The Angel of the Owl House - Chapter 61 - OwlHouseAngel (2025)

Chapter Text

After the events at the Laptela Necropolis, things slowed down significantly for the CATTs over a period of several days. They had lost quite a few of their allies during the distraction and Archives assault missions while Luz and the others were saving King at the Necropolis, so the CATTs were far more understaffed and trying to figure out their next move, as the Divider and his forces seemed to be stalling too. The Divider still didn’t know how Luz had known his plan to stash King with the Oracle Coven, and his current belief seemed to be that the CATTs had spies with each of the Covens, so he was now taking several days to “clean house” and ensure there were no spies… by mass dividing almost everyone left at the Coven Headquarters, Wings of Rani outposts, and Union Pillars. He spared those who swore they weren’t CATTs and weren’t feeding them intel, and it seemed Rasiel still had enough of a voice to convince his other self to be merciful, but the situation was still dire. The news of that had shaken the Boiling Isles a little, especially as the new Abomaton Paladins now roamed the Isles, replacing the old Abomaton Knights and Knight Golems, and even the Knight Jars, since the Paladins had little drone Abominations they could use for aerial scouting. The Wings of Rani were now exerting full control, and things on the expanded Isles were becoming tenser by the day.

On Zachael’s Landing, things had started off fairly well after the mission. They had held a memorial service for the Beasts and Oracles slain by the Titan Trappers, and they all raised a glass in toast to the brave CATTs and Angels that had thought hard and been captured by the Divider. The former Titan Trappers, choosing to rebrand themselves as the Titan Penitents, received a mixed reception from the others, but as they had sworn oaths to serve Luz and King, they had been ultimately accepted and given work assignments. Denasu and Rakusa were assigned to Hettie at the hospital, as a Herbalist and Healing Apprentice respectively, and Tarak and Galeh were both assigned to the Construction Crew, where their strength could be put to use. Lastly, Toruna was revealed to be quite skilled in cultivating plants and raising animals, so had been assigned to the farms. They had been given homes too, as had the Bat Queen and her children and Palisman Wards. The Bat Queen’s home was out in the more tropical woods of the island, a ways outside the actual city of Zachael’s Landing, since many of the Palismen were still not comfortable around people, especially after being attacked by the Mandragora and later by the Trappers. It was also at this point that Luz and the others learned that not ALL the Palismen that were kept at the Beast-Keeping HQ had been taken by the Titan Trappers, meaning they still needed to worry about rescuing the rest of them.

Samael and the rest of the Nexsquad (sans King) had also, predictably, ended up in a fair bit of trouble for their antics. Their parents and guardians (namely the Secunas, the Dryder Girls’ parents; the Drobuki couple, Camila, Eda, Raine, and the new addition of Lazuliel) had talked over how to handle them and come to a fair agreement. The children were told that their help truly had been appreciated and they really had helped them save King in the end, but that didn’t excuse their bad behaviour, so Emiliel, Simi, Asher, and Marama all ended up grounded for a full month; a long time for little kids. Samael was grounded for two weeks, since he had helped them with their scheme, and little Ramari had gotten away with only a mild scolding, since she hadn’t gone on the dangerous mission, but also hadn’t told the adults about it, letting them worry themselves sick. The kids all accepted the punishments… and ended up going to sleep that night in a giant owl pellet, as Hooty decided to give them his own punishment. The kids found this more fun than punishing though, and treated it like a sleepover in a weird smelling tent.

It had been a low-key and somewhat sombre end to the Saturday, as well as King’s 9th Birthday, though the little Titan refused to complain. But the next day, a Sunday, ended up being a surprise party to make it up to King! Luz and the Hexsquad had been secretly planning it while the parents were dealing with the Nexsquad, and after the kids had gone to bed, they’d filled Eda and the others in, leading to the creation of quite the party! King had woken up the day after his birthday with a strange atmosphere in the air, only to be told to go visit with his parents (he’d been too tired the night before) and let them know about his growth and Palisman partner, but when he’d stepped through the Portal Gate, he’d found the Portal Nexus on the other side decked out with party stuff, turning the place into a mini-festival platform! King had been blown away, as not only did he get to spend his Birthday with his whole family, but his friends were also given a one day reprieve from their grounding so they could play with him! The Portal to Zachael’s Landing remained open, so people could come and go (since the living still couldn’t reside in the In-Between for too long), and the party ended up being a huge success!

King was inundated with gifts, most of which were small tokens like sweets, handmade toys, and plushies. He’d even gotten presents from his parents (using Eda as their intermediary), and shockingly, the Seraphim Council had sent him a birthday card with a “We owe you one Birthday Wish of your choosing” message inside, which Camila said was a real promissory note for a favour from the Union. It seemed they still felt guilt towards him over arresting him.

King’s favourite presents ended up being the ones from his parents, his siblings, Amity, Matt, and Emiliel. His parents (including Eda) had originally gotten him a log of Palistrom Wood that Eda had gone out a few days ago and pilfered from her Dad’s grove, but with Prince in the picture, that was no longer necessary. They’d given it to him anyway though, and King had graciously (and with permission) re-gifted it to Samael, so he could eventually carve his own Palisman. The (somewhat) last minute replacement gift from Orion, Cassiopeia, and Eda had been a hand-written tome full of glyph combos that Orion and Cassiopeia knew, some of which had been passed down in their family lines since the time of Civa, Nilam, and Mancal; Rasiel’s old Titan friends. This included the Sealing Spell that kept Azazel captive (King and Samael had kindly included her in the party fun, even if she couldn’t leave her seal), and even the Advanced Version, which had been used to create the Black Tombs. King naturally treasured this, and was overjoyed to see that he had managed to discover some his parents’ combos all on his own!

The joint gift from Luz and Samael had been a pair of spells; the first was a simple animation spell, which permanently animated King’s favourite toy; Francois the Rabbit. With Samael’s help, they had created a very rudimentary artificial soul (which was just a marble enchanted with various control spells, the animation spell, and some simple intellect spells), allowing Francois to act independently to a certain degree, obey King’s commands, and move around like a person. The second spell was one cast on King’s tail; a modified version of Eda’s hair storage spell, allowing King to keep a virtually unlimited amount of stuff inside his tail, which now included his new tome of combos and his animated Francois! Building on Luz and Samael’s gift, Amity had crafted a special Homunculus that was stored inside a brass necklace worn by Francois; when King pressed a button on his controller (shaped like a disk and slotted easily onto the back of his medallion), the Homunculus would coat Francois and turn him into a modified Homunculus Warrior modelled loosely on the Titan Golems that existed on Titan Cradle Island. Thanks to the animation enchantments on Francois, this would allow the toy to defend King when needed, and it even had some glyph magic installed, and thanks to the shape changing abilities of Homunculi and Titan Golems, it could transform into various shapes, with Amity programming in a few Pokemon shapes since she knew King liked the series from their time in the Human Realm. Meanwhile Matt had made good on King’s request of his birthday and made him a Bowcaster that was stored in a bracelet on his right wrist. It had the usual light bolts and glyph lenses, but it also had an alt-mode that functioned like Simi’s slingshot, conjuring marbles into a mechanism designed to wrap them in any paper King slotted into the weapon, allowing him to write glyphs and glyph combos and plug them in.

Between his new lightning glyph, his Palisman Prince, his tome of new combos, his battle-ready Francois, AND his new Bowcaster, King’s battle capabilities had gone through the roof!

In keeping with that theme, Emiliel had gifted King a piece of angelic plate armour. It was a white breast plate that protected King’s upper torso (it would have protected his whole torso, but his growth made the armour a bit smaller on him now), and it had been made from a piece of Angelic armour given by the Union as part of the surplus supplies. Emiliel had ordered it customised and shaped for King, paying with the allowance she’d been saving up since her time with the Wings of Rani. One of the Construction Witches had customised it to fit King, and though he’d accepted her payment (which was far less than his labour normally cost), he secretly ended up giving Emiliel’s money back via Hooty, who snuck it into her piggy bank. The armour was fairly plan and simple, with a simple gold filigree around the edge, a gold disk on the centre, and black, high quality straps to keep it on him. The end result was a very nice breast plate, which made King feel warm and fuzzy; a feeling he shared with Emiliel when giving her a tight hug, the two children blushing adorably. The party had continued on until midnight, and then a new day began and the children were put to bed.

When everyone woke up the next day, Luz had immediately gone to the Divine Realm to ask if one of the Union’s Thrones would be willing to restore her halo like last time, but she was unfortunately rejected. It seemed that Laptela Necropolis was having consequences for the Divine Realm too, as the Titan Trappers there had been divided and were powering Cassiopeia’s Union Pillars, which allowed the Divider to send even MORE Distorted Shadows into Gran Seraphia, as well as the surrounding land. The increased attacks had forced the Union to be on high alert, with every Throne and Seraphim needed, leaving none willing or allowed to give up their Halo to restore Luz’s. Even Camael couldn’t, as he needed his halo to help with healing. That meant that for several days at least, Luz was benched as she awaited the natural return of her halo. The loss of her halo also meant Luz wasn’t strong enough to maintain an open connection via the glyphs, keeping her from using them to take on her Titan Form without putting a lot of stress on her body, as well as being unable to support the Fusions of her friends.

Luz and the fusions may have been benched, but the Hexsquad itself and the others were not, and so plans were made to try and counter the Divider and rescue their captured allies, while generally trying to delay the Divider by attacking the Union Pillars and trying to shut them down. This was met with mixed success, as Lyra was able to scry for their missing friends and the others were able to go out and rescue them… about half of the time. The other half of the time, the Abomaton Paladins and Wings of Rani were too fast and effective in countering them, preventing the rescues. After several days of this, in which Luz got plenty of rest, they had managed to rescue about a third of their captured friends, but the majority were still held captive, including Daniel the High Angel, who was being held on Rani’s Eden where there was no hope of reaching him without Luz’s help and without the Divider being elsewhere. In addition, all the Coven Headquarters that still existed were being heavily guarded, so plans to go there and catch Adrian Graye Vernworth, rescue the remaining Palismen, and stop the Abomaton Paladin’s production had all stalled too.

As a result of the CATTs not wanting to go on any major missions until Luz had her halo back and was fully functioning again, things had slowed to a crawl for an entire week, but the same could be said of the Divider, who was now splitting his time between trying to figure out what had allowed Luz to figure out his plans and find the missing parts of Cassiopeia to complete his set of Union Pillars. As Azazel was also still a CATTs prisoner, the Divider had fewer powerful allies able to scour the world for signs of Cassiopeia’s missing parts. A strange stalemate had formed within the Second War of Division, but to Luz and the CATTs, it felt like the calm before a VERY bad storm.

That all came to a head when a new week began, and Luz awoke fresh on Monday morning, the glow of a newly restored halo shining behind her head.

“Finally!” Luz practically sang as she leapt out of bed and danced around her bedroom, her new halo gleaming with golden light. Her magic still felt a little “stiff” for lack of a better word, but that had happened when her halo had been restored the first time, so Luz didn’t pay it any mind and instead dressed quickly and skipped out of the room to tell her family.

As usual, the only ones awake in the temporary Noceda-Clawthorne Home before Luz were Camila, Raine, and Lilith, and the trio were sat together as always, enjoying tea and chatting about whatever took their fancy before the less mature members of the household awoke. A cup of warm smilk was ready for Luz as she slid into her usual seat with a “Good morning!”

“Good morning, Sparks.” Raine greeted with a smile as Lilith reached over the table to pet Luz’s hair and Camila kissed her cheek.

“Did you sleep well, Mija?” she asked.

“I did! And looky here!” Luz grinned, pointing to her halo.

“Oh! It’s finally back! Wonderful!” Camila said happily.

“Does that mean today will be planning for a big mission?” Lilith asked eagerly. She wanted to get back out there and prove herself again after the Cocytux Island Mission went pear-shaped.

Luz nodded; “You got that right! We’ve got three targets, and I have a sinking feeling that the Divider isn’t gonna take much longer! I feel like things are coming to a head! Call it Angelic Intuition, but something big is gonna happen soon.”

Intuition was something no one with magic would risk ignoring, as it was often thought to be a form of magical precognition, similar to Oracle Magic. If Luz felt something big was going to happen, her family were ready to believe it was!

With that thought in their minds, Raine went to gently wake up Eda, while Camila did the same with Vee, King, and Samael, leaving Lilith and Luz to cook breakfast together. Luz did most of the work with a little magic, to try and break it in again after a week without it. By the time she was done, Eda wandered in with Raine, looking half-dead and grasping for the closest mug of Apple Blood she could get a hold of. Vee showed up next and immediately began helping set the table, sharing a hug with her sister before getting to work. The boys arrived right after, both bright-eyed and bushy-tailed (literally in King’s case). They cheered upon seeing Luz’s halo, while Eda sleepily hugged her daughter when she came over to put a plate of food in front of her. They all sat together to eat and chat and joke as a family, missing only Amity and the Clawthorne Grandparents to make it complete. Of course, Amity was at the Deamonne and Blight’s temporary home, and the Clawthorne Grandparents were still in the Divider’s clutches, though Luz had plans to change that very soon.

It was an extremely pleasant domestic scene, yet every single person at that table had a sinking feeling in their bellies… they didn’t think they’d be able to sit like this again until after the war was over. Perhaps that was why they chose to eat slowly and maximise the time they spent together.

Eventually, they couldn’t justify spending any longer on breakfast, so Vee and Samael did the dishes while Lilith took Eda to get dressed (Raine used to do it, but that tended to lead to a long wait as Eda teased them) and shortly thereafter, they left the house and headed to the Council Chambers, where they found Darius, Alador, and their children all waiting for them. The usual greetings were shared and everyone took their seat and chatted as the rest of the CATTs council arrived. This also included Bria, who while not a member of the council, was always present at meetings since she was now Hettie’s apprentice.

The sight of Bria made Luz smile; when first meeting her all those months ago in Bonesborough, she’d not liked the other girl at all, and what followed at the Looking Glass Graveyard had solidified that opinion, but ever since Matt had brought her back to the CATTs, Bria was like an entirely new girl!

She’d arrived with just the clothes on her back; a Glandus school uniform, but Hettie and Luna had managed to find her some new clothes by asking some of the female CATTs. Apparently Bria only had boys’ clothing at her old home, with a single hair clip that she wore in secret being the entirety of her female clothing, so she was kind of thrilled to have more feminine clothing, even if she was still used to male clothing, meaning she frequently combined the two to make some outfits that Luz adored. The one she was wearing right now had become Bria’s favourite; a pair of dark blue shorts, a white skirt, and a white blouse with dark blue sleeves, as well as a pair of white nurse’s shoes.

Her entire demeanour was different too; she was generally friendly and fairly nice, a little like the fake personality she’d shown when first meeting Luz, only dialled back so it wasn’t sickeningly sweet. She was also snarky and had a dry, sarcastic sense of humour that was similar to Boscha (with whom she got along quite well), but was easily flustered and tongue-tied, which Luz found adorable. She split her time between the Hospital with Hettie, and the Construction Workshops with Matt and Mason, being the apprentice of the former and unofficial apprentice of the latter two as well. Her skills as a healer were advancing fast, though Hettie said her bedside manner needed improving, as she would heal her patients but then berate them for being stupid if they’d gotten hurt in a reckless or preventable way. Her skills in Construction and Matt’s brand of inventing were less successful, but Mason still loved to have her around as “a cute looking girl that can throw a punch like her keeps the rest of the crew on their toes and minding their manners!”

Considering the Construction Coven members were almost all burly men and women with rough hands and rough attitudes, someone like Bria was definitely a bit outside the norm!

Then of course there was Matt, who had taken Bria out on a date during their week of low-stakes missions. It had apparently gone well, and the two were now officially dating; most people called them Matria, but a few people (namely Boscha, Gus, and Steve) were calling them Bratt as a bit of friendly teasing. Bria wasn’t in the Hexsquad (though she was considering transferring to Hexside when things had calmed down), but she hung out with them a lot as Matt’s girlfriend and they had started forming relationships with her. Amity and Bria commiserated over abusive parents trying to mould them, and becoming a bit of a brat in the process, though they didn’t have a lot else to talk about. Gus was completely welcoming of her and got her into Cosmic Frontier almost immediately, and while Bria wasn’t a super fan like the others, she did love it. Bria was initially unsure about Willow, but seeing the older girl’s physical training one day had made her extremely interested in joining her, and now they worked out in the mornings alongside Hettie. Boscha was the one she was closest to besides Matt, and they got along well (especially regarding Cosmic Frontier and Grudgby), though paradoxically, Skara was the one Bria was least comfortable with, as they really had nothing in common. They were friendly enough with each other, but they didn’t ever seek out each other’s company. Hunter got involved with her primarily through Cosmic Frontier and Willow, and he’d helped show her some more advanced fist and sword fighting skills, but otherwise they didn’t talk too much. Lyra was someone who became a strangely close friend to Bria, initially wanting to get close to her since it would give them both someone to talk to when Gus and Matt did their bro thing together. However it hadn’t taken them long to hit it off, with Lyra showing Bria how to be a bit more gentle and ladylike, while Bria in turn helped bridge the gap between Lyra and Hettie, since it was still awkward between them. Lyra had even succeeded in getting Bria interested in the Good Witch Azura, though as more of a casual fan.

Then of course, there was Luz. Bria had been terrified of the young Seraphim at first, especially since one of her first looks at her since the Graveyard had been Luz going all Titan mode out of anger over King. That fear soon became bewilderment, and eventually a kind of quiet respect, in part due to them both being healers.

Luz shook her head, moving her thoughts away from Bria as the rest of the CATTs Council came in and joined them. Lazuliel was also currently present; Lady Uriel of Crest Chastity had worked it out so that Lazuliel would spend the mornings in the Demon Realm with the CATTs’ child wards, and her evenings in the Divine Realm with her own responsibilities to the Cherubs there. She had come along to the meeting as a liaison between the CATTs and the Union, since many of their captured allies had been Union Soldiers helping them out, meaning the Union had even more of a reason to want to keep track of the attempts to save them.

As soon as everyone was sat down and ready, Luz smiled and began the meeting.

“Alright guys, as you can probably tell, I’ve got my halo back, which means I’m fully back online! Which also means our Palisman Fusions are back on line too!” Luz grinned.

“Which means we can now go tougher missions again!” Matt cheered; “I so want to get out there and really test my fusion’s powers!”

Darius smiled too; “This is good news. So we’ve got four potential missions; the first is the Red Galdorstone, which would delay the enemy by a good long time, but is also the toughest. The new facility built to house it is going to be hard to break into, and we can’t even scry unless we get Lyra onto the Cassiopeia Archipelago, which could be dangerous in and of itself.”

“Okay, so maybe we table that one. That leaves Rescuing the Palismen from the Beast-Keeping Coven Headquarters, shutting down the Abomaton Production at the Abomination Coven Headquarters, or capturing Adrian and getting the Illusionists to help us at the Illusion Coven Headquarters.” Luz said. “Lyra, have you uncovered any new intel?”

Lyra nodded; “I have. The Illusion Coven would be the easiest to breach, since the extra security is limited there. It’s low priority for the Divider to defend, as none of our friends are there and he doesn’t know we’re targetting leaders of the community to get the people to help us. Vernworth is also keeping a low profile apparently; I think he’s afraid of us and the Divider.”

Raine hummed; “Coven Heads who fight us have had a habit of dying recently, so no surprise there. What about the other two sites?”

“Both heavily guarded.” Lyra frowned; “The security at the Beast-Keeping Coven is lighter, since the beasts themselves are part of it, but we can bypass those easily with Eber and Hunter. The Abomination Coven is way worse though; security there is impossibly tight, and it’s swarming with Abomaton Paladins.”

“We figured the Abomination Coven would be difficult… though Darius and I do know the place like the backs of our hands, and I’m sure my parents are there. Getting them back would be a BIG help.” Alador said.

Eda was quick to counter; “And mine and Lily’s parents are with the Beast-Keepers. Same as Barcus’ parents. Getting them back would also mean bringing more beasties to our side and Dad being able to make Palismen for all our members who don’t have them! That’d be a huge buff for us.”

Lilith nodded in agreement with her sister, and for a moment it looked like the old “Who do we save?” debate was about to get rehashed, with Darius and Alador on one side, and Eda and Lilith on the other. A fair argument could be made for either side too, or even the Illusion Coven, since it was the only major Coven they didn’t have some influence over. Before it could get that far though, Lyra spoke up again.

“Actually, I think we might need to go for the Beast Keepers first.” she said, looking a little guilty towards her adoptive father.

Darius was surprised to hear her voting against him, but wasn’t about to get on her case about it, instead simply asking; “Why is that, Lyra?”

“W-Well I’ve been occasionally scrying on the Huntsman and his remaining Trappers. I can’t normally find the Huntsman since he’s either across the sea or beyond the sky, but sometimes his Undivided Trappers are still allowed to work on the Boiling Isles, and two of them are always stationed at the Beast-Keepers Coven. Ever since he found out what they did with the Palismen residing there, the Divider won’t let more than two be there, and they’re usually supervised. But I’ve managed to catch some of their conversations… I think the Huntsman plans to use the Divided Beast Keepers to replace the Trappers that were captured.” Lyra explained, looking nervous.

Hunter frowned; “How does he plan to do that? The Divider controls them, not him.”

“He DID have those mind control collars. If they work on Beast Demons and Palisman, it’s possible they work on Witches and Biped Demons too.” Edric pointed out.

That was a scary thought, but it also raised another question; “Why would he have waited so long? It’s been over a week since the disaster at the Necropolis.” Skara asked.

“Waiting for the heat to die down, perhaps?” Boscha suggested. “I imagine the Divider was watching him.”

“Could also be that he was recharging after blessing Bill.” Mason added.

Samael shook his head though, dismissing these; “It’s not that. It’s the moon. The Huntsman; Belial gets his power from the Moon, just like I now get mine from Eclipses and Black Holes now!”

“So it’s the Lunar Phase?” Osran hummed. “That makes sense; it’s a Full Moon tomorrow night. If he gets his power from the Moon, then that’ll be when he makes his move.”

Willow grinned; “He might even think he’s tough enough to try his lucky with fighting the Divider again! That’d be convenient! Whoever loses that fight, we win!”

“Don’t be so sure, Willow.” Camila chimed in, suddenly looking very concerned; “We only met the Huntsman in battle once and it didn’t go that well. And based on the Lunar Cycle, during the attack on Digale Island there was either a New Moon or Waning Crescent.”

Vee’s eyes widened along with the others; “Which means he was at his weakest!?”

“He IS supposedly the third strongest Archivist. I guess that title is no joke after all.” Luz commented. “So, we have no choice; we go to the Beast-Keeping Coven first, and protect the place from the Huntsman and Titan Trappers, while escaping with the Palismen!”

“Wait a second! I’m not totally sure there is going to be an attack! We might be reading too much into the chatter of a couple of bored Trappers!” Lyra cried. She didn’t want to send them all on a wild goose chase, especially since it meant not going where her Dad wanted to.

Luz just waved her off though; “I’m sure it’ll happen! And we can’t risk ignoring it on the off-chance it doesn’t! In fact, I already have an idea!”

“Lay it on us, Owlet!” Eda said, grinning in anticipation of finally going to rescue her parents.

“Okay, so Step One: Sneak into the Beast-Keeping HQ with help from Tia Eber.” Luz began, winking to the diminutive Coven Head, who winked back.

“Step Two: Find the Palismen and get them out via the Portal Door! Step Three: Deactivate the Union Pillar nearby! Step Four: Fight the Huntsman and the Trappers when they show up! Step Five: Escape through the Portal Door when the Divider shows up! We rescue the Palisman, we rescue some Beast-Keepers, and we leave before the Divider deals with the Huntsman!”

“That’s not a bad plan. We’d essentially only be trying to get the Divider to come running to stop the Huntsman. Feels kind of like dealing with a bully by goading them into doing something bad in front of a teacher.” Lilith mused.

“Eber agrees! Eber say we do it!” Eberwolf barked. “Eber knows the sneaky ways!”

“Which is perfect! But we’ll still need to deal with the heightened security, which means attacking nearby areas to bring it down like normal. Though that’s dangerous now too.” Raine pointed out.

Samael hopped up; “Nuh uh! I can make it work! I’ll make my Toy Soldiers, and turn enemies into Puppets too! Then I can attack a bunch of places on my own!”

“I can help too.” Matt agreed; “I can’t quite make an army of droids yet, but I HAVE been working on my epiphany from last week, when Camila kept chasing me back to bed. The Prototypes have worked so far, and all they need to be fully online is some blessings from you, Luz.”

“Okay, I’ll bite; what is this epiphany of yours?” Gus asked.

Matt, Steve, Katya, and the Supreme Dragon Trio all grinned; “Biomechanical Supreme Dragon Skeletons.”

A silence fell across the room, as Darius then said; “Elaborate.”

“Well, the main reason Steve and the others aren’t stronger is because they can’t access any Wellsprings to create the Dragon Skeletons for their Dragon Forms. Well I figured, why don’t we use samples of the five humours, as well as some Titan Bone to craft our own Skeletons that they can fuse with! So far, we’ve had success with small-scale ones; about half the size of the real Dragons, but through glyphs and the humour samples we took from Flora, we’ve managed to complete Dragon Transformations! And the only downside is that the glyphs need to be recharged with every use, and the smaller skeletons seem to only provide weaker Dragon Forms. Still stronger than the Priest Forms, but we still need more power.” Matt explained.

“Which is where my blessings come in, I take it.” Luz grinned; “If you can get full-sized ones up and running, then we’ll have five full Supreme Dragon level allies! Combine that with the six Palisman Fusions, me, Samael, and the Anti-Magic Trio, and we’ll have a ton of forces that should be able to stand up to the Abomaton Paladins! I’m on board! How fast do you think you can make full sized ones?”

“I’ve already completed Steve’s and Katya’s, and I’m halfway done with Zara’s. If the Construction Crew don’t mind pulling another all-nighter, I can have Zara’s, Godric’s, and Lars’ completed by tomorrow morning, then all we need is your blessings. Oh, and as a bonus; they’re compatible with the Alchemy Engine and Shrinking Solution in my Capsule Tech!” Matt grinned.

“Which means we can take our Dragon Bones with us anywhere we go!” Godric said excitedly.

“Great! So the Distraction Team will be the three Supreme Dragons and Samael’s Toy Soldiers! I wanna keep Steve and Katya here on Zachael’s Landing as emergency support. Sound good?” Luz asked.

She received nods from everyone, then said; “Okay! So aside from me and obviously Eber, Mom, Tia Lily, and Barcus, who wants to come on the Beast-Keeping Coven Mission?”

The three she’d named all smiled, happy to already be included. The first hands to rise were King and Raine, who obviously wanted to save their Grandparents and (essentially) In-Laws respectively. They were accepted immediately, and King would naturally be bringing along Prince as his Palisman and representative of the little guy’s mother, Chiro the Bat Queen. Immediately after that, Hunter raised his hand too and said; “I’ve been training hard as a Beast-Keeper with Aunt Eber! And I still need to unlock my fusion form too! So Flap and I should come along.”

Eber barked in approval, and Eda chuckled; “Sure thing! My parents should meet one of their new adopted grand-kids.”

Hunter smiled and Flapjack chirped happily, causing Willow to immediately volunteer to come too; “I should be there just in case. If something goes bad with Hunter’s heart, I’ll need to be there to fix it up!”

Lyra raised her hand to suggest coming along too, but Darius gently shook his head; “With Luz, King, the Clawthorne Sisters, Eber, Raine, Hunter, Willow, and Barcus going, we’ll be sending a full team of nine, even if King and Eber are both small. If we send any more, we risk it being harder to keep everyone together and able to evacuate.”

“But if I don’t go on missions too, how am I supposed to achieve my fusion with Waffles?” Lyra asked stubbornly, petting the Blue Jay on her shoulder; “Understanding the aspects of Darkness is gonna be hard, and the best bet I have is going out on missions, like everyone else!”

Osran put a hand on her free shoulder; “Not necessarily, dear one. I would feel better if you bonded with the glyph through meditation. Death is not something I want you to face.”

Luz shuddered; “Yeah, I’d listen to Osran on this one, Lyra. My own bonding was… rough. 0 out of 10, would NOT recommend.”

Lyra opened her mouth to argue, but found she couldn’t say anything convincing and so simply sighed and accepted it. She also understood that her scrying was helpful, since she was the only one who could do it against Angels, so her fellow CATTs were being cautious with her.

“Okay, so tomorrow we’ll go to the Beast-Keeping Coven HQ in the Right Hip. Everyone on the Rescue Team and Distraction Team should spend today getting read-”

Luz was interrupted by Lazuliel’s DCM suddenly going off, its chiming unusually loud. The woman winced and sheepishly apologised as she pulled it out; “Sorry! I work with noisy kids, so I tend to keep this thing on high volume! I’ll just…” Lazuliel looked at the mirror and gaped at the name that appeared on its surface.

“Z-Zirael!?” she exclaimed.

The CATTs all looked at her in shock; “Isn’t that the Arch-Angel that made the truce with us back during Plantamania?” Amity asked. That name had really caught on with the CATTs it seemed.

“That’s her. She was one of Tia Lazuli’s fellow Chastity Angels, until they wanted her to have a kid and her colleagues ostracised her for refusing. It drove her to join the Wings of Rani.” Luz reminded everyone.

