make shutting down or slowing the production of the Abomatons a priority. That means we’ll need to save Alador and Darius.” Luz declared.

Her friends agreed, and Hunter piped up; “May I suggest that we first meet our other rebel friends at their new base, then rescue those two? We don’t currently have a safe place to stay, and we shouldn’t make battle plans until we know all the resources we have at hand.”

Luz nodded; “Good idea. We’ve secured information, now we can secure shelter and allies!”

The rest of the Hexsquad agreed, while Camila and Vee just watched, impressed. “Wow, you kids really sound like experienced rebels! You know what you’re doing!” Camila praised.

“It helps that this isn’t our first rebellion. Let’s just hope that we don’t have to go for a third.” Luz joked.

The gang chuckled along with her, but their mirth didn’t last long as Boscha’s scroll suddenly started ringing. Seeing that it was a call from Cat, she answered immediately; “Hey Cat. What’s up? You just saw us a few minutes ago.”

“Boscha! Are Willow and Gus still with you!?” Cat asked urgently.

Boscha frowned and put the call on speaker; “Yes, Willow and Gus are with me. What’s going on?”

“It’s the Knights! A squad of them just marched into town and arrested Harvey and Gilbert! And a live BBN-HXN news broadcast just went off the air when Knights went to stop Perry Porter from reporting on something! I think he’s been arrested too!” Cat explained in a panic.

“What!?” Gus cried.

“No! Why are they arresting our Dads!?” Willow demanded, nearly in tears of worry.

Cat’s voice sounded frantic; “I don’t know! No one else who saw the Parks be arrested heard what the supposed charges were! All I know is that they were taken to the Union Pillar!”

Amity narrowed her eyes; “Odalia! I bet this is her doing! When her minions failed to capture us, she sent them after your Dads to use them as hostages!”

“W-Would the Wings of Rani allow that? They’re all about law and order!” Cat cried.

“If Odalia claimed they were suspected of harbouring us, then probably. It would make sense. Plus a guy named Raguel is with her now; he’s done other stuff against the Divider’s wishes that he thinks are for his own good. I wouldn’t put it past him to go along with this plot.” Luz said grimly.

Hunter, who’d moved to comfort a terrified Willow while his sister did the same for Gus, asked; “Cat, was it? Is there anything more you can tell us?”

“I’m sorry, but no…” the girl sounded like she was on the verge of tears.

Boscha took the call off speaker and put the scroll to her ear again; “Cat, it’s okay. We’ll figure this out on our end. You go home and calm down; we’ll save the Parks and Mr. Porter.”

Cat said something none of the others heard, and Boscha smiled; “Good. Now go relax; captain’s orders.”

Boscha then hung up and said; “So, what’s the plan now?”

“Rescuing the Parks and Mr. Porter of course. You said it yourself.” Luz replied.

Willow and Gus smiled with relief, and everyone took seats while Luz went up to the blackboard, as if she was teaching a class. Even Principal Bump and Professors Hermanculus and Lavestra took seats, curious to see where this was going.

“Okay, so this is my thoughts on how to handle this; we don’t want to go in spells blazing, just in case we get overwhelmed. Raguel is probably there and he’ll be a match for me or Samael, since he’s a Seraphim. We’ll also have to deal with Odalia and the Knights, plus possible reinforcements from the Wings of Rani, and maybe even our own allies if the Divided can be made to fight against us.” Luz started.

“The Divided will definitely be used to fight against you. The Divider may have disappeared, but he left behind orders; the Divided will all obey the Overseers and Wings of Rani without question.” Bump told her.

“Though Odalia will be a non-issue so long as she’s dealing with an Angel, seeing as she’s an Oracle.” Amity added.

Luz nodded; “Which means we’re dealing with Raguel, Alador, and Darius at least, since we need to rescue them as well as the Parks and Mr. Porter. So I’m thinking we do this the stealthy way. We sneak in, rescue our allies, and then get out. We avoid fighting if possible, and see if we can find a way to stop the Divisions or undo the ones that already happened.”

“That’s a good point; how are the Divisions still happening if the Divider is off dealing with the Archivists?” Lyra wondered aloud. No one present had any answers for her though, since no one but the Divided and the people in charge of the process would know that information.

Skara also raised a point; “Won’t it also be tough for a group this big to sneak in? We’d be conspicuous no matter how good we were at stealth.”

“I thought of that, which is why we’re going to split up.” Luz said, using magic to levitate some chalk and make it write on the board as she detailed her plan. “A team of myself, Amity, Willow, Gus, and Vee will sneak in to the Pillar while the rest of you will go ahead to the desert and find the CATTs there. That way if things go south, we’ll have allies waiting in the wings who could come back us up.”

“Wait, what about me? Shouldn’t I help you too? I can’t use my normal powers, but I’m still super duper strong too!” Samael protested.

Luz agreed; “You are, which is why I want you to go with King and the others to the desert. You’re a True Immortal, and way stronger than the rest of our allies; they’ll need you as protection, especially if you run into the Ash Moth in the desert!”

That promptly changed Samael’s tune, and the others in the Desert Team quickly agreed too and encouraged the Collector to stay with them for their own safety. Luz then turned back to Infiltration Team; “Obviously I’ll be going as the main fighter. Amity, Willow, and Gus obviously need to be there to save their Dads, and Vee’s transformation powers and ability to eat Abomaton Magic will make her great back-up for me if we need to fight.”

“That sounds good to us! So what exactly is our infiltration plan?” Amity asked.

Luz responded with a grin and picked up a discarded and empty Abomaton Knight helmet, which she slipped onto her own head; “Using these empty armours and some illusions, Gus, Vee, and I will disguise ourselves as Knights that captured you and Willow.” she explained, “That way, we’ll be able to walk you both to wherever they keep their prisoners and we can bust them out! If I store the rest of the armour in the shadows, we can disguise your Dads after rescuing them too, and leave behind illusions to make it look like you’re all still in prison. With any luck, we’ll all be out of Bonesborough by the time they notice the switch!”

The rest of the Infiltration Team easily agreed with that plan, though Vee did so reluctantly; she was still pretty scared of fighting, especially back in the Demon Realm. She would be brave though, and push herself to do what she needed for the sake of her friends’ families. Camila noticed Vee’s nerves and decided to interject.

“Mija, sorry to be a pain but I’d like to join you too. Darius is an old friend, and if we run into any Angels, I’ll be better at bluffing past them than you, sine I have more experience living with them. Besides, I want to help my daughters, and if things go bad, then I’d like a chance to “talk” with Odalia.” Camila said, a dangerous grin on her face at that last part.

That was not a smile Luz wanted to say no to, so she nodded; “Okay. Four people is better than three anyway; that way we have two people for each prisoner. It’ll look more authentic. Does everyone agree with this plan?”

Everyone nodded (including the Hexside Teachers, who weren’t actually taking part), and the plan got started. Luz, Camila, and Gus all put on suits of the Abomaton Armour, while Vee transformed herself into a simple abomination-like figure before putting on a suit of her own. Amity then used abomination slime to create fake cuffs for herself and Willow to make it look like they were restrained, and Gus made illusions of magic-nullifying cuffs to further the illusion and make the enemy let their guard down. Ghost and Clover were placed in abomination cages too, though there was no magic on the cages to keep them from being summoned out, since they were purely for show. Once their disguises were in place, Luz’s team said there farewells to the others: King, Samael, Matt, Skara, Boscha, Hunter, Lyra, Hanu, and Treble would all be sneaking out of the school through an underground fire exit from the converted Fibul Academy section of the school, as Principal Bump had kept it secret from the Knights in case it was ever needed to sneak students in or out.

“Okay guys, we’ll meet you in the desert sometime tonight or tomorrow. We’ll call if we need back up or if the mission was a success and we’re on our way. If you don’t hear from us by sundown, then assume the worst and send help.” Luz said, giving King and Samael quick hugs.

“Will do. And if you get caught, make sure to kick Odalia and Raguel’s butts!” King said with a big grin.

The others in the Desert Team gave their own words of confidence, then followed Principal Bump into the tunnel and out to the secret exit. Once they were gone, Luz and the Infiltration Team waited twenty minutes to make sure their allies had a chance to get out of Bonesborough, before slipping fully into their disguises with illusions and beginning the march to the Union Pillar. Luz and Camila walked with Amity between them, each one holding one of her arms, while Vee and Gus walked with Willow between them in the same way.

Leaving Hexside, the group immediately caught a lot of attention from the citizens of the town, who watched them walking towards the library/Union Pillar with sympathetic eyes. Seeing two kids, especially kids believed to have been missing all this time, suddenly being dragged off to what they assumed was their Division made everyone angry and upset. The group were briefly worried they’d be attacked by rioting townsfolk, but it seemed that four months had been enough time to make everyone realise there was no defying the Divider’s forces… that would make rallying allies harder for the CATTs later down the line, but at least it meant they weren’t being attacked.

As they approached the library/Union Pillar, Amity began whispering to her friends, so Gus subtly used an auditory illusion to keep people from hearing them.

“Professor Hermanculus told me that the Abomaton Knights talk like normal abominations, so remember to speak slowly and simply.” Amity whispered. The disguised quartet nodded, and Gus applied a second illusion to their helmets, making their voices sound like abominations when they spoke.

The Infiltration Team then walked up the library steps, ignoring the Abomaton Knights guarding the front door as they entered it. On the inside, the library part of the building had barely changed; it looked like the majority of the Union Pillar had just been built on top of the library, with the only alterations to the interior being eight strange vein-like tubes that flowed out from the ground and into the ceiling above, as well as a ninth much larger tube that stood in the middle of the library. The bookshelves had been left mostly in their original places, with the tubes built in places where they wouldn’t get in the way, though the larger one had forced the study area to be shrunken a bit. The eight smaller tubes were each about two feet in diameter and were filled with different coloured liquids; gold, blue, red, green, silver, yellow, bronze, and purple, which Luz recognised as the colours of the elements. Meanwhile the ninth tube, which was noticeably straight like a pillar rather than winding, was pitch black and about the size of an elevator shaft, which Luz suspected it was intended to be.

Aside from the minor modifications, the library also appeared to be quieter, though Amity noticed the shelves seemed fuller. She looked closely at some books floating past and noticed a couple of volumes that she knew to be in the Forbidden Stacks! Had the Divider ordered some of those books unbanned?

Amity soon got her answer as the familiar face of Malphas, her old boss came floating over atop his giant floating books.

“Amity!? Is it, like, really you? Where have you been, girl? This place has, like, totally not been the same without you!” Malphas greeted excitedly, before seeing the fake Abomaton Knights holding her captive. He narrowed his eyes angrily, but Amity took his attention again.

“Malphas! It’s good to see you, though I wish it was under better circ*mstances.” Amity smiled; “What’s been going on? What did the Divider do to the library!?”

“It’s been weird, like, really weird. That Divider dude and his goons came in and, like, kicked me out of the Forbidden Stacks! He turned the whole place into some kind of, like, freaky dungeon and ritual place. But on the bright side, he totally unbanned, like, every book in the Stacks. Everything is, like, age-rated now instead. So that’s nice… but what about you? Girl, how did you get arrested!?” Malphas asked, once again shooting a glare at the fake Abomatons.

“By the “wisdom” of Overseer Odalia.” Amity scoffed; “I got nabbed helping my friends escape. Willow got arrested for helping me.”

Malphas frowned severely; “Your buds left you behind? I never thought that, like, the Arch-Angel of Bonesborough would do that!”

Amity smirked; “You’re right. She wouldn’t do that.” she said, making eye contact with Malphas before glancing at the disguised Luz. Malphas followed her gaze, and Luz nodded her helmet subtly, making Malphas gasp softly.

“So that’s how it went down. Like, I’m not even surprised. I knew today would be a weird day when that big bad Angel dude showed up in the middle of the night.” Malphas said.

“Big bad Angel dude? Wait, did he have eight wings and a halo?” Willow asked.

“You got that right, dudette.” the Master Librarian nodded. “You know the guy?”

The two girls nodded; “You could say that. Is he still here?” Amity asked.

“You bet. He’s been making Odalia real uneasy too. The whole town is hoping he’ll, like, replace her or something. Everyone really hates that witch; we liked it better when Darius was in charge.” Malphas sighed.

Willow frowned; “How did she replace Darius?”

“No one really knows. She used to just run the factory, like, building all the Abomatons that your Pops and Darius designed. But when the Divider left the isles for his field trip or whatever, Odalia paid a visit to the Pillar. She and Darius went down to the basem*nt, and the next thing we knew, Darius was abdicating. Said some garbage, like, “I’m too busy with design work to do a good job, so Odalia is Overseer now.” No one really believed it though, and the Wings of Rani guys don’t care so long as everything is, like, nice and orderly. They all left town right after. No other Angels been here since, ‘sides the big dude.”

The Infiltration Team exchanged looks, and Amity commented; “I’ll bet every snail I have that the basem*nt is where people go to get Divided.”

“Your snails are safe, Amity. You’re totally right. But Darius was already Divided before he became Overseer.” Malphas said.

That puzzled the team; what had Odalia done to Darius? How had she convinced him to let her be in charge, especially since he had to know, even while Divided, how bad of an idea that was. Come to think of it, why wasn’t Odalia divided too? The Divider knew what she was like, so it seemed strange he wouldn’t just Divide her on sight… For about the thousandth time, Luz wondered just what was going on inside his head.

Before the team could ask any more questions, they all heard a sound coming from the large black pipe, the base of which opened up to reveal that it was indeed some kind of elevator shaft. Odalia stepped out of it, dressed in a white and gold version of her usual preferred outfit, and flanked by a pair of Abomaton Knights. The people in the library took one look at her and her smug face, then quietly put their books away and booked it out of the building, while the other librarians began hiding behind bookshelves or trying to make themselves look busy, so as not to catch the woman’s eye. Odalia’s eyes scanned the room, and when they finally fell on Amity and Willow, her smug face gained a cold smirk before she began to walk over to them.

“Ah, Amity. And here I thought you’d run away again. It seems your luck finally ran out, and your precious Angel abandoned you.” Odalia said mockingly, coming to a stop in front of the girl.

Amity, mindful that she was supposed to be at Odalia’s mercy, just bit her tongue to keep herself from speaking out against her, opting to glare darkly instead. Odalia wasn’t intimidated though; “What’s the matter? No words of rebellion now that you don’t have back up? Honestly Amity, I did warn you about this often when you were growing up; it’s a Dog eat Dog world out there. Even the people you care about most will abandon you for their own sake; I should know.”

Amity wasn’t sure if Odalia was referring to how she’d abandoned her parents when selling them out, or to Amity, Alador, and the twins ditching her. Either way it made her roll her eyes.

Odalia clearly didn’t like that a pointed a finger in her face; “Don’t roll your eyes at me, young lady! I am your mother and you are mine to do with as I please!”

“Oh will just shut up already?” Amity groaned; “Honestly, do you even hear yourself sometimes!? You’re ridiculous! Posturing and threatening when we both know that without other people’s power to throw around, you’d be nothing! Your business, your noble title, even becoming Overseer of this place! It’s all something other people earned for you! You’re just a parasite, and one I was happy to remove from my life! You are not and have never truly been my mother!”

Odalia’s nostrils flared and there was a flash of rage in her eyes. She raised a hand and went to backhand Amity, but Luz instinctively caught her wrist and squeezed tightly, making Odalia grimace and glare at her.

“What are you doing, you hunk of junk!? You obey me!” she snarled.

Thinking fast, Luz answered slowly while Gus’s illusion made her sound like an abomination. “Assaulting a prisoner is forbidden by law.”

Odalia scoffed and yanked her hand free, apparently buying it. “I am not assaulting a prisoner. I am disciplining my daughter! Something I clearly didn’t do enough before all this.” she said that last part while narrowing her eyes on Amity, who grit her teeth in anger. Odalia hadn’t hit her often, but Amity remembered every occasion and each one fuelled the burning pit of hatred inside her.

Camila, also fuming inside her disguise, piped up; “Corporal Punishment is forbidden by law.”

Naturally Camila didn’t know that for certain, but such things were forbidden in the Divine Realm and severely frowned upon on the Boiling Isles, so she assumed the Divider would make such a thing forbidden in his “Paradise” as well.

Odalia scowled in response and muttered; “Damned Divider… why he insisted on having these things programmed to obey the law above all else is beyond me! Doesn’t he realise the law gets in the way sometimes?”

Willow snorted; “Only if you’re an immoral slug.”

The green-haired woman snapped her attention towards the girl and scowled; “Oh, it’s you. No wonder my daughter was captured; she was dragged down by dead weight.”

“First, she’s not your daughter, you talentless gold digger! Second, let me go and face me like a real witch, and we’ll see who’s the dead weight!” Willow retorted.

Odalia’s temper flared and they could all see she really wanted to hit Willow, but didn’t dare. It seemed the Abomaton Knights really were programmed to obey the law first and foremost. Instead Odalia just glared coldly and snapped at the disguised Vee and Gus; “Take her down to the Penitent Cells and toss her in with her fathers. She can watch as they’re Divided, before getting a dose of it herself! We’ll see how big she talks when she is one of my obedient subjects!”

Willow didn’t bother to retort as her fake captors began dragging her towards the elevator, while Amity and Malphas both glared at the mint-haired woman. The last thing Willow, Gus, or Vee heard before entering the elevator was Odalia turning to Amity’s fake captors and saying; “Take my daughter up to my office. I think we need to have a proper chat on her place in this new world.”

The black doors of the elevator then closed, leaving Willow, Gus, and Vee stood awkwardly on a platform floating in an empty tube, illuminated only by a ring of light at their feet. Mindful that the others would be using the platform to go up in a moment, they scrambled to make the platform descend, eventually finding a glowing panel beside the door with two arrows. Gus tapped the downward arrow and the platform began to descend, while a new one manifested above their heads for the next group to use.

As they descended, Vee couldn’t help but comment; “So that woman is Odalia Vespan? The woman that used to be Amity’s mother?”

“Yep. Real piece of work, right?” Willow replied.

Vee nodded with a shudder; “You know, I always found it hard to believe that Amity used to be a bully… now I find it hard to believe that she wasn’t way worse, being raised be someone like that!”

Willow chuckled, while Gus nodded; “Amity is pretty awesome. She, Luz, and Camila will be able to handle Odalia and Raguel. The three of us need to focus on busting out my dad and the Parks. Vee, we’ll be relying on you to deal with the Abomatons.”

“You got it, Gus.” Vee said, psyching herself up.

The platform eventually reached the bottom of the shaft, which then opened up to allow the three of them out. They were immediately greeted with the lowest levels of the Forbidden Stacks, which had been converted into a small laboratory, which was clearly used by Alador and Darius for researching new Abominations. However there was no sign of any prison cells; only a doorway that led into a huge atrium that had been dug out. Cautiously (and mindful of the sparse Abomaton Knights patrolling the place), the trio stepped into the atrium and gasped at what they saw.

It was a large circular room split up across three levels; the top level had nothing but prison cells lining the walls, each one with nothing inside except a small cubicle with the letters “WC” carved on them, indicating they were bathrooms. The lack of beds or other things in the cells implied that the prisoners weren’t meant to stay long. There was also a platform suspended in the air in the centre of the top level and connected to the ring of cells by walkways. This platform contained a complicated looking ritual circle, with a 4ft tall pillar with black crystal atop it in each of the cardinal directions, and a much large translucent crystal suspended in the air ten-feet above the centre of the circle. Some kind of enchanted book was floating just outside the circle, but it had no words on its pages or cover, leaving its purpose a mystery.

The second floor of the atrium was even stranger; the outer ring was made up of nothing but shelves upon shelves of strange black orbs, each one having a little label beneath it as well as a glowing stand, as if they were a collection of crystal balls. In the centre of this floor, on another suspended platform, was a massive crystal ball swirling with magic in the eight hues of the elements, with a black magic swirling in the core. Pipes embedded in the floor of this ring connected the bottom of the various shelves to the massive stand the giant crystal orb was placed on, and from what Vee could tell, magic was being sucked out of the small black orbs and into the large one. There were also eight vein-like pipes attached to the top of the crystal orb, which appeared to be the source of the veins they’d seen up in the library above.

Lastly, the third and final floor was actually just an open cavern containing the Primordial Wellspring, which was active and swirling, with a large crystal pipe sticking out from the centre and joining the other smaller pipes in pumping magic into the large crystal orb.

“What the heck is all this!?” Gus whispered in shock.

“I’ve got no idea! What is the Divider going to do with all this?” Willow whispered back.

Vee gave the place a sniff, then frowned and said; “It looks like the pipes are draining magic from those black orbs and that huge pool, and sucking it into the big orb. Then the big orb is splitting it all up into different elements and pumping it higher up. At least, that’s my best guess.”

“Then what about the ritual circle and crystals over there?” Willow asked.

Vee shrugged; “No idea. The magic I smell from it is like nothing I’ve ever smelled.”

That made Gus and Willow nervous; magic the likes of which they’ve never seen was unsurprisingly tough to deal with, seeing as they had no idea what to expect from it. Putting that aside for now though, Gus began looking around at the cells for signs of his and Willow’s Dads. Aside from about five Abomaton Knights patrolling the area, the only signs of life were in a single one of the cells on the opposite side of the level. The boy beamed when he saw the three familiar figures inside it; Gilbert and Harvey Park, and his own Dad; Perry Porter.

Gus excitedly gestured towards them, making Willow just as excited. The duo almost raced straight for them, but Vee stopped them; “Hold on a second. We should deal with the Abomatons first, or else we’ll end up being attacked!”

That made Gus and Willow pause and back up; “You’re right. Do you think you can deal with them by yourself?” Willow asked.

“If you guys help me by luring them in, then I’m sure I can.” Vee replied.

Her two companions smiled, and Gus began whispering a simple plan to the girls, who grinned and nodded in response. Two of the five Knights were guarding the cell containing their Dads, one was patrolling the central platform with the ritual circle, and the other two were patrolling the outer rim of the floor, meaning they periodically passed the doorway they were all hiding in. With that knowledge, they waited until one of one of the Abomatons passed the door, then Willow quickly yanked them through it with some tree roots and straight into Vee’s grasp. Vee would then quickly devour the magic from them as Gus froze them, so the slime didn’t spill out everywhere without the magic to hold it together. Once the two patrolling Abomatons were taken care of, Gus cast an illusion on the one on its own, using what Amity had told him about how Abominations perceive things to create a simple illusion of another Abomaton telling it to accompany them to investigate a disturbance. Since Abomatons had no heat signatures when not in combat, the real Abomaton could only rely on its regular sight, which worked like most Witches, meaning the Knight had no reason to suspect foul play as it followed Gus’s illusion towards the door, where he, Willow, and Vee repeated the process to drain and freeze the Abomaton. Gus repeated this once more with one of the Abomatons guarding their Dads’ cell, reducing the numbers down to just one. With only one left to deal with, the trio pretended to be normal Abomatons (using Gus’s ice magic to erase their heat signatures) with their prisoner, who they went to imprison in the cell.

As they approached, Gilbert, Harvey, and Perry all took notice, with the former two gasping as they saw Willow.

“Willow! Is that you!?” Harvey cried, pressing himself up against the bars.

“Oh no, this can’t be happening! Odalia got you too!?” Gilbert gasped in horror.

Willow just smiled with tears in her eyes “Dad, Papa! I’m so happy to see you! Don’t worry, Odalia hasn’t “got” me! I came here to save you!”

The two men gaped at her, especially when she suddenly broke her restraints, and Gus and Vee assisted in binding, draining, and freezing the last Abomaton. As soon as that was done, Willow summoned Clover from the cage being carried in Vee’s other hand, and used her to grow vines around the bars of the cell, squeezing them together to create a gap large enough for the three men to escape. Gilbert and Harvey immediately leapt out of the cell and scooped Willow up, cuddling her between them and kissing her cheeks as all three Parks cried with happiness.

“Oh my little Sunflower, I’m so happy you’re okay!” Harvey sobbed.

“We were so worried about you! The Divider said he sent you away to safety, but after everything that happened after that, we were terrified he’d done something awful to you!” Gilbert said, holding it together a little better than his husband.

“I’m okay, Dad, Papa. Things got a little crazy, but I’m alive and safe. It’s a long story!” Willow said, giggling as her Papa’s beard tickled her face as he nuzzled her.

As the Parks were having their reunion, Perry looked at the disguised Vee and Gus; “O-One of you has to be my son, right? There’s no one else who can make illusions this believable!”

Gus dispelled his illusion with tears in his eyes, and Perry burst into happy tears himself as he rushed to hug his son. Gus just barely had time to pull himself out of his stolen armour before Perry picked him up and spun him around, before stopping and kissing his cheek.

“Augustus! Thank goodness! I can’t tell you how terrified I’ve been! Are you okay? Have you been safe?”

“Yeah Dad, I’ve been just fine. The Divider sent me, Willow, and the whole Hexsquad into the Human Realm then broke our only way back.” Gus explained.

Willow nodded; “We only just got back to the Demon Realm today.”

“So you two and your friends have been trapped in the Human Realm this whole time!?” Gilbert exclaimed; “How did you survive!? It’s been months!”

“Luz’s Mami and sister took us all in. Speaking of, this is Vee; Luz’s adopted Basilisk sister.” Willow said, gesturing to Vee who transformed into her normal human disguise so she wouldn’t need to take off her stolen Abomaton armour.

“Hello. It’s nice to meet you both.” Vee said shyly.

“It’s wonderful to meet you too! Thank you for helping to take care of our little girl.” Harvey beamed.

“And my son too. We’re lucky to have you with us, especially if your Basilisk powers can really deal with these Abomatons so easily.” Perry commented. Thanks to their experience with Treble, no one in the CATTs had prejudices against the Basilisks, which made Vee a little more at ease.

Vee smiled bashfully; “I-I didn’t do much; it was mostly Mama. But you’re welcome. Anyway, now that we’ve busted you out and there aren’t any more prisoners, we should get out of here.”

The Parks agreed immediately, but Perry shook his head; “Hold on a moment, Vee. We shouldn’t leave this place intact, especially with Odalia still in charge! We need to break all those black orbs down there and that ritual circle at the very least.”

The teens and Parks looked puzzled; “Destroy them? Why? What are they?”

“That ritual circle is how the Wings of Rani divide people!” Perry revealed; “I was invited to do a news story on it by the Divider himself, so people around the Isles would be less terrified. It didn’t exactly work though; test audiences were still terrified, so the story was never broadcast.”

The teens gasped and spun around to look at the bizarre circle. With the four pillars and crystals, it did look eerily similar to the Reformation Circle that the Seraphim Council had tried to use on Luz… Was the Divider’s power related to the Reformation?

“Dad, you saw how it works?” Gus asked seriously.

Perry nodded; “Yes. The prisoner is trapped inside the circle, like how Belos trapped Luz in that ritual circle on the Day of Unity. Then the person performing the ceremony uses a quill made from the Divider’s feathers, and ink made from his blood, to write in that floating book. They list the things they want to divide from a person, and then when the ritual activates, those black crystals on the pillars shoot magic at the prisoner, and all the removed parts are sucked out of them in the form of these streams of different coloured magic. That magic gets sucked into the crystal above the circle, where it all turns black and then drips out of the bottom of the crystal like a liquid. It becomes this one big droplet and falls from the crystal as one of those black orbs. After that the person acts as they normally would, only without all the removed parts. They also can’t disobey the Divider or anyone holding one of these special golden feathers. The Overseers use them like a symbol of office.” the reporter explained.

Willow, Gus, and Vee exchanged looks, then looked down at the shelves full of black orbs on the floor below them. “Those orbs are all the Divided parts? It looks like the Divider is using them and the Wellspring to power the pillar.” Willow commented.

“He is. The Pillars are all needed for something called “Project Paradise”. I’m not sure what it’s meant to do, but I don’t think it’ll be as good as it sounds.” Perry frowned.

Harvey and Gilbert took a look too; “There are so many… all the Divided people from Bonesborough and halfway to Latissa must have had their removed parts stored here.” Harvey muttered, awestruck.

“I hear the Wings of Rani even divide wild animals that could be threats to people. What could they be doing with all that power?” Gilbert wondered.

Perry shrugged; “I don’t know, but it caused that vision to appear in the sky.”

“We know what he’s planning.” Gus frowned; “That vision in the sky is actually a distortion that shows the Divine Realm. You can see the Boiling Isles from the Divine Realm’s sky too. The boundary between realms has been stretched thin by the magic of these towers… The Seraphim say it’s because the Divider wants to destroy the boundary entirely and unite the Demon and Divine Realms.”

The three men gaped; “Isn’t that what Belos claimed to be trying to do? Unite our worlds? The Divider said himself that it wasn’t possible, or at least he didn’t think so!” Perry exclaimed, remembering Gus telling him about it one evening.

“Yeah, but the Divider was still Rasiel back then. Most of his memories were missing; whoever divided him must have removed those memories as well.” Willow pointed out.

Perry and the Parks looked a little pale, as well as sullen when they thought about Rasiel. He had been a friend to them; they’d sometimes drink together with the other adults, or exchange stories. It was Rasiel who’d always made sure the parents of the Hexsquad were kept fully in the loop of what their children were up to (though admittedly, the kids didn’t try to hide most of their activities). To have him regain his memories, the thing he’d dreamed of the whole time they’d known him, and then turn into an enemy…? It was painful.

