The Angel of the Owl House - Chapter 49 - OwlHouseAngel (2024)

Chapter Text

Following the battle to retake Bonesborough from the Wings of Rani, the defeat of Raguel, the death of Odalia, and the final farewell of Amity the First, Luz and her team had settled in for the night at the Owl House, where Camila had made them all a meal and they’d exchanged stories of the last four months, as well as what each of them had done during the battle. The evening had some deep lows and some soaring highs, with all the Demon Realm crew feeling a mix of sympathy towards Luz for her ordeal, and rage towards Belos (who was still out there somewhere) and Vitimir. Darius especially needed time to cool off after hearing that Vitimir was behind Em’s death, and his petty jealousy had been what led to the entire incident that caused Michael’s death too. Luz had comforted him, and the man had hugged her and said that if things had gone the way they should have, Luz would have grown up calling him Uncle Darius. He invited her to do just that, and she happily accepted, especially since she considered Hunter and Lyra to be like half siblings half cousins. The Parks and Porters were also deeply saddened by the fate of Amity the First before she was saved, and furious at Odalia. They hadn’t had any sympathy for her already, and while they weren’t quite willing to say they were happy she was dead… well, they weren’t complaining either.

Then there was the somewhat baffling reveal that the Demon Realm and Divine Realm had once been a single place; the Arcane Realm, and that Proto-Angels and Proto-Demons had warred over it, eventually breeding together to the form the Nephilim/Titans, while both species also bred with Humans, creating modern Angels and Witches, while Proto-Demons and the Titans eventually gave birth to the modern races of Biped, Beast, and Bug Demons. It was shocking, but as this had all happened more than 100,000 years ago, the men had shrugged it off as ancient history. The fact the Collector was a Sephiroth and thus an Angel (of a sort) was also a point of interest to them, though they were mostly relieved to hear he was on their side, even if his powers had been greatly weakened by the Divider’s Anti-Archivist precautions.

The highs had come with Alador and Darius telling those who hadn’t been there about their relationship, which earned them some hearty congratulations. Willow had made a special point of growing a pair of roses with abomination pattern petals as a gift, and a sign to Alador that she was happy to forgive his part in Odalia’s actions towards her. The story of Luz’s ascension to the Seraphim, her new role as Ambassador between the Demon and Divine Realms, and the hatching of Stringbean had also gotten some cheers and congratulations, and Stringbean found herself happily playing with all the adults’ Palismen (with Ghost and Clover watching carefully to make sure the likes of Abette didn’t try to steal their mothering role). Finally, there was the reveal of Amity’s new form and how she’d acquired it, which had naturally blown everyone’s minds.

The idea that a person could fuse with their Palisman to become one being was incredible, and the fact Ghost claimed Luz had bestowed the glyphs on the entire Hexsquad thanks to King’s incomplete linking glyph gave both Willow and Gus hope that if they could truly understand the nature of whatever glyphs they’d been given, they’d be able to do it too! Unfortunately, there was no way of knowing what glyphs they’d been given (though they admittedly had a good guess), and the glyphs didn’t appear on their skin like Amity’s did. The only reason they even knew they’d all received one was because Ghost had noticed the orbs of magic flying from Luz and into the Hexsquad while all the other Palismen hadn’t (and hadn’t mentioned it ahead of time simply because she’d been preoccupied with everything that had happened).

After doing a bit of experimenting (which included everyone petting Amity’s fused form and making her purr), they were able to discover a few things. Amity’s light glyph was permanently etched into her chest and allowed her to conjure the glyph and cast magic with it just as Luz could, even outside of her fused form. Amity could freely transform too and from her fused form so long as Ghost was willing and they both had enough energy and magic left to sustain it. When she transformed, the light glyph on her chest would permanently glow, and Luz would react too; her own light glyph would remain etched into her right eye even when not using it, and a line of gold was tattooed on Luz’s cheek, neck, and chest, connecting the light glyph to the incomplete glyph ring King had engraved there. When the fusion came undone, the line would disappear, leaving everyone certain that Amity’s bond with Luz, as well as her bond with Ghost and understanding of the element of light were all crucial elements of the transformation.

Then there were the physical benefits; Amity’s fur was soft and warm, helping her deal with the cold better, and the pure white colour reflected light and reduced heat absorption while also keeping her body heat locked in, making it good for both hot and cold weather. Her skin was also a bit thicker, and her fangs and claws were sharp enough to pierce wood and scratch metal. Her tail was also fully under Amity’s control and could serve as a third arm, and Amity now had cat-like reflexes, agility, and senses, which let her see in the dark, smell and hear things at a greater distance, and react much faster. The fusion also allowed Amity to fly as if she was a Palisman staff herself.

Ability-wise, the fusion granted Amity a huge boost in magic, making her at least as powerful as Luz had been as an Arch-Angel, and gave her incredible control over the element of light, to the point that it was almost effortless to cast light magic. It also gave her a boost in all the magic schools that used the light element, giving her minor increases in her Illusion Magic (not enough to match Gus, but enough to be around the same level as Matt) and some minor Healing Magic that would have made Emira proud. It was also speculated she’d be better at Bardic Magic too, but Odalia had always looked down on Bards and never allowed Amity to learn much about it, so aside from a fairly pretty singing voice, Amity had no talent for Bardic Magic.

But the real bonus was to her new Homunculus Magic. Alador and Darius had just about burst with excitement when they’d learned Amity had finally found a light-based, positive energy form of Abomination Magic, and seeing her new homunculi made them hug Amity tightly and pour praise onto her. The others were just as amazed, and eager to see what these new homunculi could do. Amity put them through some testing and discovered that for the most part, they functioned exactly like an abomination; they consumed the same amount of magic to create, control, and shape, and most abomination spells (like the self-destruct spell) could be easily adjusted to work on them. They also had one advantage over normal abominations in that the slime had natural regenerative properties, so they could more easily repair themselves. On the flip side however, it was significantly harder for the positively aligned homunculi to be possessed and controlled by Amity’s negatively aligned spirits (which had been a useful tactic in the last battle), and the homunculi were also less dense, meaning they needed more slime to achieve the same level of physical strength and endurance. Still, even with these downsides, Amity was able to use Homunculus Magic so much more easily than normal Abomination Magic (which she was already an expert in), to the point that she was as good with Homunculus Magic as her Dad and Darius were with Abomination Magic! And combining that skill with her Palisman Fusion boosts resulted in Amity actually surpassing them! Camila even speculated that Amity’s level of magic in her fused form was on a similar level to that of a Seraphim, though only barely and with the output of that magic still being closer to an Arch-Angel.

After an evening of catching up and experimenting with Amity’s new powers, everyone had gone to sleep, then awoken bright and early the next morning to shower, eat breakfast, and check in on Bonesborough to make sure everything was still okay, before beginning the trek to the desert. Things were still going fine in town, with the Wings of Rani not yet able to breach the town’s defences thanks to the Abomatons and them scrambling over the loss of Raguel. With that reassurance, Luz and the gang had begun walking westward to the Ash Moth Desert through the Forearm Forest; taking the slower ground route to avoid being noticed and ambushed by the Wings of Rani patrols that roamed the skies.

As they walked, Camila reminisced with Darius about some of their adventures together in the past, while Vee listened avidly and the rest of the kids chatted with their parents, enjoying the peaceful walk. The sole exceptions were Luz and Amity, who were walking a little ways behind the others, as Amity took great pains to tell Luz every in and out of her new Homunculus Magic. Luz listened carefully, making sure to memorise it so she could be supportive of all of Amity’s achievements; especially since her Cotton Candy Haired Goddess was so excited to be teaching her about it, and so proud every time Luz demonstrated how much she understood the achievement.

However Luz was in for a surprise after about two hours of this, when Amity conjured a little ball of the pink slime and held it out to Luz.

“Okay Luz, time for you to try it out.” Amity said, smiling expectantly.

That made Luz blink; “Me? You want me to try it out?”

“Of course! Why do you think I’ve been teaching you the ins and outs of all the techniques for the last two hours? I thought we’d start small and have you manipulate some existing slime first, before we see how you do at conjuring it for yourself.” Amity said.

Luz tilted her head; “But Amity, I’m an Angel. I can’t use Abomination Magic. I know it’s not the same, but I don’t think switching from negative energy to positive energy is enough… after all, even a darkness affinity Angel like Lyra can’t use it, and I tried after getting the darkness glyph, but it didn’t work.”

During her birthday party at Lazuliel’s place, Luz had tried to use her new darkness powers to manipulate an abomination butler that Amity was using to serve drinks, but hadn’t been able to do anything with it. It seemed Abomination Magic and Angelic Magic were just fundamentally incompatible.

However Amity just grinned; “Don’t worry Luz, if my theory is correct then the problem you have with abominations won’t carry over to homunculi.”

“But how can changing out one element for another, both of which I can use, change the situation?” Luz asked.

“Because the element isn’t the deciding factor!” Amity said, “Luz, I don’t think you understand what I’m getting at here. I’ve been wracking my brain for a long time, trying to figure out why Angels can’t use Abomination Magic. At first I thought it was because abominations use the element of darkness as a component, but that’s not the case since Angels can use Darkness Magic, like you and Lyra. Then I thought it might be the purifying aspects of Angel Magic, but then I realised that your magic didn’t counter abominations and purify them; it just didn’t work to control or make them. It took me a long time, but I figured out why Angels really can’t use abominations… it’s the lack of magic bile! An Angel’s magic exists in their tears, feathers, and blood, while a Witch’s, Demon’s, and even a Titan’s exist in their blood, bones, and bile!” Amity explained with a bright smile.

Luz gasped; “Wait, so abominations only work with magic bile!?”

Amity nodded excitedly; “It’s the core ingredient! But since all Witches and Demons produce it naturally with it being the source of all their magic, no one ever noticed! Any magic that doesn’t use bile just won’t work for abominations!”

Luz stared at Amity, totally dumbfounded, so Amity continued; “The revelation came to me once I realised I needed a positive magic catalyst to complete my Homunculus Magic. The negative magic catalyst we normally use is magic bile, which all Witches and Biped Demons have, and so we rarely think about it. After discovering I could use angel feathers as the positive catalyst, I suddenly wondered it if was even possible to use other negative catalysts besides bile, but from what I remember, you can’t! It’s the only one that works, since it’s inherently compatible with the Spell Phlegms we use. Since bile is needed, an Angel that has none cannot use Abomination Magic!”

“And even when conjuring abomination slime from raw magic, you’re still using your bile!” Luz exclaimed, beginning to understand. “But then how do you conjure more homunculus slime? You used that golden feather you plucked from me in yesterday’s fight to make the first batch, but what about after that? If you can conjure the catalyst with magic, why can’t Angels conjure bile?”

Amity grinned, glad to see Luz was understanding; “I can’t conjure the catalyst at all.”

“Then how can you-” Luz’s question was cut off by Amity turning a patch of her chest into homunculus slime, before reaching into her own body and pulling out another angel feather; the one she’d gotten from Luz back when Luz battled Eda in Owl Beast form above Bonesborough.

“I used this; your first gift to me. Angel feathers absorb energy and convert it into Angelic Magic, so as long as I take care of this feather, I can always use it at the catalyst for my Homunculus Magic. With my transformation abilities, I’ve placed it right where it belongs; next to my heart. Now my magic feeds it, and it gives me some of your magic to let me cast as much Homunculus Magic as my body can handle.” Amity explained, before returning the feather to her heart.

Luz blushed, feeling a squirming in her stomach to know that a part of her was going to be eternally beside Amity’s heart. She then shook the feeling off and said; “I wonder… maybe the fact that Witches and Demons have a negative magic catalyst as their magic source is why it’s rare for them to have light affinities, and Angels getting magic from a positive catalyst is why it’s rare for us to have darkness affinities.”

“That was my theory too. It all adds up, and all my research and experimenting points to this being the truth! Now…” Amity held the ball of homunculus slime towards her girlfriend once again; “Use what I just taught you and try to control this with your magic.”

With only the tiniest bit of hesitation, Luz used what Amity had taught her and cast a spell over the slime. Her heart leapt as she immediately felt her magic take hold, and to Luz’s immense joy, the slime began to move according to her will! It was a bit stiff and certainly nowhere near as smooth as when Amity used it, but it worked!

“I-I did it! I cast Homunculus Magic!” Luz cheered, throwing her arms in the air after turning the slime ball into a little model of Stringbean, which the real Stringbean began to play with.

The others turned around to see what all the noise was about, seeing Amity throwing her own arms in the air and jumping up and down excitedly; “I was right! My theory and research worked out! Angels can use my new Homunculus Magic! Combine that with what Raguel said about using this magic being able to help expand my lifespan, and it’s a resounding success!”

Camila gasped; “Wait, are you saying Angels can use this modified Abomination Magic too!?”

“That’s right!” Amity grinned, before turning to Luz again; “I know this is a couple of days late, but Happy Birthday Luz! I was finally able to finish your other present!”

As Alador, Darius, and Camila gaped in shock at this development, Luz stared at Amity with shining eyes; “This is the other present you said wasn’t finished yet?”

Amity nodded; “It is. Now we can share a bit of each other’s magic… and while I may still have to pass on one day, I’ll be with you for way longer!”

Luz continued to stare silently at Amity for a moment, her eyes still sparkling, until she suddenly lunged at Amity and captured the girl in a tight hug, accidentally toppling them both over. The girls both giggled as they rolled around on the road, until finally Amity found her shoulders pushed against the ground with Luz on top of her, straddling her and looking down with an adoring smile.

She stooped to kiss Amity, then said; “Thank you, Hermosa. This is one of the most thoughtful gifts I’ve ever received.”

Amity blushed, then sat up and kissed Luz again; “You’re welcome, Luz. I started this research for my own sake; to overcome my weaknesses. But as I researched more and more, I became convinced I could find a way to make it work for you too. Now I can finally share one of my magic specialities with you.”

Luz beamed, then looked a little guilty; “I’m kind of sad I’m not better at it, especially after all your hard work.”

“You can learn, just like I did. If you want to, of course. I’ll be happy to teach you.” Amity promised.

Luz nodded happily and finally got off Amity’s lap and helped her back to her feet. The two girls continued their walk together, only now with Darius, Alador, Harvey Park, and Camila all eagerly hanging on Amity’s every word as she taught them how to use her new form of magic. Her Dad and Darius were able to learn how to use it with some ease since they were already experienced in the base techniques, but they weren’t as good as Amity, nor did it outstrip their original Abomination Magic. On the flip side, Harvey actually found it a bit easier to use (though he still didn’t compare to Amity), and Camila picked it up surprisingly fast too, having an easier time than Luz. Even Willow gave it a shot, wondering if she’d have more luck with homunculi than she had with abominations, and while she certainly did find it easier, since the lack of the darkness element and its aspect of death meant there was no clash with Willow’s plant affinity and its aspect of life, she still had no real talent for it.

With the impromptu lesson underway, Gilbert and Perry instead decided to chat with Vee and Gus, while Vee took a chance to look around more at the Demon Realm. She felt a lot more at ease than she’d expected to given her past here, but without the fear of being captured and made an experiment by Belos and his cronies, she supposed it was inevitable. She still preferred the Human Realm though.

Finally, as noon approached, they arrived at the old EC outpost on the wrist. It was a fairly large white stone fortress that had been build between two massive gates, each of which was the centre of an equally massive stone wall that blocked easy access to the desert from the forest and vice versa. The walls were tall and thick enough that punching through or climbing over was impractical for most, and since the only other way through was going around, flying over, or climbing the steep cliffs on either side of the pass through the wrist, the path to the Ash Moth Desert was very well defended. Under normal circ*mstances, there would be EC scouts manning the walls, prepared to shoot down people who flew over (not that they ever bothered stopping people from suicidally flying into the desert), but with the Isles ruled by the Divider, they instead expected Angelic Knight Golems, Abomaton Knights, or perhaps even the Wings of Rani. What they found instead was an entirely abandoned and empty fortress, with the gates left wide open.

“Weird… did the Divider just not bother with this place?” Gus wondered aloud.

“It was probably considered a waste of resources. Aside from wild beasts, and the Ash Moth and its children, there is no one living out here. There is a Union Pillar though, but I expect that’s just because the Divider needs them at all the Wellsprings.” Darius explained.

Luz hummed; “Makes sense I guess; if there’s no people then there’s no one to guard. Combine that with the Ash Moth and it’s the perfect hiding spot for the CATTs… except for the fact that the Ash Moth is super dangerous. Even the likes of Seraphim and Supreme Dragons can’t stand up to one!”

The others shuddered, agreeing to avoid the beast if possible. However as they looked around the fortress, they found it picked clean of supplies and covered in dust and sand from the desert. It didn’t look like anyone had done more than pass through since the Day of Unity and the Divider’s Conquest. Willow tried to use her connection with plants to send her roots underground to try and find signs of a hidden base, but found nothing but Titan Bone.

“I don’t understand; if the CATTs aren’t here, where could they be? Did they build another base over on the fingers? Or did they hide in the actual desert? Because I assumed it’d just be the edge.” Willow said.

Camila turned to Vee; “Do you smell any other magic here?”

Vee shook her head; “No, just us. There is some strong magic coming from the west though. I think it’s Samael.”

Luz closed her eyes to try and sense the magic and sure enough, she felt the presence of Samael to the west. It seemed to be moving around a lot, undoubtedly filling the area with his scent. There were only a handful of reasons for the Star Child to be flying around the desert so much, and few of them were good, so Luz turned to her friends and said; “I think we should go. If the CATTs aren’t here, they have to be further in and I’m worried Samael is stuck dealing with the Ash Moth.”

The others nodded seriously and followed Luz as she ran out of the fort through the western gate. They emerged from the pass through the wrist onto the very edge of the desert, where the last of the greenery slowly faded away into a never ending sea of sand. Just before emerging from the pass, Luz and the others had begun to feel a vibrating beneath their feet, as the Titan shook like something very large was running around nearby. Upon actually seeing the desert proper, they were greeted with two curious sights. The first was the middle of the desert, where the volcano that the Ash Moth had made was located… the volcano that now had a Union Pillar sticking out of it’s crater. The pillar looked identical to the one in Bonesborough, only with a faint blue barrier glowing around it, and the majority of the structure being submerged within the caldera of the volcano. Considering they were built into the Primordial Wellsprings, the Ash Moth must have made its lair directly above the wellspring in the palm.

The second sight was far more worrying; the source of the rumbling was indeed the Ash Moth as Luz and the others had feared, as the large creature was bounding around the eastern side of the desert, only a short distance from the wrist. It was running and chasing something, acting almost like a giant, very deadly puppy… and to make matters worse, it was being followed by all of its children! Dozens of Ash Moth Larvae were chasing their mother, who was in turn chasing something else.

As the gang crossed over onto the sands themselves, Alador pulled his goggles onto his face and twisted one of the lens to see what the Ash Moth was chasing, and grimaced as he saw a very small winged figure.

“They’re chasing what looks like a little Cherub! Though he’s got ten wings… that has to be the Collector, right?” Alador asked, worriedly.

Luz gasped; “No! Samael must have acted as a decoy to lure the Ash Moth away so the others could get past! We have to save him!” she cried, before taking to the sky and flying towards Samael as fast as she could. A Goliath Ash Moth was more powerful than even a Seraphim, and with Samael’s powers limited to that level, he was in grave danger! Not being able to die would be a small mercy when faced with the fiery proboscis and incredible strength of the Ash Moth!

Her family and friends flew behind her at a much slower pace, with Gus hiding them all beneath illusions to avoid them being spotted and preyed upon by the Ash Moth. Luz continued to fly frantically, but as she got close she heard something she wasn’t expecting; laughter. Samael was giggling happily as he flew around, and as Luz got closer, she realised he was flying rather slowly for someone with ten wings and Seraphim-level magic… was Samael just playing? It would be rather in character for the playful Sephiroth to not realise how much danger he was in! But then again, the Ash Moth wasn’t roaring or attacking either; things were not what they seemed!

Calming herself a little, Luz flew directly to Samael’s side and began matching his pace as they flew together. “Samael! Are you alright? What’s going on here?” she asked.

“Luz!” Samael cheered, suddenly coming to a stop. Luz briefly panicked, but then the Ash Moth skidded to a stop too and promptly sat down like a loyal dog, lowering it’s face to the Collector’s height and gently nudging him with its massive snout. Down below, the Larvae were all clambering over each other and making excited squeals and yips, their rear-ends wiggling as if they were wagging their tails.

Samael giggled and pet the Ash Moth’s head; “Hold on a second, Ashi! I’ve gotta talk to my friend!”

“Ashi?” Luz repeated, dumbfounded.

“Yup! Ashi the Ash Moth! I couldn’t think of a better name, and I thought this one was cute!” Samael said, sitting atop the Ash Moth’s head and inviting Luz to do the same. She reluctantly did so, finding the Ash Moth’s fur to be almost as soft as Amity’s fused form’s! Still, it was unsettling to be casually sitting on a creature that had nearly killed her about five times just half a year ago!

“I’m so confused! Why is the Ash Mo- I mean Ashi, acting so friendly?” Luz asked.

“The Ash Moths used to all be friendly like this! They were big adorable fluffy friends! I played with them a lot back when I first came here, along with the Baby Titans! They were bigger back then too, but after all the Titans died and stopped giving the Ash Moths magic to feed on, they shrank and got kind of mean.” Samael sighed sadly.

Luz’s eyes widened; “Whoa, hold on! These things used to be both docile AND even bigger!?”

Samael nodded; “Yep! The Titans kept them as pets! They were adorable! The biggest one I ever saw was about half the size of Uncle Orion, and the smallest one before Ashi was maybe up to Orion’s knee? When I told King and the others, Hunter said that it sounded like the Titans used them like Humans used dogs and wolves, and the sizes were about the same difference.”

Luz could scarcely believe it… the most powerful species of Demon in the Demon Realm had originally been the Titans’ pets!? And after years without their Titan masters, they had shrunk from lack of food and turned feral!? That was a lot to take in, but Luz decided to be grateful; if they hadn’t shrunk, the Boiling Isles would have been doomed! An Ash Moth as large as the Knee would be a nightmare to deal with! Not to mention the volcano that it would have made for its lair…

“Putting the Titans’ unusual pets aside… how did you tame Ashi?” Luz asked.

“Oh, I didn’t.” Samael said casually; “The Divider did it. He needs these funny black orbs from the people he divides to power his Union Pillars, but since no one lived in this desert, he divided Ashi and all her children.”

“Which means we can’t safely shut down this pillar… not while the CATTs are here anyway.” Luz muttered, before saying; “Speaking off, where are King and the others?”

“Oh, they’re in the pillar. They were talking to a bunch of grown-ups and I wasn’t really interested, so they told me I could come play out here.” Samael explained; “I can take you to them if you want.”

Luz nodded, the signalled to her hidden friends to come out of hiding. They did so reluctantly, and Samael told Ashi and her babies that he’d come play again later, before flying with Luz towards the group. He took one look at Alador, Darius, Perry, and the Parks, and gave a big smile.

“Hi! I’m Samael the Collector! You’re Luz and King’s buddies, right?”

“Yes. I’m Amity’s father, Alador Blight. This is Darius Deamonne, my partner and one of Amity’s mentors. These other men are Gilbert and Harvey Park, Willow’s fathers, and Perry Porter, Gus’s Dad.” Alador introduced, offering his hand.

The Collector giggled as he took Alador’s hand and flew up and down as Alador shook it, making it look like he was being flung around. When he finally let go, he floated upside down and waved; “Nice to meet you all! Let’s go inside; King and the others will be happy to see you!”

They nodded and followed the Star Child into the caldera of the volcano, feeling the sweltering heat of the magma lapping at the base of the Union Pillar within. Unlike the Bonesborough Pillar, which had an entrance through the library, this one had a small platform built around the “ground floor” and included a short bridge over the magma below and towards a tunnel that led through the volcano to the desert outside. This platform was empty, save for a sliding obsidian door that allowed them all into the pillar, though the moment Luz and the gang stepped onto the platform, they felt the temperature drop to a much more comfortable level, thanks to the cooling enchantments on the tower.

Samael led them through the sliding door and into a sparsely decorated room. It was nothing but a large, circular room with the same eight coloured veins that had been pulsing through the Bonesborough Library, as well as the black elevator shaft in the dead centre of the room. The rest of the space was filled with some barricades made of desert stone and rudimentary bricks made from compacted sand, while a handful of ragtag guards protected the place with spears, and some damaged Abomaton Mk I’s and II’s. One of the guards was a somewhat familiar face to Gus; Severine, from the EC reserves and the Tiny Cat Coven! She was dressed in a rough uniform cobbled together from a Construction Coven Witch’s overalls and some pieces of EC scout gear, including a scout mask on her shoulder.

“It’s you guys!” Severine exclaimed as she and the other guards lowered their spears and made their Abomatons stand down; “You really came! When the others arrived earlier with the Little Titan and Steve’s brother, we could scarcely believe it!”

“Hi, Severine! We’re glad to see you’re safe and still yourself!” Gus smiled.

“We all are here. There are none of the Divided here. Head on up! Mason should be in the Overseer’s office! I think Steve, Katya, and your buddies are all with him.” Severine smiled. “You might not all fit in the elevator though.”

“Not a problem. I’ll just move some of us through the shadows; it’s way more convenient.” Luz smiled.

Severine just nodded happily and escorted the group through the barricades to the elevator shaft in the centre of the room. Since it was less magic consuming to move smaller people through the shadows, Luz sent Amity, Vee, Willow, Gus, and Samael into the shadows, then went into them herself, leaving the six adults to take the elevator platform up to the Overseer’s office. Upon arriving, they emerged into a single massive room instead of a foyer like at the Bonesborough tower, though based on the marks on the floor and ceiling, a foyer had been there, but had been demolished as the occupiers of the tower expanded the office to fill every bit of available space at the top of the tower.

The room had become some kind of war room, with a huge map of the Boiling Isles on a large table in the middle of the room, and various sections of the room having been separated with medical screens and canvas sheets. There was a medical area with stretchers, cots, and some salvaged hospital beds, which was being manned by a few members of the CATTs and Healing Coven. Then there was a few areas that were just beds and old wardrobes full of whatever clothes the CATTs could get a hold of. Another section contained a few Oracles and a series of crystal balls, acting as some kind of scrying station, and yet another was just a couple of desks with a single bookshelf overflowing with tomes of all kinds, to the point that piles of books and scrolls could be found all over that area. The final two areas were a small lounge, where exhausted CATTs were resting on old couches and staring at a crystal ball showing some old dramas, and the actual office of the Overseer, which was nothing more than a desk overflowing with papers and scrolls.

When the adults of Luz’s group arrived and Luz emerged from the shadows with Samael and the other teens, everyone in the room looked up to see the new arrivals. The relief that they all felt upon seeing the newcomers was palpable! There were Coven Members, Civilians, Wild Witches, and CATTs all looking at them, appearing ragtag and worn out but now ready to melt with relief. It was as if the arrival of Luz’s group had completely changed their attitudes! But they weren’t the main ones Luz and the others were looking for, as they all smiled at the sight of King and the rest of the Hexsquad standing around the Overseer’s desk.

Hearing the excited whispers had the others turning around and seeing Luz’s group, causing them to cheer and rush over to reunite.

“Luz! It’s only been a day but it feels so much longer! I’m glad you’re back!” King cried, flying into Luz’s embrace.

“I’m glad to see you too, King. We’ve got a lot to tell you, and it looks like you’ve got a lot to tell us too! As you can see, we rescued Amity’s, Willow’s, and Gus’s Dads, as well as Darius! We’ve also gathered some intel, freed Bonesborough, and defeated Raguel! He’s back in the Union’s custody now.” Luz happily explained.

King and the others beamed, while the rebels watching the reunion all gaped in shock, then burst into loud cheers. They were so excited that they stopped just short of picking up Luz and her friends and tossing them in the air as part of a celebration.

“Well, ya’ll sure know how to make a triumphant return.” said a familiar voice.

The crowd parted, and Luz and the Bonesborough group were greeted by the very welcome sight of Mason, accompanied by Steve and Katya. The Construction Head Witch looked exactly as he had when they’d last seen him on the Day of Unity, only now he had a white and gold version of his original outfit. Steve and Katya looked healthy too, both wearing similar outfits to what Severine had been wearing, which appeared to be the uniform of the rebels. The two were also conspicuously holding hands as they beamed at the new arrivals.

“Mason! Steve! Katya!” Luz cheered; “We’re so glad to see you!”

She rushed forward to hug them, and the trio happily accepted and exchanged hugs with the others too. “Oh man, we’ve got so many introductions to make and stuff to tell you guys!” Luz grinned.

“Then it’s a good thing we’ve got nothin’ but time.” Mason smiled, “The CATTs have been tryin’ to start a real uprisin’ against the Divider since the day Digale Island fell, but we’ve not had a single victory. We’ve salvaged some supplies and recruited some people, but nothin’ else. Then ya’ll show up and within 24 hours you’ve taken down the Divider’s right hand, saved two o’ the CATTs’ old leaders, and liberated a town.” he shook his head with a smile; “I think ya’ll have earned a break and some time to catch up. We’ve got a lot to discuss.”

Darius nodded; “Yes, we do. But first…” he marched over to Hunter and Lyra and pulled them both into a hug; “Thank the Titan you two are okay! I was going out of my mind with worry after the Day of Unity!”

“Darius! We’re glad you’re okay too! It’s so good to see you again! We’ve got so much to tell you too!” Hunter said, blushing a little at the embrace.

“Yeah! A lot has happened! But we’re so happy to be with you again!” Lyra beamed, as Darius released the hug (though he kept an arm around Lyra and a hand on Hunter’s back).

The others, particularly Willow and Gus, smiled at the happy reunion, while Mason turned to the other rebels in the room; “Everyone, would ya’ll mind headin’ down to the lower levels for a bit so we can all catch up in private? From what King and the kids have implied, things are gonna get personal for our returnin’ heroes.” he pulled out his scroll and sent a short message; “Get yourselves a nice drink and some food, and take a well-earned break! Now that our Guardian Angel has returned, the real rebellion will be startin’ soon!”

The CATTs and their new recruits/allies all nodded and began clearing out slowly, while Mason led the now reunited gang over to the lounge area so they could all sit and talk. It was a tight squeeze and Mason had to conjured some hard stone stools so everyone had a place to sit, but once they’d all gotten comfortable, King and Matt (who’d been sticking very close to Steve) began to let the Bonesborough Team know what had happened when they left the previous day.

After escaping Hexside through the evacuation tunnel and flying westward along the cliffs to avoid being spotted, they had stopped off at the Owl House and discovered the same things Luz’s group had, including that the Divider had been living there. King had taken his favourite toy, Francois (whom was currently stored in his enchanted neckerchief) and Boscha had taken some potions supplies from Eda’s basem*nt lab, after which they’d all moved on. It was during the trek to the wrist that they had first gotten the message from Luz’s group letting them know the Bonesborough situation was over and they’d be meeting up sometime the next day. King’s group had then camped out in the fortress on the wrist for the night, having not wanted to brave the desert in the dark with the Ash Moth and its children lurking about. Then that morning, while Luz’s group were on the way from the Owl House, King’s group had crossed the desert to the Union Pillar. The heat had gotten to poor Hanu, so she was currently down in the basem*nt where most of the living area for the rebels had been established, sleeping it off with Treble watching over her.

“That’s pretty much everything that happened on our end. Mason, Steve, and Katya came down to greet us when we arrived in the pillar, and brought us up here to talk. Matt got to reunite with Steve and have a big bro-out, as well as see his parents and Steve’s Mom. They’re down in the basem*nt at the moment. Then we introduced Samael to everyone, and let him go off to play with the Divided Ash Moth, and Mason told us a little about what he and the CATTs have been doing out here, but that’s about all. We were waiting for you guys to show up before we got into the details.” King finished the story.

Luz nodded; “Got it. It’s a shame about Hanu, but at least you all got here without too much trouble.”

“I don’t think Hanu and Treble are really up for more fighting anyway; they only got involved so far because they didn’t have much choice.” Skara said; “I got the impression that they’d rather sit out any future problems, unless they have no choice.”

“That’s reasonable. We can’t expect to conscript teenagers into this fight. Even you kids are only allowed to fight because you refuse to stay out of it.” Darius said.

The Hexsquad grinned unabashedly; they were in this fight to the end! Amity then piped up; “I guess now it’s our turn…”

“Actually, let us go first.” Mason cut in, “We’ve still got a couple o’ people who should be here for that talk, so until they can get up here, let me fill you in on what’s been happenin’.”

The others nodded, and Mason began; “I’m guessin’ Darius and Alador told ya’ll about everything up until the Divider got ‘em?” he received a round of nods, then continued; “Well, I got knocked into the water durin’ the Divider’s conquest o’ Digale Island, and saw all the other CATTs leaders and a whole mess o’ others get divided. I know a losin’ battle when I see one, so I ordered the rest o’ the CATTs to stand down and surrender. Felt like a real traitor, but there weren’t no winnin’ that fight.”

“There’s no shame in that. We stood no chance.” Darius grumbled.

Mason nodded gratefully and continued; “After that, the Divider accepted our surrender and started actin’ all… weird. The man seemed to be arguin’ with himself. Kept repeatin’ “This is for Paradise. This is for Paradise” over and over. Then he announced a big ultimatum; we can all be split up and serve him and his organisation, the Wings o’ Rani, or we can be divided. He swore we’d never know hardship or sadness again, but most o’ us thought it was all a load o’ griffin sh-, uh, you know.” Mason swiftly censored himself, mindful that their were kids around. “The Divider made me follow him down to where we kept Belos’ loyal Coven Heads, as well as Hettie Cutburn. Speakin’ off, the woman’s alive! Belos faked her death to use her for the Day o’ Unity.”

“We heard; Darius mentioned it. It took some more guilt off my back. How are you feeling, Lyra?” Luz asked.

Lyra shrugged; “I’m glad she’s not dead but I’m not looking forward to seeing her again. I don’t want to listen to her Grimwalker hate.”

Everyone could agree to that, and Gus, Willow, Darius, and Camila all made mental notes to smack Hettie a new one if they heard her talking trash about Lyra or Hunter.

“Movin’ on; after the Divider took me down there, I figured he was gonna divide all the Coven Heads and make ‘em loyal. But when he went to Adrian, the guy was so terrified that the Divider actually stopped. Adrian ain’t been himself since Glandus, and the Divider started whisperin’ to himself again, sayin’ he weren’t a monster and he didn’t feel good about this after what happened with Eda and the others. I reckon that dividin’ his old pals made the Divider remember the man he was before gettin’ the rest o’ his memories back. Either way, he told the Coven Heads that he’d spare ‘em if they obeyed him. Amaranth made some noise, sayin’ she wouldn’t follow another tyrant, so the Divider did his thing and divided her. The others agreed to his offer right quick after that…”

Luz and the others exchanged looks. Skara didn’t know how to feel about her mother being divided, and they were all conflicted over the Divider’s behaviour. It sounded like the fight with Eda and the others had shaken his resolve and made his conscience win out for a short time… perhaps Raguel had been right that the Divider could still be turned away from his plan, and that the Rasiel they knew was still in there.