Lazuli looked at the chiming mirror sadly; “Ziri and I used to be good friends… I tried to stop the others from judging her, but I didn’t have much success. I’d heard she joined the Divider after fleeing the Union, but I’d hoped she’d just left for the Free Cities.”

“So, are you going to answer it? See what she wants?” Camila asked.

Lazuli looked to Luz for permission and got a silent nod, so she stood and went over to the side of the room and turned so her back was against a bare wall, to ensure Zirael wouldn’t see anything. Skara and Severin then put up a one-way silencing barrier, allowing everyone to hear what Lazuliel and Zirael said, but preventing them from hearing the rest of them. Lazuliel then finally answered the call, and Zirael’s familiar face appeared on her mirror.

“Zirael… it’s been a while.” she greeted stiffly.

“It has. Hey Lazuliel… I guess you’ve heard that I’m with the Wings of Rani by now.” Zirael replied awkwardly.

“It might have come up. If you’re calling to try and recruit me, then you’re out of luck. The Union has its problems, but what you’re doing it just plain wrong. Luz, Cassiel, and I are going to fix it the right way, without resorting to brainwashing!” Lazuli scowled.

Zirael winced; “I-I believe you. I didn’t call to convince you to join the Divider…”

Lazuliel raised an eyebrow, while Luz and Amity exchanged curious looks. The Divider, not the Lord Divider?

“Than what DID you call me for?” Lazuli asked.

“I… I was hoping you could get me into contact with Lady Luciel. I know the Union is helping her, and you’re close to her mother Cassiel. I want to arrange a meeting with her urgently.” Zirael said, sounding very nervous. She was also looking around fearfully and now that Lazuli took a moment to notice it, she saw that Zirael was somewhere in a wooded area. What was going on?

Still, the CATTs were suspicious, so Lazuliel replied; “Why should I? So you can lure her into a trap for the Divider?”

“No! I promise, the Divider doesn’t even know I’m calling you! And he won’t if I can help it!” Zirael cried; “Please! I’ll meet Lady Luciel wherever she wants me to! I swear, it’ll just be me and one other Angel and we won’t try any funny business.”

Lazuliel blinked, then subtly looked up at Luz while making it look like she was staring off into the distance in thought. Luz mouthed “Ask her who the other Angel is.”, so Lazuliel did.

“The other Angel is a friend of mine, one you might know? Daniel; a High Angel that was in Crest Diligence until just a week ago, when he left the Union to join Lady Luciel in the Demon Realm. Hold on, I’ll put him on.” Zirael said, before disappearing from the mirror’s surface and letting Lazuli see more of her surroundings. She appeared to be in the Forearm Forest, though Lazuli wasn’t familiar enough with the Boiling Isles to know exactly where (she only knew of the Forearm Forest because she’d gone there with Cassiel and Chiro in the last week to recover Chiro’s buried wealth).

After a moment of fumbling and some quiet talking from the other side of the mirror, the face of Daniel soon appeared. He looked a little tired, and Lazuli got the impression he was depressed, but from what Luz had told her about him over the last week, that had been Luz’s impression too. The poor guy was already being added to Golsi’s Therapy List!

“Hey, Lazuliel. I don’t think we’ve ever really spoken, but I’ve seen you before and heard of you from Luz and Ziri.” Daniel said, smiling awkwardly.

“Likewise. You were one of the High Angels at Luz’s trial… sorry to hear that seeing that messed you up so badly.” Lazuli said sympathetically.

Daniel gave a half-hearted shrug; “It’s fine. It’s my own fault for not wising up sooner and doing something about it. But forget me for now; Ziri is being serious about wanting to talk to Luz. I know it sounds shady, but we can trust her; she saved me from being Divided after I was captured.”

Once again, Lazuliel’s eyes went to Luz, who in turn looked to the others and said; “What do you guys think?”

“It sounds legit, but it could still be a trap.” Willow said.

“I’ve got some Blabber Serum ready.” Boscha said, reaching into her pocket and pulling out a vial; “I say we send them to meet you in an isolated spot, then we drag ‘em into the shadows and dose them up! Just to be safe! Angels and the Divided supposedly won’t lie, but Raguel showed that the Divider’s Fanatics might still do it.”

“Boscha has a good point.” Severin said; “I recommend we go with her plan.”

Darius, Raine, Lilith, and Eda all nodded in agreement, which was enough for Luz. “Okay, Tia Lazuli. Tell Daniel and Zirael to meet us outside the Owl House and to come alone. Lyra, you’ll come with me; we’ll nab them through the shadows and scry to make sure they really are alone. Boscha, you come too, so you can dose them.”

The two girls happily agreed and Lazuliel, reading Luz’s lips, passed along the message, phrasing it as “I’ll tell Luz to meet you outside the Owl Lady’s home.”

She got two affirmative responses, and then thanks from them both before the call went dead. Once the call was over and the silencing barrier was dropped, Luz told everyone to stay put while she took Lyra and Boscha to grab Zirael and Daniel. They travelled quickly to the Portal Gate and passed through it, giving a short greeting to the Titans and Azazel before leaving through the Bonesborough Gate. The trio gave a cautious look around to make sure they weren’t being watched, then entered the shadow world, where Lyra did a short scry to make sure they really were alone, and that Zirael and Daniel were together outside the Owl House. True to their word, the two Angels were there and waiting alone, though they were hiding in the shade of the Owl House’s tower, so as not to be out in the open.

Of course, them hiding in the shade was a boon for the CATTs, so Lyra easily ensnared them with her shadows and dragged them into the shadow world before they could even scream. As soon as they were in the shadows, Boscha forced a dose of the Blabber Serum down their throats, then backed off to allow Luz to question the two shocked Angels.

“Sorry about this guys, but it’s for our safety. Why did you want to talk to me, Zirael?” Luz asked.

“I wanted to bring Daniel back, and talk to you about what you plan to do for the world if you manage to defeat the Divider.” Zirael said calmly. She wasn’t too upset about being captured, at least once she’d had a moment to calm down.

Luz nodded and then asked; “Why do you want to know that?”

“Because I want to know if your way will end up being better than the Divider’s. I have been starting to fear the Divider recently… he’s not been the same since he returned from fighting the Archivists.” Zirael frowned, looking sad.

Luz wasn’t surprised by that; making contact with Rasiel meant he was now hiding within the Divider, so his conscience was becoming less prominent, and his repeated failures to capture or convince Luz were likely driving him further to madness. Unstable behaviour like that was bound to cause even some of his most loyal supporters to begin having doubts.

“So, you want to see if Luz is a better choice to follow? I’d say so; she can be a little spacey sometimes, but she’s better than the lunatic you currently follow!” Boscha said, flashing a teasing grin at Luz, who gave a faux pout.

“Thanks Boscha.” she said sarcastically.

“So, you guys are both safe and undivided?” Lyra asked.

Zirael and Daniel nodded, with the latter adding; “Thanks to my oath, I’ve been unable to tell Ziri how to get in contact with you all, nor could I lead her to you. That’s when she got the idea to speak with Lazuliel.”

“Glad to see the oaths work! Okay, we’re going to take you both back to our base, but Zirael needs to swear a secrecy oath first. Are you willing to do that?” Luz asked.

“I’d rather not, but I won’t argue.” Zirael replied, compelled by the Blabber Serum.

Luz freed one of Zirael’s hands and grasped it and had her give a simple secrecy oath. Once it was completed, Luz released them all from the shadows, looked around to ensure no one was missing, then summoned her own Portal Door.

“Step on through.” she said.

Everyone obeyed, but as Zirael stepped through, she made a remark; “So the Divider was right… you do have the Portal Door again.”

“So he suspects that I have it? I guess he probably checked… Oh well; as long as he can’t get his hands on the key or the door, I don’t really care.” Luz said, leading them through to the In-Between and then straight to the gate to Zachael’s Landing, though Zirael did briefly gape at the imprisoned Azazel.

They soon arrived back on the island and immediately headed to the council chamber, with Zirael looking around at everything with interest. She wasn’t given time to look fully though, as Luz was intent on getting them back to the Council Chamber. When they did get back, a grand total of only about ten minutes had passed since the girls had left to get them!

“Well that was fast.” Darius said approvingly, patting Lyra on the head as the Council stood to welcome back the girls and Daniel.

“Hey man! Glad you’re doing good and are undivided!” Gus greeted Daniel with a big smile; “You saved my butt last week! I owe you big time! You’re a real hero!”

Daniel looked shocked to his core, and had a faint pink tinge to his cheeks at the compliment; “O-Oh. I just did what I was supposed to, you know? I promised I’d get you to safety, so I had to. I’d have made a poor recruit if I’d failed, and I swore I wouldn’t fail to do the right thing again.”

Gus grinned and patted him on the back; “Still a hero in my book, Daniel. It’s thanks to you that the Archives Assault wasn’t a total wipe! And I bet you’re partly the reason Zirael is here now.”

“Uh, well… we did talk a lot over the last several days.” Daniel acknowledged.

Zirael nodded; “We did. At first, I wanted to just catch up and try to convince him to join the Wings of Rani, so the Divider wouldn’t divide him. But as we talked, he pointed out a lot of things I’d been either ignorant to or trying to ignore.”

The CATTs all stared at the two Angels with interest as they took their seats again. Luz asked; “So what exactly has been happening with you guys? Start from the beginning; the mission last week.”

“Well, as you know I got captured. I was taken to Laptela Necropolis because the Divider got a call from King’s bodyguard, who’d been sent away…” Daniel began.

He told the story of what had happened, with the Huntsman worming his way out of trouble, the Divider’s odd reactions, and the mass Division of the captured Trappers, then spoke of how Zirael had stood up for him when it was his turn to suffer that fate.

“Instead, she took me to her home in a living facility for the Wings of Rani, on an island with a strange tower.” Daniel said, making the CATTs realise he was talking about Titan Cradle Island. “From there, I basically lived with Zirael for a week. It was kind of nice actually…”

He gave a shy blush that made Luz beam, while Zirael continued; “While he was with me, I did what I said before; tried to recruit him whilst catching up… but none of my arguments worked. Every time I brought up a benefit about Division, he told me something bad about the very same benefit! Like how I thought bad people never hurting their victims again was great, but he pointed out that they also weren’t sorry or regretful at all either. It wasn’t making the problem better, it was pretending it never happened! Every day before and after I performed my duties for the Wings of Rani, we’d debate and I’d lose… He even pointed out how the very thing that turned him away from the Union, your trial Lady Luciel, was instigated by someone on behalf of the Divider. And that’s not even getting started with the Divider’s own actions!”

Zirael shuddered and began to hug herself; “Ever since he returned with the Archivists, he’s been acting… wrong. Letting that awful Huntsman roam around with those Titan Trappers so freely, letting the Trappers be a part of our forces when they’re so blatantly cruel and evil, handing Lady Luciel’s mother over to that degenerate potioneer, letting people keep sacrificing their magic to make another Red Galdorstone just for a trap, and allowing the Huntsman to get away scot-free after his subordinates MURDERED several innocent people at the Necropolis… I don’t know how to parse all these feelings! The Divider I knew, loved, and followed would never do these things! It’s like he’s become so focused on the ends that he doesn’t care about the means! And he is OBSESSED with you, Lady Luciel.”

Luz cringed a little; it seems that Rasiel cutting himself off more was making the Divider even more unstable. Though she couldn’t say this was Rasiel’s fault; this was what the Divider WANTED, as he was trying to actively suppress Rasiel. It did make her wonder about the Huntsman though… the Divider hated Belial; their every interaction had been hostile! Yet he was being spared punishment for the Necropolis? Even if he’d managed to convince the Divider he wasn’t responsible, why hadn’t the Divider made sure? Was he worried about using up too much power by just dividing Belial? Luz had so many questions, but she doubted she’d get answers from her insane enemy.

But while Luz was thinking about that, Hunter spoke up; “So the Divider has basically lost your loyalty, so you freed Daniel so he could return here and bring you with him, in the hopes we’ll just let you join up?”

“Right. At least, mostly… I’m tired of being burned by different masters. The Union threw my hard work in my face when I refused to be a broodmare, and the Divider is growing more unstable by the day, while Daniel has made me doubt his Paradise Plan right down to its essence! I refuse to just be the pawn of another powerful Angel! So I want to know, Lady Luciel… how do you plan to create Paradise. How do you plan to fix this broken world?” Zirael asked, half challenging and half imploring her.

Zirael’s question made most of the CATTs, especially the adults, bristle. “Hey! I get that her being a Seraphim probably muddies the waters a little for you, but my Owlet is 15! She is a child! It is not up to her to fix your messed up Union, or the junk wrong with our Realm either! As it is, I hate how much we’re all relying on her, and how much I know we’ll rely on her in the future! So kindly step off!” Eda snapped.

“Edalyn is right.” Darius said, crossing his arms; “It is not your place to ask a child to fix societal issues that have plagued us since before any of us were born!”

Raine, ever the gentler sort, said; “We understand that you’re hoping for a solution and someone to put your hopes in, and as someone who has put their faith in Luz, I can say she is a wise choice. But in the end, it’ll be up to us adults to fix the world, even if Luz does serve as our guiding light.”

Zirael bit her lip, and Camila reached out and put a hand on her shoulder; “Speaking as someone else who was in your position too, and a similar position to Daniel as well, I think you should focus more on what you can do. Think of the changes you want to see, how those changes would come about, and what you can do to make that happen. In the end, I ran away from my problems only for them to boomerang back and cause me a lot of grief; don’t do the same by foisting all your hopes on someone else and then living with regrets.”

“I-I understand…” Zirael sighed. “I came on too strongly there, and it was unfair to you, Lady Luciel. Your family was right to scold me… but if I may, I would still like to hear your answer.”

Eda opened her mouth to snap at Zirael, but the Arch-Angel kept speaking; “I want to know what kind of person you really are. What you would do with your mother’s advice. So please… if the war ended tomorrow and you were in the position to change things, what would you do? How would you make Paradise?”

Luz looked her in the eye as she thought for a long moment, before finally giving the same answer she’d once given the Divider. “I don’t know. I don’t know how I’d make Paradise… or if it’s even possible. As long as people have a right to choose their own way in life, there will be people who choose evil. As long as evil exists, you can’t call the world Paradise. And if you take away people’s right to choose their own way, then how is that Paradise? It would be like the Divider’s brainwashed Paradise, or the Union’s controlled world. So I guess I don’t know what I’d do to make Paradise, because I don’t think it’s possible.”

Zirael hadn’t expected that answer; she’d thought that perhaps a pure-hearted and idealistic child like Luz might have a more fantastical answer, dreamed up with the innocence of a child. But while Luz was still pure, idealistic, and innocent, she was not naive. And while it wasn’t the answer Zirael had expected, it was one she could respect.

“And what about fixing the problems you know about? How would you resolve those?” Zirael asked.

“If you’ve got a specific problem, I’ll give a more specific answer, but generally speaking? I guess I’ll just do the only thing I can; my best.” Luz smiled, pumping her fists adorably.

Now that was the kind of answer Zirael had expected, and it made her giggle. “I see! You know, you really do remind me a little of the old Divider, and even more like the stories of him from the founding of the Wings of Rani. And believe me, that’s a good thing!”

“I don’t mind being compared to the old Rasiel. He was a good person at heart, but he ended up alone… lucky for me, I have a REALLY big family to stop the same from happening to me.” Luz grinned.

“Lucky you indeed.” Zirael said, before looking over to Daniel; “I think you were right, Daniel. Perhaps the CATTs ARE worth putting my faith in.”

“I told you so. I wasn’t able to give you any helpful advice back in the Union, but joining the CATTs would be the best thing to do if you want to make a better world.” Daniel smiled warmly.

Zirael looked back to Luz; “Daniel is being modest; he helped me out more than he’ll ever admit when were both in the Union. But he’s right about you guys. With your permission, Lady Luciel; I’d like to join you.”

Luz and the other teens beamed, while the adults looked a little bit more cautious. Still, Zirael had taken an oath of secrecy and would need to take another if she joined the CATTs, so she wouldn’t be spying on them for the Divider! The Divider may have fallen far, but no one believed he’d sacrifice a person to get info on the CATTs!

“You’re welcome to join us! Welcome aboard, Zirael!” Luz chirped offering her hand to Zirael to shake.

Zirael smiled and accepted the hand, then said; “I will carry my weight, naturally. I have some information that could be useful, and I have some of my old Wings of Rani Supplies! I had to ditch my command feather so I wouldn’t be tracked, but it’s not all I have!”

She reached into her shirt and pulled out a golden amulet that bore the emblem of the Wings of Rani. “This is a Barrier Pass! It’ll get the wearer through any of the Wings of Rani’s Barriers! And this includes the Anti-Shadow World Barriers!”

Luz gasped, and Darius and Alador both immediately rushed forward and gestured for Zirael to hand over the amulet, which she did without any fuss. The Barrier Pass was literally just some efficiently enchanted Aurum, though replicating the enchantments would require dismantling it to see the parts on the inside, and neither man wanted to risk that and lose their key through the Wings of Rani’s defences.

While most of the CATTs were excited by this development, Lilith was also a bit suspicious; a feeling shared by her daughter. The two looked closely at the pass, then turned to Zirael; “This feels like a weird thing for the Divider to allow.” Amity pointed out.

“My thoughts exactly. Why have such a thing? The Barriers we’ve encountered have been complex and able to keep out people based on their Magical Resonance, as well as identify them and set off Alarms if unapproved people enter them. With such fine-tuned defences, why make what is essentially a skeleton key? What’s the catch?” Lilith asked.

“There isn’t a catch. Or at least not exactly a catch… The Amulet is keyed to my magic so only I can use it, though a sufficiently strong Divine Blessing can work around that. But the barriers will still check the race of the user to ensure no one is trying to sneak in with a stolen amulet and a blessing or piece of the rightful owner’s body.” Zirael explained. “As for why the Barrier Passes were created; it’s actually because the defences are so fine-tuned. And because of you lot, of course.”

“Because of us? Oh, because we keep breaking into places?” Matt said.

“Yes and no. It’s more because you keep breaking into places and then causing trouble so reinforcements have to come stop you. Tuning every barrier and defence to every member of the Wings of Rani and Titan Trappers takes so much more work, so it’s simply easier to give Barrier Passes to high-ranked members so they can get in anywhere and bring a small squad along. I believe something similar is built into the cores of the Abomaton Paladins.” Zirael replied.

“I guess that DOES make some sense. Especially since Wings of Rani members probably get moved around a lot. I heard that the majority of your former group is still in the Divine Realm.” Camila commented.

“They aren’t any more. Only about a fifth of the organisation remain in the Divine Realm, purely so the Free Cities they control remain theirs and don’t descend into anarchy while they’re gone. The Divider moved everyone else here to the Boiling Isles and the Fortress around Titan Cradle Island.”

That wasn’t a good sign… if he was bringing that many Angels to the Demon Realm then either Luz and the CATTs were a bigger problem than he was letting on and he needed the manpower, or he was reaching the final stages of his plan… either way, it was a problem for the CATTs.

“We’ll have to have you sit down with us later to give us all the intel on the enemy you have! We could use the help.” Lilith said; “We’ve been on the back foot since the Divider returned; all we’ve been doing is reacting to him, saving captured allies, and falling into his traps.”

“It’d be happy to.” Zirael said with a nod. “I can also be helpful with the children. I WAS in Crest Chastity after all.”

“Perfect! You can take shifts with Tia Lazuli!” Luz grinned; “Now, I guess all that’s left is to prepare for tomorrow’s mission to the Beast-Keeping HQ! The new Barrier Pass will be a huge help!”

Zirael blinked, then smiled; “You won’t need a Barrier Pass there, except to get into the Union Pillar itself. And those have living guards to check everyone before letting them in. Because of all the migratory animals living around the Right Hip, it wasn’t practical to erect a barrier there.”

“Wait, so it’s useless for our mission tomorrow?” King frowned.

“Useless for yours… but not for a second one to another place!” Alador suddenly grinned. “Luz, hear me out on this. While your team goes with Eber to the Right Hip tomorrow to rescue the Clawthornes and Palismen, another team could go to the Left Foot and the Abomination Coven Headquarters to rescue my parents and stop the Abomaton Paladin production!”

Darius and Amity both exchanged excited looks; “We wouldn’t need another distraction either, as the Distraction Team will already be doing their work for your mission!” Darius said.

Amity nodded enthusiastically; “Yes! We can save Grandma and Grandpa! Can we PLEASE go, Batata?”

She gave her girlfriend the best puppy dog eyes she could manage, and almost used her fused form to add to the cute factor, but held back so as not to be manipulative. It turned out to be unnecessary anyway, and Luz just giggled and nodded; “You don’t need to convince me Hermosa. I think it’s a good idea! Is everyone else in favour?”

No one raised any objections, so they instead decided who would be going on the mission to begin with. “Myself, Alador, and Amity are definitely going; there’s no question about that.” Darius said, “But who should come with us?”

“Us!” Edric and Emira declared together; “You’re not going off to rescue Grandma and Grandpa without us!”

“I’d like to go too! I can do a lot to help out!” Lyra piped up; “If I can’t help Hunter with his mission, I want to at least help Dadrius with his!”

“And if Lyra is going, I want to go with her. Besides, some good illusions will be helpful if we’re sneaking into a place.” Gus volunteered.

“Okay, so the four Blights, Darius, Lyra, and Gus. That makes seven. You can take a max of one extra person.” Raine said.

The remaining members of the CATTs council exchanged looks, inwardly debating if they’d be suited for going on this mission. Skara would have liked to go, but Scooter’s condition was getting worse by the day and she and her father feared that they’d be saying goodbye to him soon. Kyrie Crane never left his side any more unless to bathe or use the bathroom, and even that she only did if Skara, Raine, or Severin were around to watch him. For similar reasons, Severin was staying put, and Boscha was staying back with her girlfriend for emotional support. Matt also considered going, but if Hunter or Lyra achieved their fusions on this mission, then his presence could cause trouble for Luz if he needed to use his fusion too, while Amity and Gus could use theirs without issue. Unless BOTH managed it and the balance between Cassiopeia’s four glyphs worked like it did for Orion, it would be safer for Matt to stay back.

In the end, the one to volunteer was Osran. “I could do with stretching my legs and getting my old bones moving again. Besides, I’d like to see my granddaughter’s new Divine Tarot out in the field.”

Lyra looked eager to show off her powers to him too, and as no one else was as eager to go as he was, they agreed.

“Got it! So Team Beast-Keeping will be Eber, Mom, Tia Lily, Titi Raine, Hunter, Willow, Barcus, King, and me. Team Abominations will be Amity, Edric, Emira, Alador, Darius, Lyra, Gus, and Osran. Samael and the Supreme Dragon Triad will be the Distraction Team, and everyone else will stay here! Sound good to everyone?”

Everyone agreed, and so Luz called the successful meeting to an end. “Everyone, get yourselves prepared because we head out tomorrow! Matt, I’ll come to your workshop and see about those Artificial Dragon Skeletons! Mami, could you and Tia Lazuli show Zirael around, and get her an apartment?”

Camila smiled and nodded, and everyone split up to begin preparing for the mission tomorrow. For most of them, this just meant some rest and relaxation; Hunter and Willow went for a picnic date in the jungle, Lyra and Gus went with Osran to show him more of the former’s Tarot Cards, Lilith went with Hooty to watch the children while Lazuliel was busy with Camila, Zirael, and Daniel, Raine went with Skara and Severin to spend some time with Scooter, while Boscha went with her parents to do some brewing for Hettie at the hospital, with Bria also assisting so she could learn how to make medicines, the Magic Mixers went off to have some fun together before Barcus left on his mission, Hanu and Treble went on a beach date, Samael went back to the school-turned-orphanage to be watched by Lilith and Hooty (since he was still grounded), and Amber and Derwin decided to spend some time hanging out with Eda and Vee; the unusual quartet having a makeshift jam session as Vee got used to being able to sing.

The rest of the CATTs Council; Luz, Amity, King, Darius, the Blights, Mason, Matt, Steve, Katya, Luna, the Supreme Dragon Trio, and Eberwolf all went to the Workshops to get a good look at the new Supreme Dragon Skeletons and how they worked. Matt had his own private warehouse-sized workshop that he’d been given by Luz and Mason after seeing the amazing MTH series and his other mechs, so he’d had more than enough room to begin making the Artificial Skeletons.

The inside of the warehouse was clean and orderly, with large blocks of quarried Titan Bone arranged neatly against one wall, a series of workbenches laden with tools and partially carved Dragon Bones (they appeared to be Ice Wyrm bone replicas), and a wide open space with numerous scaffolds surrounding nothing at all, while a heavy brass safe could be found locked up tight and surrounded by some Abomaton MK II’s. As everyone began to look around at the partially completed Ice Wyrm bones, Matt spoke up.

“Like I said before, I’m partially done with Zara’s skeleton. Once the Titan Bone is fully carved, I can start applying the mechanical parts. Those are all done and stored over there.” he said, pointing to a workbench with a cylindrical tube on it. The tube looked almost like a brass version of a pack of new tennis balls, complete with balls inside. Each ball was actually one of Matt’s Capsule Tech pieces though, keeping the components shrunken and out of the way.

“So cool!” Luz and King gushed together, looking at everything they could without touching anything.

“If you think that’s cool, let me show you the final product! If you’re up for a blessing, we can even give it a test run!” Matt grinned, heading over to the safe. There was no key hole or combination lock; only an interlock for a Palisman, which Pebbles promptly slotted himself onto, before twisting and causing the safe to unlock; several brass pegs popping out from the sides of the door with puffs of smoke. One of the Abomatons then heaved open the heavy door and revealed a whole bunch of blueprints, the Rite of Ascension Scroll, and more Capsules, with corresponding keys next to each one (including one with Pebbles’ interlock).

As Matt grabbed two capsules (noticeably the only two that didn’t have blank interlocks on their keys), Luz couldn’t help but ask; “What’s with the scroll, Matt? Did you need it to make the skeletons?”

Matt nodded; “Yep. There are diagrams of the skeletons for all eight Supreme Dragons! They aren’t perfect, but they’re better than nothing! I also had to make some edits…”

Luz took the scroll and opened it up, then noticed the edit right away; Matt had penned a warning on the Rite itself that trying to perform it with a Palisman would mean breaking their bond. Luz showed this to Katya, who was touched; while it was too late for her, it wasn’t too late to save other future people from making the same mistake. At least Katya had the comfort of knowing Rumba was still alive and healthy; the little beetle spent most of his time with Bria, Riko, and Dulcett (the Palismen of Amber and Derwin). She still spent some time with the little guy, but it was awkward now… it would take time for them to adjust.

Shaking that off, she and Luz turned their attention back to Matt, who had everyone stay away from the scaffolds as he went with Steve to the centre. “My usual interlock keys obviously need Palismen to work, so for the Supreme Dragon Priests, I had to make their Capsule Keys rely on their Magical Resonance instead… just as secure, but it means no one else can ever use them, while people can at least team up with Palismen that aren’t theirs if needed.” Matt explained, showing the gathered audience the altered key, which had a crystal pad to place the Dragon Priest’s thumb instead of the interlock.

Handing the key to Steve and placing the matching Capsule in the middle of the open space, Matt then hurried off to the side and gave Steve a nod, causing him to activate the key and shut down the Alchemy Engine. In an instant, the capsule opened up and a tiny folded up object began to grow and unfold, until the group were looking up at the carved white bone skeleton of a Terra Kirin. The resulting skeleton was massive, being a similar size to the other Supreme Dragon Skeletons (if not a little bit smaller), and it resembled an interesting mix of horse, dragon, and giraffe skeletons. It was bipedal, and its rear end was definitely horse-like, but with a draconic spine and tail, and cloven hooves as opposed to normal horse hooves. The front half of it was distinctly draconic, and it’s neck was somewhat giraffe like (while nowhere near as long) and had a draconic skull at the top. The bones were also held together with some Homunculus slime and brass clasps, while tubes ran like veins through the bones and connected the brass clasps to the spherical Alchemy Engine in the creature’s chest cavity. The Alchemy Engine also had a second orb-like organ attached to it, and Luz noticed that if the Engine resembled a spherical Abomaton-style Heart, then this object must be some kind of Bile Sac… it was covered in glyphs and glyph combos, and Luz was sure she sensed the five Titan Humours within it.

“This thing is huge!” Amity exclaimed; “The amount of carving this must have taken… how did you manage it?”

“Good tools and a LOT of Titan Bone to practice with. We’ve really gotta thank the Union for this.” Matt said, patting the leg of the Kirin Skeleton while Steve admired it.

Among the supplies given by the Union had been a surplus of Titan Bone, as while the vast majority had ended up emigrating to the Demon Realm, several had still lived and died in the Divine Realm, leaving behind their bodies. The Angels didn’t usually live on them like Demons and Witches did, but they did harvest them for materials; in fact, the Union basically had a monopoly on it, having fully harvested every unoccupied Titan Corpse in their realm so non-Union forces couldn’t exploit it. The Angels had thus been able to hand over a large amount of it to the CATTs.

“So what’s next? Does Luz just have to bless this thing and then Steve can bond with it to become a Terra Kirin?” Darius asked, examining the Abomaton-esque components.

“That’s about right. Luz, if you you could give a strong blessing to the Titan Reactor, then that should kickstart it. It’s the Bile Sac looking thing attached to the Alchemy Engine.” Matt requested.

Obediently, Luz flew up and placed a hand on the Reactor, then turned back to Matt and asked; “Just a straight Divine Blessing?”