Seeing the men’s sadness, Vee tried to get them back on track; “I understand destroying the ritual circle; we can’t let Odalia or anyone else keep dividing people, and if the Divider is outside the Demon Realm, it’ll be a while before he can come back and fix it. But are you sure it’s safe to destroy the Divided Orbs? What if doing that destroys the removed parts and makes everyone stuck as their divided selves forever?”

“I was worried about that too, but some reporter friends of mine from up in Cartilia told me about a rumour that was going around. Apparently someone managed to escape the Division Ceremony and broke a Divided Orb in the process. When it shattered, everything inside it was released and the person it belonged to returned to normal! They ran away and haven’t been heard from since, though people think he’s with the CATTs somewhere.” Perry explained.

The Teens and Parks all looked excited; if they could break all the Divided Orbs down below, they’d disrupt the Divider’s plan, save all the Divided in the Bonesborough area (including Alador and Darius), and keep the Wings of Rani distracted for weeks! Plus without the ritual circle, they’d either have to send people to a different Union Pillar for Division, or wait for the Divider to come back!

“It’s a good plan. We can smash all those orbs easily.” Willow grinned, punching her palm determinedly.

Vee looked down to the floors below and saw it swarming with Abomaton Knights. As the most important part of the facility, there were close to 30 knights down there, making destroying the orbs and getting out safely next to impossible. “We’ll have to lure those Knights away and destroy them one by one… it’ll take us forever!”

“Then we better get started.” Gus declared; “Luz, Amity, and Camila are upstairs dealing with Odalia, and we just know that’s gonna lead to some kind of chaos. With any luck, it’ll draw some of the Knights away and make life easier. In the meantime, we’ll thin their numbers and make life easier for our friends too!”

Vee, the Parks, and the Porters all gave determined looks and prepared to act; it was time to reunite the Divided of Bonesborough!

________________________________________________________________________________

[Meanwhile]

After seeing Willow taken away by Vee and Gus, Amity had begun to feel a bit nervous, hoping the three of them would be able to handle the rescue on their own. She envied them too; they got to go rescue their parents while Amity was stuck in the most awkward and uncomfortable elevator ride of her life. Luz and Camila kept their grip on her, their touch comforting rather than restraining, while Odalia just stood beside her with a smug look on her face, like the cat that got the cream, her own Knight Escort squeezed in with them. There wasn’t enough space on the platform for them to keep a comfortable distance, so they were all sandwiched together, and Amity felt her skin crawling at the close proximity with Odalia, even if they weren’t actually touching.

When the platform finally reached the top floor, they all emerged into a foyer that was designed to look a bit like the foyer of Blight (or now Vespan) Manor. There were was a royal purple carpet and Oracle paraphernalia all over the place, with only the abomination aspects of the manor being absent. At the other end of the short foyer was a pair of dark double doors, guarded by a pair of Abomaton Knights, who bowed and opened the door, letting them into Odalia’s office. The office itself was just like the office Odalia kept at Blight (now Vespan) Industries; it was gaudy with a lot of dark purple and gold, with crystal balls on pedestals, tasteless portraits of Odalia herself on the walls, and a needlessly ostentatious desk and plush swivel chair. The wall behind the desk and chair was completely replaced by a large window, but seeing as Amity and the others hadn’t seen it from outside, they assumed it was one way, allowing Odalia to watch the people of Bonesborough without them knowing.

Odalia swept into the room and took a seat at her desk, while her Abomaton Knights flanked the inside of the doors. At Odalia’s urging, Luz and Camila pretended to drag Amity forward and made her stop in front of the desk, reminding Amity uncomfortably of the many times she’d been forced to stand before her former mother to listen to her latest critiques and complaints. At least this time Amity didn’t care about what Odalia had to say.

“I see your taste in décor hasn’t improved at all.” Amity snarked.

Odalia scoffed; “I won’t take interior decorating criticism from a girl with the same tastes as her father. Believe it or not, making everything look like melted abominations is not a pleasing style. Your hair is a prime example! That’ll be the first thing on the agenda to fix.”

“It’s lavender! And it’s better than the neon snot you call hair! Edric and Emira are so lucky their hair came out mossy green instead.” Amity retorted.

Odalia sneered; “More of that reprehensible attitude! Perhaps I shouldn’t waste my time and just have you divided right now; then you’ll be nice and obedient!”

“Then why haven’t you!?” Amity growled; “I highly doubt you’re holding back out of “motherly affection”, so what’s the real reason?”

The green-haired woman glared at her, then reached into her desk and pulled out a small half-empty ink well filled with ominous golden ink. Luz and Camila immediately recognised it as Angelic Blood, which made their own blood run cold.

“This special ink is made by Lord Divider. With it, I can control how a person is divided in the Division Rituals. However, as you can see, I’m running low and the other Overseers will not give me some of theirs since I wasn’t given my position by Lord Divider! I’m sure that man will see my worth when he returns, and allow me to keep the rank of Overseer of Bonesborough, but until then I’d rather not waste what I’ve got left. And believe it or not, I do have some parental feelings towards you, so I’d rather have you on my side with your mind intact.” Odalia explained.

Amity sneered; “Parental feelings? Odalia, you don’t love me or care about me; you want to use me. To you, I am a tool at least and a pet at most. Don’t waste time trying to lie to me.”

Odalia sighed angrily and shook her head; “Fine, if you won’t see reason, we’ll do this the hard way.” she stood and moved in front of Amity, who briefly feared she’d try and strike her or use magic on her. Amity knew Luz and Camila would stop her if she tried, but the spike of fear in Amity’s heart was not easily ignored.

“Tell me where your siblings are. I know you’ve been in the Human Realm this whole time; Lord Raguel informed me when he arrived last night; but I’m sure you know where the twins are.” Odalia demaned.

Amity sneered; “I don’t know, and I wouldn’t tell you if I did.”

“I can make this very uncomfortable for you, Amity. I can make you watch as I strip your little friend Willow of her entire identity. Her friendship with you, her love for her parents, her talent for plants… I can even render her a literal half-a-witch! Tell me where the twins are and who is helping them!” Odalia threatened.

“I told you, I don’t know!” Amity snapped; “I’ve been back for a couple of hours; I’ve barely heard anything!”

Odalia smirked; “Barely anything is still something! Tell me what you know, now! Or we’ll take a trip to the basem*nt!”

Amity shuddered, but held her ground; “If you want answers from me, you’ll need to give some first! You catch more Fire Bees with embers than with ice, after all!”

Odalia raised an eyebrow; “Negotiating are we? Very well; answer my questions honestly and I’ll answer yours honestly. Make an oath to that effect, and I’ll do the same.” Odalia smirked, thinking she’d get a lot more out of this than her daughter.

“Alright, I’ll make that deal. We both promise to answer each other’s questions honestly for as long as I’m your prisoner.” Amity agreed. Of course, she knew she wasn’t Odalia’s prisoner at all, so she could freely lie, while Odalia wouldn’t dare to.

Odalia snapped her fingers at the disguised Luz and Camila, who stepped away from Amity, allowing the girl to move her arms freely. Amity still had the illusion of magic-suppressing cuffs on, so Odalia had no fear as she drew a spell circle and put her hand through it. Amity took her hand, shuddering in the process, and made the oath.

“I swear to answer the questions of Odalia Vespan for as long as I remain her prisoner. I will answer one question for every question she truthfully answers.” Amity said, adding that last part as a kind of emergency lie detector, so she would know if Odalia tried to deceive her.

Odalia then swore her own oath; “I swear to answer the questions of Amity Blight for as long as she remains my prisoner.”

The spell circle sank into their hands, which glowed a bit before Amity snatched her hand back, not wanting to touch Odalia for a second longer than necessary. She was also curious as to why Odalia called her Amity Blight and not Amity Vespan, given her delusions from four months ago in Palm Stings. Did Odalia fear the oath wouldn’t work if she didn’t use Amity’s accepted name?

“Now that the oath is made, you’ll answer my questions. Where are your siblings?” Odalia demanded.

Amity smirked; “I was telling the truth before; I don’t know.”

Odalia scowled and opened her mouth to ask another question, but Amity piped up first; “Uh uh! It’s my turn!”

“Then ask something, girl.” Odalia said.

“How exactly did you become Overseer of Bonesborough if the Divider put Darius in charge?” Amity asked.

Odalia smirked proudly; “Oh, that is one of my cleverer moments. You see, after the Divider conquered that little island your rebel friends were squatting on, Darius and your father were both among the Divided. I and my fellow arrested Coven Heads were then released and given a choice; serve the Divider willingly, or be turned into his Divided puppets too. Naturally I smelled opportunity and offered my services! The Divider agreed to my plan to use Abomatons to supplement his Knight Golems, and had your father and Darius design new ones. Unfortunately, he didn’t trust me enough to make me Overseer! But I never let an opportunity for advancement pass me by!”

“Don’t I know it…” Amity muttered bitterly.

Odalia ignored her and continued; “Well since I was working with Darius to create the Abomatons, I had free reign of the Union Pillar and paid him a visit. His Divided nature made him easy to manipulate, and with no Angels close by, I was able to use Oracle Magic to lure him to the Division Ritual Circle. Your little illusion friend’s father had done a report on how it worked, and I was allowed to see it as part of the test audience, so I knew exactly what to do! Once I lured Darius into the ritual circle and used my spirit to steal his Ink and quill from the Divider, I was able to divide him again, removing his memories of me. OnceI knew he had no memory of me and his distrust was all taken by the Divider, it was easy to use my spirit to trick him into thinking I was a superior Overseer and make him sign control over to me!”

Amity’s eyes widened in shock; so the Divided could be further divided! And Odalia had used her spirit to manipulate Darius! Amity really wanted to ask about that, but as it was Odalia’s turn, she was forced to wait.

“Now, tell me who is harbouring the twins.” Odalia demanded.

Amity was tempted to be a smart ass and claim that was a demand and not a question, but decided not to waste time and answered; “A family of Construction Witches related to an old friend of theirs from Hexside. I don’t know the family’s name.” Amity lied.

Odalia hummed; “Construction Witches with a relative the twins were friends with… I don’t know any of their friends, besides that Leonis brat that Emira started dating.”

Camila, still disguised as an Abomaton Knight, was biting her lip hard to keep herself from blurting out an insult towards the evil woman in front of her. Not only did she attempt to hit Amity, openly threaten her and Willow, and gleefully talk about brainwashing Camila’s friend, but she also didn’t even know the names of her children’s friends!? How many parenting failures could Odalia commit in a single conversation!? Was it her special talent to just be utterly reprehensible!? Camila was going to introduce her to La Chancla before the day was done, no matter what it took!

“My turn again.” Amity said; “How exactly did you manipulate Darius with a spirit? Wouldn’t the Angels prevent that?”

Odalia scoffed; “Oh please, the Wings of Rani don’t care what I get up to, so long as I’m not killing or harming anyone. I keep order, and that’s all they care about! They keep their distance from Bonesborough now that I’m in charge! Except for Lord Raguel, but that’s a recent development.” the woman said, gesturing to her Oracle Stone, which she still wore as part of a bolo tie. “As for how I controlled Darius, use your brain girl! You may not have been the top of your class in the oracle track, but you were still passable!”

Amity growled at the blatant insult to her second place position (which considering she was the newest in the class, was pretty dang good!), but she did think about it and came up with a possible answer. But it was one she couldn’t believe…!

“Possession!? Odalia, don’t tell me you managed to possess Darius with your spirit!?” Amity cried.

Odalia’s only response was a cruel smirk, which made Amity’s temper flare. If it wouldn’t ruin their cover, Amity would have attacked Odalia then and there! Possession was considered one of the biggest taboos of Oracle Magic, second only to Necromancy; as it literally involved having a spirit forcibly enter someone’s body and control them like a puppet. It was expressly forbidden, even by Belos’ empire (ironically, since he was a practitioner of it himself) and seen as insanely cruel! Though Amity wasn’t surprised by Odalia being willing to use it; she was an evil wench after all, but she was shocked Odalia had actually been able to! It was very magic intensive to keep control of the spirit, since getting a flesh and bone body made them more powerful, and it was also very difficult to make the possession work in the first place! Unlike Belos’ method which involved his rotten slime body, possession with a spirit required some degree of compatibility or synchronicity between the host and the spirit. If they couldn’t synchronise, the host would be able to resist the possession, suffering internal damage while the spirit’s link to the mortal realms would be weakened. In the worst case scenario, the host would die from an aneurysm and the spirit would be exorcised… It was also possible for the soul of the host and the spirit to combine, creating a Revenant like the one Odalia had stupidly made back in Palm Stings.

There was no way Odalia had that level of magic or talent! Either she’d found a spirit with high synchronicity with Darius, or the man was left so mentally weak by the division that it he couldn’t even try to resist… Given Odalia’s wording, it was probably the latter, but Amity wasn’t willing to bet on that.

As Amity reeled from this reveal (and Luz and Camila each independently weighed the pros and cons of just marching up to Odalia and beating the stuffing out of her), Odalia prepared to ask her next question. However before she could, the door to her office was thrown open and three figures walked into the room; all of them very familiar to Amity and her disguised allies.

The first was Raguel, looking exactly as he had the previous day, only with his original Divine Regalia replaced by a new suit of black, gold, and silver armour. It was light; a cloth base layer of black pants, a black shirt, and a long black robe, with black leather boots and gloves, each equipped with silver metal plating with thin gold filigree, worn beneath a layer of light armour that consisted mostly of ornate silver plates connected with thin strips of gold chain mail. It was an outfit designed to be protective but also promote manoeuvrability, and included a black hood that Raguel kept down. To Luz, it looked like an angelic version of fantasy rogue armour, and the golden filigree on the main chest plate was shaped like an ornate Titan’s skull with angelic wings on the sides of it. Interestingly, his Polar Bear Palisman was now in the form of a coiled whip strapped to the small of Raguel’s back, with the Palisman itself acting as the handle and its staff appearing to have melted into the form of a whip.

The other figures were just as familiar, though they hadn’t been seen in quite a long time; Alador Blight and Darius Deamonne. Both were dressed as they usually were, though Darius’ outfit had received a white and gold pallet swap, Alador’s work clothes were clear of stains while his eyes lacked the tired look to them, and both men had a strange ring of gold around their irises, which was hard to spot on Alador thanks to his normal golden eyes. Amity gasped softly as she saw her father and one of her mentors, and both men took one look at her and beamed, with Alador immediately rushing to hug her.

“Amity! Oh thank the Titan you’re back! I missed you so much!” Alador smiled, picking Amity up and twirling her.

“Dad! A-Are you okay? You look good, but I heard you were…” Amity trailed off, realising Raguel was watching her with a raised eyebrow.

Alador smiled knowingly and finished her sentence; “Divided? Yes, my dear Mittens, I was. I was a fool and didn’t realise the goodness of Lord Divider’s dream for this world. I defied him and fought against him, but he still gave me his blessing.” the look in the man’s eyes became one of worship, as he set Amity down, and the girl began to grow concerned; “Lord Divider cut away all my flaws! The obsessions, the unhealthy work habits, the old grief and despair. He left me with nothing but my best self! The man who is a good father and a brilliant inventor!”

The man’s words were unsettling, as was the strange look in his eyes, as if there was something missing from his mind. Amity felt her skin crawl and pulled herself free from her father’s grasp; “No… you were already a good father and a brilliant inventor! The Divider didn’t fix you; he broke you!”

Alador didn’t respond, instead just continuing to smile strangely at Amity, while Darius did the same. Both were eerily silent as they stared at the girl, giving Luz and Camila the creeps. The Divider had taken away their negative feelings, which included things like sadness, anger, and hurt… without them, having Amity say something against the Divider seemed to make them shut down on the inside, like a robot needing to reboot its brain.

Eventually Alador’s brain processed a response with the pieces of itself he still had, and he replied; “It’s okay Amity; you still have the scary and sad parts of yourself. You’ll understand the bliss of Paradise once the Divider fixes you. Overseer Vespan and Lord Raguel will help you.”

Amity shook her head; “Odalia!? Help me!? She just wants to brainwash me into her perfect puppet! How is what she’s doing now any different than what she tried to do to me as a kid? Is it somehow better because she’s using magic brainwashing instead of her usual abuse!? Do you not remember a single thing she did to me!? To Edric and Emira!?”

Again, Alador just went silent as Amity panted after her outrage. It took him almost a full minute to compute a response; “I believe you may be mistaken, Amity. You and Overseer Vespan have not had any negative interactions. She has only ever been a loving mother to you. Isn’t that right, Darius?”

Darius nodded; “It is indeed. I believe you’re confusing the situation in regards to your parents’ separation. They fell out of love while still imperfect, and simply do not possess the necessary feelings to rekindle that relationship. I know this must be distressing for you, but don’t worry; that flaw will be removed and you will understand. I look forward to working with you on abominations again.”

Amity recoiled from the two men, while Luz and Camila were very grateful for the helmets concealing their faces, as they couldn’t stop themselves from gaping in horror at the men’s words, while Odalia smirked cruelly and Raguel looked incredibly uncomfortable. Odalia had used the Division Ritual on both men! She hadn’t just erased Darius’ memories of her, she had also erased Alador’s negative memories of her! All he remembered was the good times with her and the love he’d had for her in the past. Alador knew they’d separated (likely due to it being connected to a happy memory) and no matter what was removed from him, he would never love Odalia again so they remained separated, but he just believed it was due to natural imperfections rather than Odalia being a spiteful and abusive witch! He didn’t know a single thing about Odalia’s abuse any more, and wouldn’t likely believe Amity if she told him!

The girl was so shocked that she fell totally silent, while Odalia chuckled cruelly; “Don’t worry, Alador; I’ll be sure to fix our wayward daughter and turn her back into the person she was born to be; my perfect daughter and heiress.”

Amity shuddered, and Raguel’s expression became one of anger for the first time since any of them had met him; “Tread lightly, Odalia. I tolerated your little coup here in Bonesborough since your actions technically fell within the laws of the Lord Divider, and you haven’t done anything to disrupt his plans. I even agreed to pull my fellow Wings of Rani out of the town so you could use your magic freely…” he walked closer to Odalia, getting in her face and looming over her, making the woman gulp; “… but I will not tolerate sadism or abuse. Malphas told me you tried to strike Amity earlier, and it also didn’t escape my notice that you disobeyed my orders before! I told you alert me immediately if any of our priority targets were arrested!”

Now it was Odalia’s turn to pale and shudder; “I-I’m sorry for any misunderstandings, Lord Raguel. I-I thought that since your orders were to arrest the Titan and Angel Br- I mean, the Clawthorne-Noceda children specifically, while arresting Amity was my order, that you wouldn’t want to hear about her being captured.”

Raguel narrowed his eyes; “Do not take me for a fool! I was explicit in my orders that if ANY of the priority targets were captured, I was to be called! I sent those orders and the list of targets to every Overseer in the Isles almost as soon as I arrived last night!” he got even closer, until he was almost nose to nose with the rotten woman; “And you did not deny Malphas’ report.”

“I-I am sorry. The report came in so late that I was tired and didn’t remember it properly upon waking. A-And yes, I nearly struck Amity; I lost my temper for a moment. I apologise; it won’t happen again.” Odalia spluttered fearfully.

“See that it doesn’t, or you will be divided and replaced. Perhaps by Amity herself.” Raguel said, before turning away from the woman and looking at Amity. His expression softened to a sad smile as he approached her; “I’m sorry you had to see that. I know how distressing this whole situation must be. Your former mother truly is a reprehensible creature.”

Amity glared at him; “And yet you let her stay in charge. Why is it that good men like my Dad and Darius were divided, but she wasn’t!?”

Raguel sighed; “Because of the Lord Divider’s conscience. He still struggles to find the strength to do what must be done, even though he knows it is the only path to paradise. But on the day he freed this woman and her fellow fallen Coven Heads, he had already been forced to divide your father and many of your other friends… people he considered friends and family. After that, he had to take time to reconcile with himself, and to keep his conscience in check. He made an agreement with himself; from that moment, all people would have a clean slate, with no more divisions based on past actions. Only those who squandered this chance would be divided. It quieted the voice of his conscience enough for him to continue his mission. For the most part, those who were given this second chance have made good use of it.”

The man then smiled sardonically; “Besides, sometimes an evil person can be useful. They’re conniving and manipulative, and their lack of ethics means they can get results that a good person cannot. Dividing these people would take away the driving force of their cunning. Let’s face facts here; a divided Odalia Vespan is useless…” the woman tried and failed to not look offended, “… but undivided, she was cunning enough to draw you in.”

The lavender-haired Blight grit her teeth in anger; “What, sending out squads of Abomatons is supposed to be a cunning trick now? Any idiot can do that!”

Raguel’s smile became dangerous; “True… but only a cruel person would think of arresting your friends’ parents to make you try to rescue them, getting caught in the process.”

Amity went pale, as Raguel looked past her to the disguised Luz; “Isn’t that right, my fellow Seraphim?”

The entire room went silent as Luz, Amity, and Camila all went incredibly still. Odalia’s eyes snapped towards Luz too, while Darius and Alador immediately snapped their fingers. When neither Luz nor Camila responded to whatever non-verbal commands they’d just been given, the two men realised they truly weren’t Abomatons, putting them on guard. Seeing as the cat was out of the bag, Luz wasted no time; she sank into the shadows of her stolen armour while leaving behind some vines to hold it together so it wouldn’t collapse without her in it. With everyone’s attention still on the armour, she was then able to leap out of Raguel’s own shadow, aiming to ensnare him with black ivy.

Raguel was clever though, and as Luz’s ivy wrapped around him, she was shocked to find his body being rapidly drained away into the ivy too, revealed to actually be a water golem in Raguel’s image. The real Raguel then appeared from behind an illusion, revealed to have actually taken Odalia’s seat behind her desk. He clapped his hands with a casual smile as Amity and Luz both spun around to face him, the former shedding the illusions since she’d already been discovered, and both summoning their staves. Alador and Darius stared at the pair with blank expressions, not having the capacity to react with shock or horror and thus not having a way to properly react, while Odalia sneered hatefully as she conjured floating crystal balls around her to use as weapons, since her spirits were useless in the presence of Luz and Raguel.

“So, Amity’s rotten little girlfriend finally shows her face! I should have known you wouldn’t abandon her!” Odalia spat.

Luz rolled her eyes; “Odalia, could you be quiet? You’re not really relevant here any more.” she said dismissively. Without her spirits, any threat Odalia could have been was nullified, making her little more than a burden in any battle between Angels.

“Yes, Odalia; you’re services are no longer required. You may leave; I will handle this with Alador and Darius. Speaking of; men, draw your weapons. I will be dealing with young Luz; nothing less than a Seraphim would be a worthy opponent for her, but the two of you can deal with Amity. Do what you must to restrain her for Division.” Raguel ordered.

Odalia flushed, while Alador and Darius very slowly summoned their Palismen, Moustrosity and Abette, and turned them into their staff forms.

“Please do not fight, Amity. Lord Divider will save you.” Alador said, his smile becoming strained.

“We do not wish to fight you.” Darius agreed, snapping his fingers and causing the two real Abomaton Knights to snap to attention, while the two in the foyer marched in too, ready to fight.

Amity and Luz moved back to back, the latter facing Raguel while the former faced her father and abominations mentor. Raguel was slowly getting to his feet, casually preparing for a fight, while Odalia fumed in anger and humiliation.

“Hermosa, I’m going to take out the Abomatons fast, then I’ll have to leave Odalia, Alador, and Darius to you and Mami.” Luz whispered; “Fighting Raguel is going to be tough; he’s got centuries of experience as a Seraphim, while I’ve had this power for only a day, so it’s going to take everything I’ve got to stand up to him.”

Amity nodded and whispered back; “I can handle Dad and Darius, so long as they can’t call on more Abomatons. I know how they fight, and I bet being divided has taken away some of their ingenuity and combat skills… plus abomination magic is a lot harder to use without being able to harness negative energy and emotion, which the Divider stole from them.”

Luz grinned; “Then let’s win this fight, my Hecate.”

Amity blushed and giggled; “Any time, my Azura.”

With that, both girls suddenly lunged forward to attack their foes, only to pull a bait and switch at the last moment, with Luz using the shadows to warp herself behind the Abomatons and Amity behind Raguel. Luz wasted no time in using her black ivy to drain away all the magic inside the unwitting Abomatons before they could act, leaving them to melt to the floor as inert puddles leaking out of chunks of armour. At the same time, Amity had produced abomination slime from the end of Ghost’s staff, creating a halberd like blade that she swung at Raguel’s neck, knowing such a move would never actually manage to land and kill the man. As expected, he simply ducked and let her swing slice off the top half of Odalia’s fancy chair, then grabbed his own Palisman whip, which moved on its own, coiling up like a snake to wrap around Ghost’s neck before yanking her out of Amity’s hand. Amity growled and conjured a scimitar of abomination slime in one hand and a second one of pink light magic in the other, which she then began to slice at Raguel with. He dodged the first downward swing by kicking himself out of the way with Odalia’s wheeled swivel chair, causing Amity to instead hit the woman’s desk and slice it in half. He then dodged the second sideways swing by back-flipping off the chair (which Amity’s swing took another inch off) then kicking it at her. Amity sliced the chair apart with a cross slash from both her scimitars, sending the four pieces flying, with one of them hitting the office window and shattering it.

At that moment, Luz used the lightning warp to zap towards Raguel and kick him hard in the ribs faster than he could block, causing his grip on his Palisman to slacken and allowing Amity to yank it and Ghost to her hand by converting her abomination scimitar into a slime tendril. She pulled Ghost free, but then Raguel’s Palisman turned back into it’s animal form; a full sized polar bear that promptly roared at Amity, releasing a freezing cold breath. Luz used the shadows to pull Amity out of the way of the freezing breath and summon her out of Alador’s shadow as the man was approaching her, causing Amity to leap out and blast her father backward. She used the slime she’d turned into a tendril to do it, and the slime briefly stuck Alador to the office wall. Darius, who’d taken on his abomination transformation, then darted forward and went to strike Amity with a club made of slime, hoping to knock her out. Amity parried it with the flat side of her light scimitar, though Darius continued trying to push down on her, pinning her in place.

“We don’t want to fight you, Amity. You are precious to us. Please just let the Divider save you from all the negativity inside you.” Darius pleaded.

“Never! I may not be perfect, but I don’t need to be! The people who love me and care about me know that! You and Dad knew that too, before the Divider and Odalia messed with your memories!” Amity retorted.

The two struggled against each other, Amity struggling to to hold her own against Darius’ superior strength. While this was happening, Alador unstuck himself from the wall and reluctantly approached Amity from behind, but before he could attack or restrain her, Camila jumped into action (she’d been delayed while trying to remove the Abomaton armour). She cried “Amity, behind you!”, whilst coating herself in an aura of blue magic and shoulder-slamming Darius, knocking him away from Amity and allowing the lavender-haired girl to spin around at the last minute, cladding her fist in abomination goo just in time to punch the fist of goo that her father had made to grab her.

Darius, whose body felt numb thanks to the magic Camila had coated herself with, pulled himself to his feet slowly and looked at his attacker, surprised to see Camila stood there with a look of both nostalgia and regret on her face.

“Cassiel? Is that you?” Darius asked, a huge smile beginning to spread across his currently purple face.

“It’s me, Darius. It’s been a long time.” Camila smiled softly; “You need to stop this; this isn’t the man you are. You’re better than just a puppet of the Divider.”

Darius opened his mouth, then his whole body shuddered as the gold ring in his eyes intensified for a moment; “I am sorry you feel that way, Cassiel. But the Lord Divider and his chosen representatives cannot be defied. You’ll understand when they fix you too.”

Camila grit her teeth; there was no point trying to appeal to Darius or Alador as they were now. They simply didn’t have the ability to defy the Divider or realise he was wrong; those parts of them had been removed. Instead she just sighed and reluctantly cast a concussive spell at the unprepared Darius, blasting his abomination body into the wall and causing it to splatter and get stuck for a moment, giving Camila the chance to go and help Amity. Alador had summoned a small army of ten regular abominations to help him capture his daughter without hurting her, and while Amity was easily slashing them apart, Alador was effortlessly repairing and improving them on the fly, adapting them to Amity’s tactics. Even attempting to make them self-destruct failed to work, as Alador could easily cancel the spell before it went off, leaving Amity stuck and surrounded.

Camila pulled her bat and Chancla out of her hair storage and imbued them both with light magic before going to town on the abominations too, helping Amity get some breathing room and allowing the girl to summon her own abominations to even the odds. That briefly allowed her and Camila to turn the battle into a 2 VS 1 against her Dad, but it soon became a 2 VS 2 when Darius used his slime warp to unstick himself and reappear beside his brainwashed partner.

Amity grit her teeth upon seeing this, but then caught movement out of the corner of her eye. She turned her head a little and saw Odalia watching their fight while edging away towards her office door. Amity’s eyes narrowed; none of their opponents had been given a chance to call for help yet, but if they did, she, Camila, and Luz would be swarmed by Abomatons and Angelic Knight Golems!

“Camila, Odalia’s getting away! You need to stop her! I can handle Dad and Darius on my own for a bit!” Amity yelled, making Odalia jump and flee from the room.