“Right after that, the Divider had us all return to our Coven Headquarters to be in charge o’ our old Covens and run them for him. The Divider gave us laws to enforce but otherwise stuck to just keepin’ the peace… though he had my Coven buildin’ these Union Pillars in each of the Primordial Wellsprings. Not sure exactly what they’re for, but the Divider enchanted ‘em and they drain magic from the Wellsprings, which he activated somehow, as well as from the Divided Orbs. Once all o’ ‘em were complete, he turned ‘em on and they shot beams into the sky and made that big sky tear. That’s when the Angels came through and the Wings o’ Rani took over the place. The towers also turn on by themselves sometimes, shootin’ beams into the sky, but I’ve no idea why.” Mason grumbled; “Shakes the whole place whenever it happens. I reckon the Wings ‘o Rani can turn them all on remotely somehow.”

“That must have be Raguel’s doing, sending the Distorted Shadows into the Divine Realm.” Camila murmured, getting some nods from the others. Mason, Steve, and Katya were confused, but Luz just waved them off, promising to explain later.

“Once the towers were up and runnin’, the Divider told us that they all needed an Overseer and asked for Coven Heads and Divided CATTs to run ‘em. I don’t know who was assigned where, but I spun a sob story about wantin’ to be isolated and alone because I couldn’t face the CATTs or my Coven after makin’ ‘em surrender and do as the Divider said. I reckon I must o’ played on the Divider’s conscience, ‘cause he got a weird look on his face and gave me my wish; sendin’ me to be Overseer of this Pillar. There’s nothin’ out here neither, so the Wings o’ Rani won’t inspect this place so long as the Pillar is up and running, and aside from some Abomatons that got put under my command, no one else lives here.” Mason finished.

Darius and Alador looked to one another; they vaguely remembered sending a detachment of Abomaton Knights here after they’d first begun mass-producing them… Mason must have deactivated them to stop the Wings of Rani learning what was happening here.

“So with no one else here, you were able to turn one of the Divider’s own towers into a base for the CATTs!” Luz grinned.

Mason nodded; “You got it. I was able to get a hold of my sub, Ol’ Bessie, and docked her over by the fingers, so I’ve been able to sneak all over the Isles, recruitin’ people and offerin’ ‘em sanctuary with me. Got a whole bunch o’ runaway CATTs, refugees from across the Isles, and even some Coven Members. None o’ them will be doubtin’ the words of the CATTs now, especially after Belos. That’s also how I got Steve and Katya here; they were in hidin’ with the rest o’ the Tholomules over in Palm Stings after tryin’ and failin’ to take back Bonesborough themselves.”

Steve and Katya grimaced; “We tried to make a new resistance of our own, but we were didn’t stand a chance.” Katya sighed.

“The Abomaton Knights and Angelic Knight Golems were too much, and that was before the Wings of Rani sent Angels to arrest us. Most of our friends were taken to Manubrium to be divided, but we managed to escape.” Steve added; “We were in hiding until Mason found us. We’ve been building our forces ever since.”

“And your relationship too, by the look of things!” Amity grinned, noting their joint hands.

Katya and Steve both beamed; “Yep! We’ve been attracted to each other for a while and decided to make it official after the Day of Unity. We were already dating by the time the Divider took Digale Island.” Katya explained.

“We’ve got a surprising amount in common! Steve is a happy man!” Steve grinned, before Katya pulled him into a kiss that had the Hexside and Vee all beaming. King and Samael pretended to gag, making each other giggle.

That was some much needed positivity after Mason’s story, and everyone congratulated the two, thinking they made an adorable couple! They were both romantics that loved love, with Steve being open-minded about Katya’s stories and Katya having the energy to keep up with Steve’s exuberance, especially after dealing with Amber so much!

A great deal more positivity then arrived as the elevator doors opened and some new people arrived in the office. The gang turned to see who it was, and Amity and Alador immediately leapt to their feet.

“Edric! Emira!” Amity cried, seeing the familiar faces of the twins, walking in alongside Viney, Valtora, and Meesha Leonis.

“DAD! AMITY!” The twins gasped with joy, before the members of the Blight Family ran at each other. Edric grabbed his little sister and hoisted her into the air, while Alador did the same to his eldest daughter, both Blight men kissing the ladies on the cheek before trading places, allowing Alador to hug Edric and ruffle his hair while Emira held Amity and stroked her head.

“Oh Titan, I’m so happy to see you’re both okay! Last time we saw Dad, he was under Odalia’s control! And Amity, we were terrified we’d never see you again!” Emira sobbed with a huge smile on her face. She wasn’t wearing her Concealment Stone any more, letting her real face and it’s true beauty spots be seen, while her hair had been tied into a rough braid. Her outfit was one of Viney’s Hexside uniforms that had been shrunk to fit her better, but with Emira’s old casual waistcoat being worn over the top instead of the cowl and mantle.

“I can’t believe you’re back! We missed you both so much! I’m gonna cry!” Edric wailed, already crying quite a bit. He too had ditched the Concealment Stone and was now wearing his rectangular lensed glasses openly, as well as a casual outfit consisting of some torn grey shorts and a yellow shirt with a cauldron on it. It also looked like he could do with a shave, as he had a lot of stubble.

“Oh my children…” Alador smiled with tears in his eyes, bring all three of his kids together and holding them close; “We’re finally all together again! Now we just need your grandparents and the Blight family will be complete!”

“We’ll definitely find them! We’ll find all our friends and family! I never imagined I’d miss you two terrible twins this much!” Amity said, laughing through her tears.

The twins responded by grinning impishly and hugging her between them and kissing her cheeks over and over as Amity giggled and begged them to stop. Nearby, the pair of Orthie and Russ were sandwiching Ghost between them too, licking her face as their tails wagged fast enough to kick up a weak breeze! Even Moustrosity was getting in on the reunion, standing on top of Ghost’s head and receiving some doggy kisses too.

As the Blights were reuniting, Darius watched from the side-lines and the rest of the Hexsquad, went to greet the Leonis family.

Viney hugged Luz with a smile; “Man, I am so glad you’re back! And better than ever too! Are those two more wings!?” Viney asked.

“You know it!” Luz grinned; “And it’s great to see you too! How have you guys been?”

“Not bad, Lass.” Valtora said; “Life under the Divider has been bearable, and we’ve been taking care of the twins while their Dad was divided.”

“Though we did had to pull them and Viney out of school and go on the run once Odalia somehow became Overseer.” Meesha added. “Luckily we found some fellow runaways who knew about this place.”

“But what about all of you guys? We were so worried! The Divider said you were in the Human Realm!” Viney exclaimed.

“We were. It’s a long story, but now that you’re here, we can finally let you all know what’s been going on.” Luz said, as Mason directed everyone back to their seats. Edric and Emira sat on either side of Amity, while Alador and Darius then sat on either side of the twins, with Alador beside Edric and Darius beside Emira. The Leonis family were squeezed in with Skara and Boscha (with Viney and Skara sharing a short reunion of their own, being classmates in the bard track) and introductions were made between them, Camila, Vee, and Samael, as well as Stringbean. The twins and the Leonis family were ecstatic to meet them, but then it was finally time for Luz to tell them all what had happened in the Human and Divine Realms, as well as what had happened in Bonesborough.

It took quite a while to tell the full story, especially as many of them (the Twins and Katya especially) kept piping up to comment or ask questions. Hearing of Luz’s depression and father situation had been heartbreaking, and the reveal that Belos was still kicking and now in the Demon Realm again was certainly an unwelcome surprise, but the ascension of Luz had delighted them, as had the defeat of Raguel and Odalia, and Amity’s discovery of Palisman Fusion and Homunculus Magic. Naturally, everyone had demanded Amity show them her new form and abilities, and just about everyone went crazy over her new cat form! Edric and Emira even insisted that she remain in that form for the rest of the meeting, while Viney pulled up her pants legs to show her own Cait Sith parts, claiming she and Amity were now “Cat Gals!”

Meesha, being an actual full “Cat Gal” had just giggled in response.

But then had come the final part of the story; the reveal of Amity the First and Odalia’s demise. There wasn’t a dry eye among the group as Alador spoke of his farewell with his little sister, and Amity the Second was sure to pass on her namesake’s love to the twins. The two mourned for their aunt, but were relieved to know she was free now. And the fact their Dad and Darius were now formally dating also helped cheer them up.

As for the death of Odalia… that was met with silence. No one felt it was good to cheer for a person’s death, but none of them mourned her either, especially since she’d earned her death by trying to kill Vee as a final, petty revenge. In fact, the only response besides dead silence was Emira asking; “Who was the one to kill her?”

The Bonesborough group had skirted around that issue when telling the story, but they didn’t want to lie so they’d just said Odalia instigated a scuffle while trying to kill Vee and had ended up dead. However now that the woman’s child had directly asked, Darius couldn’t keep it a secret.

“I did. I drove a blade into her heart.” he confessed.

“But only after I shot a hole in her throat! He was trying to spare me from being the one to kill her.” Amity quickly added.

Emira and Edric raised an eyebrow each; “Wow, finally got to blow a hole through Odalia, huh Sis?” Edric commented. He didn’t seem upset, and instead acted nonplussed.

His sister acted the same way; Odalia hadn’t ever been a real mother to them. At best she was like a strict nanny/matron, and at worst she was a looming monster in their house that they didn’t want to attract the notice of. It was hard to mourn the loss of such a woman, and even harder to consider her to be a mother… Emira had once felt that she needed no parents or little sister, so long as she had Edric in her corner, but over time she’d realised how unfair she and Ed were being to Amity, and Alador had realised how unfair he’d been to them all, reuniting their family. But Odalia had never done that; it was her way or the high way, so Edric and Emira had decided they had no need of a Mom.

However, that thought did change a little as they caught each other’s eyes and exchanged a secret fox-like grin.

The two turned to Darius, and Emira said; “You know Darius, there are consequences for killing our Mom…” she began coyly.

Darius gulped, having a bad feeling about this.

Edric grinned; “Oh yes. And dating our Dad too… you can’t do those two things without taking some responsibility…”

“What exactly did you two have in mind?” Darius asked, resigning himself to being extorted for some trinket or favour. He had no doubts that the Twins couldn’t care less about Odalia’s demise, but he’d let them play their game and give them what they wanted. The Titan knew they could do with a treat or two.

However he was not expecting them to give him Cheshire Cat grins and say together; “You’re our Mom now!”

Everyone blinked in surprise, while Darius’ jaw just about hit the ground. “I-I’m sorry, what!?”

“You heard us!” Edric grinned.

“You offed Odalia, stellar work by the way, and since you’re also dating Dad, you’re our new Mom!” Emira explained.

“Got a problem with that?” they asked challengingly.

Darius opened his mouth to retort, but then paused. The Twins were obviously half-joking, but the looks in their eyes also told him that there was a bit of hope behind this teasing, and some trepidation too. He thought about his answer more carefully, then answered from the heart.

“Not at all. You two could use another parent to support you. Do I have to be Mom though?” he said, adding that last part with exasperation.

The twins absolutely lit up as they nodded happily; “Of course! We’ve already got a Dad!”

“You can have two! Willow and Luz do!” Darius argued, a hint of whining in his voice.

“But Amity has a Dad and a Mom! We want one too!” Emira said, while Edric pouted beside her, both giving Darius their best puppy dog eyes.

Darius couldn’t resist that look, and sighed; “Fine… Al, your twins are menaces!”

“Our twins are menaces.” Alador smirked, before leaning in to kiss Darius on the cheek and whisper in his ear; “Thank you for this, Dee. They won’t admit it, but they want this more than you realise.”

Darius smiled, giving a look that screamed “I know.” The Twins cheered, and Amity found herself swapping places with Darius so the man was between Edric and Emira, who hugged him happily. Their joke had gone further than they’d expected and they were overjoyed by the results.

Darius then looked to Amity; “You already have a Mom in a certain Lilith Clawthorne, so if I’m going to be a parent to you too, I insist on at least being a father figure!”

Amity giggled; “Sure thing, Pops!”

Darius groaned, but accepted the new name and reached over to ruffle Amity’s hair. This had been a long time coming and they all knew it! Plus it continued the odd theme of Amity being adopted by her mentors…

However the semi-forced adoptions Darius found himself involved in had also convinced him to finally make up his mind about something he’d been debating on for quite a while now… giving a proper father figure to a certain other pair of teens that he’d cared for in his own way for a long time.

That would have to wait until later though, as Mason cleared his throat with a smile. “I’m glad ya’ll got to have your family moments, but now I reckon it’s time to make plans. The Nocedas, Blights, Parks, and Porters all won the CATTs our first victory against the Wings o’ Rani, and we can’t afford to lose the momentum.”

He stood and approached the map table in the middle of them the large office; “Y’all mind joinin’ me here around the War Table?”

The others nodded and stood up, with everyone gathering around the table. Upon closer inspection of the map (which was actually a 3D model of the Boiling Isles), they noticed that Union Pillars with little flags marked by the letter D were located at all the Primordial Wellsprings, meaning they were located at each foot (with the right foot being underwater, at the Metatarsal Reef), each Knee (meaning one speared into Eclipse Lake), each hip, the base of the tail bone, each shoulder (with one being very close to the Alchemist Atelier), the elbows (which included Bonesborough) the palms (which were obviously the two deserts), the joints of each wing (which were underground in massive caverns, with special shafts dug out so the light of the pillars could reach the sky), the throat (where Unity Plaza still stood), and lastly, the brain (which had a Union Pillar speared right through Belos’ old workshop/the hiding place of the Collector’s mirror). Countless other settlements were marked with little D flags too, with only a single flag that was marked with the emblem of the CATTs, atop the Ash Moth Desert Union Pillar.

Luz also noticed that there was a strange floating island, roughly twice the size of the Patience Court, directly above the Emperor’s old castle, where Orion’s Heart was contained. Interestingly, despite being the location of another Wellspring, no Union Pillar had been built there, either because the heart was shrunken or because the floating island replaced it somehow.

“Alright, so thanks to the intel you all got from Raguel and the Divine Realm, we now know the purpose of the Pillars and the Divider’s plan.” Darius said, taking charge. “His goal is to undo his past mistake and reunite the Demon and Divine Realms into the Arcane Realm. Considering his Paradise talk, I imagine this is merely the next phase of his plan, but it’s one we’ve got to prevent at all costs. We also know that he plans to achieve this by using the Wellsprings and the Divided Orbs he takes from his victims to power the Union Pillars. His first use of them was opening the tear in the sky, and Raguel has since used them to send Distorted Shadows into the Divine Realm to keep the Angels too busy to try and stop him.”

“Which means we’ve got two primary objectives.” Mason said, using Construction Magic to produce two figurines of stone. One was of the Divider, and the other was of the Wings of Rani emblem; a titan skull with angel wings on either side. He placed both down in front of him and pointed at them; “First objective: Defeat the Divider. Second objective: Stop his Plan. Sounds simple, but we’re gonna have to do a lot to achieve either o’ those goals.”

“We know the Divider is off chasing the Archivists, which gives us a window to take out as many Union Pillars as we can. Though if we can keep at least a couple shutdown then that’ll be enough to delay the Divider’s plan.” Luz said. “That could give us time to discover exactly what was used to seal him up in the first time. Even if we were all okay with killing him, it’s impossible to kill a Sephiroth.”

“So secondary objectives are to research a way to beat the Divider and try to keep at least a couple of towers shut down.” Amity agreed. “What about supplies?”

“We handle that.” Steve said; “We take Ol’ Bessie out to fish for food, and we’re able to trade with a Merrow Flotilla that has been occupying the sea a few miles west. They’re the same flotilla that Mason lived in before he came back to the Isles, so they’re on our side.”

“The rest is the best we can manage with the scraps we can salvage on scouting missions. We’re not hurting for supplies with out current numbers though.” Katya added, “Our main trouble is our numbers are low and we can’t stand up to the Wings of Rani. You guys will change that.”

Mason nodded enthusiastically and made another pair of figures; one of Raguel and one of a masked and hooded Angel woman. “Most o’ the Wings o’ Rani are regular Angels, with some High Angels and Arch-Angels mixed in. They’ve also got back up from Knight Golems, Abomaton Knights, and their Divided Soldiers. But in the Divider’s absence, the Wings are ruled by two people; Raguel the Seraphim and a mystery woman called “The Valkyrie”. Ain’t no one who knows who she is, but we reckon she’s a normal Angel since she’s only got the one pair o’ wings. Luz and Amity cut off the Divider’s right hand when they defeated Raguel, but if we take out the Valkyrie too, then the Wings o’ Rani are leaderless until the Divider returns. Then all we have to deal with is the Overseers!”

“Some of which are our friends.” Hunter mused. “Invading one of their towers and destroying the Divided Orbs would take away one of the enemy’s leaders, delay their plan, free a lot of people AND get us an ally back! I say we go for the Valkyrie, then hit as many Union Pillars as possible while looking for the rest of our scattered allies.”

Everyone agreed with that, and Mason and Darius grinned, both having planned to suggest the same thing. Luz looked to the others and said; “Does anyone else have anything more to add?”

She was met with silent shakes of the head, so she smiled determinedly; “Then that’s what we’ll do! Save our friends, take down towers, and find a way to stop the Divider! Do you know where anyone else is?” she asked Mason.

Sadly, he, Katya and Steve shook their heads; “The Isles are under martial law, and unless you’ve got a good reason, the Wings of Rani don’t let people move from place to place. They only make exceptions to get people to Cartilia for medical treatment, or for kids to get to school.” Steve said, “Even those people are escorted by the Angels. There are also Signal Termites set up in small outposts, cutting off Scroll communication between cities. You were only able to get in contact with King yesterday because there aren’t any of these outposts to the west of Bonesborough. Information is on a total lockdown, and we can’t even scry for it with all the Angels around… so we’ve got no idea where anyone is.”

That was a downer; it meant they had very little information to go on. They knew where the Union Pillars were because Mason and his coven had helped build them, but since the Overseers had been assigned afterwards, he had no idea who was overseeing which tower. Darius didn’t know either; it seemed the Wings of Rani were being smart and keeping things secret to make it harder to organise against them. Though that also brought up another point…

“Speaking of Angels… are Luz, Camila, and Lyra going to be safe? Angels were already a touchy subject in the Demon Realm, but this occupation can’t have made them very popular.” Amity pointed out.

Katya waved her hand in a kind of “so-so” motion; “You’re half right. The people who already hated Angels are way worse than before, but everyone else is either neutral or even agreeable to Angels. The Wings of Rani are strict about the law, but they’re also fair. They don’t kill people or hurt them, and as uncanny as it is, the people who are divided do appear to be happy. Some people have even volunteered to be divided from their negative feelings. Others are grateful to the Divider for saving us all from the Day of Unity, and thanks to some of his words and the Wings of Rani believing Luz is their master’s saviour, people think Luz, King, and the Hexsquad are the heroes of the Isles!”

“The Wings of Rani have also been doing charitable works. They’ve ingratiated themselves into the community as much as possible; which is another reason the rebellion hasn’t gotten off the ground.” Steve sighed; “I hate to say it, but the Divider is smart. He split people up, got rid of the main agitators, then introduced his “gentle order” and began winning over the populace bit by bit. It’s like how history describes Belos founding the Empire, only on fast forward…”

That was a shock to those who’d come from Bonesborough; “How can that be? Things in Bonesborough were peaceful, but tense. Not to mention the whole city rebelled at the first opportunity.” Willow pointed out.

Darius sighed; “Bonesborough was the exception. When I was Overseer, there were very few knights patrolling the streets, but quite a few Angels. They’d roam around talking to people, doing little favours, and helping out in the community. That only changed when Odalia usurped me and wanted the Angels gone so she could use her magic freely.”

“And Raguel allowed it, hoping Odalia’s police state would be able to overwhelm us and let us be caught if we ever came back to the Demon Realm. He had to know we’d go there first.” Amity frowned.

The mood at the War Table dipped further, before Luz shook her head; “None of that matters. When we first founded the CATTs, we were going against the Emperor and his Covens, which most of the isles supported! This is no different! We’ll expose the truth of the Divider’s plot and the people will come around just like they did last time!”

Luz’s words immediately pumped everyone up again, reinforcing why she was the leader of the Hexsquad. As Mason exchanged a look and a nod with Darius, the two men came to a decision; “Luz, as a Seraphim, you’re the strongest person in the CATTs and our best and only hope to win. I think we can all agree that we need a real leader in the absence of Raine and Eda, and I think it should be you.” Darius declared.

That was met with a round of agreements, with even Camila and Samael both happily nodding along. Luz was the force that had brought them together; it only made sense she should lead! The girl in question looked around, flabbergasted by the decision. Her first instinct was to refuse, but as Stringbean flew in front of her face and gave her a reassuring hiss, Luz remembered her chosen path. She would protect the Boiling Isles, and if the people she wanted to protect had chosen to make her their leader, then fine! She would be their leader!

“Alright. Since everyone is in agreement, I’ll take command of the CATTs. My first order is this; if you think I’m making a mistake or a dumb decision, then tell me! I can’t do this alone, so I’ll be relying on you!” Luz declared.

Everyone nodded proudly, making Luz smiled determinedly once more. “With that said; this is my plan! My priority is rescuing our people, but we need information AND we need to keep the Wings of Rani on their toes, so they can’t easily take back the towers we shut down. So our first order of business will be taking out the Valkyrie!”

In Luz’s mind, once both of the Divider’s chief subordinates were defeated, the Wings of Rani wouldn’t have a single central leader to follow until the Divider returned. That would make it a lot harder for the Wings of Rani to stop the CATTs! It was like literally cutting the head off the snake and leaving the body to flail aimlessly. From there, they could shut down more of the Union Pillars. With only one pillar shut down, the Wings of Rani had a clear objective, but with multiple shut down… well, that would further split their attention. Divide and conquer was the name of the game for now, or rather, conquer and divide. She outlined this as best she could, while Amity and Lyra grinned widely, recognising the plan as something Luz had adapted from the Good Witch Azura’s third book, in which Azura needed to defeat the three faces of the Hecate Cult trying to undo Hecate’s redemption arc. Azura had beaten the faces and forced the cult to scramble to stop her while also putting out the fires she’d started in their territories.

With the plan outlined, Mason pointed to the floating island on the map; “If you want to defeat and capture the Valkyrie, we’ll need to go to her base o’ operations and the Headquarters of the Wings o’ Rani. She almost never leaves that floatin’ island the Divider made. It’s called Rani’s Eden, but aside from it bein’ the HQ o’ the Angels, we know squat about it. The Divider made it himself.”

“Which means we’ll be going in blind.” Alador frowned.

Matt chimed in; “But if we capture the Valkyrie and load her up with Blabber Serum, we might just find out where all our friends are! If any one person knows, it’s gotta be her!”

“Then we should go in quietly.” Lyra suggested; “Luz impersonated me to sneak into the Blight Ball that one time; so maybe the two of us, plus Aunt Camila and Samael could impersonate Wings of Rani members to sneak in!”

Camila and Samael both agreed, the latter very excited; “I wanna do that! It’ll be like playing Spies! Can King come too?”

“Yeah! I want to see if the Valkyrie knows where Mom is!” King agreed.

“We could easily bring King along, as well as some other back-up if we disguise them as prisoners.” Lyra said.

Luz shook her head; “No, we should just have you and I keep them hidden in the shadows. Raguel saw through the fake prisoner trick easily; he knows we’re too loyal to each other to let only one or two of our number get captured. We can’t risk it failing again.”

No one could dispute that, but since moving people through the shadows was magic intensive, that limited how many people they could bring along, leading to some debates over who should go. Non-combatants like the Parks and Perry Porter were immediately off the table, and it was decided to keep Mason, Steve, and Katya out of the fight too, so the CATTs wouldn’t risk losing most of their leadership in one mission. Hanu and Treble were also out, not being present at the meeting and having had more than enough excitement for a while. Vee, Amity, Willow, and Gus were asked to stay behind too, so all of them could rest and the latter three could spend some time with their families after so long apart. For that same purpose, Matt was staying behind with Steve and his family, and Alador was staying behind with his kids. Darius was going to do so as well, opting to build up the CATTs own Abomaton Forces so they had some back up defences should they be attacked. Skara and Boscha immediately volunteered to come along to Rani’s Eden in hopes of finding clues as to the whereabouts of their families, and naturally Hunter had agreed to come along with his sister.

Once everything was hashed out, the team of the Rani’s Eden mission was decided: Luz, King, Camila, Samael, Skara, Boscha, Hunter, and Lyra. Four Angels that could blend in with the Wings of Rani, and four others who could provide useful back up and support.

“Alright! With that settled, we’ll head out first thing tomorrow!” Luz declared, wanting to give herself and her Mami a bit longer to rest. While she felt fine after yesterday, Luz was trying to do a better job of taking care of herself so felt taking the rest of the day to rest and catch up with everyone was for the best. The others agreed to her plan too, though Amity did feel a bit conflicted about being benched for this mission.

“In that case, does anyone have any more business to discuss before this meetin’ is adjourned?” Mason asked.

Willow raised a hand; “I’ve got one. We’ve heard some worrying things about the Plant Coven. Everyone in it or closely associated with it has gone missing or been divided. Hanu is the one exception that we know of, and even she was approached before the Divider’s minions made it clear she wasn’t “eligible”. No one seems to know what that means or where the others have all gone!”

Mason, Steve, and Katya all frowned; “We’ve heard a lot of rumours about that.” Steve replied, “But we’ve got no clues. Every other Coven is operating out of their old HQ except for the Plant Coven. We’re not sure where they could be.”

Mason hummed; “Logically speakin’, Terra must have somethin’ to do with this. She weren’t right at the Day o’ Unity, and Belos mentioned somethin’ about her having some kinda “House Guest”. Got no idea what that means though, it sounded like she was conspirin’ with someone else to betray Belos after the Day o’ Unity, but got caught off-guard by the day’s real purpose.”

The Hexsquad exchanged strange looks; “A House Guest?” Skara repeated.

Katya nodded; “We don’t get it either, but there was something really wrong with Terra when we had her in the Digale Island cells. She wouldn’t let anyone close enough to investigate. But we can also confirm one thing; the Plant Coven disappearances started happening BEFORE the Divider left to deal with those Archivist punks, so whatever Terra is up to, it’s got the approval of the Divider… or at least his neutrality.”

That made things complicated; who would Terra be willing to side with? And what could they be planning that the Divider wouldn’t have a reason to stop?

“Aside from maybe Arboriel the Mandragora, I can’t think of anyone Terra would team up with.” Willow muttered, “And I definitely can’t think of anything those two could be doing that the Divider would allow…”

“We’ll just have to hope that the Valkyrie knows when we capture her tomorrow.” Hunter said, putting a hand on Willow’s back to ease her worries.

The entire group agreed, and with no other pressing topics to discuss, they decided to finally adjourn the meeting and go get some rest. Mason, Steve, and Katya took turns escorting the group down to the basem*nt, where the rest of the CATTs’ living quarters had been assembled. The basem*nt of the Union Pillar was identical to the one in the Bonesborough Pillar, but it was missing the part that had been built from the Forbidden Stacks, and the rest had been retrofitted by the CATTs into a proper living space; the cells had been converted into actual rooms with real (albeit salvaged) beds and normal doors and walls, while the lower levels had been cordoned off so no one disturbed the relatively small number of Divided Orbs down there… breaking them could not only alert the Wings of Rani to come investigate, but also turn the Ash Moth hostile again! Aside from the makeshift bedrooms that replaced the cells, there was also two other large rooms that Mason and his Construction Magic using allies had dug out and turned into a large kitchen and a dining area. There was also a little area where people were tailoring scraps of old clothing into usable clothes and equipment for the rebels, though it looked like they were in dire need of more materials.

The Rebels themselves seemed to be in high spirits though, and there were a handful of children running about and doing their best to be helpful too. Samael immediately dragged King off to play with them, while the rest of the Hexsquad and Nocedas introduced themselves to everyone. The CATTs were truly ecstatic to see them all again, and Luz’s ascension to the Seraphim was met with a lot of relieved cheers. They also got to meet the Tholomules again, who thanked Camila profusely for taking in their son for so long. Camila had waved them off and said it was her pleasure, then soon put herself to work in the kitchens, showing off her cooking skills and Angelic Magic as she helped the others whip up dinner.

Everyone began to settle in for the rest of the day, enjoying the reinvigorated and hopeful new attitude of the CATTs. King and Samael continued to play with the kids, and eventually both went out to play with Ashi and her babies too, while Amity took over entertaining the children. The rest of the Hexsquad either hung out with their parents or tried to make themselves useful, with Luz spending some quality time with Vee, Willow and Gus sticking with their parents, Matt helping Steve and Katya with their duties, Skara and Boscha chatting with Viney, and the twins enjoying some quality time with their rescued Dad.

That left Darius, Hunter, and Lyra unoccupied, and the Coven Head decided to take the opportunity to finally have a talk with the two of them.

“Hunter, Lyra; if you have no more pressing matters to deal with, I’d like to have a word with the both of you. In private.” Darius said.

Hunter immediately nodded, and Lyra smiled and agreed too. For the sake of getting some privacy, the trio took the elevator back up to the ground floor and went outside, standing on the platform built at the bottom of the volcano’s caldera, within the cooling enchantments. Once they were outside and sure they were alone, Hunter turned to Darius.

“What did you want to talk about, Darius?” he asked.

Darius cleared this throat; “Well, it’s about you and your sister… and your legal status in the Demon Realm.”

“Our status?” Lyra repeated with confusion.

“Yes. Legally speaking you are, or were, the wards of Belos. He’s the only legal family you’ve ever had, and even then you weren’t legally family of his. I remember looking up your paperwork while I was still the Abomination Coven Head and discovered that Belos basically made it look like you were both random orphans of unknown origin. You don’t have a legal last name or next of kin as a result.” Darius explained, still edging around the issue as he gathered his courage.

Hunter and Lyra exchanged worried looks; “We knew he never really saw us as family, but the fact he didn’t even legally adopt us and just made us his wards instead is a bit surprising.” Lyra frowned, “Still, better than being Wittebanes I guess…”

“So what does this mean for us legally? It’s not like we can just be thrown into an orphanage when all this is over; we’ve got plenty of people to stay with.” Hunter pointed out, though he looked a bit worried too.

“As you’re both underage, you’d need to have an adult foster or adopt you. We could of course make exceptions for you both, or legally emancipate you, but the former would look bad to the people once we’ve rebuilt the Government, and the latter feels a bit too cold.” Darius replied.

Hunter and Lyra exchanged looks; “Well we are descendants of the Clawthornes… we could ask Eda or Lilith to take us? That’d make us Clawthornes.” Hunter suggested.

“There’s also Aunt Camila. She’s already been taking care of us and we are both sort of related to the Nocedas, with me being Luz’s genetic twin and you being the genetic twin of her Dad.” Lyra pointed out. “Heck, maybe we could do both! I could be a Clawthorne-Noceda, like King, and you could be a Noceda-Clawthorne like Luz. I just know Aunt Camila, Luz, and Vee would be okay with it, and I think King would too. We’d just have to see if the Clawthorne Clan are cool with it as well.”

Hunter seemed to be considering it, and Darius was happy that the two at least had a back-up plan if they rejected his offer. He really didn’t want to see them in a questionably legal predicament when this was all done… but he also wanted to have them as a part of his own family.

To that end, he said; “Well there is another possibility… you could always become Deamonnes.”

The siblings froze, then turned to stare at the man, who was blushing faintly whilst trying to look casual. Hunter’s jaw dropped, while Lyra gasped softly, her eyes slowly growing larger and more shiny.

“Darius… are you saying you want to adopt us!?” she asked in an urgent whisper, staring fixedly at him.

Darius looked back at her and smiled; “Yes, I am. I’ve been thinking about it for quite a while… before you even defected from the Emperor’s Coven in fact.” he confessed. He’d only ever spoken to Alador, Raine, and Eber about this, as his desire to adopt the kids as his own had first come up after hearing about what happened in this very desert. Before that, he’d feared they were just spoiled brats and obedient puppets of the Emperor; the stuck up children of nobility like those that he’d always been forced to socialise with, and one of the types of people he hated most… but then Luz, King, and Gus had told him what happened in the desert and he began to see things differently. Hunter wasn’t just the “Little Prince”; he’d been an insecure child trying to live up to the impossible standards of his Uncle, all while his efforts were declared insufficient. He’d been simultaneously babied and belittled, and made to reach unattainable goals as Belos treated him like a tool, all while he’d tried to “earn” the love of the closest thing to a parent that he had. Then there was Lyra, who wasn’t the stuck-up, “too good to talk to the lower classes” princess that many had suspected she was. She’d been a shy and equally insecure little girl dealing with things far, far outside what a child should have, while living in terror of being exposed as an Angel, since Belos implied it would get her killed as a “cursed” Angel.

They really were just deeply traumatised and abused children, who still tried to do good even when Belos was leading them to evil. Once Darius had realised that after the Palismen incident in the desert, he’d begun looking at them differently and found his affection for them growing, along with his frustration as they walked a dark path to please their “Uncle”. But now that they were free of that path and had found themselves with supportive friends and family, they had blossomed into wonderful children… children Darius found he cared about a lot more than he’d have imagined.

Lyra’s face lit up, while Hunter still looked wary and full of doubts, though Darius somehow felt those doubts weren’t aimed at him.

“Why would you want to do that?” Hunter asked, trying not to sound accusatory or desperate.

Darius grinned and held up three fingers; “I’ve got three reasons; a practical one, a sentimental one, and a more personal one. Take your pick.” he teased. He wanted to ease the tension a little, and it seemed to work as Hunter huffed and hid a small smile.

“What’s your practical reason?” Hunter asked.

“Well, I am the Lord of a noble family with great wealth and status. I’ve also got no biological children and I’m never likely to have one. Of course, I could always give the Deamonne name to Edric, Emira, or Amity, but I think those three are happier as Blights. Plus they have the Blight Lordship to deal with too. With three kids already, I don’t think Alador is going to be up to having a fourth biological child and despite being a “Mom” now, I don’t want to carry a child either. Adopting you and your sister would ensure the Deamonne name lives on and the noble vultures don’t get my family title or wealth when I pass on.”

The siblings nodded; that made sense. In the past, noble families that died out had their assets preyed upon by the other families. Even bequeathing their wealth to others often failed, as the nobles would conjure up distant family ties and claims that they argued should trump these bequests, and Belos had often supported those claims, since the nobles were often more useful to him that the normal people who should have inherited the wealth. However a legal adoption would kill that stone dead.