“Well, a Divine Titan Blessing with a focus on the Earth Glyph would be better, if you can do it.” the boy replied.

Luz thought about it for a moment, then transformed into her Titan Angel Form and placed her left foot against the Reactor instead of her hand, causing her earth glyph marking to manifest. She then began channelling magic as if giving a Blessing via her foot, while also focusing on her Titan Magic. As she did so, she heard Cassiopeia’s voice whisper in her ear thanks to the momentarily strengthened bond.

“Focus on King’s power too… bless the reactor with that glyph and the earth glyph.”

Luz obeyed and caused an aura of white and bronze to coat her, before the magic was sucked into the Titan Reactor, causing the glyph combos to glow white and thrum to life. Slowly, the magic in the reactor began to spread throughout the artificial skeleton, turning the bones from white to bronze. When the process was finally done, Luz landed and took a deep breath while Amity, King, and Katya all rushed to make sure she was okay.

“Luz! How do you feel?” Katya asked, walking her back towards the others.

“I feel fine. A little winded, but nothing a few minutes of rest won’t fix. I felt something weird though; the bones and the reactor, well, reacted! For a moment, the reactor felt a lot like a Mini-Primordial Wellspring!” Luz replied.

Matt’s eyes widened and he used some spells to summon various small tools and devices to his hands, then flew up to the reactor using Pebbles. “The bones turned bronze in the smaller models too, but the reactor is definitely way stronger than the smaller ones, even accounting for the size difference.” he began casting spells and taking readings with the odd devices he had. “Okay, this is definitely WAY stronger than I predicted! Good thing I put in ridiculously high specs on these things to prevent overloads. What exactly did you do, Luz?”

“I heard Tia Cassiopeia’s voice telling me to bless it with King’s glyph AND her earth glyph. The result is that.” Luz replied.

The other Supreme Dragons looked intrigued, with Lars murmuring; “Young King’s power seems to forge connections… perhaps it connected the reactor to Lady Cassiopeia’s soul? If that is the case, then Lady Cassiopeia may have used the skeleton, Luz, and Young King’s glyph to cheat and create a functioning Kirin skeleton without the Wellsprings.”

“Wait, what does that mean?” Matt asked.

“I think it means that we won’t need to charge this thing up again. Luz’s blessing was a one and done. But I’ll need to fuse with it to try it out.” Steve said, walking up to the skeleton. He didn’t know why he thought that, but he suspected it had something to do with his new dragon instincts. He touched the bones and felt a connection between them, then walked into the forearm he’d been touching as if it were water, disappearing into it.

What followed was a bright flash of orange light, followed by the entire skeleton glowing and transforming; it’s silhouette going from skeletal to fully fleshed as earth and stone seemed to manifest from nowhere on the creature’s body. When the light faded, a Terra Kirin made of earth was stood before the crowd, until the earth became flesh and scales, revealing the true form of the Terra Kirin.

The flesh matched the skeleton, keeping an equine rear end with a draconic tail, a draconic front end, and a draconic skull with a somewhat long neck. In this form, Steve’s tail was the same as his Witch Form’s new tail, with bronze scales and an orange spike on the end, though it now included an orange line of fur that went up Steve’s spine and to his head. His entire body was covered in bronze scales, and his rear end had cloven hooves that looked like stone, and ring-like plates of reddish bronze that went up to the knee of his equine hind legs. His belly also had lighter, yellow-bronze scales, and his forelegs were purely draconic and ended in strange, three toed feet. The legs had the same bronze rings of scales as the hind legs, and the claws were orange like his fur, of which he had small tufts on his elbows. A large crest of orange fur also decorated his chest and formed two long streams that went over his shoulders, while his thick, long neck had lighter bronze scales on the front and darker bronze scales on the back and sides, leading up to a draconic head that still had a somewhat equine shape to it. Steven’s Dragon head was covered in darker bronze scales, had orange eyes, and had two sets of orange horns; a shorter set that pointed forward jutting from his brow, and a longer set that curved backward from the back of his head. A large mane of orange hair flowed from his head, and a matching set of long whiskers and beard did the same from his draconic snout.

Steve let out a mighty roar, shaking the foundations of the Workshop (though thankfully not alerting people outside, since the Workshops were designed to be soundproof), and began to move around somewhat awkwardly, as if he was drunk or confused. The Supreme Dragon Triad turned to the others and warned them; “Stay still and calm.” Lars said.

“A first time Dragon Transformation can be a little bit disorienting, especially if the skeleton used is a new one.” Zara explained.

Godric laughed heartily; “All the new instincts and enhanced senses are quite a rush! Give the boy a minute and he’ll be fine.”

Sure enough, Steve’s confused eyes soon regained their focus and he knelt down on the ground so he wasn’t towering over everyone as much.

“Wow, this new body comes with a huge rush of power! This is the true strength of a Supreme Dragon! Steve is feeling good!” he said, flicking his head to make his mane flutter majestically. “I should go outside and test this thing out, and see just how strong I am now.”

“Maybe later, Bro. We’ve still gotta get Katya fitted for hers too. And you need to test leaving the skeleton. But first, do you feel anything strange?” Matt asked.

Steve shook his head; “Aside from being big and strong, I don’t feel any different. It feels natural.”

Matt grinned; “Perfect! Between my creations, Luz’s blessings, and Cassiopeia’s know-how, we’re all set! Okay, come on out so we can get Katya all dragonified too.”

Steve nodded and closed his eyes, causing his draconic flesh to turn into mud and stone that slopped off of his artificial bones, revealing the real Steve inside the creature’s ribcage right before he hopped down and all the mud and stone turned to dust and disappeared. Emira and Luz gave him a quick medical check-up to ensure there were no adverse effects, while Matt examined the skeleton with Mason to see if there had been any degradation to the bones or mechanical systems, but both had come back completely clean.

Matt’s invention was a huge success! They now had a way to get the Supreme Dragons back up to their full might! Five more Seraphim-level allies was a huge boon to have against the Divider and his Archivist minions!

Following the success of his dragon form, Steve used his key to put his dragon skeleton back into its capsule, with Matt allowing him to keep it on him now that he knew it worked properly. Once it was out of the way, everyone turned to Katya, who stepped up to release her own dragon skeleton, and the group were soon looking up at the white bones of an Aero Amphithere. As an Amphithere, the skeleton was basically that of a wyvern, but instead of hind legs and a tail, it only had a long serpentine tail. It also had a draconic skull, but while the Terra Kirin’s skull looked draconic version of a horse, the Aero Amphithere’s looked like a draconic snake. The group admired it for a moment, then Matt nodded to Luz and she flew up to the Titan Reactor inside the ribcage.

This time, Luz placed her right foot on the reactor and used her wind glyph as well as King’s glyph to create the blessing. As with Steve’s skeleton, Katya’s began to change colour as it received Luz’s blessing, gradually becoming a pale silvery grey. Once the blessing was complete, Luz groaned and flew down to the ground, then sat down on the floor as her friends looked at her with concern.

“I think that’s enough for now. These blessings are going to exhaust you if you end up doing one for all five Dragon Priests!” Darius frowned.

Luz opened her mouth to argue, but found herself silenced by Amity, who said; “And scoop!” as she lifted Luz into a bridal carry. Both girls blushed profusely, and Amity carried Luz over to a stool that Mason had grabbed for her.

“T-Thanks Batata.” Luz said gratefully, “And I’ll be okay, Darius. It’ll take maybe two hours to regain the magic I used here. I really only had to open temporary connections with Tia Cassiopeia, so it’s not like I’m actually giving super blessings!”

That eased her friends’ minds a bit, but Mason still said; “Either way, you’re restin’ from here on out. Can’t have our boss keelin’ over ‘fore the next big mission.”

The others all agreed, and Luz wasn’t about to upset them all by arguing, so she just nodded and smiled, opting to sit (mostly) quietly on the stool she’d been placed on, with Amity gently rubbing her shoulders to relax her. The girl’s fingers were magic, and Luz practically melted at her touch.

Everyone’s attention then shifted back to Katya and her dragon bones, which she nervously walked up to and merged into, just as Steve had done. Predictably, the skeleton glowed with shining silver light as a powerful cyclone of wind covered the bones, forming into the shape of Katya’s true Dragon Form. Soon the wind became flesh and blood, and the form of a living Aero Amphithere was now coiled up in front of everyone.

The Aero Amphithere was covered in silver scales, with thinner, white scales on her underbelly, and had a short crest of white feathers atop her draconic snake-like skull, as well as a pair of little wings that served as covers for her sensitive interior ears. Her eyes were a shining silver too, while her torso was that of a slender reptile (from above the hips at least), with her arms replaced by wings and her lower body becoming a long, coiled serpentine tail. The tail ended in a crest of white feather-like spikes, and similar crests were running up her spine, but only every half dozen or so vertebrae. The most striking feature though was her wings; Katya’s Supreme Dragon Wings were shaped like a Wyvern’s, with silver clawed “hands” atop each wing and a white membrane that was covered in downy fur that closely resembled feathers. Luz noted that Katya’s form looked a lot like a Quetzalcoatl, with only two real differences; the first being that Quetzalcoatl’s were true serpents and their wings were additional limbs, not replacements for arms. The second was that unlike a real Coatl or Quetzalcoatl, the Aero Amphithere didn’t actually have feathers; just hair and flexible horns and scales that resembled feathers.

Katya, like Steve before her, roared loudly as she struggled with her new instincts, coiling up tightly to keep from doing anything bad as she tried to collect herself. Once she was done with that, Katya began to slowly uncoil; “This is such a strange feeling! I have no legs and my arms are my wings now, but it feels totally natural! Like this has always been my body!”

“It’s quite an odd sensation, isn’t it?” Zara smiled; “Try getting used to having no traditional limbs. I had to give myself ice legs in my own Ice Wyrm form just to keep my mind from feeling like something was missing.”

“I can see why, though I think I’m getting used to it. Phew, I can hear and smell everything! I’m quite sure I can even smell Willow and Hunter’s picnic! And now I’m hungry…” Katya mused.

Godric chortled; “Well I suggest you leave that body then! You’ll find hunger much easier to sate with a Witch’s stomach than with a Dragon’s!”

Katya nodded and left her Dragon Form as hastily as she’d taken it, sending a breeze throughout the workshop. Emira checked her over alone (since Luz was still being kept seated by Amity) and Matt checked over his creation, both finding that there had been no harm or damage.

“Well, that’s two successes! Zachael’s Landing now officially has Dragon Protectors once again, and we have a way to restore the Supreme Dragon Triad’s full power too!” Matt cheered; “I’m gonna get to work on finishing up Zara’s right now! I wonder if I can get all three done and blessed in time for Luz to be fully charged for tomorrow.”

Steve, Mason, Luna, and Edric immediately volunteered to help with the work too, since they had experience with Titan Bone and the Shrinking Solution inside the Alchemy Engines. Eber was intrigued but had little experience or knowledge when it came to things like this, so she just stayed out of the way and admired the giant form of Katya’s Amphithere Skeleton, while asking Katya how it had felt. Emira politely excused herself to go help out Hettie at the hospital (and secretly warn Camila and Eda that Luz was likely going to drain herself again), while Amity and Luz watched the others getting to work. Strangely enough, Darius and Alador were just staring at a smaller, pony-sized version of Steve’s Kirin skeleton, which Matt had left off to the side to be eventually repurposed. The two men looked deep in thought, so Amity couldn’t help but call out to them.

“Hey, Demon Realm to Dad and Darius! Are you two in there?” Amity said.

The two men snapped out of their staring and turned to look at the girl; “Did you need something, Mittens?” Alador asked.

“Not exactly, but you were staring at the Kirin skeleton kinda intensely. It was a little weird.” his daughter replied.

The eccentric inventor blushed embarrassedly, while Darius chuckled sardonically; “Our apologies, Baby Blight. But we were just lost in some nostalgic memories.”

Luz and Amity looked mildly disturbed; “Nostalgia towards a skeleton?” Luz asked incredulously.

“No, more like nostalgia towards what it represents. This is a form of Bio-Mechanical Abomination Engineering, though substituting Abominations for Homunculi. It’s rather slapdash too… Matt has little ability in our magical art, and likely just asked another Witch with help making this slime.” Darius commented.

“Oh! That’s a lot less creepy! But why is it nostalgic?” Luz asked. “Is it related to some research or cool project you did back when you were young?”

Alador shook his head; “No, that is far out of our comfort zones. If you want autonomous Abominations or Weaponry, I’m your Witch. If you want tools, transformations, and top of the line quality slime, you go to Darius. And if you want something hyper specialised, you go to Amaranth. But back in the day, if you wanted Abomination Prosthetics or other Bio-Mechanical marvels, you went to our Mentor.”

Luz and Amity both gasped, though for different reasons. Luz assumed that Alador was talking of her father, Michael. However Darius quickly corrected her; “Your father was my mentor in life, Little Light. But it was Master Mechane who was my teacher in Abominations.”

This had been what Amity assumed, having heard all about her father’s former master. “Of course! How could I forget!? Your Master was Lloyd Mechane!” she cried excitedly.

Luz looked confused for a moment; that name was very familiar to her, and caused a strange twinge deep in her chest, as if something buried deep within was stirring. This time, Darius wrongly assumed that Luz was confused because she hadn’t heard of Lloyd, so was quickly to explain.

“Lloyd Mechane was the previous head of the Abominations Coven. When Alador and I joined up, he spotted our talents immediately and took us, as well as Amaranth, under his wing as apprentices. He worked us hard, but he was an incredible Abominations Witch.” Darius said.

Amity nodded eagerly; “He was a genius! And revolutionary when it came to Abomination Prosthetics! The field of Bio-Mechanical Abomination Development basically ground to a halt when he disappeared. But no one really knows what happened to him… he went on a mission for Belos and disappeared.”

Alador and Darius looked grim as the former said; “Yes, it was very strange. Master Mechane was always an odd one; he was humble but ingenious, clever but blunt, and was extremely direct. He didn’t mince words when he got serious, but was also the type to enjoy playfully teasing his apprentices and messing with his colleagues…”

“Your parents actually met him once, not long after I graduated Hexside and joined up. Michael was a colleague of his, and Cassiel and Em went to my Coven Initiation with him. Master Mechane seemed to get along well with Cassiel, and kept asking questions about her Healing Magic, since I told him I’d never known a better Healer.” Darius interjected.

“As I was saying…” Alador shot Darius an annoyed look, and the taller man smirked and gestured for him to continue; “…Master Mechane was odd, but he wasn’t the type to go on dangerous missions just because Belos asked. He didn’t seem to like Belos, and after we joined up, he liked him even less. I think he picked up on Darius’ hatred, and the “Fake Angel Incident” seemed to anger him more.”

Amity hummed; “That IS strange. Do you think he ran away? Or do you think he died on this mission?”

“Running away wasn’t his style! And he had a daughter, Nicole, who was last seen right before Master Mechane went to receive the mission that he never returned from. It would make sense that they both disappeared together, but I don’t think they’d run away like that.” Darius replied.

“They didn’t run away.”

Alador, Amity, and Darius all blinked and turned to Luz, who was looking down at her hands with a mournful expression.

“Luz? Are you alright?” Amity asked. “How do you know he didn’t run away?”

Luz looked up at the man’s former apprentices and sighed sadly, before reaching out in front of her. Her eyes began to glow with a strange swirl of green and gold magic, and a golden ooze emerged from her palm. It looked almost like a purified version of Belos’ slime, and appeared to be a mix of Luz’s blood and Palisman Essence. The slime congealed together to form a bipedal Ant, with six limbs and large eyes, though its true colouring was unknowable thanks to the slime it was made of. The Ant remained connected to Luz via a tendril of gold slime that attached to her palm, and the girl became noticeably pale as so much of her blood was now outside her body.

Amity rushed to Luz’s side, while her father and mentor both gasped at the sight of the Ant. “T-That’s Orville! Master Mechane’s Palisman!” Darius cried.

The realisation of what this meant hit them both like a cannonball to the heart. If Orville’s soul was inside Luz, then it meant Belos had previously devoured him. And since neither of them believed Lloyd Mechane would go down without a fight, only two things could have happened; he was either petrified or dead.

“I’m sorry, but I actually knew who Lloyd was, though not all the details. I was confused because I recognised the name and it took me a minute to figure out where from. I didn’t know everything about him though; Orville only told me he died fighting Belos, because Belos became suspicious of him investigating the death of a friend.” Luz said weakly.

Darius’ eyes widened; “Your father… he never believed the story that he died in the Fake Angel Attack… In fact, I suspect he figured out that Cassiel was a real Angel; it would explain why he talked to her so much about healing. His daughter Nicole was sick with some kind of incurable condition, though he never told us which one.”

“Wait, he was that suspicious? I never noticed!” Alador exclaimed.

“The Twins were a year and a half old at the time, and Odalia was pregnant with Amity and running you ragged. You were so tired that you barely knew your own name for a while.” Darius told him.

Luz nodded; “Orville told me all this when you were talking. He was investigating Dad’s death since they were friends. Lloyd apparently never trusted Belos either, because of the Coven Sigils. The one he had was on his prosthetic, so it didn’t work properly and examining it made him suspicious.”

Alador and Darius nodded along, finding that it made a weird amount of sense. Normally, Coven Heads were the ones to give the Sigils during the Coven Initiations, but Lloyd had always refused and let another Witch do it; a habit Darius copied. Of course Darius had known his own reasons, but now he understood his old Master’s too. Orville chittered away as it waved at them, causing Moustrosity and Abette to play with the much larger Palisman for a bit. Unlike a normal ant, Orville was closer in size to a small child; the men remembered how much he’d scurried around with Lloyd, serving as his assistant.

“So, Belos heard about the investigation and tried to stop him?” Amity asked.

“Yeah… Lloyd refused though. They fought… and he lost. Belos was too strong, but he did have to resort to using Rasiel’s wings. Lloyd proclaimed he was the real fake Angel, and tried to free Orville so he could escape, but succumbed to his wounds too fast, causing Orville to turn to wood. The next thing he knew, he was inside Belos and got sucked into the Amalgamation.” Luz finished, before groaning.

Orville’s slimy form flickered and wobbled, causing him to look at his claws despondently, before waving to his Palisman friends and his partner’s old apprentices, before melting back into slime and returning to Luz’s body, making her relax and regain a healthy colour. It was clear Luz was not like Belos; she couldn’t use that slime without straining herself badly, so Orville showed mercy by cutting his appearance short.

“Wait, we didn’t get a chance to ask about Nicole! Is she alive or dead? Did she flee the isles after her father died, or was she with him and died too?” Alador asked frantically.

Luz just shook her head though, as Stringbean wrapped around her neck to nuzzle and comfort her; “Sorry guys… Orville has gone back into a slumber with the other Palisman Souls.”

“Damn.” Darius sighed; “I would like to see Nicole again. She was a good girl; only 15 when she disappeared. She looked up to Alador and I, but considering she reminded us a little bit too much of Amity the First, we weren’t always the most eager to spend time with her. Now that we’ve had closure and are close again, we’d have liked to do right by her.”

Amity looked sympathetically at her Dad and Mentor, while Luz just frowned and said; “I’m sorry, Darius. I don’t think it’s a good idea to wake Orville again… but he DID leave me with a final message. Lloyd had a secret lab within the Abomination Coven Headquarters! It contains all his blueprints and research, and the “Ultimate Bio-Mechanical Abomination Prosthetics”, whatever those are!”

“He did!?” Alador asked excitedly.

“Where is it!? How do we get in!?” Darius asked, even more eagerly.

“Orville said “Follow my brothers and sisters in Nicole’s favourite place.” but that’s it.” Luz replied.

The two men began brainstorming immediately; “Follow my brothers and sisters… does he mean Ants?” Darius mumbled.

“We did have a problem with Glacialants at the HQ. Not the same kind of ant, but might still be a lead.” Alador nodded.

The two men then looked to Luz and smiled; “Thank you for this, Luz. And thank Orville for us too. We may never get closure for Nicole, but at least we know what happened to our Master.” Darius said gratefully.

“We’ll tell Amaranth about it too. And I promise we’ll bring back all of Master Mechane’s research!”

Luz smiled at that, and Amity now looked even more excited to be going with her Dad tomorrow! Hunting down the secret magic lab of a mentor figure to her own mentor figures? That was just like a scene from the Good Witch Azura Book 3, where Azura and Hecate had to find the hidden library of their mentors’ (who were twin sisters) mother, who had in turn taught the sisters what they knew!

The girls began to gush over the idea, and the now energised Abomination Specialists decided to throw themselves into helping Matt and the others with the construction of the remaining Dragon Skeletons.

That was how time passed for everyone for the remainder of the day; Luz and Amity decided to have a nice relaxing day of Azura book reading and movie watching, while everyone else got on with their own dates or prep work. Luz was only called away thrice more to charge up the skeletons of Zara, Godric, and Lars, all of which were about 3 hours from each other so she had plenty of time to rest. The Dragon Priests proclaimed that these artificial skeletons feel just like their old ones thanks to the blessings, and so they took Steve and Katya to the other side of the island while they trained them a little for the next day’s mission, which all five Dragons would now be going on. With his project done, Matt turned his attention to completing his second project; Dragonfly-esque Airships that the teams could use for their missions tomorrow. He’d been working on them on and off for most of the week, and the end result was a pair of MTH-Series: Doves. They were simple bird-shaped fliers with the usual suite of features; Palisman Locks, Invisibility Spells, and Capsule Tech, as well as a simple Light Bolt Gatling Gun inside their beaks, which functioned like a larger scale version of the Bolt Caster. One of these was given to Luz, and the other to Amity, and could easily seat a full 8 people comfortably, and up to 16 people if they really bunched together.

Naturally, Luz and Amity were ecstatic and took them for test flights around the island straight after dinner.

After their flights, they were briefly met by Amaranth, who quietly gave her thanks for giving her some closure for Lloyd’s disappearance, though confessed she wasn’t as close to him as the others since she’d been focused on her marriage to Severin, her political manoeuvring, and eventually her maternity leave for Skara. She did remember Nicole though, and hoped the girl was alive somewhere; probably living on another Titan.

Luz also paid a visit to Zirael, who’d been given an apartment next door to Daniel’s, much to both of their happiness. The woman was settling in well, and thanked Luz for allowing her to stay, and helping her not only rekindle her friendship with Lazuliel, but also giving her a chance to once again grow closer with Daniel, who (at the insistence of Cassiel, Zirael, AND Lazuliel) had booked appointments with Golsi to try and help with his depression. Luz was overjoyed to hear it, and the young Seraphim happily went to sleep that night feeling like she’d achieved a lot in a single day!

Little did she know it was the last peaceful sleep she would get until the war was over…
________________________________________________________________________________

[The Next Day]

As usual before a busy day with important missions, Zachael’s Landing was bustling pretty much as soon as the sun rose. Even though no one outside the CATTs council was going on the missions today, the rest of the CATTs were pulling out all the stops for them, making sure they barely had to lift a finger! It was a nice day out too, so the CATTs council members NOT going on either mission today had led the others in setting up a tasty breakfast banquet on the beach, letting the three teams eat a tasty meal while their supplies were packed and readied for them by the rest of the CATTs.

When they were finally fully prepared, the teams thanked the CATTs profusely, and said their farewells for the day. Raine made a special point of visiting the hospital to wish a good day to Scooter, who returned the favour.

Then the three teams gathered together and headed through the Portal Gates to the Boiling Isles again, stopping only briefly to exchange well-wishes with the Titans and even Azazel. As they emerged to a warm, sunny Spring day, with Summer right around the corner, Luz took a deep breath and began to reminisce a little.

“In just a couple of days, it’ll officially be the one year anniversary of when I first arrived in the Demon Realm.” Luz said, feeling the nostalgia hitting her hard.

The others all chuckled; “Yeah, that’s the day that led to the ones that changed all our lives! Heck, for me and your little brother, it IS the day that changed our lives. You were still just a weak little Cherub back then! I’ll never forget watching you charge in and attack Warden Wrath at the Conformatorium! My little rebel has grown up.” Eda cackled, pretending to wipe a tear from her eye (which was actually a very real tear that she was trying to hide).

“And you got me a crown! Kinda anyway.” King grinned, putting a hand on his medallion, which STILL had that first light glyph she’d carved on it

Darius snorted; “Yes, I think we can all agree that day was what heralded the end of our quiet uneventful lives. But I also think we can agree there are no regrets.”

Luz blushed as they all nodded in agreement, with even Zara nodding along with an amused smile. Her life really had changed so much… she’d once had only her Mami, but now she had so many people in her corner! It made her heart swell with joy.

“O-Okay, come on now! We better split up and get going before I start crying.” Luz said, sniffling a little with how touched she was.

“Luz is right. We need to get going. That said…” Amity grabbed Luz by the shoulders and pulled her in for a passionate kiss. When they pulled apart, breathless and red-faced, Amity gave a confident grin and said; “Good luck Batata. I’ll see you tonight, and we’re gonna have some celebratory snuggles!”

“I can hardly wait, Hermosa.” Luz replied, before giving Amity a more chaste kiss and a loving hug.

When the girls pulled apart again, Lilith gave Amity a hug next and said; “Be careful out there, Amity. Your Mom is rooting for you!”

“Thanks Mom. You be careful too! I want to meet my new Grandma and Grandpa today, so fight hard and bring them back!” Amity beamed, giving her Mom some extra motivation.

As those three were chatting, King and Samael also exchanged hugs and well wishes as Prince flew overhead (Chiro was reluctant to let him leave her sight, but King had proven himself worthy, so she’d given her support and blessing). Darius and Eber had a more subdued farewell, basically just teasing each other a little, and then the quartet of Hunter, Lyra, Willow, and Gus also said their farewells.

“Make sure you’re extra careful with your heart, Lyra. Willow will be with me, so if your heart gets cracked or broken, we might not be able to save you in time!” Hunter fretted. “And are you sure you won’t be warm in that outfit? I know it’s your favourite, but it gets hot at the Abomination Headquarters!”

Lyra chuckled; “A little late to worry about THAT Hunter! Besides, I got this outfit in Palm Stings, remember? It’s meant to be good for the heat! And don’t worry about my heart…” she drew a card from her Divine Tarot Deck, revealing the Temperance Card of the Major Arcana. The figure on it resembled Willow, stood amongst fields of wheat. “… if the worst should happen, Shade can use this to mimic Willow’s power and create one of the Galdor Heart Blooms.”

“Vee loaded that card up with all the power my fused form could muster! If that can’t help you, I doubt I could!” Willow chuckled. The Major Arcana of Lyra’s deck had been remade by the CATTs in thanks for her Shadow Scrying; Vee had devoured the magic from each of them on a day off, then used her own powers to bless the cards with the devoured magic, meaning they’d now give Shade the full power of that person! It had been exhausting, but worth it.

“And don’t worry, I’ll protect your worry wart of a brother.” Willow promised.

“Thanks, Willow. You’re the best sister I could ask for.” Lyra beamed, hugging the older girl.

At the same time, Gus and Hunter clasped hands as the latter said; “Protect Lyra with your life, brother.”

“You got it, brother.” Gus replied with a wide grin. The two pulled each other into a manly hug and slapped each other on the back, before letting go and doing a nerdy little salute from Cosmic Frontier when they thought no one was looking.

With the last of the farewells finally said, Luz and Amity released their MTH Doves and got everyone on board, while the Supreme Dragon Rebels and Samael waved and flew off using their dragon staves (or wings, in Katya and Samael’s case). The plan was to wait until all six of the Distraction Team members got into position, then when they were all ready, they’d attack at once and the two mission teams would get to work at their respective destinations. Godric went to attack the Ash Moth Desert where his fire magic would be strongest, Steve went to the Palm Stings Desert since he was familiar with the place, Zara went to the Knee since the cold would boost her powers, Katya went to the left side of the Snowy Rib Cage, near the Left Hip, where the wind was strong enough to form cutting gales, Lars went to the Titan’s Skull since it was close enough for him to attack the throat too, and Samael went to Manubrium, where his suddenly summoned army of Toy Soldiers would be able to cause the most disruption (and hopefully start another city wide game/riot).

As the Distraction Team was doing that, Amity and the Abomination Team flew at top speed all the way towards the Swampy Toes, while Luz and her merry band headed a much shorter distance to the east, where the Right Hip and Beast-Keeping Coven made its home. Since it was so close to Bonesborough now, what with Orion’s Arms being tilted southward, their trip took only about 10 minutes by air, and Luz gasped in amazement as she got a good look at the area around the Right Hip for the first time. Luz had been in the general area quite a few times, usually when coming and going from the Knee, but since they’d usually flown high and straight to the Knee, or stopped at the Thigh and climbed up with their backs to the Hip, she’d never gotten a good look at it before! Thanks to the warmth of the Hip and the Cold of the Knee, a permanent ring of mist seemed to form around the Thigh, which was known as the Femurasma, which kept the Knee and Hip invisible to each other.

“Oh my Titan, look at this place!” Luz gasped, looking at the expanse from the pilot seat of her ship.

The entire Right Hip was a massive savannah, the sort of which Luz expected to see in the wilds of Africa! It was warm and arid, with sparse trees that were each fairly large (larger than a Union Pillar) and had far reaching canopies of golden yellow leaves, which contrasted with their bleached white bark. The long grass that grew in messy patches all over the place was blood red, and a few deep blue oases could be spotted with thicker, red vegetation growing around them.