Camila hesitated, thinking it might be better if she stay and fight the men while Amity dealt with Odalia, but there wasn’t time to argue, so she ran after the woman. She used a flash of light to blind the men and give Amity a brief head start against them, then rushed to the office door that Odalia just passed through. She burst out into the foyer and saw Odalia halfway down it, rushing for the elevator. A swift light blast from Camila destroyed the elevator platform, ensuring Odalia (who had no means of flight) was stuck on the top floor with her. Camila then shut the door back into the office and used healing magic to create glowing blue stitches that sealed the door, trapping Odalia in the foyer with Camila.

“Hello, Odalia Vespan. My name is Camila Noceda, or perhaps you’ll know me better as Cassiel of Crest Kindness.” Camila said with a cold smile.

Odalia went a bit paler, realising immediately who Camila was; “Y-You’re that Angel Brat’s mother!”

Camila nodded slowly; “Her name is Luz, and yes, I am her proud Mami. I am also the future Mother-in-Law to Amity Blight… and I would like to have a little talk with you about how you’ve treated my daughters…”

Odalia gulped; this wasn’t going to be pleasant!

At the same time back in the office, Luz and Raguel were flying at each other over and over, having a series of short spell exchanges. Raguel had already summoned his Palisman back to his hand in whip form, but rather than cracking the whip at Luz, he began manipulating it like water, causing it to weave around her attempts to block, landing a series of hard jabs against her, while Luz in turn countered by conjuring some sand and converting it into a thin layer of stone armour for defence, while shooting beams of yellow, lightning-imbued light at Raguel, aiming to paralyse him. Their clashes all ended the same way, with one side getting the upper hand and the other realising they needed to back up and refresh, leading to them dodging backward while kicking or blasting their opponent, forcing a dodge or block and giving them time to make distance. When another lightning enhanced kick from Luz had Raguel hitting the wall, he transformed his Palisman back into staff mode and drew a large spell circle as he prepared a powerful blast of blue magic. Seeing this, Luz prepared a similarly sized beam of light, but when the two Seraphim fired at one another, Raguel smirked and stepped to the side as his own beam of magic bent and curled through the air like water, avoiding Luz’s beam entirely and aiming for the girl herself. Luz wasn’t expecting this and was hit full on, being blasted through the wall with a scream of pain.

“Luz!” Amity cried, briefly distracted from her fight and almost being captured by Darius’ slime tendrils as a result; “Are you okay!?”

Luz, a little scuffed up, flew back into the office from outside while a healing lotus hung over her head and sprinkled her with its healing pollen. “I’m okay! The stone armour I made absorbed most of it, and my Seraphim resistance tanked the rest. Man am I my body is tougher now!”

Raguel nodded; “Indeed. Seraphim are sturdy and hard to kill; only truly powerful and colossal creatures can truly hurt us without a lot of back up. Of course, fellow Seraphim count.” he added with a threatening smile; “I don’t suppose I can just convince you to accept Division or Reformation, can I? I truly don’t want to hurt you, but so long as you exist as you are, I know you’ll make Lord Divider hesitate!”

“Do you really think I’d give up after one blow?” Luz scoffed, before grinning; “Though thanks for the vote of confidence. If even you are scared I can stop the Divider somehow, then it has to be possible!”

Raguel frowned at that, then took a deep breath and slowly released it; “Luz, please don’t make me hurt you any more. Accept Division; you will be happy, and so will your mother, your girlfriend, and all your friends. There will be no more war or bloodshed! The likes of Belos will never again be able to rise! Paradise awaits!”

Luz shook her head; “I won’t. Everyone should have the right to choose their own way in life. Yes, that means some people will be cruel and evil… but others will be good and kind! We don’t defeat evil by condemning the good too! I believe in people, and I’ll fight for their right to choose their own lives!”

Raguel stared into her eyes for a long moment, before grimacing and taking flight, flying out of the broken window and into the sky above Bonesborough; “Then you leave me no choice. I don’t want to hurt you… but the pain I’ll inflict is nothing like the pain of losing everything you love! I’ll ensure you never feel that way, Luz Noceda-Clawthorne! Now come and face me, Seraphim of the Demon Realm!”

Luz flew out to meet him and the two stared at one another for a moment, the people of Bonesborough (who’d heard the commotion coming from the Pillar) looking up at them from the streets below. Many of them recognised Luz, and others recognised Raguel as an Elite from the Wings of Rani.

“I don’t know know why you became like this, Raguel… but I’m going to stop you! And then I’ll stop the Divider too… I will save all my friends, even Rasiel! Even if it means saving him from himself!” Luz declared, her magic flaring and the power of the glyphs causing her to gain a rainbow coloured aura. She then twirled Stringbean in a circle, creating a spell circle that split into seven orbs of coloured light, from which she blasted light beams, one of them being double strength and the other six each being imbued with one of her elements. Raguel countered by conjuring a huge wave of water, which blocked half the beams and allowed him to easily dodge the remaining ones. He then flew out from behind this water (which had been frozen by the blue ice beam) and darted towards Luz, his blue and gold magic imbuing his Palisman, which he swung at Luz in staff mode. Luz responded by swinging her own staff, Stringbean glowing in all the colours of the rainbow, and when the two staves collided, there was a massive eruption of magic and power that blasted out in all directions.

Those down on the streets were awestruck, and the Abomatons and Knights moved to act; not to stop the fight or aid Raguel, but to put up barriers to keep the backlash of their magic from knocking people over. The magic wouldn’t hurt them, but the shock waves were overwhelming, and everyone in a radius of several miles could feel the intense magic like a beacon.

This was the power of two Seraphim clashing; a battle the likes of which had not been seen since the first rise of the Divider over 100,000 years ago, and which would serve as the opening battle in the new conflict.

Despite neither Luz nor Raguel wanting this, the gauntlet had been thrown down; the War for Paradise had begun.

________________________________________________________________________________

[Meanwhile]

Camila stared at Odalia from across the foyer, trying to calm the swirling storm of emotions inside her heart and mind. She had so many things she wanted to say to Odalia after hearing Luz, Amity, and Willow talking about her. This was the woman that put a knife to her baby’s throat because she refused to stop being friends with Amity. The woman that tried to strike Amity for defying her and had done so several times in the past. The woman who had looked at a shy little girl like Willow and decided to make Amity abandon her, lest she conspire to ensure Willow never got into school. The woman that abused and neglected all three of her children, who was willing to enslave them, who had set up her own parents as traitors to steal their wealth, and who had prayed on the grief of a young man to make him fall in love with her, then conspired to isolate him from everyone else he loved. The list of sins Odalia Vespan had committed was immeasurable, Camila could easily say she was number three on her most hated people list, surpassed only by Vitimir and Belos.

And now here she was, practically at Camila’s mercy, with the majority of her signature Oracle Magic being totally useless. It would be so easy for Camila to crush her with her full might… but that would be TOO easy. Camila wanted to break her, and she wanted to make sure Odalia knew it was because she was weak, not just because Camila had immunity to her best form of magic.

So Camila decided she wasn’t going to use magic at all. She had a bat in one hand, her Chancla in the other, and a heart burning with a need to get justice for her babies!

“You know, I really wish Lilith was here too. It would only be right that she got to have a little justice for Amity too. Sadly since she isn’t, I’ll have to get it for the both of us.” Camila declared, taking a step towards Odalia.

The other woman stepped back in fear, but her pride wouldn’t let her show it, so she tried to talk back; “Why? Do you need someone to back you up!? Can’t face a Coven Head and Overseer by yourself!?”

Camila rolled her eyes; “Idiot, you’re an Overseer because you tricked someone who is effectively mentally impaired, and you only became Coven Head because you were literally the only person left in the Oracle Coven who was despicable enough to put up with Belos’ nonsense. And do I really look like I need back-up? I bet I could flatten you even if you could use your Oracle Magic!”

Odalia sneered, backing up another step as Camila approached. She kept backing up until she was forced to stop, as only the empty elevator shaft remained behind her. Another step back would see her plummet to her death.

“S-Stay back, you feathery freak! Or else…!”

“Or else what, Bruja?” Camila asked, raising an unimpressed eyebrow.

Odalia spluttered, before reaching into her pocket and pulling out a brass remote with a big purple button on it; “O-Or else I press this and summon every Abomaton in the Pillar to come and attack you! You and your precious daughter will be overrun and crushed in seconds!”

That made Camila pause, and Odalia saw this as a moment of weakness, making her smirk as she felt like she was getting control of the situation again. “Yes, now you see! You can’t hope to defeat me! I may not have the brute strength of you Angels, but I am smarter! More cunning!”

“You also talk a lot more.” Camila groaned, unimpressed; “Honestly, you’re like a tiny dog yapping away when you think you’re safe, but cowering as soon as you realise you’re not as safe as you think.”

Odalia sneered; “You dare insult me!? I can have you and your brat divided in such a way that neither of you will even remember the other existed! In fact, maybe I’ll divide your precious Luz in such a way that she becomes my ideal girlfriend for Amity; a nice, subservient little Angel to ensure the Vespan Bloodline can one day rule the Demon Realm AND the Divine Realm!”

The foul woman cackled, expecting to see rage or misery on the face of Camila, but she was instead only met with a smirk from Camila as the Angel tried to hold in her snickers; “By the Seraphim, you really are as pathetic as Amity said! You know, she and Willow can do quite wonderful impressions of you; “Blah blah, obey me! Blah blah I’m perfect! Blah blah look at my stupid ugly fashion sense, blah!” It’s laughable how stupid you are!” Camila mocked.

Odalia went red in the face; “Why you stupid feathery bit-!”

“Uh uh uh, Bruja. Keep the language suitable for all ages; we don’t want any young ears hearing it, do we Willow?” Camila asked, looking over Odalia’s shoulder.

Odalia spun around, expecting Willow to have appeared. She instead saw nothing, but when she went to turn back around again, she found Camila suddenly in her face. The Angel’s hand clamped around her wrist and twisted it painfully, making Odalia squeal like a pig as she dropped the Abomaton controller, which Camila then kicked into the elevator shaft.

“You lied to m-!?” Odalia began to yell, only to be smacked hard across the face with Camila’s Chancla.

“No, I didn’t lie. I literally just said Willow’s name at the end of a sentence. Though thank you for proving you’re as stupid as I thought.” Camila mocked, before tossing the shocked woman to the other side of the foyer.

Odalia whined as she held her reddened cheek, then scrambled to her feet as Camila approached. “Use all the magic you want, Odalia; I won’t even use my own, just to make this fair.”

“Y-You what!?” Odalia screamed.

“You heard me; you can’t use most of your magic, so I won’t use any of mine. I’ll just use Reason and Logic.” Camila declared. “It’s all I’ll need against a foolish witch like you that couldn’t even see how lucky she was.”

Odalia sneered, but then grinned; this idiot Angel was going to try and talk her into giving up, all while Odalia got to use what limited magic she had without her spirits!? These Angels really were terribly naive!

“I’ll make you regret that, you dirty pigeon!” Odalia declared, conjuring some crystal balls and launching them at Camila.

Camila just casually flew over them, then as Odalia aimed into the air to hit her, Camila threw her bat into Odalia’s face, making the woman squawk at she received a bloody nose.

“Y-You said you weren’t going to fight!?” Odalia screamed.

“No, I said I’d use Reason and Logic. That was a little taste of Reason… now here’s some Logic!” Camila spat, backhanding Odalia with her Chancla, which the foul woman noticed had the word “Logic” engraved into the sole.

Odalia hit the ground and held her bruised face once again, while Camila picked up her bat (which Odalia now noticed had the word “Reason” on it).

“Are you going to give up this fight now? Or do I need to make you see Reason again?” Camila threatened.

Odalia screamed in rage and conjured two more crystal balls, which she smashed together, allowing her to fire the individual razor sharp shards at Camila. The Angel avoided them by flying around in the air, then darted at Odalia and slapped her in the face with Logic yet again.

“You really are the worst woman I’ve ever met.” Camila said scathingly; “You’re a self-important, entitled, selfish, and utterly incompetent spoiled brat, who had every opportunity handed to her on a silver platter, but still managed to screw everything up! How in the Titan’s name you managed to produce a good hearted child like Amity is totally beyond me! I’m sure she is all Alador and her grandparents with nothing from you; it’s the only way it can make sense!”

“I worked for everything I have! Do you think it was easy to get where I am!?” Odalia screamed.

“What? Bleeding on the floor? Because I’m the one who put you there and I can say honestly that it was incredibly easy! You know what else is easy? NOT being an abusive piece of garbage!” Camila yelled, kicking Odalia as the other woman lunged at her.

Odalia gasped as the wind was knocked out of her, then snarled like a wild animal as she pulled a concealed knife out of her boot. “I am a noble! The last of the Vespan line! I deserved to be born with power and wealth, but my parents were bleeding hearts just like you! They didn’t believe in me or my grand vision of restoring our nobility!”

She swung the knife at Camila, who blocked it with her bat; “Your “grand vision” involved exploiting a grief stricken boy who’d just lost his sister!”

“So what!? I’m supposed to shed tears over some brat who never amounted to anything!? The dead are nothing but tools to an Oracle! The living are all that matter! My parents should have understood that!” Odalia screamed. She stabbed at Camila, who sidestepped and elbowed her in the face.

“But they didn’t! They saw your cruelty and refused to let you do it, so you framed them as traitors and helped Belos chase them off the isles! All so you could steal their remaining wealth and power! You abandoned your family to kiss the feet of a Witch Hunter!”

“Shut up!” Odalia snarled, actually throwing herself fully at Camila. The unexpected move caught Camila off guard and the two women hit the ground, with Camila on her back and Odalia quickly straddling her and tried to plunge her knife into Camila’s chest. Camila had dropped her Chancla in the scuffle and her bat wasn’t very effective at this range, so she let go of it and caught Odalia’s wrists in both hands, easily wrestling the knife out of Odalia’s hands and tossing it hard into a wall. Odalia looked over to where it struck, but this just left her distracted as Camila headbutted her in the chin and effortlessly threw the woman off.

“Phew, all that training with the kids these past few months has paid off!” Camila muttered, getting back to her feet and pulling up the sleeve of her shirt to reveal her muscular arms.

Odalia got back to her feet and rushed to try and yank the knife out of the wall while Camila picked up her own weapons; “I didn’t know that Belos was a Witch Hunter! I thought his Draining Spell was just meant to give his Coven Heads more power!”

Camila froze; “You knew…!? You knew about the Draining Spell!? And you still served Belos!?”

She stomped towards Odalia, ready to throttle the woman, but Odalia managed to yank the knife free and swung it around wildly, forcing Camila to lean back.

“Of course I knew! Alador got curious about the sigils once and investigated them! When he discovered what they were for, he wanted to confront Belos! I tried to stop him, but he wouldn’t listen and used a contract meeting with Belos to demand answers! I used my special spirit to seal up Alador’s memories in the middle of the meeting, and Belos was very pleased! It’s how Blight Industries gained so much power and prestige, and why no other abomination manufacturers outside of the Abominations Coven exists! Belos rewarded my loyalty!” Odalia screamed, frantically waving the knife around with one hand while conjuring spectral chains with the other.

These chains and knife swings were nothing compared to Camila’s friendly spars with the likes of Willow or Hunter though, so Camila avoided them all. When Odalia overextended a lunge with her blade, Camila grabbed her wrist and twisted hard, making Odalia drop the knife. She then yanked the woman forward and kneed her hard in the gut. Odalia gasped as the blow winded her, and Camila threw her to the floor.

“You evil, miserable, reprehensible, entitled, wretched Puta!” Camila growled furiously.

Odalia scrambled to her feet and was immediately punched in the face; “You betrayed your parents!”

Camila delivered a backhand smack; “You broke up Alador’s family!”

Odalia weakly raised a hand to try and draw a spell circle, but Camila shoved her hard into the wall of the foyer; “You neglected the twins!”

Camila yanked her back towards her, then delivered a vicious Chancla blow; “You abused Amity!”

Odalia fell onto her backside, but Camila just pulled her back up by her collar and slammed her into the wall again; “You threatened Willow’s future!”

Odalia managed to draw a tiny spell circle, producing a single spectral chain around Camila’s wrist, yanking it back as Camila wound up for a punch. Camila just grit her teeth and yanked free, shattering the weak chain and then delivered a headbutt to stun Odalia; “You willingly and knowingly helped Belos with a plan to strip the innocent people of the isles of their magic, all for your own selfish gain!”

Camila, still gripping Odalia’s shirt, then gripped her waistband too and hoisted the woman into the air over her head. “But most of all, you committed the one sin I’ll never forgive…!”

With a thunderous roar, Camila slammed Odalia down onto the ground with her full might, making Odalia cry out in agony; “…YOU DARED TO LAY A HAND ON MY DAUGHTER!”

For a moment after yelling those words, Camila stood there panting, while Odalia slowly pulled herself together, groaning and whimpering pathetically. Despite the brutality of Camila’s blows, the Angel had actually pulled her punches, not wanting Odalia’s life on her conscience. Odalia had a swollen cheek, a bloody nose, the beginning of a black eye, and numerous bumps and bruises all over her, but it was nothing an ice pack and some band-aids wouldn’t fix… Camila wouldn’t waste a healing spell on her.

However, as Camila began to calm down, Odalia was able to gather her wits enough to roll onto her front and began weakly trying to escape, giving up on attacking. Despite having at least some magic against a woman who wasn’t using any, Odalia was utterly defeated. She hadn’t even stood a chance, leaving nary a scratch on Camila. It forced even Odalia to realise just how weak she was on her own! Without her enslaved spirits, without her Abomatons, without minions to command!

Alone, she was nothing. She had no choice but to flee!

Odalia crawled away from Camila as quickly as she could, abandoning all pride as she scurried across the floor like a rat. Camila followed her, not taking any cathartic joy out of this any more; Odalia was so pathetically beneath her that beating on her didn’t even feel satisfying; it just felt like bullying. Sure Odalia deserved it for all her sins, and she’d surely hurt more people in a lot more ways (directly or indirectly), but Camila just found it pathetic.

“That’s enough. You can pay for your crimes in a court of law when all this is over, and Amity, your family, and all your victims will be able to have their say.” Camila decided, preparing to raise her bat and knock Odalia out.

The mint-haired hag scurried as far from her as she could, ending up in front of the elevator shaft again. She looked down it, but the platform was gone and whatever magic allowed new ones to be summoned had been destroyed when Camila blasted the shaft earlier, leaving Odalia with no way down. However, just as Odalia was formulating a plea for her life and safety, she noticed something on a piece of rubble hanging over the shaft.

It was the Abomaton remote! When Camila kicked it earlier, it had fallen only a few inches before getting caught on the rubble!

Smiling manically, Odalia grabbed it and rolled over to face Camila just as the Angel was raising her bat; “You lose, Angel!”

Before Camila could react, Odalia pushed the button and sent out a signal to summon every Abomaton Knight stationed within the Union Pillar. Camila growled and swatted the remote out of Odalia’s hand, then crushed it under her heel, before raising her bat and bringing it down on Odalia’s head, knocking her unconscious with a good hard THWACK!

As the evil woman’s eyes rolled back in her head, Camila resisted the urge to kick her into the shaft and instead tied her up with conjured bandages, then stuffed the woman in the corner of the foyer before returning to the office to help Amity; she had to hope that they could resolve these battles before the Abomatons arrived!

________________________________________________________________________________

[Meanwhile]

Down in the basem*nt, the team of Willow, Gus, Vee, Perry Porter, and Gilbert and Harvey Park were slowly dismantling the nearly 30 Abomaton Knights that roamed around the lower floor of the Basem*nt. They had gotten it down to almost an art; they would pick one out and then Gus would cast an illusion to make sure the target was the only one to see the distraction they prepared, then one of the adults would yell from the basem*nt’s top floor, pretending to still be in their cell, and demanding medical assistance. The Abomaton, being the only one to hear it, would march upstairs to investigate, only to be immediately snared in vines by Willow, then swiftly drained of magic by Vee, while Gus froze their slime. The Abomaton would then be dragged off and hidden in a different cell under an illusion, and the process would begin again. They had to take it slowly to avoid the other Abomatons noticing that one of them kept leaving their post, but thankfully the Abomatons weren’t very smart (hence why the Angelic Knight Golems were used as commanderd, since they possessed some level of autonomy), so they were able to repeat the plan over and over, reducing the numbers down to only nine!

However just as they were preparing to isolate the next one, all nine remaining Abomaton Knights suddenly went very still and their eyes gleamed, before they silently turned towards the stairs and began running up to the upper floors of the basem*nt. Gus urgently shoved Vee and Willow into one of the open cells and cast illusions over them to hide their presence, while their Dads were left visible so the guards wouldn’t realise they’d escaped. However the Knights didn’t given them a second glance, instead hurrying to the elevator and taking it up in groups of three. Once the third and final group was gone, the CATTs emerged from their cells and looked around curiously.

“What was that about?” Vee frowned.

“Do you think there was some kind of alarm?” Gus asked nervously.

Willow shrugged; “If there was, it was a silent alarm. Considering they’re Abomatons, I’d wager either Odalia, Alador, or Darius probably used a remote to summon them.”

Harvey nodded, his own experience with abominations making him agree that was most likely; “I’d wager every Abomaton on that frequency is now heading for your friends upstairs. Are you sure they’ll be alright?”

“They’ll be fine. Mama and Luz are powerful, and Amity is an abominations master. Besides, we culled their numbers a lot! Let’s use this chance to get our job done and then see about backing them up.” Vee declared.

The others all nodded in agreement, then rushed down to the second floor together to get a better look at the Divided Orbs. Each one was carefully labelled with the names of their original owners, and at a glance, there were hundreds of them. Some of the names were recognised; acquaintances from work and school, colleagues, well-known shopkeepers, teachers, and so on, though most of the names were unknown to them. However only two names really stood out; Alador Blight and Darius Deamonne. While there were other CATTs among these names, only they were particularly close to the Hexsquad… they were also the only names that were repeated; each man had two Divided Orbs, much to their confusion.

“Why do Alador and Darius have two orbs? Were they Divided twice?” Gus frowned.

“Is that even possible? If the Divider took everything he didn’t like from them the first time, what did he take the second time?” Vee wondered.

The adults didn’t have the faintest idea, but Willow had a pretty good guess; “100 snails says this is Odalia’s doing. I bet this is how she became Overseer; she found some way to divide those two a second time and turn them into her obedient servants.”

The others grimaced; “Oof, Amity is not gonna like that. What do you think the odds are of Amity being stuck fighting one of them?”

Willow hummed in thought; “Knowing Odalia, I’d say it’s high. It’s probably Odalia, Alador, and Darius VS Amity, Luz, and Camila right now. I bet that’s why Odalia summoned the Abomatons; she’d be helpless in a fight without her spirits.”

“Well then, let’s even the odds before the Abomatons get there! If we destroy all these orbs, all the Divided should return to normal!” Vee said, getting ready to smash them.

“Okay, let’s do it! Go ham on these things! Just don’t destroy the big machine the magic is being sent into, we don’t want to accidentally blow us all up!” Gilbert warned.

The six of them then went to town on the Divided Orbs, using their magic to smash them in large numbers; Gus used his ice to tilt a shelf and cause all the orbs to roll off and smash, Willow knocked them all off with roots, Perry used his Oracle Spirit (who was willing to come out with no Angels around) to smash the orbs, Gilbert used Construction Magic to disintegrate the shelves, leaving the orbs to fall and shatter, Harvey conjured some mini-abominations to run along the shelves and knock the orbs off, and Vee just happily walked back and forth, lazily using her tail to sweep the orbs off the shelves. With each one that smashed, a prismatic silhouette of the person the orb belonged to was freed and immediately flew off in the direction of their other halves, reconnecting with them and returning them to normal.

Seeing this made Gus say; “I think Lyra was right earlier; these orbs must have been the source of the Distorted Shadows. The orbs are used to power the pillars, which opened the distortion in the sky. Then it probably manifested the shadows in the Divine Realm.”

“I think you’re right. But we need to get out of here now; when everyone sees the Divided returning to normal, any Wings of Rani members are going to know something happened here and come looking.” Willow said.

“Then you kids get to the elevator; I’ll destroy the Division Ritual Circle!” Gilbert declared.

“We’ll help.” Gilbert and Perry said together.

They all rushed up to the top floor together, and as the teens watched, the adults unleashed their magic; Perry’s spirit began shredding the floating book that controlled the ritual, Gilbert’s Construction Magic was used to knock down the pillars with the crystals on, and Harvey used an abomination to rip down the large crystal above the circle. The remains were then all piled together, and the entire platform was disintegrated into dust by blasts of magic from the three men’s staves; Gilbert having a pink pig Palisman with a brown body, Harvey having a purple Swift Palisman with green tips to its feathers, and Perry having a darker purple Frog Palisman with large glassy eyes.

The teens cheered and celebrated as the three men gave one another high-fives, proud to have shown off for their children a little bit. Willow and Gus had long since surpassed their fathers, but it still felt good to show them that their old men still had it!

With the Divided Orbs now destroyed, the people of Bonesborough freed, the Division Ritual Circle destroyed, and the Union Pillar now either shut down completely or being powered solely by the Primordial Wellspring, Willow, Gus, and Vee considered it a successful mission! They disguised themselves and the rescued men as Abomaton Knights and then took the elevator platform back to the library, before leaving the building entirely and slipping into a nearby alley to shed their disguises and lie in wait for their friends. If they were needed, they’d jump in to help, but for now they’d rest after a job well done!

________________________________________________________________________________

[Meanwhile]

When Camila rushed back into the main part of Odalia’s office to help Amity, she found the girl doing remarkably well and holding her own. Amity and Alador had both summoned up armies of abominations, which were now doing battle all over the office in small skirmishes, which obscured the battlefield. Amity was running through this confined battlefield with a great deal of skill, slinking about like a cat while Darius now clung to the ceiling in his abomination form, trying to find the girl and get a clear shot at her. He had been given some brass armour and an arm cannon that Alador made from one of his drained Abomatons, and now shot globules of slime from the cannon to try and catch Amity whenever he got a clear shot. Alador was also stood on a raised platform made from slime and the remains of Odalia’s desk, trying to direct the battle and overcome Amity’s abominations.

Camila prepared to immediately jump in and help by attacking Darius, but then she noticed something odd… there was not one Amity running around, but four! The one Camila had seen first was the one that darted around like a cat, drawing the men’s attention whenever it was focused on something else, but there was also a pair of others that would purposefully taunt the men and take potshots at them with pink light or flame, aiming to damage Darius’ armour or Alador’s platform, but never hitting the men directly. The fourth one was sneaking around the very edge of the battle, using the fallen armour of some some drained Abomatons as cover to stay out of sight. It was this Amity that noticed Camila and rushed over to her, before hurrying her back out of the foyer before the men could notice her.

“Camila!” this Amity whispered urgently; “You’re okay! I knew Odalia wouldn’t stand a chance!”

Camila smirked and pointed over to the beaten, bound, and knocked out woman, which made Amity grin. “I didn’t even use my magic. She was pathetically weak; nothing but a bully that preyed on those she had power over. But forget her; what is with those other Amitys?”

“They’re why I needed to hurry you out of the room; they’re Ghost, Hecate, and Odd.” Amity explained; “I used some abomination magic and a simple illusion to create copies of myself that Ghost, Hecate, and Odd can control. Ghost is able to still move like herself even with the “me” shell, so she keeps Dad and Darius from getting the others, while Hecate and Odd can channel my magic to shoot attacks! I’m trying to whittle down Darius’ armour and knock Dad off balance.”

Camila raised an impressed eyebrow, then looked at Amity’s staff. The girl snapped her fingers, removing the illusion and revealing that the Palisman staff was actually a fake made of slime.

“So that’s why you needed me out of the way; an Angel would interfere with your spirits.” Camila smiled, impressed by the girl’s skills.

Amity nodded, though there was a tiredness in her eyes; she was clearly using a lot of magic. “I’ve been training Hecate and Odd, alongside Lyra and Shade. They’re used to you and Luz, and aren’t afraid of you, but your magic can still be dangerous, so while I can still work with them if you’re nearby, they’ll hesitate a lot more and be less effective. It’s better to keep back for now and chip away at Dad and Darius’ magic.”

Camila could agree with that, then decided to give Amity a small blessing to help replenish her, since Camila still had pretty much a full tank at the moment. Amity sighed with relief and thanked her, then said; “I need to get back in there. Dad’s abominations are better than mine, so I need to support them from the sidelines.”

“Is there any way I can help?” Camila asked. Despite being the adult, Camila knew Amity was the more battle-experienced one, so trusted her to decide what to do.

Amity thought about it for a moment, then nodded and said; “If you can use illusions to hide yourself, then sneak up on Darius. As soon as Odd or Hecate manage to break a decent chunk off of his armour, hit him in the torso with a dose of Angelic Magic. It’ll make his abomination slime body malfunction. If you only get his extremities, he’ll be able to easily remove them and regenerate, but if you get his core then it’ll disrupt him entirely and he’ll be forced to return to flesh and blood.”

“And that’ll make him easier to hold down.” Camila realised.

Amity nodded with a smile, then said; “I know I don’t need to tell you this, since Darius truly is your friend, but please be gentle. He’s my mentor and very important to me and Dad.”

Camila just smiled and nodded; “Of course. But I need to warn you of something; Odalia managed to press a button to summon the Abomatons. I don’t know how many, but it’ll at least be every one in this tower. I blew up the top of the elevator so they’ll be delayed, but I don’t know by how long.”