“I guess wanting to protect your legacy is important. So what’s the sentimental reason?” Lyra asked.

Darius’ grin faded into a sad smile; “You two are the legacy of my mentor, Michael. You know all about him now thanks to Cassiel, but that man truly was my greatest friend and confidant in a very dark time in my life. Hunter, you are his direct successor and genetically his twin, while Lyra is genetically his daughter, just like Luz. I want to honour his legacy by taking care of the two of you; Luz already has a family to love and support her, but the situation is less clear cut with you two. I wish to change that.”

Again, the siblings nodded in understanding. They could agree with that reasoning too; Darius wanted to honour his friend and mentor by taking in and caring for his successors. Hunter and Lyra could definitely respect that, even if it meant Darius was doing it because of what they were in relation to his friend, rather than who they were as people. However that thought changed when Hunter finally asked; “And your personal reason?”

Darius’ smile brightened and he put a hand on top of Lyra’s head and one on Hunter’s shoulder; “My personal reason is… well, I just plain want to do this. I like the two of you a great deal, and have been thinking about this for a while. Putting aside your connection to Michael, you’re both wonderful kids. I admit to having misjudged you in the past, but you’ve both proven that you are far greater than the sums of your parts.”

He looked to Lyra; “You have become so much more than just a copy of Luz. You’ve become your own person, who helped save everyone on the Boiling Isles back on the Day of Unity! You’ve embraced yourself as your own person, and become a wonderful young lady completely distinct from Luz.” he then winked and added; “Plus, you look utterly darling as a Dark Angel, and your new name is beautiful. A worthy name for a shining star!”

He then looked to Hunter; “And you… you’ve become someone I think Michael and Caleb before him would be proud of. You struggled with your morals thanks to Belos, but you showed your good heart to the whole world, and even before breaking away from Belos, you demonstrated you are a good, compassionate young man.” he squeezed Hunter’s shoulder affectionately; “I’m sorry I was so harsh with you before. At first I saw you as the spoiled nephew of Belos, soiling my mentor’s legacy, which made me hate you… but then I saw you as the good-hearted child you really are and it frustrated me to see you so loyal to Belos. I had hoped to curb your ego, and then to nudge you down a more benevolent path, but I likely came across as another callous adult. For that, I am very sorry.”

Lyra’s smile was huge and wobbly as her eyes filled with touched tears, while Hunter had a faint blush and glistening eyes. Both were touched by his words, and he wasn’t done yet.

“Neither of you are the monsters Belos created you to be, and you’re not Luz or Michael or Caleb either; you’re the good people that you yourselves created. I care about you both a great deal, and would like to be a parent to you, if you want me to be.” Darius finished, giving them both understanding smiles.

The pair didn’t know how to respond, as they had a lot of conflicting emotions right now. Darius really seemed serious about this, and a lot of what he’d just said cast his prior treatment of them in a better light now that they had the context. And despite his apologies, neither could remember Darius ever being worse than mildly dismissive of them. He’d ignored Lyra entirely and only scoffed or turned his nose up at Hunter when he was showing off, but then he’d started being silently supportive and spoke up for them in front of Belos on several occasions. At first, the duo had looked back on that and assumed Darius was just trying to win them over to convert them to his side in the war, but now? Now those interactions took on a whole new context!

Besides, it wasn’t like he was Kikimora, Terra, Adrian, or Vitimir, who’d taken any chances they could to undermine the pair for their own advancement or out of disdain for the siblings’ high positions.

“W-What about Amity and the Twins though?” Lyra asked.

“I spoke to them and Alador before I called you out here. They’re supportive, and said that if you want this relationship with me, then that doesn’t mean you need to accept Alador as a parent too, or his children as your siblings. These are your lives; the decisions are up to you.” Darius answered.

That made Lyra smile a little wider and she looked to Hunter with excitement. She wanted to agree, but wouldn’t do so immediately unless Hunter did too. The boy looked happy, but also conflicted in return.

“You’d really be okay with this? Going from no kids to five in the space of a day?” Hunter fretted.

Darius chuckled; “Hunter, I was Head of the Abomination Coven! I was in charge of thousands of witches, many of whom were either self-entitled brats who got their position through noble connections, or self-obsessed pseudo-geniuses who thought they were better than they were. After wrangling those pointless wastes of talent, you two and the Blight Siblings will be a breath of fresh air!”

Hunter and Lyra laughed in response, though Hunter still looked unsure. A part of him wanted this, but he had never had a father before. He didn’t know how to act or what to do… the closest he’d ever had was Belos, and the less said about that the better! The other part was afraid that accepting this would change his relationship with Darius again… what they had right now was comfy and familiar, with a dynamic Hunter knew how to deal with. But having Darius become his Dad would change things. Hunter wasn’t sure if he was ready to give up his new sense of security for that change.

In the end, Hunter looked at his feet as he mumbled; “I-I’d like some time to think about it. How long do I have to decide?”

“As long as you need, Hunter.” Darius said gently; “Do what you feel is best for yourself; I won’t be upset or angry if you choose not to take me up on my offer.” he then looked to Lyra; “In fact, I insist you both sleep on this and spend some time thinking about it. If you want this, then great! If you don’t, then nothing has to change. I’ll continue to support you both in whatever way you want.”

The siblings nodded slowly, and Hunter felt a little better about his answer. Darius gave them each a final pat on the head and a quick hug, before heading back inside, telling them that they can always come and talk to him whenever they want. Once he’d left, Hunter and Lyra sat together on the edge of the platform, looking down at the lava below. Flapjack and Waffles, who’d been playing tag with Abette nearby, came over to roost on their laps.

“What are you thinking, Hunter?” Lyra asked as she watched her brother petting Flapjack.

“I don’t know… though I think I understand why Amity was never able to choke out her real feelings for Lilith before. My stomach is twisted in knots…” Hunter sighed. “But what about you? You looked like you really wanted to accept.”

Lyra nodded; “I kind of do. Darius is being really sweet to us. I already kind of feel like he’s my Dad… and it’s a nice thought, you know? Darius as our dad, Alador as our stepdad, Amity, Edric, and Emira as our step-siblings, Aunt Camila as our aunt, Luz, King, and Vee as our cousins who are as close as siblings, Osran as our grandpa, Eber as our other aunt… maybe Eda and Lilith as Aunts too, and Raine as “Titi”…”

Hunter smiled; “A huge family, huh?”

“It’s all I’ve ever wanted… before it was just you and me. Belos hardly counted even when he was pretending to be our family. I guess I just want us to have a lot of family who love and care for us.” Lyra freely admitted. “These past few months with the Hexsquad made me realise how lonely we were before and how much I like having a big family and lots of friends.”

That was something Hunter could agree with; the idea that he had more than just Lyra and Flapjack to confide in and rely on was a nice one, and the fact that they both now had multiple people looking out for them without expecting obedience and servitude in return was even better!

“So does that mean you’re going to take Darius’ offer?” Hunter asked.

Lyra nodded slowly; “I think so. Though I’m going to wait until you give your answer too.”

“And even if I decide against it, you’ll still choose to let Darius be your Dad?”

“Yes.” Lyra said, looking a bit nervous. It would be awkward if she accepted and Hunter didn’t, but part of Lyra’s personal growth and independence was making decisions for herself, unconnected to what Hunter or Luz would do. She wanted this, so she would agree.

Hunter smiled and ruffled her hair; “You’ve really come a long way, sis. I’ll think about it more myself; I do like the idea, I’m just worried it’ll change things.”

“Choosing to side with the CATTs against Belos changed things too. Change can be good!” Lyra said cheerfully as she looked down at the lava below. She then grinned teasingly at her big brother; “I bet your fear of change is why you haven’t asked out a certain Plant Witch too!”

Hunter huffed and flicked her ear; “Hush you! You’re no better when it comes to our favourite master illusionist!”

Lyra replied by blowing a raspberry at him, before both teens descended into a fit of laughter. They sat their for a while, playfully teasing each other, until they were eventually summoned to get dinner.

The rest of the evening passed with a party atmosphere, as the CATTs celebrated the first victory of the new rebellion and the new hope brought by the return of Luz and the Hexsquad. Hunter and Lyra didn’t allow themselves to be awkward around Darius, pretending their conversation hadn’t happened as Hunter thought over what to do. He’d considered approaching Amity for advice since she was going through something similar with Lilith, but had opted out of it for now. King and Samael eventually returned from playing with Ashi too, and were in bed by 10 (Samael insisted on sleeping at the same times as King, so it was fair) and the rest of the rebels turned in by midnight, leaving only a token force awake as a night watch.

The next morning, after waking, washing, and getting some breakfast, the group gathered outside to see off the Mission Team: Luz, Camila, King, Samael, Boscha, Skara, Hunter, and Lyra. Gus handed over some Concealment Stones he’d made for the four angels of the group, and all four found themselves transformed into Wings of Rani disguises based off of what Mason knew of their uniforms. Camila looked the same as always, only with the Wings of Rani uniform; a white body suit that covered her from throat to toe, with a white and gold toga-like robe, white and gold boots and gauntlets, and a white cowl worn over the top, with the emblem of the Wings of Rani emblazoned on the back and over the sternum. Luz’s disguise reduced her wings down to just one pair, replaced her curly hair with the straight hair style of Lazuliel, hid her eyebrow scar and her halo, and gave her the Wings of Rani uniform. Lyra also received the uniform, while her eyes were turned blue and her hair and wings were turned white, while her distinctive scars were hidden. Lastly, the Collector was made to look like an older version of himself (similar to the Huntsman that they’d seen in his memories) with the blue parts of his skin replaced by the same pale yellow as the rest of him, and his star freckles turned into normal ones that crossed the bridge of his nose. He also received the Wings of Rani uniform, had his wings reduced to two visible ones, and had his eyes replaced by regular golden ones with white sclera.

“You four now look like totally normal Angels from the Divider’s crew! I also added an auditory illusion to yours, Samael. It’ll make you sound a little older.” Gus explained.

Samael hummed then said; “Thanks Gus!” in a deeper voice, now sounding more like an older teenager. He giggled at the amusing change, then cheered; “I’m ready to go! Let’s play Spy!”

Luz smiled and nodded, then turned to the others; “We’ll fly to Manubrium together before hiding you guys in the shadows to conserve magic. We’ll explore Rani’s Eden as much as possible and try to catch the Valkyrie alone and catch her off guard. I’ll stick with Mami, while you stick with Lyra, Samael. That way we each have someone with Seraphim level magic and someone who can get our allies out of the shadows. Worst case scenario, we all flee into the shadows and evacuate.”

The rest of the team nodded immediately, and Mason said; “Remember, if you need back-up then we’ll probably need to send our entire force just to stand a chance of reachin’ you. Don’t take risks and if things look dicey, then run away even if it means the mission fails! We lose you and Samael, and we lose this war, Luz.”

“Phew… no pressure.” Luz said, gulping nervously.

“You’ll be fine. We believe in you.” Amity reassured her, giving her a kiss for good luck.

“Yeah! And hey, if the worst comes to worst, maybe we can wrangle Ashi to come to your rescue!” Matt joked.

That made the others chuckle, before King took flight and handed some glyph notes to Hunter, Skara, and Boscha; “Here, these invisibility glyphs will keep us from being seen while we’re flying to Manubrium! Now let’s go! That Valkyrie has got to know where Mom, Tia Lily, and Titi Raine are, and I want them back!”

“Our parents too! And Amelia!” Boscha added, already hovering on Maya now.

“Alright! Everyone move out!” Luz declared, taking flight. The rest of her team spread their wings or leapt on their staves and followed her into the sky, waving goodbye to the rest of the CATTs as they headed out. Once they were out of the caldera of the Ash Moth’s volcano, Samael and King briefly paused to go and say hello to Ashi and her babies, before they all flew out of the desert. As soon as they passed the wrist, King, Hunter, Boscha, and Skara applied their invisibility glyphs and began the long flight to Orion’s Chest and the city of Manubrium. To avoid anyone noticing they were coming from the desert, they flew south from the wrist and over the open sea then curved towards the city of Latissa, after which they flew straight for Manubrium.

As they flew, Camila once again enjoyed the nostalgic sights of the world she’d spent several years in, and passed the time by telling the children all about some of the things she’d seen and done in the areas they passed. While things had advanced quite a bit in the 15 years since Camila’s last visit, there had been barely any changes in the four months that followed the Day of Unity, so Luz and the others had the uncanny feeling of everything looking exactly the same as they remembered it, only with it feeling slightly off. They passed a few groups of Angels who were heading to Latissa or to help try and take back Bonesborough, and exchanged some polite greetings with them to maintain their cover. King had wanted to take them out to help Bonesborough, but Hunter talked him out of it by pointing out that it would waste their magic and potentially expose them. They’d just have to trust that the citizens of Bonesborough and the remaining Abomaton Knights would be enough!

Aside from these groups of Angels, the only things they all noticed were a few towers that had cropped up here and there. They were four story tall white buildings that looked a little like watch towers, and were spread out across the horizon like power pylons. Boscha had gotten a hunch about them and tried to use her scroll near it, noticing immediately that the signal was gone, which made them realise that these lookout towers must also be where the Signal Termites were kept to cut off communications. Upon hearing this, Luz made a note to see if she could commandeer some Angelic Communication Mirrors or Comm-Pacts so the CATTs could keep in contact despite the termites.

After a couple of hours, they finally arrived at the city of Manubrium, which looked the same as always, aside from the presence of the Wings of Rani and their minions. The CATTs didn’t linger though, and flew immediately towards the Emperor’s Castle, and the giant floating island they saw in the sky directly above it. This floating island appeared to be at roughly the same altitude as the top of the knee, and was perfectly circular, with a strange beam of iridescent light shining up from the castle below and into a large crystal at the bottom of the island. Looking down, the CATTs gasped and saw that Belos’ old castle had been almost completely remodelled on the outside, removing the moat of spikes and replacing it with water, repairing the damaged exterior of the castle, and giving it a fresh new coating of shining white marble, golden Aurum, and glistening silver. The architecture had also been slightly altered to reflect both the Divine and Demon Realm’s aesthetic; it took the mix of architectures that the Platinum Spire had, but replaced the component architectural styles with those of the Boiling Isles, making it look partly made of bone and flesh, but crystallised and turned to gold. The central tower of the castle, which had once had a huge flaming beacon that billowed black smoke, now took the form of a crystalline spire that shone in all the colours of the rainbow, and shot that strange beam of light into the island above.

The CATTs landed atop one of the watch towers in the surrounding area (which had been rebuilt in a similar style to the castle) and after King and Skara used their noses and ears to ensure there was no one around to spot them, they removed their invisibility glyphs alongside Hunter and Boscha.

“This place looks so different! The Divider barely touched the rest of the isles, but he totally reworked the castle!” Lyra commented. “I honestly kinda like it. I wonder if the others will agree to keep it like this when we take back the isles?”

“Maybe. Do you think that beam is what’s keeping the island afloat?” Boscha asked. Thanks to the island hanging in the sky above and blocking out a great deal of the sunlight, that beam was the main source of light in the ravine containing the castle. It also illuminated the underside of the island, which was like the lower half of a perfect sphere, with only the crystal that the light beam was entering disrupting its surface, being a four-sided pyramid shape. The island appeared to be made of white stone too, which reflected a lot of light and made the entire thing look a bit like the moon from the underside.

“I don’t know, but I’m not in a hurry to find out!” Skara replied, shuddering at the idea.

Camila shuddered too, reminded of the last time she’d been anywhere near Belos’ castle… it was the place where the two loves of her life had received the wounds that ultimately killed them. As she began to rub her arms to ward off the chill that began to fill her, Luz hugged her.

“It’s okay, Mami. We don’t need to go in… I don’t think I want to either, especially since nothing good has ever happened to me in that place.” Luz frowned. She’d been tortured there, turned into a Wild Pseudo-Titan by Belos, received her eyebrow scar, cut off her hand, AND been warped away to be used in the Draining Spell, all while in or around the castle.

Camila rubbed her daughter’s back; “This place has a bad history for us both. But what about you two?” she turned to Hunter and Lyra, “This place was your home.”

Hunter shook his head; “No, it was just where we lived. The first place I ever felt at home was on Digale Island with Darius, and the second place was your home in the Human Realm. This castle is just another building to me.”

Lyra nodded in agreement; “That’s right. The only home I’ve ever known has been with you in the Human Realm. It’ll be interesting to find myself a new one in the Demon Realm once the war is over.”

That made the Noceda women smile, until King chimed in; “We should get going. This place gives me the creeps!”

“Yeah! I wanna get this game going! We gotta capture the Valkyrie!” Samael cheered.

Everyone nodded, then Luz said; “Alright; I’ll take you guys into the shadows with my magic, since I have more than Lyra. You should still be able to see and hear what’s going on out here, and King might be able to use the darkness glyph or his linking power to communicate with us from inside the shadow world.”

King, Hunter, Skara, and Boscha nodded and allowed Luz to suck them into the shadows at their feet. Once they were safely tucked away, the four Angels took flight again and flew back up until they were above the floating island. It was high enough that it was actually quite cold, forcing them to cast simple warming spells to stop them shivering as they took in the sight of the island… or rather, what little they could see of it. Now that Luz was looking from above, she found that it looked a bit like a giant pokeball! The bottom half was made of totally white stone, while the top half was a dome of light in all the colours of the rainbow, serving as a kind of barrier that kept people from seeing inside. There was a band of gold dividing these two halves, and a huge ring of gold at each of the cardinal directions, each of which looked like the button of a pokeball and appeared to serve as a gateway through the barrier.

The team flew to the closest of these gateways and found a short tunnel with a guard post inside and a large gate on the other side. The gate was protected by a pair of regular Angels, each flanked by a pair of Abomaton Knights, and the actual guard post resembled the turnstiles used at subways in the Human Realm, with a few on either side of a circular desk. It appeared that people coming in or out needed to check in with one of the Angels manning the desk before they could get through.

“Okay, this is the first hurdle. Samael, I know you don’t like fibbing but you’re the only one here who can do it without their throat burning, so we’ll need you to do the talking, okay?” Luz whispered.

Samael smiled and whispered back; “It’s okay! I can play make-believe just fine!”

Lyra and Camila gave him looks of support, then the four of them landed and approached the desk. The Angel manning it was a dark-skinned woman with white hair and blue eyes, resembling the Angels of Crest Diligence. She smiled politely at them as they approached.

“Good morning, brother and sisters! Welcome back to Rani’s Eden! Are you returning on business or just to rest?” the woman asked.

“For rest. We just came from Bonesborough and woo boy, is it crazy there! My sister here had to fight a whole bunch of Abomaton Knights! It’s no fun when they’re not on our side!” Samael said, using mostly truthful statements.

The Angel winced sympathetically; “I’ve heard! I don’t know what Lord Raguel was thinking, allowing that awful Vespan woman to supplant Sir Darius Deamonne as the Overseer of the Right Elbow! But anyway, you’re home now; go on through the leftmost turnstile to your left for Angelic Verification, then you can go and get some rest.”

They all turned and looked at the three turnstiles on the left, and found little signs hanging above them that showed an Angel silhouette on the far left, a horned Demon silhouette on the far right, and a pointy-eared Witch silhouette in the middle. This was likely to prove they really were Angels and not Witches or Demons in disguise, which would also prove they’d been telling the truth. Without hesitation, Samael walked over to the Angel turnstile and walked through it without tripping any alarms or drawing attention, proving it was safe. Lyra followed suit, and then Camila and finally Luz. Once all four were through, the Angel they’d spoken to before turned in her chair and waved.

“Go get some rest, brother and sisters! If the Heroine of Paradise has really returned to the Demon Realm, we’re in for some struggles until the Lord Divider returns! We’ll need all hands rested and ready!” she said with a chipper smile, before returning to her work.

The four infiltrators shared a look; Heroine of Paradise? Who was that? Could it be another of the Divider’s chief subordinates? Why would her return bring struggles? Shaking those thoughts off, the team walked towards the gate, and the Angels guarding it gave a silent salute as their Abomatons opened the gates, finally allowing the group into Rani’s Eden proper.

As they stepped through, they all struggled not to gasp, while those watching from the shadow world didn’t even try to contain their amazement. The inside of the barrier was actually bigger than it was on the outside, appearing to be roughly the same size as the town of Bonesborough, only perfectly circular, but the truly amazing part was that it really did look like they’d just stepped foot into paradise; a literal Eden! It was a massive open grassy meadow with fields of flowers all over the place, and which was split up into different mini-biomes with four large buildings to the north, east, and west (while the team had entered through the south, which had only a pathway leading through the meadow of flowers). To their right in the south east was a small rocky outcropping that looked like a mountain and produced a large waterfall that poured into a crystal clear lake, which was surrounded by sand like a beach. To their left in the south west were rolling green hills and fenced in areas containing different animals from the Divine Realm and Demon Realm, as well as some docile and unintelligent species of Beast and Bug Demons. To the north west was a small woodland, and then to the north east was a large dome that seemed to contain it’s own snowy biome with a perpetual light shower of fluffy snowflakes.

“This is insane!” Lyra gasped; “It’s got parts from both the realms here!”

“You’re right. Look at the people too!” Camila said, trying to keep her cool to not attract attention.

Just like Bonesborough and Manubrium, there were a lot of people milling about. Most of them were Angels caring for the beasts, walking through the flowers, lounging on the beach around the lake, or otherwise going about their business. The rest were Witches and Demons (who wore Angelic style clothing) and all appeared to be divided, given the way they walked around with serene smiles on their faces and golden rings around their irises. But the real surprise were the children; there were only a handful of Cherubs, but a lot of Witch and Demon children! They too wore Angelic style clothing but didn’t have the signature golden ring in their eyes to mark them as divided.

“There are a lot of kids here! Do you think they’re the children of the Divided who live here?” Luz asked quietly.

“No idea! I wanna play so bad! They look like they’re having fun!” Samael whispered, fidgeting as they walked down the path to the centre of the mini-Paradise.

“Be strong, Samael!” King said, using his linking magic and the Collector’s shadow to be able to speak into his mind; “Imagine how much they’ll wanna play with us after we save the world from the Divider!”

That perked Samael up, and he walked a little faster as they headed to the dead centre of Rani’s Eden, were the four paths leading from the four tunnels intersected (though the other three paths had to go around the buildings located in those directions). Upon arriving though, they found a large monument atop an ornate and exceedingly fancy fountain. The monument heavily featured a golden statue, which made Luz blush crimson at the sight of it. The golden statue depicted four figures; one was Luz herself in her Arch-Angel form and holding onto the second figure, Amity, while the two wore loving smiles and appeared to have been captured mid-dance. Watching them with wide spread arms was the third figure; Eda in her Harpy form, while the fourth figure; King sat on her shoulder, both of them having peaceful and happy expressions. The plague on the base of the monument read: “The Four Pillars of Paradise: Edalyn Clawthorne, Owl Lady of Paradise. Amity Blight, Witch of Paradise. King Clawthorne-Noceda, Titan and Hero of Paradise. Luciel “Luz” Noceda-Clawthorne, Angel and Heroine of Paradise! Through their nobility and kindness, our Lord has returned and True Paradise may again be born!”

“Wow…! The Heroine of Paradise they mentioned is you, Luz! They must basically worship you, King, Eda, and Amity for opening the Black Tombs and freeing the Divider!” Lyra said, smirking a little at Luz’s embarrassed blush.

“Hmm, I’m not sure they got your nose quite right. It’s a little more pointy in the statue, but rounder in real life.” Camila said, rubbing her chin as she examined it with a critical eye.

“And my wings are a little bigger than that, right!?” King exclaimed, speaking into their minds through his linking magic.

“Yeah, but they were about that size when you first got them. You’ve grown up a little since then.” Skara told him.

Luz shook her head; “We’re losing focus! We need to find the Valkyrie.” she said, trying to get them back on track.

“Haha, don’t be too embarrassed now Mija! You’ll probably get more statues like this once we save the world!” Camila teased.

“Ooh, maybe we all will! That’d be fun!” Samael said excitedly.

“We’ve got to actually save the world first! Let’s go!” Luz huffed, getting her blush under control. She didn’t want to look at her golden self any more… besides, the sculptor had totally failed to capture Amity’s beautiful face! The real Amity should never look so lifeless!

The four angels turned away from the fountain and its monument and looked at the three large buildings that dominated most of Rani’s Eden. The building to the west looked similar to the remodelled Emperor’s Castle down below, being a large structure made of different Demon Realm architectures. However rather than a simple castle, the building had been roughly shaped into a replica of the Titan, having a vaguely similar silhouette to a standing Orion. Each part of the Titan-shaped building had architecture corresponding to the same area of the Boiling Isles, for example: Bonesborough architecture on the right elbow, Cartilia architecture on the right knee, Palm Stings architecture on the left hand and so on and so forth. The wings of the Titan Building, lacking the signature holes just like King’s own wings, appeared to be made entirely out of apartments with their own little verandas. It was a truly monumental building, likely large enough to contain every resident of Rani’s Eden (which seemed to have a population similar to Bonesborough), and a large sign above the entrance at the Titan’s right foot identified the building as “Orion’s Rise”.

The opposite building, to the east, was a more conventional looking fortress, though still very large, and with a tree-like structure in the dead centre, which looked similar to the Divine Crossroads in the Divine Realm. Strangely, there was some kind of large yellow orb in the “branches” of the tree-like building, which somewhat resembled a large egg in a nest, though it wasn’t clear to Luz and her friends what that part was intended to be. If Orion’s Rise was the residential area, then the fortress was likely the commercial area, considering several people were coming out with shopping bags. It was an odd design choice for a shopping district though, and Luz wondered if the place was designed to double as a bunker for protecting the civilians, since Orion’s Rise didn’t look very defensible. A sign over the entrance revealed the building’s name to be “Cassiopeia’s Embrace”. The Divider had obviously named the buildings in honour of King’s parents.

The final building, and the one that Luz and her friends suspected was the true headquarters of the Wings of Rani, took the form of a massive Angelic Cathedral, matching the size and grandeur of the other two buildings. It looked like the biggest, most grand form of cathedral to ever be built, easily outmatching anything built in the Human Realm, though the architecture did most closely resemble the grand cathedrals of the Human Realm, such as the Milan Cathedral of Italy. It had nine spires, with the central one being the largest and being modelled like countless Angel wings all folded together. There were then four small spires on either side of the central one, and each spire was visibly dedicated to one of the eight elements and was designed to resemble that element made of white stone and gold, while being adorned in jewels and crystal of its signature colour. Starting on the left side, there was the spire of fire which resembling a towering inferno covered in rubies, then the spire of earth that looked like a rocky pillar covered in brown jasper, then the spire of plants that resembled a tree with its carved leaves made of emeralds, then the spire of light that was almost entirely crystalline and made of milky white crystal covered in amber. Starting from the right side, there was the spire of water which looked like a massive water spout covered in sapphires, then the spire of wind that resembled a cyclone covered with smoky quartz, then the spire of lightning that appeared to be designed like a mostly golden lightning rod that was “sparking” with topaz electricity, then finally the spire of darkness, which was also mostly crystalline like the light tower, but with jet black crystal making up the core of it and amethysts decorating the rest. It was extraordinarily expensive looking too; Luz estimated it would cost more money than existed in most Human Realm nations! It was definitely not something that could ever have been practically made without magic!

“Wow… say what you want about the Divider, but he definitely went hard on designing this place! I’d wager my last three Grudgby trophies that the Valkyrie is inside that giant cathedral.” Boscha said, using King to communicate from inside the shadows.

“I’m not taking that bet!” Lyra said. She then looked to Luz; “I think we should look around and explore this place a bit more, and try to get some recon. I know we’re here for the Valkyrie, but we won’t have a chance to really look around once we’ve nabbed her.”

“Lyra is right; we need to gather as much intelligence as we can, just in case the mission is a failure. At least then we won’t have wasted our time if the Valkyrie proves too difficult to capture and extract.” Hunter said.

Luz hummed; she really wanted to explore this place too, but she was mindful of the mission. Turning to her Mami and Samael, she asked; “What does everyone else think?”

“I wanna look around! This place looks fun, especially that big snow dome!” Samael said, pointing to the dome to the east of the cathedral. It did look pretty fun, and from what Luz could see, it was a structure built just so people could have fun playing in the snow… another little piece of the Paradise the Divider had built.

“I’d like to look around too. This place is truly amazing, but it feels so uncanny… it’s like the Divine Realm, but with a bunch of brainwashed Witches and Demons wandering around. We didn’t see a Union Pillar in Manubrium either, so I’d wager the Divided Orbs for this region are either here or in Belos’ castle. If we can find and break them, we might be able to turn the people here back to normal.” Camila said.

King, Boscha, and Skara all approved too, so Luz nodded; “Alright, we’ll look around. But let’s stick together in case we run into trouble. Samael, we’ll need you to talk for us if we’re questioned, so we don’t have to lie.”

Samael gave a silly salute; “You got it, Boss Lady Luz! What should I say?”

Luz shrugged; “How about something like… oh! We’re reinforcements from the Divine Realm who came through after Raguel was exposed and the Union started weeding out the Wings of Rani? That’s technically true too!”

“Great! Then that’s what I’ll say!” Samael said happily, before suddenly rushing off towards the snow dome. The others blinked in shock, then hurried after him.

“Samael! We’re supposed to stick together! Where are you going!?” Lyra yelled.

“To look around! I did stuff like this a lot when I was collecting stuff for the Archives!” Samael smiled, not slowing his pace even a little. “Kids see and hear a lot more than the grown-ups think! If we make friends with them, they’ll tell us everything we want to know!”

Luz huffed; “You’re just saying that because you want to play!”

“I’m not fibbing though! Cross my heart!” the boy promised, his current behaviour looking quite odd with the older looking disguise he wore. A few Angels were looking at the group strangely, making the three ladies gulp and silently follow the totally unaware Collector all the way to the snow dome. The entrance to the dome was a short tunnel with heavy golden doors, making the dome look a bit like an igloo, and there were some Wings of Rani guarding the entrance to the tunnel. Samael tried to just hurry past them, but they crossed their spears to block his entrance.

“Whoa there, brother!” a male Angel said, “Where’s the fire?”

Samael seemed confused by the saying, but Luz came to his rescue when she, her Mami, and Lyra caught up. “S-Sorry about him! This is our first time on Rani’s Eden, so we all got a little too excited. This place is especially incredible; we don’t get much snow in the Divine Realm!”

The two Angel Guards gave “Ahh!”s of understanding, before the second one said; “New arrivals from back home, huh? How are things back in the homeland?”

“Not great for the Wings of Rani.” Camila said; “We got out just before the borders were closed. The Union Council is investigating everyone now that Lord Raguel has been exposed and briefly busted out of custody.”

“Oof, you got lucky! We got word a couple of evenings ago that the Heroine of Paradise defeated Lord Raguel and arrested him again. The West Elbow is a war zone now!” the first guard said.

“And the Heroine, Hero, and Witch of Paradise are all back and ready to fight us! It’s a shame the Lord Divider isn’t here to turn them back to our side…” the second guard said.

Luz and the others chuckled nervously; “Hehe yep! Total shame that the Lord Divider isn’t here!” Samael said, a bit conspicuously. Thankfully the Angels didn’t seem to notice.

“So you folks are new to this place? In that case, let us help you out a little! This is the Winter Playground, where the kids all play with snow and such. We’ve got the Autumn Playground over in the forest to the west of here, then the Summer Playground at the lake to the south, and the Spring Playground in the flower gardens to the south-west. If you haven’t been assigned an apartment in Orion’s Rise yet, then you’ll need to go and talk to the Shelter Department in Rani’s Throne.” the first Angel guard explained.

“Rani’s Throne? That’s the cathedral, right?” Luz asked.

“That’s right, little sister.” the second guard smiled, “Once you’ve got a place to live, you can stock up on supplies at Cassiopeia’s Embrace. You kids will have also need to attend classes with the Scholar Department in Rani’s Throne, but outside of class time you’ll have free reign of the playgrounds! There are a lot of kids here, so make some friends!”

The first guard then chimed in; “But we warn you to be careful with the Witches and Demons. The adults are all divided by our Lord, so they’re not exactly the most… intelligent company right now. Keeping them docile and obedient is necessary while Project Paradise is still in motion. The children aren’t divided, but that means they can be a bit more rough and tumble than our own Cherubs, so just have caution.”

Luz, Lyra, and Camila bit their tongues to keep in the comments they felt like making, while Samael didn’t care and just wanted to get into the Winter Playground. The mention of children did make Camila notice something though; there were far more kids around than there were adults! More than half the population of Rani’s Eden seemed to be under the age of 18, with most of them being Witches and Demons. Since there were fewer adult Witches and Demons than child ones, Camila couldn’t help but wonder why this was.

“There definitely are a lot of little ones here. Why is that?” Camila asked.

“Oh, well all the Wings of Rani who have family brought them here when we first came through from the Divine Realm. As for the Demon Realm kids… they’re sadly all orphans.” the first guard sighed.

“Orphans!?” Luz repeated in shock.

“Yep; every orphan on the Boiling Isles was brought here to Rani’s Eden by the Lord Divider. Apparently he heard some horror stories of orphans suffering abusive or neglectful caregivers and decided to turn Rani’s Eden into a paradise for children! All the Divided here are specifically here to care for the orphans or run the stores in Cassiopeia’s Embrace. It’s pretty nice actually; our Cherubs get along well with the Witchlings; it’s like proof of the Lord Divider’s vision! Once everyone is rendered as innocent as children, we’ll all get along and they’ll be peace!”

Luz frowned; peace that came from robbing everyone of their free will… did these Angels not realise the Divider would likely divide them too one day? His “paradise” would allow no imperfections after all! Maybe they knew and just didn’t care…

Lyra and Hunter had a different reaction though, each remembering Katya’s story from their trip to the Knee before the disastrous experience on Titan Trapper Island. She’d suffered abuse as an orphan of the isles, and she was a one-time friend of the Divider before his completion. Was her story the one to inspire this idea?

Samael was impatient though and began bouncing on the balls of his feet; “So can we go into the snowy place now?”

The two guards exchanged looks, then gave the disguised boy a strange look; “You’re a little old for the playgrounds… but I suppose if you haven’t seen much snow, then the Winter Playground does seem exciting! Alright, you can go on through; there are some warm clothes in the changing room just beyond this door; wrap up warm! The snow is real and very cold!” the first guard said as they both uncrossed their spears and opened the gate. Samael immediately rushed in, while the three ladies gave the guards a grateful look and followed him in.