“This place is so cool! Well, actually it’s hot but you know what I mean!” Luz gushed, “Where’s a good spot to land though? I can keep the Dove invisible, but we still need a safe place to park her that won’t disrupt any animals.”

“Park in a dead tree.” Willow answered; “These things are Apex Acacia Trees; they’re tough as rock and can support up to five times their own weight. Landing on one would be like like a large Eagle landing on an Apple Tree.”

Eber barked; “Bee Lady is right. Trees here tough. Only die when hit by lightning. One such tree near here. Look west of coast.”

Luz silently obeyed and sure enough, she spotted a large dead tree to land the flyer in. The tree had been struck by lighting and died a long time ago, just as Eber said, so there were no leaves or animals to disturb as she touched down on the massive thing. Once Luz was sure they weren’t going to move or shift about as they disembarked, she opened the side hatch of the Dove-shaped Flyer and the nine-member team hopped out and stood on the thick branches of the tree and looked out across the Savannah.

The young Angel could feel the heat; “Phew, this is like Gran Seraphia all over again! Glad I’m dressed for the weather! How is it so hot here?”

Eber opened her mouth to answer, but an overexcited Hunter quickly chimed in, eager to explain; “It’s actually because of the Beast-Keeping Headquarters! It is semi-reflective and it absorbs heat from the sunlight and radiates it outward! This creates an arid area and not only that, but the rising heat combined with the cold air from the Knee results in frequent thunderstorms, as well as the Femurasma.”

Luz and the others all blinked at his passionate reply, making Hunter blush as he realised he’d gotten a bit TOO worked up. “O-Oh, sorry. I should have let Aunt Eber explain.” Hunter mumbled, embarrassed.

Eber shook her head with a smile and patted his shoulder; “Gold Nephew shouldn’t say sorry. You know more than even Eber! You should explain.”

“Eber’s right; don’t be ashamed. I’m quite impressed.” Raine said comfortingly.

“Yeah, you sure know a lot about this place! I guess it makes sense, with you being an animal nerd, as well as a space nerd.” King grinned teasingly.

Hunter just shrugged; “I’ve always been interested in the nature of the Boiling Isles. There’s magic in everything here, and for those of us who don’t have any spell casting without their staves, it was fascinating.”

“Magic in everything… that’s a really beautiful way to see it, Hunter.” Luz smiled warmly; “Never imagined I’d here that from the former Golden Goof!”

“Yeah yeah, make your jokes! I’m perfectly secure in who I am.” Hunter retorted, smirking defiantly.

Willow kissed him on the cheek, making him blush again; “Dang right, Tiger! Now tell us all about this place! I don’t know anything about this region and you’re hot when you nerd out.”

Hunter’s face reddened a little further, then he eagerly gestured for everyone (including the smirking adults) to follow him through the air as he headed deeper into the savannah. The others (even those with wings) hopped on their staves and followed him obediently, Luz putting up a barrier with an invisibility spell woven in so they wouldn’t be seen.

“This area is known as the West Ilium Savannah, and it is home to some of the toughest and most dangerous Beast Demons of the Isles. They are rivals with the Bug Demons that reside in the East Ilium Jungle, which covers the left hip and connects to the Navel Forest. You won’t find many more dangerous and intelligent beings, which includes the West Ilium Direwolf Pack that Aunt Eber is the Alpha of.” Hunter began, going full lecture mode. He spoke with such enthusiasm that it was impossible to not get sucked in though.

“Hey, Barcus; is your Mom from the West Ilium Direwolves too?” Luz asked curiously.

Barcus (who had his staff attached to his back, so it looked like he was a kite gliding along) woofed in response; “No. Mom was from the East Scapula Direwolves. They live in the hills not far from the Alchemist Atelier.”

Eber barked in response, but what she said was lost in translation, as only a fellow Direwolf descendent could understand it. Barcus responded with a solemn nod, and Eber gave a sympathetic whine, giving the others the impression that Eber was expressing sympathy that Barcus was associated with that pack.

Deciding to change the subject, Willow decided to ask; “So, if this place is the West Ilium Savannah, where is the actual Coven Headquarters? I’ve seen a few small camps, but nothing that looks like a base.”

“Look north west. See that thing in the distance?” Hunter told them.

Everyone did so, narrowing their eyes a little before they spotted what Hunter was pointing out. Luz, King, and Willow all gasped in amazement, being the only ones who’d never seen the place before, while the others still felt a bit of awe, just as they had on their first times seeing it too.

It was a massive Mensa; a flat topped mountain right in the middle of the Right Hip. That alone was unusual, as such mountains didn’t normally form on Titans unless their fingers or ribs break, forming artificial flat top mountains, but despite this one appearing bone white too, it wasn’t actually made of bone. Instead, it was colossal (big enough to fit a small city atop it) and made of ethereal white stone. Luz cast a spell on her eyes to zoom in and get a better look, and found the massive mountain appeared to be cracked and broken, with multiple valleys and passages leading through it. But the really interesting part was that with the exception of the edges of these cracks, which appeared weathered and white like the exterior of the mountain, the interior was glistening and crystalline, looking like a mix of opal and white obsidian, almost as if the entire thing was a gigantic gemstone! Luz couldn’t see into the tunnels that well, but she could see walkways and carved out hollows all throughout the inside, as well as a few red stone buildings on the sides and top of the mountain’s exterior.

“Whoa…!” Luz exclaimed; “Is that whole thing the Beast-Keeping Coven’s base!? It’s massive!”

“It’s bigger than any of the other bases, unless you count the entire Laptela Necropolis and not just the castle!” King agreed.

“Heck, you could put Spriggan Manor, the Alchemist Atelier, Laptela Castle, the Caduceus Grand Hospital, and the Grand Symphonia Concert Hall on top of that thing, and then fit the entire inside parts of Cocytux Island inside it!” Willow cried, shocked to see such a massive base.

Eber barked out a laugh; “Need lots of space for beasts! Beast dens, beast hospital, beast training areas. Plus place for training hunters, tamers, and beast healers, AND place for people dens.”

“I guess that makes sense. A lot of the Boiling Isles’ creatures ARE pretty big… and you must need to accommodate for all of the different kinds.” Luz said, nodding along.

“They likely won’t need quite as much space with Belos out of the way.” Lilith chimed in; “He ruled that using Healing Magic on beasts was the same as mixing magic, and was thus wild and wrong. That our Healing Magic was only for us. Because of that, the Beast-Keeping Coven had to pull double duty as healers for beasts, but without the benefit of healing magic. That meant they needed more facilities… the Beast-Keeping Coven was consistently one of the most overworked, underfunded Covens.”

Barcus nodded; “I heard it would have never been able to keep offering its services if it weren’t for public donations. A lot of people gave snails to the Beast Keepers to keep them operating, since they were all that stopped the more dangerous species from attacking them on the roads and in the smaller settlements.”

That was a worrying thought, and since Eber, Lilith, and Hunter all looked fairly grim, the others knew it was likely true. This was likely another cruelty of Belos’; keep the Beast Keepers from really helping by underfunding them and overworking them, ensuring more innocent Witches and Demons ended up dead or maimed by dangerous monsters… Maybe he thought it would serve as further proof that these creatures needed wiping out!

“Well that tracks… Belos ruining things is nothing new.” King grumbled. “Now tell me more about this giant white rock! It looks nothing like any of my Dad’s bones! And I don’t think our hips have those things.”

“Actually, this place USED to be something of a mystery.” Hunter began, making everyone (even those who knew about the place) look at him curiously. “You see, this mountain is known as the Wild Crag due to it being a beacon for Beast Demons. They love this thing; it’s like Batnip for them! But in ancient times, it was known as the Great Lunar Altar, because this mountain isn’t actually a part of the Titan; it’s a slither of the Moon!”

“WHAT!?” Luz, King, and Willow all cried out in shock.

“That giant thing is a chunk of the moon!?” Luz said with disbelief.

“That’s right! The Moon that orbits the Demon Realm has a synchronous rotation, similar to the Human Realm’s Moon. It means we always see the same face and never the dark side of it, but Masters of Astral Projection are said to have travelled to the Dark Side of the Moon using their spirit forms, and found that the Dark Side is a ravaged wasteland, with huge chunks of it missing and only spikes of the interior visible. It was supposedly like cracking open a geode!” Hunter explained.

“Wait, but if this thing really is Moon Rock, why is it all crystalline on the inside?” Willow asked.

“Oh, I can answer that!” Eda grinned; “The Moon is made of a mineral called Lunacite! It’s a variant of what we consider to be Moonstones! It’s glassy and smooth, like obsidian, but has a milky hue with iridescent swirls, like Opals or Pearls. Chunks of it are worth a fair bit if you can keep them smooth, but it doesn’t take a lot to tarnish the surface. Weathering from meteorites in space, and in the sandy winds down here are what create that chalky coating.”

“Neat! That also explains the heat! If this is a chunk of the moon, it’s makes sense that it absorbs or radiates the sun’s heat! That’s what turned this place into such a dry place, right?” Luz grinned.

“Got it in one!” Hunter grinned.

“Awesome!” Luz cheered; “So I’m guessing that mystery has something to do with how slithers of the Moon ended up in Orion, and presumably other places? Especially as they come from the Dark Side of the Moon that never faces the Demon Realm.”

“That’s right. It’s one of the great natural mysteries of our world. No one is sure why it’s like this.” Lilith said.

Hunter’s grin grew wider; “Like I said, it USED to be a mystery, but I think I know the reason for it now! And the Divine Realm gave me my first clue!”

“And what would that be?” Raine asked, intrigued.

“Well, the Divine Realm and Demon Realm are mirrors of each other, so everything should be the same unless altered by the residents. Well, I noticed the Divine Realm’s Moon does NOT have a synchronous rotation! We saw different faces of it each night!” Hunter explained, growing more excited as he began voicing his theory. Seeing everyone’s attention glued to him as they flew made Hunter feel giddy, so he eagerly continued; “Now what, or should I say, WHO has the power to take parts of the moon and use them against the Titans?”

They all gasped, and King exclaimed; “The Huntsman!? You think he did this!?”

“Think about it; it makes sense. The Huntsman has power over the Moon, and his direct magic wouldn’t work on Titans, so he could conjure his own Moons like Bill did, but which a full grown Titan could probably dispel easily, or he could rip chunks out of the Moon and shoot them like spikes at the Titans he fought!” Hunter explained. “He could also change the rotation of the Moon to be synchronous, so the Titans never knew why these new “conjured” Moon spikes could hurt them while the old ones couldn’t, as they wouldn’t be able to see all the damage the Huntsman was doing to the Moon!”

The others gaped at the proud looking boy, going over the theory in their minds and being unable to find fault in it! It made a twisted kind of sense, and a Moon Bullet to the Right Hip could easily have been the reason Orion wasn’t with Cassiopeia during her final battle with the Archivists! He was injured and stayed behind to heal!

Unable to contain herself, Luz tied herself to her staff with some vines, then transformed into her Titan Angel Form and closed her eyes to meditate, so she could make contact with Orion. She felt his presence within her mind, and heard his voice inside her head.

“Hello Luz. I’ve been watching.” Orion greeted with a jovial smile; “And to answer the question I know you’ll ask; your friend’s theory is correct. A few hundred years before I passed away and the Titan-Archivist War ended, I and some other Titans clashed with the Huntsman. I was shot in the hip at the time, and instead of going to be properly healed by an expert, I healed the flesh wound and kept fighting. The Moon Shard has been stuck in me ever since, and slowed me down a lot… it’s why I couldn’t keep up with Cassiopeia when she went to fight the Archivists.”

“So Hunter was right! I’m so sorry that happened to you…” Luz frowned, sending her thoughts to her Godfather.

Orion chuckled; “Such is the nature of war. I would have been fine if I’d gotten it treated properly, but I was impatient. Besides, if I’d gone with my Mate, I’d likely have ended up cursed and blown up too, and the Boiling Isles you know wouldn’t exist, and the ancestors of all your friends would be scattered around the Demon Realm.”

“I guess that’s true. Always gotta look on the bright side! I’ll tell Hunter, he’ll be really happy he was right!” Luz smiled. The two shared a short goodbye, then Luz opened her eyes and turned back into her Seraphim form.

“Good news Hunter! According to Tio Orion, your theory is right! But I guess the bad news is that we have more reasons to hate Belial.” Luz said, deciding to call the evil Archivist by his name and not his title. Not only did it feel like she was making fun of him (which she was all for), but it stopped any confusion with Hunter’s name.

For his part, Hunter just grinned ecstatically, pleased to be proven correct. Lilith was very impressed, and Willow was sure to fly alongside him so she could give him a little kiss on the cheek in congratulations. Eber, Barcus, and Eda were intrigued by this new reveal, while Raine looked to a quiet King with some concerns.

“Are you alright, King? This must be complicated for you…” Raine said.

“It’s annoying to hear that this really cool place was made by Belial hurting my Dad, but I guess it can’t be helped.” King replied, crossing his arms.

The look on the young Titan’s face made it clear that he was done talking about this, so the others decided to drop the subject and get back to the focus of the mission; rescuing the Palismen and the Clawthorne Elders. However as they got closer to the Wild Crag, they all began to notice that there was no Union Pillar, and that the pillar for the hip was actually a good few kilometres to the north of the Crag.

“I guess the Wild Crag didn’t hit Orion in the Wellspring. How should we handle this?” Eda asked. “Go for the Pillar, disable it, and start a riot? Or go in for the rescue while we still have the element of surprise, then spark the riot on our way out?”

Everyone turned to Eberwolf, since she was the one who knew this place and had been its Overseer before being rescued. The little Wolf Woman tapped her chin with a claw as she tilted her head like a confused puppy (making Luz nearly squeal at the cuteness), then barked; “Pillar first would be dangerous. Beasts divided too, would go feral and attack. Lots of chaos, easy escape… but potential deaths. Rescue while divided harder, but safer. Eber says we rescue friends and Palismen first.”

“Good idea. So, do you know where they’d all be?” Luz asked.

Eber again took a moment to think, then answered; “Palismen kept in Tree Hollow, over there.” Eber pointed towards a large Apex Acacia tree a few dozen yards to the west of them, making it directly south of the Crag. It looked like any of the other trees at first glance, but there was a large hollow in the centre of the trunk, and steps carved into the bark of the tree to reach it.

“Clawthorne Elders lived within Head Witch’s Lodge, centre of the Crag. Eber gave it to them; Eber preferred being out with Pack. Barcus’ family not sure… could be anywhere. Rom was Tamer and Howlena was Hunter, so could be anywhere in West Ilium.” Eber replied.

“That makes things a bit tougher. Let’s go for the Palismen first.” Raine suggested; “Luz can undo the division on any guards we find, so they can give us more intel.”

The others readily agreed, and so Eber nodded along too, but she had another idea to take care of first; “We should find Eber’s Pack first. Pack not divided, as Pack Alpha was already divided; Eber. They help.”

“Then lets find them first! We’re not supposed to begin the infiltration until we get word that Samael and the Dragons have begun their attacks anyway.” Luz said. “Is there a good spot we can hide in that also gives us a good view of the place?”

Eber nodded and pointed to the far west, past the Palisman Tree Hollow to a small rock formation directly south-west from the Wild Crag. The gang flew there together and landed atop it, finding it just tall enough to see everything except the other side of the Wild Crag, making it ideal for seeing at least half the West Ilium Savannah. They kept the invisibility barrier up so they wouldn’t be seen, and began surveying the area as they waited for the signal from the Distraction Team.

The Wild Crag really was huge, and when seen up close, it really did look like a Moon Mensa had been dropped onto the Boiling Isles, and had cracked a fair bit from the impact. The warmth radiating out from it was thankfully mild, as the weathered coating didn’t reflect heat quite as well as the pristine crystalline surface, but it still had King testing his new staff by casting a simple ice spell to cool them all down. The place was also so big that it was sparsely protected; almost every Wings of Rani Member and Abomaton Paladin that they’d seen was patrolling around the Union Pillar north of the Crag, with very few elsewhere. They seemed to be posted at the entrance to any crack on the ground, while a few Angelic Outposts had been built atop the Crag itself, but beyond that security was fairly lax. The Beast-Keepers living in the area seemed to be largely living as they always had, with groups of them roaming the Savannah with Animal Companions; a few of which were injured and being taken on rehab exercises, and a few that were born in captivity and being reintroduced to the wild. Some of the Beast-Keepers were out on hunts, either to capture Animal Companions or to deal with dangerous animals.

Eber and Hunter took turns quietly reporting all this to those not familiar with the area and the Coven, and even pointed out one particular hunt that was happening nearby; a pack of three Hunters with Marrdreg Companions where hunting a Sandstorm Hippo: a kind of Hippo Beast Demon that burrowed under the ground and stored a huge amount of sand into its body, which it then expelled through its pores whenever it wished in order to create a Sandstorm that enabled it to escape its predators (the fearsome Tyrant Sand Drakes), and their preferred prey… which was just about anything smaller than it. According to Eber, they were solitary animals and if they got too close to one another’s territory outside of their mating season, they’d end up fighting, and fights between the Sandstorm Hippos could shut down huge chunks of the Savannah, cause other Beasts to flee (causing more territory disputes for other creatures), block off roads and access to important watering holes and food sources, and almost always ended with one or both participants dead. This particular Hippo was allegedly a young one; a hot shot female (as designated by its darker colour) that was encroaching on the territory of an old male. Even during mating season, the age difference would mean the two wouldn’t see each other as partners, so outside of that season it would inevitably lead to a bad fight, and so the Hunters had been sent out to deal with the Hippo.

Luz couldn’t resist getting a good look at the Hunters by casting the zoom spell on her vision again (and doing the same for Willow, Barcus, and King since they couldn’t do the spell themselves yet). The Hunters looked a little bit like Titan Trappers, given the way their uniforms consisted of dull orange tunics and pants worn over animal hides, but the difference was that they had normal boots and gloves, and their hides could be anything from fur, to thick skin, to scales, to even insect chitin. They also wore cloaks and hoods in the colours of the savannah, with simple cloth masks over their mouths and a carved bone domino mask that resembled an animal skull over their eyes.

“Coven Hunters not mindless murderers like Titan Trappers, but still serious warriors. All Hunters must kill for duty; to eat, to protect, to survive. Is the Circle of Life.” Eber explained when she saw King’s disturbed expression. “First law of Coven: Kill if needed, do not kill if not needed. Simple. But when Hunters bring down first large prey, they make armour from hide and mask from bones. Not as trophy, but as memorial. We take life, and honour that life.”

“Grim, but none of us here are vegetarians, so we’ve all eaten beasts killed and turned into food.” King mused, watching as the Hunters and their Marrdreg companions slowly stalked towards a feasting Sandstorm Hippo, who was devouring a dead Bolt Goat; jumpy little Goat-like Demons with lightning bolt shaped horns, which allowed them to catch lightning in a storm and save it for later, then shock predators with it in order to escape. Clearly this poor fellow hadn’t realised that the rubbery, earth covered hide of the Sandstorm Hippo was resistant to lightning. The hunters were using their cloaks as simple camouflage, and using the Marrdreg’s ability to whip up winds to make sure their scent was being blown downwind and away from their prey.

“It’s the same in the Divine Realm. The Circle of Life is sacred there.” Luz said softly, wondering if the Hunters were going to kill the Hippo… she did notice that one of the Hunters didn’t have any additional hides or a mask, meaning she was likely a young and inexperienced Hunter, yet to earn her first kill.

Her worries were unfounded though, as the Hunters all burst out of cover around the Hippo and startled her, before firing very mild stinging spells at the creature, while the Marrdregs barked and snapped at the Hippo’s side, not piercing the skin but definitely bothering the larger beast. The Sandstorm Hippo tried to use her titular ability, but the Marrdregs blew the sand away, and with more stinging spells bothering her, the Hippo eventually roared in annoyance and trundled off in the opposite direction. The Hunters chased her for a short time, but never caught up despite how slow it ran, literally just chasing it away. Once it had gained enough distance and showed no signs of stopping, the Hunters recalled their Marrdregs and stopped the chase, their mission successful.

The CATTs smiled as they watched the older Hunters slap the young one on the back, as she had led the hunt well.

“You see? No need to kill Hippo. Problem solved by driving her off.” Eber smiled. “Kill when needed, spare when possible. The most important part of the Beast-Keeper’s Creed!”

“Those Hunters were smart.” The CATTs’ own Hunter commented; “They knew just want to do and drove her off with minimal damage or stress. If I’d been down there, I probably would have been too aggressive and ended up causing the Hippo to feel challenged, causing a fight that’d end in injury or death.”

“Hey now, don’t put yourself down.” Willow told him; “You’re amazing too!”

“Thanks, Blossom.” Hunter smiled, using the little nickname she liked most; “But I wasn’t putting myself down, just giving an honest assessment. It was important as a leader in the Emperor’s Coven, as Belos demanded the best of the best in performance, and I needed to be aware of my strengths and weaknesses so I could find solutions that performed to his expectations.”

“Oof, don’t remind me… you’re not alone there, Nephew.” Lilith shuddered. It still made both of them cringe to think about how desperate they’d once been to please Belos!

Neither Eda nor Willow were happy with this topic, and thankfully it ended when Luz’s DCM got a call from Samael. The little Sephiroth had begun his attack on Manubrium, and the Supreme Dragon Team had each begun attacking their targets in full Dragon Form, sowing chaos across the Isles. Luz thanked Samael and told the rest of the team, who then watched the Wild Crag like a hawk for signs of the security changing. Sure enough, some urgent calls went out from the Wings of Rani… however none of them left the region and instead went to guard the Union Pillar, making it incredibly well-guarded but also leaving the Wild Crag completely without Angelic or Abomaton security. That meant only the Coven itself was protecting it now.

“Perfect! Attacking the Union Pillar is probably a lost cause now, but if we’re smart, we can free a ton of the Divided without going near it anyway!” Raine grinned.

Luz nodded; “Right! And if worst comes to worst, I’ll go full force and attack the Pillar. Mom, Tia, Titi, and I should be able to force out way in if we need to. But lets save that for a last resort.” she turned to Eber; “We’re ready to move out. Tia Eber, we’ll leave you to lead us to your pack.”

“Got it, Little Light! Thanks to Marrdregs, Eber caught Packs’ scent on the wind! Follow!”

Eber leapt down from the rock formation and began rushing off to the south, not far from where the Hippo had run off too. Luz and the others gave chase immediately, but Lilith briefly paused to release and activate the Signal Jammer that Alador had made, ensuring there would be no reinforcements to the Right Hip while they were present. They followed Eber on their staves, as the little Pack Alpha was shockingly fast as she ran on all fours.

The chase lasted for only a couple of minutes, before the CATTs spotted what Eber had smelled; a large pack of Direwolves roaming near a watering hole, resting and eating. They were each massive, horse-sized wolves with orange fur like Eber, purple eyes with yellow sclera, and manes of reddish brown hair that started at their heads and went down their spines towards their long, bushy tails, which ended in the dark reddish fur in the same way King’s tail ended in lighter fur. Some of them had battle scars, and many had bloody fangs and claws, which they were washing off in the watering hole. They appeared to be the males, while the females of the pack were laying down beside the water, watching as their pups messily devoured the remains of a Bolt Goat. Numerous Bolt Goat Carcasses, largely stripped of edible flesh, were piled up nearby; evidence of the Pack’s most recent successful hunt.

Eber barked at the pack to announce her approach, as well as let them know she was bringing guests, including a Direwolf Pup from a different pack. It was important to make such a thing clear, lest her pack think she was being chased and thus attack her pursuers, and kill poor Barcus. The Wolves all looked up, and some sharp low barks from the females had the pups stopping their meal to hide behind them, while the females circled their children and the males moved to meet Eber part way. They didn’t seem happy to see her however, and were instead on guard, with their ears back, their tails low, and their eyes focused on Eber. Luz narrowed her own eyes in suspicion, and the others did too as they sensed a tension in the air… was it just because Eber was bringing outsiders? Or were they wary about her still being under someone else’s control?

Either way, the CATTs followed Eber until she stopped a few feet from the pack, then stopped behind her a bit further back, with Luz taking on her Titan Form and standing proud with her family, who took on their own hybrid forms. Willow also fused with Clover, leaving only Eber, Hunter, and Barcus as they were before.

“Pack! I return!” Eber barked, walking forward on all fours with a confident stride. She deepened her bark slightly, to make herself come across as more masculine, since she WAS still masquerading as a male.

The pack did not reply, and in fact the males began to slowly encircle them, with some of the females forming a secondary ring around them too, all showing aggressive body language. Eber narrowed her eyes at this and howled loudly, before snarling viciously, making many of the Direwolves flinch back a step.

“You dare disrespect Alpha!?” she snarled; “I bring guests and allies! Do not disrespect them!”

However, disrespect was not where the pack’s disobedience would end, as when Eber began turning to look at each wolf in turn, the one that seemed to be leading the pack in her absence suddenly lunged forward silently, his maw wide open and ready to crunch Eber’s head. Her friends cried out and Luz raised a hand to fire off a spell, but Eber snarled out; “DON’T INTERFERE!” startling Luz as the little Coven Head effortlessly dodged toward the rogue Direwolf, passing beneath his chin before suddenly leaping up and smashing her fists into his jaw, causing it to slam shut with an unsettlingly loud crack, whilst also sending him head over heels back to where he started.

The Rogue Direwolf disguised his whimpers with furious growls as he clenched his jaw and snapped it back into place, while also spitting out some back teeth. Eber just growled; “What do you think you’re doing, Roargna!?”

The CATTs who could understand her gaped in shock; she was still speaking in the Direwolves’ dialect, but now she spoke far less casually and far more regally. Luz used to think that Eber and Barcus spoke different versions of the same language, and her being used to Barcus but not Eber when they first met, but had since learned they actually spoke exact same language. The reason for the difference was that the Direwolf tongue often valued simplified sentences with fewer words, as a lot of their communication was reading body language, but some like Barcus spoke more like a regular Witch or Biped so they could be better understood by those who didn’t know HOW to read their body language. Eber usually preferred the simplified version, but now she was speaking the formal version that Barcus spoke, making it very clear that she was in charge and she was not happy.

Roargna snarled, but didn’t make any move to attack again, instead beginning to pace in circles around Eber, who in turn paced around him, still walking on all fours. She had entered a partial Wild Heart Shape, so her legs were now shaped a bit closer to the standard Dire Wolf, even though she still looked like a puppy compared to Roargna. He was by far the largest of the Direwolves, being closer in size to a Shire Horse, while his fellows were like Mustangs. He was covered in rippling muscles, and his fur was burnt orange with a reddish black coloured mane. He also, strangely, had basically no scars unlike the other wolves.

“Roargna and Pack know truth now!” he growled; “Former Alpha is fake! False! FEMALE!”

Eberwolf’s eyes widened in shock, as did the other CATTs. How did Roargna and the Pack know that!? Eber hadn’t revealed it while Divided as it would get her killed, and no one else outside the CATTs knew! The rest of the West Ilium Direwolves began snarling and growling, letting Eberwolf know just how they felt about her trickery. The poor Coven Head looked heartbroken and unsure of herself for a split second, which combined with the support of the Pack to give Roargna a massive confidence boost.

“You not deny it!?” he demanded.

Eber shook her head; “No, Eber won’t deny it! Eberwolf is Female, and happy about it! Eber will never be ashamed of her gender!”

“You tell ‘em, Eber!” Eda cheered, getting the others to cheer along too.

“That’s right! Never be ashamed of your body or identity, Eberwolf!” Raine agreed.

“Yeah! But I’m curious… how did you even figure it out?” Luz demanded, glaring at Roargna.

He looked back at her and King with a mix of apprehension and fury; their Titan forms were making his instincts want to run for the hills, but his pride wouldn’t allow that, so he was stuck in a kind of limbo.

“The Skull-Faced Ones told Roargna!” he revealed; “Skull-Faced Female comes to Roargna, has strange eyes and smells bad… but tells Roargna truth! Old Alpha is deceiver!”

The CATTs frowned; the Skull-Faced Ones could only be Titan Trappers, but the question was when did they reveal this to the Direwolves? And how did they know? It was possible that the Trappers assigned here before (who’d helped collar and steal most of the Palisman) were the ones responsible, but why would they do that and how would they have known? Luz highly doubted the Divider brought it up to them.

Eber wasn’t concerned about that though, and continued to stand and pace with her head held high, refusing to buckle or be ashamed. “Yes, Eber lied. Eber’s mother lied to protect her. Eber was already small and a half-breed; if people discovered Eber was female too, they would have killed her. But Eber became strong! Strong enough to kill Father and become the new Alpha! Eber is still strong! Even as a female, Eber won’t lose to any of you!”

That last sentence was accompanied by Eber snarling and lunging at Roargna, jumping up at the last moment to kick him hard in the face, knocking him backward and getting a pained yelp from him. The larger Direwolf managed to stay on his feet and shake his head, snarling back at Eber incoherently. The rest of the pack snapped and snarled too, and it was becoming increasingly obvious that things were coming to a head. Hunter used his Wild Heart Transformation so he’d be ready for a vicious battle, and the others were preparing to fight too; Direwolves were sturdy and had thick pelts that even strong magic could struggle to get through, and with this many of them surrounding them, things could get bad very fast.

Eber realised this as well, and so let loose a loud howl that silenced the growling Pack. She then glared fiercely at Roargna and declared; “Eber challenges Roargna to a Blood Hunt, for the title of Alpha!”