“Then we’re on a time crunch. We can do this; Dad and Darius are brilliant, but with their minds incomplete and them refusing to fight me properly, they’re not doing their best. We can do this, then we can get out of here and help Luz take down Raguel.” Amity declared, not letting the imminent appearance of the Abomatons get her down.

Her future mother-in-law once again smiled, then cast a spell to make herself invisible as they both returned to the office. During the brief time Amity was away, her forces had been thinned out a bit, but she was quick to use the blessing from Camila to refuel her magic and rebuild the army bigger and stronger, briefly turning the tides. Her Dad was a genius though, so as soon as he saw Amity’s abominations grow stronger, he further refined his own, then had them pull back to the edges of the room, causing Amity’s abominations to follow them, which unfortunately left the centre of the room empty, and revealed the presence of the multiple Amity’s running around.

“I thought so. You’re very clever Mittens, but I know you’re not fast enough to be everywhere at once AND evade my abominations. You made abomination clones of some kind, yes?” Alador asked, smiling proudly. The real Amity, who remained hidden among her abominations on the edge of the office, began to creep closer while using her Oracle Stones to transfer her thoughts to her spirits and give them new orders.

Hecate, disguised as Amity, responded to Alador; “Something like that. You and Darius are strong; I needed to be smart.”

“Which would make you the real one?” Darius asked with a raised eyebrow.

Hecate looked at him curtly; “Perhaps. Perhaps not.”

Darius chuckled; “Impressive, Amity. But I’m afraid you’re not quite on our level.”

With that, he rapidly fired blasts of abomination goo at all three of the fake Amitys, just as the real one expected. Even divided, Darius was thorough and didn’t tend to take chances, so Amity needed to make him think she’d been beaten; it was a tried and true tactic that had worked for the Hexsquad before, and Amity needed it to work now!

The disguised Hecate, Odd, and Ghost were all hit, with Hecate’s disguise being maintained as she was pinned to the floor, while Odd and Ghost’s disguises were splattered, and the real Amity subtly summoned Ghost to her side and Odd back to his Oracle Stone, making it look like they were just clones that had been destroyed. With “Amity” now captured, Darius finally lowered himself from the ceiling and back onto the floor, though he remained in his abomination form while Alador stepped down from his podium and approached who he thought was his daughter.

“Don’t let your guard down just yet, Dee. Luz is still out there with Lord Raguel, and your old friend is off fighting Odalia.” Alador pointed out.

Darius chuckled; “I know Al. I suspect the Overseer will be in trouble; Cassiel was always a fiery woman. I once saw her punch a 9ft tall Ogre that had tried to eat Em!”

As Alador laughed at the story (and the invisible Camila smiled, remembering the incident in question and reminiscing about the old days), Darius went to the door of the office and threw it open. He was met with the sight of Odalia’s unconscious form tied up in the corner, a destroyed elevator, and no signs of Camila. Darius turned to warn Alador, but Amity suddenly struck.

The real Amity, who’d ended up sneaking over and hiding behind her father’s now-vacated podium, used the Self-Destruct Spell to cause every single abomination she’d created to begin swelling up, including the one Hecate was possessing. Her abominations also grabbed her fathers, mixing their slime as much as possible and causing the spell to spread to them too, making Alador’s eyes widen. He was quick to begin cancelling the spell, but there wasn’t enough time to cancel it on all of them, so he focused on Amity’s and instead simply dismissed his own abominations to prevent them from exploding. Darius also began helping, though he had to avoid getting too close so the spell wouldn’t effect him too. Seeing this, Amity leapt out of her hiding spot and dashed for her father’s blind spot, while Hecate became incorporeal and flew out of her abomination shell before returning to a physical form and blasting Darius with as much of Amity’s light magic as she could, actually succeeding in blowing a hole in his chest. It thankfully didn’t do any serious harm to him thanks to his slime body, only breaking the breastplate of his Abomaton armour. In shock, his attention was drawn by Amity’s movement and turned to Alador just as she was tackling her father to the floor and using some tendrils to bind her father’s hands together behind his back.

Darius’ expression became that strange blank one again as he regenerated his torso and moved to help Alador, but as soon as he tried to blast Amity or her spirit with slime, Camila dropped her invisibility spell and slapped a hand on Darius’ back through the hole in his armour, before giving him an Angelic Blessing with a good chunk of her magic. The Angelic Magic coursed through him and immediately destabilised his abomination body, causing Darius to feel his body beginning to break apart, forcing him to transform back into his flesh and blood body.

“Cassiel!?” Darius exclaimed in surprise.

“Sorry about this, Darius!” Camila said, before casting a spell that made her hand crackle with dark blue electricity. This was a defibrillation spell meant to deliver controlled electric shocks; when applied to bear flesh, it could restart the heart and stimulate the muscles… but when applied to metal armour, the electricity was conducted through the whole thing, delivering a milder shock that hit Darius’ entire torso at once. Darius yelped as his body convulsed (it was thankfully painless due to the nature of the spell, but still highly uncomfortable), leaving him unable to move as Camila trussed him up with bandages.

Seeing this, Alador tried to use his abomination magic to dispel the tendrils binding his hands, only to be shocked when it didn’t work. He twisted his wrists a little, getting a feeling for the texture of the tendrils only to be shocked to find out why his abomination magic did nothing… they weren’t made of abomination goo; they were vines!

“Plant Magic?” Alador whispered curiously.

Amity, still holding him down, smiled; “A trick I learned from Willow.”

That made Alador smile too; “You always were my little genius. I’m so glad you and Willow made up.”

“Yeah, no thanks to Odalia.” Amity said, pulling her father into a seated position and dragging him over to Darius, where Camila bound the two men together, side by side.

Both men gave Amity a look of curiosity; “Darling, I think you’ve been lied to. Why would Odalia come between you and Willow?” Darius asked.

“Because she’s an evil and abusive hag.” Amity replied like it was obvious. “Why do you think she and Dad split up? Dad finally realised the truth and divorced her!”

That was obviously news to the men, whose memories of Odalia had been divided from them. Alador looked especially puzzled; “Amity, I think you’re mistaken. The truth is that your mother and I separated because of mutual feelings between myself and Darius. Odalia was okay with it, since our own marriage was a business arrangement.”

Amity gaped as Darius nodded along, leaning over to kiss Alador on the cheek. She wondered if this was the result of the Divider’s meddling, or if simply removing Odalia from the equation as well as the grief they still felt for Amity the First was enough to make their old feelings fully bloom again. She hoped it was the second, because at least then their feelings would be their own (albeit with parts of their emotional spectrum removed).

“While I’m happy for the two of you, Odalia really is who I say she is. She used the Division Ritual to strip away your memories of her so she could become Overseer and manipulate you both.” Amity argued.

“It’s true, Darius.” Camila said solemnly; “I heard it from her own lips. She also knew about the Draining Spell, though not it’s true purpose. Alador, you found out about it and confronted Belos, but Odalia used some kind of special spirit to seal your memories. It’s why your company had Belos’ favour and a monopoly on Abomination Tech.”

That was a shock to everyone, especially Amity and Alador. Knowing Camila was an Angel, Alador had no choice but to believe it, but since he didn’t have the ability to feel negative emotions, he just kind of shut down, entering that blank, emotionless state again. Darius was in a similar condition, while Amity stared at Camila with shock; “She really did that!?”

“She did. I walloped her good for it too!” Camila nodded grimly, before asking; “Though since I don’t know much about Oracle Magic, I don’t know what she meant by special spirit.”

“Me neither…” Amity frowned. Technically, the only way to influence someone’s mind with a spirit was via possession… that could be used to seal memories or control people. It was like how Odalia had Darius possessed to get him into the Division Ritual Circle. Did that mean Odalia had a spirit that could synchronise well enough with her Dad to control him? Was it the same spirit that could control Darius, or did she happen to have one for each? And more importantly… had Odalia used that spirit to control her Dad before? The stories he’d told her about how much he’d wanted kids and how excited he’d been about them didn’t add up with his later behaviour, so was it possible Odalia stooped that low?

“What am I thinking, of course she would. But did she?” Amity muttered, before turning to glare towards the foyer where Odalia was tied up; “I’m gonna have words with that woman later.”

Before another word could be said by the adults, there was a sudden rumbling throughout the tower as the lights flickered above. The lights in the office were powered by some kind of magic, but clearly something had just happened to that magic as the lights began to blink out. Thankfully it was still only the early afternoon, so it wasn’t exactly dark, but it did worry Amity and Camila a bit. A moment later, four strange prismatic figures flew up into the room; figures that perfectly resembled Alador and Darius. There were two of each, and they all flew into the men, fusing into their mirror images. The two men began shuddering as their eyes glowed, before the golden rings around their irises faded away, leaving Alador and Darius blinking slowly.

“Ugh, what just happened? I feel… kind of bad.” Alador groaned, his head feeling like it was full of fog.

“I remember fighting… Amity and Cassiel!? And I was made an Overseer by the Divider until…” Darius muttered, his eyes slowly widened; “… that evil, treacherous snake! Odalia! She had me possessed! I couldn’t resist and ended up divided again!”

Amity and Camila gasped; “A-Are they back to normal!?” the latter cried.

“Willow, Gus, and Vee must have done something in the basem*nt!” Amity grinned, rushing to begin untying the confused and angry men. The instant they were untied, Alador leapt to his feet and hugged Amity.

“Oh, my little girl! Thank the Titan you’re safe! I can’t believe that woman made me fight you! Oh please tell me I didn’t hurt you!” Alador cried, kissing her forehead then urgently looking her over for signs of injury.

Amity giggled with happy tears in her eyes; “I’m fine, Dad. Not a scratch on me!”

“I am so sorry! Thanks to the Divider and Odalia, I couldn’t stop myself!” Alador said miserably, his face the picture of guilt.

Amity just replied by hugging him tightly; “It’s really okay, Dad. I understand! We’ve got a lot to talk about and catch up on; it’s been a long four months and there’s so much I want to tell you!”

“You’re not the only one!” Darius said, his eyes glued to Camila. “I thought it might have been some kind of lie dreamed up by my divided mind, or another trick of Odalia controlling me… but it’s really you, isn’t it? You’re Cassiel; my old friend.”

“I am, Darius. It’s been a very long time.” Cassiel nodded, a little teary eyed now that she was meeting the real Darius again. “You’ve become quite the handsome man, and very accomplished from what Luz and Amity told me. I know Michael would be very proud.”

Darius’ lip actually trembled; “T-That isn’t fair. You can’t disappear for 15 years, then come back out of the blue and nearly make me cry!”

Camila giggled; “Oh Darius…”

The man grabbed Camila and pulled her into a tight embrace, burying his face in her shoulder; “Cassiel, I’ve missed you so much! I-I was afraid I’d never see you again.”

“I’m so sorry, Darius. It wasn’t fair to leave you the way we did. You and Eber deserved better, especially you. You lost your mentor, and I couldn’t protect him…” Camila whispered.

Darius moved so he could see Camila’s face, but didn’t let go of her; “No, Cassiel; that was Belos’ fault, not yours. I know he killed Michael, and I know you fled the Demon Realm with Em to protect us from him.”

Camila gave a wet chuckle as tears flowed down her face; “I’m glad you both understood, but it was still cruel… especially since you both devoted yourself to rebelling against Belos because of it. I hope you still had a life outside of your rebellion!”

“I was sure to enjoy many of life’s little pleasures…” Darius winked.

Alador snorted; “He’s lying; he’s as much of a workaholic as me, he just won’t admit it.”

“I am not! I take days off! I have spa days!” Darius huffed.

“Which Eber and Abette have to bully you into.” Alador grinned, nodding to Abette and Moustrosity, who were happily watching the reunion from the side. They’d been dropped when their partners were captured, and had been captured by Ghost soon after, who was now just sitting with them. The adorable Palismen (who’d also been divided along with their partners, thanks to their bond) had returned to normal too, and Abette was very glad to see Camila again.

Darius pouted, then turned back to Camila; “If you want to get on someone’s case for not taking breaks without being forced, you can start with your daughter, Cassiel. Luz is a good girl, but she’s a bit too reckless with her own health.”

Camila nodded; “Oh I know. A lot has happened, but she’s working on it and getting better.”

“Good.” Darius smiled, before his face suddenly fell; “Listen… Luz told us all about her Papi… about Em. I am so sorry… I wish I could have been there for you.”

Camila smiled with sad eyes; “Thank you, Darius. That means a lot to me. Em’s passing was difficult, especially considering it was because of Vitimir…”

“It was WHAT!?” Darius yelled, his face becoming thunderous.

“Oh right… sorry, there is a lot I need to fill you in on.” Camila sighed. She’d gotten so used to things not being a secret any more that she’d forgotten Darius and Eber didn’t know the full story yet.

“Yes, there is! Vitimir… I can’t believe it… and he tried to… oh Titan… Luz must have been devastated!” Darius said, horrified beyond words as he remembered what Vitimir had tried to do to her.

“She was, and I made it worse by hiding the truth from her, especially regarding the fact Michael was her second father.” Camila confessed.

Darius’ eyes nearly popped out of her head; “But he was already dead by the time you left the Demon Realm! Does that mean you really were pregnant when you fled!?” There had been some doubt in his mind about that after the incident in Belos’ mind, but this was confirmation.

Camila nodded; “I was. We were going to tell you the day everything went to hell.”

“Titan… I am so sorry. So Luz is the child of two of my best friends and my mentor?” Darius mused, looking wistfully out at the sky through the broken window. “She always reminded me of you and Em, but now that I know the connection, I can see a lot of Michael in her too…”

“She does us all proud. Just as Amity does you proud, Alador. She spoke very proudly of you.” Camila said, turning the conversation back to the Blights.

Alador beamed; “I’m glad! Amity and her siblings are my finest creations! I’ll never make an abomination that can even compare to them!”

Amity and Camila giggled, while Darius rolled his eyes, cheered up by Alador’s unconventional compliments; “You’ve a one track mind as always, Al.”

“You love me anyway, Dee!” Alador shot back with a smirk, before both men suddenly flushed while stepping away with shocked expressions.

“O-Oh… right. While we were divided, we… we became a couple.” Darius whispered.

Alador gulped; “Y-Yes. You asked me out for a drink to celebrate you being made Overseer by the Divider. We talked about our pasts, free of all our grief and self-doubt… and then you kissed me.”

Darius looked down in shame; “Alador, I’m sorry. That wasn’t fair to you; you’re my oldest friend and incredibly dear to me… you didn’t deserve to have me do something like that while you weren’t in your right mind.”

Alador averted his eyes; “It’s not like you were in your right mind either. You didn’t manipulate me… I kissed back of my own free will.”

“It still wasn’t right! I don’t know what in the Titan’s name got into Rasiel, or the Divider or whatever title he calls himself, but I don’t like being treated like a puppet!” Darius growled.

That made Alador look at him strangely; “Do you remember every order the Divider gave you? Because I do… I also remember every order I got from Odalia and Raguel.”

Darius nodded, not seeing where this was going; “Yes. I think it was part of whatever control magic is built into the Division.”

“Then did the Divider order you to do any of those things? Asking me out? Kissing me?” Alador asked, his golden eyes boring into Darius’ emerald ones.

“Wha-? No! Of course not!” Darius scowled.

Alador smiled a little; “So you did those things because you wanted to?”

Darius began to splutter as his face reddened, and both Camila and Amity looked between the two men, seeing where this was going and greatly enjoying the show.

When Darius didn’t dispute Alador’s words, the golden-eyed genius smiled a little wider, a bit of a blush forming on his cheeks; “Now that you’ve been united again, have your feelings changed? Do you regret our relationship of the last few months?”

The Head Witch went silent for a long moment, then swallowed thickly and answered in a quiet voice; “No. I feel the same… I’ve always felt the same. I just… you were upset with me because of Amity and my stupid response, then you were married, then you were freshly divorced and we were fighting a war… it was never the right time. It never felt right… after Odalia, you deserved better. I wanted to give you better.” Darius looked down at the ground; “I hate that our first kiss was under the influence of the Divider’s magic.”

Alador, now smiling brightly with pink cheeks, just scoffed; “Oh please, that doesn’t count…” he took a step towards Darius; “… but this does.”

He then grabbed Darius by the end of his beard and gently pulled him down, capturing him in a kiss. Darius’ eyes widened, but he immediately kissed back, and the two men shared their first proper kiss as their whole selves, while Camila beamed and Amity gasped and bounced up and down excitedly. They were both so happy for the men; Camila was overjoyed to see her old friend rekindle his old crush, while Amity was practically squealing on the inside to see her Dad find love again with someone worthy of him.

The two men eventually pulled a part, and Alador’s entire face turned red as he realised what he’d just done. “Oh wow… adrenaline is a scary thing! I, um, hope I didn’t overstep…”

Darius stared at him, the eye in his abomination bun having shaped itself into a love heart due to his emotions, before the man laughed; “Don’t lose your nerve now, Al! That was actually pretty darn smooth for you! Who knew you had it in you?” he teased, blushing a little.

Alador’s face remained tomato red as he said; “Well I don’t know how much longer this high will last so… will you go out with me?”

“Well, I guess I could. You’re about the only tolerable single man I know.” Darius said, pretending to be nonchalant. That didn’t last long though, as Alador gave him an unsure look (the man still wasn’t the most confident with relationships), so Darius kissed him again and said; “Of course I’ll go out with you, Al. I still don’t like that it took having parts of my mind and soul removed to make me finally say it, but it’s what I want, and if this is what you want too, then I’m happy.”

Alador nodded, and the two of them embraced. The ladies then spoke up.

“Aw, that was so sweet! You two are adorable! I’m so happy for you!” Camila gushed.

“I can’t believe it finally happened! Oh, Edric and Emira are going to be so excited! And Hunter and Lyra will too! Not to mention Luz! She’s been shipping “Alarius” since Dad first ditched Odalia!” Amity giggled, so overwhelmingly happy.

The men blushed, but seemed grateful for the happy words, though both men had a question. Darius asked; “Who is Lyra?”

“Oh right, that happened while you were out of commission! Lyra is Hunter’s sister. She chose a new name for herself, one that distanced her from Belos and the idea that she’s just a Luz copy.” Amity explained.

Darius hummed; “I see. I like it; I look forward to seeing them again. I hope they’re alright.”

Amity assured him that they were, then her father asked; “So you’re okay with Darius and I dating? I should have run this by your siblings and you first, but with everything that’s happened…”

Amity waved her Dad off; “Dad, the twins and I expected this. We’re cool with it; we all like Darius and wanted him in our family ever since Palm Stings! We fully support you. Both of you.”

That made both men smile wider, happy to have the support of the Blight Children. They would always be Alador’s number one priority, something Darius fully agreed with, so having their approval was a must!

At that moment, they began to hear a lot of noise coming from outside the tower, as what sounded like a full on war was happening out there.

“Speaking of support, we should go give Luz some! She’s been fighting Raguel alone all this time!” Camila cried. She had faith in her daughter, but she was still a fresh, 15 year old Seraphim against a millennia old, extremely experienced Seraphim!

Amity agreed immediately, and Darius and Alador followed suit, all three of them summoning their staves and rushing over to the broken window, ready to fly out to help Luz. As they did, they looked down at the town of Bonesborough and were shocked to find it in absolute chaos; the people were either fleeing the town entirely or rioting and attacking the metal birds and Angelic Knight Golems. The Abomaton Knights summoned by Odalia were also flooding out of the Pillar to try and quell the rioting, as the automated voices of the golems repeatedly commanded people to calm down and return to their homes lest they be punished by the law. It was pure pandemonium, and thanks to the various Knights holding back, the battle was fairly evenly matched.

“What the heck is going on?” Amity wondered.

“If the two of us were restored back to our normal selves again, then the Divided Orbs stored in the Ritual Chamber in the basem*nt must have been compromised.” Alador explained.

“So that really was the work of Vee, Willow, and Gus.” Camila smiled; “They must have destroyed all the orbs and restored everyone in town back to normal!”

“Which means the previously Divided are either fleeing town or rioting, and whipping their families and friends into a frenzy. Now that the Division can be undone and they all know it, they’re a lot more willing to fight.” Darius said.

Amity hummed, before a flash of light caught her eye and she looked up into the sky above the Pillar and saw Luz and Raguel clashing again. When the two moved apart, Amity was able to get a good look at both and saw that Luz was in good condition, but was panting a little from exertion, while Raguel had some minor signs of injury, but didn’t even look to be winded yet.

“Worry about the town later; we need to help Luz!” Amity declared, before hopping onto Ghost and flying up at breakneck speed. She conjured a pink light falchion as she went, and just as she reached the battling Seraphim, Raguel made his Palisman Whip coil up like a snake before darting the end of it towards Luz in a rapid thrust. Luz prepared to block with a barrier, but Amity got there first and blocked with the flat of her light blade, which she then used to parry the blow, knocking the end of the whip away and seemingly leaving Raguel open for a riposte. He looked surprised by Amity’s sudden appearance, but he was still able to recover from his shock before Amity could stab her weapon into his arm (where she was hoping to make him drop his Palisman), allowing him to suddenly kick upward, catching the tip of Amity’s staff and knocking it out from under her, making Amity plummet to the ground.

“Amity!” Luz cried, using a Lightning Flash to zip over and catch her before she could fall more than a couple of feet, then zip back again whilst holding Amity in a bridal carry.

“That was close!” Amity breathed a sigh of relief, trying not to blush as Luz held her. She snapped her fingers to summon Ghost back to her hand, as Stringbean sniffed her and made sure she wasn’t hurt.

“It was! But I’m glad you’re here! How did things go with Odalia, Darius, and your Dad?” Luz asked.

Her question was partially answered when her Mami and the two men flew up to float beside her, staring the surprised Raguel down.

“Long story short, your Mami kicked Odalia’s butt, the others managed to undo the Division of everyone in Bonesborough, Dad and Darius are back to their old selves, and they’re currently dating.” Amity explained with a smile.

Luz gaped; “Every time I take my eyes off you, I miss a lot! I need to stop doing that!” she added the last part with a slightly flirty wink.

“Yes you do.” Amity flirted back, before gesturing for Luz to let her go so she could get on to her staff and fly on her own. Luz (reluctantly) complied, and the lavender-haired girl stared down Raguel with the others.

The elder Seraphim stared back, and upon seeing Darius and Alador with them, he scowled and finally looked down at the commotion below. He’d assumed the rebels had come out of hiding to help Luz, but now that he saw the Division had been undone on two people, he paid more attention and saw that the common people of Bonesborough were the ones rising up, not the rebels.

“How is this possible? The Ritual Chamber was heavily guarded by Abomaton Knights!” he frowned.

“Odalia summoned them away when she was losing to me.” Camila explained with a smirk.

The elder Seraphim slapped a hand over his face and groaned; “That idiot took the master control remote, didn’t she?” he then sighed and shook his head; “I am a fool. I defied the Lord Divider by going behind his back and trying to remove Luz as a threat, but only succeeded in causing her to ascend AND giving her a way back into the Demon Realm, whilst exposing myself as a spy. Then I tried to use Odalia’s own ambition to lure you all into a trap as a back-up plan, and it ended with her messing up and allowing all our work here to be undone… this is what I get for not trusting in the words of the Lord Divider.” he shook his head ruefully.

“For someone so fanatically loyal, you sure do seem happy to disobey him!” Luz pointed out.

“Lord Divider does not ask for loyalty to himself, but to his cause. I am loyal to the Wings of Rani and the paradise we wish to create. Each and every one of us is either like the Lord Divider, or like you Luz. We either lost our faith in finding peace in the current world due to war, or we didn’t fit in with the current Regime within the Divine Realm.” Raguel got a haunted look in his eye, giving Luz the impression that he had seen some truly horrifying things in his long life; “I’m sure you can sympathise with wanting a world were everyone can feel like they belong. As well as a world without war… perhaps if you had lived in the same era as Lord Divider and I, and had seen the horrors of the Endless Wars between Angels and Demons, you would understand.”

Luz frowned; “I can sympathise with you, Raguel. But a Paradise built by erasing parts of people and turning them into obedient dolls is not a true Paradise! It’s basically just playing house on a universal scale!”

Raguel sighed once again; “And this is why I tried so hard to remove you from the equation. Lord Divider’s heart was opened to you while he lacked his memories… it is because of you that his conscience continues to haunt him! Without that conscience whispering in his ear, he would have divided everyone in the Boiling Isles and created peace here… but after defeating his friends on Digale Island, he lost the will to do what is necessary and procrastinated that step until the final stage of Project Paradise! It’s why Odalia was allowed to walk free and cause the extra suffering she did! Why other foul people now stand as Overseers without being divided! Because our Lord refuses to divide anyone without cause now, until the end arrives!”

The Seraphim took a deep breath and looked down at the riots beneath him; “But I will not make the same mistake. He may not forgive me for defying his will a third time, but I will do what I must for our Paradise! ABOMATONS! ARREST EVERY CITIZEN OF BONESBOROUGH! ALL ARE TO BE DIVIDED!” he bellowed.

In an instant, every Abomaton in Bonesborough switched from trying to quell and contain the riots to outright crushing them. With support from the Angelic Knight Golems, and with the Knight Jars serving as scouts, Raguel’s forces began to attack the crowd, using restraining and disabling tactics to suppress them with minimal harm, all while trying to start dragging people into the Union Pillar. They were giving no quarter; they didn’t differentiate between rioters and civilians, or between adults, children, and the elderly. Everyone was being taken!

“No!” Camila cried, darting down to fight the Abomatons upon seeing one trying to rip a baby from their mother’s arms. She slammed down on the Abomaton with enough force to smash its helmet through its body and out between its legs, then carefully took the baby and handed them back to their thankful (and wary) mother. Several people saw an Angel coming to their rescue, and one old man cried.

“Y-Your face…! Are you related to the Arch-Angel of the Boiling Isles?”

Camila nodded; “Luz is my daughter. She’s now the Seraphim of the Demon Realm, and she’s fighting for you up there!” she cried, pointing up to the battle above.

Everyone looked up and those who hadn’t already saw Luz, who then combined wind and light magic to create several huge beams of silver light, which she blasted down into the area around the Union Pillar, destroying several Abomatons that had begun to drag people off, allowing their victims to escape. At the same time, there was a sudden eruption of plants and ice from the inside of an alley near the library, as Willow, Gus, and Vee ran out with Perry and the Parks. They were also joined by Malphas and the Librarians, who came running out of the library proper and looked ready for battle.

“This has gone on long enough! Bonesborough will be free from the yoke of Odalia Vespan and Raguel! My good people, fight for your homes and do not fear Division! These brave heroes have destroyed the ritual circle! So fight with all you have!” Malphas crowed, his usual speech patterns changing completely as the old demon motivated them all to battle.

Seeing and hearing this made the people of Bonesborough cheer and begin fighting back against the Abomatons and Knight Golems, with even the bystanders now throwing themselves into battle, and Camila, Vee, Willow, Gus, Gilbert, Harvey, and Perry all helping them as well. No individual Witch or Demon was capable of matching an Abomaton Knight in battle, but through teamwork and coordination, they began to actually push back against the seemingly never-ending tide. Vee was especially making herself helpful, transforming into a small child that was widely overlooked by the Knights so she could dash through the battlefield eating magic.

Up in the sky, Raguel watched the battle grimly; “I had hoped I wouldn’t see such scenes again. The lack of bloodshed makes this easier, but not by much.”

“You can still stop this, Raguel! Don’t you see that you’re just causing the very thing you wanted to make Paradise to stop!?” Luz cried.

“This isn’t like that! No one is dying!” Raguel snapped back, beginning to lose his composure.

“Like hell they aren’t! You’re ripping parts of a person’s soul away! Sure they’re not dying physically, but their lives are still being taken away as you turn them into glorified puppets!” Amity yelled angrily; “Trust me, I know what it’s like to have someone else decide what you’re allowed to be and feel… to try and pull you apart until all that’s left is their idea of perfect! I won’t let you and the Divider become the abusive hovering parents to the whole world!”

With that, Amity blasted Raguel with the strongest beam of pink light that she could muster in one shot, catching him off guard as her words shook him. The beam burned his chest and blasted him all the way to the edge of Bonesborough, though it was clear his injuries were mild.

“That’ll buy us a few seconds… Dad, Darius; go down and help Camila! You’re the experts on these Abomatons so if anyone stands a chance, it’ll be you.” Amity said.

The two men nodded; “We’ll do our best. But they were designed to be nearly impossible to defeat with anything less than overwhelming power… I think methods of draining magic are the only ones we couldn’t design around.”

“Can’t you just order them to stand down?” Luz asked; “You’re their makers, right?”

“We wish, but the Divider had us program them all with a Command Structure; we and the Overseers are at the bottom, followed by the Knight Golems, then the Wings of Rani, then Raguel, the Valkyrie, and the Divider himself! Only the Divider can countermand Raguel’s orders.” Alador explained. “The sole exception is the Law Code; they can’t break it even on the Divider’s orders.”

“Even the remote that Odalia used was technically the bottom rung of the Command Structure, so anyone else on it can counter it’s orders, so finding it wouldn’t help either.” Darius added.

That made Amity and Luz both scowl, but as they saw Raguel flying back towards them, they didn’t have time to come up with another plan. “Just do your best! Luz and I will handle Raguel!” Amity said, getting a confident nod from Luz.