“Watch out for snowballs! The little terrors absolutely love to bombard newcomers!” the second guard laughed, before closing the gate behind them. The CATTs found themselves in a small changing room with some winter hats, scarves, and coats hung up on one wall, pairs of gloves and snow pants hung up on the opposite one, and rows of snow boots on the floor. The only other contents were the shoes of numerous children and a few adults left opposite the snow boots, and a sign that read; “Please wear appropriate equipment over your existing clothing.”

Since Samael’s current form was mostly an illusion, he just changed the illusion on his Concealment Stone to make it look like he was wearing the winter clothing, while the ladies actually did put on the equipment, with Camila and Lyra using illusions to hide their shoes, since the real ones had been made to look like a Wings of Rani uniform with an illusion. Luz was able to slip the snow boots over her Divine Regalia sandals without much trouble though.

Now dressed for the weather, they walked through the gate on the other side of the changing room and immediately emerged into a bitterly cold winter wonderland, with snow as far as the eye can see. In fact, aside from snow, the only natural phenomenon in the dome was a few pine trees. None of the CATTs had long to think about it though, as Luz promptly found herself hit in the face by a snowball, which caught her off-guard so badly that she fell on her backside with a yelp.

That resulted in a chorus of giggles, followed by a whole barrage of snowballs flying at them from behind a snowy ridge. Lyra took flight to avoid them while Samael had a great time just dancing around them (it was much easier to dodge since his illusory self was bigger than his actual self, so even the snowballs that “hit” him often went straight through). As for Camila, since this was only snow, she felt no shame in using Luz as a living shield, especially as her daughter squeaked and squealed adorably as the snow turned her into a fluffy white snow angel.

“Mami, you are evil!” Luz protested, wiping some of the snow off her face and flicking it at Camila. The older woman just laughed in response.

“This is payback from when you were four and hid behind me while your Papi pelted me with snowballs! And that time you put a snowball on my forehead when I was taking a nap!” Camila retorted.

Luz giggled; “Oh come on, you got revenge on me for that first one when you buried me inside a giant snowball and threw me at Papi! And that second one was because you had a fever and I was trying to help! It made sense to a four year old!”

“Still payback, Mija!” Camila retorted, before helping Luz to her feet. The girl shook herself like a dog and used some Wind and Ice Magic to get all the snow off her, through she was beaned in the side of the head by another snowball almost immediately.

“Right! That does it! I hope you kids are ready, ‘cause I’m going to show you how to win a real snowball fight!” Luz declared, before taking flight and using her magic to conjure literally hundreds of snowballs. She made them hover around her as she flew over the snow ridge, where she saw about 20 Cherubs, Witchlings, and Little Demons all staring up at her in shock. They then began squealing.

“Run away! She’s gonna get us!”

“No fair, we can’t fly yet!”

“Magic is cheating!”

But all their excuses and protests fell on deaf ears, and Luz laughed maniacally as she rained snowy hell down on the kids, who giggled and squealed as they were pelted with snowballs. None escaped without a little snow getting on them, and some nearby adults (who were supervising from a snow fort they’d made themselves) laughed at the scene. When Luz finally stopped, all the kids were now covered in bits of snow, but Luz’s victory was short lived as she was soon knocked out of the air by a giant snowball conjured and flung by a giggling Samael.

“Sammy, what the heck!? You’re supposed to be on my side!” Luz protested, pulling chunks of snow out of her hair.

Samael ran up onto the snow ridge and rallied the children; “Down with the Snow Queen! Viva La Revolution!” he cried, cackling the whole time.

The children, immediately flocking to their new leader, cheered and began pelting the down Luz with more snowballs, all while she tried to escape. “Who even taught you that!? Hey! Oof! Gimme a-EEP! Cold!”

Camila laughed as she went to join the Divided Witches watching the play time inside their snow fort, and Lyra tried to go to Luz’s rescue so she wasn’t totally overwhelmed. She was rewarded by being bombarded herself, but she quickly began making snowballs and flinging them back, laughing breathlessly the whole time. If it hadn’t been for the Human Realm getting some snow during their stay there, Lyra would never have even heard of snowball fights! She preferred making complex snow men with Gus and her brother, but this was fun too!

As Samael ingratiated himself with the kids so he could get them to spill some secrets, Camila did the same with the supervising adults. They invited her into the snow fort without even being asked, and she introduced herself to them.

“Good morning! My name is Cassiel. What are your names?” she asked with a friendly smile.

“Good day. I am Nobea.” said the first Witch; who was a plump woman with short hair and four ears, with the second set being just above the first.

“I’m Inki!” said the second woman; a Satyr Demon with goat legs and horns and a humanoid upper body.

“And I’m Kieran.” introduced the sole man of the group; a Cthulhu-like Biped Demon whose head was an entire squid.

All three were divided and thus excessively cheerful and happy, but Camila planned to use that to her advantage. “So you three are in charge of watching the kids in this playground today?”

“That’s right! It’s a great honour! The children are adorable little creatures!” Nobea gushed.

“Little terrors too! This snow fort started out as just a pile of snow they buried us in!” Kieran laughed, his tentacles flailing in amusem*nt.

Camila laughed along too, just as she had with Human parents when they talked about their own kids’ silly antics. They continued to watch the kids playing for a bit, then Camila asked; “So, have the three of you been here since Rani’s Eden was first built?”

“Oh no, all three of us originally came from Palm Stings. We were part of a rebellion group called the CATTs, or Covens Against the Throne. We didn’t understand the love and blessing of the Lord Divider and so rebelled against him, but his power purified us and stripped away all our negativity and hatred. Also, since none of us have children of our own but have backgrounds in child care, the Lord Divider had us brought here!” Inki explained.

“Backgrounds in child care?” Camila raised an eyebrow.

“I was a teacher at Pamilen, an Oracle Specialist School.” Nobea said; “It’s quite different from your Angelic Divination Magic, so needs some very different instruction.”

Inki then said; “I worked in a Day Care in Palm Stings. Families on vacation would leave their children with me and my co-workers for the night, then go out and enjoy themselves as adults.”

“And I am a Healer specialising in children.” Kieran said; “I was one of the Top Healers in the Palm Stings Hospital!”

Camila smiled; “How wonderful! I am a healer myself, though I specialise in animals. So, were the three of you divided in Palm Stings or brought here first?” she asked casually.

Inki answered; “We were all brought here first. I heard that those divided by the ritual and not Lord Divider himself can become unstable if taken too far from the place they were first divided. I don’t know why though.”

That was useful! Camila suspected that it was due to the Divided Orbs, which must still have some connection to their original owners. If the orbs were made through the ritual method, instead of by the Divider directly, then taking the owners too far from the orbs could cause some kind of trouble. Camila wasn’t sure what that trouble was, but if it could potentially disrupt the division and turn people back to normal, it would be very useful to the CATTs! And even if they didn’t want to take the risk and find out, it meant they now knew that if they found one of their divided allies, then their Divided Orb would have to be at the closest Union Pillar! It also meant that if they got into a fight, they could flee to an area away from any Union Pillars and it would ensure only the Wings of Rani could follow them!

“Well that’s interesting! I don’t know very much about the division process, so this is news to me!” Camila said, playing up her curiosity as innocent. “So that means you three can’t go too far from Rani’s Throne, right?”

Kieran shook his head; “Not exactly. We can go anywhere we want on Rani’s Eden. We were divided in the ritual chamber near the interior side of that big glowing crystal connecting the island to Belos’ old castle.”

“Though why anyone would want to leave here anyway is a mystery to me!” Nobea chuckled.

Camila chuckled along with her. So the Divided Orbs were somewhere beneath them, in the bowels of the island, far beneath their feet. If they could get there and free the Divided all over the island, they could potentially take over the enemy’s HQ! With Valkyrie out of the way, Camila was sure that two Seraphim-level Angels and all the newly restored Witches and Demons on the island would be a match for the Wings of Rani! Perhaps after getting Valkyrie out, they could come back? Though there was also the risk that removing the Divided Orbs could remove power to the island and make it fall from the sky… they needed to find out if Orbs were what powered the floating first!

While Camila continued to make small talk with the adults, Samael was now sitting in the snow with the kids, trying to build a massive snowman. Poor Luz and Lyra were hiding in an igloo with a little white flag poking out of the top, trying to ignore the cackling of King and the others hiding in the shadows, so Samael and the others had decided to show them mercy. But now that they’d been united, they didn’t want to go back to having a snow war with each other, and they didn’t want to turn on Samael, their valiant leader, so they instead opted for something more constructive; hence the giant snowman. As the most magically powerful, Samael had been tasked with making the rocks, branches, and carrot that would be needed for its arms and face, so he was currently in the process of carefully growing the perfect carrot.

“You know, for a big Angel, you’re a lot more fun!” one little cyclops boy said as he helped two Cherubs roll a giant snowball around. “The other big Angels are nice, but it’s all rules, rules, rules with them!”

The two Cherubs made noises of agreement, then one of them said; “That’s what all grown-ups are like! We have to go to all our lessons and do all our chores, or we can’t play. It’s so boring!”

Samael nodded emphatically, knowing just how they felt; “They don’t understand! Grown-ups forget what it’s like to just want fun! Most of them are so boring! It’s why I prefer to play with other kids!”

One little Merrow girl gave him a strange look; “But aren’t you a grown-up too?”

“I’m as old as one, but I’m not really one.” he answered truthfully. He and the other Born Archivists aged very slowly compared to Mortals, and his own ageing had been paused while he was in Uncle Orion’s prison, as it kept him in stasis.

The kids all looked at him funny, then shrugged and got back to work. A pair of little girls, no older than seven or eight, came and sat down beside Samael and began helping him make the stones for the snowman’s face. One girl was a Cherub that somewhat resembled Luz, only with very long straight white hair, darker coloured skin, and pale freckles on her cheeks. The other was a Demon of the same species as Hanu, only without the inherited Witch features, making her look even more like a monkey; specifically a spider monkey.

“You’re funny. Most big kids are like grown-ups too now.” the Cherub giggled; “I’m Emiliel! Can we be friends?”

“Me too! I’m Simi!” the Monkey girl chirped happily, her little monkey hands deftly squeezing together tight balls of snow for Emiliel to turn into black with a simple colour change spell.

“Sure! I’m Samael! Since we’re friends now, can you tell me more about this place? I’m new to Rani’s Eden and want to know all about it!” Samael smiled.

Emiliel and Simi exchanged looks as they contemplated their answer. Eventually Simi said; “It’s nice here. The grown-ups can be bossy, but we always have enough to eat, and baths are nice and warm. And we can play if we finish our lessons and chores. There’s also Auntie Val, who’s a lot like you! She’s a grown-up but she plays with us!”

“Who’s Auntie Val?” Samael asked.

“That’s what all the Witch and Demon kids call Lady Valkyrie. She says its okay, but the grown-up Angels say that we’re supposed to be really polite, ‘cause she’s Lord Divider’s left hand.” Emiliel said.

“But only the Cherubs listen. Most get scolded by their parents if they call her Auntie Val where they can hear. Emiliel’s an orphan too though, but she still calls her by the stuffy name.” Simi said.

Samael hummed quietly. Despite his eagerness to get in and play, he had listened to the others talking and knew that the Cherubs were supposedly brought over by their families in the Wings of Rani. But then where did Emiliel come from? Why was she here? He briefly considered trying to find a tactful way of asking about it, but decided that was dumb and for big people; one of the good parts of being a kid was you could be direct!

“How come you’re here if you don’t have family to bring you here? And actually, how come there are so many Cherubs with families? Weren’t you all raised in Crest Chastity?” Samael asked. Luz had given him a very short crash course on Angel culture last night, so he’d be able to blend in better, and that was a topic that had stuck out in his mind.

“Most of the Wings of Rani here are from the Free Cities. I am too, my mother ran away from the Crest Union, but was already pregnant with me. She was supposed to run away with my father, but he chickened out. My mother gave me to an orphanage in the Free Cities when I was born, then disappeared. Don’t know if she’s alive or dead, and don’t really care.” Emiliel shrugged. “I was “adopted” by a bad guy who wanted someone small to pick pockets and deliver boxes of bad stuff. But I told on him to the Wings of Rani, who ran the city. They took me in after that and brought me here when they all came through!”

“And then we started sharing a room and became best friends! Emiliel loves furry stuff, so she’s always petting me, but I like it so it’s okay.” Simi chimed in.

Samael nodded in understanding; Emiliel and Simi reminded him a little of himself and King! Maybe when this was all over, he could introduce King to them!

“It’s good that you told on the bad guy. Is Lady Valkyrie one of the people who took you in?” he asked.

Emiliel shook her head; “Nope! I never met her before coming here. Actually, I don’t know anyone who has! She’s only got one pair of wings so she’s a normal Angel, but she bosses around even the Arch-Angels ‘cause she’s Lord Divider’s left hand. She’s also got grey wings, so I think she might be sick or something…”

Now that caught Samael’s attention! If the Valkyrie was just a normal Angel and a sickly one too, then capturing her would be easy! But that did raise the question as to how she reached her position.

“So a normal Angel outranks Arch-Angels? That’s weird.” Samael commented.

“Yeah! I don’t get what the big deal is, but Emiliel says it’s really weird! There are a whole bunch of funny rumours!” Simi said, leaning in and whispering conspiratorially; “Some people say she’s the Divider’s girlfriend! Other people think she’s his daughter!”

Within the shadows, King scoffed and used his powers to link to Samael’s mind; “Neither of those can be true! Unless losing his memories made him lose his interest in girls too, then the Divider wouldn’t have a girlfriend! He’s like Tia Lily! He’s not into all the romance stuff!”

Skara then added; “And if she’s a regular Angel, she has to be less than 1000 years old, so there’s no way she could be the Divider’s biological child, since he was sealed up until less than a year ago.”

“Unless someone else discovered his body in Volcarpalis after Belos opened his tomb, and managed to take some blood for a Bloodline Potion or something. Heck, if it was a Bloodline Potion, then it could have been taken from him recently too!” Hunter said. “There are too many variables in play to completely dismiss that theory.”

Samael idly listened to the people in the shadows, but it made him look like he was zoning out, making Simi huff and wave a hand in front of his face; “Hey! Simi to Sammy! You in there?”

“I’m still here! Just thinking!” Samael said, snapping back to attention.

“Good! ‘cause we wanted to ask you questions too!” Simi said with a conspiratorial smile.

Emiliel nodded and both girls leaned in, with the Cherub whispering; “Like, why do you use an illusion to make yourself look like a grown-up?”

Samael’s eyes widened as he stared at the girls in shock, making Emiliel smile and nod knowingly, while Simi wore a cheeky grin. “H-How can you tell!?” he asked urgently, keeping his voice low.

“When you walk around in the snow, your foot prints are way smaller than your feet, and don’t appear where they should do.” Emiliel began, “You don’t touch anything with your hands, but use magic instead; ‘cause your big hands aren’t real!”

“And I’ve been swishing my tail through you the whole time we’ve been talking, and you didn’t notice.” Simi said, then added; “Plus I totally nailed you with some snowballs earlier but they went through you!”

“It’s why we wanted to talk to you on our own! You seem nice, but you’re hiding under an illusion! Why? Are you in trouble? Why make yourself look like a grown-up if you’re not? Unless you’re just a really small grown-up?” Emiliel asked.

Samael gulped and looked to see that none of the other kids were watching him. When he confirmed they weren’t, as they were all too busy trying to figure out how to stack the huge snowballs they’d made into a snowman, he cast a simple illusion to make sure none of them could see him and his new friends. He then removed his Concealment Stone to reveal his true, Archivist form and his real wings.

The two girls gasped at the sight of them, with Emiliel stuttering out; “T-Ten!? Ten wings!? Y-You’re like the Lord Divider!”

“I’m actually the Collector. I’m the same kind of Angel as the Divider… well, sort of.” he confessed. “Sorry for tricking you, but my friends are here on a super important and super secret mission. It was important to hide who I really am.”

“Ooh, are you one of the rebels!?” Simi asked excitedly; “No one else would have a reason to hide who they are here!”

“I am, but you can’t tell anyone! It’s a super big and important secret!” Samael said, putting a finger in front of his mouth. “We want to save all our friends and undo all the divisions!”

Simi grew even more excited, while Emiliel looked sad; “I like the Lord Divider; he was very nice to all of us kids. But I don’t like what he’s doing to people. Dividing bad guys is fine, but most people he’s divided aren’t bad! All the Divided on the island are rebels like you.”

“So you won’t tell anyone about this, right?” Samael asked, mentally preparing to cast a spell on the girls’ memories if he had too.

“Heck no! I like this place, but the Divided are creepy! If you can fix ‘em, then you’ve gotta!” Simi said.

Emiliel nodded in agreement; “I won’t tell. We’re friends now… but please don’t hurt anyone.”

Samael nodded; “I’ll do my best! My friends don’t like hurting people either! But if we get caught, we’ll have to fight!”

The two girls understood and after a brief moment in which the two insisted on feeling Samael’s wings (they looked very fluffy), Samael restored his disguise and smiled with satisfaction. He’d had some fun playing in the snow, made a couple of new friends, and learned more about the Valkyrie! He’d call that a resounding success!

Playtime didn’t last much longer sadly, as one of the Divided babysitters received a call on a scroll, informing them that the Winter Playground was being closed for the day and everyone inside was required to leave. Naturally that led to some loud groaning and complaining from all the children, but the infiltrating CATTs took it as a good excuse to extract themselves. They said there farewells to the children and babysitters (with Samael making a special point to say goodbye to Simi and Emiliel), then headed out first, since it’d take a bit for the babysitters to wrangle the protesting children. They returned to the changing room and returned the borrowed winter clothing, while Samael returned his illusory disguise to it’s normal variant. As they changed, Camila and Samael both shared what they’d learned, making Luz and Lyra grin.

“Getting nearly frozen to death by an army of snow-flinging children turned out to be worth it after all! If the Valkyrie is just a regular Angel with discoloured wings, then nabbing her should be easy! And now we know that the Divided up here have all got their Divided Orbs somewhere beneath our feet! That’ll be useful information if we come back here.” Luz commented.

“Yeah, but let’s focus on our mission here first. We need to grab the Valkyrie and get out before we worry about our next mission.” Lyra said.

The little group agreed and headed out of the changing room to the rest of Rani’s Eden proper… whereupon they found themselves with a nasty surprise. The entire place was surrounded by the Wings of Rani, with what seemed like every single member currently in Rani’s Eden encircling the gate with a weapon in one hand and a spell circle in the other. The Wings of Rani were all staring at the four Angelic CATTs with neutral or somewhat fearful expressions, with the regular Angels looking the most terrified, while a quartet of Arch-Angels stood within the circle, all smiling serenely as they focused on Luz and Samael. There were a handful of Abomaton Knights and regular Angelic Knight Golems, but they weren’t really a worry for Luz.

“Oh… farts.” Luz muttered as her friends slowly put their guard up; “So that’s why they closed the playground… they’d set up this trap.”

“Good day, Lady Luz. We are proud to welcome the Heroine of Paradise to our humble home.” one of the Arch-Angels greeted with a polite smile.

The Seraphim shook her head; “You know, just once I’d like to sneak into a place and NOT be discovered. I’ve got an awful track record with this!” she complained.

“True. Maybe in future, we should keep you on the bench when we’re infiltrating some place, and only call you out if things get dicey.” Lyra mused.

Camila chuckled; “Subtlety has never been your strong point, Mija.”

The CATTs nonchalance at being surrounded unnerved the Wings of Rani. Of course, they actually were nervous but weren’t about to let the enemy see that… and it wasn’t like the mission was a total failure! No single Angel on the island was a match for Luz or Samael, so if they could avoid being overwhelmed with numbers then they still stood a chance!

“How exactly did you know we were here, or who I was?” Luz asked as they removed their disguises. Seeing Luz’s true Seraphim form and Samael’s true Sephiroth form made the fear of the regular Angels grow even worse, and now the High Angels and even the Arch-Angels were beginning to look nervous.

The Arch-Angel who’d greeted them swallowed hard, then said; “The turnstiles you entered through are enchanted. They send a silent alert if an unauthorised person enters through them. The turnstiles were also designed to detect and identify the magic of specific individuals, namely yours, the Titan and Hero of Paradise, and the members of the group known as the “Hexsquad”. We’ve been aware of you and your Dark Angel companion since the moment you arrived.”

Lyra raised an eyebrow; so the Divider must have known she’d become a part of the Hexsquad… though since Samael and Camila hadn’t been mentioned, she guessed that the Divider hadn’t expected the Collector to be freed, nor did he know Camila’s magic well enough to enchant the turnstiles to identify it. The others all frowned; so they’d been exposed from the very beginning! Luz mentally cursed, wishing she’d just infiltrated through the shadows instead of trying to sneak in undercover.

Luz stepped forward, summoning Stringbean from inside her hair and turning her into her staff form, which she then spun a round a little, intimidating the Angels further as she approached the Arch-Angels. “So, if you knew who we were when we first arrived, why didn’t you do anything about it? Were you waiting for reinforcements? Because let me tell you…” she turned up the intimidation factor as she flared her magic, giving herself a rainbow aura, “…you don’t have enough people.”

The Wings of Rani all gulped and took a step back, while the Abomatons and Knight Golems all pointed their weapons directly at Luz, who was preparing to leap into the shadows at the first sign of trouble. However before something could happen, a voice cut through the tension from behind the crowd of Angels.

“We do not wish to fight you, Luz.” said the voice, sounding familiar but strangely distorted, as if someone was using a voice changer.

The Wings of Rani opened their encirclement a little and bowed as the owner of the voice stepped through the crowd and approached Luz. The newcomer was a tall woman, over 6ft in height, and dressed in an outfit that left no part of her exposed. She was wearing a deep red full length dress that trailed against the floor, hiding her legs and feet entirely. The red dress was decorated with golden designs that resembled wings, and over the top of it she wore several pieces of white armour with golden filigree, similar to the other Wings of Rani. The armour pieces consisted of gauntlets that extended up to her forearms and hid her hands, two pauldrons, a breastplate that stopped just below her rib cage, and an armoured belt with hanging plates of armour that went halfway down the front, sides, and back of her thighs. The top of her breastplate also incorporated a red hood that covered her hair completely and featured a white and gold diadem with an amber gem over the forehead and two feather ornaments on the sides, where her ears should be. Lastly, she wore a white and gold mask that was designed in a similar way to the helmets worn by Arch-Angel Knights in the Divine Realm, or the Knight Golems made by the Divider. Literally the only exposed part of the woman was a single pair of large feathery wings on her back, which were grey just as Samael had said they would be.

However as Luz watched the woman approach her, she felt something off. The grey of her wings didn’t look like the dull, leaden grey that Lyra’s wings had turned after Titan Trapper Island, or the green-tinged grey that Luz’s wings had become when Belos was possessing her. It was of a more natural, faded grey that looked somewhat familiar. The way the woman walked was also strange; there was something off about her gait, but without being able to see her legs, Luz couldn’t tell what it was.

Putting that out of her mind, Luz frowned at the woman; “So… you’re the Divider’s Left Hand. You’re the Valkyrie.”

The woman chuckled, and Luz felt a sharp spike of nostalgia and familiarity pierce through her mind. She definitely knew this woman from somewhere! But where!? All the Angels she knew were accounted for!

“That is the title I was given by Lord Divider. It truly does make me so happy to see you again, Luz. I’ve missed you a great deal! If not for the Lord Divider’s orders, I would have tried to visit you in the Human Realm! I understand you celebrated your 15^th birthday recently? I’m sorry I missed it. I’ll be sure to get you the best gift ever to make up for it.” the Valkyrie said, looking like she was resisting the urge to hug Luz.

The young Seraphim was even more freaked out, as her mind was going crazy trying to figure out who this woman was! The only female Angels she was close to were her Mami, Lyra, and her Tia Lazuli, and there was no way this woman was any of them!

“Who are you!?” Luz demanded.

The Valkyrie tilted her head curiously, then sighed; “I suppose it was too much to hope that you’d recognise me even with this get-up. I have changed a lot since we last spoke. In fact, the last time I saw you was as you raced away to defeat Belos on the Day of Unity, after Lyra took your place in the ritual.”

Luz’s eyes widened, as did the eyes of Lyra behind her. If Valkyrie was at the Day of Unity, in Unity Plaza, then she had to be a member of the CATTs! But Luz had been the only Angel there, so… was Valkyrie not an Angel at all!?

“Luz! Let me out of the shadows!” King suddenly yelled into her mind. “I’ve gotta see her in person!”

“King!? Now isn’t the best time! If I release you then we lose the element of surprise!” Luz thought back through their link.

“Please trust me! If I can smell her, I’ll know who she is!” King said pleadingly.

Luz frowned, but decided to trust her little brother; perhaps having the “Hero of Paradise” appear would further push the Wings of Rani into hesitating! With a quick twirl of her finger, Luz cast a spell and allowed King to rise up out of her shadow and fly up to sit on Luz’s shoulder, his large eyes narrowed on Valkyrie.

“King! So you’re here too! And I somehow doubt you were the only one in the shadows! You and your sister always were sneaky and clever!” Valkyrie complimented.

King ignored her words and took a deep breath to inhale the woman’s scent. It wasn’t quite one he had smelled before, but the underlying core of it was one he definitely knew! A scent that smelled like the vapours of an Elixir, and the feathers of an owl! It normally had the smell of apple blood and Raine’s preferred perfume mixed in too, but even without those elements, the scent was unmistakeable. The little Titan almost fell from Luz’s shoulder in shock.

“M-Mom!?” he cried.

Luz immediately gaped in wide-eyed horror as her gaze snapped back to the Valkyrie, while her companions both behind her and in the shadows all gasped in shock. The Valkyrie went silent for a moment, then began to chuckle as she reached up to pull back her hood and remove her mask. As the hood was pulled down, there was a glow from the inside as Eda’s large ears and massive mane of grey hair was pulled out, and the mask disappeared as soon as it was removed from her face, revealing the pale skin, golden fang, and currently black and gold eyes of Harpy Eda.

Now stood before them totally unmasked was Eda Clawthorne, currently in her Harpy Mode.

Suddenly, so many things made sense to Luz; the colour of the Valkyrie’s wings, the reason an “Angel” with only one pair of wings was ruling over Arch-Angels, and the strange way she walked (which was due to her Harpy legs having a different shape compared to Witch and Angel legs)… it was all because the Valkyrie was Eda! A Divided Eda. The fact that a Witch had been their leader this entire time was a shock to most of the Wings of Rani too, with only the four Arch-Angels having already known about it.

“Mom!” Luz eventually cried, finding her voice. “I-I can’t believe it! The Divider made YOU his left hand!? He put you in charge of the Wings of Rani!?”

Eda chuckled, now speaking normally; “Of course! He had Raguel around to be in charge of his Angels, but he wanted someone who knew how Witches and Demons tick to be in charge of the rest of the Isles’ people while he’s off fighting the Collector’s siblings. Speaking of; it looks like the Anti-Archivist Barrier he erected around the Demon Realm was a smart move! Without it, the Collector there would have already defeated us all!” she said, grinning at Samael.

Luz and King trembled slightly, both overcome with the desperate desire to run and hug their Mom. But the woman in front of them wasn’t really their Mom; she was just the fragments of her that the Divider saw as positive. A proper reunion could wait for when they’d turned her back to normal! Though that process had been complicated now; with Eda being divided, they needed to find and break her Divided Orb before leaving, as they had no idea what effects being too far from the orb would have and definitely weren’t willing to risk it with Eda!

Seeing the kids struggling at the moment, Camila stepped forward to speak; “It’s been a long time, Eda. I don’t think any of us expected you to be the Valkyrie! But what I don’t understand is; why the secrecy? Why the mask and voice changer?”

Eda beamed at Camila; “Oh, hey Cammie! Sorry, I was a little distracted with my kids! Good to see you! And the disguise was for their benefit.” she pointed to the shocked Wings of Rani; “Lord Divider was worried they’d try to replace me or suppress my authority if they knew I was just a Witch. Better to keep the secret until I’d earned their respect.”

The Wings of Rani exchanged looks, and had enough self-awareness to admit to themselves that she was right. If they’d just been told to obey a Divided Witch, they likely would have protested. But the Valkyrie had been given four months of anonymity to earn their respect, and now they had no desire to disobey. Seeing their expressions calming down, Eda grinned once more and turned back to Luz and King.

“I was so excited when Luz showed up here, but now that I know you’ve both been here this whole time, my day couldn’t get any better! I could scarcely wait for the hour I’d allotted you to explore to be over!” she said.

“So that’s why you didn’t come after us as soon as we were busted! You wanted us to explore!” Lyra said, beginning to understand. “But why!?”

“So you could all see what Rani’s Eden is like! This place is basically a microcosm of what the Lord Divider’s Paradise is going to be! Once Project Paradise is complete, everywhere will be like this! A place of bliss and peace, where people can live happy and quiet lives without a single negative thought or feeling! It’ll all be perfect! Though I do now think I should have given you more than an hour, since you ended up spending the whole time in the Winter Playground.” Eda laughed. “But tell me, Luz, King; what do you two think? Isn’t this place a paradise?”

“What do I think? I think I want to punch the Divider in the face!” Luz growled, “He took my Mom, the greatest rebel and advocate of freedom in the entire Demon Realm, and brainwashed her into leading his army of free-will stealing Angels and brainwashed slaves! You are the antithesis of the Eda Clawthorne I know, who would have chosen death over servitude!”

King nodded along with his sister; “If the real you could see you now Mom, she’d knock your block off! This place is great, but why can’t you build places just like it without brainwashing people!?”

Eda’s face went blank since she was missing the appropriate emotion to respond with, while the Arch-Angels spoke up for her; “It isn’t brainwashing or enslaving! The Lord Divider just removes a person’s negative traits and leaves them with only the good parts of themselves!” one of them said.

A second added; “And yes, the Divided cannot disobey the Lord Divider, but as soon as he completes Project Paradise, he’ll tell them all to live as they please, then step back! He doesn’t want to rule Paradise, he just wants to create it!”

Luz shook her head; “Use whatever justifications or flimsy definitions you want! If you have to literally remove pieces of a person’s mind to make them do what you want, then you’re brainwashing them! End of story!”

“Yeah! And as Mom’s kids, we’ve got to be the ones to stop her!” King nodded, flying off of Luz’s shoulder and preparing to fight with some glyph notes.

A third Arch-Angel gasped; “You wouldn’t dare! You wouldn’t fight your own mother!”

“You love her too much! This is just a pointless bluff!” the fourth and final Arch-Angel accused.

Luz and King glared at them in response, before King smirked and said; “Why don’t you ask Mom if we’re bluffing?”

The Wings of Rani all turned to Eda, who kept a blank expression as she answered the unasked question in a monotone; “They aren’t bluffing. They would be willing to fight me and everyone else here.”

The Wings of Rani gasped, while Samael, Camila, and Lyra stepped forward, the latter summoning her own staff to show her readiness to battle too. “Mom would want us to fight her if the real her could see what she’d been turned into.” Luz said, flaring her magic even more to intimidate the Angels. Samael followed suit, and between the two of them and their Titan brother, the Wings of Rani felt like they were the ones outnumbered. A single Seraphim was serious business, but two? It would take closer to ten Arch-Angels to stand a chance. Of course, there were the other Angels too, which included close to 15 High Angels and around 25 regular Angels, not to mention the Abomatons and Knight Golems… a battle between the CATTs and Wings of Rani here could potentially go either way, but the devastation it would cause to Rani’s Eden would be insane! It was a very real possibility that the island could fall from the sky!

Knowing this, Eda stepped forward and said in a monotone; “A full scale war here would be a catastrophe for us all. All Wings of Rani members are hereby ordered to retreat and reinforce Rani’s Eden. Secure the Divided and the children within Orion’s Rise.”

“A-All of us!? You can’t mean to fight them alone!” one of the High Angels cried.

Eda shook her head; “I will not fight them at all. Arch-Angels, prepare for a Code Black.”

The four Arch-Angels exchanged grim looks, then nodded and gestured for the other Angels to back off, which they did. Several rushed into the Winter Playground and emerged a little while later, escorting the children who’d been dragging their feet, and having them run as fast as they could towards Orion’s Rise. Samael noticed Emiliel and Simi among them, shooting him worried looks as they were dragged off.

The CATTs braced themselves for whatever a Code Black was, and Eda summoned Owlbert in staff form as the Arch-Angels summoned their own Palisman. The five of them then each took flight and flew rapidly around the entire perimeter of the inside of Rani’s Eden, created an absolutely massive five-layer spell circle. The four Arch-Angels then stopped in the air above the four playgrounds and began focusing their magic on their staves, turning them into pillars of yellow light. Eda flew in the dead centre of Rani’s Eden and drew the magic of the colossal spell circle and the four Arch-Angels into her own staff, before firing an absolutely huge beam of yellow magic directly at the top of the barrier. The entire barrier flashed yellow as the beam passed through, unimpeded, and hit the sky above the Boiling Isles.

Luz and the others were stunned and confused, wondering what the spell had done… until huge black clouds began to form up above, covering the distortions that showed Gran Seraphia and spreading to cover the sky over the entire Boiling Isles. These black clouds were monstrous and crackled with a huge amount of lightning, as torrential rain began to pour from them, creating an entire isles-spanning thunderstorm. The barrier around Rani’s Eden kept out the rain and while lightning bolts did continuously strike the barrier, it showed no signs of breaking, making Luz wonder just what they were up to.

“Mom and the Arch-Angels did all that to summon a thunderstorm that can’t even reach us?” King frowned; “What was the point?”

Luz narrowed her eyes as she saw Eda landing atop her own statue-self in the centre of the island; “Let’s go find out! But first…” she covered one of her wings in her shadow and spoke into it; “Guys get ready! I don’t know what Mom is pulling, but we might need you!”

The trio still in the shadow world all poked their hands out of the shadow and gave Luz a thumbs up, before hiding back inside as Luz gestured for the others to follow her back to where Eda had landed. Upon arriving, the five of them surrounded her and the fountain.

“If you were hoping to scare us off with a thunderstorm, you’re in for a rude awakening Mom!” King yelled. “It can’t even hurt us with that big barrier up there!”

“The storm isn’t meant for you, and I said already that I wouldn’t fight you. I refuse to fight my own children… but I will give you this last chance.” Eda said, flying down to face Luz and King. Her blank expression melted into a small, hopeful smile; “Please accept the Paradise the Lord Divider wants to build. Think of all we’ve been through as a family; none of it would have happened if we lived in Paradise! All that suffering, all that heartache… none of it would have occurred.”

Luz grit her teeth; “Without that suffering and heartache, we wouldn’t be here right now! If we lived in a Paradise, Mami wouldn’t have run away and met my Papi, and the two wouldn’t have run away and met my Dad! Heck, Dad wouldn’t even have been born! Plus it wasn’t exactly happy circ*mstances that brought me and King into your life!”