The Pack went very still as Roargna’s eyes widened. Hunter and Barcus both gasped too, and when the other confused CATTs looked to them, Hunter whispered; “A Blood Hunt is basically like a Direwolf version of a Witch’s Duel! They compete against each other in a test of violence and strength; either a literal hunt for some powerful beast, or a straight fight between them! But they almost always end in death for the loser! They are called Blood Hunts for a reason!”

“Seriously!? Tia Eber, is this a good idea?” Luz whispered nervously. If it was a one-on-one fight, she wouldn’t be able to help! She had faith in Eber, but she didn’t want to risk her or the mission!

Sadly though, Eber couldn’t back out now even if she wanted to, and now that the Pack knew they were present, they wouldn’t let them leave! They either had to be conquered, killed, or memory-wiped to ensure they didn’t cause the CATTs more trouble! There was no other way now, as Eber knew they couldn’t be talked down.

However it seemed her plan wasn’t going to work anyway; Roargna looked cagey as everyone waited to hear his response, and to the shock of Eber and the entire Pack, he actually refused.

“No! No Blood Hunt! Lying Female is Deceiver! Slew old Alpha with magic and deception! Brings new allies to cheat for her!” Roargna glared at the CATTs; “Strange Furry Angel will cheat! Give her power! Roargna refuses!”

It was a paper thin excuse in the CATTs opinion, but it was at least an understandable objection, meaning Roargna wasn’t shamed for refusing. Eber grit her teeth as the Direwolves began growling and becoming aggressive again, while Luz protested.

“I won’t interfere or give Tia Eber any of my magic or powers! I won’t let the others do it either! I’ll give an Everlasting Oath if I have to! Then you should have no reason to refuse!”

Roargna shook his head; “Deceiver has deceiver friends! Cannot be trusted!”

“Sounds more like you’re just a coward! A great big Dire-Chicken!” King taunted, before making chicken noises at Roargna.

The New Alpha was enraged and actually turned to snap at King, only for Eda to take exception to that.

“Step off from my kid, Mutt!” she snarled, before lifting one of her Harpy Form’s taloned feet and slamming it into Roargna’s face, making him yelp loudly and causing ALL the other Direwolves to begin rabidly snarling and howling.

Hunter and Eber cringed; “Now that we’ve hit the Alpha, we’ve basically just declared war!” the former yelled.

The Direwolves outside the circle immediately began snatching up their pups in their mouths and tossing them onto their backs, before darting off with incredible speed, running to a safe distance so they and the pups wouldn’t get drawn into the fight. The instant they were out of the way, Roargna let out a loud howl that carried a magical echo, and he began to actually grow a little, becoming the size of an Adult Griffin, while the other Wolves in his pack grew to be about the size he had just been.

“Holy Moly! They can get bigger!?” Willow gasped, green spell circles with plant glyphs inside them already forming in her palms.

“Direwolves can cast spells in a similar way to Bardic Magic, by using their howls. Each howl is different, though only a Direwolf’s ears are sensitive enough to pick out the difference 99% of the time.” Hunter replied, twirling Flapjack and holding a glyph combo in his other hand as the pack began to snarl and encircle them.

Barcus nodded and growled; “Direwolves even have a rudimentary Bile Sac, but it’s attached to our oesophagus and not our hearts.”

Before any of the CATTs could say more, one of smaller male Direwolves (who was still huge now) leapt at Eda and aimed to bite off her head with a single chomp. At the same time, a female wolf howled and caused roots from an Apex Acacia to rip their way out of the ground and wrap around each of the Hexsquad’s feet and arms, preventing them from immediately escaping. Since Eda couldn’t now dodge, she cast a simple wind spell by twirling her finger then pointing it upward, causing a powerful gale to hit her in the chin and knock her head off her neck and several feet into the air. This meant she evaded the bite from the Direwolf, who was then sucker punched in the gut by Eda’s fist, winding him and knocking him down to the ground.

Willow then flexed her body, releasing a green aura that immediately caused the roots to release them all, before sending them to capture the wolves instead. The female that had set the roots on them tried to howl and regain control, but her effort was useless against the power of Willow and her fusion. Eda then flew up to catch her head and reattach it, while King, Lilith, and Raine joined her in the air to begin their counterattack where the wolves couldn’t easily reach them.

Eber’s pack had about 25 wolves (not including the pups), which was split into 13 males and 12 females. Five of those females had fled with the pups, leaving seven of them to fight alongside the males, meaning two enemies for the gang to deal with. Eber herself focused on Roargna and his mate, while Luz dealt with Roargna’s two large male Betas and a single female Beta (the largest in the pack besides Roargna’s mate), leaving the remaining 15 to the others. The four CATTs in the air focused on the group as a whole, supporting the others on the ground, while Barcus, Hunter, and Willow each took on five of the wolves.

For Willow, this was so easy that she didn’t really need support; the wolves had all managed to bite and claw through the roots binding their legs so they could attack, but Willow just used her wings to buzz around and dart out of the way of their attacks, while shooting vines at them like whips to smack them back and growing simple plants as a form of crowd control, since she had no desire to waste her magic and strength this early into the mission. She easily defeated one Direwolf by growing a tree beneath it, causing it to be tangled in its branches and unable to free itself or get down, with vines wrapping around its snout. A second was defeated by goading it into a full on charge, then shooting a pair of coconuts bound together by vines like a bolas, wrapping it around its ankles and making it trip and smack its head on another tree Willow quickly grew. The third was paralysed by Willow’s hair stingers as it lunged at her and she tilted her head to the side to avoid taking damage. The last two then tried a coordinated attack, but found that instead of attacking Willow, they’d ended up attacking each other, as Willow had used the fluttering of her wings to subtly spread the pollen of the Mirage Magnolias, which caused those who inhaled it to see what they wanted to see. As such, both wolves saw themselves leaping to maul a helpless Willow, only to wind up smashing head first into each other and knocking themselves out.

Barcus was having a similarly easy time, as he used his own Direwolf ability to grow alongside his Lycan Ancestry, which allowed him to take on the muscular form of a werewolf, complete with a more wolfish head. He didn’t usually like using this form since it meant losing some of his intelligence to the wild instincts he was indulging in, but since Luz’s Titan Form was making her less terrifying to his spirit (even though its magic still didn’t work on her) and there were no crazed Necromancers around like there had been at the Necropolis, Barcus’ spirit (nicknamed Wise) was able to help him maintain his mind, while also whipping up potions for him by using his knowledge and the Potioneer Belt he wore around his waist. Combining this with his Direwolf Howl spells allowed Barcus to make short work of the five wolves attacking him, who seemed to be the weaker members of the West Ilium Pack. They likely saw him as just a weak half-breed pup… one would think that after Eber, they’d see the error of that way of thinking!

Almost immediately, Barcus defeated one of the wolves by using his now Lycan-like forepaws to grab its jaw as it lunged at him, then force it shut and bind the teeth and lips together with some Gooey Gab-No-More produced by his spirit. Another wolf howled at his back, creating a cutting gale that actually hurt Barcus, but his thick hide kept the wound from being too bad, and Wise poured a simple healing potion on it as Barcus used the gagged wolf as a cudgel to smash into the other wolf, knocking them both out. The remaining three then attacked at once, one going for his left ankle, one going for his throat, and one going for his pink monkey Palisman Duno, who was meditating in order to help guide Wise. Barcus avoided all of them by using his powerful legs to leap into the air and have his Palisman Staff hold him there as he then conjured a series of crystal balls, which he used like giant potion bombs by filling them with the fluid of a Lightning Magic Bomb, which Wise had been brewing in a conjured crystal ball, as Wise could uniquely turn small, non-living objects incorporeal, allowing him to put ingredients into his crystal ball without opening it up, letting it serve as a cauldron. With these newly formed Oracle Potion Bombs, Barcus howled and launched them down at the three Direwolves he’d just evaded, causing a massive explosion of lightning magic that knocked all three of them unconscious, and even managed to knock out one of the ones fighting Hunter.

This turned out to be a big help, as Hunter was struggling by far the most. The fight for him had started off badly when he tried to pre-empt a pounce on him by flashing behind a Direwolf who’d been acting as if it was about to. However the instant he appeared behind it, the wolf had kicked its rear legs out like a horse, smashing Hunter incredibly hard and sending him flying into the watering hole. Thankfully his sturdy Stonesleeper parts meant he was only mildly bruised rather than having a shattered ribcage, and his Selkidomus parts allowed him to easily swim around in the water, before launching out of it like a dolphin and blasting a stream of lightning from Flapjack. However the moment he did this, he found spikes of rock emerging from the ground in front of his target, causing the lightning to hit that instead, nullifying the attack. It seemed one of the other Direwolves had uttered a quiet howl to conjure the rocks when Hunter wasn’t focusing on them. Hunter growled at this and switched to shooting fire instead, but then one of the wolves howled and caused the water of the watering hole to rise up in a series of tendrils and douse Hunter’s attack, while also slapping him away and then down onto the spikes of rock that had thwarted his lightning attack. Hunter just barely reacted in time to flash away before hitting the sparks, but the fourth Direwolf had tracked his movement just as the first one had, and was waiting to sink its teeth into his tail just as he appeared.

Hunter screamed and was promptly thrashed about like a chew toy, before Lilith shot a beam of yellow magic at the top of the Direwolf’s head, making it yelp in pain as a minor electrical current surged through its skull. Hunter used this yelp to pull his tail free, slap a healing glyph on the bite wound, and then growled and used his Bestial Blessings to give himself the wings of a Griffin (so he could fly while using Flapjack to cast spells), the metallic scales of the Rubicon Snake, and the forehead horn of the Marrdreg. With this combo, Hunter flew into the air (watching as one of his four Direwolf foes was taken out by Barcus’ Lightning Magic Bombs) and used his own lightning magic to supercharge his body via the brittle but metallic scales he now possessed. He then wrapped himself in a tornado with his new horn and cried out:

“Wild Charge!”

The moment the words left his mouth, the Cursed Trio and King (who’d been helping keep the Direwolves from teaming up on him after seeing the trouble he was having) all backed off and Hunter began rapidly flashing from one wolf to the next, shoulder slamming each one like a Football player. The lightning electrocuted them while the wind sent them flying, and unlike the previous attacks, the Direwolves didn’t seem prepared for this. They DID strangely anticipate where he was going to go with his Flash Spells, but they simply couldn’t avoid him in time with the wind and lightning auras he had further speeding him up. This led to all four remaining Direwolves being sent flying and rendered unconscious, giving the victory to Hunter, who didn’t feel good about the win as he calmed down and dismissed his spells.

Oddly enough, Luz was also having a bit of trouble; the three powerful wolves she was fighting also seemed to know her tricks and schemes with her various go-to spells and favourite combos… the only time she caught them off-guard was when she tried something new, or used some form of Darkness Magic in her combos. Of course, against a Titan Seraphim, simply knowing her tricks wasn’t enough to defeat her or even evade her for long, as Luz delved into her creative streak to create a spell to easily knock the three wolves out. First she channelled her beloved by creating a Homunculus, then she blended the powers of the Dryder species with Hunter’s Bestial Blessing Speciality, allowing her to create a special Dryder Form Homunculus that could shoot thin but strong purple webbing from literally anywhere on it’s body. This allowed Luz to quickly capture the Direwolves in her web, and as they tried to escape, she used the earth and light magic to petrify the webbing itself, turning it into stone that she could then easily transmute into simple iron, effectively binding the wolves in iron wire that was paradoxically strong for how thin it was. Luz considered finishing them with some straight lightning magic, but felt it might be a little mean to just electrocute the giant wolves (which Luz still found to be adorable), so she instead combined lightning magic with her healing magic. The result was deep blue lightning that completely fried the wolves’ motor functions for a short time, rendering them utterly unable to move.

“Phew! Got ‘em!” Luz grinned as she looked around at the other battles. Excluding Eber vs Roargna and his mate, the others had ended without too much trouble, but Hunter was still looking furious with himself over his relatively poor showing. He’d been fighting hard and doing well, but somehow the enemy had known his moves and tactics already! That was suspicious, and Luz found herself wondering why such a thing had happened to the two of them, but not Willow or Barcus.

Putting that at the back of her mind for now, Luz joined the rest of the CATTs in watching Eber fight Roargna and his mate, knowing she would prefer to handle it without their help. Not that she appeared to need help!

Eber had been mostly just dodging the attacks of the two large Direwolves, weaving through their claws slashes and harsh bites like a leaf on the wind. She wasn’t even bothering to attack back, as both her opponents were being incredibly cautious and not giving her any openings. As one needed rest, the other would up the frequency of attacks to give their mate a moment to catch their breath; a tactic Eber had taught them herself. She had taught most of her pack everything they knew, which was also why she was able to easily disrupt and evade their Howl Spells; many of them had been invented by Eber!

Finally, the stalemate ended when Roargna, in a fit of frustration, overextended himself when he really needed a rest, allowing Eber to lightly kick his ankle as he lunged, knocking it out from under him and making him face plant into the sand around the watering hole. Eber then leapt and launched a vicious claw swipe at the back of his head, an aura of orange magic surrounding her claw. The aura shaped itself into a wolf’s head preparing to bite down on Roargna’s neck, but the foolish Alpha was saved by his mate, who leapt in the way and howled, unleashing a dragon-like breath of fire. Eber’s attack and her fire clashed for only a moment, before Eber’s superior magic and skill overpowered the other female, ending in her getting Eber’s attack right to the face, which knocked her out cold.

Seeing his mate flop to the ground unconscious had Roargna shaken to his core, especially as Eber landed on top of her and growled threateningly, the orange aura from before coating her even more and shaping itself into a large wolf around Eber’s body.

“You lose, Roargna! Eber is the superior Alpha! Surrender and heel, or Eber will tame you like a disobedient dog!” Eber demanded, snarling viciously.

Roargna stepped away out of instinct, then turned around to see what had become of his Pack. Seeing them all defeated made his eyes widen with horror.

“Impossible! Bone Faces told us secret things! Way of fighting for strange cat creatures! How my Pack lose!?” Roargna growled in confusion.

Luz and Hunter frowned; so THAT was how they knew how they fought! Someone had warned them! But that someone hadn’t known about Willow’s Fused Strength or Barcus’ abilities, meaning their info was likely old. Had it been one of the Titan Trappers from Titan Trapper Island? No, that couldn’t have been it… Hunter didn’t have his Wild Heart Form or his Bestial Blessings back then, and Luz had more extra powers than just her Titan Form and Darkness Glyph! Something wasn’t adding up…

Eber was unconcerned though, and growled at Roargna; “Heel, Dog! Eber won’t give another chance!”

“No! Roargna never heel! Roargna refuses!” the new Alpha snapped back, before something strange happened. His eyes, once the same purple as Eber’s, glowed with pale green light that was eerily familiar to King. A crescent moon emblem appeared on Roargna’s forehead, and he suddenly howled, sending a wave of pale green magic in all directions. The CATTs were pushed back, but they’d been on guard and thus avoided being knocked off their feet, so they were up and ready as they watched Roargna’s body shrink back down to his original Shire Horse size as his mane turned white and patches of blue and green appeared on his fur in the shape of the lunar phases. The howl hadn’t only signalled Roargna’s transformation either; it had sent magic into the entire pack!

A Direwolf Pack had a kind of symbiotic magical connection, sort of like the power of King’s glyph, bonding the Pack Members to their Alpha and allowing them to share in his power. The unconscious Direwolves were immediately roused back to consciousness, and their injuries were healed rapidly as they shrank back to their normal sizes just as Roargna had. They kept their red manes and didn’t gain any new patches of fur, but they DID gain a crescent mark on their forehead and a green ring around their irises, akin to the gold ring in the eyes of the Divided.

“What is that!?” Willow exclaimed, horrified as the wolves all began getting back up like nothing had happened.

“That’s Belial’s power! It looks like when that creep Bill had it!” King growled.

“Then the Direwolves must have been blessed by him!” Raine scowled.

They all knew what that meant; combined with what they knew thanks to Lyra’s scrying, Belial the Huntsman and his Titan Trapper Minions may already be present within the Wild Crag! Perhaps that was why the Wings of Rani had been so willing to abandon the Crag to solely protect the Union Pillar; they already had back-up inside the Crag!

Before any of them could say any more, they were suddenly swarmed and attacked by the wolves, who despite being smaller now, were a LOT more ferocious! They were stronger, faster, and firing roars that conjured the Crescent Moon blades that had caused King and the Nexsquad so much trouble a week ago! To make matters even worse, Roargna opened his mouth wide and began a long howl, which caused a small moon to begin forming just above his snout. It was nothing compared to the one King and Samael had stopped, but it was still potentially devastating!

“Mom, Tia, Titi! Take care of the Crescents! King, help me with the big one!” Luz said urgently. “Tia Eber, Hunter, Willow, Barcus; cover us!”

The CATTs all fell into step with Luz, with King flying up to land on her shoulder. The two inhaled deeply and released a synchronised roar that countered the Archivist Magic of Roargna’s Blessing, destabilising the still-forming Full Moon and causing it to disintegrate. At the same time, the Anti-Magic Trio created a barrier of black and gold flames that absorbed and destroyed the Crescent Moon Blades trying to pass through it, while the remaining four quickly dealt with some of the Direwolves who tried to attack anyway. Willow got them all outside the Anti-Magic Barrier with a Giant Venus Fly Trap, then Barcus threw down a bad stink bomb to make all the Direwolves howl and recoil at the stink. Eber had seen it coming and so had blocked her own nose, then she and Hunter darted around the pack, knocking the gagging Direwolves out swiftly. Eber even landed the most powerful physical blow she could right to Roargna’s head as he gaped in shock over his moon being destroyed, but despite staggering for a moment, the new Alpha didn’t fall and in fact howled and healed himself. That same howl also awoke the knocked out Direwolves yet again, making the CATTs groan in frustration.

“We’re wasting magic, time, and resources here!” Lilith yelled.

Roargna tried to leap at Eber and bite her, but Luz mixed lightning and darkness magic to make Eber and her Spider Homunculus immediately swap places via the shadows, causing the monster to be stuck with slimy goo binding his mouth shut. This stopped him howling, but his mate and Betas were quick to leap in, the latter two serving as living shields as his mate rapidly chomped and licked at the slime, getting it off Roargna’s mouth at record speed.

Knowing the Alpha would be free again in seconds, and not confident she could defeat the Betas and Mate fast enough to stop them (especially while the other Wolves were attacking), Luz made a hasty decision; they needed to get back on the mission before the situation got too out of hand.

“CATTs, retreat! This is becoming too much trouble!” Luz ordered. “Willow, cover us!”

The others were a bit surprised, and Eber was incredibly reluctant, but even if they definitely could win the battle, it really was taking too much time and energy. They were there on a rescue mission, not to defeat anyone!

Eber didn’t argue with Luz’s decision and instead simply snarled; “Eber will be back, Roargna! Eber won the Alpha title fairly, and you face me with allies and foreign Lunar Magic! You are a coward and a deceiver! Eber will take your head!”

That vicious threat had Roargna and the entire Direwolf Pack shuddering slightly, as each one remembered just how powerful and brutal Eber could be… She’d killed her abusive father in a Blood Hunt to take over the Pack, and had shown no mercy to many others who’d challenged her, believing she was inferior as a Halfbreed or “Runt”. For a year after becoming their Alpha, she’d worn the hides of her father and his beta as bloody trophies, and later burned them as an offering to her mother. With the power bestowed on him by the Huntsman, and the truth of Eber’s gender being revealed by the foul-smelling Titan Trapper, Roargna had felt he no longer had to fear her… he found in that moment that he was very wrong!

As the Pack went still for a split second, Willow flapped her wings hard and released a silvery powder that caught the light, and reflected it off each individual particle. This caused a rapid flash of light as the light repeated reflected back and forth within the cloud, blinding all the Direwolves, while the smell of the powder got stuck to their noses and left them all sneezing and recoiling, having lost two of their main senses. Luz then silently ordered everyone to take to the sky (they’d closed their eyes when the powder started appearing), and played her Ocarina to cast a simple Lullaby of Lethargy, aiming to put the Direwolves to sleep. It began to ease the smaller wolves to sleep, which further ensured the Pack wouldn’t be pursuing them for a bit. Finally, King used a wind glyph to make sure the wind was blowing towards them, carrying their scents AWAY from the pack, taking away the only trail they’d have to follow.

Finally, the CATTs all took flight with their Palismen and flew hard north, returning to the rock formation they’d been using as a scouting vantage point before. They stopped there for a moment to catch their breaths and make sure they were still in good condition, and thankfully the only injury had been the bite to Hunter’s tail, which he’d since healed and banished anyway, dropping his Wild Heart Form and Bestial Blessings.

“Well THAT could have gone better.” Eda groaned, cracking her neck

“You’re telling me.” Hunter grumbled; “Sorry guys, I was a total liability back there!”

The others shook their heads; “No you weren’t, Hunter.” Luz reassured him; “Those Wolves were warned! Whoever told them about Eber being female also told them how we fight!”

“Luz is right. And even if you had a rough start and needed some help, you still won!” Willow reminded him, kissing him on the cheek; “You fought well, my Golden Wolf.”

Hunter blushed; Willow had taken his love of wolves and made it part of his nickname, and while he personally felt a bird of prey would suit him better, he still loved the name. The heart she’d given him beat a little faster, and felt warmer in her presence, and it made his self-doubts begin to melt away. Belos had always made Hunter question himself and his value as a person, but Willow made him feel the opposite! With Belos, he was never good enough, but with Willow he felt like he could take on anything and win! Combine that with his family always supporting him, and it was a lot easier to snap out of his disappointment in himself.

“Thanks, my Blossom. And you too, Luz. I won’t let myself get bogged down feeling sorry for myself! I’ll just do better next time.” he swore.

“Attaboy Goldilocks! Now what the heck do we do now?” Eda asked. “Those wolves are gonna tell the bad guys that we’re here, and worse, they’ve been powered up by that Belial Creep!”

“Which means the Trappers are probably already here and lying low.” Luz scowled; “And Belial himself too. I’ll be honest, he’s probably tougher than I am.”

“Then maybe we should consider getting our mission completed and then getting out of here as fast as we can.” Raine said; “We have three objectives; the Palisman, the Clawthornes, and Barcus’ parents. There are nine of us, so I suggest splitting into teams of three and getting all three objectives done at the same time.”

Eber, still in a foul mood, agreed. She still hoped that if they got their primary objectives finished, she could have another crack at Roargna! By the time she was done with him, the pack would never dare think less of her again! “Eber agrees. Will go with Barcus to find parents.”

Barcus woofed in agreement, and Lilith said; “Alright, I’ll go along with those two.”

“Wait, are you sure you don’t want to go rescue Mom and Dad?” Eda asked with a concerned face.

Lilith shook her head; “I’d like to, but the mission has to come first and in teams of 3, it makes more sense for you, Luz, and King to go after Mom and Dad. They’re most likely in the deepest parts of the Wild Crag, and that’s where most of the Titan Trappers will likely be, as well as Belial if he is here. Our best fighters and wielders of Titan Magic should handle that.”

That was a fair point, and Luz, King, and Eda had no real argument, and honestly all three DID really want to be the ones to save Gwen and Dell. As such, they agreed and Luz said; “We’ll make sure your Mom and Dad get back safely, Tia Lily!”

“I know you will.” Lilith smiled, before looking to Hunter, Willow, and Raine; “I guess that leaves you three to rescue the remaining Palisman. Sorry to essentially decide our teams by myself.”

Hunter shrugged; “I was going to volunteer for this anyway. Those Palisman are Flapjack’s friends, and he spent years with them while he waited for a new partner after he left the Clawthornes; as his new partner, it’s my job to make sure they’re safe!” he declared, making Flapjack happily hop and chirp on his shoulder.

“And you know a wolf doesn’t go anywhere without his mate!” Willow smirked; “I’m definitely going along!”

That just left Raine, who smiled serenely; “I’m happy to go wherever I’m needed. If we’re going to let the kids fight, the least I can do is support them.”

“Then it’s decided! Team Barcus will go for his parents, Team Hunter will go for the Palismen, and Team Luz will go for Grandma and Grandpa!” King decreed, playing up his monarch side again.

With that, the team split into three and began heading their separate ways, promising to meet back up at the rock formation when it was time to get out of there, or the top of the Crag if things got too loud. Team Luz flew up high and went to infiltrate the Crag from above, entering through the cracks in the top in order to get as close as possible to the Coven Head’s Chambers, where the Clawthorne Elders supposedly lived. Team Barcus flew down to the lower levels of the Crag and headed towards a secret passage that Eber had dug in order to avoid being spotted entering and leaving by the Emperor’s spies back in the day; they had no clue where Rom and Howlena would be, but the Coven Members in the lower reaches of the Crag had been mostly undivided before the Divider started cleaning house, so Eber was hoping she could find some who’d evaded that fate that she could get information from them for Barcus. That left Team Hunter to fly eastward towards the Apex Acacia that housed the Palismen.

As Team Hunter flew however, Hunter himself was flying beside Willow (who’d dropped her fusion and was riding just on Clover’s staff) when he looked over at her. The wind was blowing lightly through her hair, making her braids flow in the wind, and the contented smile, the slight pinkness of her cheeks from the wind blowing against it, and the determined look in olive green eyes made Hunter’s heart nearly skip a beat. In fact, his heart DID began beating a little bit erratically, and while Hunter briefly dismissed this as normal for looking at his beautiful girlfriend, he found that the erratic beating was getting a bit TOO out of control. His chest wasn’t hurting, but he did feel a heat there and a strange feeling of static electricity. Growing concerned, Hunter looked down at his left hand and flexed it, finding that as he did so, yellow sparks of electricity arced between his fingers for a split second, accompanied by an electrical crackling sound. He blinked in surprise and looked up at Willow and Raine to see if they noticed, only to find both were moving just a little bit more slowly. It wasn’t quite slow motion, but it was definitely slower than it should have been. It was like everyone except him (and Flapjack) were moving at only 90% speed.

The sight of this startled Hunter so much that he lost his balance and slipped off his staff, causing him to begin plummeting. Almost immediately, Flapjack began moving 10% slower too, but Hunter barely noticed in his panic. He reached out to his Palisman, willing him to come catch him before he hit the ground, but as he did so, his hand crackled with electricity again and he suddenly felt himself flashing back up to his staff and grasping it, hanging from it in mid-air. Having all this happen in a fraction of second, made Hunter begin to hyperventilate, which finally drew the others attention, making Willow and Raine look at him with wide eyes.

They noticed his panicked expression and the way he was breathing rapidly as he clumsily pulled himself back onto his staff, so Raine took one of his shoulders while Willow took the other and they slowly flew down to the ground so they could check he was okay. As soon as they landed, Willow grew some of the long red grass to hide them, then knelt down beside Hunter, paling as she saw him gripping his heart.

“Hunter! Is something wrong with your heart!?” she asked in a panic.

“I-I don’t think so? It started beating faster and got really hot, but it didn’t hurt… and I started seeing the world around me get slower and then these sparks of electricity went through me and I got freaked out and fell from Flapjack, but then flashed back up to grab him.” Hunter explained.

For a moment, Raine and Willow sighed with relief that he hadn’t been hurt, but then his words registered.

“Wait… you fell off Flapjack, then flashed back onto him!?” Raine exclaimed, as even Flapjack looked shocked as he flapped around his partner’s head, preening and fussing over him.

“Did you use a glyph combo? King DID have a short-range warp combo right?” Willow asked.

Hunter slowly shook his head. “No… I just… I did what I always do with Flap, only I wasn’t holding Flap this time.”

“But that means you did Magic!” Willow gasped.

Hunter’s eyes widened, and for a moment he wondered what this could mean for him. But he dismissed the idea just as fast, refusing to get his hopes up that he’d suddenly developed magic. “N-No, it’s probably nothing like that. Maybe… maybe it’s because of Luz’s blessing and King’s glyph? It probably let me remotely tap into Flapjack’s magic while I was still kinda close to him. That has to be it.”

Willow and Raine didn’t look convinced; “Are you sure? It could have something to do with your new heart! Maybe now that the magic of the Galdorstone isn’t solely going towards keeping you alive, some of it is now usable for your own magic!” Raine suggested.

“Yeah! I mean, your old heart needed to use all its magic to beat and function like a heart, but the Galdor Bloom I made for your new heart can do most of that stuff on its own, with just a little help from the shards of the original heart! So maybe your body really is tapping into and using the extra magic to cast spells! Try drawing a spell circle!” Willow said excitedly.

Hunter frowned, not really believing it was possible. Still, he loved Willow and humoured her, only to get the result he was expecting; he tried to draw a spell circle with no success. He had no magic within him to focus on, and so naturally it would never work! Willow and Raine looked very disappointed, but Hunter just shrugged; “It was worth a try, but I figured it wouldn’t work. Galdorstones usually just enhance a person’s magic, right? Give a Galdorstone to a human and its just a fancy rock. I guess it’s the same for me.”

“But they DO serve as magic batteries, so they must provide magic too… maybe it’s just that only other magic can bring the Galdorstone magic out and harness it?” Raine theorised, scratching their chin.

“So, maybe the connection to Flapjack through Luz’s blessing and King’s glyph really is causing this, and is stronger now since its using the extra magic of the stone!” Willow smiled. “Or maybe it and that lightning crackling is a sign that you’re getting close to bonding with the lightning glyph Luz blessed you with! You might be fusing with Flapjack soon!”