The two men nodded and flew down to join the battle below, while Amity and Luz braced themselves. Raguel flew right at them, barely slowing down as he whipped his Palisman at Amity, causing a tendril of liquid gold to shoot from the end of the whip and try to wrap around her. Luz’s left hand glowed blue with the power of the ice glyph as she caught this gold (which was not hot despite being liquid), allowing her to freeze it solid and than yank on it, pulling Raguel towards her. She then lifted her foot to slam her heel into the bridge of Raguel’s nose, but he coated himself in a golden shell first, protecting him from the blow and making Luz’s foot ache. Amity then shot him in the side of the head with a ball of pink flames, trying to heat the gold, but the fire was doused before it could touch him as a bear claw made of water emerged from one of his wings and swatted the fireball. Luz then shot the bear claw with a bolt of lightning, causing Raguel to yelp as the lightning conducted through it and electrocuted him, forcing him to back off.

Luz then pulled Amity behind her and spread her eight wings wide, causing a light glyph to appear at the tip of each one and then begin rapid firing small and weak lasers as Luz cried; “Dazzling Gleam!”

The beams were each individually very weak, barely capable of inflicting burns on even those without the durable skin of a Seraphim, but there were literally thousands of them, meant to whittle down a person’s defensive and evasive abilities with countless small strikes. Raguel coated his entire body in golden armour to defend himself, easily blocking most of the blasts, but the repeated flashes still meant he had to shield his eyes too, giving Luz the chance to charge up a bronze, petrifying light beam with her hands. She fired it directly at Raguel and actually managed to catch him, turning him to solid stone and causing him to fall out of the sky. Luz hadn’t expected it to work, only to force him to dodge, so she wasn’t prepared to catch him as he fell, and he slammed into the rooftop of the Union Pillar, shattering into a million pieces in the process.

Luz shrieked in horror, fearing she’d just killed the man, but then Amity noticed that the statue pieces looked more like a stone shell than solid stone.

“Luz, I think he-” Amity began, only to be interrupted when Luz cried out in surprise. A tendril of water had emerged from Odalia’s office and grabbed Luz’s ankle, before suddenly yanking her down and slamming her against the side of the pillar. Luz recovered and froze the tendril with ice magic to break free, then immediately used a lightning flash to dodge out of the way of Raguel’s Palisman whip, which had been flicked out to wrap around her throat. Unfortunately, Luz didn’t have the same mastery of the technique as Hunter and so couldn’t use it for as long or as easily in rapid succession, forcing her to catch her breath after zipping out of Raguel’s reach, leaving her open to a light beam from Raguel, who turned his Palisman back into a staff to fire it.

The beam struck one of Luz’s wings as she tried to dodge, and to her horror it began to turn into gold, like it had been touched by King Midas!

“W-Wha-!?” Luz exclaimed, finding it hard to fly with one of her wings turned to gold. A second gold light beam came firing at her, but this time Amity intercepted it by shooting some abomination goo at it, causing the goo to turn to gold instead. Amity then used abomination goo to pull Luz back up to her, where the two girls could then combine their light magic to make a powerful pink and gold light beam to blast back Raguel’s third shot, creating an explosion of smoke. Luz then reached for her Papi’s old Combat Potioneer belt and pulled off a Fog Brew she’d already prepared and left on stand by. She threw it at Raguel to cover him in yellow fog, giving her and Amity a chance to retreat to a nearby rooftop where they could hide behind a chimney stack and plan their next move.

“Okay, so Raguel is pretty strong and resourceful. I should have expected that from a Seraphim.” Amity muttered. “Are you okay, Luz?”

“Yeah. We’re actually pretty evenly matched; I have more magic than he does thanks to my Titan powers, but he’s way more experienced. He also can’t heal as easily as me, but he’s a lot smarter at conserving his magic… if I keep fighting him on my own, I’ll wear myself out before I wear him out.” Luz frowned. “So far, he tends to use water magic and gold generation and manipulation… and apparently gold petrification too.” she added with a wince, the weight of her now golden wing straining her wing joint.

Amity gently touched the wing and was surprised to find that rather than the wing appearing to be made of solid gold, each feather had been turned to gold instead. Once of the golden feathers came off in Amity’s hand, and she was shocked to see it was fairly sharp! It’d make a nice blade.

Pocketing the golden feather for now, Amity asked; “Do you think you can heal this?”

Luz tried to cast a healing spell on the wing, but nothing changed (besides the pain of the strain lessening). “That’s a no… I guess I could cut the whole thing off and regrow it, but I’d rather not do that.”

Amity nodded; “Yeah, definitely don’t do that. Perhaps you can instead just pluck out all the gold feathers and regrow those?”

Luz didn’t relish the idea of doing that either, especially since her wings had gotten pretty large now that she was a Seraphim; it’d take her forever and if they didn’t get back to fight Raguel soon, he’d either come looking for them or he’d give up and join the Abomatons, which would spell the doom of their friends and the townspeople.

Stringbean then hissed something to Luz, who blinked; “Petrification? You think it’s the same kind of magic?”

The little Snake-Shifter hissed again, and Luz hummed; “I guess there’s no harm in trying to find out. Let’s give it a try!”

With that, Luz called up the magic she’d gained from the Panacea Mirror and cast it on herself, causing her golden wing to slowly turn from gold to crystal, before the crystal layer shattered and the wing was returned to normal.

“It worked! Raguel’s spell must count as a kind of petrification, so my Panacea magic worked on it!” Luz beamed, before giving Stringbean a pat on the head; “Good job, my little Power Noodle!”

Amity smiled with relief; “Well that’s good, but if you get fully turned to gold, we’re still in big trouble. But I’ve got an idea; how about I create a flat disk made of abomination slime and launch it at him like a saw blade? If he shoots it with his gold beam, it’ll turn into a gold disk, and with a little bit of polish, we can use it like a mirror to reflect his own beams back at him!”

“He’ll never see it coming! Plus once it turns to gold, I should be able to control it with the magnetism magic I can do by combining earth and lightning magic!” Luz smiled.

“Wait, but gold isn’t magnetic.” Amity pointed out.

Luz shook her head; “It doesn’t need to be; my magic magnetism works a bit differently. It seems to work on anything metal.”

“Well then, I guess we’ll just have to give it a try! Let me go out and attack him head on, then once he starts trying to turn me to gold, I’ll use the abomination razor disk to make the mirror! I’ll need you to support me with ranged attacks; we need to overwhelm him until he tries to turn one of us to gold to even the odds, so bombard him with those silver light beams.” Amity said.

Luz nodded; “Got it! I’ll follow your lead on this one, Hermosa!”

Amity grinned and hopped back onto her staff, then created a pair of abomination falchions to attack Raguel with, before shooting off after him as quickly as Ghost could carry her. The Fog Brew had already been cleared with a few flaps of his mighty wings, and now he flew around in the air, scanning the battlefield and rooftops for signs of the girls. He was also holding his Palisman by the very end of his staff, allowing the staff itself to coil and stretch like a serpent as the Polar Bear Palisman on the end acted like a scout for his partner. Raguel didn’t see Amity coming at him from behind, but the Palisman sniffed her out and spotted her, roaring to alert Raguel and allowing the Angel to spin around at the last moment and block Amity’s double sword swing with an arm plated in gold.

The Lavender-haired Witch’s blades clanged against the metal plating, sending vibrations up her arms that made her shudder. “Wow, those are tough! Isn’t gold supposed to be a weak metal?” Amity frowned.

“It is no mere gold. It is Aurum; an alchemically created form of gold that was designed so real gold in the Divine Realm can be used solely for currency.” Raguel explained, pushing his wrist against Amity and forcing her to back off. She tried to swing for him again, but he blocked every single attempt, cladding his other forearm in gold too. “It is sturdier to make it useful for more than just decoration. All the buildings you saw in the Divine Realm are made with Aurum. Not only is it as good at conducting electricity as gold, but it is extremely useful for magic conduction. Your father made several components for the Abomaton Knights out of it.”

Amity growled as her strikes were batted away. However she grinned as she felt several silver light beams flying within a whisker of her skin, curving around her body expertly and slamming into Raguel. The man grunted and winced, suffering a few minor burns, before tilted his head to look at Luz, who was grinning from about 20 feet away. She’d aimed her silver light beams directly at Amity’s back, then directed them around her to strike Raguel, ensuring he wouldn’t see what was coming until it was virtually too late. Seeing Raguel distracted, Amity slapped her two abomination falchions together, merging them into a large hammer, which she then smashed down on Raguel. He blocked the blow by crossing his armed wrists, but this time the force of the blow vibrated through his armour and made him shudder.

“You two really do make quite the pair… what a shame.” Raguel sighed, shaking his head.

Amity didn’t like that, feeling like she was being pitied for some reason, and went to smash him again. This time however, when he blocked, she allowed the slime to splatter against him and bind his forearms together. As she did so, she tried to taunt him into using his Midas beam again.

“You know, it’s ironic that the so-called Seraphim of Charity uses so much gold in his magic! Maybe that’s a sign of your true nature!” Amity yelled.

Raguel snorted; “My entire Crest Order was focused on managing the economy; gold is to me what abominations are to you. All Seraphim of Crest Charity learn to manipulate gold and create Aurum with Angelic Alchemy; it is our speciality! I just happen to be better than most due to my Water Affinity.”

Almost immediately after saying this, Raguel heard his Palisman roar and he suddenly darted to the side, still covered in slime, just in time to dodge the silver light beams coming at his back. Luz had snaked the beams around behind the man this time, but now he’d dodged them and she was forced to bend the light around Amity before it hit her. The light beams chased Raguel, who couldn’t use his arms at the moment, until he was eventually able to fly in a circle, drawing a giant spell circle with his heel, which created a giant globule of liquid gold, which stopped the light beams as Raguel flew through it. When he emerged from the other side, he was free of the abomination slime, and snapped his fingers to make the globule shape itself into thousands of coins, each with a sharp edge.

“I believe the humans call this “Making it rain”!” Raguel declared, causing half the coins to go flying at Amity and the other half to go flying at Luz. Both girls threw up barriers, but while Luz’s crystal barrier was able to hold up to the swarm, Amity’s regular one wasn’t and it soon shattered, forcing her to block all coins with a large conjured abomination.

Amity then manipulated the abomination’s slime into a wave of goo, taking a page from Luz’s book and crying; “Sludge Wave!” as it enveloped Raguel. The instant it was about to fully engulf him, Amity used the self-destruct spell on it to cause it to begin swelling and expanding. However before that could happen, there was a flash of golden light and the entire wave transformed into gold. Amity tried to hide her excitement; Raguel was using his Midas beam! Now their plan could begin!

He shaped the gold into a giant spiked ball, which he then tossed at Luz to keep her busy while he flew at Amity, ready to do attack her again. The expression on his face was amused though, as if not taking her seriously. Amity responded by conjuring three large disks of abomination goo, which she hardened into spinning saw blades and manipulated into slicing at Raguel. He easily dodged the first one, and used his Palisman Whip to deflect the second, but then cast his Midas beam at Amity before the third could reach him. Amity, inwardly grinning, manipulated the third slime disk to intercept the beam, protecting her and turning it into gold. She then used her self-destruct spell on the remaining two disks as they flew back at Raguel, causing them to explode just close enough to force him to cover his face from the flash and smoke. Amity then coated her hand in abomination gunk and extended it to grab the now-golden disk before it could fall from the sky, then threw it like a Frisbee towards Luz.

Luz, who’d caught Raguel’s golden spike ball by combining earth and lightning to form her magnetism magic, repeated the process with the disk and had it magnetise to her feet, where she flew as if she was surfing on the disk, while tossing the gold ball back at Raguel. The man countered with a light beam that disintegrated the ball into glittery powder, then further countered by turning some of his own feathers into gold and launching them at Luz and Amity like little golden daggers. Amity dodged while Luz shot the daggers out of the air with silver light blasts.

“Looks like silver beats gold in this case!” Luz taunted.

“We’ll see about that!” Raguel retorted, firing a powerful Midas beam straight at Luz. This was the moment the girls were waiting for, and Luz immediately lifted her legs so the golden disk magnetised to her feet was struck by the beam. She detached herself from it, just in case, and used her magnetism magic to quickly tilt it so it perfectly reflected the beam back at Raguel. The man’s eyes widened, but he was struck straight on and promptly turned fully into gold, his face frozen in an expression of shock. Amity was quick to catch him with some abomination slime so he didn’t plummet to the ground and break or crush someone, then carefully lowered him down onto the rooftop of the Union Pillar.

Once he was settled, Amity sighed with relief and Luz quickly flew down to stand on the roof of the pillar with her, smiling happily. “Phew! That was tough! Still, we came out ahead in the end!” Luz said cheerfully.

“Yeah… though I’m exhausted. Between Dad, Darius, and now Raguel, I’m actually a little glad I didn’t have to smack around Odalia too. As satisfying as it would be, it would have just been a waste of strength.” Amity said with a little smirk.

Luz giggled; “True! Let me give you a little blessing to refuel you, then we can go down and help push back the Abomatons! I’m sure I’ve still got enough gas in the tank to take ‘em all down!”

Amity smiled, so happy to see her love really back to her old, enthusiastic self. She shook her head in response though; “Don’t waste your magic on me. Even at full power, I won’t be able to do much against those Abomatons. You keep the magic and go kick butt; I’ll stay here and keep an eye on Raguel’s statue.”

“Well if you’re sure.” Luz said, shrugging. She then gave Amity a quick kiss on the cheek before rushing off; “I’ll be back soon! You relax, Hermosa!”

“I will, Batata!” Amity said as she waved to her girlfriend. She watched Luz fly down into the battlefield below and smiled, then turned to look at Raguel’s golden statue. She was a bit wary of his Palisman, which was still in staff form and noticeably not turned to gold, but it seemed like it had been left dormant by its partner being out of commission.

“I know Luz will free him later, but it’s still uncomfortable seeing people turned into statues. Being gold instead of stone doesn’t really make it better.” Amity mused. Petrification was a truly terrible fate. “I don’t know if you’re conscious in there or not, but I hope you’re not suffering like a petrification victim.”

“Why thank you, Amity.”

Amity’s eyes nearly popped out of her head with shock as the golden Raguel spoke, his lips curling into a smile despite his solid gold face. She recoiled and prepared to scream for Luz, but Raguel’s hand darted forward and gripped her face, covering her mouth entirely. Amity tried to cast a spell, but Raguel quickly turned her fingers to gold, and when Ghost’s staff was dropped to the floor, allowing the Cat Palisman to make a break for it, Raguel’s own Palisman turned into its full bear form and leapt in front of Ghost with incredible speed, capturing her in its mouth.

“There. Now we’re alone and Luz is distracted, so we can have a little chat. I’m going to release you, but they’ll be no funny business, or Polaris will eat your Palisman.” Raguel threatened, gesturing to his Bear Palisman.

Amity had no choice but to obey and so was promptly dropped. She sat on the ground where she’d been dropped and rubbed her jaw, before she spat; “How can you still move!?”

Raguel answered by causing his body to shimmer and turn back to flesh and blood, before becoming gold again. He then switched back to flesh one last time to prove his point; “My magic is quite similar to your Abomination Magic, or rather, your friend Darius’ magic. It is based in Angelic Alchemy and is a subtype known as Living Alchemy; the manipulation of ones own body with Alchemy. I’m an expert at it, and can freely control my body. In my golden form, I can even do this!” Raguel turned his arm into gold and melted it into liquid. “I can transform my body into purifying water too; it certainly came in handy when Luz petrified me before.”

Amity gasped; “That’s how you escaped Luz’s petrification spell earlier! As your golden shell was being petrified, you turned your body into liquid! But how did we not see you!?”

Raguel smiled, picking up a piece of the petrified stone shell that still littered the rooftop; “I poured myself into the mouth of my Palisman, Polaris, allowing him to drink my liquid form. He wasn’t petrified, and when the statue smashed, he was able to slip away in the resulting dust cloud. I could then freely remove myself from him and return to flesh.”

Amity grit her teeth; “You were playing us from the start!”

“Don’t take it too hard; I’ve got about 100,000 years of experience on you. I was already 1000 years old when Lord Divider was sealed, and I have lived ever since that time.” Raguel explained.

“So, you let us think we’d won to make us put our guards down, then captured me. Are you planning to use me as a hostage against Luz?” Amity demanded.

“Oh no, I just want to talk… I have an offer for you.”

“What could you possibly offer me?” the girl said, narrowing her eyes.

Raguel chuckled; “Inquisitive, aren’t you? Lord Divider spoke fondly of you, Amity Blight. He respected your intelligence, your devotion, your willingness to change… and he pitied your doomed love.”

Amity went pale; “W-What do you mean doomed!?”

“Oh, don’t misunderstand; I’m sure you love Luz with all your heart and she loves you just as intensely… but your love was doomed from the start for the simple fact that you are a Witch and Luz is an Angel.” Raguel said, actually looking like he pitied her again, which really got on Amity’s nerves.

“What, are you some kind of supremacist that doesn’t like one of your “noble race” slumming it with a lowly Witch!?” Amity growled.

Raguel shook his head; “My dear, I have nothing but the utmost respect for your love. Love is the most charitable and generous thing there is; it is the act of giving the most precious part of yourself to another! To spurn such a thing because of your blood would be disgusting.” he said passionately, “Your races are relevant for one reason only; even the lowest of Angels will live 1000 years, while you as a Witch will be lucky to reach 100, and very lucky to reach more than that.”

Amity blinked in surprise, before frowning; she’d thought about this a lot recently, especially in light of Luz’s depression and how close Amity had come to losing her.

“The average Witch will live for a tenth of the average Angel’s lifespan. Among our kind, loving the short-lived races is often seen as being similar to having a dearly loved dog, at least in the lifespan aspect… You would literally have a pet for as long as Luz would have you.” Raguel said, making Amity bite her lip as her heart sank.

“Then elevate that to the High Angels, who live an average of 3000 years. That’s triple an ordinary angel and 30x your own life span. And then the Arch-Angels live for around 10,000 years! That means an Arch-Angel’s life as long to an Angel as an Angel’s is to a Witch! If you were to keep the percentages the same and reduce an Arch-Angel’s life span down to 100 years, then a Witch would live for a single year by comparison. Do you know what that means for you and Luz, Amity?”

Amity did know; she had been dating Luz since July 27^th of last year, and it was now April 29^th. That was 9 months and 2 days. 3/4ths of a year! And it had flown by in a blink of an eye for Amity! But if Luz lived to be 10,000 and Amity lived to be 100, then Amity would also feel like just a blink of an eye for Luz! And what if Luz lived to be 100,000!? She was a Seraphim now so she could live that long easily if nothing unnatural killed her! Using Raguel’s percentage comparison, if Luz lived to be 100,000, then Amity’s entire life would be the equivalent of 5 weeks! That was little more than a whirlwind summer romance!

Was that all Amity would end up being to Luz? A short, hopefully pleasant interlude in her youth? The thought made Amity feel sick, but the alternative was far worse; Luz living for so long, pining for a love she had lost…

A tear came to Amity’s eye, and Raguel nodded sympathetically; “Do you see now why we discourage love within the Union? The gaps in lifespans, even within our own race, is monstrous.”

Amity glared at him; “Why are you doing this!?”

“Because Amity… I offer you a way out of this awful fate. While your life span cannot be expanding to the same level as Luz’s, the Divider’s power could very well keep you alive for much longer than normal. Or he could Divide you and Luz so that the love that will one day hurt you both so deeply no longer exists… or better yet, ensure that when you inevitably leave this world, Luz is unable to feel the sorrow and grief that comes with it.” Raguel said gently, offering her his hand; “Don’t you want that? To spare yourself and your love the anguish of death’s parting?”

Amity stared at the offered hand and then down at her own hands, both of which having had their fingers turned to gold. She thought about Raguel’s offer and clenched her jaw; “So you want me to surrender to you, and help you stop Luz.”

“Yes, Amity. Why fight only to inevitably lose the one you love even if you win? Help me, Amity… you and your beloved will never no hardship again.” Raguel smiled, kneeling down so he was closer to the sitting girl’s level.

Amity closed her eyes then opened them again, her golden eyes glaring fiercely at Raguel; “Never!”

With that, she cast a spell using her tongue to draw the spell circle within her mouth, allowing her to use her limited abomination transformation spell to turn her hair into abomination goo, which she then shaped a portion of into a fist that she immediately used to smash Raguel in the face as hard as she could, making him gasp in shock as he was sent flying. Amity had aimed the blow carefully, so Raguel was sent flying right into his Palisman, Polaris, causing the bear to yelp at the impact, allowing Ghost to slip out of his mouth and run back over to Amity. The girl’s hands were still stuck as gold so she couldn’t wield Ghost like a staff, but she could still use her tongue and feet to draw spell circles, allowing her to give Ghost a giant abomination body, just as she’d done against the Revenant in Palm Stings. The giant Ghost then yowled so loudly that the whole town heard it, alerting Luz to the situation.

The younger Seraphim rapidly flew back up to the rooftop and saw Raguel free and Amity in trouble. “Amity!” she cried, flying towards her. However she was suddenly cut off by a giant golden paw, as Polaris was given a massive coating of liquid Aurum in the same way Ghost had been given one of abomination goo, allowing the Bear Palisman to swat Luz out of the sky and making her crash into the rooftop with a yelp of pain. Thankfully her Seraphim durability meant she was only bruised, but now she found herself facing a colossal Polaris, with Raguel flying in the air beside the bear’s head.

“You should have taken my deal, Amity Blight.” Raguel said grimly; “You can fight all you want, but you can’t fight time. It will rip you and Luz away from each other; Division is all that can save you from that heartbreak!”

“Shut up! I won’t let you beat us!” Amity roared, gesturing for Ghost to attack while she drew a spell circle with her foot to conjure a massive wave of abomination slime that she shaped into a hand to punch Polaris with. Polaris briefly stopped bearing down on Luz in order to grab and block the giant hand, while Luz took the chance to fly at Raguel. He shot some Midas beams from his wings, managing to catch one of Luz’s arms in the process and forcing her to back off so she could restore it with her Panacea Magic.

Raguel sighed, looking back to Amity and then shaking his head; “Disappointing. You never stood a chance, Amity Blight.”

With that, he drew a pair of blue spell circles and conjured a massive deluge of sparkling clean water, which he manipulated to catch Ghost. The water formed an orb around her, making Amity worry he was going to drown the Palisman, only for her to be shocked as the water seemed to disintegrate the abomination coating entirely. The orb then spat Ghost out, the now soaked Cat Palisman landing with an indignant hiss beside her partner, while Raguel then used the water to destroy the abomination arm Polaris was wrestling with.

“W-What!? How did you do that!? My abominations shouldn’t just dissolve like that in water! The mix is designed so water can’t be blended in and dilute it!” Amity exclaimed. It was one of the most basic defences all abominations were supposed to have!

Raguel conjured more water, this time as only a fist sized ball, and shot it at Amity with incredible speed. It hit her in the head and knocked her onto her backside, stinging her face a little from the impact. However the most surprising part was her hair, which she found returning to normal after she’d turned it into abomination goo.

“What!? You can do this too!?”

Raguel nodded; “I possess powerful water magic… purifying water magic. The instant it touches something, it purifies it. For abominations that rely on corruption, my magic is quite literally unstoppable.”

Amity blanched; that meant her Abomination Magic was useless! With Oracle Magic not working either, all she could do was use elemental magic and her limited ability in other magic schools! Raguel essentially countered her in every way!

“Now you understand what I meant when I said you never stood a chance.” Raguel said; “You should have chosen Division…” he then dodged Luz’s wild staff swing as she came flying back into the battle; “You should have both chosen it. Even if you manage to win, only heartbreak awaits you!”

“I don’t care!” Luz growled, turning Stringbean into a spear of light, which she rapidly thrust at Raguel while dodging the paw swings of the giant Polaris; “I gave my whole heart to Amity, not just the parts that are nice and neat! And I wanted all of Amity in return, even the parts of herself that she doesn’t like! I love her completely, and I won’t let you take even the smallest part of her away from me, or the smallest part of me away from her!”

Amity felt her heart beat a little faster as she watched her fierce and beautiful lover fighting against Raguel and his Palisman. Luz was fighting hard, full of determination, and with Stringbean at her side, occasionally transforming into different forms to help Luz fight back. Just as Stringbean could turn into different animals, she could also turn her staff form into different weapons, just as the Seraphim did. She could be a snake whip, pulling Luz out of the way of attacks, or an owl bow firing arrows of light that stuck in Polaris’ giant form like needles, or even a dragon head arm cannon that spewed Luz’s black flames, igniting Raguel (who sadly shed the flames by turning the burning parts into gold and letting them drip off him before regenerating and returning to flesh).

Luz was incredible, and Amity wanted to be worthy of her, even if she didn’t get to be with her for very long! Her life span may be only a blink of the eye for Luz, but Amity was determined to make it one that Luz would forever think fondly of! She had to make sure that the sorrow of her inevitable passing was worth it for the joy she brought Luz!

Thankfully, since Raguel had shown she was basically useless against him, he and Polaris had chosen to leave Amity alone, giving her a moment to think as Ghost sat in front of her.

“Okay, my Oracle Magic won’t work here at all, so that’s off the table. My Abomination Magic is also useless since he can just instantly destroy my creations with that purifying water. None of my other magic is strong enough to be helpful here, so I need to think; what can I do?” Amity said, choosing to bounce ideas off of Ghost.

“Find a way to counter your weaknesses would be my best guess.” Ghost meowed inside her head, drying her wet fur on some pink flames Amity conjured for her.

“Well I’m not going to suddenly become a master of other types of magic, so that’s not a weakness I can counter right now. Even Lyra can’t use Oracle Magic on other Angels, so that’s another weakness I can’t do anything about. That just leaves Abominations; my speciality! I need a way to stop them being purified… perhaps some kind of hydrophobic layer? No, that’d mess up its ability to shape itself properly…” Amity racked her brain; “Logically speaking, the best way to stop them being purified is for them to already be purified.”

“Your research into Light-Based Abominations! The methods you used rely on purified ingredients and positive energy! If you can figure it out, you’ll have the perfect weapon!” Ghost reminded her.

Amity grinned; “That’s it!” her face then fell; “But I’m still missing the final catalyst! I’ve mastered the techniques I need, I’ve practised enough to conjure most of the formula out of pure magic, and the techniques Dad and Darius used for the Abomaton Knights are the last pieces I need to perfect the method and 95% of the formula, but without the final catalyst to trigger the positive magic reaction, all I’ll have is inert sludge!”

Ghost’s ears drooped; “What do you need for the catalyst?”

“Something exceptionally pure and magically potent, preferably with a leaning towards positive energy. Something strongly associated with the light element would also be… I’ve got it!” Amity suddenly gasped. She reached into her pocket and pulled out the golden feather she’d plucked from Luz earlier. It was the feather of a kind-hearted Angel (and thus pure), who happened to be a Seraphim (making it about as magically potent as Amity could hope for) AND had a natural affinity to light magic! Not only that, but it was now coated in Aurum, which was an alchemically created version of Gold, which was supposed to be the purest metal when it came to magic! It literally couldn’t be the more perfect ingredient!

Placing the feather on the ground between her and Ghost, Amity took a deep breath and focused her magic, mentally and magically preparing herself to try out the techniques she’d worked on for so long. Standing up, Amity used the palms of her hands (which thankfully were still flesh) to draw a large spell circle around the feather, and cast the abomination conjuring spell, only substituting the magical techniques that revolved around negative magic with the Angelic Alchemy techniques she’d learned from Luz and Camila. The golden feather began to glow, then slowly melt into an abomination-like fluid, eventually forming into a small blob.

“D-Did it work?” Amity whispered, scooping up the blob. It was similar to normal abomination goo, but it was much lighter in colour; the darkest colour was a shade of lavender identical to Amity’s hair, and was perfectly blended with a pastel pink and even white with some shimmering golden swirls throughout. It was somewhat pearlescent in appearance, and definitely looked like “pure” abomination slime. Amity then tried to manipulate it with her magic and was shocked to find that the slime obeyed her with incredible ease. It was almost like it was a true extension of herself, requiring barely a thought to make it work.

“I-I did it! I did it!” Amity cheered, barely able to contain herself; “I made a new kind of magic! Positive, Light-Based Abominations! Oh, I-I need to think of a name for it!”

The girl’s excitement was cut off by the sound of Luz yelping above her, causing Amity to look up and see Luz get swatted by Polaris’ giant golden paw, sending her into Raguel, who gripped her throat and began trying to choke her into unconsciousness.

Amity grit her teeth; the name could wait, she had a Sweet Potato to save!

Looking back at the slime in her hands, Amity noticed her golden fingers and had a thought; Raguel was able to use Living Alchemy to turn himself into gold… Amity had her partial abomination transformation, something she’d never fully mastered… Perhaps she could use his method of Living Alchemy and her new Pure Abomination slime to finally master the transformation technique! After all, her fingers were Aurum now too, so she could use that to make more slime!

Focusing carefully, Amity began the process of transformation but focused on her fingers rather than her hair, and to her delight, her hands morphed into her new Purified slime. She was then able to deactivate the transformation, returning her fingers to their fully functional flesh form.