“Bad things happen, but they can lead to great things later! Unless you’re saying you’d rather that I never became your son!? That you’d rather Luz was never born!? Is that what you’re saying!?” King demanded.

Eda twitched and flinched, almost like she was malfunctioning; “No! That isn’t what I want at all! I love you both so much! I hate this! I don’t want to-!”

The woman gripped her head in pain, shocking everyone. Eda had just expressed a real negative emotion!? How was that possible!? Did the Divider mess up her division somehow? Or was it possible to overcome it, or perhaps re-develop the Divided parts? Luz, King, and the CATTs didn’t know, but it opened a whole host of new possibilities!

Eda suddenly snapped back to the monotone, robotic state she’d been in moments before. She looked at her children with dull, emotionless eyes, and said; “Very well. If the two of you won’t submit and accept Paradise, then you will need to be pacified. Please forgive me; this will not hurt if you don’t resist.”

Luz pointed her staff at Eda, her heart twisting in pain as she prepared to fight her own Mom, while King looked ready to cry as he took deep, slow breathes in preparation for a roar. He idly wondered if roaring hard enough would allow him to blow Eda’s limbs off and leave her helpless. Making the curse useful to them would be a welcome change!

“I thought you weren’t going to fight us.” Lyra scowled, pointing her own staff at the woman. She, Camila, and Samael had exchanged looks and come to the unspoken agreement that they’d try to be the ones doing the lion’s share of the fighting against Eda… though they did wonder if Luz and King would allow that.

Eda responded to Lyra’s taunt by slamming the base of her staff against the ground, sending a yellow pulse of magic in all directions. It passed harmlessly through the CATTs and hit the barrier around Rani’s Eden, which began to flicker a bit.

“I am not…” she said.

Suddenly, a massive lightning bolt shot down through the barrier as it flickered, striking the giant yellow orb in the branches of the tree-like building that made up part of Cassiopeia’s Embrace.

“… they are.”

With a deafening clap of thunder, the yellow orb shattered into a thousand shards of yellow light, which promptly vanished, revealing a pulsing mass of electricity. The electricity then zipped towards the centre of island, directly above Eda and the CATTs, before it took on the shape of a creature… a terrifyingly familiar creature! The lightning transformed into flesh and scales as the creature roared even louder than the thunder, its giant wings flapping to keep it a loft, sending gales in all directions that forced the CATTs to brace themselves.

Luz and King would recognise those yellow scales and stormy grey horns anywhere, and Samael felt like he recognised the yellow eyes that now glared down at them… though the golden ring around the iris was an unwelcome addition.

“Lars the Thunder Wyvern!” Luz exclaimed.

“And they’re divided!” King added, noticing the golden ring.

The Thunder Wyvern roared once more, then touched down behind the fountain, their colossal head lowering and breathing out a warm cloud of air.

“I have been sleeping for several moons, and what do I find when I first awaken? A mighty storm and some old friends. If Zara and Godric were here, it would be truly a wondrous day.” Lars said, their draconic face pulled into a smile. “And the Collector too! Your form is different from the shadow I remember, but that smell is unmistakeable!”

“Wow, so this is what Lars looked like as a dragon!? I only saw ‘em as a Witch! Cool!” Samael grinned excitedly, totally unconcerned.

Meanwhile, Lyra and Camila were paling drastically. “Luz, this is one of the Dragons you fought!? They’re enormous!” Camila cried.

Luz smirked; “Fought and defeated!”

“Yeah! Luz beat Lars as only an Arch-Angel! She’d never lose as a Seraphim!” King boasted.

Lars chuckled; “Your confidence in your sister is admirable! But remember, I was only fighting as hard as I needed to push Luz to her limits. If I am now required to fight her for real, I won’t hold back! And with a thunderstorm raging, I am at my most powerful!”

Eda, still speaking in a monotone, then said; “Lars at full power should be more than enough to defeat you. A Seraphim is a match for a full power Supreme Dragon, but you are also facing one that has received the blessing of the Divider!”

As if to punctuate that point, Lars stretched their wings out and began to pulse with electricity, slowly growing larger until they were about 50% bigger than their prior full-size. Cassiopeia’s lightning glyph also appeared on the chest of their Dragon Form and constantly sparked with yellow electricity, while the stormy grey wing membranes of Lars’ wings disappeared and were replaced by constructs of violet lightning, similar to how Godric’s wings had been made of fire. Lastly, the same lightning glyph that had been engraved on the Divider’s back by a different Titan now appeared on Lars’ forehead, giving them two different lightning glyphs.

King, Camila, and Lyra all shuddered as the raw magical power pouring off of Lars rolled over them like a mighty wave, while Luz and Samael both felt their nerves being tested; the Divider’s blessing had definitely made Lars more powerful! Stronger than any individual Seraphim at any rate.

“The Lord Divider’s Blessing is truly a wonder to behold! I ask you this, my old friends… surrender and accept the Lord Divider’s Blessing for yourselves! You will never know sorrow again! But if we should fight…” Lars began ominously, before rapidly charging his breath attack and firing a beam of super intense lightning into the barrier above, briefly shattering a hole through it, before whatever magic that produced the barrier began to repair it. Considering the size and strength of the barrier, that was no small feat!

“… I will be forced to harm you. Please do not make me do that.” Lars finished.

Eda continued on from Lars by pointing Owlbert at Camila, while her free hand began to darken with her Harpy Mode’s Anti-Magic aura. “And while I will not lift a finger to fight my son and daughter, I won’t hesitate to obey the Lord Divider’s will and pacify the rest of you. Paradise cannot be stopped; save us all the pain of a battle and just accept division. You will feel happy!” she said.

Camila shook her head; “You don’t look too happy to me, Eda. The Division doesn’t force you to feel positive, it just won’t let you feel negative! Now that you can’t feel negativity and this situation won’t let you feel positivity, you don’t feel anything at all!” she conjured a light sword in one hand and pointed the index and middle fingers of the other hand, miming a gun as the tips of the fingers glowed blue. “For all you’ve done for Luz, I’m going to help save you, Eda!”

Lyra nodded and reached into the shadow of her wing and pulled out something unexpected; a deck of Tarot Cards, while Shade emerged from her Oracle Stone and hovered behind her; “You’re no Angel, Miss Clawthorne! And for all their power, neither is your Dragon! I’ll show you what an Angel Oracle can do! I’ll repay the kindness you showed my brother and I by kicking your butt!”

Samael stared up at Lars and nodded defiantly; “Me too! Lars, you were really nice to me all those years ago! I’ll help save you! I hope you’ll still be my friend after I beat you!”

Seeing their family standing bravely behind them, Luz and King beamed; “We came here to capture the Valkyrie… and we’re gonna do just that!” Luz declared, Stringbean hissing in agreement even in Staff form.

“This is the second time Luz and I have had to come to your rescue, Mom! If it happens again, I’m gonna start demanding a bigger allowance!” King grinned, flapping his wings as he prepared his glyphs. His and Luz’s emotions were totally in-sync, and their hearts and minds were both focused entirely on one thing; saving their Mom! Thanks to that, the white ring on Luz’s chest began to glow faintly, making the owl-like emblem on the front of her Divine Regalia shine more brightly. At the same time, King’s body began to glow with a white aura, just like when he used his linking magic.

“Mom is strong, and her Harpy Mode’s Anti-Magic powers are gonna be a pain for anyone fighting her! We need me or Samael fighting her, but then everyone else will need to back up the other Seraphim to fight Lars. A Seraphim AND the others might just be enough…” Luz thought, bracing herself to leap forward and attack.

King blinked as his eyes snapped towards Luz; he’d just heard those words!

“Luz? Are we…?”

Luz flinched, trying to hide the surprise she felt as her eyes darted towards King; “King!? Wait a second, is the linking magic working through the glyph you gave me!?”

King gasped; he could hear Luz’s voice inside his head, and she could hear his!“Yes! It looks like I don’t need to touch you for it to work now!”

“Perfect! We can use this to coordinate with each other! For now, I’m going to take on Lars and see how much tougher they are than last time! Leave Mom to Samael and Mami, I’m gonna need everyone else backing me up!” Luz thought.

King subtly nodded, then took a deep breath as discretely as he could, before unleashing the loudest and most powerful “WEH!” he could, sending a huge Titan Roar Shockwave directly at Eda. The woman had somewhat expected an attack, but not from King, so even though she put up a bubble barrier at the last moment, she AND her barrier was still sent flying back, bouncing across the open field in the centre of the island. Lars took this as the beginning of the battle and lunged forward with their teeth coating in electricity, aiming to bite Luz. She responded by flashing out of the way with her version of Hunter’s lightning warp, while leaving behind a couple of potions she’d brewed earlier. Lars’ massive jaws shut around these potions, which then exploded with enough force and heat to make Lars flinch and rear back again, smoke billowing from their mouth and nostrils. They began to sneeze as the smoke tickled the inside of their nose, and Luz took the opportunity to flash towards him at high speed, transforming Stringbean into the form of a large Ram-themed war hammer. A single Beast-Keeping spell later and Stringbean was grown to massive proportions just as Luz swung her at Lars’ gut, delivering a massive blow that sent the Dragon skidding back and gasping for breath.

With both of their foes briefly stunned, Luz shouted to the others; “Samael, you and Mami see what you can do about Mom! The rest of us will fight Lars for a bit!”

Samael and Camila both agreed in an instant and flew rapidly towards Eda, who’d now emerged from the barrier she’d created and gotten back to her feet, while Luz and Lyra both spread their shadows out and used them to release Hunter, Skara, and Boscha from the shadows. King then handed all three of them a small stack of glyph notes.

“Use these in an emergency” he told them.

The glyphs had barely left his hands before King felt the fur on his back stand up, making him spin around just in time to see Lars flicking their massive tail at the newcomers, aiming to take them out in one swing. Hunter used his lightning warp to grab the girls and zip back out of the way, while King used one of his own warp glyphs to warp high in the sky. As she was warped away by Hunter, Boscha had grabbed a handful of potion vials from inside her hair (which had grown quite long in the four months since the Day of Unity) and tossed them at the last minute. Each potion vial had shattered against Lars’ tail, causing a purple goo to splatter over their scales and begin rapidly swelling and congealing. These were Boscha’s Abomination Bombs; a kind of abomination she’d made with Amity during their joint studies in the Human Realm. While in an air-tight container, the slime was runny and useless, but as soon as it was exposed to air, it would react and become an incredibly thick and sticky goo with a texture similar to wet chewing gum. These abominations were too thick and sticky to move or shape themselves properly, but they made for good restraints!

Lars found the end of their tail glued to the brick road it had just swept through, forcing them to pull hard to get their tail free, and still ending up with slime (and now several bricks and large chunks of concrete) stuck to the end. The Thunder Wyvern prepared to flash away, hoping that making their body incorporeal would remove the sticky substance, but just as they began the spell, Hunter released the girls and flashed towards Lars, stopping inches from one of their large eyes and swinging Flapjack right into it.

The blow made Lars flinch and roar in pain, though this only bought the Hexsquad a few seconds, as the Dragon immediately finished their warp spell and flashed up into the air, leaving behind the sticky mass of abomination goo and bricks. They reappeared high above the Hexsquad and growled as purple lightning began to crackle between their horns. That lightning then began to arc down their back, leaping from spike to spike as it travelled down their spine, growing more intense with each spike it passed through, until it reached the end of Lars’ tail, where it continuously arced between the two massive lightning bolt-shaped prongs that made up the end of the bident-like tail. With a thunderous roar, Lars transformed this intense purple electricity into a huge plasma orb, which they then fired down at the ground below. It struck the metal statue on the central fountain, then exploded in a colossal sphere of lightning. Having seen the attack coming, King had been able to use a warp glyph to escape its radius, while Skara had grabbed Boscha and flown out of the way using Melody and some wind magic to boost her speed, and Lyra had managed to escape into the shadows. Unfortunately, Luz had been flying at Lars and was too close to evade the attack in time, while Hunter had already been flashing back towards them and couldn’t stop until it was too late, leading to both being hit.

Luz and Hunter both screamed and convulsed, falling out of the sky and landing in the water of the fountain as the electricity coursed through them. It was unlike any lightning that had hit them before; it made their every nerve sing with pain and caused all their muscles to spasm and cramp awfully, but it didn’t seem to actually cause any direct damage; there were no burns or wounds of any kind, the pain they were in being caused entirely by the lightning sending pain signals through their nerves. It was very similar to Belos’ red lightning spells; meant to inflict pain but no direct damage. Thankfully, Hunter had enough experience with lightning from his own magic that he was able to briefly gather the focus needed to insulate himself and disperse the electricity inside him. Similarly, Luz was able to use her own command of lightning magic (plus a trick she mimicked from a TV show she’d watched), to control the lightning coursing through her body and redirect it, allowing her to shoot it back at Lars as a bolt of golden lightning. Lars easily batted it away with their tail, but inclined their head out of respect to the two resilient teens.

“Well done, children. You did well to stand up to the pain of that attack. Forgive me, but I’m going to make the next one worse!” Lars declared, speaking in a monotone. They spread their wings wide and began raining bolts of purple lightning down on them, forcing them to begin dodging with all they had as they desperately searched for a window to attack.

________________________________________________________________________________

[Meanwhile]

As Luz and the younger group were dealing with Lars, Samael and Camila were having their own clashes with Harpy Eda. After being knocked away by King’s roar, the woman had dropped her barrier and emerged just in time to raise her staff and block a swing from Camila’s light sword. As Eda had used both hands to hold Owlbert up against Camila’s attack, she was forced to use one of her toe claws to draw a spell circle that conjured a pillar of rock behind her, which blocked the pink glittery ribbons that Samael had conjured to try and tie her up. Eda then channelled her Anti-Magic through her staff and caused Camila’s light sword to decay, but also made Owlbert hoot in pain. Eda immediately stopped the Anti-Magic, but she’d already broken Camila’s light sword so it was no problem, and she promptly raised one of her powerful legs and kicked Camila hard in the stomach, sending the woman flying several feet away.

Camila landed hard, but rolled with the impact and ended up skidding to a halt on one knee. Her favourite red and yellow sweater had suffered some scratches from Eda’s talons, and she’d gotten some shallow cuts on her stomach from them too, but these were easily healed. Eda flew at her with an unknown spell being prepared in her free hand, but Samael swiftly put a stop to that by conjuring a swarm of little star projectiles that shot at Eda, smacking into her side and knocking her to the ground, cancelling her spell. Camila then mimed guns with both her hands and began shooting blue, numbing spells from her fingers.

“Sorry for this Eda, but my phasers are set to stun!” Camila declared. The spells hit the prone Eda, making her limbs feel like they’d been doused in ice water for hours and leaving her barely able to move. Samael then swooped in and finished her by creating one of his crescent moon projectiles and flicking it at Eda’s forehead, turning her into a puppet.

“There. Now King’s Mom won’t be able to fight us! You don’t think he or Luz will be mad I turned their Mom into a puppet, do you Tia Cammie?” Samael asked, hovering beside the woman.

She pat him on the head; “No, of course not Cariño. It’s only temporary, and better your puppet than the Divider’s.”

Samael smiled, but that didn’t last long as Eda’s puppet form suddenly pulsed with the strange black and gold aura of her Anti-Magic. Even as a puppet, Eda’s eyes had the golden ring of the Divider’s control, and it appeared to counter Samael’s own control of his puppets, allowing Eda to use her Harpy Mode’s Anti-Magic to decay the effects of Samael’s puppet spell AND Camila’s numbing spell, returning Eda to normal and allowing her to fly up into the air.

“Surrender and be divided, as true citizens of Paradise!” Eda demanded in a monotone, spinning Owlbert and causing a giant Hooty Golem to emerge from the ground beneath Camila and Samael. Samael saved Camila by rapidly summoning a giant toy squeaky hammer and smacking her with it, knocking her out of the way without hurting her. Unfortunately this meant Samael was unable to dodge before being promptly swallowed by the Hooty Golem, making Camila gasp. She conjured another light sword and went to try and cut the head off the giant golem, but Eda drew a spell circle and launched a series of golden magic projectiles at her, forcing the Angel to instead turn her light sword into a light kite shield. This worked out in Camila’s favour though, as she imbued the light shield with her blue healing magic, giving it an edge like a scalpel spell, before throwing it like a Frisby at the Hooty Golem, managing to slice open the side of its neck.

Eda then flew at Camila and crashed into her, with Camila pulling out her bat, Reason, and using it to parry the claw swipes from Harpy Eda. As this was happening, a strange lilac cloud began to emerge from the sliced neck of the Hooty Golem. The cloud looked a bit like cotton candy, but had glowing stars, crescent moons, and suns shining throughout it as it spread out across the surface of the golem, slowly transforming it into a giant toy, which resembled an accordion. Once the transformation was complete, the accordion-like Owl toy opened its mouth wide as it flattered itself into the ground, before suddenly springing out and launching Samael towards Eda. As he flew, he began rolling forward in the air, still holding his giant squeaky hammer, until he finally reached the Divided Owl Lady and smacked her so hard that she went slamming down into the ground below. As with Camila, the blow of the hammer hadn’t hurt, but the impact with the ground certainly had! In fact, Eda hit the ground so hard that her head and arms flew off, the effects of the “curse” still effecting her even in Harpy Mode.

“Samael! You had me worried for a second there.” Camila smiled, taking the moment to catch her breath. Fighting Odalia had been easy since the woman was worthless without her magic, but Eda was a force to be reckoned both with and without it, and Camila wasn’t actually much of a fighter like the kids were. Most of her experience was from her (relatively) peaceful years in the Demon Realm with Manny and Michael, her self-defence lessons as a Cherub in the Divine Realm, and the time she’d spent training with the kids in the Human Realm. It meant she was a decent fighter, but not up to the level of Eda or the Hexsquad!

“I’m okay, Tia Cammie!” Samael chirped happily; “Turning people into puppets isn’t hard, but that golem was more like a part of the island. Turning that into a toy was way harder!”

Their brief talk was interrupted when Eda began literally pulling herself back together. Her torso had used its wings to get her back onto her feet then kicked one of her arms up into the air where she could “catch” it with her torso and reattach it, before going for the other arm. At the same time, Owlbert (also divided thanks to the soul bond with Eda) flew over to grab Eda’s head and then flew back to the rest of her body, reassembling her. The instant Eda had pulled herself back together, she turned Owlbert into a cittern and began to play a low key, cittern version of Raine’s Rhapsody. As she played, the Anti-Magic effect began to spread across the ground and through the air like a wave, catching both Camila and Samael, who found their bodies beginning to blacken as their magic weakened to the point of uselessness. Without his magic, Samael was practically defenceless, but thankfully Camila wasn’t and her body was still able to move, so she rushed at Eda and attacked with her bat, managing to smack one of Eda’s hands clean off her wrist, disrupting the song and stopping its effects. Immediately, the blackness that had been creeping over all of them began to fade, allowing the Angels to use their magic again. Samael wasted no time in shooting another of his puppet crescents at Eda, this time hitting her Palisman/cittern, turning him into a toy version.

Eda’s face began to spasm as she tried to experience an emotion that didn’t exist inside her any more. She hurried to apply a bit of Anti-Magic to the mark on Owlbert’s forehead, returning the Palisman to normal, but Camila was still right beside her from the last attack and this time began shooting Eda with stunning spells at close range. Eda shielded herself with one of her wings, and began shedding her armour, which she felt was only slowing her down at this point (and it wasn’t like her enemies were trying to actually harm her anyway). She threw one of the armour pieces at Camila, making the woman duck and giving Eda a chance to dive for where her other hand had ended up after being knocked off her wrist. Eda had just barely gotten it back on her wrist before she was suddenly attacked by the Puppet Hooty Golem from earlier, leading her to be swallowed just as Samael was earlier.

“Ha! Time out for you, King’s Mom!” Samael grinned.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t going to be that easy, as Eda used her Harpy Mode’s Anti-Magic to begin decaying the Hooty Golem from the inside, reducing it to a pile of rubble. When Harpy Eda flew out, her wing no longer numb thanks to her Anti-Magic countering the effects of Camila’s spell, she looked a little worse for wear. Her armour pieces had all been removed, and the bottom of her dress had been ripped off, fully revealing her legs and allowing her to move more comfortably. She was also panting hard, and her expression seemed to be flitting between emotionless and pained.

Camila and Samael exchanged a look; something was definitely up with Eda’s division! They just needed to find out what!

________________________________________________________________________________

[Meanwhile]

Back with Luz’s group, their situation hadn’t improved at all. Lars was still flying in the air in the centre of the island, a huge orb of purple lightning surrounding them as they sent an endless stream of lightning strikes out in all directions, forcing the group to dodge around constantly just to avoid being fried. The attacks were ceaseless, and other than Luz and Hunter, who could dodge more easily with their flash warps, none of them had a chance to even strike back or come up with a plan! Luz and Hunter were stuck protecting King, Skara, and Boscha, flashing in the way of the attacks they couldn’t dodge and redirecting them with their own lightning magic, while Lyra hadn’t even bothered returning to the physical world from the shadows yet, instead hiding and trying to contemplate what to do next.

“If this keeps up, our allies will be exhausted before they can even attack! We need to give them an opening somehow.” Shade said.

Lyra nodded; “I know, but how? Lars’ magic is stronger than mine, so my shadows can’t swallow up and erase their spells!”

She’d already tried it once, but the lightning bolt had torn through her shadow like it wasn’t even there! She couldn’t even use any of her new spells she’d worked so hard on in the past few months, since she couldn’t manifest her shadows within Lars’ orb of electricity thanks to all the light AND the omnipresent lightning within the orb, and none of the spells she’d fired at the orb from the outside had gotten through! Lars’ lightning barrier was the perfect blend of offence and defence! Anything conductive was caught and repelled, and anything insulated was vaporised by pure magical power!

“If physical attacks and spells can’t get through, then why not try some kind of sonic attack? Like the Titan child’s roar?” Shade suggested.

Lyra shook her head; “It doesn’t work, I saw King try that already since this onslaught began! The sonic shockwave can’t penetrate the barrier!”

Suddenly, those words made Lyra’s brain go into overdrive. “Wait a second… sonic… penetrate the barrier! I’ve got it!” she cried, before suddenly dragging Skara and Boscha into the shadows. She’d wanted to take them into the shadows earlier, but both had been determined to stay out there and fight, so the couple wasn’t too happy to suddenly be taken out of the battle.

“Lyra! What are you doing!? Having more of us out there was splitting Lars’ attention!” Boscha yelled.

“That plan already failed; they’re shooting lightning in all directions! Having you both out there and helpless was just making it harder for Luz and Hunter!” Lyra frowned, “Besides, I have a plan! Our normal spells can’t get through their lightning barrier, but since we can hear Lars roaring, we know that sound can! So Skara can used a Bardic Song on them!”

“But I can’t perform while dodging lightning! And even if I could, all that roaring and those thunderclaps would drown me out! Lars won’t hear it! Heck, our friends wouldn’t be able to hear it either!” Skara argued.

Lyra was undeterred; “Then perform a buffing song from here in the shadows, where it’s safe! I’ll open the other end of the shadows within the ears of our friends, so they’ll be able to hear it while Lars definitely can’t! Once everyone outside is boosted, they’ll have a chance to get through the barrier! I’m sure of it!”

That made Skara pause; it could actually work! However Boscha still frowned; “If you’re gonna have Skara buff all of us, why bring me here too?”

“Well first, to give our friends a break from protecting you, since you and Skara don’t have warping powers. And second, so you can have some time to whip up some more potions!” Lyra explained.

Boscha still frowned, but she conceded that this was probably the best chance she was going to get to make potions during this fight! Lars was mostly unconcerned with everyone but Luz and King, so didn’t care about their absence, meaning they were temporarily safe to prepare their next round of attacks.

With a plan in mind, Boscha immediately began whipping together potions that could be helpful against the Thunder Wyvern, while Skara transformed Melody into a harp and began to play a tune. Since she was buffing her allies, she opted for the Ballad of Motivation, which provided both a morale boost and an extra dose of energy to all who heard it. She even sang it, closing her eyes and reminiscing of the day she’d first heard Luz singing it in the bard track at Hexside. Once the song began to take effect, both Lyra and Boscha felt their bodies kicking things into overdrive, making Boscha even faster with the potions and causing Lyra to immediately cast the spells to make the shadows inside Luz and Hunter’s ears, and inside King’s neckerchief (since he had no exterior ears) connect to the shadow world, allowing the three of them to hear Skara’s song. Lyra was even able to use her boost in motivation and energy to extend the range to Camila and Samael, surprising all of her fellow CATTs.

“Singing? Whoa, my body feels like it’s brimming with power!” Hunter gasped even as he dodged the never-ending rain of lightning. His body felt incredibly light, and since Flapjack was effected too thanks to his link with Hunter, the little Palisman was boosted too and lost the fatigue he’d started to build up from the constant dodging.

“It’s the Ballad of Motivation! It must be Skara! She’s giving us a nice buff!” Luz beamed, her aura of magic growing stronger.

King was in the same state, his white aura becoming like potent white flames in appearance; “Dodging is so much easier now! Let’s finally counterattack!”

At that moment, Lyra suddenly jumped out of Luz’s shadow and produced a huge wave of darkness with a cry of “Dark Void!”. The wave of darkness, now much stronger thanks to Lyra’s boosted strength, was just barely able to absorb the lightning bolts for a few moments, giving Lyra a chance to quickly talk to Luz.

“You and King prepare an attack to take Lars out! Hunter and I will bust down the barrier!” Lyra ordered.

“You got it!” Luz nodded before using the link with King to mentally say; “King, land on my shoulder! I’ve got the perfect combo to take Lars down!”

King did so and he and Luz began planning their attack, while Lyra’s Dark Void finally broke and the lightning began raining down on them again. Thankfully Lyra and Hunter were prepared, falling back into the same teamwork that had once made them so formidable as Belos’ top enforcers. Sending Shade to possess her deck of tarot cards, Lyra made the cards begin flying around her, then grabbed one and imbued it with magic, causing it to appear to ignite with black flames that sparkled with white specks of light, looking like a starry night sky. Lyra then tossed the card towards Lars.

“Lars, you’re the first one to taste my new Angelic Oracle technique! The Divine Tarot!” Lyra declared, before yelling: “Minor Arcana: 10 of Rods!”

The card Lyra flung exploded into ten black balls of night flame, each of which functioned like a shadow through which Lyra could use her conjuring magic to conjure up ten metal spears. The spears pulsed with magic, and Lars suddenly found all of their lightning magic being directed towards the spears and not their intended target, as if the spears were literal lightning rods. Hunter grinned, pleased to see his sister finally using her new techniques that she’d developed after Camila had helped her learn Angelic Divination Magic.

Lyra’s Divine Tarot revolved around imbuing her special tarot cards (which she conjured from raw magic with the help of Shade) with her natural Oracle Magic and the Divination Magic gathered from drawing on the power of Celestial Bodies. This allowed Lyra to not only enchant each card with a unique spell or effect, but also allowed Shade to possess them like an Oracle Stone or Crystal Ball, and using a spirit’s natural foresight to predict the best move for the situation. It was magically intensive so the foresight couldn’t be used constantly, and with the ever-changing nature of the future, the things Shade foresaw didn’t always work out, but it did still give Lyra a massive advantage! The cards were also split into two roles; the Minor and Major Arcanas. the Minor Arcana were conjuring spells; Swords would summon attack spells (cast and sealed in the cards by the Hexsquad), Rods would summon weapons like Lyra and Hunter’s normal conjuring magic, Pentacles were essentially glyph notes with combos devised by King, and Cups were potions brewed by Luz, Camila, or Boscha and similarly stored away. The Major Arcanas were special, with each one containing a different combination of enchantments and magic that could imbue Shade with a unique form upon channelling it into him, similar to how Lyra’s raw magic turned Shade into a shadowy replica of Hunter himself.

Up in their barrier, Lars found themselves forced into their monotone/neutral expression as none of their attacks would hit where they wanted them to, instead being drawn to the spears no matter what. Hunter then grinned and used Beast Keeping Magic to give himself a bestial blessing, opting to give himself the wings of a Griffin so he could more easily use Flapjack AND fly at the same time. He then began conjuring a sword for himself and imbuing it with electricity, specifically coating the blade with a positive charge. Having been struck by a lightning bolt from Lars earlier, Hunter knew just how strong he needed to make the positive charge, so when he swung the blade at the lightning barrier (which had a negative charge), the two charges cancelled each other out, creating a very brief gap in the barrier. Lars’ eyes widened while Hunter grinned.

“Lyra! I know what to do! Remember how we took down the Bake-Kujira that was causing trouble on the coast of the right hip 18 months ago? Well we’re gonna do that times two!” Hunter yelled.

Lyra nodded, remembering it very well! It was hard to forget fighting a giant haunted whale skeleton that withered greenery and caused a person to begin starving just from being exposed to its magic! Thankfully she and Hunter had defeated it, and now that battle was going to have an unexpected benefit here!

Drawing three cards from her deck, Lyra tossed out the first one immediately: “Minor Arcana: Queen of Swords!”

The card exploded into an absolutely enormous shadow, which promptly stretched around Lars and his barrier, turning it into a black sphere. The shadows had no substance though, meaning the lightning still passed through it effortlessly. Lyra then used the second card, which was a second 10 of Rods, summoning even more spears to be used as lightning rods. However Lyra then released Shade from her Tarot Deck and willed him to grab one of the spears, before she used the last of her prepared Tarot Cards on him.

“Major Arcana: The Strength!”

The card fused into Shade’s body and caused shadows and yellow lightning to pulse out from inside him, causing the Oracle Spirit to be imbued with the magic stored in the card and slowly take on a new spectral form. This new form was similar to the Hunter-like form Shade took when Lyra channelled her magic into him directly, only this version appeared a bit older (resembling a mix of Hunter and Michael) and was clad in a shadowy version of the Platinum Paladin armour (sans the mask).

Through their link, Lyra gave Shade his orders, and he promptly used the lightning magic imbued into him to apply a positive charge to his spear just as Hunter had done with his sword. She then sent both Shade and Hunter into the shadows and opened passages for them inside the sphere of shadows. From there, both Shade and Hunter unleashed a flurry of attacks against Lars’ lightning orb barrier, piercing through the negative charge with their own positive charge and then punching through to the other side, where they then immediately entered the shadow and re-emerged from a different spot inside the orb. They did this over and over, flashing through the orb with their lightning enhanced blades, cancelling out the lightning barrier so much and so quickly that Lars had to constantly work to repair it. Eventually, they managed to do enough damage to the barrier to destabilise it completely, causing it to fluctuate and for large gaps to appear where Lars had yet to be able to fully take back control.

Emerging from the shadows outside the orb, Hunter signalled for Lyra to drop the shadow orb, which she did, exposing Lars and their fractured barrier to Luz and King, who were already prepared.

“Get ‘em, guys!” Lyra and Hunter cried

Luz grinned, having been charging up a huge petrifying light beam on the end of her staff for the entire time Lyra and Hunter were performing their own combo. Meanwhile, King was on her shoulder with a petrification glyph combo on his snout, ready for him to combine it with his roar. The combo had been altered from Belos’ version, so it was painless and rendered the victim unconscious, but it was still one King wanted to use sparingly. Now that the two had a gap in the barrier to exploit, they both fired their petrifying attacks straight at Lars, Luz’s blast coming out as a huge bronze beam as she cried; “Gorgon Ray!”, while King’s glyph combo and roar resulted in a second bronze beam that combined with Luz’s.

The huge attack blasted into the barrier, being partially blocked as the shifting gaps moved slightly, but not enough to stop the beam completely. The improved Gorgon Ray (which Luz decided to think of as the Royal Gorgon Ray, due to King’s contribution) hit Lars in the middle of their left wing, causing it to begin rapidly turning to stone and losing the purple lightning that had replaced their wing membrane. With one wing rapidly turning to stone, Lars could no longer maintain their barrier, or even flight, causing the barrier and constant stream of lightning to finally disappear as Lars plummeted to the ground below. Since Luz knew Lars’ original witch body would be fine, she didn’t bother trying to stop the heavy impact, and the majority of the petrified wing shattered as the Dragon hit the ground. Thankfully for Lars, since the wing was turned to stone, they didn’t feel a single thing from it shattering, but unfortunately the spell was still slowly spreading to Lars’ shoulder.

“You’ll be fully petrified in seconds!” King yelled.

Lars, using their remaining wing to force themselves onto their feet, shook their head; “You’ve got a formidable team and a great deal of power, Luz. But I am afraid you have not won yet.”

With that, Lars turned their entire body into lighting and flashed to the side, before reconstituting themselves, leaving behind the petrified parts of their body. Since they’d turned themselves into lightning, they reformed themselves completely, restoring their wing (albeit at the cost of shrinking a bit). The sight of Lars’ restored wing demoralised King and the Hexsquad a bit, but Luz tried to keep morale up by yelling to her friends.

“Don’t worry guys! We weakened them a little, so we can keep doing it more and more until they lose their Dragon form entirely! And if we get a direct hit on their head with that spell, we’ll win! Don’t let this get you down!”

King, Hunter, and Lyra took those words to heart and moved to attack again, with Hunter flashing towards Lars with the intent of hitting them with a conjured spear, while King used a Monster Glyph Combo to summon a giant Titan Skull to bite down on Lars’ head. He actually succeeded, resulting in Lars’ head being dragged down in such a way that Hunter was able to slash them across the back of the neck, while Lyra and Luz both dove into the shadows and emerged within the skull King had conjured, each preparing a powerful spell with their staves. However, before they could actually use the spells, Lars suddenly released an echoing roar.

In a flash, the storm outside Rani’s Eden sent a huge barrage of lightning through the barrier, which was momentarily lowered by the four Arch-Angels who still maintained the storm. The lightning smashed into Lars, and the Thunder Wyvern promptly erupted with power, immediately returning to their Divider-enhanced size whilst also releasing a massive wave of electricity. The increase in size caused Lars to easily smash their way out of King’s conjured Titan Skull, and the wave of electricity hit all four of the kids currently fighting them. The shock hit their nervous systems first, overpowering them in an instant so they surprisingly felt no pain, but unfortunately also frying their motor functions and leaving all four of them to fall to the ground. King and Lyra both ended up convulsing as the electricity coursed through their muscles, while Hunter and Luz were barely able to use their Palismen and their own Lightning Magic to counter it and regain control of their bodies, though Lars’ attack had still left them shaky and weak.

“Forgive me, Luz. We will be able to laugh over this silly affair once you are blessed by the Divider. Until them, rest…” Lars said in a monotone, before inhaling deeply and charging a breath attack. Luz’s eyes widened and she barely had a chance to throw up a simple crystal barrier before Lars unleashed a beam of intense purple lightning directly at her. The blast barely slowed as it hit her barrier and burst through it before it struck her head on, causing Luz to scream out in pain as the lightning coursed through her. It was an attack that would have killed any of the others, and would have even killed Luz if she’d been hit with it back when she’d fought Lars in Pulvoltary, but thanks to her Seraphim-level endurance, Luz was able to survive the blast and even remained standing, albeit barely.