Hunter smiled at that thought, and gently tapped his forehead against Flapjack’s; “I hope so. But we should get going; we’ve been delayed enough by me and those Palisman need us to save them!”

“Wait! But what about your heart? You said it started beating wildly and got hot! Shouldn’t I look into that first? Make sure my creation isn’t faulty?” Willow fretted.

Hunter blushed, and Raine laughed and clapped Willow on the back; “I think looking at the girl he loves is what made his heart beat such a rhythm!”

“Oh… OH!” Willow gasped, blushed, then giggled; “My Golden Wolf is a flatterer without even meaning to be!”

“I’m a teenage boy with a hot girlfriend! The fact my heart goes crazy around you sometimes is normal!” Hunter blushed, ignoring Flapjack laughing in his head. “Now let’s go! We’re close to the Palismen Apex Acacia!”

Willow giggled again, and Raine smiled and muttered; “Ah, young love.” as they continued their trip after their brief break. The Apex Acacia that had the Palismen held within was only a two minute flight at their usual speed, and the trio moved in silently while concealed by invisibility glyph combos. However as they arrived, they found that there were quite a few people now guarding the tree, and what looked like a small lake had appeared around it, with no way across without swimming or flying. A few dinghies were sailing about in the lake, each one manned by two people, and it was the sight of these people that first clued the CATTs in on who they were.

They were all dressed in sailor and pirate outfits, and had fur armour beneath their normal clothes, capped off by Titan Skulls (most of which appeared to be resemble aquatic or amphibious creatures), identifying them as Titan Trappers! The commotion with the Direwolves must have caused them to come out and guard likely locations that the CATTs would go for, meaning there were probably a fair few at the Union Pillar too, and around the Clawthornes.

This particular batch of Trappers were from the Silver Skulls; the Titan Trapper Clan that had no home and roamed the seas in a large flotilla, and who had the honour of being the Huntsman’s second favourite Clan, since they’d built his temple. Tarak had explained this and the nature of the other clans to the CATTs council over the last week. The Silver Skulls were pirates of the worst kind; in the Titan Genocide, they’d hunted Titans that specifically had skulls shaped like aquatic creatures (Titan Skulls could look like the skull of just about any animal, with the addition of horns), and when they lost their purpose, they’d turned to piracy and were vicious. They attacked other ships and stole treasure, while kidnapping their crews and passengers to sell into slavery.

There had been an infamous case about 50 years ago in which they’d successfully robbed a Cruise Ship touring the Far East of the Demon Realm; they stole every valuable, sold the almost 2500 passengers and crew members into slavery, and even scrapped the ship and solid it for materials. It took ten years for the Military of the Eight Fang Titans (the closest region to the site of the attack) to find and free all 2500 people who’d been sold, and the entire incident had been one of the things Belos used as an excuse to pass stiff laws that controlled who could come and go from the Isles and who could trade with them, as well as nautical travel of all kinds around the Isles; it was easy to scare nobles into thinking Pirates would enslave them, and the common folk couldn’t resist them AND Belos back then. Hunter often wondered if Belos had contact with this tribe though, and the Bone Hands definitely had, trading farmed goods with them in exchange for stuff they couldn’t grow or make on Cassiopeia’s Left Hand.

As the trio got close to the tree, Willow hid them in some more long grass, and Raine closed their eyes and shifted to their Dhampyr Form, using their incredible sense of hearing to track the location of all the Palismen and Titan Trappers in the area. They could see five dinghies with a total of ten trappers on the lake they’d made around the tree, and Raine could detect a further five trappers inside the tree hollow, with a total of 14 Palismen. This was a mild concern, as according to Chiro the Bat Queen, there was a total of 20 missing Palismen, meaning 6 were still missing. Raine reported this to Hunter and Willow, but Flapjack and Clover chirped and buzzed, making the teens nod in understanding.

“Flap thinks the trappers in the hollow must be using the Palismen as staves. I bet one was also taken into the Crag… maybe as a gift for the Huntsman, or for the leader of this tribe?”

“Clover thought the same.” Willow agreed, before getting an idea; “Hey Hunter, do you think you could electrify this entire lake?”

Hunter looked at it, then nodded; “With Flapjack, I could do it easily. But those wooden dinghies would stop the trappers from getting shocked too.”

“Leave that to me.” Willow grinned, making her hands glow with green magic as she pressed them to the ground. She sent vines into the soil and tunnelled them beneath the lake and up to the bottom of all five dinghies, where the vines produced little roots that tunnelled into the wood, allowing Willow’s control to extend to the boats. She then nodded to Hunter, who turned Flapjack into staff form and extended him out of their cover and gently into the water beside them. The two teens then mouthed a countdown, then acted together. The dinghies promptly disassembled themselves and dumped the trappers into the water, causing them all to begin screaming and yelling until a sudden massive shock of electricity coursed through them, ending their screams by knocking them out. Willow then had her vines toss the unconscious trappers out of the lake to avoid them drowning, while Raine flew up and hung upside-down from a small lantern post above the entrance to the hollow. They heard the trappers inside reacting to all the noise, and one particularly nasty sounding voice began spitting orders.

The voice had a weird burbling effect to it, as if the person speaking was doing so from underwater, and it sounded deep as well, with a cold, cruel edge to it. “Stop yer belly achin’! Get out there and find out what happened, and if those idiots went down without a fight, I’ll keelhaul the lot of ‘em!” screamed the voice.

Four Silver Skull trappers ran out from the hollow with looks of pure terror in their eyes, and as soon as all four were out and Raine could hear that the fifth (apparently the leader) wasn’t moving, they acted; shooting tendrils of their blood out from their red blood coat and ensnaring the trappers legs AND their staff wielding arms, as Hunter and Willow had been right about them using stolen Palismen. Raine yanked the staves free and tossed them to the teens, then hung the trappers they’d caught upside down by their ankles. Raine then began to play his violin, playing a Lullaby of Lethargy with Derwin’s Ear Worm trick to put all four trappers asleep for a good long time.

Once almost the entire group of trappers guarding the tree had been rendered unconscious, Raine prepared to use their sonar ability to determine what they were up against from the group’s leader, only to hear the sound of a spell being cast. They barely had a moment to dodge before a stream of scalding hot water at high pressure blasted out from the tree behind him, having been aimed and fired with shocking accuracy. The wood steamed from the water, and concealed the approach of a very long and slimy green tentacle, with a faint pale green aura to it. The tentacle looked like it came from some kind of octopus, and came very close to catching Raine, only failing because they didn’t rely on their eyes. Raine flew away a little to try and ensure they were out of reach of the tentacle-using trapper, and Willow cast a spell to gather the splinters of wood blasted everywhere by the trapper and combine it together into a large wooden club, which she held tightly as she and Hunter flew up to be beside Raine.

The smoke began to fade and the tentacle retreated back into the tree, then a moment later the owner emerged from the tree hollow and out onto the veranda that oversaw the lake the trappers had made. The man(?) was a kind of humanoid Octopus Demon with green skin on most of his body, and pale yellow skin on the underside of his tentacles, matching the pale yellow suction cups he had there. His body appeared humanoid in shape, with octopus tentacles for legs and six long, writhing and boneless arms, clad in a pirate’s outfit that included black pants with a brown belt, a dark tan undershirt and a sleeveless reddish brown coat with a high collar, golden trim, and crescent shaped buttons. His head and face were almost entirely obscured by a long dark green beard that was tied into three additional tentacle-like bunches that covered half his chest. The upper half of his face was concealed by a Titan Skull that resembled a shark with a pair of curved horns on the back. Strangely, these horns were one above the other instead of being side-by-side, with one curling up and one curling down. The skull was also worn sideways, and a single red eye of the Demon was visible through the skull’s right eye socket. Atop the skull was a pirate’s brown tricorn hat, trimmed with gold with the front shaped like a crescent moon on its side, and in the demon’s tentacles were two cutlasses, two strange looking giant black Pill Bugs, and the two remaining Palismen Staves that were unaccounted for; one of which was pink salamander and the other was a blue cat.

As he stepped out into the light of the day, the Demon looked up at the CATTs and his tentacle arms flailed angrily before going still; “So, ye be the scurvy dogs that took out me men!? I’ll give ye a taste o’ the Cap’n’s Daughter ‘fore I sell ye!”

“He’s gonna do what with who’s daughter!?” Willow gasped, horrified.

Hunter smirked; “He’s talking about a whip. Those Cat o’ Nine Tails ones that they use on sailors for punishment. It’s some horrible thing that Belos introduced. Guess that confirms he had something to do with the Silver Skulls.”

“Don’t speak o’ that putrid fake to me, boy! He promised me crew a bounty o’ gold for bringin’ him strong bodies for whatever he needed, and he never paid! I shoulda never dealt with him again! Not after he welched on buyin’ me Pa’s biggest score! We take down a ship o’ 2500 of ye landlubbers on his ask, and he doesn’t even buy a single slave!? Rotten waste o’ spit!” the Demon snarled angrily

The CATTs’ eyes widened in horror; so Belos hadn’t just used that captured cruise as an excuse, he’d actively engineered it!? If the Silver Skulls had shared the loot with him, it’d explain where a lot of his early treasury had come from… He’d always said it was donations from the faithful, but Hunter had never heard of him getting that many!

Raine growled as they felt their temper rise; “So Belos set that up!? I bet he used that to make other nations avoid the Isles! Yet another scheme of his; making the waters around the isles seem unsafe!”

“Combine that with the creepy whip thing, and we’re learning all kinds of horrible things about him.” Willow shuddered in disgust. “Speaking of horrible things, why don’t you introduce yourself, Silver Skull?”

The demon spat on the ground; “I’ll not be spoken to like that by a wench or a whelp! I’ll give ye to the crew and sell what’s let of ye for cheap!”

Willow sneered and Raine narrowed their eyes dangerously, but Hunter did NOT take that threat so lightly. In a flash, he appeared right behind the Demon and punched him in the back of the head with the arm of a Slitherbeast, gained via a Bestial Blessing. The man was launched forward, barely managing to use his cutlass to catch the guard rail around the veranda to stop himself falling all the way to the lake below. He did however drop the black pill bugs, and Hunter saw that they were curled up tight, with little white whiskers peeking out… whiskers that looked eerily like a fuse, which happened to be burning down. Hunter barely realised what they were in time, switching to his Wild Heart Form and curling up to turn to use his Stonesleeper blood to turn into a statue right before the bugs violently exploded.

“HUNTER!” Willow cried.

“It’s okay! He’s still alive! I hear his heartbeat!” Raine calmed her. Their words had reached the Demon too though, who scowled as he pulled himself fully back onto the veranda, showing his back to the other CATTs and revealing that he had a strange, wiggling leather pouch on his back, from which he pulled two more tiny black pill bugs. A quick twirl from his stolen staves had them curling up and swelling to the size of a cannon ball.

The smoke from the explosion cleared and Hunter was revealed to be unharmed, turning back into flesh after the blast. The boy glared at the Demon; “You psychotic creep! Those are Black Powder Pill Bugs!”

The Demon’s eye widened and he nodded, his body language making him seem impressed; “Ye actually got it right. Aye, these bugs be a plague on any ship with a proper stock o’ gunpowder! They eat it and become little bombs themselves! But a tiny bit of magic makes ‘em swell nice and big! Perfect weapons, and easy to breed too!”

“Damned Monster! Living things aren’t weapons or tools to be used and murdered at your whim!” Hunter growled, rushing forward with his lightning flash. He lunged with his horns to try and impale the Demon’s staff wielding arms, but the Demon parried with their swords and leapt down onto the lake, where he was strangely able to walk on the water. Hunter replaced his Slitherbeast Arm Blessing with a Sahagin Feet Blessing, allowing him to walk on water too as he leapt down and charged at the Demon again, Flapjack’s staff being turned into a lightning glaive again. He swung left and right, knowing that attempting to parry him with a metal sword would be pointless and lead to a shock.

The Demon was completely on the back foot, especially as Willow and Raine weren’t willing to stay back and leave it all to Hunter. Willow used her Fused Form and Raine used their Violin to great effect; the former growing seaweed and other aquatic foliage to trip and bind the Demon, as well as ensnare his stolen staves, while Raine used their music and Anti-Magic to immediately dispel any Spell Circle that the Demon created. Normally Raine’s tactic would be a bad one, as it would also disrupt any spell circles their allies made within range of their music, but as Willow was using her glyph powers and Hunter was using a pre-cast spell, neither was disrupted or bothered.

Finally, in a moment of frustration while attempting to cut himself free from some seaweed, the Demon took a swing at Hunter with his sword again, causing Hunter to block it and send all the electricity in his staff directly into the enemy, making him scream in agony, utterly paralysed. Raine was then able to steal their weapons AND their bag of bugs (the Demon hadn’t managed to light a single one thanks to all the water being kicked up by his and Hunter’s steps on the surface of the pond). Now disarmed and paralysed, the Demon was then smashed over the head with Willow’s massive wooden club, sending him right down into the depths of the magically conjured lake.

“Ha! Take that, you creepy freak!” Willow cheered with a vicious grin.

“He can breathe underwater, right? Because if he can’t, we’ll need to fish him out before he drowns.” Raine said, not looking any happier about the idea than the teens.

“He’s an Octopus Demon; I’m sure he can.” Hunter said dismissively. He was pretty sure the guy would be okay, and he wasn’t about to risk going into the water and his territory on the off chance he was an Aquatic Demon that COULDN’T breathe underwater.

Instead, he took the Palismen staves that Raine had captured from the Silver Skulls and carefully snipped off the control collars, freeing them. They immediately began chirping, yowling, tweeting, and squeaking in gratitude, especially as they briefly reunited with Flapjack and Clover (who once again defused from Willow). Then after a moment of this, they all began racing off to the hollow of the giant tree to check on their fellows. The CATTs followed them up the long flight of stairs to the veranda, then into the hollow itself, which was large enough to fit a few small houses inside. The entire place had been decked out with different areas that could support different animals and keep them comfortable in their natural habitat, meaning there were nests for birds, small ponds for the aquatic ones, little dens and caves for land-based Palismen, and even a series of soil-filled planters for the rare non-Animal Palismen.

Every single one of the Palismen had been fitted with collars to put them under the control of the Silver Skulls, but it took only a few short seconds for the CATTs to free them all, which was followed by all three being mobbed by grateful Palismen, who only grew more excited as Flapjack and Clover told them that their fellows were safe with the Bat Queen in a new hideout. The CATTs watched their happy reunion with warm smiles, opting to let them have their moments since their part of the mission had now been completed. The Palismen began to play together, Clover catching up with their old friends while Flapjack tried to coax Rena into coming and joining them, though the shy fox seemed reluctant.

“It’s nice to see them all so happy. I think we got here just in time; any longer and those poor things would have been used as weapons.” Willow smiled.

“Yeah, we all got lucky there. Though I’m curious; Raine, where did you get Rena from? I know Flap and Clover came from the Bat Queen’s brood, with Flap being Caleb Wittebane’s old Palisman and Clover being the Snapdragon Clan’s Palisman, but what about Rena? Did you carve her or adopt her?” Hunter asked.

“I carved her! Dell gifted me some Palistrom Wood when I came to live with the Clawthornes, and helped walk me through how to carve it into what I wanted. Even when he couldn’t carve, he was still a great teacher! Then Rena awoke when I made my desire to be a great bard clear… as well as my desire to be with Eda for as long as I could.” Raine explained, watching Rena slowly accepting the invitation to play. She kept looking back at them like a shy child asking for permission to play; it was adorable!

“I wish I could have carved Clover so she didn’t have all that Snapdragon Trauma, but otherwise I’d never change a thing about her.” Willow said with a wistful smile.

“I feel the same about Flapjack. I don’t know his full life story; he doesn’t like to talk about it, but I know he was basically carved by Evelyn Clawthorne for Caleb, and that no other Clawthorne could bond with him after Caleb passed. It must have been lonely to go 400 years without a partner.” Hunter mused, before smiling; “At least I got to carve Waffles for Lyra! Those two get along like a house on fire, and Flap loves his own little sister!

As if realising that someone was talking about him, Flapjack turned to Hunter and hopped adorably over to him, then flew up and began gently pulling on his hair noodle in an attempt to pull him over to the other Palismen. Hunter laughed and playfully resisted; “Hey now Flap, don’t get too excited! We need to get your friends back to the meet-up point soon! We’ll have more time to play later!”

“Yes yes, I know! But I need to show you off- I mean, introduce you to the others first. So they’ll feel safe with you.” Flapjack insisted.

Hunter laughed and shook his head in mock-exasperation, but then as he was being pulled along by his Palisman, Flapjack suddenly went still. All the other Palisman followed suit, sensing that something was off. They all began making a run for the veranda, including Rena and Clover, who were guarding them all. Flapjack tried to fly over with them, but Hunter gently caught him first, confused as to what was going on.

“Flap? Are you alright? What’s got you guys all freaked out all of a sudden?” Hunter frowned.

“Something big has appeared in the lake! I can’t tell what it is, but we can all feel something huge! The magic of it feels like that Huntsman creep’s power, from the Direwolves earlier.” Flapjack explained.

Hunter’s eyes widened and he opened his mouth to tell Willow and Raine that their mission wasn’t over yet, but before he could utter a single word, a massive cloud of noxious gas suddenly erupted from the lake and shot towards the tree, flowing from a globule of black ichor. The ichor hit the tree above the entrance to the hollow, and some of it went through the hole the Octopus Demon had made earlier when shooting Raine. Hunter grabbed Willow and Raine and flashed out of the way, allowing the two of them to raise their hands to summon their staves… only for it to fail.

“What!? Clover!” Willow cried, trying to see through the gas to see what had become of her Palisman. Hunter used a wind glyph note to blast the gas away, revealing that those who’d been caught in it had been knocked unconscious, which included the entire group of Palisman. Clover and Rena had been with them, and so they’d been caught in it and knocked out. This was bad, as not only could Raine not use their staff or violin, and Willow couldn’t use her staff, but Willow also couldn’t use her fusion!

To make matters worse, the source of the black ichor rose from the lake, revealing itself to be the Octopus Demon, who was clearly not quite as unconscious as they’d thought. The Titan Bone Mask must have absorbed a lot more of the damage from Willow’s club than they’d thought! Now he was coming back for round two, and he had decided to use the Wild Heart Spell, only it was empowered by a minor Blessing from Belial the Huntsman.

The Demon had lost any signs of their humanoid form and instead simply become a gigantic kraken, with his head concealed within his Titan Bone Mask, which had apparently grown with him… or perhaps he’d previously shrunken the skull of a larger Titan so it would fit on his head? Whatever the case, he’d also stolen the Titan Masks from several of his unconscious minions and wrapped them around the tips of his eight tentacles, giving them razor sharp spikes on the end. Lastly, a set of four cannons had been summoned and attached to four of his eight tentacles, and from what Hunter knew of cannon models from his time as Coven Head of the Emperor’s Coven, these ones appeared to be the kind that shot blasts of magic, meaning there was a recharge time but no need to reload.

“Oh boy, this is bad!” Hunter exclaimed. “Willow, grab the Palisman!”

Willow did just that, conjuring vines to grab them while Raine helped by using their blood tendrils. The Palismen, including their own, were pulled to safety and hidden away in some of the nests where they would hopefully be safe, while Hunter flashed out and stood on the guard rail of the veranda.

“You just don’t know when to quit, do you Trapper!?” Hunter snarled, once again in his own Wild Heart Form. He took a good look at the green-skinned kraken before him, which really did look just like a giant octopus, making him a Shallow Sea Kraken. A Deep Sea Kraken would have been a lot worse!

“Ah ha ha ha! I be honest with ye, whelp; ye be tougher than I thought! I underestimated ye! For so long I’ve had naught to hunt but soft sailors! My ancestors hunted Titans upon the waves, while I’m stuck huntin’ ye mere minnows! But perhaps ye will be worth a proper scrap!” The Demon bellowed with a laugh as crescent moon symbols in a pale green light began to glow all over him; “What be ye name, whelp?”

Hunter narrowed his eyes; “I am Hunter Deamonne-Clawthorne of the CATTs! And I am the one who will defeat you!”

The Demon cackled, then replied; “Aye whelp, ye will try! I be Cap’n Krakyll, Leader o’ the Silver Skulls Titan Trappers! And I be the one who’ll mount ye head on the bow o’ me ship!”

Without any further preamble, Krakyll launched his tentacles directly at Hunter, attempting to slice him to ribbons with the Titan horns and fangs, or crush him with his raw strength. Hunter evaded this by giving himself a Griffin Wing Bestial Blessing and flying into the air, then promptly raining lightning down on the giant kraken, who couldn’t hope to evade it all with that huge body. However it appeared he didn’t need to, as Hunter’s lightning merely bounced off the kraken’s skin, causing very minor burns but not actually managing to conduct into his flesh.

Hunter narrowed his eyes; “He’s using some kind of Bestial Blessing too! He’s given himself rubbery skin!”

Krakyll then began drawing spell circles with the four arms that didn’t have cannons, while using the four that did to fire a powerful barrage at Hunter. The Demon’s aim was incredible, as he anticipated where Hunter would dodge, causing him to be hit by one of the blasts. It thankfully wasn’t too damaging thanks to his Stonesleeper parts, but Hunter still felt one of his ribs crack from the impact, and that was only made worse when Krakyll’s four spells went off, which turned out to be summoning spells. Summoning was a rare skill for Beast-Keepers, letting them summon to them any Beast that they had tamed and marked, so long as they were within a certain distance. The creatures Krakyll summoned turned out to be Gaburi Land Sharks; creatures that looked like velociraptors with shark-like tails, fins on their arms, legs, and backs, and even shark-like heads. These Land Sharks were all silvery grey and had the Silver Skull’s Emblem (a silver Titan Skull with a silver Witch skull on either side of it) engraved onto their foreheads.

Four of these beasts dropped down onto the veranda below Hunter and began rushing for Willow (who’d been unable to help since she couldn’t fly without Clover), and Raine (whose own magic had been weakened without their instrument). Of course, not having their Palismen didn’t make them helpless, and Raine still had their Anti-Magic and could perform with whistles and percussion, so Hunter didn’t foresee the Land Sharks being particularly problematic for them… but they were problematic for HIM as now he was stuck dealing with Krakyll by himself.

“No, don’t think like that, Hunter!” he thought to himself as he dodged another salvo of magical cannon blasts; “I can do this! I can beat this guy on my own! I am not a weak link!”

His determination grew, and his heart began to beat a little faster, causing lightning to crackle over his body again. However this time, Hunter was too focused on the fight to notice, especially as he dodged around the flailing tentacles of the Kraken and flew up high, where they couldn’t reach him. Naturally the cannon blasts still could, but Hunter could evade far more easily now that he was further away. As soon as he was in position, Hunter then began raining down continuous bolts of lightning, making them weaker since they wouldn’t conduct through Krakyll anyway, and instead burning him with thousands of tiny little electrical bolts that fell like needles from the sky.

Krakyll snarled and growled as the burning sensation intensified, then suddenly leapt up into the air, using his four unarmed tentacles to draw spell circles that produced massive and powerful jets of water, launching the Kraken’s colossal form directly at Hunter, who before he knew it, had a cannon’s barrel directly in front of his face, far too close for him to dodge. Hunter’s eyes widened and his life flashed before his eyes as the inside of the cannon’s barrel lit up from the magic it was about to fire, and as his heart beat even faster, the lightning around him intensified and to his surprise, he saw the world beginning to slow down again, just like it had earlier.

With barely a thought, Hunter suddenly disappeared in a flash of lightning and reappeared on top of the cannon that had been about to blow his head off, shocked to his core that he’d been able to activate the spell fast enough.

“It happened again! Did time really slow down, or did I just speed up!?” Hunter thought worriedly.

“I saw it too.” Flapjack thought back; “You sped up, I’m sure of it!”

“Wait, I sped up? The world didn’t slow down?” Hunter frowned.

Flapjack gave an affirmative tweet, and Hunter’s mind began to race; “My heart beat faster, that lightning appeared again, and time slowed down for me… could it be that the lightning is speeding up my brain? The synapses and stuff all rely on electrical signals… if it makes my perception faster, then it might make it seem like things are slowing down, and my body moves faster because my brain is!”

“It seems possible… but then what is causing the change? Your new heart?” Flapjack wondered, as Hunter was forced to begin flying again to evade Krakyll, who was still pursuing him in the sky. Hunter managed to evade another volley of cannon blasts, but it was a VERY close thing, as Krakyll empowered them with his Huntsman Blessing, turning the blasts pale green and making them a lot faster AND bigger.

“My new heart… if feels like it’s awakening something new within me!” Hunter thought as he spun Flapjack and fired some red lightning at Krakyll, focusing on inflicting pain rather than damage. He hit the burnt parts of Krakyll’s skin to bypass some of the rubbery resistance he’d given himself, making the kraken scream in agony and lose control of his tentacles, which writhed and briefly got tangled with themselves as he fell from the sky and into the lake. Upon hitting the water, most of the lake’s water was sent skyward, and Hunter hastily used a Bestial Blessing to give himself the oesophagus of an Alpha Tundra Wolf; giant Direwolf cousins that had only normal animal intelligence but also had the power to exhale extremely powerful freezing winds. This froze the water of the lake, turning most of it into hail that rained back down on the wincing Trapper Leader, while the rest froze around his tentacles, temporarily holding him down.

“Flap, do YOU feel anything different about me?” Hunter asked.

Flapjack hummed, then replied; “Yes. It feels like our bond has grown stronger, almost like we are brothers… it reminds me of how I feel about Waffles. But paradoxically, it also feels like I am sharing you…”

“Sharing me?” Hunter wondered, feeling a spike of joy over their stronger bond.

“I can’t explain it. I thought it might be because of your love for Willow, but I didn’t feel this way with Caleb and Evelyn. Yet I still feel like she is at the heart of this.” Flapjack said, trying to articulate what he meant.

Hunter was still a little confused, but he got the gist of what Flapjack was trying to say. When he closed his eyes and focused, he felt something similar… there were several bonds within him; to Luz and King via the glyphs he’d been blessed with, to Lyra and Darius as his dear family, to Flapjack as his Palisman, and to Willow as his lover… but also as something else.

Sadly, he didn’t get much time to think on it any longer as Krakyll roared and broke free of the ice, his rage now reaching a volcanic level. With a screech of hatred, Krakyll launched himself into the air once again, this time producing a MUCH bigger jet of water from his mouth, which was beneath his body, between his tentacles. This jet not only launched him skyward, but it also sliced into the earth, while his tentacles did the same as Krakyll launched high pressure water blades from each one. Hunter was worried about the Savannah, but had no worries for himself as he focused on his beating heart, allowing him to once again speed up his perception, slowing the incoming attacks so he could effortlessly dodge even without magic.

While this worked for Hunter, it didn’t help Willow and Raine. They hadn’t had much difficulty at all with the Land Sharks; they were basically just velociraptors that could also swim and breath underwater, and had no magic, making them easy for Willow and Raine to defeat by binding them with tree roots and then putting them to sleep with a whistled rendition of the Lullaby of Lethargy. But it had taken a bit of time for Willow to wrangle the speedy creatures, and they’d only just finished when Krakyll began his rampage of water blades… water blades that could never normally cut down a tree as impressive as an Apex Acacia, unless it just so happened to slice through the hollow, where the wood was thinnest. Raine had lost their head when the slicing water hit them (thankfully a blood tendril caught it and reattached it) and the entire tree was sliced in half at an angle, causing the top half to begin sliding down before toppling over, right onto where the unconscious Titan Trappers from earlier had been left. Willow and Raine couldn’t let them die, so Raine began whistling the Song of Sky-Swimming to let Willow fly with them down to the trappers, where Willow used her plant magic to grip the tree and hold it in place.

Even out of her fused form, using the magic of the plant glyph made her regular plant magic a lot stronger, so she was just barely able to hold the tree in place, though at the cost of being totally unable to move.

“Ugh! Raine, get those Trappers out of the way! I can’t keep this up forever!” Willow cried.

“Already on it!” Raine yelled, hurriedly grabbing the Trappers and dragging them away. Of course, with the Apex Acacia being such a thick tree, that still took time and Raine didn’t have the physical strength to drag all of them at once, so they had to keep making return trips, meaning Willow was stuck keeping the tree in the air for longer.

Hunter and Krakyll saw this, and in an attempt to at least take out two of his three foes, the Silver Skull leader turned away from Hunter and launched himself onto the trunk of the tree just as Raine had gone back under to get the next batch of trappers. The added weight of the colossal kraken caused Willow’s magic to nearly burn out instantly from trying to keep the tree up, and Raine had to grab their Power Glyph and stick it to Willow’s neck to ensure she didn’t immediately run out of power and drop the tree on them both.

“That monster is willing to kill his own men to crush us too!? Hold tight, Willow! I’ll go drive him off!” Raine yelled.

“NO! Leave that to Hunter! Just get the trappers out of here so I can drop this thing!” Willow cried, struggling with all her might.

Raine grimaced but didn’t argue, and got back to work. Meanwhile above, a furious Hunter flashed towards Krakyll, his eyes flashing yellow and orange as if he was having a Bile Overload. Krakyll was still launching water blades with his non-cannon arms and Lunar Magic Blasts with his cannon ones, but Hunter was flashing past them like they weren’t even there, gunning for Krakyll with rapid speed. Right before impact, Hunter decided to try something new and cast a new Bestial Blessing, this time focusing on giving him the size of a beast without its actual body parts. He focused on a Deep Sea Kraken (which was larger then the Shallow Sea variants) and to his joy, the spell (mostly) worked.