Grinning widely, Amity wasted no time summoning Ghost to her hand and reaching into her shirt and pulling out the feather she’d gotten from Luz all those months ago, when Luz first became a full Angel. Amity had no intention of consuming it for her new magic, but now that she knew her new catalyst worked, she could use the feather’s innate magic to help her generate more of the purified slime from magic alone.

Meanwhile, Luz was struggling in Raguel’s grip, trying and failing to escape his grip. He’d already managed to turn her hands to gold moments before grabbing her (the shock of it was how Polaris had managed to catch her with his paw swipe), and she couldn’t gather the mental focus to use her Panacea Magic while being choked.

“I am sorry it came to this, Luz. If you’d had longer to master your powers, you would have likely been unstoppable for anything but a Sephiroth. Alas, it’s over now… but fear not, when you awaken again, you will know nothing but happiness as one of the Divided.” Raguel said, using his magic to make the gold on Luz’s arms slowly creep up and coat the rest of her.

Luz grit her teeth and kicked in vain at Raguel’s chest, only managing to bruise her feet as they hit his golden armour. However just as it looked like she’d really lost, she heard the sweet voice of her saviour as it came roaring towards her.

“GET AWAY FROM MY LUZ!”

Raguel didn’t even have time to react as a fist coated in purified abomination slime slammed into his cheek with the force of a rocket, smashing the older Seraphim into the face of his Palisman, causing them both to topple over. Raguel had hit Polaris so hard that the Palisman’s golden shell had splattered, causing the Palisman to be stunned and the entire shell to melt into a sea of gold that began to drip down the sides of the Union Pillar. Luz, now about 50% gold, was then placed in Amity’s lap on the back of Ghost.

“Got you, Batata. Sorry I took so long; I had to come up with some new tricks.” Amity smiled, lovingly.

Luz beamed, taking the peaceful moment to calm herself and use her Panacea Magic to turn herself back to normal. As soon as she did, she hugged Amity and kissed her; “Thank you for the save, Hermosa! And you too, Ghost!” Luz said, reaching down to pet Ghost’s head even in staff mode. Stringbean, who’d been turned into gold with Luz’s hands, was similarly turned back to normal and nuzzled both Amity and Ghost to show her own thanks.

The two girls enjoyed their moment of peace, but quickly prepared to fight again as Raguel pulled himself together with a groan, and flew back into the air after reconstructing Polaris’ giant golden shell.

“I commend your tenacity, Amity… but I’m really getting tired of this! Your magic is useless here!” he growled, shooting a gold beam at the girls. Luz went to block it with a barrier, but Amity lowered the girl’s arm and raised her own, allowing Raguel to turn it to gold. She then smirked as she transformed it into purified slime and extended it towards Raguel like an extendable punch. Raguel narrowed his eyes and conjured some purifying water to stop the slime, only for it to have no effect on the already purified magic, allowing Amity to punch right through the water and hit Raguel in the face again.

The man barely stayed on his feet, then looked up at Amity with shock; “W-What!? How did you do that!?”

“You said it yourself; my magic was useless… so I made a new kind. Your Living Alchemy with the gold was part of the inspiration for how I finally perfected my research into Light-Based Abominations!” Amity grinned proudly.

Raguel’s jaw dropped, especially as Amity’s arm returned to flesh, showing that even if Raguel turned her to gold, she’d be able to change herself back. “Light-Based Abominations… using purified materials instead of corrupted ones… how did you make such a thing!? T-That’s revolutionary!” Raguel gasped. Amity may be his enemy, but he was still damned impressed! “Can that even be called Abomination Magic!?”

Amity shrugged; “Who knows? I think I’ll call it… Demon Realm Style Living Alchemy AKA Homunculus Magic!”

Raguel gaped, and Luz cheered and kissed Amity’s cheek; “Way to go, Hermosa! You’re the greatest Witch that ever lived! Even Azura has nothing on you!”

That incredibly high praise had Amity blushing; “I couldn’t have done it without you, Luz. Literally! Your feather served as the final catalyst I needed!”

Luz beamed; “And you can turn yourself into your homunculus slime, so now I’ll always be a part of you! But let me give you a little more!”

She pulled Amity into another kiss, this time using it to give Amity an Angelic Blessing. The girl felt Luz’s love and power fill her, invigorating her, and making her feel so unrestrainedly happy! Her heart was beating a mile a minute, and as she and Luz descended to the ground to face off with Raguel, both girls pointing their Palismen at him, Amity made a declaration.

“You may be right that my life is tragically short compared to Luz’s, and my life my very well end up being nothing but a short memory for her… but I don’t care! Luz gave me her heart and so long as it is mine, I will live to the fullest and walk the path I decided on for myself! I will fight back against the corrupt Paradise that you and the Divider are trying to force on us, I will fight for my happiness, Luz’s happiness, and the happiness of all my family and friends, and most of all, I will fight for the love I share with each of the people I care about! For I am the Good Witch Amity; daughter of Alador Blight and Lilith Clawthorne, Sister of Edric and Emira Blight, Lover of Luz Noceda-Clawthorne, and Warrior of Light!”

Amity twirled her staff and slammed it down, an aura of white, gold, and pink magic surrounding her and her staff as her heart began to burn with power. Beside her, Luz felt her own heart burning and her right eye began to tingle as she felt power flowing between the eye and her heart. To the shock of Amity, the light glyph appeared in Luz’s right eye and a line of gold extended down from it, running down Luz’s cheek and then following her jawline to her chin, where it then went down her neck to the white ring glyph on her chest, which briefly flashed gold. Then it was Luz’s turn to be shocked as the light glyph appeared on Amity’s chest, just as it had once been on her own, and a golden beam of light shot from King’s incomplete glyph marking to Amity’s light glyph marking, causing Amity and Ghost to be totally enveloped in the aura of light. Neither Luz nor Raguel could see them any more, while Amity found herself slipping into some kind of vision.

When Amity opened her eyes, she found herself floating in a white void just like the ones Luz described from glyph bonding visions with Cassiopeia. The only difference was that there was no ocean beneath her and no Titans… Amity was all alone, with the sole exception of Ghost, who sat in front of her, her azure eyes never leaving Amity.

“Ghost! You’re here too!” Amity smiled, kneeling down to pet her beloved Palisman. “Do you know what’s going on?”

Ghost nodded; “You bonded with the light glyph.” she meowed, pointing a paw to Amity’s chest, where the light glyph was shining in gold, bright enough to be visible even through Amity’s favourite black dress.

Amity gasped at the sight; “W-What!? How did this happen!?”

“I didn’t know what was happening at the time, but Luz bestowed the glyphs on all her friends when she ascended to become a Seraphim. Probably because of King’s linking magic.” Ghost mewled, tail swishing casually behind her; “You showed you understood the element of light by demonstrating Purification with your new Homunculus Magic, Positivity by choosing to cling to the happiness of your relationship instead of the fear of it ending, and Caring by choosing to fight for the people you love.”

“I-I can’t believe it… so I’ve bonded with the light glyph! W-What does this mean for us?” Amity asked.

“It feels like the glyph and the linking power that King and Luz used on us have strengthened our bond. It feels like we are truly one being, one soul, in two bodies…” Ghost answered. “Amity… since the day I bonded with you, I’ve thought about the wish in your heart that made me want to make that bond. Do you remember what it was?”

Amity smiled as she gently picked Ghost up and cradled her in her arms; “Of course; how could I ever forget?”

She closed her eyes with a nostalgic smile, remembering that day in the Bat Queen’s forest; “I said that I would decide for myself what I became; not Lilith, not the Emperor, and not Odalia. It’d be my choice; my own path to walk.” she opened her eyes; “Do you think something has changed?”

Ghost gently booped Amity’s nose with her paw, then meowed adorably; “No, but I was worried. You are devoted to Luz, and I’ll admit that I care for her too, seeing as I am part of you. But I feared that you would end up letting her dictate your path… but my fear was unfounded. While Luz has illuminated your path, it was still one you chose for yourself. You’ve remained true to the person you’ve wanted yourself to be.”

Amity nodded; “I have. Luz showed me what I was capable of, but she never told me what she wanted me to be… I just decided for myself and she loved me for it, just as I did for her. My path may end before hers, but I’ll still be happy so long as they can be side by side for a little while.”

Ghost meowed and rubbed the top of her head against Amity’s cheek; “And I’ll be happy to play with Stringbean. I’m not sure why so-called “real” cats don’t like snakes… she is adorable!”

Amity giggled, and Ghost purred as the two cuddled with one another, both feeling their hearts swelling and their bond strengthening.

“Ghost, I’m so happy I got to meet you! I couldn’t have wished for a better Palisman, even if I’d carved you myself!” Amity whispered.

“I feel the same, Amity. You are the only true partner I’ve ever had! I am proud to be your Palisman. Our paths are one, our souls are one… now let’s go and show that Fallen Seraphim what a real Good Witch and her White Cat can do!” Ghost declared.

Amity nodded and felt herself overflowing with light. As her mind left the world of the vision, it reflected on what Ghost had said. Their paths were one, their souls were one, and now, as the power of the light glyph filled them, alongside the linking power of King’s mystery glyph, Amity felt their bodies become one too.

In the waking world, the light around Amity began to die down and revealed to Luz and Raguel what had become of her…

The Amity that stood there was different from normal, having undergone a transformation of some kind. Her favourite black dress had turned lavender like her normal hair colour, only it was now sleeveless and appeared to be made of her new homunculus goo, given the way it seemed to flow over her, while her usual dark red leggings and black shoes had vanished altogether. Her arms and legs were bare and exposed, but shockingly, they were totally covered in fine, soft white fur exactly like Ghost’s. Her feet resembled a mix of normal Witch feet and cat paws, with Amity walking on the cat-like tiptoes, while each of her fingers now had a long black claw on the tip. Amity also had a long fluffy white cat tail poking out from her tail bone and through her dress. From the neck up, Amity had also changed a lot; her hair had become pure white and a little longer and messier than normal, and her pointy Witch ears had become adorable large cat ears on the sides of her head. The curl of Amity’s smile had become cat-like too, and her fangs were now longer, more pronounced and totally adorable! Lastly, her golden eyes had become the same azure blue as Ghost’s, and she had somewhat slitted pupils, and whisker marks on her cheeks, as well as the light glyph still shining proudly on her chest.

Raguel gaped at the girl, while noticing that Ghost was nowhere to be seen. It looked like Amity and Ghost had literally fused together!

Amity stretched and sighed happily as she felt her new body. She felt so energised and powerful, and her body felt so light! It was like every movement was the easiest thing in the world, while her magic bubbled pleasingly beneath the surface. She could feel Ghost within her soul, and hear the Palisman’s voice inside her mind as she looked down at herself.

“This is strange, but it feels good. I feel like we’re complete! I can feel everything you do!” Ghost meowed happily.

“And I can hear and see and smell everything like you would! It’s almost overwhelming!” Amity thought back.

Ghost’s laugh filled her head; “You’ll get used to it! Now speaking of appreciating your new form, you might want to do something about Luz…”

Amity blinked and turned to her side, where Luz had frozen and was now staring fixedly at her. Luz’s jaw was hanging open and she was coming very close to drooling, while her eyes were huge and shining with pure delight. Amity blushed, flattered by the obvious appreciation, and decided to use her new tail to gently stroke Luz’s cheek (making the Angel shudder with delight) before making her close her jaw.

“Are you still in there, Luz?” Amity asked with a cat-like smile.

Luz responded with a mumble that even Amity’s new hearing couldn’t make out. She gave Luz a confused (and adorable) tilt of the head, and Luz repeated herself a little louder. This time Amity made out; “… cat girl girlfriend…”

“Uh, Luz? What are you-?” Amity began, only for Luz to suddenly throw her arms in the air and scream to the heavens with a voice of pure elation; “I’VE GOT A CUTE WITCH CAT GIRL GIRLFRIEND!”

Amity blushed as Luz looked at her with the most radiant smile; “Oh my Titan, Amity! You look so… you’re totally… I can’t believe you’re… GAH! WORDS HARD! Can I touch, please?” Luz said quickly, eyes sparkling as she made child-like grabby hands in Amity’s direction.

With a giggle, Amity nodded and Luz immediately cupped her face with her hands, gently rubbing her cheeks (which were still normal skin) and then Amity’s new cat ears. They were incredibly soft, making Luz coo happily as she pet them, while Amity began to purr and the wonderful feeling. Her tail swished happily, and Stringbean coiled around the end of it to rub against Amity’s fur, whilst Luz moved to gently raking her fingernails through Amity’s hair, which was now the same texture as her fur. Luz then pulled Amity right against her body and felt the fur of her arms and legs and tail, loving every second of it.

“What ever did I do to deserve someone like you, Amity? How can one person be so beautiful inside and out?” Luz breathed, staring into Amity’s now-azure eyes.

“Stealing my lines are we, Batata? Because I’m pretty sure that’s what I’m supposed to say.” Amity flirted.

“Are you still insisting you’re the cool one and I’m the cute one? Because I’m an awesome Seraphim while you’re an adorable cat girl!” Luz smirked.

Amity gave a husky chuckle and gently grabbed Luz’s chin; “Oh Batata… you’re right that I am like a cat now… and I’ve got a very tasty little dove in my claws. If you don’t finally accept that you’re the cute one, then I’ll have no choice but to prove it once and for all.”

“N-Never!” Luz said, stuttering slightly as her face was aflame. Amity just smirked wider and pulled her in for a kiss, only for Raguel to suddenly attack them. He’d used their distraction to turn Polaris back into staff mode and spin him around to create a huge spell circle, from which he fired a monstrously large Midas Beam directly at them.

Unfortunately, the girls were not happy at having their moment interrupted, and both pointed their hands towards the beam.

“GET LOST!” they roared together, firing monstrously large beams of their own, made of pure light magic. Luz’s golden light and Amity’s pink light blended together into a single massive beam that completely swallowed Raguel’s spell and blasted towards him, forcing him to turn himself into gold to defend himself, since the beam was too large and too fast to dodge in time. When the beam faded, Raguel’s golden statue form was revealed to have taken some hefty surface damage, and when he turned himself back into flesh, that damage translated to some rather bad burns.

“I-I’ve never seen light magic so potent! But I won’t be outdone!” Raguel declared. He tossed Polaris into the air and once again coated him in gold, created a massive golden bear for the girls to deal with.

Luz prepared to cast a spell at it, but Amity just smiled and held out an arm to stop her; “Leave this one to me, Batata!”

“All yours, Hermosa!” Luz agreed, stopping her spell and stepping back with Stringbean as Amity grinned up at Polaris’ giant form. She then began to fly through the air as if she had wings; her Palisman’s ability to fly as a staff also transferring to their fused form. With her cat-like nimbleness, Amity easily danced and dodged around Polaris’ attempted paw strikes until she was right in front of his nose. She drew a spell circle that left a strange pink spot right on the tip of the Palisman’s giant golden nose, though it didn’t appear to do anything else. Polaris then went to swat her again, but Raguel prevented her from dodging by firing several regular light beams in the directions she could dodge in, leading to her being smashed into the top of the Pillar.

“AMITY!” Luz cried out in horror, only to be silenced when all she saw at the impact zone was a large splatter of Homunculus Slime. It reformed itself into Amity’s shape, before returning to flesh and revealing a smirking Amity. Since she had so much more control of her magic in this form, and her Homunculus Magic was even more compatible with her than Abomination Magic, she had fully mastered the transformation spell, allowing her to transform her body into slime with barely a thought, just like Darius could.

“Now that was rather rude of you, Raguel.” Amity said with a Cheshire grin; “But it’s okay, I did what I wanted. Thank you for giving me so much fine material to work with, so I can really stretch my new magic’s limits!”

Raguel narrowed his eyes on her when Amity suddenly snapped her fingers and caused the pink spot on Polaris’ nose to spread until the entire golden coating of the Palisman was now pink. Amity had completely transformed the pure gold (in reality, Aurum) into her new homunculus goo, meaning not only was Polaris now trapped in her coating, but she also had a huge amount of slime to use while using only a fraction of the magic!

“Let’s see how you like this!” Amity declared, drawing spell circles with both hands and her tail, which caused the homunculus goo to split apart and transform into a whopping 50 homunculi soldiers. They were different from abominations, appearing to instead be slime golems of Luz (though without her wings), and with no visible mouths. Their eyes were also gold with white pupils and irises instead of black with green ones, like an abomination.

Immediately, the homunculi silently swarmed towards Raguel, who summoned Polaris back to him in staff form and began ploughing through the homunculi as they turned their arms into swords and sliced at him. He fired Midas Beams to turn them into gold, but Amity turned them back immediately, so he stopped wasting his magic and switched to his purified water. He created a series of seven large orbs of water that orbited in the air around him, which he could manipulate to create water whips and jets to sweep away the homunculi while also taking precision shots at a few of them. Amity saw this and mimicked him, creating some hovering orbs of homunculi slime to create her own whips and sniping jets, as well as sticky tendrils and sharp spikes, all of which forced Raguel into a dodging frenzy that left him virtually unable to attack back. The homunculi slowly began to overwhelm him, and when Raguel tried to take to the air, his ankles were caught by slime tendrils and he was dragged back down.

The combination of overwhelming damage, inability to use his preferred form of magic, and the damage he’d already taken to both his health and stamina thanks to Luz began to wear Raguel down, and he grew desperate.

“Enough!” he roared, releasing an omnidirectional blast of golden light that turned the entire rooftop of the Pillar to gold, including Amity and all the homunculi. Luz blocked it with a crystal barrier (though the barrier turned to gold as well, forcing her to melt her way out), and emerged to see Raguel panting hard. This only grew worse when Amity’s golden self suddenly shifted into homunculus slime and then back to flesh, completely nullifying Raguel’s spell on her.

“I’ll admit… I underestimated you two… an inexperienced Seraphim and a young Witch with never before seen powers… but for the sake of our paradise and all our comrades who died without seeing it come to fruition, I will defeat you both!” Raguel declared, launching himself high above the pillar. He draw the largest spell circle he could with Polaris, then held the Palisman in front of him as his wings stretched out until the tip of each one was touching the circle. His own wings transformed into gold, and suddenly all the gold on the rooftop melted and rose up into the sky and joined with Raguel’s wings, causing them to grow larger and larger and gain more feathers, until the entire sky above Bonesborough was replaced by the golden wings.

He then thrust his hand out towards Luz and Amity, who found themselves stood on the badly damaged roof of the Union Pillar, now that the gold parts had been stripped away. Raguel’s Halo then appeared in front of his hand like a spell circle, making Luz’s eyes widen.

“I-Is he using his halo as a spell circle!?” she exclaimed. As far as Luz knew, a halo was just a fancy symbol of a Seraphim’s rank! She’d never heard of it being used for a spell!

Raguel stared down at Luz and Amity with a grim expression; “This is the final resort of a Seraphim; the Seraphic Art. By casting a spell using one’s own halo as a spell circle, a Seraphim can pour every drop of their magic into a single spell that carries their will. While my magic will regenerate fast enough to prevent me from dying from a lack of it, this spell will still end this battle for me… but it will end it for all of you too! My Seraphic Art will turn the entire town of Bonesborough into gold, right down to your very souls! Even you won’t be able to stop this, Amity Blight.”

Amity grit her teeth as Luz yelled up in horror; “You’d go that far!?”

“I am trying to build paradise, Luz! For the sake of all my comrades who died before reaching this point, I cannot allow myself to lose! But I know you feel the same… so there is only one way to decide which of us is right! I will unleash everything on you, and you will unleash everything on me! Come, Luz Noceda-Clawthorne! Come, Amity Blight! Show me the resolve that can stand against the Lord Divider!” Raguel bellowed.

Raguel’s sky-covering wings began to glow gold as they shrank back to their original size, with all the extra size channelling through his body to create a huge golden orb in front of his halo, preparing to fire it down on the girls. If it landed, then the entire city of Bonesborough would be petrified in gold and they would be helpless to stop Raguel from either keeping them prisoner until the Divider returned, or taking them to another Union Pillar for Division. Luz and Amity needed to stop it here and now!

“I’ll deflect it with my own Seraphic Art! I’ve just gotta use my halo as a spell circle, right? Now how do I actually do that…” Luz said, mumbling that last part as she reached back and touched the gold emblem floating behind her head.

Amity took Luz’s hand with a shake of her head; “No, Luz. You do that and you’ll be out of commission for a while too! We need you too much, not only for future fights but to give the people of Bonesborough hope! When this fight is over, they need to see you standing while Raguel is not!”

“Then how do we stop that!?” Luz pointed up at the orb in the sky, which was growing bigger by the moment, until it was large enough to encompass the rooftop of the Union Pillar.

“We’ll combine our strength! You alone should have more magic than him, being a Titan empowered Seraphim, and with my new and improved magic, I’m sure we can stop him! Now…” Amity turned to face Luz and offered her hand, “… may I have this dance?”

Remembering their time together at Grom, Luz blushed and smiled before taking Amity’s offered hand and being pulled down. Amity then whispered; “Follow your instincts. I trust you, you trust me; we’ll beat this guy together!”

“I’m with you, Amity.” Luz smiled, Stringbean hissing her own agreement from Luz’s shoulder.

Amity smiled and to the sound of a song only the two of them seemed to hear, she and Luz began to dance around the rooftop. It began with Luz spinning Amity around in a large circle, creating a golden spell circle, then Amity leading them as they stepped back and forth within the circle, their joined hands creating golden lines and marks as they went, until they had formed the light glyph with the circle. The light glyphs in Luz’s eye and on Amity’s chest glowed radiantly as the circle activated and pooled together into the form of a giant gold and pink orb. Amity then held Luz’s hand tightly and spun her out, whereupon Luz turned Stringbean back into a staff within her newly free hand. Luz held onto Stringbean by the very end of the staff as Amity spun her around, allowing Luz to draw an even larger spell circle, which shone in all the colours of the rainbow. Amity then pulled Luz in, making Luz spin towards her chest. The two girls then gripped Stringbean’s staff together and held it aloft, turning the giant spell circle into six smaller spheres of magic that orbited the giant one. They were coloured red, blue, green, yellow, silvery grey, and bronze-like orange, symbolising the remaining Elements in Luz’s repertoire (minus Darkness). Amity then twirled Luz once more so that they were facing each other again, and held in one another’s embrace as they both pointed Stringbean at the centre of the larger sphere they’d made first. Amity had used the twirl to draw a spell circle of her own with her heel, conjuring a huge amount of homunculus slime that coated the rooftop, and began to rise up at Amity’s will.

“You shouldn’t have underestimated us, Raguel!” Luz beamed, feeling their magic rising and melding together within their spells.

“For we are the Seraphim Luz!” Amity said next.

“And the Good Witch Amity!” Luz continued.

“Champions of Bonesborough!”

“Heroes of the Rebellion!”

“Children of the Human, Demon, and Divine Realms!”

“And Warriors of Peace!”

Raguel roared as he fired his giant golden orb down on the girls, making it look like the sun itself was falling on the town.

Amity’s homunculus slime rose up and formed into a giant homunculus in the shape of both Amity and Luz, seemingly fusing their features together into the form of a different woman, though it had the wings and halo of Luz and the ears and tail of Amity. This homunculus grabbed the girls’ orb of light, still orbited by the six smaller lights, and thrust it up towards the descending Seraphic Art.

“NOW EAT THIS, SUCKA!” the girls screamed together; “AZURA AND HECATE’S PRISMATIC LIGHT!”

The giant homunculus, intended to be Luz and Amity’s vision of a fused Azura (which looked like Luz in Amity’s mind) and Hecate (which looked like Amity in Luz’s mind) let out an echoing, feminine roar as it slammed the light orb against the incoming Seraphic Art, slowing it’s descent. The force of Raguel’s power did not stop completely though, slowly pushing the homunculus back… until the light of the six coloured orbs began to blend into the larger one, fusing into it until it was shining in all the colours of the rainbow. This united light then erupted forward as a might beam of magic, which pierced through the golden sun created by Raguel’s Seraphic Art, destroying it completely.

Raguel could do nothing but stare in shock as the prismatic light burst through his greatest spell and struck him head on. He felt no real pain as it hit him, his body in too much shock after the massive spell he’d used, but it dealt its damage all the same, leaving Raguel’s body severely battered and broken as it fell from the sky, no longer having the magic or strength to hold itself a loft. When the prismatic light faded away, the Homunculus caught Raguel’s falling form and laid him gently on the ground in front of its mistresses, before melting back into slime and being turned back into raw magic that Amity could absorb, allowing her to stay conscious and standing despite the huge drain she’d just experienced.

“I-I think we win.” Amity panted.

Luz, not much better off than her lover, giggled tiredly; “Yeah. You’re amazing, Amity.”

“We are amazing.” Amity countered, before her body suddenly glowed gold and Ghost popped out of her chest, turning Amity back to her normal witch form. At the same time, the light glyph faded from Luz’s eye and the line connecting it to the glyph on her chest faded away too. Both girls were too tired to maintain the connection, but they didn’t truly need it now anyway.

Smiling, the two girls shared a sweet kiss as Stringbean transformed into a Tiger Cub and gently carried the worn-out Ghost on her back, both of them purring happily. They then walked over to where Raguel had been laid, and where he still lay; exhausted, wounded, and unable to move. Polaris was beside him, whining as he nudged his partner’s face. The Palisman had been protected by Raguel at the last moment, so he was unhurt and growled at Amity and Luz as they approached.

“It’s over, big guy. We won’t hurt him any more, so let’s not fight.” Luz said softly.

Polaris continued to growl, but stopped when Raguel sighed; “It is okay, Polaris. We gave it all we had, and we lost. A Titan-empowered Seraphim and a Titan-empowered Witch… a combination like that was beyond me.”

Luz knelt beside him; “It’s over, Raguel. I’ll be returning Bonesborough to its people, and turning you over to the Seraphim. You won’t be able to hurt anyone any more.”

“Hurting people was never what I wanted… though I supposed it’s hard to justify what I’ve done to one of my would-be victims… it’s hard to justify it to myself. I was just so desperate to see the Lord Divider’s paradise come to fruition.” Raguel confessed, tears building in his eyes.

Luz and Amity looked at him with pity, and Luz had to ask; “Why do all this, Raguel? Why join the Divider?”

Raguel stared up at the sky, looking at the city of Gran Seraphia through the distortion; “You could never truly understand… your war with Belos was a tiny, petty thing. You never saw your people roasted alive and eaten by Demons. You never saw your people massacring entire villages of innocents, slaughtering Witches and Demons, men and women, children and the elderly… You never felt the anguish of your closest friend being butchered, or known the sickening feeling in your heart as you were ordered to murder a Demon Child that had never done anyone harm. But I have… I experienced all of that!”

The girls’ eyes widened; “Raguel…!” Amity whispered with horror.

Raguel began to cry; “I was born after the Division of the Arcane Realm, in the few millennia between the Divider’s ascension and his sealing. He had forbidden all contact between the Divine and Demon Realms, but he could not be everywhere at once, and Sephiroth business took him from the Divine Realm often, so it was ignored and more wars came. The war I fought in… I don’t even know what started it or why! All I know is that I was conscripted from Crest Charity to be Quartermaster for the Crest Union Army. I never saw a true battle against another army though… all I saw was attacks on Demon Settlements, where we were ordered to give no quarter. There were to be no survivors… not even the children were spared.”

“By the Titan!” Luz gasped.

“It was a living hell! I kept my hands clean solely by serving as a Quartermaster, but the weapons I procured were used to butcher the innocent! The food I supplied was eaten by murderers! And what few friends I made were slowly picked off by Demons and Witches, either out of a desire for revenge, to defend themselves, or to serve the same fervent hate that burned within my own people.” Raguel said, weakly lifting an arm to reach out to the sky above. “But one day, after suffering losses conquering a well-defended town, the Captain of our Company ordered even the support staff to pick up weapons and prepare spells for the “clean up”. He ordered us to slaughter everyone… I was too scared to refuse, and marched into the town with a sword in my hand. The enemy soldiers were dead or had retreated; all that was left was innocents who couldn’t escape before we encircled the town… I half-heartedly chased some civilians around, letting them escape me easily, only to see them cut down by other Angels… people I considered friends. Within an hour, everyone was so caked in blood that I couldn’t tell who was an Angel and who was a Demon any more. But then it happened… I accidentally chased a child into an alleyway, with the Captain of our Company right behind me. He saw my sword was clean and stayed to make sure I bloodied it… but I refused, and he cut me across the back. A scar still lingers there to this day, and it is a mark I am immensely proud of.”

“A fellow Angel actually tried to kill you!?” Luz exclaimed. It was hard enough to believe the Union she knew had ever been capable of killing, but for them to try and kill one of their own… it was unfathomable!

“He did. But I was saved… by the Lord Divider! He descended from on high and divided everyone in the city, turning them into his loyal citizens of Paradise. He spared only me, complimenting me on my refusal to murder. He had me healed and told me of his plan for Paradise, and invited me to join the Wings of Rani. I watched as the Divided moved around the town, Angels and Demons that were bitter enemies mere hours ago now walking hand in hand as friends… I could not refuse the Lord Divider! I devoted myself to him fully! I swore I would not allow the Hell I had seen become reality again!” Raguel declared.

Luz and Amity exchanged looks of understanding. “I see… I can’t blame you for making that decision after what you’d seen.”