When the smoke of the attack faded, King, Lyra, and Hunter were horrified to see Luz in serious condition; her Divine Regalia was badly damaged, and her body was covered in burns that were still lightly smoking. Thankfully Stringbean was alright, having been hidden behind Luz’s wings, though the little Snake Shifter was extremely distressed by her partner’s poor condition.

Despite the pain she was in and the damage she’d suffered, Luz still managed to raise a hand and reach into the shadow of one of her wings. “Boscha, if you’ve got some healing potions prepared, I could really use them. I want to preserve my magic as much as possible…” she said stiffly, wincing with every movement as Lars stared at her, seemingly unable to react at all due to the division but still trying to process that the girl was still standing.

Boscha responded by not only handing her a potion, but also by poking her upper body out of the shadow to begin frantically dumping potions on Luz’s wounds. “You’re freaking lucky that I only need to use a little Sonic Alchemy to make these go from oral only to topical!” Boscha yelled, splashing glowing blue healing potions on the worst of the wounds while Skara continued to sing and play her heart out, fearing that ending the Ballad would rob Luz of the extra strength that might well be the only thing keeping her standing.

“Thanks, Boscha.” Luz smiled tiredly before downing the potion she was given. She sighed with relief as the pain left her and her burns began to heal, allowing her to focus her magic and cause her Divine Regalia to repair itself on its own. Holy Raiments and Divine Regalias were basically extensions of the Angels that wore them (hence why they were all unique), so as Luz pulled herself together, so too did her regalia. Once she was back and fighting fit, Luz stretched and then gave Stringbean a little scratch behind the eats, before turning her back into a staff and twirling her.

“Alright, no more playing around. I wanted to go easy, since you’re my friend Lars, but I guess I was being dumb thinking I could hold back against a Supreme Dragon… especially a boosted one. So…” Luz flared her magic and the aura she gave off was monstrous, making her friends gape. Luz had yet to fight full throttle as a Seraphim; Belos had run away, the Abomatons had been no challenge, and Raguel had been fighting her in the middle of a populated town with people only a few dozen feet beneath them… but now? Now Luz was going to really see how far her Seraphim powers could stretch! But she couldn’t afford to be dumb.

Using the link with King, Luz thought; “King, I’m going to be honest; I can beat Lars if they’re at normal strength, but not with both the Divider’s Blessing AND the storm powering them up. We need to make them exhaust the blessing, which I can handle, AND stop the storm. That means taking out the four Arch-Angels controlling it.”

King subtly looked in the direction of the four playgrounds, where the Arch-Angels still flew. They seemed to be locked in place by their spell, each of them still acting as the base of a pillar of yellow light. They were also the ones enabling lightning to pass through the barrier that protects Rani’s Eden, so even if beating them didn’t stop the storm for some reason, the lightning would at least be prevented from reaching Lars!

“Leave the Arch-Angels to me and the Hexsquad! We’ll take ‘em out!” King thought back.

“Don’t try to fight them one-on-one; Arch-Angels are still just a little beyond the Hexsquad’s level.” Luz warned. In the four months of time in the Human Realm, the Hexsquad had trained fiercely until they were all just below the level of Arch-Angel, making them individually a little weaker than Belos. The eight of them together were strong enough to crush any Arch-Angel and potentially even give a single Seraphim a run for their money, so if they teamed up against the Arch-Angels and used some sneaky tactics, they could easily win.

“I’ll tell the others! Think you can hold Lars back for a couple of minutes?” King asked.

Luz grinned and nodded, then launched herself directly at Lars. The Thunder Wyvern roared at her, firing another breath attack, but this time Luz countered by shooting back her own beam of golden light by using Stringbean. The beams collided and held the two in a stalemate, but then Luz spread her wings and fired a beam of silver light from each of them, sending them spiralling around Lars’ breath attack until it struck the Thunder Wyvern hard in the face. The blasts were full power and actually did considerable damage to Lars’ face, breaking scales, leaving burns, and even breaking off one of their horns and cracking a few fangs. As the dragon recoiled in pain, their breath attack sputtered out and Luz’s golden bean powered through and struck Lars hard enough to send them crashing into Rani’s Throne, dealing some superficial damage to its exterior. Lars quickly removed themselves from the front of the building and landed on the ground in front of it, before roaring up to summon more lightning to heal themselves. The lightning did indeed come down and repair the damage to their body, but when Lars looked back towards Luz, they found that she’d used their roar as an opening to get directly beneath their body.

“Here’s a trick I’ve been dying to try, with a little help from my little bro!” Luz grinned, drawing a massive spell circle around her with Stringbean, then snapping her fingers to make a glyph combo appear inside it. This was the Monster Glyph Combo, only now it incorporated the light glyph more heavily. When the spell activated, it conjured a spectral version of the upper body of Orion (scaled down to roughly the same size as Lars), and appeared to be made entirely of different colours of light, like a combination of Luz’s solid light constructs and a hologram.

“Have a taste of Orion Platinum!” Luz yelled, causing the conjured Orion to perform a distinct pose, before it began pummelling Lars’ underside, throwing rapid fire punches directly up into their jaw and belly. Each punch was heavy enough for Lars to feel it like any person would feel a normal punch, even with their scales to protect them, leaving Lars bruised beneath their scales and very disoriented.

As Luz kept pumping magic into her conjured Orion, she thought to King; “Go now! This is a magic sink and if I have to keep it up for more than a few minutes, I’m not gonna have enough for the rest of the fight!”

King didn’t bother to reply and instead flew straight at Lyra and Hunter, who were watching Luz with dumbfounded looks and trying to figure out when/if they should jump in and help. King landed on their shoulders and used his aura of linking magic to tell them the plan. Both immediately nodded and Lyra took them all into the shadows where they could recruit Boscha to their aid (leaving Skara to keep performing her song to power them all up and keep Luz fighting at her hardest). Lyra also recalled Shade, who had returned to normal now as the power of her Major Arcana: The Strength had worn off (sadly her Major Arcanas only lasted a couple of minutes).

Mindful of their need to make this quick, they coordinated to take out two Arch-Angels at a time; Hunter and Lyra would ambush one, and King and Boscha would ambush the other, then repeat the process with the remaining two. They then split up, with Lyra warping her and Hunter out of one of the Arch-Angel’s shadows while King used a darkness glyph to make him and Boscha jump out of another Arch-Angel’s shadow.

Hunter and Lyra defeated theirs easily; he was unprepared and distracted with the storm spell, so it was easy for Lyra to wrap tendrils of darkness around his wings, eyes, and mouth, while Hunter then jabbed him in the side of the neck with Flapjack and delivered a powerful electric shock, zapping him into unconsciousness. King and Boscha’s was only slightly harder, since King’s lack of mastery with shadow travel meant he’d spat himself and Boscha out in front of their target, allowing him to put his guard up… for all of 5 seconds.

“Amity’s not the only one with some custom abominations! Eat this; Poison Jab!” Boscha grinned, coating her fist in a very dark purple abomination goo, which was toxic to the touch, and punching the Arch-Angel in the face. His skin immediately turned purple where the blow had landed and he began to look very sick, effected by Boscha’s special poison abomination goo. Thankfully the poison was mild and would just make them feel sick for a while or until an antidote (like the one Boscha had drunk already) was used. Unable to properly defend themselves now that they’d been poisoned, the Arch-Angel was swiftly knocked out by King using a plant and fire glyph combo to summon and burn some sleeping nettles, putting the poor Arch-Angel to sleep.

Lyra and Hunter saw the second beam of light disappear, then sank into the shadows and then dragged King and Boscha down too, before they repeated the process on the last two Arch-Angels. They were a little more on guard after seeing the lights of their fellows going out, but it didn’t matter in the end; King managed to spit himself and Boscha out behind their second target, letting Boscha stuff a bottle of Sleeping Nettle Wine into their mouth with ease, while Hunter used a second Bestial Blessing to grow an anaconda tail that wrapped tightly around the final Arch-Angel’s throat and choked them into unconsciousness without even needing to fully leave the shadows.

With all four Arch-Angels ambushed and knocked out, the pillars of light they’d been creating vanished, and the storm above immediately began to calm, the last of its lightning striking impotently against the barrier of Rani’s Eden, no longer able to pass through without the Arch-Angels. Once the lightning was expended, the clouds began to lighten to a dull grey and slowly disperse in the wind, once again revealing the distorted sky.

King and the others cheered at their success, and Boscha was sent back into the shadows to keep brewing potions as the other three flew back towards Luz and Lars. They arrived just in time to see Lars finally escape Luz’s “Orion Platinum” by transforming their body into lightning and zapping towards the approaching teens, having noticed them returning after stopping the storm. King had just enough time to roar at them, using his new beam-variant to diminish the lightning form of Lars a little, which slowed them down just enough for Lyra to throw out another Minor Arcana: 10 of Rods, summoning some spears that drew the lightning towards them instead of the teens. Lars forced themselves back into their flesh form after their lightning form was essentially caged by the lightning rods, but due to their large size and inability to move away from the spears before reforming, they ended up impaled by the spears. The spears were like long, thick needles to Lars’ gargantuan body, but since they’d formed their body around them, they had ended up fairly deep inside them, making Lars roar with pain.

“This is a lot more brutal than I’d normally go for, but when fighting Supreme Dragons powered up by God-Angels, we can’t afford to hold back any more!” Hunter declared, before giving himself a third Bestial Blessing, this time giving himself the throat of a Giant Salamander. From the outside, it looked like his neck had become a little thicker and it and his lower jaw had been covered in reddish-orange amphibian skin. However the real effect of this Bestial Blessing couldn’t be seen until Hunter took a deep breath and roared like a dragon, spewing flames over the ends of the spears embedded in Lars’ flesh. The metal spears didn’t melt, but they did begin to glow red hot, burning Lars from the inside. The Dragon roared in rage and pain, then began desperately flying away from the Hexsquad, only for Luz to use her Orion Platinum to throw her like a javelin directly at Lars. She turned Stringbean into a Bee, who then transformed into a giant bee-themed lance that Luz imbued with Light Magic, turning the pair of them into an actual light javelin that speared right through Lars’ left wing and side, before bursting out the other side.

Lars roared in agony and promptly entered their lightning form again so they could reform themselves and repair the damage to their body. This had the unexpected side-effect of letting them escape the spears too, as heated metal began to lose some conductivity, which was just enough for Lars to escape the lightning rod-like effect. The spears clattered to the ground and Lars reformed, now fully healed but a good bit smaller. They were now roughly the same size they’d been when battling Luz in Pulvoltary, which meant the Hexsquad had successfully weakened them enough to expend the Divider’s Blessing!

“Good job, guys! Let’s finish him off in one go!” Luz yelled, before sending some orders to Skara and Boscha in the shadows. When they each gave their affirmative, Luz told King her plan through the mind-link, and he in turn told Hunter and Lyra since they were still close enough to be easily touched.

Once the plan was spread, the team burst into action. The first thing Luz did was dismiss her conjured Orion; it had served its purpose and getting rid of it allowed Luz to reabsorb some of the magic she’d used on it. Luz instead combined the ice and earth glyphs to conjure huge metal shackles from the ground to bind Lars’ legs, tail, and wings, while Hunter similarly conjured smaller chains of his own to wrap around Lars’ neck and force their head down. The metal stopped Lars from entering their lightning form, and left him unable to do more than fire lightning breath attacks, with the kids easily avoided by simply standing to the side of the Thunder Wyvern. Lyra then opened shadowy portals over Lars’ ears (or where the ears should be at least), allowing Skara to begin playing the Lullaby of Lethargy to begin lulling Lars to sleep. Knowing what the teens were planning, Lars began to roar extremely loudly, blocking out the sound of the song… though this was something Luz had expected.

As a student of the bard track, Luz knew that if one couldn’t escape the range of a Bardic Song then the number one way to stop it was to drown it out, and what better way for a bound dragon to do that than to roar?

As Lars continued to roar, Lyra opened a third shadow portal directly in Lars’ throat, allowing Boscha to begin tossing every sleeping potion and sleeping nettle she had through it and down the Wyvern’s gullet, before shooting a small fireball at the nettles to make them burn and begin producing smoke that was immediately inhaled. Lars stopped their roaring as the smoke and potions began to effect them, causing their eyes to droop and their roar to become a yawn. Once the roaring stopped, Skara’s song began to effect Lars too, and the combination of potions and the lullaby soon became too much for the them to resist. Unable to escape or muster the strength to break free of the heavy conjured chains, Lars the Thunder Wyvern finally succumbed fully to sleep, snoring softly as they lay on the grass.

The Hexsquad backed off a bit and watched them closely, then sighed with relief when they saw the Dragon truly was in a deep slumber.

“Good job, everyone.” Luz complimented. “We’ll keep the chains on them just in case they wake up. Now take a moment to catch your breath, because we’ve still got Mom to deal with.”

King, Hunter, and Lyra all nodded, with King looking especially anxious. Lars had been manageable once Luz stopped holding back against the formidable foe, but Eda was another story! If Luz went full force against her, there was a real chance of killing her, and with Eda’s Harpy Mode and Anti-Magic abilities, it wasn’t going to be an easy feat to deal with her! King looked off to the south, where he’d seen his Mom fighting earlier whilst he was helping deal with the Arch-Angels.

“Here’s hoping Samael and Tia Cammie have softened her up for us!”

________________________________________________________________________________

[Meanwhile]

Things with Samael and Camila were definitely not going as well as they should be, especially with a Seraphim-level Angel fighting on their side. The Divided Eda was still standing strong, while Samael was starting to get winded and Camila was almost totally exhausted, her stamina simply not able to keep up with Eda’s or Samael’s. They had tried just about everything they could think of to defeat Eda; restraints, spells, the few potions Camila kept on her… heck, they’d even tried knocking her out with physical attacks, but nothing had a lasting effect! If they damaged Eda with a spell, she’d cast a healing spell on herself or chug a potion. If they cast some form of debilitating effect on her, then she’d counter with her Anti-Magic and render the whole thing null and void, wasting their magic. The same problem came if they tried to use restraints, as the only kind they had available were magical ones and they were rapidly decayed by Eda’s Anti-Magic. Even just touching her with physical attacks were dangerous because of that aura, and Eda’s Harpy Form had remarkable durability! And to make matters worse, while Eda was slowing sapping away their magic with every glancing blow or touch, she was pulling out magic restoring Bile Boosters to replenish her own, while using Ambrosia made from Angelic Blood to massively boost the power of her magic and deal some hefty damage back to Camila and Samael. The former was able to heal herself, and the latter still had incredible regenerative abilities, but both methods consumed a lot of magic.

The closest thing they’d had to success had been psychological tactics, with Camila imploring Eda to think about how much she was hurting her children by fighting alongside their enemies. This would cause Eda to have another of her strange “malfunctions”, which left openings for Samael to try and restrain or knock her out again, with no real success.

After yet another attempt to knock Eda out with a blow to the head (delivered by a bolt of sparkly lightning) failed, Samael stamped his foot on the ground.

“I don’t like this! Fighting King’s Mom is no fun, and nothing we do is working!” he complained, getting cranky due to tiredness and frustration.

Eda immediately attacked by conjuring a swarm of Hooty Golems from the ground, each one about the same size as the real Hooty, and sent them surging towards the boy, hooting ominously. Camila jumped in and used her bat and Chancla to begin smashing the golems (thankfully only made of mud) while Samael caught his breath.

“Maybe we should try hitting a little harder? Hurting her is bad, but at least we can heal her if we do a little too much damage!” Camila suggested, before having to fly up to avoid Eda’s talons as the other woman lunged at her.

“We’re already hitting really hard!” Samael exclaimed, conjuring some ribbons to grab Eda’s wrists and yank her towards him, where he immediately turned her into a puppet again. Naturally her Anti-Magic turned her back to normal and rotted the ribbons away in an instant. However it bought Camila a moment to smack Eda in the head with her bat. The woman’s Harpy durability and massive hair helped cushion the blow, resulting in Camila only knocking the woman’s head off. This was the fifth time she’d done that since the fight began, and Owlbert (whom Eda wasn’t even using as a staff any more) immediately swooped down to catch Eda’s head before it hit the ground and then stuff it back onto the woman’s neck. With a twist, Eda’s head was back on straight and she was able to reach into her hair and pull out a potion, which she gulped down to restore her magic once again.

“You see!? Every time we hit her, that happens!” Samael cried in frustration, summoning one of his star minions to chase Owlbert around and keep the Palisman distracted for a bit. “If only I had my full powers! I’d be able to knock her out super easy!”

Camila shared his frustration; she was really not doing too hot! “I can’t fight much longer…” she muttered, “Our only hope is to outlast her restorative potions! Her magic has to come from a blessing, since she hasn’t got her own natural magic any more, and I bet that the Divider or whoever else gave the blessing is also the one who gave her all those potions! If we can outlast those potions, then we’ll win! I think…”

Samael didn’t look so sure, as he wasn’t used to fighting with such diminished powers and feared he’d run out of power before Eda ran out of potions! Heck, he wasn’t used to fighting at all, which was why he wasn’t doing better despite his strength still being so impressive.

That was the moment that the storm up above suddenly dissipated, making Eda, Camila, and Samael all look up in surprise, though Samael tried to use the opportunity to knock Eda’s head off again now that Owlbert was busy. He succeeded, conjuring his squeaky hammer again to knock her block off, but Eda just clicked her tongue and summoned Owlbert directly to her head then having him swoop back towards her body. Camila and Samael tried to intercept, but Owlbert threw Eda’s head past them, whereupon the woman summoned Owlbert to her head again, bypassing the CATTs’ mini-blockade and allowing her to reattach her head. The instant it was reattached, Eda blasted Samael’s mini-Star Minion to smithereens and then darted towards the Summer Playground to check on the Arch-Angel there, with Camila taking a moment to give the last of her magic (minus what she needed to live) to Samael as a blessing, knowing she didn’t have enough to be useful at this point.

That blessing was just the pick-me-up Samael needed and he rushed after Eda, who stopped atop the mini-mountain that served as the source of the waterfall in the Summer Playground. The Arch-Angel there had been left unconscious and bound in chains, but otherwise healthy.

“Luz and King must have realised how to stop Lars.” Eda muttered in a monotone, her hands twitching as they glitched.

Samael then reached her and tied her up with as many conjured ribbons as possible while also turning her into a puppet once again. He had no better plans now that everything else had failed, so he was just hoping to make her burn through her potions like Camila suggested. As expected, Eda’s Anti-Magic promptly freed her and she prepared to shoot a spell at the Collector, only for them both to be suddenly startled by loud roaring to the north, which they both recognised as Lars. The roaring stopped soon after, and Samael looked over to the others’ battle, before pulling his cowl down over his eyes so he could use his clairvoyance spell to see what was happening up close. He beamed as he saw Luz and King victorious, along with their friends.

“Tia Cammie! The others did it! They beat Lars!” he cheered.

Camila smiled, but then gasped; “Samael, watch out!”

The boy spun around just in time to be blasted with a huge burst of Anti-Magic, which stung horribly as he fell into the lake, his wings not working while cursed with the Anti-Magic. Thankfully the effect faded fast when not in direct contact with Eda or her aura, but the magic that was decayed in the brief moment the Anti-Magic had been effecting him didn’t return. Samael couldn’t swim either, so he struggled to fly out of the lake with his wings, only for Eda to lunge at him the instant he was out of the lake. She grabbed the back of his head and smacked him into the ground beside the lake, then began flooding him with her aura, leaving him wincing in pain and totally helpless. Without his magic, Samael was really just a little boy and couldn’t hope to resist the strength of the Harpy Witch. Camila flew at Eda with the intent of hitting her with her bat to knock her off Samael, but suddenly found herself smacked in the back of the head by Owlbert, dazing her just before she reached Eda. The Harpy woman then stood, keeping a foot on Samael as she grabbed the dazed Camila by the throat and hoisted her into the air.

“I don’t want to hurt you, Camila. But I have no choice; you must both be dealt with immediately. You will be rendered unconscious and then receive the blessing of the Divider.” Eda said in a monotone. Lars’ defeat had urged her to stop holding back, just as the Dragon’s power had forced Luz to do the same.

Camila gasped for air, black spots appearing in her vision as she weakly kicked at Eda with what little strength she had left. She didn’t even have enough magic to cast a spell at Eda, not that it would work now that her Anti-Magic Aura was slowly starting to spread over Camila, stinging her skin.

For a moment, Camila feared she really had lost and was terrified of what this would mean for Luz and the others, but thankfully she’d never have to find out, as there was a sudden flash of yellow lightning before Luz was suddenly right in front of her, punching Eda hard in the face. The blow wasn’t hard enough to knock Eda’s head off, but it did spin her head around and make her dizzy, causing her grip to slacken. That was all Luz needed to pry her Mom’s hand from her Mami’s neck, before delivering a fierce kick to Eda’s gut, knocking the woman into the lake and freeing Samael.

“Sorry Mom! I’ll make it up to you when you’re normal again!” Luz yelled as she helped settle her Mami back on her feet.

At the same moment, King and Hunter caught up using a warp glyph combo and the flash spell, while Lyra appeared from the shadows. King immediately helped a sniffling Samael back onto his feet.

“I’m sorry King! I tried to beat her but nothing magical works!” he whimpered, feeling like he’d let down his friend.

King just hugged him in response; “It’s okay now, Samael. You and Tia Cammie did a good job and held Mom off! It would have been a nightmare to fight her and Lars at the same time.”

Samael sniffled again, but looked a little happier after hearing that. At the same time, Luz was giving her Mami a small blessing, giving her just enough magic to be able to defend herself in an emergency.

“There you go, Mami. Another few hundred of these and I’ll have paid back all the blessings you gave me through the years.” Luz joked with a smile.

Camila huffed and pinched Luz’s cheek endearingly; “It’s both heart-warming and humbling to see my daughter surpass me by so much.” she said, before frowning; “I’m sorry I couldn’t do more. Eda’s Anti-Magic is just too powerful! Even if it weakens and damages her, she can just chug a potion or cast a healing spell to repair the damage.”

Luz smiled; “Don’t worry Mami, I was always going to have to fight Mom. Take a breather with the others; leave this to King and me.”

With that, she let go of her Mami and approached the lake, where Eda had just emerged from the water. She casting healing spells on her cheek and abdomen with one hand while drinking a Bile Booster with the other to restore her to prime condition. She was also just staring at Luz, the gold ring around her irises flashing as her limbs twitched unnaturally, showing more signs of malfunctioning.

“King, I think something is wrong with Mom’s Division. She’s definitely not acting like she should.” she thought.

King nodded and thought back; “Do you think it’s the power of love or something?”

Luz grinned; “As much as I’d love that to be the answer, I don’t think so. Alador didn’t show signs of this when fighting Amity, and I know he loves her as much as Mom loves us. I think it might be something else…”

She didn’t get a chance to fully explain her theory to King before Eda suddenly attacked. She looked to be flying at Luz with her talons bared, but as Luz raised a barrier to block it, Eda suddenly darted around her and went for Hunter and Lyra instead, who were now guarding Camila. Lyra barely defended against the attack by having Shade parry it with the spear he still carried from earlier. Hunter then responded to the attack on his sister by using his still active bestial blessings to grab Eda in is anaconda tail. This proved to be a mistake though, as her Anti-Magic Aura immediately infected the tail and caused Hunter to yelp in pain as the infected parts decayed from his body, forcing him to dismiss the rest of the tail too before the infection spread. Since his Bestial Blessings were just constructs made from Flapjack’s magic, they were extremely vulnerable to Eda’s powers.

Eda then grabbed Shade’s spear and yanked it from his hand before decaying it into nothingness (since it too was conjured from magic), then tried to infect Shade himself. Lyra recalled the spirit into her deck of cards just in case he could be permanently damaged by Eda’s Anti-Magic aura, then used Waffles to swerve around Eda as she threw out another tarot card.

“Minor Arcana: 5 of Pentacles!” she yelled as the card slapped against Eda’s hand. The card was supposed to function like a petrification glyph combo, but since Eda’s aura was already active, it decayed immediately without activating.

Eda spun around to attack Lyra again, only this time Lyra was dragged into the shadows by Luz, who then emerged from it to face Eda instead. The spell Eda had been preparing fizzled out as her eyes widened, and instead of pressing the attack, she backed off in a panic. Luz blinked in surprise, especially when Eda fled several feet away from her and began to twitch and shake even more.

“Mom?” Luz asked, looking concerned.

“I won’t fight you. I refuse to fight you.” Eda replied in a strained monotone.

Luz blinked, but then Eda suddenly lunged at Hunter, ignoring her adoptive daughter altogether. Hunter prepared to try and zap her with lightning, but stopped when King yelled; “Let me and Luz handle her!” before using a warp glyph to appear between Hunter and Eda. Once again, Eda backed off completely, and this time her blank expression fully became one of distress and fear.

“Please stop. I don’t want to fight you King. I can’t let you get hurt again. I can’t be the one to hurt Luz again!” Eda screamed, before gripping her head as she was wracked with pain, the gold ring in her eyes flashing.

Luz and King both felt their hearts ache at the sight of their Mom in pain, while also reaching for their own heads. Luz’s finger brushed the scar through her eyebrow, while King felt his once-broken horn. Both had been either directly caused by Eda, or had been from an attack meant for Eda, so both understood why their Mom was so distressed. However her distress was also proof that the Divider’s hold on her was waning for some reason; the negative emotions that had been stripped away were somehow returning!

“Mom, we don’t want to fight you either, but we can’t let you hurt the others!” Luz cried.

“You can make this stop, Mom! Just keep fighting against the Divider’s control! We know you can do it! You’re already halfway there!” King yelled, trying to encourage her.

Eda whimpered as the pain inside her head grew worse, and the others saw a black miasma rising from her. They didn’t know what it was, but it gave them all a bad feeling… however if it was leaving Eda, then that had to be a good sign, right?

“Eda, you need to come back to us! King and Luz need their Mom! They’ve both lost enough parents already!” Camila yelled.

“Come on! You’re supposed to be the Owl Lady, the ultimate rebel! You didn’t kowtow to Belos, so you can’t lose to the Divider either!” Hunter cried.

“King and Luz told me stories about you, Aunt Eda! I want to have fun adventures and stuff with you too! Please wake up!” Samael said desperately.

“I still haven’t had a chance to meet you as an ally yet, so hurry up and snap out of it! Alador and Darius were already freed; you’re not gonna be outdone by them, are you!?” Lyra added, trying to fire up Eda’s competitiveness. Many of Hunter’s stories of her from his week in the CATTs before the Day of Unity revolved around her competing with Lilith or Darius over something or another.

Despite their best efforts though, nothing they said seemed to help Eda fight off the Divider’s control and reunite herself, making Luz wonder exactly what was going on. With a scream of pain and rage, Eda lunged at Samael, the one she saw as the biggest threat, and tried to slash his throat with her claws, but King warped between them with another warp glyph. Unlike last time however, he warped too late and Eda couldn’t stop herself in time, leading to her claws raking through King’s skull, leaving four shallow scratches in the bone around his eye.

“WEH!” King cried in pain, feeling the ache in his skull from the scratches. He was lucky his skull was tough enough to block most of the damage and that his eye hadn’t been caught by Eda’s claws too.

“KING!” Luz screamed, before growling and launching herself at Eda, whom she struck with a huge gale swirling around her staff. Eda was blown backwards and bounced off the ground a few times before coming to a stop, not even trying to defend herself or recover.

Luz was briefly worried, but was more focused on King, whom she immediately scooped up into her arms. “Are you okay, Baby Brother?” Luz asked, already casting a healing spell.

King blushed a little at being called Baby Brother, but didn’t object since it made him feel good to be cared for by his big sister. “I’m okay, it just aches a little. My skull is pretty tough!”

“Yes it is.” Luz smiled, healing the scratches easily and then kissing him on the head where the scratches had been. “Just be careful, okay? We don’t need to be permanent boo boo buddies!” she said, pointing a thumb to her own scar.

Her little brother smiled and nodded, before a loud scream filled the air and caused everyone to turn back towards Eda, who was now writhing on the ground in pain. Luz and King both gasped and looked around to see if someone or something was attacking her, but there was no one around besides their fellow CATTs, who were just as surprised as they were. Luz and King then ran to Eda’s side, with Luz already casting healing spells while King got out the healing glyph notes.

“Mom! Oh Titan, are you okay!? I-I didn’t hit you that hard did I!?” Luz fretted, her spell working to fix the minor bruises Eda had gotten from being blasted back. Beside her, King was gently pressing the healing glyph note to Eda’s body, only for it to suddenly blacken and decay due to Eda’s Anti-Magic Aura. The aura flared dangerously and suddenly exploded out of Eda like black and gold flames, nearly consuming both Luz and King if not for the quick thinking of Stringbean, who transformed herself into a Quetzalcoatl Hatchling and pulled the two of them out of range, using her mouth to grab her partner while her tail grabbed King.

“That was close! Thanks for the save, Stringbean!” Luz said with relief, before looking back at her Mom, who was still screaming while her body and the ground around her were alight with the black and gold flames caused by her Anti-Magic. However the screams didn’t seem to be those of pain any more, instead being screams of primal rage, as Eda’s body began to grow and change.

King gasped; “I-Is Mom succumbing to the curse!?”

The others looked on in horror as Eda’s Harpy Form seemed to grow larger and more muscular with every passing moment. While keeping the general humanoid body shape of her Harpy Form, Eda swelled to the size of the full Owl Beast, with her mane of hair growing thicker and her arms and legs becoming much more muscular. The woman’s fangs grew larger until all four canines were poking out form her mouth, and the rest of her teeth had become razor sharp, like a sharks. Lastly, her eyes briefly lost their pupils and irises, becoming solid black, before they started to glow with a hellish red light, which also shone out from the inside of her mouth, while her large Harpy wings grew larger and actually multiplied so she had six of them, like some kind of monstrous Arch-Angel. At the same time, Owlbert (who’d been flying around, being chased by another of Samael’s conjured star minions) suddenly shook his head as the golden ring around his own irises vanished, signalling that the Division on him seemed to be undone. He immediately hooted and flew down into King’s arms, who wasn’t able to greet him properly due to his Mom’s transformation.

“M-Mom!? She’s still in Harpy Mode, but now the Owl Beast is in control!?” King exclaimed in confusion.

Luz bit her lip; “It looks like the Owl Beast is forcing Eda into a Bile Overload! She looks like a Harpy version of the Mega Owl Beast she turned into back when I first screwed up the Tear-enhanced Elixirs!”

Owlbert hooted casually, and thanks to King’s linking magic forming a connection between him and the Palisman, the young Titan could understand him.

“Owlbert says that the Owl Beast is the one interfering with the Divider’s magic!” King quickly told Luz.

His sister frowned and nodded; “I see. So when the Divider used his powers on Mom and split her from the negative aspects of herself, it didn’t effect the Owl Beast since she’s a separate being inside the same body!”

The others all gasped in understanding; “That’s why Eda has been acting so strangely! She can feel the Owl Beast’s emotions!” Hunter exclaimed.

“Yeah, and since she’s not supposed to feel negativity under the Divider’s spell, feeling those emotions from the Owl Beast is making her freak out!” Lyra added.

Owlbert hooted once again, and King translated; “Apparently Owlbert still can’t feel anything negative, so the Owl Beast hasn’t undone the division entirely. She’s just undone the Divider’s control.”

Luz opened her mouth to talk, when she suddenly heard Feral Harpy Eda screech like a banshee, before launching herself at Luz. The woman’s claws were still glowing with the power of her Anti-Magic, forcing Luz to used her Earth Magic to raise a pillar of rock out of the ground. Since the pillar was made from the real ground lifted by magic and not conjured from raw magic, Luz assumed Eda’s powers wouldn’t decay it, though her sharp claws did still carve deep grooves into its surface. Luz then used Wind Magic to whip up a powerful gale around her and her staff, then transformed Stringbean into a Ram-themed hammer and smacked Eda in the side with it, making sure that only the wind touched Eda and not Stringbean. The gale blasted into Eda’s side even as her power began to decay the magic within it, causing the woman to be sent crashing all the way to the hills and flower meadows of the Spring Playground, while Luz quickly dispelled the wind around her Palisman before it could spread Eda’s corrupting aura to her. Like a flame, losing what it was feeding on caused the aura to sputter out, but while that protected Stringbean, the same could not be said for Rani’s Eden.

“Luz, look!” Samael cried, pointing to the spot Eda had transformed in. The entire patch of ground was decaying under the effects of Anti-Magic aura, which was slowly spreading across it like a fire. Luz then looked down and noticed the pillar she’d created had indeed been infected with the aura after all, beginning it’s own slow decay.

“What!? But I didn’t conjure that rock from magic! If Eda’s aura is affecting it anyway, along with the rest of the island… oh no, did Rasiel conjure this entire place from raw magic!?” Luz exclaimed, beginning to panic.

Camila turned to Samael; “Is that even possible? When you made your castle in the Divine Realm, you made it out of another building. Could you have made it from scratch?”

Samael nodded grimly; “Yeah, I could have made it from scratch but it’d take me hours and hours. Maybe even days! That was way too long and I was eager to start playing, so I just borrowed that Angel building and remade it.”

Lyra and Hunter exchanged panicked looks; “But doesn’t that mean that the aura will spread to the entire island!? It’ll decay the whole place!” Lyra cried.

“If this was just the enemy base, it’d be a major win for us, but those children live here too! There are families! We can’t leave them all homeless! Not to mention there’s no guarantee we’ll get them all off the island before the magic keeping it in the air stops working!” Hunter added.

At that moment, Eda began roaring in the distance and started flying for the nearest living thing to attack in her rampage. Unfortunately, this was not any of the CATTs, but rather the residents of Orion’s Rise, where the Angels and Civilians of the Island had taken refuge. The civilians and children, as well as the lion’s share of Wings of Rani members, were hiding inside the massive building, but there there were several High Angels flying around the outside to guard it, and they were immediately attacked by Feral Harpy Eda. They threw up barriers to protect themselves from her sudden assault, but the barriers began to decay as the Anti-Magic aura infected them, making the High Angels begin to panic and fire light blasts at Eda. Not a single one managed to touch her however, as they were immediately dispelled by her aura.

“Oh no! We need to help them! If Eda’s aura spreads to their bodies directly, they could die!” Luz cried, suddenly using the flash spell to zip towards them. Hunter followed suit, as did King with his Warp Glyph, leaving Lyra to take Camila and Samael into the shadows so they could follow too.