Hunter’s skin became like octopus skin and he suddenly felt dehydrated in the heat of the savannah, but he still grew to almost twice the size of Krakyll, allowing him to pick the Demon up and use his natural Stonesleeper aspects to resist the damage Krakyll tried to do.

“YARGH! LET ME DOWN, YE FREAK!” Krakyll demanded.

“My pleasure!” Hunter declared, replacing his Tundra Wolf Blessing with Slitherbeast Arm Blessings, which further increased his strength. He plucked the Titan Skulls from the Titan Trapper, revealing that his face was heavily scarred and branded with both the Silver Skull emblem and the Huntsman’s signature crescent moon, and his other eye was missing, explaining why he’d kept it hidden in his normal form. With that done, Hunter then tossed Krakyll into the sky and then grabbed the Apex Acacia, freeing Willow (who collapsed with relief) and hoisting the tree up like it was a giant club. Even while giant, Hunter was still only half the size of the fallen part of the tree, but with his Slitherbeast Arms growing in strength in proportion to his size, he was still able to give the tree a good swing, striking Krakyll as he fell back into his range. The boneless creature was hit full force, knocking him out completely and launching him hard to the west, where he would soon land in the bay between the Right Hip and Right Arm.

Willow and Raine were shocked by the brutality, and watched as Hunter gently placed the tree down away from them or any other living things, then dismissed his blessings and returned to his normal Grimwalker form, before flashing over to them.

“Willow! Are you okay?” Hunter asked urgently.

“Exhausted, but otherwise fine. I’ve got some Bile Boosters to help get my strength back, but I should take it easy for a bit.” Willow said, reaching into her pocket for the bottles. “But what about you? Did you just kill that guy?”

Hunter chuckled; “Nah, a Kraken like that would take WAY more than that to kill. They’re boneless and can survive just about any blunt force trauma that doesn’t involve crushing them between two surfaces.”

“Well that’s a relief. And now we’re sure he’s out for the count. That was more annoying than it should have been.” Raine sighed; “Now come on; the fallen tree is bound to catch attention, as well as the giant Hunter! We should get the Palismen to the meeting point before any reinforcements appear.”

Willow nodded, but Hunter shook his head; “You go ahead, Raine. I think we should split up; like you said, they’ll have seen me and will be hunting me. If you’re with me, they’ll find you too. You take the Palismen and I’ll lead the reinforcements away.”

Raine nodded; “Alright, that’s probably a good idea. I’ll get Luz to shoot a signal into the sky when we’re ready to get out of here, so you can come back.” they then turned to Willow; “You and Clover are going with him, right?”

“Of course! Like I’d ever leave him!” Willow said between chugs of the Bile Booster. She could have sworn they tasted different now… before they used to be made with Luz’s feathers, but since she became a Seraphim, her feathers were too potent, so now Lyra donated her feathers instead.

Hunter smiled, and the CATTs headed up to the stump of the fallen tree, where they found the unconscious Palismen hadn’t even stirred. Willow made some plants for Hunter to turn into a foul-smelling field concoction, which he wafted under the noses of the Palismen to wake them. Once they were all woken up, Clover returned to Willow’s side and fussed over her a little, while Rena and the others went with Raine and began heading back to the meeting point on foot. Willow and Hunter decided to go on foot in the opposite direction, and soon found themselves attacked by Divided Beast Hunters and Silver Skull Titan Trappers, but a quick Palisman Fusion later and Willow wiped the floor with them.

“What do you think we should do now?” Willow asked as she unfused again, picking through the knocked out enemies for useful materials or valuable information.

“I was going to suggest meeting up with Luz’s group. I bet that if our luck led us to that monster, theirs will lead them to something way worse.” Hunter smirked, only half joking.

Willow giggled, fully agreeing. With that decided, the pair and their Palismen headed towards the Wild Crag to catch up with Eda, King, and Luz. However as they went, they idly wondered how Barcus, Eber, and Lilith were doing.
________________________________________________________________________________

[Meanwhile]

Lilith and Barcus stuck close to Eber as she led them to a small watering hole near the Crag. It was hidden in the shadows, as the Crag and nearby Acacia trees meant that the shadows always overlapped to cover it, meaning there was very little vegetation growing around it and so animals tended to not go near it. It wasn’t even good for the shade, as it was so close to the Crag that on hot days when shade was needed most, the Crag radiated more heat, turning the watering hole into a warm bath! This was good for Eber though, as it was also the site of her secret tunnel, which lead down into the cold storage chamber deep in the bowels of the Crag; a place enchanted to be as cold as ice in order to keep food and supplies nice and fresh.

Eber silently gestured for Lilith and Barcus to approach as she stopped beside a seemingly innocuous rock, which she then lifted with her Wild Heart Form, revealing a small hole.

“Eber made this for Eber only. Barcus fit fine, but Raven Lady too big. Need to get smaller.” Eber said softly, knowing sensitive ears could be in the area.

Lilith was thankfully unconcerned; “I’ll be fine. Amity taught me how to use the Homunculus version of the Abomination Transformation Spell that Darius uses.”

With a twirl of her finger, Lilith transformed into a homunculus version of herself and then gave a thumbs up, making Eber and Barcus smile. Eber then gestured for her companions to head through the tunnel (it was a straightforward path so they needed no directions), and as soon as Lilith began squeezing herself through, with Barcus right behind her, Eber grabbed the rock and hopped into the tunnel so the rock blocked it off again. Once all three were in the tunnel, they got through surprisingly fast, as none needed to crawl and could in fact run (or very quickly slither in Lilith’s case) until they reached the end, which only took about ten minutes, their path illuminated by softly glowing rocks embedded into the tunnel walls by Eber.

“I think we’re nearly at the end.” Lilith whispered as she felt the temperature begin to drop enough that she needed to actively keep her slime body moving to avoid freezing.

“Path ends in small room. Do not open door without Eber; magic alarms!” the Coven Head explained.

“Got it.” Lilith replied, as Barcus barked in agreement.

Shortly thereafter, they emerged from the tunnel (that had a wooden barrel lid blocking the exit that Lilith pushed out of the way) and found themselves in a small room that was about the size of a walk-in freezer, and was cold enough that it might as well be one! In fact the walls, made from the glossy and non-weathered Lunacite, looked a little like ice too. The secret tunnel into the room was hidden among a series of barrels marked as pickling agents, and the rest of the room contained only some ice boxes and shelves with giant ice cubes on them. Lilith, turning back to normal, took a look at the ice boxes and found them locked, then looked at the giant ice cubes and saw vague tool-shapes within them.

“What are these?” she asked as Barcus and Eber emerged, the latter hiding the tunnel again.

“Supplies. Eber hid things for missions! Things Belos couldn’t know Eber had!” Eberwolf explained, flicking a claw at one of the ice boxes to open it and reveal a LOT of weapons, poisons, and illegal books, all of which were on various Beast-Keeping and Abomination Practices that had been outlawed. Lilith was nearly salivating over them, but Barcus sniffed rather pointedly at the door to the rest of the Cold Storage Chamber, then growled lowly. Eber sniffed too, and listened carefully, before growling too.

“What is it?” Lilith asked, lowering her voice a little more.

“People are outside.” Barcus answered, summoning Wise from his Oracle Stone and conjuring a Crystal Ball for him so they could scry on the next room. Eber and Lilith gathered around and watched the ball as Wise went into the next room, revealing its contents to the trio.

The Cold Storage Chamber was a large cavern dug out from the bottom of the Wild Crag, and stretched out through most of the plateau’s foundations, and it was riddled with pillars to support the upper levels, which were also the enchanted segments that kept the entire floor nice and cold. A lot of things were stored around the place; crates of all shapes and sizes, piles of fur, scale, and hide pelts, giant slabs of meat hung up on hooks like a butcher shop, a few animals and trophies that needed refrigeration, and a rather massive amount of alcohol (the Beast-Keepers liked to party hard). One part of the massive chamber was even being used as a morgue, as death was an all too common thing in the wilds of the West Ilium Savannah.

However it was not the room and its normal contents that had Barcus and Eber growling; it was its current occupants… a horde of Titan Trappers. Lilith narrowed her eyes on them through the crystal ball, noting that they all wore the traditional Titan Skull masks, and had silver, white, and extremely pale blue fur outfits on, all seemingly made from arctic Beast Demons. Interestingly though, they also wore feathers, bones, and carved beads as jewellery and decorations, which appeared to have been handcrafted by the owner.

“The White Pelts.” Lilith whispered; “Titan Trappers that live out on the tundras of the South Pole. Tarak said they made their home on an adolescent Titan who died there, turning their bones into the White Pelts’ city.”

“I guess them liking the cold is the reason they’re camping out down here.” Barcus woofed softly, still focusing on his vision. “How do we deal with this?”

Eber woofed softly in reply; “Penance Trapper not tell us much about White Pelts.”, she said, referring to Tarak. “Fanatically loyal to Pack and Hunt Brat. But White Pelt Alpha strange… something wrong with her.”

“Their leader? All I remember Tarak saying was that she was a woman… One of two women leaders of the various Clans. I think her name was… Crystal? Tarak didn’t seem sure either.”

Tarak hadn’t been able to tell them everything about all the tribes and their leaders; only a few of the most important details. He hadn’t even known the leaders of some tribes, like the Silver Skulls, and only knew a little about others, like the leader of the Bloody Fangs also being a woman. Tarak hadn’t been comfortable with the other tribes, especially the Silver Skulls, and Bill hadn’t exactly encouraged coexistence, so a lot of information had never been shared between them.

Barcus focused on the crystal ball again, but quickly noticed the vision becoming oddly foggy and full of static, as if something was interfering with his spirit. It was similar to when Lyra looked at Luz with Shade, meaning it was likely an Angel or someone with Angelic Magic. Lilith herself caused some minor static, since her curse originated in the magic of the Huntsman, but this was a fair bit worse. The source of the static turned out to be a woman who was sitting by herself a short distance from the rest of the White Pelts, who were themselves set up in a little camp not far from the large steel gates that led out of the Cold Storage. More than that was impossible to tell, as when Barcus tried to peer closer, Wise refused and ejected himself from the crystal ball.

“I guess that ends our scouting. That woman must have a blessing from the Huntsman, similar to Bill. I believe we can safely say she is their boss.” Lilith commented. “I know we’re looking for Barcus’ parents, but I think it would be best to take them out first. The normal Trappers are probably no match for us, but their boss will be tough… should we go ahead with fighting them?”

Eber and Barcus both nodded, the latter also trying to apologise to and placate his agitated spirit. Without waiting for more of a plan, Eber moved to the door and very gently opened it, the door scraping against the ground without making a sound thanks to a silencing enchantment. She immediately began climb up the sheer walls of the massive chamber, using a Bestial Blessing to give herself suction cups on her palms and soles to stick to the surface as she skittered across the ceiling, making not so much as a peep. Choosing to follow her, Barcus and Lilith crept out of the room too, though they used invisibility glyph combos to hide themselves, while Lilith cast a scent-masking spell to ensure they wouldn’t be smelled either.

The trio crept over to the makeshift camp, and thanks to the layout of it, they found the majority of the trappers were between them and their leader, the lone woman of the group. They did however get close enough to actually give the woman a proper look… and they found she was surprisingly young.

The woman, Crystal (if Tarak was right about her name) appeared to be in her early twenties, with olive skin and pale icy blue eyes. Her hair was long and black, cascading over one of her shoulders in a beautiful yet simple style. The woman was fairly beautiful in appearance, but her face had been marred with many scars; two claw marks through her left cheek and down to her jaw, one on her chin, and one through her left eye and eyebrow, with a bad looking burn scar taking up much of her right cheek just to cap it all off. She had clearly lived a hard life, and interestingly, she had no markings from the Huntsman or any other Archivists (Tarak had explained that some Trappers had historically been tattooed with the emblems of the Huntsman’s three older siblings on rare occasions, as a sign of respect).

Clothing wise, she wore simple pale blue furs with white fur trim, and silvery grey pants, white fur boots, and dark blue fingerless gloves, which had Titan Bone claws covering the fingers instead. She had some black earrings; a pair of studs and a ring in each ear, and a somewhat ornate necklace made from red feathers, blue beads, and the fangs and claws of some unknown predator. She had a Titan Bone mask that resembled a Wolf Skull with short horns and surprisingly included a lower jaw too, which was apparently extremely rare for Titans, whose lower jaws were usually not part of their external skulls. Crystal didn’t seem to like it though; she wasn’t wearing it and instead kept it off to the side, barely within her reach. She also appeared to have a staff laying beside the mask; a non-Palisman staff that was decorated with the skulls of various birds and beasts, and also had some kind of wooden chime hanging from it. It was a bit eerie, but the part that really made the hidden CATTs’ skin crawl was the presence of a human skull among the others. It was distinctive due to its lack of fangs and a different pattern on the top of the skull from when it had fused together (Witch and Human Babies’ skulls were formed ever-so-slightly differently, so they fused a bit differently too), and the mere sight of it had the CATTs paling a little… there were not many ways that skull could have been obtained, and even fewer were good!

Lilith carefully grabbed Barcus and carried him in her talons as she flew up to where Eber was hidden on the ceiling above the little camp. Using her finger, the Harpy Woman gently traced the words she wanted to say on Eber’s hand.

‘We need to deal with as many of them at once as possible, including the leader. I’ll attack on your signal.’ Lilith traced.

Eber nodded subtly, then began to slowly sign her response with sign language; ‘Eber understands. Signal will be impossible to miss; stay clear of flames’ she nodded towards the little campfire that Trappers had made.

Lilith and Barcus both tapped her paw to show they understood, then Lilith promptly flew behind the pillar of Lunacite that the Leader Woman was leaning against, waiting for Eber to begin her plan. As they waited, Lilith noticed that the woman was glaring with hostility at her own clansmen, who didn’t seem to be showing her much respect either. They spoke the Common Tongue with a mild, unfamiliar accent, and they were enjoying exchanging conversations about their “Conquest” of the Crag with the other tribes, and how they’d scored such a fine place to rest compared to the sweltering heat upstairs. They would also occasionally look over at their leader and smirk to themselves, whispering snide remarks to one another.

Despite not knowing anything about the woman (and actually having reason to assume the worst about her), the CATTs all felt a spike of annoyance over that. Barcus hated those who mocked and belittled their own friends and comrades, Eber couldn’t stand disloyalty from a Pack to their Alpha (except if the Alpha is unworthy), and Lilith remembered when it had been her in this woman’s place, as the new head of the Emperor’s Coven at a young age, struggling to earn the respect of her comrades. The CATTs had no intention of holding back on the young woman, especially if she proved as evil as Bill and his ilk, but they still felt the desire to put her disrespectful subordinates in their place.

Preparing her plan, Eber used a subtle Bestial Blessing to give herself the Explosive Bile Sac of the Burning Bonobo; a species of Monkey that lived in deserts to the southern region of the far eastern continent. One mouthful of this noxious oil-like fluid was all it would take to create a sizeable blast of fire when applied to a little heat, and Eber gobbed it right into the little campfire the Trappers had made. The result was predictably explosive, whoever the Leader Woman and a few of the sharper Trappers had noticed the bile falling from the ceiling, and had immediately dodged back, with the Leader actually grabbing her staff and mask and leaping behind the pillar of Lunacite she’d been leaning against. This meant she actually crashed into the invisible Lilith and Barcus, who hadn’t expected such a thing.

The three of them stumbled over each other, the invisibility on the CATTs breaking just as the bile hit the campfire and exploded. The explosion was a bit more powerful than expected, and sent all the Trappers who hadn’t evaded flying, while even those who HAD dodged back were blasted back a little, suffering quite a few burns. In one fell swoop, the camp was destroyed and most of the Trappers had been rendered unconscious, while those who’d braced themselves were badly burnt but still conscious; ironically suffering more damage by stopping themselves from being sent flying, as it meant the fire that followed the initial shockwave scorched them too. Only their leader, who’d leapt behind a pillar had evaded damage.

The woman leapt to her feet and shot a scared and worried look at the CATTs, especially Lilith, then hurried back around the pillar to survey the damage. Lilith and Barcus did the same, and Eber immediately leapt down from the ceiling onto one of the injured Trappers and knocked them out. Another tried attacking Eber from behind, but Barcus had his Palisman Duno throw a Lightning Magic Bomb at him, zapping the Trapper into unconsciousness. Two more than tried to attack Barcus, but Lilith’s Anti-Magic wiped away their spells with ease, while she shot a simple white fireball at one of the Trappers and defeated the other by sweeping his legs out from under him with Corvanc, then knocking off his Titan Bone Mask with the base of her staff and then finally casting a simple sleep spell.

This left only the shocked leader, and two others, one too injured to fight. The less injured one attacked Barcus with a harpoon made of bone, but Eber jumped down and landed on the shaft, shattering it before it could hit, and Barcus then had Duno leap forward and twist the man’s mask so he couldn’t see, letting Lilith easily get in his blind spot and smash him into the floor. Seeing this and seeing their apparent leader rooted to the spot, the injured Trapper yelled at the woman.

“CRYSTAL! Stop standing around doing nothing, and help us! Wake the Mistress already!” the man demanded.

The CATTs looked confused; the Mistress? Was Crystal not the leader after all?

They would get their answer to that when a slightly trembling and very reluctant Crystal lifted her Titan Skull Mask and put it on her head, then closed her eyes and took a shaky breath. Suddenly, her body went limp and she staggered forward a step before suddenly catching herself and shuddering. Her entire stance then changed, and she went from fearful and reluctant to strong and confident. She raised her head and flashed her manic grin, with teeth that had suddenly become much sharper. Her eyes also glowed an ominous blue as she spun her staff around, causing icy mist to flow from the eyes and nostrils of the human skull. This mist then formed into a harpoon shaped blade of ice, turning the entire thing into a spear.

“Well well well, what do we have here?” Crystal said, her voice carrying an unnatural echo, as if she were possessed. “Three fun looking beasties! And a nice big cave to hunt them in! Perhaps this trip won’t be a waste after all!”

“Mistress! These three are surely part of the Rebel group that the Grand Huntsman warmed us about! They’ve already taken out the rest of our hunting party, so we should-”

The injured trapper didn’t get a chance to finish, as “Mistress” Crystal suddenly plunged her ice spear into his throat. The CATTs cried out in horror and attacked as one, Lilith shooting Anti-Magic feathers, Barcus tossing Fire Magic Bombs, and Eber leaping at the woman’s arm with her Wild Heart Form. Mistress Crystal blocked the fire bombs with a wall of ice that she conjured with a wave of her hand, though the Anti-Magic Feathers began eating away at it, and Eber managed to sink her teeth into her arm, though the woman’s furs were thick enough to actually keep Eber from biting too deep, barely drawing blood and not even making Mistress Crystal flinch. The Trapper Woman instead laughed and pulled her spear out of the Trapper, who fell to the ground dead after having bled out rapidly from the wound in his neck. She then swung her arm hard to try and get Eber off, and when that didn’t work, she grinned maniacally and caused spikes of red ice to rip their way out of her own flesh to pierce Eber.

Eberwolf yelped in pain as she took several bad piercing wounds from the red ice, but thankfully her Palisman Tigriel caught her before she could hit the ground and rushed her over to Barcus and Lilith, the former of which began using healing potions to close the wounds.

“Interesting Palisman you’ve got there! I’ve never seen such a beast!” Crystal grinned, her glowing eyes beginning to glow a pale green. “I wonder if I can take it for myself after I mount your skull on my staff!”

Eber, now healed up, snarled; “Try it, monster! You kill your own people! Eber will put you down!”

“My people? Oh, you mean that imbecile who suggested we run from a hunt!? Honestly, as if such a disgraceful creature could ever be seen as one of MY people!” the woman mocked. “Only that bleeding heart Crystal would think such tripe! And the same fool hated her for being a weakling!”

Lilith scowled, looking confused; “But aren’t YOU Crystal?”

“Bah! Of course not! I am her better half in every way! You may call me Mistress Morozov!” the woman retorted, giving a mocking bow.

The CATTs exchanged looks as Lilith muttered; “Wait, that was the name Tarak said!” she remembered; “It was Crystal Morozov! So this woman has a split personality?”

Barcus shook his head; “No. I sense two souls inside her! They overlap in the middle though… the person in control feels like the overlapping part!”

“Overlapping? Two souls? Wait, is this like Eda and the Owl Beast!?” Lilith gasped.

Barcus shrugged, not letting his guard down as Morozov watched their talk with fascination, as if wondering if they’d figure out the truth on their own. “I can’t tell for sure; my sense for souls isn’t as keen without Wise, and he won’t come out right now! The Huntsman’s Blessing is getting in the way. But it does feel pretty similar to Eda! The overlapping part even feels like her Harpy Mode! But Eda feels synchronised, with her two halves coming together. Morozov feels like they’re trying to pull apart.”

“Huntsman power… two souls, one body. Curse?” Eber questioned.

Lilith gasped; “Of course, that could be possible! The Huntsman was the one to trap the Owl Beast in a Curse Scroll! He could easily have done it again!”

Morozov grinned and clapped sarcastically; “Wow, strong prey AND smart prey! You three are going to be fun to hunt! And for the record, you’re quite right. During the War with the Titans, the Huntsman hunted and sealed up a Chatloup, and entrusted the scroll to the leader of the White Pelts at the time, who’d pleased him by pointing out the beast as worthy prey.”

Eber narrowed her eyes; a Chatloup was a distant cousin to the Tundra Wolves and Direwolves; they were intelligent wolves that lived in arctic areas and had large, deer-like antlers that appeared to be made of ice. They could use the same Howl based magic as Direwolves, and were said to have gained sapient-level intelligence by eating the flesh of Witches and Demons that wandered into their domain and made the mistake of challenging them. They were exceedingly rare in the modern era though, likely due to overhunting. If the Trappers had pointed the Huntsman at one, then they were likely also guilty of hunting them, and may be partly behind their endangered status.

“So the original Crystal Morozov ended up cursed with the Chatloup, and you somehow came about as a result?” Lilith frowned.

“Indeed.” Morozov smirked; “Our father was the last White Pelt Chief, and the Morozov line has held dominion over the White Pelts since the Age of Titans! Our city in the south pole; Sadalsuud, was made from an adolescent Titan that our ancestor’s hunting party slew, not even needing to kill his Avatar Form! We achieved victory all on our own, and the Morozov family ruled ever since! But then my other half was born…”

The woman spat in disgust; “Crystal was skilled, intelligent, and powerful… she had the makings of the greatest hunter the White Pelts had ever seen! But she was weak! She hunted only for food and survival, not glory! She ended things quickly, taking no pleasure in the kill! And worst, she sympathised with the weaklings and whelps who couldn’t hunt like the real men and women of the clan! It was disgusting! Enough so that our father felt that she needed some real predator instincts before she could become Chief of the Clan!”

“Typical. A Titan Trapper isn’t a total piece of filth, and they are immediately seen as a deviant or insane by their fellows. It’s like a whole nation of Mini-Belos.” Lilith scowled. “And let me guess, your father cursed the old you with the Chatloup to give you that predator instinct.”

“Correct again.” Morozov chuckled, unconcerned by the insult; “It wasn’t pleasant at first; they warred with each other until I was born! The most deep seated parts of Crystal and the Chatloup, the parts of themselves they both hated and repressed, overlapped a lot! Eventually Father and the Shamans of the Tribe entered my mind and did a little messing around to stop the curse from destroying our body. As a result, I was born from all those rejected parts! Now I rule the Trappers of the White Pelt clan, and let weak little Crystal keep the body when I am not needed.” she explained grandly; “Administration is dull work, and I leave it to Crystal while I get to go out there and have some fun with our hunts!”

Hearing this made Lilith grit her teeth; “Now I see, you’re nothing like Eda or Raine or myself! Eda and the Owl Beast found common ground and became allies! Raine and I conquered and accepted our repressed sides and unlocked this power in our own way! We didn’t need to repress and torment our other selves, nor did we need someone to go into our head and make a whole twisted persona for us!” Lilith then pointed her staff at the woman, while Eber and Barcus growled more fiercely; “We’ll defeat you and find a way to set the real Crystal free!”

Morozov briefly scowled, before her eyes suddenly widened, realising what Lilith was saying; “Wait… your form is a Cursed Hybrid!? No wonder you know so much about how this works! How delightful! I’ve longed to test my skills against another like me for so long! Let us duel!”

“Any time, any place, you monster!” Lilith shot back.

“Oh Monster am I?” Morozov laughed darkly, her body beginning to change; “Believe me, you’ve seen nothing yet!”

To the horror of Lilith, Eber, and Barcus, Morozov’s body began to grow, becoming longer without becoming wider too, resulting in her proportions becoming extremely long, gangly, and nearly skeletally thin. Each of her legs were about five feet on their own, and her torso was about the same from hip to shoulder, while her arms were almost twice that, reaching to the ground even when she stood up straight. Her clothes were replaced by pale blue wolf fur that shaped itself into an approximation of Morozov’s normal outfit, similar to how Eda’s feathers were shaped like her dress when she entered her harpy form, leaving only her necklace unaltered. Her face was also completely changed, fusing into her Titan Bone Mask in such a way that the mask itself became her new face, with the horns on it seemingly becoming ice, growing longer, and branching out to become like the antlers of a Chatloup. Combining this feature with a long tail growing from her tail bone, and her feet twisting into paw-like shapes resulted in Morozov looking ALMOST like a very disturbing Titan. Lastly, her fingers were elongated too, and her nails became extremely long claws that seemed to be made of ice, while her sclera became pitch black and a pale green crescent moon appeared on her forehead, showing she was now fully using her Huntsman Blessing.

“Look upon my glorious form and weep! I’ll take your hides for trophies and devour your flesh!” Morozov cackled, her voice sounding even more demonic as it gained a deeper echo effect to it.

Eber shuddered, more out of disgust than terror; “Cursed one become like Wendigo! Might actually eat us!”

“Then we better knock her out fast!” Lilith declared; “Barcus, support us from a distance! Eber, get in as close as you dare! I’ll take mid-range!” she ordered, slipping back into her old leadership persona from her Coven days. Her comrades jumped to obey though, both eager to see the fight end.

First, Barcus actually ran as far as he could while still seeing the fight, so he could safely call out Wise again and begin brewing potions with him and Duno. He had a formula he wanted to try out, and so began working on it while Wise and Duno worked together to make a variety of potion bombs and topical potions that could be helpful in a pinch. Secondly, Eber (still in her Wild Heart Form) used the spell on Tigriel too, turning the Deva Tiger Palisman into a much larger variant. Normal Deva Tigers were larger than Shire Horses, but as a Palisman Tigriel was based on a smaller version; something the Wild Heart Spell reversed. With the two in battle mode, they charged to attack Morozov, who used her long legs to leap out of the way of Eber’s claw swipes, which were charged with orange magic to make them far longer and more deadly. Leaping was a bad choice however, as now Morozov was in the air and within Tigriel’s reach. The Deva Tiger roared loud enough to create a shockwave, sending Morozov flying back until she managed to stab her harpoon into the ceiling to catch herself. She then began casting a spell to conjure ice spikes to throw at the giant Palisman, but Lilith shot and destroyed them with Anti-Magic feathers, then cast a spell of her own with Corvanc, which was meant to bind the Wendigo woman in magic chains. She only managed to bind her spear hand though, with the rest of the chains destroyed before they could take hold by Morozov’s sharp claws, which glowed with the Huntsman’s magic.

“Nice try!” she mocked, slicing through the other chains to free herself and drop back down to the floor. As soon as she landed though, she was nearly hit and consumed by a fireball shaped like a Wolf’s head, which Eber had sent at her with her Howl Magic. Morozov blocked it with a sudden ice wall, which barely survived the heat thanks to her blessing. Of course, the wall was then smashed down by a single swipe of Tigriel’s massive paws, sending shrapnel into Morozov’s body, making her cry out in pain, made worse by Tigriel suddenly spinning around and smacking her with her tail, causing the woman to go flying deeper into the cavern, were she barely got a moment to catch her breath before she was suddenly struck by a combo attack of a Fire Magic Bomb and a Lightning Magic Bomb.

All this did considerable damage to Morozov, though she slowly healed thanks to the Huntsman’s Blessing. “I guess I was wrong; this is more difficult than I imagined! Facing three of you at once may be too much after all… so I guess I’ll have to split you up!”

Naturally, no one was going to make it that easy for Morozov, so Lilith, Eber, and Tigriel darted at her with their top speeds, while Barcus and his conjured cauldron darted away with Wise, leaving Duno to keep throwing potions. Morozov blocked the potions by conjuring frigid cold water from her entire body, creating a soft barrier that caught the potions without breaking, then froze to ensure Lilith and the others couldn’t get to her. She then drew a series of spell circles on all the skulls on her staff, carving a crescent moon onto each one (excluding the human one). She then melted the barrier again just as Lilith began decaying it with Anti-Magic, channelling the frigid cold water into the skulls.

The skulls seemed to turn to ice as a result of this, and the emblems on their foreheads started glowing, making the group wonder just what kind of magic the Wendigo Woman was casting. She didn’t have the Anti-Magic of the Avian Beasts, but she clearly still had some power over ice and water. They got their answer when the water channelled into the skulls formed into an abomination-style body for each one, based on the bodies they’d had in life; namely large birds and various wolves, foxes, bears, and other Arctic dwelling creatures. One was even a Sleet Wyrm; a Lesser Dragon variant of the Supreme level Ice Wyrms.