Raguel nodded stiffly as he lowered his arm; “I fought loyally for the Lord Divider, never killing. We would win without even shedding blood when possible. But Angels, Demons, Witches, and Titans all united against us. The Lord Divider was sealed and the Wings of Rani were broken up. I was a High Angel at the time, and like my fellows, I was given the choice of penance or reformation. I refused to renounce the Lord Divider and was given the Ultimate Sanction. But the Wings of Rani survived! Those who evaded capture infiltrated the free cities and the Union, building up their forces in the shadows. They manipulated things and even found their reformed members and had them raised by sympathetic allies, so they could rejoin the Wings of Rani once they grew up. I was one such Angel, and after growing to become an Arch-Angel, I was made Ophanim to Lord Jophiel just over 1000 years ago. From there, I ascended to the Seraphim, and when Lord Jophiel stepped down and became a Throne a few decades ago, I replaced him as Lord Seraphim of Crest Charity, all while ensuring the Wings of Rani were well-supplied in secret. Then one day four months ago, one of Lord Divider’s Knight Jars arrived with an enchanted orb that restored my memories lost during the Reformation. The magic of the Reformation is similar to the Lord Divider’s power of Division, stripping a person of their “time” just as Division strips other aspects, so he had long ago devised a way around it. I was blessed to finally return to his side!”

“And now it’s over. You’ve been exposed and the Union are investigating its ranks to drive out the spies. Your plans have failed, and we WILL stop the Divider.” Amity said, feeling pity for Raguel, but not enough to be swayed.

Raguel shook his head bitterly and looked at Luz; “And you, Luz? Will you forsake the Paradise we seek to create?”

“This isn’t Paradise, Raguel. It’s the Divider playing house with people’s lives. No different than when Samael turned people into puppets.” Luz argued.

“People were happy…!” Raguel retorted.

“Because you took away their ability to feel anything else! It’s not real happiness! It’s like making everyone intoxicated… it’s not a real feeling.” Luz said, barely keeping her voice even.

Raguel winced, and it became clear to both Luz and Amity that the man knew Luz was right. He closed his eyes; “Is a Fake Heaven so bad, when compared to a Real Hell?”

“Only if people choose it. If someone wants to be divided, then that’s their choice. But if you force it on people, then you’re just enslaving them to your will.” Amity answered.

Raguel went silent for a few moments, then asked; “How would you make a paradise, Luz?”

Luz shrugged; “I don’t know. I guess I’d try to find like-minded people and find a place to live. Do what I can to make them all happy and comfortable, and protect them.”

“That won’t make everyone happy.” Raguel replied.

“Nothing ever will.” Luz said with a sad smile.

Raguel actually chuckled; “True enough. I’ve lost, Luz. My feelings haven’t changed, but I can’t stand against you. Do what you think is right, just as I did. I leave the rest in your hands…”

With those final words, the exhausted Raguel finally passed out. Luz watched him sadly, then used her potioneer belt to whip up a simple healing potion for his wounds, and to conserve her magic. At the same time, she made a sleeping potion that she fed to a sullen but consenting Polaris, who soon fell asleep beside his master. Once the potions were administered, Luz examined Raguel’s body so she could bandage any wounds that hadn’t healed enough, and in the process she found a golden feather in his pocket. Luz could sense the Divider’s magic from it, making her wonder if it was some kind of keepsake of Raguel’s. Either way, she tucked it into her hair storage for now, deciding it might come in handy later. Once Raguel had been treated, Luz trapped him and Polaris inside a barrier bubble and floated him down into the Overseer’s office, while Amity and Ghost borrowed Stringbean to fly and conserve their strength.

With the Seraphim now safely tucked out of the way, Luz and Amity turned to look down at the battle in the streets below. It was fairly evenly matched; the Abomaton Knights and Angelic Knight Golems were stronger, but the people of Bonesborough outnumbered them and didn’t need to hold back to avoid hurting their foes. Bonesborough’s forces also had Darius and Alador helping out, as well as Vee who drained the Abomatons’ magic one by one.

“Let’s go down there and finish this! One more battle and Bonesborough is liberated!” Luz cheered.

“After you, Batata.” Amity smiled.

The two girls flew down into the middle of the battlefield, with Luz immediately petrifying three Abomaton Knights surrounding Principal Bump.

“Attention all Abomatons and Knight Golems! Your Overseer has been defeated and Raguel along with her! This town belongs to its people once again, so stand down!” Luz declared.

Her words were meant more as a rallying cry for the townspeople than a threat to the unfeeling knights, but to Luz’s immense surprise, the Abomatons actually obeyed her and began standing down. The Angel Knight Golems kept fighting, but they were more intelligent and less powerful so they were quickly crushed without the support of their Abomatons.

“W-What the heck!?” Luz exclaimed, landing beside Principal Bump; “The Abomatons actually listened to me! Did beating Raguel make me their new boss or something!?” Luz wondered.

Bump, a little exhausted, didn’t have an answer for her; “Your guess is as good as mine, but I am truly glad to see you and Amity safe again! Honestly Luz, you’re back for one day and we’re already free. You work fast!”

Luz beamed; “I wouldn’t have been able to win without Amity! Just wait until you see her new powers!”

At that moment, the group of Camila, Vee, Willow, Gus, Darius, Alador, Perry, and the Parks all rushed over to reunite with Luz and Amity. Camila and Vee were quick to hug Luz, while Alador did the same with Amity.

“Well done, Luz! Amity! You really saved us there!” Camila beamed.

“Indeed. I think Vee was starting to get very full.” Darius joked as he tussled Amity’s hair.

Vee, who did indeed look a little green in the face, nodded; “So many Abomatons… I don’t want to eat another one for as long as I live! Thanks for stopping them, guys.”

Luz beamed; “You’re welcome! Though I’m not sure how I did it…”

“That’s a good point. The Abomatons are only supposed to obey the Overseers, the Wings of Rani, and the Divider. Even Luz being another Angel and Seraphim shouldn’t have let her control them.” Alador said, tapping his chin.

“Did you happen to take something from Odalia’s office? Or perhaps Raguel?” Darius asked.

Luz’s eyes widened; “Oh! I did! I took this!” she pulled the Divider’s golden feather from her hair storage, “Do you think the Abomatons mistook me for the Divider because I had this?”

“No, but that feather is still why they obeyed you.” Alador said; “Golden feathers like that were given to the Overseers as symbols of their rank, and the Abomatons are programmed to obey whoever holds one. I wondered why Odalia didn’t seem to have one; Raguel must have taken it from her.”

“Gee, I wonder why…” Amity said sarcastically. “Speaking of Odalia, we still need to deal with her and Raguel. We can turn Raguel over to the Crest Union, but what do we do about Odalia?”

“We’ll have to find somewhere to imprison her until this is all over and she can be properly tried for her crimes.” Darius answered.

“Then let’s go get her now. We should also call King and the others to let them know we’re safe.” Willow said.

The others all agreed, and Camila added finding a place to rest for the night to their agenda; it wasn’t the evening yet, but the trip to the desert would take a while and Luz, Amity, and Vee were all exhausted. They also didn’t want to risk dealing with the Ash Moth with less than half their power. Leaving Principal Bump and the newly reunited members of the Bonesborough Council to deal with the clean up of the battle (Luz gave the Divider’s feather to Bump so he could control the Abomatons to help out and protect the town), the Parks and Perry Porter went to their homes with their children to pack some belongings for their trip to the desert, seeing as it was no longer safe for them outside the CATTs. That left the Nocedas, Blights, and Darius to fly back up to the Overseer’s office, leaving Malphas and the librarians to secure the rest of the building.

When they arrived, they found Odalia had regained consciousness and was wriggling in a suspicious manner against the edge of her office door, likely trying to cut herself free from Camila’s bandages. She froze upon seeing them, and then began wriggling even more frantically, before Darius grabbed her and tossed her further into the middle of the room. She landed with a groan, before Camila picked her up and forced her onto her knees.

“Hello, Odalia. It looks like it’s time we had a little talk.” Darius grinned coldly.

Odalia sneered at Darius; “You… you’re back to normal, aren’t you!? Your better self would never look at me like that!”

“My better self!? Of course you’d think a version of me brainwashed to obey you is my “better self”! Just how much of a monster are you, Odalia!?” Darius growled as Alador grabbed the woman’s Oracle Stone from her bolo tie and handed it to Amity.

“Here, you’re the only one we know who can be trusted with Odalia’s spirit.” Alador said.

Amity blinked, feeling something very strange from the Oracle Stone in her hand. It felt like the spirit was trying desperately to connect with her! Even the presence of Luz and Camila didn’t seem to deter them, which made Amity very curious. However before she could investigate, she was drawn out of her thoughts by her father speaking to her again.

“Do you have anything you want to say to Odalia? I’m not going to deal with her escape attempts and caustic tongue while looking for the rest of the CATTs, so I’ll be knocking her out. If you’ve got something to say, now is the time.”

With a nod, Amity slipped the new stone around her neck and approached Odalia, who glared hatefully at her in her restraints.

“Come to boast and brag and insult me too, have you Amity? I bet you’re really enjoying this! Seeing your own mother tied up and brutalised by that feathered freak’s mother! Everything was perfect before she showed up! You were perfect! You were on the high road to success! And you threw it away to be a… a… Angel’s little pet! You act like I’m so evil for trying to fix you, but she is no different! What did she promise you to make you change!?” Odalia demanded.

Luz scoffed; “Oh please, I didn’t promise her anything or brainwash her! I was just a good friend that supported her choices! Amity changed all on her own; she just needed to know she had someone in her corner to support her! I’m nothing like you, who treated her like a doll you could live vicariously through!”

Odalia looked ready to spit more hatred at Luz, but a fierce glare from Camila shut her mouth. Her attention was then drawn back to Amity, who stopped right in front of her. Amity looked her birth giver in the eye for what she felt would be the last time. She thought about what to say to her… what final cutting words she could deliver to truly hurt Odalia. She wanted to scream and shout and hurl back all the abuse Odalia had heaped on her. She wanted to slap the woman to Hell and back! Odalia deserved it! Amity deserved to give her that!

But as Amity looked at Luz’s loving expression, her father’s and Darius’ proud looks, and Camila’s and Vee’s supportive smiles, Amity’s anger faded. She would not forgive Odalia, but she was done letting the woman have any hold on her. It was time to let it go, and as Amity felt the sheer, joyous relief of Odalia’s shadow burning away from her life, Amity spoke calmly and serenely.

“You know the sad part about all this Odalia? It’s that you could have had everything you ever wanted, if you’d just been a good person.” Amity said, looking at the woman with disappointment. “If you had supported Dad in his grief instead of exploiting it. If you had courted him like a real lover and not tried to exploit him and his family. If you hadn’t come between Dad and his parents. If you’d treated the twins and I with genuine love. If you’d not sided with Belos… You’d have everything.”

Odalia stared at her in shock as Amity continued; “If you’d done all that, you and Dad would still be together, with the full support of your parents and his. Imagine how much more Blight Industries would have grown with Grandma’s help? And what Grandpa and your parents could have brought to the table! If you’d loved and cared for us, the twins and I would have moved the Titan himself for you! Heck, I’d do that for Camila and she’s not even the woman I consider to be my Mom! Plus you’d have had connections to the Leonis family through Emira and Viney, the Bonesborough Council through Edric and Jerbo, and the entire freaking Divine Realm through me and Luz! I just know Luz would have helped promote your business there if you’d been a good mother! And of course, you’d have been on the winning side of the rebellion, with all the wealth and prestige that would have bought.”

Amity shook her head with a sigh, and Odalia’s eyes widened as she appeared to be on the verge of a mental break down. All she managed to choke out was the same tired old phrase she’d said so many times; “I AM YOUR MOTHER!”

“No, you aren’t.” Amity said calmly, not rising to the woman’s anger. “You are the woman that gave birth to me, but you are not my mother. A mother cares for you, nurtures you, and loves you, and in my life, when I think of those things, one woman comes to mind before any other, and it certainly isn’t you.”

The face that came to Amity’s mind was pale, with mint green and grey eyes, and a soft smile. A face that came to Amity whenever she thought about who had guided her in life, even to the point of supporting her in decisions she hadn’t agreed with (at the time at least).

Smiling with a loving smile, Amity said; “My mother is Lilith Clawthorne. She is the only woman I will consider to be a mother to me… at least until the day I finally marry the love of my life.”

Luz blushed beautifully, while she, her Mami, Alador, and Darius all looked so proud. Meanwhile Odalia grew redder and redder, to the point she looked ready to burst a blood vessel. It was only made worse when Alador finally decided to give his own parting ways to his ex-wife.

“Odalia, there was a time where I truly did love you. I gave you the best years of my life, but nothing was ever enough for you! I wasn’t, the twins weren’t, Amity wasn’t… no matter how much money we made or business we did… no matter how high the Blight family rose; nothing was good enough for you!” Alador yelled. “Did you ever truly love any of us!?”

Strangely, Odalia actually looked a bit hurt by that statement, before she buried it in rage and yelled back; “Of course I did, fool! I am not some hussy willing to give my body to someone in return for power and wealth! I pursued you in school because my Oracle Magic predicted that I would find great success in a partnership with you! I planned it to be a business arrangement, but found you to be surprisingly cute, in an awkward sort of way. I actually started to like you, which is why I pursued a relationship! Do you have any idea how damned hard it was to do that!? My friends thought you were beneath me, you were still grieving your sister and pining after Darius, your parents hated me, and my parents were prudes that didn’t approve of dating before adulthood!”

That was a bit surprising to all of them, but it did make sense; Odalia was too proud to marry herself off like a broodmare when she could get what she wanted without such a commitment. It didn’t change Alador’s opinion though; if anything it made it worse!

“If you truly did love me and our children, why treat us like this!?” Alador roared.

“Because after all the work I put into our family, I deserved a return on the investment!” Odalia screamed.

“What nonsense is that!?” Darius snapped; “What, having a loving and successful family wasn’t enough for you!? Then again, I shouldn’t be surprised considering you framed your own parents as rebels when they got in your way!”

“They were going to disown me! They made us a laughing stock with their philanthropy, then threatened me for trying to save our family name! If everyone had just listened to me, they’d have been rich and powerful, Alador would have been happy, and our children would have wanted for nothing!” Odalia yelled.

“Yeah, except for love…” Vee muttered darkly.

“Shut it, you freak!” Odalia snapped.

Vee scowled, while Camila and Luz stepped forward with furious expressions; “Watch how you talk to my daughter, Puta! I won’t hesitate to break out some Logic and Reason again!”

“And don’t forget, I can petrify you just like Belos could! Talk that way about my sister again and you’ll spend the rest of time as a garden ornament!” Luz threatened, Stringbean hissing angrily from her shoulder.

Odalia recoiled in fear, but Vee pulled her Mama and Sister back, feeling happy that she had a family so quick to defend her even though she didn’t need them to right now. Odalia’s words were meaningless; Vee would let them bounce off her like the ineffectual little barbs that they were.

In all the excitement, Amity felt the Oracle Stone she’d taken from Odalia react again, to the point it actually moved, bouncing against Amity’s chest. The movement wasn’t missed by Odalia, who suddenly looked angry again.

“Even after all this time, that damned ghost is still causing trouble…” Odalia muttered.

“A ghost?” Amity repeated, looking down at the stone with confusion. In Oracle Magic, ghosts were the spirits of those who’d died, but still lingered in the world due to unresolved business and emotions anchoring their spirit to the mortal world. Those that lingered long enough to lose their memories of their past would eventually morph into the identical wraiths that most Oracles tamed and turned into their contracted or bound spirits. But while it was normal and acceptable to bind a wraith, since they no longer remembered what kept them in the mortal world and thus could not move on normally, it was considered a terrible taboo to bind a ghost. Such was only possible by forcibly stripping them of their memories and identity, effectively turning them into a wraith through unnatural means! It was a terribly cruel thing to do; could Odalia have done such a thing!? It seemed extreme…

… but then again, Odalia had already confessed to possessing both Alador and Darius, so turning a troublesome ghost into a spirit didn’t seem beyond her.

Amity suddenly froze, her already pale skin turning paler. She looked at the stone, then to Odalia with a look of growing horror. Odalia had a “special spirit” that was able to possess Darius. She’d also had one that could possess Alador in the past… Amity only knew of six spirits Odalia had possessed; Odd, the other spirit Amity had ended up stealing away and releasing, the three spirits that became the Chained Revenant, and the spirit in the stone Amity had just taken, so one of them had to be able to possess Alador.

In a flash, the light glyph appeared on Amity’s chest again and Ghost responded to Amity’s emotions and leapt into the marking, causing Amity to transform back into her Palisman Fusion form. Everyone except Luz gaped in surprise, but Amity paid them no mind and grabbed Odalia by the collar and lifted her into the air.

“The spirit that you used to possess Dad; is it this one!?” Amity demanded, holding the stone she’d just taken in front of Odalia’s face.

The woman suddenly looked afraid, before quickly schooling her expression and looking away, refusing to acknowledge Amity. As far as Amity was concerned though, that was proof that she was right. She threw Odalia to the ground again and looked at the stone in her hand with a haunted expression, making her extended family look at her with worry.

“Amity, what is it? Why does it matter that this spirit is the one that possessed us? Is there something special about it?” Alador asked. No one present besides Amity and Odalia really knew anything about Oracle Magic, so it was a mystery to them.

Amity began to pace as she answered; “In order for a spirit to possess someone against their will, they need to have high synchronicity with the victim. Synchronicity comes from two different things; an emotional bond or a biological bond.”

Everyone’s expressions darkened as the implications of that hit them, but Amity wasn’t done yet; “Odalia also called the spirit a “ghost”, meaning they’re probably the spirit of someone whose identity and will she stripped away.”

“That is heinous!” Camila exclaimed, already summoning her bat again for some justice.

But again, Amity wasn’t done; “Put all that together… a ghost that caused Odalia trouble, and also has a strong emotional and/or biological connection to both Dad and Darius… who is the one departed person we know that can match that description!?”

Odalia began to crawl backwards in terror, wriggling frantically as understanding dawned on the faces of Luz, Darius, and especially Alador. Luz went pale while Darius’ expression warped into one of such rage and hatred that it was a miracle he didn’t kill Odalia with his look alone. But it was poor Alador who was hit the worst, looking like his entire world had just come crashing down.

“It can’t be… she wouldn’t go that far, right? Even Odalia can’t be that cruel! Please, tell me it isn’t so!” Alador begged, looking utterly heartbroken. If the spirit was who he thought it was, and had been suffering under Odalia’s yoke all this time…! He didn’t know what he’d do!

Camila and Vee looked confused, not knowing who they were talking about but also not wanting to speak up at the moment, seeing how high emotions were getting. Amity held the still bouncing Oracle Stone in the palm of her hand and answered her father; “I am not 100% sure… but if this spirit is who I think they are, then if I release them from the stone, break Odalia’s compact, and give them back their name… they’ll return to being a normal ghost, with all their memories.”

Alador grasped Amity’s furry hand (the topic of her transformation had been largely put aside in the wake of Odalia’s potential atrocities) and held it tightly. “If you’re wrong, then it’s not who we thought, and if you’re right then… then it’ll mean freeing her from Odalia. Please try, Amity. I’ll do anything.”

Amity squeezed her father’s hand; “You don’t even need to ask, Dad. I’ll do it… just be ready. Whatever the result, I don’t think we’ll like this.”

The others nodded and backed off a bit, with Vee moving over to Odalia and pulling her back too (taking the duty since she was the one who least wanted to beat the evil woman to a pulp). Once they’d cleared some space for her, Amity held out the Oracle Stone and used her magic to release the spirit inside. What emerged was a small Oracle Spirit, which indicated that the spirit wasn’t very powerful, and the little spirit immediately flew in a circle around Amity and then looked at Alador and Darius in turn. Their expression was forlorn and confused, as if they recognised them but didn’t know why. It was hard to tell though, as spectral purple stitches bound the spirit’s mouth shut; likely a part of the bindings Odalia had forced on them.

Amity then held the stone out to the spirit and said: “As one who bears the same blood as one who has bound you, I offer you my blood as tribute and unbind you from her will!”

Using one of her new claws, Amity nicked the end of her pinky finger and dripped blood onto the Oracle Stone. It immediately turned black and crumbled to dust, and a series of previously invisible spectral chains appeared around the spirit, before they and the stitches on their mouth shattered like glass and faded away.

The spirit sighed with relief and opened their mouth to speak in a raspy voice; “Thank you… I smell you… your blood… the blood of that man… the soul of that other man… it all calls to me. But the light… it scares me.”

She said that while looking at Luz, who backed up a bit more; “I won’t exorcise you, Spirit. Neither will my mother; I swear it.”

That seemed to ease the spirit a little, and Amity spoke again; “Spirit, I believe I know your true name. Will you allow me to try and return it to you?”

The Spirit tilted their head, then nodded slowly; “My name… I don’t remember. But I will listen… your blood sings… the song is nostalgic.”

Taking that as a sign to go ahead, Amity shared one last look with Darius and her father. Both men nodded grimly, bracing themselves for the truth to be revealed. Amity then gulped and drew a spell circle around the spirit. With a final deep breath, Amity chanted.

“Nameless Spirit, with the loss of your name, you were cast into the shape of a wraith. By my magic and the return of your name, I restore what once was lost. May the memories of your life return to you, and your true visage be revealed… I name thee spirit: Amity Blight!”

Vee and Camila both gasped, suddenly realising who they all believed the spirit to be; Alador’s departed younger sister, for whom Amity was named. They had heard the story from Amity during her four month stay in the Human Realm, but she rarely spoke of it again so they hadn’t put the pieces together until now.

Upon the completion of Amity’s chant, her spell circle fused into the spirit and began to fill their body, slowly turning it into a mass of solid purple light, which then began to reshape itself, losing the silhouette of a wraith and shifting into the silhouette of a small girl. The instant Amity saw this, a tear slid down her face as she shook her head in disbelief.

“I-It’s working… my hunch was right!” Amity cried, having dearly hoped she was wrong.

The purple light began to fade, revealing the true form of the spirit, which had returned to being a ghost once more. The sight of the little ghost was heart-wrenching for Alador and Darius, and a total shock for Amity, Luz, Camila and Vee; as she looked exactly like a very young Amity, being about 5 or 6 years old in appearance. She was a total dead-wringer for a child Amity, looking just like the pictures of a young Amity that Luz had been shown by Alador and the twins, and that had been in some old pictures of Willow too; she had the same golden eyes, the same brown hair cut and styled in the same way, and even a very similar dress to the one that was favoured by a young Amity, only in white and lilac instead of black and dark purple. However like all spirits, she had a purple tinge to her appearance and was slightly translucent, whilst also floating in the air…

This was the sister of Alador; Amity Blight the First.

With the most heart-shattering cry anyone had heard from him since the death of the girl in front of him, Alador ran at Amity the First and tried to grab her, only for his hands to go right through her. Unlike a Wraith that could become corporeal at will, a ghost could not, at least under normal circ*mstances. Seeing this, Alador crumpled to his knees and began to sob.

“Ami! I-It really is you! Oh Titan, why!? Why did it have to be you!?” Alador cried. Darius rushed to kneel beside him and comfort him, while looking almost as emotionally destroyed.

“This is too cruel… how could Odalia do this!?” the taller man asked, horrified beyond measure.

Meanwhile Amity the First, or “Ami” as the others decided to think of her, just floated there whilst in tears herself, unable to touch her beloved big brother or the boy who had been like a big brother in every way that mattered.

“Al… Dee… I’m so sorry.” Ami whimpered; “I-I tried to talk to you after I died. I tried to make you both be friends again, and make Mama and Papa happy… but none of you could see me. I was too weak and little… I’ve always been too weak and little… all I could do was whisper to you and try to make you feel things. It took me years and years just to do that much! You were both almost grown up by the time I was strong enough to even become like this!”

Alador and Darius stared at her through tear-filled eyes; “Y-You were always watching us, weren’t you? There were times where I would feel better, and where I’d want to go and see Darius again as I grew up… but those feelings always went away whenever I was with her.” Alador whispered, spitting that last word with pure venom.

“I-I was the same. My guilt over my stupid excuses that day would fade, and I’d want to see Al again… that was you!” Darius gasped.

Ami nodded; “I was still too weak and small… I couldn’t make you see me. Even now, I can only be seen because Amity the Second is a super strong witch and feeding me her magic!” she briefly flashed a loving smile at her niece, “But while you two and Mama and Papa couldn’t see me… that woman could. She didn’t like me and said I was getting in the way! That Al wouldn’t want her if he became friends with Dee again. I kept trying to help anyway, but then she got mad…! She caught me and used her magic on me, trapping me in that stone! I forgot who I was, but I remembered you were both important to me.”

The little ghost then began to sniffle and cry, glowing tears spilling down her face; “I-I’m so sorry Al! Dee! S-She made me possess you! Made me seal away memories, made me force you to work, made me force you to look away when she was mean to Amity the Second and Edric and Emira… made me force you into that scary spell circle in the basem*nt of this big tower… I tried to resist, but I couldn’t do anything or even remember who you were!”

Alador and Darius both wished for nothing more but to reach out and embrace the girl, but as they instinctively tried and failed once again, their sorrow blended with their anger as their eyes turned to Odalia with the purest hatred.

“No, Ami. You’re not a fault; you tried to help us with our grief and our petty argument…” Alador said, slowly getting to his feet.

“This is all HER fault!” Darius growled, looking at Odalia, who looked terrified as she wriggled in place. She briefly tried to wriggle away, but Vee just grabbed her and yanked her back with a grim expression.

“I knew you were evil, Odalia! I’ve known it since I first laid eyes on that smug little face of yours! But this!? This is beyond anything else! You enslaved the soul of an innocent child and used her as a tool to control the people she loved!” Darius thundered as both his and Alador’s eyes flashed pink. It was rare for adults to have Bile Overloads, but when the emotions were extreme enough, it was still possible!

Alador and Amity didn’t say a single word to Odalia, both having had enough of wasting their breath on the waste of space. The only reason Amity hadn’t started overloading and going into a violent frenzy was because Ghost was still within her, helping her keep her cool. Camila and Vee both looked at Odalia like she was less than filth, while Luz couldn’t help but growl with fury over what had been done to her girlfriend’s family, with Stringbean hissing from her shoulder.

“That’s why Alador changed, isn’t it!?” Luz suddenly realised; “According to him, he was so excited to have kids so I always thought it was weird how he ended up being a neglectful workaholic! But it was you this whole time! You made him overwork himself by having Amity the First possess him! You forced her to make him ignore the abuse of his own children! You sealed away his memories!”

“And that’s how you made him forget what the sigils were really for after he confronted Belos about the Day of Unity!” Camila growled.

The others’ heads snapped towards the older Angel; “What!?” Darius yelled.

Camila nodded grimly; “She confessed it to me; she knew about the Draining Spell from the start, she just thought it would be used to empower the Coven Heads by stealing magic from their covens. Apparently Alador got curious about how the sigils worked, discovered their true purpose in his research, and confronted Belos. Odalia sealed his memories in the middle of the meeting, which is why Belos favoured her and Blight Industries.”

Everyone gaped at Camila, then slowly looked at Odalia, who had given up wriggling and now glared back at them all with hate and not a shred of remorse. Darius took a shaky step towards her, his entire body practically vibrating with the desire for violence.

“You’ve done so many evil things, all for your own power! You destroyed your own family! You ripped apart Alador’s! You enslaved the soul of his sister! You used her to make Alador your puppet! You abused your children! You willingly served an evil dictator, and to top everything else off, you actually knew about his evil plan the whole time!? Even if you didn’t know what the Draining Spell was actually for, you were still willing to let everyone else die for your own power!” Darius’ eyes glowed a solid pink now as he took on his abomination form; “You are unforgivable!”

Strangely, Odalia didn’t look afraid, just hateful and resigned. She wriggled a little closer to the wall, next to one of the decorative podiums that lined the room and had crystal balls atop them. As she bumped into it, she suddenly grinned.

“I’m not done yet!” Odalia yelled, suddenly ripping an arm free of the bandages Camila had bound her with. She then touched the podium before anyone could stop her, causing a purple ring to appear on the stone. The crystal ball atop it then began to glow, as did all the others around the room, triggering the defence system of Odalia’s office. Suddenly, spectral chains shot out of each crystal ball and bound every living thing in the office except for Odalia, meaning even Stringbean and the other Palismen were snagged in chains. Amity the First was bound in them too, spectral chains being able to capture spirits as easily as the living. The chains even tried to ensnare the unconscious Raguel and Polaris, though they couldn’t get through Luz’s Angelic Magic barrier.

With everyone bound, Odalia managed to pull herself free of the bandages, which appeared to have been mostly cut through. It became clear how she’d managed it when she finally stood up and revealed her knife; she must have crawled over to where it had fallen after she regained consciousness, and had been secretly sawing through the restraints every time she was wriggling!

The woman cackled as she looked at the captives; “Oh how the tables have turned! I may not be powerful, but I AM cunning!”

“Not cunning enough!” Amity snarled, using her own Oracle Magic to overpower Odalia’s and slip free of the chains. At the same time, Luz let out a cry of exertion as she released a wave of Angelic Magic that broke the chains on her, Stringbean, and Darius (though no one else, as Luz didn’t want the magic to hit Ami and exorcise her).

Odalia looked horrified to see three of her would-be prisoners escaping already, and rushed to hide behind Vee, holding the young Basilisk tightly to her chest while holding her blade against the poor girl’s throat. Seeing this made Camila roar with rage and her own Angelic Magic destroyed the chains on her, making Odalia back off in fear, dragging Vee with her.