Luz arrived just in time to stop Feral Eda from raking her claws across one of the High Angel’s faces. She did this by using her ice and earth glyphs to conjure a metal version of Stringbean’s staff, then batting the woman’s hand down as she went for the slash. The staff began to decay due to its magic nature, but so long as Luz dropped it before the black and gold flames reached her, then it was fine. At the same moment, Hunter smashed into Eda’s back, having conjured a metal kite shield with which to slam into her. The shield began to decay, so Hunter removed it from his arm and threw it like a Frisbee right into Eda’s face, causing her to yelp as it cracked against her cheek, leaving a nasty bruise. Feral Eda immediately refocused onto Hunter, who began taunting her, zipping back and forth at the last second before being struck, keeping Eda’s attention on him but not letting her touch him.

Lyra then emerged from Hunter’s shadow with Camila and Samael, before trying to use her shadows to bind Eda. Unfortunately the moment the black tendrils came in contact with Eda’s aura, Lyra’s magic was wiped away and the shadows returned to normal, mundane ones. This made Eda focus on Lyra instead though, giving King a chance to fly up behind her and roar with all his mind. His sonic roar blasted Eda down into the ground, seemingly working as normal. It appeared the shockwave created by the roar couldn’t be decayed! At least not enough to stop it from hitting Eda first. Seeing this, Luz shot Eda with a powerful light blast, and unlike the High Angels, her blast actually penetrated Eda’s aura enough to strike her and knock her onto her back.

“It looks like we can still use magic on her if the spell is potent enough to hit her before being totally decayed. We’ll need to overpower our spells a little.” Luz realised.

“And with her not in her right mind, she can’t use her stock of healing potions! We can wear down her endurance bit by bit!” King said.

Owlbert, who had been warped alongside King, hooted and transformed himself into staff mode, then shrank down enough to be wielded properly by King. Seeing this made King grin and hold the now shrunken staff aloft; “So this is what a Palisman Staff feels like! I need to get one of these for myself! Come on Owlbert, we’re saving Mom!”

Harpy Eda snarled as she took flight again, and Camila frowned as she saw that the black and gold flames of her aura had ignited the ground and was beginning to spread. The aura was still spreading to the south, and over in the Spring Playground that Eda had been knocked into earlier… if this kept up, more and more of Rani’s Eden would be decayed!

But then Camila looked closer at Eda herself as she began chasing around King… the talons on her feet looked a little shorter and ragged, like they’d been chewed on… and the end of Eda’s long mane of hair was starting to turn black and rot away.

“Oh no…! Luz, Eda’s Anti-Magic is decaying her too! The effect is slower, but it’s still decaying her!”

Everyone’s eyes immediately widened and began searching Eda for signs of decay, even as King darted around her, using a combination of roars and warp glyphs to avoid her attacks and keep her from the others. They all saw the damage to Eda’s hair and talons, and saw that the ones on her hands were beginning to decay too!

“This is bad! We need to stop her aura somehow!” King cried, using Owlbert to draw a spell circle, then roaring into it to produce an even more powerful Titan Roar. This roar was delivered from beneath Eda, so it send her flying up high. She would have crashed into the barrier and begun decaying that too, if Hunter hadn’t flashed in the way first and knocked Eda back down with a simple conjured club, which he dropped and then incinerated with a burst of fire to make sure the Anti-Magic Aura didn’t spread from it.

“Do we just deliver enough physical attacks to knock her out!? Would that stop her!?” Lyra cried.

“I don’t know! The Owl Beast was always super durable, and Eda’s Harpy Mode is probably just as tough! Maybe if we combine physical strength enhancing spells with conjured weapons?” Luz suggested, wracking her mind for solutions. If they didn’t find a way to stop Eda soon, her aura would consume and kill her, as well as the entire island!

“Do we even know if knocking her out will be enough in this case!? What if knocking her out doesn’t stop the aura!?” Hunter yelled, now zipping around again since Eda’s focus was on him.

The group paled; that was actually a good point! The aura spreading from where Eda had touched the ground didn’t seem to be directly under Eda’s control, so it was possible that knocking her out wouldn’t stop it! They needed her to consciously stop it so they could be certain, but how were they supposed to make her do that!? She was totally out of control and even forcing an Elixir down her throat (assuming they could make one in time AND get close enough to make her drink it) probably wouldn’t work if her aura would just destroy the magic in the potion! That left them with only one other option.

“We need to find and destroy the Divided Orb! If Mom becomes complete again, she’ll be able to properly sync up with the Owl Beast again and calm her down! It’ll stop their frenzy!” Luz yelled, rushing to help Hunter. She covered one of her feet with a gust of silver wind and kicked Eda with it, sending her flying away from Orion’s Rise. The Harpy woman flew halfway across the island thanks to the powerful wind, but was able to recover and begin flying back without touching anything, just as Luz hoped.

Opening a shadow portal, Luz yelled through it to Skara; “Sorry to ask this Skara, but I need your help out here. The two of us are gonna harmonise and sing a Ballad of Motivation! It should give our allies the boost they need, and I don’t think it’ll work on Mom with the aura around her.”

Skara nodded and flew out of the shadow portal on Melody, “Let’s do it! But I don’t know if I’ll be able to hold it for long after last time! My magic is getting low!”

“Don’t worry about it, just do your best! Boscha, you keep making potions! All the Healing Potions you can brew! We might need them to help fix up Mom!” Luz ordered.

Boscha grumbled, wishing she could actually fight, but still got to work. Luz then flew over to her Mami and sent her into the shadows too; “Please help Boscha, Mami. Two pairs of hands are better than one, and you can’t fight with your current level of magic.”

Camila nodded as she appeared beside Boscha; “On it! Be careful, Mija!”

Luz didn’t get a chance to give her next order before Eda was attacking again, finally closing the distance. She swung at Luz with her clawed feet, managing to clip the edge of one of Luz’s wings, immediately decaying a couple of feathers. Luz hissed and shot light beams at the infected feathers, destroying them before the aura could spread to the rest of her wings, but this made it harder to fly for a moment. Thankfully King came to her rescue and roared at Eda to knock her away again, giving Luz a chance to restore the lost feathers.

“King, Hunter, Samael; you three need to keep Eda busy! I can’t fight while harmonising with Skara! Just be sure not to touch her and not to let her touch the ground or anything else.” Luz told them.

The three boys immediately nodded, and Lyra asked; “What about me? Shouldn’t I help them too?”

Luz shook her head; “I need you to find and destroy Eda’s Divided Orb. Convince the Wings of Rani to show you where it is! If they don’t, then either Rani’s Eden is history, or one of their precious Lord Divider’s heroes will end up dead!”

Lyra gulped, then nodded and immediately headed for the closest High Angel. The High Angels guarding Orion’s Rise had all pulled back and worked together to erect a barrier around it, but they looked terrified as Eda’s feral roars and screams echoed across Rani’s Eden, and the decaying parts of the ground that Eda had touched earlier began edging closer and closer to their barrier.

The Dark Angel heard Eda’s roaring get louder as she once again began chasing around Hunter, making her briefly turn back and watch as King, Hunter, and Samael began drawing her attention to each other like a game of Keep Away. The instant Eda began focusing on one of them, the one of the others would attack her and draw her attention back to them, as her feral rage made her mindlessly attack the last person to attack her. King was using his roars, while Hunter was conjuring blunt clubs and rods to throw at Eda, and Samael was conjuring mini-Star Minions and making them charge at her until they were decayed. The three initially looked to be having trouble keeping up, but then Skara began to play her Palisman Harp while she and Luz sang together, performing a duet of the Ballad of Motivation. Skara’s song alone had given them all a hearty boost in energy and vigour earlier, but now that she and Luz were harmonizing, the effect was even greater! King and the Hexsquad members each felt like they hadn’t even started fighting yet.

Seeing this and feeling the motivation herself, Lyra jumped into the shadows and emerged from them again inside the High Angels’ barrier. The Wings of Rani looked shocked, and several surrounded her.

“Halt, Rebel! Angel or not, we will not allow you to endanger the people of Rani’s Eden!” one of them yelled, pointing a sword at her.

Lyra slowly raised her hands as she turned Waffles back into her bird form. “Easy there, I’m not going to hurt any of you unless you attack me. I don’t want to go inside that building, I just want to talk to you!”

The Wings of Rani relaxed a bit, knowing their fellow Angel couldn’t easily lie, and the one who’d spoken a moment ago lowered his sword; “Is now truly the time to talk? Lady Valkyrie has gone mad! What did the Hero and Heroine do to cause the Lord Divider’s power to fail in such a horrible way!?”

“It wasn’t King or Luz. It was the Owl Beast; a separate soul inside Eda’s body. The two can feel each other’s emotions, and while Eda couldn’t get stressed by the battle, the Owl Beast could and those emotions clashed with the Divider’s magic!” Lyra hastily explained.

The Wings of Rani exchanged worried looks, with some muttering to each other.

“The Division does only effect the soul and not the body… at least the version Lord Divider has been using.”

“If this beast wasn’t divided too, it would explain the reaction.”

“How could the Lord Divider make such a mistake?”

“Perhaps he did not realise his magic would effect only the body’s primary soul? How many times would he have had the chance to use it on a person with more than one soul? Lord Raguel said he refused to use his powers on pregnant women in case the stress harmed the infant.”

The High Angel who’d spoken to Lyra looked back to her; “You seem to know about this beast. How do we pacify it?”

“Without magic? We can’t. Luz told me that only Elixirs could turn her back to normal in the past, but they won’t work with that Anti-Magic Aura. Our only chance is to return Eda to normal, so she can calm the Owl Beast. She’s in this frenzy because her body has a divided soul and an undivided soul, so if we reverse her division, we can hopefully stop her!” Lyra explained.

“Or we could just divide the Owl Beast.” another High Angel countered.

Lyra raised an eyebrow and pointed to the rampaging monster; “Assuming the spell would even work with that aura, do you think think you can get that thing into your ritual circle and hold her there long enough to actually complete the spell? Because I sure don’t! And unless the Divider comes back in the next few minutes, this whole island will be dust by the time he shows up! Look!” she pointed to the encroaching decay, “If you don’t destroy Eda’s Divided Orb and return her to normal, she will either die or destroy the island!”

The Angels looked conflicted, with a female High Angel crying; “But we can’t break the Divided Orb! It would be treason against the Lord Divider! We swore oaths to him and his cause!”

Lyra growled; “If you don’t, then you’ll have blood on your hands! We can’t stop Eda any other way besides reuniting her soul, or killing her! My friends and I refuse to kill her and we won’t let you do it either, so if you don’t let us break that orb, then everyone inside that building your protecting will likely die as this island falls from the sky!”

A shudder went through the small crowd of Angels, who began to whisper fearfully, clearly conflicted. The High Angel who’d basically become the spokesman for the group said; “E-Even if we were willing to break the Orb, we can’t! My comrade wasn’t lying; we swore oaths not to misuse or reverse the Divider’s magic!”

Lyra held in a snarky comment about how it was a shame they didn’t make Odalia swear such an oath when she became Overseer. Instead she said; “Then escort me there and I’ll do it!”

Again, the Angels shook their heads, and the spokesman indignantly cried; “If we do that, you’ll break every orb in the chamber and possibly the power core itself! That would undo the Lord Divider’s blessing on everyone in Rani’s Eden AND potentially bring down the island!”

“Wait, this island is kept aloft solely by the Divided Orbs?” Lyra frowned.

“No, the beam of light that connects the island to the castle below is a stream of energy that goes to the Island’s power core. The Divided Orbs are a secondary power source intended mainly for Project Paradise. But we can’t let you near them OR the core!” the High Angel protested.

Lyra gritted her teeth, then suddenly held back a smile as she thought of a devious idea that could save Eda AND free the Divided Souls on Rani’s Eden.

“How about this; I’ll swear an oath that I won’t even try to touch or break the power core or any Divided Orbs except for Eda’s. You can escort me, under guard, to the chamber and then I’ll destroy Eda’s orb, turn her back to normal, and stop this whole mess. Deal?” she said, offering her hand to the High Angel.

He looked at it suspiciously, then said; “First, get those other two out of your shadow. We’ve been watching; we know your tricks.”

Lyra frowned, then shrugged and drew one of the cards from her Tarot Deck and threw it at the ground. “Minor Arcana: King of Pentacles.” she incanted, causing a large inky black shadow to appear from the ground outside the barrier and cause Boscha and Camila to emerge from it, looking confused. They weren’t the only ones either, as the High Angel narrowed his eyes on Lyra.

“Why use a card? You could do that without one before.” the High Angel asked accusingly.

“Luz was the last one to put them in the shadows. Her magic is superior to mine. I couldn’t summon these two without the card.” Lyra said with an unimpressed raise of her eyebrow.

Camila than spoke; “Cariño, what’s going on?”

“Sorry, I was told to remove you from the shadows. You should go and get out of sight and continue making potions for Luz. I’m going to go with the High Angels to destroy Eda’s Divided Orb.” Lyra explained.

Camila frowned while Boscha sneered at the High Angels, before both nodded and began to rush off towards the fountain in the middle of the island, where Lars still slumbered nearby. After they’d gone a few steps, Camila twirled her finger and both she and Boscha disappeared in a cloud of cyan smoke, seemingly turning invisible. As soon as they were gone, Lyra turned back to the High Angel and again offered her hand; “Good enough? Or should we delay even more and risk all of our lives?”

The High Angel spokesman gulped as he noticed the Anti-Magic flames getting even closer to the barrier… they only had minutes to act before Orion’s Rise and the people within were in serious danger!

Shaking off his doubts, the Angel took Lyra’s hand and had her take the agreed upon oath. Once she was done, he said; “Follow me. But leave your spirit and the cards here.” he ordered. “Your Palisman too.”

Lyra grumbled, but nodded and summoned Shade out of the deck of cards, the Spirit looking terrified of the High Angels, and handed the cards and Waffles to him. “Go and help Luz and Hunter however you can. But don’t take risks! Waffles, you watch his back okay?” Lyra ordered.

Shade nodded silently and Waffles gave an affirmative tweet, before they flew off together towards the skirmish with Harpy Eda. Lyra followed them with her eyes and felt her heart sinking as she saw the condition Eda was in; the others were doing a good job in keeping her busy and preventing her from doing further damage to the island, but they couldn’t do anything about the damage done to herself! Two of her extra wings had decayed, as had a good foot of hair, and even her entire right hand and both feet. It was still within the bounds of what Luz could heal, but they were running out of time before Eda’s feral fury wiped her from existence.

“Come on; we need to get a move on.” she said, turning back to the High Angel. He nodded grimly and gave orders to his allies to open the barrier for a moment to let them through, then hold the line until they got back. He then took flight and headed straight for Rani’s Throne, with Lyra following close behind (though she struggled to keep up with the four-winged Angel). They flew through the front doors of the cathedral like building, and Lyra found that the main entrance hall looked exactly like a white and gold version of a cathedral’s interior. Embarrassingly, there were stained glass windows along the sides that depicted the Hexsquad as saint-like figures, and Lyra actually featured in three; one depicting her and Waffles in the same way as the other windows depicted her friends, then two larger ones towards the back of the hall. The one on the left showed Lyra and Hunter breaking off their masks and the chains that bound them to a Demonic looking Belos, while the other showed her and Luz flying around each other like a yin-yang symbol beneath the Eclipse, depicting their sacrifice on the Day of Unity.

It appeared that the Divider was treating them all like saints and heroes… not surprising since the Hexsquad had been the ones to fight Belos and do the lion’s share of the work to get the Divider’s wings back, and Lyra had sacrificed herself to save Luz. Still, it was odd to be venerated by their enemies… she wondered if that was why the Wings of Rani had even considered listening to her.

Shaking that thought off as she followed the High Angel through the entrance hall and through a pair of giant golden gates, Lyra next arrived in what could only be considered a throne room. The room was almost entirely dominated by a gargantuan golden statue of an unfamiliar Titan (Lyra suspected this was the Titan that had raised Rasiel, and whose death had triggered his final ascension), with a smaller statue of Eda in her Harpy Mode in front of it, holding a black cube. On Eda’s sides were golden statues of Amity and Luz (the latter appearing as an Arch-Angel), each also holding a black cube, signifying the Black Tombs. Between the three ladies was a statue of King, holding the fourth and final tomb above him. In front of this colossal statue was a golden throne that resembled Belos’, only it looked dirty and tarnished, with a layer of dust.

As the High Angel rushed Lyra behind the statue, he said; “That is the Throne of Paradise. It is owned by no one and sat in by no one, for no person may be King of Paradise. Even the Lord Divider considers himself as nothing more than a servant of the Paradise we want to create.”

Lyra hummed in understanding; if she could compliment the Divider on anything, it was that he did truly seem to want people to be happy and loving… even if he had to force them to be.

The High Angel showed Lyra a hidden door on the back of the giant statue of the mystery Titan, and pressed his hand to it, causing the door to melt into liquid gold and disappear through a grate on the bottom of the door frame. Behind the now-open door was a spiral staircase that led down into the depths of the island. Lyra and her escort descended all the way down, using their wings to fly down the central hole of the spiral, and arrived in a large room with a long hallway. There were several doors on either side, but the High Angel just led Lyra to the very end, where another golden gate awaited them. Shoving it open, the High Angel finally showed Lyra into the heart of Rani’s Eden; the site of the power core and the Divided Orbs.

Lyra found herself in a similar chamber to the basem*nt of the Right Hand Desert’s Union Tower, only scaled up to be about five times larger. The top floor, which they’d entered onto, contained no cells and instead had a Division Ritual Circle set up in the middle of the room, and thousands of glyph markings all over the walls, all interwoven into a huge and hideously complex combination. The glyphs were mostly unfamiliar, having the Divider’s versions of the fire, ice, plant, lightning, earth, and wind glyphs, though Luz’s and King’s light and darkness glyph were also featured heavily. In some spots, Luz’s and King’s other glyphs overlapped the Divider’s, likely producing a more potent effect, though what that effect was remained a mystery to Lyra. The combo was glowing, with each glyph shining in its signature colour, but the lines and circles connecting them were shining in a dim white that reminded Lyra of the fluorescent light tubes on the ceiling of Camila’s vet clinic. Since it was glowing, the combo had to be active and doing… something, though Lyra hadn’t the faintest idea what.

Looking down to the second level, Lyra found it almost identical to the Union Pillar in the desert, only with a significantly larger orb in the centre of the room, which was receiving a mind-boggling amount of magic from the beam of light shooting up from Belos’ occupied castle. The bottom floor of the chamber was not a Primordial Wellspring like the pillars though, instead having the other side of the colossal pyramid-shaped crystal that was in the dead centre of the isles underside. The crystal, now revealed to actually be an 8 sided prism shaped like one of Luz’s D8 dice from the Human Realm, was condensing the massive beam from the castle into a narrower, more focused beam that it fired up into the giant orb that functioned as the island’s power core. Surrounding the orb itself were shelves of Divided Orbs, hundreds of them, and all providing even more power to the core, though the amount was negligible compared to what the beam was transferring.

The High Angel didn’t waste time gawking though, and just about dragged Lyra down to the second floor and then lightly shoved her in the rough direction of Eda’s Divided Orb. “Please get a move on. Bringing a Rebel here, even for a good cause, makes me feel uneasy. Lord Divider, I pray you’ll forgive me…”

Lyra rolled her eyes as she began scanning the labels under the orbs for Eda’s name. “You should keep an eye on that blind devotion of yours. I’ve been there, and it did not end well.” she said absent-mindedly.

“The degeneracy of the Defiler is well known, and I commend your valiant rejection of his evil.” the High Angel said, before testily adding; “But do not compare our situations. The Lord Divider has never hidden his true intentions. I know that one day, my own negativity will be stored in one of these orbs. It is a sacrifice we Wings of Rani are all willing to make.”

Lyra found Eda’s orb and picked it up, feeling it vibrating softly in her hands. The others didn’t seem to be doing that though, making her wonder if this was because of the problem outside. Shaking that off, Lyra looked over her shoulder at the High Angel. “You may be willing to give up all your flaws and bad feelings, but I’m not. Without facing those flaws and growing past them, my journey in life would have no meaning. I’m happy because I conquered those feelings, not because I erased them.”

With that, Lyra threw the orb down as hard as she could, cracking it against the metal floor. She then drew a spell circle and summoned shadowy tendrils to spear the orb and make it decay, releasing a prismatic spectre that looked just like Eda. The spectre immediately flew away to return to its other half, making both Lyra and the High Angel sigh with relief… at least until Lyra suddenly snapped her fingers.

In an instant, the shadow tendrils darted out and bound the High Angel, wrapping around his legs and wings, and tying his arms to his side. The man yelped in surprise, then fell forward and would have smacked his face on the ground if not for Lyra catching the back of his uniform and lowering him down slowly.

“What are you doing!? You swore an oath!?” the High Angel cried angrily.

Lyra smiled; “I did. An oath not to break the Power Core or any Divided Orbs except for Eda’s. I never promised not to tie you up. And as for breaking the orbs? Well I don’t need to do that when they can.”

At that, she opened a shadowy portal and both Camila and Boscha stepped out of it, the former wielding her bat and the latter grinning with her staff in one hand and a potion bomb in the other. The High Angel gaped at the sight of them; “B-But they were expelled from the shadows! I watched you do it!”

Lyra shook her head; “That was an illusion. The King of Pentacles Card from my Divine Tarot Deck actually contains an Illusion Glyph Combo that lets me create any short illusion I want. The fake Aunt Camila and Boscha didn’t make themselves invisible earlier; they were dispelled.”

The High Angel stared at her in stunned silence, while Boscha couldn’t help but tease her; “You made an illusion combo the KING of a suit? Is the queen inspired by you and your spells turned into a combo, Lyra?” she asked with a grin.

“The King of Pentacles being an illusion combo is because the King represents the number 14 in the suit, and the combo uses 14 different glyphs! The Gus connection is just a coincidence!” Lyra huffed, blushing an adorable shade of pink. “And for your information, the Queen of Pentacles is actually a Transmutation Glyph that King made based on YOUR magic!”

Boscha cackled at Lyra’s blushing and indignant expression, while Camila just smiled and shook her head at the girls’ banter. The High Angel watched the scene with a dumbfounded expression, before eventually finding his voice again.

“Y-You lied! You lied earlier when I asked you about the card!” he accused, “How could your throat not burn!? I watched your face and clearly saw you were in no pain!”

“Easy; it didn’t burn because I didn’t actually lie. I said Luz sent them into the shadows, which she did. Then I said her magic is superior to mine, which it is. And lastly I said I couldn’t summon those two, meaning the illusions, without the card, which I can’t. My illusion magic isn’t good enough to make two visible and audible people that are realistic enough to fool most people. The card was vital.” Lyra explained, before shrugging with a smile; “I simply stated three true facts, and you connected the dots all on your own. When you’ve got to hide your identity for four months among humans, you learn how to make people come to false conclusions by saying truthful things in a misleading way.”

The High Angel could scarcely believe his ears; he’d never expected an Angel child to be so devious! If not for her accelerated ascension, she would still be considered a Cherub, yet she’d totally played him and his comrades for fools! He then began to look terrified as he wriggled in his restraints; “Please! You mustn’t destroy the core! It will cause the island to fall from the sky and crush the castle below! You’d be killing thousands!”

Lyra, Boscha, and Camila all frowned; “We won’t destroy the core, only the Divided Orbs.” Lyra promised, keeping a careful grip on him with her magic. While she was unusually powerful for a normal Angel, she was still of a lower rank than the High Angel and so didn’t want to risk letting her grip slacken.

“Auntie Camila, Boscha; the orbs are all yours! Willow said we just need to smash them, so go to town!” Lyra told them.

“Finally! Let’s go!” Boscha cheered, immediately throwing her potion bomb at one of the shelves, destroying it and sending dozens of Divided Orbs to kingdom come.

Camila helped by smashing the orbs with her bat, finding herself enjoying the strange experience; “This rebellion business is quite the thrill! I feel like Captain Avery destroying the Scoliothon Nest on Tacheyo VII!”

“I remember that one! That was right before Chief Weapons Officer Croshaw ended up sniping the head off the Scoliothon Queen with an orbital laser!” Boscha gushed; “I tried to convince Luz to try it, but she was still all depressed at the time. Think she’ll agree now?”

Camila snorted; “And who would you have her sniping with orbital lasers?”

“Just a few jerks that no one would miss.” Boscha replied.

“Boscha, no murder.” Camila scolded.

“What if it was Vitimir or Belos?”

“… Boscha, only a little murder.”

The three-eyed girl laughed triumphantly, and continued her destructive work, firing bolts of fire whilst making “pew pew!” noises for her own amusem*nt, while Camila got into it too and started smashing orbs while making lightsaber noises. The hapless High Angel just lay there, completely in shock, while Lyra sat daintily on his back and watched the show with a grin, secretly recording them with her scroll. The next time Boscha teased her about Gus, she’d have some fun material to show Skara in retaliation!

After only a few minutes of work (in which they also destroyed the Division Ritual Circle), all of the Divided Orbs had been reduced to shards littering the floor, and each one had released the shades within back to their original owners, undoing the division of every Divided person in Rani’s Eden. Lyra stood up and gave high fives to both Boscha and Camila, then said; “Good job guys! Now we just need to get out of here! The Wings of Rani and their Abomatons and Knight Golems still outnumber the formerly Divided, so taking over this place is probably a lost cause.”

Camila nodded; “The Wings of Rani will also call for aid the instant they realise they’re not in control. Now that we’ve returned Eda to normal, we need to complete the mission and evacuate her and as many of the Rebels as we can!”

“And the Orphans too. Titan, how are we supposed to do that!?” Boscha exclaimed.

Lyra shrugged; “We’ll figure something out with the others. For now, let’s go.”

With that, she sent Boscha and Camila back into the shadows, then dove in herself before releasing the High Angel, leaving him sat alone and bewildered in the heart of the island.

________________________________________________________________________________

[Meanwhile]

The battle with Eda, or rather, the attempts to contain Eda and minimise damage, were going about as well as could be hoped for by Luz and the others. Luz and Skara were still performing their song, boosting the abilities of King, Hunter, and Samael, who continued to keep Eda busy by constantly redirecting her focus whenever she began to attack one of them. However the fight was beginning to take a toll on Eda, which only grew worse once Shade arrived to help too, wielding Waffles as a staff thanks to his compact with Lyra. Having four foes to deal with overwhelmed Eda even more, and her stress grew worse, causing the Owl Beast to frenzy even more and make the Anti-Magic aura worse too. Before long, Eda had lost all of her extra harpy wings, leaving her with only the originals. She had also lost the entirety of her feet, her entire right arm from the elbow down, and her left hand, as well as a huge amount her of her wild mane.

Seeing this was beginning to make the CATTs extremely nervous; while they weren’t having any trouble containing Eda, there was a real chance she’d decay herself out of existence due to the potent Anti-Magic if this continued.

Thankfully, just as King used Owlbert to conjure a small block of ice and then tossed it at Eda’s back, getting her focus back on him, the sight of a prismatic spectre in the shape of Eda came flying out from the ground, phasing through the island like it wasn’t even there. The spectre flew directly into Eda, making the witch suddenly shudder and stop moving. The light coming from her mouth and eyes subsided and she began to shrink down to her normal Harpy Mode again, before her eyes flashed and the Anti-Magic aura around her spluttered out (as did the parts of the aura that infected other areas of Rani’s Eden). Eda’s eyes then returned to normal, the black sclera turning white as her Harpy Mode was dispelled, making the woman fall from the sky in a daze.

“MOM!” King and Luz cried, both rushing to catch her. King was closer, but Luz was faster, resulting in them both catching her at the same time (though only Luz actually had the strength to hold her). Gently, Luz flew down to the ground and lay her Mom down, whereupon she immediately began healing the damage done by the Anti-Magic. Eda blinked slowly, piecing her mind back together as Luz worked and the others surrounded her, eager to see if she was okay. Owlbert hopped onto her shoulder and began preening Eda’s shortened hair, while King held Eda’s newly restored arm as soon as Luz was done healing it.

It took almost a full minute before Eda’s eyes fully regained some clarity and she began to blink a bit faster, before groaning and shaking her head. By this point, Luz had full restored Eda’s damaged body (sans her hair) so aside from a pounding in her head, Eda felt better than ever.

“Oof, what happened? I was on Digale Island, then… Rasiel? He did something to me… I was made into his… Valkyrie? A lot of stuff happened and now I’m…” Eda scrunched her eyes shut and rubbed the bridge of her nose as she tried to piece together her memories, before all the important details suddenly snapped into place and she sat up abruptly, looking around. Her eyes fell on Luz and King, who smiled brightly at her.

“L-Luz? King!? I-Is that really you!? Are you real!?” Eda asked, tears beginning to form in her eyes as she looked at her children with disbelief.”

“MOM!” they both cried, this time with joy as they threw themselves into Eda’s arms, both of them sobbing even as they smiled. Eda looked briefly bewildered, but as she ran her hands over King’s fur and through Luz’s hair, the tears in her eyes burst forth.

“It is! It is you! You’re really real!” Eda cried, hugging back and squeezing her kids as tightly as she could. “Oh, I was afraid I’d never see you again!”

The Owl Lady then began peppering the children’s faces with kisses, making Luz and King giggle as Owlbert hooted with delight and bounced from Eda’s shoulder, to King’s shoulder, nuzzling the little Titan now that he was back to normal too. He then jumped to Luz’s shoulder and nuzzled her, only to then find a happily hissing Stringbean coiling around Luz’s neck to meet him. Owlbert hooted happily and Stringbean hissed adorably, briefly taking on an owl form so the two little owls could hop around together and cuddle.

“I can’t believe you’re both really here! I was terrified I’d never see you again!” Eda said, pulling away a little so she could see their faces (but noticeably kept her arms around them). She basically pulled Luz onto her lap, then King onto Luz’s lap as she cradled them; “I’m so happy!”

“We are too!” Luz giggled, wiping her eyes.

King nodded as fast as he could; “So much has happened! It’s been over 4 months! We got stuck in the Human Realm, then there was Basilisks and Belos and big tears in the sky! Then Luz and I got arrested by the Divine Realm and Luz got possessed by Belos! Then we got back here and saved Bonesborough and Luz beat up a Seraphim with Amity, who can turn into a cat girl now and-”

Eda gaped; “Whoa there King, your old lady isn’t ready for all that! Holy Titan, you two sound like you had a heck of a time! The Divider just made me a glorified Coven Head! I was to him what Lily was to Belos, only obviously a lot hotter!” she joked, making her kids giggle. “But wow, you’ve grown up a little, King! I remember you in that fight; you were wielding Owlbert like a pro! And Luz… hot dang, you’re a Seraphim now! Raguel told me when he came back to the Demon Realm a couple of days ago, but seeing you with my own eyes is something else! My children really are the coolest and most beautiful!”

King preened, while Luz blushed and awkwardly played with a lock of curly hair that came loose from her ponytail. “Thanks Mom.” they both said, cuddling her again.

Owlbert then returned to Eda’s shoulder, and she leaned over to kiss him, then noticed Stringbean flying in the air in front of her, now in her base form again. Eda gasped; “Luz, is this your Palisman?”

Luz nodded proudly; “Yes! Her name is Stringbean, and she’s a Snake Shifter! She was influenced by all the Palisman Souls still inside me and couldn’t decide on any one form, so she took a page from her Tia Vee’s book and picked ALL the forms! Isn’t she just perfect?”

Eda laughed and nodded, as Stringbean bashfully wagged her tail as if waving at Eda. The Owl Lady offered her hand for Stringbean to rest on, then brought her over to her face so she could nuzzle the adorable little Palisman; “She’s perfect alright, just like you!” Eda complimented, kissing Stringbean on the head and getting an adorable squeak in return. Eda then looked to King; “And seeing you with Owlbert, King? I think I should see about getting you a Palisman too! You’re clearly growing up fast!”

“Yes! I will have a staff and be the super awesome Witch-Titan!” King cheered.

Eda and Luz giggled, before Luz got off Eda’s lap so she could finally stand up, cracking her back as she did so. “Phew! My body feels pretty dang good despite all that chaos! Thanks Luz.” Eda smiled.

“No problem, Mom. I can probably regrow your hair too if you want, it got a little messed up…” Luz said, conjuring a mirror to show her.

Eda looked at her reflection for a moment, taking in her new look; without the extra weight of her long mane, the remaining hair had flared up, now looking a bit like a cross between her Mom, Gwen’s hair, and the mane of an actual lion. It was a little rough and rugged, but it was similar to the style she’d worn it in back when she first found King, so she decided she quite liked it.

“Nah, don’t worry about it Luz. I think I’ll keep it this way. Last time I saw Lily, her hair was shortened too after her little spat with Flora Desplora. This way we match!” Eda grinned.

Luz smiled with relief, while King said; “What about the Owl Beast? Is she okay too?”

“Yeah, she’s fine; don’t you worry. As soon as the Divider’s power over me vanished, the Owl Beast went still. I think having me come back to myself made her snap out of her frenzy long enough to calm down. She’s sleeping now… kinda wish I was too! I am pooped! Not a speck of magic left in me, and I have a feeling the potions in my hair are gone now… I don’t feel the storage spell any more, so the Anti-Magic probably ate it. I wonder if it ate what was inside the storage space too…?” Eda began to wonder.

At that moment, there was a commotion over by Orion’s Rise as hundreds of other prismatic spectres rose out of the ground and began flying into it, restoring the minds of everyone inside. The Wings of Rani, who’d been cautiously watching the reunion and debating what to do, suddenly realised they’d been tricked and began scrambling to contain the riot of newly reunited Rebels, who were quick to take the Angels inside the building by surprise. The High Angels rushed in to help their fellows, and then Camila, Boscha, and Lyra emerged from the shadows besides Hunter and the others.

“We’re back! We managed to clear out all the Divided Orbs too! Every Witch and Demon on Rani’s Eden is now themselves again!” Lyra grinned.

Luz and King beamed and praised her, Camila, and Boscha, while Eda blinked owlishly, only now remembering that people besides her kids were present.

“Oh wow, I feel like kind of a jerk now! Sorry for ignoring all of you! Got kinda wrapped up in my reunion with my little heroes.” Eda laughed.

The rest of the CATTs smiled and waved her off; “It’s understandable; I’d have done the same in your shoes.” Camila laughed; “It’s wonderful to have you back with us, Eda. Mija and Sobrino missed their Mom.”

Eda beamed; “I bet I have you to thank for taking care of King these past few months, right? I owe you big time, Cammie.”

“No you don’t. Even if you did need to repay me, you cared for Luz for even longer! Besides, no debts between family.” the Angel grinned.

Eda chuckled then turned to the teens; “Well if it isn’t Songbird, Troublemaker, Goldilocks, and Blackbird. I owe you kids too! How’ve you been?” she said, looking to Skara, Boscha, Hunter, and Lyra in turn.

“Good. I’ll be better once I find my Dad.” Skara said.