A total of 15 of these water constructs were conjured, and with a twirl of her staff and a wolf-like howl, Morozov sent the entire lot of them after the CATTs; the birds went after Barcus, the wolves and foxes went for Eber, and the bears and Sleet Wyrm went for Tigriel, all meant to keep them busy and out of the way as Morozov herself had a one-on-one duel with Lilith. The CATTs didn’t have a chance to come to each other’s aid as they were attacked ferociously, but they weren’t about to act like weak links, so they threw themselves into their battles with all their strength, splitting up around the massive chamber so they wouldn’t get in each other’s way.

For Barcus, this meant using Wise and Duno to fight while he kept working on his formula, needing to finish it so he could safely finish off Morozov. Thankfully he was only dealing with the Water Constructs of Arctic Birds, of which the worst ones present were the Snowy Gyrfalcon; a relatively small bird of prey, so it wasn’t too hard for Duno to toss potions made inside mini-Crystal Balls, which Wise could then control with Oracle Magic to hit their target, meaning even the swift birds couldn’t evade him forever!

Eber and Tigriel had a similarly easy time, as while they had the most numerous and most powerful creatures, they also worked together exceptionally well and actually turned a portion of the underground chamber into a mini-hunting ground, sealing it off from the rest of the chamber with a Beast-Keeping Spell known, appropriately, as the Hunting Ground. This spell was used by Beast Keepers to create magical “territory” boundaries that animals instinctively hesitated to cross, and while these constructs weren’t normal animals, they still seemed to have similar minds, so they didn’t leave the area and instead focused their ire entirely on the giant Tigriel, trying to overpower her while Eber stealthily crept around the Hunting Ground and picked off the constructs, destroying them by using her fiery orange aura to evaporate the water with her aura-imbued claw and tail swipes, and the occasional howl. A few even ended up being consumed as Eber summoned Trunk Beetles; a form of lesser Bug Demon that were known to cause droughts by drinking huge amounts of water and then migrating to swampy areas, taking the water with them. They didn’t actually consume the water though, using it to instead expand their homes, so they served as fairly effective mini-water skins for emergencies, and Eber kept quite a few around the Wild Crag for hot days, meaning it was child’s play to summon them. She would have decimated the entire force of water constructs with them, but they tended to die quickly in cold environments, and while they were pests, she didn’t want to kill her whole supply!

This left just Morozov for Lilith, and the wild Trapper immediately went gunning for Lilith with reckless abandon, laughing manically as she swung her spear back and forth and slashed with her long claws. The Wendigo Woman had clearly realised Lilith’s Anti-Magic meant a magical duel was pointless, so she was instead attacking physically and only throwing out the odd spell to keep Lilith on her toes. Lilith parried the spear with Corvanc, whom she turned into a spear of her own with a spell she’d learned from an Angelic Spell Book, and she used her own talons to block Morozov’s, using hardening spells to make them strong enough to resist the razor sharpness.

After a few short minutes of clashing, during which Lilith felt herself growing tired while Morozov was as energetic as she’d started, her greater physical prowess slowly whittling Lilith down.

“Not good. I’m letting her lead the fight! I can’t match her in a physical fight, so I need to use my brain! I want to deal with the curse and that messed up personality that was forced on this woman” Lilith thought, putting up a hasty magic barrier to give herself a moment to catch her breath. It wouldn’t last long against Morozov’s magic-coated claws and spear, but it didn’t need to.

Corvanc thought back to his partner; “If I remember your old books on curses and mind magic, then Crystal’s father and the White Pelt Shamans likely entered her mind physically and tied together the traits they wanted to shape her personality with. If we enter her mind too, we can destroy the lynchpin, unwinding this personality and freeing her.”

Lilith’s barrier broke and before she could react, Morozov’s harpoon became like a halberd of ice and chopped down on her, slicing off her right arm and wing. Thankfully, Lilith’s own curse meant this was only a mildly painful irritant rather than a crippling wound, and Morozov’s shock at the lack of blood and Lilith’s stoicism in the face of such an injury left her open, allowing Lilith to summon Corvanc into her left hand then slash at her enemy with the feather shaped blade atop it. Anti-Magic flowed through the blade too, allowing Lilith to slice through Morozov’s spear, destroying the ice blade and shattering the human skull (to which Lilith offered a silent prayer and apology).

The staff was destroyed, and the Titan Trapper scowled and threw it away, though not without removing the wooden chime first, which she attached to her waist. Morozov then flicked the chimes, causing a haunting sound to echo across the underground chamber. This wasn’t just eerie though; it was actively horrifying, as the song filled all who heard it with a deep-seated terror, paralysing them. This included Lilith, who then found her other arm and wing sliced off by Morozov’s claws, before the woman gripped either side of her head.

“I’ll mount this somewhere nice!” the woman grinned with an insane glint in her eyes, before proceeding to literally pull Lilith’s head off. Naturally, thanks to the curse this wasn’t too hard, and Morozov was again shocked at just how easy it was and the lack of blood involved, all while Lilith played dead and pretended that she truly had been killed. Morozov sniffed at her neck and the base of Lilith’s head, frowning the whole time.

“Strange… is the blood not flowing because it’s cold? Are they so weak to cold climates that they can’t stand this temperature?” she wondered, looking around at the cold room. It was nothing compared to the arctic of course, but Morozov didn’t know how the Warmbloods reacted to the cold, so it was possible that her prey’s blood simply froze.

Putting that aside, she tied some of Lilith’s hair to waist, which proved difficult with the woman’s shorter hair. Once Lilith’s head (still playing dead) was in place, Morozov closed her eyes and sensed for her creations, finding that the birds had all been brought down already, while a handful of the other beasts still survived. Deciding to leave the boy for last, so she could really savour his torment, Morozov stealthily made her way towards Eber and Tigriel, using the Huntsman’s magic to disguise her scent and silence her steps, concealing her from Eber’s sharp senses. Morozov then watched with a sinister grin as Eber and Tigriel finally pinned down and destroyed the Sleet Wyrm, finishing off the last of her water constructs. Lilith was sad to see that Tigriel had taken a little bit of damage in the fight and was bleeding green essence, but thankfully Eber was alright and patching Tigriel’s wounds, leaving them both oblivious to the monster stalking them.

Aiming to get some revenge for earlier, Morozov climbed up onto the ceiling and slowly skittered across it until she was above Eber and Tigriel, then began charging as much magic as possible into her claws, turning all ten of them into mini-crescent scythe blades, intending to slice Eber to ribbons in a single move, which would naturally take out Tigriel too as the death of her partner turned her into a hunk of inanimate wood. However Morozov wasn’t accounting for one thing; Lilith still being alive.

Just as Morozov was about to drop down, Lilith began screaming at the top of her lungs; “EBER! ABOVE YOU!”

The Trapper flinched and looked to Lilith’s head in shock and horror, wondering if she was actually a Dullahan, while Eber looked up and saw Lilith’s disembodied head. Naturally Eber knew Lilith was fine, but still seeing the head of her comrade on the hip of her enemy was all it took to drive her into a serious frenzy.

“GRAAAAAH!” Eber snarled, her magic flaring wildly as her Wild Heart form began to grow larger. Eber’s fiery orange aura took on the shape of a large Direwolf; larger than even Roargna’s blessing-enhanced form from earlier, and she summoned Tigriel to her hand in staff form, twirling her around to conjure a huge fiery spell circle, unleashing Eber’s own secret weapon and a spell she’d been developing for a while now.

The Wild Soul spell.

While Wild Heart was a spell that allowed a Demon or hybrid to take on the aspects of the Apex of their species, it was limited to only the natural capabilities of said species. Eber, living her life as a small creature who had to use magic and ferocity to measure up physically to either Witches or Direwolves, was not content to merely push herself to the Apex of her bloodline; she wanted to be the TRUE Alpha! The strongest Direwolf there could be! And so the Wild Soul spell began development; a spell that combined the physical improvements of Wild Heart with the power within a person’s soul, effectively transforming them into the version of themselves they most desired to be.

In Eber’s case, this meant transforming into the ULTIMATE Direwolf, and it turned out that her fiery aura was the prelude to this, as the spell made Eber’s body grow and shift until it was a perfect replica of this aura. In her Wild Soul form, Eber’s body was pure Direwolf, losing all her Witch features with the soul exception of her forepaws, which were a lot more Witch-like with their thumbs and dexterity. Her large mane of hair fit this new body surprisingly well, and stretched down her head to her tail, which now resembled a larger version of her original ponytail. Even her face had become pure wolf, though her eyes kept their original appearance. Even Tigriel was present, but like Lilith, Eber had learned the Angels’ weapon transformation spell, and Tigriel had been turned into giant tiger claw gauntlets that fit over Eber’s hands even in her grown size.

The sight of Eber’s change caused Morozov to leap down and try to slice her up, but the force of the transformed Eber’s howl was enough to send her smashing back into the ceiling. Morozov was stunned, but shook it off and tried to claw at Lilith’s face so she could kill her for certain, then escape and reattempt her sneak attack, but before she could, she found both Lilith’s head and her wooden chime snatched away by the rest of Lilith’s body and Corvanc respectively, both of them having been preparing for this since the moment Morozov had left them unattended.

Lilith put her head back on and turned Corvanc back into a staff, before stowing the chime in her small satchel and blasting Morozov with white hot fire, causing her to once again fall from the ceiling and into Eber’s maw. Eber chomped down just hard enough to hurt her, then shook her violently and tossed her across the room, where she smashed into a pillar and hit the ground with a groan. The CATTs women gave chase, Lilith preparing another white flame spell while Eber made her Palisman Claws gleam with orange magic that had Morozov sweating.

She turned and tried to run, but then stopped and growled “Why am I retreating!? I’m stronger than that Cursed Harpy, and surely a great Trapper doesn’t flee from a beast like that wolf, no matter how big she is! I refuse to simply run!”

With that thought in her head, she skidded to a stop and turned back to her pursuers, then began slashing her claws back and forth, firing cutting blades of magic shaped like crescent moons, while subtly using her toe claws to drew spell circles that began to turn down the temperature even more, creating a wave of ice that spread out and began to freeze the room. Lilith and Eber were so focused on dodging or blocking the crescent blades that they didn’t notice the freezing floor until the ice began creeping over their legs. Both moved to break the ice, but in their moment of distraction, Morozov used the power of the Chatloup within her, gathering the cold from around her into her icy antlers and focusing it through her skull and into her mouth, where she then fired it out in the form of a beam of ultra cold magic, which struck both CATTs and froze them completely solid, leaving them unable to move at all.

For a moment, Morozov was certain she’d finally won and could take her time carving her new ice sculptures up, but that hoped died immediately when both began to melt their way out, Lilith coating her body in Anti-Magic that ate away at the ice, while Eber’s pure fiery body simply began to radiate enough heat that the ice simply couldn’t hold up. Within ten seconds, the ice slopped off the pair of them and they took a quick breath, before immediately attacking again. Morozov gasped in horror and tried to regain control of the situation again, but there was no hope; Crystal and the Chatloup were terrified of the power of these two older, far more experienced women, and the corrupt personality that was Mistress Morozov couldn’t power through the sheer instinctual terror felt by them, especially as Lilith noticed her fear and decided to capitalise on it, transforming from Harpy Mode to full on Raven Beast Mode.

Before Morozov could flee or fight, both Raven Beast Lilith and Alpha Direwolf Eber launched a claw strike at her, parrying the Trapper’s desperate slash and getting them out of the way so the CATTs could “high five” each other with her between them, leading to Morozov being knocked completely unconscious. When the CATTs moved their paws, they saw that as Morozov lost consciousness, she reverted back to her Witch Form, so Lilith reverted to her Harpy Form and removed the Titan Skull she wore.

“And that’s the end of that! We’ll take her with us when we leave and try to find a way to deal with her curse and the warped personality forced on her.” Lilith said, picking the younger woman up.

Eber nodded, still in her Wild Soul Form, and looked around for Barcus. She sniffed a little, then smiled; “Barcus coming. He safe.”

“Oh good, he beat those birds.” Lilith smiled.

A few moments later, Barcus came trotting back over, Duno riding on his back and carrying a potion in a test tube. The fluid was a spiral of gold and purple, and glowing softly, and Lilith could feel a strange magic from it.

“Barcus, I’m glad you’re alright. Did you have much trouble with those Water Constructs?” Lilith asked.

“No.” Barcus woofed, his tail wagging as he had a smug look on his face; “Duno and Wise took care of that! Meanwhile I perfected a formula I was working on before! One that’s perfect for this situation!” he boasted.

Eber and Lilith exchanged looks, then both gestured to the unconscious Crystal; “Eber thinks Barcus is late. We won.”

Barcus shook his head; “I know that, why did you think I came out of hiding? I’m not much of a fighter, especially compared to you two. So I stayed back and waited for you to win so I wouldn’t get in the way. In the meantime though, I created this!” he nodded to Duno, who wiggled the potion with an impish grin on his monkey face.

Lilith held out her hand for the potion, and Barcus nodded to Duno again, so the little monkey Palisman obediently handed it over. The Elder Clawthorne sister then gave it a look and hummed; “I see… this potion looks like the one used in the ritual to enter someone’s mind. But you’ve modified it with Oracle Magic. In fact…” Lilith looked closer at the purple swirl, then gasped; “Wait, did you have your spirit possess the potion!?”

Barcus nodded proudly; “Spirits need to possess crystals, so I had Wise possess a sugar crystal that I then dissolved into the potion! Now he’s inside the potion and can overcome mental barriers, meaning we don’t need to perform the full ritual to get inside the head of the person who drinks it! All we need is to feed them the potion OR scry on them using the potion as the focus! It does still need to be a full moon, but since tonight IS a full moon and I beefed the potion up a little, we can use it right now!”

Lilith grinned widely, while Eber looked impressed by the boy’s ingenuity; “You found a way to have your own potions be possessed, and used that to overcome one of the limits of the Mind Invasion Spell!? I am SO glad I approved that Multi-Tracking initiative at Hexside!”

“I am too! Now should we do this now? I still want to find and save my parents, but I want to make sure this woman is taken off the board for the Trappers too!” Barcus woofed.

“Then Eber says no time to lose! Do it now!” Eber said, sitting down to wait patiently (and to calm her soul enough that she could drop her transformation, since she was currently too big to fit through the door.

Lilith and Barcus nodded, and laid Crystal on the ground. Barcus then gestured to the crescent moon blessing that still manifested on Crystal’s forehead and told Lilith to get rid of it with her Anti-Magic. Lilith focused and sensed for the magic of the Huntsman within Crystal, and since they had a calm moment out of battle, she was able to hone in on it and attack it, sending targeted Anti-Magic directly into the woman’s body to destroy the blessing. It required fine-tuned control, but it worked like a dream and all signs of the Huntsman’s magic vanished from Crystal. Once that was done, Barcus had Duno pour the potion into Crystal’s mouth, causing her eyes to glow purple so brightly that it was visible through her eye lids. Once this was done, Lilith cast the spell to enter Crystal’s mind, and just as she’d hoped, she was met with no resistance, just a feeling of vertigo as she was sucked into the woman’s head and fell through a black void before finally arriving in Crystal’s Inner World.

As Lilith has suspected for one of the White Pelts, the world inside Crystal was a replica of the snowy tundra in which she lived, with the city of Sadalsuud ahead of her. The city consisted entirely of an adolescent Titan slumped against a large mountain, with buildings of wood, bone, and fur built throughout it. The entire city was about the size of Manubrium, with what looked like a very large Viking-esque hall built inside the skull, matching the vaguely Viking aesthetic of most of the city. Lilith began walking into the city; the gates of which had been build between the toes of Sadalsuud’s right foot, and as she walked, she found numerous memory portraits on the walls.

These memories painted a grim picture; each one seemed to depict a scene of an exile; in which a Trapper who’d broken the law was stripped of their mask and banished from the city with only a spear and simple furs. Considering the treacherous nature of the South Pole, Lilith doubted any of the exiled people survived for long… even the beasts of the region were supposed to be too tough for a single Witch to take on without extreme skill and competence. Putting that aside, Lilith headed into the city and began walking up the simple streets of the right leg, noticing more paintings here and there, depicting mostly small and insignificant portions of Crystal Morozov’s life. Some of these paintings were in frames made of bone, and others were in simple ice frames, making Lilith think they represented the new and old Crystal personalities respectively. She peeked into a few to try and get a clue as to where to find the lynchpin of the twisted new personality, as well as some information on the Trappers, Huntsman, or Divider, but all she found were mundane memories of administration and hunting.

“Well this is going to be a pain in the butt. I don’t have time to go looking through every memory in this woman’s head!” Lilith groaned.

As if on cue, the silence of the inner world was broken by a loud howl, causing Lilith to look up towards the skull of Sadalsuud. She smiled and said; “Well the Owl Beast is inside Eda’s Inner World according to her, so I bet I’ll find the Chatloup here too! And perhaps it’ll lead me to my target!”

With that, she took flight and flew up to the skull, keeping an eye out for the Inner Crystal the entire time. She quickly reached the skull and the Viking Hall within it, finding that the hall was about the same size as the CATTs’ old fortress HQ on Digale Island. Outside it was an extensive courtyard lit with fire pits that were roasting large bear carcasses, and in the centre of this courtyard was a black iron rod that had been stabbed into the ground. The rod was giving off an ominous black smoke, and it had numerous chains and black, tar-like threads attached to it. The threads stretched out to various memory portraits in the area, connecting them to one another via the iron rod, while the chains were both forged onto the rod and wrapped around it and led to two different parts of the courtyard.

The first set of chains led to one of the fire pits, where Lilith found the Soul of the Chatloup that had been bound to Crystal via the curse. It was a somewhat ragged and sorry looking wolf with matted pale blue fur, a skinny physique, and ice-like antlers that resembled a deer’s. Clearly the poor beast was not in good condition. Lilith guessed this was due to the curse and the bindings, and so she very gently knelt down to pet the Chatloup, who growled lowly out of fear. It quickly got over this though and began leaning into the gentle touch, before woofing adorably at Lilith.

“Whose a good…” Lilith looked at the wolf’s belly, “…girl then? Is it you?”

The Chatloup wagged her tail weakly and woofed again, then pointed her paw over to the other side of the courtyard, where a crude shelter of firewood had been made. The other set of chains led into that shelter, and Lilith didn’t need to be told what they were attached too. She stood and invited the Chatloup to follow her (which it did), as she crossed the courtyard and peered into the shelter.

Sure enough, she found the emaciated and exhausted form of Crystal Morozov, huddled in a corner and trying to keep warm. This was a difficult task as she wore only dirty grey rags, and her feet and fingers were nearly black with frostbite. Through the holes in the rags, Lilith could count every rib of the extremely skinny woman’s body, and saw a LOT more scars than just the ones on her face.

“Oh Titan… look what’s been done to you two!” Lilith gasped, heart full of pity. She’d never normally feel so bad for a Titan Trapper, but by her darker self’s own admission, Crystal had originally been kind-hearted even with her skill as a hunter! And besides, with King as the last Titan and the rest dying over 5000 years ago, it wasn’t like Crystal herself had killed any, and if the CATTs could accept Tarak and Denasu, Lilith could accept Crystal!

For her part, Crystal eyed Lilith warily, and then in a raspy voice she said; “Are you here to kill me and finally set me free of this nightmare?”

“Kill, no. Free, yes. You and this furry lady.” Lilith said kindly, petting Chatloup.

“Oh, Koko.” Crystal said with a soft smile, before suddenly looking horrified; “Wait, is the other me unconscious!?”

“Yes she is. Why?” Lilith asked, wondering who Koko was. Did Crystal mean the Chatloup?

Crystal sighed with relief and pet Chatloup; “Oh good… If Koko and I are too close together in here, then the other me gets stronger. If we’re apart, then her personality is stretched thin and more of my good traits end up making up the difference, but if we’re close to each other, she is able to harvest our negativity and get stronger.”

Lilith blinked in surprise; “Wait, so the Chatloup IS Koko… and you’re friends?”

“Yes. We became friends after my father violated my mind and twisted bits of it together to make that.” Crystal pointed at the black rod. “Koko and I have tried to destroy it, but we can’t do anything! All we want is to be free of it.”

Lilith smiled; “I thought that rod must be the source of the evil you! I’ll destroy it and free you both.”

Crystal gawked at her; “Just like that!?”

“Well yes, that’s why I came all the way here.” Lilith chuckled.

“B-But I did awful things! I was an awful person!” Crystal argued.

“Join the club.” Lilith retorted, before using her Anti-Magic to coat her talons and shred all the tar-like threads (making sure the flames of Anti-Magic didn’t reach Crystal’s memories), before finally grabbing the rod itself and disintegrating it. The entire Inner World shook as a demonic screech echoed throughout it, as the dark Crystal was literally ripped apart and her aspects returned to their proper places within Crystal and Koko.

Almost immediately, Inner Crystal’s body began to fill out and restore her to her true physical condition, making her match the version of her outside in the real world. Even her frostbite and rags vanished, replaced by healthy flesh and her usual furs. Similarly, Koko was restored to how a Chatloup should look, and proved to actually be an exceptionally beautiful member of her species, with her light blue fur ending in white tips and her icy horns taking on a prismatic design.

“Finally! After all these years! It’s been what, 7 years since Father did this to me?” Crystal wondered, getting to her feet.

Koko answered by tapping her paw on the ground five times, then barking. “Only five years!?” Crystal gasped; “Of course! I was 16 when he cursed me… But it wasn’t until I was 18 that he and the Shamans made that iron stake in my brain! Man, I’ve never liked killing unless it was for survival, but I am REALLY glad the other me killed those monsters!”

Lilith hummed, guessing that the Dark Morozov must have wiped them out since Crystal hated them, and she contained Crystal’s negative emotions and traits. The more Lilith thought about it, the more it seemed like Crystal had been given the reverse of the Divider’s Blessing, with her good side repressed and her bad one allowed to thrive.

At that moment, Lilith looked down and frowned, seeing that only one of the chains was gone from Crystal and Koko’s legs, while the other was still around their ankles and apparently linking the two together. That chain was likely the manifestation of the curse, similar to the red string of fate that Eda had described connecting her and the Owl Beast.

“Crystal, would you like me to destroy this too?” Lilith asked, pointing at the chain. “If I’m right, I can use my Anti-Magic to destroy the magic of your curse, freeing Koko from you. At least, that’s what I think will happen.” Truthfully she wasn’t completely sure, though Lilith did think it would suit the luck of the Clawthornes for her and Eda to be able to easily cure curses like theirs, except for the ones on themselves (since they couldn’t destroy the link while fused, and couldn’t use their Anti-Magic while unfused).

Crystal and Koko exchanged looks, then the former asked; “Will this hurt Koko in any way?”

“I don’t think so.” Lilith said, going off her gut feeling and her considerable research into curses like this. “I believe breaking the link should unravel the curse keeping Koko restrained to her vessel. The Huntsman usually uses the curse to trap his prey in a scroll, and the scroll can then transfer its power to another chosen vessel. If the curse is unravelled, Koko should be freed, like pouring water out of its vessel.”

Once again, Crystal and Koko looked at one another, the former embracing the latter. “I’ve lived my life as a borderline slave to my own clan as they propped up my worst parts as their leader. I don’t care what happens to me… but I won’t risk your life Koko. You’ve been the one friend I’ve had in my life. What do you want to do?”

Koko licked her face, then leaned down and growled as she gnawed on the chain, then on her own leg, showing that she too was willing to give up everything to break the chain and be free once more, while also freeing Crystal from her. Crystal smiled tearfully and looked up at Lilith; “I think we’d like you to do it. But first, I’d like to know the name of the woman who saved us from this living hell.”

“I am Lilith Clawthorne, of the CATTs. My comrades are Eberwolf and Barcus.” Lilith explained.

Crystal and Koko both looked at her gratefully and bowed their heads, thanking her and silently willing her to do what she had to. Lilith said a quite prayer to the Titans out of habit, then touched the chain with Anti-Magic. Once a single link had eroded, the entire chain turned white and shattered, freeing Crystal and Koko. Almost immediately, Koko’s body began to shine with pale green and white magic, before she suddenly disappeared from Crystal’s Inner World, no longer able to remain there without a tether or spell. The rest of the Inner World was fine though, with no disturbances, so Lilith was confident Crystal had suffered no harm.

Well, aside from a bit of melancholy from no longer having her faithful companion within her.

“Alright, I’m going to leave now. I’ll wake you up in the real world when I get there.” Lilith said.

“I understand. And thank you… I can only hope that Koko is waiting for me outside.” Crystal said with a slightly worried smile.

Lilith gave her a reassuring pat on the shoulder, then cast the spell to send herself back out of Crystal’s inner world. She felt the same sense of vertigo as the world went black, just like when she entered the inner world, then in a flash, Lilith found herself back in the real world, panting slightly. She immediately looked around and found Barcus with Duno and Wise (released from the potion once Lilith infiltrated Crystal’s mind) in front of her. Lilith assured them she was fine, then spun around and saw Eber, having calmed down and returned to her normal form, saw on the back of her Palisman Tigriel, who was staring down a very much alive Koko.

The Chatloup was sitting calmly in front of the Beast-Keeper and her Palisman, sniffing at them and showing no signs of aggression. When Lilith appeared though, she turned to her and wagged her tail happily, panting like a big dog.

“Koko! Oh thank goodness, breaking the curse DID free you!” Lilith beamed, rushing over to pet the Chatloup. Now that she knew this method DID work to free those trapped by curses, they could free others under the same effect! Perhaps even freeing the Owl Beast from Eda! Of course, Lilith somehow doubted the duo would be overly eager to end their arrangement, at least so long as the war was raging.

Putting that out of her mind, Lilith kept petting Koko as she asked; “Barcus, do you have smelling salts or something that can wake Crystal up? I think she’ll be on our side now.”

“Are you sure?” Barcus asked.

“I am. And even if I’m wrong and she double-crosses us, we beat her at her strongest; we can do it again if we need to.” Lilith replied.

Barcus had no argument there, and Eber seemed unconcerned too, so the boy simply whipped up a quick batch of smelling salts from his Potioneer Belt and used it to revive Crystal, who shot up with a gasp. “H-Huh? What?” she cried, looking around fearfully. This continued until she spotted Koko, who was holding herself back from licking her friend’s face.

“K-Koko! You’re alive! And not inside me any more! So it was all real!? It wasn’t a dream!?” Crystal beamed with joy, reaching out for Koko. The Chatloup jumped into her arms and gave her a lot of wolf kisses, making the three CATTs smile at her. The two shared a tearful reunion, before Koko finally let Crystal stand up.

“I thank you, Lilith. I owe you and your comrades more than I can ever repay! Still, I wish to try.” she kneeled; “Allow me to join you as an ally! I’m somewhat familiar with the other tribes and know about the other leaders present here at the Crag.”

Lilith and Barcus were surprised by the offer, but Eber was suspicious; “You betray Pack?”

Crystal sneered; “My “pack” cursed me and warped my mind and soul because I wasn’t enough of a monster for them. They betrayed me!”

Eber looked her in the eye, and felt some kinship with her, especially considering what she’d just gone through with her own pack. The diminutive Coven Head looked to her comrades and nodded, giving her silent agreement. Barcus had no strong feelings either way; Crystal’s aura was full of pain and hatred, but it wasn’t deceitful to his eyes, so he doubted she’d betray them. And of course, Lilith was more than happy to have her on their side.

“Alright. You and Koko are welcome to come with us. I’ll put in a good word for you with Luz and the other Leaders. But first, we need to get back to our mission and find Rom and Howlena.” Lilith said.

“I don’t recognise those names.” Crystal said, tilting her head curiously.

“They’re my parents. My father is a Lycan and my mother is a Direwolf.” Barcus explained.

Crystal hummed; “I see… if you don’t mind pricking a paw pad or something, I think I can help. Chatloups like Koko can smell your relatives by sniffing your blood. In Sadalsuud, captive Chatloup pups were used as Paternity Tests if a child bearer was accused of being unfaithful, so I can attest it works.”

Barcus didn’t need to be told twice; he poked one of his paw pads with a claw and made a tiny trickle of blood, which he offered to Koko. The Chatloup sniffed it, then licked the blood away and ran off, heading towards the secret passage that the CATTs had entered through. She couldn’t get through on her own though and ended up scratching at it, making Crystal and the CATTs follow her.

“She’s leading us back outside? I guess that means Rom and Howlena are outside of the Crag right now.” Lilith frowned.

“Eber thought that could happen. No choice; we go out into Savannah and find!” Eber barked.

“I’ll help track them down. The Silver Skulls are the tribe roaming around outside, and they’re a nasty lot.” Crystal explained. “Captain Krakyll is a sinister man, but if we’re lucky, we can defeat him and find his kid. She’s like me; skilled, but does NOT want to be a part of all this!”

The CATTs nodded in agreement; new allies were always welcome, and robbing the enemy of them was just as good! With that, they left the Wild Crag through the secret passage (Crystal and Koko needing a Shrinking Solution to fit) and headed back out to the Savannah to continue their hunt, and hopefully meet up with Raine’s team too.

As they went, Lilith briefly thought about her family members elsewhere within the Crag, hoping their own trip was going well, especially given Luz’s luck with stealth missions…