“Stay back! If any of you make a move towards me, I’ll slit this little freak’s throat!” Odalia threatened.

“Don’t you dare, Odalia!” Camila roared; “You do that, and I’ll kill you myself!”

Odalia flinched at the Angelic Mother’s rage, but just pressed the knife harder against Vee’s throat, causing a tiny trickle of red blood to ooze out, and making Vee whimper.

Seeing this made Camila, Amity, and Darius all flinch back, while Alador and Ami were still trapped in chains, desperately trying to break free. However Luz narrowed her eyes and pointed Stringbean at Odalia.

“We’ve been in this spot before, Odalia. You threatened to cut my throat when we first met, and that was when I was just a regular Angel! Now I am a Seraphim with even greater healing powers! You slit my sister’s throat, I’ll wager anything that I’ll be able to heal her… but there will be no force in this universe that could heal what we’ll do to you in response!” Luz threatened.

In truth, Luz was bluffing; she’d been willing to make that gamble when it was her own life on the line, but not when it was Vee’s! She was hoping to terrify Odalia into giving up, and for a moment it looked like it would work; Odalia’s face became one of sheer terror, especially as she looked back and forth between the faces of everyone else in the room. All except Ami and Vee had an expression that promised unbearable pain to Odalia if she didn’t stop this now.

But Odalia refused to lose again!

“Everything was perfect!” Odalia began to rant, “I was building the life I deserved! The life of a noble! The life of a potential future Empress! If everyone had just done as I’d told them, the Blights and Vespans would have ruled the Isles! We could have supplanted Belos and the Divider, and become masters of every soul that stepped foot on this rotten carcass! But everyone just had to get in my way! My parents, the Blights, Darius, the Park Brat, and of course, that damned ghost! She was so weak that no one but an Oracle could even see her, yet she was still screwing up my plans! But I showed her! I showed all of them!” Odalia began to cackle insanely; “My parents fled the isles in disgrace! The idiot Blights believed they’d disowned each other! Darius thought his one-time best friend was nothing but a hack! The Park Brat was forever cut out of my daughter’s life, and I was able to begin moulding Amity into my proper successor! And I turned that insufferable, whining little spirit into a useful tool! It was all going perfectly!”

Odalia then glared at Luz with pure disdain; “Until you! You were the one person I couldn’t deal with! The one person I couldn’t threaten or outmanoeuvre! The moment you got involved, everything began to fall apart! My daughter started rebelling, and she and the twins were suddenly helping each other! Then you got Park back into Amity’s life, and blackmailed me, while having the Emperor’s protection so I couldn’t even kill you! Because of you, Alador turned on me too! This ALL started because of you! You took everything from me!”

Luz narrowed her eyes angrily, but then gasped as Odalia gained an insane glint to her eye; “Even now, I can’t beat you… but I can hurt you! You took my family from me, so I’ll take yours from you!”

In that instant, everyone knew what was going to happen. Odalia had realised she could never win, but she could at least get off a devastating parting shot. Vee, realising she may very well be about to die, decided not to go down whimpering for her life, and shape shifted into a copy of Amity the First to try and use her smaller body to wiggle free. Odalia’s grip was tight enough that she couldn’t escape completely like this, but it did cause Odalia to be a bit more exposed. The foul woman’s blade went back to Vee’s throat as everyone acted at once. Luz fired a bronze, petrifying beam in hopes of petrifying both of them, but Odalia’s and Vee’s struggle meant the beam’s trajectory was off. Camila similarly shot a light beam at Odalia’s wrist, hoping to make her drop the knife, but again the struggling meant she’d missed by a hair, instead hitting Odalia’s shoulder, which failed to have much of an effect since it wasn’t the side that was holding Vee. Lastly, Amity (the only one left with a clear shot) aimed at the woman’s throat and fired her own beam of pink light. With Ghost’s calm and focus helping her keep a cool head, Amity had been able to account for Odalia’s struggling and hit her mark.

A beam of pink light pierced straight through Odalia’s throat, burning a hole there and causing the woman to begin choking on her own blood. The evil woman lost the strength to hold Vee, who managed to wriggle free with a small cut to the side of her neck and the palms of her hands, which had been from grabbing the knife. Vee was immediately scooped up by her family, who began healing her as she returned to her true form, while Odalia fell to her hands and knees and gripped her throat, gasping for air. With the light beam having cauterised the wound, there would be no way for Luz and Camila to heal Odalia’s throat in time to save her life (not that either were willing to right now).

This left Amity staring in shock as the woman that had given birth to her writhed on the floor, slowly dying from a wound she’d given her. Amity’s hands shook and Odalia reached for her with a look of pain and hatred, unable to speak with the hole in her throat. However, it was not this wound that would kill Odalia, as Darius suddenly conjured a blade of abomination slime and plunged it into Odalia’s heart.

“This is more than you deserve, you hateful bitch! I’m only doing this to spare Amity the burden of your life on her conscience, otherwise I’d let you die slowly!” Darius whispered viciously into the woman’s ear.

With that, Darius yanked out his blade and Odalia finally fell still; a miserable and painful end to the life of a woman who’d caused little but pain.

A strange silence filled the room after that, with no one entirely sure what to do or say. Odalia was dead, Vee had been easily healed up, and everyone was a little bit stunned. Luz and Camila barely spared Odalia a single glance after what she’d just tried to pull, instead double checking that Vee was okay (she was, just a bit shaken). Camila then cast a tiny blessing on Odalia’s corpse to ensure her spirit passed on to the afterlife, while Luz silently broke the spectral chains binding Alador, Ami, and the Palismen Abette and Moustrosity. The Noceda family then stepped back as the Blights (including Darius), processed what had just happened.

It had all happened so fast, and there were some powerful emotions filling the men. Darius felt satisfied that the woman who’d hurt his favourite people so much was finally dead, and he’d gotten to be the one to stick the blade into her heart. He felt a tiny bit of guilt too; ending a life was not an easy thing for someone with a fundamentally good heart, but since he’d saved Amity from taking that burden, he was proud of himself. Alador felt a huge wave of relief, as well as a bit of grief too; he had loved Odalia once, and while all those happy memories were now tainted by the knowledge of what she’d done to him and his sister, the emotions were still there, leaving him conflicted. Amity the First was openly relieved; being dead herself, seeing death didn’t really faze her, and she was just glad her big brothers and niece were all safe from the mean lady that had treated them all so badly.

As for Amity the Second… her emotions were confusing even to her. She released her transformation, causing Ghost to emerge from her chest and look up at Amity with curiosity, while Luz moved to embrace the girl.

“Amity? Are you okay?” Luz asked softly.

“Honestly…? I barely feel anything.” Amity replied truthfully. “I’m relieved that Darius was the one to finish her off, so my spell wasn’t what killed her, but beyond that… I don’t feel anything.” she looked at Odalia’s corpse and felt neither glee nor pity. It wasn’t numbness either, it was just… nothing. Odalia’s death didn’t please her, soothe her, or sadden her… it evoked no emotions at all.

Luz smiled and kissed Amity’s cheek; “Then I guess that’s proof that you truly did shake off the shadow she’s cast over your life.”

Amity nodded slowly, then turned to Vee; “Are you okay, Vee?”

“Oh yeah, I’m fine. It was a little scary, but I knew you guys would save me. It sucks that she called Luz’s bluff though; that knife stung!” Vee said, rubbing her throat now that she was back in her normal form. “Thanks for the save though!”

Amity smiled; “It was nothing. I only had a shot because you struggled so well.” she then turned to Darius and her Dad; “Are you guys okay?”

Alador nodded slowly; “Yes, still just… processing. I can’t believe she did all these horrible things. Was she truly that desperate for wealth and power?”

“The woman was an evil, entitled psychopath, Al. I’ve seen plenty of nobles just like her; they’d sell their own children for power.” Darius said with a scowl; “I’m glad I ended her. My only regret is now we can’t give her a proper trial in which all the Isles can hear her crimes and see her brought to justice!”

“She was the foulest woman I’ve ever met; she’d have spent the rest of her life behind bars. You just saved yourself a lot of trouble and having to listen to her ranting.” Camila said, conjuring a body bag around Odalia’s corpse.

Ami just huffed; “She was a mean, bad lady who was horrible to my family! I’m glad she’s gone!” she said, before blowing a raspberry at the covered woman.

That drew everyone’s attention back to the ghost, who suddenly began to glow as little particles of magic began to emerge from her spectral body and disappear. The girl looked at herself with confusion, then smiled sadly as the others (sans Amity the Second) looked on in confusion.

“Ami! What’s happening!?” Alador cried.

“I feel… good. Really good… and sleepy. I feel like I want to go home.” Ami answered.

“We’ll take you home. Your old house in Latissa doesn’t belong to the Blights any more, but they have a new home. We can take you there, and you can reunite with your parents! And you can meet the twins too, once we find them all.” Darius smiled.

Ami shook her head; “I don’t think I can… I’m going away…”

Sure enough, more of the magic particles were coming off her, and now her feet had begun to disintegrate completely into those particles.

“Going away!? Amity, what’s going on!? Where is she going!?” Alador asked his daughter.

Amity smiled sadly; “She’s moving on, Dad. The unfinished business that bound her to the living world is now done.”

“What!?” Alador cried, looking back at his sister.

Ami nodded; “I was sad… I was sad that my big brother was upset and lonely. I was sad that you and Dee blamed yourselves, and your friendship broke up. Then I was sad because that mean woman was controlling you and my nieces and nephew. But the mean woman is gone, and you and Dee are friends again! You love each other again, like you were always supposed to! I can feel it! Now I’m not sad any more! But I can’t stay here if I’m not sad…”

“No unfinished business, no ties to keep the spirits of the dead from lingering in the living world. She’s finally passing on to the afterlife.” Amity explained.

Alador and Darius both looked conflicted; on the one hand, it was a good thing that Ami was finally at peace, but on the other hand, they’d only just reunited with her! They had so much they wanted to say to her!

“I-I’m not ready for you to go again!” Alador cried, tears streaming down his face.

Ami gave him a sad smile; “I’m sorry Al. But I’ve gotta go… I should have gone away a long time ago. But we’ll see each other again one day. You’ve just got to live a really long life first. You and Dee better live to be 100! I’ll be mad if you come see me too fast! Until then, I’ll wait for you both with Granny, Grandpa, and Pop-Pop. It’ll be nice to see them again.”

Alador grimaced, but Amity and Darius both grabbed his hands; there was no delaying the inevitable, and keeping a spirit in the living realm once their business was concluded would only drive them insane after a while… it was best to let Ami go.

However, Luz hated to see Ami leave without even being able to give her beloved brothers and niece a hug, so asked Amity; “Hermosa, is it possible for Ami to linger just a little longer if she possesses someone?”

Amity blinked, then nodded; “Yes. You wouldn’t need to worry about synchronicity either if the host consents. But you can’t do that, Luz; your magic would exorcise her immediately. She isn’t a Titan like Cassiopeia was.”

Luz just smiled and shook her head; “Not me.” she then turned to her little sister; “Vee. Could you lend Ami your body for a few minutes? You could take on her form and let them have a real goodbye.”

The Blights and Darius all looked at Vee, who agreed without a second thought. Her magic was similar to an Angel’s since she evolved with Angelic Magic, but it wasn’t quite the same, as she’d already discovered thanks to Amity and Lyra, so acting as a temporary host for Ami wouldn’t hurt either of them.

Stepping forward with a gentle pat on the head from her Mama and a grateful smile from her sister, Vee transformed into Ami’s form and offered her hand to the spirit. “Feel free to possess me. I’ll let you have control while you say goodbye.”

Ami beamed gratefully and took Vee’s hand, before entering her body and taking control, just as Odalia had forced her to do with her big brothers. There was no resistance or fight, just the feeling of slipping into Vee’s skin like slipping into a warm bath. For Vee, she felt her body move on it’s own and felt a flood of emotions that weren’t her own, but she also felt like she could force the feelings out if she wanted. She didn’t though, and allowed Ami to turn back to her family.

“Al! Dee!” she cried, leaping into her brother’s arms. She began to cry, but was still smiling.

Alador caught her and hugged her tightly, sobbing even as he laughed and spun his baby sister around; “Oh Ami! I never imagined I’d get to hold you again, or talk to you again! I hate Odalia for what she did, but I’m still grateful for this one chance!”

Darius joined the hug too, sandwiching Ami between him and Alador; “I feel the same, Ami. I’m so happy I can see you once more, and properly apologise.” he smiled, tears streaming down his face too. “I’m so sorry for trying to ease my guilt by blaming the accident on you. I never truly felt that way; I just didn’t want Al to hate me or himself.”

“It’s okay, Dee. It was my fault. You and Al and Mommy and Daddy ALL told me not to go into your lab. But I was dumb and wanted to copy you both! I played with a tool that was too big for me and it turned on, breaking a hole in some funny tank. Then there was a big boom and I was a ghost! I’m so sorry I made you all so sad!” Ami replied.

Alador shook his head; “No, Ami! You were just a little girl; you didn’t know any better! I should have remembered to turn on the security!”

“I should have too. We both made that mistake.” Darius added.

Ami pouted; “I was dumb, but I wasn’t that dumb! I knew I wasn’t supposed to go in there. I watched you both leave and snuck in when I saw the security wasn’t on. It’s my fault!”

“We still should have-!” Alador began, only for his daughter to cut him off.

“Enough!” Amity yelled, “You all made a mistake and did something you shouldn’t have. But at the end of the day, the entire tragedy was a horrible accident. Deciding who is at fault doesn’t matter! None of you blames anyone but yourselves, so just accept that no one person is to blame and move on!”

Ami, Alador, and Darius stared owlishly at Amity for a moment, before Ami whispered; “Scary… she’s just like Mommy.”

Alador and Darius chuckled; Amity’s annoyed expression and hands-on-hips pose really did look like Nelle whenever she scolded them all for being too rowdy. The three of them exchanged looks, then began to laugh as they were overcome by nostalgia and memories of happier times. Their laughter and tears blended together, and the three enjoyed what would be their final embrace… at least until it was time for Alador and Darius to leave this world too.

Eventually, the magic particles that had been leaking from Ami’s spectral form began to leak out of Vee’s body, as the possession had bought them a few minutes only. Seeing this, Ami turned to Luz; “Please tell this nice lady “thank you” from me. For helping me have this last moment with my family.”

“I will, but I suspect she already knows if your possession was anything like Cassiopeia’s.” Luz smiled, a little teary eyed from watching the reunion too, whilst being held in her Mami’s arms.

“I also want to thank you for loving my niece. Angels are scary for spirits, but I think you’re really nice. I was with Odalia for a long time, and if you hadn’t saved Amity from her, I’m sure my niece would have had a horrible fate too.” Ami said.

Luz smiled; “Amity saved herself; I just showed her it was possible. And don’t worry; I’ll take care of your precious niece.”

Ami giggled, then turned to said niece: “Amity, I’m really glad you were born. I’m proud that my name was carried on by such a wonderful person. If not for you, I might never have gotten my name and memories back! Please tell Edric and Emira that I love them too, and I’m proud of them as well!”

“I will. And thank you, Auntie Ami; I’m glad I was able to speak to you even once! I’ll be sure to keep making you proud!” Amity promised.

Next, Ami let go of Alador so she could turn and hug Darius instead; “I love you, Big Bro Dee! I’m really glad you and Al made up, and now you can be best friends again! And boyfriends too! You’re like a billion times better than the mean lady, so I know you’ll make him really happy!”

Darius smiled with tears in his eyes, then kissed Ami’s cheek; “I love you too, little sister. When I finally die one day, I’ll be sure to tell you all about the life we lived together. I hope you’re patient though, as I’m in no rush for that to happen!”

Ami giggled and nodded, then finally turned back to Alador, whom she hugged tightly and nuzzled against; “Big Bro Al, I love you lots and lots! I wish I could have grown up with you properly, and didn’t hurt you and Dee and Mommy and Daddy so badly. But I’m glad you stayed a nice person, even with that mean lady as your wife. Once I go away, all the memories she made me seal up should come back… I hope you’ll forgive me.”

“Ami, I’d forgive you for just about anything! You’re my adorable little sister! I love you too, and wish things had been different… but wishing won’t change the past. I’ll keep being the best man I can be, and honour your memory by caring for your nieces and nephew. I’ll make up for everything Odalia did with the Blight name. I promise!” Alador said determinedly, even as his eyes stung with tears.

“I know you will. You’re the best big brother in the world! I hope you and Dee are always happy together… and maybe make less weapons with your goo stuff! Your toys and gadgets were always way more fun! And please… tell Mommy and Daddy that I love them, and that I’m sorry for leaving them.” Ami requested tearfully.

Alador chuckled; “I’ll be sure to remember that! I think the world has enough weapons anyway! And I’ll tell Mom and Dad that I saw you, and that you love them. In return, you’ve got to give my love to Granny, Grandma, and Pop-Pop! And Gramps too, if you finally meet him on the other side.”

The particles of magic leaving Vee’s body emerged faster and faster, and with her final moments left in the living world, Ami beamed at her family; “I love you all! Stay safe, be happy, and save the world! I’ll cheer for you from the other side! I’ll see you again one day! I love you!”

“We love you too!” Alador, Darius, and Amity all cried together, smiling despite the tears in their eyes.

With those final words, a little ball of golden and purple light emerged from Vee’s chest and flew around the Blights and Darius, gently brushing against the men’s cheeks and Amity’s forehead, as if giving them all one final kiss, before the light flashed and disappeared, marking that Amity Blight the First had passed on to the afterlife, finally at peace.

Once she was gone, Alador and Darius both fully broke down, falling to their knees in each other’s arms, still cradling Vee (in the shape of Amity between them) as they sobbed. Amity also cried, with Luz pulling her into a hug and then Camila hugging both girls to her chest to comfort them. It took a while before the Blights and Darius fully composed themselves, but once they had cried all their tears, they wiped their eyes and smiled. Their family member was free now; it was a parting, true… but it was a happy one. They would meet her again one day, after living full lives of their own.

“Even when we pass on, we are still a part of the people whose lives we’ve touched.” Amity whispered, before looking Luz in the eye and touching her face; “I’ve got a much shorter life than you, Luz. Barring a horrible tragedy, you’re going to outlive me by a long time… but while I’m not ready to give up on finding a way to live longer so I can be with you for longer, I am willing to accept that so long as I can say I left a positive mark on your life, then I can pass on without regrets when that day comes.”

Luz held Amity’s hand against her own cheek, then leaned in and kissed her sweetly; “I will cherish every moment I spend with you, Amity. We still have a long, long time ahead of us, and I will keep cherishing it. No matter what happens in the future, I will never forget the love I have for you. Death is the end of life, not love.” Luz then grinned impishly; “And you can bet your butt I’ll still love you when you’ve got more wrinkles than Mom!”

Amity giggled and the two continued to hug, while Camila smiled and held her two eldest daughters (even if Amity wasn’t officially her daughter yet) a bit tighter. She was reminded of her own feelings for Manny and Michael, which still burned as strong as they had ever been.

Meanwhile, Alador and Darius eventually parted, getting back to their feet and letting go of Vee, who silently turned back into her true Basilisk form.

“You must be Luz’s little sister, Vee. I’m sorry we haven’t had a proper introduction yet.” Alador said with a smile; “Thank you for what you just did; it means more to us than you can ever know.”

Vee smiled; “It’s fine. You’re the Dad of my future Sister-in-Law after all! And her future Stepdad too from what Ami implied.”

Alador and Darius both blushed, with the latter snorting; “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves now. We still have a rebellion to win… again.”

Vee giggled, then added; “I could feel what she could… she really did love you both and your family so much. It’s the same way I feel for my Mama and Luz. And… and she was really happy.”

Alador gave a tearful smile, and Darius ruffled Vee’s hair; “You really are the sister of Luz and daughter of Cassiel. Don’t tell Treble, but you might just be my favourite Basilisk.”

Vee grinned; “My lips are sealed.”

After that, the Nocedas, Blights, and Darius came together again, all of them having questions. Luz wanted details of what happened while she fought Raguel, everyone wanted to know about Camila’s fight with Odalia and Vee’s mission in the basem*nt, and especially Amity’s transformation.

“What was that cat form? You merged with Ghost and had Luz’s light glyph on your chest!” Alador exclaimed.

“The same Luz who is now a Seraphim! We’ve missed a lot it seems!” Darius added.

Luz grinned; “Oh just you wait until you’ve heard about Amity’s new magic!”

Alador and Darius looked to Amity with interest, but she just smiled coyly; “I’ll tell all… later. Let’s tie up the loose ends in Bonesborough first. We need to make sure the town will be okay once we move on, and we need to drop off Raguel with the Seraphim, as well as meet up with Willow, Gus, and their parents.”

“I don’t see us making it to the desert before nightfall either, so we should also find a place to sleep for the night. And some food too; I want to get a proper meal into Vee’s stomach after all the Abomatons she ate today.” Camila added.

Vee seconded that, and since it had been so long since Darius had eaten Cassiel’s home-cooked food, he was eager to agree with it too. Plus, they also needed to deal with Odalia’s body.

After stuffing the body bag in the shadow world for the moment, Luz and the gang ransacked the Overseer’s office for anything that could be useful, but found very little… clearly Raguel hadn’t trusted Odalia enough to let her keep anything of more value. Once the office had been searched, they all descended back down to the library and met up with Willow, Gus, and their parents, as well as Principal Bump, Malphas, and the Bonesborough Council, bringing the slumbering Raguel along with them in his barrier.

Councilman Nelumbo was the only one not present, and the other Councillors had no idea where he or his family had been sent, since all of them had been divided for protesting the Wings of Rani and hadn’t asked questions when the Nelumbos had been sent away, meaning no one knew where Jerbo currently was, which was a bit of a downer. Still, Bump was confident the rebels hiding out in the desert would know more.

The gang also reported Odalia’s death and the circ*mstances around it, and unsurprisingly, no one mourned her. She’d burned every last bridge she had, and it was purely out of a respect for the dead that Malphas promised to see to her burial, taking her body so that it could be buried in the Vespan family crypt in the Bonesborough cemetery.

Following that, Luz and Amity decided to go alone to take Raguel back to the Divine Realm while the others stayed behind to help coordinate the defence of Bonesborough. The trip through the woods to the Portal Gate was short, and as soon as they passed through into the Divine Crossroads of Gran Seraphia, they had met an Arch-Angel from Crest Diligence that had been assigned to watch the gate and keep an eye out for Luz. He immediately called the Seraphim Council, and within 10 minutes, they arrived with a small army of Diligence Angels to take Raguel into custody.

“My my, you truly do work fast! It’s not even been a day yet!” Lord Barachiel grinned as Raguel was removed from the barrier and chained up, before being woken so he could walk on his own.

Luz grinned and threw an arm around Amity; “What can I say? He didn’t run far and I had some awesome back up.” she then turned serious; “I need to tell you some things. About why Raguel did what he did… it doesn’t excuse him, but it does explain things.”

Raguel looked at Luz oddly, but didn’t protest as the Seraphim Councillors gestured for Luz to tell her story, or rather, Raguel’s story. Upon hearing about why Raguel defected to the Wings of Rani and how he returned to the Divider’s service, they all frowned.

“I see. It seems that Raguel’s actions was another result of our bloody history… even 100,000 years of peace cannot wipe the blood from the Union’s hands.” Raphael said sadly, “Thank you for telling us this, Luz. Perhaps we can use this information to help us find a method of penance for Raguel that will allow us all some peace of mind. We can hardly reform him after all, even if he weren’t a Seraphim… not now that we know the Divider can restore the memories of the Reformed.”

Raguel scoffed; “Lock me away wherever you please, Raphael. I lost my battle with Luz and Amity, but I did not lose my faith in the Lord Divider! I will sit quietly in my cell until this war is over.”

He looked over at Luz; “Why did you choose to tell the Seraphim my history?” he asked. It wasn’t an angry or accusing question; just a curious one.

Luz replied; “It felt like the right thing to do. You’re not evil, and I felt like if the Seraphim understood you better, then maybe they could help you. Perhaps you can find a new kind of Paradise based on that? People just trying to understand and help each other.”

“That won’t work on everyone. Some people cannot be saved or reasoned with.” Raguel countered.

Considering what had happened with Odalia, Luz knew that very well. “I know. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t at least try.”

Raguel didn’t know what to make of that answer, so simply nodded his head and replied; “Would that include the Divider? Would you try to understand and help him?”

“Rasiel was my friend… I’d like to think he still is, somewhere deep down. I’ll find a way to get through to him. If I’ve managed to help others find better paths, then maybe I can do the same for him.” Luz grinned.

The Fallen Seraphim chuckled; “Then we shall see. Either you’ll win this war, or the Lord Divider will. Until then, I will wait and see what kind of world is created.”

The Seraphim signalled the Diligence Angels, who began to take Raguel away. However as he was being escorted off, Raguel suddenly had a thought and said; “Wait a moment, please. There is one more thing I would like to say.”

The Knights looked to their Seraphim leaders, who nodded to let him speak. Raguel turned and looked back at Amity for a moment and said; “Amity… that new magic you used, the one mixing Angelic Alchemy and Abomination Magic? If it really does work like my own Living Alchemy like I suspect it does, then it will have the effect of refreshing your cells. It’s how I healed when transforming. This has the side-effect of making them fresh and new, almost like a newborns… which means your ageing will be massively slowed down. Once you reach full maturity, I suspect continued use of this magic will keep you alive for a millennia, maybe even two.”

Amity’s eyes widened while Luz gasped. “Are you saying my new magic could really extend my life!?”

Raguel shrugged; “It’s possible. Living Alchemy isn’t something I’ve known a non-Angel to do. Be warned though; the soul cannot be rejuvenated through Alchemy and while it can sustain life for far longer than one’s flesh, there is still a limit. You remain mortal; don’t forget it.”

Amity nodded; “I won’t. Thank you, Raguel.”

The man just nodded and turned away, allowing himself to be escorted off to the penitentiary at the Patience Court. The remaining Seraphim told Luz and Amity to keep up the good work, then wished them luck and departed back to their duties, while the girls then returned to the Demon Realm and back to Bonesborough.

Upon arriving, they found that the townspeople had pretty much everything in order, with Bump commanding the Abomatons to help keep the Wings of Rani out should they need to. With Bonesborough now able to take care of itself for the time being, Luz and the gang decided to find a place to sleep for the night, and naturally the first place they thought off was the place Luz had called home for so long: the Owl House.

After saying their goodbyes, the group of Luz, Amity, Camila, Vee, Willow, Gus, Darius, Alador, Perry, and the Parks headed out of town towards the Owl House. When they arrived, they were surprised by what they found; the house looked to be in pristine condition! Aside from Hooty being absent from the front door, everything still looked the same as it had on the Day of Unity! Even the flowers in the pots outside had been cared for.

“So this is the Owl House. It’s a cosy looking place.” Camila commented as she walked towards it. She ended up bumping into an invisible barrier around it however, making her frown; “What is this?”

Luz reached out and touched the barrier; “This isn’t Mom or Hooty’s doing… the magic feels like the Divider. Did he seal this place off?”

“Can you open it up?” Vee asked.

Luz shrugged and cast a simple light beam to test the barrier’s power, and was shocked to find that it punched right through as if the barrier was just a soap bubble. However the barrier also regenerated immediately, and when the others tried the same thing, they found that while Luz, Amity, Willow, and Gus could all damage the barrier effortlessly, none of the others could, even when using the same spells!

In the end, Luz had to blast a large hole through the barrier then step inside and hold it open in order for the others to get through. “It’s like the Divider wanted to protect this place, but not from me and my friends. I’d wager King, Mom, and the rest of the Hexsquad could get through it too.”

“If the Divider did that, we should check the place carefully; he could have left traps for us.” Darius reasoned.

The gang decided to split up and explore the house and tower, which Luz also used as a chance to give Stringbean, Vee, and her Mami a proper tour. By the time they were done and reconvened in the living room to exchange stories of their day and experiences while separated, they had found only three things of interest.

“The Teleportation Circle on the tower roof is broken. We won’t be getting to Digale through that any time soon.” Amity told everyone.

“I’m pretty sure the Divider broke the one on the other side anyway. Unless we sail there and find a way through the Maelstrom Strait, we won’t be going back to the island at all.” Darius sighed.

Luz then piped up; “I think King and the others stopped here on their way to the desert. Some of King’s things are missing, including his favourite toy Francois. Also, this place is really clean… it doesn’t seem like it’s been abandoned for four months, and all of Mom’s clothes are gone too.”

That led into the final discovery, made by Gus; “I checked out Rasiel’s old room too; there’s nothing important in there, but it definitely looks like someone has been living there until recently. Lilith’s room was cleared of clothes too, so combine that with the barrier, and it sounds like the Divider has been living in the Owl House alone.”

That made everyone go quiet. The Divider had free reign of the entire Boiling Isles, including castles, manors, and the places his Wings of Rani had built… yet he chose to live in the Owl House by himself?

Luz couldn’t help but wonder aloud; “Rasiel… just how much of you is still inside the Divider? And how can we get you out?”

The answer to that would have to wait though, as everyone settled in for the evening. Tonight they would rest and exchange stories, and tomorrow they would reunite with the rebels! It was time to start taking back their homes!