“Same with my folks, and Amelia too. I’m worried about whatever Terra and the Plant Coven are up to with her and her folks…” Boscha said, her expression falling a little as she thought of her missing teammate.

Eda frowned sympathetically; “I know the feeling, Kid. My memories of being Valkyrie are still a little messed up right now, but as soon as I fully clear my head, I’ll tell you everything I know. We’ll rescue your folks and your friends too.”

“That’s good. We went through a lot of trouble to save you, Owl Lady.” Hunter said with a smirk.

“We’re happy you’re back to normal. You were scary to fight.” Lyra added.

Eda smirked at that and ruffled the two kids’ hair; “Well look at the two of you; you’re looking pretty good. Cammie did a good job of filling you both out. Love the hair.” she said, teasing them a little. Hunter’s hair had been cut into a short and neat style by Willow, while Lyra had begun growing hers out a little. It still looked mostly the same, and it seemed Lyra hadn’t inherited Luz’s curly hair, so even as it got longer, it remained straight.

She then turned her attention to Samael, whom she’d never actually seen before today. The boy looked a bit nervous as he looked up at her, and King flew to his side and patted his back as he looked up at Eda.

“Mom, this is Samael! You’ll know him better as the Collector! We freed him a few days ago, and now he’s our Little Big Brother!” King declared as Luz went to Samael’s other side.

“That’s right. Big because he’s technically thousands of years older than us, little because he’s the least mature, and in the middle too since I’m taller than him while King is shorter.” Luz grinned.

Samael waved shyly at Eda; “Hello, Auntie Eda.”

Eda blinked in surprise at being called Aunt by a little boy she’d never met (a little boy that was admittedly older and more powerful than she was), but seeing the cautious look in his eye and the hopeful looks in King and Luz’s eye made her shrug it off. If this kid was the Collector, then he could probably do with some familial affection!

She knelt down and mussed up his hair with a cheeky smirk; “Heya Starlight. I’m willing to bet you’ve been helping out my kids a lot!”

“Uh huh!” Samael nodded, before sheepishly adding; “I did do something kind mean to them too though…”

Eda raised an eyebrow and looked to Luz, who whispered; “It’s a long story. It was basically Belos being a jerk and Samael’s Archivist family leaving him with a mess of issues.”

“Oh yeah, been there.” Eda chuckled, before looking back to Samael; “Don’t sweat it, Starlight. If my kids are cool with you, then so am I. Just call me your Cool Auntie Eda!”

Samael’s eyes grew huge, and he happily threw himself at Eda and hugged the daylights out of her, making the woman sigh and pat him on the back. The Owl Lady really had done soft!

Standing up again (and now holding Samael to her side like he was a little celestial koala), Eda pointed to Hunter and Lyra; “You two call me that too! You’re basically Clawthornes and I am adopting you into the family once Darius gets his head out of his butt! You must have freed him if you saved Bonesborough.”

Lyra giggled while Hunter blushed; “You know about Darius?”

“You mean that he was gonna adopt you two? Of course I did! I lost a game of Hexes Hold ‘em with him a couple of days before the Day of Unity, and he won the right to adopt you first! He was a little tipsy at the time, but a guy like him is always most honest once he’s hit the Apple Blood!” Eda cackled.

Hunter clenched a hand over his heart; so Darius really had been thinking of adopting him and Lyra this whole time? It wasn’t just an impulse brought on by the Blight Twins’ antics…

“I think I need to talk to him when we get back.” Hunter whispered to himself. Flapjack chirped and pecked his cheek affectionately, and Lyra looked excited. Eda didn’t know exactly what was going on there, but she got the feeling she’d just done a huge favour to Darius… maybe she could get him to do her a favour in return someday!

Unfortunately, their peaceful interlude was swiftly interrupted the sound of the riot rose over at Orion’s rise. Some Witches and Demons were running for the checkpoints to get out of Rani’s Eden, while others were still fighting with the Angels. In order to protect the orphans and avoid them getting caught in the fighting, a group of non-combatant Angels, Witches, and Demons had evacuated them out of Orion’s Rise, with Samael immediately spotting Simi and Emiliel among them. Before he could call out to them however, a group of CATTs members who’d been among the Divided ran over.

“Eda, Luz! We’re so glad to see you’re both okay! We need to get you and as many of the others as possible out of here!” one of them cried.

“One of the High Angels sent out a call across the entire Boiling Isles! Every member of the Wings of Rani has been recalled and they’re all gunning for us! They’ll start arriving any minute!” another cried.

Eda frowned and looked over to the nearest checkpoint, where she saw several of the previously fleeing people running back. “They’ve already locked down the exits. We won’t be escaping through the checkpoints unless we shut down the emergency barrier, and that isn’t possible without destroying the island’s power core or having the four Arch-Angels stationed here turn it off. And worse, it’s a one way barrier; the Wings of Rani can fly in, but no one can fly out.”

“You were the Valkyrie, don’t you have some kind of security clearance to shut off the emergency barriers!?” Hunter asked urgently.

Eda shook her head; “My clearance was tied to the way the Islands’ magic reacted to my Divided soul, and now that I’ve been reunited, the magic won’t identify me as the Valkyrie.”

“So what do we do!? Are we just trapped!?” King asked.

“Can we move through the shadows?” Camila looked to Lyra and Luz.

“The closest shadow outside the barrier is all the way on the ground beneath Rani’s Eden! My magic might get me there, but I can’t transport everyone else too!” Lyra frowned.

Luz nodded; “I’m in a similar boat. Fighting Lars and then Mom took a lot out of me, and healing Mom’s lost limbs and stuff made it worse. I could get our group out of here, but not the rest of the Rebels and those Orphans. We can’t leave the kids here!”

“Auntie Eda’s Anti-Magic took a lot of my magic too, and I don’t know how to use Darkness magic anyway.” Samael added.

Skara frowned; “There has to be some way out!”

Eda suddenly remembered something; “There is. Behind Rani’s Throne is a small airfield with Airships, meant for bringing in food and supplies, and people who can’t fly on their own. The enchantments on the Airships are designed to let them pass through the barrier without needing it to be lowered; if we can steal a couple, we can load everyone onto them and fly out of here!”

“We just got you back and you’re already planning heists! That’s our Mom!” Luz joked, before getting serious; “Alright; I’m going to go and help gather as many of the Civilians and Rebels as I can, and get them to the airfield. Mom, you go with Mami, Hunter, Lyra, Boscha, and Skara to capture those airships! Samael, you go with King to get the children! They’ll listen to you!”

“GOT IT!” everyone yelled, before they all split up to complete their tasks. As her kids and new nephew were doing their jobs, Eda led the rest of the CATTs (including the other reunited rebels) towards Rani’s Throne. They ran around the back and gasped, seeing that several Angels were beginning to take off in the Airships, getting them out of the barrier before the CATTs could commandeer them.

“Don’t let them escape!” one of the Angels cried, “We must hold them all in Rani’s Eden until the Lord Divider’s return!”

The Angels began attacking the CATTs, who were admittedly not at their best, but Hunter rose to the challenge and leapt forward, giving himself three Bestial Blessings; the legs of a Dire Wolf, the scales of the Arapaima Gigas, and the wings of a Griffin, allowing him to fly fast, run faster, and tank a lot of damage from the magic bolts fired at him.

“I’ve got an important talk waiting for me, so get the heck out of our way!” Hunter roared, using Flapjack to begin arcing lightning towards the Angels. With most of the Wings of Rani’s fighters now distracted by the borderline berserk boy, the rest of the CATTs were able to get passed to the remaining airships, which they boarded immediately, defeating the few Angels left behind to try and pilot them. Once the airships were secured, the rebels began firing spells at the rest of the Angels in the Airfield, with Boscha taking the lead role by summoning her toxic abominations and raining literal fire down on the Angels, not having to worry about hitting Hunter thanks to his hard scales.

It took a couple of minutes, but the combined onslaught of Hunter and Boscha, plus the spells fired by the rest of their group was enough to defeat the remaining Angels, leaving most of them unconscious, sick from Boscha’s poison, or restrained in some manner. Boscha then had some non-toxic abominations bundle them all off to the side, while Eda and the Rebels readied the remaining airships.

“Of a fleet of fifteen, we only managed to get four.” Eda grumbled, using her staff to hold herself up since she was still exhausted.

Camila frowned as she looked outside of the barrier and saw the other eleven airships flying away, while the first waves of reinforcements from the Wings of Rani began to approach. “They acted too fast for us. Will just four airships be enough for all of us?” the Angel Woman wondered.

The Airships were big people transports, but they weren’t massive; they could each carry maybe 75 passengers each, or 85 if they really crammed people in. Once they got out of the barrier, those that had staves or could fly would be free to make their own way, so they didn’t need to worry about comfort; just getting as many people onboard as the ship could fly with.

“4 ships of this size… we’re looking at a max of maybe 340 people?” Boscha said.

“That’s definitely not enough. There were around 200 Divided Orbs, and that doesn’t include what must be at least 500 children.” Lyra frowned.

Hunter, joining the others on one of the ships, swapped out one of his Bestial Blessings for the eyes of a White Hawk (a breed of Demon bird known for their telescopic eye sight) and peered after the fleeing airships. “If we leave the barrier, Luz and I can probably catch up with the Airships and bring them back. We’d probably only need another five, so if we carried a couple of others with us as we used our flash spells, we could capture more ships and bring them back.”

“We’ll have to hope that is enough, or else we’re leaving people behind!” Skara cried.

The reinforcements for the Wings of Rani began pouring in in waves, making the CATTs prepare to battle once again; escaping wasn’t going to be easy!

________________________________________________________________________________

[Meanwhile]

King and Samael headed towards the Spring Playground south of Orion’s Rise, where the children of Rani’s Eden had been evacuated. The sight of the two caused some of the Angels guarding them to panic, but they were shoved aside by the rebels and the orphans that Samael had played with over in the Winter Playground.

“Samael!” Simi cried, rushing over to meet him along with Emiliel.

“I’m glad you’re both okay! When all the fighting happened, I was really worried.” Emiliel said timidly, frightened by all the chaos. She was cheered up by the sight of King though; the furry young Titan was only a little bit shorter than her, and she really wanted to hug him! The fact he was one of the Heroes of Paradise also made her want to play with him even more!

“We’re here to rescue all the Orphans and get them out of here! Our friends are capturing airships right now, and my big sister is off saving the rest of the Witches and Demons! Come with us and we’ll take you to safety!” King declared.

“King’s right! You should all listen to him; he’s a Baby Titan! The Son of the Boiling Isles!” Samael told them.

Instantly, the children all gasped in shock and amazement, while the rebels that hadn’t also been CATTs looked just as shocked. They wouldn’t normally believe such a claim, but Samael’s angelic wings marked him as being unable to lie (since they didn’t know he was different from any other Angel), and the looks of agreement on the faces of the CATTs made his story seem even more plausible. It was enough to convince all the orphans, who immediately flocked to follow King and Samael, including Simi and shockingly, Emiliel. The girl may have been a Cherub too, but she was still an orphan!

The other Angels helping to guard the Orphans looked ready to protest and try to stop them, but it became clear very quickly that they were outnumbered and outmatched, seeing as they weren’t the combatants of the Wings of Rani, just the families of its fighters or the support staff. With no chance of victory and the knowledge that the CATTs wouldn’t hurt their charges, they wisely kept quiet as Samael and King led the group of children and rebels towards Rani’s Throne and the airfield behind it.

As they ran, they passed very close to Orion’s Rise and were nearly stopped by a pair of High Angels, but Samael took out one by turning him into a puppet, while Luz swiftly dove down and knocked the other out with a quick electrical shock to the nervous system. A steady stream of other Rebels were fleeing the battle at Orion’s Rise and retreating to the airfield too, as Luz covered them.

“Good job, King! Samael! Keep it up! I’ll take care of any pursuers!” Luz told them, before getting back into the battle. Her magic was starting to decline, but she still had glyph notes and Stringbean to use in place of her own magic, giving her time to slowly recharge her strength.

King and Samael didn’t need to be told twice and kept the group moving, though Samael did fly above them and shoot his puppet spells at as many Wings of Rani members as he could. With his magic largely drained, the spells would only hold for an hour at most, but that was all the time they’d need to escape!

Continuing on, protected from behind by Luz and the other fleeing rebels, the children reached the airfield behind Rani’s Throne and found it turned into a war zone, with Eda’s group and hundreds of reunited Witches and Demons fought together against a small army of invading Angels from the Wings of Rani. They were struggling to defend the four airships (which the CATTs had placed beneath some powerful protective barriers), though their forces were fairly evenly matched, since the neither side could attack the other until the Angels passed through the barrier, which meant the battle was limited to the very edge of Rani’s Eden.

“Mom! Guys!” King cried as he rushed in with the other children. “Are the airships ready!?”

“These four are, and we have a plan to get enough for everyone, but we need Luz! Is she here yet!?” Eda cried, basically forced to take cover and throw potions that she brewed with Boscha’s Combat Potioneer Belt, since Boscha was still capable of other types of magic while Eda was tapped.

King opened his mouth to answer, but a sudden clap of thunder from elsewhere on the island silenced everyone, momentarily freezing the battle of the airfield. A moment later, there was an earth-shaking roar, followed by more thunderclaps and some screams, then deafening silence.

Samael looked to King with a slowly growing smile; “I think we forgot someone.”

Sure enough, a large horde consisting of the entire remaining Witch and Demon population of the island came running onto the airfield, accompanied by Luz, who was riding on the head of Lars, now totally awake, totally reunited, and totally free of the Divider’s control… and clearly NOT happy with the Wings of Rani.

“Hi guys! Sorry I’m late! I needed to stop and wake up our old friend!” Luz beamed.

“I am grateful to you, Luz. And to all of your friends. Now that the Divider’s influence has been stripped from me, I shall repay my debt by aiding you in escaping the Wings of Rani!” Lars roared.

The sight of the Thunder Wyvern in their full glory caused the Wings of Rani that were still conscious and within the barrier to immediately begin retreating, opting to instead wait and attack the rebels when they left with their airships. After all, Lars was too big to ride one in Dragon Form and would need to use a Wellspring to regain that form if they gave it up, meaning they would be trapped inside the barrier or greatly weakened if they tried to leave it.

Too bad for them, Luz was thinking with portals! Or rather, shadows!

“Guys, start loading people up onto the airships! I’ll get Lars out! Be warned though, this’ll be my last spell! My magic is almost completely tapped!” Luz yelled.

Her friends and family nodded and immediately got to work loading everyone onto the airships, starting with the children, who were packed in below deck and surrounded by the adults with the most magic left, so they’d have adequate protection. The Wings of Rani watched the whole thing from outside the barrier, where they would be safe from Lars for the time being, and made plans to swarm and capture the airships the instant they came through. Shooting them down would be easier for them of course, but doing so would risk hurting and even killing the people aboard, and while the rebels were their enemies, the Wings of Rani did not believe in killing! Especially innocent children!

Unfortunately for them, their plan was immediately ruined when Luz sent a consenting Lars into the shadow world, then entered it herself and then emerged from the shadow that one of the angels outside the barrier was casting on one of their comrades’ backs. As soon as Luz was free from the shadows again, she opened one last shadow portal and Lars came roaring out, catching the now exhausted Luz in one of their giant talons before beginning an onslaught on the Wings of Rani, giving them a taste of the very same lightning they’d made Lars inflict on their young friends.

Lars provided ample cover and distraction, allowing the first set of airships to take flight and leave the barrier, while the Illusionists and Bards aboard them used spells to make the ships invisible and silent, ensuring the Wings of Rani would be unable to track them back to their HQ. Skara and Boscha remained behind on Rani’s Eden with the remaining rebels to await the coming of the next wave of airships, which Hunter and Lyra went to capture along with a few other CATTs members flying on staves. Lyra sent them all into Hunter’s shadow, then Hunter flashed to the fleet of fleeing airships, catching up to them at the speed of lightning and allowing his sister to release herself and their CATTs allies onto the decks of the airships. They caught the pilots unawares, and since only a couple of angels were on each ship, it wasn’t hard for them to commandeer them and begin flying back to the pick up the rest of the rebels, all while Lars covered them by battling the Wings of Rani’s forces.

A few minutes later and every orphan, Witch, and Demon from Rani’s Eden was onboard an airship headed towards the Ash Moth Desert. Any attempts to follow them were frustrated by either their invisibility and silencing spells (cast by multiple spell casters at once, plus King’s glyphs), or Lars, whom dominated their attention. Finally, once Lars could smell that the airships were all gone and out of range, with no Wings of Rani following them, they finally disengaged from the flight, using their lightning transformation to zap high into the sky until they were on the very edge of the atmosphere, where the Angels couldn’t see them thanks to the distortions their precious Lord Divider had opened. Once hidden from sight, Lars used the lightning warp to once again zip away, heading westward to the Ash Moth Desert at Luz’s direction.

The Wings of Rani were left in total disarray; Raguel was gone, the Valkyrie was gone, the orphans being kept safe on Rani’s Eden had been taken, and every rebel in Bonesborough and Rani’s Eden had been returned to their complete selves and were now either working directly with Luz’s group of rebels or were defending the town of Bonesborough against the Wings of Rani… All of that, and they’d even lost Lars the Thunder Wyvern! With the Lord Divider still absent too, it looked like his forces would be on the back foot for a bit!

The Angels began to reconvene and make plans on how to deal with this new development, but they could all agree on one thing; they now understood why the Lord Divider had locked Luz and her friends away in the Human Realm! Three days since they’d returned and the order of the isles had already been thrown into disarray! Despite these setbacks, the Wings of Rani knew it would all end in their favour eventually; when the Lord Divider returned, he’d set everything back to how it should be, and the troublesome Luz would find herself at his side, one way or another…

________________________________________________________________________________

[Sometime Later]

There was palpable relief in the air as the airships began to land around the Border Outpost on the right wrist, allowing everyone to finally disembark and begin filling up the outpost. Thankfully the outpost had been built with the intension of garrisoning 1000 soldiers to defend against (or rather delay) the Ash Moth if it decided to attack eastward, so there was just enough room for all the rescued citizens and orphans to live in relative comfort. Hunter, Skara, and Boscha (the only three rescuers who still had enough stamina left after everything was over) took charge in organising everyone they’d just rescued, making sure no one needed medical attention or had problems that needed resolving. At the same time, Eda, Camila, Samael, King, and Lyra all sat down and rested a bit, still composing themselves after the battle and subsequent escape.

Moments later, there was a flash of lightning that struck the ground just outside the Outpost Fortress on the desert side, as Lars landed in a heap. The Thunder Wyvern was breathing heavily as Eda and the rescue team headed outside to check on them and Luz; Lars had apparently taken quite a bit of punishment from the Wings of Rani, and was still exhausted from the earlier fight with Luz, so they had nothing left in the tank to maintain their Dragon Form. In another flash of lightning, the Dragon’s flesh and scales disappeared, leaving behind a yellow wyvern skeleton with Lars’ Witch form crawling out of the chest and Luz’s nearly unconscious form gripped in its talons.

Lars seemed fine, albeit exhausted, so the rescue team hurried over to Luz to make sure she was okay. Eda and Camila both pulled Luz from the skeleton’s foot and cradled her between them.

“Luz! Are you alright? Are you hurt!?” Camila asked frantically.

Luz responded with an exhausted smile, slurring as she said; “Yeah Mami. ‘m all good… sleepy though. Lots of fighting, got Mom back…! Think I’m gonna crash… Everyone else make it?”

“We all made it, Owlet.” Eda said lovingly, kissing the top of Luz’s head and making her trill sleepily.

“Oh good… night night…”

And with that, Luz conked out, falling into a deep slumber in her Mothers’ arms. The two women exchanged looks, then laughed together and kissed the sleeping Luz’s cheeks as Stringbean uncoiled from around Luz’s neck and slithered into the little portable nest hidden in Luz’s hair storage, wanting a nap of her own.

It was mid-afternoon by this point, and everyone that had been on Rani’s Eden now wanted a nap. However there was still a bit of work to be done, such as; hiding Lars’ dragon skeleton so it wasn’t spotted by any aerial scouts, properly outfitting the fortress for living in (the Union Pillar wasn’t big enough to house all these new people), reporting their success to Mason and the others, and deciding how they were going to handle the care of roughly 500 orphans, including the young Cherub Orphan they’d picked up.

Luckily for them, Lars’ descent into the desert hadn’t gone unnoticed, so a couple of those objectives were about ready to complete themselves as a group of people were seen flying out of the Union Pillar and heading towards them. Hunter, still with his White Hawk Bestial Blessing, could spot who they were.

“Mason, Steve, Katya, Vee, the rest of the Hexsquad, and Darius are all heading out to meet us.” he reported.

A moment later, and the new arrivals touched down, Steve hitching a ride on the back of Katya’s Palisman, Rumba, and Mason actually flying with his own Palisman for a change; a Boiling Pangolin named Nodis. Boiling Pangolins were an aquatic species of Beast Demon that looked like regular Pangolins with a hammerhead shark-like ridge on their foreheads, and retractable membranes on each of their long claws and scales, allowing them to swim with ease. They were known for being reclusive and quiet creatures that lived in underwater volcanic vents. Mason’s Palisman Nodis was a fine example, and had bronze coloured scales that had a golden tip at the point of each one.

Once everyone had landed, they took one look at Lars’ dragon skeleton, then glanced at the Witch themselves, who was currently sitting against the skull of their dragon form. They then looked to Eda, making them all smile.

“Well, it looks like the mission was a resounding success!” Darius grinned. “Welcome back to the CATTs, Edalyn. You and Lars are welcome additions.”

Eda smirked; “Thanks Darry-boy! We ain’t the only ones either!” she pointed to the open fortress gate, through which their newly arrived allies could see the hundreds of people they’d brought back with them.

“Whoa! Did you guys clear out the entire island!?” Willow gasped.

“Nah, just the Witches and Demons! Plus a little Cherub that tagged along with the orphans.” Boscha replied with a smirk.

“Orphans?” Mason questioned.

“It’s a long story. We’ll tell you all about it later. For now though, I think we all need some rest.” Camila said, as Vee came over and hugged her. Amity was similarly cuddling Luz as Eda smirked at her.

Their allies all nodded quickly and began to do what they could to help. Mason assigned himself the job of figuring out what to do with Lars’ dragon skeleton, since the giant yellow bones were very conspicuous, while Lars watched apologetically.

“Feel free to destroy them if you wish. I have no attachment to them. If I’d had more strength left, I would have left them somewhere better hidden.” Lars said.

“Ain’t a problem, Lars. Willin’ to wager you helped get all them people outta Rani’s Eden. We owe you for that.” Mason told them.

“I was more of a hindrance than a help, thanks to the Divider. Still, I will do what I can to help for now.” they replied.

Mason nodded; “Appreciate it. Do you reckon you could use the Wellspring beneath the pillar to get your dragon form back? It’d be a Titan-send for gettin’ rid o’ these bones.”

Lars shook their head; “No, I can’t draw power from Lord Orion’s Wellsprings right now. The Union Pillars are sucking up all the magic, so there’s nothing for me to take.”

Mason frowned at that; Lars not being able to use their full Wyvern form was an unfortunate complication. Thankfully, Samael came to the rescue; he’d overheard the conversation whilst watching the rest of the Hexsquad reuniting with Eda, and came over with an idea.

“How about I have Ashi eat the bones? She and her babies would probably love them; they ate dragons for breakfast, bones and all!” Samael suggested.

Lars felt a little odd about having their bones eaten, but they weren’t going to protest, so Mason nodded to the Star Child, who promptly flew off to get Ashi (who was curled up and napping at the foot of her volcano nest). A moment later and she came bounding over, followed by a swarm of her giant larvae. They didn’t even need to be given the order; they immediately began chowing down on the dragon skeleton, slowly making it disappear. Within a day, the skeleton would be gone, and within a week there wouldn’t even be any evidence that it had ever existed.

“Good job, Samael. That’s one problem solved! Now to figure out how to feed all these new people… perhaps I could use these new airships for fishing vessels… or to trade outside the isles.” Hmm, that needs some thought.”

With that, Mason wandered away and continued muttering to himself about potential solutions. Samael then conjured a pillow for Lars so they could rest more comfortably until they got them a proper bed, and the Dragon Witch gratefully took it and closed their eyes to nap. Samael was glad to see them in good condition again and looked forward to talking with them more, and maybe even playing! Playing with a Supreme Dragon would be very fun!

However thinking of Lars made him think of Luz and others fighting them while Samael and Tia Cammie fought Eda… a battle they hadn’t won like they should have. Samael looked down at his hands and frowned; with the exception of the time he’d been locked up by Uncle Orion, he’d always had his magic to help him do whatever he needed! But now that his Sephiroth Magic had been essentially sealed up, leaving him with the far more limited Angelic Magic inherited from his Mama’s bloodline, Samael felt… small. All the people that he’d once seen as itty bitty spiders and birdies were still weaker than him, but they knew how to fight and use their magic so much better than Samael did. The young Collector wanted to be able to do more to help his new friends; he’d plucked up the courage to come back to the Demon Realm, and he wanted that to actually mean something!

With that in mind, he went over to where Eda, Camila, Vee, King, and the Hexsquad were all assembled and nervously cleared his throat to get their attention. They all turned to him (sans Luz, who was still asleep) and smiled.

“Hey Starlight! We saw you helping out Mason! Thanks for that. Getting rid of those bones was a big help.” Eda praised.

Samael blushed a little as he smiled; it felt really good to be praised for helping… was this why the Angels all liked doing it so much? Shaking that off, he said; “Um, I’ve been thinking… now that my powers are a lot weaker, I can’t do a lot of what I could do before… and I can’t really do almost any of what you can all do.”

“I don’t know about that. You helped me a lot today, Cariño.” Camila smiled.

“I’m glad too! But… I want to do more. I’ve still got a lot of power, but I don’t know how to use it like you guys! I want to be able to do what you do! I… I…!” Samael gulped, about to say something he’d never thought he would; “I want to learn how to use magic like a mortal. So I can help save my bestest friend and siblings! And all my new friends and Aunties too! I know we’re all super busy with saving the world, but could you all teach me? Please?”

The group blinked in surprise, but they all beamed at him a moment later; “You want us to teach you? I’m on board! With my new Homunculus Magic, I can share my speciality with you!” Amity readily agreed. “We can even make the lessons into games, so you can learn as you play!”

Samael gasped, his eyes growing huge and sparkly; “R-Really!? You can teach me AND play with me at the same time!?”

“We all can, right?” Willow smiled, looking at the others. Hunter immediately blushed under her gaze and nodded quickly, while the others agreed too.

“I’m gonna teach him Grudgby.” Boscha smirked.

“Ooh, I wonder if he can sing like an Angel? Him, Luz, and Lyra harmonizing would be adorable AND powerful!” Skara gushed.

“Construction Magic is kinda like playing with blocks if you think about it? And you can make your own toys!” Matt added.

“And illusions are a ton of fun! Plus who doesn’t like playing with ice and snow?” Gus grinned.

“And what kid doesn’t love climbing trees and stuff?” Willow said.

“And animals too! Plus, you know, actual combat and survival skills. Though that last one might not be so valuable to an immortal Star Cherub.” Hunter mused.

Lyra frowned; “I can teach Darkness Magic, but not Oracle Magic… ooh! Maybe Aunt Camila and I can find a way to make Divination fun?”

Camila agreed; “I think we can pull it off. You’re already amazing at magic involving the sun and stars, so you’re bound to be good at Divination!”

“And glyphs! I can teach you glyphs! No one would expect a Sephiroth using Titan Magic! I bet Luz would show you healing too!” King chimed in.

Vee felt a little left out; she couldn’t really teach him any useful magic since she was still a novice herself… “Um, I could teach you Human Realm stuff?” she said, sounding unsure.

“Do Humans have their own games?” Samael asked.

“Oh! Yes! They do! I can teach you those! Not really good for fighting, but then again your magic seems to revolve around toys and games! Maybe I can give you inspiration on how to use what everyone else teaches!” Vee beamed, now sounding more excited.

Samael looked excited too, making Eda laugh; “Well then, I guess I’ll teach you some fun sneaky skills! Like cheating, stealing, and potions!”

“Hey, I’m the Potions expert!” Boscha protested.

“You already called Grudgby!” Eda retorted.

“Then how about we split it? We can both teach Potions and Grudgby! We’ll see who’s the best!”

“You’re on, Firecracker!”

Samael and the others all laughed as they watched Eda and Boscha bickering playfully. It was this pleasant scene that Darius returned to after inspecting the Airships for signs of tracking spells (there were none he could detect, so he was fairly sure they were all safe).

“Well well, Edalyn is arguing with a child. I’m glad she found someone on her level!” Darius smirked, making Eda give him a very rude gesture that had Camila covering King’s and Samael’s eyes. Darius just rolled his eyes though, and turned to Hunter and Lyra; “I heard from some of the rescued Rebels that the two of you were instrumental in today’s mission. Well done; I’m very proud.” he said with a soft smile.

Lyra blushed and began bouncing on the balls of her feet, relishing the praise. At the same time, Hunter smiled and said; “Thanks, Darius. Um, if it’s okay with you and Lyra, I’d like to talk… about our conversation yesterday?”

Immediately, Lyra nodded along beside him, and Darius smiled, though the man felt a brick drop into his stomach as his nervousness skyrocketed. He wasn’t the kind of man who got nervous often, preferring to think of it as just the occasional moment of apprehension, but in this instant he couldn’t deny it; Darius was nervous!

“Of course. Everyone, if you’ll excuse us for a bit.” he said, before escorting the siblings a good distance northward, so they could sit together on some tree stumps on the edge of the cliff, with the Boiling Sea crashing against the rock and bone several feet beneath them.

Once Darius had sat the two teens down, he sat opposite them on another stump (there were a lot of them, as the trees that grew around the fort had been mostly cut down so as not to obstruct the view of the desert), then smiled expectantly; “Alright, let’s talk. Would I be right in assuming you’ve decided on what you’d like to do?”

They both nodded, and after exchanging a look with each other (in which a nervous Hunter encouraged his sister to speak first), Lyra gave a bashful smile and said; “If you really want to adopt me, then I’d like that.”

Darius felt his heart soar and he beamed at the girl. He stood and scooped her up into a hug, which she happily returned even as he ended up lifting her from the ground. The girl giggled, and Darius kissed her cheek.

“I’m so happy! This is wonderful! Thank you, Lyra. I promise to be the best father I can be.” Darius said, totally overjoyed. He was on the verge of tears, which made Lyra giggle even as her own eyes filled with happy tears.

“No, thank you… Dad.” Lyra said softly, her cheeks turning bright red even as she beamed. She then leaned into the hug and whispered; “I already made up my mind yesterday. I just wanted to wait until Hunter had made a decision too.”

Darius chuckled at that and lowered Lyra back down onto her feet, giving her a kiss on the forehead and a ruffle of the hair. He then turned to Hunter and said; “And you, Hunter? Remember, this is your choice; if that choice is no, then that’s perfectly fine. I will still care for you and support you.”

Hunter stood and took a deep breath, looking Darius in the eye; “You’ve been supporting and caring for us for a while now, in your own way. That means a lot to me… I-I don’t know what it’s like to have a Dad. There were times when I tried to convince myself that Belos was like a Dad to me, but we all know that wasn’t true. I don’t know how to be a son… but if you really want me to be a son to you… then I’d like to try and learn.”

Darius’ breathing hitched, and he whispered; “Does this mean…?”

“Yes. I’d like to accept your offer. If that’s okay?”

The man laughed heartily, his heart feeling so full that he could scarcely believe it wasn’t bursting. Just as he had with Lyra, he grabbed Hunter and pulled him into a tight hug, laughing with joy the whole time; “Okay? It’s wonderful! No, perfect! You have both made me so happy! Thank you, Hunter. You may not know how to be a son, but I don’t know how to be a Dad either, so I guess we’ll just have to learn together.”

Hunter smiled brightly, even as tears began to stream down his face; “I-I’d like that Dad...rius. Dadrius.”

The boy flushed in embarrassment; “Yup, totally meant to say that. A pun to break the tension, you know?” he chuckled awkwardly, lying very badly.

Lyra giggled and patted her brother on the back, while Darius shook his head with a chuckle; “I’m glad both my children are terrible liars! If you’re not ready to call me Dad yet, then that’s fine. Don’t try to force yourself, Hunter.”

The boy smiled appreciatively and hugged Darius again, with Lyra then joining in too. Darius felt truly blessed as he held his two children… the soon to be official “Hunter and Lyra Deamonne”.

Or “Deamonne-Clawthorne” once Eda got her way and adopted them as her niece and nephew!

The new family stood there together for a while enjoying their first embrace as an actual confirmed family. As they embraced, all three of them had similar thoughts; Eda had been saved, Lars was on their side, the CATTs had just gained hundreds of new allies, and the Wings of Rani were on the back foot! Combine that with Samael’s new dedication to learning about the mortals and their magic, and Hunter and Lyra’s adoptions, and the day was a resounding success! Tomorrow would always bring new challenges, but for now at least, they would rest easy.

ANNIVERSARY FAN ART SHOWCASE!

Thanks to the wonderful people over at the Angel of the Owl House Book Club, I've received a whopping ELEVEN pieces of fan art from 5 different artists that I will be showcasing today!

We start with the the art of the wonderful Nel, who drew two pictures, beginning with this cute sketch headshot of Luz!

And followed up by the more complete and mildly sinister picture of Luz being possessed by Belos!

Next, we move on to a glamorous headshot of Boscha from her time at Grom, drawn by the very talented Mafuyukkiyu!

Next up on the docket is a trio of pieces both awesome and comedic from the amazing Aeiou!

Starting with a picture of Arch-Angel Luz

Then moving on to a more comedic picture of Fused Amity, who knows she has already won!

And then we finish off Aeiou's art with what can only be Seraphim Luz reacting to her new Cat Girl GF in a rather muppet-like style!

Next we more on to the art of the shockingly fast and very skilled Fantasma Arana, who has drawn 4 pieces!

Starting with this first one of Fused Amity! (It's a little small but I'm pretty sure that's because they did this on their phone!)

Following that we have everyone's favourite Dark Angel: Lyra!

After that, we have another Angel who hasn't received Art in this story before: the world's best Mami Angel Camila!

And to finish up the art from Fantasma, with have the Formerly Bad but Sad Boy himself, Hunter!

And to finish off this Fan Art Show Case, we have a piece from a returning artist!

Last but certainly not least, here's the Luz and Amity Sky Dance from the incredible Featherus AKA TFeathersB!

That Finishes off our Fan Art Showcase for this week, but I hope to do one of these again some day in the future!

Thank you all for reading and an extra special thank you to Nel, Mafuyukkiyu, Aeiou, Fantasma Arana, and Featherus!